Wednesday, July 29, 2015

[VIDEO] Lake County murder suspect found to be in country illegally during July 7 traffic stop

PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- Lake County sheriff's deputies learned that Juan Emmanuel Razo was in the U.S. illegally from Mexico more than two weeks before his arrest in the death of a 60-year-old Concord Township woman.

Razo made his first court appearance Tuesday in the death of Margaret Kostelnik where a judge set a $10 million bond. He's also accused in the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl and the shooting of another woman who survived.

Razo pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted murder, but still faces possible murder and other charges in connection to the other incidents.

Lake County Sheriff's Det. Brian Butler said during the court hearing that during a July 7 traffic stop, deputies contacted border patrol agents who advised the sheriff's office not to detain Razo despite his status as an undocumented immigrant.

Cicconetti expressed frustration at Razo's lack of documentation.Razo, who spoke with the aid of a Spanish translator, told Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti at the hearing that he doesn't have a passport or a green card.


Razo told Cicconetti he has a birth certificate from Mexico, to which the judge replied, "That doesn't help you here in the United States."

Razo has lived in the country for five years and has no local criminal history, the sheriff's office said Tuesday. 

In response to a request for information, Customs and Border Protection spokesman Jaime Ruiz issued a statement that said, "we're looking at the facts of the case to find out exactly what happened."

Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency "intends to take custody of [Razo] and pursue his removal from the United States."

Razo's illegal status may hit a nerve for many at a time when immigration is a hot button political issue. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump just last month criticized Mexican immigrants, characterizing them as criminals and rapists. Trump will be in Cleveland next week for a debate.

The of violent events of Monday left neighbors of the rural Concord Township and the surrounding areas on edge. Investigators have not revealed any information about Razo's possible motive.

A 14-year-old girl told police that Razo tried to rape her about 10:40 a.m. in Helen Hazen Wyman Park in Concord Township. 

Detectives canvassed the area looking for Razo. They also searched his Lusard Street home in Painesville, but didn't find him.

As the search continued, Lake Metroparks rangers were called to a shooting near the Greenway Corridor.

A 40-year-old woman was found along the bike path with a gunshot wound to her arm. Her two 12-year-old children were unharmed.

Paramedics took the woman to the Tripoint Medical Center, where she was treated for non life-threatening injuries.

Investigators widened their search area, driving an armored vehicle along the bike path. Officials sent a reverse 911 call to residents within a half-mile radius telling them to stay inside their homes.

Officials called in help from surrounding police departments, including two K-9 units.
It was during this search that a deputy was flagged down by Kostelnik's husband. He told detectives he just found his wife dead in their Ravenna Road home with several gunshot wounds.

The Kostelniks' Ravenna Road home is directly behind the bike path where the woman was shot 

A man at about 4:30 p.m. called 911 reporting a man – later found to be Razo – was in his back yard pointing a rifle at his son.

Three deputies rushed to Palmer Road in Concord Township, where they found Razo.
Razo shot at deputies, according to reports. The deputies fired back at Razo, who jumped behind a large boulder.

The deputies ordered Razo to surrender, which he did. He was taken into custody.
A preliminary hearing is set for 8 a.m. August 3.

Northeast Ohio Media Group reporter Eric Heisig contributed to this story.


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[MUST READ] Obama Cronyism + Your Personal Data = Trouble by Michelle Malkin


Michelle MalkinIt's the most far-reaching scandal in Washington that no one wants to talk about: Tens of millions of federal employees had their personal information hacked as a result of Obama administration incompetence and political favoritism.

Ethnic community organizer-turned-Office of Personnel Management head Katherine Archuleta recklessly eschewed basic cyber security in favor of politically correct "diversity" initiatives during her disastrous crony tenure. This Beltway business-as-usual created an irresistible opportunity for hackers to reach out and grab massive amounts of sensitive data — compromising everyone from rank-and-file government employees to CIA spies.

Could it get worse? You betcha.

Amid increasing concerns about these massive government computer breaches, the Defense Department is expected to announce the winner of a lucrative high-stakes contract to overhaul the military's electronic health records system this week.

The leading finalist among three top contenders is Epic Systems, a Wisconsin-based health care software company founded and led by top Obama billionaire donor Judy Faulkner. Thanks in significant part to President Obama's $19 billion stimulus subsidy program for health data vendors, Epic is now the dominant EMR player in the U.S. health IT market.

According to Becker's Hospital Review, CVS Caremark's retail clinic chain, MinuteClinic, is now adopting Epic's system, and "when the transition is complete, about 51 percent of Americans will have an Epic record." Other major clients include Kaiser Permanente of Oakland, Calif., Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Arlington-based Texas Health Resources, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, and Duke University Health System in Raleigh, N.C.

