Raw Story reports: Donald Trump Jr. drew widespread condemnation for comparing Syrian refugees to poisoned candy — but his analogy isn’t a new one, and it’s based on two separate white supremacist memes with roots in Nazi propaganda. Trump — the Republican presidential candidate’s eldest son and a top campaign surrogate — tweeted the image Monday evening in an apparent …

Via Fox News: Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is dancing for veterans’ causes, improved this week, receiving a 22 for his “Green Acres” quickstep with Emma Slater. Perry revealed to FOX411 his buddy Donald Trump watched his week one dance. “I talked to him last week, he called and was flying between one stop and another and said, ‘Hey, …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump knocked the presidential debates as “a phony system,” in an interview on Fox News Monday night, adding that NBC anchor Lester Holt is a Democrat. In an interview on “The O’Reilly Factor” airing Monday night, the GOP nominee first praised Holt as a “professional” and noted his respect for the “Nightly News” anchor, before claiming …

Over at the Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta notes that the Ark Encounter has reduced their annual attendance forecast by 30%. But even the new number doesn’t hold up. He writes: Let’s do some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations here: If the park has been open for 71 days and has had 300,000 people show up, that’s an average of 4,225 people each …

Back in May, Alliance Defending Freedom sued to overturn Phoenix’s LGBT rights ordinance on behalf of a tiny company that produces hand-drawn wedding invitations. At that time Brush & Nib had never even been asked to create invitations for a same-sex couple, much less turned one away, so the haters filed a so-called “pre-enforcement challenge.” Today the Superior Court of …

Charlotte’s CBS affiliate reports: Monday morning the North Carolina Republican Party issued a statement from Party Chairman Robin Hayes saying Cooper and Roberts “again scuttled a compromise deal.” “Roy Cooper’s silence on the Charlotte bathroom ordinance repeal deal confirms he was working with his ally Jennifer Roberts to kill any compromise all along,” Hayes said Monday. “This is the second …

Arizona Central reports: Congressional candidate Paul Babeu tried to clarify Monday his role at a private Massachusetts school for emotionally troubled youths in an effort to redefine a part of his background that has dogged him during his runs for public office. Pushing back against his Democratic critics, the Pinal County sheriff filed a bar complaint against a member of …

Billboard reports: The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Disney presented a special viewing of Beauty and the Beast on Sunday night (Sept. 18) in honor of the classic animated film’s 25th anniversary. While original voice cast members such as Robby Benson (Beast), Paige O’Hara (Belle), Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts) and Richard White (Gaston) had all signed on to appear …

The Charlotte Observer reports: Despite pressure from business leaders, Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts said Monday the city won’t repeal the ordinance that led to House Bill 2 this week – and maybe not at all. And in a memo to the City Council, the city attorney said the General Assembly doesn’t need the city to rescind its ordinance in order …

From the editorial page editor of the Charlotte Observer: With Hurricane HB2 blowing North Carolina’s doors off, Gov. Pat McCrory took questions in Charlotte last week – from himself. McCrory’s staff planted questions at a lunch event in SouthPark on Thursday with the crowd under the impression that they were coming from the media or the audience. The moderator, a …

Miranda Blue reports at Right Wing Watch: Back in May, we reported that Ohio pastor Frank Amedia was serving as a volunteer “liaison for Christian policy” for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, setting up meetings for the candidate with conservative religious figures. Amedia, as we noted at the time, is part of a controversial movement of self-proclaimed “prophets” and once claimed …

Bloomberg reports: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie knew his top allies were involved in a plan to snarl traffic near the George Washington Bridge to punish a mayor who didn’t back Christie’s re-election, prosecutors told a jury at the start of a trial. Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni deliberately shut access lanes to the bridge to paralyze traffic in …

The New York Post reports: A 28-year-old Afghani native wanted in connection with blasts in Manhattan and New Jersey that left 29 wounded has been caught after shooting at a police officer in New Jersey, according to a report. Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested after firing at the cop in Linden, WNBC reported. Rahami, whose fingerprint was found on an …

President Obama is in New York City to attend the general assembly of the United Nations. He is due to deliver a statement on this weekend’s terror attacks at 11:30am. Watch below. UPDATE: The president arrived early and is now speaking.

The Detroit Free Press reports: Days after Flint Mayor Karen Weaver served notice that her city might file a lawsuit against the State of Michigan over the Flint drinking water crisis, the state removed Flint’s ability to sue. Though Flint has not been under a state-appointed emergency manager since April 2015, the state still exerts partial control over the city …

NBC News reports: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addressed the terror attacks in New York City and Minnesota over the weekend, saying “there’s much more we need to do” to combat domestic and international terrorism. In a direct comparison to her challenger, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who received his first national security briefings in the past few weeks, the …

Heavy.com reports: In an interview on Fox and Friends this morning, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump discussed the recent bombing in New York City and bragged that he “called it.” Trump said in the interview that he should be a newscaster because “I called it before the news” and that he knew this would happen. This is another instance of …

Belgrade’s pride parade resumed in 2014 after having been banned for several years after hundreds of neo-Nazis clashed violently with riot police in 2010. Yesterday’s parade was peaceful thanks to the presence of 5000 cops. Balkan Insight reports: The third Belgrade Pride Parade, which took place under the slogan “Love changes the world”, was held on Sunday with several hundred …

The New York Daily News reports: Republican Party boss Reince Priebus on Sunday threatened GOP lawmakers who had yet to endorse Donald Trump with the possibility that he would work to prevent them from seeking the presidency if they ran again in the future. “People who agreed to support the nominee, that took part in our process, they used tools …

Politico published a lengthy interview with Jill Stein yesterday. An excerpt: As much as Stein despises Trump – and she really, really does – she describes the choice between him and Hillary Clinton as an abominable binary offering “death by gunshot or death by strangulation.” But her contempt has a more cutting quality when she talks about Clinton. She mocks …