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Colin Kaepeick and San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid kneeled during the national anthem Thursday night, continuing the quarterback's preseason protest of American racial injustice and minority oppression. Kaepeick and Reid dropped to one knee while a naval officer sang "The Star-Spangled Baer" and dozens of military members unfurled an oversized flag at the Chargers' Qualcomm Stadium. Kaepeick and Reid received scattered boos when they dropped to a knee amid a crowd of teammates, but the protest was otherwise unremarked by the San Diego crowd. The 49ers' visit coincided with the aual Salute to the Military preseason game for the Chargers, who have strong fan support in their city'...

People from the Florida Panhandle down to the Tampa area braced Thursday for Hurricane Hermine, as it lashes the area with strong winds and potentially dangerous storm surge. The National Hurricane Center said the storm's winds ratched up from 75 mph in the afteoon to 80 mph by evening as the former tropical storm gained new fury. Hermine was set to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday, forecasters said. A hurricane waing was in effect for Florida's Big Bend from the Suwaee River to Mexico Beach. And on the East Coast, a tropical storm waing was issued for an area that extended from Marineland, Florida, northward to the South Santee River in South Carolina. [embedded content...

(REUTERS/Brian Snyder) A public school district near Louisville, Kentucky has come down with a bad case of what I call “Participation Trophy Syndrome” – or PTS. The Greater Clark County School Board in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is considering a plan to eliminate the valedictorian system because it creates “unhealthy competition,” according to Supt. Andrew Melin. Click here to join Todd’s American Dispatch: a must-read for Conservatives! Unhealthy competition? Is he serious? Did a kid suffer a concussion while trying to parse a participle? “When students are competing for the Val and the Sal, they’re trying to find ways to maneuver through the system to try and get the best grades they can...

Donald Trump vowed Thursday to “rebuild our depleted military” and ensure America’s soldiers are the best-equipped in the world as he addressed the American Legion's aual convention – and sought to rebut Hillary Clinton’s suggestion to the same crowd a day earlier that he doesn’t believe America is “exceptional.” Kicking off the address in Cinciati, Ohio, by invoking his campaign slogan, “America First,” Trump tried to settle any doubts about his support for the Armed Forces. He called for a state-of-the-art missile defense, a “total reform” of the Veterans Affairs Department and a policy of “peace through strength.” “Nobody will be able to compete with us,” Trump said. His Democrati...

John Legend is standing with Colin Kaepeick in his decision not to stand during the national anthem, calling the "Star Spangled Baer" "weak," and saying he doesn't "truly love" the song. "For those defending the current anthem, do you really truly love that song? I don't and I'm very good at singing it. Like, one of the best," he wrote on Twitter. For those defending the current anthem, do you really truly love that song? I don't and I'm very good at singing it. Like, one of the best — John Legend (@johnlegend) August 30, 2016 He continued, "My vote is for 'America the Beautiful.' 'Star Spangled Baer' is a weak song anyway." My vote is for America the Beautiful. Star spangled baer ...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepeick Monday, calling Kaepeick's refusal to stand for the national anthem "a terrible thing." "I think it’s personally not a good thing," Trump told Seattle radio station KIRO when asked about the controversy. "I think it’s a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him, let him try, it’s not goa happen." Kaepeick became the subject of national controversy over the weekend when he remained seated on the San Francisco bench during the playing of the "Star-Spangled Baer" prior to Friday night's preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. While e...

A homemade gun allegedly exchanged in a gun buyback program. (Miesota Gun Owners Caucus) A Mieapolis gun buyback program targeting weapons used in street crimes may be shooting blanks, as detractors said a Saturday collection mostly took in antiquated, unused or homemade arms from legal owners and did little to thin the firearm supply actually available to dangerous criminals. Two Mieapolis locations collected about 150 firearms Saturday, but both exchanges were forced to shut down several hours early when officials ran out of Visa gift cards – $25,000 worth, The Mieapolis Star Tribune reported. And at least some of that money helped finance the purchase of even more guns. One anonymous ...

FILE - In this July 27, 2014 file photo, North Korean army soldiers watch the south side while a South Korean and United States Army soldiers stand guard at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File) North Korea on Saturday threatened to aim fire at the lighting equipment used by "provocative" American and South Korean troops at a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas. The North's Korean People's Army accused U.S. and South Korean soldiers of "deliberate provocations" by aiming their lights at North Korean guard posts at Panmunjom since Friday evening. The KPA said in a statement that the soldiers' actions have...

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepeick is refusing to stand for the national anthem before games because he believes the United States oppresses African Americans and other minorities. Kaepeick sat on the team's bench Friday night during the anthem before the Niners played host to the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game. He later explained his reasoning in an interview with NFL Media . ''I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,'' Kaepeick said. ''To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave a...

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton defended her family's charitable foundation on Wednesday against criticism from Donald Trump, saying it had provided more transparency than her Republican rival's sprawling business interests. Clinton called into CNN's "AC360" to address Trump's suggestions that the foundation started by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had been used to facilitate a pay-for-play scheme during her time at the State Department. "What Trump has said is ridiculous. My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policies based on what I thought was right," Clinton said. She said the foundation had provided "life-saving work," adding t...