As I've reported previously, Epic employees donated nearly $1 million to political parties and candidates between 1995 and 2012 — 82 percent of it to Democrats. The company's top 10 PAC recipients are all Democratic or left-wing outfits, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (nearly $230,000) to the DNC Services Corporation (nearly $175,000) and the America's Families First Action Fund Democratic super-PAC ($150,000).

Faulkner received a plum appointment to a federal health IT policy panel in 2011. Brandon Glenn of Medical Economics noted that "it's not a coincidence" that Epic's sales "have been skyrocketing in recent years, up to $1.2 billion in 2011, double what they were four years prior."

Stunningly, Epic "has the edge" on the gargantuan Pentagon medical records contract, The Washington Post reported on Monday. This favored status comes despite myriad complaints about the interoperability, usability and security of Epic's closed-end proprietary software. Just last week, the UCLA Health system run by Epic suffered a cyber attack affecting up to 4.5 million personal and medical records, including Social Security numbers, Medicare and health plan identifiers, birthdays, and physical addresses. The university's CareConnect system spans four hospitals and 150 offices across Southern California.

The university's top doctors and medical staff market their informatics expertise and consulting services to other Epic customers "to ensure the successful implementation and optimization of your Epic EHR." Will they be sharing their experience having to mop up the post-cyber attack mess involving their Epic infrastructure?

UCLA Health acknowledged that the hack forced it to "employ more cybersecurity experts on its internal security team, and to hire an outside cybersecurity firm to guard its network," according to CNN.

Now another Obama crony is poised to cash in on her cozy ties and take over the mega-overhaul of millions of Pentagon and Veterans Affairs medical records to the tune of at least $11 billion.

Can you say "Epic fail"?



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Soda Wars: Business Groups Sue San Francisco To Defend First Amendment

A trio of business groups is suing San Francisco to protect the First Amendment rights of companies that sell and market sugary drinks.
On 24 July, the California Retailers Association, the American Beverage Association and the California State Outdoor Advertising Association filed a lawsuit to prevent mandatory warning labels on soda ads. The San Francisco ordinance, which was passed in June by nine votes to zero would cover soda ads on billboards, buses, transit shelters, posters and stadiums.
The plaintiffs argue “the city is trying to ensure that there is no free marketplace of ideas, but instead only a government-imposed, one-sided public ‘dialogue’ on the topic — in violation of the First Amendment.” They hope the District Court will overturn the city government’s decision.
The label, which must cover 20 percent of the ad, reads “WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.” The labels mimic warning signs placed on cigarette packs.
Drink manufacturers will not only have to comply with producing warning labels but will be subject to a wave of new restrictions. Baylen Linnekin, chief executive of Keep Food Legal, writes, “the law would prohibit soda makers from identifying the products they sell while protesting against the law on public space. It bars ads advertising soda, Frappuccinos, or some Jamba juices on public property.”
Linnekin identifies two violations of the First Amendment in the city ordinance. One being the government preventing speech with which it disagrees and two, compelling the speaker to switch their language to that preferred by the government.
Government efforts to label certain products with health warnings have taken a knock in recent years. The California plaintiffs may draw hope from the 2012 case where tobacco companies won a major victory after a federal appeals court struck down requirements for cigarette packs to display graphic health warnings.
Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the District of Columbia Circuit, who voted with the majority in the case, wrote ”this case raises novel questions about the scope of the government’s authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest — in this case, by making ‘every single pack of cigarettes in the country a mini billboard’ for the government’s antismoking message.”
The Food and Drug Administration which was pursuing the policy has not attempted to reintroduce the graphic labels.
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Reid is out and Congress is surprisingly productive

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nev. arrives at the Capitol Building before the Senate convenes for a Sunday session on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sunday, July 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

