| Trump storms New Hampshire on eve of primary looking to 'shake up the Dems' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:21 PM PST  President Trump held a campaign rally Monday in Manchester, where he encouraged his supporters to cast votes for the "weakest candidate" in the Democratic field in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.
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| 'Sanctuary' battle heats up as Trump kicks New Yorkers from program for expedited entry Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:33 PM PST  The Trump administration's war on so-called sanctuary cities and states is being taken to a new level, with a court battle looming in New York over a rule that may keep hundreds of thousands of residents from enrolling in a program meant to speed reentry in the country from abroad.
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| Jury being chosen for trial of man charged with killing 8 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 06:00 AM PST  Jury selection continues Tuesday in north Mississippi for the death penalty trial of a man accused of killing eight people on the other end of the state in May 2017. Willie Cory Godbolt, now 37, said "I'm sorry" while a reporter was recording him after the shootings in south Mississippi's Lincoln County. Jury selection started Monday at the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, which is near Memphis, Tennessee.
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| Texas Attorney General asks Supreme Court to repeal a California travel ban Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:04 PM PST  The Texas attorney general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a California law prohibiting state employees from using taxpayer-funded business trips to expos or conferences in Texas.
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| These 10 Women Are Changing the Way We Talk About Science Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:39 PM PST |
| How China Is Making the Coronavirus an Even Bigger Problem Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:25 PM PST  The International Civil Aviation Organization appears more concerned with doing China's bidding by prioritizing Beijing's political priorities over a global health emergency.
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| Migrants raped and trafficked as U.S. and Mexico tighten borders, charity says Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:45 AM PST  Central American migrants are being kidnapped, raped and trafficked in Mexico as they seek to enter the United States amid a migration crackdown, a medical charity said on Tuesday. In Mexico's Nuevo Laredo city - separated from the United States by the Rio Grande - almost 80% of migrants treated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the first nine months of 2019 said they had been victims of violence, including kidnapping. "They're treated as if they aren't really people," Sergio Martin, Mexico coordinator for MSF, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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| Tulsi Gabbard's unique campaign brought people together – but looks to be coming apart Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:36 AM PST  Hawaii congresswoman made a noble effort to bring together voters with different beliefs, but her poll numbers are lowIf Tulsi Gabbard drops out of the Democratic race in the coming days, her unique campaign is likely to be remembered more for her spats with the Democratic party, accusations of being a Russian operative, and the imagery of her promise to "bring a soldier's heart to the White House" than a realistic bid for president.The Hawaii congresswoman's unusual political journey, which has seen her go from a rising progressive star to a regular Fox News guest supported by Republicans and libertarians, has so far not endeared her to supporters in New Hampshire, which goes to the polls Tuesday.While Iowa traditionally holds the first caucuses in the presidential election, New Hampshire has held the first primary since 1920. The goal for presidential candidates is to win early-voting states and create name recognition and a sense of momentum, as well to pick up their first delegates, who will eventually choose the nominee in summer.Sometimes a clear favorite for the nomination emerges quickly, but the last two major Democratic primary contests, pitting Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton and then Bernie Sanders against Clinton, have lasted from the Iowa caucuses in January through to late spring.After more than a year campaigning and holding more than 130 events in the Granite state alone, Gabbard is currently at 3.3% in the polls. She held 70 events in Iowa, an effort that won her the votes of 342 people on caucus night."As president I will have your back," she told a crowd in Rochester this weekend. "I promise I will treat every American with respect."In all likelihood, Gabbard will not get the opportunity to prove that. The Democratic contest has not been kind to the long-shot candidates so far. The businessman and former congressman John Delaney, after spending two and a half years and more than $25m campaigning, dropped out days before the Iowa caucus.Joe Sestak, a three-star admiral and two-term congressman, pulled out at the end of 2019. Bigger names such as Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris and Beto O'Rourke have all fallen to the whims of the Democratic electorate.Gabbard's rally in Rochester had gotten off to an inauspicious start, when the Elk's Lodge venue misspelled her name: a TV screen displaying a "Tulsie" rally alongside listings for "western night" and "meat raffle".Gabbard is 38 and has made physical vitality – along with her military service in the Hawaii national guard – a central feature of her campaign. She has posted videos of her surfing, taking part in push-up