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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman is charged with extortion in an alleged plot to get Discovery Communications Inc. to cancel the TLC show "19 Kids and Counting" or pay her $10,000 in exchange for not revealing compromising photos of a cast member, according to federal court documents. Teresa Hunt, of Bettendorf, is accused of threatening to release photos of a cast member in "apparently intimate situations" to a magazine. Hunt was arrested Feb. 1 after she apparently sent television executives typed and handwritten letters demanding the show be canceled, along with a business card for "Perfect Pictures." The...

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, who said on Wednesday night on CNN's John King that Mr. Gingrich would never become President of the United States. "There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that's their prerogative," said Congresswoman Pelosi. "I don't even think that's going to happen." Mr. Gingrich appeared on The Washington Times affiliated radio program "America's Morning News" and forcefully responded to Rep. Pelosi. "There's almost a level of hysteria about the prospect of somebody who really wants to change Washington," said...

........But his greatest presidential stumbling block may be right under his nose. At home, Newt's second wife, Marianne Ginther Gingrich, tells me she doesn't see herself in the First Lady's job. "Watching Hillary has just been a horrible experience," commiserates Marianne. "Hillary sticking her neck out is not working." What happens if Newt runs?, I ask. "He can't do it without me," she replies. "I told him if I'm not in agreement, fine, it's easy" --she giggles at her naughtiness. "I just go on the air the next day, and I undermine everything...I don't want him to be president and...

The Science Daily publication mentioned a study done in 2009, saying that REAL gay people are attracted to manly, masculine, men. Here is a story on the study: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091030125044.htm More than 99 percent of men in the world, find manly, muscular, hairy men, with square jaws, to be sexually unattractive. Gay organizations are fully aware of this fact - that most men are sexually turned on by feminine characteristics, not masculine ones. Gay advocates therefore focus on promoting extremely feminine men in the popular culture, men who are difficult to tell apart from women, when they have their clothes on....

An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran. Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of...

Lost in the press’s non-stop hunger for a lurid he-said-she-said regarding the allegations against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is a more basic look at the nature of sexual harassment claims in this country. As a recovering trial lawyer, I know first-hand how messy our legal system can be, but even I am shocked at the sorry modern state of sexual harassment law. Instead of focusing on the claimed constitutional protections of suspected foreign terrorists held at Guantanamo, maybe the ACLU and the rest of the faux civil libertarian left should be spending a little more time concerned about egregious...

Call girl free to reveal rich john’s name in months [Puzzle for FReepers] "The federal gag order barring a Yellow Pages prostitute from outing the name of a well-to-do Bay State client she bedded then blackmailed when he ended their pay-to-play affair will be lifted when her supervised probation expires in five months. Michelle Robinson, 32, who under threat of imprisonment by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf has never publicly named her deep-pockets trick ..." "The case was cloaked in so much secrecy and intrigue that in 2009 Wolf made federal prosecutors submit a list to him...

We grow up learning that some things are just bad: child labor, ticket scalping, price gouging, kidney selling, blackmail, etc. But maybe they're not. What I love about economics is that it can show that what seems harmful is actually good for society. It illuminates what common sense overlooks. This is all covered in the eye-opening book "Defending the Undefendable" by economist Walter Block. Most people call child labor an unmitigated evil. David Boaz of the Cato Institute and Nick Gillespie of Reason.tv say that's wrong. "If we say that the United States should abolish child labor in very poor...

FULLERTON – The hacker group Anonymous is threatening to disrupt the Fullerton Police Department's website and email after the death of a mentally ill homeless man last month following a confrontation with police officers. The group is demanding the resignation of Police Chief Michael Sellers, the prosecution of the officers involved and the city to pay out $5 million to the family of Kelly Thomas, 37, who died July 10. Police said Thomas resisted while officers were investigating reports of an attempted car burglary. Six officers responded to subdue him, and a bloody photo showing Thomas' fatal head and neck...

