California: CA Water Board Prioritizes Fish Over People

As severe drought conditions in California continue to worsen, state officials have started to roll out with new regulations to prioritize various water interests.

On Wednesday, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted new emergency regulations to protect endangered and threatened fish. Low flows in four tributaries of the Russian River cause “high temperatures, low oxygen levels and isolated pools of water that can kill fish,” such as the coho salmon and steelhead trout.

Starting July 3, roughly 13,000 properties in the watersheds of Dutch Bill Creek, Green Valley Creek, Mark West Creek and Mill Creek will be subject to “enhanced conservation measures” in addition to the existing statewide water restrictions. As reported by the Press Democrat, residents are subject to the following rural water rules:

• “No watering lawns, washing driveways and sidewalks, washing motor vehicles, filling or refilling decorative ponds and fountains, and no use of water in a fountain or water feature not part of a recirculating system.
• “No watering of landscapes (trees and plants, including edible plants) that causes runoff onto adjacent property or non-irrigated areas or within 48 hours after measurable rainfall.
• “Limits landscape watering to two days per week and only from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
• “Sets no limit on use of graywater — from bathtubs, showers, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machines and laundry tubs as well as captured rainwater — for lawn and landscape irrigation, washing motor vehicles and use in decorative ponds, fountains and other water features, except for prohibition of irrigation runoff or application within 48 hours after measurable rainfall.”

“This is a very extreme situation,” said Corinne Gray, a senior environmental scientist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There are already fish dying in the streams.” Gray told the SWRCB that the fish merely required a “trickle of water” between pools on the four creeks.

Farm representatives attending the meeting claimed parts of the measure were regulatory overreach. Text in the emergency measure enforces these new regulations “regardless of water seniority.”

This kind of enforcement has led to lawsuits against SWRCB. Just this week, the Banta-Carbona Irrigation District challengedwater restrictions imposed by the state board, the first of potentially many more suits to come.

It remains to be seen whether the state board has the right to overrule century-old rights to water.

Via: California Political Review

Continue Reading....

US Supreme Court on trial: Has it become too powerful for the good of the country?

This is the season of the United States Supreme Court. Its spell in the media sun doesn’t last long – just the two or three weeks before its judicial term ends on 30 June. But over that short period, on Mondays and Thursdays, the justices hand down their most keenly awaited rulings.

This year there are a couple of real blockbusters, which could be delivered as soon as Monday. One could turn gay marriage into a constitutional right, meaning that every state has to permit it. The other could rip the heart out of Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, the crowning achievement of his presidency.

The Supreme Court, enshrined as one of three “co-equal” branches of government, along with the Presidency and Congress, and embodied by its nine black-robed members, is the model for such institutions around the globe: supposedly impartial and unaligned, the guarantor of a constitution that binds America’s political system to the rule of law. But is it – or has it become too powerful for the good of the country?

In fact, the constitution gives the court relatively short shrift. By far its longest section is Article 1, enumerating the powers of Congress. Then comes the executive branch, the presidency, and finally the judiciary whose role is spelt out in four bare paragraphs. Congress was clearly intended by the Founding Fathers to be central political institution of the United States. But how times have changed.

Power has long been seeping out of Congress into the presidency, today indisputably first among the co-equals. But more recently, hyper-partisanship and general dysfunction on Capitol Hill have seen more of that power pass in practice to the court, now, just as indisputably, the second most influential branch of government.

If you don’t believe me, just consider this. Since 2010, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has voted nearly 60 times to abolish the detested Obamacare, but to no avail. Some time in the next eight days, the Supreme Court could do so with a single ruling, upholding a lower court decision that would deprive six million lower-income Americans of the federal subsidies that allow them to purchase health insurance. Indeed, it could have done so three years ago when only the surprise deciding vote of Chief Justice John Roberts – normally part of the court’s 5-4 conservative majority – prevented the law from being declared unconstitutional. Supporters of the law are praying the same happens this time. But there’s no guarantee it will.

Via: The Independent

Continue Reading....

Barack Obama's Third Term?

The best line President Obama delivered in his 2015 State of the Union Address was not one written for him by his speechwriters. When he said he would not be on the ballot again, Republicans who had just taken over both Houses of Congress stood and applauded.

Good naturedly, but with a bit of sarcasm, Mr. Obama reminded his opponents that he won both times he was on the national ballot. He was the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to achieve back-to-back election victories.

