The Plain Truth Is: HUD Director Goes on $336,000 Shopping Spree with ...

The Plain Truth Is: HUD Director Goes on $336,000 Shopping Spree with ...: A high-ranking public housing official charged with providing government-subsidized homes to the poor stole hundreds of thousands o...

HUD Director Goes on $336,000 Shopping Spree with Low-Income Housing Funds!

A high-ranking public housing official charged with providing government-subsidized homes to the poor stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the agency and used it to buy furniture, alcohol, clothes, makeup and other personal items. The crooked public official scammed the government for years undetected which may seem unbelievable though not when it comes to the agency she worked for, a bastion of corruption known as Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
This is an agency that’s been embroiled in a multitude of serious scandals—under both Democrat and Republican administrations—over the years. One veteran employee at a state branch stealing a few hundred thousand bucks to go on a marathon shopping spree is no biggie. Problems go back to the Ronald Reagan administration, when an influence-peddling scandal led to the conviction of 16 people, including top aides to then HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce. Bill Clinton’s housing secretary, Henry Cisneros, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about payments to his former mistress. George W. Bush’s HUD secretary, Alphonso Jackson, was ousted after the feds launched an investigation into his plots to enrich himself and his friends by giving them lucrative government contracts. Barack Obama’s second HUD secretary, Julian Castro, misspent  the agency’s federal funds as mayor of San Antonio.
Fraud and corruption has also been pervasive among HUD employees and field directors. A few years ago, an employee got busted for racking up nearly $12,000 on his agency credit card by charging personal items such as groceries, lodging, television cable, transportation and even prescription medications. A federal audit determined that the agency knew about the spending spree but didn’t bother taking action, reprimanding the employee or reporting the wrongdoing. HUD’s inspector general has also testified before Congress about the severe mismanagement at offshoots functioning independently—yet federally funded—in states across the country that have fleeced taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. He testified that his office discovered more than $200 million in questionable spending at local public housing agencies (PHAs) since 2012. PHAs are created by states, operate at the city or county level and administer the federal program known as Section 8 to provide low-income people with affordable housing. Many of these local public housing agencies are run by people with “troubled backgrounds” that somehow manage to remain in high-ranking positions at the agencies, the watchdog told lawmakers back in 2014.
Years later, an executive director at one of those branches in Michigan gets busted for embezzling $336,000. Her name is Lorena Loren and for years she served as the executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, which administers a local Section 8 housing program in southeast Michigan. Section 8 is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market. The program is administered locally by Public Housing Agencies (PHA) like the St. Clair Housing Commission so the cash comes from the feds though there appears to be no oversight. The idea is to subsidize housing costs, via vouchers, so the poor can live in privately owned, single-family homes, townhouses or apartments they otherwise couldn’t afford.
For eight years Loren used government credit cards as her personal piggy bank, buying items for herself and relatives, according to a federal charging document obtained by a Detroit, Michigan newspaper. She racked up around $135,000 in purchases from online retailer Amazon, $14,364 at big-box store Sam’s Club and $16,460 at various Walmart stores. The purchases included food, medicine, appliances, furniture, clothing and booze. The disgraced housing director also used $24,600 in agency funds to pay for her son’s rental unit, falsified documents—including lease agreements to use housing voucher cash to rent a home for her son—and deposited federal rental subsidy funds into family members’ bank accounts. Loren has been charged with conspiracy to commit federal program fraud and faces up to five years in prison.
Clearly, this is part of a much broader epidemic at HUD. A Michigan-area newspaper editorial blasts the agency for failing to protect taxpayer dollars and low-income families that need help. The piece cites other recent cases in which public employees stole from HUD’s Section 8 program, including a 52-person ring in Ohio and schemes in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado and Massachusetts. “It should be more difficult for housing commission directors to write checks to themselves,” the editorial states. “And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should be keeping closer watch over its Section 8 voucher program.” Hopefully President Trump’s new HUD secretary, Ben Carson, will clean some house at the fraud-infested agency. We don’t’ need a newspaper editorial to tell us that “HUD clearly has a gap in its fiduciary responsibility.”

The Plain Truth Is: U.S. Pays $50 Mil for Luxury Cars, Weapons, Booze ...

The Plain Truth Is: U.S. Pays $50 Mil for Luxury Cars, Weapons, Booze ...: A foreign company hired by the U.S. government to mentor and train Afghan intelligence officers billed Uncle Sam for more than $50 ...

U.S. Pays $50 Mil for Luxury Cars, Weapons, Booze to Mentor Afghan Intel Officers!

