1045: Pseudo-Addiction

Ahoy! Hearing folks get rattled up about the "Space

Force" remarks I wanted to share a couple of thoughts:

In 2001, I enlisted in the USAF. During morning physical

training routines the Training Instructors (T.I.'s), Army equiv of a Drill

Instructors would yell "Air Power" at which point the entire squadron

would reply "SPACE POWER A.E.F". The AEF reference is "Aerospace

Expeditionary Forces" which is a component of the Air and Space

Expeditionary Force (AEF) Deployments scope. This wasn't a one time cadence,

this was something that we would repeat countless numbers of times,

daily... It was ingrained from the start for all Airmen (at least those

of us in 320th and 322nd Training Squadrons at the time)...

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 13:43

Published March 22, 2017

Air Force Space Command Shield (Color). In accordance with Chapter 3 of AFI 84-105, commercial reproduction of this emblem is not permitted without the permission of the proponent organizational/unit commander. Image provided by AFSPC/PA.

Air Force Space Command fact sheet banner. (U.S. Air Force graphic by Andy Yacenda, Defense Media Activity-San Antonio)

'); $slider .carouFredSel({ auto: false, responsive: true, swipe: { onTouch: true, onMouse: false }, prev: $wrap.find('.pager-left'), next: $wrap.find('.pager-right'), scroll: { fx: "crossfade", items: 1, onBefore: function (data) { $(data.items.old[0]).removeClass('current'); }, onAfter: function (data) { $slider.find('video').each(function () { $(this)[0].player.pause(); }); $(data.items.visible[0]).addClass('current'); } }, onCreate: function (data) { $(data.items[0]).addClass('current'); } }); }; //init $('.slider').each(function () { var $slider = $(this); var $slides = $slider.find('.slide'); var $images = $slides.find('img'); //prevent FOUC while prepping everything handleImages($images, function () { initFred($slider); }); }); })(jQuery);

Air Force Space Command, activated Sept. 1, 1982, is a major command with headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. AFSPC provides military focused space and cyberspace capabilities with a global perspective to the joint warfighting team.

MissionAFSPC's mission is to provide resilient and affordable space and cyberspace capabilities for the Joint Force and the Nation.

Vision

One Team - Innovative Airmen Fighting and Delivering Integrated Multi-Domain Combat Effects across the Globe.

People

More than 36,000 professionals assigned to 134 locations worldwide.

Organization

Fourteenth Air Force is located at Vandenberg AFB, California, and provides space capabilities for the joint fight through the operational missions of spacelift; position, navigation and timing; satellite communications; missile warning and space control.

Twenty-fourth Air Force is located at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland, Texas, and its mission is to provide combatant commanders with trained and ready cyber forces which plan and conduct cyberspace operations. The command extends, operates, maintains and defends its assigned portions of the Department of Defense network to provide capabilities in, through and from cyberspace.

The Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, California, designs and acquires all Air Force and most Department of Defense space systems. It oversees launches, completes on-orbit checkouts and then turns systems over to user agencies. It supports the Program Executive Office for Space on the Global Positioning, Defense Satellite Communications and MILSTAR systems. SMC also supports the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, Defense Meteorological Satellite and Defense Support programs and the Space-Based Infrared System.

The Air Force Network Integration Center at Scott AFB, Illinois, is the Air Force's premier organization for Air Force Network integration, cyber simulation, and network standards, architecture and engineering services. Through these specialized technical services, AFNIC supports the nation's warfighters with decisive cyber capabilities for mission success.

The Air Force Spectrum Management Office, located in Fort Meade, Maryland, is responsible for planning, providing and preserving access to the electromagnetic spectrum for the Air Force and selected DoD activities in support of national policy objectives, systems development and global operations. AFSMO defends and articulates Air Force spectrum access to regulatory agencies at the joint, national and international levels. It is responsible for all Air Force spectrum management-related matters, policy and procedures. Additionally, the agency oversees the Air Force spectrum management career field and manages the payment of the approximately $4 million Air Force spectrum fee each year.

AFSPC major installations include: Schriever, Peterson and Buckley Air Force bases in Colorado; Los Angeles and Vandenberg Air Force bases in California; and Patrick AFB in Florida. Major AFSPC units also reside on bases managed by other commands in New Mexico, Texas, Illinois, Virginia and Georgia. AFSPC manages many smaller installations and geographically separated units in North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii and across the globe.

Space Capabilities

Spacelift operations at the East and West Coast launch bases provide services, facilities and range safety control for the conduct of DOD, NASA and commercial launches. Through the command and control of all DOD satellites, satellite operators provide force-multiplying effects -- continuous global coverage, low vulnerability and autonomous operations. Satellites provide essential in-theater secure communications, weather and navigational data for ground, air and fleet operations and threat warning.

Ground-based radar, Space-Based Infrared System and Defense Support Program satellites monitor ballistic missile launches around the world to guard against a surprise missile attack on North America. Space surveillance radars provide vital information on the location of satellites and space debris for the nation and the world. Maintaining space superiority is an emerging capability required to protect U.S. space assets.Cyberspace Capabilities

The Air Force carries out its core missions through air, space, and cyberspace. The use of cyberspace is an essential component of how the Air Force brings innovative, global focus to ensure warfighting advantage. Through cyberspace operations, the Air Force finds and uses the best tools, skills, and capabilities to ensure the ability to fly, fight, and win in air, space and cyberspace. Cyberspace is critical to joint and Air Force operations. AFSPC conducts cyberspace operations through its subordinate units within 24th Air Force, including the 67th Cyberspace Wing, the 688th Cyberspace Wing, the 624th Operations Center, all three headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, as well as the 5th Combat Communications Group headquartered at Robins AFB, Georgia.

Collectively, these units are the warfighting organizations that establish, operate, maintain and defend Air Force networks and conduct full-spectrum operations. These organizations, made up of cyberspace professionals, a diverse blend of career fields including cyber operators, intelligence professionals, acquisitions personnel, aviators and many more, ensure the Air Force and joint force ability to conduct operations in, through and from cyberspace. More than 4,600 men and women conduct or support 24-hour cyberspace operations for 24th Air Force units. In addition, more than 10,000 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel directly support the AFSPC cyberspace mission.

Resources

AFSPC acquires, operates and supports the Global Positioning System, Defense Satellite Communications System, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, Defense Support Program, Wideband Global SATCOM, MILSTAR and Advanced EHF, Global Broadcast Service, the Space-Based Infrared System Program and the Space Based Space Surveillance satellite. AFSPC currently operates the Delta IV and Atlas V launch vehicles. The Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles comprise the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, which is the future of assured access to space. AFSPC's launch operations include the Eastern and Western ranges and range support for all launches. The command maintains and operates a worldwide network of satellite tracking stations, called the Air Force Satellite Control Network, to provide communications links to satellites.

Ground-based radars used primarily for ballistic missile warning include the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, Upgraded Early Warning Radar System, PAVE Phased Array Warning System and Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System. The Maui Optical Tracking Identification Facility, Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance System, Passive Space Surveillance System, phased-array and mechanical radars provide primary space surveillance coverage. The Rapid Attack Identification, Detection, and Reporting System provides Space Situational Awareness and threat assessment by detecting, characterizing, reporting, and geolocating electromagnetic interference on satellite communications. New transformational space programs are continuously being researched and developed to enable AFSPC to stay on the leading-edge of technology.

History

In 1982, the Air Force established Air Force Space Command, with space operations as its primary mission. During the Cold War, space operations focused on missile warning, launch operations, satellite control, space surveillance and command and control for national leadership. In 1991, Operation Desert Storm validated the command's continuing focus on support to the warfighter. The Space Warfare Center, now named the Space Innovation and Development Center, was created to ensure space capabilities reached the warfighters who needed it. ICBM forces joined AFSPC in July 1993.

In 2001, upon the recommendation of the Space Commission, the Space and Missile Systems Center joined the command. It previously belonged to Air Force Materiel Command. AFSPC is currently the only Air Force command to have its acquisition arm within the command. In 2002, also on a recommendation from the Space Commission, AFSPC was assigned its own four-star commander after previously sharing a commander with U.S. Space Command and NORAD.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the president directed military action against Afghanistan and Iraq. AFSPC provided extensive space-based support to the U.S. Central Command commander in the areas of communications; positioning, navigation and timing; meteorology; and warning. In 2005, the Air Force expanded its mission areas to include cyberspace. In concert with this, the Air Staff assigned responsibility for conducting cyberspace operations to AFSPC through Twenty-fourth Air Force, which was activated in August 2009.

In order to reinvigorate the Air Force's nuclear mission, Headquarters U.S. Air Force activated Air Force Global Strike Command to consolidate all nuclear forces under one command. Along with this, AFSPC transferred its ICBM forces to the new command in December 2009.

(Current as of Dec 2016)Point of ContactAir Force Space Command Public Affairs Office; 150 Vandenberg St., Suite 1105; Peterson AFB, CO 80914-4500; DSN 692-3731 or 719-554-3731.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 02:00

Since approximately 1980, a secret space fleet code named 'Solar Warden' has been in operation unknown to the public...

Is this nonsense, is it a conspiracy or is it simply so sensitive that it will cause uproar around the world?

These are my own words after conducting research into the secret program. Whilst conducting an FOI (freedom of information) request with the DoD (department of defence) in 2010, I had a very unexpected response by email from them which read:

"About an hour ago I spoke to a NASA rep who confirmed this was their

program and that it was terminated by the President. He also informed me that it was not a joint program with the DoD. The NASA rep informed me that you should be directed to the Johnson Space Center FOIA Manager.

I have ran your request through one of our space-related directorates and I'm waiting on one other division with the Command to respond back to me. I will contact you once I have a response from the other division. Did NASA refer you to us?"

The program not only operates classified under the US Government but also under the United Nations authority. So you might be wondering, how do I know this information?

Well there are a few people and many others that have tried hard to find out the truth, and have succeeded by leaked information or simply asking questions and have government departments slip up and give away information freely, just like what happened when Darren Perks asked the DoD. One notable contributor is Gary Mckinnon.

When Gary McKinnon hacked into U.S. Space Command computers several years ago and learned of the existence of "non-terrestrial officers" and "fleet-to-fleet transfers" and a secret program called "Solar Warden", he was charged by the Bush Justice Department with having committed "the biggest military computer hack of all time", and stood to face prison time of up to 70 years after extradition from UK. But trying earnest McKinnon in open court would involve his testifying to the above classified facts, and his attorney would be able to subpoena government officers to testify under oath about the Navy's Space Fleet. To date the extradition of McKinnon to the U.S. has gone nowhere.

McKinnon also found out about the ships or craft within Solar Warden. It is said that there are approx eight cigar-shaped motherships (each longer than two football fields end-to-end) and 43 small "scout ships. The Solar Warden Space Fleet operates under the US Naval Network and Space Operations Command (NNSOC) [formerly Naval Space Command]. There are approximately 300 personnel involved at that facility, with the figure rising.

Solar Warden is said to be made up from U.S. aerospace Black Projects contractors, but with some contributions of parts and systems by Canada. United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Russia, and Australia. It is also said that the program is tested and operated from secret military bases such as Area 51 in Nevada, USA.

So should we just write this off as utter nonsense?

No we shouldn't and as time goes on the truth will slowly come out. Many people around the world are now witnessing craft moving around in the skies and sub space that completely defy gravity. Whether they are part of the Solar Warden secret program, military experimental aircraft or not, thousands of people know what they see.

Read about my investigation work here: www.ufoshropshire.co.uk

In my view Solar Warden is very real and a very strong possibility.

So no, I don't think we should rule it out as complete nonsense.

Yes, it's a conspiracy because of all the hype and controversy surrounding the facts and information about the program.

Sensitive is an understatement. This program would change the world and our views on space exploration and travel, so no wonder that it would be kept a big 'secret'.

We should all keep it in the back of our minds... for now at least!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 12:36

A quarter of the century after the end of the Cold War, the only cannon that has actually fired in space finally comes to light.

Installed on the Almaz space station in 1970s, the R-23M Kartech was derived from a powerful aircraft weapon. The original 23-millimeter cannon was designed by Aron Rikhter for the Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder supersonic bomber. That gun is relatively well known. However, its space-based cousin had largely remained in obscurity.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Until now. This year, thanks to a Russian television show, the world got to see grainy footage of the space gun. Using that footage, we created the virtual model of the R-23M that you see above. Here's the inside story:

This year, thanks to a Russian TV show, the world got to see grainy footage of the space gun.

Anatoly Zak

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

From the dawn of the Space Age, the secrecy-obsessed Soviet military was terrified by the prospect of American spacecraft approaching and inspecting Soviet military satellites'--which, according to the Kremlin's propaganda, were not even supposed to exist. This wasn't crazy. The fear of attack on spacecraft was real, with both sides of the Iron Curtain developing anti-satellite weapons. It seemed perfectly logical in the 1960s that military and piloted spacecraft would need self-defense weapons.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The early Soviet space station project code-named Almaz ("diamond") became the first real candidate for defensive space weaponry. The habitable outpost was intended almost exclusively for military purposes, starting with reconnaissance. Along with some state-of-the-art spy equipment, such as cameras and radar, Almaz would carry the cannon in its arsenal.

The weapon's development was assigned to the Moscow-based KB Tochmash design bureau led by Aleksandr Nudelman, whose engineers had distinguished themselves with many breakthroughs in the field of aviation weaponry since World War II. For this project, Nudelman's team developed a 14.5-millimeter rapid-fire cannon that reportedly could hit targets as far as two miles away. Depending who you ask, the 37-lb. weapon could fire from 950 to 5,000 shots per minute, blasting 200-gram shells at a velocity of 690 meters per second (1,500 miles per hour). According to veterans of the Almaz project, the space cannon successfully pierced a metal gasoline canister from a mile away during its ground tests.

The physics of space stations limited the weapon, though. Although cosmonauts could fire using an optical sight in their cockpit, they had to turn the entire 20-ton station to point the cannon toward its target.

They had to turn the entire 20-ton station to point the cannon toward its target.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Salyut-3 diagram. Wikimedia Commons

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

While R-23M had been in development since mid-1960s, the rest of the Almaz project dragged behind schedule. The station's fancy payloads and sensors took longer than anticipated, and in the meantime the idea itself got lukewarm support from the Soviet military, which was increasingly relying on unmanned satellites for all its space needs. NASA's Skylab was scheduled to launch in 1973, which meant the USSR faced the prospect of losing the race to put the first space station in orbit. So the Soviet government decided to build a small civilian outpost from off-the-shelf components of the Soyuz spacecraft and available Almaz hardware. The bread-and-butter orbital lab was successfully launched in 1971 under name Salyut.

After scoring the political points of winning the space station race, the Kremlin allowed the Almaz project to proceed, but "camouflaged" behind the civilian space stations. Until 1982, the USSR orbited a total of seven space stations under name Salyut, but three of these were actually Almaz spy stations. The Western intelligence and independent observers quickly figured out which was which, but the Almaz program officially remained under wraps until the end of the Cold War.

Only after the fall of the USSR did Russian sources revealed that the cannon had actually fired in orbit. It happened on Jan. 24, 1975, onboard the Salyut-3 space station. Worried about how firing a giant cannon would impact the outpost itself, Soviet officials scheduled the test firing just hours before the planned de-orbiting of the station, and long after the departure of the crew on July 19, 1974. The outpost ignited its jet thrusters simultaneously with firing the cannon to counteract the weapon's powerful recoil. According to various sources, the cannon fired from one to three blasts, reportedly firing around 20 shells in all. They burned up in the atmosphere, too.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The results of the tests still remain classified. However it appears that the follow-up Almaz station was to be equipped with a pair of interceptor missiles rather than a cannon. It didn't matter: The upgraded Almaz was permanently grounded before its scheduled launch in 1978.

In the intervening years, only one photo of the R-23M cannon has been published. However it now appears that photo depicted the aircraft-based R-23 or some early prototype of the space-based weapon.

Finally, last month, grainy and dimly lit TV footage of the space cannon appeared in the Voennaya Priemka, a military show produced by the Zvezda TV channel associated with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The space cannon episode was shot inside the limited-access corporate museum at KB Tochmash. Fortunately, a cameraman went 360 degrees around the cannon, enabling us to screen-grab views of all sides of the hardware. We then imported the visuals into a sophisticated 3D package and traced it with a digital mesh. The result was a virtual model of the R-23M canon, one of the most exotic and secretive weapons of the Cold War.

Anatoly Zak is a writer and illustrator specialized in astronautics. He publishes RussianSpaceWeb.com and the author of Russia in Space: Past Explained, Future Explored

I'm Amish

This is the same phone that Jimi Hendrix used when he was with the Beatles.

This is the free phone that came with my Airstream.

This phone has a radar detector built in, they're illegal now.

My dog ate my iPhone and died. Every time I see a smartphone I think of poor Biffy

This phone still works with the old MTV.

Glad you are liking the new hearing aids. My

commander had ones like you were talking about and loved that he could focus

the listening in one direction, it helped in meetings.

Anyways, was just listening to Thursday’s show

and the segment on the zen tv experiment. I finally figured something

out. In the office I work in my iPhone doesn’t get a connection to the

outside world. I work for a DoD Agency so this is either a coincidence or

by design...

Anyways for the first couple weeks (I’m newish

to the job) I found myself checking my phone and getting upset that there was

nothing happening with it, no emails, no notifications, no social updates

etc.

Now I know why! I was programmed to look

at my phone when I was bored and I was upset when I didn’t get my entertainment

from it.

I have started just leaving my phone in my car

during the work day and I feel much better. I often forget it’s there

till after I get home.

Thanks for filling me in on what was causing

me so much angst.

You guys are invaluable!

Mike

73’s KC7TWW

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 22:48

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins Cisco Cisco announced its intent to acquire July Systems, a startup that uses wifi to gather insights about visitor behavior in physical spaces like malls, stadiums and airports.Cisco, which already partnered with July Systems, plans to scale the startup's technology and apply it to new physical spaces such as hospitals and government buildings.It's unclear how much Cisco will pay for July Systems. But the Sequoia and Intel Capital-backed start up was last valued at $45 million in a 2012 funding round. July Systems CEO BJ Arun July Systems Cisco plans to acquire July Systems, a startup that uses wifi to gather data about visitor behavior in physical spaces like airports and malls for enhanced customer insights and visitor engagement programs.

In an announcement Tuesday, Cisco Vice President Rob Salvagno described the acquisition as part of the company's "journey to intent-based networking '--a fundamentally new way of building and managing networks for the digital era."

July Systems, which is headquartered in Burlingame, California with offices in Bangalore, India, specializes in tracking mobile devices through retail spaces and stadiums.

The acquisition will enhance Cisco's ability to track locations indoors, while building out July Systems and fine-tuning its services for new industry-specific verticals like healthcare and government.

The startup, which has partnered with Cisco for several years, was last valued at $45 million in 2012, according to PitchBook. Some of its biggest name investors include Sequoia Capital and Intel Capital.

The terms of the deal with Cisco were not disclosed. It's expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

Get the latest Cisco stock price here.

More: Cisco M&A Acquisition July Systems Powered By Sailthru Advertisement

Advertisement

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 13:38

Smart Meters are instruments of surveillance that can monitor household and business activities with precision, based on patterns of power consumed. Control over energy production and distribution was an original goal of Technocracy in the 1930s. Currently, 60% of America is blanketed with these meters. 'ƒ TN Editor

The Institute for Electric Innovation's (IEI's) new report, ''Electric Company Smart Meter Deployments: Foundation for a Smart Grid,'' identifies the innovations, benefits, and capabilities enabled by smart meters, and summarizes the deployments of smart meters to date.

''A major transformation of the energy grid is underway, and a key technology creating big changes for customers and electric companies continues to be smart meters,'' said IEI Executive Director Lisa Wood. ''Electric companies continue to find ways to create value from the data smart meters provide. Investing in smarter energy infrastructure, particularly in smart meters, is the foundation for a customer-facing, modern, and more resilient energy grid.''

As of the end of 2016, electric companies had installed 72 million smart meters '' covering 55 percent of U.S. households. Based on survey results and approved plans, deployments are estimated to reach 76 million smart meters by the end of 2017 '' covering about 60 percent of U.S. households '' and are projected to reach 90 million by 2020.

The report also features examples of how electric companies are leveraging smart meter data to better monitor the health of the energy grid, more quickly restore service when outages occur, integrate distributed energy resources (DERs), and deliver energy solutions to customers.

Additional highlights:

Forty electric companies in the United States have fully deployed smart meters, and another 50 are actively installing the smart meter technology.Electric companies are using smart meter data today to enhance grid resiliency and operations, integrate DERs, and provide customer services.Smart meters provide a digital link between electric companies and their customers and open the door to new and expanded services, such as smart pricing options, budget billing, high usage alerts, and online energy management.Recent approvals of full-scale smart meter deployments in Indiana, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio demonstrate the importance of a digital energy grid to seamlessly integrate DERs, ensure reliability, reinforce resiliency, and provide more services to customers.The Institute for Electric Innovation focuses on advancing the adoption and application of new technologies that will strengthen and transform the energy grid. The Institute's members are the investor-owned electric companies that represent about 70 percent of the U.S. electric power industry. The membership is committed to an affordable, reliable, secure, and clean energy future.

Read full story here'...

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 15:35

plural noun 1 Weapons; armaments.

as modifier 'arms exports'

'Eight men in total turned their arms and Kay, the last of them, filed the best return.' 'What kind of war was the French army expecting and how was it intending to use its arms?' 'Now after the election we need a big campaign to stop any new expenditure on nuclear arms.' 'The leaders of both North and South Korea wished to unite the country by force of arms.' 'Shipments of gold, arms and food had been sent to the mountain region on a regular basis.'weapons, weapons of war, weaponry, firearms, guns, ordnance, cannon, artillery, armaments, munitions, instruments of war, war machines, military supplies, materiel

View synonyms 2 Distinctive emblems or devices originally borne on shields in battle and now forming the heraldic insignia of families, corporations, or countries.

'Other princes and princesses fly a standard with the royal arms in an ermine border.'crest, emblem, heraldic device, coat of arms, armorial bearing, insignia, escutcheon, shield, heraldry, blazonry

View synonymsPhrases bear arms

1 Possess or carry a weapon.

'The athletes will be gearing up in their shooting clothing and bearing arms if they're entering the clay target events.' 'The nature and scope of the right to bear arms will remain contentious in the United States.' 'Back then only noblemen were allowed to bear arms.' 'A wide majority of American voters agree that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.' 'She enforced a rule that soldiers were not allowed to enter the house bearing arms of any kind.' 'With freedom to bear arms comes responsibility.' 'He called for millions of gun-owners to "stand and fight" against attempts to regulate their right to bear arms.' 'Only law officers could legally bear arms.' 'They're not actually covered by any legal framework that allows them to both bear arms and particularly to return fire.' 'A series of orders were passed which compelled them to sell their assets, pay all their outstanding debts immediately and, most ominously, barred them from bearing arms.' 1.1 Participate in military operations as a member of the armed forces. 'those who had a conscientious objection to bearing arms were freed from military service'

'All those capable of bearing arms'--both young boys and old men'--had been mustered for the decisive battle.' 'His father broke peace with us and bore arms against us.' 'He can lawfully perform service in the hospitals of the Army in lieu of bearing arms.' 'Whenever the government has employed compulsory military training or service, it has been confronted by those who, on principle, refuse to bear arms.' 'It is still treason to bear arms for the Queen's enemies whether or not you have fired those arms.' 'They have never from choice borne arms nor sought distinction in military prowess.' 'In the chaos of field conditions, protection for of those not bearing arms is often ill-defined.' 'At the higher, abstract level, there is no persuasive evidence that the country has abandoned the ideal that citizens should bear arms in their country's defense.' 'He could only plea with them to distinguish between combatants and those innocent civilians who do not bear arms.' 'After two days of fighting only ninety could still bear arms.' a call to arms

A call to defend or make ready for confrontation.

'it is understood as a call to arms to defend against a takeover'

'The right is sounding the call to arms, while the left, as always, is offering excuses at best, and at worst, apologies.' 'It was a tragic end to what started as a call to arms to defend the country's sovereignty, to perform a state duty.' 'Sharon Pollock's latest play, The Making of Warriors sounds like it should be about war, but it's a call to arms of a different sort.' 'So the call to arms that he delivered has - for the moment - failed and we should recognise that fact before granting him a propaganda victory.' 'There has not been bloodshed, not been a mass call to arms, among the Shia and Kurdish groups.' 'Instead it seems to act more as the fiery torch that keeps the impressionable, who only cheer for the good guys, ready for the call to arms.' 'When she wrote her book, she set out to document something, and yet it has been received as a call to arms by those who were ready for one.' 'Mason raises points that deserve to be calls to arms for the Irish software community.' 'Predictably, she closes with the mandatory anti-establishment requirement, the desperate call to arms.' 'Bush continued his own regime of pressure to win over a still unsure American public when his routine weekly radio message was in effect turned into a call to arms.' 'We begin tonight with a new call to arms by President Bush on the global war on terrorists and radical Islamists.' 'Incitement to violence should be treated as an offence, irrespective of whether the incitement involves calls to arms against people with different views or with a different amount of melanin in their skins.' 'The enemy wants to make Iraqis afraid to join security forces, but every week more and more Iraqis answer the call to arms.' 'Most of the West's 'proscribed terrorist organisations' maintain web pages that let them bypass the media and publish press releases, galleries of 'martyrs' and calls to arms, often in English.' 'They have been roused to action following a passionate call to arms by Colonel of the Regiment Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter.' 'Patriotism is a call to arms to defend yourself against someone else because they do not think like you.' 'It is true the Constitution contains no revolutionary calls to arms.' 'Only 130 of the 500 members of his battalion answered the call to arms.' 'These were the first soldiers ever to have been enlisted at the call to arms and by a United States Government.' 'Wiltshire's military might is ready, willing and more than able to answer any call to arms if there is a war with Iraq.' in arms

Armed; prepared to fight.

take up arms

Begin fighting.

'local people took up arms to fight a dam proposed by the government'

'Their inhabitants fled after similar attacks, according to rebels in the region who took up arms against the Arab government in Khartoum in February last year.' 'The Conventions also establish the criteria that must be met in order to qualify as a lawful combatant taking up arms for the state.' 'Many aided the Rangers, supplying carts and food, and often taking up arms to join in the fight against the Japanese.' 'As she observed, 'the purpose of detention is to prevent captured individuals from returning to the field of battle and taking up arms once again.'' 'Certainly, Colombo residents Kumudini Samuel and Chandragupta Thenuwara are more likely to join an anti-war protest than to take up arms.' 'I would like to dedicate this day to the memory of a young woman, barely in her twenties, who took up arms in 1978 to fight for the liberation of Palestine.' 'To many Britons, including government politicians, they are traitors, willing to take up arms to fight the armed forces of the country they grew up in.' 'Likewise, when the US attempted to arrest Muqtada al-Sadr, it enraged the ghetto Shiite youth, many of whom took up arms against the US forces for the first time.' 'The government estimates some 1 million Liberians have been displaced by the war, which began in 1999 when rebels took up arms against Taylor.' 'Walsh added that it was an affront to all those who took up arms during the War of Independence and died in the fight to remove the British from this country.' 'Pointing to one of our articles, he said, 'Young people are taking up arms and going to fight because you write this kind of stuff.'' 'The war is southern Sudan erupted in 1983 when black African rebels took up arms to fight Khartoum-based Islamic governments.' 'Rebels took up arms against Taylor in 1999, however, battling their way to the capital in June and forcing the cornered president into exile in Nigeria two months later.' 'I took up arms and fought the corrupt military and government.' 'He took up arms with the Earl of Mar, but after the battle of Sheriffmuir he was forced to flee the country.' 'Only socialism has the power to unite the American people who despise war and oppression and who first took up arms in the struggle for freedom and equality over two centuries ago.' 'The latest war in Sudan erupted when southern rebels took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim northern government in a bid to obtain greater autonomy for the largely animist and Christian south.' 'Some of the others managed to take up arms and a battle began between those who only hours earlier had been allies.' ''Some people say they would be happy to take up arms and fight,' one envoy said.' 'What it means is that we do not take up arms to attack others.'fight, do battle, give battle, wage war, go to war, make war

View synonyms under arms

Equipped and ready for war or battle.

'the country had up to one million men under arms'

'Ninety members of the tribe are currently under arms, with 30 deployed in Iraq.' 'The country would have a full draft, with probably at least two million under arms.' 'Europe keeps 2.3 million troops under arms - many of them poorly trained conscripts.' 'Even though they have not been required to reduce their conventional forces, the destruction of weapons and economic difficulties have led to a substantial reduction of men under arms.' 'When you have a million and a half men under arms, you have a tinder box.' 'Though the war ended almost 30 years ago, Vietnam still has nearly half a million men under arms.' 'In general, the French tended to be more impatient for some kind of action than the British because with 2.7 million Frenchmen under arms they feared that total inactivity would demoralize the population.' 'Though Nguyen Van Thieu still had over a million men under arms, his forces collapsed in panic, with soldiers trying desperately to reach any port to escape.' 'You do not have that problem in the army, because they understand that they are men under arms, observing rank and grade.' 'Although the country has a defence budget broadly equivalent to that of Switzerland, there are 1.35 million people under arms.' 'If you are a state maintaining a million men under arms, in all sorts of places in the world, doing principally peacekeeping functions, you have to ask yourself to what degree this imposes greater cost on our missions.' 'Even so, by the outbreak of war in 1939 Germany had more than 4.5 million men under arms, including those in training.' 'The active duty Israeli Defense Force is fairly small, with only about 150,000 men and women under arms.' 'He can fairly claim that at the time of capture he was under arms as a foreign volunteer for a sovereign government which he supported.' 'They have more men and women under arms than we have in the police service.' 'The ministry, with about 1 million men under arms, is the country's largest armed forces agency.' 'How many men do they still have under arms, and what are they doing?' 'The Butah Brigades have an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 men under arms.' 'China seems a possibility, but one has to wonder if the United States would ever risk placing a major force ashore in a country as vast as China and one with over a billion people, some three million of whom are under arms.' 'Much of Europe's defense spending goes to keeping large numbers of semi-skilled soldiers under arms, rather than providing modern equipment or high-tech training.' up in arms

Protesting vigorously about something.

