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Tom Hanks: ‘Military Caregivers Are Hidden Heroes And They Need Your Support’

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Actor and veterans advocate Tom Hanks wants to do more to help veterans, by assisting those who care for our nation’s wounded heroes.

On. Sept. 27, Tom Hanks and former Sen. Elizabeth Dole officially announced the launch of Hidden Heroes, a national campaign to raise awareness and garner support for the nation’s 5.5 million military and veteran caregivers.

At the event, Hanks addressed the crowded auditorium at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and posed a simple question: 

“What part are you going to play in this movement?” asked Hanks, the national chair of Hidden Heroes. “I trust that the stories of honor and sacrifice we will now share and those you will learn about in the weeks and months ahead will bring you to your answer.”

Hanks, along with guest speakers, journalist and former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Robert McDonald, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and others weighed in on the critical challenges facing military caregivers, and the importance of supporting them.

“And by military caregivers, we’re not talking about health care professionals, we’re not talking about educated experts, we’re talking about wives, and family members, and girlfriends, and kids, and parents,” explained Hanks. “Those are the military caregivers. The people giving care to their military loved ones.”

Hidden Heroes was launched by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, an organization founded by Dole in 2012. It seeks to strengthen and empower military caregivers and their families through research, raising awareness, and policy change.

“Bringing our country’s hidden heroes, and that’s what they are, heroes who are hidden out of sight, bringing them out of the shadows to honor their service is a companion piece, I think, to welcoming home those who have served,” said Hanks.

According to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s findings, the challenges facing military caregivers include: depression, isolation, unemployment, and debt due to a severe lack of awareness and support. These strains have been exacerbated by the constant state of war since Sept. 11, 2001, with many younger caregivers facing daily challenges that last years, if not a lifetime.




No Screening for Radical Views in U.S. Refugee Vetting


by Brendan Kirby
 
Administration official acknowledges process lacks questions on ideology

The United States runs the names of potential refugees through terrorism and law enforcement databases and conducts health screenings but makes no effort to learn whether they harbor extremist views, an administration official acknowledged Wednesday.

Simon Henshaw, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, made the admission during testimony at a Senate hearing on President Obama’s Syrian refugee program.

Republicans on the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest have expressed concerns that Obama’s decision to admit more than 10,000 Syrian refugees over the past 12 months and his plan to increase that number in the coming 12 months is reckless in light of the threat posed by Islamic extremism.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who chairs the subcommittee, grilled Henshaw about the procedures for screening refugee applicants. “Do you make any inquiry about practices that we reject in the United States, like female genital mutilation?” he asked. “Do you say, ‘Do you believe in that and when you come to the United States will you comply with the laws of the United States on that kind of question?’”

Henshaw said U.S. officials explain American law and customs but do not inquire about refugees’ political beliefs.

“On all questions, we make it clear to refugees that we’re a nation of laws and that they need to comply with our laws,” he said.

Sessions pointed to a Justice Department report indicating that the United States last year experienced 27 “honor killings,” a practice that wins widespread approval in some Muslim-dominated countries that practice Sharia Law.

Henshaw drew a distinction between Muslim refugees and other Muslim immigrants.

“I’m not sure those honor killings took place among the resettled refugee community in the United States,” he said.

Henshaw said the government operates a cultural orientation program and insisted that refugees make a smooth transition to Americanism.

"Senator, I see no evidence to show that refugee communities are bringing these values into the United States," he said. "I see that they’re becoming good American citizens, members of the military, members of our police … people that have U.S.-American values."

Sessions noted that the perpetrators of Muslim honor killings come from the same cultural backgrounds as refugees. He also noted that 40 refugees have been charged with terrorism-related crimes in the United States.

"So you're not perfect in your admission, I have to admit," Sessions said.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has proposed adding an ideological component to America’s screening procedures to try to weed out people who would be hostile to American values.

It is an idea first floated by Trump adviser and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in July.

There is strong evidence that many Muslims hold views that clash with Western norms. In the Great Britain, police recorded more than 11,000 "honor" crimes between 2010 and 2014. A British think tank counted 18 honor killings in that country from 2010 to 2014.

A 2013 survey sponsored by Pew Research Center fond that 99 percent of Muslims in Afghanistan and 91 percent of Iraqi Muslims favored making Sharia law the official law of their countries. A 2011 Pew survey found that 40 percent of Pakistanis believed it is often or sometimes justified to kill a woman engaged in premarital sex or adultery in order to protect the family’s honor.

Aside from security questions, Sessions probed Henshaw about whether the education and language skills of refugees make them a good fit for the United States. Henshaw acknowledged that the government’s decisions to grant refugee applications "are based [exclusively] on their vulnerabilities."

But he added, "I have to say, we receive many refugees with a high level of education, particularly from the Middle East."

The government’s own statistics suggest that is an exaggeration, however. According to the latest report by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, refugees from the Middle East in 2014 — the most recent year available — had an average of 10.9 years of education before entering the United States.

That was above average for refugees, as was the 20 percent who had a college degree.

But it was still below the education level of Americans, and it did not translate into job success. Only 37.1 percent of Middle East refugees were working, compared with the overall refugee rate of 48.5 percent.