When voters pulled the lever for Republicans in 2014, they probably didn't have high expectations for the Congress they were creating. With two years left in President Obama's term, divided government and further gridlock seemed the best possible outcome.
Yet the 114th Congress has been surprisingly productive — and more importantly, it holds forth great promise on such major issues as free trade, criminal justice reform and tax reform. And although not all of the developments are or will be positive, none of the problems stem from the kind of institutional dysfunction that plagued the previous Senate, especially.
The classic but misleading metric for a Congress is the number of laws it enacts. This Congress has been better on that score than its immediate predecessors so far. But as Congress leaves for its August recess, it is wiser to measure its value based on precisely what it has accomplished, and what aspirations lawmakers can realistically harbor based on the tone of the place today.
For example, Congress took a huge step toward opening up America's trade footprint when it approved Trade Promotion Authority earlier this summer and extended a long-running African trade agreement. Members fully expect to vote on at least one major trade deal before President Obama leaves office.
Before that, the House and Senate approved a bicameral budget for 2016. This might not seem like much, but it marks the first time Congress has actually fulfilled its budget responsibilities since Obama took office. Congress also approved the Keystone Pipeline (Obama vetoed that one), and passed a so-called "doc-fix," which had been kicked down the road for years. It also passed a bill helping the victims of human trafficking.
Looking forward, there's no question that this Congress has a considerably less toxic atmosphere than the last one. Instead of contemplating a government shutdown or a default, lawmakers are talking about what they might be able to pass.
The major difference is that the Senate's new leadership has chosen a decidedly less autocratic style. The former Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be remembered best for blocking amendment votes. He essentially offered the minority only two choices — accept his demands or else stop action on bills altogether. This not only blocked individual senators' contributions to the process (including Democrats who might have benefited from the opportunity to contribute), but it also became a huge source of tension between the parties. Reid's decision to trample the minority's rights by invoking the so-called "nuclear option" did not help matters, either.
Now that senators are free to propose amendments, Democratic and Republican senators alike have more of a buy-in to the legislative process. In just the first major debate — over the Keystone pipeline — there were more amendment votes than there had been in the entire preceding year.
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[VIDEO] Nine More Undercover Videos Ready To Drop On Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Protest October 14 8 (Katie Frates/Daily Caller)WASHINGTON — David Daleiden, founder of the Center For Medical Progress (CMP), told conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity Tuesday there are nine more sting-operation videos that reveal Planned Parenthood’s operations.
“We have close to 300 hours total of undercover video that was gathered during a 30 month long in depth investigative journalism study of how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of the babies they abort,” Daleiden said, noting that each highlight video released will have the full footage posted on their website without any edits.
CMP has already released three videos showing Planned Parenthood officials, personnel, and doctors discussing the harvesting of aborted baby parts. Congress proposed legislation Wednesday to defund Planned Parenthood’s abortion activity and moving the money to community health centers and hospitals instead.
Planned Parenthood has hired a Washington D.C. based crisis management firm to deal with the fallout.
When asked by Hannity about criticism on whether local recording laws could harm CMP, Daleiden responded, “Every taping we did during this project was done in full compliance with the local recording laws. The video specifically from the pathology lab at the Planned Parenthood clinic that was included today, that was done in Denver, Colorado, which is a one party consent state, which is completely applicable.”
Daleiden added, “The California law is about confidential communications not those that can be overheard by anyone walking by, such as a situation in a crowded restaurant like the situations in the two previous tapes.”

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House Dem loses committee post due to indictment, but get a load of his replacement

OMG, you just can't make this stuff up! We really do need term limits.
10:58 AM - 29 Jul 2015

Federal prosecutors have indicted Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Chaka Fattah with a laundry list of charges, including bribery and racketeering conspiracy.

Fattah was the Democrat leader of the Appropriations Committee but will no longer hold that post. Check out his replacement:

LOL


10:52 AM - 29 Jul 2015

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HUD Staffer Fraudulently Charges $12k on Govt. Credit Card

During the government shutdown a couple of years ago, an employee at a cabinet-level agency long embroiled in scandal fraudulently charged thousands of dollars in personal items on his work-issued credit card.

Enraging as it may seem, it’s not all that surprising considering it involves the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a famously corrupt agency well known for a multitude of transgressions over the years. In this particular case a HUD staffer racked up nearly $12,000 on his agency credit card by charging personal items such as groceries, lodging, television cable, transportation and even prescription medications.

This occurred in the midst of the 2013 government shutdown caused by Congress’s failure to pass a spending bill. That paralyzed most functions of government, accounting for the second longest shutdown since 1980. The standstill caused a huge economic disruption and billions in lost output, according to a report published by the White House. Although federal employees were eventually compensated for the period of the shutdown, hundreds of thousands did not receive their full paychecks during that time. “The burden of delayed paychecks on federal workers and their families was significant and harmful,” the White House report states.

The HUD employee who went on a spending spree with his government credit card got busted but the agency didn’t bother to take action, according to the federal audit that exposed the scandal this month. The fraudulent purchases—$11,938 in total—were made during a relatively short period from August through October of 2013 so it was difficult for the agency not to notice. By January 2014 the fraud was confirmed but HUD failed to even reprimand the employee or report the wrongdoing. “This occurred because HUD’s existing purchase card policies did not include specific procedures to evaluate violations for purchase card program weaknesses and criteria to report violations,” the inspector general writes.

So, this bloated and notoriously corrupt agency gives its employees credit cards and has no measures to assess violations, which occur regularly throughout government. In this case the HUD staffer charged an astounding $7,357 in groceries, which raises red flags all on its own. He also charged $1,280 in drug stores and pharmacies and $488 on cable television for his home. The rest was spent on commuter transportation, hotels, restaurants and telecommunications equipment, according to the breakdown offered in the audit.

