A Michigan teacher is on suspension after attempting to break up a violent fight between two male students using a broom. Cell phone video captured the fight between the two teenaged boys, along with the desperate attempt by the teacher to separate them.

In the video, the teacher can be seen striking one of the boys on the back with the broom’s handle as the boys continue to tussle. The teacher first yelled at the teens to stop, and only picked up the broom after they failed to do so and the fight got more heated.

She’s now being labeled a bully.

The mother of the boy who was hit by the teacher with the broom said her son’s back was bruised from the incident. The students were suspended for 10 and three days, respectively.

A 19-year-old senior at the school, said the teacher went too far.

“The lady she should have never grabbed the broom. She could have just grabbed the security guard,” he said. “He could have got hurt from her hitting him with the broom like that and she should have gotten charged for it.”

The teacher has her defenders too.

“I feel like if I was there I would have done the same thing trying to break them up. … I don’t think she should lose her job or have charges brought against her,” said Natalie Tyson, mother of a Pershing freshman. “What else could she do? Those guys were kind of big and they were tearing up the classroom.”

The chancellor of Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, which runs Pershing High School, plans to recommend to the authority’s board of directors that the teacher be terminated, writes authority spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson.

“Which means the termination is effective immediately,” Wilson said in e-mail. “She will have an opportunity, like any other employee, to meet with the board as they consider this recommendation at its next scheduled board meeting” June 17th.

The teacher, whose name was not released, was notified in a May 1st letter about the recommendation that she be terminated. She has not indicated whether she plans to appeal.

Meanwhile, across the country, the Carson City Council in California gave preliminary approval to an ordinance that would target people from kindergarten to age 25 who makes others feel “terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested.”

The first offense could result in a ticket and fine, and the second offense could come with a larger fine and a third offense could result in a criminal misdemeanor.

“If a child is bullying someone, and a parent has to pay a $100 fine as a result of that, a responsible parent will realize their child needs some help,” said Councilman Mike Gipson, who introduced the ordinance and is spearheading a campaign to make Carson bully free.

Adults who bully would be charged with either an infraction or a misdemeanor, which could come with jail time. The measure also cover forms of cyber bullying throughout Los Angeles County.

It’s unclear how the Sheriff’s Department would enforce the law, since infractions and misdemeanors rarely handed out unless the crime is witnessed by a law enforcement officer, officials said.

“A fitness hearing would be required to try a child as a criminal,” Lt. Arthur Escamillas told the newspaper. “But if you see a 4-year-old riding a bike down the street without a helmet, are you going to give a 4-year-old a ticket? It’s discretionary.”

Whether officers cite and charge children with misdemeanors for bullying will have to be decided by the Sheriff’s Department leadership, Escamillas said.

But the bullying isn’t limited to just the local level.

Iowa’s Senator Charles Grassley dismissed the notion that Common Core was a decision made by state educators, saying the federal government pressured most states to adopt the standards.

“In order to get Common Core adopted quickly in the 50 states, it was tied to Race to the Top money,” Grassley said, “A lot of states thought they would get a lot of money. Not more than a dozen actually did. But, they accepted the principle of Common Core. Also, if states wanted waivers from No Child Left Behind, it also involved Common Core.”

“From that standpoint, it’s the pressure of Washington to bring about Common Core as a national approach,” he continued. “Quite frankly, it shouldn’t have been done that way.”

He said if the standards were really an option for the states, they would be allowed to adopt them without being pressured.

“Let’s allow people to make up their minds about the substance of Common Core,” Grassley said. “If states want to adopt it, that’s their business. But, it shouldn’t be crammed down their throat by the secretary of education in Washington, D.C., using federal money.”

“They adopted this and, to make it look like it was state-oriented and coming from the grassroots up, I think maybe it’s easier to sell that until you start looking into where the roots of it happened, basically here in Washington, D.C,” Grassley added.

“I don’t think the governors and chief states school officers were as involved as they want us to believe,” he added. “Even if they were, the fact that it’s tied to federal dollars and having the federal government having conditions for those federal dollars adopting Common Core, you get back to the establishment of curriculum based upon national testing. In the end, subverting the 10th Amendment and usurping what is definitely not just a constitutional state right, but as a practical matter ought to be a state right.”

“Our country is so geographically vast and our population so heterogeneous that policy made in Washington, D.C., doesn’t fit New Hartford, Iowa, where I’m from, the same as New York City,” Grassley said.