contests and working out in the gym.Yet for all that she has run a strangely joyless campaign.At rallies she speaks slowly, using lingering pauses, more like a university lecturer than a politician inspiring a crowd. In Greenland, it didn't bother the crowd."I met Tulsi on New Year's Day," said Spiro Paras, an ardent Gabbard supporter. "With direct personal contact I realized she has a soul and means what she says. That's visible in her eyes and face."The rally came amid a busy weekend for Gabbard. On Saturday she went on Fox News to defend Donald Trump's decision to fire key impeachment witnesses Lt Col Alexander Vindman and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland.On Sunday, she went on Fox News again, this time appearing on Sean Hannity's show. Hannity, a friend and informal adviser to the president who has promoted conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the dead DNC staffer Seth Rich, praised Gabbard for her courage."I think she's taken politically brave acts that have blacklisted her with the Democratic party leadership," Paras said.He was referring not just to Gabbard's Fox News sojourns. Gabbard bucked her party's elders to back Bernie Sanders over Clinton in 2016, and in December did not vote to impeach Trump. In January, Gabbard sued Clinton for $50m in retaliation for Clinton suggesting the Hawaiian was a Russian asset, months after Gabbard filed a $50m lawsuit against Google for allegedly suspending her campaign's advertising.Despite all evidence to the contrary, Gabbard's campaign believes she can outperform expectations in New Hampshire. One aide pointed to polls that show her with more than 5% support here – those polls exist, they are just few and far between – and Gabbard's supporters seem just as optimistic."Definitely top three, possibly even the top one," was Paras's prediction for Tuesday's vote.Gabbard does have some reason to feel aggrieved at her treatment. Along with Clinton's Russia accusations, Gabbard was left out of a pair of CNN town halls last week, even as the former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick – polling even lower than Gabbard – was invited. She has regularly complained that her campaign hasn't received enough coverage from the press.That was the case at her rallies on Saturday and Sunday, where there were comparatively few journalists. They missed Gabbard, whose central theme is ending wars and diverting military funding to social programs, playing up the political diversity of her supporters, who are often male and skew conservative.Gabbard asked the Democrats in the crowd to raise their hands, then the Republicans to raise their hands, and then the "libertarians or independents" to put their hands in the air.Kevin Frost, 38, who was at the Greenland event with his wife and daughters, fitted into the independent camp."I feel like some of the field is a little bit far left for where I feel we are as a country," Frost said.He voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012, and for John McCain in 2008. In 2016, Frost said he voted "against Clinton, but not for Trump"."The idea that [Gabbard] stepped out and held off the impeachment fiasco, that speaks volumes," Frost said. "To me it seems like if she's going to do that now, then when she's president she'll maybe think of things a a little bit more too."If the vote on Tuesday reflects the polling, Gabbard will probably not be president.To her fans, her attempt to bring people with different political beliefs together might have been a noble effort, but it just isn't clear how it helps in winning the Democratic nomination.
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| New York man accused of manipulating daughter's college friends charged with sex trafficking Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:09 PM PST  Lawrence Ray, the father of a former Sarah Lawrence College student, is accused of manipulating and abusing her school friends.
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| China removes two Hubei leaders as virus crisis deepens Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:06 PM PST  The two most senior health officials at the epicentre of China's deadly virus outbreak have been sacked, state media said Tuesday, as pressure mounts over the way local authorities have handled the epidemic. Zhang Jin, the Communist Party boss of the provincial health commission in Hubei, and its director Liu Yingzi have been removed from their positions, reported state broadcaster CCTV, after a decision by the province's party committee Monday. The area has found itself at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people and infected over 42,000 across China since December.
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| Arkansas lawmaker calls for changes after police encounter Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:50 PM PST  A black Arkansas lawmaker plans to introduce legislation next year aimed at changing police tactics after officers drew guns on her and another black politician who had called 911 to report that they were being harassed. Democratic state Rep. Vivian Flowers, from Pine Bluff, said the planned legislation would address the use of police body-cameras; police increasingly collecting data; penalties for filing false police reports; and creating limits to police use of force. At a news conference Monday, Flowers recalled the Feb. 3 incident outside of a Little Rock fundraiser for state House candidate Ryan Davis, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
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| 'Soon we will all be infected': Indian crew on quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship pleads for help as coronavirus cases spike Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:33 AM PST  Indian crew members shared a video on Facebook, begging their government to rescue all 160 of them. They are afraid of "who will be next."
