The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has arrested a suspect, Dawud Abdulwali, 56, on arson charges connected with the massive downtown fire last December that consumed the Da Vinci apartment complex. The Los Angeles Timesreports that Abdulwali was arrested Tuesday morning during a traffic stop, and after a lengthy investigation.
Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the arrest Wednesday, saying: “This arrest illustrates that crime will not be tolerated in Los Angeles.”
Abdulwadi’s alleged motive has not been revealed. He was arrested by the LAPD’s anti-terrorism unit, though officials say that there is no reason to suspect terrorism,according toKTLA local news. Police have not clarified whether Abdulwadi was filmed on surveillance video, though two other people were seen on video and are considered witnesses, the Timesreports.
A surge in New York City murders — including four people slain in just five bloody hours as the weekend began — has grieving family members begging Mayor de Blasio to bring back the NYPD’s right to search for guns.
“We need stop-and-frisk,” Stacey Calhoun, the devastated uncle of one of the four fatalities, said Saturday afternoon, tears filling his eyes over the nephew he had just lost.
Jahhad Marshall — a charismatic 23-year-old with a promising future as a chef — had died of a stray bullet to his back early that morning outside the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, police said.
“Somebody has to put their foot down,” the anguished uncle said.
“A lot of people would agree with stop-and-frisk if it’s for the safety among us,” he said.
“They used to fight with their hands, he said. “It seems like all these kids have guns these days.”
Marshall — apparently an innocent bystander to a pre-dawn playground shootout — was one of four fatalities in The Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn from Friday night into Saturday, bloodshed that began in The Bronx at 11:20 p.m. when a gunman fatally blasted Joel Rivera, 23, multiple times in the neck outside his home on Andrews Avenue.
Islamic State took the occasion to film more propaganda footage of itself marching through the empty cities, with horrific images of its enemies’ corpses and destroyed buildings in its wake.
The Fox News talk show OutNumbered discussed Politico‘s report on the U.S. government’s efforts to quash what it deemed misleading footage May 15, and three days later, the fall of Ramadi, capital of the Anbar Province, was one of the lead stories on every network broadcast.
Senior State Department and Pentagon officials have begun contacting television network reporters to ask them to stop using “B-roll” — stock footage that appears on screen while reporters and commentators talk — showing ISIL at the peak of its strength last summer.
“We are urging broadcasters to avoid using the familiar B-roll that we’ve all seen before, file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight, moving in large formations with guns out, looking to wreak havoc,” said Emily Horne, spokeswoman for retired Gen. John Allen, the State Department’s special envoy leading the international coalition against ISIL.
“It’s inaccurate — that’s no longer how ISIL moves,” Horne said. “A lot of that footage is from last summer before we began tactical strikes.”
A lot of this has to do with Paul’s stance against the renewal of the PATRIOT Act and the approval of the USA Freedom Act, and he recently performed an unofficial filibuster against NSA surveillance.
In a statement to POLITICO, Paul lays out a simple plan for Sunday’s special session:
So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program.
What special session, you ask? As POLITICO points out, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants to facilitate a rather quick debate on the surveillance bill that’s got Paul and others so worked up.
Vice President Biden late Saturday announced the death of his son Beau Biden. Here is his statement:
It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.
The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us—especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.
Beau's life was defined by service to others. As a young lawyer, he worked to establish the rule of law in war-torn Kosovo. A major in the Delaware National Guard, he was an Iraq War veteran and was awarded the Bronze Star. As Delaware’s Attorney General, he fought for the powerless and made it his mission to protect children from abuse.
More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother. His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has expanded his early lead in Iowa, while former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to face headwinds and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida shows upside potential in the state that hosts the first 2016 presidential nomination balloting.
A new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows more than a third of likely Republican caucus participants say they would never vote for Bush—one factor in a new index to assess candidate strength in such a crowded field. Forty-three percent view him favorably, compared to 45 percent who view him unfavorably.
Walker is backed by 17 percent as the state enters a busy summer of candidate visits, a planned straw poll, and campaigning at the Iowa State Fair. Tied for second are Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 10 percent, with Bush and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee next at 9 percent each.
They're followed at 6 percent by Rubio and 2012 Iowa caucuses winner Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania. With eight months to go before the 2016 caucuses, there's plenty of time for movement.
“Scott Walker’s momentum puts him solidly in first place,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of West Des Moines-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll. “For the time being, he’s doing the right things to make the right first impression.”
May 28, 2015 Fresh off losing a Senate race in which their candidate was laser-focused on reproductive rights, Colorado Democrats are demonstrating a willingness to use the strategy all over again.
