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polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 2,264,220 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) - The parents of a Virginia woman killed when a self-described neo-Nazi smashed his car through a crowd of counterprotesters after a 2017 white supremacist rally recounted the pain of losing their daughter at the killer’s sentencing hearing on Friday.
Two people hug at the site where Heather Heyer was killed on the one-year anniversary of the 2017 white-nationalist "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Prosecutors have urged a federal judge in Charlottesville to impose a life sentence on James Fields, 22, of Maumee, Ohio, after he pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges in the Aug. 12, 2017, attack that killed Heather Heyer, 32, and injured 19 others at the Unite the Right rally.
“It was an incident I will never fully recover from,” said Heyer’s father, Mark Heyer.
Her mother, Susan Bro, described herself as “deeply wounded” and recounted crying uncontrollably at times.
Earlier, authorities played a graphic videotape of Fields using his car as a weapon to attack the crowd of counterprotesters, including Heather Heyer. The violence shook the college town at the end of two days of rallies by avowed white nationalists, who marched first with torches and later with medieval-style shields.
The rally proved a critical moment in the rise of the “alt-right,” a loose alignment of fringe groups centered on white nationalism and emboldened by President Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
Trump was criticized from the left and right for initially saying there were “fine people on both sides” of the dispute between neo-Nazis and their opponents at the rally. Subsequent alt-right gatherings failed to draw crowds the size of the Charlottesville rally.
Fields already faces life in prison at his state court sentencing next month after being found guilty by a jury of murdering Heyer and wounding others.
Ahead of Friday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors noted he had long espoused violent beliefs. Less than a month before the attack he posted an image on Instagram showing a car plowing through a crowd of people captioned: “you have the right to protest but I’m late for work.”
Even after the attack, Fields remained unrepentant, prosecutors said, noting that in a Dec. 7, 2017, phone call from jail with his mother, he blasted Susan Bro for her activism after the attack.
“She is a communist. An anti-white liberal,” Fields said, according to court papers filed by prosecutors. He rejected his mother’s plea to consider that the woman had “lost her daughter,” replying, “She’s the enemy.”
Fields pleaded guilty to the federal hate crime charges in March under a deal with prosecutors who agreed not to seek the death penalty.
Fields was photographed hours before the attack carrying a shield with the emblem of a far-right hate group. He has identified himself as a neo-Nazi.
Fields’ attorneys suggested he felt intimidated and acted to protect himself. They asked a judge only to sentence him to less than life in prison, without specifying a term, seeking mercy citing his relative youth and history of mental health diagnoses. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 20 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | (CNN) Here's what you might have missed Friday on CNN:
-- A person has been taken into police custody in connection with the disappearance of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck. She was last seen on June 17.
-- At their first meeting since the conclusion of Robert Mueller's investigation, US President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a light-hearted warning: "Don't meddle in the election."
-- Forty-one Republican Senators voted against an amendment that would require Trump to get congressional approval before striking Iran militarily. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 18,403,611 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Video
Bernie Sanders is a frequent critic of wealth inequality in America.
But is he right about how much wealth the country's three richest billionaires own compared to the poorest 50% of Americans?
Reality Check finds out.
(Photos: Getty Images) | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Several states and cities are boosting their minimum wages on July 1, giving a raise to tens of thousands of workers.
The new minimum is $10 an hour in New Jersey, $11.25 in Oregon and $14 in Washington, D.C.
A dozen cities in California will also bump their minimum wage to amounts between $13.50 and $16.30.
Many workers in Oregon, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. will see higher paychecks this week as those states bump up their minimum wage.
New Jersey's minimum wage rises to $10 an hour on Monday—$1.15 above its current level. In Oregon, workers are getting a 50-cent raise to $11.25 an hour. Washington, D.C. workers are getting the biggest raise, to $14 per hour.
Altogether, at least 18,000 people across those three areas will see their pay rise on Monday, not including workers in many California cities. The state now has a $12 hourly minimum, but many municipalities are hiking their minimum pay above that base to keep up with higher costs of living. In Alameda, the minimum rises to $13.50 on Monday. In Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Pasadena and Malibu, workers will get paid at least $14.25 ($13.25 for small employers.) In San Francisco and Berkeley, it's $15.59. In Emeryville, it's $16.30 for larger businesses.
But it's not just the lowest-paid workers who can expect to see a bit more in their paychecks. Wage hikes at the low end often make employers adjust all their pay scales, and so they boost pay for higher earners, too.
"Anyone who's earning 15% or 20% more than minimum wage might see an increase themselves," said David Cooper, a senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Unlike those paid at the minimum, these workers won't see an immediate boost, Cooper added: "These are impacts that are likely to occur over the course of the next year."
Nationwide, about 430,000 people are paid minimum wage, with another 1.2 million working for less than the minimum. That sub-minimum group includes workers who routinely earn tips—like restaurant waitstaff and bartenders—as well as workers with disabilities, who can legally be paid less than the minimum.
The federal minimum wage has been at $7.25 for nearly 10 years, marking the longest period of time Congress has gone without boosting the nation's wage floor. That's pushed 29 states and 50 cities across the country to implement their own higher pay minimums. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 20 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 18,392,997 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Video
The US president joked as he held a meeting with the Russian leader during the G20 summit in Japan.
This video has been optimised for mobile viewing on the BBC News app. The BBC News app is available from the Apple App Store for iPhone and Google Play Store for Android. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | In an unprecedented move mid-June, the foundation that owns Wikipedia banned one of the site’s long-time administrators for one year over unspecified complaints of harassment. Many of the site’s most influential users accused the Wikimedia Foundation of undermining the editorial independence of the traditionally self-regulating online encyclopedia and called for the ban to be lifted, including by attempting to remove the ban themselves.
The administrator, Fram, was known for holding error-prone Wikipedia editors to account and criticizing governing institutions such as the Wikimedia Foundation itself, leading to accusations the ban was about silencing a fierce critic. Discovery that one apparent complainant was closely tied to the foundation’s Chair intensified these accusations.
At the core of the conflict between Wikipedia editors and the Wikimedia Foundation is a question of jurisdiction. Wikipedia and associated sites have traditionally created their own policies and elected administrators from within the community to enforce those policies. The foundation has in recent years become more involved by permanently banning select users from all foundation-owned sites in what it deems extraordinary cases of last resort citing its Terms of Use. Such bans were tolerated due to perceptions they involved serious legal issues.
In an unannounced shift this year, the foundation allowed itself to impose time-limited bans at individual sites for less severe cases, something usually handled by local users. English Wikipedia users only learned of the new approach June 10 when the foundation imposed a one-year ban on Fram, who was active on Wikipedia since 2005 and an administrator since 2007. He has no prior sanctions. Detailed reasons have not been provided to the community and the ban cannot be appealed, nor can it be removed by anyone but foundation staff.
The Wikimedia Foundation who own Wikipedia have, for the first time ever, personally stepped in to ban a veteran administrator from just Wikipedia for one year. No public explanation given, no option for appeal, and not even local admins were warned it was coming. pic.twitter.com/iGBNTvmTG5 — T. D. Adler (@tdadler) June 11, 2019
Fram’s ban has prompted lengthy and heated debate within Wikipedia’s community. Proposals to lift the ban have received support from dozens of the site’s editors, including administrators and former members of the community’s Arbitration Committee, which has been likened to a Supreme Court for the site. Similar support was given for declaring “no confidence” in the foundation’s banning process. A proposal was even made to ban the foundation’s official account on the site, receiving a slim majority of support before being rejected as an invalid proposal. Editors have also talked of going on strike or flooding the foundation with reports about Terms of Use violations, including minor vandalism. One administrator turned off an anti-spam bot he operates.
An administrator and former member of the Arbitration Committee, Floquenbeam, responded to opposition to Fram’s ban by removing a block on Fram’s account used to enforce the ban. The foundation’s official account overturned that action and stripped Floquenbeam of his privileges. Soon after that, however, another administrator removed the block again. Another user then used his own advanced privileges to overrule the foundation’s removal of Floquenbeam’s administrator privileges. The three all received praise and “rewards” from other editors and administrators for their “bravery” in defying the foundation with one likened to China’s Tank Man of Tiananmen Square.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and foundation board member James Heilman quickly advised staff to avoid taking any further measures against those users who overturned foundation actions or to reinstate the block so as to prevent further escalation. Foundation staff acquiesced, but reiterated Fram was still banned even without the block in place and that any edit to the site would lead to him being locked out of his account on all foundation sites for the remainder of his ban.
Criticism of the ban had intensified when Fram posted on another foundation-owned site what little he was told about his ban. According to Fram, he first received a warning from the foundation last year about “several conflicts . . . over the years with other community members as well as Foundation staff” with Fram emphasizing the mention of foundation staff. The foundation purportedly cited only three actions by Fram, which they indicated were not the full extent of the conduct informing their decision, but stated no further evidence would be shared with him.
One cited action was Fram cursing at the Arbitration Committee over messages they sent following a series of hacking incidents, messages interpreted as requiring administrators who get hacked to adopt two-factor authentication to regain their privileges. The committee apologized, stating it was meant to be a suggestion. Most contentious was a purported warning to Fram about interactions with editor Laura Hale. Fram got Hale banned from using Spanish-language sources in 2014 due to repeated translation errors.
He continued addressing errors or low-quality content she introduced when Hale demanded he leave her alone. She then temporarily retired a few months before his first warning. According to Fram, in March the Foundation warned him away from Hale citing two edits they themselves acknowledged addressed legitimate issues. The warning was phrased as a vague request rather than a requirement and a month before his ban Fram cast a deciding vote on a discussion about deleting an unmaintained navigational portal Hale created as part of a general effort by editors to delete such portals.
Members of Wikipedia criticism site Wikipediocracy dug into Hale’s background and found she had a close personal relationship with María Sefidari, chair of the foundation’s Board of Trustees, and alleged they were romantic partners. After editors raised the potential conflict of interest, Sefidari denied any role in the ban and compared those suggesting it to GamerGate, the anti-corruption movement in gaming falsely branded as a harassment campaign by the left-wing press. This inflamed several editors and members of Wikipediocracy, a site that had doxed GamerGate sympathizers who edited Wikipedia. They accused Sefidari of covering up legitimate concerns with accusations of misogyny.
Revelations about Fram’s ban since it was imposed have only heightened wariness among Wikipedia’s editors. Several have characterized it as a massive expansion of the foundation’s power that moves the site towards an unaccountable, secretive, and arbitrary top-down approach similar to that of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Others have interpreted the foundation’s actions as undermining the ability of volunteers to police their own conduct. Former Arbitration Committee member Risker expressed her concerns by stating:
It comes across as a FUD campaign: we’ll temporarily ban people who did something wrong according to rules we haven’t shared, but we won’t tell you what they did, what can be done to prevent similar actions, or whether we’ll change the [unshared] rules again without telling you. . . . Bluntly put, I feel much less safe working on a Wikimedia project today than I did a week ago, because one of the most fundamental understandings I had about working here has now been proven wrong.
Such concerns were amplified by Fram revealing an excerpt of one e-mail from the Foundation. It described actions many editors and administrators observed as routine when correcting sub-par editing, but which the Foundation argues can “feel” like harassment to those editors and be a cause for a ban. Plans to introduce a “universal code of conduct” also came to light during the discussion after an editor noticed a YouTube video published shortly after Fram’s ban where a Wikimedia staffer mentioned the plans. Many editors were, again, unaware of the impending changes.
Foundation staffers responding to the community have proven unable to resolve complaints, holding out the possibility of carrying out similar bans in the future and indicating they would likely continue to be conducted in the same secretive manner, though offering to communicate more with the community about any changes they implement. Several administrators have resigned their positions in response to the controversy citing either concerns about the foundation’s actions or frustration with prominent users flouting its authority. A current member of ArbCom stated he was considering resigning because of the foundation’s lack of transparency.
Ira Brad Matetsky, known as NewYorkBrad on Wikipedia, submitted what he described as a compromise resolution where the foundation rescinds the ban with Fram agreeing to avoid specific editors who they believe he treated poorly and agreeing to adopt a more civil tone. Matetsky, a corporate lawyer whose nine years on the Arbitration Committee entail the longest time served of any member, has received overwhelming support for his proposal from around 90 other users. The foundation rejected the proposal.
Underlying the Foundation efforts to more tightly police Wikipedia’s community is a widespread perception that “toxicity” is inhibiting inclusivity. Despite the generally left-wing political bias of Wikipedia, it is routinely criticized by progressive media for having a “gender gap” in contributors and other diversity issues. This has lead to outside calls for tougher action on harassment and incivility, sparking conflicts on Wikipedia itself in response to efforts at meeting these calls of which the current conflict is by far the most intense yet, but likely not the last.
T. D. Adler edited Wikipedia as The Devil’s Advocate. He was banned after privately reporting conflict of interest editing by one of the site’s administrators. Due to previous witch-hunts led by mainstream Wikipedians against their critics, Adler writes under an alias. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 63 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image caption Blaenau Gwent is one of the last three Welsh councils to take responsibility for parking offences
Two traffic wardens will not be enough to tackle illegal parking in Blaenau Gwent, councillors have claimed.
The council takes over responsibility for enforcement from Gwent Police on Monday, as do Newport and Torfaen.
Newport will employ 14 officers, with five plus a manager at Torfaen.
Highways manager Alun Evans told members the decision to employ two officers was based on Blaenau Gwent's size, population and traffic offences, but said the number would be reviewed.
Blaenau Gwent is one of the smallest Welsh counties by population, estimated at just under 70,000, compared to Torfaen with 92,000 and Newport 151,000.
The two civil parking enforcement officers, each working 26 hours a week, will initially target illegal parking in priority areas such as town centres and schools.
They are expected to issue about 3,500 tickets per year between them, although they will not be set a target.
Warning tickets, rather than fines, will be issued during the first two weeks of civil parking enforcement.
Independent councillor Clive Meredith asked whether officers tasked with littering and dog fouling could bolster parking enforcement.
Fellow independent Stewart Healy said two enforcement officers was "not going to be enough."
Mr Evans said the number of officers would be reviewed once the scheme was rolled out.
The council will also consider whether to add double yellow lines to some streets and remove them from others.
Gwent is the last of the four Welsh police forces to hand traffic enforcement duties to local councils, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
It handed responsibility to Caerphilly and Monmouthshire councils in April.
Caerphilly employs eight enforcement officers, while Monmouthshire has a team of six plus two support staff. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 15 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 18,501,427 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright PA Media
An MP suspended by Labour for remarks about the party's handling of anti-Semitism has again lost the whip - two days after being readmitted.
Chris Williamson was suspended in February after saying Labour had "given too much ground" over the issue.
However, he was allowed back in on Wednesday after an investigation by the party's National Executive Committee.
Now, a Labour source says issues raised by an MP on the investigation panel needed to be examined.
"Subsequently, the whip is not restored as the decision is still pending," the source said.
Labour's general secretary Jennie Formby has written to the NEC to inform it of the issues with the investigation raised by the panel member - Labour MP Keith Vaz - and his concerns will be on the agenda for its next disputes committee meeting, said the source.
They added: "Under the party's rule book, the general secretary and the leader of the party cannot overturn decisions made by NEC panels, which are advised by independent barristers.
"Only the NEC has the power to do so."
There was a large backlash from Labour peers and MPs after Mr Williamson was allowed back into the party on Wednesday.
Deputy leader Tom Watson was among more than 100 of them to sign a letter calling for Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to act and remove the whip from the Derby North MP. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 10 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 17,921,293 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright Getty Images
The inquest into the eight victims of the London Bridge attack has ended with the coroner concluding they were unlawfully killed.
Over two months, the inquest heard detailed evidence about whether the attack could have been stopped - either by the security services or through better protection on the bridge.
The coroner criticised the lack of barriers on London Bridge - which he described as "particularly vulnerable" - but said he was "not convinced" MI5 and the police missed any opportunities to stop the attack.
So what do we know about the investigation?
MI5 knew ringleader had extremist views
Image copyright Met Police Image caption Khuram Butt
Suspicions about Khuram Butt, who led the Saturday 3 June attacks, date back to 2015.
Butt's brother-in-law called the anti-terrorism hotline to report his increasing radicalisation - but that information reached neither a police team that might have acted on it, nor MI5.
Nevertheless, MI5 already had intelligence that Butt was a supporter of the banned al-Muhajiroun network. Its information suggested he wanted to launch an attack - but he did not seem to have the ability to do so.
So the security service opened a full investigation in 2015 and investigators watched to see what Butt would do next.
Investigators never saw the whole picture
The service received other information about Butt - but didn't connect it to the man they were investigating until after the attack.
That separate information didn't fill in the blanks about what his plans were. And that was the story of the next two years.
Investigators suspected that he supported the Islamic State group. His phone was full of extremist material - like so many other suspects - but he wasn't doing anything specific to convert his aspirations into actions.
Gareth Patterson QC, representing six of the victims' families, said they were bewildered by what they believed was an "inadequate investigation".
He argued that Butt's plans would have been revealed had MI5 put more effort into his case.
But the police and security service witness, codenamed Witness L, insisted there had never been any intelligence trigger that would have made Butt a top priority.
In his closing submissions, Sir James Eadie QC, for MI5, argued that even if the service had put even more resources onto Butt, there was no evidence to prove it would have led investigators to uncovering the plan.
He argued Butt and his accomplices were careful to plan in secret and alone.
Image copyright Met Police Image caption Khuram Butt while working as a customer service assistant for Transport for London
Intelligence interest was reduced
MI5 concluded in 2016 that Butt might have ultimately decided to try to go overseas to fight - probably in Syria. That placed him below the top priority suspects - but he was still the subject of some serious scrutiny.
But the lack of a clear view of Butt's intentions - and demands for MI5 resources to look into people who appeared to be planning attacks - led investigators to suspend his case between 21 March and 5 May 2017.
MI5 needed resources that had been dedicated to Butt for more urgent priorities. Before his investigation was reopened, he was also reclassified from someone who was likely to be a threat to national security, to someone who might be.
Two weeks before his attack, an assessment of whether he had the intent and capability to be a lone attacker concluded the threat he posed was "unresolved".
Butt had access to children
MI5 had received intelligence that Butt was teaching Koran classes to children - but not where.
It passed this tip to the police - who have the responsibility for preventing children being drawn into violent extremism. The security service suggested some possible locations - but they did not include the Ad Deen school where he was working alongside his fellow future attacker, Youssef Zaghba.
Lawyers for the families argue this was an opportunity missed. Had MI5 and the police established Butt's link to Zaghba - it may have led to further intelligence as to their intentions.
MI5 argued not. Zaghba would have appeared a social contact - and Butt's extremism was already known.
The attackers met at a gym
Image copyright Met Police Image caption Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba outside the Ummah Fitness Centre
One of Butt's haunts was the Ummah Fitness Centre in Ilford, east London. And he met both Zaghba and third attacker Rachid Redouane there.
The gym was run by Sajeel Shahid, who was previously said in court to have run a training camp in Pakistan attended by the ringleader of the 2005 London suicide attacks.
MI5's witness told the inquest there was nothing to suggest the gym was a centre of extremist activity.
Mr Patterson, for the six families, said he could not understand why the gym had not become a focus of investigation.
After the attack, it emerged that the three attackers appeared to meet outside the gym late one night and used anti-surveillance techniques to avoid being listened to while talking.
"The attack planning was there to be detected," said Mr Patterson.
There was a bureaucratic mix-up
Image copyright Met Police Image caption Youssef Zaghba
The Italians had their own concerns about Youssef Zaghba after he was stopped at Bologna airport in 2016. He apparently said he was going to Turkey to be a "terrorist" - before clarifying that he meant "tourist" (the Italian words for both, as in English, are similar).
Italian authorities asked the UK if they had more information on Zaghba - but MI6, who received the memo, didn't translate it for two months and it ultimately ended up in the wrong email inbox inside MI5. It was never acted on.
MI5's witness told the inquests that it is possible that had the request been dealt with, the UK would have put Zaghba on a travel watch list - but that it was "unlikely" to have launched an active investigation into him.
The planning phase is unknown
Mr Patterson told the inquests that the planning did not begin on the day of the attack - it might have been going on for months - and that could have been detected.
He said the men would have needed time to bond and trust each other and that there were other steps to take - such as buying knives and material for the fake bombs they carried.
In his closing submissions, MI5's counsel Sir James Eadie said that even if the two other men had been identified prior to the attack, there was no evidence to show that there was missed intelligence that would have justified a major investigation into their activities.
And what about the bridge?
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption An emergency response helicopter landing on London Bridge
Counter-terrorism police have a secret list of what they think are the most vulnerable targets for terrorism in the UK - including which crowded places might be attacked.
The inquests heard that had the rules around how they assess those sites been applied in a less rigid way, London Bridge might have been classed as a more vulnerable target.
Two days after the attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament in March 2017, a counter-terrorism security adviser within City of London Police concluded that London Bridge was also vulnerable because of the way it was designed and the predictable size of the crowds.
But despite a growing discussion among police and the Corporation of the City of London over what to do, no action was taken before the attack.
There are now substantial vehicle-proof barriers on the bridge.
In his conclusion, the coroner described it as "a location which was particularly vulnerable to a terrorist attack using a vehicle as a weapon".
He said without "weaknesses in systems for assessing the need for such measures on the bridge and implementing them promptly" barriers might have been installed. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 55 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn’t play with us because she ― because we were black. And I will say also that ― that, in this campaign, we have also heard ― and I’m going to now direct this at Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.
But I also believe, and it’s personal ― and I was actually very ― it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.
And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.
So I will tell you that, on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 8 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., appears to be losing traction to another progressive running in 2020, according to Juan Williams.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., seems to be increasing in popularity and taking Sanders' place in the conversation, Williams claimed Friday on "The Five."
"She's been leap-frogging him," Williams said of Warren.
"I think these two nights really seal that that it's her moment. She's got that lane in terms of left-wing Democratic Party politics.
BERNIE SANDERS ACCUSES ERIC SWALWELL OF 'AGEISM' FOR HIS 'PASS THE TORCH' REMARKS
"She's rising and he's fading. We'll see what happens."
He added Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., did not look comfortable on the dais Thursday.
"When you look at someone like Swalwell, I think he looked stiff," he said.
Williams added the Democratic presidential primary field is overall very unwieldy.
DAVID AXELROD SAYS BIDEN SEEMED 'CONFUSED' AT DEBATE, SEEMED 'PART OF THE PAST'
"I think the field is too big," he said.
"So you get people who shouldn't be on the stage."
For his part, Sanders verbally swiped at Swalwell following Thursday's debate, after the California Democrat told former Vice President Joe Biden to "pass the torch" to a younger generation of candidates.
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Following the debate, Sanders was asked about the "generational argument" that is being made by folks like Swalwell.
"I think that's kind of ageism to tell you the truth," Sanders responded.
"And I think what we're trying to do and all of us are trying to do is to end discrimination in this country against women, against minorities, against the LGBT community, and I think ageism as well."
Fox News' Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 17 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE Former Baylor fraternity president Jacob Anderson received three years probation, a $400 fine and mandatory counseling. KCEN
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A lawsuit says a former West Virginia University student has permanent brain damage because his fraternity brothers didn't help him after he fell down the stairs at a party, instead ridiculing his unconscious body for hours before calling 911.
The filing from the father of David M. Rusko alleges that fellow students posed for selfies with his son, squirted Ketchup on him and posted pictures on social media, The Dominion Post reported Thursday.
Video footage showed Rusko, 22, had difficulty breathing and was unresponsive while the party continued in November 2018, the lawsuit says. By the time someone called for help, he was bleeding from the nose, foaming at the mouth and his brain wasn't getting enough oxygen.
Frat trouble: New York fraternity members allegedly forced dog to drink beer
Penn State frat: Video deleted from camera in Timothy Piazza case, police say
David A. Rusko filed the suit Wednesday, saying his son is now paralyzed and needs 24-hour nursing. He is seeking compensation for his son's injuries as well as punitive damages.
The defendants include the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, more than a dozen students and the frat's house mother. The fraternity did not respond to a voicemail and an email seeking comment.
The university suspended the fraternity and disciplined its members. Morgantown Police have been investigating.
The lawsuit describes the frat as a "repeat violator" of college rules and the fraternity's own code of conduct, serving alcohol to people under 21 and hosting unregistered social functions. The fraternity house also had unsafe conditions, including steep, narrow stairs without a handrail, according to the lawsuit.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/06/28/west-virginia-university-student-sues-fraternity-after-party-incident/1597343001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 14 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | A Trump administration immigration official has blamed a migrant father for his own drowning death and that of his young daughter, which was captured in widely circulated images that highlight the peril and desperation faced by migrant families blocked from entering the US at the border with Mexico.
Ken Cuccinelli was named earlier this month as acting head of US Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS), the agency that handles immigration administration. He told CNN he was not concerned the photo would become emblematic of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy.
