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The two Republicans who broke ranks with their party and announced they would vote against education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos have received thousands of dollars from the nation's largest teachers union.Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have each benefited from contributions from the National Education Association. Collins received $2,000 from the union in 2002 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Murkowski, meanwhile, has received $23,500.The NEA represents 3 million members, making it the wealthiest and most influential union in the country. The NEA, along with other labor groups like the American Federation of Teachers, has waged a fierce campaign against...

Washington (CNN)Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both said Wednesday they would not vote to support Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump's choice for education secretary. The two women are the first sitting Republican senators to publicly say they wouldn't back one of Trump's Cabinet nominees.The stunning decision from a pair of veteran Republican lawmakers puts DeVos in a tenuous position as her final vote before the Senate nears, but top Republican aides are confident she will be confirmed.

At the end of his just-ended conversation with VP Pence, Rush informed him and the audience that Susan Collins has said she will vote against Betsy DeVos for Education secretary. Rush also reporting a second Pub senator [Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski] would vote against her.

Fort Huachuca, Arizona -- Col. Lonnie Hibbard, deputy commanding general for sustainment, 7th Infantry Division, visited Fort Huachuca's Hubbard Landing Zone on the East Range Jan. 19 "to see how operations are going and if there are any obstacles that would prevent training." The 14th Brigade Engineering Battalion, 2nd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, is stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and is conducting a proficiency exercise at Fort Huachuca as they go through the steps for launching and flying the Shadow unmanned aircraft system. Hibbard explained, "The Soldiers are doing their readiness-level progression, so you have a new operator who's...

Accused airport shooter Esteban Santiago initially blamed his actions on government mind control but later claimed he had been "on the dark web" communicating in "jihadi chat rooms," with Islamic State terrorists or sympathizers, authorities said in court Tuesday. ... Santiago, 26, practiced firing his weapon at a gun range in Alaska in the months prior to the Friday, Jan. 6 attack at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The semiautomatic handgun Santiago used in the attack was the same weapon that was returned to him by the Anchorage police department in December, agents testified.-snip- Agents said Santiago was released from psychiatric...

[UPDATE: Tucker Carlson on Fox News (01/12/17) mentioned the fact that Judicial Watch has uncovered the Muslim online identity and postings by the shooter, Santiago-Ruiz that the media continues to ignored.] EDITOR’S NOTE: When the corrupt liberal media thought the Fort Lauderdale shooter was a vet suffering from PTSD, or a nut case from the psych ward, it was front page news... But the second word got out that he didn’t have PTSD and wasn’t crazy but ... a convert to Islam, they dropped the story like a hot potato. The Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooter is a Muslim convert who...

Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran who for reasons still unclear shot more than a dozen random travelers in an airport 5,000 miles from his Alaska home, lived just three blocks from a popular Veterans of Foreign Wars hangout. He never visited. Santiago spent two years in Alaska, working as a security guard and National Guardsman... he didn’t make much of a mark— except with law enforcement from a string of domestic disputes with his girlfriend and mother of his infant son. But, increasingly, his life was falling apart. Last January, he was arrested after roughing up his girlfriend, accused...

The Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooter is a Muslim convert who years before joining the U.S. Army took on an Islamic name (Aashiq Hammad), downloaded terrorist propaganda and recorded Islamic religious music online, according to public records dug up by the investigative news site of an award-winning, California journalist. This is pertinent information that the Obama administration apparently wants to keep quiet, bringing up memories of the Benghazi cover up, in which the president and his cohorts knowingly lied to conceal that Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. Special Mission in Libya. Information is slowly trickling out that links the Ft. Lauderdale...

Esteban Santiago’s initial destination may not have been Fort Lauderdale, but New York City, where he had made a reservation to fly in on New Year’s Eve, ... But for some unknown reason, he cancelled the flight a few days later booking a one-way $278 ticket to Florida. NYC counterterrorism-officials are investigating Santiago’s plan..., whether he planned to stay in NYC or transfer to another flight. Officials believe the highly visible presence of NYPD officers ... New Year’s Eve could have been an effective deterrent. -Snip- After 34 seconds of terror, five people were killed and six injured in a...

When 26-year-old Esteban Santiago met with FBI agents on Nov. 7 about hearing voices in his head, he left his newborn child outside in his vehicle in freezing temperatures but was not arrested, officials said Saturday.... Marlon Ritzman, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Anchorage, Alaska, office, ... “In November 2016, Mr. Santiago walked into the Anchorage FBI office to report that his mind was being controlled by U.S. intelligence agencies. ... Mr. Santiago appeared agitated, incoherent and made disjointed statements.” Santiago told agents he “did not want to hurt anyone,” but out of caution, the FBI contacted the...

