| 2020 Vision Monday: Polls show a 17-point swing toward impeaching Trump, which could drag down his reelection bid Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:57 AM PDT  A rapid 17-point shift means a majority of Americans may soon support impeachment, or, taking margin of error into account, might already. And that's terrible news for Trump.
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| What's causing record rates of STDs? Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:25 AM PDT  After decades of decline, rates of certain STDs have spiked to record levels, according to the CDC. What's causing the increase?
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| Booze run from behind bars: Inmates escape from Texas federal prison, return with whiskey Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:11 AM PDT  The men left the prison grounds and cut through a neighboring ranch before getting caught by authorities.
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| John Bolton warned White House lawyers about 'hand grenade' Giuliani and Mulvaney, aide reportedly testified Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:05 PM PDT ![John Bolton warned White House lawyers about 'hand grenade' Giuliani and Mulvaney, aide reportedly testified]( "John Bolton warned White House lawyers about 'hand grenade' Giuliani and Mulvaney, aide reportedly testified") Former National Security Adviser John Bolton was so alarmed by a White House-linked effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrats, he told aide Fiona Hill to alert the National Security Council's chief lawyer, Hill told House impeachment investigators in her 10-hour deposition on Monday, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal report. Specifically, Bolton told Hill, the top NSC staffer on Russia and Eurasian affairs, to notify White House lawyers that Rudy Giuliani, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland were running a rogue operation, the Times reports."I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up," Bolton reportedly told Hill to relate to the lawyers, after a heated July 10 meeting with Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a key player in the Ukraine pressure campaign, and Ukrainian officals. Before that meeting, Hill reportedly testified, Bolton told her that "Giuliani's a hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up." Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, is now under federal criminal investigation for his work in Ukraine, the Journal reported Monday. Sondland is scheduled to be deposed on Thursday.House investigators are now trying to decide whether to question Bolton, The Washington Post reports.Hill also testified that he had strongly opposed Giuliani's successful push to have Trump remove America's ambassador to Kyiv, Marie Yovanovitch, who had a reputation for fighting corruption in Ukraine. "I don't know Fiona and can't figure out what she is talking about," Giuliani told the Post on Monday night, adding that he believes she was out of the loop when it came to Ukraine, at least compared with Sondland. "She just didn't know," Giuliani said, reiterating his assertion that he was working on orders from the State Department. Update, 12:47 a.m.: This article has been updated based on a clarification by the Times:> On the "drug deal" quote: 1 person in the room during Hill's testimony initially said Bolton mentioned Rudy, but 2 others now say Hill said he actually cited Sondland: "I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland & Mulvaney are cooking up"@peterbakernythttps://t.co/Usfejnhcoj> > -- Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) October 15, 2019
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| India blocks SMS services in Kashmir after trucker killed Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:53 AM PDT  Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected militants and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said Tuesday. Separately, Indian officials said a 24-year-old woman died in the latest exchange of artillery fire with Pakistan over their de-facto border dividing the blood-soaked Himalayan region.
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| NATO's Stoltenberg defends stance on Turkey's offensive in Syria Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:47 AM PDT  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday defended his stance on Turkey's attack on Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria as he came under pressure from some members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to be tougher with Ankara. Splits in the military alliance have emerged after NATO member Turkey began its offensive in Syria last week, with the governments of EU countries that are also NATO members suspending weapon sales to Turkey.
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| Jeep Gladiator Gets Even More Rugged as a Military-Spec Vehicle Posted: 15 Oct 2019 01:08 PM PDT  Jeep and AM General could re-enlist with the U.S. Army as soon as next year.
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| The Latest: 2nd crane in danger of collapse Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:09 PM PDT  The second of two cranes towering over the site where a New Orleans hotel construction project partially collapsed two days ago is now considered in danger of toppling. Two other workers are known dead at the project site, which sits on the edge of the historic French Quarter. The coroner's office in New Orleans has identified one of two workers known to have died when a hotel under construction partially collapsed.
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| Putin’s Syria Gambit Delivers Again as Trump Sidelines U.S. Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:56 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The Turkish troops who poured into Syria to battle Kurdish fighters abandoned by the U.S. may have inadvertently handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a strategic victory in the Middle East.Less than a week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the intervention, Russia underlined its dominance in the region by warning of the limits of its patience with the operation. The Kremlin's message came after President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey that left many in Congress unimpressed following his withdrawal of the last 1,000 U.S. troops from territory held by the Kurds for seven years during the Syrian war."We have always called on Turkey to exercise restraint and considered any military operation in Syria unacceptable," Putin's special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, said Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, where the Russian president was meeting with United Arab Emirates leaders. "Security along the Turkish-Syrian border must be ensured by deploying government troops."Putin has seized on the crisis to maneuver Syrian government forces into Kurdish-held territory, a major step in his efforts to restore President Bashar al-Assad's control over all of the country after Russia's military intervention tipped the war in his favor. The Kurdish-led authority in northeast Syria announced Sunday that it had struck a deal with Damascus and Moscow for the Syrian army to protect the northern border with Turkey after the U.S. pullout.The agreement gives the Kremlin undisputed leadership in shaping Syria's future, bolstering Putin's image in the Middle East, where he's already forged a partnership with Iran, created an oil alliance with Saudi Arabia and built close ties with Egypt's strongman President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Putin has also wooed Erdogan, who defied U.S. opposition to buy Russia's advanced S-400 air-defense system, and they have coordinated efforts to try to resolve the Syrian war despite tensions over the Kurds.Putin traveled to the U.A.E. from Saudi Arabia, where he made his first visit since 2007, reinforcing the Kremlin's efforts to exploit waning U.S. influence in the Middle East under Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama.'Searing Perceptions'"The split screen of Trump's shambolic withdrawal from Syria and Putin's" visit to the region "is searing perceptions of a new balance of power in the world," Brett McGurk, the former lead envoy for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, said on Twitter. He resigned in protest in December after Trump first announced a Syria pullout.Syrian government troops took full control of the key frontier city of Manbij and surrounding towns following the U.S. departure, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday in an emailed statement. Russian military police are patrolling the northeast border of Manbij province along the line of contact between Syrian and Turkish forces, it said.The U.S. has "abandoned partners, undermining others' trust," said Tom Tugendhat, a U.K. lawmaker from the ruling Conservative party and chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee. Russia "is a key ally of both sides and wins either way," he said on Twitter.Russia won't permit any armed clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces, Lavrentiev told reporters."Putin has forced his allies and rivals to accept that he has essentially become the architect of the political and military balances in the Syrian conflict," Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North East research at Eurasia Group, said by email.Trump sought to regain the initiative on Monday by holding phone talks with Kurdish military commander Mazloum Abdi and Erdogan in the presence of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has pushed for "crippling" sanctions on Turkey. The U.S. president assured Abdi he would do "everything possible" to stop the Turkish incursion, Graham said on Twitter.Ankara says the offensive, which has provoked a wave of international condemnation, is necessary to push back Kurdish fighters it describes as terrorists linked to separatists inside Turkey.But Putin on Friday warned that the operation risked triggering a resurgent threat from Islamic State, with thousands of jihadists detained by the Kurds potentially able to escape. "This is a real threat to all of us," he told regional counterparts in Turkmenistan. The Kurds said Sunday that nearly 800 inmates affiliated with Islamic State had escaped from a detention center after Turkish shelling.The Turkish attack and U.S. pullback presented a perfect opportunity to achieve Russian goals in Syria and restore central control over the oil-rich northeast, according to Elena Suponina, a Moscow-based Middle East expert."Russia has always wanted the government to recover control of as much territory as possible," she said.(Updates with Syrian forces take Manbij in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Selcan Hacaoglu and Ilya Arkhipov.To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Andrey Biryukov in Moscow at abiryukov5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| North Korea's Spy Submarines Have Performed Some Wild Missions—But This One Ended In Disaster Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:06 AM PDT  A mechanical meltdown?
