Five Minutes With . . . Rick Ungar

Rick Ungar co-hosts “Steele and Ungar,” weeknights 6 – 9p.m. ET on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel, with former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. Ungar has been a Hollywood writer and producer, CEO of the Marvel Character Group, creator of the hit cartoon series “Biker Mice From Mars,” a Newsmax commentator, and a Forbes columnist known (affectionately) as “The Token Lefty.”

We quizzed him about Washington under President Donald Trump, the state of Hollywood and whether the United States is in a good place:

Newsmax: The country seems to be hopelessly divided these days with neither side willing to listen to the other’s point of view. Is our democracy in peril?

Rick Ungar: We’ve survived worse, but the inability of people who see things differently to talk to one another is one of the greatest threats to our democracy. People of varying ideologies no longer see people who disagree as simply wrong, we now view one another as evil and out to either destroy the nation or engaged in an effort to purposefully harm others.

NM: You were born in the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, Ohio. Do you understand why many people in communities like this rejected Hillary Clinton last November?

RU: I do now. However to my discredit, I did not see it happening during the election. The folks in Rust Belt towns feel the establishment has led them down a very dark rabbit hole as they blindly offered their support to one side or the other. So, when a candidate emerged who ran against the entire system, this was a complete expression of how they were feeling. The result is the Trump presidency.

NM: It’s fashionable for the elites to ridicule the new administration. But are the callers to your show ready to give President Trump more time to carry out the agenda he was elected on?

RU: There are definitely callers who continue to support President Trump and feel he deserves more time to carry out his agenda. I don’t think those who are distressed by his first 70 plus days are necessarily acting out of elitism, they are acting out of concern.

NM: In which policy area do you think Trump has the greatest chance of being successful?

RU: Infrastructure. I believe that he is likely to find considerable cooperation with the Democrats in Congress on this issue.

NM: “Steele and Ungar” strives to be a reasoned and thoughtful show, everything that Washington isn’t these days. Isn’t your “let’s be reasonable” style a little jarring?

RU: I hope so. There is a large audience out there who are sick and tired of everyone going on radio to fight and demean those who hold a different opinion on the issues. This was the entire philosophy behind my wanting to do a show that we call “rational radio.”

NM: Are you telling us you’ve never raised your voice to a caller?

RU: Very, very rarely. I’ve lost my temper with a few callers when that individual (and it has happened from both liberal and conservative callers) is trying to feed my audience fake news and other such garbage.

NM: President Trump is an avid consumer of cable news in the White House. How do you prepare for your show? What do you read, what do you watch?

RU: Major newspapers, including those that have a conservative and liberal editorial slant, and political sites ranging from Think Progress to Politico to The Hill to Breitbart and The National Review and, of course, Newsmax! Additionally, I flip between cable news channels so I’m getting a more well-rounded point of view of any stories that may be developing. I will also tune into radio programs ranging from Tom Hartmann to Sean Hannity.

NM: Is Fake News a big deal?

RU: You have to distinguish between purposefully fake news and poorly reported news. One is intentional and one is negligent.

NM: You’ve lived in New York and Los Angeles. What are your favorite restaurants in each city?

RU: In Los Angeles, it would have to be my favorite sushi bars. In New York, it is, hands down, Gray’s Papaya on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Best hot dogs anywhere in the world!

NM: You’ve also lived in Mexico. Don’t you think Trump is right to want a wall to secure our southern border?

RU: I think he is right to want to secure our southern border but I think the whole “big, beautiful wall” thing is a costly, unnecessary stunt. Anyone who takes the time knows that more undocumented aliens are leaving than arriving. Most of those who are arriving these days are citizens of Latin American countries (Mexico is a North American country) escaping actual threats to their lives. And they are as likely to come into our country at various ports of entry nowhere near the southern border.

NM: You’ve executive-produced such TV shows as “X-Men: Evolution,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Spider-Man” and “The Fantastic Four.” What is it with you and super heroes?

RU: Ha! I have never gotten over my infatuation as a kid with tying a bathrobe around my neck and jumping off the bed as I pretended to be Superman (no, I don’t do it any longer but secretly wish I could). I now watch my grandsons playing the same superhero fantasies I acted out as a kid. And if you think that Michael Steele and I argue about politics, I assure you that our political disagreements don’t hold a candle to the fight that erupts when he tries to claim that Superman is superior to Spiderman.

NM: Even comics are becoming P.C. We have gay superheroes and R-rated fare such as “Logan,” the Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman? Aren’t we robbing our youth of the simple escapism comic books gave us as kids.

RU: When a publisher puts out a comic book involving a gay superhero, they are doing it to fill a hole in the marketplace — gay men and women who are comic book fans but never before got to see their own reflection in the comic book characters they love. I can tell you that the Marvel movies were never made for little children. They are made for adults. That doesn’t mean there are not superhero movies being made for younger children as there certainly are. So, no, I don’t think we are robbing our youth of escapism.

