| Polls show Biden's campaign could be hitting the wall Posted: 06 Feb 2020 12:42 PM PST  The state of Biden's campaign is far shakier than his longtime lead in the national polls would suggest. In fact, it may already be on its last legs.
|
| Mike Bloomberg called trans women a 'man wearing a dress' and implied equality 'makes no sense' to Midwesterners Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:50 PM PST  'Give them the job of going to the Midwest and picking a town and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress," Bloomberg said.
|
| 'I'm the sheriff, who are you?': Sheriff stops fake cop car in its tracks Posted: 07 Feb 2020 12:22 PM PST  Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard noticed something unusual about what he thought was a police car, but turned out to be a copycat.
|
| Warren apologizes to 6 women of color who left Nevada office Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:56 PM PST  Elizabeth Warren is apologizing to six women of color who left her presidential campaign office in Nevada before the state's caucuses because they felt marginalized and because their concerns weren't addressed by supervisors. Politico reported that six women have left Warren's campaign office since November. Nevada holds its Democratic caucuses on Feb. 22.
|
| China virus toll hits 717 as cruise ship faces two-week quarantine Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:32 PM PST  The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak rose to 717 on Saturday as the country seethes over an epidemic that claimed the life of a popular doctor and created global panic. The toll has now surpassed the number of people who died in mainland China and Hong Kong during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, after another 81 people succumbed to the illness in central Hubei province. More than 34,000 people have been infected in China by the new strain, which is believed to have emerged in a market that sold exotic animals in Hubei's capital, Wuhan, late last year.
|
| Treasury Department sent information on Hunter Biden to expanding GOP Senate inquiry Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:32 AM PST  The U.S. Treasury Department has complied with Republican Senators' requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates and turned over "'evidence' of questionable origin" to them, according to a leading Democrat on one of the committees conducting the investigation.
|
| Breaking: Wuhan Whistleblower Li Wenliang Awarded $117,000 After Dying from Coronavirus Posted: 07 Feb 2020 09:34 AM PST  The family of deceased Wuhan whistleblower Li Wenliang, who was investigated for "making false comments" when he posted about coronavirus, was awarded $117,400 (821,000 Chinese yuan) in compensation after he died from the very virus early the morning of Friday, February 7. The announcement that the death was ruled a workplace injury came Friday evening after the central government announced it would send a team to investigate his case earlier that day.
|
| Hillary Clinton: 'Follow Mitt Romney's lead' and vote Trump out of office Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:16 AM PST  The 2016 Democratic nominee says she wasn't surprised that the Senate voted to acquit President Trump in his impeachment trial — but was nonetheless disappointed more Republicans didn't vote to remove him from office.
|
| Senate Report Criticizes Response to Russian Meddling and Partly Blames McConnell Posted: 06 Feb 2020 12:00 PM PST  WASHINGTON -- Republican congressional leaders' refusal to publicly acknowledge Russian election interference in 2016 contributed to a watered-down response by the Obama administration in the midst of the presidential campaign, a Senate report released Thursday found.Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. and the Senate majority leader, reacted skeptically after receiving an intelligence briefing in September 2016 about the Russian interference, a former Obama administration official said in the report. "You security people should be careful that you're not getting used," McConnell told Lisa Monaco, the White House homeland security adviser under President Barack Obama, at the time, according to the report.The bulk of the report focuses its criticism on the Obama administration and the "heavily politicized environment" that prevented a more forceful response to the Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. But the inclusion of McConnell's skepticism in a report from a Republican-led Senate committee could give the accusations new life.Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, have previously accused McConnell of stopping the Obama administration from speaking out more forcefully against Russian interference. McConnell has long denied those allegations, pointing to a bipartisan letter that congressional leaders released in late September 2016.The response to Russia's meddling presented a difficult political calculus for McConnell: A public acknowledgment before the election might have deterred Moscow and improved voters' trust in the outcome, but none of that was assured, and it also could have cost Republicans the White House.According to the report, numerous Obama administration officials said some members of Congress at the September 2016 briefing "resisted the administration request that a bipartisan statement be made regarding Russia being responsible for interference activities." It was at that briefing where McConnell told Monaco that she should be careful with the intelligence.The full report from the committee, led by Sen. Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., wavers on the effect any high-level U.S. government warning would have had on Russia's campaign of election sabotage. The Kremlin's operations continued even as the Obama administration began discussing them publicly, Senate investigators found."After the warnings, Russia continued its cyberactivity to include further public dissemination of stolen emails, clandestine social media-based influence operations, and penetration of state voting infrastructure through Election Day 2016," the report said.The committee said that the Obama administration was worried that its warnings to Russia could potentially undermine voters' confidence in the election, which would itself help the Russian effort. The government was also hampered by what it did not know, including the full extent of the Russian ability to manipulate election systems.The report also contained some new details about the Obama administration's efforts to halt the Russian interference campaign. The administration delivered five direct warnings to "various levels of the Russian government," including messages from Obama