Fox Business host Lou Dobbs sided with President Donald Trump in his criticism over Puerto Rico’s updated death toll from Hurricane Maria — going after Florida Republican political candidates in tight races in the process — the Tampa Bay Times noted.

Trump raised the ire of Florida governor, and current U.S. Senate candidate, Rick Scott — as well as potential replacement Ron DeSantis — when he dismissed revised numbers from a study stating that nearly 3,000 died in Puerto Rico as a result of the hurricane. This number is in stark contrast to the previously stated death toll of 64.

George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health was commissioned by the Puerto Rican government to conduct the study in an effort to get a more accurate count of those affected by the storm. The hurricane heavily damaged the island last September.

But Trump bashed the study’s figure of 2,975, charging on social media that the number was made up by Democrats to hurt him.

Click here to continue and read more...

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shot down the possibility that NATO’s new headquarters could be named after late Arizona Senator John McCain on Friday, according to the WashingtonExaminer.

Stoltenberg said during an appearance at a Heritage Foundation think tank that the organization was planning to honor McCain, a long-time supporter of the alliance, in another way.

“NATO doesn’t have a tradition of naming buildings after politicians.”

“We are 29 allies with a lot of presidents, kings, heads of state in government, so we haven’t introduced that tradition,” he said.

“I’m certain that we will be able to honor John McCain but not necessarily through naming a building and actually we honor John McCain every day through the fact that we stand together in NATO and deliver strong trans-Atlantic deterrence and defense.”

After McCain died last month of brain cancer, a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers drew up a resolution to honor the late Arizona senator.

Click here to continue and read more...

Hurricane Florence has finally hit North Carolina and, sadly, it has already taken the lives of two unsuspecting victims.

The Wilmington Police Department confirmed on Twitter that a mother and her infant child were killed after a tree fell onto their house around 9:30 a.m. on Friday, September 14. The residence in question was located on Mercer Avenue in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Officials are saying that these are the first two confirmed deaths resulting from the horrendous storm.

The baby’s father was also trapped inside the house after the tree crashed into it. He was taken to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center to be treated for injuries. His condition was not known at press time.

During a press conference following the incident, Wilmington Fire Department Chief Jon Mason said that it was a very difficult rescue because of the size of the tree, reported 13 News Now. Firefighters had to use heavy lifting, air bags, and saws to remove the tree from the crushed home.

Click here to continue and read more...

In 2012, while working as a lobbyist for the pro-Russian government of Ukraine, Paul Manafort conspired with a senior Israeli official to pressure Barack Obama’s administration to disavow Ukraine’s then-opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, Haaretz reports.

The Manafort-Israel-Russia connection appears on the pages of the plea deal signed between Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and Robert Mueller’s office. The following is stated in the document.

“Manafort sought to undermine United States support for Tymoshenko. He orchestrated a scheme to have, as he wrote in a contemporaneous communication, ‘Obama Jews’ put pressure on the [Obama] administration to disavow Tymoshenko.”

According to the document, Manafort and an unnamed senior Israeli official conspired to tarnish the reputation of Yulia Tymoshenko by accusing her of anti-semitism.

Manafort and the Israeli official’s strategy was simple. The two men authored a written statement, slandering Tymoshenko. Manafort then spread the story to U.S. media.

Click here to continue and read more...

Thursday morning, as a Category 4 hurricane was bearing down on the Carolina coast, the president of the United States wrote the following on Twitter:

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000…”

By afternoon, CNN reported that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. House Democratic candidate for New York’s 14th Congressional District, fired back with a rebuttal.

“My own grandfather died in the aftermath of the storm. Uncounted.”

Her tweet continues, and is linked below, but the impact of the first line is powerful. Ocasio-Cortez’s mother was born in Puerto Rico, so her familial ties to the island territory are strong.

My own grandfather died in the aftermath of the storm. Uncounted.

Click here to continue and read more...

The man who allegedly killed 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts is set to be arraigned on Wednesday. According to the Des Moines Register, the arraignment is set to take place at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma. Rivera, 24, faces charges of first-degree murder for Tibbetts’ death. He is currently being held on a $5 million bond, which can only be paid by cash.

Rivera allegedly followed Tibbetts as she jogged on the evening of July 18. At first, he followed her by car. Then he stopped his vehicle and parked it, he got out and began jogging alongside her. When Tibbetts noticed he was following her, she told him she was going to call the cops. It was at that point that Rivera allegedly got mad and panicked.

According to court documents, it was then that Rivera, “‘blocked’ his ‘memory’ which is what he does when he gets very upset. And doesn’t remember anything after that until he came to at an intersection.”

Click here to continue and read more...

