Baltimore Police to Beef Up Manpower to Fight Spike in Criminal Violence (VIDEO)

At CBS News 13 Baltimore, "Police Announce Increase In Manpower to Fight Violence Spike."

BONUS: At Progs Today, "Homicides in Baltimore Now Highest Since 1972."

Desperate Migrants Rush Channel Tunnel to England

This has been going on for days now.

At London's Daily Mail, "Calais' thin blue line: Helpless French police are over-run as hundreds more migrants storm Channel Tunnel declaring 'it's England or death' - so when will Cameron finally take action?" And, "Now it's batons and tear gas in the battle of Calais: French police finally take action to try to stem the flow as migrants storm the Channel Tunnel for a FOURTH night."

Also, "TWO-THOUSAND migrants storm the Channel Tunnel in one night as riot police battle for six hours in a desperate attempt to keep them out."

Still more, "Your summer holidays have gone up in smoke: New blow to British families caught up in Calais migrant chaos as striking ferry workers block roads with burning tyres."

Plus, watch at the Telegraph UK, "Migrants break through police line in Calais."

They're like animals.

Still more at Reuters, "Calais migrants prepared to risk lives to reach Britain's shores."

And see the New York Times, "Migrants in Calais Desperately Rush the Channel Tunnel to England, Night After Night":

CALAIS, France — The sun had barely set when a 23-year-old Eritrean woman who gave her name as Akbrat fell into step with dozens of other men and women and started scaling the fence surrounding the entrance to the French side of the Channel Tunnel.

The barbed wire cut her hands, but she did not feel the pain. The police seemed to be everywhere. She thought of her 5-year-old son back in Africa and ran, zigzag through the falling shadows, once almost colliding with an officer in a helmet.

Then she was alone. She slipped under the freight train and waited, clambering out just as it began moving.

But before she could hurl herself onto the train bed transporting trucks filled with Britain-bound produce, a French officer caught up with her, she recalled in an interview on Thursday. Blinded by tear gas, she stumbled and bruised her right ankle. After being ejected from the complex around the tunnel, it took her five hours to limp the nine miles back to the refugee camp of makeshift shelters that its 3,000 inhabitants call the “jungle.”

“You’re lucky you weren’t killed,” someone told her.

“I’m not lucky,” she responded. “I’ll be lucky when I’m in England.”

The desperate scene playing out each night and day in Calais, with migrants trying to vault fences or cut their way through them and climb onto trains or into trucks going across the Channel to England, is just one chapter in a painful drama playing out across Europe.

For many of the migrants who have been coming to the Continent from Africa, the Middle East and beyond, Calais, a mere 21 miles from the white cliffs of Dover, is their last stop. If they make it across to Britain, many believe they will have reached safety and a better life. Some are attracted to Britain because they speak some English, others because they see better job prospects there than on the Continent. A few even cite a strong pound.

Those who make it as far as this port city often express striking and implacable certainty about their right to go the rest of the way, having come so far.

Nursing her sprained ankle outside the tent she shares with a dozen of other men and women, Akbrat lamented the fact that she would have to rest for a few days before making another attempt. “I’ve crossed the sea and walked for many months,” she said. “I am not giving up now.”

Like others here, she declined to give her full name or have her photograph taken for fear of jeopardizing her chances of slipping across the border undetected.

Akbrat arrived in Calais five days ago. But she has spent much of her life as a refugee. When she was 13, her father was killed, a political assassination in Eritrea, she said. Her mother fled with her and her two sisters to Sudan. When her mother died seven months ago, Akbrat left her son with her aunt and began her own journey to Turkey and then across the Mediterranean to Greece. She hopes to bring her boy to Britain once she has papers and has found work, she said.

“I thought I would die on that boat,” she said. “Until I die, I will try to go to England.”

Still more.

And at the BBC, "Calais migrants crisis: Inside 'The Jungle' migrant camp."

New GDP Revisions Show the Worst Recovery in 70 Years Was Even Weaker

This should be the number one issue of the 2016 campaign. Republicans should bludgeon the Democrats to death with it.

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Six-Year Slough":

One measure of America’s lowered expectations is that so many economists cheered Thursday’s second quarter growth estimate of 2.3%. It’s a rebound from the first quarter slump! The consumer is resilient, net exports are up, the plow-horse marches on! All true, but those silver linings obscure the larger reality that six long years after the recession ended in June 2009 the American economy has become a slow-growth machine.

