A former Boston College student was accused of violently groping a woman as he crossed a crowded dance floor on a student cruise in 2012. Now that student was awarded more than $100,000 in damages after a jury determined the school violated his contract and “basic fairness” when it found him responsible despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
The male student, referred to in court documents as John Doe, was arrested for the alleged groping, but the charges were dropped after video from the cruise and forensic analysis seemed to show Doe had not committed the assault. Doe tried to tell campus investigators about an “alternative culprit” he saw just as the woman screamed and who allegedly told Doe that he had groped her. Boston College instead allowed this other suspect to testify against Doe and a senior administrator suggested he be put “at ease” when testifying.
The College Fix <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/jury-awards-six-figures-to-accused-student-for-title-ix-kangaroo-court/">reported</a> that a school adjudication panel couldn’t reach a verdict until a senior administrator discouraged them from a “no finding” resolution. The panel then found Doe “responsible” for “indecent assault and battery,” which is what he was originally charged with by police before those charges were dropped. The original allegation claimed “penetrative assault” against the woman on the dance floor.
Doe sued the school and the lawsuit actually resulted in a jury trial — the first of such lawsuits since the Obama administration changed school guidelines regarding campus sexual assault. Other lawsuits resulted in settlements or dismissals before reaching a trial.
At the trial, the Fix reported, Catherine-Mary Rivera, who chaired the hearing to determine Doe’s responsibility, testified that school adjudicators did not treat the hearing “as a search for truth,” which the outlet suggested likely swayed the jury.
The Boston College Heights <a href="http://bcheights.com/magazine/index.php/2019/jury-considers-basic-fairness-in-trial-for-alumnus-lawsuit/">reported</a> that school administrators testified that they “had questions about [the alternative suspect’s] honesty” because he kept changing his story. For example, the student’s story was inconsistent about “whether or not he blacked out on the night of the cruise and his claim of lying to Doe that he blacked out.”
These administrators also apparently doubted the testimony of other witnesses, who were drunk during the incident. The college apparently discounted the testimony of the victim’s friend, referred to as “Betsy,” who was sober and claimed there were multiple people between Doe and the victim at the time of the incident. Still, the school found him responsible.
Boston College <a href="https://twitter.com/kcjohnson9/status/1176237543999901696">proposed jury instructions</a> at the trial, claiming it was not contractually obligated “to hear Doe’s side of the story prior to the hearing” or to “proceed with the hearing prior to the end of the criminal investigation.”
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper had initially dismissed Doe’s lawsuit, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived it. Casper severely limited Doe’s ability to present his case, professor and author K.C. Johnson said in <a href="https://twitter.com/kcjohnson9/status/1176234469776416768">a tweet</a>. Casper “significantly restricted the number of witnesses” Doe could present, including “virtually all of his experts.” Casper also limited the jury to determining only if Boston College breached its contract with Doe and denied him “basic fairness.” The jury determined that the school had, and awarded Doe nearly $25,000 in lost tuition and $77,600 for lost income due to the one-year “set back” of his planned start of law school.

Dance floor

Video And Forensics Showed He Was Innocent But College Suspended Him Anyway. He Was Just Awarded More Than $100k.

Boston

Education

Sexual Assault

Citing security concerns, Boston University has cut by half the potential audience for a scheduled Ben Shapiro campus speaking event and is demanding an exorbitant security fee from the conservative group hosting the event.
Boston University Young Americans for Freedom (BU YAF) told The Daily Wire Wednesday that they were informed in an email this week from Boston University&#8217;s Assistant Dean of Students, John Battaglino, that they must move the planned speaking event with the Daily Wire editor-in-chief to a location that can accommodate only about half the audience the previous location could hold. The university is also requiring the student organization to pay more than $12,000 in security fees administrators insist are necessary to make sure the community is safe during the event.
In a <a href="https://www.yaf.org/news/boston-university-halves-shapiro-audience-levies-12720-security-fee-on-yafers/">report</a> on the incident published Wednesday, YAF spokesman Spencer Brown provides some key takeaways from the 30-point list of &#8220;considerations, costs, and conditions&#8221; for the Shapiro event Battaglino sent to the organization. Among the stipulations presented in the list is the requirement that the event be relocated from a 1,500-person venue to one that only seats 700, the limitation of potential participants to members of the BU community who reserve tickets — rather than the event being free and open to the public, as originally proposed — and security fees totaling $12,720 the university expects YAF to cover.
The conservative student organization notes that in the university&#8217;s explanation for the exorbitant security charges, administrators cite the need to &#8220;provide security for protestors,&#8221; but notably do not cite the need to protect YAF or Shapiro.
YAF lists some of the security measures the university says it must take to host the speaking event from the mainstream conservative speaker, a result of repeated instances of left-wing violence at such events on campuses across the country. Among the expenses the university says it will incur is paying for the services of 40 university police officers to maintain safety involving the event, four additional officers to direct traffic, 16 contracted security officers, and 2 explosive ordnance disposal K9 units.
&#8220;All this for an event that has yet to receive a threat because it hadn&#8217;t previously been publicly announced,&#8221; Brown writes. &#8220;All because the powers that be at Boston University have decided Ben Shapiro and his mainstream conservative ideas pose so great a threat as to be unmanageable in the planned setting.&#8221;
In a statement to YAF, BU YAF President Diana Soriano condemned the university&#8217;s unreasonable requirements for the event as yet another example of administrators promoting the suppression of free speech on campus based on the threat of violence by &#8220;leftist agitators.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re a bunch of college students who shouldn&#8217;t be put on the hook for what administrators are worried Antifa might do,&#8221; Soriano told YAF. &#8220;Boston University&#8217;s decision only encourages leftist agitators to continue their intolerant and often violent opposition to conservative events. If even the chance of Antifa activity can scare a school into charging unaffordable security fees that force the cancelation of an event, Antifa gets what it wants without lifting a finger.&#8221;
Brown issued his own statement, decrying the response of the administration to the fear of leftist violence as &#8220;egregious&#8221; and the disingenuous suppression of conservative speech as &#8220;straight out of the leftist playbook.&#8221;
Shapiro&#8217;s events have been repeatedly targeted by left-wing protesters and sympathetic administrators, who have allowed threats of violence to curb conservative speech.
&#8220;As per the usual arrangement, it appears that conservatives are to be penalized for the not-even-yet-threatened misbehavior of intolerant Leftists,&#8221; Shapiro told The Daily Wire Wednesday in response to Boston University&#8217;s demands of YAF. &#8220;The heckler&#8217;s veto is alive and well.&#8221;
UPDATE: YAF informed The Daily Wire Wednesday that the university has now agreed to wave the security fee. The university is still requiring the event to be held at the smaller location.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42786/another-university-trying-block-shapiro-speaking-daily-wire">Another University Is Trying To Block Shapiro From Speaking. Here&#8217;s Their Strategy.</a>

Ben Shapiro

&#8216;Straight Out Of The Leftist Playbook&#8217;: Boston U Cuts Shapiro Audience By Half, Imposes Massive Fee

First Amendment

Free Speech

Last week, Boston mother Maureen Maloney was booed while testifying about the death of her son Matthew Denice, who was killed in 2011 by a drunk-driving illegal with a criminal history. Maloney was testifying at the State House in opposition to a bill seeking to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
&#8220;At the start of her testimony, Maloney held up a photo of Matthew and recalled how he was killed by an illegal immigrant drunk behind the wheel. About halfway into her 3 minutes of testimony, a man behind Maloney booed the grieving mother,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/09/04/booing-wont-stop-this-mom/">Boston Herald</a> reported.
&#8220;It just made me more determined,&#8221; Maloney told the outlet. &#8220;I don’t want other people to lose their lives like Matthew did. I don’t want other families to go through the heartache that my family deals with. And that’s where I get the strength and the stamina to keep doing this.&#8221;
This was not the first time the &#8220;Angel Mom&#8221; has been booed while discussing the tragic death of her son. &#8220;A few years ago, Maloney spoke out against a similar proposal, and a senator had given her his additional three minutes to testify. When Maloney went over the three minutes, she said people in the audience began booing and hollering that her time was up,&#8221; the Herald reported.
&#8220;You get used to it over time,&#8221; the mother said.
Maloney spoke at a Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities event in May 2017, where she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVYecEfuO4">detailed</a> the death of her son by illegal immigrant Nicolas Dutan Guaman.
<blockquote>“On August 20, 2011, my son Matthew Denice was tragically killed less than two miles form our home. Matthew was riding his motorcycle in a residential area with a 20 mile per hour speed limit. Nicolas Guaman, an illegal alien with a criminal record, ran a stop sign, colliding with Matthew’s motorcycle. Matthew landed on the hood and the windshield of Guaman’s truck and rolled off into the street. Witnesses saw Matthew getting up out of the road.
During the trial, the Boston medical examiner and the forensic experts testified that Matthew survived the initial collision with just scrapes and bruises. … By all accounts, he should have lived. 
But Nicolas Guaman, who was an illegal alien did not have a diver’s license and had spent his day drinking beer made a fatal decision. He ran over Matthew, causing Matthew to be lodged in the front, right wheel well. He dragged Matthew a quarter mile to this death while horrified witnesses yelled for him to stop and banged on his truck. Witnesses heard Matthew’s bloodcurdling screams as his body was torn apart over the course of that quarter of a mile. Matthew’s body was impeding the forward motion of that front wheel of the truck. Nicolas Guaman knew he was dragging my son but he continued to flee the police. Eventually Guaman was run off the road and Matthew’s body became dislodged. Guaman then backed up over Matthew, and then continued to flee. And he had his six-year-old son in the truck during all this.” </blockquote>
Maloney said she prayed to her son for strength before giving her testimony last week, the Herald noted. &#8220;I was just asking him to guide me with my testimony and help me to not have anger in my heart towards the other side,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Just do some work through me, use me to try to save other lives.&#8221;
&#8220;Going to hearings like this, talking about it, opens up the wounds and it’s painful,&#8221; Maloney added. &#8220;And hearing them talk about their fear of separation and I’m sitting there thinking, &#8216;I have been permanently separated. This is the ultimate permanent separation.&#8217; They’re afraid they’ll be deported but they can take their kids with them or their kids can go visit them. I don’t have that option.&#8221;
Guaman is currently serving out a 12 to 14-year sentence for the murder of Denice.