If you look hard enough, you find there's usually a reason for everything -- even at The New York Times. But whatever the reason -- maybe it was the story about a parasite jeopardizing fly fishing in Montana, or those Russian hackers who attacked the Gray Lady's Moscow bureau -- the latest Clinton Foundation bombshell couldn't be found among "All the News That's Fit to Print." Related Image Expand / Contract Wednesday's New York Times ignored a major story from The Associated Press. The Associated Press scoopTuesday found that at least 85 of 154 people who got an audience with Hillary Clinton while she led the State Department had donated to her family charity. Combined, the 85 ...

DEVELOPING:Explosions and gunfire rang out atAmerican University of Afghanistan in Kabul Wednesday in what a police commander described as "a complex attack." Photo attributed to the attack on American University of Afghanistan in Kabul pic.twitter.com/EVunzOpyd3 — KAZEMI, Mustafa (@CombatJouo) August 24, 2016 Reporters in the area said teachers and hundreds of students took cover in classrooms and safe rooms as police and special forces surrounded the campus on the weste outskirts of Afghanistan's capital city. A car bomb had exploded outside a school for the blind next door before at least one attacker fired at the university campus from that school building, a police officer at t...

Joshua Robertson, left, and Brittany Humphrey. (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) Authorities in Southe Califoia searched Tuesday for a man and a woman suspected of killing a woman, kidnapping her three small children and leaving the state. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that warrants have been issued for Joshua Robertson, 27, and Brittany Humphrey, 22. Robertson and Humphrey are suspected of killing Kimberly Harvill, whose body was discovered Sunday in brush along a remote road in northe Los Angeles County in the unincorporated Lebec area near Interstate 5. Authorities believe the pair also kidnapped Harvill’s three children, 2-year-old Josly Watk...

As a space agency engineer, the last thing you want to happen is to lose contact with one of your satellites. Such an incident could potentially mean years of work lost, and that not only relates to the blood, sweat and tears expended keeping the spacecraft in operation far from Earth, but also the massive amount of preparation needed to get the thing off the ground in the first place. In October 2014, the situation looked serious for NASA engineers working on the Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission when they lost touch with one of two sun-studying spacecraft eight years after launch. The breakdown occurred while NASA was testing a set of important procedures...

Critics have accused academia of subtly indoctrinating students with a liberal agenda for years, but the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency has brought one Pesylvania political science professor out into the open. Gettysburg College Prof. Kathleen Iaello aounced in an Op-Ed peed for Philly.com that she will not even try to treat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and GOP choice Trump equally because, in her mind, Trump is a “lightning rod for promoting further hate.” “My approach for the fall semester will be boldly honest: It is a disservice to students to attempt to provide balance when I know that balance is an offense to the truth,” Iaello wrote. Related Image Expand / Co...

The Trump campaign is making the case that the Clinton Foundation pledge not to accept foreign and corporate donations if Hillary Clinton is elected president doesn't go far enough -- since related charities could still take that money. The nonprofit foundationaounced last week it would accept donations only from U.S. citizens and independent charities if Clinton wins in November. The move was meant to settle ethical conces amid newly released emails that Trump claims reveal a "pay-to-play" operation. But such a donation ban has not yet been aounced regarding smaller Clinton-tied charities including the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership ...

With up to $150,000 in flood damage to his southeast Louisiana car repair shop and no flood insurance, Lap Nguyen wasn't sure how he was going to repair his life. He's spent the past few days cleaning out Gonzales Car Care 20 miles southeast of Louisiana's capital, and hadn't thought about the next step. "I didn't go check with the bank yet. We did come to clean up the floods," he said in a telephone interview. Like thousands of other south Louisiana residents, he had to deal with the malodorous muck left after torrential downpours swamped drainage systems, including rivers and streams. The floodwaters that killed at least 13 people are slowly falling, giving way to the hard slog of ...

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly told federal authorities during her questioning over her email practices while at the State Department that former Secretary of State Colin Powell encouraged her to use a private email account. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Clinton’s revelation is part of the FBI’s notes that were given to Congress on Tuesday about the agency’s questioning in July that led Director James Comey not to pursue criminal charges against her over her use of private emails. An email exchange emerged from 2009 between Clinton and Powell during the questioning that revealed that she had asked the former secretary of state about his email ...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Twisted metal gates and rusted mailboxes remained where houses once stood. Flames had tued a lot full of cars — including some vintage models — into a junkyard of hollowed-out shells. Countless trees were scorched or gone. Scenes of destruction were everywhere Thursday after a huge wildfire sped through mountains and high desert 60 miles east of Los Angeles so swiftly that it took seasoned firefighters off guard. But the day also brought the biggest gains yet against the blaze, with containment jumping from 22 percent, up from just 4 percent when the day began. The fire has bued 56 square miles. An aerial flyover revealed significant property loss, but crews ...

FILE: April 26, 2011: NBC host Chris Matthews at the 2011 Time 100 Gala ceremony in New York. (REUTERS) MSNBC’s Chris Matthews has a striking message for disaffected Democrats: Get “excited” about Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the possibility of the party controlling Washington, or “don’t vote.” The “Hardball” host offered the advice on air Tuesday night, while griping about some Democrats’ pessimistic attitude toward the election. “Here’s my question. Why don’t they get excited on the left, and the center-left, about maybe … getting to run the govement for four, or eight years, wiing the House and the Senate, wiing the White House? … Think about wiing big,” Matthews said. He continued...