That’s the story underscored by the annual government revisions in historical GDP that accompanied the second-quarter report. The news, which most Americans have long felt in slow-growing wages, is that the worst expansion in 70 years has been even weaker than we thought.

The gnomes at the Bureau of Economic Analysis ran the numbers based on new data and analytical methods and downgraded the recovery since 2011 nearly across the board. From 2011 through 2014, the economy grew at a paltry annual rate of 2%, down from the previous estimate of 2.3%. This means the overall U.S. economy is smaller—with GDP slashed by $105 billion in 2013 and $71 billion in 2014 to $17.35 trillion.

Those numbers are abstractions, but another way to put it is that national income, corporate profits and personal income were all revised down. From 2011 through 2014, the average annual growth of real disposable personal income was slashed to 1.5% from 1.8%. That’s a giant cut in the standard of living.

Since the recession ended in June 2009, the economy has grown at an annual rate of about 2.1%. That’s 0.6-percentage points worse than even during the much-maligned George W. Bush expansion. Growth averaged more than 3% from 2003-2006, but the best growth during the Obama years has been 2.5% in 2010, and in both 2011 and 2013 it nearly slipped back into recession.

The nearby chart compares this expansion to the growth periods in the 1980s and 1990s, showing what might have been. Real GDP growth averaged 4.6% in the first six years of the Reagan expansion, and more than 3.6% a year in the first six years of the George H.W. Bush-Bill Clinton expansion (gaining speed after that). Had the current expansion been as robust as the average expansion since 1960, GDP would be some $1.89 trillion larger today, according to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee.

The slow-growth Obama era has given way to multiple explanations and excuses from the President’s economic advocates. They blame the hangover from the financial crisis (even six years later), foreign economic problems, the failure of government to spend and tax more, an aging population—anything but the policy differences between those previous eras and this one.

Leading lights on the left have even thrown up their hands to suggest we no longer really know what produces faster growth. Larry Summers calls it “secular stagnation,” as if it’s an illness we somehow caught. Others claim 2%-2.5% growth is about as good as we can now do, so get used to it—and keep interest rates at near-zero for as far as the eye can see.

This is a false counsel of despair, much as we heard similar advice in the malaise years of the 1970s. There’s no great mystery about why growth has been so slow. The natural dynamism of the U.S. economy has been swamped by waves of bad policies.

Unprecedented new regulation has hamstrung finance, health care, the coal and power industries, for-profit education, and so much more. Two of the biggest growth exceptions—tech and oil and gas—escaped this maw because drilling is regulated by the states and the FCC only got around to ensnaring the Internet in new rules this year.

Higher taxes—their anticipation and then the reality in 2013—slowed risk-taking and investment. Profits fell in the first quarter of 2013 thanks to the tax cliff, and growth for 2013 was a mere 1.5% after the latest revisions.

The Federal Reserve has tried to overcome all this with near-zero interest rates and bond-buying, and it has succeeded in raising asset prices that have further enriched those lucky enough to hold assets. But it hasn’t succeeded in lifting the economy out of its slow-growth trend, and the Fed’s own growth predictions have been revised down year after year...

Keep reading, and pay special attention to the comparative graphic on relative post-recession economic expansions. It's mind-boggling, the growth-killing collectivism of the current administration.

Charlotte McKinney's Day-to-Day Struggles

At London's Daily Mail, "'My buttons always break!' Model Charlotte McKinney bemoans the daily struggles of having big breasts - and admits her ample assets attract a lot of unwanted attention."

And watch, "Charlotte McKinney Explains 6 Things Women with Big Breasts Think are Bullshit."

GOP Support Grows for Hardline Planned Parenthood Strategy

Good.

At Politico:

Republicans are rallying behind a bare-knuckle strategy to strip Planned Parenthood’s government support via a must-pass fall spending bill, a momentum shift that dramatically increases the chances of a government shutdown fight this fall.

What started out as a push from socially conservative firebrands like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and 18 House members on Wednesday, is spreading to include more centrist members of the Senate GOP. On Thursday, Arizona Republican John McCain, who often tacks to the middle in the Senate, not only backed a plan to link Planned Parenthood defunding with spending legislation, he suggested the move was inevitable.

“It could invite a fight, but I think most Americans do not believe that their tax dollars should be used to fund the kind of grotesque procedures we’ve seen authenticated,” said McCain, who is trying to box out any primary challenge. “I would vote for a spending bill that defunded it, and that’s the way it’s going to be … it’s pretty obvious.”

