Author: Caroline Shively

An American woman linked to an alleged Muslim plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist has been released from an Irish jail but the fate of her six-year-old son remains unclear.  Now Jamie Paulin Ramirez’s family is frantic to find out more about their grandson.

The boy’s name was Christian when he lived in Colorado but his grandmother says Paulin Ramirez changed her son’s name to Walid and enrolled him in a radical Muslim school in Ireland.  His grandmother says the little boy told her he was learning how to shoot a gun and kick and fight.

Christine Holcomb Mott also recalled a phone conversation where the boy said, “You need to convert to Islam right now because Christians are going to burn in hellfire.”

George Mott, Holcomb Mott’s husband who is also a Muslim convert, noticed a radical streak in his stepdaughter.  Holcomb Mott recalled, “He asked her, ‘What are you going to do – strap a bomb on?’  She said, ‘If necessary.’”

According to her mother, before federal officials seized Paulin Ramirez’s computer last fall, she had chatted online with Colleen LaRose, nicknamed “Jihad Jane,” who’s accused of plotting to kill that same Swedish cartoonist. Holcomb Mott claims Najibullah Zazi was also a friend.  He’s the Colorado man who pleaded guilty last month to trying to bomb New York’s subway.

Holcomb Mott also says her daughter had chatted online with a man from the Middle East who wanted to come to Colorado.  “We found papers where she had downloaded the forms to sponsor somebody into this country,” Holcomb Mott said.  “When she told me that he wanted to come here to learn how to be a pilot I said, ‘My God, Jamie, that should be a red flag’ [but she said] ‘Oh, no, no, he’s a good guy he’s not that kind of person.’”

Irish authorities have filed no charges against Paulin Ramirez.

As the House Democratic leadership tries to keep its focus on passing a health care bill, a pair of unrelated ethics probes are pulling energy and media coverage in a different direction.  It’s also reminding people of this statement that Nancy Pelosi made in 2007 near the beginning of her reign as House Speaker: “We’ll keep our promise to drain the swamp that is Washington, DC to let sunshine disinfect the Congress.”

Flash-forward three years and you get this week: Democrat Eric Massa announced that he’s resigning citing a cancer scare but it comes amidst an Ethics Committee investigation that he sexually harassed a male staffer.  Plus, fellow Dem Charlie Rangel stepped down from his position as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee after the Ethics Committee admonished him for traveling to the Caribbean on corporate money in violation of House rules. 

Pelosi says her party is acting ethically and working for the people they represent.  “I feel we’re very strong. We have been very effective in terms of passing the full Obama agenda in 2009,” she said. “So, we know that when you’re effective, you’re a target.”

 Democrats certainly haven’t cornered the market on questionable behavior.  In 2006, when the GOP was in charge ofthe House, Republican Congressmen Tom Delay and Bob Ney were caught up in a lobbying scandal while Duke Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.  Mark Foley also resigned after news reports that he sent sexual messages to male pages.

In that big election year and this one, one thing seems to be constant – the Ethics Committee has plenty of work in front of it.

With panic among their constituents running high and lawsuits piling higher, members of Congress are vowing to go after Toyota for sending 8.5 million vehicles on the road only to recall them for potentially dangerous design flaws.  But a recent study by Edmunds.com shows that over the past decade, Toyota’s complaints pale in comparison to those of some other companies.

Earlier this month, Edmunds.com analyzed federal data and found that Toyota ranks 17th among automakers in the number of complaints per vehicles sold from 2001 through 2010.  The auto consumer website crunched data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s database and found that Toyota received 9.1 percent of complaints but sold 13.5 percent of new cars bought in the U.S.  Land Rover, Suzuki and Isuzu were the top three in the Edmonds.com analysis.  Chrysler ranked seventh; Ford was tenth and General Motors followed at eleventh.

“This is a very small problem here,” Dow Jones columnist Al Lewis told Fox News on America’s Newsroom.  “We have had 2,000 complaints in a decade against the back drop of millions and millions of cars sold,” referring to the number of unintended acceleration complaints received by NHTSA.

However, auto industry expert Lauren Fix tells Fox the problem shouldn’t be minimized: “When you have all the complaints and Toyota has three times more deaths with the unintended acceleration than any other manufacturer combined, we have a problem.”

The Toyota investigation also puts government officials in the unusual position of policing and punishing one automaker while serving as part owner of another. The federal government is a 60 percent shareholder in General Motors, one of Toyota’s biggest competitors.  As Toyota’s driver loyalty levels have dropped over the past month, GM has seen its own rise.

No matter the government’s role, Lewis says lawmakers have no teeth to take on Toyota. “All they can do is yell at a guy and we have seen what happens, to executives when they go before Congress in the past. Nothing. Nothing,” Lewis said. “They get humiliated for a day and they move on. Congress and NHTSA and our government isn’t fit to solve this problem.”

One company’s recall can be another company’s windfall.  At least that’s what carmakers are hoping in the wake of Toyota’s recall of 8.5 million vehicles and brutal Congressional hearings.

General Motors and Ford have both offered $1,000 discounts on their models for drivers who trade in a Toyota.  But besides some local dealers taking out newspaper ads, the two American companies haven’t exactly been crowing about the deals.

That’s because it’s a delicate balance for car companies, knowing that Toyota’s problems today could potentially be theirs tomorrow.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a House panel on Tuesday, “Look at the statistics.  Over the last three years, [we’ve seen] 23 million [recalls] of automobiles as a result of our investigations.  And the vast majority were not Toyota.”

