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My mother passed away from a heart attack earlier today. May she rest in peace. Please keep my family and me in your prayers. She was a good person, and I will miss her.

It was announced on Sept. 13 that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has written a letter to members of Congress, informing them that he has at last completed his long-awaited investigation of matters involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). For a year and a half, Horowitz and many of the 450 people working in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) have been digging deeply into just how the fake Trump-Russia collusion information was used by top federal officials to start law enforcement investigations and intelligence operations against the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Specifically,...

Beats Daniel Gil in the stage 4 competition.

“Trump Administration Rolls Back Clean Water Protections,” ran The New York Times headline on the repeal of Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency rulemaking. Don’t buy the hype: Team Trump’s move wasn’t a blow against clean water but a win for basic justice. All the pre-Obama protections of the water supply remain in effect. This simply undoes a move that gave EPA jurisdiction over vast amounts of dry land, in clear violation of Congress’ intent. By adding terms such as “adjacent waters” and “tributaries” to Clean Water Act coverage, the move empowered EPA officials to grab power over seasonal streams, farm irrigation...

Derek Smalls, the bottom force of the fabled heavy metal band formerly known as SPINAL TAP, has announced the initial all-star line-up for his eagerly anticipated solo tour of West Coast cities this fall. "Lukewarm Water Live!" kicks off at the The Wiltern in Los Angeles on November 6 with a rockstellar bill that includes, live in human form, TOTO's Steve Lukather, Stevie Nicks's celebrated guitarist Waddy Wachtel and rock aristocrat Dweezil Zappa. Beaming in, live on satellite, on all dates throughout this explosive celebration of all things loud will be guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, STEELY DAN legend Donald Fagen,...

California announced last week that it has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever-expanding “travel ban” list because of that state’s new prohibition against funding gender-transition surgeries under Medicaid. The announcement by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra means that as of Oct. 4, California will no longer offer taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa for any public employee or student at a state-run university. Becerra’s authority came from a 2016 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bars state-funded travel to other states that undercut LGBT rights. The blacklist already included Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and...

Gay ‘Married’ Ex-Priest Serves on Canon Law Tribunal for Delaware Diocese Jack Anderson a 'defender of the marital bond' in Wilmington WILMINGTON, Del. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A gay ex-cleric who "wed" a fellow former priest is serving on a diocesan marriage tribunal in Delaware. In a bombshell report published Sunday, investigative journalist George Neumayr revealed that one-time priest Jack Anderson is serving as a defender of the marital bond for the diocese of Wilmington. Neumayr uncovered the scandal while investigating Anderson's relationship to pro-gay Pennsylvania Bp. Joseph Bambera, who after seminary served with Anderson on the Scranton diocesan marriage tribunal. Ex-priest Jack Anderson's profile naming...

A Miami Beach police officer scared the living daylights out of a fellow cop recently with the help of a fake snake, footage shared on September 15 shows. Video here.

Seven years after its land buying program began, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has yet to acquire hundreds of parcels, even though the state has the power to condemn property in the way of its future tracks. At the same time, the rail authority has become landlord to surplus acreage that serves no purpose in furthering high-speed rail but still must be managed by the state. It owns toxic waste sites, vacant lots and rental homes.

TheHill.com Prospects for Trump gun deal grow dimmer BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 09/16/19 06:54 PM EDT Prospects for a bipartisan deal on gun control legislation have dimmed significantly as President Trump and Democratic leaders appear to be far apart on the key issue of expanding background checks. Republicans expect Trump to put forward a proposal addressing gun violence later this week, but Democrats predict it is likely to fall far short of what is needed and that they may not vote for it. Democrats are pressing Trump to agree to a gun control bill already approved by the House, but...

Prospects for a bipartisan deal on gun control legislation have dimmed significantly as President Trump and Democratic leaders appear to be far apart on the key issue of expanding background checks. Republicans expect Trump to put forward a proposal addressing gun violence later this week, but Democrats predict it is likely to fall far short of what is needed and that they may not vote for it. Democrats are pressing Trump to agree to a gun control bill already approved by the House, but the president has yet to even signal support for a scaled-down background check bill sponsored by...