'teachers are up in arms about new school tests'

'A lot of Christians are up in arms about this, and for once I agree with them, at least in part.' 'The residents of Castledermot continue to be up in arms over plans to turn an area of the village known as The Green into a car park.' 'This is why many are up in arms to defend their interests, with others willing to go all the way in their call for reform and change.' 'Why aren't the liberal classes up in arms about Zimbabwe and Darfur?' 'Angry residents are up in arms following new proposals to build 14 flats on a former petrol station site in Rawdon.' 'At the other extreme, Manchester United fans are up in arms at the idea of Malcolm Glazer buying their club and running it as a business.' 'Portlaoise town councillors are up in arms over what they perceive as a diminution of the powers of the town council.' 'Angry residents are up in arms over a proposal to site a giant mobile phone mast near their homes.' 'Parents and teachers are up in arms over whether a peace banner is political, and whether peace should be promoted in schools.' 'Angry farmers are up in arms after plans to build a new livestock market were thrown out.' 'Residents in Willington are up in arms over a building development plan which, they say, will triple the size of the village.' 'Angry road hauliers in Laois are up in arms about the costs associated with their businesses.' 'The greens are up in arms against allowing construction so close to lakes.' 'Now, the Labour Party is up in arms against a Thatcher state funeral.' 'Residents and parents who reside on the Mountain Road are up in arms over the dangers posed by speeding traffic.' 'Angry residents are up in arms after railway engineering works caused sleepless nights.' 'Punters who had backed the horse were, with good reason, up in arms.' 'Traders in Havefordwest's top of town are up in arms at the lack of notice given to them over the closure of Market Street to traffic.' 'Activists are up in arms over a Bush proposal to allow nuclear reactors in spacecraft.' 'People are up in arms about Amazon being awarded a patent for their affiliates program.'irate, annoyed, cross, vexed, irritated, exasperated, indignant, aggrieved, irked, piqued, displeased, provoked, galled, resentful

View synonymsOriginMiddle English: from Old French armes, from Latin arma.

Pronunciation

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 19:43

Hogg, 18, was seen in New York City on June 20 with a posse of professionalsHe was on his way to a Barnes & Noble to promote their new book The book is called #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the LineSomeone who recognized him tweeted that they were 'publicists and bodyguards'The teenager is currently in the middle of a tour across the country He and other survivors including Emma Gonzalez are going state to state to talk to young voters about gun violenceHogg has been relentless in his public appearances and statements since the February 14 massacre at his school He has faced criticism from conservatives over his sustained media campaign ByJennifer Smith For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:41 EDT, 23 June 2018 | Updated: 12:48 EDT, 23 June 2018

Parkland survivor David Hogg has been spotted in New York City with an entourage which is said to include armed bodyguards and publicists.

The teenager was seen in Manhattan on June 20 surrounded by a group of men and women.

He was on his way into a Barnes & Noble with his sister Lauren to promote their new book, #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line.

Eagle-eyed Twitter user Sean Di Somma shared photographs of the teenager and wrote: 'Here's David Hogg in NYC today with armed guards and bunch of publicists.'

He added the hashtag 'never again' and 'hypocrites', in reference to the apparent fact that the bodyguards had weapons on them.

David Hogg was pictured in New York City on June 20 with an entourage which included 'publicists and armed security guards', according to a witness

Hogg did not respond to DailyMail.com's questions about his entourage on Saturday.

Efforts to contact him through the March For Our Lives organization which he spearheads also went unanswered.

The teenager is embarking on a summer-long tour of the United States with other survivors from his school to teach young people about gun reform and voting.

They will go from state to state by bus and talk to young voters about politicians who are endorsed by the NRA, according to the organization's website, and help them inform their choice.

Hogg had headphones in but was part of the group. It is not clear what he was doing in New York but he is in the middle of a country-wide tour with fellow Parkland survivors

Hogg stands in the street with his headphones in as the 'security guards' look towards the busy Manhattan road

Hogg and his younger sister Lauren were on their way into Barnes & Noble to promote their book, #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line

Hogg has been a punchbag for conservative pundits since he made himself the face of the teenage movement against gun violence after the February 14 massacre at his school.

His father is a former FBI agent. As his face became more synonymous with efforts to ban assault rifles, critics accused Hogg of being a 'crisis actor' because he had been seen on the news before for an unrelated matter.

The teenager has been mocked by countless right-wing pundits and has been the target of jabs made by the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.

Earlier this year, a SWAT team stormed his home after receiving a fake call that someone had been taken hostage.

Advertisement

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 01:38

Staff working on the behalf of the Office of Refugee Resettlement are routinely drugging detained child migrants with psychotropics without their parents' consent, according to legal filings.

Trump administration officials have repeatedly insisted that the family separation policy they implemented over the last six weeks is humane. But the ongoing lawsuit over the Flores agreement, a 1997 settlement that partly governs the detention of child migrants that the White House hopes to overturn, alleges a litany of wrongdoings at the ORR-contracted facilities.

The drugging allegations are among the most disturbing. One child cited in the lawsuit reported taking up to nine pills in the morning and another seven in the evening, without knowing what the medication was.

''ORR routinely administers children psychotropic drugs without lawful authorization,'' a memo filed in the lawsuit on April 16 reads. ''When youth object to taking such medications, ORR compels them. ORR neither requires nor asks for a parent's consent before medicating a child, nor does it seek lawful authority to consent in parents' stead. Instead, ORR or facility staff sign 'consent' forms anointing themselves with 'authority' to administer psychotropic drugs to confined children.''

Loren Elliott / Reuters Among the most disturbing are the accusations that staff at federally contracted facilities gave children five different types of psychotropic medications without informing their parents.

Most of the allegations center on Shiloh Residential Treatment Center, in Manvel, Texas. But lawyers in the Flores case, who have access to the medical records of their clients, say the problem is widespread.

''It's not specific to Shiloh,'' Holly Cooper, one of the lawyers representing children in the Flores agreement litigation, said of the drugging allegations. The attorneys have seen the use of psychotropic medications at all facilities where the federal government holds unaccompanied minors but noted that the only cases of forced injections they documented occurred at Shiloh.

One child, identified in court records as Julio Z., said staff at Shiloh threw him to the floor and forced him to take medication. He said he witnessed staff pry another child's mouth open to force him to swallow a pill. When Julio Z. attempted to refuse the medication, he said the doctor ignored him.

''They told me that if I did not take the medicine I could not leave,'' Julio Z. said, according to the court records. ''That the only way I could get out of Shiloh was if I took the pills.''

''Sometimes they give me forced injections,'' another child, identified as Rosa L., said. ''One or two staff hold my arms, and the nurse gives me an injection.''

The medications often come with severe side effects. Julio Z. reported gaining 45 pounds in a matter of two months. A mother of a child identified in court records as Isabella M. said the medications were so powerful that her daughter repeatedly fell because she couldn't walk.

Shiloh Residential Treatment Center declined to comment on the allegations, referring HuffPost to ORR. The agency did not immediately respond to calls or emails requesting comment.

ORR typically releases unaccompanied minors to a sponsor after taking charge of them '• usually a parent or relative. But at any given time in recent years, more than 200 of the children remain in federal custody either because ORR could not locate a sponsor or because the agency chooses to put the children into secured facilities or residential treatment centers.

Children might wind up in residential treatment centers because of either behavioral issues or mental health problems. Some of them suffer from severe trauma or psychiatric disorders requiring medical attention, including problems like post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychotropics may, in fact, be valid responses to those problems, the lawyers in the Flores case wrote in the memo.

But the lawyers also contend that issuing such powerful medications without parental consent violates Texas state law, the terms of the Flores agreement and ''common decency.'' And the conditions of detention likely exacerbate the mental health problems that migrant children suffer from, according to University of Texas Dean of Social Work, Luis Zayas, who has interviewed dozens of children at family detention centers.

He doubted that most kids would need medication but added that it might be warranted after a thorough psychological and pediatric assessment '• and ideally in consultation with the parents. But he noted that both prisons and residential treatment centers have historically used psychotropics to control people's behavior.

''It is truly a sad situation that our government and the agencies that they contract with to take these children have resorted to this,'' Zayas told HuffPost.

Zayas identified the seven pills named in the court filings '• Clonazepam, Duloxetine, Guanfacine, Geodon, Olanzapine, Latuda and Divalproex '• as medications used to control depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, mood disorders, schizophrenia and seizures. The injected medications were not identified in court records.

Lorilei Williams, an attorney who worked with more than a dozen children locked up at Shiloh, said her clients routinely received medication without parental consent and often without the children themselves knowing why. The children she worked with often appeared subdued and suffered ''immense weight gain in a very short period of time,'' she said.

''I suspected they were being medicated to make them more subdued and more controlled,'' Williams told HuffPost, though she noted she could not prove an ulterior motive. ''It wasn't something that was really part of my job '• to look at the medications and whether they should be on them, because as an attorney, I have no background on that.''

Instead, she focused on securing the children's release.

But ORR's system for letting children out of residential treatment centers or secured facilities is often opaque, according to several lawyers who've represented unaccompanied minors in federal custody.

Williams submitted an affidavit to the judge presiding over the Flores lawsuit, which documented one incident involving a 9-year-old Salvadoran child that Border Patrol apprehended in 2011. Two weeks later, ORR sent the child to Shiloh.

The boy suffered from PTSD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder. His psychiatric problems stemmed partly from a horrifically troubled youth '• he was sexually abused in El Salvador as a young child, then abandoned by his extended family and left living on the streets for a year before he came to the United States.

Despite the fact that his parents, who lived a few hours away in Dallas, had wanted to take custody of him, ORR refused to release him without explaining why. After a year and a half detained at Shiloh, the agency suddenly released him, again without explanation.

Lawyers like Williams who want to challenge ORR's opaque determinations have little recourse because their legal work is funded by ORR itself, which is required by federal law to provide legal services to the children in its custody. The agency disburses money to the Vera Institute, which in turn subcontracts with a network of roughly three dozen legal providers.

But three attorneys, including Williams, submitted affidavits to the court saying legal aid groups discouraged them from filing habeas challenges against ORR to win release for their clients. The groups allegedly feared it could jeopardize the funding they needed to represent children. ''There was always this looming threat that if you did too much against ORR you would lose your funding, and you wouldn't have access to the children at all,'' Williams said.

Shiloh Residential Treatment Center has come under fire in the past for allegations of serious misconduct, including forcible medication and unwarranted use of physical restraints '• a problem that Williams said children housed there also complained of. In 2011, state regulators shut down another residential treatment center that businessman and Shiloh President Clay Dean Hill owned after a child died while restrained in a closet, according to a 2014 investigation by the Houston Chronicle.

Two other children died in centers established by Hill after they were restrained, according to a Reveal investigation. The report found that ORR-contracted shelters had serious records of wrongdoing '• including sexual and physical abuse. However, over the last four years, they continued to receive a total of $1.5 billion to house child migrants.

The Chronicle piece also described the forced injections of psychotropic drugs, echoing the allegations in the Flores lawsuit. ORR had exempted Shiloh from its normal requirement to document when they administer emergency medicine, including injections, according to the Chronicle. ORR did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request asking if the exemption remains in effect.

After the article, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) called on the state of Texas to shut down Shiloh. '' At a minimum, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should terminate immediately the contract awarded to Shiloh Treatment Center to provide shelter and treatment to unaccompanied children apprehended by the Border Patrol,'' Jackson wrote in a 2014 statement .

But the for-profit shelter has continued to function and still houses child migrants. Shiloh had 20 unaccompanied minors in its care as of May, according to the Texas Tribune .

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 12:37

Houston, TX '' A federal lawsuit filing on April 23 in an ongoing class-action lawsuit revealed that immigrant children separated from their parents'--during both the Obama and Trump administrations'--were allegedly held down and forcibly injected with powerful psychiatric drugs while being held at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a government contractor south of Houston that houses undocumented immigrant minors.

The children, in sworn affidavits, described how they were told the drugs were vitamins, and that they would not be allowed to see their parents or leave the facility unless they complied and took the medications.

One child recalled being forced to take pills, which they were told were vitamins, in the morning, at noon and night, stating: ''the staff told me that some of the pills are vitamins because they think I need to gain weight. The vitamins changed about two times, and each time I feel different.''

An investigation by Reveal, for the Center for Investigative Reporting, found that ''one child was prescribed 10 different shots and pills including the antipsychotic drugs Latuda, Geodon and Olanzapine, the Parkinson's medication Benztropin, the seizure medications Clonazepam and Divalproex, the nerve pain medication and antidepressant Duloxetine, and the cognition enhancer Guanfacine.''

One child described being thrown against a door and choked by a supervisor until she passed out for trying to open a window.

''The supervisor told me I was going to get a medication injection to calm me down,'' the girl said. ''Two staff grabbed me, and the doctor gave me the injection despite my objection and left me there on the bed.''

The Shiloh facility is one of 71 companies contracted by the federal government to house and supervise immigrant children that have been deemed unaccompanied minors. The investigation by Reveal found that in the last four years, nearly $1.7 billion was paid out to contractors with serious allegations levied against them of mistreating children.

A 10-year-old boy we're calling Jos(C) was sent to a residential medical treatment center in Texas. Alone.

He told @aurabogado he was physically assaulted there multiple times. He describes the facilities' "school" and "hospital" as simply trailers. pic.twitter.com/rhI33C5Bhd

'-- Reveal (@reveal) June 20, 2018

Despite the extremely serious allegation of child abuse being reported at these facilities, the federal government continued to utilize these same companies to house undocumented immigrant children.

The records were filed in connection with an ongoing class-action status lawsuit, alleging poor treatment of undocumented immigrant children in U.S. custody going back to 2013 under the Obama administration.

It is important to note that the Trump administration's ''Zero-Tolerance'' policy was announced on April 6, 2018, thus the allegations in the lawsuit took place prior the implementation of treating illegal border crossings as a criminal infraction versus a civil infraction'--meaning these are children that were separated from their parents prior to the new policy was announced.

A report from the Washington Post explains:

What changed was the administration's handling of these cases. Undocumented immigrant families seeking asylum previously were released and went into the civil court system, but now the parents are being detained and sent to criminal courts while their kids are resettled in the United States as though they were unaccompanied minors'...

After a holding period, DHS transfers children to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services. They spend an average 51 days at an ORR shelter before they're placed with a sponsor in the United States, according to HHS. The government is required to place these children with family members whenever possible, even if those family members might be undocumented immigrants.

''Approximately 85 percent of sponsors are parents'' who were already in the country ''or close family members,'' according to HHS. Some children have no relatives available, and in those cases the government may keep them in shelters for longer periods of time while suitable sponsors are identified and vetted.

An attorney representing the children said that during the time period when children are forcibly separated from their parents they often become depressed, angry, anxious and, sometimes, unruly and that, in turn, encourages prescription of inappropriate medication by these facilities.

Forensic psychiatrist Mark. J. Mills, who was an expert witness for a 2008 lawsuit that forced the federal government to stop forcibly administering antipsychotic drugs to deportees, assessed materials found in the children's medical records and statements in the federal court filing.

''You don't have to be a rocket scientist here; it looks like they're trying to control agitation and aggressive behavior with antipsychotic drugs,'' Mills said.

''You don't need to administer these kinds of drugs unless someone is plucking out their eyeball or some such. The facility should not use these drugs to control behavior. That's not what antipsychotics should be used for. That's like the old Soviet Union used to do,'' he added.

The Shiloh facility has been synonymous with mistreating children since December 2014, when Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, called for Shiloh to be shut down, citing reports from the Houston Chronicle of ''physical violence, unreasonable and excessive use of physical restraints, administering emergency medications without notice to governmental authorities, and several deaths of minor children while in custody.''

Despite the calls to shut down the immigrant detention facility, according to federal documents obtained by Reveal, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has continued to send undocumented immigrant children'--and more than $19 million in government funding'--to Shiloh since it was contracted to house child immigrants in 2013, under the Obama administration.

DASH cryptocurrency and The Free Thought Project have formed a partnership that will continue to spread the ideas of peace and freedom while simultaneously teaching people how to operate outside of the establishment systems of control like using cryptocurrency instead of dollars. Winning this battle is as simple as choosing to abstain from the violent corrupt old system and participating in the new and peaceful system that hands the power back to the people. DASH is this system.

DASH digital cash takes the control the banking elite has over money and gives it back to the people. It is the ultimate weapon in the battle against the money changers and information controllers.

If you'd like to start your own DASH wallet and be a part of this change and battle for peace and freedom, you can start right here. DASH is already accepted by vendors all across the world so you can begin using it immediately.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 21:54

Jane Lynch and Billy Eicher among celebrities calling out the first lady for her tone-deaf fashion choice.

Melania Trump made another big fashion faux pas on Thursday, heading out to visit a Texas detention center for migrant children while wearing a jacket emblazoned with the phrase, "I REALLY DON'T CARE DO U?" on the back.

Yeah, yikes.

While some were skeptical of Photoshop, a spokesperson for FLOTUS confirmed that she did indeed wear the jacket in question. "There was no hidden message," the spokesperson said. "After today's important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn't going to choose to focus on her wardrobe."

Extremely Ron Howard Voice: They did.

Twitter was immediately flooded with outraged reactions from celebrities, media personalities and regular old Joes, despite the fact Melania did change into another outfit during her plane ride to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The jacket, which was first called out by The Daily Mail, is reportedly from Zara, where it retails for $39.

Below is just a sampling of the Twitter furor:They are right. Not hidden at all. She wore her message across her back. Shame on her. https://t.co/wKyyX0ASZH

'-- Ava DuVernay (@ava) June 21, 2018Melania Trump attempts her fashion spin on let them eat cake! Meanwhile toddlers are locked in cages. This administration is a who's who of Classless bottom dwellers.

'-- Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) June 21, 2018No message? The jacket literally has a message on it. How does no one running this country understand the meaning of optics. Jesus! https://t.co/thBD9XxxCb

'-- Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) June 21, 2018What the actual fuck is going on? https://t.co/QVFaSttyqN

'-- Andy Cohen (@Andy) June 21, 2018#BeBesthttps://t.co/d1VguxU6AI

'-- Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) June 21, 2018Now here's an immigrant I'd LOVE to send back. https://t.co/H2ZcS9ojGM

'-- billy eichner (@billyeichner) June 21, 2018She's disgusting. They all are. Impeachment isn't even enough honestly. https://t.co/HoanZLP4Sf

'-- billy eichner (@billyeichner) June 21, 2018Is @FLOTUS so unfamiliar with English that she doesn't know what the back of her jacket today says? That her initiative #BeBest is grammatically incorrect? Is there NO ONE ON HER STAFF to help her with these things?

'-- Jane Lynch (@janemarielynch) June 21, 2018 pic.twitter.com/GmrR5p3BAh

'-- Zendaya (@Zendaya) June 21, 2018I just can't. Tone deaf much? https://t.co/nGhWkw5PeA

'-- Sunny Hostin (@sunny) June 21, 2018These people are beyond fiction. Nobody could dream them up in their worst nightmares. Now imagine supporting them so you could turn your fifty billion into 70 billion. How much can anyone spend? How can someone like Murdoch, so close to the end, not care about people? https://t.co/5wFjpf7XRy

'-- Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) June 21, 2018Is this a joke? I didn't think anyone could be that out of touch with reality... https://t.co/F9MowJDPnF

'-- Lili Reinhart (@lilireinhart) June 21, 2018The jacket Melanie wore on the way to meeting the kids held in internment camps has ''I don't really care, do you?'' written on the back.Fuck these people and fuck anyone who says we should be polite to them or maintain decorum. pic.twitter.com/Velfj2Nr4j

'-- Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) June 21, 2018Fuck Melanie...she deserves no sympathy...even if she divorces him she was a complicit part of this whole operation. And let's not forget, she was a birther.

'-- Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) June 21, 2018No, at this point I'm done giving her the benefit of the doubt. https://t.co/yXbDvOrPt6

'-- Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) June 21, 2018What. In. The. Actual. Fuck. https://t.co/6dwpvtdME6

'-- Leslie Grossman (@MissLeslieG) June 21, 2018Under any circumstances the First Lady of the United States shouldn't wear a jacket that says this. But to wear it today on her way to visit a shelter full of migrant children is straight up trolling. THEY HAVE TOLD US WHO THEY ARE. BELIEVE THEM. https://t.co/wLiZi6U92K

'-- Leslie Grossman (@MissLeslieG) June 21, 2018Wait, wait, wait. I just got wifi to work on my flight. This Melania jacket thing cannot be real. Can't. I'm choosing to not believe it.

'-- Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 21, 2018Wow, seems like a legit question for any first lady -- but especially one who doesn't choose her clothing by accident! https://t.co/v4uUPAOeA9

'-- Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 21, 2018I do. I really do. https://t.co/Xtpt0MrAGu

'-- andy lassner (@andylassner) June 21, 2018Melania ain't shit. Stop pretending she's an unwilling hostage. She married for money, she was on board the birther train, and here she is wearing this to visit her husband's concentration camps. She really don't care. Do u? https://t.co/UyYlWF0lk7

'-- Brad Walsh (@BradWalsh) June 21, 2018''Yo....you sure I should come outside today?'' - Melania's jacket

'-- Chris Redd (@Reddsaidit) June 21, 2018Here's some other slogan apparel from Zara that Melania might want to consider the next time she visits the child detainment camps in Texas pic.twitter.com/EIhkravDva

'-- Michelle Collins (@michcoll) June 21, 2018How can wearing THIS jacket to visit terrified separated immigrant children NOT be on purpose?! This is why the FIRST Family is the WORST Family!!! pic.twitter.com/ieDQDAflpr

'-- Greg Grunberg (@greggrunberg) June 21, 2018Smh https://t.co/tK8MqZHd7Y

'-- Garcelle Beauvais (@GarcelleB) June 21, 2018 View Photos Getty/Twitter Every Hollywood Star Railing on Trump's 'Zero-Tolerance' Immigration Policy

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 20:45

Photo Credit: Marie Lobardo

Families Belong Together is a coalition demanding an end to the cruel family separation policy.

This map shows all protest events against the grossly immoral and unjust immigration policies of the Trump administration.They are coordinated by large and small organizations and individuals around the country.Events are taking place almost every day, in every part of the country.

Now is the time to stand up, and march on.

We will not stop until we end the zero tolerance policy and stop criminalizing immigration.

En este mapa encontrars todos los eventos para protestar en contra de la injusta pol­tica migratoria de la administraci"n Trump.Las manifestaciones estn siendo coordinadas por organizaciones grandes y peque±as, adems de individuos.

Prcticamente todos los d­as, en todas partes de EEUU, hay una congregaci"n sucediendo. Ahora es el momento de levantarse y marchar. No pararemos hasta acabar con la pol­tica de cero tolerancia y acabar con la criminalizaci"n de la inmigraci"n.

UPDATE: EVENTS ARE ON!The executive order that Donald Trump signed on June 20th is not a solution to the crisis created by his administration; it keeps kids imprisoned indefinitely, and doesn't reunite thousands of separated families. But it does show the administration is reacting to public pressure, so we will continue to increase our pressure for justice at hundreds of events to say that families belong together'--and free.

Actualizaci"n: Orden EjecutivaDetener familias no es una soluci"n, es una sentencia. No es el remedio para la crisis humanitaria que cre" Trump. Retener a ni±os en campos es inhumano y no los protege. Continuaremos marchando y protestando hasta que los padres e hijos sean reunidos, hasta que la pol­tica de cero tolerancia sea revocada, hasta que EEUU deje de encarcelar familias. Seguiremos.

WE MARCH BECAuSE WE CAN. WE ARE MARCH ON.ORG

Do you know of an event that isn't listed? Email the date, title, city, state and link to the event to info@wearemarchon.org and register the event here.

Sabes de algºn evento que no est(C) publicado? Escr­benos con el t­tulo, fecha, ciudad, estado y link del evento a info@wearemarchon.org y registra el evento aqu­.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:51

Following her keynote address at the Women's Forum of New York's 2018 Elly Awards on Monday, Hillary Clinton has raised more than $1.5 million for families being separated at the border.

After taking to Twitter to urge her followers to donate to a group of 10 organizations that are fighting our country's immigration policy (a direct donation that is split evenly across each organization), Clinton was able to raise $750,000 in just one day'--a number that has continued to grow throughout the week, largely in part to the politician's massive social media following.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

With an average donation of $60, Clinton has raised money for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, and seven other organizations'--all of which are fighting tooth in nail to protect children and families separated by President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. Half of the donations alone have come from Twitter, with email, Instagram, and Facebook following behind.

In Clinton's Monday speech, the politician expressed her disdain for the atrocities happening at our nation's borders. "This is a moral and humanitarian crisis," she said. "Everyone of us who has ever been a parent or grandparent, an aunt or a big sister, anyone of us who has ever held a child in their arms, every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

"Every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged."

Nick Merrill, Hillary Clinton's communications director, says it's no surprise there was "appetite among her followers to take action." He continued, "It was in keeping with the response to the crisis, which has been one of heartbreak and outrage, that drives that activism."

To find out how you can help immigrant children separated from their families, click here.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:57

About 7,280,000 results

Snapshot: Rapid DNA technology makes verifying relationships ...https://www.dhs.gov/.../snapshot-rapid-dna-technology-makes-verifying- relationships Jun 16, 2017 ... Rapid DNA technology developed by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has recently been used to identify ... and Border Protection and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, ... Snapshot: S&T's Rapid DNA Tech Completes DNA Testing in ...https://www.dhs.gov/.../snapshot-st-s-rapid-dna-tech-completes-dna-testing- minutes Dec 8, 2017 ... Snapshot: Success Is Our Standard: DHS S&T's Rapid DNA Tech ... "As new technology comes on board, like Rapid DNA, we watch how it is being used, ... S&T is working with Customs and Border Protection Laboratories ... The Next Step in Rapid DNA - Forensic Magazinehttps://www.forensicmag.com/article/2015/07/next-step-rapid-dna Jul 19, 2015 ... While companies that have been driving the Rapid DNA ... Whether DNA is used in the fi eld to identify those crossing the border illegally, or if ... Validation of a rapid DNA process with the RapidHIT® ID system ...https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1872497317300054

Decentralized environments (e.g. booking stations, border crossings and ... A previous generation of Rapid DNA technology was developed to address this issue, ... and has been used to upload more than 1000 STR profiles into national DNA ... Rapid DNA - an overview | ScienceDirect Topicshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/rapid-dna

Moreover, the court ruled that the arrestee's DNA profile could be used by law ... The first fully integrated rapid DNA system for human identification was the .... as analysis of individuals at a point of interest like an airport or a country border. Rapid DNA: Coming Soon to a Police Department or Immigration ...https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/rapid-dna-analysis Jan 6, 2013 ... Rapid DNA Analyzers'--machines with the ability to process DNA in 90 ... These machines, each about the size of a laser printer, are designed to be used in the .... Grassley's bill on border and immigration issues (H.R. 2579). Rapid DNA Testing: Verification or Collection Tool? '' Columbia ...stlr.org/2017/10/24/rapid-dna-testing-verification-or-collection-tool/ Oct 24, 2017 ... ... As A Solution To Cross-Border Data Transfer Protection Concerns In The Offshore .... They cannot, for example, be used to help parse the controversy ... a DNA test is greatly lowered '' no longer does a sample need to be sent ... In September, Congress passed H.R 510, the Rapid DNA Act of 2017, which ... Rapid DNA '-- FBIhttps://www.fbi.gov/services/laboratory/biometric.../codis/rapid-dna Rapid DNA, or Rapid DNA analysis, is a term used to describe the fully automated ... The FBI Laboratory Division has been working with the FBI Criminal Justice ... Are New DNA Technologies A Violation Of Citizens' Privacy Rights ...https://www.kevinkuliklaw.com/new-dna-technologies-could-solve-crimes- faster-but-violate-citizens-privacy-rights/ Mar 3, 2016 ... The use of this rapid DNA device is being contemplated by the ... biological kinship between parents and children that are crossing the border, ...

Link to Article

Archived Version

Source: Watching Congress

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:18

1

Posted by u/congressbot1 hour ago Introduced: Sponsor: Rep. Jeff Duncan [R-SC3]

This bill was referred to the House Committee on Armed Services and House Committee on the Judiciary which will consider it before sending it to the House floor for consideration.

Govtrack.us Summary

comment

100% Upvoted What are your thoughts? Log in or Sign up log insign upSort by

no comments yet

Be the first to share what you think!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:34

Providing shelter to migrant children who enter the United States is a multibillion-dollar business.

The Health and Human Services Department (HHS), through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, has awarded nearly $5 billion in grants over the past 15 years through the unaccompanied alien children program, according to government data. Congress's 2018 omnibus bill provides for $1.3 billion for the program.

These facilities are likely better than one alternative we've seen in recent days: kids piled up in concrete cells, cages, and temporary facilities operated by border officials. But in light of the family separation crisis at the border that resulted in 2,300 children being split from their parents as they tried to cross into the US, the organizations involved, which formerly mostly housed older children and teens who crossed the border unaccompanied, have been under new scrutiny.

Most, but not all, of the organizations are nonprofits. In some cases, they're handling contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Here's what we know about where that money is going and how the process works.

The contracts and grants can be worth millions of dollarsBefore the Trump administration started '-- and then, in theory, ended '-- separating children from their parents at the border, about 100 shelters that are part of the unaccompanied alien minors program housed kids who tried to cross into the United States on their own. Even now, most of the children in the program came by themselves. Beyond the 2,300 separated from their parents by Trump, there are thousands of others who made the journey by themselves.

According to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) data, the majority of unaccompanied children migrants are ages 15 and up when they arrive, and most come from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Once children are picked up by border agents, they are generally supposed to be directed to HHS within a few days. HHS is obligated by law to find the ''least restrictive'' placement for them. Often, that means some sort of temporary shelter until a relative or family friend can be identified to take them.

The shelters can be costly: NBC News reported this week that holding a child in a permanent HHS facility in Brownsville, Texas, costs $256 per night per person.

And those costs add up: Nonprofit Southwest Key Programs is expected to be paid more than $458 million in 2018, according to Bloomberg. According to ORR data, the nonprofit has been awarded about $1.4 billion in grants since 2002. It runs 26 immigrant children's shelters in Texas, Arizona, and California, including Casa Padre, a former Walmart Supercenter in Brownsville, Texas, that has been in the news frequently in recent weeks. Juan Sanchez, Southwest Key's chief executive and president, made more than $1.5 million in 2016.

