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Dems Trying to Tax Online Shoppers

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internet_online_taxStates could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday.

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers a big advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

The bill would allow states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where shoppers live.

The Senate voted 74 to 20 to begin debating the bill. If that level of support continues, the Senate could pass the bill as early as this week.

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn’t have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.

“I believe it is important to level the playing field for all retailers,” said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill’s main sponsor. “We should not be subsidizing some taxpayers at the expense of others.”

In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few people comply.

“I do know about three people that comply with that,” Enzi said.

President Barack Obama supports the bill, but its fate is uncertain in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, opposes the bill and will count the vote in its legislative scorecard.

Many of the nation’s governors — Republicans and Democrats — have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales, said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. Those efforts intensified when state tax revenues took hit from the recession and the slow economic recovery.

“It’s a matter of equity for businesses,” Crippen said. “It’s a matter of revenue for states.”

The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.

“Amazon.com has long supported a simplified nationwide approach that is evenhandedly applied and applicable to all but the smallest volume sellers,” Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president of global public policy said in a recent letter to senators.

On the other side, eBay has been rallying customers to oppose the bill.

“I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea,” eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said in a letter to customers. “Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business.”

The bill is also opposed by senators from states that have no sales tax, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

“Supporters of this online sales tax bill are trying to muscle it through before senators find out how disastrous it would be for businesses in their states,” Ayotte said. “I will fight this power grab every step of the way to protect small online businesses in New Hampshire and across the nation.”

Baucus said the bill would require relatively small Internet retailers to comply with sales tax laws in thousands of jurisdictions.

“This legislation doesn’t help businesses expand and grow and hire more employees,” Baucus said. “Instead, it forces small businesses to hire expensive lawyers and accountants to deal with the burdensome paperwork and added complexity of tax rules and filings across multiple states.”

But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bill requires participating states to make it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don’t have to send them to individual counties or cities.

“We’re way beyond the quilt pen and leger days,” Durbin said. “Thanks to computers and thanks to software it is not that complex.”

Published April 22, 2013 / Associated Press

Trial Begins for Dem Officials in Obama-Clinton Ballot Petition Fraud

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clinton_obamaThe trial is underway for a former Democratic official and a Board of Elections worker who are accused of being part of a plot that has raised questions over whether President Obama’s campaign — when he was a candidate in 2008 — submitted enough legitimate signatures to have legally qualified for the presidential primary ballot.

The two face charges of orchestrating an illegal scheme to fake the petitions that enabled then-candidates Obama, and Hillary Clinton, to qualify for the race in Indiana.

Former longtime St. Joseph County Democratic Party Chairman Butch Morgan Jr. faces multiple felony conspiracy counts to commit petition fraud, and former county Board of Elections worker Dustin Blythe is charged with nine felony forgery counts and one felony count of falsely making a petition of nomination. The proceedings began Monday in South Bend.

Morgan is accused of being the mastermind behind the plot, by allegedly ordering Democratic officials and workers to fake the names and signatures that Obama and Clinton needed to qualify for the presidential race. Blythe, then a Board of Elections employee and Democratic Party volunteer, has been accused of carrying out those orders by forging signatures on Obama’s petitions.

Two former Board of Elections officials have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme and could testify against Morgan and Blythe.

Former board worker Beverly Shelton, who allegedly was assigned the task of forging the petitions for Hillary Clinton, pleaded guilty in March to charges of forgery and falsely making a petition. The board’s former Democratic head of voter registration, Pam Brunette, pleaded guilty in April to felony forgery, official misconduct, and falsifying a petition.

The alleged scheme was hatched in January of 2008, according to affidavits from investigators who cite former Board of Registration worker Lucas Burkett, who told them he was in on the plan at first, but then became uneasy and quit. He waited three years before telling authorities about it, but if revelations about any forgeries were raised during the election, the petitions could have been challenged during the contest. Any candidate who did not qualify with enough legitimate signatures at the time could have been bounced from the ballot.

The Indiana trial has raised questions about whether in 2008, candidate Obama actually submitted enough legitimate signatures to have legally qualified.

Under state law, presidential candidates need to qualify for the primary ballots with 500 signatures from each of the state’s nine congressional districts. Indiana election officials say that in St. Joseph County, which is the 2nd Congressional District, the Obama campaign qualified with 534 signatures; Clinton’s camp had 704.

Prosecutors say that in Obama’s case, nine of the petition pages were apparently forged. Each petition contains up to 10 names, making a possible total of 90 names, which, if faked, could have brought the Obama total below the legal limit required to qualify. Prosecutors say 13 Clinton petitions were apparently forged, meaning up to 130 possibly fake signatures. Even if 130 signatures had been challenged, it would have still left Clinton with enough signatures to meet the 500-person threshold.

An Indiana State Police investigator said in court papers that the agency examined the suspect Obama petitions and “selected names at random from each of the petition pages and contacted those people directly. We found at least one person (and often multiple people) from each page who confirmed that they had not signed” petitions “or given consent for their name and/or signature to appear.”  The case was charged citing 20 forgeries — not the total number of possible fake entries — because that was considered a sufficient amount to prosecute.

Numerous voters told Fox News that they never signed the petitions.

“That’s not my signature,” Charity Rorie, a mother of four, told Fox News when showed the Obama petition with her name and signature. She said it “absolutely” was a fake.

Charity told Fox News that her husband’s entry was also a forgery, and that they have not been contacted by investigators or any authorities looking into the scandal.

“It’s scary, it’s shocking. It definitely is illegal. A lot of people have already lost faith in politics and the whole realm of politics, so that just solidifies our worries and concerns.”

Robert Hunter, Jr. said his name was faked, too.

“I did not sign for Barack Obama,” he told us. As he examined the Obama petition in his hands, Hunter pointed out that “I always put ‘Junior’ after my name, every time … there’s no ‘Junior’ there.”

Even a former Democratic Governor of Indiana, Joe Kernan, told Fox News that his name was forged.

The allegations were first uncovered by Indiana native and Yale University senior Ryan Nees, who wrote about the revelations for the political newsletter, Howey Politics Indiana.

“What’s worrisome about this scheme is that it wasn’t a single bad actor going rogue. Rather, four people were charged as co-conspirators, and two of the four have already pleaded guilty,” Nees told Fox News.

Nees believes that had the petitions been challenged during the presidential election, “it’s unlikely either candidate would have qualified for the ballot.”

He said the fraud was clearly evident, “because page after page of signatures are all in the same handwriting.” He noted that no one raised any red flags “because election workers in charge of verifying their validity were the same people faking the signatures.”

Both Morgan and Blythe have pleaded not guilty, and when approached by Fox News in 2011, Blythe refused to talk about the case.

Morgan’s attorney declined our request for an interview, and Blythe’s attorney has not responded to our efforts for comment.

The petition process is vital to candidates’ campaigns.

In the 2012 presidential race, Republican candidate Newt Gingrich was tripped up by that process in Virginia. He failed to qualify for the GOP primary ballot in that state, because authorities said hundreds of signatures on his campaign’s petitions were faked. A Gingrich campaign worker has pleaded guilty, and another still faces charges.

Petition fraud also cost Michigan Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter his public office. McCotter, who also ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, has accused former campaign workers of intentionally faking his congressional primary race petition signatures. The result was that McCotter did not submit the legal number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, and that failure forced him to resign his congressional seat last July. While McCotter was not implicated in any wrongdoing, two former campaign aides pleaded no contest to criminal charges, and one pleaded guilty.

By Eric Shawn / Published April 22, 2013 / Meredith Amor contributed to this report.

Wife of Dead Islamic Terrorist ‘Brainwashed’

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Katherine_Tsarnaev_WifeFederal investigators want to speak with the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Muslim convert and mother of their 3-year-old daughter, according to the Rhode Island woman’s attorney.Investigators went to the suburban Rhode Island home of Tsarnaev’s in-laws Sunday evening, where Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, 24, has been staying. Lawyer Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press that she did not speak with them and they are discussing how to proceed.

