Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, December 2, 2017

A GLARING LOOPHOLE 
FOR FUGITIVES 
When gun-control and gun-rights advocates clash after the latestmass shooting, you can usually count on two rhetorical chips beingthrown onto the table: 
“What new law would have stopped the latest massacre?” gun-
rights advocates will ask. 
That’ll inevitably be followed up with the assertion that if we putlimits on gun ownership, then only the bad guys will have guns.
But thanks to a law enforcement turf war, we know know the latter is provably untrue.
That’s because, back in February, 70,000 people were purged from an FBI database overa disagreement over the definition of “fugitive from justice,” leaving them legally able topurchase firearms.
As The Washington Post reported last week, people wanted by law enforcement wereremoved from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System when the FBI“changed its legal interpretation of ‘fugitive from justice’ to say it only [pertained] to peoplewho crossed state lines.” 
The background checks system, which is run by the FBI, made headlines when it wasrevealed that the Air Force followed to fail policies that would have added Texas churchshooter Devin P. Kelley to the system.
The Charleston church shooter, Dylann Roof, was wrongly able to legally purchase theweapon in his murderous rampage after his name was not added to the database becauseof an arrest for drug possession. The mistake in the Roof case has been referred to as “TheCharleston Loophole.” 
Gun owners, spurred by on the National Rifle Association, have opposed efforts toexpand background checks, seriously arguing they “don’t necessarily stop criminals fromgetting firearms.” 
Taking a break from forgetting things about Russia and trampling on the rights ofAmerica’s LGBTQ citizens, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at least had the presence ofmind last week to send a letter to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 
calling on the two agencies to fix the system.
The NICS system is “critical for us to be able to keep guns out of the hands of those . . .
prohibited from owning them,” Sessions said. He also reportedly ordered the two agencies toreport back to him on measures ensuring that “people who are prohibited from purchasingfirearms are prevented from doing so.” 
The problem is that Sessions’ own Justice Department is part of the problem here.
Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, The Post reported the DoJ’s Officeof Legal Counsel sided with the ATF (which had narrow definition of fugitive) against theFBI (which had historically had a broader one), agreeing that gun purchases could only bedenied to fugitives who crossed state lines.
Then, after Trump took office, the DoJ further narrowed the definition, confining it thosewho had crossed “state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimonyin a criminal proceeding.” 
And faster than you could say “shall not be infringed,” what had once been a list of 
500,000 fugitives in the database had been trimmed to ridiculously small 788.
Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,
called on the FBI and ATF to “correct this self-inflicted loophole,” and also called on thegovernment to recover the weapons that had been illegally purchased by people purgedfrom the database. 
That’s a tall order, since the folks with the guns are, well, fugitives, and are presumablypretty good at evading contact with law enforcement. One also imagines that taking theweapons back might not end well for at least one side of that discussion.
David Chipman, a former ATF official who now advises the Giffords group, says Congressshould pass a law cleaning up the definition of fugitive so that the current legal logjam won’trepeat itself in the future.
“I would imagine 99 percent of Americans don’t want people who have a warrant out onthem to be able to buy a gun,” Chipman told The Post. “I can’t believe there is a constituencyfor wanted people. Wanted people are particularly dangerous. They’ve already proven thatthey’ll break the law.” 
With Congress unwilling to take even the most minor of steps to expand backgroundchecks or limit the sale of devices that enable mass slaughter, those on both sides of thedebate should be able to agree that this “fugitive loophole” should be closed as soon aspossible. 
—— 
© Copyright 2017 John L. Micek, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
An award-winning political journalist, Micek is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnistfor PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @
ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@pennlive.com. 
TRUMP TWEETS BENEATH 
THE DIGNITY OF HIS OFFICE, 
AGAIN 
Another week, another Twitter-enabled controversy from PresidentTrump.
On Wednesday morning, amongst his complaints againstCNN and gripes about protesting NFL players, President Trump “retweeted” - that is,
promoted to his 43.6 million followers— - three short videos that had originally been postedby Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of the United Kingdom’s “Britain First” movement.
Each purported to show alarming content. The first claimed to be a video of a youngMuslim migrant attacking a Dutch youth on crutches; the second showed a bearded man,
also identified as Muslim, smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary. And the last and arguablymost gut-wrenching appeared to depict a group (of, again, supposed Muslims) pushing ayoung man off of a roof and subsequently beating him in a pixelated mob.