Asked about eliminating the organization’s $528 million in government funding in a spending bill, Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chamber’s most senior senator replied: “It’s the right way to go.” Meanwhile, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said dozens of House Republicans will back his threat — delivered in a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — to shoot down any legislation that funds Planned Parenthood this fall.

“We have to find a way to fund the government without giving any more money to this” organization, Mulvaney said Wednesday evening.

The growing momentum comes as the anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress on Thursday released its fourth undercover video going after the women’s health organization, this time with recordings of a doctor discussing how to avoid the perception of “selling fetal parts across states.” The group says the video proves that Planned Parenthood is trafficking human fetal organs — and both parties expect more videos to come this summer. Planned Parenthood denies that it did anything illegal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has scheduled a standalone vote on defunding the organization for next week, but it will fail amid Democratic resistance and may only temporarily satisfy the party’s right flank...

Still more. (Via Memeorandum.)

Emily Ratajkowski Deep Cleavage

At London's Daily Mail, "Braless Emily Ratajkowski showcases her ample cleavage in plunging red top and skinny jeans for raunchy Instagram snap."

CEO Who Gave Employees $70,000 Minimum Wage Faces Massive Backlash and Financial Ruin

Well, he's already being sued by his brother. At the Seattle Times, "Gravity Payments CEO, who set $70K minimum pay, sued by brother."

And now the dude's business is collapsing amid the onslaught of media fame and customer revolt.

It's practically a far-left workshop on how to kill a successful business.

At the New York Times, "A Company Copes With Backlash Against the Raise That Roared":

There are times when Dan Price feels as if he stumbled into the middle of the street with a flag and found himself at the head of a parade.

Three months ago, Mr. Price, 31, announced he was setting a new minimum salary of $70,000 at his Seattle credit card processing firm, Gravity Payments, and slashing his own million-dollar pay package to do it. He wasn’t thinking about the current political clamor over low wages or the growing gap between rich and poor, he said. He was just thinking of the 120 people who worked for him and, let’s be honest, a bit of free publicity. The idea struck him when a friend shared her worries about paying both her rent and student loans on a $40,000 salary. He realized a lot of his own employees earned that or less.

Yet almost overnight, a decision by one small-business man in the northwestern corner of the country became a swashbuckling blow against income inequality.

The move drew attention from around the world — including from some outspoken skeptics and conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, who smelled a socialist agenda — but most were enthusiastic. Talk show hosts lined up to interview Mr. Price. Job seekers by the thousands sent in résumés. He was called a “thought leader.” Harvard business professors flew out to conduct a case study. Third graders wrote him thank-you notes. Single women wanted to date him.

What few outsiders realized, however, was how much turmoil all the hoopla was causing at the company itself. To begin with, Gravity was simply unprepared for the onslaught of emails, Facebook posts and phone calls. The attention was thrilling, but it was also exhausting and distracting. And with so many eyes focused on the firm, some hoping to witness failure, the pressure has been intense.

More troubling, a few customers, dismayed by what they viewed as a political statement, withdrew their business. Others, anticipating a fee increase — despite repeated assurances to the contrary — also left. While dozens of new clients, inspired by Mr. Price’s announcement, were signing up, those accounts will not start paying off for at least another year. To handle the flood, he has already had to hire a dozen additional employees — now at a significantly higher cost — and is struggling to figure out whether more are needed without knowing for certain how long the bonanza will last.

Two of Mr. Price’s most valued employees quit, spurred in part by their view it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises. Some friends and associates in Seattle’s close-knit entrepreneurial network were also piqued that Mr. Price’s action made them look stingy in front of their own employees.

Then potentially the worst blow of all: Less than two weeks after the announcement, Mr. Price’s older brother and Gravity co-founder, Lucas Price, citing longstanding differences, filed a lawsuit that potentially threatened the company’s very existence. With legal bills quickly mounting and most of his own paycheck and last year’s $2.2 million in profits plowed into the salary increases, Dan Price said, “We don’t have a margin of error to pay those legal fees.”

As Mr. Price spoke in the Gravity conference room, he could see a handful of employees setting up beach chairs in the parking lot for an impromptu meeting. The office is in Ballard, a fast-gentrifying neighborhood of Seattle that reflects the wealth gap that Mr. Price says he wants to address. Downstairs is a yoga studio, and across the street is a coffee bar where customers can sip velvet soy lattes on Adirondack-style chairs. But around the corner, beneath the elevated roadway, a homeless woman silently appeals to drivers stopped at the red light with a cardboard sign: “Plz Help.”