“I spoke to them, and that’s all I can say right now,” DeLuca said. “We’re deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this.”

DeLuca also provided new details on Tsarnaev’s movements in the days following the bombings, saying the last day he was alive that “he was home” when Russell left for work. When asked whether anything seemed amiss to his wife following the bombings, DeLuca replied: “Not as far as I know.” He said she learned her husband was a suspect in the bombings by seeing it on television and did not elaborate.

“I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed. She was not the same person at all.”- Former classmate of Katherine Russell

DeLuca said Russell did not suspect her husband of anything, and that there was no reason for her to have suspected him. He said she had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide. While she was at work, Tsarneav, 26, cared for their toddler daughter, DeLuca said.

“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” DeLuca told The Associated Press, adding that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was off at college and she saw him “not at all” at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.

All-American girl drops out and converts to Islam for terrorist husband

All-American girl drops out and converts to Islam for terrorist husband

On Friday, the woman’s mother handed reporters a statement referring to the “horrible tragedy” that occurred at the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 176 others.

“Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child,” the statement read. “We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. In the aftermath of the Patriots’ Day horror, we know that we never really knew Tamerlane [sic] Tsarnaev. Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted. Please respect our family’s privacy in this difficult time.”

Russell, according to reports, was “totally transformed” by Tsarnaev after meeting him. By age 21, she had married him and borne his daughter, Zahara, who is now 3 years old, the Daily Mail reports. She also converted to Islam and underwent a change so profound that few friends truly understood the sizable shift.

“I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed,” one former classmate told the newspaper. “She was not the same person at all.”

Another former classmate said the “All-American” girl had been “brainwashed” by her super-religious husband.

“Nobody understands what happened to her,” she told the newspaper of Russell. “None of us would have dreamed that she would marry so young or drop out of college and have a baby or convert or be part of any of what’s happened … She’s just not the same person at all.”

In 2004, Katherine Russell began studying at North Kingstown High School, where she was a member of the dance team and was recognized for a drawing of a cat in 11th grade. She also competed with fellow classmates during the school’s class color day.

“The thing that’s so shocking is that there was nothing at all that made Katherine different,” another classmate told the Daily Mail. “Her parents are nice people, her sisters are great girls. But she met this guy, I guess, and everything changed.”

Russell later met Tsarnaev while she was a student at Boston’s Suffolk University. Soon thereafter, she converted and her priorities seemingly changed, as she left the school in 2010 without graduating. Months earlier, in July 2009, Tsarnaev was arrested for allegedly assaulting Russell, who described Tsarnaev to authorities as a “very nice man,” the newspaper reports.

Russell, in her high school yearbook, provided a quotation that would seemingly coincide with the extremist views of her late husband.

“Don’t take anything for granted,” Russell wrote, before quoting a line from David Bowie’s Quicksand. “Don’t believe in yourself, don’t deceive with belief … Knowledge comes from death’s release.”

Published April 22, 2013 / FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

House Wants Administration’s Intelligence on Tamerlan Tsarnaev

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Boston_Marathon_BoatA Republican-led House committee is asking the Obama administration for all information on the Boston bombing suspect once suspected of engaging in terrorist activities, saying the tragedy marks another intelligence failure and raises “serious questions about the efficacy of the federal counter-terrorism efforts.”

The letter was sent Saturday by the House Committee on Homeland Security to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, National Intelligence Director James Clapper and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

In the letter, Committee Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul says bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev appears to be the fifth person since 9/11 to participate in a terror attack, despite being under FBI investigation.

McCaul, R-Texas, said the incidents “raise the most serious questions about the efficacy of the federal counter terrorism efforts.”

Tsarnaev, 26, was killed early Friday morning in a police shootout. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured by police that night and remains in the hospital.

The older Tsarnaev was interviewed by the FBI in 2011 before a six-month overseas trip, including time in Russia. In addition, he posted jihadist material on his social media site.

On Saturday, two U.S. law enforcement officials said the FBI was acting on information from the Russian intelligence security service that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam.

“Yet Tsarnaev remained at liberty in this country to conduct the Boston attack, and it took days to publicly identify him as a suspect,” wrote McCaul, who wants the information by Friday.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a committee member who also signed the letter, asked on “Fox News Sunday”: “Why didn’t the FBI go back and look at this?”

Still, the agency got some bipartisan support Sunday for its intelligence work and finding the bombing suspects.

“The FBI did its due diligence” Rep. Mike Rogers said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Rogers, R-Mich., a former FBI agent, also suggested Tsarnaev could have made overseas trips under an alias.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told NBC the FBI and related agencies need more resources.

“We need to invest in the resources necessary for law enforcement,” said Durbin, who acknowledges the Boston attacks might be a call for a review of U.S. intelligence efforts.

Two bombs place Monday near the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and injured more than 180 others.

McCaul identified the others in the terrorist category as Anwar al Awlaki, David Headley, Carlos Bledsoe and Nidal Hasan.

He said Faruq Abdulmutallab also attempted a terror attack despite being identified to the Central Intelligence Agency as a potential terrorist. The so-called “underwear bomber” attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.

Al Awlaki was an American-born Al Qaeda member killed in a 2011 U.S. drone attack in Yemen.  Headley is a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty in 2010 to participating in terror attacks including the 2008 Mumbai, India, attacks that killed 164 people.

Bledsoe was born in Tennessee and converted to radical Islam before a 2009 attack on a military recruiting station in which he fatally shot an Army private.

Hasan, born in Virginia, is the Army officer accused of fatally shooting 13 people in 2009 at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas.

Published April 21, 2013 / FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

8th Grader Arrested, Suspended for Wearing NRA T-Shirt

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nra_t_shirtAn eighth-grade student in West Virginia was reportedly arrested and suspended last week after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, “protect your right.”

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher, who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

“What they’re doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom of speech and my Second Amendment,” Jared told the station.

Jared’s father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of proportion.

“I don’t see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn’t forbid it,” Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared’s arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared’s suspension, some of his friends reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at least one was told by an educator to change their attire, according to the report.

Benjamin White, an attorney handling Jared’s case, told the station he is working on getting the charges dropped and plans to file a federal or civil lawsuit.

Published April 21, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Abortion Clinic Atrocities Trial

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kermit-gosnell-censored

The trial of the abortion doctor that the media are trying to keep away from the public

Five weeks into the murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a woman who was trained only as a medical assistant testified that she administered anesthesia to patients when she worked with Gosnell at his Women’s Medical Society clinic in West Philadelphia.

The assistant, Latosha Lewis, also testified Wednesday that she would sometimes cut the dosages of anesthesia and painkillers after seeing patients she feared would not wake up from sedation.

Lewis, 31, said that she stopped assisting with abortions in 2008, but continued to give out medications in her role as clerk.

Gosnell is accused of the 2009 overdose death of a female patient and the deaths of seven babies, who were allegedly born alive. His lawyer, Jack McMahon, says there were no live births at the clinic and argues the woman died of unforeseen complications.

Gosnell could face the death penalty, if he is convicted, on seven counts of first-degree murder.

The prosecutors may rest their case Thursday.

The charges against Gosnell, 72, include the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old Virginia woman who died in 2009 after seeking an abortion at Gosnell’s clinic. On Tuesday, Mongar’s daughter, Yashoda Gurung, testified about the painkiller and labor-inducing drugs her mother was administered while awaiting Gosnell to arrive and perform a second-trimester abortion.

Gurung, 24, said through a Nepalese interpreter that she had tried to see her mother before she was moved into the procedure room on Nov. 19, 2009.

“My mom was sleeping,” Gurung told jurors. “That’s what I thought. I tried to wake her up and the lady said, ‘Leave her alone.’”