Hurricane Florence hit the coasts of the Carolinas on Friday, bringing 90 mph winds and at least three and a half inches of rain. According to the Huffington Post, the category 1 storm has resulted in massive power outages along the coast and intense rain, leaving hundreds of people stranded and at least five people dead. Now, rescue crews are scouring the coastal areas, attempting to save people who are trapped. So far, they have rescued 60 people who were trapped in a motel.

The force of the storm has knocked down power lines, leaving a quarter of a million people in the dark. Roads have crumbled and trees have fallen, and Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, describes the storm as “an uninvited brute who doesn’t want to leave.”

Click here to continue and read more...

In the wake of rape allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Anita Hill has called on the government to develop a better methodology for investigating complaints against officials. Hill is well known for her landmark sexual harassment case against Justice Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed despite her complaint and still serves on the Supreme Court today.

CNN reports that Hill feels the government has a responsibility to investigate accusations in a fair and neutral way.

Hill said that she herself has seen “firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponized against an accuser and no one should have to endure that again.”

Hill certainly did witness the process firsthand. She was a law professor at the University of Oklahoma when she levied her complaint, testifying that Thomas sexually harassed her when they worked together at the Education Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her case made headlines and was discussed on news programs, and lambasted nightly on talk shows and by comedians.

Click here to continue and read more...

Evelyn Rodriguez, a 50-year-old grieving mother at the memorial site for her daughter who had been brutally killed by alleged MS-13 gang members, was struck and killed by an SUV on Friday.

AP reports that today’s incident occurred two years to the day that the body of Rodriguez’s daughter, 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, was found beaten and slashed in Brentwood, Long Island. Cuevas’s friend, 15-year-old Nisa Mickens, was also killed. The two girls were attacked with baseball bats and machetes by alleged gang members. Prosecutors say Cuevas was singled out by the gang because of ongoing disputes at her high school, and Mickens was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Click here to continue and read more...

The details surrounding the mysterious shooting of Botham Jean seem to grow stranger every day. Apparently, Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger was leaving her shift at around 10 p.m. on September 6, 2018. She returned to the complex where she and Jean both had apartments. She entered Jean’s apartment, believing it to be hers. Upon seeing him in the apartment, she panicked and shot him. He was later pronounced dead as a result of the gunshot wound.

Allison Jean, the mother of Botham Jean, has stated that she believes Guyger should be fired from the police department for her actions, reports the Dallas News. Jean lived one floor above Guyger, and it is unclear why she believed the apartment was hers. Jean’s apartment was searched by law enforcement as part of the investigation.

Click here to continue and read more...

For states across the country, Bob Evans issued a recall Thursday on around 47,000 pounds of sausage link products that were produced around August 1, the company believes. CBS News reports that these products may potentially contain “extraneous materials” like plastic pieces, and anyone in the affected market areas should throw away or return any related products. States believed to be affected are Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Consumers should look for establishment number “EST 6785” and check for lot number 8213 to see if their items are affected, says CBS News.

An article by FOX Illinois adds to the description of potentially contaminated items:

Click here to continue and read more...

While receiving calls from scammers may not be anything new for most cell phone users, unfortunately, it looks like the annoyance of calls from unknown numbers is about to get much worse, according to a report from First Orion in PR Newswire, as documented by CNET. First Orion Corp. is a company that specializes in cell phone protection, and they are used by many mobile phone companies, including Sprint, T Mobile, Virgin Mobile, MetroPCS, and Tracfone.

According to the PR Newswire report, First Orion carefully analyzed over 50 billion calls made to tens of millions of mobile subscribers, and they found an alarming number of increased calls that were scams. As PR Newswire documented, First Orion claims that “nearly half of all calls to mobile phones will be fraudulent in 2019 unless the industry adopts and implements more effective call protection solutions.”

Click here to continue and read more...

An inmate is accused of attempting to rape a New York City female police officer inside Brooklyn Criminal Court Friday, but she was recused by another inmate and other police officers, reports the New York Daily News.

The outrageous alleged incident happened about 11:20 a.m. while the officer was leading prisoners from a holding cell to the court for hearings, a police source told the newspaper. Jeriah Bamugo, 26, allegedly grabbed the female officer by the neck and threatened to rape her, the Daily News stated.

Bamugo was about to face arraignment in the court for various charges when the alleged incident occurred, the New York Post reported.

Bamugo allegedly pinned the officer against the wall, took off her belt, and starting reaching at her pants not far away from the courtroom, the Post wrote.

“I’m going to have sex with you,” Bamugo allegedly told the officer while apparently attempting to get her clothes off, the police source told the Post.

Click here to continue and read more...

William McRaven gained fame for leading the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, but now the retired four-star admiral had resigned from a Pentagon advisory board after offering sharp criticism of Donald Trump.