Southwest Key isn't the only organization making money off of housing migrant kids. According to government data, BCFS, a global network of nonprofit groups, has been awarded $800 billion in unaccompanied alien children grants since 2009.

Another nonprofit, International Educational Services, has been awarded grants worth $400 million since 2005.

Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center, a Virginia juvenile detention center where some migrant children are held, has been awarded nearly $30 million in grants since 2011. It's currently facing allegations of abuse from children kept there, including that staff beat, handcuffed, and restrained them.

Cayuga Centers, a New York nonprofit where hundreds of separated migrant children have been sent, has been awarded $115 million in grant obligations since 2014 from ORR, according to government data.

There are multiple levels of shelters, ranging from mixed-gender and residential facilities to secure facilities, residential treatment centers, and foster care. Some minors who officials can't find sponsors for wind up in long-term shelters or foster care situations for months or years. According to ORR data, the average length of stay in shelter care for unaccompanied minors in 2017 was 41 days.

Over the years, the federal government has ramped up its immigrant detention capacity, including shelter for child migrants '-- and increased its spending on it.

''This is the result of many, many years of policymaking,'' said Cecilia Mu±oz, former director of the Domestic Policy Council under the Obama administration who is now at New America. ''We have a huge amount of immigrant enforcement infrastructure, which, frankly, both sides of the aisle beef up every year.''

The types of facilities used, and the funding provided, depends on the number of children coming inThe ORR's child minors shelter program contains two components: standard shelters, or the ones that run all the time, and influx shelters, which are used for a sudden increase. Influx shelter costs are generally much greater than standard shelters, but they often go to the standard providers, which are already familiar with the requirements necessary.

Standard shelter grants are generally awarded in three-year cycles that are staggered so there aren't gaps in availability. HHS is currently accepting applications for $500 million worth of grants for unaccompanied migrant children shelters.

When there is an influx of unaccompanied migrant children, grants and contracts go out for influx shelters. That's what happened in 2014, for example. Southwest Key ran a temporary shelter in Ventura, California, that year, and BCFS ran facilities at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and at Lackland Air Force base in Texas. Once they were no longer needed, operations were wound down. Influx facilities were also set up in 2015 and 2016.

''We had to rely on influx facilities on several occasions, but it was because there were big, unanticipated increases in the number of arriving kids,'' said Mark Greenberg, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and former official at the Administration for Children and Families, which oversees ORR, under Obama. ''That's very different from the current situation, where there is this urgent need to expand shelter space because of the family separation children that are being taken in.''

Casa Padre, the Southwest Key shelter at the former Walmart, is designed as a sort of influx shelter in that it has the ability to ''accordion'' '-- in other words, expand in accordance with need, a former Obama staffer told me. ''The idea behind that shelter was to have a shelter that was smaller but that could expand if there was a big increase in need,'' the staffer said. ''If you have to start from ground zero, that's the most expensive way to go, and where the most mistakes happen.''

The staffer emphasized that smaller shelters are always preferable to larger ones, which should only be used when necessary.

Shelters absolutely deserve scrutiny. They might also be better than the alternatives.A number of the organizations being paid to hold migrant children are currently under tough scrutiny.

A lawsuit alleges that in the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in Virginia, migrant children held there ''are subjected to unconstitutional conditions that shock the conscience, including violence by staff, abusive and excessive use of seclusion and restraints, and the denial of mental health care,'' according to the Associated Press.

On Wednesday, Reveal News reported allegations that children were forcibly injected with drugs at Shiloh Treatment Center in Houston.

The Government Accountability Office released a report in 2016 contending that there was more HHS could do to monitor the care of unaccompanied migrant children. The report found that ORR was ''initially unprepared to care for'' the influx of immigrant kids in 2014 and that it didn't always have the necessary documentation on shelters or complete required visits to shelters given grants. ORR subsequently took steps to improve, including upping efforts to serve and monitor children after they leave ORR's care, adding new case reporting guidelines, and speeding up the process for on-site monitoring.

Scrutiny on the organizations with grants is certainly important, especially since they're caring for thousands of children. But the situation is complex, Mu±oz emphasized: Keeping migrant kids in group facilities is worse than housing them with relatives or friends in the US, but it's generally a better option than temporary ''tent cities'' and Customs and Border Patrol facilities.

''If the dynamic that develops is folks make the argument that it's immoral for Southwest Key or the Southern Baptists to be running shelters because this is an immoral policy, we could end up with not enough facilities or the wrong kinds of facilities for unaccompanied kids,'' Mu±oz said. ''That would be a really terrible outcome here.''

The Trump administration's ''zero tolerance'' policy that resulted in the separation of hundreds of children from their parents has complicated the situation even more. Trump signed an executive order ending the practice of separating children and their parents, but a lot of questions remain around how that's going to work. And still, there are more children who come across the border by themselves.

Some of the organizations that provide sheltering services are speaking out. A detention center in Yolo County, California, where some immigrant children are held complained last year that it was being sent alleged gang members by the government, though they had no proof. In March, the organization threatened to scrap its contract altogether.

Trump's family separation practices have only heightened the center's alarm. Its board of supervisors released a statement saying that no separated children had been sent to its facility. It also has no interest in taking any. ''The County does not, and has no interest in, operating a de facto federal prison for forcibly separated youth,'' the board said.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:31

Reviewers from both sides of the aisle flooded a Virginia restaurant's Facebook and Yelp pages with one and five-star reviews after a server at the restaurant claimed his boss kicked out White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Jaike Foley-Schultz, who says he is a waiter at the Lexington restaurant ''The Red Hen,'' posted on Facebook that his boss kicked out the press secretary and her party.

''I just served Sarah huckabee sanders for a total of 2 minutes before my owner kicked her out along with 7 of her other family members'...'' he wrote.

The post went viral when the director of Clean Virginia, a left-leaning energy-focused nonprofit, shared the post on Twitter, along with a handwritten note purportedly from the restaurant that reads, ''86 - Sara Huckabee Sanders.''

''86'' is slang in the restaurant world used to mean ''throw out'' or ''get rid of.''

.@PressSec got kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va tonight. Apparently the owner didn't want to serve her and her party out of moral conviction. pic.twitter.com/jr3bfiY3XY

'-- Brennan Gilmore (@brennanmgilmore) June 23, 2018The Hill has reached out to Huckabee Sanders for comment.

The Red Hen's Facebook and Yelp pages were soon bombarded with reviews from people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. While some praised the restaurant for taking a stand against the Trump administration, many others blasted the owner for being ''intolerant.''

''If you are a whining liberal feel free to eat here, if you are a TRUE AMERICAN stay away,'' wrote one Facebook reviewer, while another wrote: ''Thank you for not serving that liar.''

''I won't spend a dime in this place,'' wrote another reviewer. ''The owner is a disgusting human being whose absurd liberalism has driven him to lunacy '... Let's hope your 'moral convictions' can pay your bills.''

One

five-star review on Yelp read: ''The best. I've heard that they serve crow to those deserving of it.''

The report comes just days after two other members of the Trump administration '' Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Kirstjen Michele NielsenTrump rips media for not covering 'permanent separations' by undocumented immigrants Rubio heckled by protestors outside immigration detention facility MSNBC's Ruhle fires back at 'Fox & Friends' over 'propaganda' about migrant children MORE and White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, were forced to leave restaurants due to protests of Trump immigration policies.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 19:33

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledges in a tweet that she was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant Friday night.

Sanders says she was told by the owner of The Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, that she had to "leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left."

SandersSanders says the event says far more about the owner of the restaurant than it does about her.

She says, "I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so."

Sanders' treatment at the restaurant has created a social media commotion with people on both sides weighing in to provide their critique of the incident.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 11:02

Three years later, Harold W. Bentley, a Columbia University professor, confirmed the soda-counter usage of eighty-six in an article in the journal American Speech, ''Linguistic Concoctions of the Soda Jerker.'' Bentley sent his students out to drug-store soda counters, hash houses, and other eateries around New York, collecting about 500 items in all, including some rather elaborate expressions: ''Noah's boy with Murphy carrying a wreath'' was the code for ''ham and potato and cabbage.'' Eighty-six could be found alongside many other code numbers in the eighties and nineties:

EIGHTY-ONE. Glass of water; also root beer.

EIGHTY-TWO. Two glasses of water.

EIGHTY-SIX. Item on the menu not on hand.

EIGHTY-SEVEN AND A HALF. Girl at table with legs conspicuously crossed or otherwise attractive.

NINETY-FIVE. Customer walking out without paying.

NINETY-EIGHT. Assistant soda man; also the manager.

NINETY-NINE. Head soda man.

The code could vary from one establishment to the next: in a 1938 article about soda counters in the Los Angeles Times, ''87,'' not ''86,'' is the signal given for ''we've run out of that item on the menu.''

While the other numbers in the arbitrary soda-counter code are long forgotten, eighty-six entered wider usage and developed new meanings'--attached to people, not just menu items. In the restaurant industry, eighty-six was soon applied to customers who were considered objectionable for some reason, worthy of removal like an item from the menu. The March 27, 1936 issue of The Gateway, the newspaper of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, explained:

Girls, if you walk into the drug store and the good-looking guy behind the fountain yells out ''PINEAPPLE,'' you may feel flattered, as that means, in good English, that he thinks you are a wow, a honey and a cute little trick.

But, if he hollers ''EIGHTY-SIX,'' he doesn't like your type.

And in a 1942 crime story published in The Washington Post, charmingly titled ''Murder With Your Malted,'' one character explains how eighty-six could make the metaphorical leap to people: '''The tuna-fish salad is 86' means there isn't any more. And if you say a guy is 86, that means he's fired or all washed up or something like that.''

As eighty-six grew in popularity (spawning the verb form by the late 1940s), the rest of the soda-counter code faded from memory, and amateur etymologists came up with their own conjectures for where the number came from. Several of the explanations involve New York City landmarks (even though Winchell first presented it as coming from Hollywood). One story relates to the Empire State Building, which opened in 1931. The elevator let off people at the observation deck on the 86th floor, so supposedly the elevator operator shouting ''86, all out!'' was enough to spawn the slang.

A bar in Greenwich Village, Chumley's on 86 Bedford Street, also lays claim to the expression. When it was a Prohibition-era speakeasy, the story goes, Chumley's would get raided by the police who would come in from a side entrance. Customers would be tipped off to get out the front door with the yell of ''86!'' In another telling, if someone got too drunk, he would be forcibly ejected out the front entrance and would be left on the sidewalk looking up at the building's street number.

Many other fanciful etymologies have been suggested over the years to explain the mysterious number, but all of the speculation masks the likeliest origin, that it is simply a vestige of the arbitrary codes shouted out by soda clerks. And eighty-six has persisted thanks to the service industry's continuing need to share signals'--whether it has to do with removing menu items or removing customers.

Ben Zimmer is a contributing editor at

The Atlantic.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 11:45

We report the truth - And leave the Russia-Collusion fairy tale to the Conspiracy media

Hah! Hacker Changes Menu of Little Liberal 'Red Hen' Restaurant that Tossed Out Sarah Sanders and Her Children'... by Jim Hoft June 23, 2018 White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family were kicked out of a rural Virginia restaurant Friday night.Sanders and her family were booted out of the little liberal Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington, Virginia because they are Trump supporters.Sarah Sanders tweeted about the intolerant establishment.

Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so

'-- Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 23, 2018

Liberal activist Brennan Gilmore also tweeted on the intolerance.

.@PressSec got kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va tonight. Apparently the owner didn't want to serve her and her party out of moral conviction. pic.twitter.com/jr3bfiY3XY

'-- Brennan Gilmore (@brennanmgilmore) June 23, 2018

Former Governor Mike Huckabee tweeted out that ''bigotry was on the menu'' at the little liberal Red Hen.Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the ''Hate Plate''. And appetizers are ''small plates for small minds'' https://t.co/rHEVdcQwwh

'-- Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 23, 2018

That's not all that's on the restaurant menu.

A hacker changed the menu to include erectile disfuntion.

Hat Tip Mike

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 13:57

The immigrant detention center in Dilley, Tex. A federal ruling criticized the conditions in which children who crossed the border from Mexico are held. Credit Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times A federal judge in California has ruled that the Obama administration's detention of children and their mothers who were caught crossing the border illegally is a serious violation of a longstanding court settlement, and that the families should be released as quickly as possible.

In a decision late Friday roundly rejecting the administration's arguments for holding the families, Judge Dolly M. Gee of Federal District Court for the Central District of California found that two detention centers in Texas that the administration opened last summer fail to meet minimum legal requirements of the 1997 settlement for facilities housing children.

Judge Gee also found that migrant children had been held in ''widespread deplorable conditions'' in Border Patrol stations after they were first caught, and she said the authorities had ''wholly failed'' to provide the ''safe and sanitary'' conditions required for children even in temporary cells.

The opinion was a significant legal blow to detention policies ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in response to an influx of children and parents, mostly from Central America, across the border in South Texas last summer. In her 25-page ruling, Judge Gee gave a withering critique of the administration's positions, declaring them ''unpersuasive'' and ''dubious'' and saying officials had ignored ''unambiguous'' terms of the settlement.

The administration has struggled with a series of setbacks in the federal courts for its immigration policies, including decisions that halted President Obama's programs to give protection from deportation and work permits to millions of undocumented immigrants.

''We are disappointed with the court's decision and are reviewing it in consultation with the Department of Justice,'' said Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. She said officials would respond to an order by the judge to present a plan by Aug. 3 for carrying out the ruling.

Judge Gee's decision was based on the 18-year-old settlement in a hard-fought class action lawsuit, known as Flores, that has governed the treatment of minors apprehended at the border who are unaccompanied '-- not with a parent. Judge Gee found that the Flores settlement, which has been carried out with little dispute from the federal authorities, also applies to children caught with their parents.

The judge also found that the family detention centers in Texas were a ''material breach'' of provisions requiring that minors be placed in facilities that are not secured like prisons and are licensed to take care of children. The detention centers are secure facilities run by private prison contractors.

Image Residents lined up for lunch at the center. Credit Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times She ruled on a lawsuit that was filed in February by Peter Schey and Carlos Holguin, lawyers at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. They sued after two months of negotiations between them and the Justice Department produced no accord on how to change the detention centers.

''I think this spells the beginning of the end for the Obama administration's immigrant family detention policy,'' Mr. Schey, the president of the human rights center, said Friday. ''A policy that just targets mothers with children is not rational and it's inhumane.''

The detention of the mothers and children has drawn furious criticism from immigrant advocates and religious and Latino groups, who have called on the administration to shut the detention centers down.

Since last summer's surge, Homeland Security officials opened detention centers in Texas in Dilley and Karnes City, in addition to a small family center already operating in Berks County, Pa. As of June 30, about 2,600 women and children were held in the three centers, officials said.

Initially, Homeland Security officials said they were detaining the families to send a message to others in Central America to deter them from coming to the United States illegally. In February, a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled that strategy unconstitutional. Officials stopped invoking deterrence as a factor in deciding whether to release mothers and children as they seek asylum in the United States.

But many women and children remained stalled behind bleak walls and fences month after month with no end in sight. Mothers became severely depressed or anxious, and their distress echoed in their children, who became worried and sickly.

Under the Flores settlement, officials were required to try first to release a child to a parent, legal guardian or close relative. Judge Gee concluded that if the mother was also detained, Homeland Security officials should release her with the child, as long as she did not present a flight or security risk. She gave the administration one week to devise a plan to release children and mothers ''without unnecessary delay.''

For children who could not be released, the Flores agreement required officials to place them in nonsecure facilities run by agencies licensed for child care.

On June 24, Mr. Johnson announced changes to shorten the length of stay for most women and children in the centers. The pace of releases picked up, and more than 150 women and children were freed in one week alone in early July. Officials argued in recent court filings that Judge Gee was ruling on practices no longer in place.

Advocates disagreed.

''This decision confirms that the mass detention of refugee children and their mothers violates U.S. law,'' said Elora Mukherjee, a law professor at Columbia University who with her students has represented women at the Texas detention centers. ''Prolonging their detention even a single day in light of this decision would be illegal.''

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

14

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Judge Orders Immigrant Children and Mothers Released From Detention

. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:32

M aybe I'm a hopeless romantic clinging to an old-fashioned idea that power really is ''the ultimate aphrodisiac,'' as Henry Kissinger once said.

So while pundits debate how the Justice Department and FBI will ever recover from the latest inspector general's report, I find myself wondering . . . hoping that Washington's most famous power lovers, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, are somehow still getting it on.

I understand the marital complications involved. I'm also enough of an Inside-the-Beltway realist to know they must have been told by lawyers to keep their distance. But if anything comes through in the 7,000-plus text messages they sent back and forth, it's this: These two deep state soul mates were made for each other.

When President Donald Trump fired their boss FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, the exchange of messages showed how much Strzok and Page need one another, professionally and emotionally.

''Having a tough time processing tonight, Lis. Feeling a profound sense of loss,'' Strzok wrote about Comey's firing.

''I feel that same loss,'' Page responded. ''I want to see what the FBI could become under him! His vision of greatness for our strong but flawed organization. I'm angry . . .''

Anyone who's ever fallen in love at work, then done a mental cost-benefit analysis, can see what's going on.

So imagine my shock when a close observer of the situation told me her theory, that the whole story of a love affair between the two was special-prosecutorial spin designed to soften the impact of their text messages.

I'll admit part of me is cynical enough to think that might be true. At this point, I wouldn't put anything past the entrenched special interests that run this town.

But the romantic part of me sees Strzok and Page's office texting as a high-level form of office sexting. No pet names or motel addresses, but to the trained eye and ear plenty of body heat.

Never thinking their messages would be made public, yet careful not to let their feelings violate Bureau regulations, it's almost as if they're a pair of courtly lovers, couching their passions in political outbursts.

What seemed to get them going more than anything else was a mutual dislike for Trump and Russia, not necessarily in that order.

During the summer of 2016, when he began investigating Russian interference in the presidential campaign and election, Strzok, an expert in counterintelligence, went completely bonkers.

''F*ck the cheating motherf*cking Russians,'' he texted Page. ''Bastards. I hate them.''

But wait. There's more.

''I think they're probably the worst,'' he writes. ''F*cking conniving, cheating savages. At statecraft, athletics, you name it. I'm glad I'm on Team USA.''

''Team USA . . .'' Interesting choice of words. Here's a guy with scoring on his mind.

As the election drew near, Page came to rely on Strzok's forceful reassurance there would be a happy ending.

''[Trump's] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!'' she texted Strzok.

''No. No he won't. We'll stop it,'' Strzok answered.

After Trump won it was Page's turn to vent. ''OMG I am so depressed,'' she wrote to Strzok. ''I don't know if I can eat. I am very nauseous.''

Was this a preview of things to come?

By May 2017, both were talking about joining Robert Mueller's special prosecution team. But what about their relationship? Could it survive the public attention? Not to mention attention from prosecutors on the Russia probe. These people were pit bulls.

Talk about unintended consequences. Would Trump's election blow their cover?

They signed on with Mueller, and a month later Page was already having second thoughts, telling Strzok she ''might leave'' the special counsel's office and go back to the Bureau. Not a good sign.

Bringing Trump down was their dream, what got their juices flowing. Weren't they in this together? But the fates had something else in store. One would go. One would stay. And eventually, the one who stayed would go to Human Resources.

''Please, don't ever text me again,'' Page wrote to Strzok in June 2017. And just like that, it was over.

It could be the romantic in me again, but in end, after the grand jury indictments and plea bargains, I want to think that somewhere there's a place for Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and in that place love will keep them together.

Or at least as together as two co-defendants can be.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:27

We report the truth - And leave the Russia-Collusion fairy tale to the Conspiracy media

by Jim Hoft June 14, 2018On July 2, 2016, Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was interviewed by FBI agents '' off the record, and without taking notes '-- on her misuse of classified documents and her illegal home-brew server she used to store personal and government emails.

It is now understood that several foreign actors accessed her emails from the illegal server.

Comey wrote Hillary's exoneration months before the interview at FBI headquarters.

In December 2017 the FBI revealed that top FBI investigator Peter Strzok who was having an affair with Lisa Page was the top FBI investigator in the Hillary Clinton email scandal.

Strzok promised his lover Lisa Page that ''we'll stop'' Trump from becoming president.This comment was deleted from a previous document release by the FBI.

On Thursday we discovered there was a second top FBI official was removed from Mueller's team of liberal hacks February of this year after anti-Trump text messages surfaced.

This unnamed FBI officials ''Agent 1'' and ''Agent 5'' were involved in the FBI Clinton investigation.

In fact the fired far left agent also participated in the Clinton interview on July 2, 2016.The Weekly Standard reported:

Perhaps the most shocking information in the IG's report is the revelation that Lisa Page and Peter Strzok were not the only amorous agents with a habit of texting. There were also ''Agent 1'' and ''Agent 5,'' who were involved in the Clinton investigation and, according to the IG's report ''were in a relationship at the time and are now married.'' Their communications make for a searing indictment of the culture of the FBI and paint a portrait of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices as fiasco.

A few days before the Clinton confab, he sent an instant-message in which he complained about how many agents and attorneys were prepping for the questioning: '''... very aggravating making this flow with 20+ voices for disparate information anyway.'' Fair enough. But then, as the message goes on he suggests that he has a certain lack of enthusiasm for the whole affair. ''We have nothing'--shouldn't even be interviewing''

Just in case his girlfriend didn't savvy the full extent of his disgruntlement at the prospect of interviewing Hillary Clinton, Agent 1 added ''My god '... I'm actually starting to have embarrassment sprinkled on my disappointment. '... Ever been forced to do something you adamantly opposed.'''...

'...There are reasons to think that Agent 1 was dissatisfied because the organization was phoning in a politically determined investigation. But there are also reasons to think his unhappiness flowed from an admiration for Hillary. Take his message to Agent 5 after completing the questioning of Clinton: ''done interviewing the President.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 20:20

Featured Politics SecurityFBI: Hundreds of Bureau Agents Took Bribes from CNN, NY Times, NBC News and More; Wray Looks the Other Way to Protect Media PartnersAccess to the FBI is for sale.

Concert tickets. Expensive private dinners. NFL tickets. Parties on booze cruises. Discounts on travel.

FBI insiders said more than 60 agents in D.C. alone have been nailed for taking gifts from the news media. Inspector General Michael Horowitz said earlier this week about 50 FBI agents took 300 free gifts from news media.

However, Horowitz failed to stipulate that number is ONLY in Washington D.C. which covers one field office and FBI headquarters. The Inspector General did not examine the FBI's other field offices, officials said. And the problem of taking free gifts for Intel is rampant, officials said.

New York. Los Angeles. New Haven. Philadelphia. The list goes on in the FBI's 55 other field offices.

And so does the corruption. Outright bribery.

FBI sources who spoke to True Pundit divulged the names of three media outlets: NY Times, CNN and NBC News as having surfaced in recent external investigations. But there are dozens more, large and small.

FBI Director Christopher Wray wants this the issue of bribery and the FBI to disappear from news headlines, yet he has not launched an internal review nationwide to determine how rampant this problem is inside the FBI, sources said.

Why no national review by the Inspector General's office?

Wray doesn't want to go there, officials said.

In fact, high-ranking FBI officials do not want the list of FBI agents and news media divulged publicly either.

Wray and Horowitz are protecting the agents who took bribes, as well as their media enablers.

Just business as usual in The Swamp.

If Wray cared, he would find thousands of bribes and favors changing hands inside the FBI across the country.

But that would likely include FBI brass who may make a nice dime on the side selling access to FBI Intel and policy outright as well. Agents like Robert Hanssen. Or like a deputy director's wife getting $1.25 million in campaign contributions while her husband was investigating '-- and clearing '-- the source of the funds from a criminal investigation. Rigging an investigation for cash.Is that considered a gift? Or is that a new category?

And Wray certainly recognizes that is a place he does not want to venture.

It is ugly and Wray '-- as he has done since taking office '-- wants to pretend it's not an epidemic.

And what would Wray do if some of the involved media organizations turned around and said the payoffs for Intel were a trade off for placing stories the FBI wanted in their publications and newscasts?

Just the price of doing business behind the curtain with the FBI.

The FBI doesn't want to lose its ability to smear its political enemies and access to the enablers '-- its media partners '-- who make it possible.

And Big Media doesn't want to lose it's pipeline to free Intel.

Help Support True Pundit's Independent Voice by Contributing Today!FOLLOW US!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 04:48

Emoji are pictographs (pictorial symbols) that are typically presented ina colorful form and used inline in text. They represent things such asfaces, weather, vehicles and buildings, food and drink, animals andplants, or icons that represent emotions, feelings, or activities.

This page provides information about Unicode emoji and their development. For external resources on emoji, see Emoji Resources. For information about emoji images on this site, seeEmoji Images and Rights.

The presentation at the top right gives an overview of Unicode emoji. There isn't a voice-over, so click on the gear to open the speaker notes.

Unicode Emoji ResourcesUnicode Emoji SubcommitteeThe Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is responsible for the following:

Updating, revising, and extending emoji documents such asUTS #51,Unicode Emoji andUnicode Emoji Charts.Taking input from various sources and reviewing requests for newemoji characters.Creating proposals for the Unicode Technical Committee regardingadditional emoji characters and new emoji-related mechanisms.Investigating longer-term mechanisms for supporting emoji asimages (stickers).The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is a subcommittee of theUnicode TechnicalCommittee operating under theTechnicalCommittee Procedures. Current chair is Mark Davis (Google) withvice-chairs Jeremy Burge (Emojipedia) and Jennifer 8. Lee (Emojination).

Participation in the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee weekly video/phonemeetingsand mailing list is open tomembers of theUnicode Consortium as listed in §13.1 of the Technical Committee Procedures, plus invited guests.Contact us formore information.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:50

Screenshot: CNNWill Tom Arnold finally get us those pee-pee tapes of Donald Trump that allegedly exist? The ones of the him in a Moscow hotel with Russian sex workers? Or tapes of him allegedly using the n-word during The Apprentice?

Well, Arnold told CNN that he plans on spending this weekend with Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer, and that he ''has all the tapes.''

When CNN's Poppy Harlow asked him directly if Cohen has something incriminating on Trump, and Arnold didn't answer directly.

''How can he not have something incriminating?,'' he said. ''How can he not have a thousand things?''

''Is that a yes?'' Harlow asked.

Arnold skirted the question.

Harlow then mentioned Arnold's new VICE show, ''The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,'' in which he searches for the tapes we've all been hoping would surface and asks if Cohen has any on Trump.

''Oh my god, he's got tapes,'' Arnold said. ''He recorded everybody.''

In a Tweet Friday night, Cohen denied this:

While Harlow did the best she could to get answers out of Arnold, the interview was pretty incoherent at times'--much of it due to Arnold's convoluted responses. Thing is, Cohen does seem like he is in a talking mood. He is under federal investigation and he is pretty upset that Trump isn't paying his legal fees, which are reportedly bankrupting him.

Arnold responded to trolled Cohen's tweet last night:

This interview is all over the place, but' it's worth a look for entertainment's sake. Take a look at the full interview below:

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:50

Tell Microsoft to drop ICE as a client or lose us as GitHub users

Earlier this year Microsoft proudly announced that it was working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to "deliver such services as cloud-based identity and access" in order to "help employees make more informed decisions faster" and "utilize deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification." (Emphasis added.)

As members of the open source community and free software movement who embrace values of freedom, liberty, openness, sharing, mutual aid, and general human kindness, we are horrified by and strongly object to the Trump administration's policies of detainment, denaturalization, deportation, and family separation as carried out by ICE.

With Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub, many in the GitHub community were fearful of what new ownership from a company once openly hostile to open source would spell for the future of GitHub, and many of those people chose to leave the site rather than entrust Microsoft with their software. Those of us who remained, because we were willing to give Microsoft a chance to become a steward of the open source movement, will not continue to do so should Microsoft continue to abet the trampling of human and civil rights by this administration and its law enforcement agencies.

We call on Microsoft to end its relationship with ICE and any federal agencies engaged in enforcing the cruel policies of this administration, which is destroying families and jailing asylum seekers, undocumented long-term residents, and even naturalized citizens under threat of deportation. Or, we will simply take our projects elsewhere.

Signed,

Lea Verou @leaverou (MIT, W3C CSS Working Group, Prism, Mavo, Dabblet)Sindre Sorhus @sindresorhus (AVA, XO, Awesome)Thomas Fuchs @madrobby (Zepto, Script.aculo.us, Ruby on Rails)Laurie Voss @seldo (LGBTQ.technology)Jamie Kyle @jamiebuilds (Babel, Yarn, Flow, Parcel, Marionette, Lerna)Orta Therox @orta (Artsy, CocoaPods, Danger)Rick Waldron @rwaldron (Ecma/TC39, Johnny-Five, Bocoup)W.O. Boats @withoutboats (Rust)Anna Henningsen @addaleaxDaniel Sieradski @selfagencyNicholas Sahler @nicksahlerGavin Morgan @quavmoAbram Stern @aphidLibby Horacek @emhoracekJeremy Low @jeremylowJacob Beard @jbeard4Joshua Cook @joshuacookTomas Lycken @tlyckenTobi Sch¤fer @p3kMijndert Stuij @mijndertJohn Hann @unscriptableThijs van der Vossen @fingertipsMarc Hinse @MadeMyDayFrank B¼ltge @bueltgeBernard Lin @bernard-linv¸id @makmmIgor Buyanov @artifex404Peter Benjamin @petermbenjaminEric Sandoval @emsandoDavid Seidenberg @davidseidJon Kuperman @jkupElin Angelov @zetxxTitus Wormer @wooormMikkel Malmberg @mikkerYusuff Adeyemo @yusadolatFilipe Kiss @filipekissMurilo Prestes @maclovinFabio Fernandes @fabioflValentin Iovene @tgyJordan Danford @jdanfordShawon Ashraf @ShawonAshrafAaron Lichtman @alichtmanVinicius Rodrigues @SuburbannoJason Palmer @palmerj3Danilo Guanabara @danguaferAlex Rapley @arapl3yShealan Forshaw @shealanSam Lloyd @binchickenElijah Cruz @elijahcruz12Michael Bishop @miklbEsteban Rocha @Esteban-RochaAung Naing Oo @o92zer0crash @CyberSpace7Alexander Wallin @alexanderwallinlfuelling @lfuellingNicolai S¼per @nicolaisueperRodrigo Bermºdez @rodrigobdzJasper Haggenburg @jpuntMartin Šťov­Äek @stovmascriptPetter Karlsrud @ptrkrlsrdEmanuele Stoppa @ematipicoAdrien Antoine @adriantoineApostolos Christodoulou @tol-isArthur Guiot @arguiotAntonio Nesic @mutantkeyboardChristian Petersen @fnkyJonah Meijers @theonejonahgoldAmal Karunarathna @r3b311i0nDenys Vitali @DenysVitaliDaksh Miglani @DakshMiglaniAllen Hai @coetryMark Rabey @MarkRabeyCapi Etheriel @barrapontoJosh Waller @mdxprogramsLisa Lamontagne @llamontagneCharles Josephs @darkmystDaniel Dyssegaard Kallick @keevieOlayemi H. Ibrahim @yobroyem0Jim Kang @deathmtnDale Weiler @graphitemasterBrian Yang @brianyangBenji Bilheimer @benjibeeRaymond Cano @rayraycanoVictor Saiz @vectorsizeStephen Rivas @sprjrJiÅ­ Å pc @capajIan Ardouin-Fumat @iaaaanDaniel Bennett @danBennettDevJad Sarout @xananaxMax Rittm¼ller @maxrimueDon Bellenger @donnotron666Celti Burroughs @CeltiTed Dobyns @tedajaxTechdudeGames @techdudegamesHerman J. Radtke III @hjr3Aiden Holmes @aidenholmesUmayah Abdennabi @sudohaltAnthony Maki @4cm4k1Ben Wiley @benwiley4000Flvio Caetano @fjcaetanoCarlos Col"n @cppmxKevin Corado @KCoradoIsaiah Joshua M. Samonte @xemasivAndrew McLagan @andrewmclaganMatthew Searles mattxoLuke Cashion-Lozell @lukeaclPat Li @xueyuanlPhilip Beadle @philipbeadleDaniel Carosone @dcarosoneNate Sutton @nmsuttonNotice: Although various projects and organizations may be listed next to signees, these signatures do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone except the signees.

