By Rep. Diana DeGette

In light of the on-going gun debate, as a service to my constituents I have drafted a quick guide to gun safety. It explains how guns work as I understand it and offers some commonsense tips.

Texas wants its gold back -- all $1 billion of it. That's what Gov. Rick Perry told Glenn Beck on his radio show last week, according to the Texas Tribune.

The Federal Reserve holds the gold bars, which are owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Company. Perry wants to bring them all back to Texas to store the gold in what would be called the Texas Bullion Depository.

Judge Richard J. McMonagle
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Court of Common Pleas
1200 Ontario St.
Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1678


COLUMBUS, Ohio

$860 million in overcharges are owed to some 270,000 Ohio businesses. Judge rules that state workers' compensation fund ran up $860 million in overcharges over a decade.

Ohio employers are collectively owed $860 million after being overcharged for nearly a decade by the state insurance fund for injured workers, a Cleveland judge ruled Wednesday.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle's decision involving the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation affects about 270,000 mostly small-business owners, many unaware they are covered by the class action. His order rejected the state's arguments for paying a smaller amount.

The lawsuit, which began in 2007, said the bureau gave discounted premiums to companies that joined group insurance plans and charged companies not in the groups excessive rates to pay for the discounts.

McMonagle ruled in December in favor of business owners who didn't participate in the group rating program, agreeing they had been charged unfair premiums from July 2001 to June 2009.

Lawyers for the businesses argued companies paying group rates were not charged premiums that covered their losses, which forced the other companies to cover the difference. The bureau discounted its group plans as high as 90 percent.

A new fee structure took effect in July 2009, after McMonagle ordered the bureau to change its system for setting premiums for injury insurance. The maximum discount set by the bureau for group plans is 53 percent.

The amount employers are owed in overcharges has been a matter of dispute. Employers suing Ohio in 2007 originally asked for $1.3 billion, which included interest on the amount claimed, but McMonagle asked them to revise the figure downward after declining to award the interest.

During an evidentiary hearing last week, the state argued the employers did not suffer any harm that entitles them to restitution.

End of excerpt. Article continues:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0321/860M-overcharge-Ohio-employers-win-lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Former Ron Paul Insider Calls out Rand Paul

(Washington, D.C.) March 5 - Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show Host and former Political Director for Ron Paul's 2008 campaign for President, Craig Bergman has called out Rand Paul on his radio show (http://www.americaswakeupcall.net/) and has released the following statement regarding Rand Paul's vote to confirm former Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of State.

Rand Paul's vote to confirm Chuck Hagel as Secretary of State disqualifies him from serious consideration as a candidate for the presidency by conservatives. This is not so much because of his break with his own party, being only one of four Republicans to have voted for Hagel. Nor is it all about his perceived anti-Semitic views or the troubling history his father had on this subject. And it is not as much about the fact that Hagel refused to answer certain questions or is of questionable competency for the job.

Any of the above would be justifiable grounds in defense of a "No" vote. All of them combined assuredly do. But, on top of these very troubling issues, Rand Paul's statement that "The President gets his pick" is right out of the Orin Hatch playbook. It is an unconstitutional abdication of the duty and oath of office of a US Senator.

The Paul family has made "following the Constitution" a cornerstone of their campaigns. Rand Paul should know better than to use such a pathetic excuse. Senator, it does not ring true. Senator, what part of "advice and consent" did you not understand?

If Rand Paul is to be believed, that the President gets whom he chooses and that the Senate does not have a role or duty to reject unsuited or unqualified applicants, then where is Chief Justice Robert Bork?

Sir! You have been had, or you are trying to have us. It is one way or it is the other. Rand Paul has either failed at his constitutional duty,does not understand his duty, or is lying to us about his true reasons for voting to confirm Hagel.

Which is it Senator? You were against him before you were for him? Sowhat gives? Are you incompetent or lying? Ii is difficult to draw any other conclusion other than "he is lying". I believe he knows the Constitution. So is this just spin to cover a vote which would otherwise expose a reprehensible anti-Semitic deed? One cannot look at facebook, lewrockwell.com, or any of the "Paul" fan pages and forums and not see this ugliness staring back at them.

