| 'No Malarkey': Biden could shock the pundits and win Posted: 02 Dec 2019 01:50 PM PST  Biden doesn't actually need to win Iowa or New Hampshire to accrue the 1,990 pledged delegates required to clinch the nomination. He simply needs to hold onto black voters in Southern states and urban areas.
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| House Democrats to vote on restoration of Voting Rights Act this month Posted: 03 Dec 2019 11:07 AM PST  House Democrats will vote this month on a bill intended to lay the foundation for a restoration of the full Voting Rights Act, a significant step in a years-long effort to respond to a 2013 Supreme Court decision that significantly weakened the law.
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| US Marine charged with illegally flying guns into Haiti Posted: 03 Dec 2019 09:29 AM PST  A U.S. Marine caught smuggling guns into Haiti told investigators he wanted to help the country's military learn marksmanship and defeat "thugs" causing instability there, according to a criminal complaint. The criminal complaint filed last week in a North Carolina federal court charges Marine Sgt. Jacques Yves Duroseau with smuggling firearms. Prosecutors say Duroseau flew from North Carolina to Haiti with baggage including eight firearms — at least five of which he bought himself — but lacked needed authorization to take them abroad.
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| Corbyn Rounds on Amazon, Uber, Asda for ‘Exploiting Workers’ Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:30 PM PST ![Corbyn Rounds on Amazon, Uber, Asda for 'Exploiting Workers']( "Corbyn Rounds on Amazon, Uber, Asda for 'Exploiting Workers'") (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Labour Party ratcheted up its attack on big business, singling out five companies it said are some of the country's worst employers, as it pledged to extend employee rights.Amazon.com Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. "exploited, ripped off and dehumanized" their workers, Labour said in a statement late Monday. The party leveled the same criticism at billionaire Mike Ashley's Sports Direct International Plc, Walmart Inc.'s Asda supermarket chain, and outsourcing giant ISS A/S.The critique of individual businesses, less than two weeks before the general election, marks an escalation in Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn's campaign against a "corrupt system" that he says favors billionaires. The latest polls suggest he's chipping away at Conservative Party Leader Boris Johnson's lead."We'll call time on insecure and unsafe work that leaves people without the rights and dignity they deserve," Corbyn said. "We'll call time on discrimination in the workplace that leaves women vulnerable to harassment and unequal pay. And we'll call time on the running down of workers' rights."Labour also vowed to:End "bogus" self-employment, so employers can't evade laws protecting workersBan zero-hours contractsImmediately introduce a living wage of 10 pounds ($13) an hour for all workersRequire paid breaks during shiftsCreate a Workers Protection Agency with powers to inspect and prosecute employersGive all workers full and equal rights from their first day, regardless of whether full- or part-time, or temporaryThe proposals are part of the party's most radical manifesto since 1983. Labour has also pledged to nationalize industries, hand shares in publicly traded companies to workers, and install employees on boards.Labour criticized Amazon for union-busting and its health and safety record. Sports Direct was attacked for its "exploitative employment practices" and ISS for failing to "respect basic rights or pay its workers properly."Amazon denied the claims and said Labour had ignored its attempts to set the record straight. "The truth is that Amazon already offers industry-leading pay, starting at 9.50 pounds and 10.50 pounds per hour depending on location, comprehensive benefits, as well as a safe, modern work environment," the company said in a statement.Sports Direct declined to comment directly on the Labour attack, but said most of Labour's information about the company was "hopelessly out of date."ISS, which employs almost 40,000 people in the U.K., said it "has always operated with integrity and in line with all appropriate local legal requirements to ensure all its employees are paid fairly and competitively."Asda, the party said, "forced employees to sign a more 'flexible' contract that will mean they will no longer be paid for any breaks and be forced to work bank holidays and weekends."The supermarket chain denied the claims against it and said it doesn't use zero-hours contracts."Despite the huge pressures facing our sector, we have worked to give a pay increase to almost 120,000 of our retail colleagues in return for a degree of flexibility that is standard in our industry and ensures fairness for all," it said in a statement.Uber failed to ensure the safety of customers or to pay its drivers the legal minimum wage once the costs of doing the job were accounted for, Labour said. In a statement, the company said that it will "continue working to improve the experience for and with drivers."\--With assistance from Nate Lanxon, Christian Wienberg and Deirdre Hipwell.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Edward Evans, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Chicago mayor fires police chief weeks before his retirement, accusing him of lying Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:09 AM PST  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday even though he was about to retire, accusing him of lying to her about an incident in October when patrol officers found him sleeping in his car. Johnson's termination comes weeks after he announced his retirement after leading the second-largest U.S. police force for three years, saying that the job had taken a toll on his health, family and friends. In the early morning of Oct. 17, police officers found Johnson, 59, in his car.
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| What Adam Schiff Doesn’t Get About Watergate Posted: 03 Dec 2019 02:02 AM PST  He sees Howard Baker as a noble, bipartisan impeachment hero. In reality, he was just another attack dog for Nixon. Here's why Democrats need to get their history right.