Grassley made the comments during an interview on the Tea Party News Network.

An unspecified accident happened on May 17, 2014, at a silo containing an LGM-30 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The silo, Juliet-07, is west of Peetz, Colorado and controlled by the 320th Missile Squadron, 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

I was stationed at Warren in the late 70s and early 80s.

The missile became non-operational during a diagnostic test during May 16, 2014. The next morning a three-man crew failed to follow technical guidelines during troubleshooting efforts causing severe damaging the missile.

The amount of damage’s estimated to be around $1.8 million, but no further details are being disclosed. No one was injured and the accident poses no risk to public safety, while an Accident Investigation Board is scheduled to look into the incident.

The U.S. Air Force has 450 Minutemen III missiles controlled by Warren AFB, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, and Minot AFB in North Dakota. They’re housed in hardened silos and connected to an underground launch control where crews are on standby around-the-clock.

Over the past couple of years, American’s have been able to look inside ‘polygamist’ arrangements with shows like Home Box Offices’, “Big Love,” and Discovery’s, “Sister Wives,” and “My Five Wives.” Disney also introduced a female homosexual couple on the series “Good Luck Charlie,” as well as a male homosexual couple on “Modern Family.”

These shows have desensitized society, changing how we respond to news and entertainment.

For instance, three lesbian women in Massachusetts recently “married” each other after exchanging vows in a wedding-style ceremony last year. They claim they are the world’s first “throuple.” Although Massachusetts recognizes same-sex marriages, the state does not recognize polygamous ones. Nevertheless, the three women named Brynn, Doll, and Kitten still entered into the three-way relationship.

Brynn told The Sun newspaper: “In our eyes we are married. We had specialist lawyers draw up paperwork so our assets are equally divided.”

Doll says, “As far as we know, there aren’t any three women married like us,” she adds, “I had always dated girls, who — although they had boyfriends or girlfriends — were also allowed to date me. I never thought that much about it and I had never really come out as poly to my friends and family. To me, it was just how I was.”

Brynn insists that, despite their novel lifestyle arrangement, that they are “very traditional people” and “perfectly normal.” The three women would also like to raise three children using anonymous sperm donors-one for each of them.

Massachusetts officials will allow the “throuple” arrangement to stand without interference.

Meanwhile, a star in NBC’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” is in hot water for a sermon she recently preached. Porsha Williams encouraged members of her congregation to reach out to individuals needing “saving” — among them drug dealers, sex workers, people who have attempted suicide and gays and lesbians.

“I woke up this morning disturbed and I felt that my heart was heavy and it was imperative for me to address the issue at hand. First let me say that God loves all his children.” Williams said in her sermon. “And although discriminate against other because of their race, their religion, their sexual orientation, their status in life, that we’re all worthy of God’s love.”

Williams explains in her apology: “The sermon that was shown was shown not in its entirety therefore the message was omitted. I apologize that those words hurt the LGBT community, my fans and my supporters. Life is a journey and I’m growing every day. And I continue to encourage everyone to love each other unconditionally.”

Her co-star Cynthia Bailey recently criticized the anti-gay comments made by Williams noting, “To put gays and lesbians in the same category as drug dealers, hookers, and people who attempt suicide is ignorant and insensitive. Especially when she just recently profited from performing at a popular gay club in NYC.”

Now, the Home & Garden Television (HGTV) network, owned by Scripps Networks Interactive, has decided to pull the plug on an upcoming real estate reality show amid a firestorm of controversy from gay rights activists who accused the evangelical Christian hosts of being anti-gay and pro-life. Twins David and Jason Benham had been in production for “Flip it Forward,” a show that was to début in October.

After the network announced the show was on the fall lineup, the group Right Wing Watch (RWW) labeled David Benham, son of well-known evangelical pastor Flip Benham an “anti-gay extremist” and reported on comments he made about homosexuality, abortion and divorce.

“As leader of OSA (Operation Save America,) Benham has  condemned the interfaith Sandy Hook memorial,  protested in front of mosques while shouting ‘Jesus Hates Muslims’ and  blamed the Aurora shooting on the Democratic Party, which he said promotes a ‘culture of death,’” write Brian Tashman, whose with RWW

Tashman continues, “He has also protested LGBT pride events, interrupted church services during a sermon by ‘sodomite Episcopalian bishop’ Gene Robinson and was found “guilty of stalking a Charlotte abortion doctor after passing out hundreds of ‘wanted’ posters with the physician’s name and photo on it.” Benham even blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on abortion rights…”

The Benhams, who are graduates of Liberty University, said it saddened them to hear about HGTV’s decision.