Prosecutors allege Gosnell’s untrained, unlicensed staff gave Mongar a fatal combination of oral and intravenous drugs and failed to properly monitor her vital signs. She went into cardiac arrest and a coma and died the following day. McMahon has countered that Mongar, who was 19 weeks pregnant at the time, had unreported respiratory damage and died of complications.

Damber Ghalley, Mongar’s brother, testified Tuesday he was told Mongar’s situation was “bad” when she arrived for the procedure. Ghalley said she spoke to Gosnell as she was being led to an ambulance.

partial_birth_abortion

Abortion doctor on trial for murdering live birth babies during partial birth abortions

“He said, ‘The procedure was done,’” he told jurors. “Your sister’s heart stopped.”

Gosnell faces a third-degree murder charge in Mongar’s death.

Gosnell’s co-defendant is also calling witnesses Thursday.

Eileen O’Neill, an unlicensed doctor, of Phoenixville, is charged with racketeering and theft for allegedly billing as a doctor.

On Thursday, a prosecution witness testified that she waited hours for “the doctor” to show at the clinic, then received two pills from O’Neill for a non-surgical abortion.

The woman said on cross-examination that she did not know if O’Neill consulted with a doctor that day.

Published April 18, 2013 / FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Boston Marathon Suspects Islamic Terrorists, Not Chechen Separatists

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Editor’s note: Terror expert Steve Emerson spoke with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly Friday about suspects’ possible motives in the Boston Marathon terror attacks. The following is a summary of the information he shared with her: 

islam_terrorismEmerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism reviewed videos posted on the YouTube channels of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev.

Both brothers had YouTube channels in the United States and in Russia. Emerson’s group reviewed about half of the 22 videos posted on the U.S. channel. The videos were viewed by a small number of people. One video received 5,000 views, another just 1,000 views.

Based on the content of the videos, which feature Bin Laden, calls to kill Americans, Jews, Christians and exhortations to establish a world-wide caliphate, it is clear that these message are not directed just at Chechens. “They are directed primarily against all non-Muslims and are very similar to the Al Qaeda videos we’ve seen in years past.”

boston-bombing_victimsThe two brothers clearly want “to express a message that they totally sympathize with the jihadist cause. These were jihadists, they were not just Chechen separatists.”

Steven Emerson is executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and the executive producer of a new documentary about the Muslim Brotherhood in America “Jihad in America: the Grand Deception.”

By Steven Emerson / Published April 19, 2013

Grisly Details At Abortion Doctor Murder Trial

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Kermit GosnellThe Philadelphia abortion doctor accused of killing a patient and several babies failed to take basic precautions, according to an industry colleague who testified Monday as the trial of Kermit Gosnell entered its fifth week.

Dr. Charles Benjamin said he never performs abortions on women pregnant for more than 21 weeks, three weeks under the limit imposed by law in Pennsylvania. But Gosnell, who is charged with murder, is accused of terminating pregnancies much later, even causing the deaths of seven babies who were born alive. National interest in the trial, which threatens to expose the horror of the illegal abortion mills, continued to build Monday, with President Obama’s spokesman saying the commander in chief is aware of the stomach-turning allegations in the trial.

Gosnell, 72, was arrested two years ago, and faces the death penalty. Witnesses have told the court of infants being decapitated and baby feet being stored in jars at the clinic. Eight former workers at the clinic have been charged, and three have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. Defense lawyer Jack McMahon has maintained that no babies were born alive.

Several patients and former employees have testified about conditions at Gosnell’s clinic, some describing doing ultrasounds, giving intravenous drugs and helping with abortions despite having no training.

Prosecutors said Gosnell made millions over three decades by performing illegal, late-term abortions. They allegedly found about $250,000 in cash at his home in a low-income section of Philadelphia after a 2010 raid of his clinic.

by FoxNews.com

Muslim Terrorists Killed and Captured

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bomber_muslimA day-long dragnet for the second of two brothers believed to be behind Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing ended Friday night, with police capturing the suspect covered in blood and hiding in a boat in the backyard of a man who called 911 after becoming suspicious of activity on his property.

“We got him,” Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted moments later, as neighbors gathered to form a gauntlet of cheers while a phalanx of police cars departed the scene.

Police moved in on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday evening after a tip led them to the home on Franklin Street, where he apparently had been hiding in the back yard. Neighbors said they heard more than 30 shots one likened to “a roll of firecrackers shooting off.” Police swarmed the scene, and several explosions, possibly police concussion grenades, were heard after a robot moved in on the boat. Less than two hours later, at about 9 p.m., the suspect, believed to have been injured in a wild shootout that spanned Thursday night to Friday morning,  was being taken to Beth Israel Hospital.

No police were injured when shots were fired by the boat.

“We are so grateful to bring justice and to bring closure to this case,” Massachsetts State Police Col. Tim Alben said moments later, at a staging area set up down the block from the crime scene. “We have a suspect in custody.”

Sources told Fox News the shed and the boat had been searched earlier, but a local man noticed a door to it had been opened, saw blood on the tarp and called police.

“It was a call from a resident of Watertown,” Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau said. “We got that call, and we got the guy.”

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Tsarnaev was in serious condition and was found “covered with blood.” He did not come out from inside the boat willingly, despite the efforts of negotiators, Davis said.

“We assume that those injuries came from the gunfire the night before,” Davis said. He also said Tsarnaev did not have any explosives with him when he was taken into custody.

The hiding place was found just moments after police said their hunt for Tsarnaev, one of two radical Muslim brothers suspected in Monday’s attack, had gone cold and urged people to “go about your business.”

“We are so grateful to bring justice and to bring closure to this case. We have a suspect in custody.” – Mass. State Police Col. Timothy Alben

Shortly after the capture was announced, Watertown residents poured out of their homes and lined the streets to cheer police vehicles as they rolled away from the scene.

Celebratory bells rang from a church tower. Teenagers waved American flags. Drivers honked. Every time an emergency vehicle went by, people cheered loudly.

“Tonight, our family applauds the entire law enforcement community for a job well done, and trust that our justice system will now do its job,” said the family of 8-year-old Martin Richard, who died in the bombing.

Early in the day, police told residents of several city neighborhoods, especially Watertown, to stay inside. School was canceled, bus and train service suspended and people were even told not to venture out for work. But those restrictions were lifted at the news briefing Friday night about 15 minutes before the gunshots were heard.

The boat Tsarnaev hid under was just outside the tight perimeter where Black Hawk helicopters patrolled the sky and police went door-to-door hunting for him, police said. Police say he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev placed the deadly bombs, at least one of which was made from a pressure cooker packed with explosives and shrapnel, at the race, killing three and injuring more than 180. The sibling suspects are from Dagestan, a province in Russia that borders Chechnya, but have been in the U.S. for as much as a decade..

On Thursday night, hours after the radicalized Muslims were fingered by the FBI and their images circulated around the world, they killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer and carjacked an SUV from a man who later escaped. The brothers led police on a chase through city streets that included a wild shootout that saw some 200 shots fired and the suspects hurling pipe bombs from the SUV. Bizarrely, police discounted earlier reports that the brothers had robbed a 7/11, saying although it had been robbed, and they had been caught on surveillance video, they were not the robbers.

bombing_tamerlainThe pursuit went into Watertown, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was shot several times in the gunfight. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev somehow slipped away, running over his already wounded brother as he fled by car, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital Deaconess Medical Center Friday morning. But at some point following the shootout and car chase, the younger brother fled by foot, according to State Police, who said Friday night they don’t believe he now has access to a car.

During the pursuit, a MBTA transit police officer was seriously injured and transported to the hospital, according to a news release. He was identified as Richard H. Donahue Jr., 33, and was at Mount. Auburn Hospital in critical but stable condition.

The suspects’ bloody rampage claimed the life of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, 26, who was found shot to death in his squad car at 10:20 p.m. Thursday in what Davis termed a “vicious assassination.” Moments after the shooting, the brothers carjacked the Mercedes SUV from Third Street in Cambridge and forced the driver to stop at several bank machines to withdraw money. The driver later told police that the brothers had bragged to him that they were the marathon bombers, law enforcement authorities said.

