I-5 bride collapsed going from Burlington to Mount Vernon. @kiro7seattle @king5seattle twitter.com/Kadie_Holmes/s…

— Kadie Holmes (@Kadie_Holmes) May 24, 2013

IT IS SHOWTIME!!

Show Questions and Comments??? Post them right here about ON THE RECORD!!

Because the jury in the Jodi Arias murder trial was hung, Arias will remain as a closed custody inmate in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Estrella Jail. Arias has been in Sheriff Arpaio’s care and custody for five years and will stay with MCSO until the judicial system renders a final conclusion as to her fate. As a closed custody inmate, Arias remains in her 7×11 cell for 23 hours a day and Arpaio will no longer permit Arias to give media interviews. END

Sheriff Arpaio and staff will not make any further comments on this case.

PHOENIX, AZ (May 23, 2013) – Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery released the following statement in response to the lack of a unanimous decision in the penalty phase of State v. Jodi Ann Arias:

“We appreciate the jury’s work in the guilt and aggravation phases of the trial and now we will assess, based upon available information, what the next steps will be.  As of this point in time, the Court has set a Status Conference for June 20 and we will proceed with the intent to retry the penalty phase.  Because, for purposes of a jury determination on punishment, this is still a pending matter, there will be no further comment.”

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 23, 2013

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

· James F. Entwistle – Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Department of State

· Chai R. Feldblum – Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

· Douglas E. Lute– United States Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Department of State

· Victoria Nuland – Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, Department of State

· Daniel Sepulveda – rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy, Department of State

· Mark Schaefer – Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, Department of Commerce

· Kara M. Stein – Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission

· John H. Thompson – Director of the Census, Department of Commerce

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

· Calvin L. Holmes – Member, Community Development Advisory Board

· John Charles Padalino – Administrator, Rural Utilities Service, Department of Agriculture

· Clark W. Stevens – Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Homeland Security

President Obama said, “I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have agreed to join this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Ambassador James F. Entwistle, Nominee for Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Department of State

Ambassador James F. Entwistle, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, is the U.S. Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From 2007 to 2010, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. His previous roles overseas include Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 2003 to 2006, Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 1999 to 2003, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bangui, Central African Republic from 1994 to 1995. His roles in Washington include Management Analyst in the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs from 1997 to 1999 and Desk Officer for Zimbabwe and Botswana in the Department of State’s Office of Southern African Affairs in 1996. Ambassador Entwistle received a B.A. from Davidson College in North Carolina.

Chai R. Feldblum, Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Chai R. Feldblum currently serves as a Commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a position she has held since 2010. Previously, she was a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center from 1991 to 2011, where she founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers. Ms. Feldblum served as Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union from 1988 to 1991. She clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun and Judge Frank M. Coffin of the Federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Ms. Feldblum received a B.A. from Barnard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Douglas E. Lute, Nominee for United States Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Department of State

Douglas E. Lute is Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for South Asia on the White House National Security Staff. He retired from active duty in the United States Army as a Lieutenant General in 2010, after 35 years of service. From 2007 to 2009, he was Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2007, he was Director of Operations (J3) on the Joint Staff. Previously, from 2004 to 2006, he was Director of Operations for the United States Central Command. General Lute’s previous positions include Deputy Director of Operations for the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany; Assistant Division Commander in the

Here is what he says about whether the IRS’ Lois Lerner waived her rights or not:

It is the opinion of attorney Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law Professor and litigator of such cases as Claus Von Bulow and O.J. Simpson that Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s embattled director of Exempt Organizations, could be held in contempt of court and jailed for refusing to testify before Congress.

Speaking on The Steve Malzberg Show, Dershowitz said, “She’s in trouble. She can be held in contempt. Congress can actually hold you in contempt and put you in the Congressional jail.”

The legal observation from the famous criminal defense attorney was all the more interesting following Lerner’s invocation of her Fifth Amendment right Wednesday appearing before a House subcommittee investigating the growing scandal.

After her refusal to testify, a mini debate broke out in Washington circles concerning the validity of convicting her for the action. Lerner’s take before the committee was her insistence that “I have done nothing wrong.”