“If our faith costs us a television show then so be it,” they wrote. “With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television, you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical principles, and dedicated professionals.”

HGTV refuses to say why they decided not to go forward with the show.

This isn’t the first time Scripps Networks Interactive has garnered publicity of this kind. In the January 2014 issue of GQ, the magazine asked Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson what he believed to be sinful.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there,” he answered.

And if you don’t think the TV has power over your life, consider the fact that the networks spend nearly 28 minutes on Global Warming news and only 15 seconds on the Lois Lerner contempt vote. By the way: The House voted to hold the former IRS head in contempt of Congress.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the government’s roundup of more than 1,600 wild horses along the Nevada-California line in 2010. The ruling, by the three judge panel in San Francisco rejected an appeal by horse advocates accusing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management of gathering too many mustangs which violates the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.

Judge Carlos Bea concluded in the majority opinion that the BLM completed the necessary environmental reviews for the Twin Peaks roundup not far from the Oregon line, and that the court must defer to the agency’s expertise.

“In sum, the BLM’s actions fell within the discretion which courts have recognized the BLM has to remove excess animals,” he wrote.

BLM maintains the term “remove” should be interpreted to refer to the permanent removal of animals, not the temporary gathering of animals to decide which ones should be euthanized and which should be made available for adoption. The agency claims that if left unchecked, the herds could exceed 6,000 to 8,000 animals within a decade.

‘In Defense of Animals,’ argued the act prohibits the removal of any mustangs from horse management areas on the range before the agency first identifies old, sick or lame animals to be destroyed humanely, to which Judge Johnnie Rawlinson agreed in her dissent.

“The act couldn’t be clearer,” she wrote. “It is only after old sick or lame animals are destroyed that the act provides for additional excess wild horses to be captured.”

Two days before the ruling, a group of Utah residents rode all-terrain vehicles onto federally managed public lands to protest the BLM’s closing off of the area in Blanding. The protesters and their supporters say the agency has unfairly closed off a prized area, cheating them of outdoor recreation

However, federal officials say the region, known for its archaeological ruins, is in danger from overuse.  BLM Utah State Director Juan Palma, in a statement, said the riders may have damaged artifacts and dwellings of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.

“The BLM was in Recapture Canyon…collecting evidence and will continue to investigate,” Palma said. “The BLM will pursue all available redress through the legal system to hold the lawbreakers accountable.”

Recapture Canyon is home to dwellings, artifacts and burials left some 2,000 years ago. The BLM closed the canyon to motor vehicles in 2007 after two men created ‘an illegal’ seven-mile trail, while hikers and those on horseback are still allowed there.

Bureau of Land Management officers recorded and documented protesters who traveled into the closure area. About 30 deputies and a handful of BLM law enforcement officers watched as protesters drove past a closure sign and down the canyon some 300 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said between 40 and 50 people, many of them waving American flags drove about a mile down the canyon, then turned around. Hundreds attended a rally at a nearby park before the protest.

“It was peaceful, and there were no problems whatsoever,” the Eldredge told The Associated Press.

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman organized the ride. The Commissioner and his supporters want the BLM to act more quickly on a years-old application for a public right-of-way through the area.

Earlier, BLM officials notified Lyman that any illegal travel in the area would bring consequences such as citations and arrest.  The protest comes weeks after Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s successful standoff against the agency over grazing rights.

As for the Bundy stand-off, the FBI is investigating whether anyone broke federal laws during the April 12th standoff, including threats against law enforcement officers and the use of illegal weapons.  Authorities say that while thy don’t want to inflame the situation, reports of people pointing weapons at law enforcement need to be investigated.

Las Vegas’ KLAS TV reported that the FBI is looking at pictures and videos taken during the standoff and questioning law enforcement officers who were a Bunkerville. They are also concerned about the possible involvement of anti-government groups.

The FBI has yet to name those groups publicly.

An estimated 300 people joined Bundy when the BLM began to round-up his cattle after he refused to vacate federally owned land and pay more than $1 million in fees. The faceoff that began last month is part of a two-decade-long fight between Bundy and the BLM.

The BLM halted the cattle roundup and is considering what to do next, including arresting Bundy for failing to follow the law, seizing his assets through the Treasury Department or sending the case to the Department of Justice.

But the battle isn’t contained to just Western States as the group, Patriot for America marched on Washington. Organizers had planned to call for the removal of Barack Obama, John Boehner, Eric Holder, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and anyone else who had ‘trampled on the constitution.’

“We are calling for (their) removal…as a start toward constitutional restoration,” said retired Army Colonel Harry Riley.’ “They have all abandoned the U.S. Constitution, are unworthy to be retained in a position that calls for servant status.”

The group expected between 10 million and 30 million people to meet them in the capital for a rally billed as “Operation American Spring,” however only around 250 supporters showed up.

During his radio program the day of the march, commentator Glenn Beck warned against the dangers of “spring-like” movements.

“So anybody who wants the American Spring, no thank you. I see how it’s worked out oh so well for those people in Egypt. No thank you,” Beck said.

“Look…what the government did in the Great Depression, before World War II,” he added. “Look at what they did to all of the veterans who were protesting in Washington for benefits — don’t think that they won’t turn your guns on you because they will. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.”

Occupy Wall Street is feeding the propaganda machine of Progressivism with yet another Facebook Meme. This one claims a $16 wage helped Australia “dodge the global recession.”

Over the past year, increasing amounts of fast food and retail workers have been on strike demanding $15 an hour and better benefits and working conditions. Their struggle has spread nationwide, and their demands have been hotly debated in the media.

That being stated, Australia is currently heading into a recession all its own.

An out of control debt is leading Australia’s government slash welfare, cut public service jobs and raise taxes to cut a deficit forecast to reach $47 billion dollars in the current fiscal year ending June 30. This also includes cutting 16,000 government workers and freezing welfare payments for two years.

The mining boom that helped Australia’s economy for the last ten-years, paying for a series of personal income tax cuts, has fizzled in the past two years, wiping billions of dollars from the government’s tax revenue. And while the government reduced its net debt to zero before the 2008 financial crisis, but since then it’s has reached a 20 percent of GDP level.

The government also plans to strip $80 billion from hospitals and schools over the next ten-years, shifting the costs to the states to pick up and raising the prospect of an increase in Australia’s 10 percent consumption tax. Those on high salaries will face a temporary extra tax on their incomes.

The austerity plan is to cut the deficit to Australia’s $29.8 billion next year and $2.8 billion in 2017-18. The hope is to create a surplus by 2018-19.

In fact, Australia’s ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported in January 2012 that the country’s economy shed 100,000 jobs in 2011, the first time more jobs were lost than created in any year since 1992.

By 1854, the population of Crescent City numbered over eight hundred inhabitants.  That same year,  Father James Croke, who first visited our little town in 1853 had “not yet discovered many Catholics” but wrote to the Archbishop of his plans to build a church in Jacksonville, Oregon.

This church, he wrote, would serve “all mining districts for sixty to seventy miles around.”  In the years to follow, Croke would periodically offer Mass while on his way to Oregon.

During the first decade of the city’s development, several priests passed through town, offering Mass either in the old courthouse or in private homes.  During the early to mid-1860s, Father Thomas Crinnian, a pastor in Eureka, would make the three-day trip on mule-back to offer Mass once a month and then return to his parish.

By November 1868, Father Maurice Hickey, the new pastor in Eureka, along with Catholic pioneer Maurice Wenger, purchased an abandoned Methodist Church and in 1869, Crescent City had its first Catholic Church.  By October, Father Leon Haupts became the first resident pastor of the new parish and, along with Father Rooney, Haupts conducted regular services in Trinidad and Smith River.

In November 1873, Father Michael Walwrath replaced the old church with a new and larger one that provided enough room in the back for school classes, which included education for the poor and Native American children.  Walwrath was so devoted that he became known as the “Indian Missionary”.

Shortly after Father Nolan arrived in 1915, the church burned down and another was soon built, however, in April 1932 that church burned down as well.  On April 27, 1935, the fourth Catholic church was dedicated by Bishop Armstrong.

When Nolan passed away in August 1944, Monsignor P.L. O’Loughlin was sent as a replacement.  The Monsignor was no stranger to the area as in 1941 he began the construction of Saint Robert and Anne in the townsite of Klamath.

President George W. Bush is not one of my favorite commanders-in-chief. In all honesty, I view him as ‘Progressive,’ as Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, his father George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

That being said, there is a Facebook meme being reposted calling ten attacks on U.S. soil overseas jus’ like that which occurred in Benghazi in 2012. In that attack, two contractors, a state department employee and a U.S. Ambassador were killed.

This particular meme is incorrect and the record needs to be straight.

1. January 22nd, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen attacks the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed. None were American.
2. June 14th, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12. None were American.
3. February 28th, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Two police officers and a civilian are killed outside the U.S. Consulate. None were American.
4. June 30th, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. No attacks took place on the date listed, however, two Uzbek security guards died in an attack on the U.S. Consulate July 30, 2004. No American’s were killed.
5. December 6th, 2004: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A U.S. consulate is attacked with explosives and machine guns, killing four security guards. None were American.
6. March 2nd, 2006: Karachi, Pakistan. A suicide bomber kills four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy near the U.S. consulate.
7. September 12, 2006: Damascus, Syria. Four terrorists attack the U.S. Embassy killing a Syrian security guard. No Americans were killed.
8. March 18th, 2008. Sana’a, Yemen. the U.S. Embassy is attacked by mortar fire, which misses the embassy, but hits a nearby school killing two. None were American.
9. July 9th, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed. None were American.
10. September 17th, 2008. Sana’a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with weapons and two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband. This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months and was immediately called a ‘terrorist attack.’

There are other graphics with lists on the web as well, including a couple listing attacks that never happened, and are being used to show a lack of outrage on the GOP’s part during Bush’s presidency. And while Bush did a number of things wrong, he didn’t lie in order to try and cover up the deaths of four Americans.

Governor Frank Bell was the sixth governor of Nevada and a distant cousin of Alexander Graham Bell. He was born in Toronto, Canada on January 28, 1840.

Bell came to the U.S. as a construction supervisor for a telegraph company that ran lines from Utah to California. He claimed to have helped telegraphed the Nevada constitution to President Lincoln in 1864 and was the first person to demonstrate the telephone in Nevada.

Bell did however, installed some of the first telephone lines in the state at the Virginia City mines and in the city itself.

Bell first entered public service as warden of the Nevada prison, a position he held from 1883 to 1887. He also served as lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1889 to 1890.

On September 21, 1890 Governor Charles Stevenson died in office, and Bell, who was the lieutenant governor at the time, assumed the duties of the governorship. During his short tenure, he continued to carry out the programs and policies of the Stevenson administration.

He served only four months in office. However when the Republicans held their convention in Virginia City on September 4, 1890, he received neither the nomination for lieutenant governor nor governor.

Some believed Bell did not seek the governor’s position because his brother-in-law, C.C. Powning, aspired to be governor.

After leaving office in January 1891, Bell continued to stay politically active. From 1893 to 1895 he served again as warden of the state prison, and from 1905 to 1909 he served as Reno justice of the peace.

Governor Frank J. Bell passed away at the age of 87 in California on February 13, 1927, and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Reno, Nevada. The city of Reno honored him by naming Bell Street after him.

While many well-meaning people, including First Lady Michelle Obama, hold up signs reading, “Bring Back Our Girls,” Islāmic terror group Boko Haram has kidnapped eight more young girls from the northeast Nigerian town of Warabe. Earlier in the month the terrorist kidnapped almost 300 young women from a school in Chibok, west of Maiduguri, some 600 miles from the capital of Abuja.

In a video message, the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said the schoolgirls are now slaves. There are reports that many of the girls have already been sold as slaves in neighboring countries, some for as little as $12.

“I abducted your girls,” he taunts. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell.”

A Whitehouse Spokesman called it a tragedy and pledged to help.

“We are working with the Nigerian government to strengthen its criminal justice system and increase confidence in the government by supporting its efforts to hold those responsible for violence accountable,” press secretary Jay Carney said.

A team of FBI, DOJ, State Department and military personnel are in Nigeria to help in the search using ground teams and unmanned aircraft. But the task of recovering the girls appeared to grow more complicated with news that U.S. intelligence believes the 276 girls have been split up.

“We do think they have been broken up into smaller groups,” U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said.

He declined to say how officials came to the conclusion, but it is a sentiment that has been echoed by a number of others, who believe the girls already have been moved out of Nigeria and into neighboring countries. Also, this isn’t the first time the militant group has attack students.

In February of this year, dozens of Nigerian secondary school students were killed by Boko Haram as they slept. In the attack explosives were thrown into buildings and rooms sprayed with gunfire.

Boko Haram gunmen also attacked a wedding convoy November 3rd, killing more than 30 people including the groom. The month before, the extremists attacked a military checkpoint, reportedly killing at least four members of the security forces.

A bomb attack in August 2011, on the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria killed 23 people and left 76 wounded. It was carried out by Boko Haram demanding the release of prisoners and an end to a security crackdown to prevent further bombings.

The latest attack by the group occurred April 5th when, Boko Haram attacked Gamboru Ngala, a remote state capital near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon that has been used as a staging ground for troops in the search for the girls. Some of the at least 310 victims were burned alive.

The assault fits a pattern of ‘revenge-seeking’ by Boko Haram against those perceived to disagree with the group or those who have provided aid to the Nigerian government.

While President Barack Obama called Boko Haram, “one of the worst regional or local terrorist organizations,” his State Department under Hillary Clinton, for two years, refused to add the group with known links to Al Qaeda to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

U.S. lawmakers — who had written letters to Clinton while she was serving as chief diplomat — and former administration officials believe the delay in adding Boko Haram to the terrorist list may have thwarted the U.S.’s ability to help Nigeria fight the insurgents.

“The delayed designation of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization cost us two years of increased scrutiny of the group’s activities and leadership,” Congressman Patrick Meehan said. “Boko Haram met the statutory requirements for the designation as early as 2011, but the State Department’s delay has left us with fewer resources and less intelligence on an Islāmic terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda that is clearly destabilizing the region.”

Though she has yet to comment on the delay in designating Boko Haram a terrorist group, Clinton has spoken out, about the mass kidnapping calling it, “abominable,” adding, “It’s criminal, it’s an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible, first and foremost from the government of Nigeria.”

This delay may go beyond the State Department as recently uncovered documents show that last fall, Nigeria hired a Washington lobbying firm to press the Obama administration to supply non-lethal equipment to be used in the hunt for the extremists, however the administration continues to claim the Nigerian government refused U.S. aid in tracking down the kidnappers.

“And you can offer and talk, but you can’t do (anything) if a government has its own sense of how it’s proceeding,” Secretary of State John Kerry said. “I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort.”

Early this week, Boko Haram released a new video claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging the teens had converted to Islam and warning that they would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. It shows about 130 girls wearing full veils, reciting the first chapter of the Qur’an and holding their palms upwards in prayer.

The video also shows leader Abubakar Shekau, who claims he will release the girls in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners.

“… (T)hese girls you occupy yourselves with…we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” he said. “We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren. Here I mean those girls who have not submitted (converted to Islam.)”

There are more than 4,000 Boko Haram members in detention. Talks are underway between Nigerian officials and the senior leadership of Boko Haram, meanwhile the Obama administration is calling for additional United Nations sanctions against the group.

Along with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Congressman Steven Horsford does not support those who support Cliven Bundy against federal agents they believed were using excessive force.  Despite a lack of evidence to back up his claim, Horsford has publicly said militia members have established armed checkpoints and are routinely harassing locals.

His latest call to rid the area of Patriots and Minute Men came during a local pancake breakfast in Mesquite, Nevada. According to Horsford, an unidentified fifth grader told him Bundy suffers from a “sense of entitlement,” which prompted the Congressman to once again for the removal of armed citizens in his district.

“And that is why I am calling on Brian Sandoval, Senator Dean Heller, the sheriff and any other elected official in Nevada to do their part to get rid of these armed separatists.”

Despite the fact Nevada law allows individuals to carry firearms, Horsford wants local law enforcement to force these citizens out of the community. Furthermore, he has called for a federal investigation into the activities of the remaining protesters.

In a February 2013 Gannett News Service article, it came to light that “all but one member of Nevada’s congressional delegation own guns…”  The USA Today survey of lawmakers showed that 119 Republicans and 46 democrats identified themselves as gun owners.

But gun ownership in the Nevada delegation is more of a bipartisan affair. Senator’s Harry Reid and Dean Heller both own guns. Congressman Mark Amodei, who represents the Reno area, owns several guns as does Congresswoman Dina Titus and Congressman Joe Heck.

The only lawmaker from Nevada’s six-member congressional delegation who does not own a gun is Horsford.  At 19, his father died after being shot during a drug deal-gone-wrong.

