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September 2017

In February, The New York Times reported that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) established a secret bank fund filled with millions from "a web of shadowy cigarette sales" before it closed in 2013. No one knows for sure how much entered the account because no one tracked it. New unsealed records revealed to the NYT that the scheme was more than just a few agents. Instead, it grew to "a highly unorthodox merger of an undercover law enforcement operation and a legitimate operation."

Friday, Congress passed a three-month debt ceiling hike along with a multi-billion dollar package that will provide federal aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey. The bill also provides aid to those as of yet impacted by monster storm Hurricane Irma.

On Thursday, major national credit-reporting company Equifax revealed that a cyberattack from July exposed personal information of about 143 million U.S. consumers. The company wrote in a statement:
The information accessed primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver's license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed. As part of its investigation of this application vulnerability, Equifax also identified unauthorized access to limited personal information for certain UK and Canadian residents. Equifax will work with UK and Canadian regulators to determine appropriate next steps. The company has found no evidence that personal information of consumers in any other country has been impacted.

Joe Scarborough took an I-told-you-so victory lap on today's Morning Joe. In the wake of President Trump cutting a deal with Pelosi and Schumer, the show aired a prepared montage of Joe, going back almost a year, predicting that Trump would wind up working with Dems, with whom, according to Scarborough, he feels more comfortable.

Thursday night, the 9th Circuit Appellate Court struck another blow to Trump's second, scaled down travel order. The latest, in this unnecessarily long and drawn out saga, is the 9th Circuit's opinion allowing just about every family member of foreign nationals receiving visitor benefits exemption from the president's travel order which took aim at countries known to be state sponsors of terror (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen).

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett accused Las Vegas officers of racial profiling and excessive force after the Mayweather-Mcgregor fight in August. Bennett claimed that the police singled him out and one even threatened to "blow his head off." The NFL backed Bennett's story, but the Las Vegas Metr0 Police Department (LVMPD) has strongly come out and denied all of Bennett's claim. The two arresting officers are Hispanic males. Detective Steve Grammas, the president of the Las Vegas Metro Police Protective Association, has even asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to investigate Bennett's actions.

The longer Hillary insists on staying in the public eye, the more she rattles the already beleaguered Democrat Party. Democrats are not happy with Hillary's upcoming book tour for her memoir What Happened. As the party tries to regroup and reconnect, many think Hillary's blame game will only cause more problems.

Following an EU court decision ordering some eastern European countries to accept the migrant quotas, Hungary and Poland have vowed to fight on against the large-scale resettlement plan being pushed by the EU. The top EU court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), ruled yesterday that all member states must take in a share of refugees who cross over into Europe. The EU court's ruling "jeopardizes the security and future of all of Europe," said Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.