3 YOUTUBERS DIE IN CANADA FOR VIEWS (RYKER GAMBLE, ALEXEY LYAKH, MEGAN SCRAPER)

3 YOUTUBERS DIE IN CANADA FOR VIEWS (STUPID PRANKS):

RYKER GAMBLE, ALEXEY LYAKH, MEGAN SCRAPER - ALL IN THEIR 20’s.

GOOGLE & YOUTUBE PAY BIG BUCK$ FOR DANGEROUS PRANKS.

YOUNG YOUTUBERS RISK THEIR HUMAN LIVES FOR VIEWS AND LIKES.


Post Sources: BBC News, CBC News, Yahoo News, Youtube


****** Three YouTube vloggers die in waterfall plunge at Canada's Shannon Falls


Three members of a YouTube travel blogging collective have died after falling over a waterfall in Canada.

Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper were part of High On Life, who post videos of their travel adventures.

The group said: "They were three of the warmest, kindest and most driven and outgoing people you could ever meet."

Police said the trio were swimming at the top of Shannon Falls in British Columbia on Tuesday when they "slipped and fell into a pool 30m (98ft) below".

Other members of the group, who have 1.1 million followers on Instagram and more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers, named the three on their memorial fund page and in a tribute video.

They said: "There are truly no words that can be said to ease the pain and the devastation we are all going through right now."

According to the Vancouver Sun, the accident happened when Scraper slipped and fell, with Gamble and Lyakh also getting swept away as they tried to save her.

High On Life are based in Vancouver and were formed by Gamble, Lyakh and another high school friend, Parker Heuser, after they travelled the world in 2012.

They decided to turn travel and video production into a full-time job and often promoted brands and destinations in the pictures and videos they posted from exotic locations.

Their Facebook page says: "High On Life is the attitude to embrace all of life's opportunities with a positive outlook and energy."

In one of his last Instagram posts, Gamble, spoke about the things we can all learn from "our younger selves".

He wrote: "Life isn't about responsibilities, tough decisions and hard work, it's about feeling bliss and living in the moment."

Last year, Gamble, Lyakh and another group member, Justis Price Brown, were banned from US federal land for five years after pleading guilty to walking on a sensitive hot spring in Yellowstone National Park and other crimes at parks across the western US.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they had received a call about three people swimming in one of the pools at the top of Shannon Falls, about 36 miles (58km) north of Vancouver.

"The individuals were with a group of friends when they slipped and fell into a pool 30 metres below," they said.

They added that teams had "worked throughout the day to complete the complex recovery of all three people from Shannon Falls" and that the file had been given to the coroner's office.

The British Columbia Coroners Service said on Friday they were in the early stages of the investigation.

An official confirmed the three were in their 20s, though Gamble's age has been reported as 30.

The Shannon Falls region and its old growth forests are an increasingly popular destination to visit in the province.

The waterfalls themselves are among of the tallest in British Columbia, reaching 1,009ft (335m) at their highest point.

In the wake of the tragedy, officials are warning people to be cautious in the area.

"Areas like Shannon Falls have very polished granite, it's very slippery with the mist and the lichen and etcetera that builds up around there-going in or near those pools has great risk," John Wilcox with Squamish Search and Rescue told radio station News 1130 on Wednesday.

"It's a very unfortunate circumstance hopefully we can all learn from."

HAWAII VOTES: TRUMP OR CLINTON??

HAWAII VOTES: TRUMP OR CLINTON?

Sources: Hawaii News Now, Daily Kos, Youtube

Current U.S. Pres Barack Obama Jr carried the beautiful state of Hawaii in 2008 and 2012.

Fast forward to the year 2016. Which candidate will carry this tropical Paradise for Tourists during one of the most crucial general elections in history?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Why do evangelicals prefer Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton?

Cracks have appeared in evangelical support for Donald Trump over the video of his sexually predatory comments about women.

But backing from some of his most high-profile conservative Christian endorsers, such as Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., is holding.

Among those reversing course was well-known theologian Wayne Grudem, whose endorsement was widely cited by other Christians backing the Republican presidential nominee.

The prominent evangelical magazine, Christianity Today, on Monday said Trump was "the very embodiment of what the Bible calls a fool." James MacDonald, of Harvest Bible Church in Illinois and a member of Trump's evangelical advisory board, called the candidate's remarks "misogynistic trash." The pastor told the magazine he would no longer work with the campaign unless Trump repents.

Popular evangelist and author Beth Moore tweeted that she was among many women who had been sexually abused or harassed, and "we're tired of it." That behavior, she warned, becomes more acceptable "when some Christian leaders don't think it's that big a deal."

Katelyn Beaty, author of "A Woman's Place," and a former managing editor at Christianity Today magazine, said Moore's comments indicate evangelical women are becoming more wary of Trump, "especially as it relates to the ways he consistently talks about and treats women."

But James Dobson, of Family Talk radio, condemned Trump's comments, but called Clinton's support for abortion rights "criminal."

"Mr. Trump promises to support religious liberty and the dignity of the unborn. Mrs. Clinton promises she will not," Dobson said in a statement Monday.

Falwell Jr., an early endorser of the real estate magnate, said Trump's remarks were "reprehensible." Still, Falwell said, "we're never going to have a perfect candidate," and suggested the video leak was engineered by Trump's enemies in his own party.

"I think it was timed," Falwell told WABC-AM radio in New York. "I think it might have even been a conspiracy, you know, among the establishment Republicans who've known about it for weeks and who tried to time it to do the maximum damage."

Others who stood by Trump were Ralph Reed, a member of the campaign's evangelical advisory board and founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, which aims to mobilize conservative Christian voters. Televangelist Pat Robertson dismissed Trump's remarks as an attempt by the candidate "to look like he's macho."

On the video released Friday, Trump is heard describing attempts to have sex with a married woman and bragging that women let him grab their genitals because he is famous. Responding to the leak, Trump said, "I was wrong," to make those comments, but dismissed them as "locker room talk."

Conservative Christian support for Trump has confounded those inside and outside evangelicalism. Trump is a casino mogul who was married three times, said he didn't need to ask God for forgiveness, mocked a disabled reporter and alluded to his penis size during a debate. Early on, prominent evangelicals, including Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Christian author Max Lucado, warned evangelicals against Trump.

Still, as the year progressed and the large pool of GOP primary contenders dwindled, it became clear that white conservative Christians were coalescing behind the candidate. Recent polls show the GOP presidential nominee drawing about 70 percent of the white evangelical vote.

Although some evangelicals defended Trump's character, many couched their endorsements in pragmatic terms, focused on Trump's promise that he will appoint conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Laura Olson, a Clemson University political scientist, said this support can be seen in part as payback for evangelical losses in the so-called culture wars. Many conservative Christians see the roots of their failure in the policies of President Bill Clinton. In 1993, days into his first term in the White House and on the 20th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Clinton signed an executive order abolishing some restrictions on abortion.

Younger evangelicals likely don't remember that far back. But for others, the Clintons "come as a package deal in so many people's minds," Olson said.

In a recent Pew Research Center survey, more than three-quarters of white evangelicals cited dislike for Clinton as a major reason they prefer Trump.

"A perception grew, even while (Clinton) was first lady, that she was the extremely liberal one, that Bill Clinton was a moderate, a pragmatist

OBAMA'S HAWAIIAN CHILDHOOD HOME (HONOLULU)

OBAMA'S HAWAIIAN CHILDHOOD HOME:

PUNAHOU CIRCLE

Sources: Obama's Neighborhood, YouTube


1971 to 1979 - 1617 S. Beretania, #1206 Punahou Circle

In 1971, Barack Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his grandparents, who had moved to unit #1206 at the Punahou Circle Apartment building on 1617 S. Beretania in Makiki.

In 1973 the elder Dunhams along with young Barack shifted to apartment 1008 in the same building.

Constructed in 1965 and still in existence today, the monolithic 96-unit building looks to be threadbare and dated.

A white plastic table and chairs sit beneath a shabby portico--unlikely targets for thieves.

On one apartment balcony tiny American flags flap in the breeze.

Punahou Circle was Barry Obama's principal residence throughout most of his Honolulu schooling (1971-79) and remained the home of his grandmother until her death in November of 2008.

HAWAII - KING KAMEHAMEHA'S PALACE (HONOLULU)

HAWAII - KING KAMEHAMEHA'S PALACE:

Sources: YouTube, Wikipedia


Scenery from King KAMEHAMEHA'S palace in Honolulu, Hawaii.


His huge palace is a very popular Tourist attraction.

He was a great King of the Hawaiian Islands, who reigned in power from July 1782 until May of 1819.


King KAMEHAMEHA stood over seven feet tall in height.

GENO'S STEAKHOUSE: A PHILLY FAVORITE

GENO'S STEAKHOUSE: A PHILLY FAVORITE

GENO'S WINS MY CHEESESTEAK CONTEST.

Sources: GENO'S, Youtube

After conducting my own Philly Cheesesteak contest of two local Cheesesteak Connoiseurs GENO'S and PAT'S,  I've concluded that GENO'S Cheesesteak sandwich wins hands down.

The bread was not too soft, not too hard, the meat was seasoned well and the provolone cheese was melted.

Although I enjoyed my recent visit to PAT'S, when I return to Philadelphia GENO'S gets my business.

1219 S 9th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

DO I LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST TO YOU? - LAS VEGAS AIRPORT

DO I LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST TO YOU? - LAS VEGAS AIRPORT

A NATION DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND.


For the last six years extreme PROFILING of BLACK Passengers and BLACK Travelers has increased.

TSA Personnel, Airport Security,  Train Station Security and Bus Station Security Personnel appear to be practicing extreme PROFILING of BLACK citizens in the United States, even when those BLACK citizens are dressed in normal, regular attire.

Regardless of how Courteous, Polite and Hospitable BLACK people behave when traveling, they are frequently treated with Disdain by TSA or Security Personnel.

In fact BLACK citizens who travel are frequently treated as if they are HOMELESS people seeking Shelter.

However rarely does TSA Personnel, Airport Security,  Train Station Security and Bus Station Security Personnel question WHITE Travelers or request to see their Traveling documents until they are actually Boarding.