In November 2009, Horsford illegally parked his SUV with his Senate license plate visible in a handicapped parking space at a park for six hours. Subsequently, Horsford pledged to work harder on disabled rights issues.

In the summer of 2010, Horsford again garnered unwanted media attention when a fundraising letter from his PAC soliciting donations in exchange for private meals or receptions to meet with various Democratic legislative leaders and Senate committee chairs. Following criticism that the letter amounted to “pay to play,” Horsford rescinded the letter, discontinued the solicitation program and refunded all donations made in response to the letter.

On April 7, 2011 a report came out that web poker giant PokerStars treated Horsford on a lobbyist-paid trip to the Bahamas before introducing legislation that would benefit the online gaming industry. Horsford said of the trip, “It was productive. They made a good presentation.” Horsford received $37,500 in campaign contributions from PokerStars.

Forty-eight Nevada legislators accepted PokerStars campaign contributions. Horsford later returned the campaign contributions.

During the Washington Naval Yard Shooting, September 20, 2013 Horsford staffer Don Andres who took pictures of a guy on laying on the sidewalk and being worked on by first-responders of the road and sent them to his boss, Tim Hogan.

Then Hogan Tweeted the photos in which every single major press outlet grabbed up and retransmitted in their stories about the event. In the end, the Associated Press pulled the photos and issued the following statement: “The Associated Press has been unable to confirm that the incident shown in this picture is directly connected with the shooting at the Naval Yard in Washington.”

Incidentally, Horsford is on the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security and supports a nationwide enhanced background check for gun purchasing.

Later that same month, Horsford failed to attend a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in which several Democrats walked out. The hearing allowed the parents of Benghazi victims Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods to testify about their sons’ lives and deaths.

Horsford’s spokesman Tim Hogan claimed, “He was unable to attend the hearing due to conflicting obligations.

As for his involvement in the Bureau of Land Managements attempted land grab and the Cliven Bundy stand-off, Horsford is no stranger to the situation. On April 18, 2013, Horsford filed a bill bringing the Lyon County Economic Development and Conservation Act before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation (HR-696) for an initial hearing.

“There are a number of public lands bills that will benefit a number of projects throughout the State of Nevada,” Horsford said.

The bill that he filed, commonly called the Yerington Land Act, is one of six that involve land projects in the Fourth Congressional District that he represents.

“The Lyon County Land Bill will allow the City of Yerington to buy, at fair market value, about 10,000 acres for commercial and economic development including a copper mine,” Horsford explained.

He estimated 2,000 to 3,000 jobs could be created along with the economic development. Lyon County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the State. The Land Act will also create 48,000 acres of wilderness area, known as the Wovoka Wilderness Area.

Another bill, the Multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan Implementation Act, H.R. 1744, came before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation in February of this year. The legislation amends current law to provide the City of Mesquite with greater opportunity for long-term economic development.

Under current law, the City of Mesquite had to let the BLM know by November 13, 2009, if it wanted to purchase the last parcel of land made available by the Mesquite Lands Act and to close the purchase of the deal within one year.  This bill takes legislative action to extend the timeline for Mesquite to purchase this land for commercial and industrial development, including a potential airport.

“Mesquite’s opportunity for economic growth has been restricted unnecessarily,” said Horsford. “This legislation provides Mesquite the flexibility it needs to create jobs and grow. The legislation before the subcommittee is also an example of economic development and environmental stewardship working hand in hand.”

This legislation also corrects an omission in the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002 which established the use of the Virgin River Habitat Conservation and Recovery Plan and the Hydrologic Monitoring & Mitigation Plan.

Following up on a plan Senator Harry Reid first introduced involving 350,000 acres in the Gold Butte area, Horsford reintroduced a like-minded bill in June 2013. It’s aim would have created the Gold Butte National Conservation Area to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management in a way that “conserves, protects and enhances” its natural, historical and scenic resources.

“Congressman Horsford really listens to local citizens and has demonstrated that in this legislation,” said Nancy Hall, executive director of Friends of Gold Butte.  “We are hopeful that the local stakeholders will join us at the table to ensure its swift passage.”

Gold Butte would become the third National Conservation Area in Clark County, joining Red Rock Canyon which created in 1990, and Sloan Canyon, created in 2002. Additionally, 92,000 acres would be designated as wilderness within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

It is in the Gold Butte area, in which Bundy has allowed his cattle to graze over the years.