Hillary Clinton: She is our biggest concern


It’s easy to look at the on going fiasco known as Republican Party Debates and think this country is in big trouble if one of these clowns gets elected to the White House next year. However, remember, while Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and a host of lesser named people try to out do one another for sound bites that grab voter support, there is a much bigger concern playing out among the Democrats.

Why is it there were only three scheduled debates among Democrat candidates for an open White House seat for which Republicans are duking it out regularly? Why is it Democrat debates have been scheduled to air during low viewer times while Republicans seek maximum viewership?

Democrats clearly have decided Hillary Clinton is entitled to the party’s nomination and should not be expected to campaign for it much less defend herself against any strong challengers within her party. It is the only way they have found to take the focus off of her controversial actions with Benghazi, her private email server, and questionable business dealings with world leaders under the disguise of the “Clinton Foundation.” No one is making her answer questions about her amassing $45 million dollars in wealth while working as a “public servant” who claims to be in touch with the struggling middle and lower classes.


Say what you want to about the GOP and their having to deal with the controversial Donald Trump as their possible choice in next year’s election. If he is their nominee, it will be because GOP voters were given a choice to learn plenty about more than a dozen candidates and believe he is the best choice to represent them. However, Hillary’s supporters will bask in their having forced a candidate on their party without her having to face any real challenges along the way.


http://lapostexaminer.com/hillary-clinton-she-is-our-biggest-concern/2015/12/24

Chicago Cops Say Keeping Evidence of Misconduct Puts Cops in Danger – So They’re Destroying It


With protesters thronging the streets of Chicago demanding police accountability and clamoring for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city’s police union is frantically trying to destroy decades of records documenting police misconduct. As is always the case, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) sees “officer safety” as the highest priority – including protection from legal accountability.


An injunction filed by the FOP insists that preserving those records violates Section 8.4 of its bargaining agreement with the City of Chicago. That provision specifies that all files of misconduct investigations and officer disciplinary histories “will be destroyed five (5) years after the date of the incident or the date upon which the violation is discovered, whichever is longer, except that not sustained files alleging criminal conduct or excessive force shall be retained for a period of seven (7) years after the date of the incident or the date upon which the violation is discovered, whichever is longer….”


Once that deadline passes, the episode of excessive force or other misconduct “cannot be used against the Officer in any future proceedings in any other forum” unless it deals with a matter subject to litigation during the five year period or “unless a pattern of sustained infractions exists.” This element of the bargaining agreement creates an incentive for the police department to delay, obstruct, and obfuscate investigations of misconduct and abuse complaints until the deadline expires – and to keep the process opaque to the public.

“Basically, they bargained away transparency and accountability,” points out Chicago University Law Professor Craig Futterman, who is fighting in court to prevent the destruction of the officer misconduct records. “In a world where an incident like [the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald] happens and the public statements are `Deny, deny, deny,’ and then close off and circle the wagons, and then a code of silence and an exoneration at the end of the day – in that system, you cannot create public trust,” Futterman explained to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/chicago-cops-keeping-evidence-misconduct-puts-cops-danger-destroying/#BksI6CpwifHUxFHd.99

Farmer charged with pointing pistol at U.S. agent accepts plea deal

Four years after an armed confrontation with a federal agent, a prominent Linden-area farmer agreed to plead guilty Monday in a deal that allows him to escape prison time.

Andrew Watkins, 49, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault of a federal officer and will have to pay a fine of $10,000 to $25,000 and remain on federal probation for four years under the deal, which still faces approval by U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund F. Brennan. Watkins also is prohibited from carrying a firearm outside his home while on probation, under terms of the agreement hammered out with federal prosecutors.

The plea deal allows Watkins to resolve the case without going to trial on a felony count that could have netted him up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

“The entire case arose out of a really confused, early-morning mix-up, and this kind of a resolution of this case, I think, is appropriate,” Watkins’ attorney, William Portanova, said after a brief hearing in federal court in downtown Sacramento.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article53018900.html#storylink=cpy

Boy, 9, mauled to death by dogs in Yuba County

Just before Thanksgiving, Alexandria Griffin-Heady mused on her Facebook page about how life can take strange turns. Here she was, at 24, she wrote, trying to adopt her 9-year-old brother, who after their mother’s death in 2011 had been bounced through the foster care system.

She wanted, she said, to help raise him and “shape him into an amazing man.” Sacramento County Child Protective Services had given her permission to have the boy for overnight weekend visits in the travel trailer she shared with her dogs, on property adjacent to the rural Yuba County home of the adoptive parents of two of her other siblings.

But it all went tragically awry Sunday, when she left the boy alone with her three pet pit bulls. When she returned from her security guard shift a few hours later, authorities said, the small blond boy, Tyler Griffin-Huston, had been mauled to death.

No arrests had been made as of late Monday. The three dogs, a mother and two offspring that Griffin-Heady had raised from puppyhood, had been seized and placed in an animal shelter. They will be euthanized if they are determined to be dangerous animals, Yuba County Undersheriff Jerry Read said.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article53003700.html#storylink=cpy