A foreign company hired by the U.S. government to mentor and train Afghan intelligence officers billed Uncle Sam for more than $50 million in luxury cars — including Porsches, an Aston Martin, and a Bentley — and the lucrative salaries of executives and their spouses (who didn’t do any work). The firm also spent $1,500 on alcohol and $42,000 on automatic weapons prohibited under the terms of the contract, according to figures provided by a U.S. Senator from a federal audit that has not been released to the public. It marks the latest of many scandals involving the free-flow of American dollars to controversial causes in Afghanistan, where fraud and corruption are rampant in all sectors.
In this latest case, the Department of Defense (DOD) hired a British firm called New Century Consulting (NCC) to operate a program called “Legacy East” that was supposed to provide counterinsurgency intelligence experts to mentor and train Afghan National Security Forces. Instead, NCC billed the Pentagon millions of dollars in questionable or unallowable expenses, including seven luxury cars and exorbitant $400,000 average salaries for the “significant others” of corporate officers to serve as “executive assistants.” Other prohibited expenses include severance payments, rent, unnecessary licensing fees, extensive austerity pay, and the cost of personal air travel. The outrageous figures became public when the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Claire McCaskill, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis demanding answers. As a federal lawmaker McCaskill had access to the information after viewing a report from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), which provides financial oversight of government contracts for the Pentagon and operates under the Secretary of Defense.
McCaskill discloses that the British firm continued receiving lucrative DOD contracts despite having “many previous problems,” involving billing and performance practices. The senator also questions why the Pentagon kept pouring money into a “troubled” program that a separate federal audit had determined was likely ineffective. That assessment, made by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), came after investigators found that a lack of performance metrics makes it nearly impossible to assess whether the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the mentoring and training programs for Afghan intel personnel are effective. “Despite all of the listed issues with NCC’s performance and billing practices, the Army continued to engage in contracting with NCC for sensitive work in Afghanistan,” McCaskill states in her letter to Mattis.
Afghanistan reconstruction has been a huge debacle that continues fleecing American taxpayers to the tune of billions and Judicial Watch has reported extensively on it over the years. Many of the details are regularly disclosed in provoking reports published on the SIGAR website. Highlights include the mysterious disappearance of nearly half a billion dollars in oil destined for the Afghan National Army, a $335 million Afghan power plant that’s seldom used and an $18.5 million renovation for a prison that remains unfinished and unused years after the U.S.-funded work began. Among the more outrageous expenditures are U.S. Army contracts with dozens of companies tied to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The reconstruction watchdog recommended that the Army immediately cut business ties to the terrorists but the deals continued. Another big waste reported by Judicial Watch a few years ago, involves a $65 million initiative to help Afghan women escape repression. The government admits that, because there’s no accountability, record-keeping or follow-up, it has no clue if the program was effective.
Back in 2013 Judicial Watch reported that, despite multiple warnings of fraud and corruption inside the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, the U.S. keeps sending hundreds of millions of dollars to support the Islamic republic’s scandal-plagued healthcare system. In that infuriating case, the money—$236 million over nine years—flowed through the scandal-plagued U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is charged with providing economic, development and humanitarian assistance worldwide. It was supposed to fund prenatal care for women, hospitals, physicians’ salaries and other medical costs. Instead, a federal audit found pervasive, waste, fraud and abuse that warranted an immediate cutoff of U.S. assistance. In a scathing report SIGAR called it a reckless disregard toward the management of U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The Plain Truth Is: Licenses, ID Cards Sold to Illegal Aliens by Corru...

The Plain Truth Is: Licenses, ID Cards Sold to Illegal Aliens by Corru...: A year after Judicial Watch reported a rise in illegal aliens using fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain authentic U.S. passpo...

Licenses, ID Cards Sold to Illegal Aliens by Corrupt State Workers Used for Voter Fraud!

