NTSB Fed Fake, Offensive Pilot Names to Media After Asiana Air Accident at SFO (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeBy Nick Gass. The NTSB said late Friday that an intern had confirmed to a California news station the fake names of the pilots aboard the crashed Asiana flight in San Francisco, sparking an outcry in the national media and prompting an on-air apology from the station.

“The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6,” the NTSB said in a statement released Friday night.

“Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft,” the agency said.

KTVU, San Francisco’s Fox affiliate, broadcast the incorrect names of the pilots during its noon newscast on Friday, despite the fact that the names of the pilot and co-pilot, Lee Gang-guk and Lee Jeong-min, had already been released. The fake names were racially charged and phonetically offensive.

KTVU apologized during its 6 p.m. newscast.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Asiana Airlines considering legal action against TV station, NTSB

By Ben Brumfield and Khushbu Shah. Asiana Airlines is considering legal action against Oakland’s KTVU television and the National Transportation Safety Board.

This, after a summer intern at the NTSB mistakenly confirmed “inaccurate and offensive” names as those of the four pilots of Flight 214 that crashed last week in San Francisco.

The bogus names that phonetically spelled out phrases such as “Something Wrong” and “We Too Low” were read during KTVU’s noon broadcast Friday.

“Regarding the KTVU-TV’s demeaning report of the pilots on July 12, ASIANA Airlines is reviewing possible legal action against KTVU-TV and the NTSB,” the airline said in a statement. Read more from this story HERE.

Leno Asks NY’s Spitzer: ‘How Could You Be This Stupid?’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: APEliot Spitzer, the former New York governor who is now attempting a political resurrection, is willing to talk about the prostitution scandal that forced him to resign, but perhaps not crack a joke about it.

Spitzer, who announced on Sunday he would run for New York City comptroller, traveled to California on Friday to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, one of many TV comedians who has steadily made him the butt of jokes in the five years since the scandal.

Leno praised the former governor before asking Spitzer: “How can you be this stupid?”

“I don’t say that glibly. I don’t say that glibly,” Leno said. “You were a guy that seemed to have – every time they tried to get you – you seem to be the guy who crossed every “T” and dotted every “I.” How did you make this big a blunder?”

The former governor offered a somewhat serious defense: “Hubris is terminal.”

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Address: Permanently Delay ‘Massive, Burdensome’ Obamacare for Everybody (+video)

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Obamacare should be permanently delayed for everybody, not just for businesses, because it is “so massive, burdensome, bureaucratic and confusing that it’s collapsing under its own weight,” Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi said in Saturday’s GOP weekly address.

Enzi pointed out that in 2009, he warned that President Barack Obama and Democrats were moving ahead with a healthcare reform plan that would cost all Americans for generations to come, and said his predictions are now coming true.

“All across the country health insurance rates are skyrocketing,” the Wyoming Republican said. “Employees are losing coverage through their employers. Families are struggling to cope with higher costs and less choice. Businesses aren’t hiring full-time employees.”

He said nobody likes to be right when their predictions come true in ways that are harmful, but “it’s time to admit that this partisan experiment in government-run health care is failing.”

When the Obama administration pulled back on the employer mandate, delaying it by an extra year, it had to admit that one of the key pieces of the law isn’t working.

Read more from this story HERE.

Texas Democrats Vow Legal Challenge Against Recently-Passed Abortion Restrictions (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsTexas Democrats vowed to fight one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the nation passed by the state legislature late Friday in front of more than 2,000 protesters.

“There will be a lawsuit. I promise you,” Dallas Sen. Royce West said on the Senate floor, raising his right hand as if taking an oath.

Democrats offered 20 amendments to the bill, which will ban abortions after 20 weeks, require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and require all abortions to take place in surgical centers. They ranged from exceptions for rape and incest to allowing doctors more leeway in prescribing abortion-inducing drugs. But Republicans would have none of it.

The Republican majority passed the bill unchanged just before midnight with all but one Democrat voting against it.

The bill has sparked protests across Texas with thousands of abortion rights supporters flooding the Capitol to draw out committee hearings and disrupting key votes. Protesters finished a filibuster started by Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth by jeering for the last 15 minutes of the first special session, effectively killing the bill.

Read more from this story HERE.

South Florida Prepares For Zimmerman Verdict (+video)

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBy Lauren Pastrana. The Miami-Dade Police Department is partnering with local pastors in anticipation of the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.

From the pulpit of the Peaceful Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Miami-Dade Police Director JD Patterson preached peace Thursday evening.

“Riots are not acceptable and riots are not expected,” Patterson said.

MDPD’s motto for the outcome of the case is “Be vocal, not violent.”

“We don’t have anything to give us any indication otherwise, so we expect a peaceful event as a result of the verdict,” Patterson told CBS 4′s Lauren Pastrana. Read more from this story HERE.