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| US diplomat calls for 'decisive action' in Afghan alleged abuse ring Posted: 03 Dec 2019 12:30 AM PST  Afghan authorities must take "decisive action" following reports of an alleged paedophile ring operating in schools in eastern Afghanistan, a senior US diplomat said Tuesday. The comments by Alice Wells, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, come after British newspaper The Guardian last month detailed accounts of the abuse, which allegedly affected more than 500 victims in Logar province south of Kabul. "We call on Afghan authorities, including the Attorney General's Office, to take decisive action on deeply troubling reports of sexual abuse in Logar schools," Wells wrote on Twitter.
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| Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat, returns to work after six months off for stress Posted: 02 Dec 2019 01:37 AM PST  Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat, has returned to work after six months recovering from stress caused by civil servants constantly picking him up and overfeeding him. Those working in the department have been warned not to touch the cat unless approached, and to stop feeding him treats. In July, the cat was taken to the house of Sir Simon McDonald's Private Secretary in order to recover from stress; the mouser was overweight and had groomed all of the hair off his front legs. Sir Simon, a senior civil servant, is in charge of Palmerston's well-being and on Monday morning issued a strict letter to staff, warning them that if they do not change their behaviour towards the cat, he may be retired for good. Mystery has surrounded Palmerston's extended break, with some worrying the cat was gravely unwell and close to death. However, these rumours were unfounded and the animal is happy and back to full health. The letter reads: "He is happy, healthy and full of energy. His pelt is glossy and mostly grown back (over grooming is, I'm told, a similar habit to human's nail-biting; the habit can take a while to kick). His diet is regulated and free of Dreamies. We need now to keep him that way!" I am happy to announce that I will be returning to my Chief Mouser duties at the @foreignoffice this week! New guidance - the Palmerston Protocols - will govern my care in the FCO to make sure it's working for me. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/j2AFKI0DGN— Palmerston (@DiploMog) December 2, 2019 Staff have been given four rules now the cat is back. Sir Simon wrote: "First, no-one (apart from his carers) should feed Palmerston. No Dreamies. No bowls of food under the desk for if he happens to drop by. Nothing! "Second, everyone must help keep Palmerston in the 'Palmerston Zone'. Cats are territorial. They fret when their territory is bigger than they can manage. They can cope with an ever smaller territory as they age. Palmerston has been king of King Charles Street, roaming from basement to fourth floor (with quad, Downing Street and occasionally St James's Park thrown in) for nearly four years. We think he's about six years old, ie entering feline middle age. "With the vet's help we have mapped a more manageable territory: the offices and area surrounding the Grand Staircase. Heavy doors mark the limits, now with (discreet) stickers proclaiming, 'You are entering/leaving the Palmerston Zone'. Please respect the Zone and return Palmerston if you find him straying further afield. Bear in mind that he loves to sit beside the door and dart through, if given half a chance. "Third, everyone must respect Palmerston's personal space. Allow Palmerston to choose whether he wants to interact with you: offer your hand as if you were introducing yourself to a stranger, and allow Palmerston to make the first move. Don't wake him if he is sleeping. He has full choice and control of who he deigns to greet or imperiously ignores. "Fourth, my staff office will serve as both my Outer Office and as Palmerston's refuge: Palmerston HQ. If he is in Palmerston HQ, he is not to be disturbed. Palmerston is a friendly, outgoing cat, but we all need our privacy. Like Greta Garbo, sometimes he wants to be alone."
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| Nunes Sues CNN over Allegation He Met with Fired Ukrainian Prosecutor Victor Shokin Posted: 03 Dec 2019 03:31 PM PST  Ranking House intelligence Committee Republican Devin Nunes filed a $435 million lawsuit on Tuesday against "the mother of fake news" CNN over a November 22 report, which alleged that disgraced Giuliani associate Lev Parnas is willing to tell impeachment investigators that Nunes dug up dirt on Joe Biden with former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin during a 2018 meeting in Vienna."CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable," Nunes alleges in the suit, and claims that the article "intentionally falsified" key facts. Nunes says he never visited Austria last year, cites a Washington Post piece in which a source close to Shokin denies the meeting took place, and denies any contact with Parnas over the trip."From all the evidence in its possession, CNN was well-aware that Parnas was a renowned liar, a fraudster, a hustler, an opportunist with delusions of grandeur, a man in financial in extremis," Nunes's lawsuit adds.Earlier Tuesday, the Democratic Intelligence Committee released a report on impeachment showing calls between Nunes and Parnas dated from April, but no record of any contact in December 2018.CNN quotes Joseph A. Bondy, Parnas's attorney, who says that "Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December." Following the release of the CNN report, Nunes told Breitbart that he intended to sue."I look forward to prosecuting these cases, including the media outlets, as well as the sources of their fake stories, to the fullest extent of the law," Nunes said in a statement. "I intend to hold the Daily Beast and CNN accountable for their actions. They will find themselves in court soon after Thanksgiving."