In his own way, Mr. Price is trying to respond to that request.

“Income inequality has been racing in the wrong direction,” he said. “I want to fight for the idea that if someone is intelligent, hard-working and does a good job, then they are entitled to live a middle-class lifestyle.”

The reaction to his salary pledge has led him to think that if his business continues to prosper, his actions could have far-reaching consequences. “The cause has expanded,” he said. “Whether I like it or not, the stakes are higher.”

Corporate socialism doesn't work, obviously, to say nothing of state socialism.

Let this be a lesson to the collectivist left: More of these minimum wage disasters are coming down the pike. It's only a matter of time.

Still more.

ADDED: Now a Memeorandum thread.

Israel Braces for Violence, Hamas Rockets, After Palestinian Baby Killed in Firebombing

Background at Russia Today, "Palestinian toddler burns to death in suspected Jewish ‘price tag’ attack," and France 24, "West Bank Arson: Palestinian child dies in suspected jewish extremist attack."

And at the Times of Israel:

Ali Dawabsha buried, doctors try to save rest of family; Israel condemns alleged Jewish terrorists who set fire to home; Abbas blames Israeli support for settlers; world slams attack; IDF sends extra troops to West Bank.

And from the IDF, "We condemn all acts of terrorism. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. We wish all a peaceful Shabbat."

And, "Terror Attack in the Duma Village."

Watch: "IDF Forces Airlift Palestinian Victim to Israeli Hospital."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Won't Explain Difference Between Democrat Party and Radical Socialists

At Twitchy, "DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz can’t explain how she’s any different from a socialist."

It's not that she "can't explain" the difference. She won't explain the difference. She won't even try. She'd not only look like an idiot trying, she'd alienate the party's rank-and-file. The Democrats are a socialist party. Bernie Sanders is bringing out massive grassroots protests and rallies, and Hillary Clinton --- already way over on the left --- is being forced to the radical end of the spectrum.

It's the radical socialist Democrat Party against mainstream America these days. It's not Democrat vs. Republican, although Wasserman-Schultz desperately wants people to think so.

Watch: "Debbie Wasserman Schultz Doesn't Know What a Socialist Is."

Police Boats Ram Kayaks, Knocking Greenpeace Protesters Into the Water (VIDEO)

You have to listen through some of this Amy Goodman interview with Greenpeace Executive Director Annie Leonard, at the clip, "Police Remove Greenpeace Activists from Portland Bridge After They Forced Shell Ship Back to Port."

Scroll foward to about 2:00 minutes in. It's pretty funny, though. I thought the cops were gonna kill that kayaking Greenpeace mofo for a second, heh.

Plus, flashback to Greenpeace's 1970s-era communist foundations, at Free Republic, "Greenpeace Wages Redwar."

And ICYMI, "Shell Icebreaker Breaks Through Greenpeace Protesters Hanging from St. John's Bridge in Portland (VIDEO)."

Shell Icebreaker Breaks Through Greenpeace Protesters Hanging from St. John's Bridge in Portland (VIDEO)

At the Oregonian, "Shell Oil's MSV Fennica icebreaker passes through protestors and under St. Johns Bridge."



PREVIOUSLY: "Greenpeace Enviro-Radicals Block Shell Icebreaker in Portland, Oregon (VIDEO)."

Man Shoots Down $1,800 Drone Hovering Over His Sunbathing Daughter

Drones seem so cool, but then not so much.

At WDRB News 41 Louisville, "Hillview man arrested for shooting down drone; cites right to privacy" (via Memeorandum and Reason).

Thanks to Readers Who Bought Bruce Levine's, Fall of the House of Dixie — BUMPED!

Thanks to those who purchased Levine's excellent Civil War history through my Amazon links.

I don't blog for the money, as folks well know. But it's nice to see a few sales here and there through Amazon, and it's a lot of fun for me posting the links, because I love books so much.

Thanks again.

Here's the link: The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South.

And thanks to all my readers at American Power. I've still got about a month off until school starts up again, so I'll have some robust daily blogging until then for sure.

Remains of Colony Leaders Found at Jamestown, Virginia

What a trip.

At CBS Evening News, "Archaeologists find human remains in Jamestown, Va."

CBS Evening News Covers Release of Fourth Planned Parenthood Investigative Video

Hey, good for CBS!

Even if it's just a little coverage, millions of people tune in for the evening newscasts, even in this day and age of digital and cable news.



