A community college professor in Texas frightened several of his students when he walked into class Tuesday night with his face covered and incoherently mumbled about the Koran, the moon and the dark night.
Students attending a lecture at Tarrant County College called the police after adjunct professor Daniel Mashburn walked into his astronomy class and started acting out of character.
Students told FOX4 that Mashburn walked in about 20 minutes late and promptly turned off the lights. He was wearing a baseball hat, a beanie, a scarf over his face and gloves.
“The kid next to me had said he was acting very strange, and I looked over at the girl next to me and she seemed very scared,” student April McLeod said.
The students said Mashburn then started talking about the Muslim holy book the Koran and the moon and the dark night.
“Mostly he was talking about different things of the Muslim faith,” McLeod said. “I was in class for about five minutes. He kept messing with his pocket and you could tell there was an object in the right-hand pocket. And whenever he went to pull out his hand, I started having this really bad feeling and jumped up and ran out of the classroom.”
She added: “At one point he stood face-to-face with the board of the classroom and was just talking to the board.”
Eventually campus police arrived and searched Mashburn, who didn’t take off the scarf or baseball hat. Police found no harmful or illegal objects on the professor.
McLeod filmed police searching Mashburn outside the classroom. He was not arrested.
When reached by FOX4 News, Mashburn seemed to deflect many questions and said several times his teaching of astronomy goes hand-in-hand with Islam.
“I keep it secret. I keep it safe. I do my best, but I am tired of hiding in the shadows,” he said when asked if he explained his teaching philosophy when he interviewed for the position. “I am tired of fearing their law. I fear Allah.”
Trump Says ‘Nice Present’ for One Year Anniversary if they Shut It Down.
President Donald Trump boasted that the Democrats were giving him a political gift after they voted against a bill that would fund the government late Friday night.
“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present,” Trump wrote on Twitter with the hashtag #DemocratShutdown.
Trump challenged Democrats for focusing more on amnesty for illegal immigrants than funding the government.
“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he wrote. “They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead.”
On Friday afternoon, Trump met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over cheeseburgers at the White House to discuss a possible deal, but it was ultimately rejected.
The president urged Americans to vote more Republicans into the Senate in 2018 to push forward his agenda.
“For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60,” he wrote. “That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!”
Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!
For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher onCrime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!
Members of the House on Thursday said they viewed a “shocking” classified memo allegedly detailing abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by senior Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations officials in relation to the investigation of the Trump campaign and called for it to be declassified and available to the public immediately.
“It’s troubling. It is shocking,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) told Fox News. “Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.”
Lock These Bastards Up Also.
“The facts contained in this memo are jaw-dropping and demand full transparency. There is no higher priority than the release of this information to preserve our democracy,” saidRep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ and the FBI.
Go to Jail’ Over Intel Memo
Another Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), called what he saw in the memo “sickening” and said it was “worse than Watergate.”
I have read the memo. The sickening reality has set in. I no longer hold out hope there is an innocent explanation for the information the public has seen. I have long said it is worse than Watergate. It was #neverTrump & #alwaysHillary. #releasethememo
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), another Judiciary Committee member, called the memo “deeply troubling” and said it raises questions about the “Obama DOJ and Comey FBI.”
“The classified report compiled by House Intelligence is deeply troubling and raises serious questions about the upper echelon of the Obama DOJ and Comey FBI as it relates to the so-called collusion investigation,” he tweeted.
The classified report compiled by House Intelligence is deeply troubling and raises serious questions about the upper echelon of the Obama DOJ and Comey FBI as it relates to the so-called collusion investigation.
“You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told Fox News.
No Damn get out of jail free cards.
“It is so alarming the American people have to see this,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, also said to network.
The viewing of the memo came after all Republican members of the House intelligence committee, whose investigators compiled the classified memo, voted Thursday to make it available to all House members. Every Democrat on the committee voted against it.
According to Gaetz, the memo’s contents could lead to the firing — and perhaps even jailing — of senior DOJ and FBI officials.
“I think that this will not end just with firings. I believe there are people who will go to jail,” he said on Fox News’ Hannity.
He said what he saw in the memo also explains why Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) recently referred the Fusion GPS dossier author Christopher Steele for a criminal investigation.
“I think there will be criminal implications here,” Gaetz added.
The memo also reportedly contains information about the dossier put together by Fusion GPS that alleged Trump and members of his team colluded with Russians in the 2016 election, according to a report by investigative journalist Sara Carter.
It was revealed in October that the dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Despite being a political document, the dossier was reportedly part of the evidence FBI officials used to apply for and obtain a warrant through a secret FISA court to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Page told Breitbart News in a statement: “After over a year of inciting discord and threats of violence across America, it’s encouraging that the individuals in Washington responsible for these efforts to undermine our great democracy may be held accountable soon.”
Breitbart News reported on March 3, 2017, that the Obama administration took steps to undermine Trump’s presidential campaign using “police state” tactics, including spying on the Trump campaign. That report is widely believed to have led to President Trump’s tweet that later accused the Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower.
Members of the public and Congress are now calling for the document to be declassified and released to the public.