NM: Okay, this may cause a stir in the Marvel universe, but which of the superhero characters is your favorite?

RU: That’s easy. “Biker Mice From Mars.” These characters, which I created so many years ago, changed my life and made a lot of things possible for me.

NM: When Hollywood ever makes a Rick Ungar biopic, who would you like to see play you?

RU: Hollywood can get desperate at times but I don’t anticipate they will ever get that desperate.

NM: Have you ever considered running for political office, presumably as a Democrat?

RU: I have a wife that has been enormously supportive of my odd career choices. The only thing she has asked me not to do is run for public office. Additionally, I’m not a very good follower and there is way too much following in politics.

NM: If you could interview one president, from any time period, who would it be?

RU: Richard Nixon, just so I could ask: “What were you thinking?!?”

NM: You wrote an episode of a 1999 series called “Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths & Legends.” So is there extraterrestrial life out there and has it visited our planet?

RU: I think the odds very much support the likelihood that we are not alone in the universe. If there was ever a time for them to appear, now would be it. It just might take an alien invasion to get Americans back in touch with one another.

Source: newsmax – Five Minutes With . . . Rick Ungar

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Pro-ISIS Group Urges 'Lone Wolf' Attacks Against 9K on Hit List

A pro-Islamic State group has released a video that threatens President Donald Trump and thousands of others who seek the demise of ISIS, The Sun reported Monday.

The message urges followers to carry out “lone wolf” attacks against those on a list of 8,786 names and “kill them wherever you find them.”

Prominent on the list are reportedly well-known figures – including Trump – who have openly opposed the terrorist group. The message threatens to publish the home addresses of those it wants killed.

The group putting out the threats, The United Cyber Caliphate, is a hacking collective that has issued similar hit lists before, although it is not clear if anyone targeted by the group has actually been killed, Vocativ reported.

The notion of killing enemies “wherever you find them” has been a common strategy of ISIS inspiring its followers in recent years after it became more difficult for sympathizers to travel from the West to Middle East battlefields in support of the group.

The latest message threatens that “we continue to wage war against you. Know that your counter attacks only make us stronger. The UCC will start a new step in this war against you. So expect us soon.”

Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan has warned that ‘kill lists’ can inspire lone gunmen to carry out such attacks, telling CBS12 that there is not much that authorities can do to protect those on the list.

“If in fact a sympathizer gets ahold of this list and is readily able to identify you as being his neighbor and, then, decides [because they’re a sympathizer] to go out and do something horrific to you, there is no way to calculate the potential or to prevent that.”

Source: newsmax – Pro-ISIS Group Urges ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks Against 9K on Hit List

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Putin: Media Should Oppose Authorities

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the media is correct to fight authorities — but reporters and officials should not fight among themselves.

“The media in a democratic society always opposes authorities,” Putin told a media forum arranged by the All-Russia People’s Front in St. Petersburg, the Russian news agency Tass reports.

“It is absolutely right but I would like the journalists and officials to refrain from fighting each other all the time.

“If you oppose each other, then sand will be constantly put in the wheels, but if you outline a common goal then you will be able to reach the best results.”

Putin’s remarks come amid ongoing U.S. investigations of involvement by the Russian government in the 2016 presidential election and charges of collusion between Donald Trump and Russian officials.

During an interview Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believes the low level of American trust in Russia — just 9 percent — is due to an intense propaganda push that has been underway in the U.S. for more than a year.

“They fell victim of that propaganda and that’s why lots of Americans, they do think that, yes, Russian hackers are everywhere. Russian hackers are in every fridge. Russian hackers are in every iron … But this is not true. Those are fake news, and this is slander,” Peskov said.

Source: newsmax – Putin: Media Should Oppose Authorities

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Lithuania Says Russia Has Ability to Launch Baltic Attack in 24 Hours

VILNIUS – Russia has developed the capability to launch an attack on the Baltic states with as little as 24 hours’ notice, limiting NATO’s options to respond other than to have military forces already deployed in the region, Lithuania’s intelligence service said on Monday.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in the 1940s but now part of both NATO and the European Union, have been increasingly nervous since the Russian takeover of Crimea in 2014.

The Lithuanian intelligence service said in its annual threat assessment that Russia had upgraded its military in the Kaliningrad region last year, reducing lead times for any attack and potentially preventing NATO reinforcements.

The Russian upgrade included Su-30 fighter aircraft and missile systems allowing ships to be targeted almost anywhere in the Baltic Sea.

“This is a signal to NATO to improve its decision speed,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis told reporters on the sidelines of the presentation of the report. “NATO’s reaction time is not as fast as we would like it to be.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the concerns as a display of anti-Russian sentiment.

“There is total Russophobia, hysterical Russophobia going on,” he said at a daily conference call with reporters.

“Moscow has always supported good relations with the Baltic states,” he said.

This year NATO is deploying a force of about 1,000 soldiers in each of the Baltic states and Poland, in addition to smaller contingents of U.S. troops already in the region.