PREVIOUSLY: "Coast-to-Coast Protests Against Ghoulish Fetal Parts Harvester Planned Parenthood (VIDEO)."

Confederate Flags Placed at Ebenezer Baptist Church and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site

It's MLK's former church, now a national historic monument.

Because the Confederate flag stands for racial reconciliation, or something.

At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Cops: Video shows 2 men placing Confederate flags at Ebenezer":

Atlanta police said surveillance footage shows two men placing Confederate battle flags at two of Atlanta’s most notable landmarks early Thursday: Ebenezer Baptist Church and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

As investigators worked to identify the men and their motive, church and civic leaders decried the act as terrorism, vowing not to be threatened.

Police later Thursday released several black and white videos from Ebenezer’s surveillance cameras showing images of two men walking and placing flags at various spots...

The National Park Service also received a "threatening message" just days ago that mention the historic site, although authorities are not yet linking it to events overnight.

Also at CNN, "Confederate flags found at MLK's church," and AP, "Confederate Flags Placed Near MLK's Ga. Church."

And at Fox 5 News Atlanta, "Rev. Warnock on Confederate flags found at church."

I'm going to check over at Saberpoint to see if Stogie's renounced this act of "terrorism," to use the word of condemnation of church leaders.

Greenpeace Enviro-Radicals Block Shell Icebreaker in Portland, Oregon (VIDEO)

At Oregonian, "Greenpeace protest: Officials circle kayakers; St. Johns Bridge closed again (live updates)."

And at the now supposedly straight-news MSNBC, "Dangling Greenpeace Protesters Block Shell Icebreaker."

Related at Politico, "MSNBC cancels three shows amid transition."

Abby Huntsman and Krystal Ball will be leaving the network. Good while it lasted, I guess.

Andrea Tantaros Bikini Pic!

She's actually the smartest woman on Fox News, with perhaps the exception of Megyn Kelly.

I love Ms. Tantaros for her mind, although I'm not going to begrudge her a bikini or two.

At Twitchy, "‘Hot Diggity!’ Summer heat: Andrea Tantaros sparks sweat with this ‘smoking’ Instagram photo."

Hey Conservatives, What's Worth Conserving If It Ain't White?

So, that's what the whole "#Cuckservative" thing is all about?

And here Robert Stacy McCain was saying it was a leftist meme. I guess not.

At American Renaissance, "An Open Letter to Cuckservatives":

You aren’t just betraying your principles.

Dear Cuckservative,

You are not alone. Like you, Erick Erickson at RedState.com, Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller, Taylor Millard at Hot Air, the blogger Ace of Spades, and Jim Harper with the Cato Institute are all squirming under the lash of this new coinage. They are squirming because a single word–cuckservative–lays bare the rot at the heart of your movement: American conservatism can conserve nothing if it cannot conserve the nation’s founding stock. I’ll put it bluntly: Nothing you love will survive without white people.

Do you stand for limited government and a balanced budget? Count your black and Hispanic allies. Do you admire Thomas Jefferson? He was a slave-holder who will end up on the dung heap with the Confederate flag. Do you care about stable families and the rights of the unborn? Look up illegitimacy, divorce, and abortion rates for blacks and Hispanics. Do you cherish the stillness at dawn in Bryce Canyon? When the park service manages to get blacks and Hispanics to go camping they play boom-boxes until 1:00 a.m. Was Ronald Reagan your hero? He would not win a majority of today’s electorate.

Do you love Tchaikovsky? Count the non-whites in the concert hall. Do you yearn for neighborhoods where you can leave the keys in your car? There still are some; just don’t expect them to be “diverse.” Are hunting and firearms part of your heritage? Explain that to Barack Obama or Sonia Sotomayor. Are you a devout Christian? Muslim immigrants despise you and your faith. Do you support Israel? Mexicans, Haitians, Chinese, and Guatemalans don’t.

Your great festival – CPAC – is as white as a meeting of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. That’s because blacks and Hispanics and even Asians don’t share your dreams. You’ve heard the old joke: “What do you call the only black person at a conservative meeting? The keynote speaker.” Outreach doesn’t work. You can’t talk someone into loving what you love. Faith, patriotism, duty, and honor come from deeply cultural, religious, and ancestral sources you can’t reach.

Why do you evoke Martin Luther King when you call for a “colorblind” America? You know he wanted quotas for blacks. You evoke King because you think he’ll help you silence blacks and liberals. But it doesn’t work, does it? That’s because only whites–and Asians, when it suits them–even think in terms of “colorblindness.” Blacks and Hispanics will squeeze every unfair advantage out of you they can. At what point will they ever abandon their aggressive racial agenda? When they’re the majority just think how hard they’ll squeeze your grandchildren...

