News and Headlines: In The News, World News, Politics, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Teen girl hears noise by bedroom window. Dad goes outside, catches man ‘an inch from my daughter’s window’ — then takes him down.
“It was like a fight, you know — a fight for my life there for a minute,” Morgan recounted to KSNW.
Then for the next 15 minutes Morgan held the man identified by police as Mark Lawson, 62, until police arrived, the station reported.
Cops arrested Lawson on charges of aggravated assault, battery, criminal trespass, breach of privacy, electronic solicitation and sexual exploitation of a child, KSNW reported.
Drag queens sponsor Planned Parenthood fundraiser with performances attacking local pastors, Christian activists
A Spokane United Facebook post announcing the event said that while the Church at Planned Parenthood “is freezing their butts off listening to a fake preacher (Greg Locke) reciting bible passages, we will be inside partying and celebrating Planned Parenthood.
All donations collected will be made out to Planned Parenthood in TCAPP’s name. Let’s see how much money we can raise for an organization that does so much for its community!”
Performance videos from the fundraiser showed dancers holding large cutouts of the faces of Christians who’ve been protesting Drag Queen Story Hour events in the community — including pastors Ken Peters and Afshin Yaghtin, as well as 500 Mom Strong leader Anna Bohach — and attacking them, the Christian Post said.
Google’s patient data project ‘Nightingale’ is under investigation
According to WSJ, the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services “will seek to learn more information about this mass collection of individuals’ medical records to ensure that HIPAA protections were fully implemented.”
Project Nightingale gives Google access to tens of millions of patients’ names, health histories, date of birth, lab results, diagnoses and hospitalization records from Ascension.
The health system reportedly didn’t tell doctors and patients that it’s sharing data with the tech giant, which is using the information to design new AI-powered software.
Husband, 46, decapitates wife, 42, ‘puts her head in her lap’ and slits their five-year-old daughter’s throat before hanging himself
The New York Daily News reported, citing unnamed sources, that Schlecht was found decapitated, with her severed head resting in her lap.
Her daughter suffered a cut so deep to her neck that she was partially beheaded.
The five-year-old’s father was found hanging from a rope tied to a bedroom door.
Police seized a knife, believed to be the murder weapon, from the scene. Tedla and Schlecht were reportedly going through divorce proceedings and were due in court just hours before the gruesome slayings.
Schlecht’s brother contacted the authorities that evening, asking to check on his sister after failing to reach her by phone.
Kenneth Schlecht, Jennifer’s father, tells the Daily News that the last time he spoke to his daughter was last Sunday and she was in tears.
‘She said her husband had indicated that if she served him with divorce papers he would ruin her or take them all out, which was apparently what he did,’ he said.
Two people just got the plague in China — yes, the Black Death plague
The two recent patients, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, were diagnosed with pneumonic plague by doctors in the Chinese capital Beijing, according to state media Xinhua.
They are now receiving treatment in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, and authorities have implemented preventative control measures.
From 2010 to 2015, more than 3,248 cases were reported worldwide, including 584 deaths, according to the WHO.
The three most endemic countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
In the United States, there have been anywhere from a few to a few dozen cases of plague every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2015, two people in Colorado died from the plague, and the year before there were eight reported cases in the state.
9 students have died at USC this semester, including 3 since Friday
Three of the nine deaths have been announced since Friday. No foul play is suspected in any of the cases, and suicide is suspected in at least three, school officials have said.
Students have been concerned about this semester’s deaths, USC student Lauren Kramer told CNN affiliate KTLA this week.
“It’s just an overall sad thing, and we want to be respectful, but we also want to know. … Like, is there something that we have to look out for?” Kramer said.
Bolton Board of Education member arrested in connection with teen party with alcohol at her home
According to court documents, the resident State Trooper for Bolton, shortly after a school dance at Bolton High School, he stopped a car that was traveling at a high rated of speed.
The trooper found marijuana and alcohol in the car. The driver and passenger told police they had been taking the alcohol and marijuana to an after dance party at a home on Shoddy Mill Road. The trooper issued a summons to the driver.