“The force is adequate in the short-term, but in the medium-term perspective we would like more capability, and not only land troops but also air defences and capabilities to counter any blockade,” Karoblis said.

Russia is monitoring and suppressing radio frequencies used by NATO pilots over the Baltic Sea and is using commercial and scientific ships for surveillance, the report said.

The intelligence service said there was also the risk of “deliberate or accidental incidents” involving Russian and Belarusian troops who are taking part in military exercises planned for March.

The Baltic states have previously said they would press the United States and NATO to take additional security measures in the region ahead of the exercises.

Intelligence officers said disinformation aimed at discrediting NATO soldiers stationed in Lithuania, such as a recent false report of a rape by German soldiers, was likely to persist.

“Provocations against NATO units in Lithuania will continue and will get bigger,” Remigijus Baltrenas, head of Lithuanian military counterintelligence, told reporters. 

Source: newsmax – Lithuania Says Russia Has Ability to Launch Baltic Attack in 24 Hours

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Supreme Court Rejects NH Bid to Revive Ballot Selfies Ban

The Supreme Court has rejected New Hampshire’s bid to revive a state law prohibiting voters from taking pictures of themselves and their completed ballots.

The justices on Monday left in place lower court rulings that struck down the law as an unconstitutional restriction on voters’ free-speech rights.

Roughly two dozen states prohibit voters from sharing photos of themselves with their ballots. But those laws are under legal attack, with mixed results.

Just before the November election, a judge in New York upheld that state’s prohibition on ballot selfies, while a judge in Colorado said voters could take pictures of themselves with their ballots.

Ballot photo bans were enacted over 100 years ago as a way to prevent coercion, intimidation and vote buying.

Source: newsmax – Supreme Court Rejects NH Bid to Revive Ballot Selfies Ban

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Both Sides in Senate Fear Nuclear Option on Gorsuch Confirmation

Senators on both sides of the aisle are worried that the dispute over the Democrats’ attempt to block Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation could not only cause Republicans to make an opportunistic change to of the rules in the upper chamber, but also lead to irrevocable damage to the Senate by eventually eliminating the filibuster for controversial legislation, The Hill reported on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Gorsuch will be confirmed even if he can’t garner the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster by altering Senate rules so that a simple majority is enough, commonly called “the nuclear option.”

But McConnell insists that the legislative filibuster is safe, telling NBC’s “Meet The Press” that support for it remains strong in the Senate.

“I don’t think the legislative filibuster is in danger. It’s a longstanding tradition of the Senate. The business of filibustering judges is quite new,” said McConnell. 

However, many other did not share his view.

Republican Sen. John McCain said he is convinced eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations is a slippery slope, while fellow GOP Sen. Bob Corker agreed, warning that “if we continue on the path we’re on right now, the very next time there’s a legislative proposal that one side of the aisle feels is so important they cannot let their base down, the pressure builds, then we’re going to vote the nuclear option on the legislative piece.”

Several Democratic congressmen have the same fear.

Sen. Joe Manchin warned The Hill that “people who have been here for a long time know that we’re going down the wrong path here. The most unique political body in the world, the United States Senate, will be no more than a six-year term in the House.”

However, others in both parties are eager to see the end of the filibuster. Former Republican Rep. Matt Salmon said, “It’s become so commonplace to block just about everything, including even appropriation bills, so that the Congress can’t get its work done. The filibuster as it’s currently used has really worn out its welcome.”

Similarly, former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid told Politico: “You can’t have a democracy decided by 60 out of 100, and that’s why changing the rules is one of the best things that has happened to America in a long time.”

While acknowledging the drawbacks of the filibuster, the Washington Examiner pointed out its important benefits, saying “the minority party has certain powers at their disposal to protect their core prerogatives and to stop the majority from getting whatever it wants” in the Senate, but if the filibuster is taken away discussion to take into consideration the concerns of the minority will no longer take place.

In particular, the Examiner states, “By forcing the majority party to clear a 60-vote threshold to move a bill or Supreme Court nomination to final debate, a Republican or Democratic president has to think twice before tapping an individual who is considered a fringe or extremist candidate by the other party.”

Source: newsmax – Both Sides in Senate Fear Nuclear Option on Gorsuch Confirmation

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Russia Opens Terror Probe After Subway Blast Kills 10

A bomb blast tore through a subway train in Russia’s second-largest city Monday, killing 10 people and injuring about 40 as President Vladimir Putin visited the city, authorities said.

Hours later, police found an unexploded device in one of St. Petersburg’s busiest subway stations, sending a wave of anguish and fear through Putin’s hometown.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack Monday, but Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was probing an “act of terror” but added it would look into all other possible causes of the blast.

Witnesses described seeing a man throwing a backpack onto the train moments before the deadly blast, the Daily Mail reported. 