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| Michelle Malkin Endorses Racist CPAC Rival Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:14 AM PST  This week: * CPAC gets a racist rival, with help from Michelle Malkin * Fox News leak questions Sean Hannity's guest list * Check out this book! * Seth Rich conspiracy theorists get a big boostCPAC, but for white nationalists: Later this month, conservative operatives from all over the country will head to a hotel outside Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual mega-confab for all things Trump. But this time, CPAC will face a racist rival conference at an undisclosed location nearby: the "America First Political Action Conference," featuring two speakers who marched in the white supremacist Charlottesville rally in 2017. Ordinarily, a gathering this fringe wouldn't mean much for the right—except for the fact that Michelle Malkin, one of the most prominent conservative columnists in the country, is also speaking. Malkin's headlining role raises questions about how far racist ideas are infiltrating the mainstream right. The backstory here is that a particularly online section of the right has been riven for the past few months between "groypers"—the white nationalist activists and their fellow travelers—and more establishment conservative elements like Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and the organizers of CPAC. Organized around white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the "groypers"—who take their name from an obese toad version of Pepe the Frog—started showing up at Turning Point events and shouting down speakers like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). They claimed that Crenshaw and his allies aren't conservative enough, and many of their questions were aimed at questioning the United States' support for Israel, in an attempt to "red-pill" campus conservatives toward more extreme views.Malkin has gone all-in on the groypers, apparently because of her hardline stance on immigration. She joined the encrypted messaging app Telegram—their preferred social media platform—and even lost her speaker's bureau contract over it. Now Malkin, who had a headlining speech at CPAC just last year, is positioning the racist AFPAC variation as the real conservative conference. She'll appear at the event alongside Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, and Patrick Casey, the leader of a white nationalist group that rebranded after its internal chat logs leaked. Malkin's appearance at AFPAC raises the embarrassing possibility that plenty of CPAC attendees will head over to AFPAC on Friday night, linking the conservative movement's leading conference with white nationalists.Malkin has promoted AFPAC on Twitter and declared that, unlike CPAC, it would have no "swamp lobbyists lurking backstage." Malkin didn't respond to a request for comment. But her appearance at the white nationalist event suggests that the far-right, racist "groyper" ethos is getting more entrenched with conservatives. Want this in your inbox? sign up now!* * *Fox critiques its own Ukraine coverage: Even some of Fox News' own researchers do not believe the claims made by a number of Sean Hannity's most frequent guests, according to an internal Fox document I reported on last week. In a report from Fox's in-house research unit, a researcher blasted guests like John Solomon and Rudy Giuliani, accusing them of pushing a Ukrainian disinformation campaign.* * *Right Richter Reading Corner: If you like Right Richter and its coverage of marginal, bizarre Trumpland characters, you're going to love the new book Sinking in the Swamp. It's the latest from my colleagues Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay, it's coming out on Tuesday, and it's filled with bizarre stories about what the Trump era means for our country. Check it out!* * *Seth Rich conspiracy theories flare anew: It's been a lean couple of years for Seth Rich conspiracy theorists. The people fixated on the 2016 murder of the Democratic National Committee staffer had their high point in 2017, when Hannity and a Fox reporter pushed the baseless idea that Hillary Clinton had Rich killed for leaking hacked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. Hannity started losing advertisers, Rich's family sued Fox, and the channel ditched the story. Since then, the most prominent Rich conspiracy theorist has been vlogger Matt Couch—a guy with a sizable fringe following but not exactly a household name on the right. That all might be about to change now, though, after redacted emails obtained from the Department of Justice with the subject line "Seth Rich" were released earlier this month.While the emails are all brief and are just about people dismissing the idea that Rich was involved in the WikiLeaks email hack, they've been seized on by Rich conspiracy theorists. And they've made their way over to OAN, the cable network that Trump increasingly praises in an attempt to push Fox rightward. Last week, OAN ran an entire segment about the emails, with the headline proclaiming: "Attorney: FBI Had Been Lying About The Murder Of Seth Rich." The blast of cable news attention has reinvigorated Seth Rich conspiracy theorists, suggesting that the saga the Rich family has long asked speculators to end won't be stopping anytime soon. 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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| Elizabeth Warren compared Mike Pence to a dog when a voter asked who her running mate would be Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:54 AM PST  Elizabeth Warren held a town hall event in Lebanon, New Hampshire Sunday. When asked a quirky question, she gave a "feisty" response.
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| Manchin to Trump: I'm no Munchkin, and by the way, you're 'much heavier than me' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:35 PM PST  Sen. Joe Manchin and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg respond to taunts by President Trump in a similar way.
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| Bernie Sanders looks to young voters to help him recapture the magic in New Hampshire Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:53 AM PST  Four years ago, Bernie Sanders scored a resounding victory in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary. This year Sanders urgently needs a repeat performance, and his campaign is turning to young voters to make it happen.
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| New York man who posted photos of dead teen online pleads guilty to her murder Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:30 PM PST  "I've thought about Bianca and how she didn't deserve what happened to her," Brandon Clark said in court.
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| 'I was scared to death': Patients jailed over unpaid medical debt in rural Kansas Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:42 AM PST  At a time when healthcare policy dominates national debate, a county in Kansas is jailing individuals with medical debt.Judge David Casement is a magistrate judge in Coffeyville, Kansas, where the poverty rate is twice the national average. He presides over cases in which individuals with medical debt are brought to court to face the medical companies they owe. During the hearings, the debtors must make a case for their own poverty during what is known as a "debtors exam."
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| Ginsburg: Equal Rights Amendment backers should start over Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:30 PM PST  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Monday that those like her who support an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution should start over in trying to get it passed rather than counting on breathing life into the failed attempt from the 1970s. "I would like to see a new beginning," Ginsburg said during an event at Georgetown's law school in Washington. Congress sent the amendment, which guarantees men and women equal rights under the law, to the states in 1972.
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| China's Communist Party is purging local officials as public anger mounts at coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:53 PM PST  China has removed high-ranking officials in the Hubei province amid public outcry over the mounting death toll of the coronavirus outbreak.
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| As coronavirus spreads on cruise ships, what does it mean for cruisers and cruise lines? 'It's day-by-day' Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:11 PM PST  Coronavirus has forced the cruise industry to take measures to keep the outbreak at bay. But how will it impact the industry and cruisers?