Angel Mom With President Trump

‘Angel Mom’ Booed While Testifying About Son Killed By Illegal Immigrant

Crime

Illegal Immigration

Murder

Lately, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been staking out a position as a defender of the American Muslim community against the alleged white nationalism of Donald Trump. Along with fellow candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Warren was outspoken in support of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) when President Trump attacked Omar earlier this year. Warren has also vocally opposed the so-called “Muslim Ban,” a major priority for Muslim activist groups.
Unfortunately, in the process, Warren has become close to several organizations that promote political Islamism — an imperialist ideology demanding that Muslims seek political supremacy as a religious imperative. Some of these organizations are connected to actual terror organizations or are otherwise supportive of them.
For example, in December 2016, Sen. Warren was a featured speaker at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) — the infamous “Roxbury Mosque” — at the <a href="https://counterjihad.com/terror-experts-concerned-sen-warren-aide-radical-mosque">urging</a> of one of her staffers who attended the mosque. This mosque has deep connections to <a href="https://www.peaceandtolerance.org/2016/12/10/faith-leaders-urge-sen-elizabeth-warren-and-boston-mayor-martin-walsh-not-to-legitimize-jihadist-mosque-interfaith-gambit/">terrorism</a>: The Islamic Society of Boston was founded by convicted terror financier Abdurahman Alamoudi, the Roxbury Mosque itself had Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi as a trustee, and several attendees later joined al-Qaeda and Islamic State. Furthermore, at the time ISBCC was under the direct control of the Boston chapter of the Muslim-American Society (MAS), the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/85.pdf">American arm</a> of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In her drive to oppose Trump and support an embattled minority, Sen. Warren is actually lending her credibility to radical groups that do not reflect the American Muslim mainstream. This could simply reflect a commitment by Warren to civil rights and equal treatment for all Americans, coupled with a lack of care over with whom she ought to associate.
But it could also be part of a disturbing new trend, in which a former <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-does-elizabeth-warren-have-a-plan-for-israel-1.7409088">supporter</a> of Israel is ostentatiously embracing political Islamism to slyly court the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/progressive-anti-semitism-multicultural-left-new-york-times/">increasingly anti-Semitic</a> radical wing of the progressive movement. By supporting Islamists, Sen. Warren might be signaling that she’s now on board with the hard-left argument of “intersectionality” — that all so-called “marginalized” groups need to be uncritically supported against their supposed oppressors, including the United States itself.
The warning signs have been piling up. Starting with President Trump’s election in 2016, Warren also began associating with Islamist groups in order to criticize Trump’s “Muslim ban.” In January 2017, Warren was one of the featured speakers at a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/photos/a.92140837694/10154480568662695/?type=1&amp;theater">protest</a> against the misnamed “Muslim ban” held by the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization presenting itself as a civil rights champion of Muslims that actually was <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1059.pdf">founded</a> by the covert Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood. The FBI <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/1029/fbi-explains-its-cair-cut-off">severed ties</a> with CAIR in 2009, after evidence of its close ties to the terror organization Hamas was presented during the infamous Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial.
CAIR also <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_says_maryland_governor_s_anti_bds_order_violates_first_14th_amendments">works</a> <a href="https://ca.cair.com/losangeles/news/cair-ca-calls-on-uc-board-of-regents-to-retract-anti-bds-anti-free-speech-statement/">constantly</a> to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/posts/bdsmovement-cair-anti-bds-bills-expected-to-feature-prominently-at-aipacon-frida/10155579678417695/">support</a> the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) campaign against Israel. BDS was initially funded and propelled in the United States by the Islamist group <a href="https://www.ampalestine.org/what-bds-0">American Muslims for Palestine</a>, a <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7884/revised-complaint-bolsters-amp-ties-to-old-hamas">front group</a> for Hamas, and it has the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/the-bds-movement-is-a-cleverly-disguised-campaign-to-destroy-israel/">professed aim</a> of destroying Israel entirely and ethnically cleansing its Jews from the region.
In June 2018, Warren <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/we-will-not-obey-hundreds-of-women-rally-in-dc-to-protest-zero-tolerance-immigration-policy/2018/06/28/d1aca604-7a4a-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html">participated</a> in the “Women Disobey” march against the family separation policies carried out at the Mexican border. One of the main <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/393302-womens-march-organizers-plan-protest-against-family-separation">organizers</a> was Linda Sarsour, a noted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/opinion/womens-march-progressives-hate.html">Islamist radical</a> who is the executive director of MPower Change — a group that regularly claims the United States is corrupted by <a href="https://twitter.com/MPower_Change/status/1138580194342592512">white supremacy</a> and even calls for the <a href="https://twitter.com/MPower_Change/status/1131231289699315712">abolition</a> of ICE and the entire <a href="https://twitter.com/MPower_Change/status/1125883211970531328">prison system</a> alike!
Unsurprisingly, observers have noted a recent shift in Warren’s tone towards Israel — from her previous support to sharp criticism. As late as 2014, Warren <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/elizabeth-warren-2020-where-does-progressive-senator-stand-palestine-976905873">stated</a> that “America has a very special relationship with Israel” and defended increased military funding; but more recently, Warren attacked Trump’s move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, condemned new “settlement” activity, and called for expanded U.S. aid to Gaza. Some former supporters grew <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-does-elizabeth-warren-have-a-plan-for-israel-1.7409088">concerned</a> that Warren was no longer “doing her homework” and was trying to position herself for the 2020 presidential campaign at Israel’s expense.
Then in March 2019, Warren refused to attend the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC’s national conference and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/27/did-eight-democratic-candidates-boycott-aipac-conference/?utm_term=.c25309633c7e">gave no explanation</a>, despite having attended in the past. This followed a joint <a href="https://thetempest.co/2019/03/25/news/democrats-boycott-aipac/#content">pressure campaign</a> by MoveOn.org and Sarsour’s organization MPower Change.
After the massacre of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1107627965418868736">stated</a> that “in the same way that [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda terrorism pose a threat to the United States, so does the rise of white nationalism.” The comparison is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-21/white-nationalism-is-not-a-terrorist-threat-like-islamic-state">overheated</a>; while white supremacist terrorism is more dangerous now than in recent years and needs to be dealt with, modern white supremacists have never marshaled standing armies with thousands of personnel, nor have they managed to control territory or form their own state as did Islamic State.
So why compare the two? Here, Warren was echoing a line pushed in unison by hard-left activist groups and Islamist organizations such as CAIR and Emgage; CAIR-Oklahoma director Adam Soltani went so far as to <a href="https://twitter.com/CAIRNational/status/1128662057723863043">say</a> that “white supremacy is the root of Islamophobia,” and Emgage has made white supremacy a <a href="https://twitter.com/Emgageaction_/status/1125091707262001154">recurring</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/EmgageAction/status/1135637277487407104">theme</a> in its messaging.
In June, the Warren campaign hired a new Director for Progressive Partnerships, an activist named <a href="https://twitter.com/maxberger/status/1142208194606968834">Max Berger</a>. Berger has a long history of <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/warren-staffer-draws-criticism-for-anti-israel-tweet/">incendiary claims against Israel</a> and claims in <a href="https://www.jns.org/opinion/zoa-urges-warren-to-fire-hamas-loving-israel-hating-ifnotnow-co-founder-max-berger/">support of domestic Islamists</a> like Omar Suleiman — claims which were so virulent that Berger recently cleared his entire Twitter history to conceal them.
Finally, on June 24th, Warren was one of only two presidential candidates (the other being third-tier candidate Jay Inslee) to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/muslimcaucus/videos/518338828905378/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARB_ESNTRN9AH2Obl9etyBfuk57ydLE5f2wRaZblH2SZay3TYMzGUvjSt2SicEUfPojcxtD2ju4iBlHCZ0QPwmF-l1qjc3EqZMwNNScq7_0ZEZA8m5NJlh1Ula6KeN3njoveIrUMaQipm8UI3VKUA3xAAJbTQh2tgrhgkd0xpS77Ult9dRaZkHxkyI4T1_pycMXJ9tBkaWEXoirrwx7cjed4wWGCWQ7bXaS2FSFt-mvY1DpfYGXtAPPEGI27adOnjBMfK8k8dpRuSrWAdFC7mAzYQuhIFT2Cl4Hijl2Pz9VK2TCYXtkoizJvaUuVIXbfp0nwBF3sLVGLerA7IOxA5IRmh1JuqXF6-ETD9Q&amp;__tn__=-R">address</a> the <a href="https://www.muslimcaucuscollective.org/agenda">Muslim Collective for Equitable Democracy 2019</a>, a conference of Islamist politicians, candidates, and activists that featured some of the most harmful Islamist voices in the United States, such as CAIR founder Nihad Awad.
Supporting the American Muslim community against the Trump administration has become sound progressive politics. But associating herself with Islamists like CAIR and Linda Sarsour indicates that Warren may be going far beyond simple political gestures — she is now actually internalizing the Islamist narrative. That is a mistake. The goal of the Islamist movement is nothing less than the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/22032/popular-us-imam-constitution-inferior-to-sharia">delegitimization</a> of the American constitutional order and the seizure of political power. The American Muslim community is incredibly diverse and has more voices than just the Islamists; if Warren wants to support the Muslim community, associating with the Islamists is the last thing she should do.
Dr. Oren Litwin is the associate director of <a href="https://www.meforum.org/59041/middle-east-forum-launches-islamism-in-politics-project">Islamism in Politics</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