A year after Judicial Watch reported a rise in illegal aliens using fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain authentic U.S. passports and drivers’ licenses, the feds have busted a Massachusetts operation run by corrupt state workers. The state employees sold drivers’ licenses and state identification cards to illegal immigrants who bought Puerto Rican documents on the black market, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The operation perpetuated voter fraud because some of the false identities and addresses were used to vote in Boston, the state’s capital and largest city.
The case is the latest of many illustrating that there’s an epidemic of voter fraud in the U.S. that’s seldom reported in the mainstream media. It’s not clear how many false identities and addresses were used to fraudulently register to vote in Boston, but the feds indicate that it occurred in multiple cases and Judicial Watch is investigating the matter as part of a five-year-old Election Integrity Project. The scheme was operated by four taxpayer-funded employees at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) along with two outside accomplices who sold Puerto Rican documents to illegal aliens. All six were recently arrested and charged with aggravated identity theft. They probably never would have been caught if not for an anonymous tip received by the Massachusetts State Police nearly two years ago and there’s no telling how long the illicit scheme operated.
The anonymous letter said that a corrupt RMV employee was providing stolen identifications and drivers’ licenses to individuals seeking false IDs, the DOJ announcement states. An investigation ensued and authorities discovered that the four clerks were working with a document vendor and document dealer to provide the licenses and official state ID cards to illegal immigrants in exchange for cash. “The scheme involved several steps,” the DOJ says. First, the document dealer sold a Puerto Rican birth certificate and U.S. Social Security card to the document vendor for approximately $900. The vendor would then sell the stolen identities for more than $2,000 to illegal aliens—some with criminal records—seeking legitimate identities in Massachusetts. After the first layer of illicit transactions occurred, the counterfeit documents and false identities and addresses were used to fraudulently register clients to vote in Boston.
Illegal aliens would then bring the stolen identities to the RMV where the corrupt clerks worked and they would accept cash to illegally issue authentic documents, including drivers’ licenses and ID cards. “The clerks also accepted cash to use the RMV’s system to run queries, including Social Security number audits, to confirm that the identities the clients were stealing actually belonged to verifiable individuals,” the DOJ announcement states. The unscrupulous state workers face up to two years in prison, according to the feds, who won’t reveal the magnitude of the operation and how many authentic state documents were issued fraudulently to illegal aliens.
Last year Judicial Watch published a story about the increasing number of illegal aliens using fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain authentic American documents. Located about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida, Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory about two decades after the Caribbean island was acquired from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American war. Puerto Ricans are American citizens at birth though they don’t have the right to vote in federal elections and the island has only one non-voting representative in Congress. In recent years a record number of Puerto Ricans have left their troubled island for the U.S. and a big chunk has settled on Florida. A recent study found that the island’s ongoing economic recession has led to a mass exodus not seen in more than five decades. The U.S. government and its various agencies accept Puerto Rican birth certificates blindly even though fraud involving the easily forged documents has been pervasive for years.

The Plain Truth Is: Dem Fla. Senator Helps Pass Bill to Give Her Chari...

The Plain Truth Is: Dem Fla. Senator Helps Pass Bill to Give Her Chari...: A Democrat Florida state lawmaker helped pass a bill that allocated $1.5 million to a nonprofit that she founded and pays her a six...

Dem Fla. Senator Helps Pass Bill to Give Her Charity $1.5 Mil, GOP Gov. Approves it!

A Democrat Florida state lawmaker helped pass a bill that allocated $1.5 million to a nonprofit that she founded and pays her a six-figure salary and the state’s Republican governor approved it. The legislator, state Senator Lauren Book, represents south Florida’s Broward county and in 2007 she founded a charity called Lauren’s Kids to educate adults and children about sexual abuse prevention through school curricula, awareness campaigns and speaking engagements.

Book launched the south Florida-based group because her female nanny sexually abused her for years and she wants to prevent sexual abuse through education and awareness. The politician also wants to help survivors heal with guidance and support. “Armed with the knowledge that 95 percent of sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness, Lauren has worked to turn her horrific personal experience into a vehicle to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help other survivors heal,” according to the charity’s website. Lauren’s Kids has helped advocate for the passage of nearly two dozen laws to support survivors and protect children from predators, the group’s website further claims.

It’s not just a labor of love for the Florida legislator, who got elected in 2016. As chief executive officer of her charity Book receives a generous $135,000 annual salary, according to a nonprofit investigative journalism conglomerate that broke the story about this outrageous conflict of interest. Since 2012 Lauren’s Kids has received north of $10 million in taxpayer money because the senator’s father, Ron Book, is a prominent lobbyist who happens to be the group’s chairman. In just a few years Lauren’s Kids has “become one of the Florida Legislature’s most favored private charities,” the news article states. Governor Rick Scott, who is in his second term, went along with the $1.5 million appropriation for Book’s charity when he signed Florida’s $83 billion budget recently.

