PrairiePundit

Time: Researchers say it may be possible to slow and even reverse aging by keeping DNA more stably packed together in our cells In a breakthrough discovery, scientists report that they have found the key to keeping cells young. In a study published Thursday in Science, an international team, led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute, studied the gene responsible for an accelerated aging disease known as Werner syndrome, or adult progeria, in which patients show signs of osteoporosis, grey hair and heart disease in very early adulthood. These patients are deficient in a gene responsible for copying DNA, repairing any mistakes in that replication process, and for keeping track of telomeres, the fragments of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that are like a genetic clock dictating the cell’s life span. Belmonte—together with scientists at the University Catolica San Antonio Murcia and the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences—wanted to understand how th...

USA Today: The Navy will accompany ships in and around the Persian Gulf following threats and harassment from Iranian patrol boats, a Defense Department official said Thursday. The Navy has four ships in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a busy shipping lane for commercial cargo vessels. The warships will not escort individual cargo ships, the official said. Instead, the Navy will maintain communication with the ships while they are in the area and respond to distress calls. Tensions have grown in the last few weeks between the United States and Iran. Last week, Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats encircled a U.S. cargo vessel there in a "threatening" manner, according to the Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about that incident or the new Navy order. ... The Navy's new policy is a looser form of maritime protection than an escort, according to a Navy official who was not authorized to describe the...

Bloomberg: If you thought oil prices were hard to predict, try estimating oil company earnings. Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and other major oil producers beat analysts’ profit estimates by an average of 46 percent for the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The companies, along with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni SpA and Total SA, raked in more than $15 billion in combined quarterly profit after the worst oil price crash since 2009. It wasn’t that the results were that impressive in a bear market -- most companies reported profits down around 50 percent from the first quarter of 2014. Rather, the earnings show how far off estimates were. More specifically, they show how much easier it is to model profit estimates from producing oil than from refining or trading it, which is where most of the bigger companies saw earnings surge for the quarter. Oil trading strategies are kept opaque for competitive reasons, and prices at the pump fell more slowly than crude, said Fadel G...

Washington Post: Billionaire Koch brothers make push to court Latinos, alarming many Democrats The brothers, supporters of Republicans who oppose citizenship for illegal immigrants, are now funding services for them. Democrats are not particular alarmed about eh utter failure of the Obama administration's foreign policy from Russia to the Middle East and Africa, but the thought that Hispanics might support Republicans is really scary.

Politico: A handful of deep-pocketed donors are reconsidering their gifts to the $2 billion Clinton Foundation amid mounting questions about how it’s spending their money and suggestions of influence peddling, according to donors and others familiar with the foundation’s fundraising. One major donor who contributed at least $500,000 to the foundation last year said a 2015 donation is less likely because of revelations about sloppy record-keeping and huge payments for travel and administrative costs. “There are a lot of factors and the reputational is among them,” said the donor, who did not want to be identified discussing philanthropic plans that have not been finalized. “We had some questions about how the money was being spent — and that was long before the problems were in the press.” At least three other major donors also are re-evaluating whether to continue giving large donations to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, according to people familiar with i...

Washington Times: Sen. Ted Cruz ’s month-old presidential campaign has won strong reviews from GOP insiders in key states who say he’s managed to tap into the anti-establishment sentiment of primary voters, and his allies have proved they have the ability to raise tens of millions of dollars to boost his bid. The Texan’s presidential aspirations hinge on his ability to lay claim to being the chief conservative alternative in the race, which means he’ll have to find a way to expand beyond the tea party and social conservative base that he begins with. “He is expanding his base, and he is right now hitting on a lot of cylinders and I think the mechanics of the campaign have done well,” said Dave Carney , a GOP operative in New Hampshire. “My advice is: do not underestimate him. He is a serious, serious, guy and the more the nation’s elites make fun of him, the stronger he will be. Everyone ignores him at their own peril.” Robert Vander Plaats , head of The Family Leader, an Iowa-base...

David French: In Baltimore, as the National Guard steps in, curfews are imposed, and business owners pick up the pieces from their burned-out, looted stores, let’s not forget why one more American city has been torn apart by racial violence. Blue America has failed at social justice. It has failed at equality. It has failed at accountability. Its competing constituencies are engaged in street battles, and any exploration of “root causes” must necessarily include decades of failed policies — all imposed by steadfastly Democratic mayors and city leaders. Are the riots caused by the Baltimore Police Department’s “documented history” of abuse? Which party has run Baltimore and allowed its police officers to allegedly run amok? Going deeper, which American political movement lionizes public-employee unions, fiercely protecting them from even the most basic reform? Public-employee unions render employee discipline difficult and often impossible. Jobs are functionally guaranteed for life,...