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| Interactive Map Shows Exactly How Much Car Emissions Have Grown Where You Live Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:25 AM PDT  New York Times map shows the best and worst places in the U.S. for emissions from vehicles.
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| Woman will spend 60 years in prison for first-degree murder of boyfriend Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:46 AM PDT  A woman who poured gasoline on the couch where her sleeping boyfriend lay and then shut the door after seeing him jump up and yell "hot, hot" will spend 60 years in prison for first-degree murder.
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| Nigerian police rescue 67 from 'inhuman' conditions at Islamic 'school' Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:37 PM PDT  The raid in Katsina, the northwestern home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, came less than a month after about 300 men and boys were freed from another supposed Islamic school in neighboring Kaduna state where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused. "In the course of investigation, sixty-seven persons from the ages of 7 to 40 years were found shackled with chains," Katsina police spokesman Sanusi Buba said in a statement.
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| All of the Google Pixel and Home Products on Sale Now Posted: 15 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT |
| Parents of teen killed in crash coming to White House Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:09 AM PDT  The family of a British teenager killed in a car crash involving an American diplomat's wife was headed to the White House on Tuesday for a meeting with senior administration officials. A spokesman for the family announced the afternoon meeting on Twitter, and senior White House official confirmed it on condition of anonymity. It was unclear whether the Dunns would meet with the president, but family spokesman Radd Seiger said in a tweet that he was "looking forward to getting further answers" about Harry Dunn's death.
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| The US defense secretary gives US's strongest condemnation yet of Turkey's 'unacceptable incursion' in Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:12 AM PDT  "Turkey's unilateral action was unnecessary and impulsive," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, adding that US-Turkish relations was now "damaged."
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| Giuliani refuses to comply with impeachment subpoena as attorney steps down: ‘I don’t need a lawyer’ Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:32 PM PDT  Rudy Giuliani has said he will not co-operate with an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump and insisted he did not need a lawyer following the arrest of two business associates accused of campaign finance violations.The president's personal attorney posted a letter on Twitter to the House permanent select committee on intelligence in which his lawyer wrote: "Please accept this response as formal notice that Mr Giuliani will not participate because this appears to be an unconstitutional, baseless and illegitimate 'impeachment inquiry.'"
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| CIA spy whose cover was blown by Bush administration warns Trump over chilling effect of outing whistleblower Posted: 14 Oct 2019 12:00 AM PDT  The whistle blower who sparked Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry will have his life turned upside down when his identity is inevitably revealed, according to a former CIA agent. Valerie Plame, who was forced to quit her undercover role when her name was leaked by US government officials in 2003, said her "heart goes out" to the CIA operative who raised concerns about a phone call between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart. In his complaint, the unnamed whistleblower said multiple officials on the call had raised concerns that Mr Trump had pressured a foreign government to interfere in US elections. Since then a second individual, who has also chosen to remain anonymous, has come forward claiming to have first hand knowledge of the allegations outlined in the original complaint. Mr Trump has rebuffed the claims, launching a counter-attack on the original whistleblower, who he claims is politically motivated. With so much scrutiny upon him, Ms Plame told The Telegraph: "This person's life has changed forever; I think it's only a matter of time before we know his identity". Once that happens, she added: "The partisan machines will get cranked up and he will read about this person he doesn't recognise." She warned his entire life will be raked over, even down to "what kind of salad dressing" he uses. Ms Plame is perhaps uniquely qualified to comment; she was working as a covert agent her own cover was blown by officials in George W Bush's administration during the lead-up to the Iraq war. The move was seen as retaliation for an op-ed written by her then-husband and former diplomat, Joseph Wilson, casting doubt on the Bush administration's rationale for going to war with Iraq. The "Plame affair", as it came to be known, rocked the Bush administration and led to a federal investigation and a senior White House official's conviction. Ms Plame chose to leave Washington soon afterwards. But now she is plotting a return to the US capital as she vies to represent New Mexico's 3rd congressional district in the House of Representatives. She has already created a buzz with a fiery campaign video taking aim at those she holds responsible for her own unmasking - as well as Mr Trump. In her first interview with a British newspaper, Ms Plame described the experience as akin to being "punched in the gut". "I was concerned on so many levels," she said, describing the scrutiny that fell on everyone with whom she had ever interacted in the course of her covert work. "And of course there's a personal threat, and my children were very small and I was very worried about their physical security." She added: "You can't go to the grocery store without people looking at you sideways. I found it very disconcerting for many years to go from real anonymity to being such a public person literally overnight and I hope it doesn't happen in this case - but it doesn't seem likely." The Democrat warned the unmasking of whistleblowers will have a "chilling effect" on others, saying her former CIA colleagues already feel under assault by the president's slurs against the US intelligence community. Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame in the film Fair Game "There's a sense of unease and it's certainly clear that President Trump does not hold the intelligence community in esteem, to the contrary he demeans them on a regular basis. It's upsetting and I know many of my former colleagues feel the same," she said. She believes that under Mr Trump's presidency, America's "credibility and standing in the world has suffered" and said she was driven to run for Congress by a desire use her "interesting" backstory as a platform "to effect positive change". She is focusing her campaign on education, economic opportunity and the environment, the three concerns she says are most often raised on the doorstep in New Mexico. She also has some advice for the, as yet, unnamed whistleblower: "hold your friends and family close". "It appears [his decision to come forward] was not a whimsical, arbitrary decision, he gave it some thought. Nevertheless no one has any idea how it's going to unfold - no one ever does."
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| Florida girl, 1, dies in hot car, the 50th death of 2019, according to one national tracker Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:45 AM PDT  The death of a 1-year-old Florida girl Monday marked the 50th case of a child dying in a hot car this year, according to KidsandCars.org.
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| Court Ruling Extends Vote Protest of Philippine Marcos’ Son Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines' top court on Tuesday decided to release the initial results of the vice-presidential vote recount, which the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos' son said will delay his chance to assume the post.Former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he is "frustrated" by the court's decision not to resolve his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo victory in the 2016 polls. Robredo is already halfway through her six-year term.The court instead decided to make public the result of the recount covering three provinces that will serve as basis for any further action on Marcos' challenge. It also asked the two camps to comment on Marcos' plea to nullify votes in three other provinces due to supposed irregularities in the 2016 elections."The proper vice president -- myself -- is being robbed of years of service," Marcos said in a televised interview. President Rodrigo Duterte, who has faced questions on his health, has repeatedly said Marcos is his preferred successor if he had to leave office before his single term expires in 2022.Robredo, leader of the opposition party, said she welcomes the court decision, as she urged the court to already junk Marcos' protest. "The mere fact that this has been dragging on for so long only provides Marcos a platform for his lies," she said in a separate televised briefing.(Updates with comments from Marcos and Robredo from fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Muneeza NaqviFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China inflation surges as pork prices soar Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:48 PM PDT  China's consumer inflation accelerated at its fastest pace in almost six years in September as African swine fever sent pork prices soaring nearly 70 percent, official data showed Tuesday. Authorities have gone as far as tapping the nation's pork reserve to control prices of the staple meat, as the swine fever crisis could become a political and economic liability for the state. The consumer price index (CPI) -- a key gauge of retail inflation -- hit 3.0 percent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, up from 2.8 percent in August and the highest since since November 2013.
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| Dutch police discover family locked away for years in isolated farmhouse Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:46 AM PDT  Dutch police acting on a tip-off discovered six young adult siblings who had apparently spent years locked away in a secret room in an isolated farmhouse "waiting for the end of time," local broadcasters reported on Tuesday.
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| France warns of 'endless soap opera' on EU membership talks with Balkans Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:42 AM PDT ![France warns of 'endless soap opera' on EU membership talks with Balkans]( "France warns of 'endless soap opera' on EU membership talks with Balkans") France stuck to its hardline position against European Union membership talks for North Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday, warning it could not approve negotiations until the bloc reformed the "endless soap opera" of admitting new members. Europe ministers, making a third attempt since June 2018 to approve membership talks for the Balkan hopefuls, are set to discuss in Luxembourg opening a path for Skopje and Tirana, with broad EU support and backing from the United States.
