EXCLUSIVE: The Treasury Department Spied on Flynn, Manafort, and the Trump Family, Says Whistleblower

President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department regularly surveilled retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s financial records and transactions beginning in December 2015 and well into 2017, before, during and after when he served at the White House as President Donald Trump’s National Security Director, a former senior Treasury Department official, and veteran of the intelligence community, told the Star Newspapers.

“I started seeing things that were not correct, so I did my own little investigation, because I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was correct” she said. “You never want to draw attention to something if there is not anything there.”

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Commentary: The Great, Steaming Heart of ‘The Swamp’ Beats in the U.S. Senate

by Rachel Bovard   Donald Trump was elected in 2016 on a platform that, broadly, called for draining “the swamp.” The definition of swamp, for the most part, was left to the listener, but generally, it was assumed to represent the established interests that dictated federal policy toward the ends of a few, and away from the benefit of the country. This week, the depth, breadth, and scope of the swamp made itself clear. It started with the unraveling of the case against former national security advisor Michael Flynn. The FBI initially had accused Flynn of violating the Logan Act – an 18th-century statute that has never successfully been used to prosecute anyone, not in the least because of its dubious constitutionality. Ultimately, Flynn was charged with lying to federal agents – a process crime but hardly treason. This week, it was revealed that members of the Obama Administration, many of whom had no real role in counterintelligence operations, repeatedly unmasked (that is, requested their identities and activities from intelligence gathering sources) Trump’s incoming staff – including Flynn. This is damning for at least two reasons. First, the very day former Vice President Joe Biden, and others, received this classified intelligence,…

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Commentary: COVID-19 Proves America Needs Economic Nationalism

by Spencer P. Morrison   Reports of a deadly new virus began trickling out of China in December. The infection spread rapidly. By March 12, the World Health Organization deemed COVID-19 a global pandemic. The next day President Trump declared COVID-19 a “national emergency” that would require the “full power of the federal government” to handle. Many assumed this meant building temporary hospitals to care for COVID-19 patients. Others thought the government would provide local authorities with emergency medical supplies. Some imagined we would develop a vaccine. Instead, the government shut down the economy and forced Americans to “social distance” – destroying more than 36 million jobs and at least $2 trillion in economic output – while it scrambled to buy basic medical equipment from China, of all places. At the behest of academics, bankers, and “conservative” pundits like Ben Shapiro and Bill Kristol, America has offshored the bulk of its manufacturing industry to countries like China, Japan, and Mexico – countries that do not put America first. This has made America vulnerable to the biological, political, and economic contagions emanating from less developed parts of the world. The American people will not be safe until we embrace the wisdom of tariffs…

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Scientists, Economists Urge Trump to Bring on Statistician to Avoid Getting Duped by Bad Health Models

Dozens of scientists, economists and medical experts are urging President Donald Trump to add a professional statistician to his coronavirus task team because they worry the models his administration are relying upon could potentially lead his administration astray.

A slate of academics provided the Trump administration with a letter Tuesday listing several ideas the president could use to help boost his team’s pandemic response. They believe adding an expert statistician to the COVID-19 task team could help Trump avoid relying on poor models that don’t reflect the real world.

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State Department Inspector General Is Fired, Was Investigated for Mishandling Sensitive Information

President Donald Trump fired Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general, on Friday night, sources told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Trump notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he was removing Linick from office, effective in 30 days. He said in the letter that “it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General.”

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John Brennan Says He Is Willing To Meet With Prosecutor Investigating Origins Of Russia Probe

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Friday that he has yet to be interviewed by the federal prosecutor investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, but that he is willing to do so and has “nothing to hide.”

“I feel very good that my tenure at CIA and my time at the White House during the Obama administration was not — that was not engaged in any type of wrongdoing or activities that caused me to worry about what this investigation may uncover,” Brennan said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

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Republican Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Cut Waste from Coronavirus Bill

U.S. Representatives Ted Budd (R-NC-13) and Ken Buck (R-CO-04) introduced the Getting Americans Back to Work Act to amend a portion of the CARES Act, which resulted in some unemployed filers receiving higher wages through unemployment compensation than through their previous jobs.

The bill caps the amount an individual can receive from unemployment insurance at 100 percent of their previous wages.

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Ohio Professor Qing Wang the Latest to be Arrested over China Ties

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professor and former Cleveland Clinic employee was arrested Wednesday over his alleged ties to China.

The Justice Department announced that Qing Wang was arrested at his Shaker Heights, Ohio home as part of a joint operation conducted by the FBI and the  Department of Health and Human Service Office of the Inspector-General. Wang was charged with wire fraud related to more than $3.6 million in grant funding that Wang and his research team at the Cleveland Clinic had received from the National Institutes of Health.

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Ohio Voters Could Decide Constitutional Amendment to Help Cover the Cost of Unemployment Benefits

Ohio voters could decide a constitutional amendment to cover the cost of unemployment payouts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senate Joint Resolution 4, if passed, would allow voters to decide whether to issue the bonds “to repay any federal borrowing in support of Ohio’s unemployment compensation program,” Ohio Senate President Pro Tempore Bob Peterson, R-Washington Court House, said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

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State Ban on Camping Threatens Michigan’s Bottom Line and Local Economies

The belated arrival of spring is finally due to arrive this weekend. Those inclined to pack their tents or hitch their campers and trailers, however, are being told overnight visitors in the state’s campgrounds aren’t welcome.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order to suspend overnight camping during the coronavirus pandemic could impact Michigan’s state and local economies.

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#FreeTN Rally Draws Attendees from Across Tennessee and Speakers on the Subject of Freedom

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A third #FreeTN rally held Sunday included attendees from across Tennessee and out-of-state visitors as well as subject matter experts on the topic of freedom. The event was held across the street from the Tennessee Department of Health in Nashville, which also happens to be the lawn that sits below the state capitol with a few hundred in attendance. Counties as far away from Nashville as Carroll, Knox, Maury and Putnam were represented as were neighboring counties of Sumner, Robertson, Rutherford and Williamson. Residents of other states, such as Wyoming and Washington also took time to attend. Even the highly esteemed Dr. Alan Keyes – a champion of returning the United States to a God-honoring nation who served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and more recently founding IamTV – made the drive from Sevier County. He told The Tennessee Star that, as he has conducted interviews about the impact of the coronavirus, he wanted to see what the #FreeTN movement was all about. While Kim Edwards spearheaded the non-partisan, grassroots #FreeTN movement to push for the reopening of Tennessee’s economy by pointing out that everyone is essential, it has evolved into protecting constitutional liberties…

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