'Grand Lady of Grand Ole Opry' Jean Shepard Dies


Jean Shephard (AP) 

Jean Shepard, "the grand lady of the Grand Ole Opry" who had a long recording career as an influential female in country music, died Sunday, according to an Opry spokeswoman. Shepard was 82.
Spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt said in a news release that Shepard had entered hospice care last week and died in Nashville.

"The Opry family is truly saddened by the news of Jean's passing," Opry vice president and general manager Pete Fisher said in the statement.

"Although we will miss Jean's presence on the Opry stage, she has left us the wonderful gift of her music which will be remembered for generations to come."
Shepard joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and helped set the standard for women in country music, choosing to tour as a solo act rather than as part of a group. She presented a strong female point of view on songs like "Twice the Lovin' in Half the Time" and "The Root of All Evil (Is a Man)," influencing such key figures in country music as Loretta Lynn who came along a decade later.

Shepard also was credited with releasing country music's first concept album, "Songs From a Love Affair," in 1956.

Shepard was born in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, and was one of 10 children. She was raised near Bakersfield, California, where she listened to the Grand Ole Opry, the show she later performed on.

Her career began in the 1940s. According to the Grand Ole Opry website, Western swing musician Hank Thompson saw her at age 14, singing and playing bass in the Melody Ranch Girls, an all-girl band, and helped her begin recording.

She paired with fellow Hall of Fame member Ferlin Husky in 1953 on "A Dear John Letter," her first No. 1 country hit.

In 1963, her husband at the time, country singer Hawkshaw Hawkins, was killed in a plane crash along with Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas.
In 2005, she became the first female singer to reach 50 years as a Grand Ole Opry member, according to the Opry's website.

Shepard was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011 as she continued to perform regularly on the Grand Ole Opry.

Shepard is survived by her husband, Benny Birchfield, and sons Don Robin Hawkins, Harold Franklin Hawkins II and Corey Birchfield.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

Golf’s most beloved figure, Arnold Palmer, dies at 87


 
Arnold Palmer points to his name on the press ten scoreboard showing his four under par total for 72 holes for the National Open tournament in Denver, Colo., June 19, 1960. Palmer won the tournament with a score of 280. (AP Photo) (AP Photo)

Arnold Palmer, a seven-time major winner who brought golf to the masses and became the most beloved figure in the game, died Sunday, a source close to the family confirmed to Golfweek. He was 87.

Reaction poured in from “Arnie’s Army” of admirers in the world of golf.

“We loved him with a mythic American joy,” said Palmer biographer James Dodson. “He represented everything that is great about golf. The friendship, the fellowship, the laughter, the impossibility of golf, the sudden rapture moment that brings you back, a moment that you never forget, that’s Arnold Palmer in spades. He’s the defining figure in golf.”

No one did more to popularize the sport than Palmer. His dashing presence singlehandedly took golf out of the country clubs and into the mainstream. Quite simply, he made golf cool.

“I used to hear cheers go up from the crowd around Palmer,” Lee Trevino said. “And I never knew whether he’d made a birdie or just hitched up his pants.”

Golfweek subscriber Bob Conn of Guilford, Conn., in a letter to the editor, captured the loyalty and devotion that the public felt for Palmer.

“If Arnold Palmer sent me a personal letter asking me to join the cleanup crew at Bay Hill, I would buy a green jumpsuit, stick a nail in a broom handle, grab some Hefty garbage bags and shake his hand when I arrived.”

It wasn’t just the fans. His fellow competitors revered him, and the next generation and the generation after that worshiped him. When reporters at the 1954 U.S. Amateur asked Gene Littler to identify the golfer as slender as wire and as strong as cable cracking balls on the practice tee, Littler said: “That’s Arnold Palmer. He’s going to be a great player some day. When he hits the ball, the earth shakes.”

Palmer, of Latrobe, Pa., attended Wake Forest University on a golf scholarship. At age 24, he was selling paint and living in Cleveland, just seven months removed from a three-year stint in the Coast Guard when he entered the national sporting consciousness by winning the 1954 U.S. Amateur at the Country Club of Detroit.

“That victory was the turning point in my life,” he said. “It gave me confidence I could compete at the highest level of the game.”

Palmer’s victory set in motion a chain of events. Instead of returning to selling paint, Palmer played the next week in the Waite Memorial in Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pa., where he met Winifred Walzer, who would become his wife of 45 years until her death in 1999. On Nov. 17, 1954, Palmer announced his intentions to turn pro, and golf would never be the same.

In his heyday, Palmer famously swung like he was coming out of his shoes.

“What other people find in poetry, I find in the flight of a good drive,” Palmer said.

He unleashed his corkscrew swing motion, which produced a piercing draw, with the ferocity of a summer squall. In his inimitable swashbuckling style, Palmer succeeded with both power and putter.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, he won 62 PGA Tour titles between 1955 and 1973, placing him fifth on the Tour’s all-time victory list, and collected seven majors in a seven-year explosion between the 1958 and 1964 Masters.

