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Many Congressional Democrats, long over their deep concerns about George W. Bush's 'imperial' presidency, have taken to cheering on President Obama has he usurps and arrogates power in the name of "progress." This phenomenon was on full display as Democrats actively urged Obama to pull the trigger on his unilateral immigration fiat, which he'd repeatedly dismissed as illegal in the recent past (at least one federal court has since agreed). They similarly defended the president's various power grabs on Obamacare, including delaying and altering entire provisions of the law for political reasons, as well as appropriating billions in payments to...

Hillary Clinton's private email server was a spy magnet for the Russian, Chinese, Iranian and other intelligence services, say current and former intelligence officials. As secretary of state, Clinton routed all her government-related email through the server, based in her house in Chappaqua, New York. She reportedly hired a Cablevision (NYSE:CVC) subsidiary to run the server, with antivirus protection from Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) McAfee. And she registered her domain name, clintonmail.com, through Network Solutions. Intelligence professionals fear that the use of the privately installed server, free of certified government defenses against foreign interception, has been a boon to foreign cyberspies. "By...

A former member of the New York Knicks now playing for the Indiana Pacers was stabbed in the abdomen — and his wife slashed — during an argument at 1 OAK club in Chelsea early Wednesday, cop sources said. Chris Copeland’s attacker was arrested, and two members of the Atlanta Hawks, Pero Antic and Thabo Sefolosha, were also booked, for trying to prevent police from setting up a crime scene, the sources said.

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Even in 2015, the New York Times is still pretending that desalination does not exist The New York Times just published this article on California’s water shortage:California Drought Tests History of Endless GrowthA punishing drought is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been the state’s engine has run against the limits of nature.April 4, 2015LOS ANGELES — For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life — 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and...

A punishing drought is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been the state’s engine has run against the limits of nature. ... a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state’s driving engine has run against the limits of nature. Can Los Angeles continue to dominate as the country’s capital of entertainment and glamour, and Silicon Valley as the center...

New York Congressman Steve Israel and a photo of an AR-15 which includes 3D printed parts.Gun rights groups from Defense Distributed to the NRA to Come and Take It Texas will not be pleased with the latest piece of proposed legislation from Congressman Steve Israel. Israel, a representative from New York state, first called for legislation to ban 3D printed guns. Israel’s bill has gotten little traction at this point, but he says he’s not about to give up the fight.In fact, Israel says he’ll be reintroducing legislation aimed at banning 3D printed, or for that matter, all fully-plastic firearms....

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s approval ratings have slipped below 50 percent, making it possible he could face a serious primary challenge in 2017. But New York’s pro–de Blasio city council may have found a way to stop that cold: A majority of the council supports giving more than 1 million non-citizens full rights to vote in local elections. That’s one in five adult New Yorkers. Mayor de Blasio’s approval ratings are much higher among minorities than with whites, who oppose him by a two-to-one margin. Giving non-citizens — most of whom are minorities — the vote could...

A Second Avenue Subway subcontractor filled its job site with cheap apprentices, then billed at a much steeper rate, a former worker charges. “There’s a common saying down there — the MTA is the ATM. You get money if you’re standing,” said disgusted whistleblower Alexander Maack to The Post about contractors’ attitudes towards big projects. “Just show up for the day and you make the boss a profit.” The MTA Inspector General’s office confirmed that it is investigating the allegation. Maack, 42, said he began working for Celtic Sheet Metal — which sub-contracts for city contractors E. E. Cruz and...

The wealthiest Americans don’t care about inequality, and our presidential candidates are following their lead. That’s not to say they aren’t talking about inequality. They are, for anyone who will listen. As Noam Scheiber notes for the New York Times, Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio broached the issue in January, while Hillary Clinton discussed it at the Center for American Progress last week. But none of them have ideas for tackling the problem. Neither Cruz nor Paul nor Rubio was willing to say “the government should intervene to solve it,” while Clinton would rather retreat to platitudes—“We...

