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A spokesperson for the Treasury Department told the Washington Free Beacon that survival kits being ordered for government workers at every major bank in the United States are for “emergency preparedness.” .......“The solicitation is to replace aging kits and provide kits at additional location out of a preponderance of caution,” Collins added. Once the government finds a bidder, each of OCC’s 3,814 employees will receive a survival kit, which will come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with “decongestant tablets,” a variety of bandages, and medicines. The...

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It's been six months since a prisoner swap led to the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The Army's investigation into the circumstances under which the Hailey native left his Afghanistan base wrapped up in October, yet no new information has been released. Bergdahl's fellow soldiers say he deserted the base, which is a crime under military law. A military defense councilman speculated Wednesday that the delay could mean no charges will be filed. The question remains a mystery. What events led up to the disappearance of Bergdahl and his capture by the Taliban in 2009? He was held captive for...

President Obama on Wednesday said he did not believe Americans needed to be concerned by threats issued to movie theaters, even as Sony Pictures made the decision to pull its controversial comedy “The Interview” amid threats of terrorism. “For now, my recommendation would be: Go to the movies,” Obama said Wednesday in an interview with ABC News. The president said his administration was taking very seriously the cyber attack against the movie studio, which unleashed a trove of internal emails and documents, and pledged a thorough federal investigation into the breach. On Wednesday, multiple media outlets citing U.S. intelligence officials...

U.S. Air Force Col. William Pitts stands in front of an unmanned aerostat that is part of a new U.S. military cruise-missile defense system during a media preview on Dec. 17, 2014, in Middle River, Md. Patrick Semansky/AP************************************ MIDDLE RIVER, Md. -- The Army showed off a blimp-like airship Wednesday that is designed to help the military detect and destroy cruise missiles speeding toward the nation's capital or other major East Coast cities. The radar-toting vehicle will be launched next week as part of a three-year test of the system at Aberdeen Proving Ground, about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore....

Calling it the biggest disappointment of his career, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Wednesday he was abandoning plans to make Vermont the first state in the country with a universal, publicly funded health care system. Going forward with a project four years in the making would require tax increases too big for the state to absorb, Shumlin said. The measure had been the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's agenda and was watched and rooted for by single-payer health care supporters around the country. "I am not going (to) undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state...

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A settlement agreement announced Tuesday calls for St. Anthony Village to allow an Islamic group to use a portion of a building the group owns for worship and other religious activities. The U.S. government reached the settlement with the city over its 2012 rejection of a proposed Islamic center. Since the Islamic center bought the St. Anthony Business Center in 2011, its leaders have wanted to maintain office space for the current tenants and to hold its religious gatherings in the building's basement level. U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced the results of settlement negotiations agreed upon Dec. 11 at a...

Republican leaders are so far refusing to telegraph their strategy for combating President Obama’s unilateral action on immigration. But they’re under enormous pressure from the right to act fast. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) have no shortage of options. The question is whether any of them would stop Obama in his tracks. Aides to GOP leadership say one weapon in their armory would be for Republicans to sue the president, either by expanding the GOP’s current lawsuit against him on ObamaCare or bringing new legal action. Republicans, who will take...

This week the FBI announced a $1 million reward for "information leading to the apprehension" of Joanne Chesimard also known as Assata Shakur who they named a "Most Wanted Terrorist." Chesimard is the first woman to make the FBI’s list. The New Jersey State Police Dept., who also wants her, added another $1 million to the pot. Convicted cop-killer (of a New Jersey State-Trooper) and "domestic terrorist" Chesimard has been living in Cuba since 1984 as a Castro-coddled celebrity of sorts. And it’s not like bounty hunters can operate freely in a Stalinist country. So the $2 million may be...

Tuesday on NewsMax TV's "MidPoint," Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed accusations of race-baiting by black leaders such as himself and Al Sharpton by comparing them to race baiting allegations from infamous segregationist George Wallace towards civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King. "I will tell you there are people who have appeared on this show before, who every time we discuss the leaders of the black movement in this country, they take your name and they put it in the same sentence as Al Sharpton and they say the two of you, people have said this on our show, are race...

French police launched raids across the country early on Monday, dismantling a network sending jihadist fighters to Syria ... anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets, mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the northern region of Normandy. ... In recent months France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, has been facing the fact that hundreds of its citizens have openly joined jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and have even called for attacks on their homeland. The new reality was driven home in a video from the Islamic State group released...

The new Republican-controlled Senate's first act in January will be approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday. McConnell told reporters that the bill would be based on a measure that failed in the Senate last month that was co-sponsored by North Dakota Republican John Hoeven and Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu. "It'll be open for amendment," McConnell said. "I will hope that senators on both sides will offer energy-related amendments but there'll be no effort to try to micromanage the amendment process." Landrieu pushed for a Keystone vote in November in a last-ditch effort to...

A funny thing happened on the way to Vladimir Putin running strategic laps around the West. Russia's economy imploded. The latest news is that Russia's central bank raised interest rates from 10.5 to 17 percent at an emergency 1 a.m. meeting in an attempt to stop the ruble, which is down 50 percent on the year against the dollar, from falling any further. It's a desperate move to save Russia's currency that comes at the cost of sacrificing Russia's economy. So even if it "works," things are about to get a lot worse. It's a classic kind of emerging markets...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 THE NEWS OF THE WEEK IN REVIEW11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE20 21

Earlier tonight, Curtis Houck at NewsBusters observed that the Tuesday evening network news shows failed to report on an opinion issued today by a federal judge in Western Pennsylvania in connection with President Obama's illegal immigration-related executive actions last month. Several blogs and center-right outlets noted Judge Arthur Schwab's 38-page "Memorandum Opinion" this afternoon. Not that this excuses the networks, but a search at the Associated Press's national site just before 8 p.m. on Schwab's last name (unfortunately not saved) returned nothing relevant. But shortly after 8 p.m. a story with a time stamp of 5:08 p.m. with Schwab's name...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Sprint has informed NASCAR that it will not extend its title sponsorship of the organization's top-tier racing series beyond the current contract, which expires after the 2016 season. Sprint has been the entitlement sponsor for NASCAR's top series since 2004, when Nextel signed a 10-year agreement for the Nextel Cup Series. The name changed to the Sprint Cup Series in 2008 following the corporate merger between Nextel and Sprint.

* Bush-appointed jurist rules the White House 'amnesty' plan is an example of legislation – something only Congress can do * Democratic U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal sniped to MailOnline that Schwab is 'wrong' and made 'an incorrect decision' * Judge dismissed administration's claim that it is using 'prosecutorial discretion' to decide which illegal immigrants it will stop deporting * 'President Obama's unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the U.S. Constitution,' judge Arthur Schwab ruled * GOP Senator John Thune said Obama hadn't yet 'got the message' about his party's stinging November election...

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For a member of Congress to accuse his party leaders of lying to him, and for their aides to return the favor, is about as rare as the drama that surrounded last week’s procedural vote — a vote that led to the passage of the $1.1 trillion spending bill.