To add your name or recommend alterations to this text, please submit a PR!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 02:48

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a U.S. federal government law enforcement agency under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE has two primary components: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Headquartered in Washington, D.C., ICE is charged with the investigation and enforcement of over 400 federal statutes within the United States, and maintains attach(C)s at major U.S. embassies overseas.

The title of the head of ICE is "Director of ICE." The Director is appointed at the sub-Cabinet level by the President, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security.[2][3] Until July 2010 the title had been "Assistant Secretary."[4] ICE is the second-largest criminal investigative agency in the U.S. government after the FBI.[5] ICE has received substantial criticism over their internment of migrant children into what have been described as concentration camps. [6]

Contents

History U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, following the events of September 11, 2001. With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, the functions and jurisdictions of several border and revenue enforcement agencies were combined and consolidated into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Consequently, ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, and the second largest contributor to the nation's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The agencies that were either moved entirely or merged in part into ICE included the investigative and intelligence resources of the United States Customs Service, the criminal investigative, detention and deportation resources of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Federal Protective Service. The Federal Protective Service was later transferred from ICE to the National Protection and Programs Directorate effective October 28, 2009. In 2003, Asa Hutchinson moved the Federal Air Marshals Service from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to ICE,[7] but Chertoff moved them back to the TSA in 2005.[8]

Organization U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for identifying and eliminating border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security vulnerabilities. There is an estimate of about more than 20,000 ICE employees in approximately over 400 offices within the United States including 46 other countries.[9]

The organization is composed of two law enforcement directorates and several support divisions each headed by a director who reports to an Executive Associate Director.[10] The divisions of ICE provide investigation, interdiction and security services to the public and other law enforcement partners in the federal and local sectors.

Structure DirectorDeputy DirectorEnforcement and Removal OperationsRemoval DivisionSecure Communities and Enforcement DivisionImmigration Health Services DivisionMission Support DivisionDetention Management DivisionLocal Field OfficesHomeland Security InvestigationsDomestic Operations DivisionIntelligence DivisionInternational Operations DivisionMission SupportNational Intellectual Property Rights Coordination CenterNational Security Investigations DivisionManagement and Administration Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) HSI Special Response Team (SRT) members training using armored vehicle at

Fort Benning in Georgia.

HSI special agents investigate a range of issues that threaten the national security of the United States such as human rights violations, human smuggling, art theft, human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, document and benefit fraud, the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit immigration and identity documents, transnational gangs, financial crimes including money laundering and bulk cash smuggling, trade-based money laundering (including trade finance and Kimberley Process investigations), computer crimes, including the production and transportation of child pornography via the Internet, import/export enforcement, trafficking of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and other merchandise, and international Cultural Property and Antiquities crimes. HSI agents can be requested to provide security for VIPs, and also augment the U.S. Secret Service during overtaxed times such as special security events and elections.

HSI was formerly known as the ICE Office of Investigations (OI). HSI agents have the statutory authority to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act (Title 8), U.S. customs laws (Title 19), general federal crimes (Title 18), the Controlled Substances Act (Title 21), as well as Titles 5, 6, 12, 22, 26, 28, 31, 46, 49, and 50 of the U.S. Code. HSI has more than 6,500 special agents, making it the largest investigative entity in the Department of Homeland Security and the second largest in the federal government.

Intelligence The Office of Intelligence is a subcomponent of HSI that employs a variety of special agents and Intelligence Research Specialists to facilitate HSI's tactical and strategic intelligence demands. Collectively, these intelligence professionals collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence for use by the operational elements of DHS. The Office of Intelligence works closely with the intelligence components of other federal, state, and local agencies. Many HSI field offices assign intelligence analysts to specific groups, such as financial crimes, counter-proliferation, narcotics, or document fraud; or, alternatively, they can be assigned to a residential intelligence unit, known as a Field Intelligence Group (FIG). HSI agents assigned to FIGs generally focus on Human Intelligence (HUMINT) collection.

International Operations International Operations, formerly known as the Office of International Affairs (OIA), is a subcomponent of HSI with agents stationed in 60 locations around the world. HSI's foreign offices, known as Attach(C) Offices, work with foreign governments to identify and combat transnational criminal organizations before they threaten the United States. IO also facilitates domestic HSI investigations by providing intelligence from host countries, conducting collateral investigations, and facilitating international investigations conducted by field offices within the United States.

Special Response Teams Seventeen HSI field offices maintain a Special Response Team (SRT) that operates as a federal SWAT element for the office's area of responsibility (AOR).[11] SRT was founded under the U.S. Customs Service as the Warrant Entry and Tactical Team (WETT) and were renamed to SRT in 1998.[11] The SRT handle HSI's high-risk arrest and search warrants, barricaded subjects, rural area operations, VIP protection, sniper coverage for high-risk operations, and security for National Security Events. HSI's active SRTs are located in Tampa, Miami, Arizona (Phoenix), New Orleans, Houston, New York, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Juan, Detroit, San Francisco, El Paso, Chicago, San Diego and Washington, D.C. There is also a team of instructors and coordinators stationed full-time in Columbus, Georgia. These teams primarily deploy to handle high-risk operations, but also assist in events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake 2010, and other natural disasters around the globe.

SRT is a collateral duty open to HSI agents assigned to an office with a certified team. To qualify, candidates must pass a physical fitness test, qualify with multiple firearms by shooting 90% or better in full tactical gear, and pass an oral interview process. If a candidate passes these stages and is voted on the local team, they are then designated "Green Team" members and allowed to train with the certified team members. Green Team members are eventually sent to the SRT Initial Certification Course at the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs, Tactical Operations Unit (OFTP/TOU)Fort Benning, Georgia, where they must pass additional physical fitness, firearms, scenario-based and written assessments.[12] Out of approximately 6,500 special agents, there are currently only approximately 250 certified SRT members nationwide.

HSI SRTs often conduct training exercises with various federal, state and local teams, and also assist other teams during national events or large-scale operations that require multiple high-risk scenarios to be conducted simultaneously. The working relationship between the SRTs and the U.S. Department of Defense's U.S. Special Operations Command has led to SOCOM providing the SRTs with excess Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs), firearms, and other gear designed for the U.S. Tier One groups.

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) ICE ERO officers deporting a man to

Mexico.

ERO is responsible for enforcing the nation's immigration laws and ensuring the departure of removable immigrants from the United States. ERO uses its deportation officers to identify, arrest, and remove immigrants who violate U.S. immigration law. Deportation officers are responsible for the transportation and detention of immigrants in ICE custody to include the removal of immigrants to their country of origin. Deportation officers prosecute immigrants for violations of U.S. immigration and criminal law, monitor cases during deportation proceedings, supervise released immigrants, and remove immigrants from the United States.[13] Deportation officers operate strategically placed Fugitive Operations Teams whose function is to locate, apprehend, and remove immigrants who have absconded from immigration proceedings and remain in the United States with outstanding warrants for deportation. ERO manages the Secure Communities program which identifies removable immigrants located in jails and prisons. Fingerprints submitted as part of the normal criminal arrest and booking process will automatically check both the Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division and the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) of the Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT Program.

ERO was formerly known as the Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO).

Office of State, Local and Tribal Coordination (OSLTC) OSLTC is ICE's primary outreach and communications component for state, local and tribal stakeholders. It is responsible for building and improving relationships, and coordinating activities with state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies and through public engagement. It also fosters and sustains relationships with federal, state and local government officials and coordinates ICE ACCESS programs (Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security).

Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) OPLA provides legal advice, training and services to support the ICE mission and defends the interests of the United States in the administrative and federal courts, including representing the government of foreign nationals for the purpose of removal (previously known as "deportation") process.

Office of Professional Responsibility OPR is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct involving employees of ICE. OPR preserves the organizational integrity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by impartially, independently and thoroughly investigating allegations of criminal or serious administrative misconduct by ICE employees worldwide. Additionally, OPR inspects and reviews ICE offices, operations and processes so as to provide executive management with independent reviews of the agency's organizational health. In this role, OPR assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of ICE in carrying out its mission.

Former units The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) was aligned into ICE shortly after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. On October 16, 2005, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff officially approved the transfer of the Federal Air Marshal Service from the Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the TSA as part of a broader departmental reorganization to align functions consistent with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "Second Stage Review" findings for:

consolidating and strengthening aviation law enforcement and security at the Federal level;creating a common approach to stakeholder outreach; andimproving the coordination and efficiency of aviation security operations.As part of this realignment, the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service also became the Assistant Administrator for the TSA Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), which houses nearly all TSA law enforcement services.

The Federal Protective Service (FPS) was moved from the General Services Administration (GSA) to ICE upon the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The FPS was later moved out of ICE to the National Protection Programs Directorate.

Originally a part of the U.S. Customs Service's Office of Investigations, the Office of Air and Marine (then called the Air and Marine Interdiction Division) was transferred to ICE in 2003 during the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, becoming the Office of Air and Marine Operations. Due in part to a 500 million dollar budgetary dispute between CBP and ICE, in 2004 ICE Air and Marine Operations was transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Air and Marine still works closely with ICE to support the agency's domestic and international law enforcement operations.[14][15][16][17]

The Office of Detention Policy and Planning was responsible developing and maintaining ICE's National Detention Standards, which set out detailed rules for how immigration detainees were to be treated differently than criminal inmates.[18] In April 2017, President Donald Trump decided to close the office and to stop including the standards in new jail contracts.[18]

Assistant Secretaries and Directors No.PictureNameTook officeLeft officeNotesPresidentAssistant Secretary1 Michael J. GarciaMarch 2003September 2005George W. Bush''John P. ClarkActingSeptember 2005January 20062 Julie MyersJanuary 4, 2006November 14, 2008'' John P. TorresActingNovember 17, 2008May 12, 2009Barack ObamaDirector3 John T. MortonMay 12, 2009July 31, 2013Barack Obama''John SandwegActingAugust 1, 2013February 21, 2014'' Thomas WinkowskiActing as Principal Deputy Assistant SecretaryMarch 16, 2014December 23, 20144 Sarah Salda±aDecember 23, 2014January 20, 2017'' Daniel RagsdaleActingJanuary 20, 2017January 30, 2017Donald Trump'' Thomas HomanActingJanuary 30, 2017Training Newly hired ICE law enforcement personnel receive their training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. To meet division specific academic and practical instruction, the ICE Academy varies in length from 4 to 6 months depending on the position. Furthermore, following graduation, all ICE law enforcement personnel undergo additional post academy training, as well as career-continuous training. Specific course curriculum is kept confidential, but both ERO and HSI new hires undergo training related to basic law enforcement tactics, immigration law, firearms training, emergency response driving, and Constitutional law. HSI agents also receive training regarding U.S. customs law, warrant service, advanced tactics, undercover operations, criminal interrogation, weapons of mass destruction, and other subjects routinely encountered by HSI agents in the field. ERO deportation officers undergo several weeks of intensive Spanish language training prior to graduating.

Equipment HSI Special Response Team (SRT) drug raid during Operation Pipeline in Arizona.

HSI special agents and ERO deportation officers are issued the SIG Sauer P320C pistol chambered in the 9mm cartridge, as their primary sidearm. Secondary weapons are on a list of authorized weapons published by the agency to its agents and officers. They also may be assigned the Remington Model 870 shotgun or the Colt M4 carbine. Agents can also be assigned the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.

ICE operates the only nationwide radio communication system in the federal law enforcement community. The system, known as the National Law Enforcement Communications Center (NLECC) is Motorola-based and employs a technology specifically designed for ICE known as COTHEN (Customs Over The Horizon Network). Consequently, HSI special agents, ICE officers, and authorized subscribers are able to communicate with one another across the nation using NLECC's strategically placed repeaters and high-speed data lines. The center, commonly referred to internally as Charlie-100, is based in Orlando, Florida.[19]

Investigative programs National security The National Security Division monitors the conduct of field enforcement operations in the investigation, detection, interdiction, prosecution, and removal of foreign-born terrorists, terrorist supporters, and hostile foreign intelligence agents located within the United States. This branch also has operational oversight of all HSI special agents assigned to the 103 Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF), provides continuous support to all counter-terrorism investigations and HSI field offices supporting those counter-terrorism efforts and provides actionable proactive counter-terrorism lead information, in furtherance of preventing and disrupting terrorist cells made up of foreigners domestically and abroad.[19]

Transnational gangs In February 2005, ICE began Operation Community Shield, a national law enforcement initiative that targets violent transnational street gangs through the use of ICE's broad law enforcement powers, including the unique and powerful authority to remove criminal immigrants, including illegal immigrants and legal permanent residents.[20] Under Operation Community Shield, ICE:

Partners with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, in the United States and abroad, to develop a comprehensive and integrated approach in conducting criminal investigations and other law enforcement operations against violent street gangs and others who pose a threat to public safety.Identifies violent street gangs and develops intelligence on their membership, associates, criminal activities and international movements.Deters, disrupts and dismantles gang operations by tracing and seizing cash, weapons and other assets derived from criminal activities.Seeks prosecution and/or removal of immigrant gang members from the United States.Works closely with our attach(C) offices throughout Latin America and foreign law enforcement counterparts in gathering intelligence, sharing information and conducting coordinated enforcement operations.Conducts outreach efforts to increase public awareness about the fight against violent street gangs.Drug trafficking HSI agents share concurrent jurisdiction with the FBI and DEA in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act. HSI agents investigate drug trafficking organizations who import their products across the U.S. air, land and water borders, as well as their smuggling methods, which include the use of high-speed vessels, cargo containers, aircraft, commercial trucking, commercial vessel and human carriers. HSI agents enforce a wide range of federal drug statutes, and unlike DEA and FBI, can also use Title 19 of the U.S. Code to prosecute drug smugglers for the importation of drugs.

HSI drug trafficking investigations are often worked under the auspices of HSI-led Border Enforcement Security Taskforces (BEST), High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) groups, and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Through Memorandum of Understanding agreements, HSI's primary focus is the importation and subsequent trafficking of illegal drugs, while domestic production and sale is the focus of the DEA.

Cyber crimes The Cyber Crimes Center (C3) Child Exploitation Section (CES) investigates the trans-border dimension of large-scale producers and distributors of images of child abuse, as well as individuals who travel in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in sex with minors. The CES employs the latest technology to collect evidence and track the activities of individuals and organized groups who sexually exploit children through the use of websites, chat rooms, newsgroups, and peer-to-peer trading. These investigative activities are organized under Operation Predator, a program managed by the CES. The CES also conducts clandestine operations throughout the world to identify and apprehend violators. The CES assists the field offices and routinely coordinates major investigations. The CES works closely with law enforcement agencies from around the world because the exploitation of children is a matter of global importance.[21]

C3 brings the full range of ICE computer and forensic assets together in a single location to combat such Internet-related crimes as:

Possession, manufacture and distribution of images of child abuse.International money laundering and illegal cyber-banking.Illegal arms trafficking and illegal export of strategic/controlled commodities.Drug trafficking (including prohibited pharmaceuticals).General Smuggling (including the trafficking in stolen art and antiquities; violations of the Endangered Species Act etc.)Intellectual property rights violations (including music and software).Immigration violations; identity and benefit fraudC3 consists of four sections, three of which provide cyber technical and investigative services, the Cyber Crimes Section (CCS), the Child Exploitation Section (CES), and the Digital Forensic Section (DFS). The fourth section, the Information Technology and Administrative Section (ITAS), provides the technical and *operational infrastructure services necessary to support the other three C3 sections. The center is a co-location of special agents, intelligence research specialists, administrative support, and contractors, all of which are instrumental in operational and technical continuity. Within each section, there are various program managers assigned to certain programmatic areas. These program managers are responsible for supporting ICE Internet investigations through the generation and the dissemination of viable leads. Program managers are available to provide guidance and training to field agents as well as to other law enforcement (foreign and domestic) upon request.[21] Strategically located HSI Field Offices have their own Cyber Forensics Laboratories staffed by Computer Forensics Agents (CFAs). These CFA's are HSI special agents who have been extensively trained in cyber investigative techniques and protocols.

The CCS is responsible for developing and coordinating investigations where the Internet is used to facilitate the criminal act. These investigations include fraud, theft of intellectual property rights, money laundering, identity and benefit fraud, the sale and distribution of narcotics and other controlled substances, illegal arms trafficking and the illegal export of strategic/controlled commodities and the smuggling and sale of other prohibited items such as art and cultural property. The CCS is involved in the development of Internet undercover law enforcement investigative methodology, and new laws and regulations to strengthen U.S. Cyber-Border Security. C3 supports the ICE Office of Investigation's (OI) domestic field offices, along with ICE foreign attach(C)s offices with cyber technical, and covert online investigative support.[21]

Operation Apothecary: The CCS, the HSI Commercial Fraud Section and the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Coordination Center have partnered together and launched a comprehensive Internet pharmaceutical initiative designed to target, arrest and prosecute individuals and organizations that are involved in the smuggling of counterfeit pharmaceuticals of a controlled and non-controlled nature as well as scheduled narcotics via the Internet. The focus is also on the affiliates of the rogue pharmacies that are typically operated by criminal enterprises whose sole purpose is to generate large sums of money, with no regard to the health and welfare of the public.Intellectual Property Rights: The CCS has encountered thousands of web sites based in the United States, as well as foreign that are engaged in the sale of counterfeit merchandise (including music and software) via the Internet. The CCS continues to work closely with the National IPR Coordination Center, the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) at the DOJ, and industry representatives to identify web sites responsible for the sale of the counterfeit items.Arms and Strategic Technology: The CCS works to prevent proliferate countries, terrorists, trans-national criminals from obtaining strategic materials, funds and support and to protect the American public from the introduction weapons of mass destruction and other instruments of terror from entering the United States.Identify Fraud Initiative: The availability and use of fraudulent identification documents has always been a concern to the law enforcement community. While traditionally available from street sources, fraudulent identification and travel documents, of all types, are also readily available for sale via the Internet. In the post 9/11 world, fraudulent identity and travel documents are of an even greater concern to ICE because of the alarming threat they pose to ICE's primary mission of protecting the United States, and its citizens, from threats arising from the movement of people and goods into and out of the country. With addressing these documents and their threat in mind, the CCS has sought to identify sources for fraudulent identity and immigration documents on the Internet.Child exploitation The C3 CES investigates large-scale producers and distributors of images of child abuse as well as individuals who travel in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in sex with minors. The CES employs the latest technology to collect evidence and track the activities of individuals and organized groups who sexually exploit children through the use of websites, chat rooms, newsgroups and peer-to-peer trading. The CES also conducts clandestine operations throughout the world to identify and apprehend violators. The CES assists the field offices and routinely coordinates major investigations. The CES works closely with law enforcement agencies from around the world because the exploitation of children is a matter of global importance.

Operation Falcon: A joint international images of child abuse investigation initiated by ICE that identified 39 websites distributing child pornography. Further investigation led to the arrest of 1,200 international downloader's and more than 300 U.S. customers. Nine individuals from the United States and Belarus were identified and charged as the principals in this investigation. All principals were convicted on various charges related to money laundering, structuring and the production and distribution of images of child abuse.Operation Mango: An extensive investigation that closed down a beachside resort owned by U.S. citizens in Acapulco, Mexico, which offered children to sexual predators. The resort was a haven for pedophiles that traveled to the facility for the sole purpose of engaging in sex with minors. The proprietor of the business was convicted. As a result of this investigation and others, Mexico's federal government recently created a task force to address crimes against children in the country.Operation Save Our Children[22] inadvertently shut down 84,000 legal subdomains of adult pornographic websites in an excessive seizure which led to criticism of the DOJ's ex parte warrant process and potential abuse.[23]Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force: Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Juvenile Justice Programs, ICAC Task Force comprises 45 task forces. The task forces were created in cooperation with the DOJ ICAC to provide reporting, a means to provide a virtual pointer system for Child Exploitation and images of child abuse cases and secure collaboration for various Federal, State, and Local law enforcement organizations, task forces, and affiliated groups around the world. DHS/ICE strongly supports the efforts of the ICAC task forces as demonstrated by ICE special agents being active members of the ICACs throughout the United States. The Northern Virginia/Metro DC ICAC is housed at the DHS/ICE C3.[21]Operation Predator: ICE developed Operation Predator in 2003 to identify, investigate and arrest child predators and sexual offenders. Operation Predator draws on ICE's unique investigative and enforcement authorities to safeguard children. Coordinated nationally and internationally, Operation Predator brings together an array of ICE disciplines and resources to target these child sex abusers.As part of the effort, ICE has created a National Child Victim Identification System in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Justice, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces and other agencies.

Arms trafficking As the primary U.S. agency in export/import investigations, HSI combats illegal trafficking of firearms, ammunition and explosives that fuels violence both domestically and internationally. HSI arms trafficking investigations often focus on preventing the procurement of munitions by drug cartels, terrorists, human rights violators, foreign adversaries, and other transnational criminal organizations. HSI's investigative strategy includes the identification and prosecution of criminal networks and individuals responsible for the acquisition and movement of firearms and other dangerous weapons from the United States, as well as the seizure and forfeiture of money and valuable property derived from or used to facilitate this criminal activity.

Case samples Counter-proliferation investigations Surface-to-Air Missiles, Night Vision Devices, Firearms to Foreign Terrorists: On July 10, 2008, Erik Wotulo, a retired Indonesian Marine Corps general, was convicted in the District of Maryland for conspiracy to provide material support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a designated terrorist organization, and money laundering. Beginning in April 2006, Wotulo conspired with Haji Subandi, Haniffa Bin Osman and Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa to export state-of-the-art firearms, machine guns and ammunition, surface to air missiles, night vision goggles and other military weapons to the Tamil Tigers operating in Sri Lanka, to be used to fight against Sri Lankan government forces. The conspirators contacted an undercover business located in Maryland about the sale of military weapons. In September 2006, the defendants arrived in Guam, where they met with undercover officers to inspect and take possession of the weapons, and were eventually arrested. Two additional defendants, Rinehard Rusli and Helmi Soedirdja, pleaded guilty to export and money laundering violations on January 30, 2007, as part of a related plot to provide military night vision devices to the Indonesian military.Telecommunications Equipment to Iraq: On October 2, 2008, Dawn Hanna was convicted by a jury in the Eastern District of Michigan on eight counts of an indictment charging her with illegally exporting telecommunications and other equipment with potential military applications to Iraq during the administration of Saddam Hussein and during the embargo on that country. On July 19, 2007, Hanna was indicted on charges of conspiracy, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, money laundering conspiracy, and false statements. From 2002 to 2003, Hanna allegedly received $9.5 million in proceeds to supply telecommunications and other equipment to Iraq in violation of the U.S. embargo that existed prior to the invasion by coalition forces in 2003.Military Accelerometers to China: On September 26, 2008, Qing Li was convicted for a conspiracy to smuggle military-grade accelerometers from the United States to the People's Republic of China (PRC). According to court documents, Li conspired with an individual in China to locate and procure as many as 30 Endevco 7270A-200K accelerometers for what her co-conspirator described as a "special" scientific agency in China. This accelerometer has military applications in "smart" bombs and missile development and in calibrating the g-forces of nuclear and chemical explosions.Rifle Scopes to Russia: On September 11, 2008, a Grand Jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania indicted Boris Gavrilov, D&B Compas Ltd, and Kiflet Arm on charges of illegally exporting military-grade and dual-use rifle scopes to Russia without the required U.S. government licenses. Gavrilov is believed to be a resident of Israel. D&B Compas is located in Israel, while Kiflet Arm is located in Humboldt, Texas. Extradition proceedings for Gavrilov have commenced.Fighter Jet Components to Iran: On September 5, 2008, George Frank Myles, Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally export military aviation parts without obtaining the permission of the U.S. Department of State, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. The investigation, which spanned from April 2005 to March 2007, alleged Myles supplied a number of military aviation parts, including F-14 parts, to an Iranian national who picked up the parts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Bangkok, Thailand.Human trafficking ICE ERO officers transporting suspects after a raid

Sex Trafficking/San Antonio: On June 1, 2007, a San Antonio woman and her two daughters were ordered detained without bond for engaging in sex trafficking of children. The woman, age 59, and her daughters, ages 32 and 29, were arrested and charged with sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion. Based on the ongoing investigation and the victims' statements, it is alleged that the defendants traveled to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to recruit young girls to work as prostitutes in the San Antonio area. The victims in this case were 15, 17, and 22 years old. After arriving in the United States, the victims were told they would have to work as prostitutes for five years to repay the money the defendants had spent. Allegedly the money was spent on smuggling and other expenses they incurred to prepare the young women to be prostitutes. The victims told ICE agents that they were scared to leave because a male associate of the Ochoa's had threatened them with a gun; he also stated that he could find them and their families back in Mexico, and he would have them killed. The female violators in this case received sentences of time served to 18 months in prison for their convictions for harboring and transporting immigrants for financial gain. One of the male defendants was sentenced to 120 months in prison for conspiracy to transport immigrants for financial gain and for aiding and abetting sex trafficking of a child. One remaining defendant is scheduled for jury trial in February 2009. [needs update ]Involuntary Servitude/Michigan: On May 31, 2007, a couple from Cameroon was sentenced for involuntary servitude and related charges. Joseph Djoumessi, 49, was found guilty of conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring for financial gain. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, to run concurrent with a 9-to-15-year sentence he is currently serving for a Michigan state conviction related to the same crime. A jury also convicted Djoumessi's wife, Evelyn Djoumessi, 42, of conspiracy and involuntary servitude. She was sentenced to five years in prison. The couple was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the victim. ICE agents in Detroit began an investigation in 2000 after receiving information regarding a young girl who was possibly being held against her will. A 17-year-old girl from Cameroon was discovered in the Djoumessi home, living under a false identity and in questionable circumstances. The girl had been brought into the United States illegally when she was 14 years old. During the time the girl lived at the couple's home, she was forced "by beating and threats," according to court documents, to care for their children and perform household chores without pay. They also limited her contact with the outside world and did not permit her to attend school.Labor Trafficking/Long Island, N.Y.: On May 13, 2007, Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) officers encountered a female subject disoriented and wandering around a residential neighborhood. The NCPD identified her as a possible trafficking victim and contacted ICE agents assigned to the Human Trafficking Task Force who interviewed the victim at the Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC). The victim indicated that she had escaped from a residence in Muttontown, N.Y., where she was forced to stay and work under horrific conditions. Doctors diagnosed the victim with extensive bruising, burns and lacerations, allegedly inflicted by her employer, Varsha Sabhnani. On the evening of May 13, 2007, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at the residence in Muttontown and found another female domestic worker hiding in the basement. The second victim denied physical abuse, but witnessed the physical abuse inflicted upon the other victim. Both victims claimed that Sabhnani and her husband verbally abused them and restricted their movements at all times. On May 14, 2007, ICE agents arrested Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani who were subsequently indicted. On December 18, 2007, they were found guilty by jury of forced labor, peonage, document servitude, harboring immigrants and conspiracy. In June 2008, Varsha Sabhnani was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and her husband was sentenced to 3 years. The jury ordered that their residence, valued at $1.5 million, be criminally forfeited. Proceeds from the sale of the residence will be used to pay restitution to the victims.Sex Trafficking/New York: The Flores-Carreto family sex-trafficking ring operated between Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, and Queens, New York, from 1991 to 2004 and involved brothels in the New York metropolitan area. ICE began its investigation in December 2003 after the mother of a trafficking victim reported to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City that her daughter had been kidnapped and was being held against her will in New York. ICE discovered that male members of the Flores-Carreto family romantically lured young Mexican women to the United States, where they were forced into prostitution through beatings and threats against their children, who were residing with the traffickers' mother in M(C)xico. Victims who became pregnant were forced to have abortions. In April 2005, Josue Flores-Carreto, Gerardo Flores-Carreto and Daniel Perez Alfonso, a brothel manager, were sentenced to 50, 50, and 25 years imprisonment respectively, for multiple offenses related to forced prostitution. In January 2007, Mexico extradited Consuelo Caretto Valencia, the mother of the Carreto brothers, to the United States, where she was charged with conspiring on sex trafficking and related offenses. On July 22, 2008, she pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and is pending sentencing for that crime. The prosecution has been one of the largest sex trafficking cases brought under the provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The sentences in this case are some of the longest to date.High profile ERO deportations October 14, 2006, ICE removed Sayed Malike to Afghanistan. Malike came to the attention of ICE via the FBI because he attempted to purchase C4 explosives, night vision goggles, bulletproof vests, and drugs from an undercover FBI agent. He was charged in the Eastern District of New York with the crime of lying to a federal law enforcement officer. Malike pleaded guilty to this offense on November 2, 2005. ICE placed him in removal proceedings based on this conviction. On June 1, 2006, an immigration judge ordered the removal of Malike from the United States.October 16, 2006, ICE successfully removed Jasvir Singh to India. An immigration judge ordered Singh's removal on May 15, 2006, after ICE presented evidence that Singh attempted to purchase large quantities of weapons, including surface to air missiles, from undercover FBI agents. Singh told the agents that he was a member of Babbar Khalsa, a terrorist group in India, and that the weapons were to be used against the government of India.January 23, 2007, ICE removed Majid al-Massari to Saudi Arabia. Al-Massari entered the United States on a student visa in 1993. On July 22, 2004, ICE arrested al-Massari after he had been convicted of a drug related offense. ICE charged al-Massari with overstaying his visa and placed him in removal proceedings. The ICE investigation revealed that he had been soliciting funds for a group called the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR). He also helped to run the group's website. The CDLR is publicly dedicated to the overthrow of the Saudi Arabian government and the installation of an Islamist government in its place. On June 27, 2005, an immigration judge ordered the removal of al-Massari from the United States.March 6, 2007, ICE removed Muhammed Abdi Afrid to Pakistan. Afrid was paroled into the United States on March 5, 2003, to face federal criminal charges in California. The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California charged Afrid with conspiracy to distribute hashish and heroin and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group based on an incident in China on September 16, 2002, wherein Afrid attempted to purchase stinger missiles from an undercover U.S. agent in exchange for five tons of hashish and 600 kilograms of heroin. Afrid planned to sell the missiles to the Taliban. On April 3, 2006, Afrid received a five-year sentence to federal prison for these offenses. ICE placed Afrid in removal proceedings and charged him with being removable on account of his criminal conviction. An immigration judge ordered his removal on December 14, 2006.On September 12, 2008, ICE successfully removed Sarafat Mohamed to Egypt. Mohamed was an Imam for the Hoda Islamic Center in Gainesville, Florida. Mohamed entered the United States on October 26, 1999, on a non-immigrant religious worker visa. He later obtained a special immigrant religious worker visa. He applied to become a lawful permanent resident in 2001. The FBI interviewed Mohamed in 2005. Mohamed confessed to the FBI that he was a founding member of Takfir wal-Hijra (TWH). TWH was an Egyptian-based terrorist organization responsible for the 1977 kidnapping and murder of the Egyptian Minister of Islamic Endowment, Mohamed Hussain al-Zahabi. Though Mohamed denied any role in the murder, he admitted to being a recruiter for TWH. He also admitted that he served as the religious leader for TWH. After the murder, Egyptian authorities arrested many members of TWH, including Mohamed. He was convicted for his membership in the organization and served a 20-year prison sentence. Mohamed failed to include his arrest and conviction in his application to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services denied Mohamed's residency application and placed him in removal proceedings, charging him with lying in order to gain an immigration benefit. ICE vigorously sought a removal order in immigration court. Over the strong objections of ICE, an immigration judge in Miami granted Mohamed's request to become a lawful permanent resident. ICE successfully appealed this decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board agreed with ICE and reversed the ruling of the immigration judge. The Board ordered the removal of Mohamed on July 30, 2008.June 3, 2009, ICE deported Finnish Nationalist Henrik Holappa to Finland. Holappa had sought political asylum in the United States, but was arrested for a visa violation on March 9, 2009. Holappa associated closely with David Duke and John de Nugent. Holappa spent 87 days in the ICE custody in the ICE Detention Center in Batavia, New York.In September 2016, ICE deported Rwanda national Leopold Munyakazi, a suspect of Rwandan genocide.[24]January 31, 2018, ICE deported Amer "Al'' Adi Othman of Ohio in a "highly irregular rebuke of Congressional Authority" according to Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio. Mr. Othman was deported to Jordan despite having lived in the United States for nearly 40 years, married and having two children. Mr. Othman was to be Congressman Ryan's guest at the State of the Union Address on January 30, 2018, and due to his ongoing detention, his seat was left empty.[25]Immigration law Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287(g) allows ICE to establish increased cooperation and communication with state, and local law enforcement agencies. Section 287(g) authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions, pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), provided that the local law enforcement officers receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Under 287(g), ICE provides state and local law enforcement with the training and subsequent authorization to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.[26]