We need to acknowledge that he is a formidable political actor. He has defied the Constitution in many areas since his first days in office. He brazenly announced he did not like the Defense of Marriage Act and would not defend it in court (or enforce it before it got to court).

He has played fast and loose with U.S. immigration law. His response to the GOP takeover of Congress has been to issue Executive Orders detailing how he will not “take care that the law be faithfully executed.”
On Iran, he is proceeding to let the mullahs -- those inventors of suicide bombings -- slip the noose of international economic sanctions. His diplomacy will render -- is rendering -- the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) a dead letter. And he intends to do this in defiance of Congress. Capitol Hill Democrats are increasingly worried about Iran and its threat to extinguish Israel.

President Obama knows he will not be impeached. That is the source of his hideous strength. But it is not the only reason he is powerful.

If you watched the movie, Lincoln, you saw a great performance by Academy Award winning Daniel Day Lewis. There is one scene in the movie, however, that does not ring true for students of the Great Emancipator. You can watch the scene here  [at 1:32:30] although the entire movie is well worth watching.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] DROUGHT? CLIMATE CHANGE? OBAMA JETS TO PALM SPRINGS FOR GOLF

On Thursday, President Barack Obama pledged: “I am committed to taking bold actions at home and abroad to cut carbon pollution.” On Friday, the President told a gathering of the nation’s mayors in San Francisco that they had to prepare for climate change. On Saturday, he flew on Air Force One to Palm Springs, where on Sunday he is playing golf at Sunnylands.

The president’s golf trip comes as Californians struggle with an extreme drought that has prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to issue the state’s first-ever mandatory water cuts. The Coachella Valley’s “water guzzling” golf courses have faced particular criticism, though they rely on their own large aquifer, and many have implemented water-saving reforms in recent years.

The White House wants Americans to know the president cares about the drought: “White House spokesman Eric Schultz responds that many courses have taken water mitigation steps aimed at conservation,” the Associated Press reports. “Schultz says Obama discussed the drought with California Gov. Jerry Brown in a meeting in San Francisco Friday.”

Still, at the end of his Father’s Day retreat, the president will climb aboard his taxpayer-funded aircraft and burn another trail of “carbon pollution.” If Obama truly believes that “we have a profound responsibility to protect our children, and our children’s children, from the damaging impacts of climate change,”  he has a rather roundabout way of showing it.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading....

PERRY TO HILLARY: FIX YOUR OWN STATE BEFORE YOU ATTACK THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) reacted to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accusing Republicans of intentionally attempting to disenfranchise voters based on race, age and poverty level and said she insulted the people of Texas who overwhelmingly supported the law.

Perry said, “Well, I think it’s way outside the norm of ridiculous, if you want to know the truth of the matter, to call out the people of the state of Texas, that’s what she did, I just happened to be the governor that signed that legislation and support it, and the vast majority of the people of Texas support it, and what Secretary Clinton did was saying the state of Texas didn’t.”

He continued, “Why would you say that you need a photo id to get a library book or to get on an airplane? This is a state issue, and this is an issue that the people that the state of Texas overwhelmingly support. so you know, I don’t know who she is playing to, but she is not playing to the people of Texas and I don’t think she is playing to the Americans that believe that the sanctity of the vote is really important and you need to have a photo id to go and vote. And the people of Texas wanted it, and whichever state Hillary Clinton considers to be her home state, she goes home and argues there to not to have it.”

“I think we make it pretty easy in the state of Texas for people to vote. again, I don’t know what her beef is with the people of the state of Texas about voter id but I think she is on the wrong side of the issue,” he added.

Is Michelle self-cast in ‘underdog’ role recruiting for next revolution activists?

 Okay, we get the picture the mainstream sends.  First Lady Michelle Obama is so much in demand as a celebrity that she gets to sip tea at will with Prince Harry at Kensington Palace and merits “an affectionate reunion” with Barack “bro” Prime Minister David Cameron and his Mrs. on the steps of Downing Street.

Oh, the powers protocol bestows on the wife,  daughter and even the mother-in-law of a president.  Just as the rarified gentry of the Victorian era, when matrons waited at home for other mavens to come calling, world leaders long ago took for themselves, the same unalienable rights.