CNS News: Gallup: Less Than 1% of Adult Population Part of a Same-Sex Couple This adds some perspective to the  debate on the subject and the attempt to punish those who do not want to participate in their weddings.

Washington Post: Iran to Congress: You can’t simply block a multinational nuclear deal The U.S. “is bound by international law, whether some senators like it or not,” Iran’s foreign minister said. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism that violates international law.  In fact its nuclear program is in violation of a treaty that it is a party to.  The agreement it is seeking in order to get out from under sanctions is one that Congress properly has a voice in approving and the US will not be bound by the agreement without Congressional approval no matter what he or the UN might say.   If Iran really believed in international law, it would not be holding a Washington Post reporter hostage on trumped up charges.

NT Times: Taliban Gains Pull U.S. Units Back Into Fight in Afghanistan Interviews with U.S. and Western officials in Kabul and Washington offer a picture of a more forceful range of military operations against the Taliban in recent months. This is what happens when you try to retreat while the enemy is still fighting.  The Obama approach to Afghanistan has given the enemy hope and you do not win or end wars unless the enemy concludes that his cause is hopeless.  I do not think the President or his advisers get that.

Washington Post: Before he became immortalized as the “Lone Survivor,” a Navy SEAL who escaped a 2005 Taliban ambush on a mountain slope in Afghanistan, Marcus Luttrell was a broken man in search of a haven. He found it one day in the spring of 2007 when, struggling to recover his body and mind and with the horrors of war still raw, he showed up unannounced at the Texas governor’s mansion and asked to see Rick Perry. Over the ensuing months, a virtual father-son relationship blossomed, the two men said. The governor and his wife, Anita, helped bring Luttrell back to health. Perry used the power of his office to find Luttrell a spine surgeon to fix his back. The Perrys gave him a spare bedroom — “I was the creepy guy in the attic,” Luttrell recalled. The governor took him bass fishing, the first lady counseled him about his love life, and as Luttrell became famous — first with a best-selling memoir, “ Lone Survivor ,” and later in the movie adaptation — they were his rock. “Whe...

Reuters: Britain has informed a United Nations sanctions panel of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel seen by Reuters. The existence of such a network could add to Western concerns over whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal due by June 30 in which it would agree to restrict sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Talks between six major powers and Tehran are approaching the final stages after they hammered out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing to reduce the number of centrifuges it operates and other long-term nuclear limitations. "The UK government informed the Panel on 20 April 2015 that it 'is aware of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network which has been associated with Iran's Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA) and Kalay Electric Company (KEC)'," the Panel of Experts said in its annual report. The pan...

TPNN: Senate Democrats Block Cruz Bill to Revoke U.S. Citizenship For American Traitors Who Join ISIS Democrats should be remembered as showing empathy for the head choppers.  The blocking of this legislation should come back to haunt them at the ballot box.

Fuel Fix: One Texas oil field has produced more than twice as much crude as any other field in the United States in recent decades. According to a new report by the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the Eagleville field in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas is the number one oil field in the nation, churning out 238 million barrels in 2013 — enough to meet national oil demands for about 12.5 days. The next ranking field, the Spraberry Formation, which is also in Texas, produced nearly 100 million barrels that year. Texas had two other fields, Briscoe Ranch and the Wasson, in the top ten; Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico were second in the group, while Colorado and California each had one. Texas showed a significantly stronger presence in the EIA’s current top ten than it did in the agency’s last report in 2009 . ... Despite reduced spending companies are coaxing more oil out of the ground in these formations.  It is the sign of increased productivity that is keeping these well comp...

Fox News: Despite a firm denial by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a senior law enforcement source charges that she gave an order for police to stand down as riots broke out Monday night, raising more questions about whether some of the violence and looting could have been prevented. The source, who is involved in the enforcement efforts, confirmed to Fox News there was a direct order from the mayor to her police chief Monday night, effectively tying the hands of officers as they were pelted with rocks and bottles. Asked directly if the mayor was the one who gave that order, the source said: "You are God damn right it was." The claim follows criticism of the mayor for, over the weekend, saying they were giving space to those who "wished to destroy." ... She is also accused of delaying a request for help from the state.  She is a prime example of the failure of leadership in Baltimore and I think it is tied to liberalism at its core.

Dallas Morning News: California coffee company relocating headquarters to North Texas ... Farmer Bros. Co., a 103-year-old coffee business based in Torrance, Calif., said Tuesday that it’s moving its headquarters to Denton County. Farmer Bros. will move to a new half-million-square-foot office and distribution center on Interstate 35W near Texas Motor Speedway. About 300 people will work in the new business complex. The company plans to bring more than two dozen executive and professional workers when it starts moving this year. ... The company expects to save $12 to $15 million a year for the company with annual sales of half a billion dollars a year.