As if this weren’t enraging enough, Lauren’s Kids used a chunk of the taxpayer funds it has received to pay a Tallahassee public relations firm millions of dollars, accounting for 28% of its expenses. A follow-up story by the same investigative journalism outlet reveals that the senator’s charity paid Sachs Media Group $3.1 million between 2012 and 2015 as well as a yet-to-be-disclosed amount in 2016. “Millions of taxpayer dollars flowed through the nonprofit to Sachs Media as it both promoted Lauren’s Kids and cultivated Sen. Book’s public persona as a survivor of child sex abuse,” the article states. “Critics say the domination of Lauren’s Kids by the senator and her lobbyist-father raises concerns that the work Sachs Media does is more about making her look good, not raising awareness about unreported cases of child sex abuse.” The founder of the nation’s premier charity watchdog says in the story that “nonprofit money is supposed to be used for a public benefit and not to enhance the aspirations of the charity’s officers.”

A huge lapse in Florida’s senate ethics rules allowed Book to vote for legislation that essentially enriched her. The same “loophole” let her keep the conflict from the public, the news stories point out. Here’s the broader explanation from the news outlet: “Senators are forbidden by ethics rules from voting on any matter in which they or an immediate family member would privately gain – except when it comes to votes on the annual General Appropriations Act. Abstaining senators must also disclose the nature of their interest in the matter, according to the 335-page Florida Senate Rules and Manual.” That means lawmakers can vote on issues that can benefit their profession, though it’s downright sleazy when taxpayer dollars go to an entity that the elected official actually controls and makes money from. Millions of dollars earmarked to prevent child sexual abuse going to a public relations firm is in a class of its own.

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix PD Bans Officers from Asking About Immigra...

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix PD Bans Officers from Asking About Immigra...: Police officials in Arizona’s largest city have quietly implemented a new policy banning officers from contacting the feds after arrestin...

Phoenix PD Bans Officers from Asking About Immigration Status, Calling Feds in Violation of State Law!

Police officials in Arizona’s largest city have quietly implemented a new policy banning officers from contacting the feds after arresting an illegal alien and forbidding them from asking about immigration status, in violation of key provisions of a state law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Judicial Watch obtained a copy of the Phoenix Police Department’s new sanctuary Immigration Procedures, which also replace the term “illegal alien” with “a person unlawfully present.” It appears to be part of a broader scheme to dodge federal immigration laws in Arizona’s most populous county.
The Phoenix Police Department has about 3,000 officers that were permitted to use “sound judgement” at any time under the agency’s former immigration enforcement policy. That allowed front-line officers to directly contact federal immigration officials involving criminal illegal immigrants. The revised policy, issued just weeks ago, mandates all contact with federal immigration partners to be funneled through a single Violent Crimes Bureau (VCB) desk sergeant who will document all immigration related data and give authority to call ICE. “This will bottle-neck the process,” according to a veteran Phoenix law enforcement official who added that the new policy was generated without any input from rank-and-file. Arizona law enforcement sources also told Judicial Watch that no other restrictions of this kind and magnitude regarding a federal crime are found in Phoenix Police Department policy. Officers continue to have the discretion to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Postal Inspectors, U.S. Marshalls and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) without fear of violating department policy.
If an illegal alien is arrested for a state crime, officers in Phoenix are no longer allowed to take them directly to ICE for deportation and document the crime in a report. Taxpayers must fund a mandated booking into county jail under the new rules, which state; “if there is a federal criminal charge and the person is under arrest for a state and/or local charge/s…the person will be booked into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office…” Keep in mind that Maricopa Sheriff Penzone doesn’t like honoring ICE holds on jailed aliens and considers illegal immigrants “guests.” The new Phoenix Police Department rules also eliminate a table showing state immigration enforcement laws as well as documentation of police contacts with verified and/or suspected illegal aliens, a troublesome change that omits valuable city crime statistics.
Besides forbidding questioning suspects regarding place of birth, country of citizenship and legal status in the United States, the new Phoenix policy says that transportation of illegal aliens to ICE by officers has been eliminated for civil immigration violations unless the illegal alien “consents to a transport.” Both restrictions violate key provisions of a 2010 Arizona law known as Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB1070). Open borders and civil rights groups fought the law in federal court and succeeded in getting rid of many of its mandates but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld two key clauses in Section 2 of the measure. The first, requires law enforcement officers to determine a suspects’ immigration status if “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally. This grants officers the discretion that has just been stripped in Phoenix. The other clause in Section 2 allows state law enforcement officers to transport illegal immigrants directly to federal custody.

The Plain Truth Is: Border Patrol Ordered to “Negotiate” with Illegal ...

