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The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee acknowledged Thursday that a reference made between two FBI employees of a "secret society" could have been said in jest as opposed to evidence of an anti-Donald Trump plot.

Dr. Bandy X. Lee, the Yale professor and clinical psychiatrist who reportedly briefed members of Congress last month about President Donald Trump’s supposed mental instability, backed away from those claims on Monday. Appearing on Midday Live with Dr. Drew and Mike Catherwood on TalkRadio 790 KABC in Los Angeles, Dr. Lee was forced to admit that other presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, also had psychological profiles that would be “concerning” to her. She then allowed that she was not talking about “mental illness” when it came to President Trump.

I remember a time in the not so distant past. The year was 2016, and racial tensions were running high. Freddie Gray was a resident of Baltimore, Maryland. He was arrested and notoriously died while in police custody. Soon afterward, Black Lives Matter and other activists became enraged. They began to protest the police department's presence in their neighborhoods over alleged brutality. Let's fast-forward a couple of years later to present day. Now we see over 300 murders in the City of Baltimore this past year. When I saw the number of murders, I was shocked. All of the intellectuals...

Facebook announced last week that it is rolling back its controversial “Disputed Flags” measure next to articles deemed fake news amid studies showing it does not stop the spread of such content and only encourages users to click on it. The tech giant said the move was in response to academic research showing that a strong image like a red flag next to an article “may actually entrench deeply held beliefs” and lead to an opposite effect of encouraging users to click on false stories, according to the company’s blog post posted on Dec. 20. Instead, Facebook will now show...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has revoked its recent appointment of Robert Mugabe as goodwill ambassador

Oliver Stone came to Harvey Weinstein’s defense, but now he’s backing off — and he’s also facing sexual harassment allegation of his own. “I’ve been travelling for the last couple of days and wasn’t aware of all the women who came out to support the original story in the New York Times,” the Oscar-winning director wrote on Facebook on Friday. “After looking at what has been reported in many publications over the last couple of days, I’m appalled and commend the courage of the women who’ve stepped forward to report sexual abuse or rape. I’ll therefore recuse myself from the...

The Supreme Court has cancelled an oral argument hearing, scheduled for October 10, about President Trump's travel ban issued by executive order earlier this year. The hearing was taken off the schedule after the President issued a new ban and restrictions Sunday night, adding additional countries and laying out specific national security requirements for entry into the United States. Sudan has been dropped from the original travel ban list, while Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia remain. Iraq has also been dropped, although increased vetting has been implemented. North Korea, Chad and Venezuela have been added with varying levels of vetting and...

President Donald Trump tweeted this morning – "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!" The great basketball player Curry has expressed concerns about going to the White House since winning the NBA Championship.

Man who predicted world will end on Sept. 23 says nevermind By Fox News September 22, 2017 | 4:38pm he end is still nigh — just not as nigh as it was earlier this week, a Doomsday writer says. David Meade, who claimed the world is ending Saturday when a mysterious planet collides with Earth, is now backtracking on the calamitous claim. Meade said the world won’t end on September 23 after all, but instead, Saturday will only mark the beginning of a series of catastrophic events to occur over several weeks. “The world is not ending, but the world...

<p>Hillary Clinton said that the email her spiritual adviser, the Rev. Bill Shillady, sent her on the morning after she lost the 2016 presidential election helped her heal from her devastating defeat.</p> <p>It wasn’t until months later, when Shillady published that email in a book, that it came to light that he had plagiarized the words that so moved the candidate.</p>

The repercussions following the Aug. 12 clash between white nationalist protesters and counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia have reached the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. The theater’s season-opening production of “The Foreigner,” a 1984 farce by the late Larry Shue featuring actors in Klu Klux Klan robes and hoods has been canceled by Sheri Lee Miller, the recently appointed new supervisor of the center and director of the Spreckels Theatre Company. The show, originally scheduled to open Sept. 8, already had been cast and the production was in rehearsals when Miller decided to pull the show from the theater’s...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reviewed his military's plans to rain "an enveloping fire" around the U.S. territory of Guam — but opted not to fire missiles at this time, according to state media. Despite the stand-down, some Guamanians were alarmed after two radio stations aired an erroneous emergency alert Tuesday. Kim visited the Korean People's Army as the self-imposed mid-August deadline for a missile demonstration approached, the Korean Central News Agency reports. But after hearing the plan and considering it, Kim opted not to give the order to launch missiles," the report says.

Economics: Last year, the "Fight for $15" movement was said to have unstoppable momentum, driven by labor unions, left-wing politicians and a sympathetic press. Then reality struck. Too bad it didn't strike sooner. "This is a trend that cannot be stopped." "The political earth has shifted." "This movement continues to build." "Even economic experts who oppose the increased rate see it gaining momentum." That's what all the "experts" were saying last year. It was easy to make such assumptions. Protests and strikes were on the rise, hitting 340 last year. In 2015 alone, 14 cities and states approved $15 minimum...

While that website doesn’t offer any reason for the cancellation, Jerry Coyne notes that people who had bought tickets received a more detailed email with this explanation: We regret to inform you that KPFA has canceled our event with Richard Dawkins. We had booked this event based entirely on his excellent new book on science, when we didn’t know he had offended and hurt — in his tweets and other comments on Islam, so many people. KPFA does not endorse hurtful speech. While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech. We apologize for not having...

Irony so thick, you need a shovel for it and perhaps an ice ax. In May, an expedition that set out to gather global warming evidence in the Arctic was forced to call it off. Why? Because the ice was too thick and the icebreaker was needed to rescue other ships. So much for that whole ‘global warming’ thing. The research vessel Amundsen was redirected by the Canadian Coast Guard to clear fishing lanes for boats and supply vessels. That includes the dreaded ‘oil tankers’. “The Science Team of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has canceled the first leg...

A couple of years ago, many of my local friends were curious about traveling to Cuba. They seemed fascinated by the idea of traveling to an island isolated from reality for 50-plus years. I would often hear this expression: "I want to see it for myself." Some of my friends went, and others never got to go. The ones who went all seem to be singing the same tune: "Beautiful beach, okay hotel, but the internet does not work and the people are not happy." We learned today via the Miami Herald that Southwest Airlines is canceling flights to Cuba:...

Frustrated Democrats hoping to elevate their election fortunes have a resounding message for party leaders: Stop talking so much about Russia. Democratic leaders have been beating the drum this year over the ongoing probes into the Trump administration’s potential ties to Moscow, taking every opportunity to highlight the saga and forcing floor votes designed to uncover any business dealings the president might have with Russian figures. But rank-and-file Democrats say the Russia-Trump narrative is simply a non-issue with district voters, who are much more worried about bread-and-butter economic concerns like jobs, wages and the cost of education and healthcare. In...

Earlier this month we reported that California was in a bit of a quandary. They were bound and determined to have a single payer health plan for their citizens no matter what the Republicans wanted to do on the national level. And by golly, they got a plan put together in the state legislature and moved it out of committee, despite the fact that it was going to cost more than the total GDP of the state. Then it made it out onto the floor of the Assembly. As Leslie Eastman of Legal Insurrection tells us, the cold light of...

The fallout over a widely derided photo shoot in which comedian Kathy Griffin was depicted holding a model of President Donald Trump's decapitated head continues, as New Jersey's State Theatre in New Brunswick has cancelled a planned November concert appearance from Griffin...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The USAA financial services firm is reinstating its advertising on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel program after receiving heavy criticism for its initial decision from many of the military members and veterans that it serves.