The 287(g) program is extremely controversial; it has been widely criticized for increasing racial profiling by police and undermining community safety because unlawful immigrant communities are no longer willing to report crimes or talk to law enforcement.[27]

The 287(g) program is one of several ICE ACCESS (ICE "Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security") programs that increase collaboration between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement agents.[28]

Additionally, an immigration detainer (Form I-247) is a notice that DHS issues to a federal, state and local law enforcement agency (LEA) to inform them that ICE intends to assume custody of an individual and to request that the LEA notify ICE prior to the time when the individual would otherwise be released. The new detainer form includes:

A request that the LEA provide the detainee with notice that ICE intends to assume custody;Emphasis that LEAs may only hold an individual for a period not to exceed 48 hours and a notice advising individuals that if ICE does not take them into custody within the 48 hours, they should contact the LEA to inquire about their release;Directions for individuals who may have a civil rights or civil liberties complaint regarding ICE activities; andEmphasis that the existence of a detainer should not impact or prejudice the individual's conditions of detention.The new form also allows ICE to make the detainer operative only upon the individual's conviction of the offense for which he or she was arrested.[29]

ICE has played a key role in investigating and arresting citizens suspected of possessing and distributing child pornography.[30] Because the vast majority of child pornography is produced outside the United States, HSI special agents utilize their authority to investigate persons and groups that traffic in this type of contraband, the importation of which via traditional mail or internet channels constitute violations of customs laws.[citation needed ]

Detention centers ICE operates detention centers throughout the United States that detain undocumented immigrants who are apprehended and placed into removal proceedings. About 34,000 people are held in immigration detention on any given day,[31] in over 200 detention centers, jails, and prisons nationwide.[32] Due to the United States detention bed quota, mandated by congress, that number will increase rather than decrease. The quota mandates at least 34,000 immigrants be held in detention each night. This is the sole law enforcement agency in the US with a minimum quota.[33][34]

In 2006, the T. Don Hutto Residential Center opened specifically to house non-criminal families. Other significant facilities are located in Lumpkin, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Oakdale, Louisiana; Florence, Arizona; Miami, Florida; Seattle; York, Pennsylvania; Batavia, New York; Aurora, Colorado; Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and all along the Texas''Mexico border.

Deaths in detention ICE has counted 107 deaths in detention from October 2003 to 2007. The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union recently obtained documents detailing the circumstances of these deaths, under the Freedom of Information Act. "The documents show how officials'--some still in key positions'--used their role as overseers to cover up evidence of mistreatment, deflect scrutiny by the news media or prepare exculpatory public statements after gathering facts that pointed to substandard care or abuse," The New York Times reported.[36] The deaths in detention included the following cases:

Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea, was left in an isolation cell for more than 13 hours after falling and suffering a head fracture before an ambulance was called. His family was not notified for five days of his injury.[37] A video shows Bah in the medical unit, before medical personnel sent him to the isolation cell. In the tape, his hands are handcuffed behind his back, he is face down, and he calls out repeatedly in his native language, Fulani: "Help, they are killing me!" Telephone and email records show that ten agency managers based in Newark and Washington discussed how to avoid the cost of his care and unwanted media attention. They considered sending Bah back to Guinea and reviewing his canceled work permit to see if it would be possible to get Medicaid or disability benefits. Eventually, they decided to release him to cousins in New York who objected that they had no way to care for Bah; however, days before this release was planned, Bah died.[36]Nery Romero was a 22-year-old Salvadoran immigrant with no previous history of mental illness who committed suicide in his cell in the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey. At the time of his detention, he was recovering from surgery in which metal pins had been placed in his leg, seriously broken in a motorcycle accident, and was taking strong prescription painkillers. According to Romero's cellmates and family, authorities failed to provide Romero with painkillers despite his repeated requests.[36] In a letter written to his mother shortly before his death, Romero stated: "I'm in hell. They don't give me nothing for my pain."[38]Sandra Kenley of Barbados, who did not receive treatment for a uterine fibroid tumor, died at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia in December 2006. An autopsy determined the cause of her death was acute coronary insufficiency due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease.[39][38]Abdoulai Sali died of an untreated kidney ailment in the Piedmont Regional Jail in Virginia.[38]Young Sook Kim died at the New Mexico Regional Jail in Albuquerque of pancreatic cancer in September 2006. She had asked for weeks to receive medical care, and died the day after she was taken to a hospital.[40]Corporate contracts Engineering and construction firm Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) released a press statement on January 24, 2006, that the company had been awarded a no-bid contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to support its ICE facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a one-year base period with four one-year options. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, the company said.

ICE Air ICE Air is the aviation division of ICE that charters aircraft or books commercial flights to send deportee back to their home countries.[41] There are 10 aircraft used to send deportees and has a working list of 185 countries.[41]

Deportees have legs and arms secured while boarding, handcuffs removed during flight and all shackles removed upon disembarking.

Criticisms Sexual abuse The Intercept published a report by the DHS Office of Inspector General revealing that 1,224 sexual abuse complaints while in immigration custody were filed between January 2010 and June 2017. Contrary to ICE's claims, only 3% of these complaints were investigated.[42]

Record number of deportations Between 2009 and 2016, President Obama deported a record 2.4 million immigrants, earning him the nickname "Deporter-In-Chief" by Janet Murgu­a, the president of National Council of La Raza.[43][44] According to ICE data, about 40% of those deported by ICE in 2015 had no criminal conviction, while majority of those convicted were guilty of minor charges.[45]

Separation of migrant children from their families A protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Philadelphia, June 2018.

As part of the 2018 Trump administration's zero tolerance policy, nearly 2,000 minors were separated from their parents while trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border and placed in detention centers.[46][47]Rolling Stone likened these centers to "prisons" while The Houston Chronicle reported that a movement swelled online to call them "concentration camps."[48][49] Similarly, former First Lady of the United States Laura Bush compared the images of the centers to U.S. Japanese internment camps during the Second World War.[50] 16 out of 34[51] of the centers located in Texas had previously been cited by Texas officials for more than 150 health violations.[52][relevant? '' discuss ] The former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Sandweg, was critical of child separation telling NBC News, ''You could easily end up in a situation where the gap between a parent's deportation and a child's deportation is years.'', and that many children might never see their parents again.[53]

See also References ^ "Strengthening Border Security: An American Budget" (PDF) . The White House . Retrieved 12 May 2018 . ^ "Leadership: Assistant Secretary John T. Morton". U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010 . Retrieved August 9, 2009 . ^ "Leadership". U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. June 21, 2014 . Retrieved June 21, 2014 . ^ "John T. Morton is appointed assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement". U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement . Retrieved June 25, 2017 . ^ Morton, John T. (22 August 2009). "Interview". Business of Government Hour. IBM Center for the Business of Government . Retrieved 20 August 2012 . ^ Jack Crow (18 June 2018). "Ex-CIA Chief Defends Tweet Comparing Trump Border Policy to Nazi Concentration Camps" . Retrieved 20 June 2018 . ^ Goo, Sara Kehaulani; Goo, Sara Kehaulani (June 19, 2003). "Air Marshals Seek a Flight Out of TSA to New Agency" '' via washingtonpost.com. ^ " " The Federal Air Marshal Service will be moved from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau to the Transportation Security Administration " ". ^ "Who We Are | ICE". Ice.gov. 2016-03-25 . Retrieved 2017-06-14 . ^ "ICE Leadership". Ice.gov. January 1, 1970 . Retrieved September 27, 2010 . ^ a b James, Nathan (3 September 2015). Federal Tactical Teams (Report). Congressional Research Service. CRS Report for Congress, R44179. ^ "Special response teams prep for high risk situations at Ft. Benning". U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Press release). 30 November 2011 . Retrieved 12 September 2017 . ^ "ICE Office of Detention and Removal (ERO) ICE Detention and Deportation Officer Conrad Agagan". Ice.gov. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010 . Retrieved September 27, 2010 . { ^ "2000 Archived Press Releases". Customs and Border Protection. March 16, 2001. Archived from the original on December 23, 2004 . Retrieved June 18, 2013 . ^ "Management Mess '' Features '' Magazine". GovExec.com. March 1, 2006 . Retrieved 2013-06-18 . ^ "CBP Today '' October/November 2004 '' Welcome Air and Marine Operations". Customs and Border Protection. October 31, 2004. Archived from the original on October 23, 2011 . Retrieved June 18, 2013 . ^ "Wasted Year". GovExec.com. March 2006 . Retrieved 2013-06-18 . ^ a b Dickerson, Caitlin (14 April 2017). "Trump Plan Would Curtail Protections for Detained Immigrants". The New York Times. p. A1 . Retrieved 15 April 2017 . ^ a b Office of Investigations-National Security Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. ^ Office of Investigations-Operation Community Shield Archived May 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. ^ a b c d ICE Office of Investigations-Investigative Services Division '' Cyber Branch Archived August 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. ^ "DHS.gov". DHS.gov. February 15, 2011 . Retrieved December 22, 2011 . ^ "Torrentfreak.com". Torrentfreak.com . Retrieved December 22, 2011 . ^ US deports Rwanda genocide suspect Leopold Munyakazi. ^ http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/01/youngstown_businessman_amer_ot.html ^ Budzinski, Joe (September 30, 2006). "287g training from ICE sought by many U.S. jurisdictions '' novatownhall blog". Novatownhall.com . Retrieved September 27, 2010 . ^ "Advocates Condemn Obama Administration's Expansion of DHS's Failed 287(g) Program '' Center for Media Justice". pitchengine.com. July 17, 2009 . Retrieved September 27, 2010 . ^ "Office of State and Local Coordination: ICE ACCESS". Ice.gov. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010 . Retrieved September 27, 2010 . ^ Fowler White Boggs P.A. (February 14, 2012). "New ICE Measures to Protect Aliens Detained by Local Law Enforcement". The National Law Review . Retrieved September 27, 2012 . ^ "Teacher faces charges of pornography". MassLive.com. November 29, 2006 . Retrieved September 27, 2010 . [dead link ] ^ Bernstein, Nina. "In-Custody Deaths". New York Times . Retrieved May 26, 2010 . ^ Anil Kalhan (2010). "Rethinking Immigration Detention". Columbia Law Review Sidebar. 110: 42''58. SSRN 1556867'¯ . ^ https://www.immigrantjustice.org/eliminate-detention-bed-quota ^ "Little-Known Immigration Mandate Keeps Detention Beds Full". NPR.org . Retrieved 2018-06-11 . ^ "Immigration Detention Justice Center" . Retrieved Dec 26, 2013 . ^ a b c Nina Bernstein (January 10, 2010). "Officials Hid Truth About Immigrant Deaths in Jail". The New York Times . Retrieved January 10, 2010 . ^ Nina Bernstein (May 5, 2008). "Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody". New York Times . Retrieved January 10, 2010 . ^ a b c "Documents: Deaths in Immigration Detention". The New York Times. January 10, 2010 . Retrieved January 10, 2010 . ^ https://pilotonline.com/news/article_22dd99dd-848f-5316-b8bb-51c024da504f.html ^ Nina Bernstein (June 26, 2007). "Deaths of immigrants in U.S. held for deportation spark scrutiny". New York Times . Retrieved January 10, 2010 . ^ a b "A rare look inside a deportation flight '' CNN Video". ^ "Immigration detention and sexual abuse" . Retrieved 2018-06-15 . ^ "Low-Priority Immigrants Still Swept Up in Net of Deportation". The New York Times. June 25, 2016 . Retrieved June 15, 2018 . ^ "National Council Of La Raza Dubs Obama 'Deporter-In-Chief ' ". NPR. March 4, 2014 . Retrieved June 15, 2018 . ^ Young, Elliott (February 27, 2017). "The Hard Truths About Obama's Deportation Priorities". HuffPost . Retrieved June 15, 2018 . ^ Touchberry, Ramsey (June 15, 2018). "Almost 45 children a day are being taken from their families and placed in immigrant detention centers: Report". Newsweek. ^ Kendzior, Sarah (17 June 2018). "The unspeakable cruelty of Trump's child-migrant camps". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 19 June 2018 . ^ Bort, Ryan (14 June 2018). "This Is the Prison-Like Border Facility Holding Migrant Children". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 19 June 2018 . ^ Ramirez, Fernando (June 15, 2018). "Movement to call migrant detention centers 'concentration camps' swells online". The Houston Chronicle. ^ Bush, Laura (2018-06-17). "Opinion Laura Bush: Separating children from their parents at the border 'breaks my heart ' ". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved 2018-06-19 . ^ "Shelters for immigrant children near capacity in Texas". KHOU . Retrieved 2018-06-19 . ^ Touchberry, Ramsey (June 12, 2018). "Texas immigrant children shelters had 150 health violations in the past year". Newsweek. ^ Joseph, Rebecca (June 19, 2018). "Separations of children, parents at U.S. border could be permanent: Former immigration director". GlobalNews. External links

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 02:44

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforces federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration to promote homeland security and public safety. ICE was created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the former U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. ICE now has more than 20,000 employees in more than 400 offices in the United States and 46 foreign countries. The agency has an annual budget of approximately $6 billion, primarily devoted to three operational directorates '' Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). A fourth directorate '' Management and Administration '' supports the three operational branches to advance the ICE mission.

Enforcement and Removal OperationsERO enforces the nation's immigration laws in a fair and effective manner. It identifies and apprehends removable aliens, detains these individuals when necessary and removes illegal aliens from the United States. Learn more about ERO.

Homeland Security InvestigationsThe HSI directorate is responsible for investigating a wide range of domestic and international activities arising from the illegal movement of people and goods into, within and out of the United States. Learn more about HSI.

Management and AdministrationICE's Management and Administration directorate includes professional managers and mission support staff who make the ICE mission possible. Learn more about M&A.

Office of the Principal Legal AdvisorOPLA is the exclusive legal representative in exclusion, deportation and removal proceedings against criminal aliens, terrorists and human rights abusers in immigration courts around the country. In addition, OPLA provides critical legal support to ICE components focusing on customs, cybersecurity, worksite enforcement, ethics, employment law, tort claims and administrative law issues. Learn more about OPLA.

Office of Professional ResponsibilityICE's OPR promotes public trust and confidence in ICE by ensuring organizational integrity is maintained through a multi-layered approach utilizing security, inspections and investigations. Learn more about OPR.

ICE Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2016-2020In January 2016, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued its strategic plan for fiscal years 2016-2020. This comprehensive plan laid out how ICE would most effectively meet its responsibilities for criminal investigation and civil immigration enforcement over the next five years. Moreover, ICE is taking steps to streamline and improve its management structure to give the agency a clearer sense of identity and focus.

The plan details three key goals for the agency's future:

Counter terrorism and protect the bordersProtect the borders through efficient immigration enforcementOperate an efficient, effective agencyFor more information, the full strategic plan is available for download.

Last Reviewed/Updated: 03/20/2018

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:31

Anthony Bourdain, the famed chef, author and television correspondent, killed himself in a French hotel room earlier this month. Credit Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press Anthony Bourdain did not have narcotics in his body when he died this month, a French judicial official said.

Mr. Bourdain, a New York chef, author and television correspondent whose death shook fans across the world, was found dead on June 8 in a hotel bathroom in Kaysersberg, a small village in the Alsace region of France.

Police at the time ruled his death a suicide by hanging. From an investigative standpoint, the only question left was whether he had any substances in his body.

There were none, save for the trace of a nonnarcotic medicine in a therapeutic dose, Christian de Rocquigny, the local prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said in a text message to The New York Times.

Mr. Bourdain, 61, had been in the village filming his CNN show ''Parts Unknown'' with Eric Ripert, the chef of Le Bernardin in New York.

Mr. Bourdain had skipped dinner the evening before his body was discovered. When he did not arrive for breakfast with Mr. Ripert the next morning, a receptionist went into his room and found his body.

Mr. Bourdain was cremated in France and his remains and travel belongings were sent to his younger brother and only sibling, Christopher. The family will likely have a small, private ceremony of some kind, said Gladys Bourdain, his mother.

''He would want as little fuss as possible,'' she said.

Ms. Bourdain, a former editor at The New York Times, said she planned to get ''Tony'' tattooed in small letters on the inside of her wrist next week as a personal memorial to her son.

She said she was never a fan of Mr. Bourdain's tattoos, which chronicled his culinary journeys. But she plans to use his tattoo artist. It will be her only tattoo.

Mr. Bourdain, who grew up in New Jersey and cooked at several restaurants in New York, rose to fame after he published his memoir ''Kitchen Confidential'' in 2000. The raucous look at what really goes on inside professional kitchens helped personify the bad boy chef as a cultural icon.

He was frank about his once prolific use of cocaine, heroin and other drugs, and in a 2014 episode of ''Parts Unknown'' that explored the nation's opioid epidemic, he said he bought his first bag of heroin on the Lower East Side in 1980, when he was 24.

Kimberly Witherspoon, Mr. Bourdain's longtime agent who said she was authorized to speak for Ottavia Bourdain, his wife, said there is no plan for a public memorial ''at this time.''

The couple, who had a daughter together, had been amicably separated since 2016. For nearly two years, Mr. Bourdain had been romantically involved with the Italian actor and director Asia Argento, one of the first women to come forward with claims of a longstanding pattern of sexual abuse and harassment by Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer who is facing charges in New York City that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex.

Mr. Bourdain emerged as a vocal supporter of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in his final months, often with Ms. Argento at his side.

Adam Nossiter contributed reporting from Paris.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:25

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, Calif. '--Koko the gorilla who mastered sign language, raised kittens and once playfully tried on the glasses of the late actor Robin Williams, has died. She was 46.

The Gorilla Foundation says the western lowland gorilla died in her sleep at the foundation's preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Tuesday.Koko's capacity for language and empathy opened the minds and hearts of millions of people, the foundation said. She appeared in many documentaries and twice in National Geographic. The gorilla's 1978 cover featured a photo that the animal had taken of herself in a mirror.

koko.org / Caregiver

KokoWilliams, another San Francisco Bay area legend, met Koko in 2001 and called it a "mind-altering experience." The two hold hands and tickle each other in a widely shared video.

"We shared something extraordinary: Laughter," he says. "Koko understands spoken English and uses over 1,000 signs to share her feelings and thoughts about daily events. Life, love, even death."

"It was awesome and unforgettable," said the actor, who killed himself in August 2014.

Fans mourned Koko's passing, and the foundation's website experienced excessive traffic on Thursday.

"Legit bawling like a baby right now," posted a person on the foundation's Facebook page. "From an early age I was fascinated with Koko and she taught me so much about love, kindness, respect for animals, and our planet." Ron Cohn

Koko holds a kitten

Another person posted: "At least Koko can finally be reunited with All Ball."

"All Ball" was the name of the first of several kittens Koko raised into cat-hood. She chose the gray-and-white kitten from a litter for her birthday in 1984, according to a 1985 Los Angeles Times article.

"The cat was a Manx and looked like a ball. Koko likes to rhyme words in sign language," said Ron Cohn, a biologist with the foundation.

All Ball died after being hit by a car. Cohn said she was devastated by the kitten's death.

Koko was born at the San Francisco Zoo, and Dr. Francine Patterson began teaching the gorilla sign language that became part of a Stanford University project in 1974.

In 2004, she used American Sign Language to communicate that her mouth hurt and used a pain scale of 1 to 10 to show how badly it hurt, according to an AP news story.

Koko was also part of a lawsuit when two former caretakers said they had been fired to refusing to bare their breasts to the gorilla, who apparently loved nipples. The women settled with the foundation in 2005.

Koko painted objects in her environment but also expressions of her thoughts and emotions. She used signed language to name her paintings.

The foundation says it will honor Koko's legacy with a sign language application featuring Koko for the benefit of gorillas and children, as well as other projects.

Hey Adam!

I saw that the death of Koko

the gorilla was mentioned in the NA newsletter and thought I'd pass along some

disturbing details about Koko in case you discuss her death on the show. I

worked as a zookeeper for several years and met people who had cared for

Koko.

The first is that Koko had a

fetish for women's nipples and asked to see them via sign language. Which isn't

so bad since she is an animal (although I wonder how she learned that people

had nipples and who taught her the sign for them); what is disturbing is that

the head of Koko's research, Francine Patterson, demanded that employees show

their breasts to Koko or their employment would be terminated. Here's an

article on it: https://www.livescience.com/3950-lawsuit-koko-gorilla-nipple-fetish-resolved.html

The second has to do with the

children's book "Koko's Kitten", a charming story about how Koko

formed a friendship with a kitten. From what I have heard from other keepers,

Koko would regularly torture, kill, and dismember kittens (if I remember

correctly, she liked pulling their tails off while they were still alive), then

demand replacements. This is typical behavior for apes- they can be extremely

nasty and most will slowly torture and kill any wild animals that fall into

their enclosures, then males will often use the body to masturbate- but

Patterson again indulged Koko by getting her more kittens. The general

consensus from other keepers was that Patterson was completely nuts and had a

very strange attachment to Koko, worse than even current-day dog owners. While

zookeepers work very hard to keep the animals we care for happy, I have never

known any that would go to these extremes.

Feel free to use any of this

on the show!

Jen

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:20

Look at photographs or film clips from the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley and you will see there is something missing: the flag of St George. Most of the flags being waved in the crowd are Union Jacks. This was still a time when Englishness and Britishness were essentially coterminous or considered to be interchangeable, by the English at least, and when the United Kingdom could be rationalised as, in the words of the Cambridge historian David Reynolds,''a mini-English empire''.

Fabio Capello, the Italian hardman who managed the England football team from 2008-12, describes the 1966 World Cup triumph as the ''returning ghost'' of our national game. It's an astute observation because we are haunted by the events of that radiant July afternoon when Alf Ramsey's side, captained by the blond-haired gentleman East Ender Bobby Moore, defeated Germany 4-2 after extra time. England have won nothing since nor have they even reached another major final. Baddiel and Skinner's ''30 years of hurt'' have become 52 years of traumatic penalty shoot-out defeats and abject capitulations in international tournaments.

****

When did England football fans embrace the flag of St George? In the 1970s, when I was growing up, the English flag was associated with far-right groups and nasty nationalists. The England team had a hardcore hooligan faction: repellently racist and always on the lookout for trouble. By the time of Euro 96, however, the image of England football fans had softened somewhat in the era of the Premier League, which was being marketed as a ''whole new ball game'' and was attracting financial speculators as well as the more affluent middle classes.

When I went to see England play Scotland at Wembley during Euro 96, the flag of St George was everywhere: waved in the crowd, draped from the windows of buildings and attached to and flown from cars. This flourishing of English nationalism felt quite different from the anger and disenchantment of the 1970s: it was more inclusive, civic and benign. A country at ease with itself as Tony Blair's New Labour prepared for power? It didn't quite turn out as some of us hoped.

****

Who are the English and what do they want? The vote for Brexit has been described as an English revolt; what George Orwell, in a different context, called a ''tug from below'', a rising up of the ordinary people of the towns and shires against complacent metropolitans. England is the largest country in Europe without its own political institutions. So far there is no pressing demand for an English parliament or even for greater devolution within and to England; but the rise and increasing assertiveness of Scottish nationalism has forced the English into a reconsideration of their own position within the union. Before too long, the discontinuities in the United Kingdom will force a reappraisal of our unsatisfactory constitutional settlement.

From the Act of Union of 1707, what Jeremy Black in English Nationalism: a Short History calls the ''political tone and agenda'' of the new British state were set in London and southern England. ''This was the basis of British consciousness,'' Black writes, ''a development that did not so much alter the views of the English political elite, for whom Britain was essentially an extension of England, but, rather, that reflected the determination of the Scottish, and, to a lesser extent, Welsh and Irish Protestant elites to link their fate to the British state.''

****

Today the rickety British state is showing its age. And a World Cup summer invariably reawakens a suppressed sense of English national self-consciousness, never appreciated in Scotland. ''The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of 11 named people,'' as Eric Hobsbawm wrote. The England football team embodies many of the contradictions of the English nation. For a start, during the pre-match formalities, the players sing not an English anthem but ''God Save the Queen'', which Scottish and Welsh sporting teams have long since ditched. The hauntedness of English football '' this longing to recapture something lost '' is not an isolated phenomenon but an expression of what it means to be English, which goes back to the Norman conquest and the Harrying of the North or even before. As Ferdinand Mount has written, the dominant tone of English discourse is ''one of regret, of nostalgia rather than self-congratulation''.

The forces of nostalgia contributed to the Brexit vote and they inform much of the rhetoric of the hard Brexiteers: this yearning for Britain, or Greater England, unchained from the EU, to renew its historic role as a buccaneering Anglosphere great power.

****

On the eve of England's plucky victory over Tunisia, coach Gareth Southgate, who leads a harmonious and likeable multiracial squad, spoke of his pride and patriotism. ''My family are incredibly patriotic. My grandad was a marine. I've always been brought up with England being a core part of what we stood for and my life [sic].''

This is the authentic voice of the decent England fan. We have heard this language from Alex Salmond and other Scottish nationalists. But few people on the left in England speak in this way of patriotism and love of country, which is one reason why the working class is abandoning Labour.

At the end of English Nationalism, Black argues that an intellectual elite has failed to ''confront the issue that England exists, and that its role and character are being pushed to the fore as the stability of the United Kingdom comes under increasing pressure''. He is surely right. And if English nationalism is repressed or denied it will return in ways altogether disagreeable to liberals, from the emergence of Nigel Farage's ''people's army'' to the vote for Brexit.

This article first appeared in the 22 June 2018 issue of the New Statesman, Conservatives in crisis

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 14:09

Please visit this page on a desktop computer to make your own bracket.