The Plain Truth Is: Border Patrol Ordered to “Negotiate” with Illegal ...: Update: Subsequent to Judicial Watch reporting this incident Border Patrol management felt compelled to serve a warrant on the “Samarita...

Border Patrol Ordered to “Negotiate” with Illegal Immigrants in Arizona!

Update: Subsequent to Judicial Watch reporting this incident Border Patrol management felt compelled to serve a warrant on the “Samaritan camp,” which agents had been waiting for three days to obtain.
Despite President Trump’s pledge to tighten border security Border Patrol agents in one of the nation’s busiest sectors for illegal immigrants and drugs were ordered this week to stand back after a surveillance camera recorded a group entering the U.S. from Mexico, federal law enforcement sources told Judicial Watch. The incident occurred in the vast desert terrain between Arizona and Mexico, Border Patrol officials said. An agency Buckeye camera operated out of a mobile truck recorded the illegal crossers entering through Nogales, a town of around 20,000 adjacent to the Mexican state of Sonora. The video camera is used by the Border Patrol to monitor areas for illegal crossings and can be panned to follow crossers’ movements, sources told Judicial Watch.
Upon crossing the border, the group of illegal immigrants entered what the feds refer to as a “Samaritan camp,” according to a Border Patrol official who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s management team. The special camps are operated by an Arizona-based open borders advocacy group called No Más Muertes (No More Deaths) and consist of several trailers on private property. The nonprofit’s mission is to end death and suffering in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands and enact immigration reform in America. Besides the “Samaritan camps” along the Mexican border, the organization leaves water, food, blankets and other supplies along trails used by illegal immigrants to travel north. No Más Muertes also has staff in Mexico to provide phones for deportees and assistance, including first aid, for northbound migrants.
Although the organization’s sanctuary trailers are situated on the U.S. side of the border, federal agents are legally allowed to enter the property and remove the illegal crossers, law enforcement sources confirm. “If agents observe illegal conduct, apprehension does not require a warrant,” a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the matter told Judicial Watch. In this case, probable cause had been established by the unlawful conduct observed by Border Patrol agents via the high-tech Buckeye camera. Instead of entering the property as legally allowed and removing the illegal aliens, agents were ordered to “negotiate” with the occupants,” Border Patrol officials said. Photos produced by the surveillance camera were also produced to Judicial Watch by outraged Border Patrol officials who say Obama-era, open borders policies are still being implemented by Kelly’s management team. “Instead of proactively patrolling a porous and volatile border, Border Patrol resources are being utilized on the perimeter of the property to thwart any further incursions into or retreats from the sanctuary camp,” according to a law enforcement source involved in the Nogales incident.
Veteran agents say, that although Trump promised to toughen up security along the porous and increasingly violent Mexican border, for unknown reasons his DHS secretary continues to implement Obama sanctuary policies. There is a great concern among rank-and-file agents that these passive, limited enforcement policies increase the risk to agents and decrease the deterrence of the Trump border strategy. Just a few weeks ago, Kelly stripped Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of their independent enforcement authority by implementing a new policy that requires a supervisor’s permission to issue a detainer for illegal aliens suspected of crimes. Judicial Watch obtained the document outlining the new policy, which federal agents say is a constraint that creates a bottleneck and hampers their ability to take efficient on-site action against criminals in the country illegally.

The Plain Truth Is: In Freeing Illegal Alien Gang Member Obama Judge S...

The Plain Truth Is: In Freeing Illegal Alien Gang Member Obama Judge S...: An Obama-appointed federal judge in Virginia ordered an illegal immigrant member of a violent street gang released from prison because i...

In Freeing Illegal Alien Gang Member Obama Judge Says U.S. Violated Rights of Due Process, Family Unity!

