Free Republic

The new Foreign Malign Influence Center oversees efforts that span U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic agencies. WITHIN THE FEDERAL government, offices dedicated to fighting foreign disinformation are springing up like daisies, from the Pentagon’s new Influence and Perception Management Office to at least four organizations inside the Department of Homeland Security alone, as well as ones inside the FBI and State Department. To oversee the growing efforts — which arose in response to concerns about the impact of Russian meddling in the 2016 election but have now expanded — the director of national intelligence has created a new...

New research indicates a widely used food additive, carboxymethylcellulose, alters the intestinal environment of healthy persons, perturbing levels of beneficial bacteria and nutrients. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is a synthetic member of a widely used class of food additives, termed emulsifiers, which are added to many processed foods to enhance texture and promote shelf life. It had long been assumed that CMC was safe to ingest because it is eliminated in the feces without being absorbed. Experiments in mice found that CMC, and some other emulsifiers, altered gut bacteria resulting in more severe disease in a range of chronic inflammatory conditions, including...

The Commandant’s Planning Guidance (CPG) provides the 38th Commandant’s strategic direction for the Marine Corps and mirrors the function of the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Planning Guidance (DPG). It serves as the authoritative document for Service-level planning and provides a common direction to the Marine Corps Total Force. It also serves as a road map describing where the Marine Corps is going and why; what the Marine Corps force development priorities are and are not; and, in some instances, how and when prescribed actions will be implemented. This CPG serves as my Commandant’s Intent for the next four years. ......

Lt. Gen. David Berger has been confirmed by the Senate as the new commandant of the Marine Corps, replacing Gen. Robert Neller this summer, according to a service statement Thursday. Gen. Berger will receive his fourth star before taking his post as the 38th Marine Corps Commandant during a change of command ceremony in July. The full Senate confirmation vote came hours after Sen. Dan Sullivan dropped his block on Gen. Berger’s nomination on Wednesday.

And he has a plan to make it happen, says former CAIR intern. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the new deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and the first Muslim elected to Congress, has a plan to recruit additional Muslim lawmakers like him -- including possible candidates sponsored by a terror-tied Islamist group for which he helped raise millions of dollars, according to a source who once prayed alongside him in the basement of the Capitol. Ellison has held Friday, or jummah, prayers with other Muslims, including staffers from the Congressional Muslim Staff Association and officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),...

Cruz, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in economics and international relations from CMC in 1994, is a managing director in the Private Wealth Management Group at Goldman Sachs, Texas. She and her two partners work with clients to implement high net worth portfolios across a range of investments and asset classes, including complex derivatives products, private equity, hedge funds, single stock risk management, U.S. and international equities, and fixed income. Ms. Cruz began her career as an investment banker with JPMorgan in New York, focusing on international structured finance and subsequently on Latin America mergers and acquisitions....

America's top-ranking military officer found himself at odds Tuesday with the nation’s commander-in-chief over his claim that the Islamic State was "contained" - an assertion President Obama had made before the Paris terror attacks. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a dim assessment when asked during a House Armed Services Committee hearing whether that's the case. "We have not contained ISIL currently," Dunford told Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va. The answer runs counter to the claim made by Obama last month in an ABC News interview when asked about the status of the anti-ISIS campaign.

A corridor of Carolinas Medical Center – Main’s Emergency Room is roped off on the first floor near the entrance. A security guard is posted outside to prevent anyone from crossing the line. CMC officials said a patient is being tested, but a spokesman would not specify what they are testing the patient for. Wednesday morning, the issue at CMC was not impacting Medic services, according to officials. The hospital is taking “all normal precautions,” according to officials. The Centers for Disease Control said it has not been contacted.

Claremont McKenna College, a private liberal arts college 60 miles east of Los Angeles, drew national attention earlier this year when its dean of admissions, Richard Vos, was caught deliberately misreporting the SAT scores that students had achieved before attending CMC. VosÂ’s goal was to reach the coveted 1400 SAT average for highly selective liberal arts colleges. He resigned soon after the scandal emerged in January, but not before touching off a debate about the lengths to which colleges will go to boost their rankings. Journalists and education-policy experts lectured about the corrupting effect of U.S. News and World ReportÂ’s...

The $100 million was too good to be true. On Sunday, The New York Times reported Scranton's Commonwealth Medical College would likely be the recipient of a $100 million earmark in the Senate health care bill. When contacted by a New York Times reporter, Robert D'Alessandri, M.D., the school's dean and president, said such a windfall was news to him. Dr. D'Alessandri told the reporter he doubted the money was for the state's newest medical school - but anything was possible. On Monday, The Associated Press ended the speculation, reporting that the money had been put in the bill at...

