Saturday, February 28, 2015

Lupita Nyong'o's Stolen Oscars Dress Returned

Photo:  Jordan Strauss
Invasion/AP
By Bruna Nessif, Feb. 27, 2015, EOnline.com

Lupita Nyong'o's stolen Oscars dress has been returned to the scene of the crime.

In what might become one of Hollywood's weirdest heists, E! News confirms that the custom Calvin Klein Collection dress made of over 6,000 pearls (that she just wore on Sunday) has been returned to The London Hotel in West Hollywood, where it was originally taken.

The L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. stated that at approximately 3 p.m. today, West Hollywood Detectives received a call from a media representative, informing detectives they had received a call from an anonymous caller with information in regards to the stolen Calvin Klein dress. The caller advised detectives that it could be located in an abandoned bathroom on the second floor of the hotel.

Detectives responded to the area mentioned in the call and located a black garment bag underneath the counter. Inside the garment bag was a white dress resembling the one worn on Oscar night by Nyong'o.

TMZ, who first reported the story, said they were contacted by the thief who alerted them of the gown's return.


Read the full story:  www.eonline.com

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Holder’s Parting Shot: It’s Too Hard To Bring Civil Rights Cases

Feb. 27, 2015

ALLEN: “Trayvon Martin’s mother says George Zimmerman got away with murder. You’re writing a letter to Trayvon’s mother, his parents, what will it say?”


HOLDER: “Well, I’m going to try to — it’s yeah — I’m going to pen a letter to them. I’ve worked on it already, and I think I’d like to kind of keep that personal. But one of the things it’s certainly going to talk about is my admiration for the way in which they have conducted themselves. The loss of a child is not something that we are biologically engineered to handle, and the dignity with which they have carried themselves, the determination that has been generated in them to make something positive out of the tragedy that they have had to endure has created in me a great deal of admiration for them.”

ALLEN: “Now, the Ferguson inquiry will be resolved before you leave?”

HOLDER: “Yes.”

ALLEN: “And it looks like no federal charges in Ferguson or Trayvon. I’m a young African-American. What do I think?”

HOLDER: “Well, I would say, first, I would note I have not announced anything with regard to — to Ferguson. “

ALLEN: “Yeah, it looks like it, yeah.”

HOLDER: “But what I said to the people of Ferguson is what I think people ought to understand, is that we have done independent, thorough investigations in all of the matters that we have examined, and we have brought record numbers of cases against police departments around this country. I don’t think anybody would be able to look at this Justice Department over the last six years and say that we’ve been anything other than aggressive in trying to root out inappropriate police conduct while, at the same time, trying to establish, or re-establish bonds of trust between communities of color and people in law enforcement.”

ALLEN: “Mr. Attorney General, are the standards of the civil rights laws too high for you to make cases in instances like this?”

HOLDER: “I mean that’s certainly something that I’m going to want to talk about before I leave. I think some serious consideration needs to be given to the standard of proof that has to be met before federal involvement is appropriate, and that’s something that I am going to be talking about before — before I leave office.”

ALLEN: And in what sense have you come to realize that the standards in the civil rights laws are too high?

HOLDER: “Well, I think that if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop, make us more a part of the process in an appropriate way to reassure the American people that decisions are made by people who are really disinterested, and I think that if we make those adjustments, we will have that capacity.”

ALLEN: “And what is the biggest adjustment you’d like to see?”

HOLDER: “Well, I’m not going to go into it right now, but I’m going to talk about that before I leave.”




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IRS Being Investigated For Criminal Misconduct Surrounding Lois Lerner's 'Missing' Emails

By Katie Pavlich, Feb. 27, 2015, Townhall.com

Last night Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Russell George and Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Timothy Camus updated the House Oversight Committee on the status of Lois Lerner's "missing" emails surrounding the IRS targeting of conservatives.

In an exchange with Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Camus revealed there is "potential criminal activity" involved in the disappearance and hiding of emails belonging to IRS officials involved in the targeting of conservatives between 2010 and 2012.

“There is potential criminal activity," Camus said. 




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Financial Regulator Warns New York Banks of Armageddon-Type Cyberattack

By Nicole Arce, Feb. 27, 2015, TechTimes.com

A New York financial regulator called on banks and financial institutions to tighten their security measures against cyber intrusions to prevent a financial meltdown similar to what happened to the mortgage market in 2008.