But statistics aren’t grabbing the headlines; stories of car crashes and run-away Toyotas are.  That’s changing the minds of some drivers, according to a Kelley Blue Book survey done in early February.  The survey shows more than a quarter of drivers considering a Toyota before the recalls have now changed their minds.

Toyota’s competitors are ready to scoop up those potential buyers.  That same Kelley Blue Book survey showed Chevy drivers’ loyalty went up 6.5% and Ford’s increased by 4.6% during the same time period.  Honda also jumped in the survey, giving it the most loyal customer base.

All these manufacturers know that’s where the car game is won and lost – locking in future customers.  After a dismal few years for vehicle sales, GM and Ford are hoping discounts and solid products will increase their piece of the sales pie.

A study released today says if you use Medicare Advantage to help pay for your prescription drugs, you’re getting a hefty hike in your premiums this year.

Avalere Health, a DC Consulting firm, estimates that the cost of the average Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan is jumping 14.2 percent in 2010.  About 8.5 million elderly and disabled Americans use the popular private plan to supplement their government Medicare coverage.

Avalere estimates the average premium will go from $39.61 per month up from $34.69 last year, an increase of almost $5.

This predicted jump follows a cut in government payments to the private companies last year and could make things even tougher for Democrats’ efforts to pass health care reform.  Some bills now circulating in Congress would cut those payments again which could affect premiums next year.

However, Administration officials counter that any increase in premium payments facing Americans is another reason that there needs to be comprehensive reform – to bring down everyone’s health care costs.

A few hundred Tibetan Americans chanted and danced and waved flags in front of the White House this morning in support of the Dalai Lama’s meeting inside with President Obama.

The president met with the religious leader despite warnings from China that it could damage relations with their nation.  China has sovereignty over Tibet but many Tibetans, led by the exiled Dalai Lama, have been fighting for autonomy.

“China will listen to the U.S. president so he should take the initiative to make dialogue more constructive,” said Kalden Lodoe, President of the Capital Area Tibetan Association and organizer of today’s event.

Many of the demonstrators wore traditional Tibetan garb and stood in a circle, holding signs in both languages and fiercely waving Tibetan and American flags while children danced at their feet.  

Some were from the Washington area but others had arrived on buses from New York and New Jersey.  One sign read, “We extend our hearty thanks to the President of the United States for inviting the Dalai Lama.” 

While demonstrators seemed hopeful of eventual change their expectations for the Dalai Lama’s visit remained low.  “The meeting by itself will not have any strong effect but we want President Obama to have a strong stance on human rights in Tibet,” Lodoe said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has a stern warning for Toyota about its recent recalls.

“I want the American people and I want people who drive Toyotas to know that we’re gonna hold Toyota’s feet to the fire on this.  This is very serious, we take it very seriously,” he said while in Bloomington, Illinois.

On Friday, Toyota recalled about 8,000 of its 2010 Tacoma 4WD trucks so they can take a better look at the front drive shaft.  That makes a dozen models that Toyota has recently recalled for repairs, some dating back to 2004.

A House committee was supposed to have a hearing called, “Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public at Risk?” this week.  That hearing got snowed out but it’s rescheduled for later this month.

Dozens of lawsuits have already been filed against the carmaker.  That’s including two filed Friday that claim uncontrollable acceleration in a Prius and a Camry ended in the deaths of two people in Nebraska and Mississippi.

Reagan National Airport re-opened its runways late Thursday morning, after a day and a half after they halted flights.

There have been more snowplows than planes on several airport runways this week as a brutal storm buried the Mid-Atlantic under two feet of snow or more.

Passenger John Jenkins spent the night in Reagan National Airport after his Wednesday flight was canceled and then learned the airfield remained closed when his Thursday morning flight was scheduled to take off. He now hopes to leave for New Orleans on Friday.

“I’m just trying to get to Mardi Gras!” He lamented. “I need to celebrate with my Saints!”

Vickie Johnson says it took her six hours on the phone with her airline to reschedule a flight and a three-hour drive to Reagan from her home in DC. It took two hours just to get out of her neighborhood which was piled high with snow.

“If I worked this hard to get here, I think it’s going to be the best vacation ever,” Johnson said. She’s. Now on an afternoon flight to Fort Lauderdale.

“Charge!”

“Take that!”

“Get ’em!”

Those were the just some of the battle cries being heard in the heart of Washington, DC in a massive snowball fight underway in Dupont Circle.

This reporter’s shouts as she got hit in the head were unprintable for a family website.

Hundreds of stir-crazy, off-work Washingtonians trecked through knee-high snow drifts for this battle royale, a smaller rematch of Saturday’s snowball fight in the same spot that pulled in 2,000 people.

The organizers whipped up this snowy frenzy by tweeting and posting their intentions on Facebook. After the fight, the snowballers headed to the bars.

Check out some of the snowball fight for yourself – narrated by our DC affiliate WTTG’s reporter,  Roby Chavez.

Officials in Washington, DC and two nearby suburbs pulled their snowplows off the streets mid-morning after wind gusts brought visibility down to just a few feet at times.

Washington, nearby Montgomery County in Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia all pulled their plows as a precaution for the hazardous weather.  The winds were also putting a strain on powerlines and causing more outages as power crews struggle to cover blocked roads.

After five days wading through two or more feet of snow, Washingtonians have a new element to battle– gusting winds.  The area is under a Blizzard warning until 7pm EST Wednesday.  That’s sending the falling snow coming in sideways and whipping up the piles already on the ground.

The Capital Building is nearly empty after the House and Senate closed along with the rest of the federal government in the DC area.  The snowplows have run out of places to dump their snow and have started to pile it up near the Senate reflecting pool, making a dirty, brown pile of snow in a park usually filled with tourists.