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Barry Matsumori, formerly the senior vice president of sales and business development at SpaceX, has joined Virgin Galactic's satellite launch team. With Virgin Galactic, Matsumori holds the title of senior vice president of business development and advanced concepts for LauncherOne, the company's small satellite launch vehicle. Prior to SpaceX, Matsumori held a leadership role at Qualcomm as vice president of wireless connectivity where he was responsible for the development of mobile telecom module products as well as satellite communication infrastructure and terminals. He has held positions at Space Systems Loral (SSL) and General Dynamics, and has experience with early-stage technology...

It has come to this: The GOP, formerly the party of Lincoln and ostensibly the party of liberty and limited government, is being defined by clamors for a mass roundup and deportation of millions of human beings. To will an end is to will the means for the end, so the Republican clamors are also for the requisite expansion of government’s size and coercive powers. Most of Donald Trump’s normally loquacious rivals are swaggeringly eager to confront Vladimir Putin but are too invertebrate — Lindsey Graham is an honorable exception — to voice robust disgust with Trump and the spirit...

It may have escaped the attention of Baltimoreans but things have gotten a little testy in the New York-New Jersey area in recent weeks over the state of century-old rail tunnels running under the Hudson River. The deteriorating condition of the tunnels is threatening Amtrak and other rail service, but how to pay for a $14 billion-plus replacement has proven a challenge. Unfortunately, that's not just a problem for New York City but for Baltimore and other stops along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, the nation's most heavily traveled railway handling more than 750,000 passengers a day. The stations in Baltimore and...

The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky, one of the shrewdest political observers on the center left, recently laid out the key clue by which to solve the biggest riddle of the 2016 race: “The Republican Party has unleashed furies it can no longer remotely control. … The Tasmanian Devil candidate [Donald Trump] who’s obviously tapping into deep right-wing anti-establishment anger and the two other most extreme candidates [Ted Cruz and Ben Carson] combine for 47 percent. The two who in my view you can reasonably call quasi- or comparatively moderate, Kasich and Bush, combine to hit 9 percent. Add Rand Paul’s...

BUSH: changed Rating from No Action to VERY HARMFULCARSON: from No Action to VERY GOODCHRISTIE: from No Action to GOODCRUZ: from No Action to VERY GOODFIORINA: from Unhelpful to VERY HARMFULJINDAL: from No Action to VERY GOODPERRY: from No Action to UNHELPFULRUBIO: from No Action to VERY HARMFULTRUMP: from No Action to EXCELLENTIn addition, the following candidates stuck with the positions (and Ratings) that they had previously staked out. (Santorum and Paul deserve special recognition for taking strong stands long before Trump stirred the media's interest this past week.)EXCELLENT: SantorumVERY GOOD: Paul1st STEPS: GrahamNO POSITION: Chaffee, WalkerUNHELPFUL: Biden, Clinton, Sanders,...

It’s been a bad week for billionaires and climate change activists Tom Steyer and George Soros. Soros is being labeled a hypocrite for making a $2 million investment in coal while Steyer is catching flak after an investigation by Associated Press revealed that a California proposition Steyer backed in 2012 has not translated into the green energy generation and jobs that were promised.

The summer has not been kind to Hillary Clinton. The drip-drip-drip of revelations about her possible misuse and mishandling of classified information threatens to become a deluge in the fall. They have taken a serious toll on her reputation — and even more notably, her treatment by liberal media figures who surely would rather she be elected even if the Risen Christ were to be the Republican nominee. Democrats are worried — so worried five donors who raised millions for President Obama as well as Obama’s chief Florida strategist have both sworn off Hillary and joined an effort to draft...

Business has been captured by Climatism, the belief that humans are causing dangerous global warming. Leading businesses announce plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, purchase renewable energy, use vehicle biofuels, and buy carbon credits. But there is no evidence that commercial policies to “fight” climate change have any measureable effect on global temperatures. Apple and Google, the darling companies of the millennial generation, have spent billions trying to halt global warming. Apple has brought us the Mac personal computer, the I-Phone, the I-Pad, and other trend-setting electronic devices, becoming the world’s highest-valued company. Google has been called the most innovative...

Charlotte Ivancic, Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) top health policy aide, is leaving his office to join the lobbying firm Tarplin, Downs & Young, the firm announced Wednesday. Ivancic led the negotiations for Boehner on the repeal of Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate this year. The elimination of the annual Washington headache of automatic cuts to doctors under Medicare, after negotiations with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was a significant achievement. […] Tarplin, Downs & Young was founded in 2006 by former Republican healthcare staffers in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill. It also has former Democratic staffers. …

Charlotte Ivancic -- the older sister of Cate Dyer who runs the biotech company StemExpress, and who discussed and laughed about shipping “intact” aborted baby parts in an undercover video released on Friday – is leaving her position as the health policy adviser to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to go to work for the lobbying firm Tarplin, Downs & Young. The resignation of Ivancic--who worked for Boehner and as legal counsel to the House Budget Committee–was announced on August 5, as reported in The Hill. In late July, StemExpress and its founder and CEO, Cate Dyer, were mentioned in...