An Obama-appointed federal judge in Virginia ordered an illegal immigrant member of a violent street gang released from prison because immigration authorities supposedly violated his rights when he entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico. The Honduran teen crossed the Rio Grande during the influx of illegal alien minors a few years ago and turned himself into the U.S Border Patrol, according to a lengthy mainstream newspaper article, after acknowledging his gang history. The feds held him without a hearing in Virginia because he’s also a known drug dealer, but this month he was freed by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon. The judge ruled that, by holding the illegal alien gangbanger without a hearing, the government violated his rights to due process and family unity.
Here’s an excerpt from the newspaper article, which refers to the release as remarkable: “For immigration advocates, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon’s June 1 order was a major legal victory over the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the federal agency charged with caring for children apprehended at the border without their parents. The decision could lead to the release of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of long-detained unaccompanied minors, they said. The teen’s release was remarkable for another reason: Before coming to the United States, he had sold drugs and witnessed murders as a member of MS-13. The violent street gang is on the rise in the United States, fueled, in part, by the surge in unaccompanied minors. MS-13 has been linked to dozens of recent killings, from the Washington area to Long Island, Boston and Houston. President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have voiced alarm about MS-13 and the way it has taken advantage of the U.S. immigration system.”
Some 150,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)—mostly from Central America—entered the U.S. through the Mexican border under the Obama administration and this disturbing case out of Virginia is one of many illustrating the threat they represent to the American public. Judicial Watch has covered and investigated the UAC influx for years and has obtained public records from the various government agencies responsible for relocating the illegal alien minors throughout the country. From the moment the UACs began arriving in 2014, sources in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Judicial Watch that the nation’s most violent street gangs—including the MS-13—were actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and that they used Red Cross phones to communicate. Both the MS-13 and the 18^th Street gangs embarked on a recruiting frenzy at the various facilities housing the newly arrived illegal aliens, according to Judicial Watch’s law enforcement sources. The UACs also brought in dangerous diseases— including swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis—and occupied the nation’s military bases as shelters.
The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs. A year after the Obama administration began allowing droves of UACs to remain in the U.S., the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 emerged as a top tier gang in the Lone Star State thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state the previous year. In an alarming 19-page report, the agency writes that the number of MS-13 members encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector increased each year, accelerating in 2014 and coinciding with increased illegal immigration from Central America during the same period. This clearly refers to the UAC crisis that saw thousands of illegal immigrants—many with criminal histories—storm into the U.S. in a matter of months. Authorities in Texas predict the problem will only get worse. “Gang members from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador could be destined for locations in Texas with large Central American communities, including the Houston and Dallas areas,” the Texas Department of Safety writes in its report. Even if that doesn’t materialize, the state already has a serious gang crisis. “Reports of increased MS-13 gang activity have already surfaced in the Houston area,” the Department of Safety confirms. “MS-13 gang members are known for highly violent crimes, including brutal murders and dismemberments. Several recent crimes in Texas illustrate the criminal threat associated with MS-13.”
Here are some gruesome examples included in the agency’s report: “On September 15, 2014, the mutilated body of a 14-year-old middle school student was discovered in the woods near Houston after he was murdered with a machete.  Initial information from the investigation indicates the victim was a U.S. citizen and an MS-13 member who was murdered after trying to leave the gang. In October 2014, a 14-year-old and three adult males were arrested and charged with murder in this case. The adult males are from El Salvador, and at least two are documented MS-13 gang members.  In mid-August 2014, a 29-year-old 18th Street gang member was stabbed to death in Houston by a 16-year-old El Salvadoran member of MS-13. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds outside of a bar and was discovered a few days later in a bayou. According to investigators, the juvenile suspect revealed he illegally crossed into the U.S. in March 2014.” Another huge concern is the relationship between street gangs and Mexican drug cartels, the report says, because it’s a very profitable partnership. “These groups pose the greatest gang threat to Texas due to their relationships with Mexican cartels, high levels of transnational criminal activity, level of violence, and overall statewide presence.” The lucrative gang/cartel business endeavors are also expanding into human smuggling and gambling, the Texas Department of Safety reveals in its report.
The recently freed MS-13 member will live with relatives in Kentucky, the news story says, further revealing that it’s not the only case of a UAC with gang ties being released by the feds. The mainstream media won’t identify the gangbanger because he’s 17-years-old and they want to protect his “safety.” The article quotes Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirming this: “If they come as undocumented minors, the federal government transports them wherever in the interior they say they’d like to go. The bad guys know how this system works, and they have exploited it.” Just last week the same newspaper, Washington D.C.’s largest, published a piece titled “MS-13 gains recruits and power in U.S. as teens surge across border” that analyzes dozens of court cases and includes startling anecdotes of UACs with gang ties. “In the Washington region alone, at least 42 young people who crossed into the United States by themselves have been involved in MS-13 violence over the past three years,” the article states. “That includes 19 charged in connection with slayings or attempted slayings and four who were killed.” After years of relative quiet, the MS-13 has made a comeback, the news probe discovered, and it’s been fueled by the recent influx of illegal alien teens. “The rise in violence has hit especially hard on Long Island and in Boston, Houston and the D.C. area, with authorities linking dozens of killings to the gang,” the article says.

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix Trump Nazi Billboard Funded with Taxpayer ...

