The Ohio Police Officers Shot and Killed While Responding to a 911 Call Have Been Identified

Two Ohio police officers responding to a 911 hang-up call were fatally shot on Saturday after entering an apartment in a Columbus suburb, and a suspect was taken into custody, authorities said. Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer said officer Eric Joering, 39, died at the scene and his colleague, Tony Morelli, 54, died at a local hospital. He said the officers were responding to a “potential domestic situation.”

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Mayor Megan Barry: I Don’t Plan on Resigning

Embattled Mayor Megan Barry sat down with WKRN’s Bob Mueller to discuss the ongoing firestorm of revelations about how City resources may have been used to support, and then cover up, her years-long extramarital affair with the head of her security detail, Rob Forrest. WKRN aired a 60-second preview of the full interview, which viewers can watch Sunday, February 11, during the 6pm news broadcast. In the video, Barry, a Democrat and fierce critic of conservatives and the Trump agenda, told Mueller flatly, “I don’t plan on resigning,” and that, “At the moment, I fully believe that the TBI investigation will conclude that there were no taxpayer dollars that were misused.” Mueller asked, “Do you hope for a fast conclusion to this? Do you want the informations out there? And will the results of all these investigtions be made public?” Barry answered, “As far as I know – I don’t know how that all works; this is all new territory – but I will tell you clearly for me, the faster this gets resolved the better for my family and the citizens of Nashville.” Meanwhile, a new report exposing a potential career-ending conspiracy for at least a handful of additional staffers to manipulate the…

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Commentary: Modernize NAFTA or End It

By Robert Romano   More than any other issue, President Donald Trump’s vow to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or else leave it may have been the most important reason he won the Electoral College in 2016 against his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump won Ohio by about 450,000 votes. In Pennsylvania, Trump only won by 44,000 votes. In Florida, Trump won by only 113,000 votes. In Michigan, Trump only won by 11,000 votes. In North Carolina, Trump won by 173,000. In the rust belt they included states that traditionally voted Democrat. And they’re what put Trump over the top in 2016. These were some of the states hit the hardest by NAFTA. Ohio has lost 290,874 manufacturing jobs since the NAFTA and World Trade Organization (WTO) era began in 1994 and 1995 respectively, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Public Citizen. Pennsylvania has lost 312,338 factory jobs since then. Florida has lost 82,006 jobs in manufacturing. Michigan lost 182,288. North Carolina lost 338,990. Fortunately, since taking office in 2017, President Trump has been working to keep his promise. On April 27, Trump took to Twitter to announce, “I received calls from the President of Mexico…

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Commentary: And There Are Some Questions The Tennessean Doesn’t Even Want to Ask

Tennessean columnist Alex Hubbard noted in a column over the weekend that “Some Questions Matter More Than Others in Megan Barry Affair.”  He’s right, and many of the questions he posed are actually among those that deserve a clear and honest answer from Mayor Barry. However, there are a number of other “non-ideological” questions that Hubbard either doesn’t want asked or answered. Perhaps there is an ideological basis for the questions that the liberal Tennessean prefers to ignore. First, Hubbard follows the lead of previous Tennessean editorial commentary in defini-tively stating that the current “public discussion surrounding sexual harassment does not apply here.” Really? Sexual harassment isn’t just about “consensual versus non-consensual” distinctions when it comes to sexual relationships in the workplace. A boss and subordinate may be perfectly happy with their secret affair, and the benefits that inure to the subordinate in terms of promotions, bonuses, and other work benefits. That may have been the case with Mayor Barry and Sgt. Forrester. But what about the other members of the security detail who didn’t benefit from the “consensual” relationship? Perhaps another officer passed on the flirtations of Mayor Barry, thereby denying himself the overtime and international travel that Sgt.…

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Autopsy Shows Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock Had Anti-Anxiety Drugs in His System as Motive Remains a Mystery

Stephen Paddock was overweight, had some anti-anxiety medication in his urine, and suffered from the usual wear and tear that comes with aging. But the autopsy released Friday failed to help answer why Paddock chose to perch himself in the window of his 32nd-floor hotel room and kill 58 people while wounding hundreds in the worst mass shooting in modern American history. He committed suicide by shooting himself. No suicide note or manifesto has been found.

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Report: Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand Will Resign

The third-ranking official at the US Justice Department is resigning just nine months after taking the powerful position, the New York Times reported Friday. The resignation of Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, a national security law expert, comes as President Donald Trump and Republican legislators have stepped up attacks on the department over special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible Trump campaign links to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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Trump Tells Democrats to Refile Probe Memo

US President Donald Trump on Saturday told Democratic lawmakers to refile a memo about the probe into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia, leaving a chance the document could still be released. The document is the Democrats’ response to a four-page memorandum written by Republican legislator Devin Nunes, which Trump agreed to declassify and release on February 2 — against the advice of his own FBI director and the Department of Justice.

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Support for Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Begins to Crumble as Calls for Her Resignation Grow

The Tennessean’s Clarksville-based liberal columnist and opinion writer Saritha Prabhu penned a passionate call on Mayor Megan Barry to resign from office Friday afternoon after a new wave of revelations surrounding Barry’s affair and cover-up with top staffer Rob Forrest came to light. “Disappointed on many levels describes how I feel about the Megan Barry situation,” she begins, in a surprisingly candid and heartfelt indictment of Nashville’s first woman to hold its top elected office: Mayor Barry shocked and saddened our Middle Tennessee community when she revealed recently that she had had a nearly two-year extramarital affair with her top security officer. I live in Clarksville, but I was proud when Nashville elected its first female mayor in late 2015. But now, each new revelation about the affair has been damning to her and to her continued political survival. To cut to the chase: She should do Nashville and herself a favor and resign. To continue as mayor would be to prolong the ugliness, and drip-drip nature of the revelations, and to further undercut her authority to lead. If this had been an affair with a private citizen on her own dime, it’d probably be none of our business. But this is different,…

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