Police said they found about 20 teens in the finished basement. The trooper told the teens they would not be charged if they put all the alcohol and marijuana in the center of the room.
After which, the teens were asked to call their parents to arrange for a ride home.
Rapper Kodak Black gets prison sentence in weapons case
The 22-year-old Black admitted in August that he falsified information on federal forms to buy four firearms from a Miami-area gun shop on two separate occasions.
Black also faces drug, weapons and sexual assault charges in other states.
He was arrested during a Miami-area hip-hop festival in May that was marred by several violent incidents.
Wisconsin bus driver saves children wandering in snow, as deadly Arctic air mass grips US
The boy and girl, ages 6 and 2, had wandered away with wind chills in the area just 3 degrees Fahrenheit when Chamberlain spotted them.
Surveillance video from inside the bus released by the Waukesha Police Department shows Chamberlain taking off her coat to use it to warm up the children.
The cold that’s enveloped the eastern two-thirds of the country brought record single-digit temperatures to Chicago, set snowfall records in Buffalo and Detroit; dusted cars with snow in Memphis, Tenn.; and frozen lakes in Minnesota weeks earlier than usual.
Texas man steals woman’s purse, drags her down mall escalator: video
Surveillance video released by authorities in Houston shows the suspect following the woman as she drove into the parking lot of The Galleria mall around 2 p.m. on Oct. 17.
He had apparently followed her to Saks Fifth Avenue at the mall from a Bank of America location, where she had just withdrawn money.
The woman exited her car in the parking garage and was heading up the escalator when “she was suddenly jolted back and observed an unknown male trying to take her purse,” the Houston Police Department’s Robbery Division wrote online Tuesday.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg misses Supreme Court arguments due to illness
“Justice Ginsburg is unable to be present today.
She is indisposed due to illness, but she will participate in the consideration and decision of the cases on the basis of the briefs and the transcripts or recordings of the oral arguments,” Chief Justice John Roberts said from the bench.
She had radiation treatment for a tumor on her pancreas in August.
After that treatment, Ginsburg later appeared at the National Book Festival in August, saying, “As this audience can see I am alive… and I’m on my way to being very well.”
Police: Father Used 11-Month-Old Son As Human Shield In North Philadelphia Shooting That Left Baby Critically Injured
Nafes Monroe, 25, was arrested over the weekend and charged with recklessly endangering another person, and endangering the welfare of a child.
“He was using counterfeit money to purchase drugs knowing that counterfeit money is very upsetting to drug dealers, and when they find out they’re being burned with counterfeit money, they act violently,” said Anthony Voci, Homicide Unit Chief with the District Attorney’s Office.
The alleged shooter, 29-year-old Francisco Ortiz, is charged with attempted murder.
Oklahoma cop accused of murdering police chief apparently found ‘mumbling,’ sitting on top of chief’s body
Both police officers, of the Mannford Police Department, were visiting the Panhandle to attend a law enforcement conference.
The pair, described by the Mannford town mayor as “the best of friends,” were seen drinking together that evening, but got into a “physical altercation” just before 10 p.m., the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said.
A disruptive commotion in the hotel room used by Nealey and Miller drew the ire of fellow guests, who called hotel staff before the sheriff’s office ultimately got involved.
By the time police arrived on the scene, Miller, 44, was dead, his body collapsed on the floor and his face on the ground, WEAR-TV reported. The police chief’s face appeared to be bruised and his right eye swollen.
Politics:
Schumer Blocks Measure That Would Lower Prescription Drug Prices
(Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
Cornyn took to Twitter to blast Schumer, writing:
“Senator Blumenthal and I introduced a noncontroversial, bipartisan bill that passed the Judiciary Committee unanimously.
This bill is meant to lower drug prices, but Senator Schumer keeps playing partisan games and is blocking it. This needs to stop.”
In a statement on Tuesday on the Senate floor, Cornyn said:
“Senator Schumer is blocking this bill from passing in the Senate. He’s blocking one of his own members’ bills and one to lower prescription drug prices, of all things.