International Business Times: GuardBot: US marines testing robot guard balls that can swim and roll on any terrain   The bot works on just about any terrain.  It has the capacity to be a force multiplier freeing up troops for other duties.

James Robbins: The United States is beginning to realize the strategic benefits of the fracking revolution. And they just keep growing. This week at the IHS CERAWeek energy summit in Texas, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said that the United States anticipated "becoming big players" in the global liquefied natural gas market and that “there’s a good chance that we will be LNG exporters on the scale of Qatar,” which he noted was the world’s largest LNG exporter. Technological leaps in fracking and more efficient drills have dramatically altered the energy landscape. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration illustrates how swiftly the revolution in LNG has come. In 2005, the U.S. imported a net 4 trillion cubic feet of LNG; by 2025 the U.S. will be a net exporter of that amount. Another report shows current U.S. monthly dry shale gas production at almost 40 billion cubic feet per day, up from about 2.5 billion cubic feet in 2000. One field, the Marcellus basin...

Washington Post: The Pentagon’s effort to develop sniper ammunition that can turn in mid-flight has passed a new milestone, with both expert marksmen and novice shooters hitting targets in a new test, military officials said. The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program completed in February its most recent live-fire tests to date, officials with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said this week . They released the video above, which depicts the ammunition adjusting to hit a target that is moving and accelerating. [ DARPA’s new experimental sniper bullet can turn in mid-flight ] “True to DARPA’s mission, EXACTO has demonstrated what was once thought impossible: the continuous guidance of a small-caliber bullet to target,” said Jerome Dunn, the program’s manager. “This live-fire demonstration from a standard rifle showed that EXACTO is able to hit moving and evading targets with extreme accuracy at sniper ranges unachievable with traditional rounds. Fitting EXACTO’...

Washington Post: Curfew lifts after calmer night in Baltimore     National Guard patrols while protesters lament violence There was no repeat of Monday’s violence, in which dozens of people pelted police, looted stores and set things ablaze. But tensions remained as the city sought to return to normal. In watching the report from the city on Fox last night it was clear that the streets were lined with police and National Guard troops leaving no room for the thugs who terrorized the city the night before.  The same principles that apply to counterinsurgency operations work in stopping looting and mayhem in a city.  Put enough law enforcement on the streets and it will stop the mob action. Baltimore's mayor made a mistake by not calling for help from the state sooner.

NY Times: Ukraine Separatists Rewrite History of 1930s Famine New texts sanitize what historians have called a genocide, describing the famine as befalling the entire Soviet Union. This is a touchy subject for the Times whose correspondent during the genocide covered it up.   Now Putin's pen appears to be behind this fabrication.  For Putin's Russia it is just another lie in service of its aggression.

NY Times: Baltimore Riots Scar a City Long Battered by Neglect The devastation, in blighted neighborhoods on both sides of town, was part of a heavy blow for Baltimore, a long-suffering city that has in recent years shown encouraging signs of a comeback. The fact is that liberal Democrats are just not very good at governing cities.  Detroit and Chicago are also a mess as are several cities in California that have been run into the ground by Democrats.  What should be asked is why these people keep voting for the same failed policies? This piece on how one party Democrat rule in major cities has been a disaster for blacks and the cities.

National Journal: Hillary Clinton May Have Lost a Campaign Weapon Clinton's experience as secretary of State now cannot be mentioned without raising questions of pay-to-play and deleted emails She was already seen as incompetent in her handling of the situation in Benghazi.  The email scandal and the Clinton Foundation scandal only add to the embarrassment.

Max Boot: Every day, everywhere around the world, a silent referendum is going on about the state of American power. President Obama has consistently failed that test. By demanding that Bashar Assad leave power and then letting him stay; by letting Assad cross a “red line” on chemical weapons with impunity; by talking big about ISIS (“degrade and destroy”) and doing little; by standing by as Iran expanded its power into Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, as Russia seized chunks of Ukrainian territory, and as China intimidated its neighbors to claim sovereignty over disputed island, the president has dissipated the most precious commodity in the world—American credibility. Today comes yet another test of American resolve. Details remain in dispute, but it appears that Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats seized the Maersk Tigris, a container ship traversing the Persian Gulf either through international waters or through a small section of Iranian waters that it would be allowed to traverse under...