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| 4 Decades of Inequality Drive American Cities Apart Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:53 AM PST  In 1980, highly paid workers in Binghamton, New York, earned about 4 1/2 times what low-wage workers there did. The gap between them, in a region full of IBM executives and manufacturing jobs, was about the same as the gap between the workers near the top and the bottom in metro New York City.Since then, the two regions have diverged. IBM shed jobs in Binghamton. Other manufacturing disappeared, too. High-paying work in the new knowledge economy concentrated in New York City, and so did well-educated workers. As a result, by one measure, wage inequality today is much higher in New York City than it is in Binghamton.What has happened over the last four decades is only partly a story of New York City's rise as a global hub and Binghamton's struggles. Economic inequality has been rising everywhere in the United States. But it has been rising much more in the booming places that promise hefty incomes to engineers, lawyers and innovators. And those places today are also the largest metros in the country: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Houston, Washington.Data from a recent analysis by Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York captures several dynamics that have remade the U.S. economy since 1980. Thriving and stagnant places are pulling apart from each other. And within the most prosperous regions, inequality is widening to new extremes. That this inequality now so clearly correlates with city size -- the largest metros are the most unequal -- also shows how changes in the economy are both rewarding and rattling what we have come to think of as "superstar cities."In these places, inequality and economic growth now go hand in hand.Back in 1980, Binghamton's wage inequality made the region among the most unequal in the country, according to the Fed analysis. It ranked 20th of 195 metros as measured by comparing the wages of workers at the 90th percentile with those at the 10th percentile of the local wage distribution, a measure that captures the breadth of disparities in the local economy without focusing solely on the very top. In 1980, New York City was slightly less unequal, ranking 44th by this measure.Forty years ago, none of the country's 10 largest metros were among the 20 most unequal. By 2015, San Francisco, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas and Washington had jumped onto that list, pulled there by the skyrocketing wages of high-skilled workers. Binghamton over the same period had become one of the least unequal metros, in part because many IBM executives and well-paid manufacturing workers had vanished from its economy.In effect, something we often think of as undesirable (high inequality) has been a signal of something positive in big cities (a strong economy). And in Binghamton, relatively low inequality has been a signal of a weak economy. (The Fairfield-Bridgeport, Connecticut, metro stands out in either era because the deep poverty of its urban core is surrounded by particularly rich suburbs.)These patterns are hard to reconcile with appeals today for reducing inequality, both within big cities and across the country. What are Americans supposed to make of the fact that more high-paying jobs by definition widen inequality? Should New Yorkers be OK with growing inequality in New York if it is driven by rising wages for high-skilled workers, and not falling wages for low-skilled ones?"That's more of a political question," said Nathaniel Baum-Snow, an economist at the University of Toronto. "That's a question of what we decide our values should be as a society."Tom VanHeuvelen, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota who has also researched these patterns, said: "It seems obvious to me that it doesn't need to be the way that it is right now. This isn't the only inevitable outcome we have when we think about the relationship between cities, affluence and inequality."Economists say that the same forces that are driving economic growth in big cities are also responsible for inequality. And those forces have accumulated and reinforced each other since 1980.High-skilled workers have been in increasing demand and increasingly rewarded. In New York, the real wages for workers at the 10th percentile grew by about 15% between 1980 and 2015, according to the Fed researchers. For the median worker, they grew by about 40%. For workers at the 90th percentile, they nearly doubled.That is partly because when highly skilled workers and their firms cluster in the same place today, they are all more productive, research shows. And in major cities, they are also tied directly into the global economy."If you're someone who has skills for the new economy, your skills turn out to be more valuable in bigger cities, in a way that wasn't true 30 to 40 years ago," Baum-Snow said.It is no surprise, then, that high-skilled workers have been sorting into big, prosperous cities, compounding the advantages of these places (and draining less prosperous places of these workers).At the same time, automation, globalization and the decline of manufacturing have decimated well-paying jobs that once required no more than a high school diploma. That has hollowed out both the middle class in big cities and the economic engine in smaller cities. The result is that changes in the economy have disproportionately rewarded some places and harmed others, pushing their trajectories apart.Add one more dynamic to all of this: Inequality has been rising nationally since the 1980s. But because the Bay Area and New York regions already had more than their fair share of one-percenters (or 10 percenters) in 1980, the national growth in income inequality has been magnified in those places."We've had this pulling apart of the overall income distribution," said Robert Manduca, a doctoral student in sociology and social policy at Harvard University who has found that about half of the economic divergence between different parts of the country is explained by trends in national inequality. "That overall pulling apart has had very different effects in different places, based on which kinds of people were already living in those places."Manduca says national policies like reinvigorating antitrust laws would be most effective at reducing inequality (the consolidation of many industries has meant, among other things, that smaller cities that once had company headquarters have lost those jobs, sometimes to big cities).It is hard to imagine local officials combating all these forces. Increases to the minimum wage are likely to be swamped -- at least in this measure -- by the gains of workers at the top. Policies that tax high earners more to fund housing or education for the poor would redistribute some of the uneven gains of the modern economy. But they would not alter the fact that this economy values an engineer so much more than a line cook."If you brought the bottom up, it would be a better world," said Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto who has written extensively about these trends. "But you'd still have a big rise in wage inequality."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Pompeo falsely claimed Obama made Iran his 'primary security partner in the Middle East' Posted: 03 Dec 2019 06:36 AM PST  Iran has been an adversary of the US for decades, including under former President Barack Obama. But Pompeo just suggested otherwise.
