News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World news, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
A pigeon rescue group is looking for “MAGA” hat-wearing pigeons released in downtown Las Vegas.
An anonymous group calling itself “P.U.T.I.N.” said they released pigeons wearing MAGA hats purposely before the Democratic debate, according to an email from the group’s apparent leader “Coo Hand Luke.”
Lofty Hopes plans to remove the hats. Hillman said that regardless of the humor or reasoning behind the hats, gluing an object to an animal is animal cruelty.
“The hats get in the way of their vision because they’re always keeping an eye out for predators when they’re flying.”
Intruder pulls down woman’s clothes, attacks her in 24-Hour Fitness, California cops say
Police praised the bystander for intervening.
“Their quick action stopped this horrendous assault and aided in the suspect’s quick arrest,” police wrote on Facebook. “It took bravery and courage to intervene.”
Anderson faces charges including sexual assault, assault with intent to commit oral copulation and violating probation, police wrote on Facebook.
“Detectives believe this may not have been the first time Anderson has assaulted someone in this manner,” police wrote.
Feds charge Michigan man with threatening impeachment whistleblower’s lawyer
Brittan Atkinson, 52, of Beaverton, in northern Michigan, emailed the lawyer in November, writing, “All traitors must die miserable deaths.
Those that represent traitors shall meet the same fate,” according to the indictment unsealed in federal court. “We will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are.
“We have nothing but time, and you are running out of it,” the email continued. “Keep looking over your shoulder(.) We know who you are, where you live, and who you associate with(.) We are all strangers in a crowd to you(.)”
Trump: Let legal process ‘play out’ on Stone for now; reserves option to issue pardon
“I’m not going to do anything in terms of the great powers bestowed on the president of the United States,” Mr. Trump said in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I want the process to play out. I’d love to see Roger exonerated. I personally think he was treated very unfairly.”
Addressing a graduating class of former prison inmates, the president spoke at length about “dirty cops” in the Justice Department and the FBI who prosecuted members of his 2016 campaign team. Stone was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison for lying to investigators and obstruction.
New York Man Arrested Three Times In One Day Under New Bail Reform Law
Just a week after a New York man with 139 arrests was released under New York’s new bail-reform law thanked Democrats, the police union protested another case where a man, Scott Nolan, was arrested three times in one day but released each time under the new law.Nolan’s criminal record is 50 pages long.
According to WRBG-TV, Nolan was arrested on Monday at 9 a.m. in Troy on suspicion of shoplifting and given a court appearance ticket.
Then at 2:30 p.m., he was arrested again for an alleged assault and again released. Then two hours later, he was arrested again for hitting someone with a brick and given a third ticket for a court appearance.
Police are outraged that they no longer have the ability to hold such recidivists for bail.
First Lady Melania Trump Receives 2020 Woman of Distinction Award…
First Lady Melania Trump was in Palm Beach, Florida, Wednesday to accept Palm Beach Atlantic University’s 2020 Woman of Distinction Award.
…“As the first lady of the United States, it is a great honor to serve the people of this incredible country”.
Ohio Court Orders Christian Professor To Use Trans Pronouns Or Lose His Job
A Shawnee State University professor of religion and philosophy, Nicholas Meriwether, has been told by a federal court that despite his religious objections, he must use the preferred pronouns of transgender students if he wishes to keep his job. Shawnee is a public community college in Portsmouth, Ohio.
In late 2018, a transgender student, a male who identified as a female, approached Meriwether and asked him to use feminine pronouns for the student.
According to Alliance Defending Freedom, Meriwether declined, and the student “became aggressive, circling around him, getting in his face in a threatening fashion, while telling him, ‘Then I guess this means I can call you a c**t.’”
The student threatened to have the professor fired and filed a formal complaint with the university.
UPS Punishes Drivers for Prayer Meetings
Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to UPS stating that drivers’ prayer meetings must be allowed again, and the drivers who have been fired must be reinstated.
On January 27, a friend of the drivers posted a message on Facebook that UPS was prohibiting the drivers from praying. The post has since been shared more than 1,100 times.
Since then, several drivers with many years’ experience who regularly participated in the prayer meetings have been fired for what appears to be pretextual reasons. Other drivers are afraid of speaking out in the wake of this firing.