Washington gets $200 billion a month, Social Security costs $50 billion a month, and Obama is threatening to starve Grandma? .President Obama told CBS News today that he "cannot guarantee that those [Social Security] checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it." But wait just a minute. If Washington receives about $200 billion in monthly revenues and sends out roughly $50 billion worth of Social Security checks and the same amount of Medicare payments, why is Obama claiming the checks may not...

Obama Refuses to Pay Social Security, Vets, Military, and the interest on the debt even though he has more than enough money for all of them, to include Medicare and Medicaid! Obama is playing politics with social security checks for senior citizens. That's the bottom line. He has 200 billion dollars a month to spend, and social security costs only 49 billion a month. The only conclusion: Obama hates grandma and grandpa and is blackmailing them.

HAD WEINER NOT BEEN EXPOSED, HERE IS A POTENTIAL PRIVATE TWEET TO CONGRESSMAN WEINER: Congressman, we have been sharing messages for two weeks. I have hundreds of graphic messages from you. I have lewd photos of you naked in a state of arousal. This is not a joke and not a game. I am not a woman and am sophisticated enough so that you will not find me. The FBI will not find me, so don't try. You have three days to provide me with access to your wife's Blackberry. Use any excuse you need. I'm sure you will figure...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka accused House Speaker John Boehner of blackmailing America for withholding his vote to raise the debt ceiling unless there are drastic spending cuts. "Now we see Speaker Boehner and his colleagues engaged in a new round of blackmail with a ransom note that reads: 'Cut Medicare, dismantle the government, destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs to fund more tax cuts for the rich, or we will cause the United States to default on its debts'," Trumka said in a speech at the National Press Club on Friday.

Luis Mijangos, who was living in Santa Ana, tricked about 230 people into downloading a virus that allowed him to take over their personal computers. Mijangos looked for sexually explicit photos of computer owners, then threatened to e-mail those files to victims’ mailing lists to coerce them into sending him more homemade digital pornography, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said Mijangos accessed the computers through peer-to-peer networks by tricking victims into downloading malware that appeared to be popular songs. The malware allowed Mijangos to take control of the computers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The 32-year-old Mexican national pleaded guilty...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

U.S. v. DOUGLAS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE/CROSS-APPELLANT, v. DONNY G. DOUGLAS (07-1695/1850) AND JAY D. CAMPBELL (07-1696/1851), DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS/CROSS-APPELLEES. Nos. 07-1695, 07-1696, 07-1850, 07-1851 United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit. Argued: January 20, 2011. Decided and Filed: February 10, 2011. ARGUED: N. C. Deday LaRene, LaRENE & KRIGER, P.L.C., Detroit, Michigan, Harold Gurewitz, GUREWITZ & RABEN, PLC, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Kathleen Moro Nesi, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: N. C. Deday LaRene, LaRENE & KRIGER, P.L.C., Detroit, Michigan, Harold Gurewitz, GUREWITZ & RABEN, PLC, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Kathleen Moro Nesi, ASSISTANT UNITED...

Leaked diplomatic cables vividly show China's willingness to translate its massive holdings of US debt into political influence on issues ranging from Taiwan's sovereignty to Washington's financial policy.

SALT LAKE CITY — The immigration controversy has reached the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with one Latino member of the Utah community's request that Mexico suspend all LDS missionary visas to the nation. Raul Lopez-Vargas, former vice president of Centro Civico Mexicano, one of Utah's oldest Latino community centers, has sent a letter to Mexican Presdient Felipe Calderon seeking the temporary suspension of visas for LDS missionaries. He also delivered the letter in person Monday to the Mexican consulate in Utah. Lopez-Vargas says the request is a response to his view that the LDS Church won't take...

ATLANTA — Jesse Jackson speaks at the announcement event in Atlanta (Photo by Courtney Ward)Wells Fargo says it will help to educate homeowners about managing money. The bank will work with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH coalition and other civil rights groups. They have been critical of Wells Fargo’s lending practices in the past. Georgette Dixon with Wells Fargo says the initiative will help to solve one of the biggest problems in Georgia.

NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) — A Rutgers University student, who was allegedly secretly taped having sex in his dorm room, took his own life, according to his family’s lawyer.

[snip] But I am also troubled by Obama's efforts to hector Jones into changing his mind. Everyone should worry when presidents invoke wartime security, or similar arguments, against constitutionally protected free speech, even -- or especially -- when the speech is offensive, outrageous and unpopular. Strictly speaking, there was nothing unconstitutional about Obama's campaign, abetted by an all-star cast of national security officials, to get Jones to back off. Presidents have free speech, too. But when was the last time an American citizen got a phone call from the Secretary of Defense urging him to call off a political demonstration?...

<p>In the wake of Glenn Beck's hugely successful Restoring Honor rally held in Washington, D.C. this weekend, the Huffington Post has published an offer of $100,000 to anyone with evidence that would destroy Beck's reputation and take him off the political/cultural battlefield.</p>

NEW YORK (CBS 2) – There was a possible resolution in the works Tuesday night in the debate surrounding the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center near ground zero. CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer has learned it looks as if the developers of the mosque may be willing to budge and move away from the Park 51 location where they originally planned the construction. So will the mosque be moving? New York Gov. David Paterson plans to meet with developers of the controversial ground zero mosque as early as this week to offer them state land – at another location –...

LONDON – Online whistle-blower WikiLeaks has posted a huge encrypted file named "Insurance" to its website, sparking speculation that those behind the organization may be prepared to release more classified information if authorities interfere with them. At 1.4 gigabytes, the file is 20 times larger than the batch of 77,000 secret U.S. military documents about Afghanistan that WikiLeaks dumped onto the Web last month, and cryptographers say that the file is virtually impossible to crack — unless WikiLeaks releases the key used to encode the material.

Karen Cunagin Sypher was found guilty yesterday of demanding $10 million from former Knick coach Rick Pitino in return for keeping mum about their "15-second" affair -- and now faces up to 26 years in prison. A jury found Sypher guilty on all six counts -- including extortion and lying to investigators. n cringe-worthy testimony last week, Pitino told jurors their illicit fling in a Louisville Italian restaurant lasted just "15 seconds." The jury, which deliberated for five hours starting Wednesday afternoon, did not have much trouble reaching a decision, foreman Glen Elder said. There were no sticking points, he...

Julian Assange has uploaded a file called “insurance” to the website and elsewhere. The file is 1.4 gigabytes, a thousand times larger than the recently leaked documents. It is estimated that even the fastest computer would take millions of years to decrypt the file. It is believed that Assange may have distributed the pass key to supporters, who could release it to the public. The contents of the file are unknown. However, the recent release of documents, detailing the coalition’s experiences in Afghanistan, are not part of the 500,000 documents from Iraq, alleged to have been sent to WikLeaks by...

Reuben and Shimon are placed into a small room with a suitcase containing $100,000 of cash. The owner of the suitcase offers them the following: "I'll give you all the money in the suitcase, but only on the condition that you negotiate and reach an amicable agreement on its division. That’s the only way I will give you the money. " Reuben, who is a rational person, appreciates the golden opportunity presented to him and turns to Shimon with the obvious suggestion: "Come, you take half the amount, I'll take the other half, and each of us will go away...

What has happened to National Review? The magazine started by William F. Buckley that once stood for conservative libertarian principles has gone out of its way twice now to endorse liberal Republican John McCain for Senate in the Republican primary over the very conservative JD Hayworth. Hayworth has a lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union of 98% over his 12 years in Congress; the same lifetime rating as the most conservative Senator in Congress, Jim DeMint. McCain has an 81% lifetime rating. JD clearly comes from the conservative wing of the Republican Party, McCain comes from the liberal wing....

President Obama is refusing to secure the border until Congress reaches a breakthrough on comprehensive immigration reform, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl said at a recent town hall meeting. "The problem is, he said, if we secure the border, then you all won't have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform," Kyl said, as the crowd in the room gasped loudly. "In other words, they're holding it hostage."