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| The Latest: $200,000 bond set for ex-cop charged with murder Posted: 14 Oct 2019 06:30 PM PDT  A $200,000 bond has been set for a white former police officer jailed in the fatal shooting of a black woman inside the woman's Fort Worth home. Aaron Dean was booked Monday evening into the Tarrant County Jail on the murder charge in the death of Atatiana Jefferson. Jail records do not list an attorney for Dean.
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| What Did America Offer North Korea at Working-Level Talks? One Report Claims To Know. Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:05 AM PDT  And it makes absolutely no sense at all.
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| Boris Johnson is reportedly very close to agreeing a Brexit deal with the EU Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:13 AM PDT  EU sources told Bloomberg that a deal could be concluded as early as Tuesday, with the UK set to agree a new compromise deal.
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| Trump news – live: Pelosi decides not to call impeachment vote, as Democratic candidates go head-to head in crunch debate Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:04 PM PDT  Democrats are sparring in the largest presidential primary debate in American history for the chance to take on Donald Trump in the 2020 elections. The debate is the first since an impeachment inquiry was launched in Congress against the president.Meanwhile, reports indicate ex-national security adviser John Bolton urged former Russia adviser Fiona Hill to warn the White House about a campaign to pressure Ukraine orchestrated by the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, describing the latter as a "hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up".
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| We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records. Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:25 PM PDT  USA TODAY is leading a national effort to obtain and publish disciplinary and misconduct records for thousands of police officers.
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| Amazon Pledges $1 Million More in Heated Seattle Elections Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:36 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is reaching into its deep pockets in an effort to make Seattle more business-friendly, pledging an additional $1 million to a corporate-backed group ahead of next month's contentious city council elections.The contribution disclosed on Tuesday brings Amazon's donations this election cycle to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE) to $1.45 million, and likely cements the company's status as the biggest spender in its hometown's elections. The splurge marks a dramatic change for the e-commerce giant, which largely avoided city politics for most of its 25 years, even as it grew into Seattle's largest employer and contributed to a boom that brought about rapidly rising housing costs, snarled traffic and a homelessness crisis."We are contributing to this election because we care deeply about the future of Seattle," Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said in an emailed statement. "We believe it is critical that our hometown has a city council that is focused on pragmatic solutions to our shared challenges in transportation, homelessness, climate change and public safety."Amazon's relationship with city hall was a focus of heated debate last year around a proposed tax on large businesses to fund services for the homeless. The city council passed -- and then, under pressure from a business-backed repeal effort, rescinded -- the so-called head tax after Amazon paused construction planning on a piece of its corporate campus and threatened to back out of a lease for a major downtown skyscraper. Amazon would later confirm its intent to sublease that building anyway.Seven of Seattle's nine city council seats are up for election this year.Socialist councilmember Kshama Sawant, who sought to link Amazon to the tax and has made calls to tax the company a fixture of her reelection campaign, faces a competitive race in the Nov. 5 general election. Egan Orion, a community leader from Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, is backed by CASE and individual contributions from more than a dozen Amazon executives.Amazon's latest commitment makes the company the biggest spender so far this election cycle, according to CASE, topping the $855,000 spent by a group affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. mazon this year has also hosted and sponsored city council candidate forums, and contributed $400,000 to a campaign to defeat a ballot measure that would cut Washington state car-tab taxes at the expense of transportation projects.To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Day in Seattle at mday63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Robin AjelloFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 7 Indigenous Pioneers You Need to Know Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:19 AM PDT |
| Turkey slams 'dirty deal' between Syria's Assad and Kurdish forces Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:01 AM PDT  Turkey dismissed global opposition to its military operation in Syria on Tuesday and slammed a "dirty deal" between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and Kurdish forces as US troops began their withdrawal from the battle zone. Turkey's operation against Kurdish militants in Syria, launched a week ago, has been widely criticised by the international community, with the US, a NATO ally, slapping sanctions on Ankara. "We will continue to combat all terrorist groups, including Daesh (the Islamic State group), whether or not the world agrees to support our efforts," Fahrettin Altun, communications director at the Turkish presidency, told AFP.