It's quite obvious that this extreme PROFILING and Disdain towards BLACK citizens who travel is a result of Pres OBAMA'S Racially-divisive POLICIES.

Whether anyone wishes to admit it or not, many of Pres OBAMA'S Policies have divided this nation more so than ever.

Especially in the area of RACE RELATIONS.

A Nation Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.

~ Reps. Black, Flores Introduce Bill to Reverse Discriminatory TSA Policy Ahead of Holiday Travel Season

Congressman Diane Black (R-TN-06) and Congressman Bill Flores (R-TX-17) have introduced H.R. 4026, the Nondiscriminatory Transportation Screening Act.

The legislation would allow Americans to use gun license permits as permissible identification for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) purposes while maintaining strong protections for gun owners’ privacy rights and prohibiting government tracking of individuals who choose to present this identification at airport screenings.

The bill comes ahead of the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday season, where 25 million Americans are expected to board flights to travel destinations throughout the country.

Currently, the TSA explicitly bans the use of handgun licenses at airport checkpoints, despite the fact that these licenses meet all criteria for “verifying identity documents” under current law. Black and Flores released the following statements:

“We all understand the need for stringent security standards at our nation’s airports, but there must also be a place for commonsense.

It is mind-boggling that the TSA has reportedly accepted Costco membership cards at airport screenings, yet its website expressly prohibits the use of handgun carry permits. 

Why the double standard?

Handgun licenses are a government-issued form of identification and no one has given me a valid reason why they cannot be accepted at TSA checkpoints.

Americans who exercise their Second Amendment freedoms have bared the brunt of much hostility from this Administration over the last seven years.

As a handgun carry permit holder myself, I believe this should be a simple, bipartisan step we can take to stop the government’s marginalization of gun-owners and alleviate confusion for millions of American travelers this holiday season,” said Congressman Diane Black.

“As travel continues to be a vital piece of our nation’s economy, TSA should accept approved government issued concealed handgun licenses as a valid form of identification.

The requirements to obtain a concealed license are similar and often times stricter than that of obtaining a standard ID card. Earlier this year, the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution petitioning Congress to allow the TSA to accept concealed handgun licenses.

Concealed handgun licenses contain all of the identifying information required by the TSA. 

It is time they recognize these licenses as acceptable forms of identification.

The Nondiscriminatory Transportation Screening Act provides a commonsense approach for the TSA to update its policies on permissible verifying documents,” said Congressman Bill Flores.

Credits: House.gov, Essence, YouTube

TSA vs Passengers: Anti-TSA Sentiment Heats Up

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Passenger Chooses Strip-Down Over Pat-Down



When a San Diego man opted out of security screening using the Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) at Lindbergh Field Friday, he stripped down to his underwear in an attempt to avoid the pat-down procedures.

Samuel Wolanyk took the protest started Nov. 13 by Oceanside's John Tyner to a whole new level.

While Tyner videotaped his refusal to be patted down, telling the agent "If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested," Wolanyk decided to give TSA a look at his body down to his Calvin Klein's.

Through a statement released by his attorney Sunday night, Wolanyk said "TSA needs to see that I'm not carrying any weapons, explosives, or other prohibited substances, I refuse to have images of my naked body viewed by perfect strangers, and having been felt up for the first time by TSA the week prior (I travel frequently) I was not willing to be molested again."

Wolanyk's attorney said that TSA requested his client put his clothes on so he could be patted down properly but his client refused to put his clothes back on. He never refused a pat down, according to his attorney.

Wolanyk was arrested for refusing to complete the security process. A woman, identified by Harbor police as Danielle Kelli Hayman, 39, of San Diego was detained for recording the incident on a phone.

San Diego has played a central role in the debate over the need for AIT machines in our nation's airports. From Tyner's videotape and U.S. Rep. Bob Filner's call for a congressional hearing, to the parody song penned by Poway musician and Grammy-winner Steve Vaus. This Wednesday, one group is asking Americans to opt out of the AIT machines.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pat-Down Backlash Grows During Holiday Travel Rush



s backlash against airline passenger pat-downs intensified with a viral online video, the nation's top airline security official said Monday that his agency is walking a fine line between privacy concerns and public safety.

A short video clip circulating on the internet shows a shirtless boy receiving a pat-down from a Transportation Security Administration agent. His father watches, hands on his hips, obstructing part of the view.

But the words playing in the background are clear.

"Are they harassing a kid?" one man asks.

"It's ridiculous," another voice chimes in. "Unbelievable."

Finance student Luke Tait said he started recording the incident with his cell phone when he saw the "visibly upset" father while waiting in line Friday at the airport in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"It was an interesting situation. I never saw a little boy with his shirt off getting a pat-down," Tait told CNN.

TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird said screeners searched the child after he set off a metal detector alarm.

"The father removed his son's shirt in order to speed up the screening process. Once screening was complete, both proceeded to the gate for their flight," Baird said in a statement.

Asked about the incident Monday on CNN's "American Morning," TSA Administrator John Pistole said his understanding was the same as the account given by Baird.