Putin, speaking from Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg, said investigators were looking into whether the explosion was a terror attack or if there might have been some other cause. He offered his condolences to the families of those killed.

Kremlin denies reports Putin was scheduled to pass through bombed metro http://bit.ly/2nTPZaI http://pic.twitter.com/durAmNwuUv

— CNN (@CNN) April 3, 2017

“All the signs of a terrorist attack are there,” Viktor Ozerov, head of the security committee in the upper house of parliament, said by telephone. “The complex of measures against terrorism in the country failed.”

Russian trains and planes have been targeted repeatedly by Islamic militants, mostly connected to the insurgency in Chechnya and other Caucasus republics. The last confirmed attack was in October 2015 when Islamic State militants downed a Russian airliner heading from an Egyptian resort, killing all 224 people on board.

The Dec. 25 crash of a Russian plane carrying Red Army Choir members near the southern city of Sochi is widely believed to have been due to a bomb, but no official cause has been stated for the crash that killed 92 people.

В Питере взрыв в метро http://pic.twitter.com/HZvq7tqwXd

— Philipp Kireev (@mynameisphiIipp) April 3, 2017

The blast Monday hit the St. Petersburg train it traveled between stations about 2:20 p.m. The driver chose to continue on to the next station, Technological Institute, a decision praised by Russia’s Investigative Committee as aiding evacuation efforts and reducing the danger that passengers would die by trying to walk along the subway’s electrified tracks.

After a few hours of differing casualty tolls, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said 10 people died from the blast. City health authorities said 43 others were hospitalized.

Eyewitness to deadly St. Petersburg blast: “I felt an explosion wave” and “everything was filled with smoke” http://bit.ly/2nBNRSv http://pic.twitter.com/MV4sczgAFt

— CNN (@CNN) April 3, 2017

Witnesses said the blast spread panic among passengers, who ran toward the exits of the station, which is 40 meters (130 feet) underground.

“Everything was covered in smoke, there were a lot of firefighters,” Maria Smirnova, a student on a train behind the one where a bomb went off, told the Dozhd television channel. “Firefighters shouted at us to run for the exit and everyone ran. Everyone was panicking.”

The entire St. Petersburg subway system, which serves some 2 million riders a day, was shut down and evacuated. Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said security was immediately tightened at all of the country’s key transportation sites, and Moscow officials said that included the subway in the Russian capital.

Social media users posted photographs and video from the Technology Institute subway station in the city center, showing injured people lying on the floor outside a train with a mangled door. Frantic commuters were reaching into doors and windows, trying to see if anyone was there, and shouting “Call an ambulance!”

Dit weten we tot nu toe over de aanslag in Sint-Petersburg #StPeterburgBlast #rusland #StPeterburg #StPetersbourg http://bit.ly/2nBVVTt

— Terreurdreiging.nl (@Terreurdreiging) April 3, 2017

St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city with over 5 million residents, is the country’s most popular tourist destination. The two stations that were the site of the blast are some of the subway’s busiest.

Putin was in St. Petersburg on Monday for talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services are doing their best to establish the cause and give a full picture of what happened,” Putin said at the start of his talks with Lukashenko.

St. Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko was overseeing the rescue effort.

Within two hours of the blast, Russia authorities had found and deactivated another bomb at a separate busy St. Petersburg subway station, Vosstaniya Square, the anti-terror agency said. That station is a major transfer point for passengers on two lines and serves the railway station from which most trains to Moscow depart.

Russian law enforcement agencies confirmed the Vosstaniya Square device was rigged with shrapnel and the Interfax news agency said it contained up to 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives.

St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city with over 5 million residents, is the country’s most popular tourist destination but was no immediate information on whether any foreigners were among the victims Monday.

Nataliya Maksimova, who was running late for a dentist appointment, entered the subway near the explosion site shortly after the blast.

“If I hadn’t been running late, I could have been there,” she told The Associated Press.

Russian transport facilities have been the target of previous terror attacks.

Suicide bombings in the Moscow subway on March 29, 2010, killed 40 people and wounded more than 100 people. Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the attack by two female suicide bombers, warning Russian leaders that “the war is coming to their cities.”

A Moscow-to-St. Petersburg train was also bombed on Nov. 27, 2009, in an attack that left 26 dead and some 100 injured. Umarov’s group also said he ordered this attack.

Russian airports have also been hit by attacks. On Jan. 24, 2011, a suicide bomber blew himself up at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, killing 37 people and wounding 180. The same airport in August 2004 saw Islamic suicide bombers board two airplanes and bring them down, killing a total of 90 people.

Source: newsmax – Russia Opens Terror Probe After Subway Blast Kills 10

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NKorean Defector: Kim Jong Un Prepared to Strike US With Nuclear Weapons

Thae Yong Ho, a top North Korean defector, said the country is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies, NBC News is reporting.

Thae, the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, said dictator Kim Jong-un is intent on maintaining his rule and could use intercontinental ballistic missiles against his enemies if need be.