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| WHO warns of 'very grave' global virus threat Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:42 AM PST  The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that the novel coronavirus was a "very grave threat" for the planet as it hosted the first major conference on fighting the epidemic. "With 99 percent of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the start of the meeting. The virus, first identified in the city of Wuhan in central China on December 31, has killed more than 1,000 people, infected over 42,000 and reached some 25 countries.
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| Airbus unveils 'blended wing body' plane design after secret flight tests Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:13 PM PST |
| The White House will reportedly dismiss another official over role in impeachment investigation Posted: 11 Feb 2020 11:07 AM PST  The impeachment fallout continues.The New York Post reported Tuesday that Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, will have her nomination for the permanent position rescinded by the White House. And, surprise, it has to do with Ukraine.In January, emails sent from McCusker questioning President Trump's directive to freeze about $250 million in Ukrainian military aid were leaked just before the president's Senate impeachment trial. Those communications clearly didn't sit well with the administration. "This administration needs people who are committed to implementing the president's agenda, specifically on foreign policy, and not trying to thwart it," a White House official told the Post.It's not clear when the nomination will be officially withdrawn, or if the decision will affect her acting role in the meantime, but it looks as if McCusker will eventually join Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who had served on the National Security Council, and former Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, both of whom were removed from their posts after they provided some of the more damaging testimony during the House impeachment inquiry. The White House said their ousters weren't related to their testimonies. Read more at The New York Post.More stories from theweek.com WHO proposes new name for coronavirus Amy Klobuchar looks to Nevada caucuses with TV ad buy President Bloomberg?
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| CPAC Head Would Fear for Senator Mitt Romney's Safety If He Attended 2020 Convention Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:57 AM PST  Matt Schlapp: "This year, I'd actually be afraid for his physical safety, people are so mad at him."
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| The FBI Makes a Bizarre Claim About Pro-Choice Terrorism Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:55 PM PST  The FBI is expanding its focus on domestic terrorism, and that includes pro-choice violence—even though such violence is so vanishingly rare, it's all but nonexistent. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray disclosed that the bureau has recently "changed our terminology as part of a broader reorganization of the way in which we categorize our domestic terrorism efforts." It's part of a much-heralded reinvigoration of the bureau's domestic terrorism focus after a rising tide of mostly white-supremacist terrorism.Among four broad categories of domestic terrorism that the FBI confronts, Wray said, is "abortion violent extremism." But Wray wasn't only talking about the pro-life extremism that murders abortion providers in their churches, he hastened to add, but "people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic."His questioner, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), was puzzled at Wray's seeming equivalence: "People on either side of that issue don't commit violence." In fact, the FBI pointed The Daily Beast to just one episode of pro-choice-inspired terrorism—one that did not involve an actual act of violence, but rather a threat in an online comments section.But Wray persisted: "Well, we've actually had a variety of kinds of violence under that, believe it or not. But at the end of the day." Bass asked, "Really, that blow up buildings and threaten doctors?" Rather than responding, Wray moved on to detailing the FBI's next domestic-terrorism category, one about "animal rights and environmental extremism."Wray's comments weren't the first instance of the bureau promoting the idea of pro-choice violence as a real threat. In 2017, the FBI distributed a brief "Abortion Extremism Reference Guide" at a counterterrorism training for local law enforcement, listing "pro-choice extremists" as a group of domestic terrorists. The document, first reported by Jezebel, claimed that these extremists "believe it is their moral duty to protect those who provide or receive abortion services"—though even this document noted that only one "pro-choice extremist" had ever been prosecuted. Additionally, an earlier FBI training document obtained by the ACLU in 2012 referenced pro-choice violence but did not "provide a single example of violence against abortion opponents," the ACLU wrote. "Abortion violent extremism" of any sort accounts for a only small percentage of FBI domestic terrorism cases. Wray on Wednesday that the "top threat" of domestic terrorism comes from what he called "racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists." Out of approximately 850 current cases that a senior FBI official cited in congressional testimony last May, about half concern anti-government extremism and another 40 percent concern racist terrorism. That leaves around 85 cases of violence motivated by animal rights, ecological degradation, abortion and miscellaneous cases. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the total caseload and the breakdown are still current.But abortion extremism doesn't have an "either side." The primary case of pro-choice violent extremism that the FBI pointed The Daily Beast toward—the same one cited in the 2017 FBI document—is the 2012 conviction of Theodore Schulman, who had a long history of threatening anti-abortion activists. Schulman's ultimate downfall was the result of posting a threat in the comments section of religious conservative outlet First Things: "if Roeder is acquitted, someone will respond by killing" Princeton's Robert George and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, he wrote. That itself spoke to the discrepancy in violence between the two sides. "Roeder" was a reference to Scott Roeder, who murdered abortion provider George Tiller in the foyer of a Wichita church in 2009. Other instances of anti-abortion violence include a trio of bombings at Florida abortion clinics in 1985, a string of arson attacks on a Washington clinic in 1983, and