The Obama administration warned Monday that polar bears may disappear unless something is done about climate change, despite recent research indicating that the bears are actually thriving. In its final Conservation Management Plan, the Fish and Wildlife Service painted a grim picture for the future of the massive Arctic-dwelling mammal, warning that its fate will be determined “by our willingness and ability to address climate change.” “The current global polar bear population is estimated to be 26,000,” said the FWS press release. “If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the current rates throughout the 21st century, polar bears will...

<p>Accused airport shooter Esteban Santiago appears in court ... to face federal charges. The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five people and wounding six others in the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting is scheduled ... for a hearing ... 11 a.m. Enhanced [courthouse] security is apparent.. metal barricades ... armed federal agents and explosives-detecting dogs.</p>

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Sunday information released by Anchorage Police Department about Santiago's child was incorrect. In a written statement, FBI spokesperson Staci Feger-Pellessie said Santiago's child was not left inside the car when Santiago came to the FBI's Anchorage office. "The child was in constant custody and care of the FBI, inside our facility, until his mother retrieved him," Feger-Pellessie said. ORIGINAL STORY: Two months before Esteban Santiago allegedly went on a deadly shooting rampage in Florida, he surrendered a gun to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Alaska and told investigators he was "having terroristic thoughts,"...

The Anchorage man accused in the mass shooting at a Florida airport Friday did not have ties to a terrorist organization when he was investigated last year, the FBI said at a news conference Saturday in Anchorage. Law enforcement said he had exhibited mental health problems during an incident at the Anchorage FBI office that led local police to take his gun. ... the Anchorage Police Department said it later returned the gun to Esteban Santiago, 26, after the weapon had been logged into evidence for safekeeping. "I want to be clear, during our investigation, we found no known ties...

Airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told investigators he planned the carnage and purchased a one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale to carry it out. But it is still unclear why he came to South Florida to do it. Federal prosecutors filed court documents, ... he could face the death penalty or life in federal prison, they said. "Santiago fired approximately 10 -15 rounds ... aiming at his victims' heads ... walking while shooting in a methodical manner,... Five people died and six more suffered gunshot injuries. ... Moments later, a Broward sheriff's deputy approached Santiago, who "dropped the handgun on the...

Esteban Santiago, reportedly a U.S. citizen with military identification, is accused of being the shooter who randomly gunned down at least 13 people at a Fort Lauderdale airport baggage claim area. MSNBC said the shooter may have retrieved a gun from his luggage after arriving on a flight and NBC News reported that the weapon may have been checked “lawfully.” The Palm Beach Post reported that the gunman may have emerged firing from a bathroom. Some reports said he traveled through Canada, but ABC News is now reporting he went from Anchorage through Minneapolis to Fort Lauderdale. 1. The Alleged...

In Jack London’s famous short story, “To Build A Fire,” a man freezes to death because he underestimates the cold in America’s far north and cannot build a proper fire. The unnamed man—a chechaquo, what Alaska natives call newcomers—is accompanied by a wolf-dog that knows the danger of the cold and is wholly indifferent to the fate of the man. “This man did not know cold. Possibly, all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold 107 degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited...

As soon as she glimpsed the body on the icy street, Marie Nickolai knew it was Jackie Amaktoolik. He’d been drinking outside. She wept “That’s my brother,” she said. When homeless people die in Alaska, it is often like this: outside, facilitated by a lethal combination of alcohol and cold. ...Nickolai, 42, and her stepbrother grew up among eight siblings in the remote Yupik village of New Stuyahok along the Nushagak river in western Alaska. She said it was a childhood of picking berries, hunting moose, fishing and attending the Russian Orthodox church. ..laska has some of the highest per...

Alaskan Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young are considering overturning President Barack Obama’s bans on new offshore oil drilling. The lawmakers could introduce legislation overturning Obama’s actions either by authorizing the incoming President-elect Donald Trump to undo any prior offshore drilling bans or simply overturning the specific bans from Obama outright. “The Congressman believes this decision can be overturned by the incoming Administration and will be encouraging President Trump to do so,” Matt Shuckerow, a spokesman for Young, told The Hill. “In addition, Congressman Young will also pursue legislation to overturn this decision.”

The Obama administration will use a legal strategy crafted by environmental activists to remove sections of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans from future offshore drilling lease sales, according to two sources familiar with the plan told Bloomberg. For months, environmentalists have been urging President Barack Obama to use Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a 1953 law governing offshore drilling, in a way it’s never been used before — to block offshore drilling leases in the Atlantic Ocean and the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.