to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the report said.Obama warned Putin in a note that "the kind of consequences that he could anticipate would be powerfully impactful to their economy and far exceed anything that he had seen to date," the report said, citing an interview with Susan E. Rice, Obama's national security adviser at the time.Some of the material in the report is redacted, including the timing of the first warning that many in the administration received, in the form of briefings from the CIA director at the time, John O. Brennan.Even as they presented the report's findings as bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans on the committee highlighted the still-acrimonious partisan divide over the 2016 campaign in their responses.Burr aimed his criticism at the Obama administration, accusing officials of sharing too little information inside the government."Frozen by 'paralysis of analysis,' hamstrung by constraints both real and perceived, Obama officials debated courses of action without truly taking one," Burr said.Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, blamed partisan politics in part for the flawed response in 2016 and warned that they are still a barrier to fighting Russia's continuing interference in U.S. politics."I am particularly concerned, however, that a legitimate fear raised by the Obama administration -- that warning the public of the Russian attack could backfire politically -- is still present in our hyperpartisan environment," Warner said.In a supplement to the report, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the failure in the midst of the campaign to make a "bipartisan public acknowledgment of the ongoing attack by Russia" had serious implications.Such a statement, Wyden wrote, might have prompted the news media to give more context in their reporting of disclosures by WikiLeaks about the Clinton campaign, most importantly noting "their release was part of a Russian influence campaign" designed to assist Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee."An acknowledgment of Russian influence operations, particularly operations intended to help Donald Trump, would have reflected poorly on the candidate and his campaign," Wyden wrote. "But that should not have been a reason for the administration and members of Congress to withhold from the public warning of an ongoing attack by a foreign adversary."The committee report includes a range of recommendations to ensure the government is better prepared to react to a foreign influence campaign in future elections. Legislation enacted last year requires the director of national intelligence to present regular assessments of such threats before elections, the report noted.Senators also called for the executive branch to be more forthcoming with the public, particularly if foreign influence operations -- called "active measures" by the Russians -- are underway."In the event that such a campaign is detected, the public should be informed as soon as possible, with a clear and succinct statement of the threat, even if the information is incomplete," the report said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
|
| Michael Bloomberg surges to 2nd place in the betting markets Posted: 07 Feb 2020 01:49 PM PST  Americans may not be betting on Michael Bloomberg yet, but betting markets still think he's got a chance.The former New York City mayor has totally leapfrogged former Vice President Joe Biden in an average of betting markets, RealClearPolitics' average shows. Bloomberg has a 19 percent chance of winning, per ElectionBettingOdds.com, while PredictIt's betting market gives Bloomberg a 23-cent "yes" price to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 43 cents.Bloomberg's rise coincides with a major drop in Biden's betting chances, likely stemming from the former vice president's dismal performance in Monday's Iowa caucuses. Even former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has come close to surpassing Biden in RealClearPolitics' average, and he did so decisively on PredictIt. Still, ElectionBettingOdds.com has President Trump with the best chance of winning the whole election this fall, giving him a 59.5 percent chance to Sanders' 14.8 percent and Bloomberg's 10 percent.The Biden drop was also good news for Sanders. He surpassed Biden on the betting markets in late January, and is now far and away the top candidate to win the Democratic nomination. Sanders, and according to RealClearPolitics' betting markets average, no top-ranking candidate has put that much space between themselves and second place since Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) bump in October of last year.More stories from theweek.com Elizabeth Warren's last chance American democracy is dying How to watch the New Hampshire Democratic debate
|
| Latest coronavirus study implicates fecal transmission Posted: 07 Feb 2020 04:42 PM PST  Diarrhea may be a secondary path of transmission for the novel coronavirus, scientists said Friday following the publication of the latest study reporting patients with abdominal symptoms and loose stool. The primary path is believed to be virus-laden droplets from an infected person's cough, though researchers in early cases have said they focused heavily on patients with respiratory symptoms and may have overlooked those linked to the digestive tract. A total of 14 out of 138 patients (10 percent) in a Wuhan hospital who were studied in the new paper by Chinese authors in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) initially presented with diarrhea and nausea one or two days prior to development of fever and labored breathing.
|
| Man 'filmed himself beating his girlfriend to death' and then called an Uber to take her to hospital Posted: 07 Feb 2020 07:45 AM PST  A man allegedly filmed himself beating his girlfriend then ordered an Uber to take her to hospital, where she died.According to a cell phone video obtained through police warrants, Nicholas Forman, 23, from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, could be seen beating his girlfriend Sabrina Harooni, 22, on his lawn, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
|
| A tech side effect: Many residents of China say wearing face masks to avoid the coronavirus has made it impossible to unlock their phones with Face ID Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:18 AM PST  Some residents are venting their frustrations on social media.
|
| Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Wants to Legalize Drugs (As in All Drugs) Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:33 AM PST  For Gabbard, drug policy is a question of personal autonomy and free choice. "When it really comes right down to it, that's what this issue is about. It's about choice."