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix Trump Nazi Billboard Funded with Taxpayer ...: A controversial billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a Nazi was funded with taxpayer dollars and was commissioned by an “arts a...

Phoenix Trump Nazi Billboard Funded with Taxpayer Dollars!

A controversial billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a Nazi was funded with taxpayer dollars and was commissioned by an “arts advocate” paid by a U.S. city to “diminish barriers,” records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. The massive billboard caused a ruckus when it was unveiled in downtown Phoenix, Arizona in mid-March because it features a menacing portrait of Trump surrounded by mushroom clouds—in the shape of laughing clowns—and swastikas modified as dollar signs. A pin of a Russian flag appears on the president’s lapel.


The huge display towers over Grand Avenue and Taylor Street in downtown Phoenix and will remain there throughout Trump’s presidency, according to the local art gallery that claims to own it and conveniently omits that public money is involved. A multitude of local and national media outlets covered the controversy surrounding the artist that created it and the contentious image it portrays, but all have failed to uncover the important fact that taxpayer dollars are behind it. Instead, the media has reported that the Trump Nazi billboard was commissioned by the billboard owner, Beatrice Moore, a longtime patron of the arts on Grand Avenue. Moore’s deep ties to the city and the cash she receives for her various public art endeavors have remained secret. The news reports have also focused on the death threats that the artist, Karen Fiorito, has received. A local paper reported that the billboard went up during an annual art event and that the artist aimed to stir up a controversy.
Mainstream national media also failed to report the important fact that taxpayer dollars contributed to the offensive billboard. The Washington Post opted to serve as a mouthpiece for Fiorito’s anti-Trump tirade. In a piece published days after the billboard controversy hit the artist calls Trump supporters “scumbags” and says the country is on a “very dangerous path” toward “total annihilation.” A California news outlet focused on Fiorito’s death threats and her interpretation of the art, which “represents global destruction, warfare and annihilation of the planet.” The dollar swastikas represent “corporate power and greed and how our society has become all about money and corporatism,” the artist says in the story.
Shortly after the billboard was erected Judicial Watch filed a public records request with the city of Phoenix to obtain details related to public monies connected to organizations and organizers of the sign. This week Judicial Watch received the documents that show the city of Phoenix has awarded Moore, the Trump Nazi billboard owner and a prominent figure in the local art community, thousands of dollars in grants for a program she runs called Grand Avenue Arts & Preservation (GAP), which encompasses the Art Detour event where the Nazi billboard made its debut. The publicly funded annual art celebration is touted as having “a diverse slate of activities created by local artists and art venues to celebrate the growing, vibrant Phoenix arts scene” and is described as “…one of the most important events in Phoenix’s calendar” by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. The event is produced by a group called Artlink, which was founded by Moore, in partnership with the city of Phoenix. Former Phoenix Deputy City Manager Rick Naimark, who retired in 2015 with a hefty pension, sits on the board of Artlink.
Moore and her various publicly-funded art enterprises received $3,500 from the city of Phoenix in July 2016, the records obtained by Judicial Watch show, which encompasses the March 2017 Art Detour event that kicked off with the Trump Nazi billboard. In August 2016 Artlink, founded by Moore, was awarded $1,800 for the 2017 Art Detour event, according to the records. Moore, who contracted Fiorito to create the anti-Trump billboard, is recognized by the city as an “artist, community organizer and arts advocate” and the annual festival she puts together with public money aims to “diminish barriers,” the records say. Funds come from “government grant monies,” including the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the money is used for “artists’ fees.” The objectionable Trump billboard, which involves taxpayer money, doesn’t appear to promote a “growing, vibrant” art scene in the City of Phoenix and seems to fall short of Moore’s stated goal of “diminishing barriers” through art.

The Plain Truth Is: Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on ...

The Plain Truth Is: Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on ...: The radical leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization was officially reprimanded ...

Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on Immigration Control Groups!

