Conservative Happenings

Friday, July 3, 2015

Legal Experts: NYC Mayor Action Against Trump ‘Not the American Way’

Civil liberty advocates are jumping all over New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s order to “review” all of Donald Trump’s city contracts because of his recent comments on Mexican immigrants.

“This is not the American Way,” observed Alan Dershowitz, Harvard’s most distinguished civil liberties law professor, about the chilling effect de Blasio’s action could have on freedom of speech.

“De Blasio seems to put himself directly, squarely in conflict with the First Amendment,” he told TheDCNF in an interview.

At his presidential campaign kickoff, Trump said immigrants from Mexico are “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”

Thursday, de Blasio shot back, saying “Donald Trump’s remarks were disgusting and offensive, and this hateful language has no place in our city.”

But his press secretary went a step further, saying the city was reviewing all of Trump’s contracts. Now civil liberties advocates are striking back at the mayor’s proposed action, which Dershowitz said was “plainly unconstitutional.”

They point to a landmark 1996 Supreme Court ruling that overwhelmingly declared it was unconstitutional to tie governmental contracts to a person’s beliefs.

“The city says, ‘We don’t want to renew it because we don’t like your speech.’ That would presumptively violate the First Amendment,” noted UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh in a DCNF interview. “The statement by the Mayor is a real danger to public debate,” he said, charging it would set dubious precedent for all city contractors, big and small.

Via: Daily Caller

ENTIRE COUNTY CLERK OFFICE RESIGNS OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

No same-sex marriage licenses are being issued in Decatur County, Tennessee, because the entire county clerk’s office has resigned following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Decatur County Clerk Gwen Pope explained her decision to quit her elected post. “It’s for the glory of God. He’s going to get all the glory,” she told WBIR.

Pope asserted she would rather resign than submit to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She and her two staff members, Sharon Bell and Mickey Butler, have all quit for the same reason. Their last day of work is July 14.

The TV station indicates the phone in the Decatur County Clerk Office “rang nonstop” as “[o]ver and over again, people praised the decision of the three workers who have decided to step down from their positions rather than hand out same-sex marriage licenses.”

Drew Baker of the Tennessee Equality Project said Decatur County is the only county in the state that has refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Pope said she and her employees will all look for new jobs. “I honestly believe God will take care of us,” she said.

“These three ladies stood upon their beliefs and they stood upon their morals and no one can fault them,” said Scott King, a Decatur County resident. “Too often we as Christians don’t do that. It’s time we followed the lead of what they showed us.”

Kathy Parrish, who works in Decaturville, also praised the women.

“It (same-sex marriage) is wrong because it goes against the Bible and everything God intended for it to be,” Parrish said. “That wasn’t God’s plan. God’s plan was for men to be with women and women to be with men.

Via: Breitbart

Massachusetts Witnesses Overwhelming Application Of Medical Marijuana Licenses

The state’s emerging medical marijuana industry has been well received. This is owing to the applications being received from various Companies who have expressed interest in opening medical marijuana dispensaries.

The opportunity to apply for the licenses was also celebrated by a majority of marijuana executives who said that they had lost thousands of dollars during former Governor Deval Patrick’s administration. Patrick’s administration is said to have been blemished with political favoritism, conflicts of interest alongside questionable financial structures. All this climaxed with dozens of filed lawsuits with the worst being that patients had no dispensaries to go to.

However, the system of awarding licenses has now been revamped through Governor Charlie Baker’s administration with regulators promising to strip away elements of subjectivity and secrecy witnessed during Patrick’s tenure.

Various applicants the likes of Brian Lees, a former Republican state senator, have given positive testimonies of the process citing that it was real and more transparent than it has been before. Brian is one of the many applicants who had applied but was denied the under former Governor Deval Patrick administration.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Scott Zoback, said that over 50applicants have already been submitted. However, names of the applicants have not been released as yet but information will be made available to the Department of Public Health’s website gradually.