LITWIN: Elizabeth Warren Must Stop Associating With Islamist Radicals

2020 Election

Al Qaeda

CAIR

Democratic Party

Elizabeth Warren

Hamas

Islam

Israel

After initially being turned down by the city, Boston&#8217;s first ever &#8220;Straight Pride&#8221; parade has been granted an official date: August 31.
The group behind the event, &#8220;Super Happy Fun America,&#8221; announced the development in a press conference in front of City Hall Wednesday, where they said the city informed them that they will be receiving their license to hold the parade at the end of August.
The city initially rejected the &#8220;Straight Pride&#8221; proposal but, after the group filed a discrimination complaint, has conceded that it cannot deny a group on account of its values or beliefs, as explained by Mayor Marty Walsh earlier this month. &#8220;Permits to host a public event are granted based on operational feasibility, not based on values or endorsements of beliefs,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The City of Boston cannot deny a permit based on an organization’s values.&#8221;
<a href="https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/06/26/boston-straight-pride-parade-date/">CBS Boston</a> notes that &#8220;Super Happy Fun America&#8221; initially requested that City Hall fly a &#8220;Straight Pride&#8221; flag, as it does the Gay Pride flag, but the request &#8220;was denied as city officials said they have sole discretion on what flags fly outside City Hall.&#8221;
The group&#8217;s initial attempt to get permission to run its parade, which will follow the path of the annual Pride Parade, was shut down, but things changed when they made a legal appeal. &#8220;We filed a discrimination complaint and it appears the City of Boston understands they would lose in litigation,&#8221; the group&#8217;s vice president, Mark Sahady, said in a Facebook post. &#8220;The city is now working with us on the parade.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48136/boston-straight-pride-parade-prompts-very-james-barrett">The Daily Wire</a> has reported, the organizers of the &#8220;Straight Pride&#8221; Parade present it as an alternative to the annual Gay Pride Parade, describing the event as an opportunity to &#8220;celebrate heterosexuality.&#8221;
&#8220;We want people to be aware that there is not only one side of things,&#8221; the group&#8217;s president John Hugo said in a statement reported by <a href="https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/06/05/straight-pride-parade-boston-group-planned/">CBS</a>. &#8220;There’s a lot of people that are uncomfortable with a lot of things that are going on in our country and they’re afraid to speak up.&#8221; Sahady framed the event in patriotic terms. &#8220;This is our chance to have a patriotic parade in Boston as we celebrate straight pride,&#8221; he wrote in an online post.
The event has stirred strong responses both for and against online. Among those who have weighed in is progressive actor Chris Evans, who took to Twitter to brand the organizers &#8220;homophobic.&#8221; &#8220;Just a thought, instead of &#8216;Straight Pride&#8217; parade, how about this: The &#8216;desperately trying to bury our own gay thoughts by being homophobic because no one taught us how to access our emotions as children&#8217; parade?&#8221; he tweeted.
Right-leaning FOX Nation host Tomi Lahren, however, defended the event and slammed Boston&#8217;s initial denial as more evidence that it&#8217;s &#8220;open season&#8221; on straight white males. &#8220;You can be proud of about anything these days, so long as it&#8217;s not straight white male or, God forbid, conservative,&#8221; she said.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48146/brad-pitts-name-photo-used-promote-straight-pride-amanda-prestigiacomo">Brad Pitt</a> has also been caught up in the debate after the organizers of the event adopted him as their &#8220;mascot.&#8221; TMZ reported that Pitt told them that &#8220;his team has reached out to the Straight Pride Parade organizers, demanding they stop using his name and likeness for their event&#8221; and threatened &#8220;further action&#8221; if they didn&#8217;t. His name and likeness has since been scrubbed from the event&#8217;s promotions.

UPDATE: Boston’s ‘Straight Pride’ Parade Moving Forward, Date Set

LGBT

Sexuality

On June 20th, Boston mayor Marty Walsh <a href="https://commonwealthmagazine.org/immigration/muslim-to-head-citys-immigrant-advancement-office/">announced</a> the appointment of Yusufi Vali as the city&#8217;s new head of the Office for Immigrant Advancement (OIA). Vali is the executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB), a mosque that is <a href="https://www.peaceandtolerance.org/the-case-against-the-isb/">notorious</a> for its deep connections with the Muslim Brotherhood and several terror plotters. More recently, Vali himself oversaw the creation of ISB&#8217;s new project, the Boston Islamic Seminary; several members of the faculty are open <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/54222/the-boston-islamic-seminary-is-training-the-next">anti-Semites</a>, and one (Suheil Laher) was even the head of an al-Qaeda charity.
Ironically, it was the American public&#8217;s scrutiny of ISB after 9/11 that led indirectly to Vali&#8217;s ascension: ISB responded by <a href="http://www.theology-centre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Islam-and-Community-Organising-V3-singles.pdf">building relationships</a> with several community interfaith groups, including the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). Vali <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yusufi-vali-65462847/">worked</a> as a community organizer with GBIO from 2009 to 2012 (when he became executive director of ISB), and that experience laid the groundwork for his deepening relationships with local politicians &#8212; which has now brought him to his current position.
Boston&#8217;s OIA has much to recommend it for Islamists. It oversees citizenship-application assistance, legal clinics, and classes in civic engagement &#8212; all useful resources for Islamists in their work to turn the Muslim community into a potent political force. Moreover, the previous head of the OIA stepped down in December in order to run for a seat on the Boston city council. The position is evidently a steppingstone to electoral office.
Vali is not the first Muslim-American official to be appointed to a government office that provides electoral advantages for the future. For example, City Councilman Alaa Abdel-Aziz, of Paterson, New Jersey, had <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/paterson-press/2018/07/11/abdelaziz-becomes-patersons-new-6th-ward-councilman/774871002/">lost his run</a> for city council in 2016, but was appointed by the council to a vacant seat in September 2018; he then won the election in November. Mayor Sadaf Jaffer of Montgomery Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, had been elected to the township committee in 2017, but was appointed mayor in 2019.
Neither of these officials is overtly Islamist, though Vali&#8217;s role at ISB is cause for concern. More alarming is Assad Akhter, appointed to the Passaic County (New Jersey) Board of Freeholders in 2016 to fill a vacancy; he then won re-election in 2017 and 2018. A veteran staffer on Capitol Hill, Akhter was listed in 2012 as one of the <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/726.pdf">founding leaders</a> of the National Muslim Democratic Council (NMDC), a political-organizing group meant to help American Muslims gain influence within the Democratic Party. His fellow NMDC leaders included Islamists such as radical Linda Sarsour and CAIR-Sacramento director Basim Elkarra.
It is natural for well-meaning politicians to want to appoint Muslims to government posts, to be more inclusive to an embattled minority group &#8212; and perhaps more importantly, to claim political credit for such inclusiveness. The risk such politicians face is that politically prominent Muslims, the kind of people who are more likely to get such appointments, are typically the ones who sought out political prominence. For some, it may simply be a matter of civic responsibility or personal ambition; but others are motivated by Islamism, which sees political supremacy as a religious duty.
Worse, it appears that few politicians appear to understand the risk. An example of excellence was Esam Omeish, who was appointed to a Virginia immigration commission by then-Democratic Governor Tim Kaine in 2007. At the time, Omeish was president of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which is <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/investigations/chi-0409190261sep19-story.html">widely known</a> to be a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. Kaine was forced to withdraw his appointment after <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/494/ipt-footage-takes-down-omeish">video surfaced</a> of Omeish publicly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cee0LJaI7Qk">calling</a> for jihad against Israel, saying that Palestinian terrorists had &#8220;elevated their worship&#8221; of Allah, and continuing that &#8220;we need to share with them their hardships and their jihad.&#8221;
Mr. Kaine was apparently blindsided by Omeish&#8217;s extremism; but he shouldn&#8217;t have been. Omeish&#8217;s leadership of MAS should have been a massive warning sign, and should have triggered much more due diligence by Kaine&#8217;s team than was seemingly carried out.
As American Muslims increasingly participate in the civic arena, it is critical that politicians learn to distinguish Islamists and avoid giving them power &#8212; especially if government appointments end up short-circuiting the democratic process and giving Islamists all the advantages of incumbency. Islamism is a dangerous ideology that calls for using government power to implement religious goals. Let&#8217;s not make it any easier for the Islamists.

