Sunday, April 5, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Amendment would allow loaded guns into Tennessee legislature
Apr. 1, 2015
NASHVILLE -- Senators today approved a bill quashing cities and counties' bans on handgun permit holders' going armed in local parks, but critics tagged it with an amendment allowing permit holders to bring their loaded weapons to the General Assembly.
As a result the bill, which passed on a 26-7 vote, will have to go back to the House for concurrence.
NASHVILLE -- Senators today approved a bill quashing cities and counties' bans on handgun permit holders' going armed in local parks, but critics tagged it with an amendment allowing permit holders to bring their loaded weapons to the General Assembly.
As a result the bill, which passed on a 26-7 vote, will have to go back to the House for concurrence.
Fox News: Republican Hopefuls Take Turns Criticizing Iran Nuclear Deal
Republican hopefuls in the 2016 presidential race are criticizing the Obama administration’s tentative nuclear deal with Iran, saying the agreement is dangerous for the United States and its allies.
“Obama’s dangerous deal with Iran rewards an enemy, undermines our allies and threatens our safety,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who sits atop several early polls, tweeted shortly after the tentative deal was announced Thursday.
Like essentially all of the potential GOP candidates, Walker has used the agreement to strike a sharp contrast with Democrats, with Election Day roughly 18 months away, and make the case that the deal appears to give Iran enough space to remain a nuclear threat to Israel and other allies in the region.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran -- the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism -- is on the march throughout the Middle East,” Walker said earlier. “President Obama’s deal … risks provoking a nuclear arms race in the most volatile region of the world, one that threatens the survival of our closest regional ally Israel and our key Arab partners.”
Walker also has vowed, if elected, that he will pull the U.S. from the international deal on “day one” of his presidency.
More: www.foxnews.com
ABC News: Hillary Clinton's Team Signs Lease on Office Space in Brooklyn
Hillary Clinton’s team has officially signed a lease on a campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, dropping the biggest hint yet that the former secretary of state is running for president in 2016.
Two Democrats familiar with the arrangement confirmed the deal to ABC News, which was first reported by Politico.
Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Team Takes Shape
Hillary Clinton Asks for State Department Emails to be Released
The site of the headquarters is 1 Pierrepont Plaza in the trendy neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. According to its website, the 19-story building is marketed as “Modern offices. Brooklyn Cool.”
It is located conveniently by a number of popular restaurants and stores, including by Shake Shack, Chipotle, Starbucks and Urban Outfitters. (The building is also located where Clinton Street comes to an end.)
More: www.abcnews.go.com
Thursday, April 2, 2015
The Daily Beast: A Gay Woman Fights Back in Arkansas
It’s easy, from a distance, to think that Arkansas is awash with backward, homophobic yokels when its legislature passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which would allow businesses to discriminate against gay couples getting married. Governor Asa Hutchinson has sent it back to the legislature for rewording. Part of the reason is undoubtedly that Wal-Mart and other big corporations had asked him to veto it. They were worried about their bottom lines after watching many other businesses, and at least one state, pledge to boycott Indiana when the Hoosier State’s own version passed a few days earlier.
But there were plenty of people who call Arkansas home and didn’t like the law either—and like the Southerners who opposed joining the Confederacy, it’s important that history doesn’t forget them. In the past few days, my Facebook timeline has been awash with shares from people—voters, taxpayers, and proud Arkansans—who want the governor to veto the law, and there have been public statements from religious leaders and other state organizations expressing their disproval.
More: www.thedailybeast.com
Bloomberg: Thanks To Obama, The New World of Campaign Finance Is Unlimited and Undisclosed
After nightfall in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush stood outside a Republican house party and told reporters that he hadn’t considered whether he would voluntarily disclose the names of “bundlers,” the men and women who increase their influence with a presidential candidate by collecting—or bundling—hundreds of donations of $5,400 or less.
For one, Bush wasn’t technically a presidential candidate when he was asked the question last month. And he still isn't officially in the race, as he continues to say he’s seriously weighing the possibility of running.
There's another reason why the former Florida governor may not have thought about providing those names: A new day is dawning in the way presidential campaigns—and potential candidates—are financed. And bundlers are becoming less important.
“If you really want to influence a candidate, or a future candidate, you give to an outside group,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in election law. “Direct contributions and bundling are increasingly becoming a way of the past.”
Potential presidential candidates this year–including Bush–are using outside groups to pay for traditional functions of an early campaign or political committee, including communications, policy development, and research. Unlike a presidential campaign or the committees that politicians are supposed to use while they consider running for the White House, these groups have no legal limits on contributions, which worries watchdogs.