“The guy was very lucky that they let him go,” Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said.

It was when police were working to activate the tracking device on the stolen SUV, that other patrol officers spotted it in nearby Watertown, touching off the dramatic chase.

FBI Special Agent Rick Deslauriers said Friday night the FBI pored though thousands of tips, and chased down countless leads in the intense probe following the terror attack on Monday.

“The was a truly intense investigation,” Deslauriers said. “As a result of that justice is being served for each of the victims of these crimes.”

Click here for more from MyFoxBoston.com.

Published April 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Jana Winter, Mike Tobin, Mike Levine, Griff Jenkins and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ricin Suspect ‘Christian’ Democrat

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democrat_terroristThe Mississippi man suspected of sending deadly ricin in letters to President Obama and a senator from his home state is no stranger to local police, who have long viewed him as a paranoid conspiracy theorist prone to violence.

Paul Kevin Curtis, a sometime-Elvis impersonator who appeared in a Mississippi federal court Thursday and denied wrongdoing, has penned numerous rants accusing the government of hounding him. Many of his screeds have ended with the same line his letter to President Obama reportedly did: “I am Kevin Curtis and I approve this message.”

An affidavit released by the Department of Justice quotes Curtis’ letters to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and a judge as saying: “Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die.”

“Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die.”- Ricin-laced letter sent to President Obama

Curtis has claimed unknown forces blew up his car, interfered in his personal relationships and rigged Elvis impersonation contests. His rants, which have appeared at ripoffreport.com on his Facebook page seem to stem from 2001, when, as a cleaner hired by a morgue, he claims to have found bags of body parts, including a severed head. After reporting his discovery to authorities, Curtis came to believe he was made a “person of interest where my every move was watched and videotaped.”

On Ripoffreport.com, a forum for people to complain about purported scams, a man who identified himself as Curtis detailed in 2007 how the alleged incident began his spiral.

“3 Years of research lead to countless court battles, cops harassing me weekly, death threats, personal & financial losses, several thefts, my home burned down, car exploded, marriage dissolved & bankruptcy,” he wrote.

Curtis claims he sought help from elected officials, including Wicker, who was his congressman prior to being elected to the Senate in 2007.  Wicker told CNN he has met Curtis and believed him to have “mental issues.”

Curtis reportedly wrote that he is on the “hidden front lines of a secret war” on his Facebook page hours before federal agents arrested him at his home in Corrinth Wednesday. He is being held in the Lafayette County Detention Center.

“My mother wants me to SHUT UP. My brothers fear me. My sister hates me. . . . I have lost most of my friends,” he wrote. “I have spent more than $130,000 on legal fees in 13.5 years. . . . They destroyed my marriage, they distracted my career, they stalked, they trolled, they came into my home, took my computers, had me arrested 22 times and guess what? I am still a thorn in the corrupt anals! I will remain here until Jesus Christ decides its time for me to go.”

The letters to Obama and Wicker, which bore Memphis postmarks, have tested positive for ricin. The ones sent to Washington were opened in a remote facility and no one appears to have been harmed by them. The FBI has said there is no indication of a connection between the letters and the Monday bombing in Boston that killed three people and injured more than 170. The letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8, before the marathon.

Published April 18, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Top Dem Sen. Baucus Warns of ‘Train Wreck’ for Obamacare

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maxbaucusA senior Democratic senator who helped write President Obama’s health care law stunned administration officials Wednesday, saying openly he thinks it’s headed for a “train wreck.”

“I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama’s health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense.

Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance that start next year.

The six-term Democrat is also expected to face a tough re-election in 2014. Baucus is still trying to recover from approval ratings that nosedived amid displeasure with the health care law in his home state.

Normally low-key and supportive, Baucus challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Wednesday’s hearing.

He said he’s “very concerned” that new health insurance marketplaces for consumers and small businesses will not open on time in every state, and that if they do, they might just flop because residents don’t have the information they need to make choices.

“The administration’s public information campaign on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act deserves a failing grade,” he told Sebelius. “You need to fix this.”

Responding to Baucus, Sebelius pointedly noted that Republicans in Congress last year blocked funding for carrying out the health care law, and she had to resort to raiding other departmental funds that were legally available to her.

The administration is asking for $1.5 billion in next year’s budget, and Republicans don’t seem willing to grant that either.

“I don’t know what he’s looking at,” Sebelius told reporters following her out of the room after Baucus adjourned the hearing. “But we are on track to fully implement marketplaces in Jan. 2014, and to be open for open enrollment.”

That open-enrollment launch is only months away, Oct. 1. It’s when millions of middle-class consumers who don’t get coverage through their jobs will be able to start shopping for a private plan in the new marketplaces, or exchanges. They’ll also be able to find out if they qualify for tax credits that will lower their premiums. At the same time, low-income people will be steered to government programs, mainly an expanded version of Medicaid.

But half the states, most of them Republican-led, have refused to cooperate in setting up the infrastructure of Obama’s law. Others, like Montana, are politically divided. The overhaul law provided that the federal government would step in and run the new markets if a state failed to do so. Envisioned as a fallback, federal control now looks like it will be the norm in about half the country, straining the resources of the department Sebelius leads.

Published April 18, 2013 / Associated Press

IRS Agents Caught Stealing – From You

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government_spendingMEMPHIS, Tenn. –  Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The IRS employees were indicted on charges that they illegally received more than $250,000 in benefits including unemployment insurance payments, food stamps, welfare, and housing vouchers, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said in a news release.

Prosecutors say 13 of the IRS employees face federal charges of lying about being unemployed while applying for or recertifying their government benefits. They each face up to five years in prison if convicted of making false statements to receive the benefits.

Eleven others face state charges of theft of property over $1,000, a felony that can carry a sentence of probation up to 12 years in prison if they are convicted.

“While these IRS employees were supposed to be serving the public, they were instead brazenly stealing from law-abiding American taxpayers,” U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton said in a statement

Those charged range in ages from 28 to 64. They include residents of Memphis, Jackson, Tenn., and Southaven, Miss.

“The taxes that we pay are supposed to support our nation and assist individuals in need, not free-loaders who are gaming the system,” said Amy Weirich, the district attorney for Shelby County.

Prosecutors scheduled, then canceled, a news conference to announce the indictments. U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Rodney King said the cancellation was due to “unforeseen events,” without elaborating.

King would not say whether the cancellation was related to the investigation into two letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator that indicated they contained poisonous ricin.

The FBI says the letters were postmarked Memphis.

Published April 18, 2013 / Associated Press

Background Check Plan Fails in Senate, Obama Rips Gun Owners

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arrogance_obamaThe Senate on Wednesday defeated a vital background check amendment seen as the linchpin to Democrats’ gun control bill, dealing a major setback to President Obama — who lashed out at opponents in unusually blunt terms during remarks from the Rose Garden.

“All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Obama said, accusing the gun lobby of lying about the bill.

The vote was 54-46, with supporters falling six votes short of the required 60-vote threshold.

The failure of the background check proposal authored by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., now imperils the entire legislation. The proposal would have expanded background checks to gun shows and Internet sales while exempting personal transactions. The amendment was aimed at winning over reluctant conservatives, who were opposed to the more stringent background check plan in the existing bill.

It’s unclear where supporters will go from here. They could try to vote again, or craft an alternative piece of legislation.

Obama vowed to press on, saying the vote was “just round one,” while decrying those he claimed “caved” to political pressure.

“The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill,” Obama said. He said the claims “upset” some gun owners who in turn “intimidated” senators.

“There were no coherent arguments as to why we couldn’t do this. It came down to politics,” he said.

In a statement, Manchin said that while he is disappointed in the outcome of today’s vote, that “this is not the end of the debate.”