Dr. Oren Litwin is the associate director of the Islamism in Politics project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

LITWIN: Islamist Influence Can Hack Elections

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Terrorism

Hollywood star Brad Pitt is not happy with a group dubbed &#8220;Super Happy Fun America&#8221; using his name and likeness to promote a Boston-area &#8220;Straight Pride Parade.&#8221; The actor has reportedly threatened legal action against the group for declaring him its &#8220;mascot.&#8221;
A source <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/brad-pitt-orders-straight-pride-parade-organizers-cease-using-his-name-image-1216403">confirmed</a> to The Hollywood Reporter that &#8220;Pitt has made it clear to the small group of Boston men planning a &#8216;Straight Pride&#8217; parade they must stop using the actor&#8217;s name and likeness for their purposes.&#8221;
Additionally, sources close to Pitt told TMZ that &#8220;his team has reached out to the Straight Pride Parade organizers, demanding they stop using his name and likeness for their event,&#8221; a report <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/06/06/brad-pitt-not-mascot-straight-pride-parade/">said</a>. &#8220;If they don&#8217;t do it soon &#8230; we&#8217;re told further action could be taken.&#8221;
&#8220;The Straight Community has adopted Brad Pitt as our mascot! Congratulations to Mr. Pitt for being the face of this important civil rights movement,&#8221; the site said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. &#8220;Straight Rights are Human Rights!&#8221;
The site has since been changed, redacting Pitt&#8217;s name and stripping a photo of the actor being fought over by exes Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. The site, donning a &#8220;It&#8217;s great to be straight&#8221; tagline, altered their post as follows:
<blockquote>
&#8220;The Straight Community has adopted [Redacted] as our mascot! Congratulations to [Redacted] for being the face of this important civil rights movement. Straight Rights are Human Rights!&#8221; 
</blockquote>
The proposed Straight Pride Parade is set for sometime in August, though the exact day is yet to be determined.
&#8220;Super Happy Fun America invites you to celebrate the diverse history, culture, and contributions of the straight community!&#8221; the site advertises. &#8220;The Straight Pride Event will be held to achieve inclusivity and spread awareness of issues impacting straights in Greater Boston and beyond. It will be a one-day event consisting of a parade followed by a flag raising ceremony. Celebrate being heterosexual!&#8221;
According to Super Happy Fun America, the City of Boston rejected the group&#8217;s application to fly a &#8220;straight pride flag&#8221; at city hall.
The administration of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh &#8220;is not yet committed to creating a supportive environment for straights and equality for all,&#8221; the site says. &#8220;We will continue to educate the Mayor and the public in anticipation that one day straights will be able to celebrate their lifestyle like everyone else. What better way to educate and foster unity than by having a parade!&#8221;
&#8220;Come on, I don&#8217;t know what this straight pride parade is all about,&#8221; Mayor Walsh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48136/boston-straight-pride-parade-prompts-very-james-barrett">said</a> when asked about the proposed parade, reported CBS. &#8220;I know that we have a pride parade on Saturday and that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m going to march in.&#8221;
&#8220;Every year, Boston hosts our annual Pride Week, where our city comes together to celebrate the diversity, strength and acceptance of our LGBTQ community,&#8221; he told The Washington Post. &#8220;This is a special week that represents Boston&#8217;s values of love and inclusion, which are unwavering. I encourage everyone to join us in celebration this Saturday for the Pride Parade and in the fight for progress and equality for all.&#8221;

Brad Pitt&#8217;s Name, Photo Used To Promote ‘Straight Pride Parade.’ Pitt Responds.

Brad Pitt

Hollywood

At the end of April, The Daily Wire reported that the Boston regional office of the Department of Education&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) had never accepted a complaint from a male alleging sexual harassment &#8212; whether as an accuser or the accused claiming bias.
The documentation came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by University of Southern California (USC) doctoral candidate Kursat Christoff Pekgoz. His request revealed that since 2011 &#8212; the year the Obama administration posted new rules regarding how schools must respond to sexual assault accusations &#8212; the Boston regional office had not accepted a Title IX complaint in the sexual harassment category from an accusing or accused male.
During this same period, the office went after colleges and universities, such as Harvard Law School, for allegedly discriminating against female accusers.
The Boston office did not respond at that time to a Daily Wire inquiry.
Days later, the office finally responded and asked for the FOIA request number. Days after that, the Wire received a phone call from the U.S. Department of Education saying the office had reviewed the original FOIA request and apparently searched its investigative database incorrectly.
After running the search again to look for discrimination against men between January 1, 2011 and March 15, 2018 (the range of the original FOIA request), the office found that it has actually opened 16 investigations alleging bias against men at post-secondary institutions.
The updated data was provided to the Wire, and shows that the first case accepted by the Boston office was opened in 2014 against Brandeis University. The case was closed by &#8220;administrative closure,&#8221; the data showed.
Of the 16 cases, three were against Brandeis in Massachusetts. Ivy League institutions Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale were also each on the list once. Nine of the cases have been closed, two of which were categorized as &#8220;dismissals,&#8221; three were categorized as &#8220;administrative closure,&#8221; one was categorized as a &#8220;resolution agreement&#8221; (against Roger Williams University School of Law). The final three were labeled &#8220;FRBP/ECR&#8221; which means they resulted in a Facilitated Resolution Between the Parties.
The remaining seven cases are still &#8220;under investigation.&#8221; The longest of the cases still under investigation was opened on August 13, 2015 against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Details of the cases were not provided in the data.
Pekgoz filed the original FOIA along with another request seeking copies of acknowledgement letters (verifying that an investigation was open) for all complaints filed by men in the sexual harassment category of Title IX. Though every other regional office produced material for the request, Boston did not.
This office now claims the FOIA request was improperly searched, which Pekgoz found questionable. He told the Wire that one of the people who collected the original data had access to a computer at OCR headquarters, which could track national data.
&#8220;Based on all this, I find it impossible to believe that the Boston Office somehow failed to understand both FOIA requests (especially since all other regional offices did). So they are either extremely biased, or extremely incompetent,&#8221; Pekgoz said.
Further, Pekgoz explained that the resolution categories provided by the Education Department were misleading. &#8220;Dismissal&#8221; means an investigation was not actually accepted and &#8220;administrative closure&#8221; means the case had been filed elsewhere without adjudicating its merits. He also said that &#8220;resolution agreement&#8221; may not mean favorable terms for an accused male.
&#8220;I have seen situations in which OCR ostensibly accepted a complaint to investigate discrimination against a male student and ended up authoring resolution letters that primarily benefit female accusers,&#8221; he said.
He told the Wire one of his own Title IX complaints, against USC, resulted in a resolution that was &#8220;diametrically opposite to my allegations, and this was still labelled a &#8216;resolution letter.&#8217;&#8221;

