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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently released a report highlighting state-by-state ownership of guns regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. Firearms and accessories covered under the NFA (hereafter: NFA-registered firearms) include machine guns, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers/suppressors, certain explosive devices, etc.

France’s highest administrative court has overturned a town’s ban on wearing the full-body burqini swimsuit, in a case expected to set a precedent for the other towns with the same ban. The State Council ruled that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a “proven risk” to public order. The decision followed arguments from the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia group seeking to reverse the decision by the southern town of Villeneuve-Loubet to ban the Islamic swimsuit. […] Not everyone was pleased with the court result. The former mayor of Nice and current President of Provence-Alpes-Côte...

“Donald Trump is tied with Hillary Clinton in Ohio, and that was before we found out that she put the secretary of state’s office up for sale like the Lincoln Bedroom was when Bill Clinton was president,” Scott said in an emailed statement. “This poll shows that independent voters are looking for an outsider like Donald Trump who is working for them – not special interests. Our ads are working to pull the cover back on Hillary’s legacy of corruption, and that means more and more voters will support Donald Trump.” ... Scott is the head of the Rebuilding America...

‘Parole’ program tests limits of executive immigration powers President Obama plans to use parole authority to go around normal rules and try to admit thousands of entrepreneurs to the U.S., the administration announced Friday, once again testing the limits of executive power on immigration. Parole is usually used in specific humanitarian cases, such as temporarily admitting someone in dire need of medical treatment, but Mr. Obama argues it can also be used more broadly to try to boost the U.S. economy by letting wealthy entrepreneurs buy their way in.

A federal judge has ordered the State Department to turn over any and all emails and documents found by the FBI from Hillary Clinton's private server relating to the Benghazi terrorist attack of September 11, 2012. The judge was responding to this August 23 revelation from the State Department. Reuters: "Using broad search terms, we have identified a number of documents potentially responsive to a Benghazi-related request," Elizabeth Trudeau, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. "At this time, we have not confirmed that the documents are, in fact, responsive. We also have not determined if they involve Secretary...

The News: A Letter to President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of August 19, 2016 was signed by a bipartisan group of 36 former national security officials, e.g., Democratic Party luminaries like Ed Rendell, Gov. & DNC Chair, Howard Dean Gov. & DNC Chair; and prominent Republicans, e.g., Mayor Rudy Giuliani, DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, & UN Amb John Bolton. The letter stated, “We fear that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), and its Quds Force will attack the remaining residents [of Camp Liberty Iraq].” On Aug. 2, the MOIS website stated its opposition to the...

We’ve gone from deportation force to no amnesty, but we’re going to work with them regarding those who are here illegally. That’s a shift. That seems to be what other former GOP contenders were saying, including Jeb Bush. In fact, it is pretty much Bush’s immigration position that Trump slammed as being weak on illegal immigration. It’s the softening that so many of those who were skeptical about Trump warned the party about, which came out during the Republican nominee’s town hall event last night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity:

Ever since Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi testimony was delayed by a fall and a concussion, the state of her health has been questioned by her critics and treated by here defenders as a medical subset of the vast right-wing conspiracy. She attempted to make light of new questions being raised, in part from simple observation of her recent behavior by opening a jar of pickles on Jimmy Kimmel’s show Monday night and having him feel her pulse. Team Clinton would have everyone believe this is just another far-right conspiracy theory but incidents indicating she might be in a real pickle over...

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats, aware of the dead weight that Donald J. Trump has placed on their vulnerable Republican colleagues, can taste a reclaimed majority. But just as Senate Republicans blew their chances in 2010 and 2012 before finally taking control in 2014, Democrats find themselves hobbled by less-than-stellar candidates in races that could make the difference in winning a majority. In Pennsylvania, Katie McGinty, a relatively unknown former federal official who has never held elective office, is ahead in polls but lags Hillary Clinton’s large lead in the state. In Florida, a nasty primary between two flawed candidates could...

The Polish foreign minister has said that Germany all too often follows its own interests at the expense of its partners, as Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to visit Warsaw. […] Merkel is set to arrive in Warsaw on Friday for talks with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, as well as the heads of state of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The quartet have had increasingly tense relations with Berlin since Germany took in hundreds of thousands of migrants last year and started pushing for an EU-wide quota system, whereby refugees would be redistributed across the union. But foremost on Waszczykowski’s...

He appeals to us on the issues that matter most.As a proud Latina, the daughter of two Cuban immigrants, who lives in a heavily Latino, blue-collar neighborhood, the question I’m asked all the time these days is: Wait, how is it you support Donald Trump? It’s an occasionally amusing, sometimes tiresome, but never surprising line of inquiry. After all, among the many false narratives out there about Trump, the one pushed hardest is that he’s at odds with Latinos. But, like much of that rhetoric, it’s a deliberately simplistic assessment of the Latino electorate. And, for the record, yes —...

I have long been a believer that, in most cases, a private company will do a more effective and efficient job than any government agency charged with the same task. My recent travel experience solidified that belief. It all started out with a half-empty water bottle at Ronald Reagan National Airport just outside the District of Columbia. I had checked in the night before, checked my bag at the curbside when I arrived, and now had a full hour to go through security. With Congress gone since late July and much of the District emptied out until Labor Day, I...

Donald Trump has no choice but to soften his view on deporting eleven million illegal immigrants. I'm not disagreeing with the idea of deporting these illegals. I'm simply explaining why he has to alter his position. Over the last two decades we have allowed our country to become overwhelmed by Third World values. What are these values? Third World values are a complete distrust of the system - so much in fact that you believe you should overrun it. It’s not just a movement of restoring the democracy, it’s an arrogance of vanity and self-interest that puts one’s interests above...

The children of an Arizona gun instructor accidentally killed by a 9-year-old firing an Uzi at a gun range are filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the business's owners. "The gun range created an unsafe and dangerous environment that ultimately lead to my dad’s death" said Ellie Vacca, the 17-year-old daughter of Charles Vacca, on "Good Morning America" today. The gun instructor’s family spoke to ABC News exactly two years after the tragic accident, saying they want the owners of shooting range to be held responsible. The wrongful death suit claims that the mini Uzi 9MM that fired the fatal...

In Traverse City, a couple could lose thousands of dollars in cash as well as their home because of the state’s loose civil forfeiture laws. Their case shows the perspective of both sides of this issue, but the solution is fairly simple – governments should not be able to take ownership of people’s assets unless they are convicted of a crime. The Traverse City Record-Eagle does a great job laying out the situation. The Traverse Narcotics Team believes Kenneth and Mary Murray profited from what it calls “ill-gotten gains.” The law enforcement agency accuses the couple of violating the state’s...

After what North Korea claimed was the successful test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday, Pyongyang is on track to develop the capability to strike targets in the region, including Japan, by 2020, given the speed of its development, according to a website run by a U.S. research institute. The report posted on the website 38 North was compiled by the U.S. Korea Institute at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. North Korea’s official media reported Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of the SLBM and declared it...

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Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee, reacted to reports that current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was softening on immigration policy. According to Palin, regardless of what Trump is doing on immigration, it will be better than the alternative, which is what Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton do with regards to immigration.

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).

President Obama can't catch a break in Jersey City. A first-term assemblywoman's effort to rename a city elementary school after the nation's first black president fizzled this week when the school board rejected the move, two months after the board approved naming a different school after Maya Angelou instead of Obama. The board's action this week came amid accusations of backroom deals and officials being left in the dark about the school renaming process. And it has left Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, who made renaming a Jersey City school after Obama one of her first initiatives after taking office in January,...