The fact is that the only ones defending his vote are doing so with the most virulent Jew bashing ever seen. If you are remotely considering a serious campaign for the Presidency, and you have a perceived "Jewish" problem, the last thing on Earth you should be doing is voting for a Chuck Hagel, when 90% of your party and your party's base is opposed to it on those very grounds.

This is what is known as political suicide. Picking up the hottest of hot button issues, one that clearly divides along partisan lines, and for which you already have serious issues of credibility and then voting against all those factors and attempting to defend it with an unsound, unconstitutional, RINOtalking point.

Senator Rand Paul: Do not bother coming to Iowa; or South Carolina for that matter. You are finished!. Done! This is one of those haunting votes that cannot be undone, forgiven, mitigated or forgotten. No sir, it is a defining vote. The apple has not only not fallen far from the tree; it didn't even make it to the ground. It got stuck in the nook and there it has rotted and tried to take root.

Craig Bergman is available for interviews.

Please contact Shannon Rose at Eclectic Media Productions. confirmations@mediaproductions.tv

If you are reading this sitting down then the chances are you are also increasing your risk of developing heart disease, blood clots on the brain and even certain types of cancer.

The latest evidence suggests that being seated for much of the day can also increase your risk of developing diabetes. However, standing up daily for an extra 90 minutes significantly lowers your chances of developing this serious metabolic disorder.

A growing body of research is finding that sitting down for extended periods may be one of the most dangerous things we do and that the mere act of standing up -- rather than doing physical exercise -- is perhaps the best antidote.

Studies suggest that on average we spend about 9 or 10 hours a day sitting, either at the office, in the car or train, or in front of the television. But some people spend up to 16 hours a day sitting down -- leaving little time for any other activity apart from sleep.

A study of two groups of men and women at risk of developing diabetes has found a link between levels of sugary glucose and fatty acids in the bloodstream -- which are biochemical markers for diabetes -- and the time spent sitting down

(excerpt)

Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a "very senior person" at the White House warned him in an email that he would "regret doing this," the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.

CNN host Wolf Blitzer said that the network invited a White House official to debate Woodward on-air, but the White House declined.

"I think they're confused," Woodward said of the White House's pushback on his reporting.
Earlier today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Woodward ripped into Obama in what has become an ongoing feud between the veteran Washington Post journalist and the White House. Woodward said Obama was showing a "kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

(excerpt)

Bob Woodward called a senior White House official last week to tell him that in a piece in that weekend's Washington Post, he was going to question President Barack Obama's account of how sequestration came about - and got a major-league brushback. The Obama aide "yelled at me for about a half hour," Woodward told us in an hour-long interview yesterday around the Georgetown dining room table where so many generations of Washington's powerful have spilled their secrets.

Digging into one of his famous folders, Woodward said the tirade was followed by a page-long email from the aide, one of the four or five administration officials most closely involved in the fiscal negotiations with the Hill. "I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today," the official typed. "You're focusing on a few specific trees that give a very wrong impression of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here. ... I think you will regret staking out that claim."


Woodward repeated the last sentence, making clear he saw it as a veiled threat. " 'You'll regret.' Come on," he said. "I think if Obama himself saw the way they're dealing with some of this, he would say, 'Whoa, we don't tell any reporter 'you're going to regret challenging us.' "


(excerpt)

House majority leader Eric Cantor is increasingly frustrated with a group of House Republicans who are working against the leadership, and he's not afraid of voicing his dismay.

In a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday, Cantor told one GOP member that if they blocked the Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) from coming to the floor, they'd cause "civil war" in the ranks.

Cantor's comment irked some Republican aides, who told National Review Online that such strong language is inappropriate. In recent days, some conservatives have been upset about the Senate's version of VAWA, saying that parts of the bill are unconstitutional.

Nevertheless, Cantor's warning may have had an effect. When the bill came to the floor on Wednesday, only nine Republicans voted against the rule to take up the bill.

(excerpt)

San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne is fully supportive of the Obama/Feinstein gun grab, and says if lawmakers play it right Americans can be completely disarmed within "a generation."

Lansdowne has gone on record saying: "I could not be more supportive of the president for taking the position he has. I think it's courageous with the politics involved in this process. [And] I think it's going to eventually make the country safer."

He made it clear that it may take "a generation," but new laws could eventually take all guns off the streets.

