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Porter Ranch, Saddleridge fire. Fire coming from manholes. #CaliforniaFires Video: Matt Dejoy

I was 16 when I saw the news. Matthew Shepard’s murder taught me and many in this country that homophobia kills. Let us honor his life by channeling pain into purpose and striving to build a country where all belong. https://twitter.com/MattShepardFDN/status/1183008667672698881

A Los Angeles Angels employee provided oxycodone to Tyler Skaggs and told two team officials about the pitcher’s drug use before his death, according to an ESPN report. The employee was identified as Eric Kay, the team’s director of communications. According to ESPN, he told federal investigators that he abused opioids with Skaggs and provided them with the names of five other players who he alleged to be using opiates. Skaggs died on July 1 at age 27 after he was found in a hotel room in Texas with a mixture of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system, according...

Washington Free Beacon Staff - October 11, 2019 11:40 AM The Washington Free Beacon recently learned that senior editor Bill Gertz entered into a previously undisclosed financial transaction with an individual or an affiliate of that individual whom Mr. Gertz had covered in some of his reporting. Upon learning about this transaction, the Washington Free Beacon promptly asked Mr. Gertz for his resignation and that resignation was received and accepted. The Washington Free Beacon has appended this disclaimer to all of Mr. Gertz’s affected news stories. —Eliana Johnson, editor in chief, Aaron Harison, president, Michael Goldfarb, chairman

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., appeared to call President Trump a "joke" while responding to his son questioning her sense of humor on Friday. The exchange surfaced after Trump Jr. tweeted the question: "Why is @KamalaHarris the only person that laughs at her jokes ... always way to [sic] long and way too hard?" He added that she was the "most disingenuous person in politics ... after Hillary," a reference to his father's former opponent, Hillary Clinton. Harris responded with an apparent attack on his father. "You wouldn’t know a joke if one raised you," she tweeted. Trump Jr. shot back...

        GETTING UNDERWAY A young Ensign, who had just completed his first overseas deployment, was given the opportunity to "show his stuff" by getting his ship underway. As he yelled out commands with great confidence, sailors were running everywhere. In no time, the ship came out of the channel, headed for home. It was accomplished so well that he set a new record for getting a destroyer underway. He wasn't surprised when a seaman approached him with a message from his CO...he WAS surprised to find that it was a radio message. He was even more...

Who are they REALLY protecting here, law-abiding citizens, or those who would prey upon them? There is a reason the right needs to start talking about the bogus compassion of the Left on immigration issues. They deliberately misrepresent and distort one issue ‘separating children’ to drive a narrative, which could be resolved in a heartbeat by lawmakers disincentivizing illegal crossings. But rather than solve that issue, they are endangering untold numbers of law-abiding Americans, exposing them (due to ‘Sanctuary City’ policy) to the threats from the worst sort of criminals. Case in point, rather than executing the ICE detainer, these...

Turkish forces who launched multiple artillery rounds near a U.S. Special Operations outpost in northeastern Syria on Friday have known for months that Americans were there, according to four current and former U.S. officials, raising questions whether Turkey is trying to push American troops farther from the border. The incident occurred on a hilltop base overlooking the town of Kobane as Turkey continues an operation launched Tuesday against Syrian Kurds, some of whom the United States has partnered with for years in its campaign against the Islamic State. The incursion has focused on an area 60 miles to the west...

As far as advancing the end times timeline goes, 2019 has been a banner year for Pope Francis and the coming One World Religion. We told you back in February that the pope has travelled to Abu Dhabi where he met with Sunni Muslim leader Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. There the two men signed a global peace covenant called the Document On Human Fraternity For World Peace. From that covenant, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity was created to implement this end times religious peace treaty. Now that committee has announced that there will be a fancy new headquarters for this...

The candidates took questions on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues from a live studio audience. Beto O’Rourke said Thursday that religious institutions should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage. “THERE CAN BE NO REWARD, NO BENEFIT, NO TAX BREAK FOR ANYONE OR ANY INSTITUTION, ANY ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA THAT DENIES THE FULL HUMAN RIGHTS OR THE FULL CIVIL RIGHTS OF EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US,” THE FORMER TEXAS CONGRESSMAN SAID AT CNN’S EQUALITY TOWN HALL IN LOS ANGELES. He added: “And so as president, we are going to make that a priority and we are...