In reverse order of probability: (5) oil severance tax, (4) Sales tax on services, (3) split property tax rolls (separate rates for homeowners than businesses), (2) cigarette tax, (1) Extension of Prop30.

=San Jose's Garbage Trucks May Do Police Surveillance With License Plate Readers The government of San Jose, Calif. has come forward with a proposal to mount license plate readers to the city’s garbage trucks in an effort to expand police surveillance beyond department cruisers. Have no fear, innocent citizen, for the trash companies may be stepping up to help our friends in blue. San Jose, California happens to be America’s tenth largest city - that makes it pretty difficult for the police force to keep up with everybody. In a story by the local San Jose Mercury News, the new...

Constitutional Rights PAC Chairman Larry Ward today issued the following statement regarding Planned Parenthood harvesting the brain of a living baby: “The latest video released by the Center for Medical Progress further suggests that Planned Parenthood is a criminal organization, comfortable with ending life and breaking the law. “Constitutional Rights PAC calls on the San Jose, California Police Department to immediately investigate Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda Clinic in response to the testimony of Holly O’Donnell who claims the clinic murdered and harvested the brain of a living baby after a failed abortion. “The taking of innocent human life is...

The media can’t stop talking about the crowds Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is attracting. There are reports that his crowds in California and Portland, Oregon were both larger than 27,000. They breathlessly report on this, while forgetting to mention Sanders is a self-described socialist. But what Donald Trump and his campaign has planned for TONIGHT in Mobile, Alabama could blow those numbers out of the water. Initially planning for a rally of 2,000 people at a small venue, tickets were grabbed so quickly that major changes had to be made.Now, the event will be held in the Ladd-Peeles Stadium, a football...

RUSH: Here's Maya, Kansas City, Missouri. It's great to have you. Hi. CALLER: Hi. You know, I just wanted to tell you, first of all, that you are majorly responsible for my conservative attitudes today. I talked to you the first time in 1994. I had called you on this show because I had gotten on the computer, which was then called the (unintelligible), and started carrying this conversation on about blacks being independent and not being victims. I got into a major argument with five or six other people, all of them as college educated as I am. They...

Many advocates for revamping immigration laws have tried to coax Congress into action over the years, but a particularly powerful one will be arriving next month: Pope Francis. Lawmakers and immigration activists expect the pontiff’s message will resonate beyond Capitol Hill and inspire members of Congress and their constituents. The pope's U.S. schedule includes an address to Congress on Sept. 24 and a meeting two days later with immigrants and Hispanic families at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. “He’s been clear on our failure to respond appropriately to immigrants and refugees,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told CQ. “I don’t think anyone will...

Sheriff’s investigators in Los Angeles plan to push for Caitlyn Jenner to be charged with manslaughter. Kim Howe, 69, lost her life last February in a car accident, which the transgender star was the cause of. In my opinion, I think no matter how popular you are or how much money you have, you aren’t above the law. In a perfect world that is how it would be, but Jenner will never see one day of the inside of any jail. Too much celebrity and fame to be put behind bars. She/he might be charged, and even convicted, but never...

Pinal Co., AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu said drug cartels armed with AK-47’s “control many areas on American soil” noting that they are only 30 miles from Phoenix. Babeu detailed touring the border yesterday with Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and said, “We flew him in our helicopter, showed him the drug smuggling routes, the actual caves—these cartel scouts live on top of mountains, 30 days at a time. And how on mountain top to mountain top, over a 50-mile swath of land, and this is only 30 miles from Phoenix.” This is literally an unsecured border. We have cartels that...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a regulation on Thursday to stop referring to midget raisins as “midget” after an activist group called the term offensive. The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) issued the proposed rule, announcing the U.S. “Standards for Grades of Processed Raisins” would eliminate all five times the word midget is used. Midget has long been used to describe the differences in sizes of California raisins.

SACRAMENTO -- State lawmakers on Wednesday took the first steps toward raising taxes and fees on motorists and further restricting Californians' tobacco use as the Legislature convened special sessions aimed at solving the state's transportation and health care funding crises. Members of a Senate committee tackling a huge backlog of roadway maintenance endorsed legislation that would generate $4 billion annually for repairs by increasing the gas tax 12 cents a gallon and boosting annual vehicle registration fees $35 for most cars. Fees for all-electric vehicles would go up $100.