Fuel Fix: Freeport LNG has secured the final piece of financing for its $12.5 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal, placing the company on track to begin producing within three years. The company had already financed two of the three proposed production facilities, called trains. On Tuesday, Freeport LNG announced that it has closed on $4.56 billion in debt financing commitments to pay for the third train. Most of the debt will come from a syndicate of 27 commercial banks, although the company also plans to pay for some of the project using mezzanine financing, an arrangement that allows lenders to claim a stake in the company if the loan isn’t paid back on time. The first two trains have been under construction since the fall, when the company announced that it had been cleared by federal regulators to start work. Tuesday’s announcement allows Freeport LNG to begin full construction of the project, which has been nearly five years in the making, CEO Michael S. Smith said in...

It is getting harder for the left to make excuses for Hillary when they went so hard after other for lesser offenses.

Vox: The size and scope of the symbiotic relationship between the Clintons and their donors is striking. At least 181 companies, individuals, and foreign governments that have given to the Clinton Foundation also lobbied the State Department when Hillary Clinton ran the place, according to a Vox analysis of foundation records and federal lobbying disclosures. The following chart shows entities that donated to the foundation and lobbied the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure. The totals include funding from both the corporate and charitable arms of listed companies (the Gates and Walton foundations are named to illustrate that point). The chart does not account for contributions made by executives, and it may omit some companies who made contributions or lobbied through subsidiaries. ... Check out the link above to see the chart referred to in the text.  It is a long and impressive list.  This suggest government corruption on a scale much larger than that alle...

The Hill: An inspector general investigating the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups has found thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the agency official at the center of that controversy, according to committees involved in the probe. Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said it found roughly 6,400 emails either to or from Lerner from between 2004 and 2013 that it didn’t think the IRS had turned over to lawmakers, the congressional committees said. The committees have yet to examine the emails, aides on Capitol Hill said.The IRS said last year that Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, leaving it unable to reproduce an untold number of her emails over the prior two years. Of the emails the inspector general found, around 650 were from 2010 and 2011, while most were from 2012. The inspector general found about 35,000 emails in all as it sought to recover emails from recycled back-up tapes. Aides said there would likely be some duplicates among the ema...

AP/Guardian: Saudi authorities say they have arrested 93 people with ties to Islamic State (Isis) in recent months, foiling their plans to carry out terrorist attacks including a strike on the US embassy in Riyadh. Interior ministry spokesman, Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki, said on Tuesday the arrests include a group of 65 people arrested in March who were involved in a plan that included targeting residential compounds, prisons and security forces. He said authorities also disrupted a suicide car bomber’s plot to attack the US embassy in the capital after receiving information about the plan in mid-March. A spokesman for the US embassy in Riyadh had no immediate comment. The timing of the alleged suicide attack, however, matches with a decision by US officials to halt all consular services for a week from 15 March at the embassy and two other diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia over security fears. ... Saudi intelligence is some of the best in the Middle East.  It also highlight t...

Bill Gertz: The House Armed Services Committee approved legislation last week that would require the Pentagon to deploy new weapons in two years to counter Russia’s violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill considered by the committee last week contains language that directs the president, secretary of defense, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to evaluate and develop new U.S. and allied weapons in response to Russia’s failure to explain its new intermediate-range cruise missile. The legislation, contained in the $604.2 billion authorization bill, states that the U.S. government has been negotiating with Russia since 2013 on the violation and to date “the Russian Federation has failed to respond to these efforts in any meaningful way.” “For years, we’ve been urging the Obama administration to get serious about Russia’s violation of the INF treaty,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the subcommi...

Daily Beast: We're Paranoid About GMO Foods Because of Pseudo-Science Chipotle says it will eliminate GMO ingredients from its menus. But many scientists believe the feverish antipathy toward GMOs is misplaced. People would be literally starving without the scientific advances that have created improved crop yields.   In fact the irrational opposition to these advances is causing starvation in some parts of the world where the food Luddites have blocked the high yeild crops.

Fox News: An analysis of social media traffic in downtown Baltimore Monday has unearthed striking connections to the protests in Ferguson, Mo. last year, according to a leading data mining firm that shared its findings exclusively with Fox News. The firm, which asked to remain anonymous because of its government work, found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were also tied to the peak period of violence in Ferguson. While further analysis is being conducted on the data, it suggests the presence of "professional protesters" or anarchists taking advantage of Freddie Gray's death to incite more violence. ... The use of social media to fuel violence in Baltimore has already been highlighted by law enforcement. On Monday, police said an online call was issued for a "purge" at 3 p.m. ET, starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending in the downtown area. That type of threat is based on a movie called “The Purge,” the plot of which involves rampant ...