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| Family attacked in Mexico has had "a few run-ins" with drug cartels Posted: 01 Dec 2019 08:58 PM PST  The family is part of a group of fundamentalist Mormons who migrated to Mexico after polygamy was outlawed in the U.S. in the 1800s.
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| Russian scientists present ancient puppy found in permafrost Posted: 02 Dec 2019 04:51 AM PST  Russian scientists on Monday showed off a prehistoric puppy, believed to be 18,000 years old, found in permafrost in the country's Far East. Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved, with its hair, teeth, whiskers and eyelashes still intact.
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| Officer stabbed, student shot in altercation at Wisconsin high school: police Posted: 03 Dec 2019 08:32 AM PST ![Officer stabbed, student shot in altercation at Wisconsin high school: police]( "Officer stabbed, student shot in altercation at Wisconsin high school: police") Oshkosh West High School, about 85 miles (137 km) north of Milwaukee, was put on lockdown after the altercation, Oshkosh Chief of Police Dean Smith said during a news conference. Hours later, the school's 1,700 students were reunited with their parents at a nearby middle school. The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation will handle the investigation, Smith said.
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| Evacuation slide accidentally falls from plane into Boston backyard Posted: 02 Dec 2019 01:01 PM PST  The pilot of Delta Air Lines Flight 405 from Paris to Boston reported hearing a loud noise as began its final approach to Boston's Logan airport, the Boston Globe reported. Stephanie Leguia, a resident of a Boston suburb, told the Boston Herald that she was standing in a neighbor's backyard when an uninflated evacuation slide fell from the sky, bringing down several tree branches along the way. The slide, which was uninflated, looked like a "giant silver tarp," she said.
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| US lawyers who have had abortions file Supreme Court brief Posted: 03 Dec 2019 11:55 AM PST  More than 360 American women who have had abortions and work in the legal profession, including several high-profile attorneys, have filed a brief with the Supreme Court ahead of a closely watched abortion case. "I write because I want the Court to know how access to safe and legal abortion made my law career possible and changed my life," said one of the 368 signatories to the brief filed with the court on Monday. The nine-member Supreme Court is to hear a challenge in March to a restrictive abortion law in the state of Louisiana.
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| Roman Empire did not fall because of plague, study claims Posted: 02 Dec 2019 12:01 PM PST  A bubonic plague which was thought to have wiped out half of the world's population and helped topple the Roman Empire was far exaggerated by scholars, a new study claims. The Justinianic Plague which preceded the Black Death by more than 800 years plague was thought to have killed around 50 million people across the Roman and Byzantine Empires between 541-750 AD. The plague, spread in part by rats along trade routes, was believed to leave the Roman Empire vulnerable after the population loss hit its trade and military might across the Medeteranian, Africa and the East. An international team of scholars led by researchers from the University of Maryland have now called into question the scale of the plague, as the available evidence paints a different picture. Lead author, Lee Mordechai, from of Princeton's Climate Change and History Research Initiative, said: "If this plague was a key moment in human history that killed between a third and half the population of the Mediterranean world in just a few years, as is often claimed, we should have evidence for it but our survey of datasets found none." The researchers analysis ancient texts alongside, pollen samples, plague genomes and the archeology around graves to debunk previous consensus around the scale of the outbreak. At a glance | Plague facts Several sources across antiquity that had attributed important world events to the outbreak of the plague, such as the fall of the Roman Empire. However, the researchers found that previous scholars had focused on evocative written accounts, ignoring hundreds of contemporary texts that did not mention the outbreak. "We found no reason to argue that the plague killed tens of millions of people as many have claimed," said co-author Timothy Newfield. "Plague is often construed as shifting the course of history. It's an easy explanation, too easy. It's essential to establish a causal connection," he said. Analysis of evidence such as pollen samples and burial sites also found that the millions of supposed deaths did not quite add up. Where there should be more mass graves and less pollen from the lack of farming as a result, the researcher's findings showed no evidence of the mass deaths. Co-author of the study, Janet Kay, said: "We investigated a large dataset of human burials from before and after the plague outbreak, and the plague did not result in a significant change whether people buried the dead alone or with many others. "The Black Death killed vast numbers of people and did change how people disposed of corpses."
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| The U.S. Navy Signs Up for 9 New Nuclear Submarines Posted: 03 Dec 2019 01:42 PM PST  These nine submarines, essentially improved versions of the Virginia-class submarine, is the Navy's largest warship building deal ever.
