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Israel has declared a state of war after Hamas launched a series of surprise attacks from the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Palestinian fighters poured into southern Israel by land, sea, and air, the Israeli Defense Forces said. Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif said his forces launched 5,000 rockets toward Israel on Saturday, Insider reported. In response, a Russian defense official urged peace between Israel and Hamas. "We urge to immediately start a peace process on the basis of existing internationally recognized agreements," Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia's deputy foreign minister and former ambassador to Israel and Egypt, told state media agency Tass...

Amy Jacobson, the Chicago radio talk show host and former TV news reporter, has been barred from attending Governor J.B. Pritzker's daily coronavirus media briefings after she spoke at a rally protesting the governor's stay-at-home order, Robert Feder writes. Jacobson, who co-hosts mornings with Dan Proft on Salem Media news/talk WIND 560-AM, was among speakers at a Reopen Illinois rally Saturday outside the Thompson Center in Chicago. MORE AT LINK

Bette Midler's lavish Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment has gone on sale for an astonishing $50 million after the much-loved singer and entertainer revealed she wanted to downsize now that her daughter has flown the nest. The Wind Beneath My Wings songstress, 73, who is married to performance artist Martin von Haselberg, has lived in the Upper East Side triplex which boasts stunning views of the Central Park reservoir, since 1996. With a more than generous 7,000 square feet of space and an additional 3,000 square feet of outdoor space, the property is among the best of its kind anywhere in...

I was never falling-down drunk. I was never belligerent. I always got my work done. I was never unkempt. I was always clean, I was always shaved, I always performed at work. I was always kind and gracious in the dining room. But I lived in hell. When we opened Joe Beef in 2005, we were inspired by Martin Picard at Au Pied de Cochon, by these grandiose bistros of Paris, by seafood towers, by excess. We were two portly men who ate and drank well. I was and still am very insecure about anybody coming to the restaurant and...

I get a lot of e-mail from parents and teachers who wonder if President Obama, whose children go to the private Sidwell Friends School, knows what is actually going on with all of the standardized testing in public schools. Here’s an open letter to Obama explaining what he is missing, written by Rebecca Steinitz, a literacy consultant in urban high schools, a writer and an editor. She was previously director of the High School Program at Lesley University’s School of Education and an English professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she ran the Freshman Writing Program. Steinitz is also a...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The California State Senate held an "ethics refresher course" for its members after federal indictments were issued against two senators and a third was convicted. Senate leaders are hoping to regain the public's trust. The purpose of the course is to teach members and their staffs to avoid potentially compromising situations. It's the latest in a series of moves by senate leaders aimed at putting political distance between them and their colleagues facing criminal charges. The leader of California's state senate stopped all regular business on Wednesday so everyone could go "back to school" in a...

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That adage has more application than usual in California, where Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and supermajorities in the legislature. They can enact any policies they want, with only the judicial branch offering belated checks on their power. And when I say belated, that’s literally the case with state Senator Rod Wright, whom a jury found guilty in January of committing eight felonies regarding his residency and eligibility for the office he held.Normally, politicians who get that kind of a verdict have the decency to resign. If not, the body in...

Beginning in early 2011, state Sen. Leland Yee repeatedly solicited bribes to fund his San Francisco mayor and California secretary of state campaigns, according to the FBI agents who brought him down last month. But he appears to have devoted more time and energy to a far more lucrative pursuit: crafting or carrying legislation benefiting special interests who supply campaign contributions. It's a practice that's all too common in Sacramento, but Yee was a master. :snip: Yee introduced 20 bills from 2011 to 2014 that advanced a special interest over the public interest, according to this newspaper's review of his...

One for the hypocrisy hall of fame: Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff.Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA’s staff through a Card Check election.A filing with the NLRB does not necessarily mean that the union and management are in direct confrontation. For example, although Volkswagen tacitly backed the United Auto Workers’ recent effort to organize its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, the company still...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A story that sounds like a movie script is slowly grinding its way to trial. All of the 29 defendants in the massive corruption case involving suspended State Senator Leland Yee and reputed gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow appeared in federal court Thursday. With so many defendants, lawyers, and documents, the judge is trying to set up a system to manage what could be an unwieldy trial. What makes it even harder is that not everyone's on the same page. The frustration is beginning to show. There are 29 defendants, even more lawyers, a 137 page...