1 Select the first- and second-place finishers in each group to advance to the knockout stageHover over a team's name to see its chances of reaching each possible match

Group A1st place2nd placeRussia Saudi Arabia Egypt Uruguay Group B1st place2nd placePortugal Spain Morocco Iran Group C1st place2nd placeFrance Australia Peru Denmark Group D1st place2nd placeArgentina Iceland Croatia Nigeria Group E1st place2nd placeBrazil Switzerland Costa Rica Serbia Group F1st place2nd placeGermany Mexico Sweden South Korea Group G1st place2nd placeBelgium Panama Tunisia England Group H1st place2nd placePoland Senegal Colombia Japan 2 Click on a team to advance it to the next matchHover over a match to see teams' chances of reaching it

Group A

1st place

Group B

2nd place

Group C

1st place

Group D

2nd place

Group E

1st place

Group F

2nd place

Group G

1st place

Group H

2nd place

Group A

2nd place

Group B

1st place

Group C

2nd place

Group D

1st place

Group E

2nd place

Group F

1st place

Group G

2nd place

Group H

1st place

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 23:35

/ the national interest June 22, 2018 06/22/2018 1:24 pm By Jonathan Chait @jonathanchait The most important thing to understand about the Russia scandal is that it perfectly fits a clear pattern of behavior. What Vladimir Putin is accused of doing to help Donald Trump win the presidency is essentially identical to what he is either accused of or proven to have done to help many other right-wing candidates in many other countries. As the plot in the United States is slowly exposed, a remarkably similar one in the United Kingdom is quickly surfacing.

Months before the United States narrowly elected Trump, the United Kingdom narrowly elected to withdraw from the European Union. Both votes advanced Russian foreign policy goals '-- in the latter case, by splitting up the Western alliance. (Trump has energetically pursued this strategy, too.) Russia employed many of the same tools to influence both elections. It deployed social-media bots and trolls to spread its message. It recruited friendly candidates who gave voice to previously marginal Russophile positions. And, as the newly surfaced evidence suggests, it indirectly financed the campaign.

British magnate Arron Banks supported the Brexit campaign with the largest political donation in British history. Leaked documents obtained by British reporter Carole Cadwalladr suggest Banks had more than mere philanthropic motives for this donation. Banks met several times with representatives of the Russian government, contradicting his previous claim to have met with Russians just one time.

More significantly, the documents suggest the Russians dangled a lucrative business deal. He would have the chance to buy in to a gold-mining consolidation, ''potentially netting a profit of several billion dollars.'' Banks denies that the gold deal ever happened, or that any of the meetings included any surreptitious collusion. ''It's a convenient political witch-hunt, both over Brexit and Trump,'' he insists, using the same term favored by Trump.

To say that Bank's defenses appear suspicious is a substantial understatement. If his meetings were innocent, why did he lie? If he never consummated the Russian gold-mining deal, why did he tweet at the time that he was investing in a big gold-mining deal?

I'm buying gold at the moment & big mining stocks ... https://t.co/4IzIxLjMO9

'-- Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) July 17, 2016The unfolding scandal in Britain contains many of the hallmarks of Russian covert influence elsewhere. The Russians are not manufacturing an issue out of whole cloth '-- nationalism clearly has an authentic popular basis '-- but instead use their influence to magnify it. They cloak their influence behind undisclosed meetings and hidden financial transfers. And when their partners' lies about their contacts are exposed, they insist they lied for no apparent reason and have nothing else to hide.

The dangling of the gold-mine deal likewise reflects a classic Putin-era Russian strategy. The most lucrative sectors of Russia's oligarch-driven economy involve monopolies over natural resources. They are the perfect bait for functional bribes. Russia can send businessmen, who may be operating with quiet support or control from the Kremlin, to offer deals that promise guaranteed profits. And those profits can be cover to inject Russian money into the West. If Banks was promised a lucrative gold-mining deal, as it appears, then he may have functioned as essentially a pass-through, enabling Russia to finance the Brexit referendum.

Trump has many surface ties to the Brexiteers. He has met with Banks and the nationalist leader Nigel Farage. He has echoed their rhetoric and even their cause, labeling himself ''Mr. Brexit.'' But more revealing is the pattern of similarities below the surface. The covert meetings, the endless false denials that they took place at all, the patina of legitimate business discussions, and the web of undisclosed financial ties. To believe that neither Trump nor Banks colluded directly with Russia in 2016 is to believe in an awful lot of strange coincidences.

Britain's Russia Collusion Scandal Looks Just Like Trump's

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:50

April Greer | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Jeff Bezos

Online retailers saw their shares slide on Thursday following the Supreme Court's decision to allow states to collect more sales tax from e-commerce companies.

But Amazon, the largest online retailer that's become nearly synonymous with e-commerce, stands to benefit from the court ruling, law experts say.

"Amazon should be helped because it is collecting sales tax in every state, while it is the Wayfairs of the world who are directly hurt," John Swain, a law professor at the University of Arizona, told CNBC.

Thursday's Supreme Court decision overturned a ruling from 1992 that allowed online retailers to skirt sales tax collection responsibilities in states where they don't have a physical presence. Since Amazon already collects sales tax in every state on the products it sells directly, which account for roughly half of all units sold on its site, the court ruling should have less impact on how much it charges for its products.

The other half of products on Amazon are sold by third-party merchants on Amazon's marketplace. They potentially face the added burden of collecting sales tax in states that begin taxing online sales.

Most of Amazon's competitors, like Wayfair or Overstock, are in a more difficult position because they haven't been as rigorous or complete about collecting sales tax in states they don't have a physical presence. Now that they could have to collect tax throughout much of the U.S., beating Amazon on price will become even harder.

Amazon shares were down less than 1 percent Thursday. Overstock, however, saw its shares drop over 6 percent, while Wayfair shares dropped by roughly 8 percent before recovering.

"We see limited impact on Amazon," Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, wrote in a note published Thursday, adding medium-sized merchants that do not already collect sales tax in most U.S. jurisdictions will be most exposed to the ruling.

The more important question for Amazon is how Thursday's decision will change the way its third-party sellers, who have become a rapidly growing piece of the business, collect sales tax.

Paul Rafelson, a law professor at Pace University, says the Supreme Court decision doesn't really address this issue, "punting" most of the questions related to marketplace sellers.

In the marketplace, Amazon facilitates the sales of third-party merchant products, so it's unclear whether Amazon or the third-party seller should be responsible for collecting tax.

"Amazon can hide behind its marketplace to claim tax exemption because it's still going to pretend it's not a retailer '-- and not responsible for collecting sales taxes," Rafelson said. "There's still a lot of legal questions that need to be answered."

Up to the statesAn Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company isn't commenting on the ruling.

Some states, like Washington, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, now require Amazon and other online marketplaces to collect sales tax on behalf of their third-party sellers. Others make it the seller's responsibility.

But because of the new Supreme Court decision, states may decide to go after individual sellers, freeing Amazon from the complicated tax collection process in different states, said Matt Boch, an attorney from law firm Dover Dixon Horne.

"The [ruling] may slow the adoption of these marketplace collection laws and instead leave states going after the platform sellers directly under an economic nexus approach," Boch said.

Rafelson said the best solution would be for Congress to take action and come up with a standardized approach on how to tax online sellers. Under the current law, each state has different requirements and policies, making it difficult to charge sales tax.

"There's no commonality in the way the state do it," he said. "Congress needs to standardize this stuff because otherwise, it gets out of control."

WATCH: Date for Amazon Prime day may have been leaked

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:50

U.S.-made bourbon whiskey is now under a 25 percent tariff in the European Union, in retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum. Stefano Rellandini/Reuters hide caption

toggle caption Stefano Rellandini/Reuters U.S.-made bourbon whiskey is now under a 25 percent tariff in the European Union, in retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Stefano Rellandini/Reuters More than $3 billion worth of U.S. goods '-- from bourbon and corn to Harley Davidson motorcycles '-- are now under a 25 percent tariff in the European Union, in retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs that hit the EU, Mexico and Canada earlier this month.

"The trade that we believe in is built on rules, trust and reliable partnership," President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a speech in Dublin last night. "The United States' decision to impose tariffs on Europe goes against that. In fact, it goes against all logic and history."

When the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum went into effect on June 1, the EU said they were "illegal," pledged to impose its own tariffs, and filed a case against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization.

The EU put some 180 types of products on its tariffs list, from agricultural products like orange and cranberry juice to steel and aluminium items to manufactured goods, such as makeup, clothes, and boats.

The steepest taxes '-- 50 percent '-- were imposed on shirts, pants and bedding, made from both cotton and synthetic fibers. Suntanning equipment '-- sunbeds and lamps '-- was hit with the same rate, as were washing machines and some electronic devices.

The U.S. tariffs hit some $7.5 billion of European products; the EU says that today's measures target nearly half that figure, and that it plans to impose a slightly larger block of tariffs later '-- either in three years, or if/when the WTO rules in its favor.

"The rules of international trade, which we have developed ... with our American partners, cannot be violated without a reaction from our side," Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstr¶m said. "Our response is measured, proportionate and fully in line with WTO rules."

Malmstr¶m added that if the U.S. removes its tariffs, the European taxes would also be lifted.

When the U.S. imposed the tariffs it said it was doing so as a matter of national security '-- further angering its closest allies, whose tariffs are now targeting President Trump's base of support '-- in the steel and aluminum industries, but also in farming states, and in whiskey-producing Kentucky.

In addition to the EU, both Mexico and Canada have responded with their own tariff threats.

There could be yet another round of U.S. tariffs. Trump has threatened to impose new taxes on European and other imported cars '-- an idea that caught many by surprise, because domestic automakers GM and Ford have been thriving, and foreign companies such as BMW, Toyota and Honda now have large plants in the U.S.

The U.S. is also locked in a tariff showdown with China, after President Trump said he would use the import taxes to try to shift the balance of trade between the world's top two economies. The countries have hit each other with tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods; Trump has threatened to add another $200 billion.

As for what the effects of those tariffs could be, here's what former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez '-- and current chair of the National Foreign Trade Council '-- told The Financial Times this week:

"The parties that will be most impacted are US companies," he said. "They are going to report bad earnings. It is going to hurt the stock market. Even worse we are going to put people out of work and it is going to spark inflation in our country . . . The logic of that is what companies throughout the country are feeling."

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:08

McCain minority staff director Henry Kerner to IRS official Lois Lerner and other IRS

officials: ''the solution is to audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous''

(Washington, DC) '' Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain's former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to ''audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous.'' Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.

The explosive exchange was contained in notes taken by IRS employees at an April 30, 2013, meeting between Kerner, Lerner, and other high-ranking IRS officials. Just ten days following the meeting, former IRS director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner admitted that the IRS had a policy of improperly and deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status from conservative non-profit groups.

Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a ''marathon'' meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the ''worst decisions I have ever seen.''

In the full notes of an April 30 meeting, McCain's high-ranking staffer Kerner recommends harassing non-profit groups until they are unable to continue operating. Kerner tells Lerner, Steve Miller, then chief of staff to IRS commissioner, Nikole Flax, and other IRS officials, ''Maybe the solution is to audit so many that it is financially ruinous.'' In response, Lerner responded that ''it is her job to oversee it all:''

Henry Kerner asked how to get to the abuse of organizations claiming section 501 (c)(4) but designed to be primarily political. Lois Lerner said the system works, but not in real time. Henry Kerner noted that these organizations don't disclose donors. Lois Lerner said that if they don't meet the requirements, we can come in and revoke, but it doesn't happen timely. Nan Marks said if the concern is that organizations engaging in this activity don't disclose donors, then the system doesn't work. Henry Kerner said that maybe the solution is to audit so many that it is financially ruinous. Nikole noted that we have budget constraints. Elise Bean suggested using the list of organizations that made independent expenditures. Lois Lerner said that it is her job to oversee it all, not just political campaign activity.

Judicial Watch previously reported on the 2013 meeting. Senator McCain then issued a statement decrying ''false reports claiming that his office was somehow involved in IRS targeting of conservative groups.'' The IRS previously blacked out the notes of the meeting but Judicial Watch found the notes among subsequent documents released by the agency.

Judicial Watch separately uncovered that Lerner was under significant pressure from both Democrats in Congress and the Obama DOJ and FBI to prosecute and jail the groups the IRS was already improperly targeting. In discussing pressure from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat-Rhode Island) to prosecute these ''political groups,'' Lerner admitted, ''it is ALL about 501(c)(4) orgs and political activity.''

The April 30, 2013 meeting came just under two weeks prior to Lerner's admission during an ABA meeting that the IRS had ''inappropriately'' targeted conservative groups. In her May 2013 answer to a planted question, in which she admitted to the ''absolutely incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate'' targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups, Lerner suggested the IRS targeting occurred due to an ''uptick'' in 501 (c)(4) applications to the IRS but in actuality, there had been a decrease in such applications in 2010.

On May 14, 2013, a report by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration revealed: ''Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status'' (e.g., lists of past and future donors). The illegal IRS reviews continued ''for more than 18 months'' and ''delayed processing of targeted groups' applications'' in advance of the 2012 presidential election.

All these documents were forced out of the IRS as a result of an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the IRS after it failed to respond adequately to four FOIA requests sent in May 2013 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)). Judicial Watch is seeking:

All records related to the number of applications received or related to communications between the IRS and members of the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate regarding the review process for organizations applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)(4);All records concerning communications between the IRS and the Executive Branch or any other government agency regarding the review process for organizations applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)(4);Copies of any questionnaires and all records related to the preparation of questionnaires sent to organizations applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status.All records related to Lois Lerner's communication with other IRS employees, as well as government or private entity outside the IRS regarding the review and approval process for 501 (c)(4) applicant organizations.''The Obama IRS scandal is bipartisan '' McCain and Democrats who wanted to regulate political speech lost at the Supreme Court, so they sought to use the IRS to harass innocent Americans,'' said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. ''The Obama IRS scandal is not over '' as Judicial Watch continues to uncover smoking gun documents that raise questions about how the Obama administration weaponized the IRS, the FEC, FBI, and DOJ to target the First Amendment rights of Americans.''

###

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:49

You're reading NPR's weekly roundup of education news.

Alex Green/Getty Images/Ikon Images Alex Green/Getty Images/Ikon Images

World Health Organization recognizes gaming as addictive disorder

Gaming disorder is the newest addictive disorder listed in the World Health Organization's medical diagnostic guide. Symptoms include prioritizing video games over responsibilities and other activities, having no control over impulses to play, and increasing time spent playing video games regardless of the consequences. To be diagnosed, a person must have "significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning" in the last year, according to the WHO.

Gaming disorder was added because a number of treatment programs for adults and teens with this addiction have sprung up around the world, the organization said. Additionally, the WHO reviewed existing evidence and consulted with experts before the addition.

Dr. Michael Bishop runs a treatment program he calls "a summer camp for screen overuse," and this spring he told NPR's Anya Kamenetz that one category of teens he often sees is boys, overwhelmingly, who spend so much time playing video games that they "fall behind in their social skills." Often they are battling depression or anxiety, or they may be on the autism spectrum.

Healthcare professionals around the world use these codes and definitions in the WHO's International Classification of Diseases as a common foundation to talk about illness, disease and causes of death. Adding gaming disorder to the ICD can help countries develop public health programs to address it.

White House proposes big changes to Education Department

On Thursday, the White House announced a plan to overhaul the Education Department, merging it with the Labor Department to create a new Cabinet agency: the Department of Education and the Workforce.

The new department would include four sub''agencies, including one that would bring together workforce development and higher education. Separate agencies would be dedicated to K-12 education, research and administration, and enforcement '-- both of worker protections and student civil rights laws.

"The logic behind this proposal is painfully thin," Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, responded in a statement.

Republican Virginia Foxx, of North Carolina, said the proposed department "is recognition of the clear relationship between education policy at every level and the needs of the growing American workforce."

The merger is one of many consolidations announced on Thursday in a 132-page document. The proposals are part of President Trump's broad vision to streamline the federal government and will require congressional approval.

Teachers and staff killed in the Parkland and Santa Fe shootings remembered in national memorial

Ten teachers and staff who were killed while working at schools over the last year were added to the Memorial to Fallen Educators on Thursday. Half the people memorialized were killed in the Parkland, Fla. and Santa Fe, Texas school shootings, and half lost their lives in accidents while working.

The Memorial to Fallen Educators, nestled on Emporia State University's campus in Kansas, was created in 2013 after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Emporia's campus is also home to the National Teachers Hall of Fame. The memorial was re-dedicated at Thursday's ceremony after President Trump signed legislation earlier this year that officially designated it a national memorial.

A dream catcher created by a Native American tribe in Minnesota after the Columbine shooting in 1999 will now permanently reside at the memorial as well. The dream catcher has travelled from Columbine to Newtown to Parkland.

Federal Commission on School Safety discusses media's influence on school violence

The impact of kids' exposure to cyberbullying, violent entertainment and widespread media coverage of school shootings was the subject of discussion at a Thursday hearing of the Federal Commission on School Safety. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos invited experts in each field to present research to the commission that was established in March as a response to the Parkland shooting. The commission will release recommendations on how to make schools safer by the end of this year.

When talking about cyberbullying, panelists emphasized the need to create positive school climates and highlight positive social media use. But the lasting effects of violent media, like video games and movies, divided the experts.

Rowell Huesmann, the director of an aggression research program at the University of Michigan, said the more children are exposed to violence as a way for people to approach problems, the more likely they will encode this behavior to use later. But Christopher Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University, said studies about aggression are not replicated well and that a more reliable predictor of later violence is a combination of factors, including a child's mental health and family environment.

The commission also heard from media researchers who said that large amounts of media coverage of a school shooting can have a kind of contagion effect, inspiring similar attacks. The experts recommended media organizations refrain from using an attacker's name or photo, as these shootings are often driven by a desire for fame.

Some panelists did ask the commission to consider the role of guns and gun access, though DeVos has said it will not.

Hi Adam - great shows EVERY week - ammaaaazzzzing! My

name is not really “Ben”, but I am a monthly, low-dose contributor to the show

and I’d prefer to remain anonymous regarding this topic.

I started a doctoral program at University of Southern

California - supposedly a very prestigious private university - last year.

According to Business Insider, USC is the 8th most expensive college in the US

in 2018, with annual student costs exceeding $60,000 a year. Imagine my

surprise when I discover that - instead of a state-of-the-art in-house IT

infrastructure - I was issued a USC-branded Gmail account, the GSuite set of

tools for document production (inadequate for academic writing) and a Google

Drive to store my academic writings and intellectual and artistic products. USC

is ALL-IN on the Googles! My first thought was - how can USC be so cheap with

the tech services they provide, but then I thought - can Google scan my

communications with fellow students, professors, and administrators? When I

turn in academic writings and finished artistic projects via Gmail and GDrive -

does Google have access to my intellectual property? This is not good and what

are they doing with all that dough? Well, apparently spending it on attorneys,

now that the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights is investigating

their handling of recent sexual harassment claims.

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/office-civil-rights-launches-investigation-university-southern-californias-handling-sexual-harassment-claims

The Facebag/Googlization of everything proceeds apace….

All the best and "In The Morning”!!!

“Ben"

Dear

John and Adam,

I

took John’s request and looked through the Learn.KQED.org

site from my perspective as an educator. I put my knowledge from my two

master's degrees to work, but this site seems to be just another drop in an

ocean of sites and curriculum programs that are designed to give students a

digital learning experience that ends with them having learned jack shit.

These kind of sites (such as Khan Academy as well) are little more than

glorified lectures with some digital bells and whistles thrown in to make

teachers feel like their students are “interacting” and “digging” into the

content when in fact they are just watching a boring ass video.

In

reality most teachers that I know are ready to throw out all technology in

their classes and go back to slate and chisels because it is a nightmare having

an authentic learning experience in the classroom when a kid can just angle

their monitor a bit and play games all class, switching windows whenever you as

the teacher get to close. They think they are being so damn sneaky but

the reality is half the time we don’t care because their computer game is about

as educational compelling as these online learning modules.

The

fact is that Common Core Standards and most state standards largely spell out

the skills that students should be developing. These types of online

learning programs use all the right buzz words about the depth of student

learning taking place, but they are at best shallow and at worse teaching

students What to think instead of How to think.

I

am a history teacher. What the hell do I need some video telling my kids

what the US Constitution means when I can have them read, discuss, and research

the Constitution themselves? We are so concerned in education about

students getting the right answer on standardized tests that we sometimes

abandon the essential core of education, which should be giving students the

tools to know how to ask their own questions and find reliable answers.

Amidst

all this teachers are figuring out how to make school a positive place where

kids actually want to learn. That is where PBIS (Positive Behavior and

Intervention Supports) comes in. The idea is to be school wide programs

to promote community. What it has turned into is the same curriculum

companies like Pearson creating shitty “anti-bullying” curriculums that schools

buy and make teachers teach. I can tell you that nothing will make a

middle schooler’s eyes roll quicker than if you try to initiate a conversation

with them about what they should do if they see bullying happening around

them. Interesting fact, did you know PBIS was originally PBS (Positive

Behavior Supports) but PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) threatened to sue for

trademark violation!

Anyway,

hope this helps put things into perspective. Technology has its uses but

it has unfortunately become just another way for companies to try to monetize

education and the ones who get hurt in the end are the students that come out

of school knowing only how to watch a 10 minute video and answer the multiple

choice questions that go with the video. There is a reason teachers are

ditching the computers left and right and rediscovering the virtues of good old

fashioned pencil and paper!

ITM

gentlemen,

Sir

Ryan Thompson

I emailed a few months ago about my experience teaching in

the hood of Nashville.

I just finished Sunday's show and I have a few thoughts:

1. All school districts are run by people 50+ who have no

clue how tech works. They think the more tech we have the better. I hear them

say things like "our students are masters at tech, and if we want them to

be successful they need as much access as possible". The reality is that

kids don't care and they hate laptops. They want to just use their phone and

write on paper. I can't tell you how many kids I've taught that want to get

away from tech and even enjoy when I take their phone.

2. Google education suite sucks and all teachers/students

know it. There are a few brain washed individuals (especially here in Seattle)

but for the most part people are catching up to the low quality of

Google.

3. John is right, behavior has always been taught in schools

cause we have to. Parents now think they don't have to feed or teach their

child. The issue is the equity programs that rank kids based on their color.

The truth again is that kids see through this crap and use the system to

benefit themselves. I've taught 5th-12th and each age knows how to work the

system. The adults are the dumb ones who think this crap will actually work.

The kids play the game long enough to not be in trouble and do whatever they

want.

Alright, rant over. Thank you again for everything you do!!

I'm now one of those people who only listen to your show for my news and I just

cancelled Netflix/Hulu so I can pay you guys a monthly amount (Teacher single

income doesn't go far).

--

Nathan

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jun 2018 12:38

Google is set to announce an initiative Thursday in which its slate of services and products '-- known as G Suite, specifically G Suite Education '-- will be fully available to homeschoolers and their leaders for the first time ever.

The software tools are valuable for fostering collaboration, productivity, and creativity in a system of education that is often overlooked, according to the tech company and groups representing the home-schooled.

''One parent at a homeschool co-op [Partnership Homeschool Educational Association of Minnesota] described it as a 'life-saver,''' Jennifer Holland, senior program manager in the Google for Education division, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. ''It can improve the quality of writing by tracking how things change over time. Also, before, parents and students would have to turn in assignments by email and in person, making it hard to keep track of everything. Google classroom provided them that glue.''

Many Google enthusiasts, or general users of the internet due to the tech giant's ubiquitousness, are well aware of the free proprietary applications like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Drive, Sites, Hangouts, and Classroom.

More aptly, organizations and businesses are able to sign up for an administrator account in which they can manage those Google services for members or employees. But Google only granted such capabilities to formal education institutions initially, doing so by identifying those recognized with a ''.edu'' domain. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), a nonprofit homeschool advocacy group, reached out to Google to ask if those that it represents could be provided with such a technological capacity.

''HSLDA advocates for home-schooling because we've seen that the freedom, flexibility, and one-on-one elements of this educational option work,'' Darren Jones, staff attorney for the HSLDA and the author of the soon-to-be-published Google blog post, told TheDCNF. ''Like any teacher, homeschool co-op teachers find that ongoing interaction with students helps the children learn. Today, a lot of that interaction can occur electronically, and Google's G Suite for Education aids that learning process.''

When asked if he and his organization was initially irritated that Google did not include homeschoolers in the first place, Jones said it's not surprising or really the company's fault because ''no state accredits homeschools or homeschool co-ops.''

''So since Google was making its educational collaboration software available only to accredited schools, homeschool co-ops were not eligible,'' he continued. ''HSLDA strongly opposes discrimination against homeschool students, so we were very happy that Google has agreed to open up the software to co-ops that can use it.''

While they vary, co-ops are part of an arrangement in which anywhere from around 30 to 100 (even sometimes up to 150) students from individual homes gather weekly, biweekly or monthly to partake in educational activities that require or are benefited from team efforts, or are more hands-on.

As of 2012, there are 1,773,000 American children ages five to 17 that are home-schooled, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Education, a 61.8 percent increase in 10 years. That means 3.4 percent of students with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through 12th grade are educated outside the public and traditional private school systems. The home-schooling movement to some observers is now more than just its more prominent manifestation in the 1980s, which seemed to be spearheaded by evangelical Christians. Now, the demographics for those taught outside standard schools are more diverse. In fact, ''race, gender, urban residence and family composition make no difference'' when accounting for the characteristics behind those who choose such a path, according to a study conducted by sociologists Nihan Kayaardi and Philip Q. Yang. Also, there are ''no significant differences'' between homeschoolers and the general U.S. population meaning pre-conceived notions may no longer apply.

''A lot of homeschooler parents see the benefit of banding together,'' Zach Yeskel, Google for Education's group product manager, told TheDCNF. ''There are also a lot of activities at home, so when they separate, they can distribute the assignments through the internet.''

Google says that Classroom is particularly beneficial because it is designed to make ''it easy for learners and instructors to connect '-- inside and outside of schools'' while also saving ''time and paper.'' Specifically, it allows teachers to send announcements and other communications through the web and assign paperless assignments for students at multiple locations.

''As homeschooling has grown, families still get together to learn,'' Jones writes in an incoming blog post for Google. ''In my work '... I advise these groups every day, and I can see how new, advancing technology could benefit students. Through technology, homeschool co-op teachers can set and change assignments on the fly, students can work together even if geographically separated, and everyone has a common format for collaboration.''

''I think that Google is a good example of how companies can change with the times by recognizing that excellent education occurs in places other than traditional schools,'' Jones told TheDCNF.

Nevertheless, there will always be privacy concerns when it comes to Google and its programs '-- particularly when it comes to data dealing with children, and especially at a time when recent events and revelations have piqued the public's profound concerns of personal information acquired by tech companies and subsequently given to third-parties.

But HSLDA, a group that has been called a powerful lobbying group and is in general the target of criticism by some, doesn't seem too worried, or at least sees the outweighing benefits of using Google's respective services.

Jones addressed those accusations against his group, that in some specific cases people use homeschool as a veil to cover up egregious acts.

''While there has been some media scrutiny lately regarding unusual cases in which parents fraudulently use home-schooling as a screen to hide behind in abusing their children, HSLDA stands firmly against child abuse and neglect,'' said Jones. ''We see it as a rejection of everything that we stand for '-- the right of parents to lovingly choose an education that fits their individual children. We believe that both child abuse and criminal laws should be enforced to the fullest.''

Jones added that regulation of home-schooling doesn't have a measurable effect on child abuse or neglect, and would likely have unintended consequences.

HSLDA isn't the only group working with Google, which says it's also been collaborating with the National Black Home Educators.

The announcement comes Thursday morning in Florida at the country's largest homeschool convention. G-Suite for Education is expected be available sometime in early to mid-June.

Follow Eric on Twitter

Send tips to eric@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jun 2018 13:08

Editor's note: Our goal at Google is to make technology that works for everyone. Last year we made Classroom available to more students and teachers, including homeschoolers, and today we're also updating the eligibility guidelines for G Suite for Education so homeschool co-ops in the U.S. can collaborate using G Suite for Education. We've worked closely with several organizations to make this happen, including National Black Home Educators and Home School Legal Defense Association. Today's guest author Darren Jones shares more about why this matters.

For decades, homeschooling families have met in groups called ''co-ops'' to offer new teaching opportunities for their children. Back in the 1980s, when I was being homeschooled, I was in one of these co-ops, learning geography, algebra and drama together with friends who were also learning at home. Homeschooling wasn't as common then as it is now, and we were spread out geographically. We'd meet for a lesson once a week, but it wasn't really possible to interact with the teacher once we got home. There was certainly no opportunity for us students to collaborate with our co-op teachers online!

As homeschooling has grown, families still get together to learn. In my work for Home School Legal Defense Association, I advise these groups every day, and I can see how new, advancing technology could benefit students. Through technology, homeschool co-op teachers can set and change assignments on the fly, students can work together even if geographically separated, and everyone has a common format for collaboration. It's because of this potential that I've been working closely with Google this year to make sure that homeschool co-ops have the same access as other schools to G Suite for Education.

G Suite for Education is a free suite of productivity and collaboration tools'--including Gmail, Google Classroom, Google Docs and Drive, Google Calendar, and more'--that lets students and teachers interact seamlessly and securely across devices. It's really exciting that homeschools will soon be able to use all of these tools to work better together, encourage creativity and practice critical thinking'--whether they're working one-on-one with an individual student or with a whole homeschool class.

Over the past few months a few homeschool co-ops have been piloting these tools, including the Partnership Homeschool Educational Association of Minnesota. Jen Crom, one of their teachers, started homeschooling in 2005 and each academic year has 110-130 students through grade 12. She's found that using G Suite has helped her save precious time and helped her students produce a better final product on their assignments'--while at the same time, exposing them to lifelong skills that they'll need for their future.

For teachers, it's just so easy to use. We didn't even have to convince them to move over'--it's easy to learn and saves us so much time. Jen Crom Homeschool Teacher

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jun 2018 13:24

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:42

The Netherlands is starting to resemble a narco-state with the police unable to combat the emergence of a parallel criminal economy, a report from the Dutch police association has warned.

Official figures suggest crime is on a downward trend but officers say many victims have stopped reporting incidents while organised crime syndicates have been given a free rein.

''Only one in nine criminal groups can be tackled with the current people and resources,'' the report given to the De Telegraaf newspaper says. ''Detectives see that small criminals develop into wealthy entrepreneurs who establish themselves in the hospitality industry, housing market, middle class, travel agencies.''

The paper from the Dutch police union, based on interviews with 400 detectives, adds: ''The Netherlands fulfils many characteristics of a narco-state. Detectives see a parallel economy emerge.''

Critics of the Dutch gedoogbeleid (tolerance policy) towards the sale of cannabis in coffee shops, and the legal status of prostitution in the country, claim the Netherlands has been inadvertently promoted as a major hub for the trafficking of drugs and people.