In a speech delivered at Columbia University, Benjamin Lawsky, New York's head of its Department of Financial Services (DFS) said he fears that an "Armageddon-type cyber event" could potentially devastate the state's financial industry and trickle over into the larger national economy.

Lawsky said he was considering instituting more rules that would require the licensed banks and insurance companies it oversees to be more vigilant against cyber attacks that could lead to such a scenario. Although the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve are the main financial regulators, New York is significant because it is home to major financial institutions, such as Bank of New York Mellon, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, and the effect of a catastrophic cyber attack on these organizations would be felt all across the United States.


Read the full story:  www.techtimes.com

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Eric Holder: ‘It’s Hard To Say’ How Much Opposition to Me Has Been Based on Race

Feb. 27, 2015

ALLEN: “Now, there clearly have been times more recently since then when you have felt disrespected on Capitol Hill. How much of that do you think relates to race?”

HOLDER: “It’s hard to say. You know, hard to look into people’s minds, you know, their hearts.”

ALLEN: “But were there times when you thought that was a piece of it?”

HOLDER: “Yeah, there have been times when I thought that’s at least a piece of it. I think that the primary motivator has probably been political in nature. I’ve not been a person who’s been reluctant to express my own views about certain things, and, you know, that’s kind of who I am, it’s the way I was raised, it’s how I’m wound, and I think that probably generated, you know, the greatest part of the criticism, the unfair treatment that — that I think I’ve got.”

ALLEN: “Now, the piece of it that was racial how did that make you feel?

HOLDER: “Yeah, it’s not something that I focused on an awful lot because, you know, the reality is I have a job to do — I had a job to do, and, you know, the criticism is going to come whatever its source. You can’t let it deflect you from, you know, keeping your eyes on the prize. I had to take a Justice Department that was in shambles, you know, when I got here: political hiring, political firing, exclusion of career people from decision making for political reasons. And so, I had to rebuild the department, put in place people who I thought would share my — my view of what this department ought to be.”

ALLEN: “So that’s all the Bush administration that you’re talking about there.”

HOLDER: “Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean these are all documented in the Inspector General reports. It was a low point for the Justice Department, an institution that I love. I’ve been here since 1976, you know, in some form or fashion. And so, we had to rebuild the department and then, on the basis of that rebuilding, you know, advance the things that I felt [were] really important: criminal justice reform; protecting, you know, voting rights; dealing with LGBT issues; protecting the national security while at the same time adhering to our values.”

ALLEN: “Last question about the Hill: Do you think that Attorney General Lynch will get more respectful treatment?”

HOLDER: “Time will tell. You know, if one looks at the trend lines, I’m a little concerned. She had a relatively uneventful hearing, and you would have thought that, you know, on that day she might have gotten maybe a unanimous or close-to-unanimous vote out of the committee, and she got a pretty substantial number of negative votes now, and you’re hearing about things that might happen on the floor. But you know what? Loretta’s the kind of person who is, you know, even-tempered but determined, and whatever the criticism, it’s not going to deflect her. But I do think she has the capacity, if people are willing — if people are willing, she has the capacity to reach across the aisle and actually forge a consensus, especially around an issue like criminal justice reform, you know, that has gotten the right and the left together, the ACLU and the Koch brothers. I mean, you know, there’s the real — there’s a chance there for something really positive to be done.”



ALLEN: “How much of the criticism of President Obama is infected with race?”

HOLDER: “Hard to tell. You know, I certainly don’t think that that’s the primary thing that happens in Washington. I think there are, you know, fringe people around the country.”

ALLEN: “More than fringe.”

HOLDER: “Well, you know, I mean, fringe people around the country who will say, you know, racially based things, but I think, you know –“

ALLEN: “But the non-fringe, the other people who criticize this president or have a beef with this president — like, how often do think race is part of that?”

HOLDER: “You know, it’s — it’s hard to tell. I mean, it’s really hard to tell. I mean, you know, people, when they are going after you, try to come up with what they think is going to be the most effective technique, and so they use a whole variety of things. You know, you weren’t born in this country, you are the other. I mean, you come up with other — you come up with ways in which you try to be effective in your attacks. And certain people have been, you know, less sensitive than they should have been to understand that certain things, given our history — there are certain places that you just shouldn’t — you shouldn’t go.”