Bodies of father and daughter taken home as Trump blamed for border chaos Read more
“The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because that father didn’t wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion and decided to cross the river and not only died but his daughter died tragically as well,” Cuccinelli said on Thursday night.
The photographs, taken on Monday, show Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 26, and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria lying face down in shallow water after dying in the Rio Grande, the river that divides Mexico from Texas. The image has been compared to the 2015 image of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who drowned off the Greek island of Kos after being en route there with other refugees fleeing conflict.
The bodies of the young father and daughter have been repatriated to their native El Salvador, accompanied by Martínez’s wife, Vanessa Ávalos, 21, who was standing on the riverbank when her husband and daughter were swept away by the current.
As part of a broader crackdown on migration, the Trump administration has further restricted asylum and the backlog of legal cases. Migrants are routinely forced to wait for months south of the US border in order to start the asylum process, which has in turn driven people to make more dangerous border crossings such as trying to wade or swim across the treacherous Rio Grande.
Cuccinelli is the latest immigration hardliner the Trump administration has appointed to a senior government role, despite warnings from his own Republican party in the US Senate that Cuccinelli was unlikely to be confirmed to the permanent role.
In the past decade, Cuccinelli has said homosexual acts are “intrinsically wrong,” been tied to anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ campaigners and was criticized for a comment that seemed to compare immigrants to rats.
In 2018, he advocated for using “war powers” against migrants in an interview with the conservative website Breitbart News. He also said the US was not required to “keep” migrants, including asylum-seekers. “You just point them back across the river and let them swim for it,” Cuccinelli said.
Cuccinelli is also facing opposition from Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives and the union that represents about 13,000 USCIS workers. The union’s president, Danielle Spooner, said the appointment of Cuccinelli “spells the end of legal immigration as we know it”.
In June, House committee leaders said they had “deep concern” about Cuccinelli’s appointment because it circumvents rules about federal vacancies in a letter to the acting homeland security secretary. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 17 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Illinois residents with minor marijuana convictions on their record can finally exhale.
Governor J.B. Pritzker signed HB 1438 this week, which legalizes the use of cannabis in the state by residents 21 and over. It also enacts a process by which some 770,000 Illinois residents with cannabis-related criminal records are eligible to have their convictions expunged, per the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group.
Under the new law, Illinoisans convicted for possession of under 30 grams of marijuana (that’s slightly more than an ounce) prior to legalization will automatically be granted clemency, so long as violent crime wasn’t also part of the conviction.
Residents whose convictions were for amounts between 30 and 500 grams (that’s a little more than a pound) won’t receive automatic clemency. They’ll have to individually petition the court, which will decide on a case-by-case basis.
In addition to expunging individuals’ records, the new law also contains a “social equity” component that incentivizes people and communities disproportionately impacted by the war on cannabis to apply for business licenses.
“The most historic aspect of this is not just that it legalizes cannabis for adults but rather the extraordinary efforts it takes to reduce the harm caused by the failed war on marijuana and the communities it hurt the most,” State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who co-sponsored the bill, said of the legislation earlier this year.
MPP concurs. In an overview of Illinois’ new law, the group labeled it “one of the most sweeping criminal justice reforms so far in the cannabis movement.”
The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 10 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 18,441,422 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright PAcemaker Image caption Simon Hamilton is a former DUP minister
The former DUP Minister Simon Hamilton is to leave politics to take up a position as Chief Executive Officer at Belfast Chamber of Commerce.
The 42-year-old Strangford MLA was regarded as one of the most promising young stars of the DUP.
He held the health, finance and economy portfolios in the Stormont power sharing government.
An accountant by profession, Mr Hamilton was generally regarded as on the liberal wing of the DUP.
He refused to say how he voted in the 2016 Brexit referendum, a stance which fuelled suspicions that he disagreed with his party's support for leaving the EU.
In a statement the president of the Belfast Chamber said: "We have held an exhaustive recruitment and interview process for this role and the unanimous verdict of the selection committee was that Simon Hamilton was the strongest candidate."
Rajesh Rana's statement added that Mr Hamilton "comes with a wealth of skills and experience".
"Simon is stepping down completely both from frontline politics and political life," the statement read.
"Belfast Chamber is an apolitical organisation and will continue to be."
Hamilton's political life
Mr Hamilton was one of the DUP's chief negotiators at the time of the failed draft deal of February 2018, when the party refused to endorse a compromise proposal over the controversial question of Irish language legislation.
In the wake of the publication of a leaked copy of the draft deal, Mr Hamilton accused Sinn Féin of adopting "scorched earth tactics" and warned that this made the prospects for a return to devolution "bleak".
Mr Hamilton has not had any visible involvement in the recent Stormont negotiations, confining most of his recent comments over social media to sport rather than politics.
He has not issued a party political news release since August 2018, when he accused those trying to make an economic case for a United Ireland of engaging in "wishful thinking".
In October 2018, the former Economy Minister faced uncomfortable questions at the judicial inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal when he admitted knowing about the leaking of e-mails detailing contacts between civil servants in the Enterprise Department and the agri-food industry in the summer of 2015.
The e-mails showed that information had been inappropriately shared that may have contributed to a spike in boiler applications that autumn. The leak seemed to be intended to shift the focus away from the DUP and its advisers and on to civil servants.
Image copyright PAcemaker Press
Mr Hamilton admitted knowing the e-mails had been sent anonymously by his Special Adviser John Robinson to the BBC, the Newsletter and to his own Permanent Secretary Andrew McCormick.
The former minister conceded the episode had not been his "proudest moment".
He said at the time the DUP had been under significant attack from all sides over the RHI scandal and had very little to "fire back".
"That sometimes leads you to do things you would not normally do," he added.
When he was serving as Health Minister Simon Hamilton revealed that he suffers from Crohn's disease - a chronic condition that can cause ulceration and inflammation in the digestive system. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 21 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The white supremacist who killed a woman by plowing his car into a crowd of protesters during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was sentenced Friday to life in prison on federal hate crime charges.
Fields, an extremist associated with the hate group Vanguard America, pleaded guilty in March to 29 federal counts for intentionally ramming his vehicle into anti-racist counterprotesters during the white supremacist rally on Aug. 12, 2017. Each of the counts would have been punishable by life in prison, though prosecutors agreed to drop an additional charge that could have led to a death sentence.
Fields had asked for mercy due to his age and history of mental illness ahead of his sentencing.
Many of those injured in clashes at the Charlottesville rally still face recovery and lingering trauma. A fund has been set up to serve the Charlottesville community. You can donate here.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ASSOCIATED PRESS This artwork shows James Alex Fields Jr., during jury selection in his trial in Virginia court in November. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 10 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | As President Donald Trump sets to make himself part of Washington D.C.’s annual July Fourth celebration next Thursday on the National Mall, Mayor Muriel Bowser addressed concerns about his appearance at a Friday news conference.
Interested in 4th of July? Add 4th of July as an interest to stay up to date on the latest 4th of July news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest
The president is scheduled to make a speech at 6:30 p.m. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of his planned "Salute to America," which will include a military flyover by the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels.
Previously, Bowser, a Democrat, expressed frustration about not being informed about the president's plans, but on Friday she downplayed any concerns, saying that while “activities may look a little different” this holiday, it will be much like any other major event in the nation's capital.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
“We have a very experienced team in dealing with large scale issues and events here on our National Mall and surrounding areas,” said Bowser. “We are always hyper-focused focused on the Fourth of July because we have so many people moving in and out of our city. It's a wonderful celebration people spending hours and hours on the mall in the hot sun so we are always focused on making sure people are safe,” she said. The federal government would be billed after the event for any additional costs incurred by the city, she said.
When asked if there was any worry about police being stretched thin with the addition of the president, and with possible tension between Trump supporters and others on the National Mall, Bowser and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham said there was no reason for public concern.
“Our police department will be fully staffed on the Fourth of July and that is no different than any other Fourth of July,” said Bowser. “On the Fourth of July everybody works at the Metropolitan Police Department.”
Newsham added, “We will be fully staffed the changes are not significant enough to cause us concern most of the additional activities will be on federal property which is patrolled by federal police officers.”
Calla Kessler/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Asked if military would help at the event, Newsham answered that there will be some members of the National Guard on hand, but that is normal for a Fourth of July in D.C.
The feminist activist group Code Pink has successfully applied for a permit to fly the 20-foot "Trump Baby" balloon earlier this month, and plans to fly it near the Lincoln Memorial.
In the press conference, National Park Service Superintendent Jeff Reinbold said the permit is still pending as an agreement on how to inflate the balloon is ongoing. He said the Park Service wants it filled with cold air instead of helium so that if it were to come loose it wouldn't fly into restricted airspace or interfere with the military flyovers.
Individual, smaller "Trump baby" balloons are also being sold for the holiday, but balloons are on the list of prohibited items for the area.
“The folks at the access point will be monitoring what goes in there, and if they are on the prohibited items list, they will not be allowed in the area," said Robert MacLean, chief of the United States Park Police. "If they comply with the prohibited items list, then we will let that first amendment activity or any other item in."
During the holiday, many streets will be closed and with the addition of the White House involvement, possibly more than on the previous years.
Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images, FILE
Bolstered by a $750,000 donation from Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci, the Park Service said this year's fireworks will set a record.
With President Trump expected to be watching, the first fireworks will start at 9:07 p.m. at the Lincoln Memorial followed by a second round set off in West Potomac Park a short distance away for a show lasting a total of 35 minutes -- the longest show in D.C.'s history. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 21 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, which ranks your presidential candidates—both Democrats and Republicans—according to a top-secret proprietary formula incorporating good news, bad news, polls, joke potential, a dash of quantum physics, and a sprig of harnessed love.
We apologize that this week’s edition is arriving later than our “traditional” (this is only the second week) Friday morning delivery. The many Democratic presidential candidates, however, were debating for the whole 72 hours during which we typically write this newsletter. In those debates, we saw Elizabeth Warren coast, Kamala Harris kill, and Joe Biden wilt. We saw candidates who have deserved harder looks, like Julián Castro and Cory Booker, get them, and we saw Marianne Williamson demonstrate that indeed, there is a self-help spiritual leader in America who sounds like the late William F. Buckley Jr. Lastly, we saw Republicans feeling quite satisfied about the toll this primary season is going to take on the eventual Democratic nominee. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 5 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 55,069,282 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Lafferty, who wrote the memo, presented the change as one in keeping with a October 2018 decision by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals. The decision dealt with whether USCIS or an immigration judge has initial jurisdiction over the asylum application of an individual who was previously determined to be an unaccompanied minor but had turned 18 before filing their application. The board held that the immigration judge has jurisdiction to determine that the individual no longer qualified as a minor at the time of filing. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 113,859,376 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Former President Jimmy Carter questioned the legitimacy of Donald Trump's presidency on Friday. Mr. Carter said the president would not be in the White House if not for Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
"The president himself should condemn it, admit that it happened, which I think 16 intelligence agencies have already agreed to say," Carter said at a panel on human rights hosted by the Carter Center in Leesburg, Virginia.
"There's no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election, and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated, would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016."
"He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf," Carter said.
Former President Jimmy Carter: If fully investigated, it would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put in office because the Russians interfered ...on his behalf.
🎥 https://t.co/CYSBIK3qHF pic.twitter.com/o71Z4InVxB — CSPAN (@cspan) June 28, 2019
Moderator and historian Jon Meacham then asked the former president if he thinks that Mr. Trump is an "illegitimate president."
"Based on what I just said, which I can't retract," Mr. Carter responded to laughs from the audience. "I would say yes."
Mr. Carter's remarks came just after Mr. Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. During the meeting, Mr. Trump jokingly told Putin not to "meddle" with the next U.S. election.
With a smirk, President Trump tells Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "meddle" with the U.S. election https://t.co/K3KinfaaNJ pic.twitter.com/JR7spldojg — CBS News (@CBSNews) June 28, 2019
After a nearly two-year investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller released his long-awaited report on Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election in April. Mueller concluded that the president's campaign did not conspire with the Russian government, however, he did not determine whether Mr. Trump committed a crime.
Mr. Trump declared victory shortly after the summary was released, claiming it was a "complete and total exoneration." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 15 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 55,294,852 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | James Alex Fields Jr. at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017.
Eze Amos / Reuters file | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 55,227,785 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | What viewers really thought: Election Confessions from the first Democratic debate
"I so wanted to like him," "I don't want to be pandered to!" and more from Night One and Night Two. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | FILE PHOTO: The entrance of the Petrobras Alberto Pasqualini Refinery is seen in Canoas, Brazil May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Diego Vara
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras (PETR4.SA) believes three types of companies could be interested in purchasing its refineries, including domestic fuel distribution companies such as Raizen, an executive said on Friday.
Speaking at an event in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras Chief Institutional Relations Officer Roberto Furian Ardenghy said fuel distribution firms, oil producers with operations in Brazil and trading firms could buy some refineries it has on the block.
“Today, we’re looking at three segments that could be interested in our facilities. The first segment is distributors, our friends at Raizen, and other companies that are here,” Ardenghy said.
Petrobras is planning to sell off eight of its refineries in a process Chief Executive Roberto Castello Branco has said could raise $15 billion. Castello Branco on Thursday said one of the refineries could be sold by the end of the year.
The possible buyers Ardenghy mentioned are essentially those forecast by analysts. Glencore PLC (GLEN.L) and Vitol SA [VITOLV.UL], both active in commodities trading, recently entered the fuel distribution business in Brazil, stoking speculation they may want to verticalize operations.
Raizen, Brazil’s second largest fuel distribution company, is a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSa.L) and Brazil’s Cosan SA (CSAN3.SA). The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 11 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright PA Image caption Drax power station near Selby in North Yorkshire produces 7% of the UK's electricity
Workers at Britain's biggest power station are set to go on strike over a pay dispute.
Almost 400 Unite workers at the Drax plant in North Yorkshire will stage six, 48-hour walkouts between July and December.
The union described a 2.8% wage increase offered by the company as "woefully inadequate".
Drax said it regretted workers had rejected the pay deal "which we continue to believe is a good offer".
The company added: "Negotiations continue as we try to resolve the dispute and we have contingency plans in place to continue generating the electricity millions of homes and businesses rely on during the planned strike."
The power station near Selby produces 7% of the UK's electricity supply. It is in the process of converting its coal fired power units to burn wood pellets.
Unite regional officer Kelvin Mawer said the union still hoped to hold talks to avoid the industrial action.
"Our members have overwhelmingly rejected the two-year pay deal of 2.8 per cent for both 2018 and 2019 as being woefully inadequate when the cost of living continues to soar," said Mr Mawer.
The first stoppage is scheduled for 14 July.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 12 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 55,234,076 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | 'Gut punch': Dreamers are anxious over upcoming DACA challenge in the Supreme Court
“Even when we have tough days like today, all we can do is keep going and tell people what’s at stake in 2020,” says a DACA recipient. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 1 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 4,297,485 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | NEW YORK — Author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll referenced sex inside Bergdorf Goodman in a column published about two years before the timeframe in which she claimed to have been raped by President Trump in the exact same department store.
Carroll has been a staple on cable news programs the past three days after releasing an excerpt from her latest book where she makes the claim that Trump lured her into an empty dressing room in Bergdorf’s under the guise of trying on a lacy see-through bodysuit and proceeded to rape her there.
Carroll says that she met Trump as she was exiting the store and he was coming in to purchase a present for an unnamed female. Her initial timeline claimed the alleged incident happened in the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996. A subsequent New York Times story put the date at 1996.
Since 1993, Carroll has authored an Elle magazine advice column on women’s issues titled “Ask E. Jean.”
In the November 1993 edition of Elle, Breitbart News found that Carroll made the crude remark associating sex with Bergdorf Goodman. This would be about two years before the fall of 1995, the earliest date she claims the alleged incident with Trump transpired.
Carroll was responding to a letter from a female reader concerned that she was having trouble achieving orgasm through sexual intercourse alone while the reader said that she could climax through foreplay. “Is there any way I could learn to reach orgasm through sex?” asked the reader in the November 1993 edition. “Maybe books I could read?”
Carroll replied with the following advice (emphasis added):
Dear Snowed Under: Stop flagellating yourself. Gadzooks! At least you have orgasms. And if that isn’t spontaneous sex I don’t know what is. Most women (about 70 percent) experience difficulties climaxing through intercourse alone. So you’re perfectly normal. Begin by reading For Yourself by Dr. Lonnie Barbach. She’ll give you excellent instructions on how to have an orgasm during intercourse. Then after 313 queenhell love-wiggles, move on to Gretta Garbo’s favorite love position – the top. (In erotic scenes, Garbo is always above the man. So are Sharon Stone, Bette Midler and Katherine Hepburn). Indeed, this location works better for women than the fourth floor of Bergdorf’s.
The same story appeared in Carroll’s 1996 book, A Dog in Heat is a Hot Dog and Other Rules to Live By, which is a collection of her columns from 1993 to 1995. A paperback edition of the book was published in 1997. In the book, however, Carroll changed minor details, including switching her sex comment to be about the second floor of Bergdorf’s instead of the fourth.
Earlier this week, New York magazine published an excerpt from Carroll’s latest book where she makes the rape charge against Trump.
According to her storyline, in late 1995 or early 1996 Trump recognized Carroll when he was entering Bergdorf’s revolving door and she was leaving the store. She claims Trump asked her to help him pick out a gift for a female, with the billionaire real estate mogul first suggesting that he purchase a fur hat. Carroll claims she scoffed at the hat idea, prompting Trump to look at a nearby escalator and say either “Lingerie!” or “Underwear!”
The pair ascend the escalator, Carroll claims, although she can’t recall how many floors they went up.
That’s when Trump finds a “lacy see-through bodysuit of lilac gray,” Carroll writes and he asked her to try it on. Carroll writes that she responded that Trump should try on the bodysuit himself and the two engaged in a jocular exchange about who will try on the suggestive outfit.
Carroll says that she and Trump headed to the dressing room area, which was empty and had no nearby attendants in sight. There Carroll claims the two found an open dressing room door, which Carroll admits is a rarity for Bergdorf. Carroll claims that after they entered the empty and open dressing room, Trump held her against the wall and raped her. “The whole episode lasts no more than three minutes,” she claims.
Carroll has given numerous cable media interviews this week.
On MSNBC, Carroll said she would not file any criminal complaint against Trump because “I would find it disrespectful to the women who are down on the border who are being raped around the clock down there without any protection.”
“The women have very little protection there,” she added. “It would just be disrespectful.”
Carroll continued, “Mine was three minutes. I’m a mature woman. I can handle it. I can keep going. You know my life has gone on. I’m a happy woman. But for the women down there and, actually, around the world, you know, in every culture this is going on no matter high in society or low in society, it just seems disrespectful that I would bring — it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Carroll refuses to file a criminal complaint even though New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stated the city would investigate the matter as soon as any allegation is officially filed.
During an appearance on CNN, host Anderson Cooper quickly cut to commercial break when Carroll bizarrely stated that “most people think of rape as being sexy” and associate rape with “fantasies.”
Here is a transcript of that portion of the exchange on CNN:
ANDERSON COOPER: I think most people think of rape as a violent assault. It is not sexual– JEAN CARROLL: I think most people think of rape as being sexy. ANDERSON COOPER: Let’s take a short break. JEAN CARROLL: Think of the fantasies. ANDERSON COOPER: We’re going to take a short break. If you could stick around we can talk more.
Trump has strongly denied Carroll’s claims. When the allegation first surfaced, Trump said that he had “never met this person in my life” despite her book excerpt boasting a photo of the two ostensibly from 1987. Asked about the photo by reporters, Trump replied, “Standing with a coat in a line — give me a break — with my back to the camera,” he added. “I have no idea who she is.”
Trump said the detail that she “is trying to sell a new book … should indicate her motivation.”
Speaking to The Hill on Monday, Trump doubled down on his denial: “I’ll say it with great respect. Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, okay?”
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
Joshua Klein contributed research to this article. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 59 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The two debates featuring 20 Democratic presidential candidates this week showed that competition will be fierce among them for the support of black voters in the 2020 primaries. That’s a welcome development for a loyal Democratic constituency that has too often been taken for granted.
Black and brown communities are exhausted from constantly being an afterthought. We seek leadership that doesn’t wait until election time or after a calamity occurs to think about how to tackle institutional racism and discrimination. We want our elected leaders to work to improve our lives and make America a more fair and just society 365 days a year, every year.
The competition for the votes of African-Americans is also a good sign for whoever the Democrats nominate to run against President Trump in the general election. The Democratic nominee is certain to get the vast majority of black votes in November 2020, but he or she will need a strong turnout by those voters to end Trump’s political career.
HARRIS CAPITALIZES ON BREAKOUT DEBATE PERFORMANCE, AS BIDEN DEFENDS RECORD ON RACE
To motivate a large black turnout, the Democratic nominee will need to be more than the un-Trump. Black voters – like all voters – will turn out in greater numbers when they are motivated to cast ballots for a candidate they strongly support, rather than simply to vote against a candidate they oppose.
All the candidates can already say “I’m better on race than Trump,” but that’s an extremely low bar. Despite boasts during his 2016 campaign that he would be the best candidate to improve the lives of people of color, Trump has sadly proven himself to be the most polarizing, divisive and racially insensitive president in at least the last three decades – and that’s saying a lot.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg entered Thursday night’s debate facing questions and criticism regarding the shooting death of a young black man in his city at the hands of a police officer while the mayor was on the presidential campaign trail.
Eric Logan’s death raised racial tensions in South Bend, where 26 percent of the population is black but only 13 members of the 253-person police department are black. The number of African-American officers has actually fallen since Buttigieg was elected mayor in 2012. In addition, the mayor ousted the city’s first black police chief.
While Buttigieg’s response following Logan’s death hasn’t been perfect, he’s done reasonably well. On the debate stage he took accountability for his failure to increase the number of black police officers. He says he’s determined to make improvements in the police force.
Buttigieg has been praised by Michael Patton, an ally who is head of the South Bend NAACP. He also took some of the right steps by canceling his campaign activities and returning to South Bend to face frustrated residents. He will have a tough time increasing his tiny level of support among black voters – but the task is not impossible.
Ultimately, what candidates said 20, 30 or more years ago will be less important than what they have done more recently and what they are pledging to do to close the enormous wealth and opportunity gap that still divides African-Americans from other Americans.
Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who is black, made headlines at Thursday night’s debate when she used Buttigieg’s comments on the police shooting to pivot and challenge former Vice President Joe Biden – the current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination – on the issue of race.
Harris said she does not believe Biden is a racist, but criticized him for favorably commenting on how he worked with segregationist senators when he served in the Senate to pass legislation, as well as for his past opposition to federally ordered school busing to integrate schools decades ago.
In what turned out to be the soundbite of the night, Harris told the story of “a little girl in California” who was bused as part of the second class to integrate schools in her home county.
"And that little girl was me,” Harris said. “So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly."
Biden, whose campaign is being advised by Symone Sanders, a black woman, was surprisingly and woefully unprepared to respond to Harris, marring what was otherwise his strong and energetic debate performance.
Biden failed to say what Pete Buttigieg said about police relations with the black community in South Bend or what presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said when questioned about her past positions opposing issues of importance to the LGBTQ community. Like these two candidates, Biden should have admitted to past mistakes. He should have said: “I was wrong, I apologize, and I will do what’s right moving forward.” Unfortunately, he didn’t.
Attempting to recover from his debate performance and hold onto his substantial base of African-American support, Biden spoke Friday at an event held by the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
“I fought my heart out to ensure civil rights and voting rights and equal rights are enforced everywhere,” Biden said. He insisted that he “never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing.”
And to be fair, Harris has drawn her own share of criticism on racial issues. As a California prosecutor she resisted calls to investigate shootings by police.
Harris often boasts that she had the courage not to seek the death penalty against the man who murdered a police officer when she was a district attorney. However, she appealed an attempt to establish a legal precedent to end the death penalty based on its flaws and random application as late at 2014.
Harris also championed an anti-truancy program that would have criminalized black mothers whose children were actively being pushed out of schools by a failing education system.
In addition, when the Supreme Court ruled that prisons were far too overcrowded in California and said some inmates should be released, Harris fought to keep them incarcerated.
As for the issue of busing, Harris’ fond memories are not shared by all. My wife, who is black and a Latina, attended Boston public schools. After about 15 years of busing to achieve integration, the schools were not any more integrated than before.
From kindergarten through high school, my wife had only one white classmate. Schools and the quality of education for many black children also did not improve.
Around the time Harris was being bused in the 1970s, cities like Boston largely avoided sending kids from heavily black Roxbury into wealthy white communities like nearby Brookline. Instead, they bused them further away into South Boston, where they faced violent massive resistance. The hostility the black children endured daily made learning extremely challenging.
Harris’ record is much stronger as a senator on criminal justice and a host of other issues. I believe she is a good candidate and has taken responsibility for some of her past mistakes. I love many of her proposals and would not be the least bit upset if she becomes our next president.