The big picture the mainstream media never shows is the gallivanting Michelle serving up her trademark malicious menu of malcontent, the one that focuses on everything negative and that potentially feeds the festering resentment of today’s restless youth.

But then again Michelle’s incurable state of ‘Me-ism’ is not a pretty picture.

As keynote speaker at graduation ceremonies, like the one at King College Prep High School in Chicago’s South Side this year,  she offered no hope, no inspiration to eager young graduates going out into the world.  Instead, she spun again the sorry tale of how her and her husband suffered at the hands of a supposedly racist society:

“I know the struggles many of you face, how you walk the long way home to avoid the gangs; how you fight to concentrate on your schoolwork when there’s too much noise at home; how you keep it together when your family’s having a hard time making ends meet. But more importantly, I know the strength of this community.” 

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading.... 

[NEWS CONFERENCE] New Orleans Police Capture Suspect Wanted In Fatal Shooting Of Officer…

Police have captured the suspect accused of killing a New Orleans police officer while handcuffed in the back of his police car on the way to jail.

Travis Boys, 33, was apprehended before 9 a.m. while trying to board a bus, sources told TV Station WDSU.

Police said Boys was handcuffed and en route Orleans Parish Prison when he was able to free himself from his handcuffs and shoot 45-year-old Daryle Holloway, a 22-year veteran with the department.

“They’re taking it pretty hard,” Holloway’s ex-wife Nicole Holloway told the Daily News of their three teenagers. “I took my youngest daughter shopping for Father’s Day gifts yesterday. She had all these gifts waiting to give him tomorrow. She made sure her dad was taken care of for tomorrow.”

Via: New York Daily News

Continue Reading,,,,,

Breitbart Exclusive — Mark Levin: Boehner’s Retaliation Against Conservatives Means Open Warfare, Time To Take Him Down

by MATTHEW BOYLE20 Jun 2015Washington, DC2411

It’s time for conservatives to take out House Speaker 

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

35%

 and all of his comrades in primaries, nationally syndicated radio host, New York Times bestselling author, and conservative movement thought leader Mark Levin argues in an exclusive comment to Breitbart News.

Levin’s comments come after Boehner’s retaliation against conservatives hit a new low this weekend, with a report from Politico about how House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman 

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)

80%

—playing along with Boehner’s scheme to attack Republicans for voting their conscience—removed 

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC)

96%

 as the chairman of a subcommittee on his full committee. Levin even compared Boehner to 20th century Communist Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and how he cleansed his government of all dissent.

“Speaker Boehner’s and Congressman Chaffetz’s removal of Meadows is the latest in a series of ideologically-driven attacks on conservatives. Boehner seems to think he’s Stalin cleaning out all opposition in the Kremlin,” Levin said. “No Republican Speaker in recent times has behaved with less integrity in his wielding of power.”

Levin said that Boehner, House Majority Leader 

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)

45%

, and Majority Whip 

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)

74%

—and more—each need to be removed by Republicans across the country in primaries in 2016. He says this is because the leadership has failed to learn the proper lessons from the astronomical defeat of now former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014 in a primary against now Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), the first time in U.S. history a sitting House Majority Leader was defeated in a primary. The position of majority leader was created in the late 1800s, so that means this never happened for more than a century—and Levin is calling out GOP leadership for failing to learn from the unprecedented event.

“Obviously, the lessons of Eric Cantor’s humiliating loss have not resonated with Boehner, McCarthy, and Scalise,” Levin said. “The only solution is for Conservatives to husband their resources and target these three in the coming Republican primaries. Conservatives need to find serious candidates and raise funds nationwide to defeat them. Let them fight for their political careers as our response to their disgusting and pathetic behavior.”

For primaries, Boehner already has an opponent declared—J.D. Winteregg. Winteregg ran against Boehner last cycle and didn’t win, but he is getting even more aggressive this time around.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading....

Parishioners gather for emotional return to Charleston church

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church threw open its doors for Sunday morning service, as heavyhearted worshipers filed into the same sanctuary where nine of their fellow parishioners were slaughtered nearly four days ago.

The organ played “Amazing Grace” as 400 seats inside historic black church were filled by worshipers who vowed that a racist gunman would not break their faith.

“I woke up at 6 a.m. and I was determined to come here. In spite of what happened, the strength still remains in our unity,” said Eva Bryant, 55, with her 10-year-old granddaughter Demiyah in tow.