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Has Israel Lost The Democratic Party?

Photo:  Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
By Alexandra Jaffe, Feb. 27, 2015, CNN

Washington (CNN)Is the Democratic party over for Israel?

For years, support for Israel has been one of the few reliably bipartisan issues on Capitol Hill, with members on both sides of the aisle embracing the embattled Middle East country and welcoming its leaders with open arms.

But when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Republican House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress on Tuesday — when he is expected to sharply criticize White House deal-making with Iran — he alienated more than the Democrat who sits in the Oval Office. As administration officials have exchanged increasingly hostile volleys with Netanyahu, party stalwarts are warning of a Democratic exodus away from Israel.

They caution that the rancor over the speech could accelerate demographic and political trends that suggest support for Israel is becoming a partisan issue, with Republicans strongly pro and Democrats less so.


Read the full story:  www.cnn.com

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Eric Holder: No, I Don’t Think Al Sharpton Is ‘Too Close’ to the Obama White House

Feb. 27, 2015, Politico.com

ALLEN: “Is Al Sharpton too close to this White House?”


HOLDER: “I don’t think so. I think that, you know, the president has a number of people who he listens to, who he interacts with. Reverend Sharpton is a person who has interacted with people within the administration, including myself, but we also hear from people who have fundamentally different views than Al Sharpton has. 

It’s always good to hear from a multiplicity of people, to hear views that you agree with. You have people who you don’t agree with, and I think this president’s done a really good job in ways that are oftentimes not publicized when he meets with historians for, you know, these dinners and lunches that he has; when he has meetings that are, again, not as publicized with the thought leaders. So, I think that he gets a lot of input from a variety of sources and does so appropriately.”


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Holder on ISIS Fight: ‘I Think We Are Winning’

Feb. 7, 2015

HOLDER: “I think if you look at the recent battlefield successes that we had, plans that are underway with regard to Mosul for instance, the degradation of ISIL leadership, I think we are winning. This is not a battle that’s gonna be won overnight. It will take time.”

PEGUES: “But national security, are we safer now than before this administration came into office?”

HOLDER: “Al Qaeda core, I think, has been decimated but its portions are now things that we have to be concerned about that we were not concerned about, I think, when this administration started. And then the homegrown — the homegrown component to this struggle is something that is new.”



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Donald Trump Gets Booed After Talking About Boots on the Ground at CPAC

Feb. 27, 2015



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Santorum: If ISIS Wants to Bring Back 7th Century, Let’s Bomb them to 7th Century 



“ISIS wants to establish a 7th century caliphate. They want to behead, crucify, burn, torture and slave. In response, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy team refuses not only to acknowledge it, but they insist that the greatest threat to American security is global climate change.

Ladies and gentleman, we don’t need weatherman-in-chief we need a commander-in-chief to run this country. (Applause) And, yes, we need to do airstrikes, not five or ten a day, not a public relations stunt that the president is doing today. We need to take serious destroying ISIS. We need to hit ISIS to defeat them. If ISIS wants to establish a 7th century caliphate, well let’s oblige them by bombing them back to the 7th century!”

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Shelly Sterling's Lawyers Seek Non-Jury Trial Against V. Stiviano

V. Stiviano, Shelly Sterling and Donald Serling in
"friendlier" times.
By Debbie L. Sklar, Feb. 27, 2015, MyNewsLA.com

Attorneys for Shelly Sterling asked a judge to consider a non-jury trial of her lawsuit against a former confidante of her husband, but the defendant’s lawyer said his client is entitled to have a panel of citizens decide the case.

Shelly Sterling’s lawsuit seeks the return by V. Stiviano of any cash, real estate, cars or other belongings considered community property the plaintiff owned with her husband, former Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Stiviano, who has used the names Vanessa Perez, Monica Gallegos and Maria Valdez, met Sterling at the February 2010 Super Bowl and began a sexual relationship with him that year, according to the lawsuit filed last March.

In interviews following the release of racially charged Donald Sterling recordings — which earned him a lifetime ban from the NBA and led to the $2 billion sale of the Clippers — Stiviano denied having a sexual relationship with him. Sterling, however, described his comments on the tapes as being the result of a heated exchange during a “lovers’ quarrel.”

Trial was tentatively rescheduled Friday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Fruin from March 9 to March 25 because he has another case he wants to try first.