|
| The next Tiananmen Square? Chinese citizens are demanding increased free speech after the death of a coronavirus whistleblower doctor. China is censoring their calls. Posted: 07 Feb 2020 10:43 AM PST  Viral hashtags — "The Wuhan government owes Li Wenliang an apology," "I want freedom of speech," and "We want freedom of speech" – were seen by millions before being censored.
|
| Trump Says Congress Should Expunge Impeachment from Record Posted: 07 Feb 2020 11:56 AM PST  President Trump said Friday that Congress should expunge his impeachment from the congressional record since it was a "political hoax.""That's a very good question," Trump said when asked whether Congress should wipe the record clean. "Should they expunge the impeachment in the House? They should because it was a hoax. It was a total political hoax."The Senate acquitted Trump on Wednesday of the two impeachment charges against him, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The president had blasted the impeachment process for months as politically motivated by Democrats to remove a duly elected president they oppose.House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy floated the possibility earlier this week, saying he would attempt to expunge Trump's impeachment from the House record should the GOP retake the majority in the lower chamber and elect him speaker."This is the fastest, weakest, most political impeachment in history," McCarthy said. "I don't think it should stay on the books."Other Republicans have backed the idea of expunging the record as well.Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, said holding a vote on a resolution that would seek to expunge the impeachment would "send a loud message that this was a political, partisan effort."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the possibility of expungement later on Friday, adding a promise that Republicans would not take back the majority in the House this year."They can't do that," Pelosi said. "First of all they're not getting the chamber back, but apart from that, there's no expunging. If they don't want to honor their oath of office, then they're going to expunge from their own souls the violation of the Constitution that they made."
|
| She pulled her vote when she found out Pete Buttigieg is gay. He says`I'm running to be her president too.' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:10 AM PST  Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg responds to the Iowa woman who was captured on video withdrawing her support after learning he's gay.
|
| Officials: TSA agent tricked traveler into baring herself Posted: 07 Feb 2020 07:54 AM PST  A federal Transportation Security Administration agent tricked a traveler into twice showing him her breasts as she went through security at one of the world's busiest airports, California's attorney said. Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Johnathon Lomeli, 22, was working at Los Angeles International Airport in June when he used fraud or deceit to falsely imprison the woman. Lomeli was arrested early Thursday at his home.
|
| Father of Murder Victim Meredith Kercher Has Died in Mysterious Circumstances Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:36 AM PST  John Kercher, the father of Meredith Kercher, the British college student whose brutal murder in Perugia, Italy, in 2007 made worldwide headlines, has died under mysterious circumstances. The journalist of more than 40 years and the author of 24 children's books was stoic in his grief as his 21-year-old daughter's murder trial became one of the most sensational media frenzies in modern history. American Amanda Knox, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, and Ivorian Rudy Guede were all originally convicted of her murder. Knox and Sollecito were later released on appeal and Guede is expected to be released this year. Meredith Kercher's Father on 'Our Daughter's Murder'Kercher, who wrote a book about his daughter's murder called Meredith in 2013, said the acquittal of Knox and Sollecito was devastating. "Hundreds of miles away from the center of the events, I sat stunned and open-mouthed," he wrote. "To hear that they had been acquitted and exonerated of any blame in Meredith's death was staggering." The 77-year-old, who suffered a stroke in 2009 that kept him from attending much of his daughter's murder trial, was found with devastating injuries, including a broken arm and leg, outside his home in Croydon, England, on Jan. 13. The Sun newspaper reports that he had no recollection of what happened to him when he was found just yards from his home around 7:30 p.m. on a misty evening. He died in a hospital from his injuries last weekend after reportedly slipping into a coma. Police are asking for leads and information to determine exactly who is responsible for Kercher's injuries, which led to his death. While they are initially working on the theory of a hit-and-run vehicular accident, they have not ruled out that he could have been intentionally hit or even beaten up. Met Police Det. Sgt. Steve Andrews told local reporters the incident is under investigation. "Despite thorough inquiries made so far, including speaking to witnesses and examining potential CCTV opportunities, we have not as yet been able to establish how he came to sustain his injuries, which included a broken arm and broken leg," he said. "We are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances of his death, including whether he may have been involved in a collision."Over the years, Kercher told The Daily Beast that he was not satisfied with the outcome of the final trial and felt personal pain over Knox's rise to stardom over the high-profile trials, which lasted for nearly a decade. Knox, who recently posted a photo on Instagram in her old prison garb for reasons not yet clear, has not publicly commented on the death of her former roommate's father. She had previously expressed interest in meeting them, but they refused any such encounter. The Seattle native has maintained a high profile as an advocate for wrongfully convicted people. She returned to Italy for the first time last summer to speak at an event sponsored by the Innocence Project. The Kercher family released a statement confirming the death: "We loved him dearly and he is going to be very sorely missed."Editor's note: Barbie Latza Nadeau is the author of Angel Face: Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox, which was adapted for film in 2014.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.