More: www.bloomberg.com
Fox News: Dem Retirements Touch Off Head-Spinning Leadership Shuffle
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| Sen. Chuck Schumer |
Here’s what will happen before mid-November 2016 …
Major League Baseball will award two World Series crowns. The NBA will bestow two titles. The NHL will present the Stanley Cup twice. Both political parties will have held their conventions and tapped their respective nominees. And voters will choose the next president.
Only then, sometime in mid-November 2016, will the Senate Democratic Caucus gather to select its new leadership team.
A lot can happen between now and then. But even so, it appears that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is poised to succeed retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., as the top Democrat in the Senate.
Again, that’s what’s likely to happen. Schumer quickly maneuvered to lock down his votes as Reid’s successor within hours of the Nevada Democrat’s announcement last Friday. What isn’t as clear is what happens down-ballot. It’s thought that Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wants to maintain his post as the number two. But there is rattling that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., may want to springboard deeper into leadership. And, then there is the wild card: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. There are outside efforts to court Warren to run for one of the top spots in the Senate. And there are those who want the Massachusetts Democrat to run for president – regardless of whether Hillary Clinton seeks the White House.
More: www.foxnews.com
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
National Journal: BROKEN CITY: Rahm Emanuel And The Unraveling Of Chicago.
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| Rahm Emanuel / AP |
Rahm Emanuel is probably going to be reelected mayor of Chicago, but it won't have been a pretty road to get there. He failed to garner a majority in the first round of voting, back in February—a rebuke, of sorts, from voters, who had four years ago given him 55 percent of the first-round vote. As a result, he now faces an April 7 runoff against county official Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.
When political junkies in the rest of the country think about Emanuel, they tend to focus on his legendary haughtiness. To take one example: A constituent who met with Emanuel earlier this month to protest the closing of mental-health clinics complained that the mayor had yelled, "You're gonna respect me!" (Emanuel's camp denied to The Huffington Post that the mayor had yelled.) Such haughtiness has certainly hurt Emanuel during this campaign. Whereas his predecessor, Richard M. Daley, was perfectly capable of arrogance, his personality didn't seem to offend Chicagoans the same way Emanuel's does.
Daley had the bluster of the common man; Emanuel comes across as imperious. "Daley could be your brother or uncle," one labor leader told me recently. "Rahm is more upper class." The press in Chicago has been fond of recounting how Emanuel was seen with his extremely wealthy friend, Illinois's Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, at a posh Montana resort carrying a bottle of wine that's only available through an exclusive buyer's club—which costs six figures to join.
More: www.nationaljournal.com
CNN: Arkansas Governor: Bill Needs Changes Before I Sign It
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| Screen grab via CNN |
Washington (CNN) Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he does not plan to sign the religious freedom bill that sits on his desk right now, instead asking state lawmakers to make changes so the bill mirrors federal law.
The first-term Republican governor said he wants his state "to be known as a state that does not discriminate but understands tolerance."
His decision comes in the wake of an uproar in Indiana, where Gov. Mike Pence has faced pressure from businesses, sports associations like the NCAA and popular culture figures to backtrack on a similar religious freedom law he signed last week. In Arkansas, it's been Wal-Mart applying the most pressure.
Hutchinson asked lawmakers to recall the law that the Arkansas House had given final approval on Tuesday — or to send him follow-up legislation that makes the changes he requested.
More: www.cnn.com
Sacramento Bee: Jerry Brown Orders Mandatory Water Reductions Amid California Drought
By David Siders, Apr. 1, 2015, Sacramento Bee
PHILLIPS - With California slogging into its fourth year of withering drought, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered mandatory water reductions of 25 percent in cities and towns across the state.
The administration said it was the first time a governor has ever ordered the State Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory water reductions, with implications for everyone from farmers to city-dwellers and their lawns.
The order came as Brown and state water officials traveled east of Sacramento to measure snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. Brown stood in a dry meadow on the day of year the snowpack typically peaks.
PHILLIPS - With California slogging into its fourth year of withering drought, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered mandatory water reductions of 25 percent in cities and towns across the state.
The administration said it was the first time a governor has ever ordered the State Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory water reductions, with implications for everyone from farmers to city-dwellers and their lawns.
The order came as Brown and state water officials traveled east of Sacramento to measure snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. Brown stood in a dry meadow on the day of year the snowpack typically peaks.
More: www.sacbee.com
USA Today: New Jersey Editorials Call On Sen. Menendez To Resign Now
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Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Sen. Robert "Bob" Menendez
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The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, wrote in an editorial published Wednesday that the Democrat’s lengthy career in politics has been “tarnished forever” by allegations Menendez used his office to help a campaign donor.