HUD’s scandals have been well documented throughout various administrations—both Republican and Democrat—and Judicial Watch has covered many of them. In fact, earlier this year JW reported that a HUD director who simultaneously ran a leftwing nonprofit changed agency policies to benefit her group. Her name is Debra Gross and for years she headed a crucial HUD policy office while she served as deputy director of a leftist organization called Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) that claims to work to “preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education.”

In 2011 a JW investigation found that the Obama administration violated the ban on federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) by giving the famously corrupt group tens of thousands of dollars in grants to “combat housing and lending discrimination.” The money, $79,819, flowed through HUD and clearly violated a law (Defund ACORN Act) passed by Congress in 2009 to stop the huge flow of taxpayer money that annually went to ACORN after a series of exposés about the leftwing group’s illegal activities.

Problems at the agency go way back. President George W. Bush’s HUD secretary, Alphonso Jackson, was ousted after the feds launched an investigation into his plots to enrich himself and his friends by giving them lucrative government contracts and Bill Clinton’s housing secretary, Henry Cisneros, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about payments to his former mistress. An influence-peddling scandal under Ronald Reagan led to the conviction of 16 people, including top aides to then HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce.


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[VIDEO] Giuliani: Hillary Clinton Should Be Under Investigation For Five Different Crimes

Former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said that if he was still a U.S. Attorney, he’d have former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under investigation for five different crimes.
“I believe she should be under investigation by the United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York for obstruction of justice, for destroying government property,” he said on CNN’s New Day. “I think its clear that she had a conflict of interest, her husband getting hundreds of millions of dollars, she’s making decisions about companies and about corporations that he’s getting money from. I think they filed a joint tax return.”
“I’d have her under investigation for about five different crimes,” he continued. “I think it’s outrageous that the Justice Department is not moving forward with this. General Pertraeus, a lot of other people have gone to jail…”
That said, Giuliani said he would’ve have shown leniency towards David Petraeus after the former general was found guilty of moving classified government documents off site. “Hillary Clinton, there are five acts we are talking about. Pertraeus gave away one or two little things. She destroyed a drive with 34,000 e-mails on it.”
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Obama’s Kenya Flights Cost $6 million, Now Tied for Most Total International Trips

(Alexandria, VA)—Today, President Obama returns from his most recent voyage to Africa, having now spent 161 days abroad during his presidency on 41 international trips. That’s the data from National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s (NTUF’s) new Presidential travel study “Still Up in the Air.”


NTUF found the President has traveled internationally as much as any U.S. President through July of the seventh year in office – equaling former President Clinton with 41 trips. Though, Obama has tended toward shorter stays, falling shy of Clinton’s 178 days spent overseas.

Study author and Policy Analyst Michael Tasselmyer said, “Where in the world is Barack Obama remains the easy question, the difficult question for taxpayers is: What in the world is the cost of the travel?”

Table 1. Presidential Travel Abroad Through July of Seventh Year in Office


Notes:
Sources: State Department data, media reports.

Visits are defined as the number of countries traveled to during a trip (e.g., if the President spends time in 4 countries before returning to the U.S., that is counted as 4 visits).

The most recent estimate on the hourly cost of flying Air Force One from Fiscal Year 2015, verified by NTUF, is $206,337 per flight hour. This figure, obtained by Judicial Watch, represents a slight decline from 2013.

The President’s trip to Africa has taken him to Nairobi, Kenya from Andrews Air Force Base, and on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia then back to D.C. for a total flight time of 29 hours, at a cost of $5,983,773. 

Visiting this region of Africa requires additional security measures for the President. In this instance security costs are compounded by the presence of 20 Members of Congress who traveled with the President and additional members of the Executive branch.

Table 2. Presidential Obama’s Most Frequently Visited Countries


Notes:
Sources: State Department data, media reports.
Fourteen countries tied with 2 visits: Australia, Belgium, Burma, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Africa, and Vatican City.

Despite two prominent trips to Africa, President Obama has most frequently traveled to European nations, as well as Mexico, Afghanistan, and South Korea.

Additional notable findings include:

Presidents continue to travel more in their second terms (during the jet travel era), even President Eisenhower spent 54 more days abroad during his second term than during his first, Obama continues this trend.

Vacation trips are considered official travel and thus funded by taxpayers.


In FY 2015 the Office of Management and Budget reported that the Secret Service was appropriated an estimated $852 million for “protection of persons and facilities” and $31 million for “international field operations, administration and operations.”

The Air Force will be moving ahead with replacing the current fleet of VC-25 aircraft (Air Force Ones), which could cost upwards of $1.7 billion over five years

Tasselymyer concluded, “While flight costs can be estimated, the rest of the expenses associated with travel, including security, lodging, food, and more, not just for the President and Air Force One, but additional staff and airplanes, remains opaque.”

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading.....
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