Palmer didn’t lay up or leave putts short. His go-for-broke style meant he played out of the woods and ditches with equal abandon, and resulted in a string of memorable charges. At the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills near Denver, Palmer drove the first green and with his trademark knock-kneed, pigeon-toed putting stance went out and birdied six of the first seven holes en route to shooting 65 and winning the title in a furious comeback.

“Palmer on a golf course was Jack Dempsey with his man on the ropes, Henry Aaron with a three-and-two fastball, Rod Laver at set point, Joe Montana with a minute to play, A.J. Foyt with a lap to go and a car to catch,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray.

Even Palmer’s setbacks were epic. He double-bogeyed the 18th hole at Augusta in the 1961 Masters after accepting congratulations from a spectator he knew in the gallery. Palmer lost playoffs in three U.S. Opens, the first to Jack Nicklaus in 1962; the second to Julius Boros in 1963; and the third to Billy Casper in 1966 in heart-breaking fashion. Palmer blew a seven-stroke lead with nine holes to go in regulation at the Olympic Club and lost to Casper in an 18-hole playoff the next day.

Arnold Daniel Palmer, born Sept. 10, 1929, grew up in the working-class mill town of Latrobe, in a two-story frame house off the sixth tee of Latrobe Country Club, where his father, Milfred “Deacon” Palmer, was the greenskeeper and professional.

Though for decades Palmer has made his winter home in Orlando, Fla., he never lost touch with his western Pennsylvania roots in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains.

“Of all the places I’ve been, there isn’t any place that I’m more comfortable than I am right here,” he told Golfweek in 2009 in Latrobe ahead of his 80th birthday.

Palmer was 3 years old when his father wrapped his hands around a cut-down women’s golf club in the classic overlapping Vardon grip, and instructed him to, “Hit it hard, boy. Go find it and hit it hard again.”

Palmer’s combination of matinee-idol looks, charisma and blue-collar background made him a superstar just as golf ushered in the television era. He became Madison Avenue’s favorite pitchman, accepting an array of endorsement deals that generated millions of dollars in income on everything from licensed sportswear to tractors to motor oil and even Japanese tearooms. Credit goes to agent Mark McCormack, who sold the Palmer personality and the values he represented rather than his status as a tournament winner. Palmer’s business empire grew to include a course-design company, a chain of dry cleaners, car dealerships, as well as ownership of Bay Hill Resort & Lodge in Orlando.

He even bought Latrobe Country Club, which his father helped build with his own hands and where as a youth Palmer was permitted only before the members arrived in the morning or after they had gone home in the evening. Palmer designed more than 300 golf courses in 37 states, 25 countries and five continents (all except Africa and Antarctica), including the first modern course built in China, in 1988.

Palmer led the PGA Tour money list four times, and was the first player to win more than $100,000 in a season. He played on six Ryder Cup teams, and was the winning captain twice. He is credited with conceiving the modern Grand Slam of the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship during a conversation with golf writer Bob Drum on a flight to Ireland for the 1960 Canada Cup.

Palmer won the Masters four times, the British Open twice and the U.S. Open once. It was Palmer who convinced his colleagues they could never consider themselves champions unless they had won the Claret Jug. Nick Faldo, during Palmer’s farewell at St. Andrews in 1995 may have put it best when he said, “If Arnold hadn’t come here in 1960, we’d probably all be in a shed on the beach.” Mark O’Meara went a step further. “He made it possible for all of us to make a living in this game,” he said.

In 1974, Palmer was one of the original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame. As he grew older, a shaky putter let Palmer down, but his popularity never waned. The nascent Senior PGA Tour hitched its star to golf’s first telegenic personality when Palmer turned 50. He relished winning again and became a regular on the senior circuit, remaining active until 2006.

Palmer maintained a high profile in the game, presiding over the Arnold Palmer Invitational every March, the only living player with his name attached to a PGA Tour event. He also served as the longtime national spokesperson for the USGA’s member program, and was an original investor and frequent guest on Golf Channel. To countless others, he became known for his eponymous drink consisting of equal parts iced tea and lemonade.

On Sept. 12, 2012, Palmer was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. He became just the sixth athlete to receive the honor. Coupled with the Presidential Medal of Freedom that he was awarded in 2004, gave him both of the highest honors that the U.S. can give to a civilian.

Palmer, who gave up his pilot’s license in 2011, had been in deteriorating health since late 2015. A ceremonial tee shot at the 2015 British Open was his last public golf shot. Palmer looked increasingly frail in public appearances at the API in March and as an onlooker instead of an active participant during the opening tee shot at the 2016 Masters in April.

“Winnie once said to me, ‘When Arnold Palmer gives up flying his airplane and his ability to hit a golf ball, he won’t be with us long,’ ” said Dodson, the biographer.

Palmer is survived by his second wife, Kit, daughters Amy Saunders and Peggy Wears, six grandchildren, including Sam Saunders, who plays on the PGA Tour.

As a measure of his popularity, Palmer, like Elvis Presley before him, was known simply as “The King.” But in a life bursting from the seams with success, Palmer never lost his common touch. He was a man of the people, willing to sign every autograph, shake every hand, and tried to look every person in his gallery in the eye. 

Is News Media Avoiding Showing Trump’s Large Crowds?