|
| Coronavirus puts Shanghai into a coma Posted: 07 Feb 2020 07:42 AM PST  For more than a week, the rare resident of Shanghai who dared venture outside has encountered something unfamiliar: a surreal peace and quiet. The deadly coronavirus epidemic has brought much of China to a standstill, but perhaps nowhere has the change been more stark than in the country's biggest and most vibrant city. Gone are the traffic jams, crowded sidewalks and businessmen hurrying to work, replaced by eerily empty roads, shuttered bars and businesses, and only the occasional pedestrians -- always behind a protective mask.
|
| Former US drone operator recalls dropping a missile on Afghanistan children and says military is ‘worse than the Nazis’ Posted: 07 Feb 2020 10:18 AM PST  A former US drone operator is speaking out against the atrocities he says he was forced to inflict during his time in the armed forces and says the American military as 'worse than the Nazis'.Brandon Bryant was enlisted in the US Air Force for six years. During his time with the military, he operated Predator drones, remotely firing missiles at targets more than 7,000 miles away from the small room containing his workspace near Las Vegas, Nevada.
|
| Colorado transgender teen pleads guilty to murder in school revenge case Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:44 PM PST  A transgender teenager accused of opening fire with a friend in a Denver-area charter school in May to exact revenge on classmates who bullied him pleaded guilty on Friday to murder and attempted murder charges, prosecutors said. Alec McKinney, 16, who has been held without bond since the May 7 rampage that left one student dead and eight others wounded, pleaded guilty to 17 criminal counts, including conspiracy and weapons charges, said Douglas County District Attorney George Brauchler. McKinney is accused along with Devon Erickson, 19, of carrying out the shooting at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
|
| The U.S. Government Is Quarantining More Than 800 Americans. Here's Why That Very Rarely Happens Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:26 PM PST  The mandatory quarantines in effect for Americans returning from Hubei province are the first in more than 50 years
|
| Chinese citizens are furious at the death of the whistleblower doctor censored for talking about the coronavirus. His mother said she couldn't even say goodbye. Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:52 AM PST  Li Wenliang died of the Wuhan coronavirus on Friday. After he tried to warn colleagues about it in December, police had him admit to lying.
|
| Alexander Vindman Fired from White House after Serving as Impeachment Witness Posted: 07 Feb 2020 01:37 PM PST  Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top White House expert on Ukraine who testified in the House phase of the recently concluded impeachment trial, was fired from the White House Friday and escorted out, according to his attorney."LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth," Vindman's lawyer David Pressman said in a statement. "The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy."Vindman, a National Security Council official, testified to the House Intelligence Committee in November that he had discussed the controversial July 25 phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president with an unknown intelligence community member as well as State Department official George Kent, who also testified to lawmakers.Vindman listened to the call between Trump and Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelensky, during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Bidens. The White House meanwhile temporarily froze $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, prompting Democrats to accuse Trump of attempting a quid pro quo in which the release of the aid was contingent on Ukraine's agreement to investigate the former vice president.Vindman told Congress he felt it "improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent.""The most powerful man in the world - buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit" has "decided to exact revenge" on Vindman, his lawyer said.Trump had expressed frustration with Vindman's testimony and on Friday said he was "not happy" with him."You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not. They'll make that decision. You'll be hearing," Trump said.Also on Friday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the Pentagon does not allow retribution against service members."We protect all of our persons, service members, from retribution or anything like that," Esper told reporters. "We welcome back all of our service members wherever they served, to any assignment they are given."Vindman was not scheduled to leave the White House until July. He is expected to return to work at the Pentagon.
|
| Trump officially opens formerly protected Utah national monuments for business Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:28 PM PST  The Interior Department released final plans Thursday for two national monuments in Utah that President Trump moved to radically shrink two years ago. Under the final plans, about 2 million acres that were once part of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments would be open to mineral extraction and ranching. Public lands advocates, Native American groups, and conservationists whose lawsuits to prevent the downsizing of the national monuments are still being litigated in court, called foul.Former President Bill Clinton cellared Grand Staircase-Escalante a national monument in 1996 and former President Barack Obama protected Bears Ears in 2016, both using the 1906 Antiquities Act. Trump proposed cutting Grand Staircase-Escalante by half and Bears Ears by 85 percent. "But the law itself is unclear on who actually has the power to abolish or shrink national monument boundaries," NPR notes, "and legal experts say it has traditionally been the responsibility of Congress to modify the size of public lands."Casey Hammond, acting assistant secretary of land, minerals, and mineral management at the Interior Department, said Thursday the Trump administration has no intention to hold off on opening the monuments to ranchers and oil, gas, and coal companies. "If we stopped and waited for every piece of litigation to be resolved, we would never be able to do much of anything around here," he told reporters.Groups who oppose the de-protection of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears have a few more months to get an injunction, The Washington Post reports. "The earliest the government could approve new mining claims and other kinds of development is Oct. 1, because of language Congress adopted in a spending bill."More stories from theweek.com Elizabeth Warren's last chance American democracy is dying How to watch the New Hampshire Democratic debate
|
| Six Times the Speed of Sound: Will the Air Force Get an SR-72 Spy Plane? Posted: 07 Feb 2020 09:59 AM PST  Better than the SR-71?
|
| The US Army wants its soldiers to be able to see enemies and other deadly threats through walls Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:50 PM PST  The Army is trying to defeat battlefield unknowns by figuring out how soldiers can see through walls, a capability straight out of science fiction.
|
| Box Kites, Rockets, and Satellites: Our 150-Year Endeavor To Forecast the Weather Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST |
| Drug lord Escobar's hit man dies of cancer in Colombia Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:37 AM PST  Pablo Escobar's most notorious hit man, known by the nickname "Popeye," died on Thursday at 57 after a life of crime he celebrated on YouTube, Colombia's prison authorities said.
|
| Man who ran down 2 students faces manslaughter charges Posted: 07 Feb 2020 11:13 AM PST  A man was charged with manslaughter Friday in the deaths of two suburban Oklahoma City high school cross-country athletes whom he hit with his truck as they ran on a sidewalk just a day after his own son was killed in a traffic accident. Max Leroy Townsend, 57, is accused of running over six Moore High School cross-country runners in front of the school Monday afternoon, killing senior Rachel Freeman and sophomore Yuridia Martinez. Townsend was also charged Friday with leaving the scene of a fatality accident, driving under the influence causing great bodily injury, and leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury, District Attorney Greg Mashburn said.
|
| Elizabeth Smart says she was sexually assaulted by passenger on Delta flight Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:51 AM PST  Elizabeth Smart has revealed she was sexually assaulted on a Delta flight by a fellow passenger last summer.On Thursday, Smart, who has advocated on behalf of kidnapping victims after she was abducted and sexually assaulted at 14, told CBS This Morning's Gayle King about the incident.
|
| Poll: Buttigieg Saps Biden Support with Twelve-Point Gain in New Hampshire Posted: 07 Feb 2020 06:07 AM PST  The latest New Hampshire caucus poll shows Pete Buttigieg up twelve points in just four days after declaring victory in the Iowa caucuses.Buttigieg now sits in second bplace in the latest WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll with 23 percent, in a virtual tie with Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) — who leads with 24 percent — based on the margin of error.The former mayor made headlines by declaring victory in the Iowa caucuses Monday night, despite the fact that the state party had failed to report any official numbers. The Iowa Democratic Party has yet to declare a winner with 99 percent reporting as of Friday morning, but Buttigieg leads Sanders by a mere one-tenth of a percentage point in the overall vote, and 564–562 in state delegate equivalents.The declaration seemed to have given Buttigieg real momentum in the next state on the primary circuit, with Buttigieg surging from 11 to 23 percent in four days. On the flip side, Biden has fallen seven points to fourth place, with the poll showing that Buttigieg has gained 16 points overnight among voters over 65 — typically a source of strength for the former vice president."His movement is real," David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said of Buttigieg's surge. "For savvy older voters, it looks to me that when the electability argument went away for Biden, where else were they going to go? There's nothing about him they dislike. His positions are close to Biden's, and he's the next most comfortable alternative to Biden."Biden has been blunt with voters on the campaign trail in New Hampshire this week after his poor performance in Iowa, telling a crowd Wednesday that "I am not going to sugarcoat it, we took a gut punch in Iowa." On Tuesday, the former vice president pleaded to a rally for support."I need your help. I am asking for your help. Look me over," Biden said. "Like my mother said, hope springs eternal. We are not giving up; we are not giving up."
|
| Trump Fires Gordon Sondland, Boots Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:50 PM PST  Just two days after he was acquitted of abuse of power charges, President Trump ousted two key impeachment witnesses on Friday: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and National Security Council official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.Sondland, who had tied Trump to the pressure campaign against Ukraine at the heart of impeachment proceedings, announced he had been let go but gave no reason for his removal."I was advised today that the President intends to recall me effective immediately as United States Ambassador to the European Union," he said in a statement.That was only hours after Vindman was demonstratively marched out of the White House, along with his attorney brother, in what his lawyer described as retaliation "for telling the truth" during impeachment proceedings. Alexander Vindman Decries 'Callow and Cowardly' Attacks on Witnesses in Impeachment InquiryMany had expected Trump to exact vengeance following his impeachment acquittal. After all, it was only two weeks ago that Eric Ueland, Trump's legislative affairs director, had breezed past a group of reporters and was quoted saying, "I can't wait for the revenge."And Trump allies were quick to gloat, with the president's son facetiously thanking Rep. Adam Schiff for helping to identify who in the administration "needed to be fired" through the impeachment process.Still, some U.S. officials were left alarmed by the moves."It's incredibly disturbing that the president is unaware of his Constitutional powers until his corrupt intent is clear," a State Department official told The Daily Beast. "All Americans should easily recognize at this point his personnel decisions have nothing to do with valid policy decisions for the public good and are only about the zero sum game of his own personal power interests."The firings come two days after the Senate acquitted Trump of coercing Ukraine into investigating the president's political rivals, rejecting articles of impeachment approved by the House.Both Vindman and Sondland had provided crucial testimony during House hearings, with Vindman recalling his shock when he said he heard Trump pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and Biden's son, Hunter. Vindman, a war hero who served as director of European affair on the NSC, testified that he revealed his concerns about Trump's request to other NSC officials. Trump had foreshadowed Vindman's departure on Friday, telling reporters that he "wasn't happy" with the colonel. "You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not." Sondland's departure comes more than two months after his stunning testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee, when he singled out top Trump officials and said they were all in on the campaign to coerce Ukraine to conduct politically motivated investigations pushed by Trump. Here Are All the People Sondland Just Threw Under the BusSondland told the panel that senior players including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Vice President Mike Pence knew about his attempt to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a public commitment to investigate a conspiracy theory around 2016 election and the gas company Burisma. Sondland stopped short of saying the president directed him personally, instead saying he was following orders from Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who the president had directed Sondland, U.S. Envoy Kurt Volker and Energy Secretary Rick Perry to deal with on Ukraine. Two officials who spoke to The Daily Beast on Friday night said they had been expecting Sondland's removal for months. The EU Ambassador had been absent for meetings and conference calls he had in the past frequented.One former official said Sondland's departure was not surprising and that the former ambassador had indicated privately that he knew he was on his way out. His ouster came as much of Trumpworld seemed to be cheering on the president's decision to force Vindman out, urging him not to stop at the Vindman brothers and to keep "draining the swamp." Donald Trump Jr. reacted to the firings with mockery, suggested on Twitter that the impeachment trial had actually done the president a favor by "unearthing who all needed to be fired." The Twitter account for Trump's re-election campaign also appeared to justify the firings, retweeting old tweets accusing Vindman of "colluding" in the impeachment "coup" and "leaking" information to the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment trial. The State Department official said Sondland's ouster was even more concerning than Vindman's."Regardless of our concerns with Sondland's initial nomination, he was a duly sworn Ambassador and even more so than LTC Vindman, this is retributive," the official said. "I think we were anticipating that after the president was acquitted he was going to purge the people he couldn't before because it was too politically costly beforehand," another U.S. official said. "Plus, what if these people had known something that they had not yet publicized?" The official added that Sondland's departure came as more of a shock since he hadn't been as critical in his testimony as Vindman. Vindman, the official said, seemed to have "no political leanings" when he started at the National Security Council and was devoted to serving the president. "I think the idea that they had to fire him and not let him leave quietly is the big dramatic signal. The Secret Service comes in and walks you out. It was meant to humiliate him," the official said. A Republican Senate aide told The Daily Beast there was nothing unseemly about the Friday firings."This has nothing to do with loyalty or with questioning their patriotism. The president is entitled to his own staffing selections," the aide said. "And if there's one thing we learned through the past six months, it's that there are a number of staff who think it is their job, not the president's job, to set foreign policy."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.
|
| Coronavirus' danger is made worse by the control China has over U.S. health care Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:34 AM PST ![Coronavirus' danger is made worse by the control China has over U.S. health care]( "Coronavirus' danger is made worse by the control China has over U.S. health care") The basic building blocks of U.S. health care are now under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
|
| Bloomberg campaign appears to have plagiarized parts of 8 campaign policies Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:06 PM PST  The Intercept found that several of Michael Bloomberg's 2020 pledges matched other sources word-for-word.
|
| Officials: TSA agent tricked a traveler into twice showing him her breasts Posted: 07 Feb 2020 06:57 AM PST  A federal Transportation Security Administration agent tricked a traveler into twice showing him her breasts as she went through security at one of the world's busiest airports, California's attorney said.
|
| Postal worker rescues missing toddler after night out in cold Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:43 PM PST  "Giving glory to God that I was able to help at that particular time and be in the correct place at the right time," Keith Rollins said after rescuing the child.
|
| Thousands of Miles From Wuhan, a U.S. City Is Shaken by Coronavirus Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:08 AM PST  PITTSBURGH -- In 2003, when SARS was spreading, Edward Zhang was not yet a teenager and living with his parents in Wuhan, China, largely dependent on the morning paper and the nightly news to know what was happening in the next city over.The world has changed a lot since then. Now, as the coronavirus renders his home city a ghost town, overwhelming hospitals and forcing his friends and family to don masks in their own homes, Zhang is updated constantly despite living over 7,000 miles away, in Pittsburgh."I might be finding things out faster than my parents," he said, describing a steady stream of videos, photographs and reports from his friends in Wuhan, even information about specific apartments in specific buildings where the coronavirus has apparently struck.It's a small world after all, a frightening thought if the virus becomes a global pandemic, but a mixed blessing for the scores of Wuhan natives living in Pittsburgh, which has been a "sister city" of Wuhan for nearly 40 years.The designation does not mean much officially, beyond the creation of some local partnerships and occasional delegation visits, where ideas about economics and bike-share plans are exchanged. But it does provoke some extra urgency to help out on the part of city leaders in Pittsburgh, who have offered assistance, and certainly on the part of people from Wuhan like Zhang, 28, who works for an online retailer of prescription eyeglasses. Along with several groups in the city, he helped set up an online fundraiser for critical medical supplies that has raised nearly $50,000.Wuhan is a much bigger city than Pittsburgh, but the two bear a certain resemblance; in an interview, Mayor Bill Peduto of Pittsburgh called Wuhan a "postindustrial city that has created a new economy based upon technology and medicine." Both are former steel cities at the confluence of major rivers, and as Pittsburgh had decades ago, Wuhan has recently taken on the heavy task of cleaning up and reinventing itself.People from Wuhan began settling in Pittsburgh, a city of about 300,000, in the late 1980s. They stay in touch with one another in a WeChat group and formally get together twice a year to talk and eat -- particularly the hometown favorite, hot dry noodles. The number of Pittsburghers who hail from Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, is said by some to be around two or three hundred."I was surprised how big a group there was from Hubei province," said Dr. Jing He, a neuroscience researcher who grew up near Wuhan and arrived in Pittsburgh two and a half years ago.Like Wuhan, Pittsburgh is a big college and university city. There are nearly 3,000 Chinese students at Carnegie Mellon University, an engineering powerhouse, and nearly 1,900 Chinese students at the University of Pittsburgh, 53 of them from Hubei province. For years, graduate students from Wuhan University taught Chinese at an institute on Pitt's campus, although that program was suspended last summer because of visa issues with the State Department.Many students from Wuhan are in the medical field, often ending up at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a regional health care giant. They were particularly well-prepared to act after hearing the news from home in January."We told friends and classmates, 'Hey, we heard there's a problem there,' but they said, 'Everything is normal,'" said Xiaoming Li, an engineer who grew up in Wuhan but has lived in Pittsburgh for 26 years. That was early on, when people thought the sickness was confined to customers and vendors at a local meat market.But suddenly the government declared that the virus could be spread by human-to-human contact and sealed off Wuhan, a city of 11 million. What became a matter of concern immediately became a mass emergency. Natives of Wuhan in Pittsburgh, many of whom are friends with the doctors now in Wuhan hospitals, heard dire reports."They are short of medical supplies, short of doctors, nurses, short of everything," Li said.Jing He heard the same things -- when he heard from people at all. "It's very, very scary," he said. "My classmate works at a hospital in Wuhan. I try and try to reach my friend but she doesn't reply. I assume she is overwhelmed with all the patients."Still, this was the advantage of many of those from Wuhan now in Pittsburgh: They personally know the medical professionals who need the masks, gloves and other supplies, so they can send them directly rather than relying on third parties like the Red Cross. A first shipment has already gone out.Fundraising continues -- the owners of the city's Chinese restaurants raised a few thousand dollars at their annual Lunar New Year party -- but the challenge is finding enough supplies to buy. Organizers of the fundraiser said American suppliers were reluctant to sell large amounts in case of an outbreak in the United States, where 11 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed as of Tuesday evening.They understand this reluctance: Their other priority is, obviously, to keep the disease from gaining any foothold here. Volunteers within the Chinese community are bringing groceries to people who have returned from China recently and are secluding themselves in voluntary self-quarantine, as institutions around the city are urging.So far, there are no confirmed cases in Pittsburgh. Zhang has his hands full as it is."There's already an outbreak in my hometown," he said. "I don't want another."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
|