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| Russian reporters receive threats after investigating secret military group -editor Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:44 AM PDT ![Russian reporters receive threats after investigating secret military group -editor]( "Russian reporters receive threats after investigating secret military group -editor") A group of Russian journalists who investigated the activities of a secretive group of Russian mercenaries in Africa and the Middle East have been subject to a campaign of physical threats and harassment, their editor-in-chief said. Around the same time, Roman Badanin, its editor-in-chief, said his journalists began to get emailed threats promising physical retribution for their work. Badanin said he could not prove who was behind the harassment campaign, which he said peaked last month when Proekt ran an investigation into Wagner's alleged activities in Libya.
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| The Latest: Fire department: LA blaze began under power line Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:44 PM PDT  Fire officials say a destructive fire that broke out on the edge of Los Angeles began beneath a high-voltage transmission tower. Capt. Erik Scott told The Associated Press on Monday that Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigators have only determined the origin of the fire, not its cause. The location was at the base of power lines owned by Southern California Edison.
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| Jet Fighter Death Match: Russia's MiG-15 vs. America's F-86 Sabre (Who Wins?) Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT  In the end, the Sabre vs. MiG duel made for great newsprint. But much like the Korean War, it ultimately counted for little.
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| When Cops Create Their Own Risk, Innocent People Die for Their Mistakes Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:21 PM PDT  The video is puzzling and shocking. After receiving a call to a non-emergency number requesting that police check on a neighbor's house that had its doors open and its lights on, police approach silently. They look into an open door and into a brightly lit room, but they don't say anything. They then creep around the house, moving from light to dark. They use a flashlight. They keep moving around the edges of the house.Suddenly, in a mere moment, one of them spots movement in a window. The officer yells for the shadowy figure to put up her hands and then immediately fires a shot. Atatiana Jefferson was dead. She was 28 years old. According to her family's lawyer, she was playing video games with her young nephew when they heard "rustling" outside and "saw flashlights." There was a gun in the house, but there's no indication (yet) that she was holding it in her hand.But what if she was? Does a homeowner not have a right to investigate someone lurking on her property? Can she not arm herself at 2:30 a.m. when she hears a strange sound in the darkness?I've been looking closely at the police-shooting issue for many years, and I'm noticing a trend in many of the worst and most controversial shootings. The police make mistakes that heighten their own sense of danger, and then they "resolve" their own error by opening fire.The examples are easy to find. The worst and most recent is that of Dallas officer Amber Guyger, who made the dreadful mistake of entering the wrong house and then immediately dealt with the perceived "threat" by shooting the innocent man inside.But Guyger is hardly the only offender. Who can forget the terrible shooting of Philando Castile, gunned down as he tried to comply with conflicting commands from an obviously panicked officer — the officer told Castile to hand over his license and proof of insurance, but also to not reach for his gun. He shot Castile to death even as Castile was calmly telling him that he wasn't reaching for his gun.Then there's the extraordinarily gut-wrenching video of a cop killing Daniel Shaver as he sobbed and begged for his life. The officer's instructions were utterly incomprehensible. He told Shaver to not put his hands down for any reason. He also told him to crawl down the hall..No one should forget Andrew Scott. Police seeking a suspect showed up at the wrong house (without a warrant), did not turn on their lights, did not identify themselves as police, and pounded violently on the door late at night. When Scott answered his own door with a firearm in his hand, he was instantly shot dead.It wasn't until the tragic death of Willie McCoy that the trend truly became obvious. McCoy was sleeping in his car, blocking a drive-through window, with a gun in his lap. When he began to move, cops clustered around his car started screaming at him so loudly that the transcript of the video has to explain that the shouts weren't gunshots. Then, within three seconds, the officers riddled him with bullets. They startled him awake, and