The TSA is trying to strike a delicate balance, Pistole said -- ensuring the safety of the traveling public while taking privacy concerns into account. "The bottom line is, everybody wants to arrive safely at their destination," he said.

In the short term, no changes will be made as the holiday season approaches. Some 2 million people a day are expected to travel on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

A Michigan man, who endured an "extremely embarrassing" pat-down earlier this month, disagreed.

"These new pat-downs have to be stopped until [TSA agents] are trained and are comfortable doing what they need to do," Thomas Sawyer told CNN's "American Morning."

Sawyer, a bladder cancer survivor who has worn a urostomy bag since a surgery three years ago, said a TSA agent at Detroit Metropolitan Airport caused the seal of the bag to open partially during a pat-down, spilling urine on his clothes.

Sawyer said he tried to caution the agent against pressing too hard on his abdomen because of the bag. The agent didn't understand and continued with the search, Sawyer said, and "pulled the seal kind of half-off" the bag.

"These people need to be trained on medical conditions ... and emotional conditions," Sawyer said Monday on CNN's "American Morning." He said the agent "didn't apologize, he didn't do anything."

"I'm a good American, I know why we're doing this and I understand it," Sawyer said. "But this was extremely embarrassing and it didn't have to happen. With educated TSA workers, it wouldn't have happened."

Pistole pointed out that the pat-downs are not mandatory -- passengers receive them only if they opt out of a screening with advanced imaging technology. The technology is the TSA's best effort, he said, to head off attacks like the would-be Christmas Day bomber last year. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab allegedly had a bomb sewn into his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan.

Asked whether the technology and pat-downs would have been able to find that device, Pistole said he believes they would have, saying it would have shown up as "an anomaly" with the imaging technology and then might have been located in a pat-down.

There has never been an explosive found on a flight from one U.S. city to another, Pistole acknowledged. But, he pointed out, domestic terrorists exist -- Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph and Ted Kaczynski, for instance -- and there are people who want to do the government harm. While America is "fortunate" that such an incident has not occurred on a domestic flight, he said, it could conceivably happen.

"We welcome feedback and comments on the screening procedures from the traveling public, and we will work to make them as minimally invasive as possible while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve," Pistole said in a statement released Sunday. "We are constantly evaluating and adapting our security measures, and as we have said from the beginning, we are seeking to strike the right balance between privacy and security."

But Rep. John Mica told "State of the Union" Sunday the enhanced screening shows the TSA is "headed in the wrong direction as far as who they're screening and how they're doing it."

"I don't think the roll-out was good and the application is even worse," he said. "This does need to be refined. But he's saying it's the only tool and I believe that's wrong."

The Florida Republican, who will be chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in January, has argued that airports should hire private security screeners.

The ramped up use of pat-downs and full-body scanning is needed to stop non-metallic threats including weapons and explosives from getting aboard planes, the TSA says. And it appears that most Americans agree.

In a recent CBS News poll, 4 out of 5 Americans supported the use of full-body scans.

President Barack Obama stood by the new controversial screening measures Saturday, calling methods such as pat-downs and body scans necessary to assure airline safety.

The president told reporters that the balance between protecting travelers' rights and their security is a "tough situation," but stressed that such methods are needed after what happened last Christmas Day.

But Obama's support hasn't stopped a growing group of objectors, from civil rights and privacy advocates to scientists and pilots, from loudly claiming these measures are too invasive, ineffective and possibly unsafe.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asked by CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday whether she would submit to an enhanced pat-down, laughed and said, "Not if I could avoid it. No, I mean, who would?"

Pistole noted Monday Clinton went on to say she understands the importance and focus on travelers' security.

Some are calling the frenzied travel day before Thanksgiving "National Opt-Out Day," urging travelers selected for full-body scanning to refuse.

Travelers have the right to opt out of full-body scanning, according to the TSA, but the pat-down alternative has, in turn, created its own public furor.

Last week, a San Diego, California, man's viral video of his clash with security screeners spawned several T-shirt designs with his "Don't touch my junk" quip.

And CNN affiliates around the country have reported examples of passengers who say they find pat-downs embarassing or invasive.

But on Sunday, Pistole told CNN that the outcry over the new screening was overblown.

"Very few people actually receive the pat-down. In spite of all the public furor about this, very few people do," he said.


View Larger Map


Sources: CNN, Denver Post, MSNBC, NBC San Diego, The Guardian, Youtube, Google Maps

Pres. Obama & Michelle's Asheville Visit Great For North Carolina's Economy

The Obamas Take A Tour Of Asheville's Famous Biltmore Estate


President Barack Obama and his friends are touring a famous estate during their Blue Ridge getaway.

The President and First Lady Michelle Obama visited the Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate briefly Saturday evening.

The first family stopped by the massive estate on their way to dinner with friends. The Obamas are spending the weekend in western North Carolina. Obama played Golf before rain rolled into the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Mrs. Obama played Tennis.

Obama leaves midday Sunday for a memorial service for the 29 workers killed in a West Virginia mine.






Obama, First Lady Start Asheville Vacation With BBQ


First stop for the first couple's weekend vacation on Friday was a roadside restaurant that President Barack Obama visited during the final month of his White House campaign.