“Once he sees that there is any kind of sign of a tank or an imminent threat from America, then he would use his nuclear weapons with ICBM,” he said.

His comments came during an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt. The issue of North Korea is expected to be addressed when President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, according to CNN.

Just last month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the U.S. would leave the option of military action on the table when it comes to dealing with North Korea, CNN reported.

In his interview with NBC, Thae warned the U.S. needs to be prepared.

“Kim Jong-un is a man who can do anything beyond the normal imagination” and “the final and the real solution to the North Korean nuclear issue is to eliminate Kim Jong-un from the post,” he said.

“Kim Jong-un is a person who did not even hesitate to kill his uncle and a few weeks ago, even his half-brother,” Thae said. “So, he is a man who can do anything to remove [anyone in] his way.”

Thae was serving as North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom when he defected to South Korean. He was not directly involved in that country’s weapons program.

“If Kim Jong-un has nuclear weapons and ICBMs, he can do anything,” he said. “So, I think the world should be ready to deal with this kind of person.”

And Thae acknowledged he is likely a target of the regime.

“I am already a marked man,” he said. “Kim Jong-un wants to eliminate any person or any country which poses a threat to him. And I think I am really a great threat to him.”

Source: newsmax – NKorean Defector: Kim Jong Un Prepared to Strike US With Nuclear Weapons

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Official: Trump Senior Adviser Jared Kushner Travels to Iraq

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is traveling in Iraq with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday.

The official did not disclose more details of the visit.

CNBC, however, reported that Kushner wanted to demonstrate support for the Iraqi government, which is battling Islamic State.

Among Kushner’s roles in the White House is advising on the Middle East. One of President Donald Trump’s promises during the election campaign was to defeat and destroy the extremist group, and he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last month to discuss strategy.

Before Trump entered the White House, former President Barack Obama had already initiated a policy of aiding the Iraqi government with U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and military advisers.

With this support, Iraqi forces had already recaptured a number of major cities from ISIS, managed to cut off much of the group’s finances and stopped many of the foreign fighters who had previously been joining their ranks.

Kushner is married to Trump’s oldest daugher, Ivanka.

Source: newsmax – Official: Trump Senior Adviser Jared Kushner Travels to Iraq

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Report: People Fleeing New York Region at Alarming Rate

People are fleeing the New York region at an alarming rate as it tops the list for the “highest negative net migration rate among the nation’s large population centers,” the New York Post reported, citing U.S. Census records.

More than 1 million people have left the New York area since 2010, including 223,423 in 2016 compared to 187,034 in 2015. The number of international immigrants settling in the tri-state area dropped from 181,551 to 160,324 over the same period, the Post reported. The region includes parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, the lower Hudson Valley and Long Island.

The story pointed to reasons for the 4.4 percent loss included an improved U.S economy, which drove a desire by residents to live in places that were less expensive, and that retirees preferred to live in warmer climates.

“The historical trend is that out migration grows when economy is getting better,” said E.J. McMahon, research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy which compiles census data.

“As the economy gets better there are more jobs outside the region and by the same token . . . more people to buy your house if you’re a baby boomer looking to move to Boca Raton or Myrtle Beach.”

Foreign arrivals and births were the main driver of population growth in the New York region from 2010 to 2016, the Post stated. Cities which had seen the most growth were the Orlando-Daytona Beach area in Florida, Denver, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Portland, Ore., according to the article.

Chicago came in second for negative migration rate with a loss of 4.3 percent since 2010.

Source: newsmax – Report: People Fleeing New York Region at Alarming Rate

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NYC Mayor Wants to Close Rikers Island Jail Over Next Decade

The mayor said Friday that he wants to close the city’s troubled Rikers Island jail complex, though he cautioned that doing so would be difficult and take at least a decade.

“It will take many years and it will take many tough decisions along the way, but it will happen,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Among those challenges: The mayor said the jail’s daily population would have to be slashed to half of what it was just a few years ago. New, smaller jails would also have to be opened elsewhere in the city — a potentially lengthy process considering the possibility of neighborhood opposition.

Key details of the plan, including the cost and the location of alternative jails, are still a long way from being worked out, the mayor said.

The announcement comes two days ahead of the planned unveiling of recommendations by an independent commission established by the City Council after a string of brutality cases that exposed poor supervision, questionable medical care and corruption at Rikers. The commission has been considering options for Rikers as part of a broad examination of the city’s criminal justice system.

Previously, the mayor, a Democrat, had called proposals to close Rikers “noble” but too expensive.

On Friday, he said he had changed his mind because the jail system was housing fewer and fewer people, dropping to under 10,000 from a high of 15,000 just a few years ago, according to city figures. Most of the city’s jail population is at Rikers; there are about 2,400 inmates in other locations. De Blasio said the jail population would have to be at 5,000 in order to shut it.

De Blasio credited the drop partly to shifts in how law enforcement handles lower level crimes, like smoking marijuana in public.