then killed him.In response, I wrote this:> When we evaluate police shootings, we wrongly tend to limit our analysis to the very instant of the shooting itself. The question of a cop's reasonable fear at that instant is allowed to trump all other concerns, and becomes the deciding factor at trial. I would argue, however, that officers act unreasonably when they don't give a citizen a reasonable chance to live — and giving a citizen a reasonable chance to live involves properly handling the situation so no weapon need be fired.Would Atatiana Jefferson still be alive if the cops had parked in front of her house and clearly identified themselves by shouting into the open door? Would they still be alive had they not lurked around a person's home without permission -- exactly like a person who was trespassing, perhaps with malign intent?There is absolutely no question that police have a difficult job. There is no question that even routine encounters and wellness checks can — on rare occasions — escalate to deadly violence. But there is also no question that time and again police have enhanced the risk to the public through their own mistakes. Poor tactics can yield terrible results, and police should not be able to use the "split-second decision" defense when they created the crisis.There is no greater violation of liberty than the loss of your own life in your own home at the hands of misguided, panicky, or poorly trained agents of the state. Absent compelling evidence not yet revealed to the public, it appears that the man who killed Atatiana Jefferson committed a criminal act. He deserves to face criminal justice.
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| FBI officials were 'rattled' and 'blindsided' by Trump's call for Ukraine to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:37 PM PDT  Officials were stunned not just by the nature of Trump's actions but also by his brazenness, which came months after the FBI closed the Russia probe.
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| Funeral prank by deceased grandfather leaves mourners laughing Posted: 14 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT  A funeral prank that had a deceased grandfather talking from beyond the grave left mourners laughing.
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| Yahoo data breach settlement 2019: How to get up to $358 or free credit monitoring Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:14 PM PDT ![Yahoo data breach settlement 2019: How to get up to $358 or free credit monitoring]( "Yahoo data breach settlement 2019: How to get up to $358 or free credit monitoring") Yahoo users can now file a claim for a piece of the $117.5 million class action settlement related to data breaches between 2012 and 2016.
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| For Moscow, a win in Syria but fraught with risks Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:37 AM PDT  The withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria was a win for President Vladimir Putin, strengthening Russia's role as the key foreign player in the war-torn country. Russian officials said Tuesday they were working with Turkey to avoid confrontation with pro-regime forces in northern Syria, where Turkish troops have moved in against Kurdish fighters. Syrian government troops -- backed by Russian forces since Moscow launched an intervention in 2015 -- have also moved into the north under a deal reached with the Kurds.
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| California governor demands PG&E accountability for mismanaging power shutoffs Posted: 14 Oct 2019 02:29 PM PDT  California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday that utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co should be held accountable for mismanaging last week's widespread power shutoffs and urged the company to provide credits or rebates to affected customers. Separately, the California Public Utility Commission ordered corrective steps by PG&E, the state's largest investor-owned utility, while summoning eight of its top executives to an emergency meeting on Friday. The utility, a unit of PG&E Corp , cut off electricity to more than 730,000 homes and workplaces in northern California last week in a bid to reduce wildfire risks posed by extremely windy, dry weather.
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| Wildfires spread through parts of Lebanon, Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:25 AM PDT  Wildfires spread through parts of Lebanon on Tuesday after forcing some residents to flee their homes in the middle of the night, while others were stuck inside as the flames reached villages south of Beirut, authorities said. There were no reports of fatalities from the fires — among the worst to hit Lebanon in years. Fire crews were overwhelmed by the flames in the Mount Lebanon region early Tuesday, forcing the Interior Ministry to send riot police with engines equipped with water cannons to help.