First meal on the trip: Barbecued ribs.

Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama landed in the Blue Ridge Mountains and made a quick stop at Twelve Bones Smokehouse on the way to their resort. The White House said the first couple ate ribs, macaroni and cheese, greens, baked beans, corn bread and corn pudding and washed it down with sweet tea.

And then a short time later, they set about working off the meal; the Obamas went on a mountain hike.

This trip was meant to be vacation, and Obama didn't even plan to make calls on the fierce debate over financial reform legislation in the Senate, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at the White House on Friday.

"Knock on wood," Gibbs said.

On Obama's previous visit to the city, in October 2008, the then-senator prepared for a debate and rallied supporters -- and lamented he couldn't play golf.

"What a spectacular place," Obama said during the Oct. 5, 2008, stop in Asheville.

"The only thing I don't like about it is that I had to drive by the golf course, and it looks really nice. And my staff won't let me play. I'm going to have to come back."

And back, he is. Not just for the golf: The president always keeps his eye on politics.

Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He defeated Republican Sen. John McCain by just 0.4 percentage points in a state that favored President George W. Bush's re-election by 12 percentage points four years earlier. The Democratic nominee's aggressive campaign -- and volunteers from bordering South Carolina -- helped turn North Carolina in Obama's favor.

As Democrats' fortunes have sunk, though, Obama's trip to North Carolina reflects a nod to a middle-class vacation -- in contrast to last year's trips to Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and his native Hawaii.

Asheville, a city of about 73,000 residents, is home to the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate, a tourist draw, along with scores of art galleries and restaurants.

The White House says the Obamas have no public plans while in North Carolina, although the president will speak at Sunday's memorial in Beckley, W.Va., for the victims of the worst U.S. coal mine disaster in 40 years. The April 5 explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine took 29 lives.

The Obamas plan to return to Washington on Sunday evening.


View Larger Map


Sources: 12 Bones Smoke House, CBS News, McClatchy Newspapers, RAD, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama's Asheville, N.C. Visit Itinerary Remains Top Secret

Obamas' Asheville Trip Is Officially None Of Our Business


No one at the White House, or in the city of Asheville, or at one of the South's poshest resorts, will talk much about what President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, might be doing this weekend on their mountain retreat to North Carolina.

But the girls aren't coming along.

Ahem.

"They need a little time alone, perhaps," said Dolly Jenkins-Mullen, chairwoman of the political science department at UNC-Asheville. "Who doesn't want to go off with their wife away from the lovely kids for a couple of days?" she asked.

The first couple are expected to stay at the Grove Park Inn, where rooms range from $280 a night for the room with "a subdued view" to $675 a night for the club level, with 24-hour concierge service and access to the inn's spa. A weekend package offers a couples massage.

The hotel has plenty of experience serving high-value, hush-hush guests. Ten presidents have stayed at the Grove Park Inn.

Spokeswoman Deborah Potter sighed Thursday at the umpteenth press call - "I cannot comment"- and referred queries to the hotel website.

So the resort isn't talking officially, but there's a notice on the site about extra security, and members of the N.C. Chiropractic Association were warned this week to expect delays at their annual convention.

(The Obamas, staying at the same hotel as the chiropractors?)

The couple have planned a totally private weekend, with no public events scheduled. Reporters can watch Air Force One touch down today at the Asheville airport, and watch it go wheels-up Sunday, but that's it.

Still, no presidential action is totally apolitical.

This is Obama's fourth visit to North Carolina as president, and he visited nearly 20 times as a candidate.

He took lefty Asheville heartily in the 2008 election but fared worse in the surrounding rural, conservative counties.

Jenkins-Mullen sees the visit as a message to those outlying regions - a way to portray the president as a guy like the rest of us, just out for a weekend getaway with his wife after a few hard months at work.

"Perhaps it does give an opportunity for the tension to die down a bit and to give it a rest," she said. "There's the possibility people will see him as human."

Try the drum circle

The Asheville Tea Party sees it that way already. In a release this week, tea party Chairwoman Erika Franzi welcomed Obama to the city and said she hopes he has a good time in the "mountain paradise."

The town's all a twitter.

The Asheville Citizen-Times wants readers to e-mail their Obama snapshots. The paper is warning of heightened security and snipers on rooftops.

John Cram, owner of Blue Studio 1 art gallery downtown, saw a pair of black helicopters around noon Thursday.

Dave Russell, volunteer coordinator for an Earth Day picnic Saturday, was only slightly bummed about a Homeland Security demand that event organizers ground hot-air balloon rides they had planned for the event.

Marla Tambellini, director of marketing at the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, hopes the couple will join the city's Friday night drum circle.

"The vacation plans are still a bit of a mystery," Tambellini said.

Plenty to do, if you ask

The White House, sadly, didn't call her for suggested itineraries. Too bad. She has lots of ideas. The Southern town with a metropolitan area of about 400,000 people, known for its craft beer and artsy sensibility, has plenty to offer.

Tambellini suggested sipping wine on the Grove Park Inn terrace, visiting the spring gardens at the historic Biltmore Estate or strolling among street performers downtown before stopping for a microbrew or the city's farm-to-table epicurean fare.