Independent: Iranian forces have reportedly fired at and seized a US cargo ship with 34 sailors on board, according to Saudi Arabian state TV. The vessel has been directed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on the southern coast, Al-Arabiya has reported. It remains unclear why or if the ship was captured, and whether the shots injured anyone on-board, as neither US nor Iranian officials have confirmed the allegations. The US Fifth Fleet off the coast of Bahrain had no immediate comment on the report, according to Reuters. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency suggested that the ship was trespassing in the Persian Gulf. ... The Washington Times reports that at least five Iranian naval vessels approached the ship and fired shots forcing the crew to take the ship to an Iranian port.  The US is responsible for the security of the Marc\shall Islands. I suspect this may be a retaliation for the US role in forcing Iranian ships to leave water around Yemen.  It comes a...

Politico: GOP won’t commit to help Democrats reject Iran amendments Of course Democrats also will not commit to helping the GOP override a veto if the Iran deal is rejected by Congress.  The amendments should be supported because they show Iran's bad faith.

The Hill: Democrats are quickly learning the perils of having a de facto presidential nominee in Hillary Clinton. With the controversy around donations to her family’s charitable foundation growing, Democrats are bracing for more attacks on the former secretary of State — just the beginning of what they expect to be an 18-month assault on their party’s front-runner. Few people on either side of the partisan divide expect Clinton to face a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination. But that advantage also allows the GOP to bring its full arsenal to bear upon her. Democrats feel Clinton has weathered the storm so far, and many blame the media for both stoking and exaggerating its intensity. But they also worry that the former first lady is bound to suffer some attritional damage over time. “You have to define what the concern is,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist. “Is there cause for concern in terms of the primary, about her being the nominee? Likely n...

Eli Lake: Boehner: Congress Doesn't Have Votes to Stop Iran Deal It is better to have no deal at all than allow Obama to veto opposition to his treaty with Iran.  Congress would retain more flexibility by voting a resolution opposing the deal and making clear that it will not lift sanctions.   The deal as described by Obama and Kerry is so bad that it would be a mistake to allow it any legitimacy at all.

Washington Times: Obama-backed green energy failures leave taxpayers with $2.2 billion tab It tells you something about this administration that they consider this a success.   Investing in inefficient energy is a loser.

Washington Times: ... But women are much more likely to give Mrs. Clinton the benefit of the doubt when considering her honesty, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll. On the question of whether Mrs. Clinton was honest and trustworthy, women were almost evenly divided, with 43 percent saying she was versus 47 percent who said she was not. By comparison, men overwhelmingly did not trust her. Just 33 percent of men said the former first lady, senator and top diplomat was honest and trustworthy, compared with 61 percent who answered “no,” according to the nationwide poll released last week. But somehow, men and women agreed in the survey that the email secrecy scandal was an important issue in the election and that Mrs. Clinton has left questions about it unanswered. ... It will be interesting to see what issue will change women's minds about Hillary Clinton.  The issue of trust is obviously important to all who oppose her.  I think her incompetence as Secretary...

Red States: Clinton Foundation called a slush fund by charity monitor The percentage actually used to help people is small in relation to the money raised and the operating expenses of the operation.

Washington Examiner Editorial: The State Department's Award for Corporate Excellence is a prestigious honor for U.S. corporations, established in 1999. It "recognizes the important role U.S. businesses play abroad as good corporate citizens." So what makes a good corporate citizen of the world? It turns out that when Hillary Clinton is secretary of state, this quality strongly correlates with donations to the Clinton Foundation. The Washington Examiner's Sarah Westwood reported Thursday that 22 out of 37 corporate nominees for the award during Clinton's tenure — and six of the eight winners in those four years — just happened to be donors to the Clinton Foundation. Naturally, if even serious official decisions about foreign ownership of American uranium can fall under the cloud of Clinton cash, then it is hardly surprising that an insignificant award could as well. Clinton's campaign probably has little to worry about these scandals for now. If the Clinton...

NY Times: Guard Enlisted as Baltimore Riots Spread Police Are Hurt, and a Curfew Is Set Maryland’s governor activated the National Guard and the city of Baltimore announced a curfew on a day that began with the funeral of Freddie Gray, the nation’s latest symbol of police brutality, ended with rioting and at least 15 police officers injured. To understand Baltimore, you need to watch The Wire .   The government has a history of corruption and the gangs have only been marginally controlled by aggressive policing.  Resentment about the aggressive policing boiled over because of the death of a man in custody.  The response on the local level to the anger has resulted in a show of incompetence that allowed the rioters to spin out of control.  The rioters are fouling their own crib.  They will chase jobs and business from their area making things worse for the residents. Things were not helped by the civil rights establishment and their angry tone of ra...