However, Harris’ takedown of Biden – which is being endlessly praised in the media – struck me as a deflection from her own less than stellar earlier record on issues of concern to many African-Americans. She is attacking from a glass fortress.
The competition for black votes in 2020 is now in its early stages. Black voters don’t all think alike – any more than all white voters think alike. We have different views and a small number of us even support President Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The debates this week were an introduction to 20 candidates. Ultimately, what candidates said 20, 30 or more years ago will be less important than what they have done more recently and what they are pledging to do to close the enormous wealth and opportunity gap that still divides African-Americans from other Americans.
Candidates who’ve made mistakes in the past and changed their views should apologize, admit they’ve evolved and focus on what they want to do in the future to make the American Dream something all American can aspire to and achieve. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 61 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | An avowed white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a white nationalist rally in Virginia has been sentenced to life in prison on hate crime charges. James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in March to federal hate crime charges.
Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist, was killed in the attack. Nearly three dozen others were injured.
Fields will be sentenced next month on separate state charges. He apologized before the judge handed down his sentence.
The "Unite the Right" rally on Aug. 12, 2017, drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Fields admitted deliberately driving his car into counterprotesters who showed up to demonstrate against the white nationalists.
The case stirred racial tensions around the country. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 9 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | An avowed white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a white nationalist rally in Virginia has been sentenced to life in prison on hate crime charges. James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in March to federal hate crime charges. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped their request for the death penalty.
Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist, was killed in the attack. Nearly three dozen others were injured. The case stirred racial tensions around the country.
The "Unite the Right" rally on Aug. 12, 2017, drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Fields admitted deliberately driving his car into counterprotesters who showed up to demonstrate against the white nationalists. Fields, accompanied by one of his lawyers, walked to a podium in the courtroom and spoke.
Heather Heyer Terry McAuliffe/Twitter
"I apologize for the hurt and loss I've caused," he said, later adding, "Every day I think about how things could have gone differently and how I regret my actions. I'm sorry."
Fields' comment came after more than a dozen survivors of and witnesses to the attack delivered emotional testimony about the physical and psychological wounds they had received as a result of the events that day. Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, was one of the people to speak, CBS affiliate WCAV reported.
"I never wish for the death penalty and still don't," Bro said. "I would like to see him change in time from a white supremacist to someone who helps bring others away from white supremacy."
Rosia Parker, a longtime civil rights activist in Charlottesville who said she was standing feet away from Heyer when she was struck by Fields' car, also spoke in court.
"You could have done anything else but what you did," Parker said, her voice choking as she stared directly at Fields. "So, yeah, you deserve everything that you get."
Fields appeared stoic and didn't look at Parker or any of the victims as they spoke.
Speaking to reporters after the sentencing, Bro said she didn't believe Fields' apology was genuine.
"That was a last ditch attempt to get a reduced sentence-- he's the least sincere person I've ever met," Bro said.
Bro said the sentence sends a message that "you don't get away with it."
Bro said she is "done with" Fields and wants to move on with her life and focus on her civil rights activism, including awarding scholarships in her daughter's name through the Heather Heyer Foundation.
"You don't get to knock my child down and silence that voice without 500 more raising up," Bro said.
During the sentencing hearing Friday, FBI Special Agent Wade Douthit read grand jury testimony from a high school classmate of Fields. The classmate said Fields was "like a kid at Disney World" during his high school trip to a German concentration camp. According to the testimony, Fields appeared happy when touring the Dachau camp and remarked, "This is where the magic happened."
The statement provoked audible gasps from a packed courtroom crowd.
Fields was charged with 29 hate crime counts and one count of "racially motivated violent interference." He pleaded guilty to 29 of the counts. His attorneys asked for a sentence less than life. He will be sentenced next month on separate state charges including first-degree murder.
In a sentencing memo filed in court in the federal case last week, Fields' lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski to consider a sentence of "less than life."
"No amount of punishment imposed on James can repair the damage he caused to dozens of innocent people. But this Court should find that retribution has limits," his attorneys wrote.
During Fields' state trial, a psychologist testified for the defense that Fields had inexplicable volatile outbursts as a young child, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 6 and was later diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder.
A vehicle drives into a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia on Aug. 12, 2017. Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP
In a sentencing memo, defense attorneys said Fields was raised by a paraplegic single mother and suffered "trauma" knowing that his Jewish grandfather had murdered his grandmother before taking his own life.
Prosecutors, however, said Fields has a long history of racist and anti-Semitic behavior and has shown no remorse for his crimes. They said he's an avowed white supremacist, admired Adolf Hitler and even kept a picture of the Nazi leader on his bedside table.
Speaking to reporters Friday, U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen called the car rampage "calculated, cold blooded and motivated by this deep seated racial animus he has demonstrated throughout the course of his life."
Fields faces sentencing in state court on July 15. A jury has recommended life plus 419 years. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 43 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | After Marshae Jones was shot in the stomach, she lost her pregnancy.
Now, a grand jury has indicted her for manslaughter in the death of her unborn fetus, while declining to hand up a criminal indictment against Ebony Jemison -- the woman who shot her during a scuffle between the two women.
Despite the grand jury indictment. prosecutors in Jefferson County, Georgia insisted this week that they had not yet made a decision on whether to charge Jones with manslaughter.
Still, the highly-unusual proceedings have sparked outrage across a state where only two months ago, the governor signed into law once of the most restrictive "fetal heartbeat" abortion bans in the nation.
In a statement issued by the Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney's office said that the grand jury had included in its conclusion that the fault in the incident rested entirely with Jones, who was five months pregnant at the time.
"The grand jury, based on the facts presented, determined that Ms. Jemison acted in self-defense and did not warrant charges against her, and that Ms. Jones should face charges for her actions resulting in the death of her unborn child."
In May, Georgia's governor signed into law a ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The law immediately prompted a legal challenge and has not taken effect. Prosecutors insisted that "the new law played no role in the consideration of the Grand Jury" in Jones' case.
WBMA
Abortion rights groups took a different view of the case.
In a joint statement, Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Southeast said that the case represented the "criminalization of black women" and the refusal to give them justice.
"As a Black woman, despite being physically harmed and losing her pregnancy, the state does not recognize Marshae as a victim — only her fetus," the statement said. "With Alabama’s recent abortion ban, we will continue to see people of color being charged for their reproductive decisions and outcomes."
Jefferson County Sheriffs Office via AP
A clerk at the Jefferson County circuit clerk's office said that a grand jury had indicted Jones on a single felony charge of manslaughter and that the victim in the case was "the unborn child." The clerk declined to identify herself by name. and told a reporter from ABC News that "the majority of the information about this case is not being released over the phone."
WBMA
A deputy at the Jefferson County jail said that Jones had been held at the facility and since released on $50,000 bond, and confirmed that Jones had been booked on a single manslaughter charge.
As of Thursday, prosecutors in the Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney were still evaluating the choices facing them in such an unlikely criminal proceeding.
"The fact that this tragedy was 100 percent preventable makes this case even more disheartening," the statement said. "While the Grand Jury has had its say, our office is in the process of evaluating this case and has not yet made a determination about whether to prosecute it as a manslaughter case, reduce it to a lesser charge or not to prosecute it."
ABC News was not immediately able to make contact with representatives for either Jones or Jemison. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 22 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Sarah Sanders is leaving the White House Friday, passing off the role of press secretary after more than two years to Stephanie Grisham.
Sanders tweeted Friday morning that she walks out the White House gates with her head "held high." President Trump announced her departure earlier this month on Twitter, and earlier this week the first lady announced Grisham, her spokeswoman, would replace Sanders.
Today I’ll walk out the gates of the White House for the last time as Press Secretary with my head held high. It’s been the honor and privilege of a lifetime to work with President @realDonaldTrump and his amazing team the last three and a half years. You’re the best...Thank you! pic.twitter.com/6H0uyMRtFX — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 28, 2019
Sanders is returning with her family to Arkansas, and she's not ruling out the possibility of a run for governor in three years, which would be the same position her father held from 1996-2007. The White House press secretary role boosted her profile nationally, making such a bid more feasible.
Sanders' tenure was marked often by her adversarial relationship with the press, a relationship that reflected the views of her boss, by controversial and at times misleading claims, and by fewer and fewer briefings. The last time Sanders briefed the press from the podium was March 11, more than 100 days ago. (Overall, the press has enjoyed greater access to President Trump than to prior presidents and has the opportunity to ask him questions in person on a fairly regular basis.)
She reliably delivered a vigorous defense of the president, winning loyalty and support from the president's supporters.
It remains to be seen how Grisham — regarded as a tough, smart staffer loyal to the Trumps — will handle the new role. Grisham's role with First Lady Melania Trump has not been a public-facing one. She's not one for interviews, and the East Wing is noticeably light on leaks — vastly different from the leaky West Wing.
Grisham is currently on Mr. Trump's trip to Japan and South Korea, her first trip as the new press secretary. She officially takes the title when Sanders leaves Friday, Sanders confirmed to reporters earlier this week.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Grisham told CBS Grisham has not only the trust of the president and first lady, but has a particular ability to understand the needs of the press.
"I think Stephanie obviously has the trust and the respect of the president and first lady and that's critical in this position," Spicer said, adding that's important in any White House, but "I think in this particular White House it's even more so."
It's unclear if Grisham's entrance will mean any change in the frequency of press briefings or press access. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 20 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Video
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made headlines after an interview with the FT during which he said that liberalism had become obsolete.
Liberal ideas about refugees, migration and LGBT issues were now opposed by "the overwhelming majority of the population", he told the FT.
Even some Western powers had privately admitted that multiculturalism was "no longer tenable", he said.
But the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, was one of those who criticised his comments, saying: "Whoever claims that liberal democracy is obsolete also claims that freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The election overhaul signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis imposes restrictions on ex-felons who want to register to vote, a politically charged provision that has drawn the fury of Democrats and social justice organizations on the eve of the 2020 presidential election. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo DeSantis signs election overhaul; civil rights groups prepare lawsuit
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday quietly signed into law a sweeping elections overhaul that restricts the voting rights of former felons, a measure civil rights groups have already prepared to challenge in court.
The law initiates a long list of changes to the state’s election laws after last year’s vote led to a chaotic recount in three statewide races, including DeSantis’ bid for governor. But it also imposes restrictions on ex-felons who want to register to vote, a politically charged provision that has drawn the fury of Democrats and social justice organizations on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.
Story Continued Below
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, along with the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, are expected to file a federal lawsuit in Gainesville that will challenge the new law as unconstitutional and for targeting African Americans.
“We are ready to move forward with litigation,” Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, told POLITICO this week.
The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature added the felon voting provision to the elections bill in the waning moments of session, calling it necessary to implement a voter-approved amendment that ended Florida’s disenfranchisement of ex-convicts.
While Republican lawmakers said they were clearing up “ambiguities” in the constitutional amendment, Democrats and voting rights groups sharply criticized the move, saying the provision was meant to limit the number of new voters who could be added to the rolls in the battleground state.
DeSantis, in a television interview a few days before he signed the bill, said he agreed with the approach taken by GOP legislators.
“I think the controversy to me is not really substantive,” DeSantis told South Florida television station WPLG. “I feel confident that it was done in a way that reflects the will of the people and I think it will be upheld in court.”
In November, more than 5 million Floridians voted in favor of Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to released prisoners once they served their sentences, as long as they had not been convicted of murder or a serious sex offense. By one estimate from The Sentencing Project, the change could make more than 1.4 million people eligible to vote in a state where elections are decided by a razor-thin margins.
The measure crafted by legislators requires offenders to pay all restitution owed to victims, as well as fees or fines imposed by the court, to be eligible to vote.
Republicans who pushed for the requirements said they were following the intent of the amendment and complained that supporters had agreed with their interpretation before the measure was approved by voters.
“They are not trying to play games, they are not trying to keep people entitled to vote from voting,” state Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican, said during debate on the bill in early May. “They are trying to do what is right.”
DeSantis himself had asked lawmakers to clarify Amendment 4 shortly after he took office.
Critics have likened the measure’s requirement that fines and fees be paid to a modern-day poll tax, which was still in place in several Southern states into the 1960s.
Kubic said the ACLU will argue that requirement that ex-felons pay all their court fines and fees violates equal protection laws.
“Your ability to pay should not affect your ability to vote,” Kubic said.
The lawsuit will also allege the restrictions are discriminatory and have a disproportionate impact on African Americans.
The non-profit Brennan Center for Justice in May released an analysis of Florida voter registration data for the first three months of 2019 that showed a jump in the number of released convicts registering to vote. Forty-four percent identified themselves as black, according to the study.
The lawsuit will argue that the restrictions will have a “chilling effect” on voter registration drives organized by the NAACP and League of Women Voters, Kubic said.
The battle over felon voting rights has overshadowed the rest of the elections overhaul, which was designed to address criticism that mounted against election officials conducting recounts in two Democratic-heavy counties in South Florida in 2018. Democrats filed numerous lawsuits challenging state election laws as the recount grinded on.
The new law moves the date of Florida’s primary election to a week earlier and expands the window of time voters have to request and receive vote-by-mail ballots. It gives voters two days after an election to prove their identity if questions arise about their signature on the ballot envelope. It also establishes ballot design standards to avoid the confusion that occurred in Broward County where the U.S. Senate race was placed directly underneath the ballot instructions. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 31 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Abner R. Garcia-Rivas, 35, of Addison, was charged June 19 with driving with a revoked license, driving an uninsured vehicle and obstructing identification following a traffic stop in the 100 block of Deerfield Road. Garcia-Rivas initially provided officers with two false names, police said. He also was arrested on outstanding warrants in DuPage and Lake counties for failure to appear in court, police said. Garcia-Rivas was released from police custody with a notice to appear in court Aug. 6 in Park City, police said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201906/2048/1155968404_6053294016001_6053279540001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true 2020 democratic debates Inside Kamala's campaign-changing strike on Biden She and her advisers assiduously plotted the attack — and how to capitalize on it afterward.
Kamala Harris’ campaign is spending the next three days trying to extend the best two hours of her political career.
Harris’ surprise cross-examination of frontrunner Joe Biden produced the third-biggest fundraising bonanza since her launch. The Democratic senator is working to capitalize ahead of a crucial second quarter fundraising deadline: She blanketed news shows with nearly a dozen TV appearances, and her digital team is pumping out clips and other reminders of her interrogating Biden, hoping that Democratic voters will envision her doing the same thing to Donald Trump.
Story Continued Below
“It’s a great springboard,” said Bakari Sellers, the former state lawmaker and top Harris surrogate in South Carolina, saying it would add rocket fuel to her end-of-quarter fundraising push. Sellers said he’s taken a just-you-wait approach with people who’ve questioned Harris’ stock. “Last night, everyone said ‘there it is right there.’ No one can describe what ‘it’ is. But now they know she has it.”
Inside Harris’ campaign, the first debate was viewed as the unofficial start of the contest, the first big opportunity when primary voters start paying attention to the presidential race. The debate coincided with a new level of comfort she’s described feeling in recent weeks with opening up about her upbringing and personal life, more than a half-dozen aides and allies told POLITICO, something they’ve been gently urging her to do as a way to forge a connection with many voters who don’t know her.
Harris was seen as having an enviable debate night draw because she avoided a confrontation with a surging Elizabeth Warren in exchange for being among all three of the other top-polling candidates. With Cory Booker appearing on the first night, Harris, whose father immigrated from Jamaica and late mother from India, was also the only black candidate in her Thursday grouping.
COUNTDOWN TO 2020 The race for 2020 starts now. Stay in the know. Follow our presidential election coverage. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Harris’ objective was not to fade into the background of an ideological slugfest between Biden and Bernie Sanders, the advisers said. Her campaign had spent months fixated on Biden, whose support from black voters has kept him atop all of the early polls. They gamed out several scenarios in which she could use her personal story as a point of contrast with his decades-long record, including over his opposition to busing.
In the debate, Harris willed her way into the conversation about race and policing, calmly noting that as the only black person on the stage, she’d like to be heard.
But her opening first came last week when Biden offered nostalgic memories of a time when he worked with segregationist colleagues like Sens. James Eastland and Herman Talmadge, proponents of using states’ rights to slow walk civil rights legislation. Harris, whose sole experience with a full stage of competitors came during her Senate primary in 2016, prepped with a small team of aides in Washington and then in Miami. A senior strategist, Averell “Ace” Smith, imitated Sanders, while Biden was played by Harris’ national press secretary, Ian Sams.
While walking through her planned exchange with Biden over busing, Harris’ campaign planned for a variety of answers from him, from contrition to a more measured approach to the more forceful denial of the position that he ended up giving — a stance that was called out by fact-checkers as untrue given his past quotes rejecting the wisdom of busing.
Harris herself ended up settling on a line that within minutes would appear in social media memes and just a few hours later would be screen printed on t-shirts selling for $29 on her website: “That little girl was me,” she said, of her desegregated class.
“You replay the thing and it seems like she was having a conversation with him,” a Harris campaign official said in playing back the encounter. The point she drove home, the aide added, was “this was something that meant something to me.”
Under no scenario did they consider Biden offering her such a gift to conclude the exchange: “My time is up,” Biden said. “I’m sorry.”
There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school. That little girl was me. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/XKm2xP1MDH — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 28, 2019
Harris’ aides in the early states said they’ve been inundated with calls since the debate ended, including from activists and officials they’d reached out to weeks ago but hadn’t heard back from. Harris travels next to California where she’ll headline five fundraisers over 30 hours in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and appear at three events for San Francisco’s Pride celebration.
Harris had been in search of a breakout moment to match her tough questioning of Attorney General William Barr in May, and her pummeling of Trump cabinet officials since she arrived in the Senate in 2017. She proved she can translate that same type of performance to a campaign setting, said Brian Fallon, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.
“That goes a long way to helping voters envision her prosecuting the case against Trump on a debate stage next fall,” he said, “which is exactly the impression she wants to leave with Democrats who are prioritizing vague notions of electability.”
Harris moved immediately to capture the momentum, which became clear even before the debate ended: The size of her average online contribution shot up 67% in real time. She appeared in four separate on-camera hits with MSNBC and two with CNN late Thursday and early Friday, caught about two hours of sleep and then went live on CBS’ “This Morning,” “Morning Joe” and taped an interview for Sunday with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt. She visited the for-profit detention center for unaccompanied migrant children, in Homestead, Fla., with other presidential candidates and then raced back to Washington to cast votes in the Senate.
After decamping from California, Harris’ campaign expects her to spend considerable time in Iowa, where she’s been busy hiring more staff and securing caucus commitments. On Friday, Des Moines activist Tom Fisher offered his endorsement, pointing to her firm presence on the debate stage. Fisher’s term for Harris was one she’s used occasionally to describe herself: “joyful warrior.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 40 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image caption David Gauke has supported Teresa May's Brexit deal but opposes leaving the EU without a deal
Justice Secretary David Gauke will face a no-confidence vote by his constituency Conservative Association later.
Mr Gauke represents South West Hertfordshire and opposes a no-deal Brexit.
Political campaign group Leave.EU tweeted it wanted to "claim our first Cabinet scalp".
The closed meeting to decide Mr Gauke's future will be held at Kings Langley Community Centre from 19:00 BST.
Skip Twitter post by @AmberRuddHR Tonight’s motion of no confidence in @DavidGauke is ludicrous.
Rounding on colleagues in this way is the type of behaviour you’d expect from the hard left.
He has my full support, and I hope this is shared by @Jeremy_Hunt and @BorisJohnson. — Amber Rudd MP (@AmberRuddHR) June 28, 2019 Report
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd tweeted her support of her colleague saying: "Tonight's motion of no confidence in David Gauke is ludicrous.
"Rounding on colleagues in this way is the type of behaviour you'd expect from the hard left."
Leave.EU replied to Ms Rudd saying: "Thanks for your feedback, Amber. You're next."
Energy Minister Claire Perry tweeted the Leave.EU "hit list ignores the fact that MPs like David have voted repeatedly for a firm EU exit - if other MPs had joined us rather than indulging in their Brexit fantasies we would be out by now".
Mr Gauke has been approached for comment.
Pro-Remain Conservatives Phillip Lee and Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, received votes of no confidence from their local associations earlier this year. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 14 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | France’s minister for European affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, has said it is up to the UK to decide the next step on Brexit and no single European Union country was pressuring London, least of all France.
Asked to respond to a report that Boris Johnson, the Conservative leadership favourite, had called the French “turds” over Brexit, De Montchalin declined to comment, saying she was unfamiliar with the word.
The minister said Brexit was “a British issue for the British to decide”.
She told the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris: “If the UK wants to leave the EU, and in an orderly way, the withdrawal agreement is the deal on the table, which has been negotiated for over two years. We’ve also said that the political declaration on the future relationship is open to discussion if the prime minister had a majority.”
De Montchalin said the key question was to move on as quickly as possible to think about the future relationship. “What is important is how we work together on the future on issues that are economic, academic, cultural, social, defence and security – what we’ll do together, and we’ll do a lot together, that’s certain.”
She said the EU 27 countries were united on Brexit.
Asked if France would back giving another extension to Britain’s leaving date beyond 31 October, De Montchalin said there would have to be a political element “which showed that, if more time is given, something will be happening”. She said for the last extension, which was given in the spring, this was after cross-party talks between Conservatives and Labour. For any future request, there would have to be a process in place. “If it’s just the question ‘we’d like more time’, the EU council is very clear on that: there’s no reason for it without a new political scheme being put forward.”
She said the advantage of the withdrawal agreement was that it included a transition period “which allows us to discuss the future in a stabilised situation. If there was not an exit agreement, we’d be discussing the future in a situation that wasn’t stabilised.”
She said many EU countries had made contingency preparations for a no-deal exit “not because they want that” but because there might be a possibility it could happen by accident.
“The cost of uncertainty is high – in the economy in general, in industry, in the financial sector, among fishermen on both sides of channel who don’t know what’s happening tomorrow,” she said. “I think there are a certain number of governments, who see the cost of that.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 13 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | An avowed white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a white nationalist rally in Virginia has been sentenced to life in prison on hate crime charges.
'We are unbreakable': Charlottesville survivors applaud guilty verdict Read more
James Alex Fields Jr of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty in March to federal hate crime charges in an attack that killed one person and injured more than two dozen others.
He will be sentenced next month on separate state charges.
Fields apologized before the judge handed down his sentence.
The “Unite the Right” rally on 12 August 2017 drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee.
Fields admitted deliberately driving his car into counter-protesters who showed up to demonstrate against the white nationalists.
The case stirred racial tensions around the country. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 7 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | “At least there was some civility,” Biden said at a New York City fundraising event. “We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today, you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”
Congressional Democrats gave mixed responses to the comments, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) coming to Biden’s defense.
“Joe Biden is authentic,” Pelosi said. “He considers certain things a resource, that he has worked across the aisle. That’s what he was saying. That’s not what this election is about.”
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) tore into Biden during a primary debate Thursday evening for speaking supportively of the late Sens. James Eastland (D-Miss.) and Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.). Eastland reportedly advocated for the genocide of black Americans.
“I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground,” Harris said on the debate stage, where she was the only black candidate. “But it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”
And although Biden reversed his stance on the Hyde Amendment in early June, his critics dinged him for taking so long to do so. The amendment prohibits any federal funds from going toward abortion care, and Biden ― who has not always been a strong backer of abortion rights ― has supported it since his days serving as a senator from Delaware in the 1970s. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 19 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 55,153,969 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | A federal appeals court said two retired workers couldn’t sue because the U.S. Bancorp plan had become overfunded, meaning the employees weren’t at any imminent risk of financial loss. That was at least in part because the company injected more than $300 million into the plan after the suit was filed in 2013. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
polusa | 2019_1_test.csv | 79,061,186 | 0 | 2019_1_test.csv0 53010215
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201906/672/1155968404_6053659074001_6053656936001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true 2020 democratic debates Biden tries to stanch the bleeding with full Obama embrace The Rev. Jesse Jackson offered advice to the former vice president on how to repair the damage from the his debate performance.
CHICAGO — When Joe Biden spoke to a mostly African American audience here Thursday, he was a different person than presidential candidate who was thrashed over the issue of segregation at a nationally televised debate the night before.
This time, Biden was fiery, concise and clear as he ticked off his work with hometown hero Barack Obama and defended his civil rights record, which came into question after his high-profile clash with Kamala Harris, the only black woman in the Democratic primary. In a more controlled environment, with the help of teleprompters, Biden laid out his record on civil rights in a way that didn’t resonate the night before.
Story Continued Below
“Before I start, I'd like to say something about the debate we had last night. And I heard and I listened to and I respect senator Harris. We all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can't do justice to a lifetime commitment to civil rights,” Biden said. “I want to be clear about my record and position. On racial justice, including busing — I never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing as a program that senator Harris participated in.”
Biden’s mentioning of Harris’s name and his insistence that he respects her reflected the toll of the damage she inflicted on him. Normally Biden doesn’t mention his rivals, a luxury of being the frontrunner.