| In Iowa, Bernie’s Youth Movement Showed Up While Generation X Flaked Out Posted: 07 Feb 2020 12:03 PM PST  Even as the Iowa caucus results are marred by reports of inaccuracies and it remains uncertain whether Bernie Sanders or Pete Buttigieg won more "state delegate equivalents," one thing that is clear is that Sanders won the most votes. The Vermont socialist beat the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. 24.8 percent to 21.3 percent in the first round of voting and 26.6 percent to 25.0 percent in the final round of voting (after caucus-goers for candidates who didn't meet the "viability" threshold of 15 percent switched their support to candidates who did).How did Sanders pull off the victory?The weekend before Iowans caucused, Sanders predicted that he would only win with a historically high number of Iowans showing up on Monday night. "I believe if there is a low voter turnout, we will lose this election. If there is a high voter turnout, we are going to win this election," Sanders told Iowans gathered in Des Moines the Friday before the caucus. "Our job is to create the highest voter turnout in the history of the Iowa caucuses."As it turns out, no such record turnout came to pass. The turnout was barely above 2016 levels and far short of the huge levels seen in 2008:> 2004: 125,000> > 2008: 239,000> > 2016: 171,500> > 2020: 172,500Yet Bernie won anyway. As I noted in this space two weeks before the caucuses, it was an open question how many young voters would show up: "In 2016, under-30 voters accounted for just 18 percent of Iowa Democratic caucus-goers. In 2008, under-30 voters made up 23 percent of Iowa Democratic caucus-goers. If 2020 turnout is closer to 2008 than 2016, that could swing the election to Sanders." Despite the modest overall turnout, that's exactly what happened. According to Iowa entrance polls, voters under 30 comprised 24 percent of the caucus-going electorate — up six points from 2016 and one point better than 2008, when young voters carried Barack Obama to victory. Those voters preferred Sanders to Buttigieg by nearly 30 points, 48 percent to 19 percent, as did voters age 30–44 by ten points, 33 percent to 23 percent.If more young people showed up in 2020 than 2016, but the overall number of voters remained the same, who didn't show up this time around? The share of voters over the age of 65 remained about the same: It was 28 percent in 2016, and 27 percent in 2020. Joe Biden ran first among this group, besting Amy Klobuchar 33 percent to 22 percent, but that wasn't enough to overcome his weak overall performance. The group that shrank as a share of the electorate was voters between the ages of 45 and 64, who comprised 36 percent of Democratic caucus-goers in 2016 but only 28 percent in 2020.Oddly enough, those voters were the only age group that Buttigieg carried: They preferred him to Biden by eight points, 26 percent to 18 percent. Whereas Sanders is strong among young voters and weak among old voters and Biden has the opposite problem, Buttigieg's coalition was much more evenly distributed among voters of all ages in Iowa:> 17–29 year-olds: 19 percent> > 30–44: 23 percent> > 45–64: 26 percent> > 65 and older: 21 percentOne of the puzzling questions from this week's caucuses is why the share of voters between the ages of 45 and 64 shrunk. This cohort, born between 1956 to 1975, is obviously not the same as it was in 2016, but there is plenty of overlap. So what explains its lack of enthusiasm?Have Gen-Xers and younger Boomers in Iowa simply become less Democratic? Did the cohort closest to retirement get spooked by Sanders's relentless charges that Biden would cut Social Security and stay home? Were Gen-Xers so sad about the absence of the "quintessentially Generation X" Beto O'Rourke on the ballot that they sat out the caucuses in protest?Perhaps the next few contests will give us a better idea of the answer. Onward to New Hampshire.
|
| Texas executes man convicted of killing five family members Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:53 PM PST  Texas Thursday executed a man who killed five family members including two of his children in 2002 during what his defense argued was a delirium induced by crack cocaine. Abel Ochoa, 47, was administered a lethal injection at the Huntsville penitentiary north of Houston and was pronounced dead at 6:48 pm (0048 GMT Friday), Texas prison officials said. According to court documents, on a Sunday morning after church in August 2002 Ochoa asked his wife for money to buy crack cocaine.
|
| Fox News warns Fox News about spreading pro-Trump 'disinformation' on Ukraine Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:58 AM PST  An internal report from the Fox News research department warns that several prominent Fox News guests, aided sometimes by omissions from Sean Hannity, have spread "disinformation" about Ukraine. The briefing, written by senior political affairs specialist Bryan S. Murphy and titled "Ukraine, Disinformation, and the Trump Administration," was first disclosed in a series of tweets from former Fox News freelancer Marcus DiPaola, then obtained in full by The Daily Beast. Murphy compiles reports for the Fox News "Brain Room," a research arm of the network's news division.The report specifically points to "disinformation" on Ukraine from President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Fox News contributor and Hill columnist John Solomon, and married legal team Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing.DiGenova and Toensing are part of Trump's legal circle and also represent Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, a fact not disclosed last fall when they were "spreading disinformation" on Fox News and "parroting ... beneficial narratives while employed by Firtash," Murphy wrote. Giuliani had a "high susceptibility to disinformation" from Firtash and former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko, he added, and Solomon, an opinion columnist typically referred to as an "investigative reporter" by Hannity, "played an indispensable role in the collection and domestic publication of elements of this disinformation campaign." Trump cites Solomon's work, now under review by The Hill, while defending himself in the Ukraine scandal.Mitch Kweit, senior vice president of the Brain Room, told The Daily Beast that "the 200 page document has thousands of data points, and the vast majority have no relation to Fox News — instead it's now being taken out of context and politicized to damage the network." Read more at The Daily Beast.More stories from theweek.com Elizabeth Warren's last chance American democracy is dying How to watch the New Hampshire Democratic debate
|
| Police officers to stop women from having abortions under proposed new Missouri bill Posted: 07 Feb 2020 10:28 AM PST  Police officers would be granted the power to prevent women from having an abortion under a new bill proposed by a politician in Missouri.Mike Moon, a Republican Missouri state representative who previously shared a video of himself decapitating a living chicken on Facebook to justify why abortion should be banned, introduced the controversial legislation.
|