Opponents, which included a few Democrats, voiced concern that the proposal would infringe on Second Amendment rights by imposing a burden on those buying and selling guns. They claimed the proposed system would not have prevented Newtown, and would not stop criminals. They also voiced concern about the possibility that the expanded system could lead to a gun registry, though the amendment language prohibits this.

The NRA said in a statement that the amendment “would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution.”

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats hammered Republicans for not voting in support and vowed to press forward.

“I want everyone to understand this is just the beginning, not the end,” said Reid. “Today, the brand of the Republican Party has become more out of step, more extreme. And that’s saying something.”

Four Republicans voted for the amendment, but five Democrats voted against it. One of those Democrats was Reid — who only switched his vote to oppose it because doing so allows Democrats to call up the measure again. Other Democrats who voted against the measure for non-procedural reasons were Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

The Obama administration has made the package, written in the wake of the Newtown school mass shooting, a top priority and along with its allies had applied heavy pressure to wavering lawmakers. Vice President Biden presided over the vote Wednesday.

Lawmakers proceeded to vote on a string of other amendments Wednesday, including a proposed ban on assault weapons and a ban on high-capacity magazines, which were defeated as well.

In the run-up to Wednesday’s vote, Democratic leaders gave ever-changing assessments of where support stood.

Biden said Tuesday that Democrats would get the 60 votes, but then said later in the day that it could come down to one or two senators.

Manchin acknowledged early Wednesday that the bill was having trouble, but then released a statement saying he remained “optimistic and hopeful.”

Opponents needed just 41 of the Senate’s 100 votes to derail the Manchin-Toomey background check plan.

Thirty-one senators voted last week to completely block debate on overall gun legislation. Since last week, enough lawmakers who voted to allow debate switched to oppose Manchin-Toomey, in turn defeating the amendment.

“I believe very strongly that our current background check system needs strengthening and improving, particularly in areas that could keep guns out of the hands of felons and the mentally ill. At the same time, I cannot support legislation that infringes upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., one of those opposed, said in a statement.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, echoed Heller in a statement released following the vote saying “Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook, we all wanted to find answers that would reduce crime and prevent the next senseless act of violence. Unfortunately, the Senate did not consider any proposals that would achieve these objectives.”

Lee also said he agreed with the president that the debate was not over and hoped that they could “discuss the problems that lead to these violent acts” and work on solutions that actually address them.

Only four Republican senators committed to voting for the amendment ahead of time. The last was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who announced his support Wednesday afternoon. The other three were Toomey, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

The Senate gun bill would extend background checks to nearly all gun purchases, toughen penalties against illegal gun trafficking and add small sums to school safety programs.

Perhaps helping explain Democrats’ problems, an AP-GfK poll this month showed that 49 percent of Americans support stricter gun laws. That was down from 58 percent who said so in January — a month after the December killings of 20 children and six aides at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school propelled gun violence into a national issue. Family members of Newtown victims, some tearing up after the vote, also criticized the Senate for the amendment’s failure Wednesday.

The Senate held eight other votes Wednesday besides the one on background checks, all of them amendments to the broad gun control measure.

They included Democratic proposals to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, which are expected to lose; a Republican proposal requiring states to honor other states’ permits allowing concealed weapons, which faces a close vote; and a GOP substitute for the overall gun measure. The concealed weapons amendment, seen by advocates as protecting gun rights, was vehemently opposed by gun control groups, who say it would allow more guns into states with stricter firearms laws.

The other amendments were defeated.

The votes were coming a day after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, badly injured in a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., and her husband, Mark Kelly, tried galvanizing gun control support by visiting Capitol Hill and attending a private lunch with Democratic senators. Reid, D-Nev., called the lunch — senators said it included emotional speeches from lawmakers — “as moving as any” he has attended.

Published April 17, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Terrorism at Boston Marathon

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boston-marathon-terrorismThe deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed at least three and injured at least 144 is believed to be an act of terrorism, senior White House officials told Fox News.Two explosions tore through the finish line of the world-famous race just before 3 p.m., going off simultaneously as throngs of onlookers watched runners complete the 26.2-mile trek. The timing of the blasts immediately sparked suspicions of a deliberate act.

“When multiple devices go off, that’s an act of terrorism,” a senior administration official told Fox News, just moments after President Obama delivered a statement to the nation and did not use the word ‘terror.’

Authorities searched an apartment in the nearby Boston suburb of Revere as part of the investigation into the explosions. FoxNews.com saw federal, state and local law enforcement entering the building late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.

Sources confirmed to FoxNews.com that the apartment being searched in connection to the bombings is on the fifth floor of the building.

A source close to the investigation confirms to FoxNews.com the man whose apartment was searched is considered a person of interest in the case, and is the same person of interest Fox News confirmed earlier authorities are guarding at a local hospital.

The source stressed that the person of interest is not a suspect, and said he suffered serious injuries in the explosion.

The FBI has a lot of leads and “a lot of work to do” in the investigation, a law enforcement source said. The source said the investigation is “very fluid” and the FBI is looking at many, many people.

Investigators were seen leaving the Revere house early Tuesday carrying brown paper bags, plastic trash bags and a duffel bag, according to the Associated Press.

The Pakistani Taliban, which has threatened attacks in the United States because of its support for the Pakistani government, denied any role in the marathon bombings Tuesday.

The group’s spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, denied involvement in a telephone call with The Associated Press. He spoke from an undisclosed location.

Federal investigators said Monday no one had claimed responsibility for the devastating attack on one of the city’s most famous civic holidays, Patriots’ Day.

“There is no suspect,” Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said Monday amid reports of the person of interest. “There are people we’re talking to.”

A first responder source confirms to Fox News that five total explosive devices were found in the Boston area, including the two that exploded. Authorities spent the next several hours sweeping the area for additional devices.

Davis said at an evening press conference the bombing killed “at least three,” and multiple reports said one of the dead was an 8-year-old boy. A source tells the Associated Press the boy’s mother and sister were also injured as they waited for his father to finish the race.

A first responder source tells Fox News all of the victims were either bystanders or marathon runners, and that two of the deceased were adults.

In addition to the deaths, more than 144 people were injured – including up to 10 with amputated limbs and 17 critically.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, Alasdair Conn, chief of emergency services, said: “This is something I’ve never seen in my 25 years here … this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we expect from war.”

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said during a press conference that no suspect is in custody.

The first two explosions occurred at 2:50 p.m. – nearly five hours after the marathon began – about 50 to 100 yards apart, according to Davis. A third explosion occurred near the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in the Columbia Point section of Dorchester, several miles southeast of the marathon’s finish line, at around 4:15 p.m. Police could not say if it was related to the earlier explosions.

The horror unfolded as the city marked the 238th annual Patriots’ Day, commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Competitors and race organizers were crying as they fled the bloody chaos, while some witnesses reported seeing victims with lost limbs.

“Somebody’s leg flew by my head,” a spectator, who gave his name as John Ross, told the Boston Herald. “I gave my belt to stop the blood.”

Twenty-six people were transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, including a 3-year-old, who was then taken to a children’s hospital. A doctor at the hospital said at least two of the patients there are in critical condition and that some have burns and injuries that will likely require amputations.

“They just started bringing people in with no limbs,” said runner Tim Davey of Richmond, Va. He said he and his wife, Lisa, tried to shield their children’s eyes from the gruesome scene inside a medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners, but “they saw a lot.”

“They just kept filling up with more and more casualties,” Lisa Davey said. “Most everybody was conscious. They were very dazed.”

Witnesses heard booms that sounded like two claps of thunder near the finish line inside the Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel, according to multiple local reports. Video of the scene showed a number of emergency crews in the area tending to victims and blood on the ground near the finish line.

“I saw two explosions. The first one was beyond the finish line. I heard a loud bang and I saw smoke rising,” Boston Herald reporter Chris Cassidy, who was running in the marathon, told the newspaper. “I kept running and I heard behind me a loud bang. It looked like it was in a trash can or something…There are people who have been hit with debris, people with bloody foreheads.”