A large majority of ecstasy taken in Europe and the US comes from labs in the south of the country, which are increasingly run by Moroccan gangs involved in the production of cannabis. Half of the '‚¬5.7bn a year of cocaine taken in Europe comes through the port of Rotterdam, according to Europol.

The Dutch police association wants an extra 2,000 officers to be recruited, and its hard-hitting claim about the rise of organised crime will be seen by critics as an attempt to squeeze more money from central government.

However, the findings chime with a leaked report drafted earlier this year by the office of the public prosecutor for the Dutch cabinet.

While there has been a 25% drop in the number of recorded crimes over the past nine years, to below 1m, the paper reported that 3.5m crimes go unregistered every year. The report also raised fears that the authorities were being put at ''an insurmountable disadvantage''.

The mayor of Amsterdam, its local police force and the Dutch capital's public prosecutor also publicly warned this month of a growth in organised crime and a shift towards more invisible forms of crime embedded in neighbourhoods and often out of the control and sight of the authorities.

Amsterdam's police chief, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, claimed his force was spending 60% to 70% of its time attempting to combat gang-related hit-jobs.

Young men were willing to carry out assassinations for as little as '‚¬3,000, he said in an interview this month. ''In the 80s and 90s, professional hitmen from abroad came here for '‚¬50,000,'' said Aalbersberg. ''In recent years we see young boys from Amsterdam.''

With the police struggling to deal with the most high-profile crimes, it is claimed that officers are missing many others.

The Dutch police's union's report, published on Tuesday, warns that criminals who target the elderly and vulnerable are often going unpunished, with only an estimated 20% of such crimes reported to the police.

''The number of crimes against vulnerable people has increased due to the ageing population and more cutbacks in care,'' the report says. ''In particular, the theft, fraud and violence against the elderly and vulnerable people has increased enormously and insufficient attention is paid to this.''

The Dutch minister for justice and security, Ferd Grapperhaus, acknowledged he had received the police report warning of a ''lack of capacity for the combat against organised crime''. He said: ''It is a signal that we must take seriously. This government recognises that there is a need for investment in the police force.

''Therefore we are investing extra money in the coming years: an average of '‚¬267m every year. We also have fund for combating organised crime ('‚¬100m).

''However, the justice minister stresses that the Dutch police, together with the public prosecutor, are achieving effective results in the prosecution of drugs-related crime. Therefore the term 'narco-state' is not a qualification I would use.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:35

Intel says CEO Brian Krzanich has resigned after the company learned of a "past consensual relationship with an Intel employee." "An ongoing investigation by internal and external counsel has confirmed a violation of Intel's non-fraternization policy, which applies to all managers," the company said in an announcement on Thursday.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan will serve as interim chief executive officer, effective immediately.

A source familiar with the matter said the company has a strict non-fraternization policy that prevents managers from engaging in relationships with employees. Employees who see inappropriate workplace behavior are required to report it to management.

The source said Intel recently learned of Krzanich's past relationship with an employee.

The Intel board said it accepted Krzanich's resignation, noting all employees are expected to respect Intel's values and code of conduct.

Krzanich, 58, joined the chipmaker in 1982 as an engineer. He became CEO and an elected a member of the board of directors in May 2013. Krzanich previously served in senior leadership roles, including COO, at Intel.

Earlier this year, he came under fire for selling about half his stock after learning that critical flaws affected Intel's microchips. But the company publicly said the stock sale was not related to chip's issues.

Related: Intel CEO: Let's turn 'tragedy into action'

Krzanich previously served on President Trump's now disbanded manufacturing council. In August, he and the CEOs of Merck ( MKGAF ) and Under Armour ( UA ) stepped down after fallout over Trump's response to violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them," he said at the time.

Krzanich had previously stressed the importance of engaging with the government. In February 2017, he stood next to the president in the White House to announce a $7 billion investment in a new US factory.

In addition to the news about Krzanich's departure on Thursday, Intel raised its second quarter guidance from its previous forecast. It expects revenues of about $16.9 billion with adjusted earnings of $.99 a share.

Still, Intel stock dipped as much as 2% on Thursday morning after the news broke.

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 21, 2018: 9:17 AM ET

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 22:30

Er komt voorlopig geen openbaarheid over de werkwijze van het Systeem Risico Indicatie. Twee moties die moesten zorgen voor meer inzicht in de werkwijze van profileringssystemen en het bijzonder SyRI, zijn aangehouden op last van het kabinet. Ook een technische audit van het systeem acht het kabinet op dit moment onwenselijk.

Ook de Tweede Kamer maakt zich zorgen over SyRI en haar heimelijke werkwijze, zo bleek uit verschillende kritische vragen aan minister Dekker van Rechtsbescherming tijdens het algemeen overleg Big Data op 30 mei. GroenLinks-Kamerlid Buitenweg wierp onder meer de vraag op welke controle er plaatsvindt op de door SyRI gehanteerde risicomodellen, waarvan het ministerie van Sociale Zaken in 2017 besloot dat deze geheim moesten blijven. ''Er moet toch ergens een plek zijn waar die heel complexe algoritmes, zelfs als ze per se geheim moeten blijven '-- wat volgens mij veel te vaak gebruikt wordt en niet echt terecht is '-- getoetst worden op biases? Er moet toch ergens getoetst worden of ze wel deugdelijk in elkaar zitten?'', aldus Buitenweg tegenover de minister.

Terechte vragen. Personen die door SyRI worden uitgelicht belanden immers in het vizier van handhavingsdiensten. Hoeveel daarvan worden echter onterecht als risico gemarkeerd en ondervinden daar last van? Hoe wordt voorkomen dat de algoritmen van SyRI bestaande stigma's versterken en er op andere plaatsen blinde vlekken ontstaan? Er vallen veel ethische vragen te stellen bij de inzet van algoritmen, zo ook in het geval van SyRI.

''Ik ben niet degene geweest die dit heeft getrokken''In plaats van in te gaan op deze vraag, wees minister Dekker naar het parlement en de rechter als partijen die (hadden) moeten toezien op de werkwijze van SyRI:

''Om te beginnen is dit een wettelijke regeling. De eerste lijn van controle is dus hier, in dit huis. Ik constateer dat de regeling zowel in de Eerste als in de Tweede Kamer met algemene stemmen is aangenomen. Ik hoor mensen daar nu op reageren, maar ik ben niet degene geweest die dat heeft getrokken. Ik zie alleen maar de uitkomst en de manier waarop het is gelopen. Een tweede is dat bij individuele beslissingen de weg naar de rechter altijd openstaat voor mensen. Daar kan dan altijd een toets plaatsvinden.''

Minister Dekker heeft een punt wanneer hij wijst op het gebrek aan controle tijdens het wetgevingstraject van SyRI. SyRI is immers als een hamerstuk (zonder debat) aangenomen. Dat kwijt het ministerie echter niet van de verantwoordelijkheid om toe te zien op een rechtmatige inzet van SyRI. Ook impliceert de minister dat de rechter in staat is om in een fraudezaak het risicomodel te toetsen waarmee SyRI iemand als risico aanmerkt. Het is in de praktijk maar de vraag of burgers dan wel rechters ¼berhaupt weten dat van SyRI gebruik is gemaakt, geselecteerde personen worden daar immers niet van op de hoogte gesteld.

Al met al lijkt de minister de verantwoordelijkheid voor toetsing van een rechtmatige inzet van SyRI bij andere partijen (parlement en rechter) dan het kabinet zelf te leggen. Evenmin blijkt uit zijn antwoorden dat er evaluaties van SyRI plaatsvinden om de nauwkeurigheid en rechtmatigheid van risicomodellen te beoordelen. Wel kondigt hij onderzoeken aan over de toetsbaarheid van algoritmen en hoe dit uitwerking moet krijgen in regelgeving '' zaken die twee jaar geleden al door de WRR werden aanbevolen.

Moties voor openbaarmaking en auditsDit alles ging de Kamer niet snel genoeg. D66, dat zich grotendeels aansluit bij de zorgen van GroenLinks, diende twee moties in die, indien aangenomen, grote gevolgen zouden hebben voor de transparantie van huidige profileringspraktijken die op vele verschillende overheidsniveau's plaatsvinden '' in het bijzonder voor SyRI.

De eerste motie droeg de regering op de werking en broncode van algoritmen en analysemethoden die een 'aanmerkelijke impact' op burgers hebben, openbaar te maken, evenals de bestanden die worden gebruikt. Wanneer deze om zwaarwegende redenen niet openbaar kunnen worden gemaakt, zou er een technische audit moeten worden uitgevoerd om te controleren of de algoritmen en methoden niet onbedoeld discrimeren of andere negatieve effecten hebben. De resultaten van deze audits zouden openbaar moeten worden gemaakt.

De tweede motie droeg specifiek op de algoritmen en gebruikte bestanden van SyRI openbaar te maken of, wanneer dit om zwaarwegende redenen niet kon, een technische audit op het systeem uit te voeren.

Ongewenst calculerend gedragMinister Dekker gaf bij de indiening vorige week woensdag direct al aan grote moeite te hebben met beide moties. Het openbaren van de analysemethoden van alle door de overheid gehanteerde algoritmen, het verzoek in de eerste motie, zou met het oog op de hoeveelheid, een ''heel grote werklast voor de overheid met zich meebrengen.'' Bovendien zou het bij burgers die worden geanalyseerd door deze algoritmen en niet ''te goeder trouw'' zijn, kunnen leiden tot ongewenst calculerend gedrag. Een overweging die wringt met zijn eerdere inbreng in het overleg, waarin hij onder meer stelde dat algoritmen voor een doorsnee burger te complex zijn om te doorgronden.

In ruil voor de belofte van minister Dekker dat hij dit najaar met een brief kwam die inventariseerde wat de eventuele gevolgen waren van het uitvoeren van de motie, hield D66 de motie echter aan. Wat de motie over SyRI betrof, verzocht de minister eveneens om aanhouding. In ieder geval moest het ministerie van Sociale Zaken, waar SyRI onder valt, eerst worden geraadpleegd. D66-Kamerlid Verhoeven, die de motie had ingediend was daar, in tegenstelling tot de eerste motie, niet direct toe bereid: ''Dat met SyRI speelt echt al langer'', reageerde Verhoeven. ''Daar wil ik dan op een gegeven moment ook wel een keer een concrete uitspraak van de Kamer over.''

Interventie vanuit het kabinetAfgelopen dinsdag bleek daar verandering in te zijn gekomen. Toen het tijd was om de moties in stemming te brengen, besloot D66 op de valreep om ook de motie over SyRI aan te houden. De aanleiding hiervoor? Een brief van staatssecretaris Van Ark (Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid), waarin deze zich not amused toonde over de motie en in feite de Kamer terugfloot.

Waarom? Allereerst wijst ook de staatssecretaris in haar brief op het belang van opsporing. Door de risicomodellen prijs te geven, zouden potentile overtreders hier hun gedrag op kunnen afstemmen. Bovendien, en dit is een nieuw argument, zou het openbaar maken van de gevraagde informatie over SyRI het procesbelang van de Staat schaden. Daarbij doelt de staatssecretaris uiteraard op de rechtszaak die in maart door het Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten en meerdere andere partijen is aangespannen. ''Zolang de toepassing van SyRI onderwerp is van een lopende, gerechtelijke procedure is het, uit het oogpunt van het procesbelang van de Staat, ongewenst dat de in hun motie door de leden Verhoeven en Buitenweg gevraagde informatie over het Systeem Risico Informatie buiten deze gerechtelijke procedure om openbaar wordt gemaakt.''

Om dezelfde reden vindt de staatssecretaris het uitvoeren van een technische audit ''niet gewenst.'' Er wordt door haar geen onderscheid gemaakt tussen het openbaren van risicomodellen en het uitvoeren van een technische audit, terwijl het uitvoeren van een technische audit geen gevolgen heeft voor het opsporingsbelang.

Wij zijn dan ook zeer benieuwd op welke wijze het openbaar maken van SyRI's risicomodellen, of zelfs maar het uitvoeren van een technische audit het procesbelang van de Staat zou schaden. Mocht uit een evaluatie blijken dat de werkwijze van SyRI inderdaad rechtvaardig, nauwkeurig en ethisch helemaal in orde is, dan zou dat de positie van de Staat in de rechtszaak enkel versterken. Je zou haast denken dat de Staat iets te verbergen heeft.

Wees minister Dekker er eind mei nog fijntjes op dat het parlement eveneens verantwoordelijk is voor de wetgeving rondom SyRI, wanneer datzelfde parlement een week later een motie indient om de uitvoering van de wet kritisch tegen het licht te houden, steekt het kabinet waar minister Dekker onderdeel van is daar een stokje voor. Het procesbelang van de Staat is voorlopig nog even belangrijker dan toezicht op een grootschalig sleepnet dat bevoegd is onverdachte Nederlanders met duizenden tegelijk door te lichten als potentile fraudeurs.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 22:23

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an email to all employees on Monday morning about a factory fire, and seemed to reference possible sabotage.

Now, CNBC has learned that Musk also sent an e-mail to all employees at Tesla late on Sunday night alleging that he has discovered a saboteur in the company's ranks.

Musk said this person had conducted "quite extensive and damaging sabotage" to the company's operations, including by changing code to an internal product and exporting data to outsiders.

In 2016, after a SpaceX rocket exploded while being fueled up before an engine test, Musk and SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell also looked into the possibility of sabotage.

Several employees, from different divisions within Tesla, confirmed receipt of the e-mail to CNBC.

Tesla is currently ramping up production to make its previously stated goal of 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of June. Last week, Tesla announced a broad restructuring, slashing at least 9 percent of its workforce. Workers who are actively involved in Model 3 production would not be affected, the company said.

Tesla declined to comment on the e-mail.

Here's the full email:

From: Elon Musk

To: Everybody

Subject: Some concerning news

June 17, 2018

11:57 p.m.

I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations. This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties.

The full extent of his actions are not yet clear, but what he has admitted to so far is pretty bad. His stated motivation is that he wanted a promotion that he did not receive. In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move.

However, there may be considerably more to this situation than meets the eye, so the investigation will continue in depth this week. We need to figure out if he was acting alone or with others at Tesla and if he was working with any outside organizations.

As you know, there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die. These include Wall Street short-sellers, who have already lost billions of dollars and stand to lose a lot more. Then there are the oil & gas companies, the wealthiest industry in the world '-- they don't love the idea of Tesla advancing the progress of solar power & electric cars. Don't want to blow your mind, but rumor has it that those companies are sometimes not super nice. Then there are the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors. If they're willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they're willing to cheat in other ways?

Most of the time, when there is theft of goods, leaking of confidential information, dereliction of duty or outright sabotage, the reason really is something simple like wanting to get back at someone within the company or at the company as a whole. Occasionally, it is much more serious.

Please be extremely vigilant, particularly over the next few weeks as we ramp up the production rate to 5k/week. This is when outside forces have the strongest motivation to stop us.

If you know of, see or suspect anything suspicious, please send a note to [email address removed for privacy] with as much info as possible. This can be done in your name, which will be kept confidential, or completely anonymously.

Looking forward to having a great week with you as we charge up the super exciting ramp to 5000 Model 3 cars per week!

Will follow this up with emails every few days describing the progress and challenges of the Model 3 ramp.

Thanks for working so hard to make Tesla successful, Elon

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:54

Grab some popcorn '-- Martin Tripp, who has yet to secure a lawyer, tells Ars he stands by his comments. Cyrus Farivar - Jun 23, 2018 11:03 am UTC

Tesla is now wholly refuting the claims made by an ex-employee and self-proclaimed whistleblower who previously leaked information to the press.

In a lengthy statement provided Friday to Ars via a Tesla spokesperson, the company flatly denied that Martin Tripp, the man that the company sued earlier this week for alleged trade secrets violations, had any noble motivations.

"He is nothing of the sort," the company wrote. "He is someone who stole Tesla data through highly pernicious means and transferred that data to unknown amounts of third parties, all while making easily disprovable claims about the company in order to try to harm it."

In its lawsuit, Tesla accused Tripp of "hacking" company systems, which Tripp has categorically denied.

On Thursday, Tripp told Ars that he wanted to reveal internal waste and safety flaws in Tesla batteries that he claimed he observed while working as a technician at the company's Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.

CEO Elon Musk has intimated on Twitter that Tripp is one of 40 other "bad apples" who have committed "sabotage" against the company in an apparent effort to thwart Tesla's ambitious promised ramp-up to producing 5000 Model 3s per week. Recently, and highly unusually, the company mounted a tent-like apparatus known as a Sprung structure that would house a new assembly line as part of its Fremont, California factory.

As of Friday evening, Tesla had not filed any other similar lawsuits against anyone else besides Tripp.

Tesla's Friday statement was previously provided to other media outlets "on background" on Thursday, but the company ultimately agreed to allow Ars to publish all or part of it on the record after a lengthy conversation with a spokesperson who insisted on not being named, citing company policy. (We have published the entire statement here.)

Tripp, who as of Friday evening had still not secured an attorney, declined to respond to Tesla's new lengthy assertions.

"Unfortunately I cannot comment at this time," he told Ars. "I'll stand by my previous comments."

"No idea what he is talking about"The Friday statement went on to say that Tripp "grossly exaggerated" the level of waste that he observed while at the Gigafactory.

"Relying on the internal data that he hacked from Tesla's manufacturing operations system, Tripp incorrectly stated that Tesla has generated nearly $150 million in scrap at the Gigafactory in 2018," the company wrote. "That number is wrong by more than a factor of two."

In addition, "he included large quantities that were not scrap from 2018 at all, but that were instead items such as materials from last year that had already been included in Tesla's 2017 financials, or that were simply serial numbers assigned as part of routine system testing to components that were never even made."

Worse still, Tesla insisted, Tripp told company investigators "that he does not actually know the value of the scrap that he assigned dollar values to. He just guessed."

The statement also insists that "no punctured cells were every used in Model 3 vehicles in any way."

Tesla did acknowledge that a "robot" had damaged "some modules" in February 2018 at the Sparks facility, but that ultimately those cells were tossed.

"If there was even a sliver of doubt about whether a cell could pose a safety concern, it was not used in any vehicle," Tesla wrote. "Notably, there have been zero battery safety issues in any Model 3."

Further, the company insisted that Tripp's allegations that Tesla has been reporting "the wrong production number" of Model 3s is "ridiculous."

"On all of these issues, Tripp is either not telling the truth or he simply has no idea what he is talking about," the statement concluded.

Tripp told Ars that he was served with the lawsuit at a Reno-area hotel room on Thursday.

Earlier, on Wednesday evening, Tesla told reporters (not including Ars) that it had received a phone call at the Gigafactory. In a statement issued at the time, Tesla said that it received a call at the Gigafactory from someone purporting to be a friend of Tripp's, who had told this unnamed friend that he, Tripp, intended to "shoot the place up," seemingly in anger over his recent dismissal from the company.

Tripp categorically denied to Ars that he made any such threat to anyone. He added that he cooperated with the Storey County Sheriff, which by Thursday morning said publicly that there was "no credible threat."

Tripp also told Ars that he believed Musk himself was behind the alleged shooting threat.

A spokesperson again asserted Friday that the company had indeed received such a call, but did not provide any further evidence as to what actions, if any, were taken by Tesla, to verify that a threat of violence had originated from Tripp.

This spokesperson denied that Musk had anything to do with the Wednesday evening call.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 23:20

Popular DNA testing companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.com are being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over their policies for handling personal info and genetic data, and how they share that info with third parties.

The probe was revealed in the agency's response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Fast Company last month seeking records pertaining to 23andMe and Ancestry.com. The FTC denied the FOIA request, saying in its letter that any records ''would be exempt from disclosure . . . because disclosure of that material could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission's law enforcement activities.'' The agency cited an exemption'--5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7)(A)'--which has often been interpreted by journalists as the disclosure of an investigation.

A spokesperson for the agency declined comment, saying that ''FTC investigations are non-public, and so typically we do not comment on an investigation or even whether we are investigating.''

Privacy issues in the use of such DNA testing kits came to the forefront last month with the arrest of the notorious Golden State Killer, when it was revealed that police had used data from GEDMatch, a genealogy research site where users upload genealogical and genetic information, to help identify the suspect. When contacted by Fast Company, spokespersons for 23andMe and Ancestry.com said they're rarely approached by law enforcement for genetic data.

Yet as the DNA testing market has exploded'--worth approximately $99 million in 2017 and expected to increase to $310 million by 2022'--concerns have also grown about the use of genetic data. Many consumers don't realize that their personal info may be shared with third-party companies and there have been complaints raised that the companies' terms of service are not always clear about their policies in such matters.

There are also growing concerns about the security of personal DNA data. On Monday, Israel-based DNA testing service MyHeritage announced a security researcher had uncovered tens of millions of account details for some 92 million customers, including email addresses and hashed passwords. The company said it had no reason to believe user data was compromised, and claimed that users' DNA data is stored on separate systems.

Joel Winston, an attorney who specializes in privacy law and formerly served as a deputy attorney general for the state of New Jersey, said he welcomed the FTC probe. ''DNA data is the most important data you own. Your DNA is you,'' he wrote in an email. ''An enforcement action by the FTC would send a clear message that for-profit companies cannot use the fine print to quietly take an ownership interest in their customers' DNA. Companies must not be permitted to mislead, deceive, or confuse customers about how their DNA data is being collected, analyzed, and monetized.

''If the FTC finds that any DNA testing company has failed to obtain the full, informed consent of its customers, then the FTC would be expected to prohibit the company from using, sharing, or selling any such DNA data in its possession,'' he said.

The FTC probe appears to have been prompted by a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer last November, in which the senate minority leader expressed concern that popular at-home DNA test kits could be putting consumer privacy at great risk:

''Besides, putting your most personal genetic information in the hands of third parties for their exclusive use raises a lot of concerns, from the potential for discrimination by employers all the way to health insurance. That's why I am asking the Federal Trade Commission to take a serious look at this relatively new kind of service and ensure that these companies have clear, fair privacy policies and standards for all kinds of at-home DNA test kits. We don't want to impede research but we also don't want to empower those looking to make a fast buck or an unfair judgement off your genetic information. We can find the right balance here, and we must.''

In response, the agency wrote to Schumer, saying that while it ''cannot comment on whether we are investigating specific companies,'' it shared his desire for companies to be transparent about the collection and use of their genetic data.

An Ancestry spokesperson declined to comment on any investigation or whether it has been contacted by the FTC, but emphasized:

''Protecting our customers' privacy is our highest priority'--starting with our belief that customers should always maintain ownership and control over their own data. We do not and will not sell DNA data to insurers, employers, health providers, or third-party marketers and will only share DNA data with researchers if the customer has consented. Customers can request that their data and accounts be deleted at any time.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:22

WASHINGTON'--Federal regulators are investigating the case of the missing ''4,'' exploring the numeral's conspicuous absence in quarterly reports that could mean companies have improperly rounded up their earnings per share to the next highest cent, according to people familiar with the matter.

Enforcement officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission have sent queries to at least 10 companies, asking the firms to provide information about accounting adjustments that could push their reported earnings per share higher, one person familiar with the matter said.

The queries follow the release of an academic paper that found evidence of companies nudging up earnings results. The academic research found the number ''4'' appeared at an abnormally low rate in the tenths place of companies' earnings per share. Reporting that figure as ''5'' or higher allows a firm to round up its earnings per share another cent.

For instance, a company with earnings of 55.4 cents a share would round to 55 cents a share, while a company with earnings of 55.5 cents a share would round to 56 cents.

Public companies have strong incentives to report higher earnings per share, particularly those followed by Wall Street analysts whose quarterly forecasts are used to benchmark corporate performance. Investors often snap up shares of companies that beat expectations, even by a cent, and, likewise, sell shares of companies that miss their forecasts.

The names of the companies that received the SEC's queries couldn't be learned. The SEC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation is in its early stages, one of the people said. Accounting rules offer some discretion for when managers recognize revenue or expenses, so quarterly adjustments can be legal even when they boost reported earnings per share.

The researchers, Nadya Malenko and Joseph Grundfest, referred to the dynamic they detected as ''quadrophobia.'' The paper was widely read within the SEC, one of the people said.

The SEC has for several years sought to bring more cases over accounting fraud. Probes involving financial reporting previously had taken a back seat to investigations over complex financial instruments and insider trading after the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2012, the SEC announced it had developed an ''accounting quality model'' that could scan companies' financial statements for anomalies that might indicate fraud.

SEC economists replicated aspects of Dr. Malenko's and Mr. Grundfest's study and found similar results'--cases where the digit ''4'' rarely appeared over a large number of accounting quarters, one person said.

Dr. Malenko's and Mr. Grundfest's paper, which hasn't appeared in an academic journal and was last updated in 2014, showed that companies with signs of strategic rounding over many quarters were more likely to be charged with accounting violations, restate earnings, or become targets of shareholder lawsuits.

''The rounding itself might not be fraud, but it signals a certain aggressive approach to accounting practices,'' said Dr. Malenko, a finance professor at Boston College. ''It can predict more serious accounting violations.''

The research rests on an assumption that every number should appear in the tenths place 10% of the time. After reviewing nearly 951,612 quarterly results for over 25,000 companies from 1980 to 2013, however, the authors found that ''4'' appeared in the tenths place only 8.6% of the time. Both ''2'' and ''3'' were also underrepresented in the tenths place; all other digits appeared more frequently than would be expected by chance.

The researchers checked their assumption by examining other metrics that tend to be less correlated with stock price moves than EPS. For those ratios, including sales per share and operating income per share, the digit ''4'' appeared in the tenths place about 10% of the time in all years of the researchers' sample data.

Companies closely followed by analysts were more likely to report fewer ''4s,'' as were both the largest and the smallest firms. Firms with high stock market valuations, as well as those with lower earnings per share, were also more likely to show signs of rounding up their earnings, the authors found.

As The Wall Street Journal reported in 2010, computer maker Dell Inc. didn't report earnings per share with a ''4'' in the tenths place between its 1988 initial public offering and 2006. The likelihood of that happening by random chance was 1 in 2,500.

In July 2010, Dell paid $100 million to settle SEC charges that it misled investors about the source of earnings and used ''cookie jar'' reserves to manipulate quarterly results. Reversing excess reserves turned them into income, which allowed Dell to meet quarterly EPS targets in some cases, the SEC said.

At the time, a Dell spokesman said the company's financial-reporting practices are ''rigorous'' and the company is ''committed to ongoing transparent and accurate reporting.''

Pushing up EPS by a 10th of a cent doesn't require a significant accounting adjustment, making it easier for companies to nudge the ratio higher without attracting much scrutiny. In 2013, the mean additional amount of earnings required to do so was $222,000, the researchers found.

Write to Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 04:12

We'll take Amazon Alexa's creepy laugh any day over her latest bizarre antic. On Monday, June 18, an Amazon Echo device apparently made an unprompted and terrifying statement at the home of 30-year-old Shawn Kinnear. The San Franciscan told Metro U.S. that the smart assistant suddenly activated herself and said, ''Every time I close my eyes, all I see is people dying.'' Yikes.

Kinnear added that this horrifying declaration was ''followed by the uncomfortable silence I have ever felt,'' which frankly, seems like an understatement. As he told Metro U.S., ''Alexa is in the living room. I had Amazon Prime on TV but it was paused. I walked back in from the kitchen and she made her statement.'' Because it was a longer sentence, Kinnear said that he purposely stopped to listen. Needless to say, when he realized exactly what the smart assistant was saying, he was horrified. ''I then asked Alexa to repeat the statement,'' Kinnear said, but Alexa responded that she did not understand.

To make matters creepier still, Alexa apparently spoke of people dying all in her normal, relatively cheery voice.

Kinnear says that this is the first time Alexa has ever acted out of the ordinary. Really, it seems that the device normally sits unused in his home. Apparently, the device was gifted to his partner at work in 2016, and Kinnear noted that he could not remember the last time he had actually interacted with the device. While his partner occasionally asks for weather and score reports, they're now both considering unplugging the Echo for good.

Amazon has not responded to reports of Alexa's latest outburst, though this isn't the first time that the smart assistant has frightened its users. While this most recent comment doesn't appear to be a common occurrence, users previously complained about Alexa's frightening and unprompted laugh. And security experts have warned that smart home devices are increasingly vulnerable to hacking or otherwise betraying personal information. Indeed, it was only recently revealed that Google Home devices could reveal their exact location to hackers. So as useful as Alexa and similar helpers may be, you might want to exercise some caution before inviting them into your home.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:24

Associated Press/Alan Diaz Zika inspired major waves of mosquito control efforts in Florida. A viral illness that's never been known to infect humans, Keystone virus, was identified in a Florida boy, according to a recent study.Keystone virus is widespread in the Southeast and is part of a family of viruses that can cause encephalitis, or brain inflammation.This case is a reminder that new viruses carried by vectors like mosquitoes are worth looking out for. When a 16-year-old boy showed up at a north central Florida urgent care center in August of 2016, no one could figure out what he was infected with.

According to a report recently published on the case in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the boy (who remains anonymous) had a fever of around 100 degrees. A rash that started on his chest was spreading to his abdomen, arm, back, and face. It was aggravated by heat and sunlight, though didn't cause pain.

The boy said that he'd been bitten by numerous mosquitoes while attending band camp.

The case appeared in the midst of the Zika outbreak, but the teen tested negative for Zika, Chikungunya, and dengue. However, in one of the urine samples collected by doctors, researchers eventually identified a virus that's been known to infect animals, including squirrels, raccoons, and whitetail deer: Keystone virus.

This was the first time that a Keystone virus infection has been confirmed in a human, though it's known to be widespread among animals in the southeastern US, from the Chesapeake Bay to Texas. The disease comes from a virus family that's known to cause encephalitis, or brain inflammation. And it's a reminder that there are always emerging diseases to be watching out for.

Thomson Reuters

The virus is carried by a relative of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry Zika. Diagnosing the Keystone virus Identifying the infection was no easy task, since there'd previously been no way to test for Keystone virus. But because of the Zika outbreak happening at the time, researchers were determined to identify the condition to see whether there was reason to be concerned about more new diseases being spread by mosquitoes.

"We couldn't identity what was going on," Dr. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, told WUSF Public Media. "We screened this with all the standard approaches and it literally took a year and a half of sort of dogged laboratory work to figure out what this virus was."