“I brought my granddaughter because I want her to see all races coming together and know that just because one bad thing happens, you don’t shut yourself from the world. Being active is important and so is showing our support for the victims’ families.”

Via: New York Post

Continue Reading....

Tensions build as Supreme Court readies blockbuster rulings

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama's healthcare law by the end of the month.

Of the 11 cases left to decide, the biggest are a challenge by gay couples to state laws banning same-sex marriage and a conservative challenge to subsidies provided under the Obamacare law to help low- and middle-income people buy health insurance that could lead to millions of people losing medical coverage.

Many legal experts predict the court will legalize gay marriage nationwide by finding that the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of equal treatment under the law and due process prohibit states from banning same-sex nuptials.

The four liberal justices are expected to support same-sex marriage, and conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, the expected swing vote, has a history of backing gay rights.

In three key decisions since 1996, Kennedy has broadened the court's view of equality for gays. The most recent was a 2013 case in which the court struck down a federal law denying benefits to married same-sex couples.

During oral arguments in the gay marriage case on April 28, Kennedy posed tough questions to lawyers from both sides but stressed the nobility and dignity of same-sex couples.

The healthcare decision is tougher to call. Chief Justice John Roberts, the swing vote when the court upheld Obamacare in 2012, said little during the March 4 oral argument to indicate how he will vote.

The court will issue some rulings on Monday, with more likely later in the week.

For the justices, the pressure is on to have the rulings ready. That can be difficult as the cases in which they are closely divided are generally the ones left until the end.

Outside the court, those with a stake in the outcome of the rulings are left anxiously waiting.

James Obergefell, one of the plaintiffs in the gay marriage case, said he will be at the court for all the remaining decision days.

Obergefell sued Ohio, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages, after the state refused to acknowledge his marriage to John Arthur on Arthur's death certificate. They were married in Maryland, a state that allows gay marriages, just months before Arthur died in 2013.

Via: Yahoo News

Continue Reading....

EPA’s New Fuel Regulations Will Avert 0.0026 Degrees Of Warming

The EPA’s new carbon dioxide regulations for heavy trucks is meant to help the U.S. meet its goal of reducing emissions to fight global warming.

What do you think?

There’s just one problem: CO2 regulations on heavy trucks will have little to no impact on global warming over the next 85 years, according to the EPA’s own analysis.

What do you think?

The EPA says limiting carbon dioxide from heavy trucks will reduce emissions by more than 1 billion metric tons by 2050. Cutting CO2, the agency says, will create up to $34 billion in “climate benefits” along with up to $40 billion from reducing traditional pollutants. Regulating heavy trucks are part of the Obama administration’s goal of reducing U.S. CO2 emissions 80 percent by 2050.

What do you think?

Sounds like Obama administration regulations will accomplish a lot. Well, not really. The EPA’s own analysis found that by 2100 “the global mean temperature is projected to be reduced by approximately 0.0026 to 0.0065°C, and global mean sea level rise is projected to be reduced by approximately 0.023 to 0.057 cm.”

What do you think?

Source: U.S. EPA

What do you think?

To put that into context, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts temperature rises of between 1.8 and 4.8 degrees Celsius and expects sea levels to rise 23 to 56 centimeters from 1990 to 2100. That means CO2 regulations for heavy trucks would only reduce warming by a fraction of what it’s projected to be — and that’s assuming EPA’s models are correct.

What do you think?

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

That Time Rachel Dolezal Said A White Scholar Had No Business Speaking About Racism

Have we found Time’s Person Of The Year? As a colleague of mine said concerning the whole Rachel Dolezal fiasco, “she's the gift that keeps on giving.” In this case, she didn’t want Tim Wise, an antiracism scholar, to come to Eastern Washington University, where she was an adjunct professor teaching Africana Studies. Regardless, he delivered his lecture on February 24. Wise recounted what has become a bizarre incident concerning Dolezal to the International Business Times [emphasis mine]:

There's a professor in the Africana Studies department who doesn't think you should come and speak because, as a white person, you have no authority to speak about racism or issues that affect black people," Wise told International Business Times he was informed by the department head. He learned who that professor was the day the Dolezal story broke when he got a text from the department head revealing that it was Dolezal who had objected to his visit.

"For a real black person to have that perspective, although I disagree, I understand it," Wise told IBTimes. "But for this woman to say I don't have the authority as a white person [to talk about racism], it's like, well, I guess if I put on a spray tan and pretend to be black, she would say, OK, please come on down."