Rikers is a 400-acre (162-hectare) former dump near the runways of LaGuardia Airport. It is accessible only by a narrow bridge between it and Queens. For decades, the city has sent its inmates there while they await trial, where they’re housed in 10 jail facilities.

Advocates for prisoners have been arguing that smaller jails, based in the city’s neighborhoods, would be better able to provide services and reduce delays getting criminal suspects to and from court.

Glenn Martin, an inmate advocate who has pushed a campaign to persuade the mayor to close the jail, called de Blasio’s decision “a step in the right direction.”

“Countless failed attempts at incremental reform have proven that the only viable solution is to close Rikers,” he said.

Neighborhood groups and others have resisted previous attempts to build or expand existing jails in the boroughs. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said Friday that city officials should be thinking about how to help people entangled in the criminal justice system.

“Are we going to give these people another chance or are we going to write them off?” she asked.

Violence, mismanagement and corruption have been the subject of intense scrutiny by the media and federal prosecutors in recent years.

A 2015 settlement of civil litigation over pervasive brutality led to the installation of a monitor responsible for overseeing the city’s progress in adding thousands of surveillance cameras and stricter policies on use of force.

The Associated Press and other news outlets first exposed conditions on Rikers in a series of reports in 2014. Those reports included the suicide of Kalief Browder, who hanged himself after spending three years jailed — mostly in solitary — without trial and a homeless ex-Marine who essentially baked to death in a hot cell.

Source: newsmax

US Defense Chief Mattis: North Korea Has 'Got to be Stopped'

North Korea must be stopped on its path toward being able to threaten the United States with nuclear attack, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday in a stark expression of America’s top national security concern at the moment. He emphasized diplomatic means of changing Pyongyang’s “reckless” agenda.

On his first visit to Britain as Pentagon chief, Mattis also took rhetorical jabs at Russia and said America’s priority in Syria is defeating the Islamic State group rather than bringing down President Bashar Assad.

At a joint news conference with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, Mattis was reminded by a reporter that as commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East several years ago, he considered Iran to be the biggest threat to U.S. interests. Asked how he would deal with Iran as secretary of defense, Mattis called Tehran a problem but quickly pivoted to condemning North Korea and described the isolated, communist country as the more immediate threat.

“This is a threat of both rhetoric and growing capability,” Mattis said, alluding to the North’s recent progress in building nuclear bombs and developing an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver such weapons to U.S. soil. Experts believe

North Korea will develop such capability in the next years, despite an array of international sanctions on the country. The Trump administration has been conducting a broad policy review of North Korea that includes military options, but Mattis stressed other approaches.

“We are working diplomatically, including with those that we might be able to enlist in this effort to get North Korea under control,” he said. “But right now it appears to be going in a very reckless manner.”

“That’s got to be stopped,” he concluded.

Mattis made clear he still worries about Iran’s involvement in what the U.S. sees as destabilizing activities across the Middle East. But he suggested that he now sees the world through a wider lens and that makes North Korea the more urgent problem.

He also aimed strong criticism at Russia, saying its “violations of international law are now a matter of record.” He was referring to its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and “mucking around insider other people’s elections and that sort of thing.” He also cited Russian outreach to Afghanistan’s Taliban as a concern.

Mattis hinted the Trump administration was close to deciding how to respond to Russia’s recent deployment of a ground-based medium-range cruise missile — an action the Pentagon recently declared a violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty.

Britain’s Fallon said he and Mattis discussed the INF issue in their private talks Friday. More broadly, he said the NATO alliance cannot return to business as usual with Russia.

“There is a pattern of interference by Russia,” Fallon said. When the West does engage with Moscow, he added, “we need to be wary of what Russia is up to.”

On Syria, which has been wracked by years of civil and IS’ insurgency, Mattis said the U.S. government is “working this one day at a time.” He said the focus is IS’ stated intention of attacking the West, including Europe.

“We’re going to have to keep them on their back foot, and that’s where we’re concentrating at this point,” he said, alluding to U.S.-supported offensives in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria.

Source: newsmax

Sessions: Ferguson Emblem of Tense Relationship with Police

Ferguson, Missouri, has become “an emblem of the tense relationship” between law enforcement and those it serves, especially minority communities, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday during a visit to St. Louis.

Sessions, speaking to a gathering of law enforcement leaders at the federal courthouse that sits roughly 12 miles from Ferguson, said the Justice Department will work with them to battle the rising tide of violent crime in America. He said he supports “proactive, up-close policing — when officers get out of their squad cars and interact with everyone on their beat — that builds trust, prevents violent crime, saves lives and creates a good atmosphere.”

But Sessions said that sort of police work has become increasingly difficult in what he called “an age of viral videos and targeted killings of police.”

“Unfortunately, in recent years law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the crime and unacceptable deeds of a few in their ranks,” Sessions said. “Amid this intense public scrutiny and criticism, morale has gone down, while the number in their ranks killed in the line of duty has gone up.”