Netanyahu official says White House expects 'concessions' in exchange for supportNEW YORK – The Obama administration is pressing Israel to allow into the Gaza Strip new activist flotillas setting sail from Europe, according to an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office speaking to WND. Separately, an Israeli government official said the White House asked Netanyahu for concessions in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in exchange for U.S. opposition to the establishment of a United Nations commission to investigate Israel's commando raid of a flotilla earlier this week that resulted in the deaths of nine violent activists.

Rev. ShakeDown er Sharpton is threatening Arizona.

Cincinnati Tea Party meets downtown Cincinnati, to hold candlelight vigil and send a massage to U.S.Rep.Steve Driehaus-DWest Price Hill,to vote no on the Obama Insurance Bill. My final headcount was nearly 400, counting teenagers and children too.

The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill. A one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate through cold-calling by campaign volunteers. Mr Obama's threat came as the year-long debate over his signature domestic policy entered its final week. Mr Obama is personally telephoning congressmen who are still on the fence this week, in between several personal appearances devoted toward swinging public opinion. Yesterday he visited Strongsville, Ohio, home of cancer patient Natoma Canfield, who...

Rep. John Boccieri, Ohio-16 Rep. Jason Altmire, PA-4 Rep. Barty Gordon, Tenn-6 Rep. Brian Baird, WA-3

Filegate, Consolidated Cases, DISMISSED While this Court seriously entertained the plaintiffs' allegations that their privacy had been violated--and indeed it was, even if not in the sense contemplated by the Privacy Act--after ample opportunity, they have not produced any evidence of the far-reaching conspiracy that sought to use intimate details from FBI files for political assassinations that they alleged. The only thing that they have demonstrated is that this unfortunate episode--about which they do have cause to complain--was exactly what the defendants claimed: a bureaucratic snafu. Chief Judge Royce Lamberth USDC District of Columbia

New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa will resign from the House on Monday, according Massa chief of staff Joe Racalto. While it’s the latest in a string of bad PR the Democrats have taken this week, Massa’s exit will actually help House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her quest to pass health care. Massa announced earlier in the week that he would retire due to health issues. Shortly after his announcement, allegations of sexual harassment surfaced in the press. Few congressional elections draw the kind of national attention that Erica Massa’s did in 2006. Even fewer draw an equal amount of...

<p>An American teenager has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after posing as a girl on Facebook to blackmail seven classmates into sex.</p> <p>Anthony Stancl, 19, of Wisconsin, was accused of tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him naked photos of themselves.</p>

WAUKESHA, Wis. - A Wisconsin teen convicted of using Facebook to blackmail dozens of classmates into sex has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Nineteen-year-old Anthony Stancl of New Berlin showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down Wednesday. Stancl pleaded no contest in December to two felonies, including repeated sexual assault of a child. He apologized during sentencing, saying he has learned to understand what his victims went through. He had faced a maximum 30-year sentence. Stancl is accused of posing as a girl on Facebook and tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him...

A New Berlin teen who pleaded no contest blackmailing his classmates for sex through Facebook was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison. 19-year-old Anthony Stancl apologized during sentencing, saying he has learned to understand what his victims went through. Stancl was accused of posing as a girl on Facebook and tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him naked photos of themselves, then using the photos to blackmail them for sex....

... This is an issue that our elected leaders need to address formally and soon… ...snip.... Notice that INTERPOL is the only entity remotely close to a law-enforcement agency. The overwhelming majority of entries can be viewed as humanitarian or trade. Notice further that only two entries have “limited privileges” – INTERPOL and the International Food Policy Research Institute. Of course, now, the IFPRI stands alone in that category. snip... Clyde Middleton has done a tremendous amount of research on this with Steve Schippert of ThreatsWatch.org. From Clyde: INTERPOL is more a cooperative than an entity – police organizations around...

Note: The following text is a quote: INTERPOL media release 16 December 2009 Europol and INTERPOL agree to enhance co-operation for the benefit of their member states THE HAGUE, The Netherlands – The Secretary General of INTERPOL, Ronald K. Noble, visited Europol today to discuss the enhanced co-operation between the two organizations. The meeting focused on the development of new ideas for future joint actions which will make use of the complementary strengths of both organizations. Both organizations are ideally placed to join forces for a global police response to serious crime and terrorism. Mr. Noble and Rob Wainwright, the...

In the dead of night on December 17, 2009, President Barack Hussein Obama placed the United States of America under the authority of the international police organization known as INTERPOL, granting the organization full immunity to operate within the United States. Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other "International Organizations" as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945. By removing language from President Reagan's 1983...

...One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law. Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization... By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also an active law-enforcement agency, so critical privileges and immunities (set forth in Section 2(c) of the International Organizations Immunities Act) were withheld. ... On Wednesday, however, for no apparent reason, President Obama issued an...

A little-discussed executive order from President Obama giving foreign cops new police powers in the United States by exempting them from such drudgery as compliance with the Freedom of Information Act is raising alarm among commentators who say INTERPOL already had most of the same privileges as diplomats. At David Horowitz's Newsreal, Michael van der Galien said the issue is Obama's expansion of President Ronald Reagan's order from 1983 that originally granted those diplomatic privileges. Reagan's order carried certain exemptions requiring that INTERPOL operations be subject to several U.S. laws such as the Freedom of Information Act. Obama, however, removed...

Troubling questions remain concerning the secretive Executive Order Obama signed in the dead of night on December 17, which grants INTERPOL, the International Police Organization, full immunity from U.S. law. In the face of these questions, the White House is engaging in stonewalling. Of the major network news organizations, only ABC News reporter Jake Tapper has expressed an interest in the issue, as Michelle Malkin reports late this afternoon.

Good question about the issue of INTERPOL needing immunity from American law. This one probably escaped the notice of everyone except the most keenly aware. Count our friend Andrew McCarthy as one of those. McCarthy notes that President Reagan, in 1983, afforded protections to INTERPOL, much like those afforded Diplomats. But Reagan, understood that some protections needed to be withheld, and he did. Specifically, Interpol’s property and assets remained subject to search and seizure, and its archived records remained subject to public scrutiny under provisions like the Freedom of Information Act. Being constrained by the Fourth Amendment, FOIA, and other...

No presidential statement or White House press briefing was held on it. In fact, all that can be found about it on the official White House Web site is the Dec. 17 announcement and one-paragraph text of President Obama's Executive Order 12425, with this innocuous headline: "Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities."In fact, this new directive from Obama may be the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties. No wonder the White House said as little as possible about it.

As word continues to spread about Barack Obama's secretive executive order in the middle of the night on December 17, which grants full immunity to INTERPOL on American soil, a more complete picture is emerging about this disturbing--and frightening--action on the part of the President. Liz Blaine, writing in David Horowitz's Newsreal, states unequivocally, But the DOJ considers INTERPOL a law enforcement agency and, as such, the organization is not listed as a historical or active foreign agent indicating, under Section 2(d), INTERPOL is not required to report foreign agents, their communications or activities on American soil. INTERPOL is now...

It is interesting that the man who cast aside the US Constitution like a rag, and imposes his own laws without consent, has agreed to allow an international police authority to overrule the US government. Barack Obama signed an Executive Order giving express permission for Interpol to supersede the laws and police authorities of the USA. Some have seen this as heralding loss of sovereignty. The truth is, the USA already lost it when it voted for Obama. Before the election he promised to hand over sovereignty to the UN, and this will indeed occur if the people allow him...

WASHINGTON — Conservative bloggers and opinion outlets in recent days have expressed mounting alarm about an executive order by President Obama that extended certain privileges and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization, better known as Interpol. Bloggers have accused Mr. Obama of ceding American sovereignty, painting a portrait of an international police force operating on United States soil without legal restraints. They have also argued that the order is part of a plot to allow international courts to arrest and prosecute American officials for war crimes. That theme is making its way from the blogosphere to more mainstream news...