The radical leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization was officially reprimanded by the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) for its hateful attacks, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an extremist nonprofit that lists conservative organizations that disagree with it on social issues on a catalogue of “hate groups.” The previously undisclosed DOJ rebuke is a vindication for groups targeted by the SPLC’s witch hunts and is especially impactful because the Obama administration was tight with the SPLC and even hired the controversial nonprofit to conduct diversity training for the government. Judicial Watch uncovered documents relating to the SPLC’s diversity training at the DOJ back in 2013.
Also in 2013, Judicial Watch reported that a Virginia man who planned a mass shooting based on the SPLC’s “hate map” of conservatives got a 25-year prison sentence. Prosecutors called it an act of terrorism and recommended a 45-year sentence. The terrorist, Floyd Lee Corkins, stormed into the headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC) and carried out the politically-motivated shooting based on an SPLC target list. The FRC is a Christian organization that promotes the traditional family unit and the Judeo- Christian value system. Corkins pleaded guilty and admitted that he learned about the FRC from the SPLC, which describes itself as a civil rights group but labels conservatives who disagree with it on social issues as hateful.
In 2015, the SPLC issued a hit list of U.S. women against sharia law, the authoritarian doctrine that inspires Islamists and their jihadism. This included a starter kit for Islamists to attack American women who refuse to comply with Sharia law and a detailed list of female bloggers, activist and television personalities who reject Sharia law, which is rooted in the Quran. Among those targeted were colleagues and friends of Judicial Watch who fear for their safety simply for practicing their rights under the U.S. Constitution. That SPLC hate list is titled Women Against Islam/The Dirty Dozen and includes illustrations and detailed information on all the women, who are branded “the core of the anti-Muslim radical right.” The SPLC hate brochure further targets them by claiming that they’re “a dozen of the most hardline anti-Muslim women activists in America.”
Another favorite SPLC target is any group or individual that speaks openly against illegal immigration. The DOJ reprimand, issued last year but kept quiet at the agency’s request, involves the SPLC’s atrocious behavior during immigration court proceedings. Two groups that oppose illegal immigration, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), were the target of personal, baseless and below-the-belt attacks from SPLC attorneys during official immigration court proceedings. The SPLC filed a motion attacking and defaming the two respected nonprofits by describing them as “white supremacist”, “eugenicist”, “anti-Semitic”, and “anti-Catholic.” In its reprimand the DOJ says it is troubled by the conduct of SPLC lawyer Christopher Strawn and that his conduct “overstepped the bounds of zealous advocacy and was unprofessional.” Furthermore, SPLC made “uncivil comments that disparaged FAIR and its staff,” the rebuke states, adding that the language constitutes frivolous behavior and doesn’t aid in the administration of justice.
The Obama administration kept the reprimand confidential and asked FAIR and IRLI to keep it under wraps. In the meantime, SPLC continues to publicly trash the groups and escalate attacks against them by putting them on the official hate list. The executive director and general counsel of IRLI, Dale Wilcox, says his nonprofit and FAIR will keep fighting for immigration policies that put America first. “The SPLC’s latest tactic in its never-ending witch-hunt and the federal government’s resulting reprimand should send the following message to the mainstream media,” Wilcox said: “Stop using the SPLC as a legitimate hate-watch source in your news coverage. That a cabal of biased list-keepers can play such an important role in distorting the immigration debate in this country is testament to the utter failure of much of the mainstream media which frequently publishes their inflammatory commentary and refuses to question their baseless methods or financial motivations.”

The Plain Truth Is: Dinosaur Tail Feather in Amber?

The Plain Truth Is: Dinosaur Tail Feather in Amber?: Matthew 6:26: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feed...

Dinosaur Tail Feather in Amber?

Matthew 6:26: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Evolutionary scientists have recently claimed strong evidence to support the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. Palaeontologist Lida Xing was visiting a market in Myanmar, when he saw a piece of amber, containing a tiny feather, along with the more usual insects. He claimed that the feather had to belong to a dinosaur, rather than a bird, because the vertebrae present in the specimen were all separate.  This, he claimed, contrasted with the tail of archaeopteryx, the tip of whose tail has vertebrae which are fused at the terminus. Archaeopteryx is widely accepted to be a bird, although the article on Wikipedia classifies it as a feathered dinosaur.
Creation scientist Dr David Menton has shown that the feather could not have belonged to a dinosaur. Therapod dinosaurs would have been bipedal, and their long tails balance their bodies as they walk, like other bipeds, from their hips. But birds do not walk from their hips. Their femurs and knees are within their body walls. The part of the bird’s leg, often assumed to be a “wrong-facing” knee, is, in fact, equivalent to the ankle in other vertebrates. The amber feathered tail shows that it would have had insufficient weight to provide balance for a bipedal dinosaur. It is much more likely, therefore, that the feathered tail belonged to a bird.
Evolutionists have an a priori commitment to finding feathered dinosaurs, as evidence of evolution. Once again, it is seen that they have jumped the gun, if not the shark, in their enthusiasm.
Prayer: Help us, Lord, to consider again the works of Your creation, and give You the praise and the glory. Amen.