 Trump’s rally last week in Estero, Florida at Germain arena with 8,500 seats. Courtesy: David Martosko

NAACP Leader Speaking Against Cops In Charlotte Financed By George Soros

by Aaron Klein

NEW YORK – As riots continue to plague Charlotte, North Carolina after a police shooting there, Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, has taken center stage in helping to shape the public narrative by commenting on the issue in the news media.

Not only is the NAACP heavily financed by Soros to the tune of millions of dollars, Barber himself was singled out in a hacked document from the billionaire’s Open Society Institute as part of the rationale for offering a local grant to the NAACP’s North Carolina branch, Breitbart News has found.
The memo states that the NAACP’s North Carolina chapter “advances several key OSI (Open Society Institute) priorities,” and describes Barber himself as a “dynamic leader, catalytic speaker, and builder of powerful and diverse alliances.”

On Thursday, Barber participated in a news conference where he demanded, “We all stand together declaring there must be transparency and the videos must be released.”

“At this point, there is speculation because the videos have not been released. Be clear: There is unrest in Charlotte and across America because of what we do know,” he continued, with his quotes being utilized in news media articles about the riots.

On Thursday, Barber also took to MSNBC to accuse Donald Trump of flaming racial tensions and also to describe some cops as trigger-happy.

On Trump, Barber stated:
“He is a man who has inflamed racial tension, applauded members of his rallies, who have actually hit African-Americans. He has joined in this narrative that somehow, to be against racial injustice and against racism engaged in by police is to, in fact, be anti-police, when, in fact, the black and the white community that is also marching with Black Lives Matter and the NAACP and the Latinos are not anti-police, we’re anti-bad police.”

Barber called Trump “exactly the wrong one” to be speaking about racial issues in the country.

Addressing the police shootings, Barber stated, “We need to understand something, this is very simple, and that’s why you see black and white people together with these protests. A badge and a gun, the ability to serve a warrant and take a person’s family member out of their house, the ability to use lethal force is too much power for a bigot, for someone that is trigger happy, and for someone that does not understand that their first role is to protect and serve, not to shoot and kill.”

Barber penned an editorial published at NBCNews.com titled, “Charlotte Is Drowning in Systematic Injustice” in which he claimed the U.S. criminal justice system is aimed at controlling black people.

“We know that the law, as written and enforced, cannot protect us from police violence,” he wrote.

“We know Darryl Hunt and Henry McCollum, two in a long list of African-American men wrongfully convicted in this state. We know our criminal justice system does not function to protect black life, but to control it.”

Soros’s Open Society has long been a significant donor to the NAACP’s national and local branches.

Soros has provided millions of dollars in financing to the NAACP, including a $1,000,000 pledge to the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund in March 2013; $100,000 in 2009; $200,000 in 2008; two grants of $208,000 and $300,000 in 2011; and $350,000 in 2012.

Barber was singled out in a hacked Open Society document from June 30, 2010 titled “Democracy and Power Fund State Funding Recommendations Memo Docket II”

The Democracy and Power Fund is part of the Open Society Institute. In January 2010, the Open Society earmarked $2 million per year for the Fund to provide grants to organizations in North Carolina and Texas.

The hacked memo recommended that Soros’s Fund provide $1,075,000 in grants to eleven local groups, including $120,000 over one year to the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP.

The grant was meant to fund the NAACP’s State Conference in Durham, North Carolina, which, the memo relates, “serves to improve the political, educational, social, and economic status of African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities; to eliminate racial prejudice; to keep the public aware of the adverse effects of discrimination; and to take lawful action to secure the elimination of racial discrimination.”

A section in the hacked memo titled “Rationale for Recommendation,” explains why the grant should be made to the NAACP.

There, the Open Society document boasted about Barber’s work, calling him a “dynamic leader, catalytic speaker, and builder of powerful and diverse alliances.”

The memo states:
The NC NAACP is led by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, a dynamic leader, catalytic speaker, and builder of powerful and diverse alliances who serves as the state president. Rev. Barber entered the position with a promise to increase the relevance of the 100-year old institution to contemporary life and criticized former NC NAACP leaders for having a behind-the scenes approach to civil action, preferring to negotiate with legislators rather than taking the civil rights agenda to the streets. His commitment to organizing and policy advocacy is unique for the institution and he states that while the NC NAACP will continue to work with lawmakers “…the difference is that when we go into the legislature, we don’t check with them to negotiate what’s most politically acceptable. We go in and stand on our principles.” And a broad, diverse, and growing community of organizations and activists stands with them.

Rev. Barber has shared that OSI funding would enable the hiring of two new staff members for the NAACP – it currently only has one staff person, an executive director, and Rev. Barber’s time is supported primarily by his congregations. One of the new positions will be an organizer who will focus on sustaining and expanding the base of support for the organization and the broader HK on J campaign. The second position will enable the hiring of a policy staff person, perhaps with legal expertise, to assist in its advocacy work, including on school desegregation issues, an issue of interest to the Equality and Opportunity Fund.

The memo states that the NAACP in North Carolina “advances” Open Society objectives.

The Democracy and Power Fund and the Equality and Opportunity Fund are excited to recommend this first funding recommendation to support the North Carolina NAACP’s work and provide backing for a statewide advocacy, organizing, and public education that promotes base-building among African-Americans, builds alliances between the state’s diverse populations, advances the broader issues of all North Carolinians who seek social justice, and advances several key OSI priorities.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

With additional research by Joshua Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

Navy Publishes Guidance Warning Sailors Not to Protest National Anthem



In the wake of two sailors going public with their decision to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement by refusing to stand when the Star Spangled Banner is played, Navy Reserve Forces Command today published guidance warning troops that they can be punished or prosecuted for such protests.

A message directed at active-duty sailors and reserve personnel on active duty cites Navy Regulation 1205, which mandates that personnel in uniform must stand at attention and face the flag when the national anthem is played. It also notes that a Navy administrative message published in 2009 requires Navy active-duty personnel in civilian clothes to face the flag, stand at attention, and place their right hand over their heart.

"Additionally, Sailors receive training on the appropriate usage of social media, and must not use it to discredit the Naval Service, and should be reminded it could potentially be used as evidence against them," the guidance continues, a message apparently directed at the two sailors who published posts on Facebook about their protests.

Failure to comply with these regulations, the message said, is punishable under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and constitutes commission of a serious offense -- grounds for administrative separation from the service.

"While military personnel are not excluded from the protections granted by the First Amendment, the US Supreme Court has stated that the different character of our community and of the military mission requires a different application of those protections," the guidance states.

The actions taken regarding the two sailors who engaged in separate protests have not been publicly announced.

In late August, a sailor attached to the Naval Air Technical Training Center at Pensacola, Florida, posted a video to Facebook of herself sitting down during the base's morning "colors" ceremony, which quickly received viral attention on the social media platform.

Naval Education and Training Command officials confirmed the sailor, who has not been publicly named, had been subject to administrative action, but had been retained for service in the Navy.

And Sept. 21, Petty Officer 2nd Class Janaye Ervin, an intelligence specialist based in Hawaii, wrote in a public Facebook post that she was being punished by the Navy for remaining seated for the anthem two days earlier. A spokesman for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam said only that actions regarding Ervin are under review.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck.

George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action

Liberal billionaire gave at least $33 million in one year to groups that emboldened activists

- The Washington Times
There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.

Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org.

Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by The Washington Times.

In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations.

The financial tether from Mr. Soros to the activist groups gave rise to a combustible protest movement that transformed a one-day criminal event in Missouri into a 24-hour-a-day national cause celebre.

“Our DNA includes a belief that having people participate in government is indispensable to living in a more just, inclusive, democratic society,” said Kenneth Zimmerman, director of Mr. SorosOpen Society Foundations’ U.S. programs, in an interview with The Washington Times. “Helping groups combine policy, research [and] data collection with community organizing feels very much the way our society becomes more accountable.”

No strings attached
Mr. Zimmerman said OSF has been giving to these types of groups since its inception in the early ‘90s, and that, although groups involved in the protests have been recipients of Mr. Soros‘ grants, they were in no way directed to protest at the behest of Open Society.

“The incidents, whether in Staten Island, Cleveland or Ferguson, were spontaneous protests — we don’t have the ability to control or dictate what others say or choose to say,” Mr. Zimmerman said.

“But these circumstances focused people’s attention — and it became increasingly evident to the social justice groups involved that what a particular incident like Ferguson represents is a lack of accountability and a lack of democratic participation.”

Soros-sponsored organizations helped mobilize protests in Ferguson, building grass-roots coalitions on the ground backed by a nationwide online and social media campaign.

Other Soros-funded groups made it their job to remotely monitor and exploit anything related to the incident that they could portray as a conservative misstep, and to develop academic research and editorials to disseminate to the news media to keep the story alive.

The plethora of organizations involved not only shared Mr. Soros‘ funding, but they also fed off each other, using content and buzzwords developed by one organization on another’s website, referencing each other’s news columns and by creating a social media echo chamber of Facebook “likes” and Twitter hashtags that dominated the mainstream media and personal online newsfeeds.

Buses of activists from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference in Chicago; from the Drug Policy Alliance, Make the Road New York and Equal Justice USA from New York; from Sojourners, the Advancement Project and Center for Community Change in Washington; and networks from the Gamaliel Foundation — all funded in part by Mr. Soros — descended on Ferguson starting in August and later organized protests and gatherings in the city until late last month.

Broaden issue focus
All were aimed at keeping the media’s attention on the city and to widen the scope of the incident to focus on interrelated causes — not just the overpolicing and racial discrimination narratives that were highlighted by the news media in August.

“I went to Ferguson in a quest to be in solidarity and stand with the young organizers and affirm their leadership,” said Kassandra Frederique, policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance, which was founded by Mr. Soros, and which receives $4 million annually from his foundation. She traveled to Ferguson in October.

“We recognized this movement is similar to the work we’re doing at DPA,” said Ms. Frederique.

“The war on drugs has always been to operationalize, institutionalize and criminalize people of color. Protecting personal sovereignty is a cornerstone of the work we do and what this movement is all about.”

Ms. Frederique works with Opal Tometi, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter — a hashtag that was developed after the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida — and helped promote it on DPA’s news feeds. Ms. Tometi runs the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, a group to which Mr. Soros gave $100,000 in 2011, according to the most recent of his foundation’s tax filings.