Still, the already planned appearance before the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition allowed Biden the fortune of offering rehabilitating remarks on race in front of a crowd most attuned to the issue. Jackson said that during a private meeting with Biden ahead of the remarks, he told the former vice president what he needed to do.
“What I said to him in our meeting was that people who were proud of the relationship with Barack and all of that — what came out last night is he’s been on the side of state’s rights. Doesn’t make him a bad guy but we’re on different teams,” Jackson said of his discussion with Biden. “What we fought for was against state’s rights. I said: ‘You must be very clear, just like you made an adjustment on the Hyde amendment, very clear. So he’s very clear on his work with Barack.”
Biden did as much in his address.
“These rights are not up to the states to decide, they’re our federal government’s duty,” Biden told the crowd. “There's a constitutional question to protect the civil rights of every single American. And that's always been my position. And so that's why I ran for federal office in the first place.”
Biden's appearance before the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition allowed the former vice president the fortune to offer remarks on race in front of a crowd most attuned to the issue. | Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), who hasn’t endorsed a Democratic candidate but attended Biden’s address, defended the former vice president. When asked if he needed to be more contrite about his past positions, Kelly disagreed.
“I actually think he needs to be him,” Kelly said when asked if Biden should be more contrite. “Then people will see that’s the Biden they know.”
The confrontation with Harris, she added in response to a question, “was not a death blow.”
Not everyone was impressed by Biden’s attempt at damage control. Leaving the event on Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said Biden missed his opportunity. The former vice president, Rush said, “was using the Obama years as red meat” in his remarks and didn’t shift his position enough — or apologize for his remarks about working collegially with segregationist senators — to make a mark before prospective black voters.
“I think he thought about what he didn’t say last night and tried to make up for it. To me, he didn’t move the needle at all,” Rush said. “Today fell short. He could have had a standing ovation. Instead he had scant applause.”
Rush said Biden’s debate performance raised doubts about whether the former vice president can go up against and beat Donald Trump.
“The question seared in my mind is, ‘Can he do it?’” Rush said. “I’m convinced Kamala can do it. I’m not certain that Biden can do it.”
One Biden surrogate fretted that the candidate looked and sounded too aged at the debate.
“It looked like a 76-year-old man up there,” the person said. “I hope it’s a one-off. But there’s a fear it isn’t.”
In a sign of the importance of the issue to Biden, his campaign blasted out an email with quoting from his Thursday speech, using a respectful tone toward Harris and words that many of his advisers wished he would have said onstage.
The statement also was more forward looking than Biden was in the debate.
“The discussion in this race today shouldn’t be about the past,” the email said. “It should be about how we can do better and move forward and give every kid in this country an opportunity to succeed. That means good schools in every neighborhood. No child’s future should be determined by their zip code.”
Marc Caputo contributed to this report. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 46 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology stocks are Wall Street’s top performers as 2019 hits half-way, with investors betting on lower interest rates, although Apple and chipmakers face turbulence related to the U.S.-China trade war.
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., June 24, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The S&P 500 information technology index has surged 9% in June, its strongest month in three years. That rally, and the S&P 500's .SPX record high on June 21, reflect investors' increased appetite for risk as they become more confident the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to support a slowing economy.
It also shows that Wall Street is mostly confident that U.S. President Donald Trump, who has shown a dislike for stock market downswings, will ultimately resolve his trade conflict with China.
Looking for evidence of progress on the trade front, investors will closely watch a planned meeting this weekend between Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Japan.
“The risk to the downside is the greatest. If trade talks break down then we could head lower, probably a lot further, and the tech sector could be a leader to the downside,” said Randy Frederick, Vice President of Trading & Derivatives at Charles Schwab.
Other investors say their optimism about the tech stocks is grounded in expectations that the sector’s earnings growth will outperform the rest of the economy over the next several years.
“Our expectations for genuine progress regarding tariffs at the G20 is quite low,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. “Tech is less of a short-term tactical play, and more a belief in the long-term growth potential of the space. Certainly, it’s affected by tariffs and regulation, but the growth story is still there.”
Although just short of its April record high, the technology index is up 26% so far in 2019, leading other sectors by far and easily beating the S&P 500’s 17% return. Among June’s strong performing technology stocks are Nvidia (NVDA.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Xerox (XRX.N), each up over 13%.
Facebook (FB.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Netflix (NFLX.O) all rose more than 7% in June, slightly outperforming the S&P 500’s increase of just under 7% as investors increased bets on high-growth, volatile stocks.
Uncertainty related to the trade conflict and Washington’s blacklisting of China’s Huawei have pushed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index .SOX down 8% from its record high in April, but it is still up 27% for the year, buoyed by expectations that a slump in global sales is near its bottom and that demand is set to recover.
The benchmark chip index has surged over 5% since Tuesday, when Micron Technologies (MU.O) said it resumed some sales to Huawei and forecast a recovery in memory chip demand in the second half of the year.
Underpinning not just tech, but most of Wall Street’s recent strength, is the recently increased confidence that the Fed will cut interest rates as soon as July, with interest rate futures pointing to three rate cuts this year to support already dwindling economic growth.
The recent strong performance of technology stocks comes even as analysts predict a drop in quarterly earnings for the sector, in part due to uncertainty around the trade war. Many U.S. semiconductor companies rely on China for over half of their revenue.
Graphic: Tech earnings expectations, click tmsnrt.rs/2Ysg1C5
Analysts on average expect the S&P 500 IT sector’s earnings per share to sink 8% in the second quarter, compared to a 0.3% increase predicted for the S&P 500, according to Refinitiv’s IBES data.
S&P 500 semiconductor companies are seen posting a much deeper 28% slump in second-quarter earnings, and a 20% drop for all of 2019. Analysts on average expect Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) and rival Nvidia to post declines of over 40% in earnings per share for the quarter.
A resolution of the trade conflict would lead analysts to increase their earnings estimates for the technology sector to reflect improved global economic conditions, Frederick said.
“The economy really hasn’t slowed down that much. That says we’re still in a cyclical market and there’s still some upside potential, and tech tends to be one of the leaders when you’re in a cyclical market,” he said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 25 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain, France and Germany have a special trade channel up and running with Iran that aims to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions, the EU said in a statement.
“France, Germany and the United Kingdom informed participants that INSTEX had been made operational and available to all EU Member States and that the first transactions are being processed,” the EU said in a statement, referring to the channel’s formal name.
Iran has also established an entity to trade with Europe, while some more EU countries are joining INSTEX as shareholders, the statement said, following talks between the remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal - Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - after the United States pulled out. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Four convicts to be put to death after president announced end to 42-year-old moratorium
Sri Lanka has hired two executioners as it prepares to put four prisoners convicted of drug offences to death in what would be its first use of capital punishment for over 40 years.
The executioners were picked from among 100 applicants who responded to an advertisement calling for male Sri Lankans aged between 18 and 45 with “excellent moral character” and “mental strength”.
The prisons department began the recruitment process in March after the last executioner quit in 2014, citing stress after seeing the gallows for the first time. Another, hired last year, never turned up for work.
President Maithripala Sirisena announced on Wednesday an end to a moratorium on the death penalty in force since 1976, a move political analysts said was meant to boost his chances of re-election if he stands again later this year.
Sri Lanka advertises for two hangmen as country resumes capital punishment Read more
Local and international rights groups, along with the former colonial ruler Britain, Canada, the EU and UN have raised concerns about the south Asian nation’s restoration of capital punishment.
“The recruitment process is finalised and two [executioners] have been selected. The two need to go through final training which will take about two weeks,” prisons spokesman Thushara Upuldeniya said.
The prisons commissioner, TMJW Thennakoon, declined to provide details of the four convicts whose death penalties the president approved.
On Friday, a Sri Lankan journalist filed public interest litigation seeking to stop any executions, arguing that people’s rights were being violated. A court hearing will be held on 2 July, and Thennakoon pledged there would be no executions for the next seven days.
A spokesman for the UN office on drugs and crime said on Thursday international drug control conventions could not be used to justify the use of the death penalty for drug-related offences alone.
“Application of the death penalty may also impede international cooperation in fighting drug trafficking as there are national laws that [bar] the exchange of information and extradition with countries which may impose capital punishment for the offences concerned,” the spokesman said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 13 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The Tribune data shows that 158 females have been shot in Chicago through June 25, just two more than the year-earlier period. Yet the number of overall shooting victims fell by about 12%, to 1,173 so far this year compared with 1,330 a year earlier. As a result of that drop, women represented about 14% of all shooting victims, up from 13% last year. That number has steadily increased each year since 2015, when women accounted for 9% of all shootings, according to the data. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The Senate failed to pass an amendment Friday that would have forced President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval before going to war with Iran, leaving in place broad powers for the president to launch military action.
The Kaine-Udall amendment, which Senate Democrats rallied around this week, failed to gain the 60 votes needed to break through the chamber’s filibuster rules. The measure was met with opposition from Republican senators with few exceptions, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who supported it.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer touted the vote as proof that Trump should consult Congress on matters of war, given the widespread concern from lawmakers. The final vote tally was 50 in favor to 40 against the amendment.
“A bipartisan majority of the Senate today sent an important message to President Trump: you do not have a blank check to pursue another endless war in the Middle East,” Schumer said in a statement, indicating Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) would have supported the measure if he’d been able to attend the vote.
Senators who backed the amendment hoped the measure would rein in an erratic president who only a week earlier ordered ― and then pulled back ― a military strike on Iran. The amendment signaled widespread concern among Democratic lawmakers that the White House is on a course for conflict with Tehran, and that Congress lacks oversight authority to avert it.
Democratic senators pushed for the vote earlier this week by threatening to block the passage of a key defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, until Republicans allowed a vote on the amendment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ultimately acquiesced to the demand and set the vote.
It’s unlikely that the amendment would have neutralized Trump’s ability to strike Iran. The president, for instance, could have declared a national emergency in order to justify military action, or he might have refused to sign the defense authorization bill.
The vote began just after 5 a.m. and continued throughout the day in order to give senators a chance to return from the Democratic debates in Miami. But before noon, 40 senators had already voted against the amendment.
The relationship between Iran and the United States has broken down since Trump last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed a maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and military escalation. Tensions have risen to a crisis point in recent weeks, with the U.S. taking increasingly aggressive measures and Iran vowing to violate its end of the nuclear pact and begin stockpiling uranium.
Iranian officials met with representatives from the remaining countries in the nuclear deal ― The United Kingdom, China, Russia, France and Germany ― in Vienna on Friday as part of a last-ditch effort to save the agreement. As the economic benefits Iran hoped for as part of the deal failed to materialize amid U.S. sanctions, Iran has repeatedly warned that it has little reason to hold to the pact.
This article has been updated with comment from Schumer. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 20 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Former Vice President Joe Biden defended his civil rights record, after he was targeted by Sen. Kamala Harris in Thursday night's primary debate for his friendliness with segregationist senators and his opposition to federally-imposed busing in the 1970s.
Speaking to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago, Biden said that he "heard and I listened to and I respect Senator Harris," but that he believed the debate did not offer enough time for them to properly discuss the issue.
"I did support federal action to address the root causes of segregation in our schools and our communities, including taking on the banks and redlining and trying to change the way in which neighborhoods were segregated," Biden said. "I've always been in favor of using federal authority to overcome state-initiated segregation."
Biden noted that he was the deciding vote against the 1974 anti-busing Gurney amendment.
"I cast the deciding vote in 1974 against an amendment called the Gurney Amendment, which would have banned the right of the federal courts to be able to use busing as a remedy," Biden said. "And you might guess, in the middle of the most extensive busing order in American history, in my city and my state, it wasn't what you'd call the most popular vote in the country at the time."
He continued by defending his record supporting civil rights legislation since he joined the Senate.
"I fought my heart out to ensure that Civil Rights, voting rights, equal rights, are enforced everywhere. These rights are not -- are not up to the states to decide. They are federal government's duty to decide," Biden said.
Biden also emphasized his ties with former President Obama, the first black president, saying that Obama did not get enough credit for his accomplishments while in office.
"My president gets much too little credit for all that he did," Biden said. "He was one of the great presidents of the United States, and I'm tired about hearing what he didn't do."
On Thursday, Harris pressed Biden on his comments about working with conservative lawmakers who supported segregation based on race, as well as his past stance against busing to desegregate public schools.
"I do not believe you are a racist," Harris said, looking straight at Biden Thursday night. "I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground ... [But] it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and careers on the segregation of race in this country."
Harris also noted Biden opposed federal measures to ensure that local jurisdictions used busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s. She said that was personally painful for her.
"There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school everyday, and that little girl was me," she said. "So, I will tell you: on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly."
Harris' passionate appeal elicited some of the loudest applause of the night. Given a chance to respond, Biden challenged Harris' portrayal of his record on race.
"That's a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists," he said, touting his support for civil rights and highlighting his work as public defender.
In an interview with "CBS This Morning" Friday, Harris responded to criticism from Biden's camp that the contentious moment was a "low blow."
"It was about just speaking truth and as I've said many times, I have a great deal of respect for Joe Biden...but he and I disagree on that," Harris said.
She added, "My purpose was to really just make sure that in this conversation we are appreciating the impact on real people of policies that have been pushed in the history of our country."
Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Emily Tillett contributed to this report | null | 0 | -1 | null | 31 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE Millions of Americans file their taxes annually. Where does all that money even go? Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
Reports surfaced this week that the White House is working to again rejigger the U.S. tax landscape, this time adjusting the capital gains rules that would substantially cut taxes paid on the sales of stock, real estate or other long-held investments.
The administration floated the idea last year, shortly after its tax overhaul law got through Congress. But now it’s out there again, according to a report from Bloomberg.
What President Trump has in mind is getting rid of taxing any appreciation tied to inflation when you sell an asset.
For instance, if you sold a stock today that had no dividends and that held for five years, you’d pay 23.5% tax on the profits of the sale. But if you stripped out the inflation part, you’d only pay a 20.1% rate, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
There’d be similar reductions in tax rates for sales of residential and commercial buildings and land.
So how would that help you? After the GOP’s last tax, about 80% of taxpayers were estimated to get a tax cut this year, according to the Tax Policy Center.
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Avoid this Doing this one thing with your Social Security could mean losing $100,000 in retirement
This new proposal won’t be nearly as inclusive of the everyday folk.
About 86% of the savings would go to the top 1% - as measured by adjusted gross income – and 99% of the tax cut would go to the top 20%, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Here’s why: You’re probably not conducting many transactions that would trigger the capital gains tax.
Talking back: Employees speak up at Wayfair, Google. Have Millennials killed being afraid of the boss?
Less than a third of Americans hold stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other investments outside retirement accounts that, when sold, would benefit from the inflation adjustment, according to the 2018 Financial Capability study from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.
Of that third, which Americans are most likely to have these accounts? Those with the highest incomes. The share that hold these investments declines in lockstep with their income bracket.
(It's important to note that investments held in retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs are taxed at ordinary income rates when distributed.)
Surely, more Americans would benefit from this proposed change when they sell their house? That’s largely not true, either, because many home sellers aren’t subject to the capital gains tax as it is.
Thanks to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, there’s no capital gains tax on the profits made from a primary residence’s sale, up to $250,000 for singles or $500,000 for married couples. Other parameters apply.
It's possible that a regular Joe who's owned his home since the 1970s in a hot market could surpass those exclusion amounts and benefit from the capital gains change.
Otherwise, those mostly likely with a profit above those thresholds – and subject to the capital gains tax – are probably not middle or working class and instead are doing pretty darn well financially.
The likelihood that this proposal will pass through regular channels is nil, given the Democrat’s majority in the House.
But – in a twist made for a movie – Trump may push the plan through by executive action, according to the report, bypassing Congress altogether, and just in time for the 2020 election.
CLOSE From business expenses, rental expenses and medical expenses, here are some of the weirder things people have deducted. Time
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/28/taxes-capital-gains-change-help-rich-investors/1596281001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 33 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | “What you are seeing is the different levels of government — federal, state and local — they are responding in varied ways when you don’t have one single national policy that governs immigration policy,” said Francisco Pedraza, an assistant professor of public policy and political science at the University of California at Riverside. “This is part of a patchwork. It depends on where you live if you are going to be subject to immigration policing.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | A former Wells Fargo executive who defended the bank during its massive fake accounts scandal is hosting a fundraiser for Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign on Saturday, according to an invitation obtained by HuffPost.
The former executive, Miguel Bustos, worked from 2013 to 2017 as Wells Fargo’s senior vice president of government and community relations, where he oversaw lobbying and community outreach efforts in six western states: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Montana and Utah.
Bustos is hosting a fundraiser for Harris on Saturday night in San Francisco, timed to coincide with the city’s Pride Weekend celebrations and one day before the crucial second-quarter fundraising deadline.
The minimum donation for an attendee is $500, while “supporters” need to contribute $1,000 and “sponsors” who get a photo with Harris need to contribute the federal maximum donation of $2,800.
The fundraiser lends ammunition to progressives, many aligned with the rival presidential campaigns of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who are skeptical of Harris’ willingness to take on Wall Street and the financial industry.
In a statement, Harris spokesman Ian Sams defended the candidate’s record.
“She literally investigated Wells Fargo as Attorney General and won an $8.5 million settlement for Californians, and she’s the only major candidate in this race who’s actually prosecuted banks for screwing people over,” Sams said. “Her record of real action to take on bad corporate actors on behalf of consumers shows exactly who she would fight for as president.”
Sams is referring to an $8.5 million settlement that Harris and five district attorneys in the state reached with the bank in March 2016. The bank had violated state privacy laws by failing to “timely and adequately” disclose it was recording phone calls with members of the public. (The fine is equivalent to about .2% of Wells Fargo’s profit during the quarter the settlement was announced.)
ASSOCIATED PRESS California Sen. Kamala Harris sued Wells Fargo when she was the state's attorney general. Now, she's raising money with one of its former executives.
But progressive critics have typically focused on Harris’ role in a more high-profile settlement: the national mortgage settlement that Harris, the Obama administration and other state attorneys general reached with Wells Fargo and the four other largest banks in America in 2012. Progressives have long said the $25 billion agreement didn’t go nearly far enough to punish the banks and help homeowners trapped by the foreclosure crisis in the wake of the Great Recession. No bank executive involved in the foreclosure fraud went to prison.
Wells Fargo’s highest-profile recent scandal was the fake accounts debacle. From 2009 to 2015, the company opened up more than 3.5 million fake bank and credit card accounts, leading nearly 200,000 customers to pay unnecessary fees. Warren aggressively investigated the bank, and the scandal led to the resignation of then-CEO John Stumpf, along nearly $3 billion in fines and settlement costs.
During the scandal, Bustos defended the bank when the city council of Vallejo, California, considered moving its accounts away from Wells Fargo. While Bustos admitted the bank had “made mistakes,” he also pleaded with the city council to stick with it.
“The one thing I learned in life is that no one is perfect, no one,” he said, according to a September 2017 article in the Vallejo Times-Herald. “But one thing I learned is that you have forgiveness and you have redemption. What we are asking is, you know what, work with us to be a better bank.”
The city council eventually voted to cut ties with Wells Fargo.
Bustos’ LinkedIn profile says he is now the senior director of the center for social justice at GlideSF, a prominent progressive church in San Francisco.
Harris’ presidential campaign, meanwhile, has received more than $16,000 from Wells Fargo employees, according to FEC records – including maxed-out donations from the company’s former chief compliance officer and an executive who oversaw the company’s credit card business. Harris also received $2,300 from Brenda Wright, a Wells Fargo executive whose position on San Francisco’s pension board sparked protests in 2013. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 28 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | “To protect the integrity of the investigation as well as the victim, we are unable to release why we believe he was a target,” said Buffalo Grove Police Community Relations Officer Meghan Hansen. “At this time, we believe there is no threat to the community due to this being a targeted act.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The Indiana Supreme Court on Friday heard arguments over whether Tyson Timbs, of Marion, should be able to get the vehicle back. Timbs’ case is back before Indiana’s top court because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines applies to the states. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Busing burst into the 2020 presidential campaign in Thursday night's Democratic debate when Sen. Kamala Harris blasted Joe Biden for supporting measures to block federal funds for integration busing. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images education Why school busing still matters
The fights over school busing of the 1970s seem like ancient history, given that they raged when Kamala Harris was a child and in the early days of Joe Biden's Senate career.
But busing lingers as an explosive issue today, as studies show schools are increasingly segregated and Democratic lawmakers are still working to eliminate one of the last anti-busing vestiges in federal law. Busing burst into the 2020 presidential campaign in Thursday night's Democratic debate when Harris, now a U.S. senator, blasted Biden for supporting measures to block federal funds for integration busing. Congress in 1974 ultimately barred money even for voluntary integration programs, like the one that bused Harris to school in Berkeley, Calif.
Story Continued Below
The former vice president pushed back on Friday, saying he “never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing” and that he’s always supported using federal authority to overcome state-led segregation. He said he even cast the deciding vote in 1974 against a measure that would have banned the right of federal courts from using busing as a remedy.
“It wasn't what you would call the most popular vote in the country at the time,” he said at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition convention.
But in the 1970s, Biden supported restrictions on federal funds for transportation costs to help integrate schools, even while saying he supported desegregation. His position was a response to a backlash from white voters to court-ordered desegregation and a Supreme Court case that upheld busing as a means to integrate schools.
Today, attempts at desegregation appear to have had little long-term effect. Researchers from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, the Center for Education and Civil Rights at Penn State University and elsewhere found a three-fold increase in the share of “intensely segregated” schools between 1988 and 2016.
poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201906/672/1155968404_6053659074001_6053656936001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true
In addition, a last ban on the use of federal funds for integration busing, known as Section 426, exists in a 1974 section of the General Education Provisions Act, though members of Congress quietly have been discussing getting rid of it for good.
Harris clearly went into Thursday’s debate prepared to relitigate the anti-busing fights of the 1970s with Biden, who has faced criticism in the past for his position.
“Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then?” Harris pressed.
Biden defended his position, saying he did not oppose busing in general, but busing ordered by the Department of Education. He said Harris was bused because of a local decision.
But Harris pointed to a “failure of states to integrate public schools” and said, “that’s why the federal government must step in.”
Harris, who is 54, said she was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley schools. That school district at the time was the first sizable city with a substantial proportion of black children to voluntarily integrate with “two-way busing,” sending black students to majority white schools and vice versa, according to Berkeley Schools.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. praised the program in a book foreword, writing “Hope returned to my soul and spirit,” the school system wrote.
The program was replaced in 1994 with a new integration program that uses busing, but also allows for family choice, and a revised version of it exists today.
It’s unclear whether Berkeley tried to use federal funds for its program, but the kind of provisions that passed Congress with Biden’s support would have prevented them from doing so, said Philip Tegeler, of the National Coalition on School Diversity.
Last year, Congress axed appropriations restrictions on federal funds for integration busing, but Democratic lawmakers are still trying to remove the 1974 section of the General Education Provisions Act with the same purpose.
“We hope that this will be the year when Congress eliminates this anachronism from the General Education Provisions Act,” said Tegeler, who is also president and executive director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council.
Elise Boddie, a Rutgers Law School professor and former director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., said that Biden’s position on busing back then “created a platform for people to condemn integration in public schools.”
As a young girl in Los Angeles, Boddie said, she too was bused in the 1970s and she said she was “very moved by Senator Harris’ remarks.” She called her busing program a “crucial part” of her educational experience because it put her in classrooms with children of different backgrounds.
School diversity advocates today are lobbying largely for voluntary programs, not mandatory, she said.
“As far as federal policy now, what's important is that we create opportunities for integration in public schools and busing is an important, critical means for achieving that opportunity,” she said.
Both Biden and Harris’ positions on the General Education Provisions Act provision are unclear. Neither spoke during the debate about what they would back today, in terms of federal funds for the purpose of integration busing.
But Biden says he is focused on eliminating disparities. His K-12 and early education plan aims to close a massive funding gap between majority white and non-white school districts by spending $45 billion on federal grants to low-income districts under the Title I program. It also says he would reinstate Obama administration efforts to diversify schools.
It's clear Harris supports a federal role in addressing issues of race and inequity. She said Thursday that’s why the United States has the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts, why Congress needs to pass the Equality Act and why there should be an Equal Rights Amendment.
“There are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people,” she said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 34 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Apple is moving production of its new Mac Pro computer to China, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The decision marks the departure of the tech giant's only major product manufactured in the U.S.
Shifting production to a Shanghai-area factory would help reduce shipping costs with Apple's other suppliers in China, the report noted.
Apple is moving production of its new Mac Pro computer to China, marking the departure of the technology company's only major U.S.-built product, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Apple didn't refute the report in a comment to CBS MoneyWatch. The Cupertino, California-based company is working with contractor Quanta Computer to assemble the desktop computer in a factory near Shanghai, which would help cut shipping costs with Apple's other suppliers in China, the Journal said on Friday.