Ferguson, he said, has become “an emblem of the tense relationship between law enforcement and the communities we serve, especially our minority communities.”

Ferguson became a flashpoint after 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, was killed by white officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. Months of often violent protests followed the shooting. A St. Louis County grand jury and the Justice Department cleared Wilson of wrongdoing in November 2014, and he resigned that same month.

But the Justice Department investigation under then-Attorney General Eric Holder found significant racial profiling and bias in both Ferguson’s police department and municipal court. The city and the Justice Department settled a lawsuit last year that requires significant changes in policing. That process is ongoing.

Sessions is taking a far different approach than Holder. Civil rights investigations of police were common during the Obama administration. Sessions has suggested that civil rights investigations hinder police, causing them to back off out of fear of scrutiny of their every move. In fact, some have labeled the phenomenon the “Ferguson Effect.”

Ferguson Police Chief Delrish Moss, who attended the speech, said he was encouraged by Sessions’ commitment to battling violent crime. And Moss believes the Justice Department remains steadfast in working with Ferguson leaders to eliminate racial bias.

“We’re working with the Department of Justice, in fact, on a weekly basis,” Moss said. “They remain as committed as they always have been to the reforms we’ve agreed upon.”

President Ronald Reagan chose Sessions for a federal judgeship in the 1980s, but the nomination was rejected amid concerns about racially charged comments and his failed prosecution of three black civil rights activists on voting fraud charges.

Denise Lieberman, a St. Louis lawyer with the civil rights group Advancement Project, said Sessions’ approach is concerning at a time when allegations of violence by police are at an all-time high.

“We also know that the role of the Department of Justice is absolutely critical to ensuring that policing agencies are complying with the law, and they are a crucial step in bringing accountability to policing,” Lieberman said. “We see that right here in Ferguson.”

Sessions told the St. Louis audience he has ordered the creation of a crime-fighting task force that brings together the leaders of the FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Marshals Service. He said battling the heroin and opioid epidemic is a crucial element of the fight to stem violent crime.

Source: newsmax

Former Marine Security Expert: 'We Already Are in a Cyberwar' With Russia

A former U.S. Marine Corps cyber security expert said the U.S. is already in a cyber war with Russia. 

“Hacking, especially when it comes to different countries, is nothing new. The United States hacks Russia,” David Kennedy said in a video for Business Insider. “Russia hacks the United States. We hack China, China hacks us.

It’s literally a game where we don’t want to impact them because they can impact us and vice versa,” he continues.

“So in the event that Russia decides to launch a cyberattack that directly impacts our economy, or our power grid, or our water treatment facilities, things that we rely on for core day-to-day life.

“We have the exact same foot-holds into their environment and we can do the exact same thing. So right now it’s really a pain game on who wants to withstand the most about of main and who has the most capabilities. So everybody is scared of each other.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Russian actions during the election could be an “act of war,” but according to Kennedy, “we don’t know what classifies a cyber war or what would cause an act of war, right now there’s no definition of that.”

According to CBS News, Cheney said at the Economic Times’ Global Business Summit in New Delhi: “There’s not any argument at this stage that somehow the election of President Trump was not legitimate, but there’s no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic, fundamental democratic processes.

“In some quarters, that would be considered an act of war.”

Source: newsmax

Verizon: Android Spyware Coming Soon to Your Device

Verizon has announced it will install spyware called AppFlash on all of its users’ Android devices within the next few weeks, just days after the House of Representatives passed legislation that would allow internet providers to sell people’s browser histories to advertisers.

AppFlash works to connect content and services between different apps, and suggests restaurants, music, movies, etc., that might interest users, according to TechCrunch. To be able to make relevant suggestions, the spyware gathers data about your preferences from your searches and apps.

Not only does the spyware collect your phone number, it also records your location and everything stored on your device, including the information for all of your contacts, Engadget reported.

Verizon said the information would be shared with all of the companies Verizon owns or is partnered with, including AOL.

The revelation caused privacy watchdog the Electronic Frontier Foundation to initially decry AppFlash as “the first horseman of the privacy apocalypse,” according to PhoneArena.

The digital rights group did back off from their strong opposition to the software, pending further investigation, when Verizon clarified users would have to opt in to the software.

“You can easily disable the app,” a Verizon spokeswoman said, CNET reported. “Nobody is required to use it.

Twitter users seem universally opposed to the spyware addition, with many saying they plan to seek other ISPs and cell phone service providers.

Hey @verizon, your new mandatory Appflash spyware is a great way to encourage your customers to dump you for @ATT.http://bit.ly/2nTHMnB

— Northern Cali-Gator (@microdile) March 31, 2017

Dear Verizon,
You were my 1st, have been my only. I trusted you. I plan to see other ISPs. You and your spyware deserve each other.
Irene

— Irene Koehler (@IreneKoehler) March 31, 2017

Source: newsmax

Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown on Running for President: 'Don't Rule It Out'

California Gov. Jerry Brown  may be leaving open the possibility of a run for the presidency, according to SFGate. 