a 2015 shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that killed three. Between 1993 and today, anti-abortion activists murdered 11 people and attempted to kill another 26, according to the National Abortion Federation."Anti-choice violence as we know it is constant, pervasive, and escalating dramatically, and it threatens the civil liberties as well as the lives of our patents, our members, our society," NAF President Katherine Ragsdale told The Daily Beast. Wray's comments, she added, are a "danger to public perception.""It tars everyone with the same brush when in fact pro-choice folks simply are not doing this," she said.The Daily Beast has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI to document the extent of its focus on alleged pro-choice violent extremism.Mila Johns, a domestic terrorism researcher affiliated with the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database, said violence was "very much lopsided in the other direction," the anti-abortion side, and called Wray's equivalence "a very political statement." The database, which tracks terrorist attacks across the world since 1970, records about 300 incidents related to anti-abortion violence and none for pro-choice violence. However, an Austin woman in 2016 was charged with throwing a crude Molotov cocktail at anti-abortion protesters. And last year, an 85-year old anti-abortion protester in San Francisco was knocked to the ground after he attempted jamming the bicycle spokes of a man who appears to have stolen a pro-life group's banner. Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue—a radical anti-abortion group that moved its headquarters to Wichita, Kansas, specifically to target Dr. Tiller—said his movement has been on the receiving end of threats. He estimated he had made between 20 and 50 complaints to federal law enforcement over the last two decades, for everything from anthrax scares to online intimidation. Wichita resident Christopher Thompson, he noted, was sentenced to 12 months in jail last year for making menacing calls to Operation Rescue's office and employees.But when asked about specific instances of pro-choice violence, Newman cited only the murder of James Pouillon, an Operation Save America activist who was shot while protesting abortion outside a high school in 2009. (The judge in that case said the killer's motivations were not tied to abortion.) Newman declined to give examples of abortion-rights violence of the scale and magnitude of that enacted by the anti-abortion movement. "You got your scorecard and I got mine," he said. "All of them are terrible."The FBI's position is that pro-choice activists and groups not concerned with violence don't need to worry about the new domestic terrorism categorization. "We don't investigate ideology or rhetoric or anything of that sort," Wray testified. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, but pointed to comments from the bureau's former assistant director for counterterrorism, Mike McGarrity, from last June. "It is important to remember that in line with our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States, no FBI investigation can be opened solely on the basis of First Amendment-protected activity," McGarrity testified to a House panel in June. "Rather, domestic terrorism investigations on individuals are opened on the basis of information concerning the occurrence or threat of violent criminal actions by the individual in furtherance of an ideology."However, prior episodes during the 18-year-old war on terror show the FBI does not always hold a rigid distinction between ideology that isn't to be investigated and violence that is. In 2011, its counterterrorism training at Quantico included instructional material that held Islam was an ideology, rather than a religion, with violence baked into its doctrines. The point of the training was to portray Islam itself as a threat to national security—which, for an investigative entity with broad domestic powers, was ominous enough for the Obama administration to order the training materials removed. Michael German, a former FBI special agent who investigated domestic terrorism, said the FBI was not only engaging in a false equivalence but "the manufacturing of an imaginary violent movement," reminiscent of its now-discarded "black identity extremism" category. Anti-Abortion Violence at All-Time HighThe bureau "seems to be grasping a tiny number of unrelated incidents that are not part of any organized effort to falsely imply that such a 'domestic terrorist' movement exists," said German, now with the Brennan Center for Justice. "This is a misleading analysis of dubious purpose, apparently to satisfy some political constituency, which is not what an objective law enforcement agency should be doing." But for some in the reproductive rights space, the threat posed by anti-abortion violence is enough that they are willing to accept dubious FBI categorization to ensure it gets investigated."Those of us in this movement have lost friends and family," Ragsdale said. "By all means, investigate the escalating violence.""And if politics requires you to have a category that says pro-choice violence, go right ahead," she added. "I'd be interested to see if anything ever pops up."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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| Former Ohio State wrestlers call for investigation into university's ties to Jeffrey Epstein Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:00 PM PST |
| Mystery $844B pot in Trump budget signals possible Medicaid cuts Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:52 PM PST  President Trump's budget contains an $844 billion mystery pot for his still undefined health care plan, signaling steep cuts to Medicaid and "Obamacare."
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| Bennet ends 2020 bid after poor showing in New Hampshire Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:31 PM PST  Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet ended his long-shot presidential bid Tuesday, failing to break out of a crowded Democratic field dominated by other moderate candidates, including Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. Bennet, 55, was a late entrant to the race who staked his bid largely on trying to win New Hampshire. Bennet ran on a centrist platform and made a point of bucking the trend among some candidates for splashy, liberal proposals.
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| 2 Russian spacecraft are trailing a US spy satellite and could create a 'dangerous situation in space' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:50 AM PST  A US satellite used to capture images of Earth is being followed by a pair of Russian satellites, the commander of the Space Force said.