With different groups having applied for the licenses, you can expect to have intense competition. Nevertheless, competition is good and a foundation for any business. As such it will be useful for the Marijuana market as well as the patients since it will give them options.

The Public Health’s department has posted guidelines that will be used to judge each application. Unlike in the old system where used the scoring method with applications being pitted against each other, the current one will be on merit basis.

So far a majority of applicants seems confident with Baker administration’s plan to regulate and line the license application and processing process.

Via: MMJ Observer

DONNELLY LAUNCHES REFERENDUM TO OVERTURN NEW VACCINE LAW

Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

by MICHELLE MOONS2 Jul 2015San Diego, CA6

Former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has launched a referendum against vaccine law SB277, pledging to work with every individual or group to collect the signatures needed to put the vaccine referendum on the 2016 ballot and let voters decide this issue.

“This is we, the people, exercising the people’s veto,” Donnelly told Breitbart News.

“This referendum is not about vaccinations; it is about defending the fundamental freedom of a parent to make an informed decision for their children without being unduly penalized by a government that believes it knows best.”

Many of SB277’s opponents indicated that they do vaccinate their children, but opposed the infringement on parental rights.

Hundreds of Californians from across the state fought a long battle against the bill in the legislature. On Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB277 into law. As of Tuesday, tens of thousands had signed petitions calling for Brown to veto three pieces of legislation related to vaccine requirements, including SB277. As of Thursday, nearly 100,000 had signed the petitions, combined.

“Do you think the government or parents should have more control about what is injected into your child’s body?” Donnelly asked. “The government is intimidating parents by denying children the right to education.”

Prior to SB277, if a parent chose to opt a child out of even one vaccination such as Hepatitis B, but still vaccinate for all other diseases as required, that parent could sign a personal belief waiver. SB277 eliminates that waiver, making California one of strictest states in the nation. Parents that still wish to opt out of even one vaccination will not be allowed to enroll that child in private or public school.

“They are stamping out a parents’ right to make their own medical decisions for their kids,” Donnelly told Breitbart News.

According to Donnelly, California already has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Centers for Disease Control statistics as of September 2014 show Californiavaccination rates in the young 19-35 month range within a reasonable range as compared to other states, he noted. CDC charts show California among the most vaccinated states for MMR, DTap and Hib.

Via: Breitbart

MONTANA: Gazette opinion: Take responsibility for terrible state budget

The State of Montana's finances aren't as rosy as we once imagined, and the same people who may have contributed to the mess may be the ones ultimately charged with cleaning it up.

Last week, the Legislative Audit Division told lawmakers that problems, misstatements and omissions are so common (more than 100 that have been discovered) in the state's finances that it could jeopardize Montana's bond ratings.

This wasn't just a single accidental oversight. Instead, the problems are deep -- 125 errors and lack of internal controls. Sadly, those controls, had they been in place, according to the audit division, could have caught these problems earlier. In other words, there weren't even controls in place to catch problems.

Though Montana Budget Director Dan Villa might have you believe some of these were nothing more than just goofy spreadsheet errors, the truth is more sobering. There is approximately $1 billion overstated accumulated depreciation, and $62 million in bonds were omitted altogether, said Tori Hunthausen of the Legislative Audit Division.

Let's pause. $62 million of bonds don't even show up on the books?

One billion dollars overstated? That's billion with a b.

These don't just appear to be simple rounding errors. The amounts aren't insignificant.

The question is: How do they simply disappear? How do those mistakes happen?

That's what remains unclear.

It's obvious that the state (eventually) caught it, thanks to the Legislative Audit Division. What's a bit more troubling is that Villa and Department of Administration director Sheila Hogan had to put a team in place with a new accountant.

The errors and omissions seems like basic accounting, but don't take our word for it.

Villa also told the committee that in a few cases zeroes had been left off figures.

Yikes. What kind of accountants are working for the state?