Roger Stone sentenced to 3 years for lying, witness tampering as case roils DOJ
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, while taking a firm stance toward Stone in the courtroom, also said the up to nine years originally sought by federal prosecutors was excessive.
Her sentence of 40 months in prison was considerably less than that — but still tough enough to keep speculation alive about a possible pardon from President Trump.
The case doesn’t end with Thursday’s sentencing: Earlier this week, Jackson indicated she would sentence Stone as planned on Thursday but could delay the implementation of the sentence until after she decides whether to grant the defense’s motion for a new trial over claims of juror bias.
He remained free on bond after Thursday’s appearance.
Man Who Killed Child Rapist In Jail Scheduled To Be Executed Thursday
Nicolas Sutton was hit with multiple life sentences for killing three people, including his own grandmother.
Then he received a death sentence for killing a child rapist while serving time in jail.
Sutton is scheduled to be killed via the electric chair on Thursday, and his clemency petition was rejected by the governor of Tennessee.
Correctional officers are asking for Sutton to be spared due to his transformational and apparently life-saving behavior in prison, pleading that the criminal serve out his life sentences and eventually die without being killed by the state.
According to CBS News, Sutton’s victims’ families don’t want him on death row, either.
3 charged after 11-year-old gives birth in Missouri bathtub
An adult female and adult male are charged with child endangerment. A 17-year-old male is charged with incest as well as statutory rape and statutory sodomy of a child younger than 12. All three live in St. Charles.
The woman, who was charged Tuesday, is accused of failing to provide the girl medical care when she gave birth.
The man was charged last week and bond was set at $10,000 cash only. Charging documents say he entered the country illegally and was previously deported.
Hundreds camp out overnight ahead of Trump rally in Colorado
The line began forming Wednesday morning for the rally, which is set for Thursday at 5 p.m., local time, with people bringing along tents, space heaters, and sleeping bags, Fox affiliate KXRM reported. Overnight and early morning temperatures were in the teens.
While supporters began gathering on Wednesday night, Trump was holding another rally in Phoenix, Ariz., where he took shots at Democrats and touted the country’s low unemployment rate.
Trump had kicked off the rally by paying tribute to World War II veteran Irvin Julian, who was carried into the rally by two Trump supporters, a clip of which circulated on social media.
Man caught texting on plane about molesting children jailed for 15 years
Michael Kellar, 58, was texting his girlfriend Gail Lynn Burnworth, 52, while on a flight to San Jose in 2017 when a hawk-eyed passenger saw the disturbing messages on his cellphone, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office in Washington’s Western District.
The concerned traveler told authorities that a man sitting in front of her was texting about the abuse with a large font on a large smartphone.
In the text exchange, Kellar and Burnworth talked about using Benadryl to drug and rape two of the three children, aged 5 and 7 at the time, who lived with Burnworth.
Google project manager facing murder charge after wife disappears in Hawaii, body found
Sonam Saxena, 43, of Bellevue, Wash., was taken into police custody following the discovery of a body near Aneahoomalu Bay, police said in a statement.
Though police have not confirmed the identity of the body found in the bay, they said the location was “in the general areas where Smriti Saxena was reported as a missing person and last seen late Tuesday evening.”
The couple, who have been married for 17 years, have two children ages 8 and 13. They come to Hawaii’s Big Island every year to celebrate their eldest child’s birthday.
Politics:
California’s governor wants to fight the state’s homelessness problem with involuntary mental health treatment
Newsom called for changes to the state’s laws on involuntary treatment, calling “those out on the streets for more than a year, with complex behavioral health needs” the “hardest part of this problem.”
But delivering mental health assistance to those in need of it “hinges on an individual being capable of accepting help, to get off the streets and into treatment in the first place,” Newsom continued. “Some, tragically, are not.
That’s why we need better legal tools, ones that allow local governments, health providers, and law enforcement to more effectively help people access the treatment they need.”
Specifically, Newsom said that the state’s legal conservatorship thresholds for compelling people to get treatment were “too high and should be revisited.”
Maybe the Democrats Don’t Like the Base of Their Party, but They Created It • Tucker Carlson Tonight
Commentary/Opinion:
Tammy Bruce, President of Independent Women’s Voice, joins Tucker Carlson on Fox News to weigh in on 2020 Democratic presidential race.