“I think #BlackLivesMatter’s success is because of organizing. This was created after Trayvon Martin, and there has been sustained organizing and conversations about police violence since then,” said Ms. Frederique. “Its explosion into the mainstream recently is because it connects all the dots at a time when everyone was lost for words. ‘Black Lives Matter’ is liberating, unapologetic and leaves no room for confusion.”

#BlackLivesMatter
With the backing of national civil rights organizations and Mr. Soros‘ funding, “Black Lives Matter” grew from a hashtag into a social media phenomenon, including a #BlackLivesMatter bus tour and march in September.

“More than 500 of us have traveled from Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Nashville, Portland, Tucson, Washington, D.C., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and other cities to support the people of Ferguson and help turn a local moment into a national movement,” wrote Akiba Solomon, a journalist at Colorlines, describing the event.

Colorlines is an online news site that focuses on race issues and is published by Race Forward, a group that received $200,000 from Mr. Soros’s foundation in 2011. Colorlines has published tirelessly on the activities in Ferguson and heavily promoted the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and activities.

At the end of the #BlackLivesMatter march, organizers met with civil rights groups like the Organization for Black Struggle and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment to strategize their operations moving forward, Ms. Solomon wrote. OBS and MORE are also funded by Mr. Soros.

Mr. Soros gave $5.4 million to Ferguson and Staten Island grass-roots efforts last year to help “further police reform, accountability and public transparency,” the Open Society Foundations said in a blog post in December. About half of those funds were earmarked to Ferguson, with the money primarily going to OBS and MORE, the foundation said.

OBS and MORE, along with the Dream Defenders, established the “Hands Up Coalition” — another
so-called “grass-roots” organization in Missouri, whose name was based on now-known-to-be-false claims that Brown had his hands up before being shot. The Defenders were built to rally support and awareness for the Trayvon Martin case and were funded by the Tides Foundation, another recipient of Soros cash.

Hands Up Coalition has made it its mission to recruit and organize youth nationwide to start local events in their communities — trying to take Ferguson nationwide.

Years and weekends of ‘resistance’
Hands Up Coalition has dubbed 2015 as “The Year of Resistance,” and its outreach program strongly resembles how President Obama’s political action committee — Organizing for Action — rallies youth for its causes, complete with a similarly designed Web page and call to action.

Mr. Soros, who made his fortune betting against the British pound during the currency crisis in the early ‘90s, is a well-known supporter of progressive-liberal causes and is a political donor to Mr. Obama’s campaigns. He committed $1 million to Mr. Obama’s super PAC in 2012.

Mr. Soros‘ two largest foundations manage almost $3 billion in assets per year, according to their most recent respective tax returns. The Foundation to Promote Open Society managed $2.2 billion in assets in 2011, and his Open Society Institute managed $685.9 million in 2012.

In comparison, David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers whom liberals often call a threat to democracy — and worse — for their conservative influence, had $308 million tied up in their foundation and institute in 2011.

One of the organizations that Mr. Soros funds, and which fueled the demonstrations in Ferguson, is the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of grass-roots, interreligious and interracial organizations. Mr. Obama started his career as a community organizer at a Gamaliel affiliate in Chicago.

The Rev. Traci Blackmon of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Missouri, which is part of the Gamaliel network, said in one of the group’s webinars that clergy involved with Gamaliel must be “protectors of the narrative” of what happened in Ferguson.

The Gamaliel affiliate in St. Louis — Metropolitan Congregations United — organized the “Weekend of Resistance” in October, in which clergy members from around the nation were called to come to Ferguson to protest.

Clergy involvement
Representatives of Sojourners, a national evangelical Christian organization committed “to faith in action for social justice,” attended the weekend. The group received $150,000 from Mr. Soros in 2011.

Clergy representatives from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference, where the Rev. Jeremiah Wright serves as a trustee, also showed up. Mr. Wright was Mr. Obama’s pastor in Chicago before some of his racially charged sermons, including the phrase “God damn America,” forced Mr. Obama to distance himself. SDPC received $250,000 from Mr. Soros in 2011.

During Gamaliel’s weekend protest event, Sunday was deemed “Hands Up Sabbath,” where clergy were asked to speak out about racial issues, using packets and talking points prepared for them by another religion-based community organizing group, PICO.

PICO is also supported by the Open Society Foundations, according to its website.

The weekend concluded Monday, when clergy members were asked to lead in acts of civil disobedience, prompting many of them to go to jail in the hopes of gaining media attention.

It worked, as imagery of clergy members down on their hands and knees in front of police dominated the mainstream news cycle that day — two months after Brown’s shooting.

“After the initial shooting, we were all hit in the face with how blatant racism really is,” said the Rev. Susan Sneed, a Gamaliel organizer who helped stage the October weekend event. “We began quickly hearing from our other affiliates offering support.”

At the end of August, Gamaliel had a large organizational meeting to discuss its Ferguson strategy, Ms. Sneed said.

It had its affiliates in New York and California handling the St. Louis Twitter feed and Facebook page, helped in correcting any inaccurate stories in the press and promoted their events, she said.