A FOIA Request Made The Boston Title IX Office Look Bad, So They Redid It

Sexual Harassment

One of the two men who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013, a terrorist attack in which three people were murdered and 264 other people were injured, including 16 who lost a limb, filed a motion asking his death sentence be overturned.
On Thursday, attorneys for the bomber, who along with his brother executed the bombing on April 15, 2013 that killed Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, Lingzi Lu, 23, and Martin Richard, 8, told the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals that the judge in the case made a mistake denying their motions to move the trial out of Boston. The trial ended in April 2015.
As <a href="https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/boston-marathon-bomber-wants-conviction-death-sentence-overturned/">PJ Media</a> reports, the bomber was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/jury-reaches-verdict-boston-bombing-trial">convicted on all 30 counts</a> including conspiracy, use of a weapon of mass destruction and the murder of the three victims from the bombing and the subsequent murder of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier three days after the bombing.
The bomber&#8217;s defense team admitted during the trial that the two brothers had executed the bombing; the bomber had admitted his involvement just after he was arrested, telling federal agents that he and his brother were motivated by extremist Islamic beliefs, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/us/boston-marathon-bombing-developments.html?hp&amp;pagewanted=all">The New York Times.</a>
As <a href="https://apnews.com/6c10921a6f6e4c8d942a6959597c53f0">AP reported</a>, the attorneys for the bomber argued in their brief asking for his sentence to be overturned that his trial should not have been held in Boston because the city had been &#8220;traumatized by the bombings, ordered to shelter in place during the manhunt, saturated by prejudicial publicity and united in the Boston Strong movement.&#8221;
The first time the bomber spoke publicly about the bombing came just before the judge pronounced his death sentence; he <a href="http://time.com/3934592/boston-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-apology/">admitted</a>, &#8220;Immediately after the bombing, which I am guilty of &#8212; if there&#8217;s any lingering doubt about that, let there be no more. I did do it along with my brother &#8230;&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/news/boston-marathon-bombing-martin-richard-kindness">Irish Central</a> reported:
<blockquote>
One of the victims, 8-year-old Martin Richard, was standing at the marathon finish line cheering on the runners with his family when the second bomb detonated on April 15, 2013. Martin was killed; his sister Jane, an Irish dancer, lost her leg; their mother, Denise, suffered brain injuries and blindness in one eye from shrapnel; their father, Bill, lost some of his hearing.
</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/26/what-this-trial-all-about/YqMHkWnoogGFcVJJGsIL9I/story.html">The Boston Globe</a> said of Krystle Campbell, whose left foot was fractured, left thigh bone was broken, and whose legs were devastated by the bomb, reputedly leaving her suffering for roughly one minute before she died, &#8220;Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old woman so loved by her friends that she was a bridesmaid 17 times, lying on the sidewalk of Boylston Street outside Marathon Sports, her body ripped apart.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2015/03/11/linzi-lu-tsarnaev-trial/">Boston Magazine</a>, writing of Lingzi Lu, reported what her best friend Danling Zhou, a fellow Chinese transfer student who met Lu in math class, testified about what happened when they attended the marathon that day. The Globe wrote:
<blockquote>
Zhou&#8217;s organs were spilling out of a gash on her stomach. She pushed her insides back in while she tried to calm Lu down. Afraid that screaming might waste what was left of her energy, Zhou waited for an ambulance in silence. By the time Boston Police Officer Lauren Woods found Lu, she was alone. &#8220;Her whole body was shaking quivering. She had vomit in her hair, eyes were rolling in and out,&#8221; Woods called. She stuck her fingers down Lu&#8217;s throat, trying to clear the vomit. Others came to try to help with chest compressions.
Woods found Lu&#8217;s university ID and started calling her name. &#8220;Lingzi, stay with us,&#8221; she screamed.
</blockquote>

Boston Marathon Bomber: I Want My Death Sentence Overturned

The first chair flutist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is suing the organization, claiming she receives $70,000 less than her male counterpart because she is a woman.
Elizabeth Rowe joined the BSO when she was 29 after a blind audition, which, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/entertainment/music/orchestra-gender-pay-gap/?utm_term=.5dc19f6e2ac2">according to The Washington Post</a> involved playing &#8220;behind a brown, 33-foot polyester screen&#8221; so no one knew her gender or race. Rowe is now 44, and knows that John Ferrillo, a 63-year-old man, makes nearly $70,000 more than her, because his salary was disclosed in a tax filing since the BSO is a nonprofit organization.
Ferrillo has been with the BSO since 2001. Rowe has been with the orchestra since 2004. Ferrillo was also lured away from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Post reported, by offering to pay him &#8220;twice what the orchestra&#8217;s rank-and-file-make.&#8221;
But the biggest difference between the two? Rowe plays the flute, while Ferrillo plays the oboe. Two very different instruments. So, this is not a case of unequal pay for equal work. The BSO provided the Post with a statement in which it &#8220;defended its pay structure, saying that the flute and oboe are not comparable because, in part, the oboe is more difficult to play and there is a larger pool of flutists.&#8221;
The BSO insisted gender plays no role in compensating players.
There you have it. Ferrillo is a prized oboist, which is much rarer than a prized flutist.
The Post went through the average pay (that&#8217;s how people claim wage discrepancy, rather than comparing apples to apples) of America&#8217;s largest orchestras, and found that only 18% of the top earners are women, and that the &#8220;top male earner makes $535,789, while the top female earner makes $410,912.&#8221; The Post does not say what instruments these top earners play or for which orchestras they play.
There&#8217;s more:
&#8220;Although four other principal BSO players &#8212; all men &#8212; earn more than Rowe, the orchestra notes that she is paid more than nine other principals, of which only one, harpist Jessica Zhou, is a woman. Rowe has been given occasional raises, and her current salary is $250,149 a year.&#8221;
To be fair to Rowe, she didn&#8217;t want her lawsuit to become public. The Post reports that she only wanted her bosses to know about the lawsuit, but the Boston Herald <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2018/07/04/boston-symphony-orchestra-flute-player-takes-equal-pay-fight-to-court/">discovered the suit and spoke to Rowe</a>. Her lawsuit will test the Massachusetts Equal Pay Law which her lawsuit claims requires the orchestra to pay her the same or more than a male in a comparable position. She contends lead oboist is comparable. The BSO says otherwise.
The Boston Herald reported that Rowe was used as the &#8220;face of the BSO&#8221; and retaliated against her when she brought up the pay issue previously.
&#8220;In December 2017, the BSO asked her to be interviewed by Katie Couric for a National Geographic segment on the orchestra&#8217;s longtime practice of using blind auditions &#8212; a procedure of screening auditioning musicians from their evaluators to combat race and gender bias,&#8221; the Herald reported. &#8220;Rowe told the orchestra&#8217;s public relations staff she&#8217;d love to be interviewed and mentioned her concerns of salary discrimination at the BSO. The invitation was rescinded.&#8221;

Woman Sues Orchestra For Pay Discrimination. There’s Just One Problem.

Gender Wage Gap

Music

Sen. Elizabeth Warren just can&#8217;t catch a break. Now, even her hometown newspaper is suggesting that maybe she should just forget about a run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
&#8220;Warren missed her moment in 2016, and there&#8217;s reason to be skeptical of her prospective candidacy in 2020,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2018/12/07/deval-patrick-knew-when-call-quits-presidential-bid-other-political-figures-should-take-note/nOLcrzE5xTQgfXpPMKrUZM/story.html">Boston Globe</a> wrote in an editorial on Friday.
<blockquote>
While Warren won reelection, her margin of victory in November suggests there&#8217;s a ceiling on her popularity; Baker garnered more votes than she did in a state that is supposed to be a Democratic haven. Meanwhile, a September poll indicated that Massachusetts voters were more enthusiastic about Patrick making a White House bid than Warren.
Those are warning signs from the voters who know her best. While Warren is an effective and impactful senator with an important voice nationally, she has become a divisive figure. A unifying voice is what the country needs now after the polarizing politics of Donald Trump.
</blockquote>
In the end, the Globe says Warren might want to do what two-term former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick just did: He had considered a 2020 run, but on Thursday announced he would stay out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
&#8220;Politicians who &#8216;explore&#8217; or &#8216;consider&#8217; presidential campaigns set in motion a machine that can be hard to stop. Patrick did, and that&#8217;s to his credit. There&#8217;s no shame in testing the waters and deciding to stay on the beach,&#8221; the Globe said.
The Globe&#8217;s editorial board had been a Warren backer in 2015, when the senator mulled a run against then-GOP candidate Donald Trump. &#8220;Democrats would be making a big mistake if they let Hillary Clinton coast to the presidential nomination without real opposition, and, as a national leader, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren can make sure that doesn&#8217;t happen. While Warren has repeatedly vowed that she won&#8217;t run for president herself, she ought to reconsider,&#8221; the editorial board wrote then.
But Warren&#8217;s stock has dropped dramatically since she came out two months ago with a DNA test that showed she&#8217;s almost completely white, despite her claims to have Native American blood coursing through her veins. The New York Times, in a Thursday piece headlined, &#8220;Elizabeth Warren Stands by DNA Test. But Around Her, Worries Abound,&#8221; had some blunt criticism for the 2020 wannabe.
<blockquote>
&#8230; [N]early two months after Ms. Warren released the test results and drew hostile reactions from prominent tribal leaders, the lingering cloud over her likely presidential campaign has only darkened. Conservatives have continued to ridicule her. More worrisome to supporters of Ms. Warren&#8217;s presidential ambitions, she has yet to allay criticism from grass-roots progressive groups, liberal political operatives and other potential 2020 allies who complain that she put too much emphasis on the controversial field of racial science &#8212; and, in doing so, played into Mr. Trump&#8217;s hands.
Advisers close to Ms. Warren say she has privately expressed concern that she may have damaged her relationships to Native American groups and her own standing with activists, particularly those who are racial minorities. Several outside advisers are even more worried: They say they believe a plan should be made to repair that damage, possibly including a strong statement of apology.
</blockquote>
Related: NYT: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39099/nyt-elizabeth-warren-may-have-destroyed-herself-ben-shapiro">Elizabeth Warren May Have Destroyed Herself With That DNA Test</a>