The Mac Pro model had been manufactured by contractor Flex in Austin, Texas since 2013 as part of a $100 million commitment that CEO Tim Cook trumpeted in a national television interview. An Apple spokesperson said the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in California and includes parts from the United States, as with other Apple products.
"Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process," an Apple spokesman added.
The spokesman declined to comment beyond the statement.
Worker shortage
Flex's Austin factory encountered problems finding enough skilled labor willing to work for minimum wage, according to the Journal. Then, as Mac Pro sales faltered, Flex began laying off workers in Austin, and by last year had a skeleton crew left in Austin, according to a former Flex vice president quoted by the Journal.
Neither Flex nor Quanta Computer immediately responded to requests for comment.
Tim Cook on immigration, tariffs and spending too much time on our phones
Unlike iPhones, iPads and MacBooks, Apple's Mac Pro is not one of the tech giant's top-selling products, though at a $6,000 starting price, it is one of its most expensive. However, Apple has long attracted criticism for relying on China to manufacture its products. With the Trump administration's trade war with China, Apple is among the U.S. businesses facing higher costs because of new and proposed U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.
The tech giant just last week warned trade officials the latest round of tariffs on China would hurt its competitiveness. It also reportedly has been studying moving nearly one-third of its production out of China, though any decision to do so would likely be a long process, as it can take years for a global company like Apple to shift its manufacturing.
"We urge the U.S. government not to impose tariffs on these products," Apple wrote.
The development comes just as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet Saturday for the G20 Summit in Japan. Separately, Apple's design chief Jony Ive also announced his departure from the company Thursday.
--With reporting by The Associated Press. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 22 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | I watched my first Pride Parade in 1983 from the window of my first Chicago apartment over the Unabridged Bookstore on Broadway. Former Mayor Jane Byrne rode in the parade, but no other politician, business (except some gay bars) or non-gay organization would risk the stigma. Within the next few years, AIDS was taking so many lives in that tight community that people no longer asked if they had seen someone lately. Times change. Byrne is still remembered within the gay community for her political courage. As mayor, she issued an executive order banning discrimination against gays in city employment, housing and services. Many politicians now march in the Pride Parade, which has become as much of a routine political obligation as St. Pat’s parades. That’s nice, but I think they should properly recognize who among them took the first steps. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 8 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Washington (CNN) The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it was investigating a complaint that Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz tried to threaten Michael Cohen ahead of his congressional testimony.
The day before Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, appeared before the House Oversight and Reform Committee in February, Gaetz tweeted something at Cohen that critics labeled witness intimidation.
"Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison. She's about to learn a lot," Gaetz tweeted.
Gaetz, a Florida congressman who's a close ally to the President, did not offer proof or details to back up his tweet. He soon deleted the message and apologized to Cohen.
Later that week, Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York sent a letter to the House Ethics Committee asking for an investigation. Rice, a former federal prosecutor, wrote that she believes the GOP lawmaker's comments could rise to the level of witness tampering and intimidation. She later submitted a formal complaint on March 13, according to her office.
Read More | null | 0 | -1 | null | 12 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright J&S Photography Image caption Professor George Giarchi from Plymouth died of multi-organ failure in November 2017
A coroner has said there were "missed opportunities" to prevent the death of a hospital patient who died after developing a bedsore.
George Giacinto Giarchi, 86, died in November 2017 at Plymouth's Mount Gould Hospital after being treated for weeks at Derriford Hospital after a fall.
At Plymouth Crown Court coroner Ian Arrow said Mr Giarchi died of multi-organ failure from the pressure ulcer.
His family urged ministers to ensure hospitals had adequate staffing levels.
The former Plymouth University professor was admitted to Derriford Hospital after falling and fracturing his arm at home on 25 September 2017.
He was later transferred to Mount Gould where the lesion was first noticed.
Pressure ulcers, known as bed sores, are injuries caused by pressure on the skin often seen in bedridden patients.
Image caption Prof Giarchi was initially admitted to Plymouth's Derriford Hospital
Simon Giarchi said his father was treated with a "lack of respect" while at Derriford, alleging that there were issues with understaffing and "perceived ageism".
Prof Giarchi's family are calling on the NHS and government to take note of the case and ensure there are appropriate levels of staffing.
The coroner said Professor Giarchi was experiencing "increasing pain" which made it difficult for staff to relieve pressure from his sore.
Prof Giarchi's wife, Clare, said the law should be changed to stop "frailty" and "old age" being listed as reasons for death.
Using frailty as the cause of death meant a "lack of care" can be "swept under the carpet", Mrs Giarchi added.
Lenny Byrne, chief nurse at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, expressed his "sincere condolences" to the family and acknowledged that care had been below expected standards.
Mr Byrne said the trust had undertaken a "full investigation" which had identified "areas of improvement", making a number of changes to prevent similar circumstances in the future.
The BBC has also approached NHS England and the Department of Health for comment. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 15 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Mayor Pete Buttigieg was one of the winners and definitely lives to fight another day. He had some nice moments that made the media happy, including his usual condescension about who is allowed to be a Christian and who isn’t (spoiler: only St. Pete meets his own criteria, and no Republican even comes close). Poor Liz came out not looking so great. Warren was riding on the media’s shoulders for a couple of weeks, but they tossed her overboard for Harris after Thursday’s debate. Several folks from this week’s debates won’t last much longer. Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Andrew Yang, Kirsten Gillibrand and Eric Swalwell are for sure done, as are Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, John Delaney, Jay Inslee, Tulsi Gabbard and Bill de Blasio. At some point the money will run out, and so will the cable interest. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 7 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Protesters converge outside the Oregon Capitol in Salem on Thursday, June 27, 2019. Truckers, loggers and farmers say they support the eleven Republican senators who fled the state over a week ago to avoid a vote on climate legislation.
Sarah Zimmerman / AP | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Former vice president Joe Biden, in an effort to salvage his campaign from allegations of racism, claimed Friday in Chicago that President Donald Trump had called neo-Nazis “very fine people” and that he had never criticized the Ku Klux Klan.
Speaking at the convention of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Biden said:
And look, there’s only one president I know that’s actually deliberately walked away from [the expectation of equality]. And that is Donald Trump. [Laughter] Not a joke! Think about this. I don’t know about you, Jess, but I never thought that after all the progress we’ve been made, I ‘d see people marching out of fields, carrying torches, contorted faces, anger and hate, accompanied by white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan, met by decent, honorable people who said, “We don’t hate here.” What happened? [A] clash ensued, a young woman died. And what did he say? When asked about it, he said, quote — no president’s ever said this — “there are very fine people in both groups” [sic]. He has yet to apologize — or criticize, or criticize the Ku Klux Klan or the white supremacists.” Look, we have a president who promotes hate and division, has encouraged the poison of white supremacy. Our children are watching. Barack [Obama] was a president our kids not only could, but did, look up to. …
There are several falsehoods in Biden’s statement.
1. The neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Ku Klux Klan members who marched in Charlottesville in August 2017 were met by some “decent, honorable people” — but also by violent, armed members of Antifa. The Washington Post noted: “Counterprotesters had also gathered early. Members of anti-fascist groups yelled at the rallygoers. Many of them also carried sticks and shields.” When the white nationalists charged them, “[c]ounterprotesters fought back, also swinging sticks, punching and spraying chemicals. Others threw balloons filled with paint or ink at the white nationalists. Everywhere, it seemed violence was exploding. The police did not move to break up the fights.” It is true that some protests — especially involving clergy — were nonviolent, but others were not.
2. A young woman did not simply “die.” Her name was Heather Heyer, and she was murdered by neo-Nazi James Fields, who deliberately drove his car into counter-protesters. (He was sentenced Friday to life in prison.)
3. “Very fine people” hoax. President Trump did not say “there are very fine people in both groups.” He specifically condemned the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. He was referring to non-violent protesters on either side of the issue of the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from a public park, as well as non-violent protesters against the racist groups. But when Trump said, “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,” he added: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally.” Biden has lied about this since his campaign launch.
4. The day before that press conference, Trump delivered a televised statement from the White House in which he specifically criticized the Ku Klux Klan and the white supremacists in Charlottesville. Here are Trump’s exact words:
Trump makes statement about racism and neo-Nazis, KKK, and… other hate groups…calls them 'thugs and criminals.' pic.twitter.com/px3irsfcwI — Gary Detman (@GaryDetmanNews) August 14, 2017
Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America. Two days ago, a young American woman, Heather Heyer, was tragically killed. Her death fills us with grief, and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers, and our love.
Those words address exactly the themes of racial equality and unity that Biden told his audience in Chicago that Trump had “deliberately walked away” from.
The truth is that Biden had a horrendous debate on Thursday night in Miami. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) shone a light on his history of support for segregationists and opposition to the policy of busing.
He cannot walk away from his record, so he is trying to distract by lying about Trump.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 50 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE The New York City Commission on Human Rights has issued new guidance. Hairstyles like cornrows and Afros are specifically laid out in the guidelines. USA TODAY
California legislators have passed a bill that would protect students and employees from discrimination based on natural hairstyles, poising the state to become the first in the country to end race-based discrimination based on hairstyle.
The bill, which passed in the California Assembly 69-0 on Thursday, amends state anti-discrimination law to "also include traits historically associated with race" including "hair texture and protective hairstyles." The California Senate passed the bill in April, and it now goes to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign the bill into law.
Newsom did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
Lawmakers acknowledge in the bill's text that society has equated certain features with “blackness" and permeated the idea that professionalism is linked to European features – making those features subject to "separate and unequal treatment."
"Workplace dress code and grooming policies that prohibit natural hair, including afros, braids, twists, and locks, have a disparate impact on Black individuals as these policies are more likely to deter Black applicants and burden or punish Black employees than any other group," the bill reads.
Menelik Swyer, 9, of Detroit, (left) and his sister Naja Swyer, 6, of Detroit enjoy green apples during the National Natural Hair meetup at the Artist Village in Detroit on Saturday, May 19, 2012. The California State Senate on April 22, 2019 passed a bill that would ban schools and workplaces from having dress codes against braids, twists and other natural hair styles. (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press)
Passed in Senate: California's CROWN Act seeks to end racial discrimination based on hairstyles
In New York: What's in a hairstyle? A lot. New York City bans bias against black hair
State Sen. Holly J. Mitchell, the bill's author, said dress codes banning kinky hair punish African Americans for their natural appearance.
"There are still far too many cases of black employees and applicants denied employment or promotion – even terminated – because of the way they choose to wear their hair," she said on the floor of the Senate in April 2019. "I have heard far too many reports of black children humiliated and sent home from school because their natural hair was deemed unruly or a distraction to others."
In February 2019, the New York City Commission on Human Rights issued guidance stating that the same law that prohibits discrimination based on race, gender or religion applies to hair.
Contributing: Kristin Lam, USA TODAY. Follow Elinor Aspegren on Twitter: @elinoraspegren
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/28/california-bill-ban-natural-hair-race-discrimination-governor/1593685001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 19 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The military deployed nearly a dozen Air Force fighter jets to the Persian Gulf state of Qatar this week amid escalating tensions with Iran and threats against American forces in the region.
The F-22 Raptors arrived Thursday to al-Udeid air base, the hub for U.S. air operations in the Middle East. In a statement, U.S. Central Command said the planes were being deployed to Qatar for the first time to "defend American forces and interests."
POMPEO SAYS IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS MOVED ROCKETS NEAR AMERICAN BASES IN IRAQ
The planes carry air-to-air missiles and can perform ground attack missions. The military used the F-22s last year in support of U.S. and allied forces in Syria.
Tensions in the region between Washington and Teheran have heightened in recent weeks. In May, President Trump deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and a B-52 bomber task force to send a "message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Pentagon last week approved sending an additional 1,000 troops to the region after officials blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of Central Command, requested and received additional air-and-missile defense systems.
He also is receiving additional surveillance and intelligence-gathering aircraft to improve the military's ability to monitor potential Iranian threats against shipping in the Gulf area.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 10 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes in The Loudest Voice. JoJo Whilden/Showtime
“I know what people are going to say about me. I can pretty much pick the words for you: right-wing, paranoid, fat.” So begins Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, a seven-episode biopic of Roger Ailes, the longtime chairman and mastermind of Fox News, who died in 2017 and is here played by Russell Crowe. Pugnacious and seemingly self-deprecating as these opening lines are, like so much with Ailes, they’re all spin. The words aren’t particularly nice, but they are much tamer than the ones he deserves, including sexual harasser and propagandist. If one were apportioning blame for how we arrived at this particularly odious, debased, hyperpartisan political moment, a significant share, perhaps even the lion’s, should be heaped upon Ailes. But if Ailes were still alive, he’d likely take that blame as a compliment. It’s what he worked so hard for.
The Loudest Voice, based on Gabriel Sherman’s book, The Loudest Voice in the Room, begins in 2017, with Ailes’ death, before jumping back to 1995 and the founding of Fox News. Ailes, a longtime political operative and media consultant credited with, among other things, Richard Nixon’s election, was selected by Rupert Murdoch to run his cable news upstart, which Ailes envisioned from the start as aiming at only a portion of the audience, the conservative base. Every episode of the series focuses on a key year in Ailes’ and Fox News’ trajectory, with actors playing real-life characters from Rupert Murdoch (Simon McBurney) to Sean Hannity (Patch Darragh) to Gretchen Carlson (Naomi Watts).
The series begins as full-steam-ahead entertainment, an Aaron Sorkin–ish explication of history, in which the past plays out with the buzzwords of the future. “We want to turn out the base,” Ailes says in a 1995 pitch meeting, while casually dropping the essential insight that would drive Fox News success: People want to have their concerns and beliefs affirmed and amplified, not challenged. “People don’t want to be informed,” Ailes explains. “They want to feel informed.”
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How Ailes came by his politics is not in the show’s purview. As it begins, he is already casually racist (“Who ordered the masala pussy?” he says after an interview with a South Asian candidate), convinced that media is liberal-biased, and obsessed with the idea that there are “real Americans” who share his conservative beliefs and who are superior to other less-white/more-urban/less-conservative Americans. Initially, the portrayal of Ailes feels affectedly restrained, amplified by Crowe’s performance, which is so controlled that even when he’s yelling at his staff at 4 a.m., he skirts being genuinely scary. But that restraint pays off. As Ailes becomes more powerful, and his thinking simultaneously more diseased and more effectual, the show gives him the rope to hang himself.
In the wake of 9/11, Ailes willingly turns his network into a propagandist arm of the Bush administration, tying al-Qaida to Iraq despite a lack of evidence. He becomes more grotesque after Obama’s election, fixated on Obama’s “otherness.” He asks an employee how the story about Obama’s Islamic education is going, and when she replies that they haven’t been able to nail anything down, he says, “He 100 percent was raised in a Muslim school. I have it on very good authority.” He’s a paranoiac who believes his delusions are the truth, and he has the power to spread them.
As the series goes on, Ailes’ better qualities (I’m hard-pressed to say good) are shown to be fungible. Occasionally the true believer, at other times he’s just an opportunist, willing to give up a larger fight for his own betterment. A rich man who purports to care about the common man, a drive through his hometown, where working-class Americans are dealing with the 2008 crash, skeeves him out to his core. A man devoted to “protecting his people,” he happily sends hundreds of thousands of Americans off to an unjustified war and sexually abuses and degrades one female employee for years and years with terrible menace. (Through the first four episodes, all that were available to critics, the series does not get into the copious other charges of sexual harassment.) He flippantly insults people who disagree with him as “Stalin,” while running half-truths meant to make viewers do the administration’s bidding. He spews banalities about America being founded on the flag, family, and God, while gleefully sowing discord everywhere.
I kept wondering if something so understated that aspires to come across as relatively unbiased was too subtle for the world that Ailes created.
The cumulative picture of Ailes is damning, but it is one of the horrific ironies of The Loudest Room that someone propagandized by Ailes and his television network could conceivably watch large portions of The Loudest Voice and think that it was essentially complimentary, cataloging Ailes’ fundamentally righteous vision: because Obama did go to a madrassa and wasn’t born in the United States and is a Communist, because the mainstream media is unacceptably liberal and has it in for real Americans, because someone does need to protect those same real Americans from immigrants of who knows what race, and on and on and on.
Like Chernobyl or When They See Us, The Loudest Voice is tackling a piece of poisonous history, the story of a man who took things that seemed to be rules—journalistic ethics, unbiased reporting, respect for the office of the president, a wish to keep the peace, not lying—and demonstrated that they were just norms to be flouted and flayed at will. But unlike those other series, it’s packaged as a biopic and not some larger condemnation of “our times.” As I watched it, I kept wondering if something so relatively understated that aspires—unlike Ailes—to come across as relatively unbiased was too subtle for the world that Ailes created.
But then, maybe our times supply all the insane context necessary. It is unsettling beyond measure to watch The Loudest Voice as, say, the Supreme Court hands down a decision essentially permitting political gerrymandering in perpetuity, just one of the political results made possible by the partisan groundwork Ailes and Fox News laid over multiple decades. The Loudest Voice may ultimately condemn Roger Ailes as something far worse than the fat, right-wing, paranoiac he describes himself as, but what is so disturbing about the series—what is so disturbing about history!—is that it doesn’t matter. He still won. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 42 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) claimed she misheard Thursday night’s debate question in which she signaled support for the elimination of private insurance, but this is not the first time she has swiftly reversed positions on that topic and a range of other issues.
Many say Harris had somewhat of a breakout night, aggressively pushing Joe Biden (D) on issues of race. However, the debate also revealed Harris’ stunning ability to swiftly reverse positions on key topics.
Here are five of Harris’ most notable flip flops of the past.
1. Abolishing private insurance
NBC moderator Lester Holt asked the field of candidates Thursday if they supported abolishing private insurance altogether.
“Many people watching at home have health insurance through their employer. Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?” he asked.
Both Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Harris raised their hands.
However, Harris swiftly reversed her position, telling CBS This Morning’s Tony Dokoupil on Friday that she misheard the question.
So the question was, “Would you be willing to give up your private insurance?” Harris began.
“That’s not how it was asked,” Dokoupil noted. ”That’s what you heard, right?”
“OK, that’s certainly what I heard,” Harris said, reiterating her support for Medicare for all.
“I am supportive of Medicare for all. And under Medicare for all policy, private insurance clearly exists and for supplemental coverage. But under Medicare for all, in my version of it, we would actually extend benefits,” she claimed.
.@tonydokoupil presses @KamalaHarris on private insurance stance: "That's not what was asked. That's what you heard." pic.twitter.com/ZJnjJRKSIG — Sarah Dolan (@sarahedolan) June 28, 2019
That is not the first time Harris has reversed positions on eliminating private insurance. During a CNN-hosted town hall in Iowa in January, Harris explicitly expressed support for its elimination.
She told Jake Tapper:
The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. “Who of us has not had that situation where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this. Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.
During a wide-ranging interview with Tapper in May, Harris reversed her position, claiming that she did not mean her previous remarks.
“That’s not what I meant!” Harris said of her previous position of eliminating private insurance.
“I support Medicare for all but I really do need to clear up what happened on that stage,” she continued. “It was in the context of saying let’s get rid of all the bureaucracy.”
2. Reporting arrests to ICE
Harris spoke strongly against the Trump administration’s illegal immigration policies Thursday night, promising to reinstate DACA status and eliminate private detention centers on day one.
She is not a fan of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) either. Last November, Harris came under fire for attempting to draw parallels between ICE and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) during a hearing with former Acting Director Ronald Vitiello.
“And what was the motivation for the use of fear and force?” Harris asked in reference to the KKK’s activities.
“It was based on race and ethnicity,” Vitiello said.
“Are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ICE is being used to enforce the laws?” Harris asked. “Do you see any parallels?”
“I see no perception that puts ICE in the same category as the KKK,” Vitiello said.
She even introduced the Families Not Facilities Act in November, aimed to “prohibit ICE from using information about caretakers who come forward for unaccompanied children.”
Children don’t belong in detention facilities. Yesterday Senator @RonWyden and I introduced the Families Not Facilities Act, which would prohibit ICE from using information about caretakers who come forward for unaccompanied children.https://t.co/gjKox9CUAN — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 15, 2018
However, Harris supported a controversial 2008 policy that required law enforcement to report illegal immigrant minors suspected of committing crimes to ICE during her time as district attorney of San Francisco.
She tried to justify her position during a podcast interview earlier this year. She said handing children over to ICE was an “unintended consequence of the policy,” adding, “I did not support that consequence of that policy.”
3. Marijuana
Harris spoke at length about her past during a February interview with The Breakfast Club. During the interview, she joked about smoking pot and listening to Snoop Dogg and Tupac.
Hear what #KamalaHarris thinks about legalizing marijuana 💬 pic.twitter.com/YGZlCAKUZ0 — The Breakfast Club (@breakfastclubam) February 11, 2019
These days, Harris says the U.S. should legalize marijuana in order to “restore justice”:
It’s time we legalize marijuana at the federal level and restore justice to our communities. Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs. We must reverse this trend. — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 20, 2019
However, Harris adamantly opposed pot during her time as a prosecutor. When she was running for district attorney in 2010, her campaign manager reportedly said:
Spending two decades in court rooms, Harris believes that drug selling harms communities. Harris supports the legal use of medicinal marijuana but does not support anything beyond that.
According to Reason, Harris “laughed at a reporter in response to the very idea (pushed by her Republican opponent) of legalized recreational use” as recently as 2014.
4. Criminal justice reform
In January, Harris decided to take a hardline stance on criminal justice reform. She tweeted, “Let’s speak the truth that too many unarmed black men and women are killed.”
“And too many Black and brown Americans are locked up. From mass incarceration to cash bail to policing, our criminal justice system needs drastic repair,” she continued:
Let’s speak the truth that too many unarmed black men and women are killed. And too many Black and brown Americans are locked up. From mass incarceration to cash bail to policing, our criminal justice system needs drastic repair. — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 27, 2019
Those remarks do not necessarily line up with Harris’ previous positions, particularly those held during her tenure as California’s attorney general. In 2014, Harris’ office reportedly fought to keep eligible prisoners from being released because “prisons would lose an important labor pool.”
5. LGBT
While Harris has bragged about her glowing LGBT rights record, it is not without flaws. Interestingly, Harris sided with the state’s 2015 decision to hold off on granting gender reassignment surgeries to two inmates, despite a physician’s recommendation.
As the Washington Blade reported:
One case involved Shiloh Quine, who’s serving a term of life for first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery. The other case involved Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, who was serving time in prison in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., for second-degree murder. Both were prescribed gender reassignment surgery, but the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation refused to provide the procedure. The process of the Norsworthy case was quite public as it proceeded through litigation. Although U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ordered California to grant Norsworthy gender reassignment surgery, Harris in her capacity as attorney general appealed the decision to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and fought to reverse the decision. One 29-page brief in the case, signed by Harris, urges a stay on the court order for Norsworthy because the hormone treatment the inmate receives is sufficient — at least for the time being.
Harris addressed her controversial role during a press conference in January, saying:
I was, as you are rightly pointing out, the attorney general of California for two terms and I had a host of clients that I was obligated to defend and represent and I couldn’t fire my clients, and there are unfortunately situations that occurred where my clients took positions that were contrary to my beliefs.
She took “full responsibility” for her office’s actions but noted that there were likely workers who did not “personally” consult with her on all matters.
“And it was an office with a lot of people who would do the work on a daily basis, and do I wish that sometimes they would have personally consulted me before they wrote the things that they wrote?” Harris added. “Yes, I do.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 68 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | NOW PLAYING
President Donald Trump’s Twitter Tantrums
Civil rights groups celebrated after the Supreme Court did not allow the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census for now. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 1 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright @biodunfatoyinbo/@busoladakolo
Biodun Fatoyinbo wey be pastor of COZA church don comot to deny rape allegation from im former member Busola Dakolo and threaten to carry am go court.
Inside the letter from di Commonwealth of Zion Assembly wey di pastor post ontop im own social media, im say di accuse from Dakolo, wey be wife to musician Timi Dakolo, dey "fallacious, non-existent" and say "im never rape anybody for im life even as unbeliever".
Early on 28 June, one video bin comot ontop social media wia Busola Dakolo bin tok how as young girl, Fatoyinbo enter her family house to 'rape' am. And ever since, internet don hot well well wit di names 'Busola Dakolo', 'COZA' and 'Biodun Fatoyinbo' as trending topics for Nigeria throughout di day.
Many, including celebrities, comot to support Dakolo say she na woman of courage. Even as odas call for Fatoyinbo to respond to di allegations.
When Fatoyinbo come finally respond, e say dis na di first time im go respond to dis tin because unlike previous allegations, dis one by Dakolo mention am by im name.
Image copyright Instagram/@Biodunfatoyinbo
Image copyright Instagram/@Biodunfatoyinbo
Meanwhil, di PRO of di FCT command Mr Anjuguri Manza tok say nobody don come forward to make formal report on di mata.
"We no dey aware of di mata and if anybodi get case, make dat pesin come forward and formally report, then we go take am up," im tok.
BBC Pidgin reporter visit di church compound for Abuja around 11 am local time on Friday to seek reaction from di church but dem no gree am enta.
Reason di church give be say na only Tuesdays and Sundays pesin fit enta. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 11 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Democratic U.S. 2020 election presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Kamala Harris raise their hands to indicate that they would eliminate private health care as fellow candidates author Marianne Williamson, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Michael Bennet and Rep. Eric Swalwell listen during the second night of the first Democratic presidential candidates debate in Miami, Florida, U.S. June 27, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - About 18.1 million television viewers watched Thursday night’s debate among 10 Democrats running for U.S. president, a record for a Democratic primary face-off, according to Nielsen data released by NBC News.
The debate featuring front-runners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders was shown on broadcaster NBC, cable channel MSNBC and Spanish-language network Telemundo. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | President Trump on Friday raised the possibility of meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while in South Korea over the next few days, tweeting that he’s willing to meet Kim at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
“After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon),” the president tweeted Friday. “While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!”
The president, who has been overseas at the G20 summit in Japan, is set to arrive in South Korea on Saturday.
NORTH KOREA LEADER RECEIVES 'EXCELLENT' LETTER FROM TRUMP
There have been no public meetings between Washington and Pyongyang since the breakdown of a Vietnam summit between the two leaders earlier this year. But the prospects for a resumption of U.S.-North Korea diplomacy have brightened since Trump and Kim recently exchanged personal letters. Trump called Kim's letter "beautiful," while Kim described Trump's as "excellent," though the contents of their letters have not been disclosed.
Despite the deadlocked nuclear negotiations, both Trump and Kim have described their personal relationship as good. When asked whether Kim's recent letter included a mention about another summit, Trump recently said, "Maybe there was."
In yet another reminder of North Korea's continued mistrust of the United States, its foreign ministry said earlier Wednesday it won't surrender to U.S.-led sanctions and accused Washington of trying to "bring us to our knees."
Kim has said North Korea will seek a "new way" if the United States persists with sanctions and pressure.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 12 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE In night two of the Democratic debate, candidates bore down into issues, and each other. Kamala Harris went after Joe Biden for his past on busing. USA TODAY
CHICAGO -- Former Vice President Biden on Friday sought to minimize damage to his presidential run following a rough evening at the first Democratic debate in which he was called out by rivals for recent comments about segregationist lawmakers and his opposition to busing to integrate schools during his time as a senator.
Speaking at Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition's annual convention, Biden downplayed comments he made a night earlier in which he defended his opposition to federally-mandated busing, a position he's held dating back to his time in the senate in 1970s, in a sharp exchange with Sen. Kamala Harris.
"We all know that 30 to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can't do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights," Biden told a luncheon of labor leaders at the civil rights group's convention. "I want to be absolutely clear on my record and history on racial justice, including busing. I never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing."
The issue, however, pressed by Harris at Thursday's debate centered on Biden's stance in the 1970s to mandate busing children to achieve racially-balanced public schools. As a freshman Delaware senator, when Wilmington’s school desegregation plan was being fought over in federal court, he vocally opposed busing as an integration method.
Amid intense opposition from suburbanites to the court-ordered plan, Biden led an anti-busing campaign in the Senate and encouraged the Justice Department to intervene.
Biden on Friday noted that in May 1974 he in fact cast a critical vote in the Senate against the Gurney amendment, which would have banned federal courts from using busing as a remedy to counter segregation.
"I did support federal action to address root causes of segregation in our schools and communities, including taking on the banks and redlining and trying to change the way in which neighborhoods were segregated," Biden said. "I've always been in favor of using federal authority to overcome state-initiated segregation."
Ahead of Biden's remarks, Jackson expressed disappointment that Biden continued to defend his decades-old position on busing.
"He has chosen the state rights side of the ledger," Jackson told USA TODAY. "That doesn't make him a bad guy, but it puts him on the other team."
A switch in position: Biden: 'I can no longer support' Hyde Amendment
Former Vice President Joseph Biden speaks during the second Democratic primary debate in Miami on June 27, 2019. (Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)
The exchange on the debate stage started when Harris interjected herself into a conversation about racism.
“As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” she said as moderators attempted to move on to another topic.
She then hammered at controversial comments Biden made at a fundraiser earlier this month where he waxed nostalgic about his ability to form working relationships with segregationist lawmakers, James O. Eastland and Herman Talmadge.
She went on to question his opposition in the 1970s to busing in order to integrate schools, something that she experienced firsthand as a child growing up in California.
Rev. Jesse Jackson addresses reporters at the start of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Annual International Convention Friday, June 28, 2019, in Chicago. Former vice president Joe Biden, the day after a rocky debate performance, addressed the five-day convention. (Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)
More: Biden's image as the inevitable nominee, the one to beat Trump, was dinged Thursday
Debate battle: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris square off as Democratic rivals go on the attack on the debate stage
Biden's school busing issue: Biden has opposed busing children to integrate schools. It's been a complicated and controversial position
“It’s personal,” she said. “It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”
Biden snapped back, noting he’d worked as a public defender before running for the Senate, a not-so-subtle dig at Harris, who was a prosecutor before running for office.
"I do not praise racists. That is not true," Biden said. "Number two, if we want to have this litigated on who supports civil rights, I'm happy to do that.”
Jackson noted that Biden until earlier this month had supported the Hyde Amendment, law that restricts the use of federal money on abortion. Biden announced he'd changed his mind after facing backlash over the issue.
"We stand on different sides of history," Jackson said. "He made a readjustment on the Hyde Amendment and it was the right adjustment. (Being in favor of) states rights is being on the other side of history on the civil rights struggle. Kamala Harris was right last night when she challenged states rights as a way of addressing the issue."
Fundraiser comments haunt fofrmer VP: Joe Biden courts black voters as segregationist flap lingers
It remains to be seen how much damage the moment will cause to Biden, who went into the debates holding double digit leads in most national polls. But the exchange — as well as generally strong debate performances by Harris, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — have put a crack into the image Biden has projected as the all-but-inevitable nominee.
Sen. Cory Booker, another Democratic hopeful, on Thursday said he was flummoxed by Biden's position. Booker appeared in the first night of the two-night debate.
"That struck me. I literally leaned back in my couch and couldn't believe that one moment to me, and again not understanding the history of the need for the federal government," Booker told CNN.
Jackson, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, said that he remains hopeful that Biden will evolve.
"There's a body of issues now that he must address," Jackson said. "I think in the give and take of this a lot of folks can change positions."
"There is hope," Jackson added.
Contribution: Jeanne Kuang, Delaware News Journal
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/06/28/joe-biden-kamala-harris-segregation-busing-jesse-jackson/1593257001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 47 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Earlier, a German interior ministry spokesman said Germany would take in some of the migrants if other EU member states did too. Later, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was quoted by German news agency dpa that he was very confident that there would be a solution to the Sea-Watch 3 stalemate by the weekend. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | ASSOCIATED PRESS Central American adults and children stand imprisoned in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in El Paso, Texas, on March 27, 2019.
A 16-year-old mother sleeps with her baby on a cement floor. A 12-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night from hunger. A 5-year-old is sick and has no socks. An 11-year-old cries in a cell, and is only let outside for a few minutes each day.
These are some of the stories collected by a group of attorneys who interviewed more than 60 minors at U.S. Border Patrol facilities in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley sector over the past few weeks. They provide a horrifying portrait of life in detention, where toddlers and children sleep on concrete under bright lights and are not properly fed, allowed to bathe or brush their teeth.
“The declarations paint a picture of wanton disregard for the safety and welfare of children in their care,” said Hope Frye, an immigration lawyer who spoke with migrant kids. “There is a complicity across Customs and Border Protection in the systematic persecution of children and the cruel and inhuman circumstances in which they are kept.”
On Wednesday, the lawyers involved in the Flores settlement, an agreement that outlines child welfare standards in detention, filed a temporary restraining order in federal court. It would force the government to allow the facilities to be inspected by public health professionals and staffed by medical professionals.
On Friday, a judge ruled that the government and Flores lawyers must address the conditions in mediation run by an independent monitor who is tasked with making sure the Trump administration complies with the settlement.
The emergency order comes amid a national discussion about the horrific conditions in Border Patrol facilities, which some experts have recognized as concentration camps. The crisis has intensified as record numbers of children and families cross the border, and facilities have shut down temporarily or quarantined children because of flu outbreaks.
Since December, five children have died in Border Patrol custody.
A Customs and Border Protection official told HuffPost that “as a matter of policy, CBP does not comment on ongoing or pending litigation.”
While the Trump administration is focused on border security and detaining families for longer periods of time, kids told lawyers they felt desperate, sick and neglected in Border Patrol facilities. Here are some of their stories from the court filing, in their own words.
The Canadian Press An autopsy report confirmed that an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol on Christmas Eve succumbed to a flu infection.
“I have shoes but no socks.” ― A 5-year-old from Honduras
“The immigration agents separated me from my father right away. I was very frightened and scared. I cried. I have not seen my father again.
I have been at this facility for several days. I have not been told how long I have to stay here. I am frightened, scared, and sad.
I have had a cold and cough for several days. I have not seen a doctor and I have not been given any medicine. It is cold at night when we sleep. I have shoes but no socks.”
“My baby and I slept directly on the cement.” ― A 16-year-old mother from El Salvador
“Two hours after we crossed, we met Border Patrol and they took us to a very cold house. They took away our baby’s diapers, baby formula, and all of our belongings.
After that they took us to a place with a tent. Up until this point, our family was kept together, but here they took our daughter and me out of the cell and separated my fiancé from us. Our [one-year-old] baby was crying. We asked the guards why they were taking our family apart and they yelled at us.
After that we stayed in a room with 45 other children. There was no mat so my baby and I slept directly on the cement.
I have been in the U.S. for six days and I have never been offered a shower or been able to brush my teeth. There is no soap here and out clothes are dirty. They have never been washed. My daughter is sick and so am I.”
Every night my sisters keep asking me, 'When will our mommy come to get us?' I don’t know what to tell them. 12-year-old from Ecuador
“I’m hungry all the time.” ― A 12-year-old from Guatemala
“The guards were mean and scary. They yelled at us. One day the guards wanted to know if anyone had snuck food in the cell. They found one kid who was about 15 or 16 years old who had a burrito, pudding, and juice. The officials handcuffed his wrists.
I’m so hungry that I’ve woken up in the middle of the night with hunger. I’m too scared to ask the officials here for any more food, even though there is not enough food here for me. In the morning we get oatmeal, pudding, and juice. In the afternoon we get soup, a cookie, and juice. For dinner we get a burrito, pudding and juice.
I saw a child ask for more food once and the guard told him ‘No, you’ve had your ration.’ Sometimes the younger kids get an extra chocolate pudding. I need more food too.”
“The officials here are very bad to us.” ― A 12-year-old from Ecuador
“The officers took everything from us except our documents. They even took our shoelaces. There was a mother in our group traveling with a very young baby. The officers took her diapers, baby formula, and nearly everything else she had and threw it away.
The water here is horrible. It tastes like chlorine. We can use cups to drink the water. But the water tastes awful and I don’t like it at all. None of the kids here like the water.
The officials here are very bad to us. During the night when we’re trying to sleep they come in and wake us up, yelling and scaring us. Sometimes children rise up in the night and officials yell at them to lay back down. The guards who are yelling don’t speak much Spanish, so it’s hard to understand what they’re saying. My sisters and I are very scared when they yell at us and other children.
Every night my sisters keep asking me, ‘When will our mommy come to get us?’ I don’t know what to tell them. It’s very hard for all of us to be here.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS Children lie on floor mats at a facility in McAllen, Texas, on June 17, 2018. A year later, migrants still describe sleeping on floors under bright lights that shine 24/7, with nothing but Mylar blankets to keep warm.
“Who wants to take care of this little boy?” ― A 15-year-old from El Salvador
“A Border Patrol agent came in our room with a two-year-old boy and asked us, ‘Who wants to take care of this little boy?’ Another girl said she would take care of him, but she lost interest after a few hours so I started taking care of him yesterday. His bracelet says he is two years old.
I feed the 2-year-old boy, change his diaper, and play with him. He is sick. He has a cough and a runny nose and scabs on his lips. He was coughing last night so I asked to take him to see the doctor and they told me that the doctor would come to our room, but the doctor never came. The little boy that I am taking care of never speaks. He likes for me to hold him as much as possible.
Since arriving here, I have never been outside and never taken a shower.”
“My baby was naked with no blanket.” ― A 16-year-old mother from Honduras
“We were put into a three sided cage with the fourth side open to the outside filled with loads of people. We had to wait for someone to stand up and quickly take their place on the ground.
My [8-month-old] baby was naked outside with no blanket for all four days we were there. We were freezing. My baby couldn’t sleep because the ground was cement with rocks and everytime she moved the sharp ground would scratch her. There were many pregnant women who had to sleep on rocks and I felt very badly for them.
My baby began vomiting and having diarrhea. I asked to see a doctor and they did not take us. I asked again the next day and the guard said ‘She doesn’t have the face of a sick baby. She doesn’t need to see a doctor.’
Since we arrived here my baby has lost a lot of weight. Her pants are very loose now. She is not sleeping because she is sick, and it is very loud. She cries a lot and is listless.”
My [8-month-old] baby was naked outside with no blanket for all four days we were there. We were freezing. 16-year-old mother from Honduras
“We cry a lot.” ― 1 1-year-old from El Salvador
“We are being held in a cold cell. We sleep on the floor on mats with blankets. I have only been permitted to take a shower twice in the almost two weeks we’ve been here. We’ve been allowed to brush our teeth once.
About three days ago I got a fever. They moved me alone to a flu cell. There is no one to take care of you there. They just give you pills twice a day. I also am having an allergic reaction all over my skin. My skin is itchy and red and my nose is stuffed up. Two times they gave me a pill for it but not anymore.
They let us out of our cell twice a day for a few minutes but other than that we just sit there. We cry a lot and the other kids in the cell also cry. It’s so ugly to be locked up all the time.”
“None of the adults take care of us.” ― A 15-year-old who didn’t specify their country of origin
“I started taking care of a [little girl] in the Ice Box after they separated her from her father. I did not know either of them before that. She was very upset. The workers did nothing to try to comfort her. I tried to comfort her and she has been with me ever since.
She sleeps on a mat with me on the concrete floor. We spend all day every day in that room. There are no activities, only crying. We eat in the same area. We can only go outside to go to the bathroom. We don’t have any opportunities to go outside to do activities or anything. There is nothing to do. None of the adults take care of us so we try to take care of each other.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 116 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The Supreme Court opened a new chapter in its 2018-19 term, after Brett Kavanaugh assumed the seat held for 30 years by Justice Anthony Kennedy. Although Justice Kennedy frequently cast the deciding vote on a court closely divided by ideology, Justice Kavanaugh’s conservative pedigree suggested he would be a more dependable member of an ascendant bloc on the right. The court’s caseload, however, was relatively light on polarizing legal disputes, softening, whether by accident or design, the impact of President Trump’s second appointee.
Here... | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | “Today I’ll walk out the gates of the White House for the last time as Press Secretary with my head held high,” Sanders wrote. “It’s been the honor and privilege of a lifetime to work with President @realDonaldTrump and his amazing team the last three and a half years. You’re the best…Thank you!”
Sanders began her career with the Trump administration in 2017 as deputy press secretary, serving under former Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Since July 2017, when it was announced that she would take Sean Spicer’s position after he announced his resignation, Sanders has become a quick-witted and astute force within the Trump administration.
From taking on those who have confronted her in the press briefing room to being kicked out of a restaurant due to her role with the administration, Sanders never conceded.
In no particular order, here are some of Sarah Sanders’ best moments as the White House press secretary:
1. During a White House press briefing, Sarah Sanders stated she does not have a “problem stating facts” and said CNN’s Jim Acosta “probably” does have a “problem with” stating facts:
Sarah Sanders to CNN’s Jim Acosta: “I don’t have any problem stating facts. I know that’s something you probably do have a problem with, but I don’t.” pic.twitter.com/RE80GSgZAH — Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) October 3, 2018
2. Sanders called out Democrats’ double standard concerning women who come forward with accusations of sexual assault during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America. Sanders said, “It’s a lot of Democrats that like to ignore Keith Ellison and Cory Booker and love to fight and champion women until they disagree with them”:
“It's a lot of Democrats that like to ignore Keith Ellison and Cory Booker and love to fight and champion women until they disagree with them." – @PressSec pic.twitter.com/k5wfHP70nx — Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) September 25, 2018
3. In May of 2018, Sanders addressed President Trump’s “animals” comment that referred to MS-13 gang members. She defended the president’s comment and said, “If the media and liberals want to defend MS-13, they’re more than welcome to. Frankly, I don’t think the term that the president used was strong enough. It took an animal to stab a man 100 times and decapitate him and rip his heart out”:
Press Sec. Sanders says Pres. Trump's "animals" comment yesterday referred to MS-13 gang members. "This is one of the most vicious and deadly gangs…frankly, I think that the term 'animal' doesn't go far enough." https://t.co/cL08pmxbsp pic.twitter.com/0z0LGJLcuZ — ABC News (@ABC) May 18, 2018
4. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called out media bias last August after Michelle Wolf attacked her looks during the White House Correspondents dinner and said, “The media has a role to play for the discourse in this country”:
Sarah Sanders goes off on CNN's Jim Acosta and the rest of the media.pic.twitter.com/ajh2VGmln4 — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 2, 2018
5. Last November, Sanders joined President Trump in Indiana for a rare appearance at a Trump rally. During her brief speech, Sanders discussed her concern for the future of America.
“The greatest job that I’ll ever have, the greatest title I’ll ever have, is that of a mom. That’s why I work for this President . . . I want somebody that I know will protect their future, protect this country, and make sure they have the best America possible,” Sanders said:
“The greatest job that I’ll ever have, the greatest title I’ll ever have, is that of a mom. That’s why I work for this President . . . I want somebody that I know will protect their future, protect this country, and make sure they have the best America possible.”—@PressSec in IN pic.twitter.com/8yurmGu89o — GOP (@GOP) November 6, 2018
6. After being questioned in on whether the administration was “concerned” with “obstruction of justice” comments made by Adam Schiff, Sanders boldly responded, “We here at the White House try never to be concerned with anything dealing with Adam Schiff”:
Reporter: “Is the White House concerned as Congressman Adam Schiff has said, that so many of the questions point to obstruction of justice?” Sarah Sanders: “We here at the White House try never to be concerned with anything dealing with Adam Schiff.” pic.twitter.com/U9t4LuWB1l — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 1, 2018
7. In January, Sanders slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and said, “I think that she’s showing us exactly who she is, what her priorities are, and that’s not the American people”:
White House @PressSec on Nancy Pelosi: "I think that she’s showing us exactly who she is, what her priorities are, and that’s not the American people.” pic.twitter.com/EaCLx5M31n — Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) January 23, 2019
8. Earlier this month, while taking questions from reporters, Sanders called out the Democrats’ inaction to secure the border and said Mexico was doing more to assist with the matter. Sanders said, “It’s a sad day when Mexico and the Mexican government is doing more than Democrats in Congress to actually secure the US border”:
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: “It's a sad day when Mexico and the Mexican government is doing more than Democrats in Congress to actually secure the US border” pic.twitter.com/B4ECRW915M — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 12, 2019
PragerU also shared five of their favorite moments from Sarah Sanders as the White House press secretary:
We sure will miss watching @PressSec roast the media! Here's our favorite 5 moments: pic.twitter.com/Iu11Ls6Jkj — PragerU (@prageru) June 21, 2019
Announced earlier this week, Stephanie Grisham, who currently serves as communications director for first lady Melania Trump, will take on Sanders’ role as White House press secretary.
In addition to replacing Sanders, Grisham will also assume the role as White House communications director, a position which had been vacant since Bill Shine exited the White House earlier this year.
Follow Kyle on Twitter @RealKyleMorris and Facebook. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 36 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Bernie Sanders speaks during the Democratic primary debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, on June 27, 2019, in Miami.
Wilfredo Lee / AP | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Big companies such as Amazon, Target and Wells Fargo have faced a barrage of lawsuits alleging they conducted background checks on job candidates or employees in violation of federal law.
Over the last decade, employers and background check companies have shelled out more than $325 million to settle related litigation.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, job candidates must give prior written consent before employers conduct a background check -- and have the right to challenge reports' contents.
Some of America's largest employers -- including Amazon, Target, Uber and Wells Fargo -- have routinely snooped on job applicants' credit records, legal histories and other personal matters in violation of federal rules, according to a corporate watchdog group. And with such background checks now standard operating procedure for many companies, people could find themselves wrongly denied a job -- sometimes based on faulty information -- without ever learning why.
The revelations surfaced in a raft of class actions in recent years alleging that big companies improperly conducted background checks while vetting hundreds of thousands of prospective employees, according to Good Jobs First, which tracks corporate misconduct.
The group said this litigation led to employers paying out a total of $174 million over the past decade in settlements. Another $152 million was paid by background-check companies that provided those reports to employers.
Job candidates sued the companies under the employment provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law that seeks to ensure the accuracy, privacy and fairness of information on file with consumer reporting agencies, such as credit bureaus. Contrary to its name, the FCRA covers broad reports that include much more than individuals' credit information. Their criminal histories and any legal judgements against them also turn up in these kinds of consumer reports.
The right to know they're checking you
In the suits, plaintiffs claimed employers failed to obtain applicants' written consent before conducting a background check or didn't provide the applicant with a copy of the report. Under the law, consumers can challenge the content of those reports if they think the information is inaccurate or unfair.
These kinds of complaints are widespread as more employers, large and small, rely on background checks to vet employees, said employment attorneys.
The least-loved financial product? Credit reports
"It's ongoing, and it's getting worse and worse, because in this day and age, more companies are using background checks for employment," said Mark Mailman, an attorney who specializes in fair credit reporting cases.
"Ten years ago we didn't see nearly as many; now, in every walk of life, there is a background check required for hiring and also feedback reviews. We sue background-check companies every day," Mailman said.
Under the FCRA, employers must provide a worker or job applicant with a written disclosure indicating that the company might obtain a report that includes information on the person's "character, general reputation, personal characteristics and mode of living." Employers also must provide a copy of the report to the applicant before taking any action based on its contents.
The right to dispute information
People have a legal right to dispute any information in the report, which typically include credit and criminal histories and driving records, along with other biographical details available in public and private databases.
Employers conduct background checks using information -- such as one's name, date of birth and Social Security number -- that job candidates typically provide during the application process. But reports aren't always accurate.
In one case, Terrell Manuel sued Wells Fargo in 2014, claiming the bank "willfully" neglected to obtain his authorization before obtaining a consumer report on him for employment purposes, and it also failed to give him a copy of his background check report before denying him a job. Wells Fargo ultimately agreed to settle the class action to which Manuel belonged for $12 million. The bank did not respond to a request for comment.
Similar complaints were made by applicants in other lawsuits against Amazon, Target and Uber, among other big corporations.
Eye on Money: How bad credit can impact major purchases
Amazon in 2018 resolved claims it violated disclosure and authorization requirements under the FCRA with a $5 million settlement, distributed among a class of 454,000 job applicants in the form of gift cards worth up to $150.
The lead plaintiff said he was denied employment at the internet giant based on contents of a background report, but Amazon never provided him with a copy of the report on which the decision was based. "As a result, in violation of the FCRA, Plaintiff was deprived of any opportunity to review the information in the report and discuss it with Defendant before he was denied employment," the lawsuit reads. Amazon did not reply to a request for comment.
Checking the background checkers
The companies that provided those reports to employers have paid millions in settlements also. Among them was Intellicorp Records, which agreed to an $18.6 million settlement covering more than 100,000 litigants who alleged it provided employers with incorrect, outdated or incomplete information on prospective employees.
"In that this case was settled more than five years ago, we have no further comment at this time," Intellicorp said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Background check companies sometimes rely on partial information, like a birth year versus a full birth date, resulting in frequent mixups, experts said. "It's a much harder problem with criminal background reports, because oftentimes there is no date of birth or Social Security number provided," said Adam G. Singer, a consumer protection lawyer.
"When dealing with public records, often you may just have a first and last name, and possibly an address, and the credit bureaus and background check companies won't always insist on an exact match," Singer said.
Wrongly accused
CoreLogic National, another provider of background check services, allegedly ran reports on candidates without using their dates of birth, increasing the likelihood of cases of mistaken identity. One plaintiff suing the firm accused it of falsely reporting that he had been convicted of a felony, causing him to be denied a job.
"Defendants had mixed the criminal history of a stranger with the same first and last name into the plaintiff's report, even though that person shared nothing else in common," according to the complaint. CoreLogic did not respond to a request for comment.
Millions of Americans mistakenly carry debt to help credit score
"Very often criminal histories are the type of information employers get, and people lose their jobs or don't get hired. Often what these cases involve are reports for people with similar or the same names but a different person," said attorney Martin E. Wolf. He cited the case of a 25-year-old man with a common last name whose report included the criminal history of a 56-year-old with the same name.