“When we started marching down the street, saying, ‘hands up, don’t shoot,’ those images reached all over the world,” said Ms. Sneed, referring to the moment she realized Ferguson was going to become a movement. “The Twitter images, Facebook posts of burning buildings — it’s everywhere, and the imagery is powerful. And the youth — the youth is so engaged. They’ve found a voice in Ferguson.”

National activists descend
Larry Fellows III, 29, a Missouri native, did find his voice in the chaos of Ferguson with the help of outside assistance backed by Mr. Soros.

Mr. Fellows is co-founder of the Millennial Activists United, a key source of video and stories developed in Ferguson by youth activists used to inspire other groups nationally.

Mr. Fellows explained how he started his organization in an interview with the American Civil Liberties Union (another Soros-backed entity that sent national representatives to Missouri) in November.

“Initially, it would just be that we would show up for protests, and the next day we’d clean up the streets. A lot of the same people were out at the protests and going out to lunch and talking about what was happening. That became a cycle until a lot of us figured out we needed to have a strategy,” Mr. Fellows explained to the ACLU, which posted the interview in its blog.

“Then a lot of organizers from across the country started to come in to help us do the planning and do the strategizing. That helped us start doing it on our own and planning out actions and what our narratives were going to be,” he said.

MAU has listed on its website that it has partnered with Gamaliel network churches. They’ve also received training on civil disobedience from the Advancement Project — which was given a $500,000 grant from Mr. Soros in 2013 “to build a fair and just, multi-racial democracy in America through litigation, community organizing support, public policy reform, and strategic communications,” according to the Foundation’s website.

The Advancement Project, based in Washington, also arranged the meeting between community organizers in Ferguson and Mr. Obama last month to brief him on the situation in Ferguson and to set up a task force that examines trust between police and minority communities.

In addition, the Advancement Project has also dedicated some of its staff to lead organizations in Ferguson, like the Don’t Shoot Coalition, another grass-roots group that preaches the same message, links to the same Facebook posts and “likes” the same articles as DPA, ACLU, Hands Up Coalition, OBS, MORE and others.

 

Suspect In Chelsea, Seaside Park Explosions In Custody

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, Was Wanted For Questioning In Both Incidents


BREAKING NEWS
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A suspect wanted in the bombings that rocked Chelsea and Seaside Park, New Jersey was captured Monday after an intense manhunt that ended in a gun battle with Linden police.

The arrest came just hours after the FBI, NYPD and New Jersey State Police issued bulletins and photos of Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan with an address in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

The gunfight erupted after Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said he owner of a bar reported someone asleep in his doorway late Monday morning. A police officer went to investigate and recognized the man as Rahami, police and the mayor said.

“The suspect pulled out a gun and fired at the officer and striking him in the abdomen,” Capt. James Sarnicki with Linden police told CBS2. “The gentlemen got up and started walking down the street in a westerly direction. I’m told that he was randomly discharging his handgun and one of the officers was able to get close enough to him and return fire.”

Sarnicki said Rahami was shot several times. The suspect is said to be alert, but his condition is not known. He has since been taken to the hospital.

The officer who was shot was wearing a protective vest and was not seriously hurt. Another officer may have been hurt in the face and a third was suffering from high blood pressure, Sarnicki said.

Earlier Monday, FBI agents swarmed an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth that’s tied to Rahami.

The activity there came hours after one of five devices found at the nearby Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot attempted to disarm it.

Sarnicki said Rahami was shot several times. The suspect is said to be alert, but his condition is not known. He has since been taken to the hospital.

The officer who was shot was wearing a protective vest and was not seriously hurt. Another officer may have been hurt in the face and a third was suffering from high blood pressure, Sarnicki said.

Earlier Monday, FBI agents swarmed an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth that’s tied to Rahami.

The activity there came hours after one of five devices found at the nearby Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot attempted to disarm it.

The Seaside Park incident happened Saturday morning when a device exploded before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. The race was canceled and no one was injured.

Then on Saturday night, a device exploded on West 23rd and 7th Avenue, injuring 29 people. The unexploded device was found several blocks away on West 27th Street.

New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as investigators gathered information they learned there were “certain commonalities among the bombs,” leading authorities to believe “that there was a common group behind the bombs.”

Cuomo were careful to say there was no evidence of a link to international terrorism. Both said Monday that appears to be changing.

“There may very well turn out to be a link to foreign organizations,” Cuomo said.

“I think that it is premature to use a word like ‘cell,'” de Blasio told 1010 WINS. “This may have been the work of one individual, it may be more than one individual. We need more information.”

On Sunday night, FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped “a vehicle of interest” in the investigation of the Chelsea explosion, according to FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.

Sources told CBS2 that five men inside the vehicle are believed to be associates of Rahami. At least one of the men in that vehicle was Rahami’s relative, CBS2’s Janelle Burrell reported.

“There was a vehicle that came to the attention of the NYPD and it was trailed, it was stopped,” de Blasio said. “Individuals were questioned.”

The FBI stopped the vehicle because they had reason to believe that Rahami was inside, but he was not. Investigators suspect that the five men were driving from Staten Island heading to John F. Kennedy Airport when investigators ordered them to pull over.