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| View 2021 Genesis GV70 Spy Photos Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:28 AM PDT |
| CNN’s Anti-Religious Town Hall Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:41 AM PDT  LGBT activists gathered last week for CNN's "Equality" town hall with the Democratic presidential candidates. The advocates present were, in the words of Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David, the "tip of the spear in our fight for full equality."The "spear" metaphor grew more apt as the night went on.Religious freedom was the second-most-popular whipping post. The candidates talked about the concept with palpable derision, as if religion — save Islam, which they predictably if incoherently exempted — were a ruse used to cement old prejudices. No one actually believes those folksy things about God, heaven, and hell, right? Never considered was the notion that people hold earnest religious beliefs that in turn inform their views on sexual morality.The town hall was also evidence that the LGBTQ movement has grown more jaded and contemptuous, even as it has achieved more and more of its ostensible aims. If conciliation was ever the preferred tone, it is no longer. Instead, it is now increasingly unashamed and vituperative scorn.How would Elizabeth Warren, for instance, respond to someone on the campaign trail who said that they believed in the traditional definition of marriage? "Well, I'm gonna assume it's a guy who said that," she said. That elicited a laugh from the audience, men being the only acceptable punchline to the humorless scolds in the crowd. She continued, "I'm gonna say then just marry one woman. I'm cool with that." Then, after a pause: "If you can find one."(Social science notwithstanding on that last jab.)Beto O'Rourke piled on further, affirming his belief that "freedom of religion is a fundamental right, but it should not be used to discriminate."You are, in other words, "free" to practice your religion, so long as you practice it in a manner that Beto O'Rourke — the skateboard-wielding ex-congressman who posts videos of his dental visits on social media — sees fit. Some animals are more equal than others: O'Rourke will be happy to "discriminate" against your church if it happens to hold an unpopular position on sexual ethics. He literally said so seconds later, when asked by Don Lemon if religious institutions should "lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same sex marriage." O'Rourke's response:> There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us. And so as president, we are going to make that a priority and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.What "human right" are religious organizations "infringing upon" when they "oppose" same-sex marriage? Do people have a "civil right" to have their sexual preferences validated by private religious organizations? Is there a "human right" to have your particular sexual union baptized by religious traditions with centuries of contravening theological directives?Pete Buttigieg took this same tack, insisting that "the right to religious freedom ends where religion is being used as an excuse to harm other people." Which of course depends entirely on what Buttigieg means by "harm." There is certainly "harm," for instance, in mutilating the genitals of a young girl — a more ecumenical venture than progressives care to admit — but does a baker's refusal to bake a cake that violates his religious convictions "harm other people"? What if a church refuses to host a ceremony that offends its moral precepts? Does "religious freedom end" when someone refuses to grant moral approbation to someone else's choices and behavior?Indeed, that was the Freudian subtext of the entire town hall. "Equality?" That has, even on activists' own terms, been long achieved. Notice, Alphonso David didn't simply want "equality" — whatever that means — but "full equality": your approval. Not simply your toleration, but your moral assent and your unhesitating affirmation. It's not enough to live and let live. You will, in Erick Erickson's words, "be made to care."First, we were told that good sense held that we ought to allow two consenting adults to do as they wished in the privacy of their own bedroom. Fair enough — what business is it of ours? Next came civil unions. Fine. Then, marriage was redefined at a federal level on the basis of specious legal reasoning. Next, religious florists, bakers, and caterers were asked to violate their consciences and dragged before the courts if they declined. And now, at long last, the public exercise of religious faith, and the very belief itself, the very notion that one has rights to "oppose" practices that violate their private conscience, are under siege.All of which, we were told, would "never happen." As the town hall put on display, it's not for want of trying.
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| Democrats want to close churches, raise taxes and pay for sex reassignment surgery. Great. Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:52 AM PDT  In their war on rural America, Democratic candidates want to take guns, put churches out of business and pay for sex reassignment surgery for inmates.
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| A 75-year-old cruise ship passenger jumped overboard a Carnival-owned ship between Portugal and Spain (CCL) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:14 AM PDT  A Costa Cruises representative said the woman "voluntarily" jumped from the balcony in her cabin on the Costa Pacifica ship.
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