[NY Post] Mike Flynn’s younger brother told President Trump it’s "about time" he pardoned "General Flynn" ‐ in a tweet he sent to the president and deleted minutes later.
Joseph Flynn, the brother of Trump’s ex-national security adviser, was responding to a tweet by Trump that criticized the FBI investigation into his campaign team and administration.
"About time you pardoned General Flynn who has taken the biggest fall for all of you given the illegitimacy of this confessed crime in the wake of all this corruption," Joseph Flynn tweeted.
When contacted by Newsweek, Joseph Flynn confirmed the Trump Tweet.
"I said it, and maybe he’s listening," the younger Flynn said.
Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI earlier this month.
He is reportedly cooperating with authorities in the ongoing investigation into whether Trump officials colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
When asked recently whether he was considering a pardon for Flynn, Trump replied that he didn’t "want to talk about pardons with Michael Flynn yet."
[The Daily Signal] On Dec. 20, in an unsigned, four-page opinion, the Supreme Court struck down a lower court order that severely burdened efforts by the Trump administration to end the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has shielded certain younger illegal aliens from deportation.
This is good news, a helpful sign that the Supreme Court will not give unelected judges carte blanche to hamstring the federal government’s legitimate efforts to enforce immigration law restrictions, consistent with the current statutory law.
Continuation of DACA offends the rule of law. As Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky has explained, DACA should be eliminated as a matter of law: "Why? Because the president doesn’t have the authority to decide who should be in the United States legally when it comes to immigrants. That power resides entirely in Congress [because] . . . the Constitution says it."
In short, allowing a category of illegal aliens not to be deported requires an act of Congress, not an arbitrary presidential decision.
DACA was established in 2012 by a Department of Homeland Security memorandum. It applied to a large number of young illegal aliens who met certain conditions: they illegally entered the U.S. before the age of 16; were under the age of 31; had "continuously" resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007; and were in school, graduated, or honorably discharged from the military.
DACA provided a period of deferred action (a promise that the alien would not be deported) as well as access to certain government benefits (including work authorizations, Medicare, Social Security, and the earned income tax credit). The period of deferred action was initially for two years, but that period was extended to three years by a second DHS memorandum on Nov. 14, 2014.
Posted by: A. Omereck6265 ||
12/27/2017 10:02 Comments ||
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#3
No DACA. Just because it was their parents who broke the law doesn't mean the so called Dreamers have any right to be here. Deport every last one of them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/27/2017 10:49 Comments ||
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#4
Curious if allowing the kids to stay creates a path for the kids to later legalize their parents along with their entire extended family. Basically, just an amnesty slight of hand.
#5
Stop calling them "Dreamers". You're playing right into Obama's linguistic mind tricks when you do. They are illegal aliens, period.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
12/27/2017 12:30 Comments ||
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#6
You are correct, Herb. That's why I said "so called Dreamers". It isn't what I normally call them. It's what Baraq (always more of a dreamer than a thinker himself) called them. The very definition of euphemism, the term Dreamer is typical of the way Democrats twist our language in an attempt to obscure reality.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/27/2017 13:21 Comments ||
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#7
And if they complain about their families being separated, remind them that they can always reunite in their country of origin.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/27/2017 13:23 Comments ||
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#8
I'm a Dreamer - I'm dreaming about a big fucking wall built on our southern border.
#10
Follow the Elian Gonzalez Procedure: if your parents are in another country (Hint: we just deported them!) then off you go with them. If you were born on U.S. soil you can come back when you are (a) adopted or (b) become an adult.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal agents discovered four preserved fetuses in the Detroit warehouse of a man who sold human body parts, confidential photographs reviewed by Reuters show.
The fetuses were found during a December 2013 raid of businessman Arthur Rathburn’s warehouse. The fetuses, which appear to have been in their second trimester, were submerged in a liquid that included human brain tissue.
Rathburn, a former body broker, is accused of defrauding customers by sending them diseased body parts. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for January.
How Rathburn acquired the fetuses and what he intended to do with them is unclear. Rathburn’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment, and neither the indictment nor other documents made public in his case mention the fetuses.
"This needs to be reviewed," said U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who recently chaired a special U.S. House committee on the use of fetal tissue.
[PRESSTV] The software the FBI and 18,000 other US law enforcement agencies use to analyze fingerprints may contain a Russian code placed by a French company after a secret deal with a Russian firm, two whistleblowers say.