The mountains are lovely, too, all abloom with spring redbuds.

The couple could take a turn on the Grove Park Inn golf course, designed by Donald Ross. Obama, who stayed in Asheville in 2008 for debate preparations, wistfully said back then that he'd like to return and play the inn's links.

If the president wanted to be of-the-people, Tambellini suggested, the couple could play the Asheville city golf course, also Ross-designed and likely cheaper with a greens fee of $22.

Then again, the weekend forecast calls for rain. Perfect for staying inside.


View Larger Map


Sources: ABC News, McClatchy Newspapers, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama Scraps Trip To Kaczynski's Funeral, Dangerous Volcanic Ash

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Volcanic Ash Prevents Obama’s Trip To Poland


President Barack Obama scrapped plans to travel to Poland on Saturday for the funeral of Poland's president because of hazardous flying conditions caused by the volcanic ash cloud over Europe.

Obama said the U.S. ambassador to Poland, Lee Feinstein, would represent the United States at the service Sunday in Krakow for Lech Kaczynski.

The White House announcement came about six hours before Obama was scheduled to depart on the overnight flight. Obama called Poland's acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, with the news that the trip was off, citing fallout from the volcano in Iceland.

Kaczynski and 95 others, including numerous lawmakers, the central bank governor, the commanders of the country's armed forces and the head of its Olympic committee, died in a plane crash April 10 near Russia's Katyn forest, site of a World War II massacre of Polish officers.

Obama said in a statement that he would support the Polish people in any way he can as they recover from the loss of so many leaders and officials.

He said the late president and others who died were close friends of the United States. "The American people will never forget the lives they led," Obama said.

Flights Grounded

All airports in Poland were closed Saturday to flights above the cloud level of 20,000 feet because of the ash cloud, including Balice in Krakow, where most of the dignitaries were expected to arrive Sunday morning, said Grzegorz Hlebowicz, spokesman for Poland's aviation authorities.

Air space across a wide area from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way until Sunday or Monday, affecting airports from New Zealand to San Francisco.

Scientists say that because the Icelandic volcano is situated below a glacial ice cap, the magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes of grit that can be catastrophic to plane engines.


View Larger Map


Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

"Why Am I On The Watch List?" Flagged!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sources: MSNBC, The Daily Beast

U.S. State Dept. Changes VISA Policy

U.S. State Department Changing How Visa Information Handled, Source Says


The U.S. State Department on Thursday is directing its embassies around the world to include information on whether a person has a U.S. visa when they send special cables to Washington containing information on potentially suspect individuals, CNN has learned.

The order comes in the wake of a failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner. The change was prompted by preliminary reviews ordered by President Obama of the terror attack.

The reviews are due to the president by Thursday.

A State Department official told CNN the information to be included in so-called "Visas VIPER cables" currently is not required by department guidelines. In the case of the attempted December 25 bombing, crucial information that the suspect -- 23-year-old Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab -- had a two-year multiple-entry visa was not relayed in the cables.

Although other government departments could have accessed that information if they wanted to search State Department databases, they were not required to do so.

The official, who spoke on background because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the department also is looking at the possibility of notifying airlines that a person has had his or her visa revoked. Currently, there is no electronic connection between airline passenger records and State Department records concerning revoked visas.

The official said one proposal is to put an electronic note in airline records that the visa has been revoked. This would prevent such a person from flying with a revoked visa.

Currently, a State Department employee would have to personally notify the airlines directly if he or she wanted to make that information known. The new approach would automate that process with an electronic notification.

Making such a change is important, observers note, especially when a person could be flying on an international airline with a paper sticker visa in their passport. Under current rules, an airline would not know whether that visa had been revoked unless it contacted the State Department directly.


Sources: CNN, U.S. State Dept., Wikipedia

Fire The TSA! Replace With U.S. Army Veterans Or Cops

President Obama, It's Time To Fire The TSA!



Today, DHS's Napolitano's response to the "crotchbomber": "We're looking to make sure that this sort of incident cannot recur." But the TSA's response to Abdulmutalib's attempt makes one thing clear: We must stop pretending the TSA is making us safer.

Security expert Bruce Schneier nails the core incompetency: "For years I've been saying 'Only two things have made flying safer since 9/11: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.'"

So what has the TSA done in response to the attempted attack? They've told airlines to make passengers stay in their seats during the last hour of flight. They've made it verboten for passengers to hold anything in their laps, again only during the last hour of flight. Perhaps most hilariously telling, they've forbidden pilots from announcing when a plane is flying over certain cities and landmarks.

There is no other way to interpret it: The TSA is saying clearly that they can't prevent terrorists from getting explosives on airplanes, but by god, they'll make sure those planes explode only when the TSA says it's okay.

I want our government to prevent terrorism and to make flights safer. But we are spending billions of dollars and man-hours to fight a threat that is less likely to kill a traveler than being struck by lightning. In the last decade, according to statistician Nate Silver, there has been "one terrorist incident per 11,569,297,667 miles flown the equivalent to 1,459,664 trips around the diameter of the Earth, 24,218 round trips to the Moon, or two round trips to Neptune."