While the American people suffer from the crush of high costs at the pharmacy, he stonewalls.
And it’s to the detriment of just about everybody, except one group: the army of special interests who have been fighting my bill since day one when it has been introduced.”
Democrats So Scared of Facing Trump in 2020, ‘They’re Trying to Frame Him:’ House Minority Leader
(Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
“We’ve never had an impeachment in the first term.
They are so afraid of facing the president in the election, they’re trying to frame him,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House minority leader, said during a Nov. 13 appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
“They’ve already accused him of being guilty and they keep changing the term because they’re trying to find a crime.”
McCarthy’s appearance came shortly before the first public impeachment hearings were slated to be held on Capitol Hill, overseen by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Republicans requested a number of witnesses over the weekend. Schiff has vetoed one request—the person who filed a complaint against Trump over the president’s July call with Ukraine’s president.
Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council official, was one of the GOP requests and will be testifying on Nov. 19.
Schiff is processing the others, he said over the weekend.
Rep. Ratcliffe STUMPS SCHIFF WITNESSES — Can’t Name a Crime Committed by Trump
Rep. Ratcliffe STUMPS SCHIFF WITNESSES — Can’t Name a Crime Committed by Trump.
Impeachment witness urges Burisma probe, testifies to concern of Hunter Biden ‘conflict’
During questioning by GOP counsel Steve Castor at the first public hearing of the House impeachment inquiry, Kent was asked about the Ukrainian investigation into Burisma Holdings and why it was closed.
Kent testified that it was his and other officials’ “strong assumption” that the founder of the firm, Mykola Zlochevsky, had stolen money, and that a prosecutor had taken “a bribe to close the case.”
Castor asked Kent whether he was in favor of that matter “being fully investigated and prosecuted.”
“I think since U.S. taxpayer dollars are wasted, I would love to see the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office find who the corrupt prosecutor was that took the bribe and how much was paid,” Kent answered.
Trump, Erdogan meet at White House amid strained relations, impeachment inquiry
The two leaders were expected to discuss Turkey’s decision to purchase a Russian-made air defense system – even though Turkey is a member of NATO and hosts a U.S. military base – as well as the country’s military actions against Kurds in northern Syria, which have drawn widespread bipartisan condemnation in Congress.
The meeting of the two world leaders has drawn criticism from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers, who earlier this week called on Trump to cancel his encounter with Erdogan.
A State Department official said Trump is not rewarding Erdogan with a White House visit but is conducting diplomacy.
The official said high-level consultations are needed because of the volatile situation in Syria that has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Trump releases video responding to impeachment hearing: Dems ‘trying to stop me because I’m fighting for you’
In a 30-second video response to impeachment hearings being held on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Trump called the inquiry the “greatest scam” in American history and accused Democratic lawmakers of having ulterior motives.
“What’s going on now is the single greatest scam in the history of American politics,” Trump said.
“The Democrats want to take away your guns. They want to take away your health care.
They want to take away your vote, they want to take away your freedom, they want to take away your judges.”
DNC Researcher With Ukrainian Ties Visited Obama White House Often
Alexandra Chalupa, a contracted opposition researcher working in 2015 and 2016 for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) with extensive Ukrainian sources, met with multiple officials in President Barack Obama’s administration in the White House, according to visitor logs examined by Judicial Watch.
Schiff opens impeachment hearing, as Nunes blasts ‘scorched earth war’ against Trump
Schiff described the core of the impeachment inquiry, and said: “If this is not impeachable conduct, what is?”
But committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., staunchly defended the president and his actions, criticizing Democrats for a partisan process, and reminding the public of the Democrats’ actions during the now-closed Russia investigation.
“And yet now we’re supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations,” Nunes said. “Anyone familiar with the Democrats’ scorched earth war against President Trump will not be surprised to see all the signs that this is a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign.”
He described the probe as the “low-rent Ukrainian sequel” to the Russia case.