None of the videos were sourced, verified, or even contextualized with basic date or 
timestamps. Each was, however, far beneath the dignity of the office of the Presidency of theUnited States. 
They are perfectly in keeping with the dignity, however, of the original posters. A fringeultranationalist group, Britain First is known for pitifully poor election showings and “protest”
actions that often trend into outright racism and harassment. Fransen herself was chargedwith “religiously aggravated harassment” in May of this year, mere months before the ElectoralCommission of the U.K. Parliament deregistered the organization as a political party.
So far, one of the videos has already turned out to be, as the president says, fake news. Thesupposed “Muslim migrant” attacking a “Dutch boy” was in fact a born and raised Dutchcitizen; the Netherlands Embassy as well as the public prosecutor’s office that handled the caseeach confirmed as much, and that the young man had already completed his sentence for thecrime. 
When informed that President Trump had tweeted false, incendiary propaganda, WhiteHouse Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders simply said, “Whether it’s a fake video, thethreat is real.” Somehow, this explanation made more sense than her next excuse: that thepresident was trying to “elevate the conversation” about terrorism, as if he doesn’t belch outdemands for his ineffective ban and wasteful wall immediately after every act of violence notcommitted by a white man at home or abroad.
While the leaders of Britain First are thrilled by the president’s attention, the rest of theUnited Kingdom is not. Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khanboth denounced the tweets as contrary to their nation’s values. The president was criticizedand mocked from all sides of the U.K. political spectrum during a special floor debate inParliament, while other public figures piled on. And now, rumors are swirling that an early2018 working visit by President Trump to London may be off the table.
But President Trump’s actions carry risks beyond just damage to our special relationshipwith the United Kingdom.
For one, the State Department has already warned that his retweets could inflame tensionsin the Middle East, where rabble-rousers look for any excuse to protest or even attackAmerican embassies. This is, of course, the problem with extremists; their rhetoric andactions give each other the opportunity for escalation, leaving peaceful majorities caught inthe crossfire. 
Of equal concern, however, is the power that President Trump is giving to America’s BritainFirst-esque fringe—those who have committed an increasing number of hate crimes since hiselection, and might be inspired to do even worse if they are enraged by what they see. Thepresident seems perilously close to inciting violence by propagating these irresponsible videoswith no qualification or explanation; he is doing nothing to keep us safe, and everything tofeed the raging ids of those who share his suspicions of ‘others.’ 
Not long ago, it was a scandal for such shoddy, vile propaganda to be seen on even a statelegislator’s social media account; now, the President of the United States can tweet it out, causean international row, and imperil American security at home and abroad all in a 24-hournews cycle. It isn’t clear what will dissuade President Trump from this dangerous behavior,
but one thing is for sure: He continues to degrade the pulpit from which he speaks to theworld every time he sends another shameful tweet. 
-
Copyright 2017 Graham F. West, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspapersyndicate. Graham F. West is the Communications Director for Truman Center forNational Policy and Truman National Security Project, though views expressed here arehis own. You can reach West at gwest@trumancnp.org. 
AT&T, CNN MERGER DOESN’T 
WORRY ME LIKE SINCLAIR 
Last year, I expressed serious reservations about the proposed AT&T-
Time Warner merger. I argued, at the time, that allowing this mergerwill have important implications for a free press and Americandemocracy for many years to come.
I reasoned that by approving the merger, more media concentration would follow andthe liberal media would gain an even bigger foothold on what Americans see and hear ontelevision. 
I still believe that is true, but over the last 12 months, many more concerning deals havebeen announced and Donald Trump’s own FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, has all but eliminated thelast remaining regulatory hurdles protecting us from a liberal media monopoly.
Donald Trump had campaigned against this “concentration of media power.” 
Today, the Department of Justice is the only federal agency left protecting conservativeviewpoints.
So while I still believe the AT&T-Time Warner merger has some serious concerns, I amnow more troubled by what may happen to CNN and Time Warner if AT&T fails to buy them.
AT&T over the years has proven itself as a fair-minded company. It is not known as liberal. It’sCEO Randall Stephenson is national president of the Boy Scouts.