TEMECULA, Calif. — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a man near Temecula with fentanyl and cocaine hidden inside his car Wednesday afternoon. On Oct. 9 at approximately 5:15 p.m., agents stopped on a 2009 Ford Escape and conducted a canine sniff prompting agents investigate further. Agents searched the vehicle and noticed the headrests of the backseats were unusually solid. Further inspection revealed two metal boxes fixed in the headrests. Inside the boxes were 12 plastic wrapped packages were nine packages of fentanyl, weighing 22 pounds. This quantity contains enough doses to kill more than 5 million people. The remaining three...

This column was prompted by readers of last week's. As you'll recall, we marked the centenary of Donald Pleasence by celebrating his definitive cinematic Blofeld. That of course prompted some comment about his other roles. Chris Hall, everyone's favorite Macedonian Content Farmer, writes: Donald Pleasence was not only an excellent Blofeld, but he and Jim Garner basically stole The Great Escape from Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. To which Calvert Whitehurst, a Steyn Club First Week Founding Member from Virginia, adds: The male bonding (if I may use that word) between James Garner and Donald Pleasence in The Great Escape....

President Trump on Saturday gave his backing to Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, after reports that the former New York City mayor is being investigated by federal prosecutors for possibly lobbying violations in relation to his work in Ukraine. “So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,” Trump tweeted. “He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.”

One thing I think I’ve correctly observed about the U.S. military in the 21st century is that its leaders tend to be the last to want to go to war and the last to want to leave it. Political figures operate under public pressures and shifting geopolitical needs and goals; they’re surrounded by people who see the world a certain way; they get revved up, and say, “Go, invade.” Top military staff have reservations. They’ve studied the area, know the realities, the history—they have doctorates in it—and don’t want to get into anything America can’t win cleanly, decisively, relatively quickly....

James Comey [snip] daydreams about deleting the civic-minded Twitter feed where a bipartisan coalition pronounces him a national disgrace. He sleeps soundly — 9 hours a night, he ballparks — and organizes the self-described “unemployed celebrity” chapter of his life around a series of workaday goals. “One of my goals has been to get to 10 consecutive pull-ups,” Mr. Comey said in an interview, legs crossed on the back porch [snip]. “I’m at nine now. So, I’ve been doing a lot of pull-ups.” He writes and thinks and reads and worries from a tidy downstairs office surrounded by the trinkets...

A middle school teacher from northern Virginia has been arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border after being charged with having sexual relations with a minor. Fairfax County Police say 31-year-old Matthew Snell of Clinton, Maryland, was arrested Friday in Texas at the El Paso airport after trying to leave the country. Snell is listed as a learning-disabilities teacher at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna. Police say parents contacted the school Thursday after finding inappropriate text messages from Snell to their teenage child. Police say Snell became aware of the investigation and fled. Snell faces charges including taking indecent liberties with a...

HANCEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Doug Jones walked into a recent town hall and declared he was ready for whatever his constituents wanted to throw at him. But first, he wanted to address the biggest news from Washington: The House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. "I'm not making a judgment about where we are on any of this because it's too early," Jones said, not waiting to be asked. He noted his potential role as a juror if the issue lands in the Senate. Already considered the Senate's most endangered Democrat, the senator is facing the uncomfortable possibility...

The California Democrat Party has spent more than $800,000 in legal costs associated with lawsuits alleging discrimination and sexual misconduct by former party chairman Eric Bauman. The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that sum includes $430,000 in legal fees, including payments to law firms representing Bauman, and $378,348 in legal settlements for three cases. Alton Wang, Will Rodriguez-Kennedy and Kate Earley jointly filed a lawsuit in January that alleged Bauman fostered a culture of harassment and sexual misconduct which was “well-known and apparently tolerated” by top party officials.

The second Black Leadership Summit took place in Washington this month. The highlight of the conference was a trip to the White House, where President Trump spoke to a crowd of young black men and women, whose reception for him he referred to as the loudest he had ever received. It got even louder when the president was later interrupted with impromptu chants of “four more years!” The mainstream media don’t like to cover this event because having young black people cheer for President Trump does not fit their narrative. Trump then repeated one of his signature lines as a...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli is being seen as a likely replacement for outgoing Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, sources tell Fox News -- a move that would be welcomed by immigration hardliners. President Trump on Friday announced that McAleenan would be leaving the job to spend more time with his family, and added that the new acting secretary would be announced next week. The announcement immediately led to speculation as to who would step into the vital cabinet position -- one that is a central post for the nation's immigration policy....