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren&#8217;s Hometown Newspaper Says She ‘Missed Her Moment&#8217;

Donald Trump

New York Times

A Boston police captain&#8217;s son was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for plotting a terrorist attack for the Islamic State (ISIS) with firearms and homemade bombs on an unidentified university in New Mexico. 
The terrorist, who gave himself an Arabic name that translates to &#8220;Ali the American,&#8221; pleaded guilty in May to terrorism charges, including attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/boston-police-captains-son-faces-20-years-terror-57615904">ABC News</a> reports.
Authorities describe the thwarted terrorist as a &#8220;committed soldier&#8221; of ISIS who wished to inflict &#8220;maximum damage.&#8221;
In a statement, Hank Shaw, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, stressed that the terrorist &#8220;was a committed soldier of ISIS who wanted to kill innocent people at a United States university with assault rifles and pressure cooker bombs, not an unwitting dupe who didn&#8217;t understand the gravity of what he was doing.&#8221;
The man was contacted by undercover FBI agents after his father, Cpt. Robert Ciccolo, <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/09/05/boston-police-captain-son-faces-years-for-terror-plot/lO8bLqed6N2WZ42skVFqAJ/story.html">alerted authorities about his son&#8217;s desire</a> to fight for ISIS in Syria.
Undercover FBI agents then contacted the suspect, who discussed plots to attack several targets in New Mexico, including a university, a police station, and a gay-friendly bar. He was arrested on July 4, 2015, after accepting two rifles and two handguns from the undercover agents.
In his apartment, police reportedly discovered Molotov cocktails, two machetes, and a long curved knife. He also had purchased a pressure cooker for the plot.
While being processed into the Franklin County Correctional Facility after being arrested, the terrorist also <a href="https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/franklin-county/suspected-terrorist-stabbed-nurse-in-head/1043096844">stabbed a nurse on the head with a pen</a>.
&#8220;The Nurse immediately ran from the room clutching her head and screaming and crying in pain,&#8221; prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum last week, according to the Boston Globe.
Prosecutors also claimed he posted a photo of one of the Boston Marathon Bombers prior to his arrest, encouraging him to &#8220;KEEP THE HOPE.&#8221; In April, he also reportedly said, &#8220;We&#8217;re at the point where Muslims are justified in using violence, yeah I do agree with that.&#8221;
The terrorist&#8217;s lawyers claim he dealt with mental health and substance abuse issues.
Prosecutors <a href="https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/09/alexander_ciccolo_boston_polic.html">gave credit to</a> Capt. Ciccolo who &#8220;likely saved the lives of numerous innocent people.&#8221;
Capt. Ciccolo started to have concerns about his son after he heard him talk about traveling to Syria to fight for ISIS. The captain calls his decision to alert the FBI &#8220;heartbreaking,&#8221; but says he &#8220;understood that he could be preventing harm to innocent people.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m a cop. You can&#8217;t tell me you are going to commit crimes and expect me to take no action to prevent it,&#8221; Capt. Ciccolo said.

Boston Police Captain&#8217;s Son Sentenced To 20 Years For Plotting Terror Attack For ISIS

Islamic State (ISIS)

Police

In the city of Boston, rainbow flags are allowed to wave over city hall while Christian flags are not.
59-year-old Harold Shurtleff, director of Camp Constitution, wanted to fly the Christian flag over the building last year; the city has denied permission, prompting Shurtleff to sue.
According to <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/boston-sued-for-refusing-to-fly-christian-flag-at-city-hall-despite-flying">LifeSiteNews</a>, Shurtleff wanted to&#8221; fly a Christian flag with a red cross on a blue background, with white on three sides, at city hall to commemorate Christianity&#8217;s contribution to the city&#8217;s history. He had been acting on behalf of Camp Constitution, a charitable organization that promotes Christian heritage in concert with the American constitution.
&#8220;This policy and practice is consistent with well-established First Amendment jurisprudence prohibiting a local government &#8216;respecting an establishment of religion,&#8217;&#8221; Boston property management commissioner Gregory Rooney told Shurtleff in an email. &#8220;This policy and practice is also consistent with City&#8217;s legal authority to choose how a limited government resource, like the City Hall flagpoles, is used.&#8221;
In Shurtleff&#8217;s lawsuit, he alleges that Boston&#8217;s policy discriminates against religious groups while treating secular flags differently. It also alleges the city does not apply restrictions to city symbols, such as the city seal, which has the Latin inscription meaning &#8220;God be with us as he was with our fathers.&#8221;
As noted by LifeSiteNews, English Puritans founded Boston and created their flagship institution: Harvard. The <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution">Massachusetts Constitution</a> references God multiple times and extols the &#8220;right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe.&#8221;
When it comes to the rainbow flag, however, Boston officials have no qualms about that. In fact, the City of Boston&#8217;s official Twitter account boasted about it during LGBT pride month:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This afternoon, we raised the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pride?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Pride</a> Flag on City Hall Plaza to kick off <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrideWeek2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PrideWeek2018</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Boston?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Boston</a>. A big thank you to all who joined us! <a href="https://t.co/CrcwBwt7iq">pic.twitter.com/CrcwBwt7iq</a>
&#8212; City of Boston (@CityOfBoston) <a href="https://twitter.com/CityOfBoston/status/1002613827626831872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
The city has also flown the <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2016/05/02/transgender-flag-boston-city-hall-first-time">blue, pink, and white transgender flag</a>.

BOSTON: No Christian Flags Over City Hall; Rainbow Flags, Okay

Christianity

Religion

&#8220;Trump Calls the News Media the &#8216;Enemy of the American People,'&#8221; blared The New York Times headline on February 17, 2017.
&#8220;President Trump, in an extraordinary rebuke of the nation&#8217;s press organizations, wrote on Twitter on Friday that the nation&#8217;s news media &#8216;is the enemy of the American people,'&#8221; said the lead of the story.
But Trump didn&#8217;t say that. What he said was this: &#8220;The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The FAKE NEWS media (failing <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBCNews</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABC</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBS</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a>) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Not &#8220;the nation&#8217;s news media,&#8221; as the Times wrote, but &#8220;the FAKE NEWS media.&#8221; Big difference.
So with one piece, purportedly about how Trump called all of America&#8217;s media &#8220;the enemy,&#8221; the Times did exactly what Trump was complaining about: They omitted a few words, spun the story into a liberal screed &#8212; and proved Trump absolutely right! The Times&#8217; dishonest piece on Trump&#8217;s tweet is the very definition of &#8220;fake news.&#8221;
And the onslaught continues. On Thursday, more than 300 newspapers across the U.S. ran anti-Trump editorials in an effort coordinated by The Boston Globe.
The Globe&#8217;s own piece set the tone of what the editorials were all about.
&#8220;Replacing a free media with a state-run media has always been a first order of business for any corrupt regime taking over a country. Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current U.S. administration are the &#8216;enemy of the people.&#8217; This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president much like an old-time charlatan threw out &#8216;magic&#8217; dust or water on a hopeful crowd,&#8221; the Globe wrote.
Well, that sounds balanced and even-handed, doesn&#8217;t it?
The piece goes on to cite John Adams, praise &#8220;journalists who provide independent scrutiny,&#8221; attack Trump supporters for &#8220;following him into undemocratic territory,&#8221; and compare the U.S. president to &#8220;21st-century authoritarians like Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.&#8221;
The Globe said that Trump is trying to brainwash Americans in an Orwellian effort to obscure the truth. &#8220;Indeed, it is not just that the president is stoking domestic division for political and personal gain, he&#8217;s asking his audiences to follow him into Fantasia. &#8216;Just stick with us, don&#8217;t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news,&#8217; he told an audience in Kansas last month. &#8216;Just remember, what you&#8217;re seeing and what you&#8217;re reading is not what&#8217;s happening.&#8217; George Orwell put it more gracefully in his novel &#8216;1984.&#8217; &#8216;The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.'&#8221;
But Trump took aim at the coordinated effort on Thursday, writing on Twitter: &#8220;The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses &amp; investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!&#8221;
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The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses &amp; investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030091812495654912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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And he wrote this: &#8220;There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!&#8221;
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There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030094399362007040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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That one is spot on. Click over to CNN on any day and the news is 99% Trump bashing.
Or make that 91% for the MSM media. A study by the Media Research Center last year found that 91% of the coverage during the evening news offered by ABC, CBS and NBC was negative over September, October and November. When the now moribund Stormy Daniels story broke, her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, was been interviewed 147 times on broadcast and cable news shows in just the last 10 weeks, a study by Newsbusters found.
And on and on it goes. The Media Research Center just last month examined news coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC, and found that for the previous 18 months, 92% of the stories on Trump&#8217;s immigration plans were negative.
It&#8217;d be one thing if America&#8217;s fake news media had taken the last two Democratic presidents to task &#8212; they didn&#8217;t. CNN became known as the &#8220;Clinton News Network&#8221; and the Times worshipped at the altar of The Chosen One, Barack Obama, for eight straight years (even when he ran roughshod over freedom of the press). Of course, they did bash George W. Bush every chance they got.
So the fake news media (you know who you are) has lost all right to complain. They&#8217;re NOT speaking truth to power, they&#8217;re defending their own agenda. But Trump just isn&#8217;t going to play their game &#8212; and they&#8217;re furious.
Trump posted one more item on Twitter on Thursday, saying: &#8220;THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country&#8230;.BUT WE ARE WINNING!&#8221;
And that&#8217;s clearly not fake news.