What a load of crap, and there's still more.

And this is the kind of conservatism Stogie at Saberpoint is all about? I don't know, but count me out brother, in any case. CPAC ain't all white, you cracker idiots. And true conservatism knows no color.

I really hate this moment of ideological purity we're having, but as folks can see I've taken my stand and it's not with the dolts of the racist Deutschephysik battalions.

Clinton Foundation Raked $600 Thousand from Swiss Offshore Banking Firm UBS — After Hillary Intervened in Criminal Case as Secretary of State

Hey, pay to play, the Clinton way.

At the Wall Street Journal, "UBS Deal Shows Clinton’s Complicated Ties":

Donations to family foundation increased after secretary of state’s involvement in tax case.

A few weeks after Hillary Clinton was sworn in as secretary of state in early 2009, she was summoned to Geneva by her Swiss counterpart to discuss an urgent matter. The Internal Revenue Service was suing UBS AG to get the identities of Americans with secret accounts.

If the case proceeded, Switzerland’s largest bank would face an impossible choice: Violate Swiss secrecy laws by handing over the names, or refuse and face criminal charges in U.S. federal court.

Within months, Mrs. Clinton announced a tentative legal settlement—an unusual intervention by the top U.S. diplomat. UBS ultimately turned over information on 4,450 accounts, a fraction of the 52,000 sought by the IRS, an outcome that drew criticism from some lawmakers who wanted a more extensive crackdown.

From that point on, UBS’s engagement with the Clinton family’s charitable organization increased. Total donations by UBS to the Clinton Foundation grew from less than $60,000 through 2008 to a cumulative total of about $600,000 by the end of 2014, according to the foundation and the bank.

The bank also joined the Clinton Foundation to launch entrepreneurship and inner-city loan programs, through which it lent $32 million. And it paid former president Bill Clinton $1.5 million to participate in a series of question-and-answer sessions with UBS Wealth Management Chief Executive Bob McCann, making UBS his biggest single corporate source of speech income disclosed since he left the White House.

There is no evidence of any link between Mrs. Clinton’s involvement in the case and the bank’s donations to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, or its hiring of Mr. Clinton. But her involvement with UBS is a prime example of how the Clintons’ private and political activities overlap.

UBS is just one of a series of companies that engaged with both the Clinton family’s charitable organization and the State Department under Mrs. Clinton. And it is an unusual one: Unlike cases in which Mrs. Clinton went to bat for American companies seeking business abroad, such as General Electric Co. and Boeing Co., the UBS matter involved her helping solve a problem for a foreign bank—not a popular constituency among Democrats—and stepping into an area where government prosecutors had been taking the lead.

The flood of donations and speech income that followed exemplifies why the charity and its fundraising have been a running problem for the presidential campaign of Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. Republicans as well as some Democrats have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest.

“They’ve engaged in behavior to make people wonder: What was this about?” says Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, who is a Democrat. “Was there something other than deciding the merits of these cases?”

Critics also have hit the charity for accepting donations from foreign governments, which they say could pose problems for her if she is elected, potentially opening her to criticism that she is obligated to foreign donors.

The Clintons have said accepting donations posed no conflicts of interest and broke no rule or law. To address the criticism, the Clinton Foundation decided to release donation information more frequently, and the foundation said earlier this year that the first disclosure is expected by the end of July.

UBS officials deny any connection between the legal case and the foundation donations. “Any insinuation that any of our philanthropic or business initiatives stems from support received from any current or former government official is ludicrous and without merit,” a bank spokeswoman said. UBS said the speeches by Mr. Clinton and the donations were part of a program to respond to the 2008 economic downturn.

A Clinton campaign spokesman said Mrs. Clinton is proud of the foundation’s work and her record as secretary of state. “Any suggestion that she was driven by anything but what’s in America’s best interest would be false. Period,” he said. He referred questions about the UBS matter to the State Department.

A State Department spokesman said that “UBS was a topic of serious discussion, among other issues, in our bilateral relations at that time” with the Swiss government. A spokeswoman in the Swiss embassy in Washington said the government had no comment.

In a CNN interview last month, Bill Clinton was asked if any foundation donors ever sought anything from the State Department. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I know of no example. But I—you never know what people’s motives are.”

Classic Clinton Cash.

Keep reading.