Washington Times: Two-thirds of Obamacare customers had to pay back subsidy amount to IRS: Study The average repayment amount was $729 dollars.  For people who thought they qualified for subsidies that has to be a blow to their budget.  It is yet another reason this is not a popular law.

Washington Examiner: Ever since Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential chairman Terry McAuliffe became governor of Virginia, it has been expected that the swing state would stay purple and enthusiastically back her second try for presidency. But a new poll of Virginians released Monday is proving to be a blow to Clinton and her pal McAuliffe. According to the the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University , former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tops her in a head to head matchup, 48 percent to 46 percent. The Newport News, Va., school also found that other Republicans are beginning to gain on Clinton. ... While good news for Bush, it's another sign that Clinton is having difficulty getting to 50 percent in any matchup with a Republican, raising concerns that her support has a ceiling. In the Virginia poll, for example, she beats other major potential Republican candidates but never gets above 49 percent.... ... If McAuliffe can't deliver Virginia for he...

The Federalist: In 2013, The Clinton Foundation Only Spent 10 Percent Of Its Budget On Charitable Grants Hillary Clinton's non-profit spent more on office supplies and rent than it did on charitable grants ... There’s only one problem: that claim is demonstrably false . And it is false not according to some partisan spin on the numbers, but because the organization’s own tax filings contradict the claim. In order for the 88 percent claim to be even remotely close to the truth, the words “directly” and “life-saving” have to mean something other than “directly” and “life-saving.”... ... There are other discrepancies in the claims regarding the income to the foundation.  Hillary reported different sources that Bill did for the same speech.  She would use the name of the event planner and not the sponsor of the event thereby hiding the potential conflicts of interests.

It is interesting to see George Stephanopoulos try so hard to defend the Clinton's actions with the foundation and the transactions with foreigners, and see him confronted by the facts which show a pattern and practice.  He trots out the "no smoking gun" excuse only to be shot down by Schweitzer. Here is the interview with Chris Wallace on Fox: The Fox interview lays out more of the facts that support his contiention of a pattern and practice that deserves further investigation.

MarketWatch: ... Uranium prices have climbed by roughly 35% since last summer. The weekly price of uranium stood at $38.85 a pound as of Monday, compared with $28 as of June 23, according to data from nuclear-fuel consultancy Ux Consulting Company LLC. ... The Obama administration's deal on uranium that allowed the Russians to control at least 20 percent of the US supply looks like a bad bargain beyond the potential corruption charges over the transaction.  At a minimum it shows poor judgment for someone who aspires to become President.

Mark Halperin  says destroying the evidence leaves Clinton defenseless in refuting tghe allegations of self dealings. MARK HALPERIN: Imagine if an Assistant Secretary of State had done what Hillary Clinton-- what we know Hillary did. They would be out of the State Dept. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULIS, THIS WEEK: What things? HALPERIN: Co-mingling of a family foundation, donations from foreign governments, increased speech fees, and government actions. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULIS: No evidence of government actions. HALPERIN: We know there were government actions taken, what we don't know --and this goes to the deleted emails-- is what kind of interaction did Hillary Clinton have on her private email account regarding her husband's speeches and Foundation activities involving foreign donations. If they hadn't been so careless at the Foundation, if she hadn't deleted the emails, if they put somebody out on this show today to answer these questions, I think a lot of this could be put ...

John Fund: Are Democratic Insiders Starting to Panic about Hillary? They are hiding there misgivings in many cases, but her problems are significant, and the cumulative total of the her sleepiness and disorganization from Benghazi to the Clinton foundation show a pattern of ineffective leadership and possible corruption.

Washington Times: Obama amnesty greater threat to blacks than police brutality, experts say Illegal immigrants flood low-skilled labor markets once dominated by blacks, depress wages Both economists and civil rights leaders agree that the wave of immigration prompted by the Obama amnesty plan has hurt and will continue to hurt blacks who are seeing their wages depressed by the influx of cheap labor.

NY Times: Gay Businessman Who Hosted Cruz Event Apologizes Ian Reisner, one of the two gay hoteliers facing boycott calls for hosting an event for Senator Ted Cruz, who is adamantly opposed to gay marriage, said he had shown “poor judgment.” It is interesting that gays and transgenders like Bruce Jenner will be subjected to vile hatred and boycotts by liberals if they are suspected of being Republicans.  This ideological bigotry on the left is as livid as radical Islam's treatment of apostates.  The intolerant left has no room for those with a different point of view.