This is quite a departure from other law enforcement personnel we've seen around the country--particularly Sheriffs--who've come out firmly against any infringement on the 2nd Amendment. We've cheered those officials for standing with the people, and now Lansdowne has taken a position completely opposite them.

Moreover, Lansdowne has also been slamming the NRA in interviews. And he seems overtly thrilled at the money the NRA is being forced to spend to get their message out in the wake of the crime at Sandy Hook Elementary. "We broke the NRA," says Lansdowne.

Breitbart News contacted Lansdowne's office about these statements but received no comment.

After just the first day of this 40 Days for Life campaign, many locations are reporting record turnouts for their opening events -- and babies SAVED from abortion!

More than 500 people -- including families with their children -- came to stand and pray outside Planned Parenthood as part of the Orange County kickoff.

"As the prayer ended, we witnessed the first baby saved of this 40 Days for Life 2013 campaign," said Alejandra in Orange County. "A woman came out of Planned Parenthood and as we approached her, she told us that she couldn't abort her baby. She had tears in her eyes. All glory to God!"

The White House is standing by Vice President Joseph R. Biden's decision to talk bluntly about his affinity for old-school shotguns -- despite a storm of criticism from the left that the pump-action pitch undermined the White House push for gun-control measures.

"The point the vice president was making yesterday is one that he's made before," Mr. Carney said. "And that is, that this administration, this president and this vice president ... firmly supports our Second Amendment rights, upheld by the Constitution, and that includes the right of homeowners, law-abiding Americans citizens, to have a firearm at their home to protect themselves in their home."

(Excerpt)

Citizens – pregnant or otherwise – are now tangible cardboard targets for law enforcement.

Law Enforcement Targets, Inc., a provider of shooting targets to the Department of Homeland Security, has admitted that targets depicting pregnant women were requested by law enforcement agencies.

These targets feature children, elderly gun owners and mothers in playgrounds, and… a pregnant woman.

Awesome. They were REQUESTED by DHS, even.

Since the story about these targets started spreading throughout the interwebs, the pictures of them have supposedly been taken down. But you know how the Internet has a way of allowing graphics to live forever.

The targets look like those featured below.
This is excerpted. Please read the article at the link.
Includes a video.

Posted on February 19, 2013 at 3:59 AM EST
image

By Aaron Klein

TEL AVIV --- The Obama administration is leaning toward scaling back its demand for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign and instead may encourage reconciliation talks between Assad and the opposition, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The security officials said Russia has been instrumental in convincing the U.S. to change its position in large part out of growing concern over the massive number of jihadists participating in the insurgency targeting Assads regime.

"Jihadists streaming into Syria via Turkey have reached a critical mass, to the point where the equilibrium of power may shift in troubling directions," said a security official. It's to the point where Turkey is now perhaps the biggest al-Qaida base in the world."

The U.S. has expressed its understanding over the issue and is leaning toward changing its position over demanding Assad's ouster, the official said.

Still, the Middle Eastern security officials said they expect one more round of fighting between Assad and the al-Qaida-saturated rebels before any reconciliation talks commence.

The information comes as Assad said yesterday he is confident his forces will win the insurgency.

Assad spoke on the same day calls were made for the International Criminal Court to launch a war crimes probe against his regime.

"We are sure we will win, we are reassured by the political and military developments," Assad was quoted as telling visiting politicians, according to the pro-Assad Lebanese newspaper As-Safir.

"That does not mean that everything is settled," reportedly said. "We still have a lot to do politically and in the battle against extremist terrorist groups."

KleinOnline reported three weeks ago on the increased numbers of jihadists pouring into Syria via the Turkish border at a rate of thousands per month, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The officials said Russia and Iran have been compensating for the increased jihadist influx by providing more weapons to Syria, including advanced protections for Syria's missile arsenal.

TUCKER, Ga. – It is no secret government schools have put President Obama on a pedestal unlike any other national leader.

Schools have been named after him long before his retirement or death, which is rather unprecedented. Students have been led in organized chants of his honored name. There are lesson plans comparing him to Abraham Lincoln.

But sometimes school employees take the rhetoric a bit too far and wind up in propaganda territory. The latest example comes from DeKalb County, Georgia.

For Black History Month, Livsey Elementary School created a cute display with the lines:

Rosa sat…so Martin could walk.

Martin walked…so Obama could run.

Obama ran…so our children could fly.


But Americans should NOT teach children than they need politicians of any stripe to be successful in life. In fact, they should know that President Obama’s is about to hand them – and successive generations – an astronomical national debt that they will have to deal with someday.

This deifying of Obama is unhealthy for our students because we are teaching them to look to an individual – or government in general – for life solutions. If anything, todays kids need to be reprogrammed to remember that they are the masters of their own destinies, and they themselves make the decisions that will ultimately determine the course of their lives.

As President John Adams said: we have a government of laws, and not of men. The unhealthy tendency to worship the people that temporarily fill government positions is a distraction for young people who should be focused on their own efforts to find their way in life.

Students need responsible parents and high quality teachers and educational options to be prepared for life, not pandering politicians or a nanny state that tells them what to eat for lunch, makes excuses for failing schools and defends subpar teachers.

The photo of the verse displayed at the school was reportedly taken Feb. 15th and posted on Planet.Infowars.com.

The school’s principal confirmed the photo was accurate and was taken inside his building.

Senate Democrats have taken to the New York Times to express their displeasure with their uppity new colleague Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican whose robust examination of Chuck Hagel’s record they find insufficiently decorous. Warning: The “M-word” is used.

“In this country we had a terrible experience with innuendo and inference when Joe McCarthy hung out in the United States Senate, and I just think we have to be more careful,” Senator Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) told the Times. Barbara Boxer echoed the sentiment. “It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,’ and, of course, nothing was in the pocket. . . . It was reminiscent of some bad times.”

The senators were more circumscribed in their analysis than the Democrats’ living id, Chris Matthews, who put it more directly: “I watched him in those hearings and I saw Joe McCarthy.”
Cruz seems to have drawn the Tailgunner Joe comparisons largely for two statements selectively plucked from what was a sustained and substantive examination before the Senate Armed Services Committee of Hagel’s dubious record in advance of the vote on his nomination. Let’s take them one at a time.

It was “truly extraordinary,” Cruz remarked, that the government of Iran “formally and publicly prais[ed] the nomination of a defense secretary.” He also called it “unprecedented” that a nation like Iran was “publicly celebrating” the prospect of a Hagel-run Pentagon. Cruz may have been referring to the Iranian state-run press, who ran a “news” piece entitled “Obama expected to nominate anti-Israel Hagel as secretary of defense.” Or he may have been referring to a statement made by a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, who, when asked a question about Hagel’s views on Israel and U.S. sanctions in the context of his confirmation prospects, opaquely replied, “We hope there will be practical changes in American foreign policy and that Washington becomes respectful of the rights of nations.”

Moderator: “What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists or International Socialist?”

West: “It’s a good question. I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. … It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.”

Allen West certainly took a lot of heat for his comments of April 10, 2012 but like everything else, many people stand on their opinions without bothering to support them. Today I want to prove to you that the correlation that West was drawing between the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and socialism is absolutely correct.

First let's attach the most current list of the CPC that I was able to find. The list was not dated but I believe it is from the 112th congress. For now let's draw no conclusions from this list. We will vindicate Allen West later. This is simply a list of the CPC. I would like to add that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are both former members, however.

HOUSTON -- It was a moment weeks in the making: 93-year-old Elbert Wood returned to his home that was rebuilt through the kindness of strangers.
This is purely community effort, from the new grass to the new roof, radio host Michael Berry told the crowd that gathered in northwest Houston.
They offered up a hero's welcome for Wood, a decorated World War II veteran.
Tuesday's homecoming was a stark contrast to when he returned home from a doctor's appointment last month to find his home burglarized and vandalized.

(Excerpt, read more at link above)

No text, just a slide show of the repairs & upgrades.

There's been a lot of talk about the Obama administration's use of drones on American citizens, now a Texas lawmaker has introduced legislation to make it illegal in the Lone Star Sate.
You need to make sure you're not capturing images or videotaping anyone enjoying their private property, whether it's a big piece of land or a small home without their permission, State Rep. Lance Gooden tells KTRH News. It also says that law enforcement, if they're going to use drones, they need a search warrant.”
If passed, HB 912 says violators would be slapped with a misdemeanor and fines starting at $1,000. Gooden says Texans also would be able to take measures into their own hands if need be.