Immediately #ReleaseTheMemo#FISAMemo & ALL relevant material sourced in it. Every American needs to know the truth! We wouldn’t be revealing any sources & methods that we shouldn’t; only feds’ reliance on bad sources & methods.
DeSantis said the House intelligence committee, pursuant to House rules, should vote to make the report publicly available as soon as possible.
“While the report is classified as Top Secret, I believe the select committee should, pursuant to House rules, vote to make the report publicly available as soon as possible. This is a matter of national significance and the American people deserve the truth,” he said.
“Rule X of the House Rules allows the select committee to publicly disclose any information in its possession after a determination by the select committee that the public interest would be served by such disclosure.”
According to House Rules, if the House intelligence committee votes to make the report public, President Trump would have five days to issue an objection. If he objected, it would take a vote on the House floor.
These people are idiots and they don’t defend women.
Some of the A-list stars expected to attend Saturday’s day-long event include actresses Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Viola Davis, Allison Janney, Olivia Munn, Olivia Wilde, Elizabeth Banks, Connie Britton, Eva Longoria, and Mia Kunis, and actors Adam Scott, Rob Reiner, and Tony Goldwyn, according to Page Six.
Also on hand will be Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), former E! News correspondent Catt Sadler, and former late-night host Larry Wilmore, and musical guests are expected to include Maxwell, Rachel Platten, Idina Menzel, Andra Day, and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles with special guest Melissa Etheridge.
Look at this hypocrite with Slick Willie.
The march will reportedly kick off at 8:30 a.m. and end in Grant Park around 3 p.m., and the festivities will include live music, art, and voter registration tables.
The march commemorates one year since Donald Trump’s historic inauguration and the subsequent Women’s March on Washington, during which hundreds of thousands of pink “pussy hat”-wearing men and women converged on the nation’s capital to voice their opposition to the new president.
Yes They Are Against Men Sexually Assaulting Women Right?
Last year’s march in Washington also brought out a slew of celebrities, including Cher, Katy Perry, Debra Messing, America Ferrera, and Johansson. Beyoncé couldn’t make it, but lent her support.
Jane Fonda, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, and Idina Menzel reportedly attended last year’s concurrent march in L.A., while former Netflix talk show host Chelsea Handler led another iteration of the march at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Pop icon Madonna landed in hot water during last year’s Washington, D.C. event when she told a crowd of thousands at the march that she had often thought of “blowing up the White House.” Trump later called her comments “disgraceful to our country.”
Other speakers at last year’s event included documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who ripped up a copy of the Washington Post while onstage, and actress Ashley Judd, who accused Trump of having “wet dreams” about his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Some organizers of this year’s event have urged marchers to leave their pink “pussy hats” from last year at home, as they could be considered exclusionary to women of color, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people.
This is what our politicians are doing instead of many the country better.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the California lawmaker would join other celebrity guest judges including actor Tituss Burgess, actresses Kristen Chenoweth and Vanessa Hudgens, and singer Emma Bunton for the show’s upcoming third season.
Pelosi tweeted Thursday that she had a “fabulous” time filming her cameo for the show.
All I can say is, you betta werk! Had a fabulous time with @RuPaul and good luck to all the queens. #DragRacehttps://twitter.com/RuPaul/status/954074895247466497 …
501501 Replies
2,3052,305 Retweets
9,6699,669 likes
Drag Race All-Stars is a spin-off of the popular, long-running series RuPaul’s Drag Race, in which contestants from the original show vie to become the season’s top drag performer.
A representative for Pelosi told the Post that the 77-year-old lawmaker agreed to participate in the show as a way to stand against what she called President Donald Trump’s anti-LGBT policies.
The paper further reported that Pelosi was a fan of the show and its message of being proud of who you are.
RuPaul has been a vocal critic of Trump, telling the Hollywood Reporter in an August interview that the president’s administration represents a “resistance to moving forward.”
“That’s what the code words ‘make America great again’ are really saying,” the drag icon said. “Let’s go back in time to when we didn’t have to evolve and that we could just languish in our ignorance.”
RuPaul was also a featured speaker at last year’s Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade, which re-named itself the Resist March following Trump’s victory.
The third season of Drag Race All-Stars premieres Jan. 25 on VH1.
Apple recently said it had $252 billion in cash or cash equivalents abroad
Apple Inc. AAPL 1.65% said it would pay a one-time tax of $38 billion on its overseas cash holdings and ramp up spending in the U.S., as it seeks to emphasize its contributions to the American economy after years of taking criticism for outsourcing manufacturing to China.
The world’s most valuable publicly traded company laid out its plans Wednesday in a statement that was full of big-dollar figures, though it said that much of the money reflected Apple’s current pace of spending.
Taxing Foreign Profits
Companies have long sheltered foreign profits offshore. Now the tax bill is coming due. How much will they pay?
Apple said it would invest $30 billion in capital spending in the U.S. over five years that would create more than 20,000 jobs. The total includes a new campus, which initially will house technical support for customers, and $10 billion toward data centers across the country. It also will expand from $1 billion to $5 billion a fund it established last year for investing in advanced manufacturing in the U.S.