Erick Erickson: ... It must be comfortable and convenient for President Obama to assume the opposition to him is because of his race. He can negotiate a bad deal with Iran and conclude the public hates it because he is black. He can tell people they can keep their doctors then take their doctors away from them and console himself that the anger of the public is just racist. He can see a solid position in Iraq and Afghanistan squandered as ISIS overruns us and, when people point it out, conclude it's just because of his skin color. People can drop out of the workforce because they can't find jobs and when their stomachs rumble and their mouths grumble, President Obama can look himself in the mirror and think it'd all be different if he were not a black man. If only President Obama weren't black, maybe he would realize that people don't dislike him because he is black, they dislike him because he is a self-absorbed ass. ... It must be a real burden to blame all...

Orange County Register Editorial: After two previous extensions, the open enrollment period for Covered California ends April 30. That deadline just might prove to be the tipping point for the state’s two-year-old health insurance exchange. That’s because this is the year Covered California is supposed to become completely self-sustaining. Indeed, there’s no more money coming from Washington after the state exhausts the $1.1 billion it received from the federal government to get the Obamacare exchange up and running. And state law prohibits Sacramento from spending any money to keep the exchange afloat. That presents an existential crisis for Covered California, which is facing a nearly $80 million budget deficit for its 2015-16 fiscal year. Although the exchange is setting aside $200 million to cover its near-term deficit, Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee acknowledged in December that there are questions about the “long-term sustainability of the organization.” ... I...

Josh Rogan: ... According to the attendee's transcription, Bush noted that Iran has a new president, Hassan Rouhani. “He's smooth," Bush said. "And you’ve got to ask yourself, is there a new policy or did they just change the spokesman?” Bush said that Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran with a promise that they could snap back in place at any time was not plausible. He also said the deal would be bad for American national security in the long term: “You think the Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That’s how Americans should view the deal.” Bush then went into a detailed criticism of Obama’s policies in fighting the Islamic State and dealing with the chaos in Iraq. On Obama’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops in Iraq at the end of 2011, he quoted Senator Lindsey Graham calling it a “strategic blunder.” Bush signed an agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw those troops, but the idea had been to negotiat...

The Hill: Conservative Republicans are looking for ways to force Democrats to walk the plank in a series of tough votes over Iran. GOP senators want to attach amendments to the recent deal struck between Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) that would allow Congress to weigh in on any agreement reached between the Obama administration and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program. The White House and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are warning against changes that could erode support from Democrats and President Obama. But the GOP is looking for options that would place Democrats between the proverbial rock and a hard place, forcing them to choose between opening themselves up to attack by voting against the amendments, or angering Obama and Reid by backing them. The White House has spent significant political capital on gathering support for the Iran nuclear talks, repeatedly dispatching high-ranking officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, to meet pu...

Reuters: An Israeli air strike killed four militants on Sunday as they placed an explosive on a fence near Israel's frontier with Syria in the annexed Golan Heights, an Israeli military source said. "Four terrorists placed an explosive on a fence near Majdel Shams and an Israeli aircraft shot and killed them," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, and identifying a village in the territory at the foot of strategic Mount Hermon. The Israeli military spokesman issued a terse statement saying the air force had thwarted an attack at the Israeli-Syrian border, saying it "targeted the squad, preventing the attack." ... This follows an attack on a missile installation a day earlier in Syria.  Iran has been trying to establish a new for Hezballah, possibly in anticipation of an Israeli attack on their nuclear facilities.  This latest attempt looks more like a terrorist attack possible in an attempted revenge attack.

Reuters: If Greece falls, no one wants their prints on the murder weapon The game of chicken between Greece and its international creditors is turning into a vicious blame game as Athens lurches closer to bankruptcy with no cash-for-reform agreement in sight. Europe's political leaders and central bankers and Greek politicians... They did it too themselves with their profligate spending and their irresponsible response to the debt crisis.  

CNN: Ted Cruz: Democratic Party home to 'liberal fascism' against Christians It is a message that reaches a receptive audience in Iowa and elsewhere.   Cruz is clearly not intimidated by the ideological bigotry of the left.

Michael Goodwin: A passage from Ernest  Hemingway fits the moment. In “The Sun Also  Rises,” one character asks,  “How did you go bankrupt?” and another responds: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The exchange captures Hillary Clinton’s red alert. She’s been going politically bankrupt for a long time, and now faces the prospect of sudden collapse. If she’s got a winning defense, she better be quick about it. The ghosts of scandals past are gaining on her and time is not on her side. The compelling claims that she and Bill Clinton sold favors while she was secretary of state for tens of millions of dollars for themselves and their foundation don’t need to meet the legal standard for bribery. She’s on political trial in a country where Clinton Fatigue alone could be a fatal verdict. After 25 years of corner-cutting and dishonest behavior, accumulation is her enemy. Each day threatens to deliver the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It may already have happened and we’re just wait...