From the Newark editorial:
The state needs a respected senator who is focused on his job, not a tarnished defendant who spends his days fending off credible charges of corruption and raising money for his legal defense.
The Asbury Park Press said the issue before Menendez might be “painful,” but it’s not “complicated.” The Asbury editorial says:
You can no longer serve the public with any credibility. Don’t play the aggrieved public figure fighting for justice, and don’t pretend that you have some overarching obligation to your supporters to stay on the job.More: www.onpolitics.usatoday.com
Press Release: AP President: Killing Of Journalists Should Be A War Crime
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| James Foley, captured and murdered by ISIS Source: Globalnews.ca |
HONG KONG (AP) — The president and CEO of The Associated Press called on Monday for changes to international laws that would make it a war crime to kill journalists or take them hostage.
Gary Pruitt said a new framework is needed to protect journalists as they cover conflicts in which they are increasingly seen as targets by extremist groups.
"It used to be that when media wore PRESS emblazoned on their vest, or PRESS or MEDIA was on their vehicle, it gave them a degree of protection" because reporters were seen as independent civilians telling the story of the conflict, Pruitt said.
"But guess what: That labeling now is more likely to make them a target," he said in a speech at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club.
Last year was a particularly deadly year for the AP -- four of the news cooperative's journalists were killed on assignment. Globally, 61 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2014, bringing to more than 1,000 the number who have died since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Read the full release: www.ap.org
Especially noteworthy Prepared remarks by AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt : www.ap.org
Friday, January 16, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
ALEX DATIG, EDITOR IN CHIEF, HOST BIO
Contact: frontpageindex@gmail.com
Alexandra Datig publisher of Front Page Index.
She is a press credentialed, American political commentator and
media research specialist with a focus on law, crime and politics.
Alexandra Datig is double major with a B.S. in Criminal Justice Administration Management and an A.A. in Communications, having graduated magna-cum-laude from the University of Phoenix. She is also FEMA Certified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Emergency Management Interagency Communications.
She was born in Luzern, Switzerland, to an American father in the international arms trade, who came from a prominent Hollywood family. Her grandfather Fred A. Datig Sr. was a 32-year Hollywood casting director and founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927 and the right hand to Cecil B. DeMille, casting thousands of Hollywood actors. Her grandfather was also a founding member of the Hollywood Victory Committee founded in 1941.
The Hollywood Victory Committee sent movie, TV and radio talent to entertain U.S. Troops on the front lines during WW ll. Alex Datig’s father was a Hollywood actor and producer, and was also an honorably discharged WW II combat wounded, disabled, U.S. Army Veteran, whose unit liberated the Dachau Concentration Camps in Germany. Her mother is a Swiss-born haute couture fashion model and daughter to a Swiss tax consultant and investment advisor.
Datig’s early education is in Switzerland, in both public and private school. While attending all-girls Christian boarding school in the Swiss Alps, her class joined Pope John Paul II on a two-day pilgrimage on his tour dedicated to "The Youth of Switzerland."
In 1982, the Datig family was honored by the President of Egypt for work her father, Fred A. Datig, completed with the Department of Antiquities identifying weapons from the French invasion of Egypt (1798 - 1801).
Datig moved to the United States with her parents in 1986.
A series of traumatic events as a child, teen and adult-youth, later shaped Datig's focus in her work on public policy, drug policy, current events and the combating of commercial sexual exploitation of children and adult-youth.
Politics and Media:
Datig has experience as a political advisor and consultant for more than 18 years with a long-standing background campaigning on public safety, public policy, environmental issues, drug policy and human trafficking. She has spoken publicly on these issues at the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), the University of Tampa and at Freedom Fest 2022 in Las Vegas among others.
In the field of public relations, she has organized news conferences on behalf of a number of elected officials and bi-partisan issue campaigns. This includes members from the Executive Branch of the White House and the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Drug Czar.
After many years of working in politics, media and public relations, content creation in print, television, radio, multi-media and corporate entertainment, Datig is now editor in chief of the political and current events media resource Front Page Index, launched in 2015. In 2019 President Donald J. Trump re-tweeted Front Page Index posts, after Front Page Index passed 2 million all-time views. Datig also hosts an occasional podcast for Front Page Index, available on iTunes and features issues in the news and interesting things politicians say in a video blog. Datig is also a eight-year content contributor on the crowd-sourcing media platform Grabien Media.
Datig began her career in politics in 2001, working along-side California State Senator and Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, as his executive assistant, campaigning for him and with him for 12 years. Holden served on the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Safety for 8 years. His tenure also included the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. Holden is also a guardian of the Civil Rights movement, having authored Senate Bill 637 enacting the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King and the education on the Civil Rights Movement in to State law in California. Holden also served as President of the CDC, California.