T here is talk that if AT&T either divests itself of CNN to make a deal possible, or drops thedeal altogether, CNN could end up in the hands of Disney, CBS or another liberal mediagroup. What’s from stopping George Soros from buying them?
I am also concerned the Justice Department’s relentless pursuit of AT&T is allowing othermergers to perhaps sail through – deals that will most certainly be calamitous for conservativesand the Republican party.
Take, for example, the proposed merger of Sinclair Broadcasting with Tribune Media.
This merger, announced roughly six months after the AT&T deal, attempts to combine twogiant television broadcasters.
If consummated, this deal would give Sinclair control over 233 stations reaching 72 percentof all U.S. households under the control of one company.
Sinclair leans conservative, and that looks good at first.
But the approval of the Sinclair deal will permit ABC, CBS and NBC to gobble up all thoselittle TV stations in red states and even in swing states. Instead of local, independent ownersdelivering the local news, the big networks like NBC will control and dictate it from New York.
Back in the 1980s my father’s FCC limited television broadcasters to owning just 12 stationsreaching only 25 percent of the national television market.
My dad completely understood the danger posed by the big liberal networks.
Frankly, President Trump won because my dad imposed that TV ownership cap. One of thereasons that Sinclair became a big player in local news is that my dad created the ownershipcap to prevent NBC, ABC and CBS from owning all the local television stations around the 
country.
If President Trump allows this runaway consolidation in TV, liberal media networks likeABC, NBC and CBS will soon control both the national and local information flow into our 
homes. 
Interesting, the approval of the AT&T will not add at all to AT&T’s media power. It currentlyowns little media. If its gets control of outlets like CNN, this may turn out to be a good thingfor President Trump and the American people.
But the real danger facing us now is the Sinclair Tribune deal.
It will not only lead to a massive concentration of power, but give TV networks incredibleleverage over smaller, independent stations, advertisers and cable operators – reducingcompetition and forcing consumer prices up.
You don’t need to be an economist to know if three companies own 80 percent of the gasstations in your town, you are going to pay a higher price.
I would encourage the Justice Department to look at ways to approve the AT&T withprotections for viewers and consumers.
At the same time it should focus on the transaction that really matters and take steps to stopthe massive consolidation that is set to be ignited by the Sinclair deal. 
--Copyright 
2017 Michael Reagan. Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, apolitical consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is thefounder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visithis websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@
caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.
Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info onusing columns contact Sales at sales@cagle.com. 
B3 Mountain Views News Saturday, December 2, 2017 
Mountain Views 
News 
PUBLISHER/ EDITORSusan Henderson 
PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 
Dean Lee 
EAST VALLEY EDITOR 
Joan Schmidt 
BUSINESS EDITOR 
LaQuetta Shamblee 
PRODUCTION 
Richard Garcia 
SALES 
Patricia Colonello 
626-355-2737 
626-818-2698 
WEBMASTER 
John Aveny 
DISTRIBUTION 
Kevin Barry 
CONTRIBUTORS 
Chris Leclerc 
Bob Eklund 
Howard HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Merri Jill Finstrom 
Rev. James SnyderDr. Tina Paul 
Katie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanRenee Quenell 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated asa newspaper of GeneralCirculation for the County 
of Los Angeles in CourtCase number GS004724: 
for the City of SierraMadre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in CourtCase No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra MadreBlvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not bereproduced without the 
express written consent ofthe publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper becomethe property of the Mountain 
Views News and maybe published in part or 
whole. 
Opinions and viewsexpressed by the writersprinted in this paper donot necessarily expressthe views and opinionsof the publisher or staffof the Mountain Views 
News. 
Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by GraceLorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right torefuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 
Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 
Mountain Views News 
80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327 
Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024 
Phone: 626-355-2737 
Fax: 626-609-3285 
email: 
mtnviewsnews@aol.com 
Mountain Views News 
Mission Statement 
The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperouscommunity of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard thevalues of the exceptionalquality of life in our 
community, includingthe magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 
MAKING SENSE byMICHAEL REAGAN 
OPINION 
LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURNJOHN L. MICEK 
GRAHAM F. WEST 
From The Editor - Words To Contemplate:
“ALL men should feel uncomfortable with the national discourse 
about sexual misconduct. ALL men should shut up and listen. It’s 
Time.” Bill Press @bpshow 
A GLARING LOOPHOLE 
FOR FUGITIVES 
When gun-control and gun-rights advocates clash after the latestmass shooting, you can usually count on two rhetorical chips beingthrown onto the table: 
“What new law would have stopped the latest massacre?” gun-
rights advocates will ask. 