Wise went on to give his talk on February 24, entitled "Combating Racism: From Ferguson to the voting booth to the border," and prefaced his remarks by making clear -- joking that it was already visible -- that he was speaking as a white man.

Oh wait; there’s more:

Dolezal was quoted in the Gonzaga Bulletin as saying that her primary reason for disliking the film "The Help" was all the profit its white author Kathryn Stockett was making. "Follow the money trail," Dolezal said. "A white woman makes millions off of a black woman's story."

In January, Rosa Clemente, a black Puerto Rican community organizer, activist, and journalist, who was vice presidential running mate of Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney in 2008, was invited to speak at EWU. The night before Clemente's talk, at a dinner with EWU faculty that included Dolezal, the conversation turned to the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality. In a Facebook post, Clemente wrote of Dolezal, "She was very clear that BLM movement should only be for Black i.e. African Americans only. I disagreed."

"It was so twisted because Rosa Clemente, yes, she's Latina, but she's also black," Wise told IBTimes. "There are black Latinas, which apparently Rachel Dolezal doesn't get. They're not mutually exclusive categories. This is someone who seeks to police the boundaries of blackness -- and she makes sure that she's within the circle."

 Via: Townhall

Continue Reading....

Confederate Flag Sets off Debate in GOP 2016 Class

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called for the immediate removal of the Confederate battle flag from outside the South Carolina Statehouse, scrambling the 2016 Republican presidential contenders into staking a position on a contentious cultural issue.
Some still steered clear from the sensitive debate, even after the shooting deaths of nine people in a historic African-American church in Charleston further exposed the raw emotions about the flying the flag.

Many see the Confederate flag as "a symbol of racial hatred," the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee tweeted on Saturday. "Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims."

Romney joins President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders in calling for the flag to come down as the nation grapples with Wednesday's murders. The man charged with the crimes, Dylann Storm Roof, held the Confederate flag in a photograph on a website and displayed the flags of defeated white-supremacist governments in Africa on his Facebook page.

So far, most of the Republican Party's leading 2016 presidential contenders have been silent on flying the Stars and Bars.

South Carolina was the last state to fly the Confederate battle flag from its Capitol dome. A compromise in 2000 moved the flag to a 30-foot flagpole elsewhere on Statehouse grounds, where it has been flying at full staff.

The debate holds political risks for Republicans eager to win over South Carolina conservatives who support the display of the battle flag on public grounds. The state will host the nation's third presidential primary contest in February, a critical step in the 2016 race.

Via: Newsmax

Continue Reading....

Nevada’s Common Core Tests Turn Into Costly Fiasco

A new, online standardized test designed to test Nevada schoolchildren on Common Core standards has been a huge fiasco in its first year, with the vast majority of students unable to event complete the test. The failure could expose the state to federal sanctions.

Under No Child Left Behind, states are supposed to test children in grades 3-8 each year in mathematics and reading. At least 95 percent of students must take the tests, or else a state can face federal sanctions such as a loss of millions of dollars in funds.

Nevada, on the other hand, was only able to test 37 percent of the 213,000 students it was supposed to, thanks to a cascade of glitches and computer problems that left students unable to complete their exams. In Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas metro area and over half the state’s students, only 5 percent were successfully tested.

Because so few were tested, Nevada’s department of education says it will be unable to issue grades for individual schools based on performance, like it is supposed to. The failure means Nevada is at risk of losing millions in federal funding, but such sanctions are unlikely in this case because the state made an honest effort that simply undone by technical shortfalls.

Blame for the fiasco is being placed squarely with the groups chosen to produce Nevada’s tests: the Smarter Balanced testing consortium, which is supposed to organize similar Common Core tests for member states, and the company it hired, Measured Progress. Measured Progress attempted to administer its test entirely via computer, but its servers were not up to the task of handling thousands of test-takers at once. Despite providing schools a testing window of nearly three months to avoid overloading, there were still repeated crashes that left students unable to make any progress. In response, Nevada has accused Measured Progress of breaching its $4 million contract with the state.

Even though it designed the tests, Measured Progress has tried to deflect the blame, pointing a finger back at Smarter Balanced instead. They claim the consortium provided an online testing platform which proved to be inadequate and unpredictable.

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....