HERE&#8217;S YOUR COLLUSION: More Than 300 News Outlets Publish Editorials Blasting Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Dirty War&#8217; On Press

Barack Obama

Freedom of the Press

George W. Bush

The news is wall-to-wall with the allegations from former &#8220;Apprentice&#8221; contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman accusing President Trump of using the &#8220;N&#8221; word once.
But blacks aren&#8217;t buying it, the <a href="https://apnews.com/8f6c754ff73443c5b539adf76c4cf25d/Black-Americans-aren't-buying-Omarosa's-turn-against-Trump">Associated Press</a> reports.
The liberal news service says the fact that Newman stood at Trump&#8217;s side for more than a decade makes her &#8220;deeply unpopular with African-Americans who see her as a sellout for aligning herself with a president who has hurled one insult after another at black people.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Her falling out with Trump and her decision to call him a racist as she sells her new book &#8212; and in turn, his calling her a &#8220;dog&#8221; &#8212; have not been enough for many African-Americans to invite her back to the family picnic.
Too little, too late, many said.
&#8220;Her tell-all mea culpa won&#8217;t win her any brownie points with most blacks,&#8221; said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author of the book &#8220;Why Black Lives Do Matter.&#8221; &#8243;Their loathing of Omarosa is virtually frozen in stone. She&#8217;s still roundly lambasted as a two-bit opportunist, a racial sellout and an ego driven hustler.&#8221;
Few in the black community immediately rushed to defend Manigault Newman after she wrote a book entitled &#8220;Unhinged&#8221; about her time in the White House. It paints a damning picture of Trump, claiming without evidence that tapes exist of him using the N-word as he filmed &#8220;The Apprentice&#8221; reality series, on which she co-starred.
She has since stepped up her attacks on Trump as she promotes her book, telling The Associated Press on Tuesday that the president is &#8220;a racist, a misogynist, a bigot.&#8221;
&#8220;I want to see this nation united as opposed to divided,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to see a race war, as Donald Trump does.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The wire report comes as the <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2018/08/ambrose_donald_trump_doing_plenty_for_black_americans">Boston Herald</a> writes that Trump is &#8220;making life better for black Americans everywhere you look while his predecessor fumbled.&#8221;
&#8220;The loudest Trump triumph of the moment has been dips to the lowest black unemployment in history, and get this: Jobs confer purpose, they provide pride, they build community, they set one up to help others, they enable social mobility, they lift the spirit. Welfare limps, jobs jog and you don&#8217;t get them through semi-socialist policies. You get them through deregulation and tax reform of the Trump kind, encouraging businesses to expand, lowering expenses and inspiring entrepreneurship,&#8221; writes author Jay Ambrose.
Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/prez_track_aug15">Rasmussen Reports</a> finds in a new survey that black support for Trump has risen to 31%. That&#8217;s up 13 percentage points since this time last year.
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Today&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> approval ratings among black voters: 31% This day last year: 18% <a href="https://t.co/mazBCWoIMy">https://t.co/mazBCWoIMy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> <a href="https://t.co/qQEDamXmSB">pic.twitter.com/qQEDamXmSB</a>
&#8212; Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1029380217767387137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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So, apparently, the allegations from Newman are so far having little effect.

AP: Black Americans Aren&#8217;t Buying Omarosa’s Turn Against Trump

Omarosa Manigault

Racism

The mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, is leading a charge to boycott Sam Adams &#8212; a native Boston brewery named after one our nation&#8217;s Founding Fathers &#8212; after the owner, Jim Koch, had the temerity to praise President Donald Trump for his corporate tax cuts.
<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/08/08/here-s-what-boston-beers-founder-said-to-trump.html">The Boston Business Journal reports</a> that Koch dined with Trump &#8212; and 12 other major American executives, including the CEOs of FedEx, Johnson &amp; Johnson, and the virulently Democratic outgoing CEO of PepsiCo &#8212; at Trump&#8217;s New Jersey golf club last week.
As part of his prepared remarks, Koch noted that Trump&#8217;s tax cuts have empowered small business owners and evened the playing field for American corporations, and particularly breweries, seeking to compete on a global level.
&#8220;Now we have a level playing field, and we&#8217;re going to kick their ass,&#8221; Koch said.
That was simply too much for Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, who took to Twitter to vow revenge against the suddenly-more-profitable Boston brewery.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I will never drink Sam Adam&#8217;s beer again! <a href="https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE">https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE</a>
&#8212; Joseph A. Curtatone (@JoeCurtatone) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeCurtatone/status/1028758738767884288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
The response was tepid, so Curatone amped up his rhetoric on a second try, calling Trump &#8212; and by extension, Jim Koch &#8212; &#8220;profiteers&#8221; of a &#8220;white nationalist agenda.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
We need to hold these complicit profiteers of Trump&#8217;s white nationalist agenda accountable ! <a href="https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE">https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE</a>
&#8212; Joseph A. Curtatone (@JoeCurtatone) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeCurtatone/status/1028759438709219328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
And then, still receiving nothing but mild criticism, Curatone went for the jugular.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hey Jim Koch! While you were thanking Trump for your tax break, did you happen to express any concern for the families separated under his cruel and inhumane immigration enforcement policy? <a href="https://twitter.com/SamuelAdamsBeer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SamuelAdamsBeer</a> <a href="https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE">https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE</a>
&#8212; Joseph A. Curtatone (@JoeCurtatone) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeCurtatone/status/1028760436634791942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
The boycott does not appear to have taken off, though boycotts do seem to be the order of the day. Leftists, unable to effectively counter Trump&#8217;s agenda, have called for boycotts on everything from Nordstrom clothing to Texas Mexican restaurants. So far few boycotts, if any, have succeeded.

Boston-Area Mayor Declares War On Sam Adams Brewery After Owner Praised Trump

The Boston Globe is reaching out to editorial boards across the country in an attempt to publish coordinated attacks on President Donald Trump&#8217;s criticism of media outlets unfavorable to him.
The Associated Press reports that the Globe is calling for media outlets to publish editorials denouncing what it called a &#8220;<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/newspaper-calls-war-words-against-193505874.html">dirty war against the free press</a>.&#8221; Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor of the Globe&#8217;s editorial page, told the AP: &#8220;We are not the enemy of the people,&#8221; as Trump has called the media.
Pritchard told the AP that 70 news outlets, including the Denver Post, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, and Minneapolis Star Tribune have all agreed to publish editorials critical of Trump&#8217;s treatment of the media on August 16.
&#8220;The newspaper&#8217;s request was being promoted by industry groups such as the American Society of News Editors and regional groups like the New England Newspaper and Press Association,&#8221; the AP reported. &#8220;It suggested editorial boards take a common stand against Trump&#8217;s words regardless of their politics, or whether they generally editorialized in support of or in opposition to the president&#8217;s policies.&#8221;
Pritchard told the AP the paper made the decision to reach out after Trump recently escalated his rhetoric against the press. At a political rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Trump asked his audience: &#8220;What ever happened to the free press? What ever happened to honest reporting?&#8221; and claimed the media &#8220;make up stories.&#8221;
Pritchard called this &#8220;an attack on the First Amendment&#8221; and said she hoped the editorials would &#8220;educate readers&#8221; that such comments were &#8220;unacceptable.&#8221;