“There are a lot of people down,” said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg. A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.

About three hours after the winners crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another thunderous explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

Runner Laura McLean of Toronto said she heard two explosions outside the medical tent.

“There are people who are really, really bloody,” McLean said. “They were pulling them into the medical tent.”

Cherie Falgoust was waiting for her husband, who was running the race.  “I was expecting my husband any minute,” she said. “I don’t know what this building is … it just blew. Just a big bomb, a loud boom, and then glass everywhere. Something hit my head. I don’t know what it was. I just ducked.”

While the White House does in fact believe terrorism was at play, lawmakers were increasingly reaching the same conclusion.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, reportedly said her understanding it “that it’s a terrorist incident.”

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., top Republican on that committee, also said that “as the evidence mounts that this was a terrorist attack, our intelligence and law enforcement agencies must do whatever is necessary to find and interrogate those responsible so we can prevent similar attacks.”

Authorities in New York, meanwhile, are deploying counter-terrorism vehicles around landmark sites in Manhattan, including prominent hotels, according to the New York City Police Department.
Nearly 25,000 people, including runners from around the world, competed in Boston’s celebrated 26.2-mile race, attracting huge throngs of onlookers, especially near the finish line.

“This is a horrific day in Boston,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured. I have been in touch with the President, Mayor [Thomas] Menino and our public safety leaders. Our focus is on making sure that the area around Copley Square is safe and secured. I am asking everyone to stay away from Copley Square and let the first responders do their jobs.”

Anyone with information on the bombings is being urged to call Boston authorities at 1-800-494-TIPS.

By Jana Winter / Published April 16, 2013 / FoxNews.com /Fox News’ Ed Henry, Catherine Herridge, Mike Levine, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

2 Dead, Dozens Injured After 2 Bombs Explode at Boston Marathon

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boston_marathon_blastAt least two people are dead and dozens injured – including up to 10 with amputated limbs – after at least two bombs tore through the finish line of the Boston Marathon, according to the Boston Police Department.

The simultaneous explosions, and reports of two other unexploded devices found near the scene raised suspicions that the blasts, just before 3 p.m., could be part of a terrorist attack. Intelligence officials told The Associated Press two unexploded devices were being dismantled, and reports of a third “controlled” explosion near the JFK Library in the Columbia Point section of Dorchester, may have been an intentional detonation supervised by authorities. Competitors and race organizers were crying as they fled the bloody chaos, while some witnesses reported seeing victims with lost limbs.

“Somebody’s leg flew by my head,” a spectator, who gave his name as John Ross, told the Boston Herald. “I gave my belt to stop the blood.”

Witnesses heard booms that sounded like two claps of thunder near the finish line inside the Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel, according to multiple local reports. The horror unfolded as the city marked the 238th annual Patriot’s Day, commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Video of the scene showed a number of emergency crews in the area tending to victims and blood on the ground near the finish line.

“I saw two explosions. The first one was beyond the finish line. I heard a loud bang and I saw smoke rising,” Boston Herald reporter Chris Cassidy, who was running in the marathon, told the newspaper. “I kept running and I heard behind me a loud bang. It looked like it was in a trash can or something…There are people who have been hit with debris, people with bloody foreheads.”

“There are a lot of people down,” said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg. A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.

About three hours after the winners crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another thunderous explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

Runner Laura McLean of Toronto said she heard two explosions outside the medical tent.

“There are people who are really, really bloody,” McLean said. “They were pulling them into the medical tent.”

Cherie Falgoust was waiting for her husband, who was running the race.  “I was expecting my husband any minute,” she said. “I don’t know what this building is … it just blew. Just a big bomb, a loud boom, and then glass everywhere. Something hit my head. I don’t know what it was. I just ducked.”

Authorities in New York, meanwhile, are deploying counter-terrorism vehicles around landmark sites in Manhattan, including prominent hotels, according to the New York City Police Department.

Nearly 25,000 people, including runners from around the world, competed in Boston’s celebrated 26.2-mile race, attracting huge throngs of onlookers, especially near the finish line.

“This is a horrific day in Boston,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured. I have been in touch with the President, Mayor [Thomas] Menino and our public safety leaders. Our focus is on making sure that the area around Copley Square is safe and secured. I am asking everyone to stay away from Copley Square and let the first responders do their jobs.”

Click for more from MyFoxBoston.com

Published April 15, 2013

FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dems Run from Progress Kentucky

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Progress Kentucky is a super PAC that is acting more like a rogue operation in its efforts to unseat Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell — sending out racially sensitive tweets and allegedly making a secret recording of the Senate minority leader’s re-election strategy talks.

ashley_judd_mitch_mcconnellThe group has been around only since December, raising about $1,000 and spending $18, compared to the McConnell campaign that has raised $10 million toward 2014 re-election efforts, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings.

Kentucky Democrats have over the past week made numerous, overt efforts to separate their party from Kentucky Progress and its questionable activities.

A former state party official described group members as “just a couple of activists” intent on making a mockery of super PACs, compared to those active in the 2012 elections that were run by savvy political operatives raising millions from well heeled contributors.

“This has nothing to do with the party or even a group,” said Chris Tobe, the former state party board member.

Earlier this week, Jacob Conway, a member of Kentucky’s Jefferson County Democratic Party, told Fox News that two group members secretly recorded the McConnell strategy sessions.

Conway alleges Executive Director Shawn Reilly and volunteer Curtis Morrison recorded the February office meeting from a hallway, perhaps with an iPhone, and later told him about it.

Conway said he came forward because he didn’t want the situation tarnishing the Democratic Party.

In the meeting held by McConnell, aides disparaged actress Ashley Judd, then a potential Democratic challenger, laughing about her bouts with depression and discussing possibly using that against her. They also talked about Judd’s political positions and religious beliefs, according to the tape posted Tuesday by the left-leaning Mother Jones magazine.

Judd has since said she will not run.

mcconnell_juddMcConnell called the taping “Watergate-style tactics,” and the FBI is now investigating the allegation, following his request.

Ted Shouse, Reilly’s attorney, said his client and Morrison were in a “public hallway” outside the office where McConnell’s meeting took place but Reilly never recorded anything.

Morrison didn’t return phone calls or answer the door Friday of his Louisville residence, where the blinds and curtains were closed and mail overflowed in the mailbox.

Kentucky has more registered Democrats than Republicans but tends to vote for Republican candidates for Congress and president.

Progress Kentucky first attracted national attention in February with a tweet from a volunteer that referred to the Asian heritage of Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife and a former U.S. Labor secretary.

The tweet was about the United States losing jobs to China, and McConnell promptly called the message a “racial slur” and “the ultimate outrage.”

His campaign then ran a statewide television spot in which the Taiwan-born Chao said “far-left special interests are also attacking my ethnicity.”

Another tweet from Progress’ account suggested Chao’s “Chinese” money is buying state elections, referring to members of her family last year giving $80,000 to the state Republican Party.

According to an FEC filing, Progress Kentucky’s treasurer was Douglas L. Davis until he resigned on Tuesday — the day the secret recording was made public.  He declined to comment Friday.

“With my resignation I will no longer be liable for any reporting, donations or expenditures made to, from or on behalf of the committee,” Davis wrote in the filing. Earlier this year, the group failed to turn in its year-end report on time, according to the FEC.

Morrison ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2012 and was one of the organizers of the Occupy Louisville movement.

He wrote for a community journalism website, InsiderLouisville.com. Executive Editor Terry Boyd wrote in a blog post on Friday that Morrison is no longer a contributor.

“Curtis has the makings of a solid reporter, under adult supervision,” Boyd stated in his blog post. “Unfortunately, Curtis is also an overt and dedicated political activist, and you can’t be both at the same time at Insider Louisville.”