Republican State Sen. Ellen Roberts last week said she's "exploring" a run to unseat Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. She would appear to be a poor pick for the "war on women" campaign, Democrats' oft-used tactic of citing a Republican candidate's record on abortion, contraception, and other social issues to appeal to women voters.
Unlike most Republicans, Roberts largely supports abortion rights. In 2014, she was named the "most pro-abortion Republican in the legislature" by Colorado Right to Life, and she says the position has twice caused her primary challenges from the right in her state Senate races. In fact, she's so far left on social issues that it would likely doom any bid to win the GOP's nomination.
But when Roberts announced her interest in the race last week, Democrats immediately painted her as a foot soldier in the "war on women," with the state Democratic Party and its political allies immediately labeling her as a social extremist. Cathy Alderman, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, called Roberts an integral part of the Republican-led legislature's "race to the bottom on women's health."
The focus on social issues is an early indication that—despite then-Sen. Mark Udall using the strategy unsuccessfully in 2014—Democrats still believe in that line of attack, and they're likely to deploy it again against whoever Republicans pick to run against Bennet in 2016.
Can polling data this early tell us anything about Hillary’s prospects in November 2016? Hillary is an old political figure who has been in the public eye for the last 23 years. Americans can learn very little new about Hillary, and the bland, familiar political rhetoric about new ideas and change and progress are so dull and predictable that few voters could possibly be influenced that that sort of glop. Americans have formed an opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton, and it is hard to see how anything can change that opinion in the next 18 months. While polls taken months or years ago are unserious in the sense that only the truly politically wired think about elections that far away, recent polls show that most Americans do not intend to vote for Hillary in 2016. The relative jockeying of the potential Republican nominees tends to hide this fact. So when polls show that Hillary runs ahead of most Republicans today, that appears to reflect a marginal shift in poll results among the particular Republican candidates, most of whom are not really familiar to Americans today. Ignore the poll results for these Republicans and look only at the support for Hillary in these trial heats, and something interesting emerges: Hillary’s polling percentages are never a majority of respondents. Via: American Thinker Continue Reading.....
As questions brought up by the blockbuster book Clinton Cashcontinue to reverberate around the world, this week Bill
Clinton sent a panicked letter to donors pleading with them not to flee his foundation.
In an attempt to push back against the serious questions dogging his charity, Bill Clinton sent a letter to some 30,000 Clinton Foundation donors insisting that the allegations are “just politics” and saying that the campaign against him is just an effect of Hillary’s run for the 2016 Democrat nomination for president.
“As you all know, it’s the political season in America, so the purpose and impact of the efforts your support makes possible has largely been ignored in recent coverage of the Foundation,” Clinton wrote in his letter. “But we are and always have been a non-partisan, inclusive foundation with lots of support from and involvement by people across the political spectrum and governments from right to left, all committed to our creative solutions-centered work.”
“I am writing to you and our hundreds of thousands of other supporters in the U.S. and around the world to let you know how grateful I am for your support, and for our staff and our partners, and how determined I am that our work will continue,” Clinton added.
Clinton also tried to claim that his foundation is “looking for ways” to improve the reporting procedures that it has continually flaunted, and he once again promised that his foundation would “continue to strive for accuracy and transparency.
The Justice Department plans to move forward this year with more than a dozen new gun-related regulations, according to list of rules the agency has proposed to enact before the end of the Obama administration. The regulations range from new restrictions on high-powered pistols to gun storage requirements. Chief among them is a renewed effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable or have been convicted of domestic abuse.
Gun safety advocates have been calling for such reforms since the Sandy Hook school shooting nearly three years ago in Newtown, Conn. They say keeping guns away from dangerous people is of primary importance.
But the gun lobby contends that such a sweeping ban would unfairly root out a number of prospective gun owners who are not a danger to society. “It’s clear President Obama is beginning his final assault on our Second Amendment rights by forcing his anti-gun agenda on honest law-abiding citizens through executive force,” said Luke O’Dell, vice president of political affairs at the National Association for Gun Rights.
The Justice Department plans to issue new rules expanding criteria for people who do not qualify for gun ownership, according to the recently released Unified Agenda, which is a list of rules that federal agencies are developing.
Some of the rules come in response to President Obama’s call to reduce gun violence in the wake of Sandy Hook. He issued 23 executive actions shortly after the shooting aimed at keeping guns away from dangerous people, and some of those items remain incomplete.
“If America worked harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one that occurred in Newtown,” Obama said at the time.
“We can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible, law-breaking few from inflicting harm on a massive scale,” he added.
Gun control groups have rallied around Obama’s call to action, zeroing in on polices that would keep guns away from the mentally ill and domestic abusers. Via: The Hill Continue Reading.....