Read more: http://www.ktrh.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=121300&article=10800019#ixzz2KcKEzcue

Winter Storm Nemo will shift its focus from the Great Lakes today, and bare its teeth on New England tonight into Saturday.

Snow Forecast Through Saturday

(LIVE: Real-Time Updates on Nemo)

Blizzard warnings are in effect from coastal Maine to northern New Jersey, including Portland, Maine, Boston, Hartford, Providence, to the New York City metro area and Long Island.

(excerpt: click the source link for full article)

RIVERSIDE - Three law enforcement helicopters flew above the Big Bear area tonight in search of the fired Los Angeles Police Department officer suspected in the revenge slayings of a college basketball coach and her finance in Irvine and the early morning ambush killing of a Riverside police officer.

The truck belonging to Christopher Jordan Dorner was found burning just off a forest road in the area late today, authorities said.

All the areas where someone could have walked away from the truck were being searched by ground, Cindy Bachman of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said at a 9 p.m. news conference.

"I'm not aware of any evidence found near the truck, nor am I aware of any explosives," Bachman said.

Bachman said she was not aware of any vehicle having been stolen since the burned out truck was discovered.

Deputies have gone to about half of the 400 vacation homes in the area and there were no signs of forced entry at any of them, Bachman said.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department provided two of the helicopters used in the search, while the other came from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"Several hundred" Islamist militants have been killed since France launched an offensive in Mali last month, the French defence minister has said.

Jean-Yves Le Drian said they had been killed in airstrikes and direct combat with French troops.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said that France may begin pulling out of Mali as early as March.

In a newspaper interview, he said that "if everything goes as planned, the number of troops should diminish".

France has an estimated 4,000 troops in Mali and officials from multilateral institutions and dozens of countries have been meeting in Brussels to discuss how to replace them.

The defence minister said the last major town in northern Mali to remain in the hands of the rebels, Kidal, was now under French control.

Air attacks are continuing on suspected rebel hideouts north of the town.

(Excerpt, click the source link above to read full story)

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.0 struck near the Pacific's Solomon Islands, sparking a tsunami alert for much of the region.

A tsunami warning is in effect for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati and Wallis and Futuna. A tsunami watch is in effect for numerous other areas.

Tens of thousands of neo-Nazis rallied in Athens in support of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, in the movement's largest demonstration of support since its rise to power in last June's general election.

Men dressed in military uniforms, holding torches, donning swastikas and chanting anti-immigrant slogans, marched through central Athens in what was reportedly a memorial event paying tribute to the party's 'fallen soldiers,' The International Business Times reported.

"This is a day of remembrance. It's a day to remember that Golden Dawn is here to stay. And so long as it does, there will be hope for the country," Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kassidiaris told supporters.

Hundreds of riot police and security officials were deployed to the scene of the march, which took place near the prime minister's office and the Turkish embassy in Athens, according to The Times.

The party, which has become notorious for its blatant anti-Semitic and xenophobic rhetoric and has been responsible for perpetrating attacks on Jews and foreigners, has begun spreading its anti-immigration message in schools and youth clubs, as well as through online social media networks, according to recent reports in the international press.

If a ban can't pass the Senate, it certainly won't pass in the House. Consider the assault weapons ban a dead issue, while the ammunition limit is alive and well.


Wall Street Journal:


"Senate Democratic leaders expect a gun bill to move to the Senate floor that includes most of the proposals backed by President Barack Obama, with the notable exception of a ban on military-style, semiautomatic weapons, a top aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said."

"The bill would likely seek to limit the capacity of ammunition magazines; expand background checks to include sales at gun shows and other private transactions; and require better record keeping to keep guns out of the hands of those with mental illnesses. It would also try to curb gun sales in states with more relaxed gun laws to buyers in states with stricter laws."

"But the strategy outline also reflects a growing sense within Democratic ranks that some of the president's most ambitious goals-particularly the call for new bans on certain types of military-style guns often described as assault weapons-may be unrealistic, the Reid aide said."

"The goal is to get the bill to the Senate floor next month, at which point lawmakers could then seek to amend the legislation by adding a ban on certain semiautomatic weapons or other provisions, the aide said."

