Pope Francis is trying to keep a world of Roman Catholics alive and the guns are a huge part of the problem.

June 13, 2016
By Cassandra Vinograd

Pope Francis (click here) on Monday lashed out at the "brazen" freedom with which weapons circulate in the world when compared with numerous obstacles to distributing aid.

His remarks at a United Nations World Food Program event came one day after the bloodbath in an Orlando nightclub ranked as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Francis told the audience it was a "strange paradox" that aid and food are obstructed by barriers including political decisions and skewed ideology but "weaponry is not."...

I wish President Obama spoke this fervently during his administration, but, wouldn't be safe if he did.

Racism is real in the USA and everyone knows President Obama was under threat during his entire presidency. 

I think he is a great leader and he is respected internationally. He has been able to do the impossible. The global community is embracing the same goal in removing Daesh from the Earth. No one else could have done it. President Obama did because over his entire presidency he built relationships. Leaders trusted him enough to hear his message and the strategy to end the violence and return the middle east to peace.

Partnerships between the FBI and cities can work.

It is unfortunate unarmed black men are gunned down to have videos to release. I don't call a 3 inch knife a weapon. People carry pocket knives all the time and it is not called a weapon. At least White People carry pocket knives. I suppose it is only Black People that carry weapons 3 inches long.

Sixteen bullets in 13 seconds over a three inch pocket knife.

I suppose there were dangers for police officers after this incident.

June 14, 2016

By Stacy St. Clair, Todd Lightly and David Heinzmann

The FBI warned the Chicago Police Department (click here) that officers' lives could be in danger with the release of the Laquan McDonald video, according to documents released late Monday night by the city.

In a Nov. 24 email sent just hours before the city made public the video of a white police officer shooting and killing the black 17-year-old, an FBI agent said that a confidential informant — who had provided reliable information in the past — reported plans to ambush officers in retaliation for the teen's death.

"Violent rhetoric is high," the FBI wrote. "Due to the recent media spotlight on officer-involved deaths of minorities, there is a lot of anger in the neighborhood served by the Chicago Police Department."
While no known attacks took place following the video's release, the informant said gang members planned to set up outside the 14th District headquarters on the West Side and the Homan Square building, a police facility that has served as the setting for numerous police misconduct allegations in recent years. The informant said gang members intended to wait for police employees to exit and walk toward their cars — a time when the officers wouldn't be wearing protective gear or bulletproof vests....

I wish Hugh Hewitt would get real hair rather than that silver rug is glues to his head.

February 2, 2016
By Bill Cotterell
Florida's prisons system (click here) is struggling with serious staffing and budget shortfall, according to the head of the Department of Corrections, who told a state legislative committee on Monday she plans to seek an additional $51 million this year to address long-neglected needs.
The agency, which had a budget of some $2.2 billion last year, has been under fire for months because of inmate deaths and “whistleblower” accounts of a violent culture behind the walls.
Former Corrections Department Secretary Michael Crews last week told the Miami Herald he had tried for years to persuade Republican Governor Rick Scott that the prison system was so badly run-down and understaffed that inmates and employees were not safe. Scott forced him out late last year....

June 10, 2016
By Mary Ellen Klas and Julie K. Brown

Tallahassee — Inmates jumped a corrections officer (click here) and took over two dorms for several hours during a late-night riot at Franklin Correctional Institution in North Florida on Thursday, the third disturbance at the prison since January. 

About 300 inmates stormed two housing dorms, using makeshift tools to drill through a concrete and brick wall, and smash bathroom fixtures, televisions, ceiling fans, toilets and sprinkler systems, destroying nearly everything in the dorms, officials with the Florida Department of Corrections and sources confirmed.

It's not clear how long the uprising lasted, but an FDC spokesman said the incident was eventually brought under control and there were no serious injuries....

Crimes fund terrorism, domestically and internationally.

Homeland Security is NOT stating these are terror suspects. I am using this as an example. But, terror networks cannot survive in the world without crime. That includes the Taliban that rob banks and kill indiscriminately to demand recognition as powerful by innocent citizens.

June 10, 2016
By David Rose

WANTED IN FEDERAL WAY — (click here)
A guaranteed $1,000 reward is yours if you can help bag the ‘Bad Eye Bandit.’
He’s a serial bank robber believed to be behind six heists since the start of the year — four of them in Federal Way.
“He’s always wearing a wig of some sort and also earlier in the year, the January and February robberies, he would be seen often time with a patch over his eye and some witnesses reported the patch being very dirty and crusty, also maybe a scarring on his neck that possibly he’d been burned by something. When he doesn’t have the patch on his eye witnesses will say that the right eye still appears to be injured, twitchy,” says Cathy Schrock with Federal Way Police.
Surveillance video shows him robbing a bank in Federal Way last month. No eye patch that time, just the wig and a pair of sunglasses hanging off his shirt. He showed the teller a demand note, patiently waited for her to hand him the cash, then took off....

The Texas GOP "Victory Fund" needs a new chairperson. Conflict of interest. It may be litigable.

The Bush Power Machine in Texas doesn't know when to step aside due to conflict of interest. Typical.

13 June 2016
By Neil M. McCabe

The chairman (click here) of the 2016 Texas GOP Victory Fund told a newspaper in the state’s capital he is not supporting the party’s presumptive nominee Donald J. Trump.