The men were taken in for questioning and are still being detained by the FBI. They have not been charged. It’s not clear what, if any, knowledge they had about any of the incidents.

Before Rahami’s capture, Cuomo said investigators have no reason to believe there are further threats, but the public should “be on constant guard.”

Around the time Rahami was taken into custody, President Barack Obama was in New York on a previously scheduled visit for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, and said it was “extremely fortunate” nobody was killed in the bombings.

He called on Americans to show the world “we will never give in to fear.”

“We all have a role to play as citizens to make sure we don’t succumb to that fear. And there’s no better example of that than the people of New York and New Jersey,” the president said. “Folks around here, they don’t get scared.”

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said Rahami’s father, Mohammad Rahami, and two brothers sued the city after it passed an ordinance requiring the First American Fried Chicken restaurant to close early because of complaints from neighbors that it was a late-night nuisance.

Ryan McCann, of Elizabeth, said that he often ate at the restaurant and recently began seeing the younger Rahami working there more.

“He’s always in there. He’s a very friendly guy,” McCann said. “That’s what’s so scary. It’s hard when it’s home.”
Heather Scallion waits for a job at the Command Center temporary employment agency in Williston, North Dakota, a once booming oil town (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)
Williston (United States) (AFP) - In the chilly air before dawn, a handful of men and women huddle in front of a small, one-story building on the outskirts of Williston.

They are waiting for Central Command, a temporary work agency, to open.

Workers in this oil town in the US state of North Dakota, just an hour from the Canada border, once had their pick of jobs. Many are now looking for any work they can find.

"They don't have very many jobs for us right now," said Heather Scallion, who traveled some 1,300 miles (2,100 km) from Arkansas, thinking there was still low-skilled work here.

"Hurting for money, honestly," she explained.

Nearby, a ragged man in his 30s slept on a couch. Scallion was fairly certain he was homeless, because he slept on the same spot every day, wearing the same clothes.

Just minutes from this temporary work site, at the state-run employment agency Job Service North Dakota, it is a far different world. There is a shortage of workers for highly skilled positions in drilling and oil pump maintenance, among others.

"There were layoffs when oil really tanked," said Cindy Sanford, who heads the agency's Williston branch. "Now what's happening is those companies are bringing people back."

North Dakota is now seeing hints of a recovery from the bust. As crude prices have rebounded to the $40 range after a stunning crash, there are signs that the industry is slowly regaining its footing.

But the recovery has been uneven, a distinct case of the haves and the have-nots, as skilled laborers see their prospects improving, while the less desirable workforce feels little optimism.

- Oil boomtown -
The Command Center offices are just across from the train tracks that used to ferry coal, livestock and grains, but now shoulder trains loaded with crude from the vast oil and gas deposits that lie deep underfoot, known as the Bakken and Three Forks formations.

When hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling techniques made those deposits easier to reach, Williston became the epicenter of North Dakota's oil production.

The industry turned the sparsely populated state into a buzzing hub of investment and hiring starting in 2010, while the rest of the US economy was still stuck in low gear.

At the height of the boom in 2014, Sanford said that they could be so desperate to recruit workers they just had to make sure candidates were alive.

"We'd laugh and we'd say, 'Breathe into the mirror. Oh, it didn't fog up. Try again,'" said Sanford.

In those heady days, low-skilled workers could easily earn $18 an hour. Williston doubled in size in about four years, to roughly 30,000 people.

Then, the price of oil plummeted, from highs above $100 a barrel to below $30, forcing many drillers to shut down their operations and lay off tens of thousands. Booming Williston went bust.

- Hints of recovery -
From his truck, Monty Besler points to so-called "man camps," make-shift mobile housing developments once buzzing with out-of-town workers. They now sit empty.

"We've lost a lot of companies," said Besler, an oil industry consultant, whose license plate reads 
"Fracn8r" - as in "frackenator," a nickname given to him by colleagues.

Besler has seen boom and bust cycles before.

"We'll have a winnowing, and in the process the stronger companies will survive," he said.
He has reason for such optimism.

While oil production still continues to decline, analysts expect it to stabilize next year. Meanwhile, the number of active oil rigs is rising again and they have become more efficient and productive, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

"The industry is going to resume a very modest, but positive, growth in supply in 2017," said Raoul LeBlanc, a US energy analyst at IHS.

He cautioned that even though jobs are starting to return, salaries are generally lower than in boom times. "We may never get back to the levels of employment that we had," LeBlanc said.

But Besler believes the industry can rise again. If prices can be sustained in the $50-60 per barrel range, Besler said, "that starts to bring the outside money back in, the investment groups that were pouring money into the Bakken before."

The city of Williston is anticipating that Bakken will power the local economy for decades to come, budgeting $1 billion on roads, bridges, and a new airport.

Companies are once again competing for workers. A recent job fair had 56 companies planning to fill 300 positions.

This is all cold comfort at the Command Center, where few of those jobs are expected to reach low-skilled workers any time soon. Kyle Tennessen, the center's manager, is certain he will continue to have more people lining up for work every morning than the number of jobs he can offer them.

"There's going to be another boom. When is the giant question mark," Tennessen said.