"The details provide the first snapshot of how Senate Democrats plan to move forward on major gun legislation in coming weeks."



Even a watered down ban that would include only a few weapons is not likely to pass. The question is, will Harry Reid embarrass the president by bringing an assault weapons ban to a vote? Obama may want a show of hands, thinking he can use it against the GOP in 2014. But if a dozen vulnerable Democrats vote against a ban, he has no case.

A limit on ammunition may garner a few Republican votes and could very well pass in the Senate. But House Republicans are in no mood to give the president much of anything on gun control and it, too, will almost certainly die in conference committee.

That leaves universal background checks. The GOP will try and weaken the provision, but this is the one part of Obama's gun control agenda that is likely to pass in the Senate and could pass the House if it was weakened enough.

After all the build-up, any legislation that gets passed is likely to be fairly meaningless.

The 'survivalist killer' who allegedly gunned down a bus driver before taking a boy hostage in an underground bunker is now dead as the dramatic ordeal has ended after seven days.

The five-year-old boy hostage, known only as Ethan, was taken away from the scene and is believed to be in fine condition.
Multiple news outlets have reported that the gunman, 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, is deceased, but the cause of his death was not immediately known.

Several loud booms were heard between 3:20pm and 3:30pm local time.
The boy is was reportedly taken to nearby Flowers Hospital, about six miles away, but is not believed to be injured.

Loud bangs were reportedly heard in the area before Dykes' death.
An ambulance that had been parked near the scene could be seen driving away.

However, it was not clear if anyone was inside, and the vehicle did not have its sirens or emergency lights on.

A news conference will be held later this afternoon in Midland City.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) - Baltimore City police had their hands full managing the huge crowds of celebrating Ravens fans who took to the streets after Sunday night's victory.

In Fells Point, thousands of people danced in the streets.

Derek Valcourt has more on the situations police were forced to deal with.

It was quite a party but as you're about to see, at times the purple party did get out of hand.

Sky Eye Chopper 13 over the scene as crowds filled the streets of Federal Hill.

For the first time in 14 years, the CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA), will testify on Capitol Hill. Wayne LaPierre's appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee underscores how seriously the nation's largest gun-owners organization takes the latest assault on the Second Amendment.

Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, invited former Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's husband, Mark Kelly, among others, to testify for the other side. In his prepared remarks, Mr. LaPierre will say, "When it comes to the issue of background checks, let's be honest: Background checks will never be 'universal' because criminals will never submit to them."

(This is the last of a four-part series on dispelling gun myths. Click here to read part one: The Assault Weapon Myth. Click here to read part two The High-Capacity Magazine Myth. Click here to read part three The Cop-Killer Bullet Myth.)

Currently, a gun owner who goes to a retail shop to purchase a gun from a licensed dealer is subject to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The system, run by the FBI reviews criminal history, mental health and restraining-order records to weed out those who are legally barred from gun ownership.

The gun grabbers' real goal has always been universal registration, and tracking every gun owner in the country would be a big step in that direction.

Washington tends to have a narrow view of what counts as "economic policy." Anything we do to the tax code is in. So is any stimulus we pass, or any deficit reduction we try. But most of this mistakes the federal budget for the economy.

The truth is, the most important piece of economic policy we pass -- or don't pass -- in 2013 may be something we don't think of as economic policy at all: immigration reform.

Congress certainly doesn't consider it economic policy, at least not officially. Immigration laws go through the House and Senate judiciary committees. But consider a few facts about immigrants in the American economy: About a 10th of the U.S. population is foreign-born. More than a quarter of U.S. technology and engineering businesses started from 1995 to 2005 had a foreign-born owner. In Silicon Valley, half of all tech startups had a foreign-born founder. One-quarter of all U.S.-based Nobel laureates of the past 50 years were foreign born. Right now, about half of the PhDs working in science and technology are foreign born.

The IRS has begun implementing Obamacare; starting in 2014, "people who choose not to buy insurance and don't qualify for an exemption from the mandate will have to pay a fine of $95."

The $95 penalty will increase to $695 in 2016, and continue to grow thereafter at a "pre-determined" rate.

Households that do not earn enough to pay federal income tax are exempt from the penalty of the mandate, as are persons who are temporarily unemployed or transitioning from one job to another.

