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LA made $1.3B in illegal immigrant welfare payouts in just 2 years

Illegal immigrant families received nearly $1.3 billion in Los Angeles County welfare money during 2015 and 2016, nearly one-​quarter of the amount spent on the county’s entire needy population.

The sanctuary county of Los Angeles is an illegal immigration epicenter, with the largest concentration of any county ​in the nation, according to a study from the Migration Policy Institute. ​The county also allows illegal immigrant parents with children born in the United States to seek welfare and food stamp benefits.

Roughly a quarter of California’s 4 million illegal immigrants reside in Los Angeles County.

The data was obtained from the county Department of Public Social Services -- which is responsible for doling out the benefits -- and gives a snapshot of the financial costs associated with sanctuary and related policies.

Robert Rector, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow who has written extensive studies on poverty and illegal immigration, said the costs represent “the tip of the iceberg.”

He said the costs of education, police and fire, medical, and subsidized housing can total $24,000 per year in government spending per family, much more than would be paid in taxes.

“They get $3 in benefits for every $1 they spend,” Rector said.

In 2013, California spent a total of $25.3 billion on illegal immigrants according to a 2013 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Texas and New York were second and third, at $12.1 billion and $9.5 billion, respectively.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a proponent of the city’s sanctuary status, is a driving factor behind expanding immigrant benefits. He founded the Office of Immigrant Affairs shortly after taking office in 2013 to help immigrants navigate the maze of government benefits.

Trump transcript leak likely a federal crime, former prosecutors say

“The unauthorized release of these documents to the press is a crime,” Joe diGenova, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said “The series of acts involving release of notes of the president’s conversations with foreign leaders, and these transcripts, are a serious threat to national security.”

Speaking of the transcripts of Trump's phone calls, diGenova, who prosecuted espionage cases, said these documents are “generally classified at secret and above.”

“There is a federal statute that makes it a crime, a federal crime, to disseminate classified information to an unauthorized person,” Doug Burns, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said in a phone interview.

The newspaper said the transcripts had notes indicating they had been classified by the chief of staff on the National Security Council. The Post said it obtained full transcripts, which were “produced by White House staff” and based on records kept by White House note-takers.

“Leaking the transcript of a presidential call to a foreign leader is unprecedented, shocking, and dangerous,” David Frum wrote in the Atlantic on Thursday. “It is vitally important that a president be able to speak confidentially—and perhaps even more important that foreign leaders understand that they can reply in confidence.

Everett Lee Compton, 49, faces charges of bestiality, criminal trespassing and cruelty to animals following his arrest in Siloam Springs on July 16.

According to court documents, the camera captured images of a man coming onto the Whitakers' property early on May 27 and June 4. The pictures show the man placing a bag over a donkey's head, then getting behind the donkey and placing his pelvis against the rear of the animal.

Compton allegedly said he smoked a lot of marijuana and claimed the drug made him do "sick things."

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice isn’t the only Democrat Trump won over

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. — While it is highly unusual for a sitting governor to change political parties while in office — as West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (D) announced he would do during a rally with President Trump on Thursday night — the process of crossing over was familiar to many in the crowd that night.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) is one of a few Democrats who is up for reelection in a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump, and he has tried to foster a relationship with the president, do interviews with conservative news outlets like Breitbart and break with his party to vote for some of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

Meanwhile, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.)...voted for the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump’s core base of support includes a substantial number of Democrats and former Democrats, along with people who hadn’t been motivated to vote in years, and a key to his electoral victory was winning dozens of rural, industrial counties in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio that previously voted for Obama.

Trump truly swept the state, winning all 55 counties — 43 of which he won with at least 70 percent of the vote. But many Trump supporters aren’t traditional Republicans and their stances on various issues don’t perfectly match the party’s stances, making it difficult for state elected leaders to figure out what to do.

Some Democrats have tried to paint Trump’s victory as a fluke, arguing that they haven’t really lost the support of white, working-class voters and that with the right candidate with the right message in the next election, the trend will reverse. But Justice’s decision to jump ship — or, rather, return to being the Republican that he once was before he ran for governor as a Democrat — could be an indication of just how difficult it could be for Democrats to regain trust in the Rust Belt and Coal Country.