Published April 13, 2013 / FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

North Korea Warns Japan It Goes First

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japan_tokyo_atomic_bombNorth Korea reportedly warned Japan that Tokyo would be the first target if Pyongyang decides to play its nuclear card.

The warning reportedly is in response to Tokyo’s standing orders to destroy any missile heading toward Japan, according to Korean Central News Agency. Japan has deployed PAC-3 missile interceptor units around Tokyo to protect its capital and is taking North Korea’s rhetoric seriously.

“We are doing all we can to protect the safety of our nation,” chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga said, though he and Ministry of Defense officials refused to confirm the reports about the naval alert, saying they do not want to “show their cards” to North Korea.

Japanese officials long have feared that North Korea not only has the means but several potential motives for launching an attack on Tokyo or major U.S. military installations on Japan’s main island.

“If Kim Jong Un decides to launch a missile, whether it’s across the Sea of Japan or some other direction, he will be choosing willfully to ignore the entire international community,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in South Korea. “And it will be a provocation and unwanted act that will raise people’s temperatures.”

“We will stand with South Korea and Japan against these threats. And we will defend ourselves,” he said.

Kerry also weighed in on an intelligence report that rocked Washington on Thursday and suggested that North Korea now had the knowhow to arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead — even if the weapons would lack reliability. Citing the Pentagon’s assessment, Kerry rejected the finding and said that Pyongyang still hadn’t developed or fully tested the nuclear capacities needed for such a step.

Speaking beside Kerry, South Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se called for more United Nations action against Pyongyang if it commits another provocation.

He refused to comment specifically on the U.S. intelligence report, saying only that the North has “high nuclear and missile capabilities” but that it is still some time away from a nuclear bomb that is “small, light and diversified.”

Kerry offered strong words of solidarity for South Korea, and praised South Korea President Park Geun-hye’s “bright vision” of a prosperous and reunified Korean Peninsula without nuclear weapons. By contrast, he said North Korea’s Kim,  has a choice to make between provocation and returning to talks to de-escalate tension and lead to the end of its nuclear program

Both Yun and Kerry kept the door open for future negotiations with Pyongyang.

But both seemed to suggest that they were unlikely in light of the North’s increasingly bombastic threats, including nuclear strikes on the United States. Most experts say those are unfeasible based on the North’s current capacity and would never be explored seriously because the U.S. response would be overwhelming against a regime focused primarily on survival.

Kerry said any talks with North Korea have to lead toward denuclearization.

They have to be really serious,” Kerry said. “No one is going to talk for the sake of talking and no one is going to play this round-robin game that gets repeated every few years, which is both unnecessary and dangerous.”

Published April 12, 2013 / FoxNews.com /The Associated Press contributed to this report.

North Korea Able to Launch Nukes

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korea_nukeObama administration officials scrambled to downplay the errant disclosure of a classified portion of an intelligence report finding that North Korea has advanced its nuclear knowledge to the point that it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.

The analysis, disclosed Thursday at a hearing on Capitol Hill, says the Pentagon’s intelligence wing has “moderate confidence” that North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles but that the weapon was unreliable.

The revelation was significant, because it has not been previously reported or believed that the country had the ability to miniaturize and deliver a nuclear weapon.

But top U.S. officials repeatedly stressed that the finding does not mean North Korea has the capabilities to launch a nuclear missile with any reliability at this point.

“It is inaccurate to suggest that the (North Korea) has the capability articulated in that report — they have a missile but that is very different than having the militarization, nuclearization, etcetera,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday, after landing in South Korea as part of a tour of Asian countries.

On Thursday night, the Pentagon and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper both downplayed the report.

“While I cannot speak to all the details of a report that is classified in its entirety, it would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully tested, developed, or demonstrated the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said. Clapper echoed the assessment.

Meanwhile, North Korea was leveling new threats Friday. According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the regime warned that Tokyo would, in the event of a war, be the first target “if it continues to maintain its hostile posture.” North Korea was apparently threatening Japan because it vowed to destroy any missile heading toward the country.

Separately, South Korean President Park Geun-hye reportedly said she’s open to working with the North to resolve the standoff if the regime ends its provocative behavior.

The dispute over the North’s nuclear capability started with the Capitol Hill hearing Thursday. At the hearing, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., read aloud what he said was an unclassified paragraph from a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report that was supplied to some members of Congress.

He said, reading from the report: “DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivering by ballistic missiles, however the reliability will be low.”

The reading seemed to take Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by surprise, who said he hadn’t seen the report and declined to answer questions about it.

Pentagon officials told Fox News that the memo he read from was in fact classified. However, someone at the Defense Intelligence Agency mistakenly marked it “unclassified,” which led to the confusion.

A U.S. official in Seoul said Friday it is “premature” to say North Korea has developed the expertise to make a nuclear weapon small enough to put on a ballistic missile.

“It is a very difficult task,” the official told Fox News. “They haven’t been able to put everything together.”

The official also says there is no indication a North Korea missile launch is imminent, saying officials “have not seen activity” that would show that a launch will happen soon, or that the country is planning a large scale attack.

“There has been no indication of massive troop movements or anything to back up the rhetoric going on,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Kerry’s trip to South Korea comes in the midst of bellicose threats from the unpredictable communist regime in the North.

Kerry and his South Korean counterpart said in a joint press conference Friday that North Korea will gain nothing by threatening tests of its missile or nuclear programs.

Kerry said the U.S. and its Asian ally won’t accept the North as a nuclear power, calling the country’s rhetoric “unacceptable.”

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se called Pyongyang’s threats a “grave provocation” to the entire international community.

Since the beginning of March, the Navy has moved two missile defense ships closer to the coast of the Korean peninsula, in part to protect against a potential missile launch aimed at Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.

The Pentagon also has announced it will place a more advanced land-based missile defense on Guam, and Hagel said in March that he approved installing 14 additional missile interceptors in Alaska to bolster a portion of the missile defense network that is designed to protect all of U.S. territory.

On Thursday, the Pentagon said it had moved a sea-based X-band radar — designed to track warheads in flight — into position in the Pacific.

Notably absent from that unclassified segment of the Pentagon report was any reference to what the DIA believes is the range of a missile North Korea could arm with a nuclear warhead. Much of its missile arsenal is capable of reaching South Korea and Japan, but Kim has threatened to attack the United States as well.

But David Wright, a nuclear weapons expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the DIA assessment probably does not change the views of those who closely follow developments in North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

“People are starting to believe North Korea very likely has the capability to build a nuclear weapon small enough to put on some of their shorter-range missiles,” Wright said. “Once you start talking about warheads small enough and technically capable to be on a long-range missile, I think it’s much more an open question.”

The DIA assessment is not out of line with comments Dempsey made Wednesday when he was asked at a Pentagon news conference whether North Korea was capable of pairing a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile that could reach Japan or beyond.

In response, Dempsey said the extent of North Korean progress on designing a nuclear weapon small enough to operate as a missile warhead was a classified matter. But he did not rule out that the North has achieved the capability revealed in the DIA report.

“They have conducted two nuclear tests,” Dempsey told a Pentagon news conference. “They have conducted several successful ballistic missile launches. And in the absence of concrete evidence to the contrary, we have to assume the worst case, and that’s why we’re postured as we are today.” He was referring to recent moves by the U.S. to increase its missile defense capabilities in the Pacific.

At the same House hearing where Lamborn revealed the DIA conclusion, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was asked a different version of the same question: Does North Korea have the capability to strike U.S. territory with a nuclear weapon? Hagel said the answer is no.

“Now does that mean that they won’t have it or they can’t have it or they’re not working on it?” Hagel added. “No. That’s why this is a very dangerous situation.”

“Now is the time for North Korea to end the belligerent approach they have taken and to try to lower temperatures,” Obama said in his first public comments since Pyongyang threatened the United States and its allies in East Asia with nuclear attack.