All told, Apple said it would directly contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years, with the bulk—about $55 billion this year, for example—coming from ongoing spending on parts and services from U.S. suppliers. That number also includes the federal tax payment and capital spending.
Chief Executive Tim Cook touted the plans as building on Apple’s support for the nation’s economy. “We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible,” he said in a statement.
The announcement comes after President Donald Trump late last year signed into law a major overhaul of the U.S. tax code, under which companies must pay a one-time tax of 15.5% on overseas profits held in cash and other liquid assets. Apple cited those changes as the reason for its giant tax payment, which it said would likely be the largest of its kind, but didn’t say how much of its $252.3 billion in overseas cash holdings it plans to bring home.
The company said in November that it had earmarked $36 billion to cover deferred taxes on that money, assuming that it would eventually pay U.S. taxes on a portion of it by bringing it home.
Mr. Trump praised Apple’s announcement on Twitter, saying his policies allowed the tech giant “to bring massive amounts of money back to the United States.” He added, “Huge win for American workers and the USA!”
Apple didn’t provide historical comparisons for some of the figures it gave Wednesday. The company previously said it planned $16 billion in capital expenditures world-wide in the fiscal year that ends this September, up from $14.9 billion the previous year. However, Apple doesn’t break out its spending in the U.S., making it difficult to gauge how much of the $30 billion over five years it announced Wednesday is new.
Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said Apple’s plans are in line with Trump administration goals, but it isn’t clear how many of the commitments are new. And he said the company could deliver on those commitments with existing cash flow—without needing to tap cash holdings.
“It’s a nice number and puts a foot forward in line with where the administration wants to go with adding jobs and building in the U.S.,” he said. But “it’s not clear these investments were impacted in any way by tax reform.”
Apple has faced criticism over the past decade for overseas manufacturing of its iPhones, of which it has sold more than one billion, rather than making them domestically. Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign blasted the company for outsourcing. He later called on Apple to build a factory in the U.S. and last year said Mr. Cook promised to build three plants in the U.S.
Apple has responded over the past year by pointing to its spending on procurement in the U.S. and to the size of the so-called app economy spawned by the iPhone, which the company says has created more than 1.6 million U.S. jobs.
The tax overhaul’s one-time levy on overseas cash is often referred to as a repatriation tax, although it applies whether companies leave their foreign profits overseas or bring them to the U.S. It is intended as a transition from the previous tax system, under which the U.S. taxed all world-wide profits of an American company except those kept overseas, to the new system, in which the U.S. won’t tax most foreign profits at all. Companies may choose to pay the one-time tax over eight years.
The $38 billion in taxes Apple owes reflects its growth in the decade since Congress last reduced taxes on overseas holdings. In 2006, Apple recorded a tax charge of $51 million as it repatriated $1.6 billion in cash held overseas for the fiscal year.
Winners and Losers of the GOP Tax Bill
Christmas may be over but WSJ’s Richard Rubin keeps the holiday spirit alive by explaining who’s getting presents and who’s getting coal with the GOP tax bill.
Apple’s accumulated foreign profits of $252.3 billion amount to just over a quarter of the U.S. tech industry’s total, a Wall Street Journal analysis of 311 large public companies found, and about 9.5% of the $2.65 trillion in foreign profits reported by all companies in the analysis.
A tax obligation of $38 billion would work out to about 15% of the S&P 500’s total obligation under the repatriation tax, based on figures from the Journal analysis and a separate analysis by Zion Research Group. Altogether, the Joint Tax Committee estimated last month, the tax should raise about $339 billion over 10 years from all companies—meaning Apple could account for 11% of the total.
The changes in U.S. tax law triggering Apple’s $38 billion tax obligation don’t affect the company’s responsibility to repay Ireland €13 billion ($15.9 billion) in unpaid taxes in Europe, according to a spokesman for Ireland’s Department of Finance. Apple has challenged the ruling.
Apple also told employees Wednesday it is issuing each of them a bonus of $2,500 in restricted stock, according to a person familiar with the matter. The planned bonus, reported earlier by Bloomberg, adds Apple to the growing list of companies that are rewarding employees due to the new tax law, including AT&T Inc. and ComcastCorp.
If Apple brings home a large share of its overseas cash it could decide to apply some of it to more buybacks and dividends. Apple has returned $233.9 billion to investors since fiscal 2012.
Mr. Sacconaghi expects Apple to provide an update on potential increases to those programs when it reports quarterly results in April or May, when it typically announces such plans. That would give it a chance to see how much cash other companies plan to return to shareholders from overseas holdings—moves that could please investors but aren’t as helpful to public perception as investments in jobs. “No company with that much cash wants to be the first to do a significant buyback,” he said.
Apple’s announcement said it currently employs 84,000 people in the U.S., 4,000 more than it said a year ago.
The company said it would offer more information later this year on its planned new campus. The facility is expected to be located outside of California and Texas, where the company already operates campuses: in Austin, Texas, and its new $5 billion headquarters, Apple Park, in Cupertino, Calif.
—Theo Francis, Richard Rubin and Natalia Drozdiak contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
Apple had $252.3 billion in cash and marketable securities held overseas as of the end of November. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated it had $246 billion overseas.