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| Coronavirus: More than 20 Americans test positive for deadly virus on cruise ship Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:39 AM PST  Twenty four American passengers have been diagnosed with the coronavirus on-board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan.Nearly 3,700 passengers on the Diamond Princess luxury cruise liner have been held at the port of Yokohama after the first cases of the illness were reported on the ship earlier this month.
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| EU Won’t Budge on Open Borders, Switzerland’s Government Warns Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:49 AM PST |
| Nikola announces Badger electric pickup set to compete with Rivian and Tesla Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:16 AM PST  On Monday, Nikola announced the launch of its Badger electric pickup truck, a model said to generate over 900hp and have a range of 600 miles on a single charge. Joining the ranks of Rivian, Tesla, and now GMC with the revival of the Hummer, Nikola will be launching its own rendition of the electric pickup truck. The Badger is a model "designed to target and exceed every electric or petrol pickup in its class" and handle whatever needs a construction company could have for it.
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| Trump retaliation: After purge, House Democrats need to unleash a tsunami of oversight Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:31 PM PST  Republicans are collectively laying out a red carpet for corruption and cronyism. House Democrats should scrutinize every Trump decision and action.
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| Bloomberg jumps to 2nd among black Democrats, Biden falls, in new poll Posted: 11 Feb 2020 04:53 AM PST  A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday had universally bad news for former Vice President Joe Biden, right as he heads into the New Hampshire primaries. Nationally, the poll found, Biden dropped into second place at 17 percent, the new frontrunner being Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with 25 percent. Relative newcomer Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor who is significantly outspending everyone in the race, comes in third at 15 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 14 percent.But losing his national lead isn't the worst news for Biden. After New Hampshire, where Biden has low exceptions, comes South Carolina, where Biden's strong support among African American voters was expected to keep him on top. According to the Quinnipiac poll, as Axios noted Tuesday, his black firewall is burning. Biden's support among black Democrats dropped to 27 percent in the new poll, from 51 percent in December. And it appears that much of that support shifted to Bloomberg, who jumped to 22 percent support among black voters, followed by Sanders (19 percent), Warren (8 percent), and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg (4 percent). All the Democrats beat President Trump in head-to-head matchups, but Bloomberg's 51-42 percent margin of victory was the largest.Oddsmakers now have Bloomberg in second place for the Democratic nomination, after Sanders, Axios reports.The sample size of black voters in the poll probably wasn't very large, though. Quinnipiac conducted its poll Feb. 5-9 among 1,519 registered voters, 665 of whom are Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. It has an overall margin of error of ±2.5 percentage points and a ±3.8 point margin of error for the Democrats and Democratic leaners.More stories from theweek.com WHO proposes new name for coronavirus Amy Klobuchar looks to Nevada caucuses with TV ad buy President Bloomberg?
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| Jackson State University president arrested in Mississippi prostitution sting Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:09 PM PST  Police made contact with the alleged offenders in prostitution sting through online "dark web" sites, where services were discussed.
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| US open jobs fall sharply for 2nd straight month Posted: 11 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST  U.S. businesses sharply cut the number of jobs they advertised in December for the second straight month, an unusual sign of weakness in an otherwise healthy job market. The number of available positions dropped 5.4% to 6.4 million, a historically solid number, the Labor Department said Tuesday. There are still more open jobs than there are unemployed people, an unusual situation that has persisted for nearly two years.
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| Air Force One may soon get its first new paint job since the Kennedy years — here's what it was like on JFK's version of the presidential airliner Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:20 PM PST  The SAM 26000 arrived in 1962 and would carry eight presidents, numerous dignitaries, and countless diplomats during its 36 years in service.
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| The Army's New Interceptor Missiles Are The Swiss Army Knives Of Anti-Air Fire Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:53 PM PST  The Multi-Mission Launcher has already performed well in tests.
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| WHO chief sees chance to stop virus, warns of 'grave' threat Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:46 PM PST  The death toll in China from the new coronavirus epidemic jumped on Wednesday, as the chief of the World Health Organization urged countries to work together against the "grave threat" posed by the outbreak. The WHO is holding a conference in Geneva on combating the virus, which has killed more than 1,100 people in China and spread to dozens of countries around the world. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said viruses could have "more powerful consequences than any terrorist action".
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| Trump’s Iran Man Met With a Former Terror Group’s Rep After Soleimani Strike Posted: 11 Feb 2020 04:12 PM PST  The Trump administration's top official overseeing Iran policy met with a representative of a controversial Iranian dissident group weeks after a U.S. strike killed Iran's top military leader.Brian Hook, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Special Representative for Iran, met on January 31 with Robert G. Joseph, a former senior State official who now represents the National Council of Resistance of Iran, according to a foreign agent filing that Joseph submitted to the Justice Department this week. The NCRI is the political arm of the People's Mujahedin of Iran—commonly known by Farsi acronym, MEK—a group that seeks regime change in Iran and was on the U.S. government's official list of foreign terrorist organizations until 2012.Joseph's meeting with Hook came just a few weeks after a U.S. airstrike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top military commander. The MEK had long seen Soleimani as one of Iran's foremost villains. In a blog post hailing his death, the NCRI described him as "an infamous symbol of the regime's intimidation and murder." Rudy Giuliani Calls Former Iranian Terrorists 'My People'Soleimani was "directly responsible for killing some of my MEK people," Rudy Giuliani, a long-time ally of the group, told The Daily Beast in January. "We don't like him very much."Yet, in the wake of that strike, Pompeo circulated a memo barring American officials from meeting with representatives of the MEK, citing its controversial history—it allegedly played a role in the assassination of three U.S. Army officers and three more civilian contractors—and poor public standing in Iran.Neither Hook nor the State Department press office responded to requests for additional information on the meeting. Joseph also did not respond to a request for comment.The meeting with Hook was one of three of U.S. government contacts reported in Joseph's semi-annual filing under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, but the only one that took place after the Soleimani strike. Joseph also reported meeting with Hook in September, and the following month with Tim Morrison, a former White House National Security Council official who oversaw policy in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Morrison declined to comment on the meeting.Joseph's FARA filing does not include any details on what was discussed at each of those meetings. In general, he told the Justice Department, he worked to "provide advice to NCRI officials on a range of issues, including: how best to counter false narratives about NCRI; how to improve the reach and effectiveness of the NCRI work on Iran's sponsorship ofterrorism, regional aggression and its nuclear program; and how to advance the cause of building a free and democratic Iran."'OK, Now What?': Inside Team Trump's Scramble to Sell the Soleimani Hit to AmericaJoseph also "provid[ed] advice to strengthen the protection and security of former Iranian refugee residents from the former U.S. military camp at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq, who are now residing outside Tirana, Albania," according to his Justice Department filing.The NCRI is headquartered in Paris and staffed by Iranian expatriates and exiles, many of whom have faced brutal treatment by the Iranian regime. The group's website describes it as the MEK's "umbrella coalition."The MEK has long worked to ingratiate itself with key U.S. policymakers, chiefly foreign policy hawks who share a distrust of the Iranian regime. It has forged ties with a number of officials who have served in or advised the Trump administration, including Giuliani and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.Pompeo himself spoke at an event that included MEK representatives last year. But in January, after Soleimani was killed, he cautioned diplomats against engaging with either the MEK or the NCRI. "Direct U.S. government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behavior," Pompeo wrote in a memo sent to every U.S. embassy.Days later, State appeared to walk back those comments. It sent a cable to U.S. diplomats, as reported by The Daily Beast at the time, that did not mention the MEK or the NCRI by name, but left the door open to engagement with the groups. It simply advised U.S. officials to "use good judgement" in taking such meetings."Posts should welcome opportunities to meet with and learn from members of the Iranian diaspora community," advised the cable, which explicitly superseded Pompeo's memo. "After 40 years of repression and violence at the hands of the Ayatollahs, the Iranian people's pride in their history has not diminished nor has their resolve to celebrate it in the face of the Islamic republic's abuses."Meet the General Who Ran Soleimani's Spies, Guns and AssassinsJoseph is a longtime NCRI ally, and signed up to lobby directly for the group in January 2019. He told DOJ at the time that he planned to "interact with Albanian officials, U.S. Embassy, State Department staff, White House, and any other U.S. personnel as required, as well as UN officials." He's being paid $15,000 per month for his services.Prior to his private sector work, Joseph oversaw nuclear nonproliferation and arms control policies as a senior official in George W. Bush's State Department. He took a hard line on Iran in that position, according to contemporaneous reports.More recently, at an NCRI event in March 2019, Joseph expressed his hope that Tehran's government would soon fall. "The efforts that are being made by...many in this room, I am confident, will result in the rebirth of the great Persian nation and light replacing the darkness," he said. "The darkness that is brought to us by the brutal, repressive dictatorship of the Mullahs."—with additional reporting by Erin BancoRead 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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| Roger Stone: All four prosecutors quit amid row over Trump interference in sentencing Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:34 PM PST  All four of the prosecution team from the Roger Stone case have filed notices to withdraw after Justice Department officials interfered in sentencing recommendations.Aaron Zelinsky, previously a prosecutor in the Robert Mueller's office, Jonathan Kravis, Adam Jed, and Michael Marando, Assistant United States Attorneys, filed separate court documents this afternoon.
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| Germany Is One of the Biggest Brexit Losers Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A somber feeling is spreading among Germany's elites, as the long-term implications of Brexit sink in. Of the European Union's 27 member states, Ireland obviously has the most to fear from the U.K.'s departure. But Germany may be second. That's because Brexit changes not only the remaining EU but also Germany's role within it — and in ways the Germans have for half a century been trying to avoid.European integration, starting in the 1950s, was for West Germany a way of atoning for its own nationalist and belligerent past. Its citizens were eager to subsume part of their identity in a "post-nationalist," rules-based, non-militarist and largely mercantile entity, in return for being accepted again by their neighbors. Occupied by three of the Allied Powers, they didn't have full national sovereignty, so they didn't worry about ceding more of it to Brussels.To move this European project forward, the Germans relied on different kinds of support from the Allies. To build the structures that later became the EU, they needed France. The French, however, especially under President Charles de Gaulle, saw "Europe" differently: as reconciliation with Germany, yes, but also as a new vector to project French power, the better to keep the mightier "Anglo-Saxons" at bay.Those Anglo-Saxons were of course the U.S. and the U.K., the other two powers the West Germans needed. The U.S. protected them against the Soviets, and kept international order generally. And the Brits were basically a smaller, more familiar — and European — version of the Americans, and thus a welcome counterweight against the French.In fact, German Francophilia was always less a phenomenon than a policy, imposed top-down; by contrast, German Anglophilia spread from the bottom up (even if it wasn't often reciprocated). It helped that the Brits after the war competently ran and rebuilt northwestern Germany — the ancestral homelands, as Germans noted tongue-in-cheek, of the Anglo-Saxons and the Hanoverian kings of England. Once the Beatles showed up in Hamburg, it was basically love all the way.The West Germans also had political motivations for wanting to hug the U.K. inside the European club, against the stubborn resistance of de Gaulle. Germany and France have always had clashing economic traditions. The French one, called dirigisme, is based on state intervention and looks askance at free markets and free trade. The German one, called ordoliberalism, is based on restricting the state to narrow functions (such as antitrust) and otherwise leaving markets and trade pretty free.The Germans thus saw the Brits, like the Dutch, as more naturally aligned in values than the French. Having the U.K. in the club meant that the "north" could gang up in the Council of Ministers (the body in Brussels where member states decide policy). And it did. A fluid "Nordic" bloc has usually had enough votes to veto "southern" ideas it didn't like, even as the European club expanded its membership. Projects driven primarily by the Brits and Germans include the single market, rigorous competition policy and liberal trade deals. Projects they successfully prevented (at least until now) include a European "industrial policy," which tends to be French code for coddling national champions.Brexit means that the center of gravity in the EU has now shifted southeast, in the European Parliament but above all in the Council. With the U.K., the north (defined as Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands) had a blocking minority of 36.8%. Without the U.K., that share has dropped to 27.8%, too small for a veto. Even when Austria and the Baltics are included, the north can now be overruled.Other fault lines crisscross this political geography that are just as treacherous for Germany. They run not only between north and south but also between west and east. For example, the Visegrad four (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) have joined to reject the EU's migrant policy, which they see as dictated by Germany after the refugee crisis of 2015, and they've rallied support from Germany's traditional partners, such as Austria. Depending on the issue, other alliances are constantly taking shape, often aimed against the largest member state, Germany.Geographically and politically, Germany thus finds itself, once again, squeezed in the uncomfortable middle. Historically, this tension is known the German Question and has repeatedly led to troubles. Owing to its "awkward scale," as one former West German chancellor put it, Germany was always either too weak (in the 17th and 18th centuries) or too strong (in the late 19th and early 20th) for the continent to be stable. Other powers either ganged up against it or were dominated by it. As the writer Thomas Mann memorably put it, the continent is forever condemned to choosing between "a German Europe" or "a European Germany."Having the U.K. in the EU mitigated that dilemma. Britain was weighty enough — economically, demographically, militarily — to balance Germany, France and the continent. And nobody was happier about being balanced than the Germans, for the last thing they want is to be forced to lead, knowing that this will invariably rekindle old resentments against them. Brexit means that balance is gone again. The German Question is back.The Brits shouldn't have been surprised that Germany wasn't more forthcoming during Brexit negotiations; for Germans, the cohesion of the EU, and the relationship with France, simply takes precedence. Nonetheless, many Germans have regrets. Some are pushing for a German-British Friendship Treaty to complement whatever deal the EU and the U.K. come up with. Unspoken is an almost primal plea: Dear Brits, please don't leave us continentals to ourselves. To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Young teen fatally shot 16-year-old who stopped him from bullying a smaller kid, Texas police say Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:48 AM PST  An unidentified teenager in Arlington, Texas, pulled out a handgun Thursday and shot dead Samuel Reynolds, 16, who had stopped the shooter from bullying a smaller boy a few days earlier, police say. "After he broke up the fight, he started having trouble with the suspect," Arlington Police Lt. Christopher Cook said in a news conference Friday. The boy with the gun was between 13 and 15 years old and lived in the same apartment complex as Reynolds, NBC News reports.Police say they have video of the entire incident from security cameras in the apartment complex. "He pulls out a handgun from the rear part of his pants he was wearing, points it at the victim and fires one round," Cook said. The gunman is being charged with murder."This senseless act of gun violence has no place in society and our hometown community," said Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson. "We will direct our attention to how a young teen suspect accessed a firearm used in the offense."More stories from theweek.com Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders Why did Eminem perform at the Oscars? He thought his belated performance 'would be cool.' Bloomberg jumps to 2nd among black Democrats, Biden falls, in new poll
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| Wisconsin kindergarten student, 6, killed while waiting for bus; family member injured Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:22 PM PST |
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