(Sadly, this does mean that in the future we can expect one out of every two round-trip flights to Neptune to be hijacked.)

The TSA isn't saving lives. We, the passengers, are saving our own. Since its inception, the TSA has been structured in such a way as to prevent specific terror scenarios, attempting to disrupt a handful of insanely specific tactics, while continuing to disenfranchise and demoralize the citizens who are actually doing the work that a billion-dollar government agency—an agency that received an additional $128 million just this year for new checkpoint explosive screening technology—has failed to do.

We just had the first legitimate attempted attack in years, and the TSA changes the threat level from orange...to orange.

This goes far beyond simple customer satisfaction issues like "Take Back Takeoff."
(Although they are of a kind.)

It has to do with wildly irrationally response of a government agency in the face of failure. An agency whose leader, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, said at first blush that the attempted attack showed that—here comes the Katrina-class foot-in-mouth—"the system worked."

I don't want to die on an airplane. I don't want to die in my home while eating an organic bagel infested with parasites that lay eggs on my liver. I don't want to die from starvation or bad water or a thousand other things that I pay our government to monitor and regulate.

But I also don't expect the government to protect from the literally endless possibilities and threats that could occur at any point to end my life or the life of the few I love.

It's been nearly a decade since terrorists used airplanes to attack our country, and last week's attempt makes it clear that the lack of terrorist attacks have nothing to do with the increasing gauntlet of whirring machines, friskings, and arbitrary bureaucratic provisions, but simply that for the most part, there just aren't that many terrorists trying to blow up planes. Because god knows if there were, the TSA isn't capable of stopping them.

We're just one bad burrito away from the TSA forcing passengers to choke back an Imodium and a Xanax before being hogtied to our seats.

President Obama, don't let this attack—this one attack that was thankfully stopped by smart, fearless passengers and airline staff—take us further in the wrong direction. I don't think I'm alone in feeling this way. Americans of all stripes and affiliation standing up to say, "This isn't working. We gave you our money. You're not making us safer." We appreciate the attempt to make us safer and acknowledge that it came from an honest attempt to protect American (and the rest of the world's) lives.

But it's a failure. It's wrongheaded. It's a farce. Tear it down. Put the money towards the sort of actions at which our government excels, like intelligence. The failure of the TSA leaves us no choice, but it's okay. The American people are ready to take back the responsibility for our own safety. Really, we already have.



View Larger Map


Sources: Gizmodo, The Daily Beast, CNN, CBS News, Fox News, Youtube, Google Maps

Ivana Trump Goes Beserk On Plane! Kicked Off Flight 2377

Socialite Ivana Trump Kicked Off An Airliner After Foul-Mouthed Tirade At Noisy Children


Socialite Ivana Trump had to be escorted off a plane after launching a foul-mouthed tirade at noisy children.

The former wife of billionaire property mogul Donald Trump started screaming the F-word as several excited youngsters ran up and down the first-class aisle.

The grandmother of one became even angrier as flight attendants tried to calm her down, allegedly rushing towards the cockpit.

When the pilot asked her to leave the New York-bound flight before take-off, the hysterical Miss Trump refused to budge.

The former Olympic skier and model, 60 - who split from her much younger fourth husband this month - was eventually 'physically escorted' back to the terminal by security guards, officials said.

'From the initial contact until Miss Trump left the property, she was saying "f*** you" to all the deputies and called the children "little f******",' said a police spokesman.

'She was so belligerent towards other passengers and crew that the plane returned to the terminal.'

She had apparently started complaining as soon as she boarded the aircraft, demanding to be moved to another seat in first class.

At first she was said to have put on a set of headphones to block out the noise, but a crying baby sent her over the edge.

Passenger Vincent Cone said: 'She was swearing at the baby.

'The reason she got so upset was the children and she started screaming, "I want to go back home".

'The pilots asked her to leave and she sat back down and refused to leave. Then they went and got a security guy. She kept saying, "Let go of me!".

'Everyone was leaning into the aisle, trying to get a good look, saying how crazy she was and how annoyed they were at how she was delaying the flight.'

The ruckus meant the Delta-Northwest flight from Palm Beach, Florida, was postponed for two hours.

Miss Trump was not charged with any crime, however, and although the FBI was informed about the incident on Saturday, an investigation was not launched.

Her Italian husband, Rossano Rubicondi, 37, was said to be in Europe at the time that Miss Trump announced she was ending their 20-month marriage.

She said they had struggled to find time to get together while he mainly worked and lived in Italy and she was busy with hotel and resort development projects around the world.

Her spokesman was not available for comment last night.





Ivana Trump Removed From PBIA Flight



One of Palm Beach's most famous residents was forced off a flight Saturday afternoon after the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office says she became belligerent and aggrevated towards other passengers, including children.

Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump, was on Delta flight 2377 headed to New York when law enforcement says they had to physically remove her from the flight.

According to the Sheriff's Department, the pilot told them he got a call of a disturbance in first class after the plane pushed back from the gate at Palm Beach International and was headed towards the runway. The pilot made the decision to head back to the gate.