Mike Bloomberg Donated $14 Million Planned Parenthood, Would Fund Killing 23,154 Babies in Abortions
Bloomberg, a pro-abortion Democrat, has a long record of both public and private support of abortion on demand, including almost $14 million in donations to the abortion giant Planned Parenthood within the past several years, CBN News reports.
Bloomberg’s support for the killing of unborn babies does not end there. And if what one of his former employees says is true, his abortion advocacy is not about a woman’s “choice”; it’s about “killing” an inconvenient unborn child.
CBN News reports more:
Top National Security Council Aide Moved to Department of Energy: White House
A top National Security Council official, Victoria Coates, was moved to a new role at the U.S. Energy Department, the White House confirmed on Thursday while rejecting reports that she is the author of “Anonymous: A Warning” or a related New York Times editorial.
The official characterized her departure as one that was “in the works for several weeks.” What’s more, while in the Department of Energy, Coates will keep “working to implement the president’s agenda.”
The White House said the move would take place on Monday and would be done “to ensure the continued close alignment of energy policy with national security objectives.” A successor to Coates was not announced in the statement.
ICYMI: Here Are The Highlights From Last Night’s Smoking Guns Democrat Debate
In the most explosive Democratic primary debate this cycle, six candidates savaged each other on stage from the Las Vegas Paris Theatre with three days to go until the Nevada caucuses on Saturday.
Here are the highlights from Wednesday night’s most momentous debate yet.
World News:
US Ambassador: The Insane Ways The UN Wastes Money (Pt.2)| Richard Grenell | POLITICS | Rubin Report
Commentary/Opinion:
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Richard Grenell (US Ambassador to Germany) about what it’s like to be the US Ambassador to Germany under President Trump.
Richard also gives an insider’s look at how the UN really operates. He describes what he sees as the extreme waste due to the UN general assembly policy of distributing resources like jobs evenly whether or not countries have people with the necessary skills or not.
People end up being hired who don’t have the necessary skill set to fill quotas, and money and resources are wasted.
Richard also discusses how Donald Trump has been successful at being a disrupter and breaking up groupthink.
Richard details what he calls the Trump doctrine to foreign policy and whether or not it’s effective.
Turkey rejects Russian demand of withdrawal from Syria as tensions mount – TV7 Israel News 20.02.20
1) Israel is preparing itself for the possibility that the coronavirus could spread to the Jewish State.
2) Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett asserts that an Israeli military operation against the Jihadist organizations in Gaza would only happen at a time and method of Jerusalem’s choosing.
3) Tensions continue to mount in northwestern Syria, as regime forces continue to make rapid advances – while separately – the Turkish military heavily reinforces its forces for an imminent counteroffensive.
Germany shooting: Investigation into ‘deeply racist’ gunman’s links
The suspect shot dead nine people “of migrant background” at two shisha bars on Wednesday evening. He and his mother were later found dead in his flat.
Peter Frank said material the suspect Tobias R had posted online showed a “deeply racist mindset”.
The problem has been particularly acute in – but not confined to – the east of the country, in the former East Germany.
There, unemployment levels have been higher than in the rest of Germany and a simmering resentment, by some, of the recent immigrant arrivals has manifested itself in arson attacks on hostels.
Commentary/Opinion:
Jordan Peterson’s Ideas Matter, Not His Addiction
Peterson, a self-help guru and free speech advocate, rose to dizzy heights over the past several years, perhaps becoming the best-known philosopher in the world.
Over the past month or so it has become known that Peterson is very ill, suffering in a Russian hospital from severe addiction to the anxiety medication benzodiazepine and by some reports near death.
When judging ideas, it is not the effect they have on their author that matters, it’s the impact they have on the world.
If a doctor finds a cure for the half the cancer in the world, but then dies of the other half, it doesn’t somehow render her work meaningless.
Furthermore, Peterson’s fight against compelled speech that vaulted him into prominence in the first place was a vital contribution in combating new and radical ideas about biological sex and gender.
His refusal to comply with Canadian laws and university rules about proper pronoun usage came at a time many who oppose the trans agenda felt cowed and bullied into silence.