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| Impeachment Investigators Got Rudy Giuliani's Phone Records—And They’re Quite Revealing Posted: 03 Dec 2019 12:20 PM PST  Rudy Giuliani and one of his indicted Ukrainian associates exchanged a flurry of phone calls with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the top Republican on Congress' impeachment investigation panel, amid a Giuliani-led effort to dig up dirt on President Donald Trump's political opponents in Ukraine.The House Intelligence Committee obtained phone records from AT&T; showing extensive communications in early April involving Nunes, Giuliani, Lev Parnas, and The Hill columnist John Solomon, according to records released in the committee's formal report on its investigation underlying impeachment charges against President Donald Trump.The records shed new light on the relationship between Nunes, one of the impeachment inquiries most vehement critics, and the individuals at the center of what committee Democrats describe as an illicit campaign to weaponize U.S. foreign policy to Trump's political advantage.The records in the committee's 300-page report show three phone calls between Nunes and Giuliani on April 10 of this year, and at least two with Parnas two days later. Derek Harvey, a member of Nunes' staff, also had a phone call with Giuliani the following month.Giuliani Cronies Planned 'Fraud Guarantee' Infomercials Starring RudyThe Nunes calls came on the tail end of a long series of communications between Parnas and Solomon, who on April 1 had published a column relaying the same conspiracy theories at the center of Giuliani's Trump-endorsed inquisition in Ukraine: that high-ranking officials in Kyiv had sought to scuttle Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy, and that former Vice President Joe Biden had corruptly attempted to insulate a company that employed his son from prosecution. Parnas and Solomon exchanged more than a dozen phone calls in the subsequent two weeks, during which Solomon reiterated the allegations about Biden and Ukraine in another column that Giuliani relayed in an interview on Fox News.Giuliani, meanwhile, was in frequent communication with the White House. Throughout April, he placed numerous calls to unidentified individuals in the Office of Management and Budget, the office led by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The report also notes a number of Giuliani calls later in the year with an individual at an unidentified number—appearing only as "-1" in phone records—amid a series of phone calls and text messages with numbers associated with the White House.The committee's report describes those individuals as part of a "smear campaign" coordinated with "one or more individuals at the White House."Giuliani did not respond to a text message for comment. Much of the report is based on interviews with key witnesses whose testimonies have been largely dissected. But the committee's possession of phone records from Parnas and Giuliani adds compelling physical evidence to an investigation that Republican critics have derided as reliant on "hearsay."Nunes in particular has sought to undermine the investigation by alleging that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Intelligence Committee chairman, had coordinated or otherwise communicated with an intelligence community whistleblower who initially raised concerns about Trump's apparent efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political foes. But the phone records contained in the committee's report show that Nunes himself had engaged in his own behind-the-scenes communications with the very people at issue in the whistleblower complaint. Nunes never revealed those communications during the weeks of committee testimony. The congressman has discussed the possibility of suing news outlets, including The Daily Beast, for reporting on his private handling of matters related to Trump's actions in Ukraine. "It is deeply concerning that at a time when the president of the United States was using the power of his office to dig up dirt on a political rival, that there may be evidence that there were members of Congress complicit in that activity," Schiff said on Tuesday of Nunes' communications with Parnas and Giuliani.Phone records released on Tuesday also show contacts in early April between Giuliani, Parnas, and Victoria Toensing, a lawyer who briefly served as Trump's personal attorney in 2018. Days after her contacts with Giuliani and Parnas, Toensing signed a retainer agreement to represent two former Ukrainian prosecutors who had briefed Giuliani on allegations against the Bidens.One of those prosecutors, Yuriy Lutsenko, had also told Solomon that Marie Yovanovitch—then the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine—had actively undermined Trump in her post in the country and sought to insulate politically favored groups and companies from prosecution. Lutsenko has since retracted that claim.Nonetheless, just weeks after the series of phone calls identified in the Intelligence Committee's report, Yovanovitch was recalled from her post. In testimony last month, she attributed her removal to a malicious smear campaign orchestrated by Giuliani, his associates, and vindictive Ukrainian officials.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| GPS tracker inside a money bag leads police to a bank robbery suspect Posted: 03 Dec 2019 07:27 AM PST  The FBI says a GPS tracker inside a money bag led them to a bank robbery suspect in South Florida.
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| A Salute to the EA-6B Prowler: The Navy Really Misses This Plane Posted: 02 Dec 2019 09:55 PM PST  The end of an era.
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| Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuses began by 1985, targeted 13-year-old, lawsuit claims Posted: 03 Dec 2019 01:06 PM PST  Financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of girls and young women began as early as 1985 and targeted victims as young as 13 years old, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by nine accusers against his estate. The accusers, known as Jane Doe I through Jane Doe IX, are among more than 20 women so far to formally seek compensation from Epstein's $577 million estate, after he killed himself on Aug. 10 in a Manhattan jail cell. Epstein's death at age 66 was ruled a suicide, and came five weeks after his arrest on federal charges he trafficked dozens of underage girls from at least 2002 to 2005.
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| Melania Trump has an icy relationship with second lady Karen Pence, according to a new book Posted: 03 Dec 2019 09:48 AM PST  CNN correspondent Kate Bennett reported that Trump kept her distance during travel, and uncharacteristically allowed herself to tower over Pence.
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| Mexico arrests 10 over deadly firefight near US border Posted: 03 Dec 2019 02:16 PM PST  Mexican authorities said Tuesday they have arrested 10 alleged gunmen from a drug cartel commando that attacked a town near the US border, leaving six locals and 17 assailants dead. At least 60 gunmen terrorized the small northern city of Villa Union over the weekend, riding into town in heavily armed four-by-fours and spraying dozens of buildings with bullets, including houses and the city hall. The army, National Guard and police then engaged the gunmen in a series of firefights Saturday and Sunday that killed 23 people, according to an updated toll from authorities in Coahuila state.
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| Robert Mugabe died with $10m in cash and several houses, but left no will Posted: 03 Dec 2019 09:30 AM PST  The wealth of Zimbabwe's former longtime president Robert Mugabe was long a mystery. Now the first official list of assets to be made public says he left behind $10 million and several houses when he died in September. Some in Zimbabwe view that estate as far too modest for Mugabe, who ruled for 37 years and was accused by critics of accumulating vast riches and presiding over grand corruption. The report by the state-run Herald newspaper on Tuesday does not mention any overseas assets, though it is thought that Mugabe had properties in neighboring South Africa and in Asia. The report says there appears to be no will, though lawyers are still looking for one. The report cites the lawyers as saying the law stipulates that Mugabe's wife, Grace, and children will inherit the property in that case. Mugabe also left behind a farm, 10 cars and 11 hectares (27 acres) of land that included an orchard at his rural home where he was buried. His daughter, Bona, registered the estate on behalf of the family, the report said. Mugabe's wife Grace will inherit his assets if no will is found Credit: REUTERS/Howard Burditt More than a dozen farms are publicly known to have been seized from both black and white farmers by the late strongman's family. Mugabe died of cancer in a Singapore hospital at age 95 nearly two years after he was forced by Zimbabwe's military and ruling party to resign. Many in the southern African nation say the country he left behind has fallen deeper into economic and political crisis, with a growing hunger problem that a United Nations expert last month called "shocking" for a state not at war. Half of Zimbabwe's population, or more than 7 million people, is experiencing severe hunger, the UN World Food Program said Tuesday. Critics blame the administration of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president, who has struggled to fulfil promises of prosperity since taking power in 2017.
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| Court declines to intervene in upcoming Tennessee execution Posted: 03 Dec 2019 03:48 PM PST  Two days before a Tennessee prisoner's scheduled execution, the state's Supreme Court has denied request for more time to consider the possible bias of a juror who helped hand down the original death sentence decades ago. It's a method selected by three out of the five past death row inmates put to death since Tennessee started resuming executions in August 2018. This omission, Hall's attorneys argue, deprived the 53-year-old Hall of a fair and impartial jury — a right protected in both the Tennessee and U.S. constitutions.
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| Maxine Waters’ new challenge: AOC and freshman upstarts Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:02 AM PST  Some progressives have openly lamented the committee's leanings toward more moderate, business-friendly Democrats who dominate its ranks.
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| 18 Clever-Approved Coat Racks You Don’t Need to Hide Posted: 03 Dec 2019 11:44 AM PST |
| Look Out America, Russia Just Tested Its S-500 Air Defense System In Syria Posted: 02 Dec 2019 01:30 PM PST  Deployment is coming next year.
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| Top Los Angeles homeless official steps down as crisis deepens Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:44 PM PST  The chief of a top Los Angeles homeless agency announced his resignation on Monday, saying he was proud of its work even as America's second-largest city grapples with spiraling numbers of people living on the streets and rising home prices. Peter Lynn, who saw homelessness rise 33% during his five years as head of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, said he would leave the job by Dec. 31. The agency said its chief program officer, Heidi Marston, would serve as acting director during a nationwide search for Lynn's replacement.
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| China actually started blocking US Navy port calls to Hong Kong months before its latest retaliatory move Posted: 03 Dec 2019 06:38 AM PST  China has rejected half a dozen US Navy port-call requests for stops in Hong Kong in the past six months, according to US Pacific Fleet.
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| Kellyanne Conway's husband mocks her on Twitter while slamming Trump over impeachment scandal Posted: 02 Dec 2019 01:26 PM PST  A prominent Washington attorney married to White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway seemingly mocked his wife in a tweet that also derided Donald Trump over the impeachment inquiry against him.George Conway, a frequent critic of the president, appeared to publicly hit out at his wife on Monday afternoon for the first time since she began working for Mr Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
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| Mexican president meets with Mormon massacre victims' families Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:16 PM PST  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met Monday with relatives of nine Mormon women and children who were massacred in northern Mexico last month to discuss progress in the investigation. The November 4 killing of three women and six children from a breakaway Mormon community with dual US-Mexican nationality, caused shock on both sides of the border, and increased pressure on Lopez Obrador's government to show it is acting against brutal violence by drug cartels. "They presented the progress they're making in the investigation and the cooperation between Mexico and the United States on the case," one relative who attended the closed-door meeting, Lenzo Widmar, told AFP.