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A report shows that despite California acting as the backdrop for blockbusters this year, very few were filmed in the state.
Only 22 of 106 films released by the major studios in 2014 were actually filmed in California. The rest of the movies were shot in New York, Britain, Canada, Georgia, Louisiana, Australia and a dozen other states and countries, according to a feature film study by
FilmL.A. Inc., the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and county, the Los Angeles Times reports ((http://lat.ms/1FRo1iH).
Only two films with budgets above $100 million were filmed primarily in California: Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and Paramount's "Interstellar."
In 1997 64 percent of the top 25 movies at the box office were filmed in California, compared to 16 percent last year.
Several box office hits set in California were filmed outside of the state, including Warner Bros.' "Godzilla," which was shot mainly in Vancouver, Canada; 20th Century Fox's "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," which was filmed in Louisiana; and Disney's "Million Dollar Arm," which was shot mainly in Georgia.
Even this weekend's "San Andreas," which depicts the destruction of California from a massive earthquake was filmed mainly in Australia.
State lawmakers last year approved an expansion of the film and TV tax credit program tripling annual funding to $330 million a year to try to keep production in state. The new program also allows big budget films to apply for incentives for the first time.
Studios will apply for feature film tax credits under the new program in July.
Martin O’Malley is just looking for a little room to breathe.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is far and away the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) has taken the edge as the liberal insurgent.
O’Malley, days before the Saturday launch of his White House bid at a park overlooking Baltimore’s harbor, is performing dismally in polls despite months of travel to Iowa and New Hampshire.
He regularly pulls just 1 percent nationally, and only does slightly better in the first-in-the-nation caucus and primary states.
O’Malley isn’t well-known nationally, and could soon be competing for money, media and support with a handful of other candidates, including former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Sen. Jim Webb (Va.).
Yet Democrats interviewed by The Hill insist O’Malley has a chance.
They say there’s still an opening for him to become the alternative to Clinton given his liberal voting record, his youthful good looks — which have helped him win attention from the conservative Drudge Report — and his standing as a Washington outsider.
“There’s a lot of hostility out there towards Washington right now,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist. “He could run as the anti-Washington candidate, as someone who hasn’t been tainted by Washington politics, while framing Hillary and Bernie as products of D.C. culture.”
If the front-runner implodes, some supporters say he might be best-positioned to step in.
“He’s a legitimate national candidate,” said Democratic strategist Scott Ferson. “If Hillary for some reason doesn’t become inevitable, some candidate will have a shot to step in, and he could be that person.”
But Ferson then acknowledges: “He’s not that person now.”
To get there, outsiders say O’Malley will have to distinguish himself from Clinton and Sanders.
O’Malley is already signaling he intends to play up the generational divide in the primaries. At 52, he’s 15 years younger than Clinton and 21 years younger than Sanders.
He has previously taken swipes at the dynastic elements of Clinton’s candidacy, saying the presidency is not a “crown” to be passed between two families.
This week, O’Malley allies launched a super-PAC called Generation Forward, a not-so-subtle dig that suggests Clinton is the candidate from the past.
The latest legislative effort in Massachusetts to try and combat welfare fraud is fingerprinting.
Some lawmakers estimate it could save millions.
Western Mass News spoke with Bay State residents that agree that those who cheat the state assistance programs are ruining it for the ones who really need the help.
"A lot of people need it and some people take advantage. I think fingerprinting and drug testing too, anything they can do to get those people out who abuse the system," Evelyn Valley told WGGB.
Mass. House Minority Leader Brad Jones is offering a possible solution by using fingerprinting.
House lawmakers voted to study the use of fingerprints and other biometric identifiers as part of a pilot project during a budget debate this May.
Democratic State Representative Jose Tosado, tells Western Mass News the move would punish those who really need help.
In a statement Tosado said, "Mandatory fingerprinting criminalizes the poor and the hungry, creating deep stigmas that follow individuals trying to get by and want to become productive members of the Commonwealth. There are also concerns with storing and using data against individuals who would otherwise have no reason to have their fingerprints or other physical indicators on file. The risks far outweigh the benefits in the long-term."
No final decision will be made until the Senate and House negotiates a budget compromise, hold a vote, then send it on to the governor for approval.
Americans pride ourselves on being people who have a government. But these days, it more often seems as if we’ve got a government that has people.
And that government is even selecting who its people will be, having–within a generation–essentially imported a state’s worth of new people through immigration.
Since 1970, the number of “Hispanics of Mexican origin” in the U.S. has jumped from fewer than 1 million to more than 33 million. If all these Mexicans were a state, it would be the second largest in population in the country, trailing only California.
Did you vote to approve that immigration policy? Did anyone? In fact, the federal government allowed it to happen without any voter input. That’s by design.