Obama, speaking from the Oval Office, said he preferred to see the tensions on the peninsula resolved through diplomatic means, but added that “the United States will take all necessary steps to protect its people.”

The North on Thursday delivered a fresh round of war rhetoric with claims it has “powerful striking means” on standby, the latest in a torrent of warlike threats seen by outsiders as an effort to scare and pressure South Korea and the U.S. into changing their North Korea policies.

Fox News’ Justin Fishel and Greg Palkot and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Gutting 2nd Amendment: Gun Bill Clears Key Senate Hurdle

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biden_gun_banControversial gun legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle Thursday, as lawmakers voted 68-31 to start debate on the package which includes expanded background checks and new penalties for gun trafficking.

Senate Democrats, joined by 16 Republicans, were able to overcome an attempted filibuster by GOP senators opposed to the current bill. Those senators could still slow-walk the debate, but the Senate will eventually begin votes on amendments — one of which is considered crucial to winning support for a final vote.

The White House called Thursday’s tally an “important” but “early milestone,” as both sides of the issue prepare for a grueling debate — one that is being waged in Washington and on the airwaves.

The amendment likely to be at the front of the line is one from Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., which would scale back the call for universal background checks. The plan would expand checks to gun-show and Internet sales, but exempt certain personal transactions.

The National Rifle Association and other gun-rights supporters voiced concern about the new proposal, saying it still goes too far. But the plan, offered by two lawmakers who are at the conservative end of their respective parties, could help ease opposition ahead of a final vote.

The legislation required at least 60 votes to advance Thursday. If the bill ultimately passes the Senate, it would still have to pass the Republican-dominated House.

“The hard work starts now,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged after Thursday’s vote.

He assured Democrats that a proposal to renew the assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines would get a vote as an amendment, though it was dropped from the main bill amid intense opposition. The main bill also includes a measure to increase school safety funding.

Reid lost two Democrats in Thursday’s vote — Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, both lawmakers from states with a strong tradition of gun ownership.

More than a dozen Republican senators for days had threatened to hold up the bill Thursday. They voiced concern that the proposal — namely, the background checks provision — would infringe on Second Amendment rights and impose a burden on law-abiding gun owners. They also expressed frustration that, while Manchin and Toomey touted their compromise measure, the bill on the table Thursday did not yet include that. Rather, it included a stricter background checks provision.

“Because the background-check measure is the centerpiece of this legislation it is critical that we know what is in the bill before we vote on it,” Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a statement. “The American people expect more and deserve better.”

Thursday’s vote follows an intense week of lobbying by gun control advocates, including the families of the victims of the December mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. That shooting prompted calls at the state and federal levels for new gun legislation.

Advocates like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns group are likely to spar intensely with the NRA and conservative lawmakers in the coming days as lawmakers debate the bill and advance to a final vote.

The following is a list of Republican lawmakers who voted to advance the gun legislation in the Senate Thursday:

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn

Maine Sen. Susan Collins

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake

Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson

Arizona Sen. John McCain

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker

North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey

Nevada Sen. Dean Heller

The following is a list of Democratic lawmakers who voted against advancing gun legislation:

Alaska Sen. Mark Begich

Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor

 

Published April 11, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Obama Plan: More Spending + Tax Hikes + SS Cuts = $3.77T

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ObamaBudgetPresident Obama found himself weathering bipartisan broadsides Wednesday as he sent Congress his 2014 budget proposal, which in its effort to please both sides of the aisle has ended up angering both.

The budget arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, delivered 65 days after the legal deadline. The $3.77 trillion spending plan, which is over 2,000 pages, tries to curb deficits by further raising taxes on top earners and reining in the growth of Social Security.

But Republicans argue they already consented to increased taxes as part of the fiscal crisis deal and have expressed little interest in negotiating another hike. And liberal Democrats — particularly powerful advocacy groups — have launched a series of campaigns to oppose the changes to Social Security.

The president’s proposal being unveiled Wednesday includes an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, bringing total deficit savings to $4.3 trillion, based on the administration’s calculations. It projects that the deficit for the 2014 budget year, which begins Oct. 1, would fall to $744 billion. That would be the lowest gap between spending and revenue since 2008.

The president’s plan tracks an offer he made to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, during December’s budget negotiations, which Boehner ended up walking away from because of his opposition to higher taxes on the wealthy.

The Obama budget proposal will join competing budget outlines already approved by the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-run Senate.

The most sweeping proposal in Obama’s budget is a switch in the way the government calculates the annual cost-of-living adjustments for the millions of recipients of Social Security and other government benefit programs. The current method of measuring increases in the consumer price index would be modified to track a process known as chained CPI.

The new method takes into account changes that occur when people substitute goods rising in price with less expensive products. It results in slightly lower annual reading for inflation.

The switch in the inflation formula would cut spending on government benefit programs by $130 billion over 10 years, although the administration said it planned to protect the most vulnerable, including the very elderly. The change would also raise about $100 billion in higher taxes because the current CPI formula is used to adjust tax brackets each year. A lower inflation measure would mean more money taxed at higher rates.

In the tax area, Obama would raise an additional $580 billion by restricting deductions for the top 2 percent of family incomes. The budget would also implement the “Buffett Rule” requiring that households with incomes of more than $1 million pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. Charitable giving would be excluded.

Obama’s plan is not all about budget cuts. It also includes an additional $50 billion to fund infrastructure investments, including $40 billion in a “Fix It First” effort to provide immediate investments to repair highways, bridges, transit systems and airports nationwide.

Obama’s budget would also provide $1 billion to launch a network of 15 manufacturing innovation institutes across the country, and it earmarks funding to support high-speed rail projects.

The president also is proposing establishment of program to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families, with the money to support the effort coming from increased taxes on tobacco products.

The administration said its proposals to increase spending would not increase the deficit but rather are paid for either by increasing taxes or making deeper cuts to other programs.

Among the proposed cuts, the administration wants to trim defense spending by an additional $100 billion and domestic programs by an extra $100 billion over the next decade.

The budget proposes cutting $400 billion from Medicare and other health care programs over a decade. The cuts would come in a variety of ways, including negotiating better prescription drug prices and asking wealthy seniors to pay more.

It would obtain an additional $200 billion in savings by scaling back farm subsidies and trimming federal retiree programs.

Congress and the administration have already secured $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years through budget reductions and with the end-of-year tax increase on the rich. Obama’s plan would bring that total to $4.3 trillion over 10 years.

It is unlikely that Congress will get down to serious budget negotiations until this summer, when the government once again will be confronted with the need to raise the government’s borrowing limit or face the prospect of a first-ever default on U.S. debt.

As part of the administration’s effort to win over Republicans, Obama will have a private dinner at the White House with about a dozen GOP senators Wednesday night. The budget is expected to be a primary topic, along with proposed legislation dealing with gun control and immigration.

Early indications are that the budget negotiations will be intense. Republicans have been adamant in their rejection of higher taxes, arguing that the $600 billion increase on top earners that was part of the late December agreement to prevent the government from going over the “fiscal cliff” were all the new revenue they will tolerate.

The administration maintains that Obama’s proposal is balanced with the proper mix of spending cuts and tax increases.

Obama has presided over four straight years of annual deficits totaling more than $1 trillion, reflecting in part the lost revenue during a deep recession and the government’s efforts to get the economy going again and stabilize the financial system.

The Obama budget’s $1.8 trillion in new deficit cuts would take the place of the automatic $1.2 trillion in reductions required by a 2011 budget deal. That provision triggered $85 billion in automatic cuts for the current budget year, and those reductions, known as a “sequester,” would not be affected by Obama’s new budget.

The budget plan already passed by the GOP-controlled House would cut deficits by a total $4.6 trillion over 10 years on top of the $1.2 trillion called for in the 2011 deal. The budget outline approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate tracks more closely to the Obama proposal, although it does not include changes to the cost-of-living formula for Social Security.

Published April 10, 2013 / FoxNews.com  / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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