New York City council is currently drafting legislation that would allow all legal residents, regardless of US citizenship, the right to vote in city elections New York City is routinely described as a “global hub”, a place so thoroughly penetrated by international capital and migration that it seems at once within and without the United States. It is the centre of American commerce and media, but its politics, demographics and worldly outlook make the Big Apple an outlier. New York may be about to become even more distinct. The left-leaning New York City council is currently drafting legislation that would...

Pic - Mayor Bill de Blasio, at Gracie Mansion with First Lady Chirlane McCray, activist Van Jones, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, plans to dip his toe into presidential politics with the launch of a push for income inequality to become a central issue of the 2016 national elections. "All of this is focused on the notion that we are not having a discussion on income inequality in this country and we are not having that discussion at our peril." GRACIE MANSION — Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supporters describe as a "national hero" among progressives, has dipped his his...

All bets were off after a chair-hurling brawl broke out Friday night at the grand opening of a Fat Tuesday New Orleans-style daiquiri bar inside the Resorts World Casino in Queens, officials said.

Many scientists disagree. They say those quakes, and thousands of others before and since, are mainly the work of humans, caused by wells used to bury vast amounts of wastewater from oil and gas exploration deep in the earth near fault zones. And they warn that continuing to entomb such huge quantities risks more dangerous tremors — if not here, then elsewhere in the state’s sprawling well fields.

IN 1997, I was sexually assaulted by a fellow student at the University of Virginia. At a closed hearing, the university’s committee on sexual assault found him responsible. His punishment? A letter in his file. It’s not clear how many women have won their cases through the university’s system since they were first allowed to enroll as undergraduates in 1970. I am one of the women who won, but winning wasn’t really winning, was it? The hearing on my case took place in March 1998, two months after a criminal trial that ended in disappointment and frustration for me when...

Two women in New York City have been arrested over their ties to the ISIL terrorist group and allegedly planning to carry out a "terrorist attack" in the United States, federal prosecutors say. Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, plotted to hit government, police or military targets, according to the complaint filed Thursday at a US federal court in Brooklyn. The complaint said Velentzas and Siddiqui had praised the al-Qaeda terrorist group and were "citizens” of ISIL. "We are committed to doing everything in our ability to detect, disrupt and deter attacks by homegrown violent extremists," Brooklyn US Attorney...

The American Civil Liberties Union this week laid off 23 employees, about 7 percent of the organization’s national staff. The cuts affected employees in New York, D.C., California and Wyoming. ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero announced the impending reductions internally in a March 26 email to employees, and the affected staffers were notified Monday. In the email, which was obtained by The Washington Post, Romero cited the need for the ACLU to cut costs. In addition to the layoffs, the organization during the fiscal year ending March 31, eliminated ten national staff positions, postponed its nationwide staff conference to 2016...

Several top Democrats are voicing grave reservations over the Obama administration's emerging deal governing the future of Iran's nuclear program. Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said they welcome a discussion on the framework agreement unveiled Thursday, but harbor deep doubts that the Iranians can be trusted to make good on their commitments. "I greet any deal with Iran with great skepticism given its deceptive history and ongoing destabilizing and dangerous activities," Deutch, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs subpanel on the Middle East, said in a statement. "I remain deeply concerned as to how a...

U.S. Senator Rand Paul is running for president … in fact, he announces his candidacy next week in Louisville, Kentucky. From there he travels to early voting Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – including a big fundraiser in the Palmetto State the day after he announces. As we write this, money is being collected. Speeches are being vetted. He’s 100 percent in … and not only that, Paul is one of the few candidates in the race with (we believe) a path to victory. And one of the few candidates (we believe) to be worthy of real consideration. Is...

BRISTOL, VA (WJHL) - Applications for state jobs in Virginia will no longer will include questions regarding a person's criminal history. Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order removing criminal history questions from state employment applications Friday. Under the order, employment decisions won't be based on an applicant's criminal history unless it's specifically related to the job they are being considered for. While it only applies to state employment applications, the order also encourages similar hiring practices for private employers throughout the Commonwealth. Some business owners we spoke to in Bristol, Virginia are not on board with the idea.

How do you know The New York Times is all in for protecting Barack Obama? When its editorial board turns on a fellow Democrat who bucked him on the Iran deal. "The New York Times is calling for New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez to resign in the face of criminal charges of bribery."