McRaven led U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, taking the lead on the Pakistan raid that left the Al-Qaeda leader dead. Though retired from active service, McRaven continued to serve in an advisory role on the Defense Innovation Board, a group of leaders that advised Pentagon officials. As Defense News reported, McRaven is now gone from that board after offering a very public criticism of Donald Trump’s action toward former leaders who criticize him.

Click here to continue and read more...

The Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico was shut down last week under mysterious circumstances – along with the town post office and several area homes – and going on 10 days later there are still no answers. In addition to all of the wild conspiracy theories about aliens and government cover-ups, so more reasoned possible explanations have started to trickle in.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, on Thursday, September 6, FBI agents swooped into the remote Mexico town, by some accounts in a Blackhawk helicopter and ordered everyone out. The observatory was evacuated, a nearby post office was evacuated, even a dozen or so homes in the area were evacuated. And no one – not the FBI, not the academic consortium that manages the observatory – is saying why. Even local law enforcement has been left in the dark.

So what are the theories?

Aliens

Click here to continue and read more...

A group of men dressed like a mariachi band pulled out rifles and pistols and opened fire in a tourist hotspot in Mexico City, opening fire in a hail of gunfire that left three people dead.

Police said the victims were killed near Plaza Garibaldi, a major tourist destination that was packed for independence day weekend. As Reuters reported, the plaza is filled with mariachi bars, so the sight of the brightly dressed musicians would not have been out of the ordinary.

Police said more than 60 shots were fired, and witnesses described a chaotic scene.

“People were screaming and running,” said a woman who sells cigarettes in the plaza.

Police said three people were killed in the shooting and another seven were injured. They did not say whether it was a targeted shooting or discuss a possible motive.

Click here to continue and read more...

Female employees at McDonald’s are organizing a strike to pressure the company into addressing sexual harassment issues, writes Vox. Women who work for the company say that male supervisors frequently grope them, solicit them for sex, and expose themselves while working. Managers have often ignored accusations of inappropriate behavior, and have also punished the women that report it.

The strike is set for September 18 and will take place in 10 U.S. cities around the country. The walkout represents the first labor strike to target a U.S. company in relation to the #MeToo movement that began in the fall of 2017, brought on by the Harvey Weinstein allegations.

Although some of the top media executives in the country have been exposed and taken down due to the movement, industries with low-wage employees that are most likely to experience sexual harassment have largely continued to fly under the radar.

Click here to continue and read more...

You can count on Samantha Markle, Meghan Markle’s half-sister, to bring the doom and gloom on Prince Harry’s special day. She posted the following message on Twitter that she paired with a hamster wearing a birthday hat, eating what’s supposed to be a birthday cake. This is what she said.

“Happy Birthday Harry! As you “Mack down” on your birthday cake, think about the birthday wishes you never extended to your FATHER-IN-LAW.”

The message has only garnered a few comments, although they seem to already cover the spectrum of possible reactions. Some people ignored her comment and wished Harry a happy birthday.

“The truth is you only have followers on Twitter because of your HALF SISTER and 99.9% of them love Meghan. [laughing emojis] so the joke is on you’re STILL irrelevant,” one user said.

Another user agreed with Samantha, writing “Harry is a terrible person, and Britain has started Megxit.”

Click here to continue and read more...

The Dalai Lama is being trashed on social media as a racist “white supremacist” for saying refugees from the Middle East and North Africa should eventually return to their native countries to rebuild them after seeking temporary asylum in Europe because “Europe belongs to the Europeans.”

The Tibetan spiritual leader made the remarks during a conference in Malmo, Sweden, Fox News reported.

In recent years, Malmo — the third-largest city in Sweden — has taken in large numbers of refugees from Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa, WLJA reported.

‘Refugees Should Develop Their Own Countries’

The Dalai Lama said European nations have a moral responsibility to help those refugees who are genuinely fleeing danger in their home countries, but the migrants should ultimately return to their native lands so they can rebuild it instead of abandoning them.

“Receive them, help them, educate them…but ultimately they [refugees] should develop their own country,” the Dalai Lama said. “I think Europe belongs to the Europeans.”

Click here to continue and read more...

The Texas State Board of Education voted Friday to remove seven historical figures from the social studies curriculum taught in public schools. Among them are Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller according to a report from Dallas News. Board members stated that the decision was part of an effort to “streamline” the state’s curriculum.

Hillary Clinton is currently part of the Texas curriculum because she was the first woman to become to be nominated for the role of president by a major political party. In high school history classes, students were required to “evaluate the contributions of significant political and social leaders in the United States.” Those leaders include Clinton, Sandra Day O’Connor, Thurgood Marshall, and Andrew Carnegie.

Helen Keller is currently part of the third-grade curriculum in Texas. Children are taught about her life and accomplishments that include a college degree, published works, and activism efforts despite being deaf, mute, and blind.

Click here to continue and read more...