“I, along with others, are not in a position to endorse at this time because of concerns about his rhetoric and his inability to create a campaign that brings people together,” saidTexas Land Commissioner George P. Bush told the Austin-American Statesman.

The son of former GOP candidate and former Florida governor John E. “Jeb” Bush and the nephew of President George W. Bush and the grandson of President George H.W. Bush told the paper he has no plan to endorse Trump—unless the New York City developer changes to his liking....

June 13, 2016
By Don Bauder

What could be called "Jeb Bush's Follies" in Florida (click here) is getting worse. Sanford-Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute is considering leaving Lake Nona, near Orlando. A subsidy orgy began in 2003 when San Diego's Scripps Research Institute got a $500 million handout to set up an operation in Palm Beach County.

Two other San Diego-based research institutes joined Scripps in Florida with fat subsidies in hand: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (near Orlando) and Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (Port St. Lucie.). But as the Readerreported, Florida was shelling out more than $1 billion per created job — a staggering sum.

In May of this year, Orlando media were reporting that Sanford-Burnham was getting ready to depart Florida. So the state decided to throw good money after bad: the University of Florida would take over Sanford-Burnham. But that will cost $3.7 million per year, according to the Orlando Business Journal. On June 9, the University of Florida Educational Policy & Strategic Initiatives committee said it was in "positive discussions" with the State Department of Economic Opportunity and governor Rick Scott's office....

Donald Trump's Psy-Ops in full swing.

June 13, 2016
By James Lewis

We've argued from the beginning (click here) that Trump is conducting a brilliant psy-war strategy against the enemy media* like the New York Times. 

It's really brilliant, because it's double-barreled.

Let's call it Trump's double-barreled shotgun strategy.  Today we can we see how he is implementing it, day by day. 

Trump's generalship is fabulous.  He has probably used his DBS strategy before in his showbiz and business careers.  I don't know.  But you can watch it evolve from day to day. 

You decide if his DBS strategy works.  I think it's George Patton against the Panzer Brigades....

Public Education Finances; 2014 (click here) 



































Typical Republican never say die attitude. Sanford-Burnham is moving on and an Op-Ed shows up. Needless to say, "JEB!" is not vying for Secretary of Education in the Trump Administration.

He has a lucrative foundation that can be at risk if his policies fail.

June 13, 2016
By Jeb Bush

As another school year ends (click here) and another $620 billion has been spent, it is a good time to consider the state of education in America. Despite our spending more on education than almost any other industrialized nation in the world, wide achievement gaps remain. More than a million students languish on waiting lists for the chance to escape failing schools. And according to a recent study by The Education Trust, only 8 percent of U.S. high-school graduates are truly college or career ready....

Police Commission Bratton is correct, the USA Congress is not going to do anything. The Republicans are locked down for the November elections and are practicing hubris 24/7, ie: McCrory and the prayerful Republicans that are making "Death Prayers" to kill/die of President Obama.

The states and possibly cities and towns will have to pass laws to protect their people. Local economies and local government, ie: Boston.

The local authorities have to open up the detectives ability of investigate any suspicious activity. The detectives have authority because they work directly for the FBI when the facts arise. This is all constitutional. A person can be held for 48 hours without being charged. Use every advantage offered by the system. There is also Immigration laws.

USE THEM and don't let politics effect the outcome. Local people are to be safe and know they are safe. There will be mistakes made, but, the bigger mistake ends up in dead Americans.

If the law enforcement needs role models there are people like Police Commissioner Bratton. Respect people that are unarmed. Practice good police science. The local authorities can have their own "Most Wanted." The laws have to be addressed to allow the system work. 

Newspapers need to expand their circulations. If the industry is selling more papers or computer access the prices can come down as the subscription grows.

Local citizens will need information and they will need the 'moral police' on the beat.

There is a balance here and it needs to exist. As the balance of dueling authorities grows 'the system' will become obvious and more stable than before. People should be safe, they pay for it. The citizen is the person responsible for 'the system' and they have a right to be protected by it. 

President Obama has been an incredible leader to this country. There is every reason to be proud of him and his accomplishes both at home and abroad. The dysfunctional Congress has a hand in this and people need to remember that. The interstate federal laws are very important. The movement of drugs and guns has to end. Laws to secure this country away from the drug economy has to be established.

There is no reason why the gun violence continues in this country. The gunmen involved in this have too much access to empower their goals. These people are not crazy. The gunman from Colorado even ACTED to appear crazy and he is sound of mind and body. 

Enough of this and we have the power to change the odds in the communities across the USA.

June 13, 2016
By Kevin Quealy and Margot Sangar-Katz

The mass shooting in Orlando (click here) on Sunday was appalling in scale: 49 killed in a single attack. But it’s not unusual for dozens of Americans to be killed by guns in a single day.

Gun homicides are a common cause of death in the United States, killing about as many people as car crashes (not counting van, truck, motorcycle or bus accidents). Some cases command our attention more than others, of course. Counting mass shootings that make headlines and the thousands of Americans murdered one or a few at a time, gunshot homicides totaled 8,124 in 2014, according to the F.B.I.

This level of violence makes the United States an extreme outlier when measured against the experience of other advanced countries....