Read the full story:  www.mynewsla.com

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Rep. Fudge: Boehner Doesn’t Have Votes to Pass DHS Bill Without Dems

Feb. 27, 2015



REID: “There does seem to be movement taking place in the House of Representatives. Are you confident as a member of the House, that a funding bill, a short-term funding little about pass before the deadline tonight?”

FUDGE: “Joy, I’m very confident something is going to pass tonight. The Senate has gone — the Senate has gone home. And they said they will pass a spending bill. I don’t know it is short-term or long-term, which is the same thing that the Senate passed this morning and that is my guess, it will be a long-term and not a short-term bill.

REID: “Does John Boehner have the strength to pass a bill and still insisting it on being a majority of the majority or will he have to come to the Democrats?”

FUDGE: “I believe he will have to come to us. There is no question in my mind that the reason they have a delay today is because they don’t have enough votes to pass it because I believe we’ll take part in dhs getting passed today.”


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The NBA and Hollywood Unite for the Premiere of ‘Kobe Bryant’s Muse’

By Seth Kelley, Feb. 27, 2015, Variety.com

The NBA and Hollywood came together on Thursday at the London West Hollywood hotel to celebrate the premiere of “Kobe Bryant’s Muse,” the upcoming Showtime documentary that tells the story of the basketball icon’s career to date.

Gotham Chopra, the film’s director and son of Deepak Chopra, said that one of the coolest experiences while working on the film was watching Kobe work out in an empty gym, or watching him play in an empty Staples Center (the current home of the Los Angeles Lakers) at 3 a.m.

“It’s like watching Picasso in an empty studio,” Chopra said.

At 6’6″, Kobe Bryant towered over most everyone on the red carpet, but showed great humility when talking about this new, more forthcoming phase of his life.

“I’m just constantly curious,” Bryant said. “If you have an idea, and if you’re obsessive about what you do, I want to know why.”

Bryant, who said he was first inspired by the idea of a muse from Michael Jackson and the creation of “Thriller,” has recently spent time reaching out to industry leaders like Anna Wintour, Arianna Huffington and Oprah.


Read the full story:  www.variety.com

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Donald Trump: There’s an 80 Percent Chance I’ll Run



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Friday, February 27, 2015

Robert DeNiro, Facing $6.4mil Tax Lien, Hit Mitt Romney For Paying Too Little In Taxes



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Greenspan: ‘The Stock Market Is Great, The Economy Is Not’



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ISIS kills 15 Christian Hostages In Syria, Beheads Woman

By ANSAmed.com, Feb. 26, 2015

(ANSAmed) - ROME - The Islamic State (ISIS) has killed 15 of the Christians it took hostage in northeastern Syria earlier this week.

The news was given by Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana to the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need on Thursday. ''Many of them,'' he said, ''were defending their villages and their families.'' One woman was beheaded in the village Tel Hormidz and two men were shot to death. There is no information at the moment on how the other 12 were killed. Youkhana added that the number of those known to have been taken hostage had risen to about 350. In addition to the hundreds previously reported, some 80 inhabitants from the Tel Jazira village, 21 from Tel Gouran, 5 from Tel Feytha and 3 from Qabir Shamiya have been taken. Almost all are being held in the Sunni Muslim village Um Al-Masamier.


Read the full story:  www.ansamed.info

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Kerry: 'We Are Actually Living In A Period Of Less Daily Threat To Americans'



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By James Sherk, May 21, 2009

What do unions do? The AFL-CIO argues that unions offer a pathway to higher wages and prosperity for the middle class. Critics point to the collapse of many highly unionized domestic industries and argue that unions harm the economy. To whom should policymakers listen? What unions do has been studied extensively by economists, and a broad survey of academic studies shows that while unions can sometimes achieve benefits for their members, they harm the overall economy.

Unions function as labor cartels. A labor cartel restricts the number of workers in a company or industry to drive up the remaining workers' wages, just as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) attempts to cut the supply of oil to raise its price. Companies pass on those higher wages to consumers through higher prices, and often they also earn lower profits. Economic research finds that unions benefit their members but hurt consumers generally, and especially workers who are denied job opportunities.