NY Times: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails The hackers did not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that control the message traffic from President Obama’s personal BlackBerry, officials said. You would think the Russians would be more appreciative of the Obama administration for selling them all that US uranium.  But Hillary's deal is not looking like "smart diplomacy" these days, and the ungrateful Russians are retaliating because of opposition to their aggression in Ukraine.  It just shows how wrong headed "smart diplomacy" turned out to be. But if they do have Hillary's emails too, perhaps they could share them with Congress.

Christopher Booker: Top scientists start to examine fiddled global warming figures The Global Warming Policy Foundation has enlisted an international team of five distinguished scientists to carry out a full inquiry The satellite data continues to dispute the claims of the globo warmers.  When they claim a winter of record cold and snowfall is the warmest on record, it suggest they are not in the real world.

John Nolte: Our bubbled mainstream media got a serious crash-course in reality this week with the revelations that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio don’t hate gays, and that Bruce Jenner, who is in the process of transitioning into a woman, remains a Christian Republican. During a two-hour interview Friday night, Jenner said to a noticeably puzzled Diane Sawyer , “I’ve always been more on the conservative side.” Still in shock, Sawyer then asked if he’s a Republican. Jenner responded in the affirmative, ”Yeah. Is that a bad thing? I believe in the Constitution.” Jenner also said he was a Christian and not a Barack Obama fan. The left-wing Huffington Post is even more confused than Ms. Sawyer. The Daily Caller’s Betsy Rothstein notes that HuffPo has saturated its site in overnight Jenner coverage without once managing to reveal his identity as a Christian Republican. Newflash: Jenner didn’t get a brain transplant. Earlier this same week, among others, The New York Times was flabbergasted to...

Washington Examiner: Sen. Ted Cruz promises a bold shift in U.S. foreign policy if he's elected president that would cancel President Obama's arms deal with Iran and move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. On the eve of remarks to the Republican Jewish Coalition, the White House contender laid out bullet points for his approach to the Middle East in an interview with the Washington Examiner that would sharply rebuke Obama's eight years. Cruz's call to get tough with enemies of the United States, especially Tehran, and prioritize relationships with key allies like Israel should go over well with the 800 coalition members gathered in Sin City for the group's annual spring meeting. "The most pressing national security concern for the next president in January 2017 is going to be to deal with an Iran that will likely be on the cusp of acquiring nuclear weapons because this deal that the president has negotiated will in my opinion only accelerate Iran's ...

Daily Beast: Bin Laden Aides Plotted Attack on Vatican from Old U.S. Navy Base Italian police have busted what they claim is a major al Qaeda cell in Sardinia smuggling migrants and planning attacks in the mainland. Police arrested 18 including two who had been part of bin Laden's security detail in Pakistan.  It is more evidence that the Islamic religious bigots are targeting not only Christians, but Christianity.

Fuel Fix: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor International Corp. officially opened its $75 million manufacturing plant in Pearland, where it plans to put the finishing touches on compressors and steam turbines supplied to customers in the petrochemical sector. The first phase of the facility dubbed Pearland Works, will serve as a space to package machinery shipped in from the company’s manufacturing plant in Hiroshima, Japan before that equipment is sent to petrochemical companies that are expanding along the Gulf Coast. The company makes compressors and steam turbines, big pieces of equipment needed to refine crude or transform components of natural gas into chemicals that serve as the building block for plastics and other products. Plans call for expanding the plant into a service, testing and manufacturing facility, where crews would work around-the-clock to repair, store and build the technology used in refineries, fertilizer plants and chemical plants. The company is also e...

Observer/Guardian: Russia’s sprawling propaganda network may have failed to persuade much of the world that Ukraine is run by Nazis , that Crimea was annexed in a popular uprising and/or that Germany is a failed state. But the barrage of misinformation has convinced some American politicians that the propaganda network is the greatest threat to US security in Europe since the Soviet Union evaporated. Leading members of Congress are pushing for the US to revive its own propaganda machine, largely dormant in eastern Europe since the end of the cold war, to counter the rapidly multiplying Russian media barrage, from TV channels and news websites to internet trolls and think tanks pushing the Kremlin line. “Russia has deployed an information army inside television, radio and newspapers throughout Europe ,” congressman Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, told a hearing on Kremlin propaganda. “Russia’s propaganda machine is in overdrive, working ...

Sunday Telegraph: Free to walk London’s streets, the extremist preacher and 'mentor' of Jihadi John Security services are understood to be investigating Hani al-Sibai, a preacher who cannot be deported from Britain, and his influence on Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner The Brits have imported their own terrorist recruiters and don't seem to be able to do anything about it.  It is absurd not to be able to deport someone like this.