A press release from the Sheriff's Department says Trump was upset about children running up and down the aisle screaming and began using profanity about them.

Once the plane arrived back at the gate law enforcement was called. According to the Sheriff's Department the 60-year-old Trump was offered another seat and headphones by the flight crew.

According to the Sheriff's Department Trump then got "more Belligerent".

Sheriff's deputies said they verbally asked Trump to leave the flight when they arrived on the scene but she refused.

After several additional attempts deputies physically escorted Trump to the passenger waiting area inside the terminal where she was given the opportunity to reschedule her flight.

According to the Sheriff's Department the FBI was notified and declined to proceed further with the case.

Last week, Trump made news when she announced she was splitting up with her 4th husband Rossano Rubicondi.



View Larger Map


Sources: Daily Mail, WPBF, MSNBC, AP, Google Maps

Midwest Holiday Blizzard Claims 21 Lives

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Christmas Storm Strands Travelers In Midwest


Residents across the Midwest and the Plains who made it home for Christmas were digging out on Friday after a fierce snowstorm while those who spent the night in airports and shelters tried to resume their journeys. Meteorologists warned that roads across the region remained dangerous.

The National Weather Service said blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through Saturday. The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.

Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 21 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest. Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories were issued for parts of the East Coast on Friday, but the region was largely spared.

Paul Mews, who drove from Faribault, Minn., to a relative's home in Plum City, Wis., on Friday morning, said the first 15 minutes of the 80-mile trip were clear, but a surge of heavy snowfall produced a stretch of near-whiteout conditions.

"It was snow-pocalypse. It was wicked," said Mews, 25. "We thought about turning around and going back."

They decided to continue when the surge passed minutes later.

Christmas in the truck stop

Others weren't as lucky.

Army Sgt. Mark Matthey was spending Friday night at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Sioux Falls, S.D., after Interstate 90 closed. Matthey, 26, left Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday for his hometown of Spokane, Wash., in hopes of making it by late Friday or early Saturday.

Instead, he spent Friday afternoon drinking coffee, watching TV and making friends at the truck stop. He planned to find a spot to sleep on the floor or in the cab of his truck.

Matthey said he and the other travelers were in decent spirits.

"Everybody has the attitude that you have to play the cards you were dealt," he said. "No use in getting upset about something you can't control."

Interstates also were closed in North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. Meteorologists warned that massive snow drifts and blustery winds could cause whiteouts across the northern Plains. Officials urged travelers to stay home and pack emergency kits if they had to set out.

Rescues along Texas highways

In Texas, volunteer firefighters and sheriff's deputies rescued hundreds of people stranded along Interstate 44 and Texas State Highway 287 near Wichita Falls. The area recorded up to 13 inches of snow, said Doug Speheger, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

"It's really been horrible," Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said. "Although we live in North Texas and get a lot of cold weather, we weren't prepared for the significant amount of snow that we've received."

Only two of the sheriff department's vehicles have four-wheel drive, so rescuers used their own pickups and the heavy 5-ton brush trucks normally used to fight fires to get to motorists, many of whom ran out of gas while they were stuck in traffic stalled by the storm.

"It was exciting at first to wake up and go, 'Oh, this will be great. We'll have a white Christmas,'" Wichita Falls Mayor Lanham Lyne said. "Then it kept snowing. As the roads became impassable, then we started to worry."

Even residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area briefly experienced a white Christmas, their first in more than 80 years. Not since Dec. 25, 1926 — when 6 inches fell on Dallas and Collin counties — had the area had a true postcard-looking Christmas.

But by late afternoon, the 3 inches of snow measured at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Christmas Eve was all but melted.

Winds were gusting from 45 mph to 60 mph across the Dakotas and Nebraska on Friday. Crews were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.

The storm also grounded flights at South Dakota's biggest airports. Sioux Falls Regional Airport was closed until Saturday morning at the earliest, manager Dan Letellier told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Flights also were canceled at Rapid City Regional Airport and Pierre Regional Airport. The total number of flights affected wasn't immediately available.

About 200 people were stuck overnight at Oklahoma's largest airport, which closed Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged runways, said Mark Kranenburg, director of the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. The airport reopened Friday morning, but only one runway was operational.

Most of the stranded passengers were gone by Friday afternoon. While some were able to catch flights, many simply went home. Kranenburg predicted it would be two or three days before all three runways were open and flights resumed as scheduled.

The 14 inches of snow in Oklahoma City broke a record for the day of 2.5 inches set back in 1914.

The previous record for Christmas Eve in Duluth, which has gotten more than 22 inches in two days, was 3 inches in 1893, said Kevin Kraujalis, a National Weather Service meteorologist. By the time the storm is over, it could be one of the 10 worst in Duluth's recorded history.

With heavy winds producing snow drifts as deep as 5 feet, "it's awful, it's just awful," Kraujalis said. "It's a big workout just walking outside to check my weather equipment."

Since Tuesday, icy roads have been blamed for accidents that killed at least seven people in Nebraska, five people in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, two in Minnesota and one each in North Dakota, Missouri and New Mexico.



View Larger Map


Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps