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Altoona, Iowa (CNN)—Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad called for Ted Cruz's defeat Tuesday, in a dramatic and highly public repudiation of the Texas senator just two weeks out from the Iowa caucuses. Speaking to a small group of reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona, where several 2016 presidential candidates are slated to speak, Branstad labeled Cruz a "big oil" candidate whose victory would be "very damaging to our state." "It would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him," Branstad said. "And I know he's ahead in the polls but the only poll that counts is...

Three U.S. citizens who disappeared last week in Baghdad were kidnapped and are being held by an Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia, two Iraqi intelligence and two U.S. government sources said on Tuesday. The U.S. sources said Washington had no reason to believe Tehran was involved in the kidnapping and does not believe the trio are being held in Iran, which borders Iraq. "They were abducted because they are Americans, not for personal or financial reasons," one of the Iraqi intelligence sources in Baghdad said.

Is this how "Europe" ends? The Germans, founders and funders of the postwar union, shut their borders to refugees in a bid for political survival by the chancellor who let in a million migrants. And then -- why not? -- they decide to revive the Deutschmark while they're at it. That is not the fantasy of diehard Eurosceptics but a real fear articulated at the highest levels in Berlin and Brussels. Chancellor Angela Merkel, her ratings hit by crimes blamed on asylum seekers at New Year parties in Cologne, and EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker both said as much last...

Facebook began a Europe-wide campaign on Monday to thwart extremist posts on social media, after German politicians in particular raised concerns about a rise in xenophobic comments linked to an influx of refugees. The company launched its "Initiative for Civil Courage Online" in Berlin, pledging over 1 million euros ($1.09 million) to support non-governmental organizations in their efforts to counter racist and xenophobic posts. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said hate speech "has no place in our society," including on the Internet. Facebook's ground rules forbid bullying, harassment and threatening language, but critics say it does not enforce them...

Lawyers for the Texas teenager who killed four people in the "affluenza" drunken-driving case and was captured in Mexico said on Tuesday they are investigating whether the 18-year-old chose to flee or was forced. Judge Timothy Menikos of Tarrant County juvenile court deferred a ruling on a move to transfer Ethan Couch's case to adult court because his parents were not adequately notified about the proceedings.Tarrant County prosecutors contended Couch is responsible for his own absence by fleeing to Mexico. His mother was returned to Texas and faces a third-degree felony charge, accused of helping her son flee, that could...

An ice cream truck operator was carjacked in Encanto early Tuesday, San Diego Police said. The truck was flagged down on Akins Avenue at 4:30 a.m. by two men posing as customers, officers said. Both men had knives, jumped in the truck and ordered the driver out, police said. They drove off heading west on Akins. The van was later recovered on Webster Avenue. No arrests have been made.

All four life rafts from the two choppers that collided off Oahu's North Shore have been recovered on Monday but with no sign of any survivors, according to an official with the U.S. Marines. In spite of this, rescuers on Tuesday will continue searching for the 12 Marines who were on board the two helicopters when they crashed late Thursday. This would be the fifth day of search-and-rescue operations.

A Texas woman, wanting to give a homeless guy some reprieve from the cold and a warm place to rest, invited him in to stay the night in her spare bedroom. -snip The 66-year-old woman, whose name was not released, lives alone with her two granddaughters in Houston. With a spare bedroom and a big heart, she offered the space to Thomas Smith, who had no place else to go. Everyone in the house had turned in for the night, or so the woman thought, when she was woken up by what Smith was doing, just after 1:30 a.m. According...

Two different alumni of SEAL Team Six, the secretive group of highly trained warriors that killed Osama bin Laden three years ago, have been profiting off their role in the terror leader's death since leaving the military. Former Team Six member Matt Bissonnette, who wrote a bestseller under a pseudonym about shooting bin Laden, is about to publish his second book about being a Navy SEAL. Rob O'Neill, meanwhile, is the unnamed "shooter" who was credited in numerous magazine articles with firing the fatal shots, and according to two SEAL sources will be presented again as the "shooter" in a...

A FORMER NAVY SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden and wrote a bestselling book about the raid is now the subject of a widening federal criminal investigation into whether he used his position as an elite commando for personal profit while on active duty, according to two people familiar with the case. Matthew Bissonnette, the former SEAL and author of No Easy Day, a firsthand account of the 2011 bin Laden operation, had already been under investigation by both the Justice Department and the Navy for revealing classified information. The two people familiar with the probe said the current investigation,...

Donald Trump often rails against U.S. intervention in the Middle East that topples dictators whose exits lead to unstable regional consequences like the rise of ISIS and other terrorist groups. But one intervention he has subsequently come to pan — the 2011 U.S. intervention in Libya, which led to the toppling of longtime leader Muammar al-Qaddafi — Trump once very loudly called for on humanitarian grounds. “I mean, look at Libya,” Trump said on CNN’s State of the Union last year. “Look at Iraq. Iraq used to be no terrorists. He [Saddam Hussein] would kill the terrorists immediately, which is...

A lot of drivers in Albuquerque's North Valley have seen a woman holding a sign saying "killing me" that is pointed at a Taco Bell under construction, and the woman's dead serious about it. She even painted her back fence, which faces the project, with the words, "Taco B Is Killing Me." "It's a war zone. There are explosions. There are bombs going off. I can't even describe it," said Kathy Wiley, who isn't fed up with the food at Taco Bell, but rather the construction. The construction on the building is happening on 4th Street, north of Griegos. Denver-based...

(snip) The problem is not, as some commentators have claimed, a legal doctrine known as "standing" -- a rule that requires that a person who comes to court must have a proper legal interest at stake in the litigation. Rather, the biggest barrier is a principle of judicial restraint known as "the political question doctrine." A key idea underlying this doctrine is that the Constitution itself, in its text or spirit, sometimes takes a certain sort of constitutional question away from ordinary courts and makes some other decision-maker the real judge -- a special court for a special question. In...

More than likely originated with an SOS sent to the Brits in an election year by sniveling American Democrats, who, “alas, alas!” intuit that outsiders like Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz have a chance to deliver America from Obama’s Fundamental UK’s Parliament and self-professed Barack Obama “bro” Prime Minister David Cameron just gave the world’s chattering classes Lesson 101 in the ‘Hypocrisy of Politically Correct Governments’. Reality TV in America is aided and abetted by Donald J. Trump, the lately-minted Bruce (“call me Caitlyn”) Jenner and assorted others. In England, Reality TV yesterday burned 3 hours of ‘debate’ to...

Canada Is on the Verge of Instituting the Most Radical Culture of Death in the World Wesley J. Smith January 18, 2016 3:01 PM | Permalink That's right, if the nation's Supreme Court conjures a "right" to be dead, Canada will be more radical than the Netherlands, which allows psychiatrists to euthanize the mentally ill. More radical than Belgium, in which euthanasia of the disabled and mentally ill have been conjoined with organ harvesting. That's radical! Up until now, the so-called "right to die" has been a right to ask. The ultimate decision has been solely up to the doctor....

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump has come down hard on the Obama administration for intervening in Libya to help topple Muammar Qaddafi. Trump says, for example, that the world would be better off with Qaddafi in power. Indeed, he has argued that “frankly there is no Libya; it’s all broken up; they have no control; nobody knows what’s going on.” Trump probably isn’t far wrong in his assessment. However, as Andrew Kaczynski at BuzzFeed documents, Trump strongly supported the U.S. intervention in Libya at the time it occurred. According to Kaczynski, in 2011, sounding every bit like Samantha Power...

The idiot governor of Iowa has come out today saying he wants Ted Cruz defeated because he doesn’t support ethanol subsidies: DES MOINES REGISTER – “Ted Cruz is ahead right now. What we're trying to do is educate the people in the state of Iowa. He is the biggest opponent of renewable fuels. He actually introduced a bill in 2013 to immediately eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard. He's heavily financed by Big Oil. So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive but he could be very damaging to our state,” Branstad said.Branstad added that...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he's "100 percent" on board with the remaining field of candidates in support of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected president in the fall of 2016. In an interview with The Brody File, published on Tuesday, Trump said "I am for that one hundred percent. We are for that one- hundred percent" when told by host David Brody that pledging to move the embassy to Jerusalem is a "tier-A issue for Evangelicals as it relates to support for Israel." Trump is currently tied for first place with Senator Ted...

Dr. Ben Carson has just announced he is suspending his run for the presidency temporarily. Some of his staff members were in a serious accident today… one of them is in grave condition. Carson will fly to Omaha to be with that staff member’s family. Three student volunteers and a campaign staffer were in the vehicle that slid on an icy road. Just this weekend, Carson took the stage at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention in Myrtle Beach, where he told enthusiasts that “every venue” during his latest Iowa swing “was standing room only.” He added, “I believe...

Document: U.S. CENTCOM Statement on Events Surrounding Iranian Detainment of 10 U.S. Navy Sailors January 18, 2016 1:57 PM The following preliminary timeline of the events surrounding the Iranian detainment of 10 U.S. Navy Sailors from January 12-13, 2016, is based upon multiple operational reports received by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in the first 24-48 hours after the incident. A Navy command investigation initiated on Jan. 14, will provide a more complete accounting of events.On Jan. 12, two NAVCENT Riverine Command Boat (RCB) crews were tasked with the mission of relocating two RCBs from Kuwait to Bahrain, with...