On June 5th, 2019, Datig started a petition on Change.org to recall Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti, for inaction on the homeless crisis in Los Angeles and lack of prioritization for the citizens of Los Angeles. The online petition gained more than 45,000 signatures, citing Los Angeles had 59,000 homeless people. A formal recall process attempting to remove the Mayor followed, as well a requested federal intervention by President Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson. While the recall effort was unsuccessful and could not be implemented effectively due to Covid-19, President Trump's intervention gained national media coverage, exposing homelessness in the United States.
Datig is a strong supporter of the historic measure California Proposition 35, Stop Human Trafficking in California, for which she acted as liaison to secure unanimous endorsement from the Los Angeles City Council in 2012. Prop. 35 enacts the most sever penalties against child and adult youth sex traffickers, placing them on the State sex offender registry. Prop. 35 also funds training for law enforcement to recognize victims and get him or her into treatment and rehabilitation.
In 2011, Datig served as an advisor to the Transition Team for California Attorney General Kamala Harris' subcommittee on Environmental Justice.
In 2010, campaigning on the side of treatment and intervention reform, she was instrumental in the defeat of California Proposition 19, The Regulate Control & Tax Cannabis Act.
She served on the Advisory Board for the Coalition for a Drug Free California and on the County of Los Angeles Task Force for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, helping to develop a nationwide strategy to aid victims of human trafficking.
Her experience in media also includes producing over 100 shows of the now nationally syndicated Larry Elder Show, which during Datig's time as producer was the number one domestic show on Live365 global webcasting platform. She also created The Elder Statement blog which gained more than 3 million views in its first year. In 2015, she sponsored Larry Elder, working with the City of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Chamber, to secure a nomination for a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Elder.
Datig also campaigned at the local and state level in Los Angeles and California for candidates and issue campaigns such as James K. Hahn for Mayor of Los Angeles, Jan Perry for Mayor of Los Angeles, Nate Holden for Assembly, 47th District, Steve Westly for Governor, Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich for Los Angels City Attorney, Paul Koretz for Los Angeles City Council (primary only), District 5, State-wide "No on Proposition 19" (No on 19, victory), State-wide "Yes on Proposition 35" (The CASE Act, approved by more than 80% of California voters), Committee to Recall Mayor Eric Garcetti and others.
In 2018, Datig also oversaw operations for a prominent, global corporate branding and crisis communications firm in Downtown Los Angeles.
Private Sector:
Datig's experience in the private sector includes Director of Finance at an employment and government labor relations law firm in Downtown Los Angeles. She also managed a Beverly Hills based business and real estate litigation firm and a small civil rights law practice headed by a former longtime Assistant Los Angeles City Attorney who specialized in law enforcement litigation, involving police practices and police union negotiations. Datig got her first administrative job in the legal field in 1997 with the law office representing police misconduct victim Rodney King.
She was honored by the Los Angeles City Council for an independent investigation conducted on massive pollution of the L.A. River by the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. During this year-long investigation, Datig was covered by major local news outlets, both TV and print.
As a formerly licensed real estate agent, she also worked at Sotheby's International Realty, Beverly Hills.
Datig has never been married and has no children.
Her contribution to many critical issues affecting communities today has given Datig the opportunity to join some of the most influential individuals and organizations involved with the in-depth issues on drug policy. Organizations include the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP),The Department of Justice, California Narcotics Officers Association (CNOA), Western States Vice Officers Association, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey and former L.A. D.A. Steve Cooley, former Secretary of Education and U.S. Drug Czar Bill Bennett, The Drug Free America Foundation, Dr. Paul Chabot of Chabot Strategies, Captain Joseph R. John of Combat Veterans For Congress and many others. As a speaker on drug policy and treatment reform issues, human trafficking, environmental issues and political campaigns, she has appeared in print news such as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Politico, on TV news and radio talk shows from Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, CNN, CNN International, Daily Caller, The Associated Press, HLN's Dr. Drew, Behind The Badge with Bernard Kerik, The Todd Starnes Show, The Michael Medved Show, Geraldo Rivera Live, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, KABC 790 Talk Radio, CBS, NBC, America Trends with Dr. Gina Louden, The Daily Ledger with Graham Ledger, The Mo Kelly Show, National Review, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, Arizona Politics & Culture, Live! with Dave! Diamond, Russian Television (RT) The Alyona Show, National Swedish Television, Japan TV and others.
Front Page Index on the case 8 Years and counting...
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