The current rules of the healthcare overhaul also say that if you have insurance "for one day of a month," it will count as having coverage for that entire month.

Section 7 of House File 5 reads: Sec. 7. [62V.06] DATA. (a) The definitions in section 13.02 apply to this section. (b) Government data of the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace on individuals, employees of employers, and employers using the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace are private data on individuals or nonpublic data. The Minnesota Insurance Marketplace may share not public data with state and federal agencies and other entities if the exchange of the data is reasonably necessary to carry out the functions of the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace.

State agencies shall share not public data with the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace if the exchange of the data is reasonably necessary to carry out the functions of the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace. Notwithstanding the provisions governing summary data in sections 13.02, subdivision 19, and 13.05, subdivision 7, the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace may derive summary data from nonpublic data under this section.

The full text of the bill can be found at: http://wdoc.house.leg.state.mn.us/leg/LS88/HF0005.1.pdf

Israel conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria near the border with Lebanon, foreign officials and Syrian state TV said Wednesday, amid fears President Bashar al-Assad's regime could provide powerful weapons to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

Regional security officials said Israel had been planning in the days leading up to the airstrike to hit a shipment of weapons bound for Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful military force and a sworn enemy of the Jewish state.

Among Israeli officials' chief fears is that Assad will pass chemical weapons or sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah -- something that could change the balance of power in the region and greatly hinder Israel's ability to conduct air sorties in Lebanon.

The regional officials said the shipment Israel was planning to strike included Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which would be strategically "game-changing" in the hands of Hezbollah by enabling the group to carry out fiercer attacks on Israel and shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones. A U.S. official said the strike hit a convoy of trucks but did not give an exact location.

The Syrian military confirmed the strike in a statement read aloud on state TV, but it said the jets bombed a military research centre in the area of Jamraya, northwest of the capital, Damascus, and about 15 kilometres from the border with Lebanon.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has selected his former chief-of-staff William "Mo" Cowan to serve as interim U.S. senator until a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Secretary of State designate John Kerry.

A person with knowledge of the appointment who spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made says Patrick picked Cowan. He will serve until the June 25 special election.

The Democratic governor gave little indication whom he favored during his deliberations. The only possible candidate he confirmed speaking with was former Congressman Barney Frank, and then only after Frank told reporters he'd spoken with Patrick.

FBI agents have raided the West Palm Beach, Fla. eye clinic owned by Dr. Salomon Melgen, the wealthy donor to New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez who allegedly procured prostitutes for him -- some of them as young as 16 -- during trips to the Dominican Republic.

The Miami Herald reported that federal agents lined up vans outside the Melgen Eye Center late Tuesday night to haul away evidence in the case.

Even as President Obama travels to Las Vegas Tuesday to call for legalizing illegal immigrants, the latest numbers from the U.S. Border Patrol suggest that the flow across the nation's southwest border jumped by 9 percent last year.

The Border Patrol made 356,873 arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2012, up from 327,577 in 2011, according to figures obtained by the Associated Press and confirmed by The Washington Times. Border Patrol officials estimate that apprehensions are a good proxy for illegal crossings, so when the numbers go up, it means that the flow of illegal immigrants is going up as well.

Last year's increase marks a reversal. Apprehensions peaked in 2005 at 1.2 million and had been steadily dropping every year since as first President George W. Bush and then Mr. Obama committed more manpower and resources to the border.

In his first term Mr. Obama said he had fortified the border so much that it could now be deemed secure, and Congress could turn its attention to passing an overhaul of the broader immigration system.

An agreement over a sweeping overhaul of immigration law reached by a bipartisan group of leading senators has quickly drawn its critics.

The outline of the plan covers border security, guest workers and employer verification, as well as a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country.

The deal, expected to be announced later this afternoon, has a long way to go before the thorny details are worked out. But the development heralds the start of what could be the most significant effort in years toward overhauling the nation's inefficient patchwork of immigration laws.

It is already drawing critics who say it will add an incalculable financial toll on America.

In an explosive exchange outside the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., security guards for billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accosted senior Talk Radio Network investigative reporter Jason Mattera when he asked the mayor about his strong support for gun control.