Newspaper Calls For Coordinated Editorial Attack On Trump

Media

After baby Oliver Cameron was denied necessary medical treatment and funding by the United Kingdom&#8217;s National Health Service (NHS), doctors in the United States were able to save his life.
Baby Oliver was born with a rare heart condition known as cardiac fibroma. The socialized healthcare system in the U.K. was not equipped to perform the necessary surgery to remove the non-cancerous tumor in his heart. Oliver would have to be put on a list to receive a heart transplant, and even then, he would only be expected to live to the age of 15, at the longest.
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But due to the innovation and ingenuity of the United States, the necessary surgery was not only available, but had a 100% success rate at the Boston Children&#8217;s Hospital.
The NHS, however, initially refused to pay for the roughly $260,000 parents Lydia and Tim Cameron needed to fund the trip and procedure required to save their baby.
&#8220;No parent should have to bury their child,&#8221; Lydia said at the time, <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parents-desperate-race-against-time-10601450">according</a> to The Mirror. &#8220;For the NHS to say, &#8216;we&#8217;re sorry, we can&#8217;t help.&#8217; is devastating.&#8221;
&#8220;We asked if the NHS could fly the surgeon over here, but he&#8217;s not licensed to operate in the UK,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;We asked if an English surgeon could learn the procedure, but they said no. So we must raise the money ourselves.&#8221;
&#8220;Our NHS consultant has said if Boston agreed to treat Oliver then we had to get him there.&#8221;
The couple did not have the funds to save Oliver, so they resorted to crowdfunding, opening a GoFundMe page and asking the public to donate.
After funding nearly $170,000 on their own and garnering international attention, the NHS&#8217;s hand was forced. The government finally announced that they would allow and fund the necessary surgery at Boston Children&#8217;s Hospital.
Professor Dominic Wilkinson at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics said that the pressure was on the NHS to comply due to the recent case of U.K.-based baby Charlie Guard, who was denied medical treatment by the NHS despite other nations offering treatment. &#8220;I think the intense attention from the Charlie Gard case is likely to make those decision makers more conscious that they are under greater scrutiny and therefore that they have to be particularly careful in making a fair decision,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/09/nhs-pay-babys-us-heart-surgery/">told</a> The Telegraph.
Thankfully, Boston Children&#8217;s Hospital was able to perform a successful surgery on 10-month-old baby Oliver in November of 2017. &#8220;When they told us Dr. del Nido had removed all of it, we were so happy we just burst into tears,&#8221; said mother Lydia, <a href="http://www.childrenshospital.org/centers-and-services/programs/a-_-e/cardiac-tumor-program/see-who-inspires-us?utm_campaign=FY18BrandUSNews&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_content=Oliver&amp;_vsrefdom=USNewsSocial">according</a> to the hospital&#8217;s site.
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Baby Oliver was saved from the pitfalls of socialism, treated by the brilliant surgeons in the U.S. and is thriving today.
On Tuesday, The Daily Wire&#8217;s Michael Knowles discussed how capitalism saved baby Oliver.
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UNH7GTaUPQA" width="854"></iframe></div>

SAVED FROM SOCIALISM: U.S. Saves Baby Oliver After U.K. Doctors Said His Heart Couldn’t Be Fixed

Children

Health Care

Socialism

The city of Boston is reportedly considering whether to extend voting rights within its borders to legal, non-U.S. citizens.
<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/07/08/boston-weighs-giving-legal-non-citizens-voting-rights/iOzusWkxzYporVhTNt6hjJ/story.html">According to the Boston Globe</a>, the Boston City Council is looking for a way to make citywide elections &#8220;more inclusive&#8221; of those who live and work in the city of Boston, including people who may not have the right to vote under the United States Constitution.
If the council votes Tuesday to enact the measure, Bostonians who are &#8220;legal permanent residents,&#8221; possess a valid work visa, or who fall under the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Act, will be able cast a ballot to vote for mayor, city council, and other local offices.
Those without U.S. citizenship would still be restricted from casting a ballot in federal or Massachusetts state elections.
Boston&#8217;s Council president claims that more than 190,000 non-U.S. citizens live within Boston&#8217;s borders. That same group, the Council president says, has paid more than $116 million in local taxes, which should, she argues, give them the right to make local decisions.
But as other members of the city council have pointed out, there&#8217;s a reason why non-citizens aren&#8217;t given the privilege of casting ballots.
&#8220;Voting is a U.S. citizen&#8217;s privilege, it&#8217;s the ultimate privilege,&#8221; City Councilor Tim McCarthy <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_politics/2018/07/a_vote_for_noncitizens_boston_city_council_prez_pushes_access_to_rights">told the Boston Herald</a>. &#8220;And I for one will continue to fight that it remains that way. &#8230; Voting for noncitizens is a step too far.&#8221;

Boston Wants To Give Non-U.S. Citizens Voting Rights

Immigrants

Immigration

Voting Rights

The Boston City Council dealt a devastating blow to Airbnb this week by passing new draconian rules that will shut down much of the rapidly growing rental business in the city.
&#8220;After months of debate, the Boston City Council on Wednesday passed rules that are designed to sharply rein in Boston&#8217;s fast-growing short-term rental business and help ease the tight housing market,&#8221; The <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/06/13/city-council-tough-rules-limit-airbnb-rentals/yW5L4QsjcERCanwVOvLtDN/story.html">Boston Globe</a> reports.
The new rules, overwhelmingly passed by the progressive city council, are &#8220;among the most stringent efforts in the nation to regulate the burgeoning industry,&#8221; the Globe notes. The city will no longer allow investors and tenants to rent their homes by the night through websites like Airbnb. Only &#8220;homeowners and owner-occupants of two- and three-family houses&#8221; will be allowed to do so.
The rules, which officially go into effect on Jan. 1 but allow for Airbnb providers until Sept. 2019 to shut down their operations, were passed after a three-year study found that this was the best way to &#8220;relieve pressure on a housing market where an estimated 2,000 apartments are being rented by the night to tourists, instead of through a traditional 12-month lease,&#8221; the Globe explains.
As Hot Air&#8217;s <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/2018/06/14/boston-goes-new-law-designed-crush-airbnb/">Jazz Shaw</a> puts it, &#8220;For lower income renters, this outcome represents pretty much the worst case scenario.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Some earlier proposals under discussion spoke of perhaps limiting the number of nights per year they could rent a room or perhaps even impose some sort of annual fee. But Boston has flat-out banned anyone who doesn&#8217;t own the property from earning extra money this way, regardless of what sort of arrangement they may have with their landlord. Similarly, if you are an investor who has a rental property you will not be allowed to rent it out on a nightly basis through the popular gig economy app. Only those who own and reside in a residence will be able to do so, and even then they will be charged an annual fee and have limits placed on rentals.
The city government still laughably claims this is a solution to a housing crisis problem. They say that there isn&#8217;t enough rental property available in the city because of all the Airbnb traffic. In reality, too much housing demand is a pretty good problem to have because it means that a lot of people are visiting your city and spending money there.
</blockquote>
Progressive Boston&#8217;s actions against Airbnb follow a pattern seen in other progressive cities of targeting upstart new businesses like Uber that are making services cheaper for customers and giving more people more ways to make a living.

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Articles tagged with Boston

Video And Forensics Showed He Was Innocent But College Suspended Him Anyway. He Was Just Awarded More Than $100k.

‘Straight Out Of The Leftist Playbook’: Boston U Cuts Shapiro Audience By Half, Imposes Massive Fee

‘Angel Mom’ Booed While Testifying About Son Killed By Illegal Immigrant

LITWIN: Elizabeth Warren Must Stop Associating With Islamist Radicals

UPDATE: Boston’s ‘Straight Pride’ Parade Moving Forward, Date Set

LITWIN: Islamist Influence Can Hack Elections

Brad Pitt’s Name, Photo Used To Promote ‘Straight Pride Parade.’ Pitt Responds.

A FOIA Request Made The Boston Title IX Office Look Bad, So They Redid It

Boston Marathon Bomber: I Want My Death Sentence Overturned

Woman Sues Orchestra For Pay Discrimination. There’s Just One Problem.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Hometown Newspaper Says She ‘Missed Her Moment’

Boston Police Captain’s Son Sentenced To 20 Years For Plotting Terror Attack For ISIS

BOSTON: No Christian Flags Over City Hall; Rainbow Flags, Okay

HERE’S YOUR COLLUSION: More Than 300 News Outlets Publish Editorials Blasting Trump’s ‘Dirty War’ On Press

AP: Black Americans Aren’t Buying Omarosa’s Turn Against Trump

Boston-Area Mayor Declares War On Sam Adams Brewery After Owner Praised Trump

Newspaper Calls For Coordinated Editorial Attack On Trump

SAVED FROM SOCIALISM: U.S. Saves Baby Oliver After U.K. Doctors Said His Heart Couldn’t Be Fixed

Boston Wants To Give Non-U.S. Citizens Voting Rights

Boston Declares War On Airbnb