World News:
150 Rockets Rain Down On Israel As Revenge For Palestinian Leader’s Death
Rockets have so far caused 39 injuries to Israeli civilians. 90% of the missiles were intercepted by Israel’s defense system called the Iron Dome.
According to the IDF, the purpose of the strike against al-Ata was to preempt imminent attacks from PIJ, the second-largest militant group in Gaza.
PIJ was planning on creeping through a terror tunnel in between the Israel-Gaza border to attack Israeli soldiers with anti-tank missiles, according to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst.
Israel has responded to the ongoing missile attacks from Gaza by targeting more terrorist hotspots. So far, 7 Palestinians have been killed. This number includes targets from Islamic Jihad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Terrorists think they can hit civilians and hide behind civilians.
We showed that we can hit the terrorist with minimal damage to civilians. Anyone who thinks they can hit our civilians and get away with it is wrong. If you hit us we will hit you.”
Abrar Fahad: Bangladesh police charge 25 over murder
His death sparked protests at university campuses across the country.
Police say 11 of those charged were directly involved in the killing, while the others helped organise the attack.
He criticised the government over a water-sharing deal with India, in a post shared to his social media.
A few days later, his body was found in a dormitory.
Witnesses told the BBC he was taken from his room around 20:00 (14:00 GMT) and beaten for at least four hours before he died.
Deadly explosion rips through Afghan capital, killing at least seven
At least seven people were killed and as many were wounded on November 13 when a car bomb detonated during the morning rush hour in Kabul, officials said.
The blast occurred in the Qasaba area of the capital, north of Kabul airport, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told foreign media outlets.
No one immediately claimed responsibility. Both the Taliban and Islamic State militant group are active in Kabul.
All the dead were civilians, Rahimi said, while adding that the number of casualties could rise.
Germany detains three ISIS suspects over attack plot
Prosecutors in Frankfurt said on November 12 that police searched three apartments in the nearby city of Offenbach and detained the men.
The main suspect, a 24-year-old German citizen of Macedonian origin, acquired materials needed to make explosives and searched for firearms online, they said.
“The intervention occurred in time to prevent a concrete threat,” Frankfurt prosecutor Nadja Niesen said.
She said that the suspects appeared to have planned an attack in the Rhine-Main region with the intention of killing “as many people, so-called unbelievers, as possible.”
North Korea warns of ‘bigger threat and harsh suffering’ over nuclear talks deadline
The remarks come amid planned annual U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the North claims would violate the agreements between Kim and President Trump on improving bilateral relations and compel Pyongyang to raise its war readiness.
In recent months, North Korea has ramped up its missile tests, which experts say will likely continue to put pressure on Washington as Kim’s deadline nears for the Trump administration to offer mutually acceptable terms for a deal.
Last week, senior North Korean diplomat Kwon Jong Gun said a joint aerial exercise planned by the U.S. and South Korea in coming weeks amounted to “throwing a wet blanket over the spark” of nuclear negotiations that are “on the verge of extinction.”
Kwon said North Korea’s patience was nearing its limit and that it will “never remain an onlooker” to “reckless military moves.”
Hong Kong violence forces students to flee, city ‘slipping into the abyss of terrorism,’ Chinese officials say
The Chinese University of Hong Kong remained barricaded Wednesday as students and other demonstrators readied for another possible battle with police.
Gasoline bombs and fires had lit up parts of the campus Tuesday night, as police battled back with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Marine police evacuated many of the university’s mainland Chinese students by boat. Others packed onto a high-speed train out of the city, one Chinese finance student, who asked not to be named, told the Financial Times.
Exchange students from Europe and America were also told to pack up and leave the university over concerns for their safety as anti-government unrest gripped the city for the fifth month.
New Zealand to hold referendum on euthanasia
The bill was passed with a vote of 69-51, ending years of heated parliamentary debate on the topic.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has supported calls for euthanasia reform.
A recent poll suggested 72% of New Zealanders supported some form of assisted dying.
The people of New Zealand will vote on the bill in a referendum in conjunction with the country’s 2020 election. A second referendum question, about recreational cannabis, will also be on the ballot paper.
Emergency declared in Venice, Italy over high tides battering city
The water level hit 6.14 feet Tuesday evening, according to the city’s tide forecast office — falling just short of a record set in November 1966 at 6 feet 4 inches.
Sirens sounded to warn people in Venice of the rising water, or “acqua alta,” and authorities closed nursery schools as a precaution.
Commentary/Opinion:
Tucker: There’s no value more American than free speech
Liberals working to crack down on the First Amendment, ban speech they don’t like.
Remember When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Liberated Libya?
Will history record that Obama and Clinton were keen strategic thinkers when it came to advancing the interests of the United States in North Africa?
Hardly.
Yet history should recall the Obama-Clinton policy toward Libya as one of the defining elements of Obama’s administration.
Eighteen months after Obama announced that the U.S. was intervening in Libya’s civil war to enforce “the writ of the international community,” radical Islamic terrorists attacked the poorly secured State Department compound in Benghazi and the CIA “annex” there.
In the more than seven years that have passed since that attack, Libya has remained in chaos.
A civil war continues there, and terrorists operate on Libyan territory.
The State Department’s latest annual report on terrorism in Libya, which was released this month and covers calendar year 2018, makes this clear.
“We came. We saw. He died,” said Hillary Clinton.
And President Obama and his secretary of state helped put Libya on a path to become a terrorist haven and then become, perhaps, a renewed friend of Russia on the Mediterranean coast.
Schiff, The Abominable Showman
Schiff, the Abominable Showman, apparently doesn’t see the hypocrisy in his trial because he cannot deny that he himself has become a witness of fact, that can’t be ignored.
He refuses to testify, under oath, about colluding with the alleged whistleblower/Leaker (whistle-leaker).
Logically, Schiff cannot allow the Leaker to testify without perjuring himself and exposing the trail as an exercise in collusion.
It’s all part of the Coup scandal that includes other potential criminal participants like John Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, Susan Rice and Joe Biden.
If the whistle-leaker isn’t going to testify, how can there be any impeachment hearing?
If the whistle-leaker’s claim to have been told something by someone else, and that information doesn’t align with the published transcript of Trump’s call⏤then any evidence from that source is inadmissible and therefore valueless,… end of trial. Such evidence, if presented or referred to as authoritative, becomes instead a trial of the leaker (Spy) and that will never do.
At some point Pelosi should put an end to this nonsense before it is referred to the Senate for trial.
Lacking any substance as a legitimate product of due process, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may just dismiss the wasted Democrat effort and chuck their reports into the round file where it belongs.
The Coup against President Trump is a failure, at least on this issue.
Mark Levin Unleashes on Faux Conservatives: ‘We’re Not Going to Surrender to Ann Coulter!’
“I get sick and tired of these crybabies, these pseudo-conservatives, who have gotten rich and famous as conservatives, now all of a sudden:
‘I’m not sure.’ For a variety of reasons: positioning themselves and so forth.
It’s much easier if you’re in my business or if you’re in the media business to attack Trump. Because then they love you,” he said about specific conservatives who have turned against the president — either from the very first day he took office or more recently.
“Look at this chameleon slob Scaramucci,” Levin went on to say. “I never understood this guy.
I never had him on my show. He’s a nothing. He’s with Trump, he takes heat. He’s against Trump, all of a sudden he’s celebrated on CNN and MSNBC.
That’s how it works.” Pro-Trump: bad. Anti-Trump: hero. That’s how the leftist media play this game. “You want to be celebrated? Attack the president.”
“Our universities and colleges have gone to hell. Hollywood has gone to hell. The Democratic Party is going to hell and has gone to hell. The media is going to hell.”
“We’re it,” Levin said. “We’re the last ones left. This is it. So the Tokyo Roses in the media and the rest of them? They can go to hell too.” Just in case those “sellouts” think they can get back in conservatives’ good graces after a while, Levin warned them. We have long memories here, don’t we, Levinites? Long memories.”