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NEW YORK -- Do you feel lucky, punk? If you're a gun manufacturer named Smith & Wesson, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" Smith & Wesson's stock surged 16% Friday, a day after the company reported unexpectedly strong earnings. Smith & Wesson reported a 20% increase in net sales to a record $412 million for its full fiscal year, which ended April 30. Chief Executive James Debney attributed the increase to strong firearms sales, particularly its Military & Police (M&P) series of polymer pistols and sporting rifles. Sales of the gunmaker's newly released M&P Shield, a compact polymer pistol, has...

Led by feckless chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld the ObamaCare law by a 5-to-4 decision, with Roberts voting with liberals Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan. While the decision means many harmful things for the American public, the Second Amendment community remains greatly affected, as the law requires Americans’ medical information to be culled and entered into a national database. Centralizing these medical records will allow the FBI to troll a list of Americans for ailments such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to deny them their gun rights, in the same way that the Veterans...

Virtually at the moment Barack Obama was elected he plunged us into a state of war to save our freedom. We have been under attack by the very people forward looking Americans like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan warned about. Now we must face and defeat our enemies. This is not a movie; this is our generation’s World War II. Beating the Axis powers was tough, but we fought hard and eventually won. The difference between fighting the Axis and fighting Obama’s attacks on our freedoms is that early on we knew we would win. We can’t say that now....

Federal Reserve officials on Friday said they were keeping an eye out for any signs that slowing growth is raising deflation risks but differed on how worrisome sluggish job markets are for the modest U.S. economic recovery. New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley, a close ally of the U.S. central bank's chairman, Ben Bernanke, said he had modestly lowered his expectations for inflation in coming months. He said he would need to see more information on the U.S. jobs market and the unfolding of the European sovereign debt crisis before having a clearer sense of the health of...

In the midst of a fiery floor debate over contempt proceedings for Attorney General Eric Holder, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) quietly dropped a bombshell letter into the Congressional Record. The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the panel, quotes from and describes in detail a secret wiretap application that has become a point of debate in the GOP’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking probe. The wiretap applications are under court seal, and releasing such information to the public would ordinarily be illegal. But Issa appears to be protected by the Speech...

New York City has become too dependent on the financial industry. In 2008, 44 percent of Manhattan wages were earned by workers in finance and insurance; the following year, even after the financial crisis and economic downturn had battered the industry, that share stood at a still-enormous 37 percent. And the track record of one-industry towns isnÂ’t good. No matter how loudly ChryslerÂ’s provocative Super Bowl ad heralded DetroitÂ’s comeback, the Motor CityÂ’s population dropped by a quarter over the last decade and now stands at 39 percent of its 1950 peak. In Russia, Soviet-era monocities like Norilsk, a...

Allen West: Pelosi is 'delusional' By: MJ Lee June 29, 2012 12:21 PM EDT Rep. Allen West on Friday called Nancy Pelosi “somewhat delusional” for refusing to say that the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act constitutes a tax, and likened the mandate to forcing people to “buy a 9mm Glock.” “I think that former Speaker Pelosi is somewhat delusional,” West said on Fox News. “You have to remember that this is the person who said that we have to pass this bill in order to find out what is in his bill. So there has been a deception...

June 29--CHAMPAIGN -- Patient advocates are celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold the basic provisions of the Affordable Care Act, but a local insurance executive warns it will likely result in higher coverage costs for those under 45. Ingrum also said the law narrows the gap between what younger and older people can be charged for coverage. "So, insurance rates for the younger people between 18 and 44 are going to go up dramatically, while rates for people over 44 are going to go down," he said.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are calling it quits after five years of marriage. "This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family," Holmes's attorney Jonathan Wolfe said Friday. "Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest." Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields said Holmes filed for divorce on Thursday. Cruise, 49, wed the 33-year-old Holmes in 2006 in an Italian castle after publicly declaring his love on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," emphatically jumping on her couch. The couple has a 6-year-old daughter, Suri, who has herself become a staple of the tabloids and...

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) -- A man was charged Friday with assaulting a 4-year-old boy weeks earlier, a day after the missing child's body was found under the porch at the youngster's home on a mid-Michigan Indian reservation. Anthony Bennett, 20, was charged in a federal criminal complaint in Bay City, where he was expected to appear in court. He is not charged in the death of Carnel Chamberlain, but the complaint details the reported physical abuse of the child.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is joking that he’ll be spending some time in “an impregnable fortress” after casting the decisive vote upholding President Barack Obama’s health care law. Responding to a question about his summer plans, Roberts quipped that he thought his planned trip to Malta to teach a class was a “good idea.” He delivered the joke Friday at a federal court conference at a posh Pennsylvania resort. Roberts declined to answer a question about the landmark opinion issued Thursday. But he says he hopes the court will be remembered for “protecting equal justice under the...

June 29, 2012 Justice Roberts’ Reckless Restraint? Was this capitulation? Is he irrational or cowardly? Off his meds? You decide. by Scott Ott Conservatives, Constitutionalists, and originalists grew increasingly alarmed as word trickled from the Supreme Court yesterday that Chief Justice John Roberts had voted with “the liberals” to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — four months before the election! Roberts has handed President Obama a victory on his singular legislative accomplishment, they said, and abandoned all reason in calling the individual mandate a “tax,” though even Congress didn’t call it that when the bill was passed.Even...

Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court decided that Americans have no right to due process. Indeed, the Court not only upheld a fraud perpetrated on the public — it became a willing participant. The assessment charged for failure to comply with ObamaCare’s “individual mandate,” which requires Americans to purchase health insurance, was presented to the country by the administration and the Democratic Congress as a penalty assessed for lawlessness — i.e., for refusing to honor this new legal requirement. It was strenuously denied by proponents that they were raising taxes.

Was this capitulation? Is he irrational or cowardly? Off his meds? You decideConservatives, Constitutionalists, and originalists grew increasingly alarmed as word trickled from the Supreme Court yesterday that Chief Justice John Roberts had voted with “the liberals” to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — four months before the election! Roberts has handed President Obama a victory on his singular legislative accomplishment, they said, and abandoned all reason in calling the individual mandate a “tax,” though even Congress didn’t call it that when the bill was passed. Even wobbly Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the conservative stalwarts Samuel Alito,...

White House Statement on Obamacare Mandate Tax Contradicts Supreme Court Ruling By Matt Cover June 29, 2012 March, 7, 2011. (CNSNews.com) – The White House said Friday that the Obamacare insurance mandate tax is a penalty for not having insurance – a statement that directly contradicts what the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. According to press reports, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One that the penalty was not a tax but a penalty. “It's a penalty, because you have a choice. You don't have a choice to pay your taxes, right,” Carney is quoted as saying...

"I think it is good news. More people will learn about prevention strategies from clinicians with some affordable health coverage. Those with preexisting conditions will be able to get coverage and medical guidance. Hopefully, the suboptimal parts of the bill will be modified."—Dr Roger Blumenthal (Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, Baltimore, MD) "I was stunned by the Supreme Court ruling. . . . While I think most Americans favor some form of healthcare reform to address the 30 million or so uninsured Americans and the underinsured, I believe there are ways to achieve this short of mandating insurance for all...

Friday brought sad news to Colorado Springs: A monster wildfire that raged nearby and came roaring down a mountain has turned deadly. Authorities discovered a charred body in a house consumed by flames. One other person was missing. But Friday also brought some relief. The fire, raging since last weekend, had been growing steadily, fueled by hot, arid conditions and winds that gusted at 65 miles per hour. There was relief, too, in knowing that President Barack Obama was on his way to Colorado to visit fire-affected areas. He was scheduled to arrive around noon, local time. Colorado Springs Mayor...

A collage of Obama saying.. not a tax

indal: Ruling could force people to eat tofu and drive hybrid cars By Elise Viebeck - 06/29/12 12:14 PM ET Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said Thursday's "frightening" Supreme Court ruling could lead to penalties for Americans whose lives are out of step with government priorities. On a call with reporters, Jindal said that the decision to uphold the healthcare law as a tax is a "blow to our freedoms." "What's next?" he said, expressing concern for people who "refuse to eat tofu" or "refuse to drive a Chevy Volt" — a popular hybrid car. The court explicitly said the...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — Comedian Bill Maher takes another swipe at Sarah Palin and her family. The host of HBO’s “Real Time” took to Twitter to slam the former Alaska governor who criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding President Obama’s health care law. “#SarahPalin‬ tweeted “Obama lies, freedom dies” – oh cheer up, it just means when one of ur kids gets knocked up they’ll be covered,” Maher said.