What still remains to be seen is what how will changes be implemented and how can we be certain this recent history won't repeat itself? How are the Montana leaders today ensuring that future leaders won't have to worry about the same problem?

It may seem like this is just a problem on paper. You know, change a few numbers on a spreadsheet and --viola!-- things get better.

But, if bond ratings get lowered, it means that Montana, normally lauded for its tight fiscal management, may have to suffer higher interest rates when we borrow money. In other words, our dollars won't buy as much and not as much may get done. We'll pay more and get less.

Via: Billing Gazette

America redefining its identity for the 21st century

An American flag decorates a picket fence in Londonderry, N.H., in this 2012 file photo. As it nears another birthday, America is forging the outlines of a new century. The country is moving with remarkable speed to cast aside some of the traditions and mores that dominated American life for centuries. | Cheryl Senter New York Times

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

dlightman@mcclatchydc.com

As it nears another birthday, America is forging the outlines of a new century.

It’s moving with now remarkable speed to cast aside some of the traditions and mores that dominated American life for centuries. The Confederate flag is coming down, 150 years after the end of the Civil War and a half-century after it was raised in defiance of civil rights. Marriage is being redefined. Whites are fast becoming a minority. And after electing its first African-American president, the country is poised to elect a new leader from among a roster including a woman, two Cuban-Americans, and the scion of an old Yankee family married to a Mexican-American.

All of it is driven by a new generation, magnified by demographic change and accelerated by social media.

The biggest influence is the millennial generation, born between 1982 and 2000, a massive group that represents about one-fourth of the nation’s population, a bigger percentage than the baby boomers who upended the American political system themselves.

The millenials are different. They’re more diverse than their parents’ generation. They came of age in a time already distant from the institutions that moderated the last century: the church, government, media.

And armed with smartphones and social media, they create mandates for change with their own contemporaneous means of associating. Finding comfort with newfound acquaintances in far-flung places and banding together to pressure decision-makers is now commonplace. More striking, the rise of these electronic communities means a softening of the peer pressure of traditional geographic neighborhoods, where outliers were often reluctant to become vocal for fear of ridicule or worse.

“Organizing today is easier. People don’t have to wait to see what their elders tell them,” said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of CIRCLE, a nonpartisan group specializing in young voter research.

Via: McClatchy

Is the Clinton Email Coverup Unraveling?

Federal investigators may be closer to seizing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s illicit off-site email server as evidence emerges that she transmitted classified information through it and that key Obama White House officials knew about her clandestine email account for years.

On Tuesday the Department of State made available on its website 3,000 pages of Clinton’s emails. Clinton emphatically declared months ago that none of the thousands of emails she sent using her hacker-friendly dedicated server contained classified information.

As it turns out the State Department had to redact 25 of the newly unveiled emails because they contained the very same classified information Hillary said she didn’t send. This is but a fraction of the 55,000 pages of email the former secretary of state gave to the diplomatic agency for processing. Under federal court order, the State Department is conducting monthly Clinton document dumps after screening and redacting the emails.

Clinton has admitted that tens of thousands of the emails she sent that happened to be U.S. government property were deleted. Emails were scrubbed while subject to a subpoena from the House Select Committee that is investigating the terrorist attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that took place on Sept. 11, 2012.

Around the time of the attack Clinton scapegoated the innocent director of an anti-Islam movie trailer that almost nobody had seen. She claimed back then that the sophisticated military-style operation materialized spontaneously from an angry mob of protesters gathered outside the facility which was in Islamist-held territory. The Benghazi coverup the Obama administration engineered to get President Obama safely reelected in November 2012 has been gradually falling apart.

This new revelation that classified information went out into cyberspace by way of Clinton’s laughably insecure server clears the way for the U.S. government to seize the machine itself, theWashington Times reports.

Via: Canada Free Press

[VIDEO] Mom Charged With Endangerment for Letting 7-Year-Old Play in Park Right Across the Street

A 7-year-old in Westbrook, Maine, was playing at the park within eyesight of her family’s house. Someone called 911 (of course) and the police swooped in. They took the girl to the precinct because, as this WMTW reporter notes, “Mom wasn’t watching.”

