Concealed Handgun Permit holders in South Carolina stop a mass public shooting

FOX Carolina 21 From the news article:

Firefighters said they may have stopped a massacre after a gunman surprised them at their station Tuesday. 

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to the New Holland Fire Department's Station 2 around 6:30 p.m. for a report of shots fired. 

Firefighters said Chad Barker pulled up to the crowded fire station parking lot full of children and firefighters, got out of his car, and began firing in the air and at his vehicle. They say he also pointed the firearm at individual firefighters for lengthy periods of time.   

"I came out of the office, saw the man with the gun, told everybody to leave out the back quickly that there was a man in the parking lot with a gun, and I was not kidding,” said Gary Knoll, a firefighter for New Holland. 

Knoll said he and another firefighter who have concealed weapons permits pulled their guns on the gunman. 

Knoll said Barker returned to his vehicle and firefighters carefully followed him with their weapons still drawn. After encouraging Barker to put the gun down, Knoll said Barker ultimately complied and Knoll grabbed the gun. . . . .

Hat tip to AWR HAWKINS for finding this story.

Texas House and Senate reach deal to get Campus Carry bill passed

It looked as if the Campus Carry bill in Texas was going to die.  Well, a last minute deal between the state House and Senate appears to have saved it.  From the Austin American-Statesman:

. . .  Apparently out of options in the House, state Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Cypress, turned to the Senate, where he said he worked out a deal to have campus carry legislation grafted onto another gun bill as an amendment. The move would allow the new combination bill to return to the House, where approval by the Republican majority is expected. 

“If I can get the Senate to send it back over this way, we’ll wrap it up and call it a session,” Fletcher said Wednesday. “It’ll save a lot of time and effort and debate.” 

The first step of the plan took place Wednesday evening when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick referred House Bill 910, allowing those with a concealed handgun license to openly carry a holstered firearm, to the Senate State Affairs Committee, where it must receive a public hearing and a vote before heading to the full Senate. . . .  

Both gun bills seemed to be stuck at an impasse as the two chambers jockeyed to see which bills moved forward — and who would receive credit for writing gun bills that Gov. Greg Abbott has already promised to sign into law. 

Fletcher said Wednesday’s action, which broke the logjam, came in an agreement with Republican Sens. Brian Birdwell, author of the campus carry bill, and Craig Estes, author of the open carry measure. . . . . 

If House members agree — the open carry bill passed 101-42 last month — the combined bill would be sent to Abbott for his signature.

Another Obamacare unintended consequence: emergency physicians say they've seen ER patient visits surge since Obamacare

So much for the supposed cost savings from Obamacare:

Three-quarters of emergency physicians say they've seen ER patient visits surge since Obamacare took effect — just the opposite of what many Americans expected would happen.

A poll released today by the American College of Emergency Physicians shows that 28% of 2,099 doctors surveyed nationally saw large increases in volume, while 47% saw slight increases. By contrast, fewer than half of doctors reported any increases last year in the early days of the Affordable Care Act.

Such hikes run counter to one of the goals of the health care overhaul, which is to reduce pressure on emergency rooms by getting more people insured through Medicaid or subsidized private coverage and providing better access to primary care.

A major reason that hasn't happened is there simply aren't enough primary care physicians to handle all the newly insured patients, says ACEP President Mike Gerardi, an emergency physician in New Jersey. . . .

Man arrested because he "liked" the "most wanted" poster on Facebook

Apparently a Montana man didn't realize that his IP address allowed him to be tracked down after he liked the "most wanted" poster on Facebook:

A man featured on the Cascade County Crime Stoppers Facebook page as an April "most wanted" suspect and who apparently "liked" the Internet post appeared in court Monday on a $2,500 warrant.

Levi Charles Reardon, 23, was arrested Friday evening without incident, according to police records. The records indicate he had two warrants for his arrest.

Reardon made an initial court appearance for felony forgery (common scheme). His arraignment is scheduled for May 7. . . . .

What will happen in the UK May 7th election?: A hung Parliament with a Labour/SNP left wing government

Click on figures to get a clearer view.

The very left wing Scottish National Party could hold the balance of power in the Parliament.  It looks like Labour with the SNP would just together have enough votes to reach the 326 seats to form a majority.  If so, the UK might swing wildly to the left.  The UKIP (UK Independence Party) has about 14% of the vote, but probably only 2 seats.  The UKIP may be making it impossible for the Conservatives to stay in power.

$15-an-hour minimum wages aren't so great if you no longer have a job: Pizza shop worker upset no one mentioned he could lose his job when they were discussing the increase

From Fox 13 in Seattle:

. . . Devin Jeran was happy to get a raise, when Seattle’s minimum wage went up to $11 an hour at the beginning of the month. “I definitely recognize that having more money is important,” he says, “especially in a city as expensive as this one.” Unfortunately, he’ll only enjoy that bigger paycheck for a few more months. In August, his boss is shutting down Z Pizza and putting him and his 11 co-workers out of work. “Fortunately she keeps us in the loop, she didn’t just tell us last minute.” Ritu Shah Burnham doesn’t want to go out of business, but says she can’t afford the city’s mandated wage hikes. . . .

More on the jobs being lost in San Francisco is available here.

Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in princip[le] and we believe that it's possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco -- Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage.  Consequently we will be closing our doors no later than March 31st. 

Morgan Freeman's racist views about police

In the past, I have had some very positive things to say about Morgan Freeman (see these links).  But Freeman's comments after Baltimore are pretty nutty.

"That unrest [in Baltimore] has nothing to do with terrorism at all, except the terrorism we suffer from the police.  Why are so many people dying in police custody?  And why are they all black?  And why are al the police killing them white?"

 Even using the faulty FBI justifiable police homicide numbers makes it clear that these claims are no where near to being correct.