The former employees of a subsidiary of the French firm Safran Group said the company secretly purchased code from the Russian cybersecurity company Papillon Systems and then included it in fingerprint analysis software it later sold to the FBI, BuzzFeed News reported Tuesday.
The Russian company is said to be regularly working with Russian law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Security Service ... the successor to the KGB... (FSB).
According to Philippe Desbois, the Safran subsidiary's former CEO of Russia operations, officials in Safran Group have been worried that the FBI may learn the truth.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Turning security to the French. What could go wrong.
[Fox5ny] If you plan on ringing in the new year at the annual ball drop in Times Square, expect to be cold. A severe blast of Arctic air has descended on the New York City region and temperatures will stay below the freezing mark around the clock for the rest of the year. Gotta be all that global warming
On New Year's Eve the temperature is expected to drop to around 12 degrees, about 12 degrees below normal and one of the coldest on record. High temperatures leading into the holiday are expected to be colder than the typical low temperatures for those days.
Despite the cold, it is not expected to be a record for that date. In 1962 the temperature plunged to 2 degrees on New Year's Eve but that fact is little comfort for the upwards of one million people expected to spend hours outdoors waiting to ring in 2018.
It's too early to tell for sure but there are also some predictions that light snow could fall on New Year's Eve. The only good news with that is that clouds could help trap some warmth at the ground level.
The National Weather Service says the average forecast temperature for the next 7 days for Central Park will be 19 degrees with forecast highs in the low and middle 20s and lows in the middle teens.
New York City Emergency Management officials issued an extreme cold weather alert starting on Tuesday afternoon encouraging New Yorkers to stay indoors as much as possible. They warned that prolonged exposure to cold can contribute to health problems such as hypothermia, frostbite and exacerbation of chronic heart and lung conditions.
A Code Blue was issued for the homeless. People were asked to call 311 if they saw homeless people outside so that city workers could attempt to get them to go to a shelter. Get used to the cold. You are gonna see a lot more of it.
#2
If you listen they actually tell you what they're afraid of: "Morethan 20 states refused outright and others said they needed to study whether they could provide the data.
Civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have said the commission’s eventual findings could lead to new ID requirements and other measures making it harder for groups that tend to favor Democratic candidates to cast ballots."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2017 18:29 Comments ||
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[St. Louis Post-Dispatch] ST. LOUIS • Hundreds of people turned up Saturday morning for a well-publicized gun buyback opportunity that officials hope will make the community safer.
It was so popular that many left without their hoped-for holiday cash.
Lured by the promise of $100 to $200 per weapon, with no questions asked, participants schlepped bags full of pistols, rifles and shotguns, many of them old and rugged.
"My brother in Arkansas rabbit-hunted with it all last year," Willie Shelton, 67, of the city’s Penrose neighborhood, said of a pump 20-gauge shotgun that hadn’t been oiled in a long time. "It was just sitting in the corner, and I heard on the news that I could get $150."
Behind him, Stan Sisley toted a .22-caliber rifle in a guitar sack. The inherited gun had been in a storage unit in north St. Louis County. Around 10 a.m., he and his wife were at the very end of a line that zigzagged out the Omega Center, 3900 Goodfellow Boulevard, through the parking lot and down the block.
"Might as well get rid of it, and I could use the Christmas money," said Sisley, 62.
But he didn’t get the chance. After the couple waited in the cold more than two hours, he said, officials began turning people away at 12:15, unless they had assault weapons or wanted to donate their guns.
"I think maybe they didn’t expect the turnout that it was," he said. "Maybe they will be more prepared next time."
Doug Albrecht, president of the St. Louis Police Foundation, said $125,000 in donations was raised from the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, individuals and companies such as Ameren and Spire to pay for the guns.
Leading up to the event, Albrecht expected about 500 to 1,000 guns to be gathered and destroyed. Should there be more, he said then, more fundraising would be needed for another event in the new year.
#2
So much for the new lefty theory that only a few thousand citizens own those millions of weapons in private hands (as another justification for seizure of said property).
#5
My father-in-law was a county deputy. The county had a buy-back program and break-in burglaries with the only items stolen were firearms sky-rocketed. They didn't try it a second time.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/27/2017 9:06 Comments ||
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#6
Cutlery of all sizes, axes, hammers, tire irons, jawbones of asses, and rope still excluded from the 'buy-back' programme.
... and this was only year 1 of 8 years of Trump-onomics ... [Yahoo] Shares of U.S. department stores jumped on Tuesday as Mastercard Inc said shoppers spent over $800 billion during the season, more than ever before, boosted by growing consumer confidence, rising employment and early discounts.
Sarah Quinlan, head of market insights for Mastercard Advisors, disclosed the figure after the payments processor's analytics arm published its SpendingPulse retail report.
The report said holiday sales in stores and online between Nov 1 and Dec 24 rose 4.9 percent, the fastest year-on-year pace of increase since 2011. Mastercard, which tracks spending by combining sales activity in its payments network with estimates of cash and other payment forms, excluded automobile sales from its figures.
Most U.S. retail stocks have tumbled this year as they continued to lose sales to online stores, mainly Amazon.com Inc. Traditional players have also been hurt by heavy investments in technology and discounting, made to keep up with online and off-price competition.
Shares in J.C. Penney Co Inc rose 7.6 percent on Tuesday, while Kohl's Corp shares were up 5.8 percent, Macy's Inc rose 5.1 percent and Nordstrom Inc increased 2.8 percent.
SpendingPulse said the moderate sales increases seen in apparel and department stores were particularly impressive given this year's slew of store closures.
Online sales rose 18.1 percent during the holiday season, thanks to a late rally in sales, according to Mastercard.
"But that's probably only 11 or 12 percent of total retail sales ... the bulk of sales still is very much in stores," said Quinlan.
"There's growth, don't get me wrong, but we still love that experience of being in store."
The biggest winner of the holiday season was likely to be Amazon.com once again, however, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted this month.
Amazon.com said on Tuesday that it had topped its worldwide holiday sales record this year, with more than 4 million people opting to trial Amazon Prime in one week during the period. ...Capitalism is BACK! ...
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... will rebuild a ruined Ottoman port city on Sudan's Red Sea coast and construct a naval dock to maintain civilian and military vessels, Sudan's foreign minister said on Tuesday, as Ankara expands military and economic ties in Africa.
The restoration at Suakin was agreed during a visit to the ancient port by Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said.
Making the first trip by a Ottoman Turkish president to Sudan, Erdogan said Turkey had been temporarily granted part of Suakin so it could rebuild the area as a tourist site and a transit point for pilgrims crossing the Red Sea to Mecca.
He said the Suakin deal was one of several, worth $650 million in total, agreed with Sudan, which emerged from two decades of US sanctions in October and is seeking to attract international investment.
The countries also agreed "to build a dock to maintain civilian and military vessels," Ghandour told news hounds, adding that they had signed an agreement "that could result in any kind of military cooperation".
The agreements come three months after Turkey formally opened a $50 million military training base in Somalia as it excerts increasing influence in the region.
Suakin was Sudan's major port when it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, but fell into disuse over the last century after the construction of Port Sudan, 35 miles (60 km) to the north.
Speaking on Monday in Khartoum, Erdogan said the refurbished port city would attract Mecca-bound pilgrims who would want to see the island's history, helping Sudan's tourism sector.
"Imagine, people from Turkey wishing to go on pilgrimage will come and visit the historical areas on Suakin Island," Erdogan said. "From there ... they will cross to Jeddah by boat."
The other agreements signed during Erdogan's visit include Ottoman Turkish investment to build Khartoum's planned new airport and private sector investments in cotton production, electricity generation and building grain silos and meat slaughterhouses.
Erdogan and Bashir said they aimed for trade between the two countries to reach $10 billion, Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board said.
In October, the United States lifted a trade embargo and other penalties that had cut Sudan off from much of the global financial system.
Sudan's state minister for investment has said he aims to attract investment of $10 billion a year, compared to $1 billion estimated by the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... for 2016.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
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#1
Pirate base. Wait till ribbon cutting and then bomb the sh*t out of it. Preferably while Turkish brass are on site.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/27/2017 7:02 Comments ||
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#2
this seems to be one of those magical thinking projects;
a tourist port in Sudan with upscale restaurants and hotels -- Erdogan will, no doubt, coerce some Turkish millionaires into investing in this but it seems to me to be a nearly certain money loser
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/27/2017 9:05 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has released 23 of the 200-or-so powerful individuals detained since November on corruption charges after they reached deals with the government, Okaz newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The report did not name those involved in what appeared to be the first large-scale release since the royals, business people and government officials were detained in a crackdown spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The suspects have been held at Riyadh's luxurious Ritz Carlton hotel since early November and told to hand over assets and cash in exchange for their freedom.
Okaz said more detainees would be released in the coming days and trial proceedings would begin soon for those who continue to deny the charges against them.
Saudi authorities see the settlements not as blackmail but as an obligation to reimburse money taken illegally from the world's top oil producer over several decades.
[PRESSTV] A fireworks explosion injured 39 people, including six children between the ages of 11 and 15, during a popular Cuban carnival on Christmas Eve, state-run media reported on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
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[IsraelTimes] The United States today sanctioned two senior North Korean officials over the country’s ballistic missile program, the Treasury Department says.
"Treasury is targeting leaders of North Korea’s ballistic missile programs, as part of our maximum pressure campaign to isolate (North Korea) and achieve a fully denuclearized Korean Peninsula," it says in a statement.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions Tuesday against two officials it describes as "key leaders of North Korea's unlawful weapons programs."
The sanctions against Kim Jong Sik and Ri Pyong Chol block them from any property or interests in property within U.S. jurisdiction, and prohibit them from transactions with American citizens. Treasury said the men are senior officials in North Korea's Munitions Industry Department.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions are part of the United States' "maximum pressure campaign" to isolate North Korea and "achieve a fully denuclearized Korean Peninsula."
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North Korea on Friday in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile, which Pyongyang says is capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman of South Korea's Unification Ministry noted it was the seventh time the U.S. Treasury has imposed unilateral sanctions against the North since the start of President Donald Trump's administration. Baik also pointed out that the two North Koreans had already been under U.N. Security Council sanctions.
Wow. That's weird. How or why would he have acquired that immunity? Ima stumped
[NYPost] A North Korean soldier who defected to the South was found to have antibodies to anthrax ‐ triggering concerns that the rogue regime has weaponized the deadly bacteria, according to reports Tuesday.
The man, who was either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax, had developed immunity to the deadly disease before defecting, UPI reported, citing local Channel A.
A South Korean intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity did not say which of the four soldiers who fled the hermit kingdom this year had the antibodies in his system.
The discovery is causing concern in Seoul because the disease can kill at least 80 percent of those who are exposed to the bacterium in 24 hours ‐ unless antibiotics are taken or vaccination is available.
But South Korea's military has yet to procure an anthrax vaccine.
Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo has said an anthrax "vaccine is expected to be developed by the end of 2019," but not sooner, UPI reported.
The North Korean rogue regime has been suspected of developing biological weapons after in 2015 publicizing the works of the Pyongyang Biological Technology Research Institute, which is run by the Korean People's Army Unit 810.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
He may have eaten scavenged animal carcasses, or been digging for food in anthrax contaminated soil.
#2
Fatboy can't feed his soldiers let alone vaccinate them.
Why can't the ROK's get vaccines from the US if they are so worried?
Posted by: A. Omereck6265 ||
12/27/2017 10:58 Comments ||
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#3
anthrax used to occur naturally in farming communities; and was actually no big deal. The big issue is whether it was the naturally occurring kind or weaponized.
If natural, it would mean the soldier was around rotting farm animal meat or feces from those animal.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/27/2017 13:34 Comments ||
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[IsraelNationalNews] 12 suspects were arrested in Beit Shemesh Monday in a massive fraud case involving a fake yeshiva.
According to the authorities, the suspects created a fake yeshiva and registered 150 'students' in order to receive government funding in the form of Education Ministry stipends and scholarship funds, Yeshiva World News reported.
The suspects allegedly pocketed over NIS 1,000,000 ($287,000).
During a routine inspection, Education Ministry officials found a pile of rubble at the address given for the yeshiva. The officials filed a complaint with the police and undercover detectives, who discovered that the yeshiva and its 150 students did not exist.
[IS News Net] Doha - Israel's deputy foreign minister has said her government is"in contact with at least 10 countries" over the potential relocation of their embassies to Jerusalem.
Tzipi Hotovely's comments on Monday came a day afterGuatemala announced plans to move its embassy toJerusalem, following a similar decision by the US earlier this month which sparked widespread international condemnation and mass rallies across the Muslim world.
Speaking to state radio, Hotovely did not specify the countries in question but said "some" of them are "in Europe".
"So far we have only seen the beginning," she said, adding that US President Donald Trump's decision would "trigger a wave" of followers.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the main sticking points in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian leaders want occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, while Israel says the city cannot be divided.
Breaking with decades of policy, Trump announcedon December 6 that the US recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and said his administration would be moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City.
[ABCNews] A desperate decision to truck California's native baby salmon toward the Pacific Ocean during the state's drought may have resulted in generations of lost young salmon now hard-pressed to find their way back to their reproductive grounds.
With fewer native fall-run Chinook salmon able to make their way back home to the leading salmon hatchery in the state, that hatchery could have only about half as many young salmon as usual to release next spring, the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.
For those involved in safeguarding California's struggling native salmon, it had always been understood that resorting to tanker trucks to carry tiny salmon to the ocean during the drought was a trade-off, John McManus, executive director of the fishing industry's Golden State Salmon Association, told the Bee. Getting a lift on their migration saved countless salmon, but disoriented them.
"Everybody kind of acknowledged and understood at the time the consequences," McManus said.
Native salmon historically anchored food chains and habitats on both land and in the water in California. Salmon still boost the state's economy by $1.4 billion annually, the salmon industry says.
Dams that cut native salmon off from their former upstream spawning grounds, and general human demands on water, have helped cut salmon numbers drastically in the state, making state and federal hatcheries crucial for the fish.
California's drought, declared over just last spring, included some of the driest spells ever recorded in the state. In 2014 and 2015, hatchery managers resorted to sucking baby salmon into tanker trucks for their 280-mile migration toward the ocean, biologists say. Chinook salmon spend two or three years in the ocean before heading back upstream to reproduce.
Since the 2014 class of salmon didn't learn the route by swimming it on their own power, many have gone astray as they head back upstream now.
Biologists say only a small fraction of those made it back to what would be their usual point of return, at the Coleman hatchery. Salmon managers are tracking now how many of the strayed salmon wound up in other watersheds Owing that they are a trans-origin species, those attempting were issued a warning for hitchhiking and set free.
#1
But we were SURE it would work...and out intentions were SO good!
Posted by: Tom ||
12/27/2017 11:29 Comments ||
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#2
It just means less competition for the offspring of those salmon who do recognize their home stream, and therefore a greater survival rate, and more competition for those whose parents took a wrong turn. Those moaning about it forget how very many eggs each salmon lays.
[Mil.com] Shooting coaches beware: This smartphone-compatible pistol accessory is gunning for your job.
Rolera LLC, a closely held company based in Oswego, Illinois, has released the MantisX, a device designed to attach to the rail of any pistol to track a shooter's movements and sync the data to his or her mobile phone.
In a recently released YouTube video, the firm bills the device as "a unique firearm training system that diagnoses shooting issues and coaches you on where you need improvement."
"While you're practicing, the MantisX is analyzing the movements of your gun before, during and after each shot," the commercial states. "It highlights and helps you avoid errors, like pulling, heeling, anticipating recoil, breaking your wrist up or down, or tightening grip while pulling the trigger."
The wireless device, which provides real-time feedback, is designed for live fire on the range, dry fire, and airsoft, CO2 and other types of pistols, according to the video. The product doesn't require a special target and works at any distance.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Daily Signal] On Dec. 20, in an unsigned, four-page opinion, the Supreme Court struck down a lower court order that severely burdened efforts by the Trump administration to end the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has shielded certain younger illegal aliens from deportation.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal agents discovered four preserved fetuses in the Detroit warehouse of a man who sold human body parts, confidential photographs reviewed by Reuters show.
[PRESSTV] The software the FBI and 18,000 other US law enforcement agencies use to analyze fingerprints may contain a Russian code placed by a French company after a secret deal with a Russian firm, two whistleblowers say.
[Fox5ny] If you plan on ringing in the new year at the annual ball drop in Times Square, expect to be cold. A severe blast of Arctic air has descended on the New York City region and temperatures will stay below the freezing mark around the clock for the rest of the year.
[Yahoo] Shares of U.S. department stores jumped on Tuesday as Mastercard Inc said shoppers spent over $800 billion during the season, more than ever before, boosted by growing consumer confidence, rising employment and early discounts.
North Korea
[ABCNews] A desperate decision to truck California's native baby salmon toward the Pacific Ocean during the state's drought may have resulted in generations of lost young salmon now hard-pressed to find their way back to their reproductive grounds.