The average union member earns more than the average non-union worker. However, that does not mean that expanding union membership will raise wages: Few workers who join a union today get a pay raise. What explains these apparently contradictory findings? The economy has become more competitive over the past generation. Companies have less power to pass price increases on to consumers without going out of business. Consequently, unions do not negotiate higher wages for many newly organized workers. These days, unions win higher wages for employees only at companies with competitive advantages that allow them to pay higher wages, such as successful research and development (R&D) projects or capital investments.


Read the full story:  www.heritage.org

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Hoyer: During DHS ‘Shutdown,’ 200,000 of 230,000 DHS Workers Would Still Work



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Investigators Find 32,000 Emails In IRS Probe

Lois Lerner
By Stephen Olemacher, Feb. 26, 2015, News.Yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators said Thursday they have recovered 32,000 emails related to a former IRS official at the heart of the agency's tea party scandal.

But they don't know how many of them are new.

The emails were to and from Lois Lerner, who used to head the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. Last June, the IRS told Congress it had lost an unknown number of Lerner's emails when her computer hard drive crashed in 2011.

At the time, IRS officials said the emails could not be recovered. But at a congressional hearing Thursday evening, investigators said they recovered thousands of emails from old computer tapes used to back up the agency's email system.


Read the full story:  www.news.yahoo.com

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Chris Matthews: Rural, Southern Congressman Opposing Exec. Action ‘Speaks for Whites’



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Krauthammer: When Obama Says ISIS Is Not Islamic, He Truly Believes It



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LLamaGate: Llamas Run Loose in Ariz., Captivating Nation



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Thursday, February 26, 2015



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Larry Talks About Robert De Niro Getting "Junk Mail" And More



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Treasury Won't Explain Decision To Make $3 Billion In Obamacare Payments

By Philip Klein, Feb. 26, 2015, WashingtonExamoner.com

The U.S. Treasury Department has rebuffed a request by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., to explain $3 billion in payments that were made to health insurers even though Congress never authorized the spending through annual appropriations.

At issue are payments to insurers known as cost-sharing subsidies. These payments come about because President Obama’s healthcare law forces insurers to limit out-of-pocket costs for certain low income individuals by capping consumer expenses, such as deductibles and co-payments, in insurance policies. In exchange for capping these charges, insurers are supposed to receive compensation.

What’s tricky is that Congress never authorized any money to make such payments to insurers in its annual appropriations, but the Department of Health and Human Services, with the cooperation of the U.S. Treasury, made them anyway.

Read the full story: www.washingtonexaminer.com


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Byron Allen Goes To War With Sharpton, Obama, Comcast For Future Of Black Media

By Patrick Howley, Feb. 26, 2015, DailyCaller.com

Legendary TV talk show host Byron Allen is taking on Al Sharpton, President Obama, and the most powerful media corporations in the world in a battle to spotlight the crisis at the heart of American race relations. It’s a daunting mission. But for some reason he doesn’t sound scared.

Allen told The Daily Caller that top media interests are actively freezing out and in some cases destroying black-owned media companies — and they’re paying Reverend-turned-MSNBC host Al Sharpton to give them racial cover to do it.

As for Washington politicians like Obama? According to Allen, they’re bought out by the very same interests, and they’re playing a part.

Allen, 53, is the chairman and CEO of the production company Entertainment Studios, which joined with the National Association of African-American Owned Media to file a $20 billion racial discrimination lawsuit this week against Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Sharpton’s National Action Network, the NAACP, the Urban League, and former FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker. Allen and his fellow plaintiff also filed a $10 billion suit against AT&T and DirectTV.


Read the full story:  www.dailycaller.com

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Obama To Ban Bullets By Executive Action, Threatens Top-Selling AR-15 Rifle

By Paul Bedard, Feb. 26, 2015, 

It’s starting.

As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country, the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR bullets by sportsmen and target shooters.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month revealed that it is proposing to put the ban on 5.56 mm ammo on a fast track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.

Wednesday night, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, stepped in with a critical letter to the bureau demanding it explain the surprise and abrupt bullet ban. The letter is shown below.


Read the full story:  www.washingtonexaminer.com

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Robert De Niro Served With $6.4 Million IRS Tax Lien

Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver
Columbia Pictures, 1976
By The Smoking Gun, Feb. 26, 2015

The Internal Revenue Service has hit Robert De Niro with a $6.4 million tax lien, according to records filed this month.