What? Mom didn’t devote her afternoon to sitting at the side of the park and watching her child’s every move? Tsk, tsk. The child was on her own for about an hour, and as Police Chief Janine Roberts told the reporter, “That’s a long time for a 7-year-old girl to be by herself any place, let alone a park.”

Yes, the park is certainly the last place you’d ever want to see a kid hanging out. What kind of crazy mom would let her child go there?

The mother’s name is Nicole Jensen. She stressed that her kids check in with her every hour, and the park is usually filled with other parents, who take turns watching each other’s children.

Jensen has been charged with child endangerment.

Roberts was glad that the officers were able to “reunite” the mother and child—as if they had endured Hurricane Katrina, or something. She also thanked her department for having all the necessary “resources and facilities” to save this kid, even though the officers could have literally walked the girl across the street to her house if they were so concerned.

Let’s hope Jensen has learned her lesson: Parks aren’t for kids! They’re for real estate values. They’re props. You’re not supposed to let your kids actually, you know, play, in them.

If you watch to the end of the video, the reporter, David Charns, notes that the little girl and her brother are headed straight back to the park.

The little recidivists! Will they never learn?

Via: Reason

DC Bumps Its Minimum Wage To Highest In The Nation But Activists Still WANT MORE

NEVER ENOUGH

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser was proud to announce Wednesday the minimum-wage hike that took effect that day, though just across town activists were still fighting for more.

At $9.50, the District of Columbia minimum wage was already higher than any state in the nation before it rose to $10.50 Wednesday.

“Raising the minimum wage will give tens of thousands of Washingtonians a raise and boost the bottom lines of our local businesses,” Bowser said. “It’s good for workers, businesses and our economy,”

The minimum-wage hike came as part of a three-year initiative approved by the D.C. council in 2013 that will see it climb again in 2016 to $11.50– but some in the city still want more.

At a Board of Elections hearing later Wednesday afternoon, activists fighting for a $15 minimum wage attempted to get a ballot referendum in place to vote for another wage increase.

The “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2016,” a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, would continue the city’s incremental minimum wage increases, starting at $12.50 in 2017. It would creep up again each year until reaching $15.00 per hour by 2020.

Upon reaching $15.00 in 2020, the minimum wage would then increase annually to match the rising cost of living in the city.

D.C. government employees, though, would be exempt from the minimum wage levels if the law goes into effect.

If the board decides that the proposed initiative deserves a spot on the ballot, the activists will need to collect more than 20,000 signatures on a petition before it makes its way to voters.

Via: Daily Caller

ONE MORE MISSION: MARINE JIM WEBB TO TAKE ON HILLARY

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

by RICH TUCKER2 Jul 2015256

He’s served as a Marine in Vietnam, a citizen as Secretary of the Navy, and as a Virginian in the U.S. Senate. Now Jim Webb wants to serve his country again — as a presidential candidate.

He will challenge Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, and Lincoln Chaffee in the Democratic primaries.

Webb admits it won’t be easy.

“I understand the odds, particularly in today’s political climate where fair debate is so often drowned out by huge sums of money. I know that more than one candidate in this process intends to raise at least a billion dollars – some estimates run as high as two billion dollars – in direct and indirect financial support,” he writes in a letter to supporters.

Webb vows to focus on restoring the military. He criticizes both of the last two administrations, saying he wouldn’t have intervened in Iraq (Bush) or Libya (Obama). “And today I would not be the President to sign an executive order establishing a long-tem relationship with Iran if it accepts Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons,” Webb adds. The Iran agreement could be signed later this month.

Webb also prescribes an aggressive domestic policy. “Let’s give our younger people a cause worth fighting for. Let’s clean out the manure-filled stables of a political system that has become characterized by greed,” he writes. “Let’s rebuild an educational system that gives everyone a fair chance. A democracy is only as strong as the promise it offers its young citizens through the public education system.”