In recent years, Congress has attempted to draft legislation to deal with illegal immigration. And while the controversial “Gang of Eight” bill passed the Senate in 2013, it died in the House after one of its authors withdrew his support. Immigration is a difficult topic, one that will require difficult discussions.
Instead, the Obama White House would prefer to short-circuit the political discussions.
“America cannot wait forever for them to act. That’s why today I am beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress,” President Obama warned last summer. After the November elections, he acted to grant amnesty to millions of illegals.
Even if you leave out the first quarter of 2009—when the recession that started in December 2007 was still ongoing--President Barack Obama has presided over the lowest average first-quarter GDP growth of any president who has served since 1947, which is the earliest year for which the Bureau of Economic Analysis has calculated quarterly GDP growth.
In all first quarters since 1947, the real annual rate of growth of GDP has averaged 4.0 percent.
In the seven first quarters during Obama’s presidency, it has declined by an average of -0.43 percent. And if you leave out the first quarter of 2009 and look only at the first quarters of the six years since the recession ended, it has averaged only 0.4 percent.
In the six years of Harry Truman’s presidency for which the BEA has calculated quarterly GDP, the annual rate of growth in GDP in the first quarter averaged 4.5 percent.
During President Eisenhower’s eight years, it averaged 3.2 percent. During Kennedy’s three years, it averaged 4.9 percent. During Johnson’s five years, it averaged 8.3 percent. During Nixon’s six years, it averaged 5.3 percent. During Ford’s two years, it averaged 2.3 percent. During Carter’s four years, it average 2.4 percent. During Reagan’s eight years, it average 2.1 percent. During George H.W. Bush’s four years, it average 2.9 percent. During Clinton’s eight years, it averaged 2.6 percent. And during George W. Bush’s eight years, it averaged 1.7 percent.
President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009. In the first quarter of 2009, GDP declined at an annual rate of -5.4 percent. In the first quarter of 2010, it grew by 1.7 percent. In the first quarter of 2011, it declined -1.5 percent. In the first quarter of 2012, it grew 2.3 percent. In the first quarter of 2013, it grew 2.7 percent. In the first quarter of 2014, it declined -2.1 percent. And in the first quarter of 2015, it declined -0.7 percent.
In these seven first quarters that Obama has been president (2009 through 2015), the annual rate of growth in GDP has declined at an average rate of -0.43 percent.
But the National Bureau of Economic Research says the last recession, which began on December 2007 did not end until June 2009. If you leave out the first quarter of 2009, and only count the six years (2010-2015) since the recession ended in June 2009, real annual rate of growth of GDP in the post-recession first quarters of Obama’s presidency has averaged 0.4 percent.
Breaking: Donald Trump has something huuuggeeeee he wants to tell America.
According to reports, the businessman and perpetual presidential flirt will make a “major” announcement at Trump Tower in New York City June 16 and then travel to New Hampshire the next day.
Considering Trump has hired staff in early primary states, many speculate this time he just might actually be serious about officially getting into the presidential race.
And yet, even as there are some signs that indicate he really will make a run this time, it’s still hard to believe it. Trump has almost no chance of winning the Republican nomination, which one would imagine some of his political advisers must have informed him. Does The Donald really want to open himself up to serious media scrutiny and reveal personal financial information in the service of a quixotic vanity run?
Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Saturday urged China to stop trying to convert an artificial reefs in the South China Sea land into a military airfield but that the U.S. has no intentions of ending air and sea operation in the regions.
Carter made his comment at an international security conference filled with Asia-Pacific leaders and also said the United States has been flying and operating ships in the region for decades and opposes “any further militarization” of the disputed lands.
He also said the reclamation project is out of step with international rules and that turning underwater land into airfields won’t expand Beijing’s sovereignty.
A Chinese military officer in the crowd immediately slammed Carter’s comments as “groundless and not constructive.”
Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who also is attending the Singapore conference, said he agreed with Carter's assertion that America will continue flights and operations near the building projects, but "now we want to see it translated into action."
He also told reporters that the U.S. needs to recognize that China will continue its activities in the South China Sea until it perceives that the costs of doing so outweigh the benefits.
Despite his not being included in a recent 2016 candidates poll on Fox & Friends, Rand Paul (R-KY) still has a strong following among Tea Party and Libertarian-leaning conservative voters. He’s even got a Super PAC pulling for him.
Even if you leave out the first quarter of 2009—when the recession that started in December 2007 was still ongoing--President Barack Obama has presided over the lowest average first-quarter GDP growth of any president who has served since 1947, which is the earliest year for which the Bureau of Economic Analysis has calculated quarterly GDP growth. 