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| Second person found alive after two weeks in outback after drinking from cattle water hole Posted: 03 Dec 2019 08:16 AM PST  Australian police said on Tuesday they had found a second person who had been missing in the country's remote outback for weeks, saying he survived soaring temperatures by drinking water meant for livestock. Police said Phu Tran, 40, was found by a local farmer at a cattle station near Alice Springs, two weeks after he and two friends went hiking. "He's in a good condition. He was slightly disoriented... but other than that he was in good condition," Superintendent Pauline Vicary told reporters in Alice Springs. Tran was found three days after his friend Tamra McBeath-Riley was found about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from the car they had been travelling in through Australia's remote north. A third member of the group, Claire Hockridge, is still missing. Ms McBeath-Riley said the car became bogged down in the soft desert roads in the region. For a few days, the group stayed close to the car, surviving on the limited supplies they had packed, McBeath-Riley said. After running out of water, Tran and Hockridge went looking for help, taking only a compass and a GPS. Both survived after finding a water hole used by cattle. "It appears that along the way they have located water, so we're hopeful that she has got water," Ms Vicary said. It is not known why Mr Tran and Ms Hockridge separated, though Ms Vicary said police hope they will find her soon.
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| European official urges closure of Bosnian migrant camp Posted: 03 Dec 2019 04:12 AM PST  BIHAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A top European human rights official on Tuesday demanded the immediate closure of a makeshift tent camp in northwestern Bosnia where hundreds of migrants remain stranded despite snow and freezing weather. "It should be closed as we speak," Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights said while visiting the Vucjak camp near the town of Bihac. International aid organizations have repeatedly warned it is unfit for migrants because it is located on a former landfill and close to a mine field from the 1992-95 war.
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| Three 2020 candidates dropped out in less than 48 hours. Here's what it means. Posted: 03 Dec 2019 11:08 AM PST  Candidates are dropping out, the Iowa caucus is growing near and the 2020 Democratic primary is still in flux.
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| When it comes to mass shootings, the panic is what's fueling the crisis. Posted: 03 Dec 2019 10:22 AM PST  It's time for us to get responsible in the way we cover mass shootings and the way we discuss them as a society.
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| Nazi Germany's World War II Victory Over France Proves 1 Thing Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:00 PM PST  No one pushed the French troops to endure the unendurable, and when the crisis moment arrived, the French leaders often froze into inaction.
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| Tourism in Israel? U.S. charity's offer with Gaza hospital project irks Palestinians Posted: 03 Dec 2019 05:02 AM PST  GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A U.S. charity building a tent hospital in the Gaza Strip is causing Palestinian unease by offering foreign medical volunteers the opportunity of weekend tourism in Israel, just across the volatile border. The facility, to be operated by the U.S. evangelical Christian group FriendShips, had won rare joint support from Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas and their enemy, Israel, which maintains a blockade along its frontier with the enclave. Now, however, eyebrows are being raised in Gaza over a Holy Land pilgrimage pitch on the Louisiana-based organization's website that is promoting an endeavor to improve health services strained by years of conflict.
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| Schiff responds to Nunes phone calls in impeachment inquiry report Posted: 03 Dec 2019 02:42 PM PST  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said it's "deeply concerning" that members of congress could be involved in the allegations against President Trump. He was responding to a question about calls by the ranking member of the committee, Devin Nunes, being listed in the impeachment inquiry report.
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| Trump deploys 'surge' of park rangers to patrol Mexican border Posted: 03 Dec 2019 03:00 AM PST  Diverting rangers is a way to direct federal resources to the border without the need for congressional approval * Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. This Giving Tuesday, consider making a contributionThe Trump administration is sending a new "surge" of rangers from US national parks such as Zion, Yosemite and the National Mall to patrol the southern border for crossings by illegal immigrants.Continuing a controversial policy initiated in 2018, rangers who work in law enforcement will be dispatched to Organ Pipe Cactus national monument on the Arizona and Mexico border as well as Big Bend national park on the border in south-west Texas. Donald Trump has been unable to obtain funding for his border emergency plan, which includes an increase in immigration enforcement officials as well as large sums for border wall construction. Diverting rangers from national parks is a way to direct federal resources to the border without the need for congressional approval.Valerie Naylor, a former National Park Service (NPS) superintendent who worked for the agency for 31 years, said she was troubled by the idea of rangers being tasked with arresting migrants instead of protecting the parks where they work."My concern is sending rangers from parks that are already understaffed specifically to work with border patrol in areas that are outside the mission of the National Park Service," she said. "This potentially puts visitors at risk, certainly resources at risk, in the parks they are leaving."Since the fiscal year 2011, the National Park Service has seen an 11% reduction in staff while experiencing a 19% increase in visitation. Trump's proposed 2020 budget, which includes considerable increases in border security spending, cuts the NPS budget cut by $481m."This is coming at a time when national parks are experiencing the most significant staff and funding shortages in American history," said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity who previously worked for the NPS for two years. "It's a publicity stunt with genuine consequences."The "pilot" program was initially set to last just 90 days but has been extended into the fall of 2020, according to High Country News. Federal officials have been tight-lipped about the number of rangers taking part in three-week rotations at national parks on the border. The NPS declined to provide the number of rangers reassigned to these duties since 2018 to the Guardian.. "The National Park Service continues to support our federal partners by deploying law enforcement personnel to Department of the Interior managed lands along the southern border," said a spokesperson. "Due to operational security, we will not be disclosing any additional information about our officers assisting in the operations."A recent investigation by USA Today found that numerous parks are involved in the program, including the Great Smoky Mountains national park in North Carolina, Wrangell-St Elias national park in Alaska, the National Mall in Washington DC, and Zion national park.Andrew Fitzgerald, deputy chief ranger at Zion national park, confirmed to the Guardian that they would be sending three rangers to the border by the end of the year for three-week rotations. Critics have questioned the efficacy of these rotations, because while national park law enforcement rangers are trained to enforce federal laws, they are not necessarily well versed in the complexities of immigration enforcement."This new directive rotates rangers from places like the National Mall, Redwood Park and Yosemite," said Jorhdahl, referring to national parks not located along the border. "They are essentially sending people down there that have no idea how to do the job."Naylor said that "rangers are exceptionally well trained". The problem is of a different kind. Rangers are commonly redeployed from one park to another to deal with a crisis – a fire, for instance. "Whether sending them [rangers] to the border meets that need, that criterion – well, I would question that," she said.
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| Russia link to Berlin murder hardens: reports Posted: 03 Dec 2019 06:04 AM PST  German prosecutors in charge of intelligence cases are due to take over an investigation into the killing of a former Chechen rebel, suspecting that Russia could be behind the murder, German media reported on Tuesday. Some German politicians and media have already blamed Moscow for the assassination of 40-year-old Georgian national Zelimkhan Khangoshvili -- though Russia denies the claims. Khangoshvili was shot twice in the head at close range in Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten park on August 23, allegedly by a man on a bicycle who was later seen throwing a bag into a river.
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| Sen. Paul offering bill to combat student loan debt Posted: 03 Dec 2019 01:35 AM PST  U.S. Sen. Rand Paul wants to combat the rising debt load engulfing college students by allowing families to use their retirement savings to pay off their loans. The Kentucky Republican introduced federal legislation late Monday that would allow students to dip into retirement accounts to help pay for college or make monthly debt payments. Americans collectively owe about $1.5 trillion in student loans — more than twice the total of a decade ago.
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| Poll: Florida Gov. DeSantis’s Approval at Over 60 Percent among Minority Voters Posted: 03 Dec 2019 03:41 PM PST  A new statewide poll of Florida conducted by Saint Leo University shows across-the-board support for Republican governor Ron DeSantis, including consistently high approval ratings among minority voters.The poll found that DeSantis's overall approval rating is up to 68.2 percent, seven points higher than it was in April and clearly ahead of those of Florida senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio. According to a demographic breakdown of the poll shared on Twitter, DeSantis polled at 67 percent approval among Hispanics and 63 percent among African Americans.While the governor's Hispanic support has remained consistently positive over the last three statewide polls, the new St. Leo poll shows the highest level of black support for DeSantis so far recorded. In an August St. Petersburg poll, DeSantis hit 32 percent approval among African Americans, while an October University of North Florida poll put DeSantis at 50 percent. Earlier this year, black support was at 44 and 39 percent in two other polls, respectively.DeSantis, who defeated African American Andrew Gillum by a mere 32,000 votes in November 2018, was accused by Gillum of pandering to racists during a debate. "He has the ability to go to the far right when he has to — and do it with a smile," Florida Democrat Evan Jenne told The Palm Beach Post in July.DeSantis is also a reliable ally of President Trump, who currently polls at 10 percent nationally among black voters, according to Gallup.In a statement to National Review, Frank Orlando, the Saint Leo polling director, gave his thoughts on the disparity between DeSantis's and Trump's approval ratings."I think it shows that candidates can evolve as they become office holders," Orlando said in an email. "Governor DeSantis ran and won the Republican primary as the 'Trump' candidate, but he hasn't governed as President Trump has. He has still acted as a conservative governor on a lot of policy issues, but his rhetoric has been muted."Orlando added that DeSantis has taken symbolic approaches to boost popularity. "He has made the easy moves that were supported by large numbers of voters, such as suspending Sheriff Israel and recently putting forward a budget that increases teacher pay," Orlando added. "He's made some symbolic and policy gestures to court African American voters, including pardoning the Groveland Four and appointing several African Americans to his administration. He's made Jeanette Nunez a visible part of his administration."
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| Harvard grad student workers go on strike, seeking $25 an hour minimum wage, other demands Posted: 03 Dec 2019 03:23 PM PST  Harvard graduate student workers went on strike Tuesday, becoming the first Harvard academic employees to launch a work stoppage in decades.
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| Republican privacy bill would set U.S. rules, pre-empt California: senator Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:02 PM PST  A draft consumer privacy bill written by Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker's staff would set nationwide rules for handling of personal information online and elsewhere and override state laws, including one in California set to take effect next year. Wicker, who chairs the Commerce Committee, said in an interview on Monday the 25-page draft bill is "better, stronger, clearer" than the California privacy law that will start to take effect at the beginning of 2020. Compared with California's law, the staff bill has more detailed consumer protections, covers more companies and has more explicit requirements that companies collect the minimum amount of personal data needed for their purpose, Wicker said.
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