“I don’t think I’m running for office. All I’ve got left is lieutenant governor, treasurer, and controller,” he said at a Thursday press conference.

A person in the crowd then yelled,”Or president,” according to the Los Angeles Times. 

“I’d be 82 then. But you know, don’t rule it out,” Brown said.

An aide later clarified Brown’s comment for the LA Times, saying, “He was joking.”

The governor on Wednesday proposed raising $52 billion with a gasoline tax increase to fix California’s roads, Los Angeles Daily News reported. 

Source: newsmax

Commerce's Wilbur Ross Hopes for Cooperation From Chinese President

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday he hopes President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping will result in a commitment toward the two countries working collaboratively.

“What I would hope would come out would be a commitment to start abiding by the rules and a commitment to working collaboratively to help reduce our deficit,” Ross told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” program.

Trump on Thursday tweeted that the session will be a “very difficult one” because “we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses.”

Friday, Trump plans to sign two executive orders aimed at reshaping U.S. trade policy, aiming the orders at foreign trade abuses. The signings come a week before Trump will meet with the Chinese leader.

Ross told Fox News that the first order will commission the Commerce Department to perform a 90-day study, “country by country, of the causes for our deficits with them.”

“As you know, we have $500 billion of total deficit,” Ross said. “This will be a real analytical pinpointing so it can form the basis of policy decisions. For the first time, there will be a systemic analysis of the problem, so that we can have very detailed and very accurate solutions.”

The research wille result in a public report, said Ross, as will Trump’s responses.

The second executive order will strengthen the nation’s anti-dumping rules, in hopes of slowing how China and other nations dump their products onto the international market a lower rates than U.S. companies can match.

“What the second order does is it corrects the problem we’ve had in collecting the anti-dumping duties,” Ross said. “There are $3 million worth of duties that have never been collected, because they set up straw man importers that don’t have any financial substance. By the time the case ends, there is nobody against whom you can asses the fine.”

The order will require that letters of credit, insurance company bonds, or cash be put up by companies, so that fines can be assessed and levied for dumping, said Ross.

Source: newsmax

NBC News: Obama Admin. Created List of Russia Probe Docs

Officials within former President Barack Obama’s administration created a list, using serial numbers to document all of the classified files related to the Russia-election investigation, NBC News reported.

The purpose — get the documents in front of Senate Intelligence Committee members before President Donald Trump took office for fear they might get buried come Jan. 20, NBC reported.

A former Obama official told NBC they wanted “to share it with those on the Hill who could lawfully see the documents” and keep them in a second safe outside of CIA headquarters.

The report echoes what a former Obama Defense Department official has been saying in recent weeks.

Evelyn Farkas, former deputy assistant secretary of defense and now a national security analyst for NBC News, said she had urged the Obama administration as well as lawmakers to gather and preserve intelligence about the Trump-Russia probe.

“I got worried that the process wasn’t being followed with regard to Capitol Hill, with regard to Congress, because it wasn’t clear to me that the White House was keeping them in the loop, Farkas said during an MSNBC segment Thursday.

“And that was really important, especially since we were about to have a transition in the government.”

Source: newsmax

Sessions Speeding Up Deportation of Illegal Immigrants in Federal Prisons

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is moving to quickly deport imprisoned immigrants.

Sessions is expanding the Institutional Hearing Program that uses in-person and video-conference hearings so judges can determine if any illegal immigrants in federal prisons should be deported after their sentences are up, The Daily Caller is reporting.

“We owe it to the American people to ensure that illegal aliens who have been convicted of crimes and are serving time in our federal prisons are expeditiously removed from our country as the law requires,” Sessions said.

“This expansion and modernization of the Institutional Hearing Program gives us the tools to continue making Americans safe again in their communities.”

The program is designed to speed up the process rather than releasing the inmates to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility for further determination of their status.

Under the expanded program, 14 federal prisons and six contract facilities will now be included. Each of the facilities will have their video teleconference abilities increased, Fox News reported.

The Justice Department believes the improved procedures will also reduce costs to taxpayers, according to the news network.

Source: newsmax

Hillary Clinton Slams Proposed Trump Budget Cuts for Diplomacy in Georgetown Speech

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is criticizing President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts to international programs, saying “turning our backs on diplomacy won’t make our country safer.”

The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee made the comments in a speech at Georgetown University on Friday. She also took a veiled swipe at the Trump administration — and drew applause from the crowd — when she remarked, “here I go again, talking about research, evidence and facts.”

Senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway earlier this year defended disputed numbers on the inaugural crowd from the White House as “alternative facts.”

Clinton stressed the need for spending on diplomacy by quoting Defense Secretary James Mattis, who said cutting funds for the State Department means he has to buy more ammunition.

Source: newsmax