That’ll inevitably be followed up with the assertion that if we putlimits on gun ownership, then only the bad guys will have guns.
But thanks to a law enforcement turf war, we know know the latter is provably untrue.
That’s because, back in February, 70,000 people were purged from an FBI database overa disagreement over the definition of “fugitive from justice,” leaving them legally able topurchase firearms.
As The Washington Post reported last week, people wanted by law enforcement wereremoved from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System when the FBI“changed its legal interpretation of ‘fugitive from justice’ to say it only [pertained] to peoplewho crossed state lines.” 
The background checks system, which is run by the FBI, made headlines when it wasrevealed that the Air Force followed to fail policies that would have added Texas churchshooter Devin P. Kelley to the system.
The Charleston church shooter, Dylann Roof, was wrongly able to legally purchase theweapon in his murderous rampage after his name was not added to the database becauseof an arrest for drug possession. The mistake in the Roof case has been referred to as “TheCharleston Loophole.” 
Gun owners, spurred by on the National Rifle Association, have opposed efforts toexpand background checks, seriously arguing they “don’t necessarily stop criminals fromgetting firearms.” 
Taking a break from forgetting things about Russia and trampling on the rights ofAmerica’s LGBTQ citizens, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at least had the presence ofmind last week to send a letter to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 
calling on the two agencies to fix the system.
The NICS system is “critical for us to be able to keep guns out of the hands of those . . .
prohibited from owning them,” Sessions said. He also reportedly ordered the two agencies toreport back to him on measures ensuring that “people who are prohibited from purchasingfirearms are prevented from doing so.” 
The problem is that Sessions’ own Justice Department is part of the problem here.
Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, The Post reported the DoJ’s Officeof Legal Counsel sided with the ATF (which had narrow definition of fugitive) against theFBI (which had historically had a broader one), agreeing that gun purchases could only bedenied to fugitives who crossed state lines.
Then, after Trump took office, the DoJ further narrowed the definition, confining it thosewho had crossed “state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimonyin a criminal proceeding.” 
And faster than you could say “shall not be infringed,” what had once been a list of 
500,000 fugitives in the database had been trimmed to ridiculously small 788.
Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,
called on the FBI and ATF to “correct this self-inflicted loophole,” and also called on thegovernment to recover the weapons that had been illegally purchased by people purgedfrom the database. 
That’s a tall order, since the folks with the guns are, well, fugitives, and are presumablypretty good at evading contact with law enforcement. One also imagines that taking theweapons back might not end well for at least one side of that discussion.
David Chipman, a former ATF official who now advises the Giffords group, says Congressshould pass a law cleaning up the definition of fugitive so that the current legal logjam won’trepeat itself in the future.
“I would imagine 99 percent of Americans don’t want people who have a warrant out onthem to be able to buy a gun,” Chipman told The Post. “I can’t believe there is a constituencyfor wanted people. Wanted people are particularly dangerous. They’ve already proven thatthey’ll break the law.” 
With Congress unwilling to take even the most minor of steps to expand backgroundchecks or limit the sale of devices that enable mass slaughter, those on both sides of thedebate should be able to agree that this “fugitive loophole” should be closed as soon aspossible. 
—— 
© Copyright 2017 John L. Micek, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
An award-winning political journalist, Micek is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnistfor PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @
ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@pennlive.com. 
TRUMP TWEETS BENEATH 
THE DIGNITY OF HIS OFFICE, 
AGAIN 
Another week, another Twitter-enabled controversy from PresidentTrump.
On Wednesday morning, amongst his complaints againstCNN and gripes about protesting NFL players, President Trump “retweeted” - that is,
promoted to his 43.6 million followers— - three short videos that had originally been postedby Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of the United Kingdom’s “Britain First” movement.
Each purported to show alarming content. The first claimed to be a video of a youngMuslim migrant attacking a Dutch youth on crutches; the second showed a bearded man,
also identified as Muslim, smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary. And the last and arguablymost gut-wrenching appeared to depict a group (of, again, supposed Muslims) pushing ayoung man off of a roof and subsequently beating him in a pixelated mob.