State senator accused of gun charges SAN FRANCISCO — A California state senator who authored gun control legislation asked for campaign donations in exchange for introducing an undercover FBI agent to an arms trafficker, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. The allegations against State Sen. Leland Yee were outlined in an FBI criminal complaint that names 25 other defendants, including Raymond Chow, a onetime gang leader with ties to San Francisco's Chinatown known as "Shrimp Boy," and Keith Jackson, Yee's campaign aide. The affidavit accuses Yee of conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and to illegally import firearms. Yee...

With his estimated wealth exceeding $200 million, Albert Arnold Gore has come a long way from the time he began a career in government politics. But it hasn’t all been a green path. He can thank some earlier events for paving over muddy ground, a time when his father, Al Gore Sr. met Occidental Petroleum’s CEO Armand Hammer at a cattle auction in the 1940s. When zinc was discovered on some of Gore’s land,

Piers Morgan, the resident gun control advocate on CNN, protects his own personal property with signs warning that it is guarded by “Armed Response Security Systems,” according to a new investigation by self-described “guerrilla journalist” James O’Keefe.

A Virginia lawmaker who drew gasps from his colleagues when he brandished a borrowed AK-47 during an anti-gun speech Thursday was found guilty in 2002 of committing a vicious 1999 assault, was sanctioned for legal misconduct while prosecuting a rape case, spent six months in jail for contempt of a federal court, and saw his law license revoked in 2003. Democratic Delegate Joseph Morrissey brought the rifle to the floor of the House of Delegates to demonstrate how easy it is to carry firearms in Virginia. Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert interrupted Morrissey’s speech to ask him to remove his finger...

The historic vote — approving its own controversial proposal to station 300 to 500 retired police officers at local schools — was symbolic because Mayor Bloomberg and Dennis Walcott can veto the council’s recommendations. Staten Island residents voted Monday night for armed guards in schools, but the city’s top education official said he’ll shoot down the initiative. “It’s not happening. Plain and simple,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “I can’t be any clearer than that,” he added, echoing Mayor Bloomberg’s longstanding position in favor of gun control, not gun-toting guards. Walcott said armed guards are not needed: “We have safe...

President Barack Obama told ABC News' Barbara Walters that he ran for re-election because he wanted "men with guns" around as his daughters, Malia (14) and Sasha (11), begin dating boys. The interview was the first that the President and First Lady have given since Obama's re-election in November. It aired on Nightline on December 26. In its published highlights, ABC News has drawn attention to the Obamas' comments about keeping the romance alive in their marriage, yet those remarks were followed by this exchange: (VIDEO AT LINK) Walters: I want to talk about the girls. we have been watching...

France's new Socialist president owns three holiday homes in the glamorous Riviera resort of Cannes, it emerged today. The 57-year-old who 'dislikes the rich' and wants to revolutionise his country with high taxes and an onslaught against bankers is in fact hugely wealthy himself. His assets were published today in the Official Journal, the gazette which contains verified information about France's government. To the undoubted embarrassment to the most left-wing leader in Europe and a man who styles himself as 'Mr Normal', they are valued at almost £1million.

The chocolate world is in midst of a revolution, and the king-sized Snickers has been dethroned. Mars Inc. announced plans to halt production of any chocolate product that exceeds 250 calories per portion by the end of 2013 in its initiative to fight America's escalating obesity epidemic. The king-sized Snickers bar, which weighs in at a hefty calorie count of 510, will be one of the first to go in the chocolate megacorp's health purge.

This wouldn't be the first time President Obama has gotten in trouble with his wife Michelle for eating junk out on the campaign trail, but this time health conscious Michelle may be upset for an entirely different reason. When the president stopped by Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in West L.A. Monday night, he confided to manager David Daviston that he was going to catch flack for it back home. But he didn't expect healthy eater in chief Michelle Obama to be bummed because her husband ordered the distinctly unhealthy "No. 9, 'Country Boy,'" which included three wings and...

Publishers for US First Lady Michelle Obama’s upcoming cookbook have released an early preview of the book’s cover art and revealed more details about its spring release. American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities, published by Crown Publishers, is Obama’s first cookbook and will be issued in both print and digital editions. The print edition will include photos of the White House garden and Obama throughout the seasons, and include more details about how the First Lady was inspired by her daughters Sasha and Malia to change her family’s eating habits and plant an...