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Zimmerman jury adjourns deliberations for the day

By Mike Schneider and Kyle Hightower. With police and civic leaders urging calm, a jury began deliberating George Zimmerman’s fate Friday after hearing dueling portraits of the neighborhood watch captain: a cop wannabe who took the law into his own hands or a well-meaning volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin because he feared for his life.

As the jury got the murder case, police in this Orlando suburb went on national television to plead for peace in Sanford and across the country, no matter what the verdict.

“There is no party in this case who wants to see any violence,” Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said. “We have an expectation upon this announcement that our community will continue to act peacefully.”

During closing arguments, Zimmerman’s lawyers put a concrete slab and two life-size cardboard cutouts in front of the jury box in one last attempt to convince the panel Zimmerman shot the unarmed black 17-year-old in self-defense while his head was being slammed against the pavement.

Attorney Mark O’Mara used the slab to make the point that it could serve as a weapon. He showed the cutouts of Zimmerman and Martin to demonstrate that the teenager was considerably taller. And he displayed a computer-animated depiction of the fight based on Zimmerman’s account. Read more from this story HERE.

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MSNBC host regrets this ‘awful mistake’ in network’s Zimmerman trial coverage

By Jason Howerton. MSNBC on Thursday afternoon aired a graphic and disturbing photograph of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s dead body while covering the George Zimmerman murder trial. The image flashed on the screen for about one second.

The shocking image was aired during “News Nation” with Tamron Hall. After being confronted on Twitter, including by some of her “avid” fans, over the “disrespectful” image, Hall claimed it was an “awful mistake.”

“I didn’t see it flash.. an awful mistake,” she tweeted.

The provocative blog Gawker took notice of MSNBC’s move to air the photo and published it as well. It went with a controversial headline that clearly intends to incite rage about the Zimmerman case. Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin Blasts Democrat Zimmerman Judge – a Jeb Bush Appointee – For Being “Way Out of Line!” (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeMark Levin, a constitutional law attorney, took real offense at “obnoxious and pathetic” Judge Debra Nelson for improperly questioning defendant George Zimmerman.

Levin hit the judge – a Jeb Bush appointee and reportedly a lifelong Democrat – for not only failing to allow the defendant’s last witness to be called prior to her inquiry of Zimmerman, but also in the way she did it.

For instance, she did not allow the attorney to state his objection, but cut him off and plowed forward with her questioning of Zimmerman.

Listen to Attorney Levin’s aggressive critique here:

New Black Panther Hopes Zimmerman is Murdered in Prison, “Praise be to God” (+video)

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At least one member of the New Black Panther party hopes George Zimmerman is found guilty and murdered in prison.

“Anything less than death for George Zimmerman is not justice,” Kojo Kayrallah told The Daily Caller Friday afternoon. Kayrallah, who identified himself as the Chief of Staff for the state of Florida said he and his group were here in Sanford seeking “justice for Trayvon.”

When asked if death in prison was satisfactory, Kayrallah said “praise be to God.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Hardcore, Constitutionalist Lawmaker: Time to Sue Obama Over Amnesty

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmorePressure is mounting on the House of Representatives to pass the Senate immigration bill, but Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, says the Senate plan is unconstitutional and is not nearly focused enough on border security.

House Republicans met Wednesday to get a sense of where the members stand on immigration and what the GOP strategy should be.

Rep. Stockman told WND Republicans don’t feel much pressure to pass the Senate bill. He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not submitted the bill to the House because he knows the GOP believes it’s unconstitutional.

“The bill is unconstitutional because Article 1, Section 7, says quite clearly that all taxes are to be started in the House, not in the Senate,” he said. “The thing is loaded with taxes, loaded with pork, so Harry Reid to my knowledge has never sent it over to the House.”

The congressman said if Reid does submit it, the House GOP will request a point of order on the alleged constitutional violation. He believes that would be followed by the House “blue-slipping” the bill.

Read more from this story HERE.

DHS Chief Janet Napolitano Resigns; Rewarded With Presidency of 10 Campuses, Huge Salary (+video)

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Photo Credit: LA TimesJanet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, The Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.

Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders said focused on her early as a high-profile, although untraditional, candidate who has led large public agencies and shown a strong interest in improving education.

UC officials believe that her Cabinet experiences –- which include helping to lead responses to hurricanes and tornadoes and overseeing some anti-terrorism measures — will help UC administer its federal energy and nuclear weapons labs and aid its federally funded research in medicine and other areas.

Read more from this story HERE.

Shocker: Liberal Host Bob Beckel Lets Loose With Anti-Muslim Tirade (+video)

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Photo Credit: The BlazeBob Beckel, the liberal co-host of Fox News’ “The Five,” on Tuesday said that if it were up to him, there would not be any new mosques built in the U.S. until “we got it worked out who was not a terrorist.”

He was reacting to a story about a radical Islamic group called Boko Haram, a militant group suspected of killing dozens of children at a school in Nigeria recently.

Read more from this story HERE.