None of the videos were sourced, verified, or even contextualized with basic date or 
timestamps. Each was, however, far beneath the dignity of the office of the Presidency of theUnited States. 
They are perfectly in keeping with the dignity, however, of the original posters. A fringeultranationalist group, Britain First is known for pitifully poor election showings and “protest”
actions that often trend into outright racism and harassment. Fransen herself was chargedwith “religiously aggravated harassment” in May of this year, mere months before the ElectoralCommission of the U.K. Parliament deregistered the organization as a political party.
So far, one of the videos has already turned out to be, as the president says, fake news. Thesupposed “Muslim migrant” attacking a “Dutch boy” was in fact a born and raised Dutchcitizen; the Netherlands Embassy as well as the public prosecutor’s office that handled the caseeach confirmed as much, and that the young man had already completed his sentence for thecrime. 
When informed that President Trump had tweeted false, incendiary propaganda, WhiteHouse Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders simply said, “Whether it’s a fake video, thethreat is real.” Somehow, this explanation made more sense than her next excuse: that thepresident was trying to “elevate the conversation” about terrorism, as if he doesn’t belch outdemands for his ineffective ban and wasteful wall immediately after every act of violence notcommitted by a white man at home or abroad.
While the leaders of Britain First are thrilled by the president’s attention, the rest of theUnited Kingdom is not. Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khanboth denounced the tweets as contrary to their nation’s values. The president was criticizedand mocked from all sides of the U.K. political spectrum during a special floor debate inParliament, while other public figures piled on. And now, rumors are swirling that an early2018 working visit by President Trump to London may be off the table.
But President Trump’s actions carry risks beyond just damage to our special relationshipwith the United Kingdom.
For one, the State Department has already warned that his retweets could inflame tensionsin the Middle East, where rabble-rousers look for any excuse to protest or even attackAmerican embassies. This is, of course, the problem with extremists; their rhetoric andactions give each other the opportunity for escalation, leaving peaceful majorities caught inthe crossfire. 
Of equal concern, however, is the power that President Trump is giving to America’s BritainFirst-esque fringe—those who have committed an increasing number of hate crimes since hiselection, and might be inspired to do even worse if they are enraged by what they see. Thepresident seems perilously close to inciting violence by propagating these irresponsible videoswith no qualification or explanation; he is doing nothing to keep us safe, and everything tofeed the raging ids of those who share his suspicions of ‘others.’ 
Not long ago, it was a scandal for such shoddy, vile propaganda to be seen on even a statelegislator’s social media account; now, the President of the United States can tweet it out, causean international row, and imperil American security at home and abroad all in a 24-hournews cycle. It isn’t clear what will dissuade President Trump from this dangerous behavior,
but one thing is for sure: He continues to degrade the pulpit from which he speaks to theworld every time he sends another shameful tweet. 
-
Copyright 2017 Graham F. West, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspapersyndicate. Graham F. West is the Communications Director for Truman Center forNational Policy and Truman National Security Project, though views expressed here arehis own. You can reach West at gwest@trumancnp.org. 
AT&T, CNN MERGER DOESN’T 
WORRY ME LIKE SINCLAIR 
Last year, I expressed serious reservations about the proposed AT&T-
Time Warner merger. I argued, at the time, that allowing this mergerwill have important implications for a free press and Americandemocracy for many years to come.
I reasoned that by approving the merger, more media concentration would follow andthe liberal media would gain an even bigger foothold on what Americans see and hear ontelevision. 
I still believe that is true, but over the last 12 months, many more concerning deals havebeen announced and Donald Trump’s own FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, has all but eliminated thelast remaining regulatory hurdles protecting us from a liberal media monopoly.
Donald Trump had campaigned against this “concentration of media power.” 
Today, the Department of Justice is the only federal agency left protecting conservativeviewpoints.
So while I still believe the AT&T-Time Warner merger has some serious concerns, I amnow more troubled by what may happen to CNN and Time Warner if AT&T fails to buy them.
AT&T over the years has proven itself as a fair-minded company. It is not known as liberal. It’sCEO Randall Stephenson is national president of the Boy Scouts.