In a notice sent to New York City’s Department of Finance, the IRS reports that the 71-year-old De Niro owes the whopping bill in connection with his personal 1040 filing for 2013.

The federal tax lien reports that the two-time Academy Award winner owes the IRS $6,410,449.20, and that the hefty assessment was lodged against De Niro three months ago.

The February 3 lien lists De Niro’s residence as a Tribeca condominium that was developed by the actor and his real estate partners.

Read the full story:  www.thesmokinggun.com

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By Larry Elder, Feb. 26, 2015

When actress Patricia Arquette won an Oscar, she pled for "wage equality" for women: "To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen in this nation: We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America."

Days later, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said, "I think we all cheered at Patricia Arquette's speech at the Oscars, because she's right -- it's time to have wage equality." Back in April 2014, Hillary Clinton sent out this tweet: "20 years ago, women made 72 cents on the dollar to men. Today it's still just 77 cents. More work to do."

Today women, supposedly, only make 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men. Here's the problem -- it simply is not true. When you compare apples to apples, the earnings gap shrinks to between four and seven cents, and the Labor Department suggests "non-sexist" reasons explain even this small gap.

The Department of Labor commissioned a study from an organization called CONSAD Research Corporation. The report, which came out in 2009, is called "An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women." In its foreword, The Labor Department concedes that the "gap" is a myth:

"There are observable differences in the attributes of men and women that account for most of the wage gap. Statistical analysis that includes those variables has produced results that collectively account for between 65.1 and 76.4 percent of a raw gender wage gap of 20.4 percent, and thereby leave an adjusted gender wage gap that is between 4.8 and 7.1 percent."

The Labor Department also said that the remaining gap could be explained by choices that men and women make. Specifically:

"A greater percentage of women than men tend to work part-time. Part-time work tends to pay less than full-time work.

"A greater percentage of women than men tend to leave the labor force for childbirth, child care and elder care. Some of the wage gap is explained by the percentage of women who were not in the labor force during previous years, the age of women, and the number of children in the home.

"Women, especially working mothers, tend to value 'family friendly' workplace policies more than men."

This brings us back to Hillary Clinton. Does she practice "wage equality"?

An analysis by the Washington Free Beacon found Clinton paid the women on her Senate staff 72 cents for each dollar she paid the men:

"During (2002 to 2008), the median annual salary for a woman working in Clinton's office was $15,708.38 less than the median salary for a man, according to the analysis of data compiled from official Senate expenditure reports."

President Barack Obama's White House female staffers also earn less than the male staffers. According to the 2011 annual report on White House staff, female White House employees earn a median annual salary of $60,000 -- or 18 percent less than male employees' $71,000 salary. Last July, an analysis by The Washington Post found "the White House has not narrowed the gap between the average pay of male and female employees since President Obama's first year in office."

In 2012, after several female senators called a press conference to push for gender "paycheck fairness," the Washington Free Beacon looked at the salary "equality" in the their own offices:

"(Patty) Murray, (D-Wash.), who has repeatedly accused Republicans of waging a 'war on women,' is one of the worst offenders. Female members of Murray's staff made about $21,000 less per year than male staffers in 2011, a difference of 33.8 percent. ... A significant 'gender gap' exists in (Dianne) Feinstein's (D-Calif.) office, where women also made about $21,000 less than men in 2011, but the percentage difference -- 41 percent -- was even higher than Murray's. (Barbara) Boxer's (D-Calif.) female staffers made about $5,000 less, a difference of 7.3 percent."

Arquette's plea comes after the Sony Pictures cyber attack. Publically disclosed private emails shows that then co-studio chief Amy Pascal paid Jennifer Lawrence less money than her not-as-popular male co-stars in "American Hustle" -- and this was after Lawrence starred in the blockbuster "Hunger Games."

When asked why, Ms. Pascal was blunt: "Here's the problem: I run a business. People want to work for less money, I'll pay them less money. I don't call them up and say, 'Can I give you some more?' Because that's not what you do when you run a business. The truth is, what women have to do is not work for less money. They have to walk away. People shouldn't be so grateful for jobs. ... People should know what they're worth." Pascal, like Patricial Arquette, is also a contributor to the "pay equity" Democratic Party.

For his second term, President Obama wants to combat "income inequality." To get started, he won't even have to leave the White House.



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