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Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan who later played a role in the Obama administration's response to the financial crisis of 2009, has died at the age of 92. Multiple media outlets reported that Volcker, who raised interest rates as the Fed's chief to combat inflation, had died. In the Obama years, Volcker reemerged to tout a rule, eventually called the Volcker rule, that put tougher constraints on big banks.

French commuters faced a 360-mile traffic jam today as the fifth day of nationwide strikes caused delays into Paris. Traffic was held up getting into the French capital on Paris' ring road, the Peripherique, which was up from 90 miles on an average day. The Parisian metro had only two out of it 16 lines fully operating and the SNCF national railway company warned against severe disruptions in the suburbs of Paris.

As education goes, so goes nearly everything else: politics, culture, and social cohesion. And those who form the minds of teachers—who, in turn, instruct young minds—arguably wield even greater influence. It is unsurprising, then, that schools of education, where teachers receive their training, are at the epicenter of ongoing ideological battles. As the Martin Center’s Jay Schalin pointed out in his report released earlier this year, schools of education were politicized from their founding, but have become even more so over the years. Schools of education have particularly become the home of critical theorists—who aim to radically alter society according...

As is often the case, there is more to the story than meets the eye. A viral video circulated last week showing an illegal immigrant using a rope ladder to scale a new section of the border wall, with the help of two people on the Mexican side. But on Thursday, Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) shared a video of a border patrol agent explaining that despite the video making it seem as though the wall doesn't work, it did, thanks to ancillary security features.  “Yesterday, a video showing someone illegally crossing into the United States over the new border...

... a close look at unintentional shootings by law enforcement officers, including at schools, raises doubts about whether more guns would help keep students safe....Other accidental shootings at schools occurred while officers chased or arrested suspects, taught gun safety classes, or attended school events while off-duty, the AP found. Some injured officers, teachers or students. One happened the day after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a sheriff’s deputy shot himself in the leg while responding to a report of a person with a gun at a school in neighboring Coconut Creek.

President Donald Trump is now leading Democrat presidential candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as Congressional Democrats continue struggling to impeach the president. A Firehouse/Optimus poll conducted in December shows Trump ahead of his Democrat opponents, even former Vice President Joe Biden who remains one of the stronger candidates opposing the president.

Forget the $120,000 banana, this new piece of art is priceless… The duct-taped banana at Art Basel is gone and has been replaced with “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself,” which security quickly covered up. And the fact that they felt the need to hide it makes this modern art by definition. The duct-taped banana at Art Basel is gone and has been replaced with “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself,” which security quickly covered up. 😂 pic.twitter.com/nPtnuCm6sc — Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) December 9, 2019

For all of Sen. Kamala Harris’s challenges gaining traction in the 2020 presidential campaign, she had remained the clear favorite in Hollywood. Now that the California Democrat is out of the race, the movie industry may be poised to coalesce around Mayor Pete. In recent months, actresses Sharon Stone and Alyssa Milano have contributed to Pete Buttigieg’s effort to become the Democratic nominee, joining other celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Frances McDormand, who previously maxed out their donations to the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana. No candidate has raised more money from employees of Comcast, parent of film...

A honey badger was rescued from the coils of a python by two jackals and was then helped by them in killing the snake before he turned on his new friends to steal the reptile. Roselyne Kerjosse captured the spectacular fight to the death while on safari in Chobe Park, Botswana last month. When the 60-year-old began recording, the honey badger was in mortal danger, with the python wrapping its entire body around it.

While the Trump Economy is working great for most people, one industry hasn't been enjoying the boom: the media. According to Business Insider, the media industry is continuing to cut jobs this year. The media industry continued to execute cuts in December and November as Gannett, Highsnobiety, and the CBC reduced headcounts. The cuts followed large rounds of layoffs earlier in the year from companies including BuzzFeed, Verizon, and Vice Media.The massive cuts this year represent a recent trend in media that has seen upstart companies and newspapers alike shrinking and disappearing. It's not just print media that's not...

Virgil has channeled the thinking of Richard Nixon, as he watches the latest impeachment hearings. Yes, I died in 1994, but I still keep up with the news—especially, of course, news about impeachment. In 1974, after I was railroaded out of the White House by partisan Democrats, hypocritical liberals, and self-righteous reporters, I made a vow: Never again let that sort of railroading happen to a Republican president. That is, I would share lessons learned about protecting the presidency, always—whether I was in this world, or the next. Happily, my advice has been working, both for Ronald Reagan and, now,...

"What happened to Drudge?"A lot of people have been asking that question lately. If you talk to conservatives these days, you'll hear that Matt Drudge's eponymous news aggregation site has gone over to the dark side—that Matt's joined the anti-Trump resistance. And now, Rasmussen Reports, an arguably reputable polling operation, is calling Drudge out on Twitter, even suggesting that the site has been sold.The whole kerfuffle appears to have begun at the end of November, when the Bongino Report, touted as a Trump-friendly alternative to Drudge, launched. Bongino taunted Drudge with a pair of tweets: Tired of Drudge? Get...

WASHINGTON - A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. The documents were generated by a federal project examining the root failures of the longest armed conflict in U.S. history. They include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan...

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has imposed a four-year ban on Russia from all global sport, including the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 World Cup finals. WADA's executive committee took the decision after concluding Moscow had tampered with laboratory data. The agency found Russia planted fake evidence and deleted files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.

Axios is reporting that morning that new polling shows President Donald Trump gaining ground in three key battleground states as this impeachment clown show plows along. The new polls, conducted by Firehouse Strategies, show the President gaining tremendous ground vs. Quid Pro Joe Biden in the three key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which were decisive in his 2016 victory over the Pantsuit Princess. Biden vs. Trump in battleground states The President’s biggest gains have taken place since September, when the Democrats and their media toadies kicked off their whole Ukraine scam as a pretense for impeaching Mr. Trump....

The "immense" rise in sales of high-emission sports utility vehicles means they now outsell electric cars in the UK by 37 to one, research has found. As a result, overall exhaust emissions from new cars have been increasing, not declining, for the past three years, says the UK Energy Research Centre. SUV sales are jeopardising the UK transport sector's ability to meet EU emissions targets, it said. Prof Jillian Anable of the UKERC said this made "a mockery" of UK policy. "Effectively, we have been sleepwalking into the issue," she said. "The decarbonisation of the passenger car market can no...

A long-awaited report from the Justice Department's inspector general on the origins of the special counsel Robert Mueller's probe is set to be released on Monday. Those familiar with Michael Horowitz's report say it does cite multiple errors and potential transgressions in the FBI's investigation. However, the report does conclude that the Department of Justice had sufficient evidence to launch the Mueller investigation. Horowitz's report is expected to identify errors and misjudgments by some law enforcement officials, including by an FBI lawyer suspected of altering a document related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide. Sen. Lindsey Graham,...

Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, admitted in his recently published book he met two times on the same day with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who led the infamous Trump Tower meeting. Simpson said he met Veselnitskaya those two times the same day as the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, seeing her in New York before and in D.C. after Veselnitskaya’s Manhattan confab with the top brass of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Simpson also admitted that present at a dinner he had with Veselnitskaya the same day as the Trump Tower meeting was Russian-born Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, who...

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“A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city” (Proverbs 9:13-14 KJV).