More than 1,500 people showed up to London’s first ever Trans Pride march, which organisers called the ‘one day we’re not outcasts’. The parade kicked off at Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner and ended in Soho Square but the exact route was not revealed beforehand to prevent people interfering with the event. Despite concerns about safety and numbers, organiser Lucia Blayke said the day had been ‘absolutely incredible and overwhelming’. She added: ‘The sun’s out and the sky’s blue, if you look at everyone’s faces it’s just big smiles.’ ‘For trans people it’s a lot different being out in...

The KATRIN discovery stems from direct, high-precision measurements of how a rare type of electron-neutrino pair share energy. This approach is the same as neutrino mass experiments from the 1990s and early 2000s...both of which set the previous upper limit of the mass at 2 eV. The heart of the KATRIN experiment is the source that generates electron-neutrino pairs: gaseous tritium, a highly radioactive isotope of hydrogen. As the tritium nucleus undergoes radioactive decay, it emits a pair of particles: one electron and one neutrino, both sharing 18,560 eV of energy. KATRIN scientists cannot directly measure the neutrinos, but they...

[Catholic Caucus] Louisiana Bishop Threatens to Kick Out Seminarians Associated With Whistleblowers Bp. Douglas Deshotel: 'Anyone in formation known by me to be associated with ... SSPD shall be dismissed from formation' LAFAYETTE, La. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A bishop is decreeing he will not ordain any seminarian who is associated with a lay group that is investigating and exposing corruption in his diocese. Within days of a report showing Bp. Douglas Deshotel of the diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, is knowingly leaving a priest in ministry he admits should "not be alone with children," he issued a decree threatening all men in formation to disassociate...

On No Interruption, Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren sat down with Andrew Pollack, father of Parkland shooting victim Meadow Pollack. Pollack became an outspoken advocate for school safety since the Parkland shooting, and he has now written a new book detailing his own investigation into the events that led to the massacre. “I wanted to look into it, I wanted to honor my daughter to see what happened, and how it could happen that I put my daughter in a school, in a nice neighboorhood, and then I’m never going to see her again,” Pollack said. “I wanted to know...

Canada Arrests Intelligence Officer Who Worked On Magnitsky Probe By RFE/RL September 15, 2019 A senior intelligence official has been arrested in Canada and charged with disclosing classified information to an unspecified foreign entity. Cameron Jay Ortis, the director general of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence unit, appeared in court on September 13 to face charges under three sections of the Security of Information Act and two Criminal Code provisions. Prosecutors said only that Ortis is accused of obtaining, storing, and processing classified information with the intention of communicating it to a foreign entity. The Toronto-based Globe And Mail...

US, Afghan forces say killed Taliban governors, fighters Iran Press TV Sun Sep 15, 2019 04:09PM Afghan troops backed by US forces have killed two senior Taliban leaders and over three dozen fighters of the militant group in joint airstrikes conducted in northern and western regions of the war-ravaged country. According to a statement by Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, the Taliban's shadow governor for northern Samangan province, Mawlavi Nooruddin, was killed along with four fighters in an airstrike in Dara-e-Soof Payeen district on Sunday morning. But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the governor had been killed in the aerial attack, claiming...

Hong Kong Demonstrators Clash with Police on 99th Day of Protests By VOA News September 15, 2019 Anti-government protesters clashed with police in Hong Kong again on Sunday, with demonstrators hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at authorities who responded with volleys of tear gas and blasts of blue-dyed water fired from water cannons. Some of the thousands of protesters threw bricks at police outside the Chinese People's Liberation Army base and tore down and set fire to a banner proclaiming the 70th anniversary of the October 1 founding of the People's Republic of China. Police said in a statement, "Radical...

When New York City announced that public school students could skip classes without penalties to join the youth climate strikes planned around the world on Friday, you could almost hear a sigh of relief. Before the announcement, the protests, to be held three days ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit here, had thrown a new complication into the usual back-to-school chaos: With the protests framed as a cry to protect their futures from climate disaster, should students heed the call? Parents had wondered how to word emails to principals requesting excused absences. Teachers had been wondering how to...

Yemeni drone attacks halve Saudi oil, gas production; US pins blame on Iran Iran Press TV Sun Sep 15, 2019 06:38AM Riyadh has admitted that Yemen's drone strikes on Saudi Arabia's key oil facilities have shut down about 50 percent of the kingdom's crude and gas production, with the United States rushing to point the finger at Iran for the raids without providing any evidence. In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Sunday, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman acknowledged that the attacks on Aramco refineries in Abqaiq and Khurais, east of Saudi Arabia, had cut...