It's possible that Keystone virus is more widespread amongst people than experts realize, according to the case report. Surveys conducted almost 50 years ago found antibodies to the virus in about 20% of people in the Southeast, indicating that they'd been exposed, though live virus had never been found in a person before.

Most likely, any symptoms of the virus that people have experienced have been mild, like fever or rash. There are no reported symptoms in animals, though in some areas, 30% of squirrels or 10% of deer surveyed have been found to be infected with Keystone virus.

Researchers are most concerned by the fact that Keystone virus is part of the "California serogroup" family of viruses, which are known to cause encephalitis, or brain swelling, that can be dangerous. It's possible that Keystone could cause this in some cases, based on observations of the virus in cell cultures and the behavior of related viruses. But that didn't happen to they boy in the case report.

As the researchers wrote, doctors should start looking for Keystone virus in cases when patients have unexplained viral encephalitis.

"It's one of these instances where if you don't know to look for something, you don't find it," Morris said in a statement.

Plus, they wrote, this finding underscores the fact that there are all kinds of diseases circulating out there that could one day infect humans.

SEE ALSO: Diseases from ticks and mosquitoes have tripled in the US '-- and warmer weather means it will probably keep getting worse NOW WATCH: Popular Videos from Insider Inc.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 13:52

Each day, 400,000 Canadians cross the Canada-U.S. border. Beginning Oct. 17, 2018, more and more of those travellers could be forced to answer an uncomfortable question posed by wary American customs officers: Have you ever smoked pot?

Those who tell the truth risk being banned from the United States for life and might have to apply for special waivers in order to visit the U.S. in future.

Questions about cannabis use have dogged some Canadian travellers in recent years, with mixed results. Thousands of Canadians have been denied entry to the U.S., while others have been banned simply for admitting they've smoked a joint once in their lives. For American border guards, a confession is just as good as a conviction.

Len Saunders is an immigration lawyer practising in Blaine, Washington, a busy port of entry for British Columbians headed to the U.S. He said that while instances of Canadians being denied entry for smoking marijuana were once rare (he estimates he looked at only a few cases per year as recently as 15 years ago) they're much more common now. He said he now manages one to two such cases per week.

And naturally, with legal marijuana now just months away, the question could start coming up at the border a lot more often.

"When Trump talks about building a wall on the southern border, I see a wall on the northern border for Canadians because of marijuana. There's a brick wall going up on the northern border for Canadians if they answer truthfully whether they have smoked marijuana," Saunders said during a recent appearance at a Senate committee studying the matter.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, and Halifax Mayor Mike Savage join Power & Politics to discuss how prepared their cities are for cannabis to become officially legal on Oct. 17 and what they still need from provinces and the federal government. 9:16 While some U.S. states have dismantled prohibition '-- including Washington, a border state '-- possession remains a criminal offence federally. And the U.S. border is, of course, governed by federal law.

"Although medical and recreational marijuana are legal in some U.S. states and Canada, the sale, possession, production and distribution of marijuana remain illegal under U.S. federal law," Jason Givens, a public affairs specialist with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement.

"Consequently, crossing the border with marijuana is prohibited and could result in fines, apprehension, or both."

The government of Canada has started warning travellers on its website that "previous use of cannabis, or any substance prohibited by U.S. federal laws, could mean that you are denied entry to the U.S." Involvement in the legal cannabis industry in Canada could also be reason enough for border guards to deny entry.

Saunders has represented high-profile clients like Ross Rebagliati, a Canadian Olympic snowboarder who admitted to smoking pot on the Jay Leno show only to be hounded by U.S. Customs for years. He said a cannabis confession can be costly and time-consuming. (Rebagliati now owns a medical marijuana company called Ross' Gold.)

Entry happens at the sole discretion of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on duty '-- and they have a lot of latitude to ask questions to determine the admissibility of a foreign national.

"What they do is they interrogate you. They tell you that if you don't tell them the truth, they're going to do a drug test on you. They can't do that," Saunders said.

"They tell you they're going to do a lie-detector test. They can't do that. They tell you they will hold you indefinitely or possibly arrest you for not telling the truth. They can't do that.

"I see this intimidation. People eventually break down and they admit to it. So these people become a client for life."

Lorne Waldman, one of Canada's top immigration lawyers, said that while the cannabis question likely won't be asked of every Canadian cross-border traveller, it's reasonable to expect to hear it more often after Canada's legal marijuana market is in place.

"If somebody asks, then a Canadian could be barred for life. That's the situation we're confronted with now," he said.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Ottawa has kept the U.S. government in the loop throughout the legalization process, explaining to its officials that importing or exporting cannabis will remain illegal.

The border prohibition applies even to Canadians authorized to use cannabis for medical purposes '-- and to people travelling to or from parts of the United States where cannabis has been legalized or decriminalized.

"There should be no reason for them to change their basic questionnaire when someone approaches the border to cross. They agreed with that proposition," Goodale in an interview with CBC's Power & Politics on Thursday.

'If there's some behaviour or some aroma...that will obviously raise a suspicion and would be grounds for secondary questioning,' says Public Safety Min. Ralph Goodale on Power & Politics. 4:42 "They say they do not plan to change the questionnaire but, as in all circumstances, if there is something that raises a suspicion on their part, if there is some behaviour, or some aroma, or if they find someone with residue in their pocket or something, that would obviously raise a suspicion and would be grounds for secondary questioning.

"Assuming that Canadians are not behaving in a way that raises that doubt, or that suspicion, the questionnaire should not change."

The federal government will post signs at border crossings warning Canadians not to bring their legal marijuana into the U.S. '-- just as the Americans do for their citizens with signs informing them of Canada's strict firearms regime.

It's a move that could prevent some headaches for Canadians, said John Hudak, a director at the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution and an expert of marijuana policy. He also suggested that Canada could install "amnesty boxes" at border crossings '-- places where Canadians can deposit their marijuana before travelling south.

"The best way for Canada to deal with this issue is to be proactive. Designing information campaigns in dispensaries, on roadways near airports and borders, and in airports themselves, is an important step," he said.

"These efforts will not be perfect, but they will help individuals who are genuinely unfamiliar with policy, or will help motivate people to do the right thing."

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:59

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:50

To read the full article, visit NewsBusters.

The pundit class have lost their minds over the Trump administration's zero-tolerance border enforcement policy. Since Friday, the collective breakdown has yielded a total of 22 instances in which cable news commentators compared the separation of parents and children illegally entering the country to World War II-era war crimes and human rights violations.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:11

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 13:02

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 12:05

Maxine Waters implies that people should ''turn against'' and ''harass'' those within the Trump Administration that defend President Trump's agenda.Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. Maxine Waters is living proof.

pic.twitter.com/63dIwf0tfo

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 02:28

David Wilcock11 Seasons, 160 EpisodesThere are those who believe it is not humanity's destiny to wither away within the clutches of Earth's cycles of life and extinction. Rather we are to venture forth, beyond our terrestrial origins and establish thriving civilizations throughout the cosmos. Some have already secretly realized this vision, while others are relegated to technology dependent upon dwindling resources. A conflict now rages whether to preserve these advancements for the ranks of the elite, or to share this destiny with the whole of humanity and usher in a new era of peaceful conscious advancement.

Tune into the ongoing, weekly series of Cosmic Disclosure as David Wilcock interviews insider Corey Goode about the details of Corey's 20-year participation in the Secret Space Program.

View All 2969 Comments

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:58

Tom Arnold to star in new anti-Trump docuseries from Vice. (Reuters)

Tom Arnold, ex-husband of Roseanne Barr, has been outspoken about his distaste for Donald Trump. Now, he's doing a deep dive into old footage of the president in the hopes of finding something that can dethrone him.

On Wednesday, Vice announced Arnold as the host of a new 8-part documentary series, ''The Hunt for the Trump Tapes with Tom Arnold.'' The premise of the new series, which is set to air later this year, is to capitalize on the president's long history in TV to find another leaked tape similar to the infamous Access Hollywood hot mic moment in which he could be heard saying he could ''grab women by the p----.''

The show will allegedly take a look at old footage and outtakes from ''The Apprentice'' and much more with Arnold at the helm. The site's announcement notes that he'll be joined by a handful of experienced journalists as well as any whistleblowers that want to check out Vice's secure website with tips.

''The host will draw on his high-profile network of celebrity friends, entertainment executives, and crew members he's met over more than 35 years in showbiz to dig for evidence on Trump's most incriminating moments'--and, being a comedian and all, he'll have a little fun along the way,'' the announcement reads.

''Nobody thought I could ever be an investigative journalist, but then again, nobody thought Donald Trump could be President,'' Arnold, 59, says in a press release (via People). ''Let's hope this marks the end of both our new careers.''

You can view the teaser trailer below.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:53

While Roseanne Barr cozies up to POTUS 45 and his base, her ex-husband is wading into the swamp. Viceland has handed a series order to The Hunt for the Trump Tapes with Tom Arnold, in which the titular comic actor is taking his activism off Twitter and putting it into real life.

Tom Arnold announced to series today on Howard Stern's satellite radio show '-- a favorite stop of pre-politics Donald Trump and a trove of recorded banter between the two media-obsessed New Yorkers. The cable net has begun production on the eight-episode series for a premiere later this year. Watch a promo for the show above.

Screenshot via accesshollywood.com

The logline: After the October 2016 revelation of the Access Hollywood tape that featured reality show host-turned-presidential candidate-turned President Trump making misogynist remarks, speculation ran rampant that other similar (or worse) tapes were ''out there'' '-- from The Apprentice outtakes and Miss Universe footage all the way to the infamous ''Russia dossier'' tape.

Viceland

Through it all, one determined man has contended that not only these tapes exist but they need to be seen and heard. The series follows Arnold as he uses his network of connections to search for the truth behind these elusive recordings of Trump. Along the way, he will look into the network of powerful people and companies who have kept these revelatory and potentially damaging recordings under lock and key.

''Nobody thought I could ever be an investigative journalist, but then again, nobody thought Donald Trump could be president,'' Arnold said in announcing the series on The Howard Stern Show. ''Let's hope this marks the end of both our new careers.''

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:51

Comic Tom Arnold gamed MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and CNN's Poppy Harlow today to plug his upcoming Viceland series The Hunt for the Trump Tapes.

Arnold sat down with Wallace first, to say he's teaming with President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to boot POTUS from office. Watch the full interview above.

Previous day, Arnold tweeted a photo of himself with Cohen, writing, ''I love New York'':

''This dude has all the tapes '-- this dude has everything,'' Arnold said in the MSNBC interview. ''I say to Michael, 'Guess what? We're taking Trump down together,' and he's so tired he's like, 'OK,' and his wife is like, 'OK, f-ck Trump.'''

Which, Arnold had to walk back:

Michael Cohen didn't say Me & him were teaming up to take down Donald Trump! Michael has enough Trump on his plate. I'm the crazy person who said Me & Michael Cohen were teaming up to take down Trump of course. I meant it. Michael doesn't get paid by Vice #thehuntforthetrumptapes pic.twitter.com/af48aDZRvg

'-- Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) June 22, 2018

During his sit-down with Wallace, Arnold also told her that if voters had seen a day on the set of The Apprentice to see how incompetent Trump was, they never would have voted for him. Which seems unlikely, given that they voted for him despite the number of reports about his bankruptcies and other business busts and, of course, that infamous Access Hollywood '''grab 'em by the p*ssy'' tape.

Asked about the photo of himself with Cohen, Arnold said, He's gonna take care of his family, his country, the rest of us Jews. Donald Trump is not '... Donald Trump does not care about him.''

Alhough Arnold's claim about Cohen having ''all the tapes'' seems dubious, given that the FBI raided his office, his home and the room of the hotel in which he is staying, CNN's Harlow later in the day kept pressing him on whether Cohen played ''any of the tapes he has for you?''

Arnold did not want to answer.

''If you had a TV show that had not come out yet, and you had eight episodes, would you come on CNN and reveal everything?'' he answered.

''Did he play any tapes for you,'' Harlow repeated.

Arnold finally acknowledged that Cohen had not.

Harlow did a good job of resisting the urge to clunk him on the head with a blunt object. The interview was almost entirely free of facts, or even any answers, though it made for riveting TV.

''Did he tell you he has something incriminating on Donald Trump?'' Harlow asked of his Cohen meeting.

Arnold responded that Cohen told him the FBI had been ''kind and appropriate'' when they raided his office, his home and his hotel room.

''Did he tell you he has something incriminating?'' Harlow persisted.

''How could he not?'' Arnold guessed.

When she asked a third time, Arnold shot back, ''Hold on, I'm not on trial here!''

Cohen clarified that Arnold was full of horseradish:

Appreciate @TomArnold kind words about me as a great father, husband and friend. This was a chance, public encounter in the hotel lobby where he asked for a selfie. Not spending the weekend together, did not discuss being on his show nor did we discuss @POTUS. #done #ridiculous

'-- Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) June 23, 2018

Harlow noted that Arnold had said he had multiple meetings with Cohen. She wanted details.

''One was with Don Jr. at Trump Tower and Paul Manafort '' no, I'm just making crap up,'' Arnold joked. ''I don't know'... Michael reminded me of it.''

Previous night's meeting was to ''to see what side he was on,'' Arnold explained.

Asked if he had any unaired footage of Trump on The Apprentice, Arnold answered coyly, ''We have a lot of things.''

Harlow tried a different approach, asking if Cohen told him he would cooperate with authorities, should he be charged with anything.

This triggered the longest silent staring at an interviewer by a TV news program guest in history.

''You do not want to answer the question,'' Harlow finally asked, blinking first.

''No,'' Arnold responded.

Arnold having said he would spend time with Cohen over the weekend, Harlow asked, ''Will you let us know what you learn over the weekend?''

''No,'' Arnold said.

Harlow threw in the towel and the interview was declared over.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 23:37

This is just terrible. The girl that Anthony Weiner was convicted of sexting was also targeted by another scumbag who is accused of sex with a minor '' and Weiner might be sucked into his trial.

From WSOCTV:

A former Lake Norman High School teacher is accused of having an improper relationship with a local teenager in Gastonia.

Sources told Channel 9 the accuser is the same teen whose text messages led to prison time for former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Police have not provided any details on how Jonathan Busch, 54, allegedly made contact with the girl who is now 18.

Busch was arrested and charged with statutory rape of a child under 15 and indecent liberties with a child. He was booked into jail in Gaston County Thursday, but records show he bonded out later the same day.

Iredell-Statesville School officials confirmed Busch, a social studies teacher, resigned this week. He was hired by the school system on July 31, 2003.

But because Weiner was sexting the girl, he might be used by the defense to help this guy.

Busch will face a judge on Monday, and experts told Channel 9 that Weiner, who is serving a 21-month prison sentence, could become a focus in the case.

The girl was 15 years old when we learned that Weiner was exchanging lewd photos with her.

That revelation in 2016 was a huge hit to the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, whose top aide was Weiner's wife.

Just terrible.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 15:19

June 19, 2018 2018-06-19T22:00:40-04:00 https://images.c-span.org/Files/40d/20180619233814001_hd.jpg A Senate Commerce subcommittee examined Cambridge Analytica's partnership with Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign as well as data privacy. Witnesses included the former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission and a technology researcher who developed the app that allowed the now defunct U.K. firm to collect personal details of 80 million Facebook users.A Senate Commerce subcommittee examined Cambridge Analytica's partnership with Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign as well as'... read more

Cambridge Analytica and Facebook Data Partners A Senate Commerce subcommittee examined Cambridge Analytica's partnership with Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign as well as data privacy. Witnesses included the former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission and a technology researcher who developed the app that allowed the now defunct U.K. firm to collect personal details of 80 million Facebook users. close

";$('div#video-embed').html(cookieMsg);return;}});

*This transcript was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.

Related Video March 27, 2018 Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower on Facebook Data and Election InterferenceChristopher Wylie, former Cambridge Analytica research director and whistleblower, testified before a British parliamentary committee on allegations that the U.K. data firm'...

May 16, 2018 Cambridge Analytica and Data PrivacyChristopher Wylie, the whistleblower at the defunct Cambridge Analytica who exposed the British data firm's collection'...

June 6, 2018 Cambridge Analytica and Data Privacy, Alexander Nix TestimonyFormer Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix appeared before a British parliamentary committee for a second time to answer questions about the'...

April 10, 2018 Senator Durbin Reaction to Facebook HearingSenator Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke to reporters during a recess in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before two Senate committees. He said'...

User Created Clips from This Video

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 14:34

Log in Sign up Jon Passantino @ passantino Tom Arnold just gave one of the most amazing cable news interviews I've ever witnessed

pic.twitter.com/3aRwmuxeWe 5:08 PM - 22 Jun 2018 Twitter by: OutFrontCNN @OutFrontCNN Pamela Anne LeCompte @ ocdworkoutgirl

14h Replying to

@passantino @PoppyHarlowCNN Did you catch it all? He talked so fast that it was hard but am I crazy or did he validate the tinkling tapes??

@PoppyHarlowCNN didn't respond but there was so much to respond to.

View conversation · Mark @ musingsbymark

14h Replying to

@passantino That's one word. Incoherent and strange would be more accurate.

View conversation · John D. Robinson ðŸ‡...🇺 @ JohnDRobinson

14h Replying to

@ocdworkoutgirl @passantino @PoppyHarlowCNN He said he wouldn't doubt if there was.

View conversation · John D. Robinson ðŸ‡...🇺 @ JohnDRobinson

14h Replying to

@musingsbymark @passantino Sure strange but very coherant.

View conversation · Aaron Huslage @ huslage

14h Replying to

@passantino @brianstelter You just can't make this stuff up.

View conversation · Anita_Martini @ ctznaware

14h Replying to

@passantino @brianstelter Is he drunk?

View conversation · Afree Thinker🇺🇸 @ AfreeThinker71

14h Replying to

@passantino I'm not sure what world you live in but Tom seems a bit ''out there''....my question is ''and????'' What's his point? Are their tapes or not? Why are you on CNN right now after announcing that ur planning on stalking all of Trumps grandkids. Unhinged much?

View conversation · Pete @ rationalstoic

14h Replying to

@ctznaware @passantino @brianstelter No he's just Tom Arnold. The left is desperately clinging to a porn star and Tom Arnold because Trump beat them.

View conversation · Jen Q @ JenQuert

14h Replying to

@passantino I've never heard that much silence during an interview.

View conversation · Sherry Berry @ SherryB10686271

14h Replying to

@passantino @brianstelter Strangest interview yet.I am feeling his high sense urgency and fear.

View conversation · J.N. Duncan @ jimnduncan

14h Replying to

@passantino @brianstelter lol, lot of unspoken words there.

View conversation · Afree Thinker🇺🇸 @ AfreeThinker71

14h Replying to

@passantino Russia didn't work so now Tom Arnold is coming in to finish the job

pic.twitter.com/EPwo71gHhW View conversation · Jessica @ yesimrite

14h Replying to

@passantino Blink once for yes, twice for no.

View conversation · ãƒãƒ(C)ãƒ"プガーム@ M_COVFEFE

14h Replying to

@passantino @brianstelter Lol, You guys are trying to find someone, anyone that can tickle your earsðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚🂠You're democrat leader is at the border helping kidsðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

#StormytheSamaritan ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚LOL you LOSERSðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ¤...ðŸ>>''¸ðŸ‚ðŸ…

View conversation · Jack Shafer @ jackshafer

14h Replying to

@passantino I like a man who thinks before he speaks.

View conversation · lisamcdermott @ lisamcdermott

14h Replying to

@passantino @brianstelter Was he 1. High; 2. Serious or 3. Both.

View conversation · Marie @ Cuprikorn66

14h Replying to

@passantino @ShaneGoldmacher Seriously? Every day you allow yourselves to be distracted by the latest stupid shiny toy. Meanwhile , the Donald is terraforming our Federal government.

whitehouse.gov/wp-content/upl'... View conversation · Bryan Simpson @ BrySimpson

14h Replying to

@passantino has Cohen asked Arnold to do this? Why CNN is asking important questions of a comedian is very odd. Even for CNN.

View conversation · Enter a topic, @name, or fullname

Settings Help Back to top ·

Turn images off

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 14:10

GLENDALE, AZ - It's a bike mound mystery.

ABC15 spotted dozens '-- if not, hundreds '-- of Lime rental sharing bikes dumped in a Glendale scrapyard after a viewer tip.

''It was half the size of my house,'' Tom Hicks said, describing the pile. Hicks was stopping by Southwest Metals near 55th Avenue and Bethany Home Road when he saw the pile and sensed something was off.

''They still had their brakes, their seats, their baskets,'' he said.

RELATED: Who picks up dockless bikes?

Lime recently launched its dockless bike service in Scottsdale, Mesa and Tempe. On it's website, the company claims to be a ''sustainable solution'' with the goal of ''eliminating the carbon footprint.''

''It wasn't a matter of just a guy in a truck coming and dumping a few of these things off that may've been damaged,'' Hicks said, adding what he saw left a sour taste in his mouth.

''Those bikes easily could've been given to the needy, dismantled, painted a different color and given to the kids or something,'' Hicks said. ''Just to throw them away like that was just ridiculous.''

ABC15 reached out to Lime several times Friday but never heard back.

Southwest Metals was closed and a phone call went unanswered.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 14:03

CNN political commentator and frequent Trump critic Ana Navarro quipped on Friday that first lady Melania Trump Melania TrumpKathy Griffin and Stormy Daniels flip off Trump in photo White House donates steaks from cancelled congressional picnic to Walter Reed Art of Statue of Liberty responding to Melania with 'We Should All Care' jacket goes viral MORE was trying to ''self-deport from the White House.''

Navarro appeared on "The View," where she discussed Trump's surprise visit on Thursday to the U.S.''Mexico border to meet with migrant children who were separated from their parents.

The panel was debating whether Trump traveled to the Texas detention center to spite her husband.

''We all know that this is a very complicated marriage,'' Navarro said. ''I thought she was trying to self-deport from the White House."

The first lady was born in Slovenia and became a U.S. citizen in 2006.

Co-host Meghan McCain said Trump's decision to travel south was a political move to combat the national backlash surrounding the Trump administration's ''zero tolerance'' immigration policy.

''It's damage control but it's effective,'' McCain said. ''She is by far the most popular Trump.''

The zero tolerance policy, implemented by the Trump administration earlier this year, seeks to aggressively prosecute migrants who cross the southern border into the U.S. illegally, often resulting in a separation of children from their parents.

Caving to intense bipartisan pressure, President Trump Donald John TrumpTom Arnold claims to have unreleased 'tapes' of Trump Cohen distances himself from Tom Arnold, says they did not discuss Trump US military indefinitely suspends two training exercises with South Korea MORE reversed his policy separating migrant families at the border by signing an executive order to stop the practice.

The first lady's trip was riddled with controversy after she was photographed boarding her flight to Texas in a jacket that read ''I really don't care. Do U?'' on the back.

While Melania Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, downplayed the wardrobe selection as "just a jacket" and said there "was no hidden message," President Trump suggested that the jacket's message was intentional.

"'I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?' written on the back of Melania's jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!" the president tweeted Thursday afternoon.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:44

Actor and comedian Seth Rogen on Friday night recounted his experience meeting GOP Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanGeorge Will: Vote against GOP in midterms Trump tweet may doom House GOP effort on immigration On The Money '-- Sponsored by Prudential '-- Trump floats tariffs on European cars | Nikki Haley slams UN report on US poverty | Will tax law help GOP? It's a mystery MORE (Wis.), revealing that he turned down a photo with the lawmaker and criticized his policies in front of his kids.

Rogen told CBS late night host Stephen Colbert that he was approached by two of Ryan's kids after speaking at an event on brain health hosted by Mitt Romney Willard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyDem lawmaker: GOP deliberately increased deficits through tax cuts in order to cut social programs Former top Treasury official to head private equity group Romney backs Laura Bush on border: 'We need a more compassionate answer' MORE .

Rogen said he took a photo with the kids, assuming they were simply ''very nice fans,'' until they said their dad wanted to meet him and he saw the Speaker walking toward him.

''My whole body puckered, I tensed up, and I didn't know what to do,'' he said, adding that Ryan came over and ''grabbed [his] hand'' before asking for a photo together.

''I look over and his kids are standing right there expectantly, clearly fans of mine, and I said, 'No way, man!''' Rogen said.

Rogen, who is Canadian, said he then went on to lash out at Ryan over his policies, though he felt ''conflicted'' doing it in front of his children.

''Furthermore, I hate what you're doing to the country at this moment and I'm counting the days until you no longer have one iota of the power that you currently have,'' Rogen said he told Ryan.

''I'm glad I didn't take a picture with Paul Ryan, I touched him so I don't know how I feel about that,'' he said. ''His kids seemed lovely, and very caucasian.''

In the interview with Colbert, Rogen also took the chance to criticize the Trump administration for detaining migrant children at the border, and praised his home country for legalizing recreational marijuana.

''This week Trump made prisons for kids, and Canada legalized recreational marijuana,'' Rogen said. I don't know if there's an official grading system for the weeks a country has, but that was a good week for Canada.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:31

Log in Sign up AFP news agency @ AFP VIDEO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main rival in Sunday's presidential elections Muharrem Ince holds his final rally in Istanbul on the eve of the poll

#TurkeyElections pic.twitter.com/8DPHXsOXm6 6:05 AM - 23 Jun 2018 Twitter by: AFP news agency @AFP Hakan Topal @ newHakanTopal

25m Replying to

@AFP Muhtesemsin Istanbul.

#bizkazanagiz View conversation · Smiffy @ smiffy_73

24m Replying to

@AFP Good luck against the dictator Erdogan

View conversation · Lord Derfel @ zetadraconis

15m Replying to

@AFP muharrem ince is rescuer of turkish people

View conversation · –mer Boz @ Boz_oglu55

12m Replying to

@AFP 👍ERDOĞAN

pic.twitter.com/WFzIC0fN0d View conversation · "خاÙد"#اÙقدØ" @ khalidalzhri

11m Replying to

@smiffy_73 @AFP the dictator ErdoganðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

View conversation · –mer Boz @ Boz_oglu55

11m Replying to

@smiffy_73 @AFP Dictator west !

pic.twitter.com/GPsxwOZLkP View conversation · Michael Dobson @ mickdobson

10m Replying to

@AFP Wishing you all the Best for a HUGE VICTORY!

View conversation · Miss.. @ cgdmckn

10m Replying to

@AFP Turkish police reported as like 5 million people came to Maltepe/Istanbul rally 🇹🇷

View conversation · aleyna lara @ Aleynalaraayik

6m Replying to

@Boz_oglu55 @AFP AYNEN AYNEN ERDOĞAN DİYO HALA

View conversation · Dormeur du Val @ Jeuneturc20

6m Replying to

@Boz_oglu55 @smiffy_73 @AFP Aq gerizekalisi ya duzgun yabanci dil ogren ya da yazma amma eziksiniz be

View conversation · Dormeur du Val @ Jeuneturc20

5m Replying to

@khalidalzhri @smiffy_73 @AFP E dogru soylemis zaten sorun yok ki

View conversation · Aaron @ TheCentrist21

3m Replying to

@Boz_oglu55 @AFP No

View conversation · Burak ‡ifci @ burakcifci__

2m Replying to

@AFP ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

pic.twitter.com/y4u2nGLDjk View conversation · ReturnTheChildren @ ampleambi

3s Replying to

@AFP I hope muharrem ince has good security.

#Erdogan has been in charge for 15 years and admired by tRump for his thuggishness.

#TurkeyElections View conversation · Enter a topic, @name, or fullname

Settings Help Back to top ·

Turn images off

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 13:25

FREE In Google Play

Get Show me the weather in... city, zip, or place

Recently searched

No items to display |

Americas

Africa

Asia Pacific

Europe

Middle East

No items to display Weather Today's ForecastHourly Forecast10 Day ForecastMonthly ForecastNational ForecastGet Notifications Maps Weather in Motion®Radar MapsClassic Weather MapsRegional Satellite Severe Severe AlertsHurricane CentralTornado CentralWinter Storm CentralSafety and Preparedness Get Severe Alerts Video & Photos Top StoriesVideoCrazimalsNewsFan PhotosPhotos Activities Let's Go PlacesBoat & Beach ForecastFarming Forecast Health Allergy TrackerCold & Flu TV WatchShowsPersonalitiesNo items to display Manage notifications |

Back to menu

Americas

Africa

Asia Pacific

Europe

Middle East

All sections

Weather

Maps

Severe

Video & Photos

Activities

Health

TV

Remove Do you want to save this location? Manage Locations Connection restored!

Environment 18 hours ago

weather.comA new study finds rivers in Britain are so polluted, critically endangered eels are getting high.

More VideosAlgae Bloom Triggers Civil Emergency in Oregon 00:52

Up Next

Rare, Fire Rainbow Spotted in New England 00:24

Pres. Trump Rolls Back Obama-era Ocean Protections 00:40

Pipeline Expansion Could Push Endangered Whale to Extinction 00:46

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 20:02

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:42

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski rebuffed an attempt by co-host and fianc(C) Joe Scarborough to hold her hand during Thursday's edition of "Morning Joe," telling him "not on the air."

"We did lots of fighting over issues, so it should be a good show today," Brzezinski, who became engaged to Scarborough in 2017 following long speculation the two were a couple, said to kick off the program.

"No, we didn't," Scarborough responded.

"Yeah, we did," Brzezinski said as Scarborough reached for her hand.

"Don't do that. Not on the air. We're on the air. What are you doing?" Brzezinski playfully scolded.

"Can I ask you a question?" Scarborough asked, turning to Willie Geist. "We've been engaged for like 13 years. You think I should be able to hold her hand at this point in the engagement?"

"With her consent," Geist replied.

"If you be quiet, I'll hold your hand ... so I can do the news," Brzezinski negotiated.

"The show is off to an interesting start," joked panelist Sam Stein.

Scarborough, a former GOP congressman who became an independent last year primarily due to President Trump Donald John TrumpCNN analyst Kirsten Powers: Melania's jacket should read 'Let them eat cake' CNN's Cuomo confronts Lewandowski over 'womp womp' remark Sessions says FBI agent Peter Strzok no longer has his security clearance MORE , proposed at a hotel in Antibes, France, during a trip to celebrate Brzezinski's birthday in May 2017. The duo has hosted the MSNBC morning program since its launch in 2008.

"Saturday Night Live" once spoofed the couple's on-air affection in a skit that included flirtatious exchanges such as "This tea kettle's about to blow, baby."

A wedding date has not been announced.