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Haiti Tag

Reports have surfaced that a new pathogen has made the hop from South America to the Caribbean, and may soon head to our shores. Researchers at the University of Florida have identified the Mayaro virus in an 8-year-old Haitian, the first reported case in that region.
"The virus we detected is genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don't know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses," Dr. John Lednicky, an associate professor in the environmental and global health department at the University of Florida, said in a press release.

I watched the new documentary film "Clinton Cash" based on the book by Peter Schweizer this week and all I can say is the Clintons' corruption is worse than most people know. As a full time blogger, I watch cable news and monitor political news all day every day and even I didn't know the extent of the Clintons' influence and the way they've used it to enrich themselves and others. I think most members of the general public would be horrified by what's presented in this film.

Judicial watch received more emails from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, including one that showed concern about how the State Department treated her records. She wrote on March 22, 2009, to Huma Abedin and Lauren Jiloty, her former special assistant:
I have just realized I have no idea how my papers are treated at State. Who manages both my personal and official files?

Between the dust-up over Mia B. Love (R-UT) using taxpayer money ($1,160) to attend the White House Correspondence Dinner and her somewhat high unfavorables, Love is facing a tough reelection bid this November and trails her Democrat opponent Doug Owens 51-45. Recognizing that she has work to do in order to keep her seat, Love  has decided to skip the Republican National Convention. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Rep. Mia Love has decided to skip the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, giving up her delegate slot to focus on her re-election bid and to go on a congressional trip to Israel.

She saw no benefit in attending the gathering where Donald Trump is expected to claim the party's presidential nomination.

"I don't see any upsides to it," Love said Friday. "I don't see how this benefits the state."

As negotiations to negotiate an end to the Syrian civil war plod along, the UN has admitted, internally, that it is powerless to enforce any Syria peace deal. According to Foreign Policy, the UN knows it cannot enforce or even monitor any peace deal it brokers:
In a confidential strategy paper exclusively obtained by Foreign Policy, the office of the United Nations’ top envoy to Syria warns that the U.N. would be unable to monitor or enforce any peace deal that might emerge from landmark political talks underway in Geneva. The paper raised concerns the world might harbor unrealistic expectations about the U.N.’s ability to oversee and verify a cease-fire in a civil war beset by a dizzying array of armed factions and terrorist groups. “The current international and national political context and the current operational environment strongly suggest that a U.N. peacekeeping response relying on international troops or military observers would be an unsuitable modality for ceasefire monitoring,” according to the “Draft Ceasefire Modalities Concept Paper” by U.N. envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura’s team. In plain English, that means Syria will be far too dangerous for some time for traditional U.N. peacekeepers to handle.

Rand Paul is dealing with some tricky rules as he tries to run for president and hold on to his senate seat at the same time. Chris Moody of CNN reports:
Rand Paul's tough choice Rand Paul has a choice: Spend nearly half a million dollars to keep his increasingly longshot presidential ambitions alive in his home state or leave the Senate. For now, he's choosing to pony up. Paul's political future rests partially in the hands of nearly 350 Republican officials in Kentucky, who will decide Saturday whether to approve a costly plan that would allow him to run in Kentucky for president and the U.S. Senate simultaneously—and possibly salvage his chances of staying in electoral politics after 2016. The proposal, which acts as a work-around of a state law that forbids candidates in Kentucky from running for two federal offices at the same time, would establish a presidential caucus in early March in addition to the state primary scheduled two months later.

This might be funny if it wasn't such a serious subject. Earlier this month, as a fashion photo shoot was taking place on Miami Beach, a boat carrying illegal immigrants approached the beach, and the passengers proceeded to run onto and across the beach. The incident was captured on video which you can watch below. Obviously, a border fence wouldn't have prevented this incident. In fact, this is the way immigrants from Haiti, Cuba and other countries came to America for years. This shows that immigration enforcement is not just about a fence or the land border. Joe Saunders reported at BizPac Review:
Caught on video: Gang of brazen illegal aliens swarms Miami beach, interrupt modeling shoot Videographer Ekaterina Juskowski told the News Times Broward-Palm Beach she was shooting video of a model friend about 6 a.m. July 10 when a boat started approaching shore quickly. Thinking it was simply scuba divers, she said, she turned off her camera – but turned it back on when she saw the men pouring off the vessel, out of the surf and onto the sand.

The Clinton Foundation is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad couple of months.  There were the pay to play accusations from Haiti, the numerous other pay to play "coincidences," the rather cozy relationship with "journalist" donor (and former employee) George Stephanopoulos, reports of $30 million from books and speeches in 16 months, and even the email controversy is being linked to the Foundation as part of "one big, hairy deal." It doesn't end there.  Jonathan Allen at Vox reports that in a Friday afternoon Clinton financial disclosure "news dump" is evidence that Hillary "personally took money from companies that sought to influence her":
During Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, Corning lobbied the department on a variety of trade issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company has donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to her family's foundation. And, last July, when it was clear that Clinton would again seek the presidency in 2016, Corning coughed up a $225,500 honorarium for Clinton to speak.

FOX News is airing a special which examines claims made by the new book Clinton Cash. Special Report host Bret Baier interviews author Peter Schweizer and investigates alleged abuses of power and money by the Clintons from the efforts to rebuild Haiti to the questionable Uranium deal that benefited Russia. The special premiered last night and airs again today at 5 PM, Sunday at 3 PM and 10 PM.

The book is called Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich---and it could be the undoing of a woman much of the country assumed would one day hold the presidency. Peter Schweizer's latest work won't officially hit stores until May 5, but the buzz generated by the release of advance copies already has Team Clinton on defense, and Republican heavy-hitters running offense against the financial history of the Clinton Foundation. The basic premise of the book is that during the time Clinton served as secretary of state, the Department would grant favors to foreign entities in exchange for high-dollar speaking fees paid directly to the Clinton Foundation.
“We will see a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds,” Mr. Schweizer writes.

We Californians were happy to see the months of October and November pass without a significant wildfire, especially since there was an unusually early start to the fire season in May. However, December opened up with an intense conflagration that may be a real "man-caused disaster".
A large fire in downtown Los Angeles destroyed an apartment tower that was under construction and forced the closure of parts of two major freeways, snarling rush-hour traffic Monday morning. More than 250 firefighters were battling the blaze at 909 West Temple Street early Monday, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz told the Los Angeles Times. Fire officials also said that two other buildings nearby suffered damage. One building suffered "radiant heat damage" on three floors, while the second suffered fire damage on three floors and water damage on the remaining 14 floors. Officials are inclined to believe it may have been intentionally set, The Times reports. Fires of this magnitude are treated as criminal fires. However, Capt. James Moore said it is "very rare the whole building is engulfed."
Twitter lit up with video from "citizen reporters" via Instagram, and one Los Angelino post this item to YouTube.

Update 7 p.m.: It's official: In a second trail-blazing pick for the nation's top law enforcement officer, President Barack Obama intends to nominate the federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, to become the next attorney general and the first black woman to lead the Justice Department. Obama's spokesman said Friday that he will announce his selection of Loretta Lynch from the White House on Saturday. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace Eric Holder, who announced his resignation in September after serving as the nation's first black attorney general. --------------- I admit, I'm prejudiced in favor of Loretta Lynch, my law school classmate and then good acquaintance. Other than a brief encounter at a reunion, I have not had contact with her since 1984, but I've followed her career.  While there certainly is more research to be done, I never viewed her as politicized in her conduct as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. It is reported she will be nominated to replace Eric Holder: