| Tulsi Gabbard is having a moment, and the party is getting nervous Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:56 PM PDT  Is Tulsi Gabbard planning to run a third-party presidential campaign? And if she does, will it help President Trump win reelection?
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| FBI chief warns Congress of danger from 'self-radicalized' domestic terrorists Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:54 PM PDT  Federal law enforcement and homeland security officials warned about the growing threat of domestic terrorism at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday.
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| At-large python found in West Virginia by letter carrier Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:29 AM PDT  An 11-foot python that was on the loose in West Virginia was found Tuesday, about a month after it got out of its tank, broke through a window screen and slithered outside. Richwood Police Chief Charles Burkhamer says a letter carrier saw the snake laying out in the sun next to a roadway Tuesday, about a block away from where it escaped a month ago.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the revenge porn campaign targeting Rep. Katie Hill is a 'major crime' that wouldn't happen to a male member of Congress Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:36 AM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried the publication of nude photos of Rep. Katie Hill, who announced her resignation from Congress this week.
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| Chris Christie Among Lawyers Making $15 Million in 1MDB Pact Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:10 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The biggest recovery ever from an American anti-corruption crackdown is proving lucrative for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.A major deal struck by the U.S. for fugitive financier Jho Low to give up almost $1 billion in assets allegedly stolen from a Malaysian investment fund comes with a provision to pay his lawyers. As part of the 1MDB settlement, the Justice Department allowed for $15 million to be paid to a group advising Jho Low, including the law firm Christie set up after two terms as New Jersey's governor.Those proceeds will come from Jho Low's stake in EMI Music Publishing, which has grown to about $415 million. That investment ballooned after he initially put in a little more than $100 million stolen from 1MDB, according to prosecutors. The two sides agreed to the provision to allow the lawyers to extract fees from Low, whose assets and accounts have been seized or monitored by authorities across the world."We were pleased to help negotiate this historic resolution in order to preserve the tremendous value of assets involved," Christie said in a statement after the Justice Department announced the settlement agreement on Wednesday. It still needs approval from a federal judge.Christie, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump, set up his own law firm last year, the Christie Law Firm LLC. The other firms that will receive proceeds of the 1MDB deal for legal expenses are Kobre & Kim LLP and Lowenstein Sandler LLP.The agreement comes even before the criminal charges against Low have been resolved. In the settlement, the Justice Department cautioned that the released funds should be used only for the Low family's legal fees and costs related to the lawsuits, and can't be routed back to Low or his family.The cases were resolved in a "collaborative and fair way that includes payment of our legal fees," said Robin Rathmell, a lawyer at Kobre & Kim.(Updates with lawyer's comment in last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Sridhar Natarajan in New York at snatarajan15@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, David S. JoachimFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 11 Malware Attacks That Nearly Wrecked the Internet Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:15 PM PDT |
| Play To Win A Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye With Horsepower Challenge Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:29 AM PDT  Take your shot to win one potent Mopar.The Dodge Horsepower Challenge: 5 Weeks. 5 Questions. 5 Challengers. As a thank you to Dodge customers and enthusiasts for reaching the 500 million horsepower goal early, the automaker has launched Brotherhood of Muscle With Horsepower Challenge. The first challenge starts on November 5th and ending on November 11th, and five new owners will compete to take home a special-edition TorRed Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye.Every Tuesday, Dodge.com will post a horsepower-inspired question in multiple choice form. The first weekly "Dodge Horsepower Challenge" will be announced by professional wrestler Bill Goldberg for challengers to win one sweet Challenger. Each Tuesday, Goldberg will announce the question starting at 8 a.m. ET, and the question will remain through Monday until 11:59 p.m. The answer to the week's question can be found on Dodge.com (following Tuesday) a week after its release at 8 a.m.The challenge offers one clue per day, and this comes in the form of hidden hashtags within an image. The clues will be posted in Dodge's Twitter and Instagram social channels to help with the week's question. You must answer one of the weekly multiple choice questions correctly to be eligible to win the Challenger."At Dodge, we know that no matter how much horsepower you have, a little more can't hurt. So we're giving all our loyal fans an opportunity to get one of our highest horsepower Challenger models for free," said Tim Kuniskis, Global Head of Alfa Romeo and Head of Passenger Cars – Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA – North America. "Unfortunately, there isn't really any such thing as free horsepower, so these five lucky Dodge fans will have to earn their way in by answering a horsepower question. Ok, the questions are ridiculously difficult, but it is a free Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye, and we'll help you along the way." For official rules, visit Dodge.com.Source: FCA North America Read More... * It's Haunting How Much This 275K 2010 Callway Corvette Is Listed For * eBay Find: Jet Powered Batmobile Is A Treat, Not A Trick
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| Full coverage: House passes impeachment resolution Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:31 AM PDT  The House on Thursday voted to pass a historic resolution establishing formal procedures for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The 232-196 vote fell almost exclusively along party lines, with two moderate Democrats voting no.
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| Special Report: In a working-class Hong Kong neighborhood, the protests hit home Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:05 AM PDT  From the top of Lion Rock, all of Hong Kong reveals itself: the sprawl of the Kowloon Peninsula directly below, the iconic Star Ferry plying the waters of Victoria Harbor, the moneyed heights of Hong Kong island beyond. In the shadow of the revered mountain rise huge monoliths, drab concrete tower blocks far removed from the glittering glass highrises of Hong Kong island's steroidal skyline. Here, in a neighborhood of public housing estates called Wong Tai Sin, seemingly endless stacks of aging windows heave with drying laundry and hum with air conditioners sweating droplets onto the pavement below.
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| Third deadly quake in weeks hits south Philippines Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:25 AM PDT  A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least five people and sparking searches of seriously damaged buildings that had already been rattled by two previous deadly tremors in recent weeks. The 6.5 magnitude quake hit the island of Mindanao, the US Geological Survey said, causing locals to run to safety in the same area where a strong tremor killed eight people on Tuesday.
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| AOC faces challengers on the right and the further right who cite her 'socialism' Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:09 AM PDT  A Jamaican immigrant businesswoman from Queens and a Latino councilman from the Bronx are among 10 candidates who have filed to unseat freshman Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
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| Boeing is facing a fresh crisis after another airline found cracks in a 737 plane, adding to a growing number of airlines grounding some of the planes Posted: 31 Oct 2019 04:18 AM PDT  Qantas found cracks in a 737NG plane that had flown fewer times than the planes the US Federal Aviation Administration had ordered to be inspected.
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| South Africa Revives International Criminal Court Withdrawal Plan Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:31 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterSouth African lawmakers will debate the government's decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court after it was criticized by the Hague-based tribunal for failing to arrest Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir at an African Union summit in Johannesburg in 2015.The International Crimes Bill was introduced to Parliament this week after the High Court ruled the country's proposed withdrawal under former President Jacob Zuma in 2016 was unconstitutional because lawmakers weren't consulted.South Africa argues that it couldn't have arrested al-Bashir as required by signatories to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act because he was in the country for an event that fell under the AU's jurisdiction. The ICC rejected this, saying the country had failed to comply with its international obligation to do so.Al-Bashir was indicted in 2009 and 2010 for his alleged role in atrocities in Sudan's western Darfur region.African nations have criticized the ICC, which tries individuals for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, noting that nine of the 10 investigations it has opened since its formation in 2002 are on the continent.They also note that the ICC didn't act against the U.S. for invading Iraq over claims it had weapons of mass destruction that were never found, or against Israel for crimes committed against Palestinians.To contact the reporter on this story: Nkululeko Ncana in Johannesburg at nncana@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone, Helen NyamburaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ex-Starbucks manager says she was fired over race Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:35 PM PDT  A white former Starbucks manager filed a lawsuit against the coffee giant this week, alleging she was the victim of racial discrimination when she was terminated last year after the highly controversial arrests of two black men in a Philadelphia shop.
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| How The B-1 Lancer Went From A Nuclear Bomber To an ISIS Killer Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:09 AM PDT  Priorities and capabilities change with time.
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| Latest Impeachment Witness Contradicts Vindman’s Claim That Key Details Were Left Out of Ukraine Call Transcript Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:49 PM PDT  A senior White House official who listened to President Trump's controversial phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky testified Thursday in a closed-door impeachment hearing that the White House did not omit any key details of the conversation from the publicly-released transcript.The official, Tim Morrison, also told House lawmakers he did not think Trump discussed anything illegal on the call."I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed," Morrison said in remarks to Congress.Morrison's testimony contradicts that of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, who testified on Tuesday that he believes the White House omitted from the transcript Trump's claim that recordings of vice president Joe Biden existed that implicated him in corrupt dealings.During a July 25 phone call with Zelensky, Trump asked the Ukrainian president to help the U.S. investigate allegations that Biden used his position as vice president to help Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings avoid a corruption probe soon after his son, Hunter Biden, was appointed to its board of directors. That phone conversation has become the crux of House Democrats' formal impeachment inquiry against Trump.Vindman added that he was concerned enough by Trump's call with Ukraine that he reported it to one of his superiors."I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine," Vindman said, according to his prepared testimony. "I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained."Morrison also disputed the account of a conversation that Ambassador Bill Taylor described in his testimony to Congress last week. Taylor recalled Morrison telling him about a separate conversation between U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and one of Zelensky's top advisers, in which Sondland told the adviser that the military aid was contingent on Zelensky's willingness to publicly announce a probe into Burisma."My recollection is that Ambassador Sondland's proposal to Yermak was that it could be sufficient if the new Ukrainian prosecutor general, not President Zelensky, would commit to pursue the Burisma investigation," Morrison told lawmakers.The House voted Thursday along party lines to pass a resolution advancing the impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
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| Auburn tree poisoner fails to appear in court for hearing Posted: 30 Oct 2019 01:48 PM PDT  The University of Alabama fan convicted of poisoning Auburn University's oak trees failed to attend a hearing Wednesday on why he hasn't paid court-ordered restitution. The Opelika-Auburn news reports Harvey Updyke, a retired Texas state trooper who lives in Louisiana, didn't show up for a hearing before Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker. The judge also gave prosecutors a month to review a letter from Updyke's doctor saying the 71-year-old man wasn't well enough to travel to Opelika for court.
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| Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:25 AM PDT ![Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders]( "Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders") A Moroccan appeals court upheld, late on Wednesday, death sentences against three Moroccan men for murdering two Scandinavian women in the Atlas mountains last December. A fourth man was also handed capital punishment after he was sentenced to life in prison by an anti-terrorism court on July 18. The other three were handed death sentences at the time.
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| Tulsi Gabbard says she wants to defeat the 'Bush-Clinton doctrine' on foreign policy Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:49 PM PDT  "Those who follow the Bush-Clinton doctrine believe the only way to interact with other nations is by bombing them or starving them with draconian sanctions," Gabbard wrote.
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| ISIS says it has a new leader less than a week after US raid that left Baghdadi dead Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:06 PM PDT  Less than a week after President Donald Trump celebrated Baghdadi's death, ISIS has a brand new leader.
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| California fires: new blazes as dangerous winds fan the flames Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:21 PM PDT  Firefighters in California struggled to contain a new fast-moving blaze on Wednesday that threatened thousands of homes and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as rare "extreme" red flag warnings were issued for much of the Los Angeles region. The so-called Easy Fire in the Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles erupted around 6:00 am, forcing the evacuation of the library and nearby homes as it spread to more than 1,500 acres (526 hectares), officials said. "The fire outflanked us very rapidly, pushed by those 40 to 50 mile-per-hour winds," Ventura County Fire Assistant Chief Chad Cook told reporters.
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| Michelle Obama says white Americans 'still running' from black neighbors Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:12 AM PDT  Former first lady reflects on her experience of white flight in Chicago and says 'when we moved in, white families moved out'Michelle Obama said: 'I want to remind white folks that y'all were running from us. And you're still running.' Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesMichelle Obama has said that white Americans are "still running" from their non-white fellow citizens during a summit in which she detailed how her own experience of white flight unfolded during her upbringing on Chicago's South Side."We were doing everything we were supposed to do – and better," the former first lady told attendees at the third annual Obama Foundation Summit, reported the Chicago Sun-Times as she talked about her childhood. "But when we moved in, white families moved out.""I want to remind white folks that y'all were running from us. And you're still running," she also said, reportedly making a comparison between white flight and what immigrant families experience when they settle in US neighborhoods.At the meeting, Michelle Obama reportedly touted the benefits of building the Obama Presidential Center on 19.3 acres in historic Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. She said the project would feature a museum, library, gym, and forum."Barack and I wouldn't bring some crap up in our neighborhood," she reportedly said. She pointed out that she hails from the area by birth and that her husband Barack comes from South Side by choice.During his speech at the forum, Barack Obama said: "We joke about it a little bit, like this is the mothership."While they hope the center could anchor a potential economic revival in the area, there have been setbacks.Opponents of the project are pursuing a federal court appeal after losing a lawsuit. Federal authorities must also review the project, as Jackson Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In December, this review will have already spanned two years. It remains unclear when the review will end, according to the newspaper.
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| One War Still Haunts The Chinese Military To This Day Posted: 30 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  China has become stronger by studying its mistakes.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2020 Kia Telluride Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:59 AM PDT |
| Keystone oil pipeline leaks 383,000 gallons in North Dakota Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:31 PM PDT ![Keystone oil pipeline leaks 383,000 gallons in North Dakota]( "Keystone oil pipeline leaks 383,000 gallons in North Dakota") TC Energy's Keystone pipeline has leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil in northeastern North Dakota, marking the second significant spill in two years along the line that carries Canadian tar sands oil through seven states, regulators said Thursday. Crews on Tuesday shut down the pipeline after the leak was discovered, said Karl Rockeman, North Dakota's water quality division director. "Our emergency response team contained the impacted area and oil has not migrated beyond the immediately affected area," the company said in a statement.
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| Philadelphia Man Allegedly Confesses to Killing Four Relatives in Shooting at Family Home Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:32 PM PDT  29-year-old Maurice Louis had bought the shotgun used a day beforehand
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| Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:50 AM PDT ![Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain]( "Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain") The polling is clear. Over the more than three years since they voted to leave the European Union, British voters have come to regret their choice. Polls consistently show a several-point margin in favor of Remain, only one in three voters will endorse the proposition that getting Brexit over with is better than further delay, and two thirds believe that a no-deal Brexit should require another referendum.So why are Boris Johnson's Tories, running on a clearer stance for Brexit than ever before, currently projected to win a decisive victory in the December election?The simplest answer is: the opposition is divided. But that answer obscures more than it reveals, because it presumes that the question of Brexit is as dominant among the opposition as it is among the Tories. And the division of the opposition itself proves that this is not the case. On the contrary: Brexit is a truly existential question for a far larger fraction of Leave voters than it is of Remain voters, and that has had and continues to have material electoral consequences.Consider the largest opposition party. Labour under Jeremy Corbin has trended in an overwhelmingly left-wing direction, not only on economic matters but also on immigration and foreign policy. A "no enemies on the left" approach has even seen extremist illiberal and anti-Semitic elements gain a greater foothold within the party. But on Brexit, Corbyn has taken a somewhat ambiguous stance, reflecting the fact that while a majority of Labourites voted Remain, a not insignificant number had always been skeptical of an economic arrangement that gave financial interests greater influence at both the national and European levels of government.That combination of stridency and straddle hasn't played well in electoral terms, and has opened space for two other parties to establish themselves as alternatives: the Liberal Democrats, a longstanding centrist liberal party that has positioned itself as the unequivocal party of Remain, and the Brexit Party, a newly-minted political faction founded by Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party. At one point this past summer, both parties looked capable of surpassing the Tories, and possibly Labour as well.Since Boris Johnson took the premiership, though, the picture has changed dramatically. The Brexit party has fallen back to 10-12 percent in the polls, while the Tories have surged to the mid-to-high 30s. Moreover, Farage has intimated that he might cooperate with the Tories strategically, targeting constituencies where left-wing Leave voters are concentrated to pull them away from Labour, while staying away from seats that would be contested between the Remain-oriented Liberal Democrats and the Leave-oriented Tories.How could such a strategy work if Brexit is only getting less-popular with time? The answer comes down to intensity and cohesion.If Tory Remain voters -- of which there were many -- cared more about stopping Brexit than they did about the fate of their party, they would defect to the Liberal Democrats, badly damaging the Tories' chances of winning a majority. Similarly, if Labour Remain voters felt that Brexit was the most important issue, they would either have pushed Corbyn to a more decisive Remain stance, or would be working strategically with the Liberal Democrats in the way that the Brexit Party may work with the Tories. And the Liberal Democrats would be doing the same.But while Brexit may be a politically-defining event for the liberal center, for the left this is their first chance at power since the 1970s -- not something to be traded away lightly for the sake of free trade with Germany or even stability in Ireland. Even for liberal centrists, the choice between Corbyn and Johnson may be a tough one. For the right, meanwhile, the party as a whole seems to have come to realize that while the hard Leave voters are a minority in the country, they hold the balance of power within the Tory coalition. If they are not given the wheel, the coach isn't going anywhere.Now they have the wheel, and a Leave coalition looks likely to triumph decisively, in spite of all regrets.What happens then? The opposition could continue to come up with explanations for why the result doesn't truly reflect the will of the people -- blaming the electoral system, for instance (though in current polling the Tory-plus-Brexit coalition outpolls Labour-plus-Lib-Dems by an average of five points, suggesting even proportional representation would give victory to the Brexiteers). But they would be wiser to focus on the future. No longer dependent on the votes of Irish Unionists, nor needing to cater to the concerns of the Scottish Nationalists, a big Tory majority could govern from the center of England rather than Britain.The biggest post-Brexit challenge may not be how to get Britain back into Europe, but how to hold Britain itself together.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
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| California governor accepted donations from company he now excoriates for 'greed' Posted: 30 Oct 2019 08:27 AM PDT  California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accepted large donations from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a utility company he now excoriates for "greed" and "mismanagement." PG&E has faced widespread criticism for implementing blackouts for millions of customers to avoid sparking wildfires in the midst of California's dry and windy fall weather.
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| Police destroyed an innocent man's home during an arrest. But he's owed nothing, court rules Posted: 31 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  A Colorado town owes an innocent man nothing, according to a court ruling, though police destroyed his home while trying to arrest a suspect
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| Five hundred goats save the Ronald Reagan library from wildfires Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:27 PM PDT  Animal team charged with eating through 13 acres of scrubland that could have fueled California's Easy fireGoats are released at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, during a similar crisis in 2012. Photograph: Juan Carlo/APDiligent work by a team of 500 goats has helped save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from wildfires that are ravaging parts of California.The library deployed the goat squadron during the spring in order to munch their way through around 13 acres of scrubland around the library that could've provided tinder-like fuel to a wildfire.This preventive action created a fire break between the library and the Easy fire, which has menaced thousands of homes in the Simi Valley near Los Angeles. More than 1,000 firefighters are tackling the blaze, which caused flames to approach the presidential library from a nearby hillside. Treasures saved include a piece of the Berlin Wall and Air Force One."We actually worked with the Ventura county fire department in May and they bring out hundreds of goats to our property," Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the library, told ABC. "The goats eat all of the brush around the entire property, creating a fire perimeter."The goats were sourced from a firm called 805 Goats, which oversees an army of horned contractors, including Vincent van Goat, Selena Goatmez, Goatzart and, more prosaically, Oreo. The company charges fire-threatened clients about $1,000 per acre of goat-cleared land. It plans to expand its herd to cope with a growing wildfire threat in California, fueled by the climate crisis.Goats are growing in popularity as a tool to combat wildfires across the western US, as they are viewed as cheaper and more environmentally friendly than teams of human workers using chemicals. They are also used for general weed clearance in other parts of the country, such as in New York City's Prospect Park.A heavy dependence upon goats does carry risks, however, as residents of West Boise, Idaho, found out to their cost last year when a herd of more than 100 goats rampaged through the neighborhood. The invaders caused carnage in flowerbeds and lawns before breaking a fence and it took two hours for the goats to be rounded up.
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| New York City Council votes to ban sale of foie gras Posted: 30 Oct 2019 11:54 AM PDT  New York City, often viewed as the fine dining capital of America, on Wednesday became the latest U.S. locality to ban the sale of foie gras, prompting the country's largest producer of foie gras to vow to mount a court battle to overturn it. Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is a delicacy produced from the enlarged livers of ducks and geese that have been force-fed corn. Farmers who raise birds for foie gras defend their practices as humane.
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| Authorities Identify ‘Fly Creek Jane Doe’ Through DNA and Now the Real Questions Start Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:13 AM PDT  On a chilly February Sunday in 1980, a father and son panning for gold along Fly Creek in Clark County, Washington, kicked up the remains of a human skeleton that appeared to have been buried in a shallow grave. They called the authorities who came to collect the skull and what bones hadn't been dragged away by animals, and were able to use the remains to construct a facial reconstruction that produced a picture of a teenage girl. Detectives were able to deduce that she died from a cause that did not seem natural. Calls for information, searches through missing persons reports, and detective work turned up nothing. No one seemed to miss the teen, dubbed the 'Fly Creek Jane Doe,' and, for the last 40 years, that is as far as the case went–until now.This summer Clark County detectives decided to post a DNA sample from the old remains to the Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, a public genealogy database that has had recent success closing old cold cases. The lab found a tie to a distant cousin of a teen named Sandra "Sandy" Renee Morden who said she was last seen in 1977–three years before her skeletal remains were found. Courtesy of Clark County SheriffThe Oregonian then dug up an old birthday announcement that was tied to the case. On April 29, 1977, in the classified section of the paper, a tiny ad appeared that said: "Sandra Renee Morden, Happy 15th Birthday. Love Always—Mom." Such published greetings were a common way to mark a birthday or anniversary in the era before Facebook and other social media. Morden's parents were divorced, according to the DNA-linked cousin, who does not want to be named and who provided Clark County cold-case detective Lindsay Schultz with the only clues the teen's life. Schultz told the Oregonian that Morden was a "latchkey kid" who was mostly "unsupervised." There is no indication that the parents filed a missing persons report, and, as Schultz says, "We didn't have [the National Crime Information Center] at that time." The detective says Morden's parents came from the San Francisco area and settled in Portland. They split up in the early 1970s, and did not communicate with each other. The girl's mother, identified as Kathryn Irene Morden, apparently lost custody and the cousin said Sandy most often stayed with her father, identified as Andrew Bain Morden, a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the Korean War. Schultz says she likely fell through the cracks when one parent thought the other had her. She last attended Wilson High School in Portland. Schultz told the Oregonian that the father likely thought she was with her mother. He had left her alone for an extended period of time and when he came back, she was gone, so he assumed she had gone to her mother's home. "We don't know for certain," Schultz says. "We know that's what family members believe."Both parents are dead, so there is no way to confirm what either of them knew. Schultz told the Oregonian that it is the birthday greeting that bothers him most. It was posted around the time the extended family says she disappeared. "Was it just a mom who loved her daughter–or did her mom know something and put it out there for that reason?" Schultz said. "It's one of those two, right? You ponder it. You look at it and you think, 'What does it mean?'"Now detectives are looking for the missing puzzle pieces. They are calling on anyone who might have any information about Morden, her parents, or how she might have died to contact the Clark County Medical Examiner's Office or Clark County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Tip Line.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| IS names Baghdadi successor, threatens US: statement Posted: 31 Oct 2019 10:03 AM PDT  The Islamic State jihadist group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. "We mourn you... commander of the faithful," said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi -- presented as the jihadist group's new spokesman -- in an audio statement. Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world's most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday.
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| Mexican soldiers told Chapo's son to call to stop attacks Posted: 30 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT  Mexican security forces had a son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán outside a house on his knees against a wall before they were forced to back off and let him go as his cartel's gunmen shot up the western city of Culiacan. Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval on Wednesday showed video and presented a timeline of the failed operation to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López on Oct. 17 — an incident that embarrassed the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Guzmán called his brother Archivaldo Iván Guzmán Salazar on his cellphone and told him to stop the chaos.
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| KGB Judged ‘Comrade V.V. Putin’ a Disciplined, Conscientious Spy Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:46 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin was "prompt, disciplined and conscientious" as a spy in the KGB, according to a declassified profile from the Soviet Union's feared security service."Comrade V.V. Putin constantly improves his ideological and political standards," according to the document exhibited at the Central State Archive for Historical-Political Documents of St. Petersburg, the Russian leader's home city. "He's actively engaged in party education work."The profile, which is also on show at a Moscow exhibition of "outstanding figures" of modern Russian history, describes Putin as "morally upstanding" and enjoying "well-deserved authority among colleagues," noting that he won a judo championship in 1978.Putin joined the KGB in 1975 after graduating from the law faculty of Leningrad State University, located in what's now St. Petersburg, and served as a spy for more than 15 years until the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Putin asked to become a KGB officer even before he finished school, according to his Kremlin biography, which cites him saying his view of the organization "was based on idealistic stories I heard about intelligence."He served in Dresden in East Germany from 1985 until 1990, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel during a largely undistinguished stint, and was awarded a bronze medal for service to the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic. He headed the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency of the KGB, in 1998-1999 before President Boris Yeltsin made him prime minister and named Putin as his chosen successor. Putin was elected president in 2000.The KGB's appraisal of Putin, which appears to be from the late 1970s or early 1980s, was absolutely standard and showed that he hadn't stood out or achieved anything in particular, according to Alexei Kondaurov, a former KGB general. "Usually we wrote 'morally upstanding' when there was nothing else to say," he said.Still, there's been "colossal" public interest in the document, shown as part of commemorations of the archive's 90th anniversary, said Olga Bobrova, deputy head of the institution.To contact the reporters on this story: Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.net;Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@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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| It's Time To Get U.S. Nukes Out Of Turkey Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:03 AM PDT  The rationale for maintaining nuclear weapons at Incirlik becomes more dubious by the day. It is time for the U.S. Air Force to bring them home.
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| A Louisiana woman has been arrested for selling $20 fake doctor's notes to students trying to skip class Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:53 AM PDT  The woman's master plan unraveled once the physician whose name was being used to sign off on the notes received complaints from the school board.
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| Authorities say 40 pounds of seized fentanyl is enough to 'kill entire population of Ohio' multiple times Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:08 PM PDT  A raid in southwest Ohio has seized more than 40 pounds of fentanyl –enough to 'kill the entire population of Ohio' several times, officials said.
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| Anthony Scaramucci and Steve Bullock trade jabs over prank endorsement Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:35 PM PDT  Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump's former, short-lived White House communications director-turned-detractor, saw his fame exploited Thursday in a campaign stunt by a Democratic presidential candidate. The stunt unfolded on Twitter when Steve Bullock — Montana's governor and a long-shot candidate who's failed to qualify for all but one Democratic primary debate this year — posted a video recorded by "The Mooch" for the celebrity-shout-out site Cameo in which he appears to endorse Bullock's campaign. "We support you, Steve B. I know you got a tough race ahead of you, but you've done this before," Scaramucci says in the 19-second clip filmed from inside a moving car.
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| Ethiopia says at least 78 people killed in protests last week, number could rise Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:57 AM PDT  At least 78 people were killed in protests in Ethiopia last week against the treatment of a prominent activist, the prime minister's spokeswoman said on Thursday. Billene Seyoum told a news conference that 409 people had been detained over the unrest and that investigations were ongoing and the death toll and number detained could rise. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was greeted on Thursday with boos by at least 700 protesters during a visit to Ambo, a site of earlier violence located 100 km west of the capital Addis Ababa, three people who were present told Reuters by phone.
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| Israel rearrests Palestinian MP, daughter says Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:06 PM PDT  Israeli forces on Thursday rearrested a Palestinian lawmaker who was freed in February after being held without trial for 20 months over links to an outlawed leftist group, her daughter said. "My mother Khalida Jarrar was arrested from our house in Ramallah" at about 3:00 am (0100 GMT), Jarrar's daughter Yafa posted on Facebook. Spokespeople for Israel's Shin Bet security service, which generally directs such arrests, could not immediately be reached for comment.
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