In Dershowitz’s legal opinion, her brief statement of innocence has opened a “legal Pandora’s Box. You can’t simply make statements about a subject and then plead the Fifth in response to questions about the very same subject. Once you open the door to an area of inquiry, you have waived your Fifth Amendment right; you’ve waived your self-incrimination right on that subject matter.”

The renowned Harvard Professor added the legal opinion that making such a proclamation could be considered malpractice on the part of her attorney. However, she could later say she had overruled the advice she received.

Whatever the case, Lerner most certainly will be called back in front of Rep. Darrell Issa’s committee investigating her part in the IRS’s auditing of conservative groups seeking non-profit status.

As Dershowitz saw the situation, “It should never have been allowed. She should have been told by her attorney that the law is clear, that once you open up an area of inquiry for interrogation, you have to respond. Now she may have made a political decision that it’s worth it to take the risk. That’s just not the way the law works. It may be the way politics works . . . but she can’t invoke the Fifth.”

Many are  CLICK HERE

On Monday I happened to make a smart *** remark here on GretaWire about what would have happened if the DOJ had hacked my phones and emails over the past weekend instead of James Rosen and it included reference to Audrey’s personal problems.  But alas, while I have now violated her DOG HIPPA rights by revealing her health issues, at least she has become an internet sensation….from THE BLAZE to POLITOMIX!  

Next stop for Audrey? American Idol? Dancing with the Stars? 

SENATORS McCAIN AND LEVIN CALL FOR REMOVAL OF IRS OFFICIAL FROM OFFICE

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI), Ranking Member and Chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, today sent the following letter to Daniel Werfel, Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging him “to suspend immediately Lois Lerner from her office as Director of the Office of Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)”:

May 23, 2013

Mr. Daniel Werfel
Acting Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20224

Dear Acting Commissioner Werfel:

We are writing to urge you to suspend immediately Lois Lerner from her office as Director of the Office of Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We believe that Ms. Lerner failed to disclose crucial information concerning the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of some conservative 501(c)(4) organizations during the course of a Subcommittee investigation into how the IRS enforces the 501(c)(4) law, leading to an incomplete account of the full operations of her unit.

Since March of last year, the Subcommittee has been examining whether the IRS adequately and appropriately enforces tax code provisions and implementing regulations regarding the extent to which tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups may engage in political campaign activity. The Subcommittee asked the IRS why it was not enforcing the 501(c)(4) statute which states that social welfare organizations should be used “exclusively for the promotion of social welfare” and instead enforcing the more lenient IRS regulation which states that a social welfare organization may be used “primarily” for social welfare. It also asked the IRS about how they reviewed applications filed by certain Democratic and Republican leaning 501(c)(4)s. Our investigation has included a year’s worth of correspondence between the Subcommittee and the IRS, as well as document productions and repeated consultations with IRS staff.

On April 30, 2013, Ms. Lerner and seven IRS colleagues spent six-hours being interviewed, on a bipartisan basis, by Subcommittee staff. That interview covered, among other topics, how the IRS determines which groups to review, what actions are taken in connection with the IRS reviews, and how the laws and regulations are used to examine those groups. Ms. Lerner failed to disclose the internal controversy over the search terms used by the Cincinnati office to identify 501(c)(4) groups for further review, the actions taken by that office in reviewing the identified groups, the investigation and imminent findings by the Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA); and TIGTA’s conclusion that the IRS had used inappropriate criteria to target Tea Party and other conservative groups. Ms. Lerner also failed to disclose that she was fully aware of these issues as early as June 2011, and, according to TIGTA, had been personally involved in reviewing questionable actions taken by the Cincinnati office.

Given the serious failure by Ms. Lerner to disclose to this Subcommittee key information on topics that the Subcommittee was investigating, we have lost confidence in her ability to fulfill her duties as Director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS. Ms. Lerner’s continued tenure in the office she holds, where she is responsible for overseeing 1.6 million tax-exempt organizations, would erode public trust and confidence in the IRS and its professional integrity. We believe that the immediate removal of Ms. Lerner from office would be a vital step in helping to restore public trust in the agency.

Sincerely,

John McCain
Carl Levin

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