Professionals that cannot change themselves from within, cannot respond to the needs of their constituencies while also inspiring the admiration and loyalty of their own members are in trouble.--"Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?" by Richard H. Kohn, World Affairs, Spring 2009 When General Conway took over as the Marine Corps Commandant, he went on the speech circuit talking about the “long war”. One speech was made at the Marines’ Memorial Association and World Affairs Council, in San Francisco, California on July 10, 2007. In that speech, General Conway stated, “we have a couple of incidents in...

Officials from the Pennsylvania Health Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare are conducting an investigation in the psychiatric unit of Community Medical Center following the death of a patient there. Although they declined to give details of their investigation at CMC, officials confirmed they were looking into the unit because of a complaint they received June 28. Barbara Cook of Scranton said she made that complaint based on her knowledge of a mental health patient who died in the psychiatric unit while her son was receiving treatment there. Frank Salini, who was 54, had been taken by Pennsylvania...

A dead patient, violations of hospital policies and allegations of abuse from former patients are placing increased scrutiny on the psychiatric ward on the top floor of Community Medical Center. What's next? Frank Salini, 54, died June 22 while a patient in the psychiatric at CMC. Another patient said he overheard staff discussing whether Mr. Salini’s death was caused by sedatives. State government inspectors are investigating. Leaders of state and local patient advocacy organizations have gotten involved and said Monday they plan to meet with CMC officials Friday. A dead patient, violations of hospital policies and allegations of abuse from...

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Jiang Zemin, chairman of China's State Central Military Commission (CMC), has requested for resignation from his remaining post as chairman of the commission, according to a letter read at a presidium meeting of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, here Friday.

Professor Gets Year in Prison for Fake 'Hate Crime' Remember that left-wing egghead at Claremont McKenna College who vandalized her own car and then cried "hate crime"? Today she got sentenced to a year in the slammer. Kerri Dunn, who is, naturally, a professor of psychology, falsely claimed that her Honda was spray-painted with racist and anti-Semitic slurs. She had faced up to three years in a California prison for filing a false police report and two felony counts of attempted insurance fraud. Get this: Miss Dunn staged the criminal hoax and launched a headline-grabbing spree of "hate crime" hysteria...

Remember that left-wing egghead at Claremont McKenna College who vandalized her own car and then cried "hate crime"? Today she got sentenced to a year in the slammer. Kerri Dunn, who is, naturally, a professor of psychology, falsely claimed that her Honda was spray-painted with racist and anti-Semitic slurs. She had faced up to three years in a California prison for filing a false police report and two felony counts of attempted insurance fraud. Get this: Miss Dunn staged the criminal hoax and launched a headline-grabbing spree of "hate crime" hysteria (as opposed to all those "love crimes" being committed...

Dunn jailed for psych review By ROD LEVEQUE, STAFF WRITER POMONA - A judge sent a former Claremont McKenna professor to state prison on Friday for 90 days psychological testing after the judge called her a "bald-faced liar" for continuing to deny she vandalized her own car and reported it as a hate crime. Kerri Francis Dunn was not sentenced as scheduled in Pomona Superior Court. Rather, Judge Charles Horan temporarily remanded her into custody and said he would use reports from prison examiners to help him decide whether to sentence the Redlands woman to probation or additional time behind...

POMONA, Calif. (AP) - A college professor convicted of staging a hate crime by spray-painting her own car with racist slurs was ordered to undergo 90 days of psychological testing at a state prison.

What Did Hate-Crime Hoaxer Dunn Cost the Colleges?  That's the big question the judge asked at her sentencing, which was postponed to December 15, following a psychiatric evaluation of the hate-crimes hoaxer. Calling Claremont McKenna College professor Dunn a "bald-faced liar," Judge Horan stated: '"Ms. Dunn doesn't have to stand up and say she did it," Judge Charles Horan said during Friday's hearing. "But it sure would help the court in deciding whether prison time is appropriate."' According to a reliable source, an alumnus of the Colleges who attended the hearing: 'The judge was disappointed--his word--that there was no one...

A Claremont McKenna College psychology professor was convicted Wednesday of falsely reporting her car was vandalized and spray-painted with racist and anti-Semitic slurs while she was speaking at a campus forum on racial tolerance. Kerri Dunn, 39, of Redlands was convicted of one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report and two felony counts of attempted insurance fraud. She faces up to 31/2 years in prison when she is sentenced Sept. 17. Her attorney, Gary S. Lincenberg, issued a statement saying Dunn would appeal the attempted insurance fraud convictions.