He concludes his announcement with two promises:

The first is that every endeavor will be based on the premise that has been the foundation of our society from the day the United States Constitution was signed: that we are a nation of laws, not of specially privileged people, and that our greatest strength comes from the power of our multicultural heritage.

And the second is that I mean what I say, that if I make a promise I will keep it, and that outside my faith and my family, my greatest love will always be for this amazing country that for more than 200 years has given so many people the opportunity to have a good life, raise a family, live in freedom, and achieve their dreams.

Via: Breitbart

California electricity rates to undergo biggest change in 15 years

California regulators radically revamped the way electricity rates work in the state, approving changes Friday that will raise monthly utility bills for the most energy-efficient homeowners while giving many bigger energy users a break.

The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to narrow the gap between prices paid by people who use very little electricity and those who consume more. Over time, that gap has grown so wide that the most efficient Californians now pay less for electricity than the utilities spend supplying it to them.

California has long charged utility customers higher prices for using large amounts of electricity as a way to encourage conservation. And while the commission’s vote will benefit many homeowners who use more than average, the biggest energy “hogs” now will face a new penalty, a “super-user electric surcharge” designed to prod them to conserve.

In addition, most residential customers will soon pay different prices for electricity use at different times of day, with the highest prices likely hitting in the afternoon. The move, long studied by California officials, could reduce the strain on the state’s power grid when electricity demand reaches its daily, late-afternoon peak.

Shifting some electricity use to mid-day or the evening, in turn, could help the state integrate more solar and wind power into the energy mix. Solar power plants hit their maximum output just after noon, while California’s wind farms generate most of their electricity at night.

“The electricity industry is changing fast, and utility rates haven’t kept up with it,” said commission President Michael Picker. He said Friday that the utility commission needed to “make sure rates are reasonable and fair to all California utility customers.”

The changes will be phased in by 2019. They affect customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. — not the customers of municipal utilities such as those serving Sacramento or Los Angeles.

“We’re committed to helping our customers and their families understand the changes and the best ways they can be energy efficient and save money,” said Greg Snapper, spokesman for PG&E.

Via: SFGate

Obama administration scales back deportations in policy shift

The Obama administration has begun a profound shift in its enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, aiming to hasten the integration of long-term illegal immigrants into society rather than targeting them for deportation, according to documents and federal officials.

In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has taken steps to ensure that the majority of the United States’ 11.3 million undocumented immigrants can stay in this country, with agents narrowing enforcement efforts to three groups of illegal migrants: convicted criminals, terrorism threats or those who recently crossed the border.

While public attention has been focused on the court fight over President Obama’s highly publicized executive action on immigration, DHS has with little fanfare been training thousands of immigration agents nationwide to carry out new policies on everyday enforcement.

The legal battle centers on the constitutionality of a program that would officially shield as many as 5 million eligible illegal immigrants from deportation, mainly parents of children who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. A federal judge put the program, known by the acronym DAPA, on hold in February after 26 states sued.

[Administration halts work on DAPA program ]

But the shift in DHS’s enforcement priorities, which are separate from the DAPA program and have not been challenged in court, could prove even more far-reaching.

The new policies direct agents to focus on the three priority groups and leave virtually everyone else alone. Demographic data shows that the typical undocumented immigrant has lived in the United States for a decade or more and has established strong community ties.

Via: Washington Post

Friday, July 3, 2015

No same-sex marriage licenses are being issued in Decatur County, Tennessee, because the entire county clerk’s office has resigned following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has launched a referendum against vaccine law SB277, pledging to work with every individual or group to collect the signatures needed to put the vaccine referendum on the 2016 ballot and let voters decide this issue.

He’s served as a Marine in Vietnam, a citizen as Secretary of the Navy, and as a Virginian in the U.S. Senate. Now Jim Webb wants to serve his country again — as a presidential candidate.

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