T here is talk that if AT&T either divests itself of CNN to make a deal possible, or drops thedeal altogether, CNN could end up in the hands of Disney, CBS or another liberal mediagroup. What’s from stopping George Soros from buying them?
I am also concerned the Justice Department’s relentless pursuit of AT&T is allowing othermergers to perhaps sail through – deals that will most certainly be calamitous for conservativesand the Republican party.
Take, for example, the proposed merger of Sinclair Broadcasting with Tribune Media.
This merger, announced roughly six months after the AT&T deal, attempts to combine twogiant television broadcasters.
If consummated, this deal would give Sinclair control over 233 stations reaching 72 percentof all U.S. households under the control of one company.
Sinclair leans conservative, and that looks good at first.
But the approval of the Sinclair deal will permit ABC, CBS and NBC to gobble up all thoselittle TV stations in red states and even in swing states. Instead of local, independent ownersdelivering the local news, the big networks like NBC will control and dictate it from New York.
Back in the 1980s my father’s FCC limited television broadcasters to owning just 12 stationsreaching only 25 percent of the national television market.
My dad completely understood the danger posed by the big liberal networks.
Frankly, President Trump won because my dad imposed that TV ownership cap. One of thereasons that Sinclair became a big player in local news is that my dad created the ownershipcap to prevent NBC, ABC and CBS from owning all the local television stations around the 
country.
If President Trump allows this runaway consolidation in TV, liberal media networks likeABC, NBC and CBS will soon control both the national and local information flow into our 
homes. 
Interesting, the approval of the AT&T will not add at all to AT&T’s media power. It currentlyowns little media. If its gets control of outlets like CNN, this may turn out to be a good thingfor President Trump and the American people.
But the real danger facing us now is the Sinclair Tribune deal.
It will not only lead to a massive concentration of power, but give TV networks incredibleleverage over smaller, independent stations, advertisers and cable operators – reducingcompetition and forcing consumer prices up.
You don’t need to be an economist to know if three companies own 80 percent of the gasstations in your town, you are going to pay a higher price.
I would encourage the Justice Department to look at ways to approve the AT&T withprotections for viewers and consumers.
At the same time it should focus on the transaction that really matters and take steps to stopthe massive consolidation that is set to be ignited by the Sinclair deal. 
--Copyright 
2017 Michael Reagan. Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, apolitical consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is thefounder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visithis websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@
caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.
Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info onusing columns contact Sales at sales@cagle.com. 
B3 Mountain Views News Saturday, December 2, 2017 
Mountain Views 
News 
PUBLISHER/ EDITORSusan Henderson 
PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 
Dean Lee 
EAST VALLEY EDITOR 
Joan Schmidt 
BUSINESS EDITOR 
LaQuetta Shamblee 
PRODUCTION 
Richard Garcia 
SALES 
Patricia Colonello 
626-355-2737 
626-818-2698 
WEBMASTER 
John Aveny 
DISTRIBUTION 
Kevin Barry 
CONTRIBUTORS 
Chris Leclerc 
Bob Eklund 
Howard HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Merri Jill Finstrom 
Rev. James SnyderDr. Tina Paul 
Katie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanRenee Quenell 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated asa newspaper of GeneralCirculation for the County 
of Los Angeles in CourtCase number GS004724: 
for the City of SierraMadre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in CourtCase No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra MadreBlvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not bereproduced without the 
express written consent ofthe publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper becomethe property of the Mountain 
Views News and maybe published in part or 
whole. 
Opinions and viewsexpressed by the writersprinted in this paper donot necessarily expressthe views and opinionsof the publisher or staffof the Mountain Views 
News. 
Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by GraceLorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right torefuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 
Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 
Mountain Views News 
80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327 
Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024 
Phone: 626-355-2737 
Fax: 626-609-3285 
email: 
mtnviewsnews@aol.com 
Mountain Views News 
Mission Statement 
The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperouscommunity of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard thevalues of the exceptionalquality of life in our 
community, includingthe magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 
MAKING SENSE byMICHAEL REAGAN 
OPINION 
LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURNJOHN L. MICEK 
GRAHAM F. WEST 
From The Editor - Words To Contemplate:
“ALL men should feel uncomfortable with the national discourse 
about sexual misconduct. ALL men should shut up and listen. It’s 
Time.” Bill Press @bpshow 
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com