Other well-known companies -- including AT&T, Costco, FedEx, Home Depot, K-Mart, Publix Super Markets, Sephora and Whole Foods -- have all settled similar lawsuits, some for millions of dollars, according to Good Jobs First's violation tracker.
"There are a lot of instances of people being turned down for jobs based on information that doesn't apply to them," said Phil Mattera, research director at Good Jobs First.
Growing litigation over job screening stems from "a combination of employers more frequently using these background checks and also more instances of them breaking the rules or not being aware of the rules," Mattera said. "Lawyers are seeing an opportunity to bring actions against employers when they don't abide by the regulations." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 48 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE London-based psychologist Hélene Fermont says that you shouldn't feel guilty about keeping your bank account a secret. Buzz60
Marcus – the retail bank arm of Goldman Sachs – and Ally Bank both lowered the yield on their savings accounts ahead of an expected rate cut from the Federal Reserve next month.
Marcus lowered its rate to 2.15% from 2.25%, while Ally reduced its yield to 2.1% from 2.2%. Both banks informed their customers by email.
Ally said the move reflected how interest rates are “on the downswing and projected to fall further,” according to an email sent to customers.
Marcus also said the its rate reduction was “based on market conditions,” according to an emailed statement from Goldman Sachs spokesman Andrew Williams.
Marcus and Ally Bank lowered the yields on their savings accounts ahead of an expected rate cut from the Federal Reserve. (Photo: Getty Images)
“We aim to always provide competitive rates on all our savings products,” the statement said. “Our online savings account remains more than 4X the national average, and all new and existing customers enjoy the same rate.”
Goodbye high savings rates?
So far, Marcus and Ally are the first to cut rates and don’t yet reflect a bigger trend, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
“In fact, just this week Wealthfront increased the payout on their account,” he said. “The savings landscape continues to be very competitive, which is benefiting consumers, and is helping keep savings yields largely in check – for now.”
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Wealthfront on Wednesday upped the yield on its cash account to 2.57% from 2.51%. Unlike a traditional savings account, a cash account is tied to a brokerage account. The funds are eligible for FDIC insurance through banks partnering with Wealthfront.
There are also more than a handful of banks advertising yields above the 2.15% that Goldman and the 2.1% that Ally are offering, according to an accounting from Bankrate. The top ones include Vio Bank at 2.52%, WebBank at 2.5% and Comenity Direct Bank at 2.48%.
What about CDs?
McBride noted that while savings account yields aren’t changing, rates on certificates of deposits are falling, especially as expectations for a cut in the federal funds rate increases.
“No bank wants to be locked into an above-market payout for any length of time,” he said.
Dow watch: Stocks on pace to post best first half in two decades. Trade deal needed for more gains
Investors are expecting a rate cut at the Federal Reserve’s next meeting at the end of July. Seven in 10 are forecasting a quarter-point reduction, while three in 10 predict a half-point drop, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
That could be enough to affect what banks offer on their savings accounts.
“Yields on savings accounts can be adjusted at any time, which is another reason why they’re hanging in there now,” McBride said. “But a broader move is likely to materialize around the time of an actual Fed rate move.”
CLOSE Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday painted a mostly sunny view of the U.S. economy and said the Fed remains committed to raising its key interest rate gradually. (April 6) AP
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/28/high-yield-savings-marcus-and-ally-lower-their-rates/1598694001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 27 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Brazil is one of four countries in Mercosur
The EU and South American economic bloc Mercosur have clinched a trade deal following 20 years of negotiations.
EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said it was the EU's biggest deal to date and, at a time of trade tensions between the US and China, showed that "we stand for rules-based trade".
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said it was "historic" and "one of the most important trade deals of all time".
Mercosur consists of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
The two parties began negotiating in 1999 but talks accelerated after US President Donald Trump's election in 2016, which led to the freezing of EU-US talks over a possible deal.
The EU has also concluded trade agreements with Canada, Mexico and Japan since Mr Trump's election.
However, the EU deal with Mercosur could see savings on tariffs that are four times as big as the savings made in the Japan deal, EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.
What reaction has there been?
Ms Malmstrom said negotiations had begun 20 years ago to the day.
"They have been long negotiations - tough, difficult, and at least I have said many times 'we are almost there'. Now we are. This is a landmark agreement," Ms Malmstrom said.
She said it sent a strong message that both the EU and Mercosur were in favour of "open, sustainable and rules-based trade".
Argentina's Secretary of International Relations Horacio Reyser said the agreement would create a market for goods and services covering 800 million consumers.
It would bring benefits for his country, he said, including boosting GDP, creating jobs and attracting investment.
Mr Reyser tweeted a video of the moment the deal was confirmed.
Skip Twitter post by @HoracioReyser Logramos cerrar el histórico acuerdo Mercosur-UE tras más de 20 años de negociaciones. Es un hito que marca un antes y un después, con potencial para transformar la matriz productiva nacional, incrementar el PBI y generar empleo y atraer inversiones. pic.twitter.com/70qVVGo9fj — Horacio Reyser (@HoracioReyser) June 28, 2019 Report
However, the environmental group Greenpeace has said the deal amounts to a "disaster for the environment on both sides of the Atlantic".
Ahead of the deal's announcement, it said the agreement would lead to more destruction of the Amazon rainforest and attacks on indigenous peoples as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions and an undermining of farmers' livelihoods on both sides.
What's in the deal?
The EU is already Mercosur's biggest trade and investment partner and its second largest for trade in goods, Reuters reports.
The EU wants to increase access for its firms that make industrial products and cars and also enable them to compete for public contracts in Mercosur countries.
Mercosur wants to increase exports of beef, sugar, poultry and other farm products.
In a statement, Brazil said the deal included eliminating tariffs on products such as orange juice, instant coffee and fruit.
Meanwhile, producers of other products such as meat, sugar and ethanol would have greater access to the EU market through quotas, the statement said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 26 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Say what you want about Bre Kidman. They’ve heard it all before.
At 31, the political newcomer is jumping into one of 2020’s most highly anticipated elections ― the Senate race in Maine ― and “flipping the bird to the notion of electability” along the way.
Kidman, who prefers the pronouns they, them and their, has made history as the first openly non-binary person to run for Senate and, if elected, they would be the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress.
“I felt called to do everything I could to stand up to a system where it looks to me as though fascism is rising in the United States,” Kidman said. “I had this very strong feeling that I have do everything I can do to stop that.”
It would be an understatement to say winning the Democratic Party’s nomination and defeating Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins next year will be a challenge. Kidman recognizes their bid is a longshot. But that’s not stopping them from giving it everything they’ve got to win, including being as transparent about their background as possible.
The criminal defense attorney, still working to pay off their law school loans, enthusiastically describes themselves as a tattooed, plus-sized queer millennial who enjoys burlesque dancing and has never run for office.
“I won’t hide who I was before I started running to represent Mainers,” Kidman notes on their campaign website. “I am not slick or polished, but I am smart and passionate.”
We’ve reached a point now where the influence of money in politics has made it virtually impossible to get ordinary people to have a voice.” Bre Kidman
Earlier this month, while electronically filing their financial disclosure forms for the race, Kidman noticed there wasn’t an appropriate honorific offered in the e-file system for their gender. The options included Dr., Rev. and The Honorable, in addition to the traditional gender-based options of Mrs., Ms. or Mr. ― but not the non-binary option of Mx. or the ability to opt out.
Kidman notified the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics and, within a week, Mx. had been added to the drop-down menu.
“It’s a small fix,” they said. “It’s not like I was battling for my life to make this happen. But at the same time, the next non-binary person to run for Senate isn’t going to look at that drop-down menu and feel like there isn’t a space for them.”
They continued: “Just knowing that there’s one less hurdle because I was here … If we can remove some of the barriers to trans people getting adequate representation in our government then it will have been worth it.”
Natalie Josephine Jones
For a time, practicing law and organizing community arts events felt fulfilling enough for the Rhode Island native. But everything changed in October when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Kidman was one of dozens of Mainers to fly down to Washington in an effort to convince Collins to vote against Kavanaugh, who has expressed anti-abortion views and faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations from the 1980s.
Collins, a so-called moderate and pro-choice Republican, was generally considered to be one of three swing votes. She ultimately cast her ballot in Kavanaugh’s favor, cementing his place on the bench and drawing outrage from Democrats and abortion rights activists worried about the fate of Roe v. Wade across the country.
The result left Kidman feeling disillusioned by Congress. They decided they could change the system from within, even if some might not think Mainers were ready to elect a non-binary transgender person with very little political experience.
“I think the notion of electability is kind of what got us into this mess,” Kidman said. “We’re in this place where the people who are supposed to represent us are, by and large, making themselves into marketing products. They need to package themselves a certain way so they can get as much money as possible.”
“I’m not insensitive to the idea that running for office is expensive,” they added. “However, I think that we’ve reached a point now where the influence of money in politics has made it virtually impossible to get ordinary people to have a voice.”
Kidman’s always felt like an outsider growing up in the affluent Providence suburb of Barrington. They described their childhood as chaotic, interspersed with moments of happiness and trauma. Frequent visits to see family in Maine, what Kidman called their “happy place,” offered a reprieve from the challenges back home.
Beginning at age 7, Kidman was bullied by their peers after gaining weight from a medication they took while recovering from an illness that prevented them from attending school for months.
Around the age of 10, Kidman said they knew they were queer. They confided in a friend who then told the rest of the school and subjected them to further bullying. At age 15, they were the victim of sexual violence while studying abroad in Finland.
“I was not a super happy kid,” Kidman said. “[Being sexually assaulted] had a tremendous impact on my life. I spent the better part of the next five years figuring out how to live with that.”
Courtesy Bre Kidman Kidman as a teenager (left), middle schooler (center) and toddler (right).
Kidman completed their undergraduate studies at Loyola University in Chicago and earned their law degree in 2016 from the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. It was in this artsy, progressive city where they found a community that felt like home.
“I’ve been waiting for these people my whole life,” Kidman recalls. “It was a bunch of queer and trans or queer and trans adjacent folk who really cared about building a culture of body positivity and consent-focused sex positivity and art but with a social justice lens. I started organizing with those folks and I never looked back.”
Though Kidman has received support from some Maine Democrats and left-leaning groups, they’re up against two well-known candidates also seeking to unseat Collins.
Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, a top-tier recruit in the race, has already nabbed key endorsements from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Betsy Sweet, a lobbyist who came in third in last year’s gubernatorial race, has the backing of the Democrats For America.
But if Kidman’s campaign helps make elections more inclusive ― and it already has ― then they know it will all have been worth it.
That belief was reaffirmed earlier this month when a group of LGBTQ teenagers approached Kidman at the annual Portland Pride parade and, though tears, said they never thought they’d see “someone like us” running for Senate
“Those reactions keep me motivated to do this,” Kidman said.
Uphill battle aside, Kidman says they’re in it to win it. Their progressive platform is focused on campaign finance reform and supports progressive climate policy, the Fight For $15 movement and the expansion of women’s reproductive rights. As the Maine equivalent of a public defender, they’re also promoting criminal justice reform and tackling America’s mass incarceration crisis.
“Despite all of these things that make me unlike the majority of the population, let alone the majority of Mainers, these are things that I hope to translate to all people who are middle class and struggling,” Kidman said.
“I want to fight for people who are having that experience regardless of whether they are LGBTQ or straight or religious or secular, regardless of what groups they are from,” they added. “The most important thing to me is that we’re making space for everyone.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 53 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Image copyright News UK Image caption Yulia and Sergei Skripal both survived being poisoned in March last year
A senior Russian military intelligence officer commanded the team suspected of the Salisbury poisoning, evidence uncovered by the BBC's Newsnight and the investigative website Bellingcat suggests.
Details of the "third man's" trip to London in March 2018 have been assembled after the investigative website obtained his phone records and shared them with the BBC.
In February, Bellingcat published information identifying Denis Sergeyev as a man who travelled to London under the false identity of Sergei Fedotov.
They also established details of his career and connection to his country's military intelligence service, known by its Russian acronym, the GRU, and linked him to a 2015 suspected poisoning in Bulgaria.
Newsnight understands that Denis Sergeyev holds the rank of major general in the GRU. The other two men (Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga) are colonels.
The pattern of his communications while in the UK indicates that Maj Gen Sergeyev liaised with officers in Moscow. Independently, sources speaking to Newsnight have pointed to Maj Gen Sergeyev being the operational commander.
The developments come as Prime Minister Theresa May called for an end to Russia's "irresponsible and destabilising activity", describing the Salisbury poisoning as a "truly despicable act".
Russia denies any involvement in the attack.
Image copyright Bellingcat Image caption Evidence suggests Denis Sergeyev ran the operation to poison the Skripals
Maj Gen Sergeyev arrived at London's Heathrow airport on the morning of Friday 2 March, and left on the afternoon of Sunday 4 March, after Novichok nerve agent was placed on the Skripals' front door handle in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Analysis by Bellingcat of position data from his phone shows that he stayed near Paddington station in west London, whereas the other men took a room in Bow, east London.
Phone records
During his visit, Maj Gen Sergeyev shunned wi-fi networks, using 4G and 3G connections to access the internet hundreds of times.
His billing records show that he used secure messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram, which might have been the way that he communicated with the other suspected members of his team.
Although he spent much of his 2018 visit to the UK secreted away in Paddington, the phone data shared with Newsnight shows that on the morning of 3 March, Maj Gen Sergeyev made his way to the centre of the city, passing by Oxford Circus on his way to the Thames Embankment.
It was there, as shown by correlating his position data with police information about the other suspects, that there was a 30 to 40-minute window when Maj Gen Sergeyev could have met the others before they caught a train from nearby Waterloo station to carry out their final reconnaissance in Salisbury.
Police are still probing the questions of when Mr Chepiga and Mr Mishkin were given the Novichok nerve agent and how they disposed of it on 4 March.
In addition to contaminating Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and Det Sgt Nick Bailey, in July 2018 the poison claimed the life of Dawn Sturgess and caused her partner Charlie Rowley - who found the discarded Novichok container - to fall ill.
Bellingcat has established that while travelling to the UK and on all of the other operational trips he made during 2017-18, Maj Gen Sergeyev only spoke to a single telephone number, a Russian "ghost mobile" believed to be his connection to GRU headquarters.
Although it resembles a pay as you go SIM, this number produces no cell tower or IMEI (the unique serial identifying the handset using a SIM card) information, and has for years remained unregistered to any individual, a violation of Russian law.
Maj Gen Sergeyev took 10 calls from the Russian number while in London - and phoned it himself before departing Paddington on Sunday 4 March.
While he was booked to leave on the same flight that evening as Colonels Chepiga and Mishkin, it is now believed that Maj Gen Sergeyev took an earlier flight home from Heathrow that afternoon. He left about an hour after police say the others planted the Novichok at Mr Skripal's home.
Records show that, using his Sergei Fedotov alias, Maj Gen Sergeyev had visited the UK before, in 2016 and 2017. On the latter occasion, almost exactly one year before the poisoning, Colonel Mishkin was also in the country at the same time. Investigators believe that the Salisbury plan may have taken shape during this 2017 visit.
Image copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption Police had previously identified other suspects
Although the evidence suggests long-term GRU surveillance of Mr Skripal and his daughter, as well as planning for an operation, it seems that the decision to take action in March 2018 may have been a last minute one. Christo Grozev from Bellingcat says the phone records show Maj Gen Sergeyev "frantically calling travel agents" on 1 March in order to book flights to London.
Bellingcat's coup in obtaining his phone records follows its success in accessing travel, passport, and motoring databases for the suspects.
Separately, journalists from the BBC Russian Service discovered that Maj Gen Sergeyev's wife works as a teacher in Moscow and that the couple listed the address of the GRU training academy as their own home on an official registry.
Contacted in February, Mrs Sergeyeva described claims that her husband was part of the Salisbury operation as "a fairy story".
Responding to Newsnight's story, the Metropolitan Police said: "The investigation team continues to pursue a number of lines of inquiry, including identifying any other suspects who may have been involved in carrying out or planning the attack. We are not prepared to discuss further details of what remains an ongoing investigation." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 32 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE Martin Boyce was at the Stonewall Inn in New York when riots broke out in June 1969, a moment seen as the birth of the LGBTQ rights movement. Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
Friday marks 50 years since protesters fought back against a police raid of New York's Stonewall Inn and catalyzed the modern gay rights movement. But despite decades of progress, members of the LGBTQ community across the country are experiencing targeted acts of violence.
Hate crimes against LGBTQ people have been on a slight rise over the past three years, according to FBI data. While most hate crimes in the U.S. are motivated by bias toward race and religion, the number of crimes based on sexual orientation rose each year from 2014 to 2017, when 1,130 incidents were reported. Of those crimes, a majority targeted gay men.
Crimes motivated by a bias toward gender identity – against transgender and non-binary individuals – have generally risen since 2013, when the FBI first began recording them. At least 11 transgender people have been fatally shot or killed by other violent means in 2019, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Recent media reports suggest that crimes against black transgender women, in particular, have spiked this year.
The FBI data, however, likely dramatically underestimates the true number of hate crimes against the LGBTQ community, experts, say, given flaws in the current data collection process and massive discrepancies with the much larger number of self-reported incidents.
A better gauge of hate crime trends in the U.S. may be the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), a household-based survey administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. This self-reported data suggests that Americans experience closer to 200,000 hate crimes each year – a far cry from the FBI’s estimate of approximately 7,500.
The NCVS data also suggests that a greater percentage of all hate crimes are motivated by a bias against sexual orientation than the FBI data.
Many people who experience hate crimes do not report the incidents to law enforcement, for various reasons.
“To the extent that we don’t have universal protections from discrimination on the basis of employment, housing, and public accommodations, if someone comes forward to report a hate crime, they could also be officially outing themselves as LGBTQ. In a smaller or rural community, that outing could result in an eviction or loss of a job,” said Robin Maril, Human Rights Campaign Associate Legal Director.
Are the young really the most tolerant? Results of this LGBTQ survey are 'alarming'
Some advocates point to the Trump administration’s policies and rhetoric as potential catalysts for the increasing violence in recent years.
After Trumps' election, the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 201 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation across the country, including incidents targeting the LGBTQ community and people of color.
In 2017, the president announced on Twitter that he would be banning transgender people from the military. At an annual National Prayer Breakfast this past February, Trump defended a state-funded Michigan adoption agency’s efforts to ban gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.
“The level of discourse that we are getting from the Trump administration and leadership only hurts our community, only hurts trans people,” Maril said. “It gives a sense of impunity and a license to harm folks.”
Under the Obama administration, the average number of anti-gay hate crime incidents reported to the FBI each year was higher than the number of incidents reported in 2017. In 2008, the FBI reported 1,297 anti-gay hate crime. That number fluctuated but eventually fell to 1,135 in 2012 and 1076 in 2016.
CLOSE More Hate Crimes are being committed in the US than in previous years -- 2017 marks the third year in a row that hate crimes increased. Buzz60
Flaws in available data
The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 requires attorneys general to report incidents submitted from state and local law enforcement agencies to the FBI, which publishes an annual Hate Crime Statistics report. Some high-profile cases, however – such as the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville – have been historically omitted from these annual reports, raising questions about the accuracy of federal hate crime data.
Hate crimes motivated by bias against sexual orientation and gender identity are illegal under the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. But state laws aren't so clear cut. An estimated 53% of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. live in states that don’t have hate crime laws covering sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank.
Local and state law enforcement agencies are not required to report hate crimes. However, the number of agencies participating in hate crime data collection has risen over the last two decades, from 11,354 agencies in 1996 to 16,149 agencies in 2017.
As more agencies have begun to participate in the FBI program, the percentage of agencies reporting that any hate crime incidents took place has declined. In 2017, only 12.6% of agencies reported any hate crimes at all. All others reported zero hate crimes. But media reports and self-reported data from the NCVS say otherwise.
"There are entire cities that don’t report any hate crimes. Cities like Miami might report zero hate crimes, but a hate crime does occur in Miami at least once a year," Maril said.
“The data is embarrassingly bad for a country that supposedly takes public safety so seriously. One would think that we would do a better job of collecting crime data. And none of our crime data is worse than our hate crime data,” said Roy L. Austin, who was Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration. “There’s a serious disconnect, and everyone knows this disconnect exists. But no one with the power to do anything about it seems willing to do what is necessary to get this right.”
Triple homicide targeting LGBTQ: 2 gay men, 1 transgender woman murdered
Attacks leave black trans women 'constantly feeling on edge'
In this Friday, April 20, 2019 photo, Muhlaysia Booker speaks during a rally in Dallas. Booker, a transgender woman seen on a widely circulated video being beaten on April 12 in front of a crowd of people, was found dead Saturday, May 18 in a Dallas shooting. (Photo: Ryan Michalesko, AP)
This Pride Month has witnessed a slew of violent anti-LGBTQhate crimes. For trans women of color in Texas, recent months have brought terror. Dallas resident Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was assaulted in April in an attack that went viral on social media, then fatally shot in May. Just weeks later, on the first day of Pride, Chynal Lindsey, 26, was found dead – the third black trans woman murdered in Dallas in less than a year.
Dee Dee Watters, a black trans activist and president of Black Trans Women Inc., had just left Booker’s wake when she heard about Lindsey’s death.
“We were en route back to Houston, and we got word that there was a young lady that they fished out of the lake in Dallas,” Watters said, adding, “We weren't even able to complete the mourning of the loss of this young lady – then to get hit with another individual that was murdered."
Naomi Green, a black trans woman and program coordinator at Abounding Prosperity Inc., an organization that supports Dallas's black LGBTQ community, said she’s now learning to shoot a gun and is organizing self-defense classes.
“It’s very traumatizing,” Green said. “You’re constantly feeling on edge and looking over your shoulder.”
A photo of Muhlasyia Booker, a trans woman who was murdered in Dallas in June, sits on the office desk of Naomi Green, program coordinator at Abounding Prosperity, Dallas. Booker's image is "the face of change for a community," Green said. (Photo: Courtesy of Naomi Green)
For some black trans women, daily experiences of bias are not unusual. Kaye Ingram, 29, moved to Dallas in 2016 but was rejected from various jobs for many months. She stayed with friends until she was finally able to secure housing through a program in Dallas – an apartment in the same neighborhood where Muhlaysia Booker was killed.
Last year, Ingram was leaving a convenience store in her neighborhood when a man hurled slurs at her, then punched her in the eye.
“I remember the trauma of actually being hit and having slurs thrown on you as people watch and ... laugh," Ingram said. “When I saw the Muhlaysia story, that just made me remember how I felt in that moment – how afraid I was. I don't have any family here, and I was afraid to retaliate because it's an open carry state."
Ingram told USA TODAY that she has been targeted based on her gender identity several times in the past two years: a co-worker verbally degraded her, a man yelling from his balcony called her "an abomination," and boys riding by on bikes threw rocks at her. She said that she has been raped three times.
A survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that nearly half of transgender people experience sexual assault in their lifetime. That percentage increases among transgender people of color: American Indian (65%), multiracial (59%), Middle Eastern (58%), and black (53%).
“We’re at the bottom of the totem pole – being black, then being trans, then being a woman,” Ingram said. "I'm scared. I'm trying to hurry up and leave."
SARAH MCBRIDE: She was sexually assaulted within months of coming out. She isn't alone
The lifetime prevalence of rape is also higher for bisexual women (46%) compared to heterosexual women (17%), according to the CDC. The lifetime prevalence of sexual violence other than rape is 46% for lesbians, 75% for bisexual women and 43% for heterosexual women. The vast majority report male perpetrators.
Hate crimes are a daily occurrence in the United States. But such crimes are for many reasons extremely difficult to verify, and grossly under-reported. (Photo: Sean Rayford / Getty Images)
'We need the stories about what's happening'
Available hate crime data may be imperfect, but some believe that there is hope for the reporting process.
“The single most important thing is to link any federal funding on crime prevention on providing accurate and regular numbers. The second thing to do is to change the way the national incident-based reporting system is done so that the national numbers are produced more frequently and in a way that is more user friendly,” Austin said.
Others advocate making hate crime reporting mandatory under federal law, instituting stronger protections against hate crimes at the federal and state level, and passing legislation that prevents discrimination across the board. But not everyone supports giving law enforcement more power over communities that have been historically mistreated by police.
'Wrong, plain and simple': 50 years later, NYPD apologizes for Stonewall riots
“I’m not a data wonk, but I know what data means to our elected officials," said Lou Weaver, Transgender Programs Coordinator for the advocacy group Equality Texas. "We need the data. We need the stories about what’s happening.”
The 2018 edition of the annual report Hate Crime Statistics is tentatively scheduled for release in the fall of 2019.
If you've experienced or witnessed anti-LGBTQ violence, or are concerned about someone who has, you can call the Anti-Violence Project hotline 24/7 at 212-714-1141. All calls are confidential. You can also report violence anonymously or ask for a counselor to reach out to you online.
Follow Grace Hauck on Twitter @grace_hauck.
Banning pride flags at US embassies: Mike Pence says it's 'the right decision'
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/06/28/anti-gay-hate-crimes-rise-fbi-says-and-they-likely-undercount/1582614001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 89 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last met at an unfruitful summit in Hanoi. | Vietnam News Agency/Handout/Getty Images foreign policy Trump offers to meet Kim Jong Un at Korean border Trump tweeted out the invitation, telling reporters he had 'just thought' of extending the invitation 'this morning.'
President Donald Trump on Friday tweeted an offer to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.
"After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!" Trump wrote Saturday morning local time.
Story Continued Below
Trump was scheduled to spend Saturday and Sunday in South Korea, meeting with its president Moon Jae-in. The South China Morning Post previously reported that Trump was considering a trip to the heavily fortified border, but a summit with the North Korean leader was not publicly in the works. Trump planned to visit the DMZ during a 2017 trip to South Korea, but canceled at the last moment due to weather.
Minutes after sending the tweet, Trump told reporters that he had "just thought" of extending the invitation "this morning."
But the president had apparently told The Hill on Monday that he "might" want to meet Kim at the DMZ, a fact the White House asked the publication to withhold out of security concerns.
Trump made his interest public Saturday morning in Japan with his tweet, which also publicly revealed for the first time his plans to visit the DMZ on Sunday.
“We’ll be there and I just put out a feeler," Trump told reporters ahead of a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit of the world's largest economies. "I don’t know where [Kim] is right now, he may not be in North Korea."
“I’m in no rush whatsoever ever," Trump added. "I will be in South Korea, I let him know.”
Trump last met Kim in Vietnam in February, attempting to build off of their prior summit in Singapore the summer before. Though their first encounter in Singapore was a watershed gesture of goodwill between the two hostile countries, the follow up in Vietnam failed to deliver substantive policy breakthroughs.
Still, Trump, the first sitting U.S. president to meet a head of the three-generation Kim dynasty, argued on Saturday that he had made significant progress with North Korea.
"Frankly, if I didn’t become president, you’d be in a way right now with North Korea," he said. "We’d be having a war right now with North Korea. And by the way, that’s a certainty, that’s not a maybe."
But while North Korea has ceased its nuclear missile testing since beginning discussions with the Trump administration, analysts say the Kim regime has maintained secret nuclear facilities. And recently, Pyongyang restarted missile tests that Trump's top aides said violated United Nations resolutions.
Trump has refused to concede any step-backs in his overtures to North Korea, expressing confidence that his personal relationship with Kim is what matters. The president has professed falling "in love" with Kim, and recently both have spoken glowingly of private letters exchanged between them.
"We seem to get alone very well," Trump told reporters on Friday. "That’s a good thing, not a bad thing." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 27 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The US has imposed sanctions on Nicolasito, 29, who claims to be an economist and a flautist and has faced claims of nepotism
The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on the son of Nicolás Maduro, in the latest attempt to tighten the screws on Venezuela’s embattled leader.
The move by the US treasury department freezes any US assets belonging to the president’s son – Nicolás Maduro Guerra, or Nicolasito – and bars Americans from doing business with him.
“Maduro relies on his son Nicolasito and others close to his authoritarian regime to maintain a stranglehold on the economy and suppress the people of Venezuela,” said the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.
Like his father, Nicolasito is tall and portly; at 29 years old, he is one of the youngest political figures in Maduro’s inner circle.
He is allegedly a major player in Venezuela’s gold trade. According to Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, a former spy chief who recently fled to the US, an assistant of Nicolasito set up a company to buy gold from miners and sell it to Venezuela’s central bank at inflated rates.
Little is known about Nicolasito’s personal life, although he is understood to be married with two children. His Twitter biography describes him as an economics graduate and a flautist in the world-famous Sistema network of youth orchestras, although government critics have expressed doubt over both claims.
Venezuela's mining arc: a legal veneer for armed groups to plunder Read more
His political career appears to have taken off soon after his father was elected president in 2013, when at the age of 23 he was appointed as the head of Venezuela’s body of inspectors, fueling accusations of nepotism.
In 2014 he was also named as director of the Venezuelan School of Cinema, again prompting incredulity about his credentials. “Maduro’s son knows nothing [about cinema]” the feted Venezuelan playwright José Tomás Angola said at the time. “What he does know is how to steal a camera.”
Since 2017 Nicolasito has sat on the constituent national assembly – the loyalist body set up to sideline the opposition-held national assembly.
When Donald Trump floated the possibility of a military intervention to oust President Maduro, Nicolasito responded with a speech threatening a Venezuelan invasion of the United States. “The rifles will reach New York, Mr Trump!” he boomed, looking at the camera. “We will reach and take the White House!”
In a country beset by economic collapse and intense food shortages, Nicolasito prompted outrage in March 2017 when he was filmed at a society wedding in Caracas, dancing to Arabic music while being showered with dollars. He brushed the incident off as “gossip”.
The US has sanctioned more than 100 Venezuelan officials and insiders accused of corruption, human rights violations and drug trafficking, including Maduro himself and his wife, Cilia Flores. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 17 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE Republican congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida questioned the credibility of President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, ahead of Cohen's congressional testimony. However, Gaetz denied threatening Cohen in a tweet on Tuesday. (Feb. 27) AP
WASHINGTON – The House Ethics Committee announced on Friday that it was creating an investigative panel to look into comments made by Rep. Matt Gaetz about Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former attorney and fixer.
Gaetz, a Florida Republican and a fierce defender of Trump, got into hot water in February after insinuating on Twitter that Cohen had cheated on his wife, just hours before Cohen was set to testify before Congress about his knowledge of the president's finances, a number of hush-money deals with women and Russian's influence on the 2016 presidential election.
The House Ethics Committee started examining the comments in March after a complaint was filed, alleging that Gaetz "sought to threaten, intimidate, harass, or otherwise improperly influence the President’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, in connection with Mr. Cohen’s testimony before a congressional committee," according to a statement from the Ethics Committee.
MATT GAETZ: GOP lawmaker tweets apparent threat to Michael Cohen, alleging affair
Gaetz has not cooperated and declined to be interviewed as part of the review, so the committee says it was forced to launch a four-member subcommittee to investigate the claims and Gaetz's comments.
In a text message to USA TODAY, Gaetz said he had more important issues to worry about than this investigation.
"If members of Congress want to spend their time psychoanalyzing my tweets, it’s certainly their prerogative," he said. "I’m focused on stopping war with Iran and defending against a fact-free impeachment."
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks to members of the media outside the hearing of Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, on February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Alex Wong, Getty Images)
Florida Bar examination: Investigation opened after Rep. Matt Gaetz tweets apparent threat to Michael Cohen
Next phase: Florida Bar investigation into Matt Gaetz's tweet on Michael Cohen moves to next phase
Gaetz apologized after the posting the disputed tweet, which read:
"Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?" Gaetz wrote in the since-deleted post. "Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot..."
Gaetz did not elaborate on his allegations that Cohen had an affair. He said his intent was not to threaten Cohen. "I’m deleting the tweet & I should have chosen words that better showed my intent. I’m sorry," he wrote on Twitter after widespread criticism.
During Cohen's testimony, he told members of Congress that Trump is "a conman" and "racist." He asserted that Trump personally reimbursed Cohen for an illegal hush-money payment to a porn star and that the president indirectly encouraged him to lie to Congress about a Trump Tower development in Moscow, even as Trump repeatedly denied any business interests in Russia throughout the 2016 campaign.
Cohen pleaded guilty and agreed to provide evidence to prosecutors in two separate criminal investigations involving Trump and those around him. He is currently serving a 3-year prison sentence.
Along with the Congressional investigation, Gaetz is also being investigated by the Florida Bar.
Last month, the organization, of which Gaetz is a member, said it had moved into the next phase of its investigation into whether the tweet violated its rules of conduct for attorneys.
Francine Walker, a spokeswoman with the Florida Bar, said that the case was being investigated by a grievance committee.
The grievance committee is made up of volunteers from Gaetz's home judicial circuit and at least one-third of the members are non-lawyers, according to information on the Florida Bar website. The committee is examining whether there is probable cause for the case to move forward.
If probable cause is found, the Florida Bar will file a formal complaint in the Florida Supreme Court, and the court could appoint a county or circuit judge to hold a "trial by referee" if the case doesn't settle first.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/28/rep-matt-gaetz-investigation-michael-cohen-tweets/1597991001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 29 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | ASSOCIATED PRESS Truckers and loggers opposed to the carbon capping bill hold a rally at the Oregon Capitol on Thursday morning.
Oregon’s Republican state senators will return to the Capitol on Saturday following a weeklong walkout over a proposed climate change cap-and-trade bill, Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. (R) announced on Friday.
“Our mission walking out of this building was to kill cap and trade,” Baertschiger said at a press conference. “And that’s what we did.”
Eleven Republican senators fled the state last week in order to deny Democrats the necessary quorum to vote on and pass an expansive greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade bill. But chaos quickly ensued as Gov. Kate Brown (D) authorized state troopers to find and retrieve them and threats of violence emerged.
Though the Democratic Party holds an 18-11 majority in the state Senate, Oregon law requires 20 senators be in attendance to hold session. With all of the GOP Senate members in hiding, the Senate was unable to vote on any legislation for eight days and the bill — once expected to pass — now faces almost certain death.
Senate Democratic leader Peter Courtney indicated on Tuesday that the bill no longer had enough support among Democrats — and Baertschiger said Friday that both Courtney and Brown had privately assured him that their party would now be voting no.
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek was one of several prominent Democrats to decry the Republicans’ drastic move, accusing them of “threatening our democratic institution and subverting the will of Oregon voters.”
This has been a dark week for the integrity of the Legislature. Senate Rs have been threatening our democratic institution and subverting the will of Oregon voters who know we need to act now. Their walkout has come at immense cost to our institution and potentially the planet. — Tina Kotek (@TinaKotek) June 25, 2019
Baertschiger was asked to comment on the threats of violence that hung over the weeklong walkout — which included one Republican senator implying that he would use deadly force on officers sent to retrieve him and law enforcement officials closing the Capitol on Saturday due to “a credible threat from militia groups.”
“Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” Sen. Brian Boquist said last week ahead of the walkout. “I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”
Baertschiger said he was unfamiliar with the threats made against the Capitol but did respond to Boquist’s remarks.
“You gotta remember at that time a lot of tempers were flaring,” he said. “Obviously, his statement was not helpful.”
When asked about the fear held by some cap and trade opponents that state Senate Democrats would continue to push for the bill, Baertschiger said he understood their concern.
“The trust in the Oregon state Capitol is probably at the lowest it’s ever been, and that saddens me,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we have a constitutional responsibility to get these budgets back and to keep Oregon functional.”
There are only two days left in the legislative session and more than 100 bills are at risk of dying. But when he was asked if all of his fellow lawmakers would return this weekend, Baertschiger wasn’t sure.
“I hope so,” he said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 21 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Mexico has nearly completed work on the formula it uses to hedge its oil production, a finance ministry official said on Friday, including changes to how it factors fuel oil prices into its export mix.
“We have the formula, and we’ll be making it official soon,” said Gabriel Yorio, a senior finance ministry official. “We have it practically ready.”
Mexico buys about $1 billion worth of financial positions to protect its oil sales revenues for the coming year against price volatility. (Reporting by Dave Graham in Mexico City and Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Tom Brown) | null | 0 | -1 | null | 4 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | “But I also believe, and it’s personal — and I was actually very — it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing,” she said, citing her own experience being bused as part of the integration of public schools in Berkeley, Calif. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Biden defends civil rights record after Kamala Harris confronts him at debate
"I never, never, never, ever opposed voluntary busing, as a program that Senator Harris participated in and that made a difference in her life," he said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 1 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Second night of Democratic debate draws record audience
The size of the television audience coupled with significant digital viewership indicates significant public interest in who the party will pick to oppose President Donald Trump. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 1 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Fast facts:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still trying to determine why dogs eating certain types of pet food are seemingly more at risk of canine heart disease than others.
Since alerting the public to the increasing caseload of dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM, in dogs nearly a year ago, the FDA is for the first time identifying 16 pet food brands most frequently connected to the disease.
Still, the agency said it has "not yet determined the nature of this potential link," and urged dog owners to consult with a veterinarian for advice on their pet's diet.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified more than a dozen brands of pet food it says are most frequently connected to a spike in reported cases of heart disease in dogs.
The FDA is continuing to investigate more than 500 reports of dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM, in dogs eating certain types of pet food. A form of canine heart disease, DCM can cause congestive heart failure in dogs.
"We know it can be devastating to suddenly learn that your previously healthy pet has a potentially life-threatening disease like DCM," Steven Solomon, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said Thursday in a statement. Because the FDA has "not yet determined the nature of this potential link, we continue to encourage consumers to work closely with their veterinarians."
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The FDA initially alerted the public to the cases plaguing dogs last July but did not specify food brands. The agency instead pointed to pet food labeled as "grain-free" and containing peas, lentils and other legume seeds and/or potatoes as their primary ingredients.
The probe now has the agency identifying 16 brands of dog food with the most frequently reported cases of DCM. Acana was named in 67 DCM reports, Zignature in 64 and Taste of the Wild in 53.
Pet food industry barks back
Zignature, for one, disputed any connection. "In parallel with the FDA investigation, our own third-party internal studies found no link between our high-quality pet food products and any of the other physical characteristics that correlate to DCM," Zignature said in a post on its site.
Champion Petfoods, which owns Arcana and Orijen, is working on its own and with others in the industry to try to determine the cause of DCM, but objected to the FDA's listing of brands.
"We think it is misleading for the FDA to post the names of brands, while at the same time fully stating that they have no scientific evidence linking diet to DCM. We feel this will only serve to further confuse pet lovers," the company stated.
The company's research shows "Champion pet foods are safe," it said.
The Pet Food Institute, a trade group that represents 98% of pet food and treat makers, said it has consulted with nutritionists, product safety experts and veterinarians for more than a year in trying to determine if there's a link between diet and DCM. "This is a complex issue with many factors requiring scientific evaluation," Dana Brooks, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement.
Noting that the FDA's probe focused on ingredients in grain-free pet food, the agency "has not identified any established link between certain ingredients and incidents of DCM," the industry group stated on its web site, which also noted "millions of dogs eat and are thriving on grain-free dog food."
The causes of DCM "may be the result of many factors, including a recipe formulation and processing, and your individual pet," according to the institute, which advised those with questions about their pet's food to contact the manufacturer and to consult with their family vet.
Between January 2014 and April 30, 2019, the FDA received 524 reports of DCM, including 119 dog deaths and five cat fatalities. Of those reports, 222 of them came between Dec. 1, 2018, and the end of April, the agency said.
Here is the list of 16 pet food brands and the number of reported DCM cases that the FDA suspects are related to each brand: | null | 0 | -1 | null | 25 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified more than a dozen brands of pet food it says are most frequently connected to a spike in reported cases of heart disease in dogs.
The FDA is continuing to investigate more than 500 reports of dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM, in dogs eating certain types of pet food. A form of canine heart disease, DCM can cause congestive heart failure in dogs.
"We know it can be devastating to suddenly learn that your previously healthy pet has a potentially life-threatening disease like DCM," Steven Solomon, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said Thursday in a statement. Because the FDA has "not yet determined the nature of this potential link, we continue to encourage consumers to work closely with their veterinarians."
The FDA initially alerted the public to the cases plaguing dogs last year, but did not specify food brands. The agency instead pointed to pet food labeled as "grain-free" and containing peas, lentils and other legume seeds and/or potatoes as their primary ingredients.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The probe now has the agency identifying 16 brands of dog food with the most frequently reported cases of DCM. Acana was named in 67 DCM reports, Zignature in 64 and Taste of the Wild in 53.
Zignature, for one, disputed any connection. "In parallel with the FDA investigation, our own third-party internal studies found no link between our high-quality pet food products and any of the other physical characteristics that correlate to DCM," Zignature said in a post on its site.
The Pet Food Institute, a trade group that represents 98% of pet food and treat makers, said it has consulted with nutritionists, product safety experts and veterinarians for more than a year in trying to determine if there's a link between diet and DCM. "This is a complex issue with many factors requiring scientific evaluation," Dana Brooks, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement.
Noting that the FDA's probe focused on ingredients in grain-free pet food, the agency "has not identified any established link between certain ingredients and incidents of DCM," the industry group stated on its web site, which also noted "millions of dogs eat and are thriving on grain-free dog food."
The causes of DCM "may be the result of many factors, including a recipe formulation and processing, and your individual pet," according to the institute, which advised those with questions about their pet's food to contact the manufacturer and to consult with their family vet.
Between January 2014 and April 30, 2019, the FDA received 524 reports of DCM, including 119 dog deaths and five cat fatalities. Of those reports, 222 of them came between Dec. 1, 2018, and the end of April, the agency said. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 17 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | And then, on Thursday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) delivered a virtuoso admonishment of former Vice President Joe Biden for his record on civil rights. In a devastating aria about her own experience of racism and being bused to school as part of desegregation — a practice Biden voted against — Harris described “a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 2 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Peter Dutton has taken up meditation. He shared this nugget of information on breakfast television this week. “A couple of good mates who have been very successful in sport and business swear by it,” the home affairs minister told the Nine network.
It’s hard to know whether this dedication to mindfulness is good or bad news for Scott Morrison, who is spending the weekend with Donald Trump and other world leaders at the G20 before returning for the opening session of the new parliament next week.
Scott Morrison on Iran: we'll 'seriously' consider any US request to join military action Read more
Dutton has been Eddie Everywhere this week, reprising his starring role as undertaker to Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership. Turnbull was blamed by Dutton for provoking critics into a leadership challenge with a preemptive spill, blamed for digging in and fighting for his job, blamed for speaking out periodically when he should be waiting gratefully for a diplomatic post or some other “thank you for pissing off quietly” trinket.
Dutton was pitiless with Turnbull, who, history shows, prevented him from becoming prime minister last year by reacquainting himself during his last days in office with the ruthless character he had spent a whole prime ministership containing as part of a fruitless attempted detente with the conservative faction.
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When it came to Morrison, the bloke who sprinted through the middle and grabbed the trophy, Dutton’s tone was harder to pinpoint. There was certainly praise, but some of the praise could be read as mildly passive-aggressive. Dutton insisted during this week’s Sky News special exhuming the days of yore (yes, that’s last August) that he, Peter Dutton, could have won the May election.
Dutton noted the recent election win was a team effort (“all of us had the discipline through the campaign to provide him with advice to stay on message”). He also predicted that Morrison would now “find his stride in this three years” (which begged the question where the “stride” had been previously) and Scott would lead them all to wonderful things, like a decade in power.
Now perhaps I’m seeing low-level snark where there isn’t any. But I doubt it. And even if there was absolutely no edge to Dutton’s commentary, even if he wasn’t trying to remind Morrison publicly that the right faction of the Liberal party is still there, and he leads it, the fact of the matter is Dutton’s lusty prosecution of the history wars was unhelpful to Morrison, who wants to kick off the coming parliamentary term as if he is leading a soft and fragrant and cuddly first-term government, not a pack of jackals stripping a carcass at the fag end of the hundred year war.
To nail this point we can line the two dispositions up in split screen. Dutton has been yammering all week about The August Incident. In contrast Morrison, who was interviewed for the Sky News series and supplied less than garrulous responses through a smile that looked more like gritted teeth, has said as little as possible. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 18 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | He called slavery the “original sin of this nation” and blasted President Donald Trump for emboldening white supremacists.
Yet Biden also recycled a racially charged line he’s used in the past, telling a room full of black activists and labor organizers: “That kid wearing a hoodie might be the next poet laureate and not a gangbanger.”
Despite his efforts to emphasize his civil rights record, Biden’s comments about working with segregationist senators, as well as his history of supporting the Hyde Amendment, have lost him the support of at least one major donor.
Attorney and angel investor Tom McInerney said Friday he let the campaign know on June 20 that he had “pulled back my support of Biden for now.” | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Miami (CNN) Victory Fund, a political action committee whose sole aim is electing LGBTQ politicians to office, plans to endorse Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Friday in New York , the group's president and CEO tells CNN.
The endorsement of the first top tier LGBTQ presidential candidate comes on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, a seminal moment in the LGBTQ movement where members of the gay community rioted against mistreatment at the hands of the police. The endorsement validates Buttigieg's rise from small city mayor who was not out when he was first elected to an upstart presidential candidate to a gay political icon.
"Victory Fund has a singular mission and that is to help LGBT people succeed in the political process," said Annise Parker, the head of Victory Fund and the former mayor of Houston who was one of the first gay mayors of a major US city when she was elected in 2010. "He is what we work for. He is the embodiment of the mission."
The endorsement is the first time Victory Fund has endorsed a presidential candidate.
Buttigieg's candidacy, especially early in his campaign, benefited from considerable support from gay activists and donors, many of whom helped fill his campaign coffers before he caught considerable momentum. Victory Fund's endorsement comes a day after the mayor used his closing statement in the first Democratic primary debate to say his marriage exists only because of one vote on the Supreme Court.
Parker noted, however, that the organization did not get behind Buttigieg until he showed some viability in the presidential race.
Parker said she told Buttigieg in a private conversation that he needed to "go out and compete" and "do your absolute best" before the group got behind him.
"We have watched him thus far in the race and we believe that he has earned our endorsement just as he has earned the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans all across the country," Parker said. "He is a capable, competent, experienced leader, ready to move up in politics."
Victory Fund's endorsement of Buttigieg will come on Friday at an event in Brooklyn and is being billed as a Pride weekend kickoff with the Buttigieg campaign. The event is a fundraiser, with tickets running between $50 and $1,000.
Buttigieg, at the age of 33, came out in a 2015 essay in the South Bend Tribune, where he nodded to the fact that the Supreme Court would soon decide on whether same-sex marriage was legal nationally by writing that he thoght his public coming out "could do some good" for people struggling with their sexuality.
"It took me a while to come out, a long while, even to myself, it was a long road of self-awareness and struggle and denial," Buttigieg told an audience in Iowa in June. "Even after I did come out to myself and started to tell friends and was elected mayor of my hometown, it was easy to drag my feet about telling anyone else."
Buttigieg's rise from small-city mayor to standout presidential candidate has turned him into a gay icon, a position that even the mayor has said was unlikely for him just a few years ago.
Buttigieg wrote in his 2019 campaign memoir that, when he came out later in life, he didn't want to become "a poster child for LGBT issues." And in speeches to LGBTQ groups on the campaign trail -- including in an emotional address at the Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch in Washington earlier this year -- Buttigieg said, "If you had shown me exactly what it was that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife."
"Thank God there was no knife," he added.
Other LGBTQ lawmakers, like former Rep. Barney Frank, have watched Buttigieg's rise with astonishment, bewildered by the fact that a gay politician would reach such heights.
"It's a sign of enormous progress," said Frank, who married his longtime partner, James Ready in 2012, making him the first gay politician to be married in office. "I would have told you three or four years ago, a gay candidate will be OK, but I didn't think it will be an asset."
"It keeps moving quicker," Frank added, cognizant that then-Sen. Barack Obama did not favor same-sex marriage during his 2008 run and only backed marriage equality in 2012, a mere seven years ago.
Parker said Buttigieg's candidacy, in and of itself, is groundbreaking.
"Every day Pete Buttigieg is part of this amazing campaign, he sets new standards and he breaks new ground," she said.
But it's also the unsaid moments -- like when Buttigieg announced his campaign and was embraced onstage by his husband, Chasten -- that reverberate beyond the LGBTQ community and normalize gay marriages for many Americans who may not seem gay couples on a regular basis, Parker said.
"It is even more powerful when he stands up, hand in hand with his husband, and that image is beamed into American households all across America," said Parker. "He is opening up who we are as LGBTQ people, he is changing the image of who we are, and he is broadening our representation." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 31 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Sen. Michael Bennet's mother was separated from her parents in Nazi-occupied Poland
Bennet's Jewish mother escaped the Warsaw Ghetto with the help of Polish rescuers. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 1 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | CLOSE Video shows a February 2019 encounter between Volodymyr Zhukovskyy and police responding to a call of a disorderly customer at a Denny's restaurant. Storyful
BOSTON — The 23-year-old man charged with seven counts of vehicular homicide after he collided with a group of motorcyclists in Lancaster, N.H. has an even more troubling arrest record than previously thought, with drug charges and traffic incidents spanning at least six states, according to new reports.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, is accused of crossing a double-yellow line on a rural highway with his truck and trailer and colliding with a group of bikers from Marine Jarheads MC, a motorcycle club that includes Marines and their spouses. He was driving for a Massachusetts truck hauling company.
The tragedy has sparked outrage: How could a man with such a checkered past possibly still have a license to drive commercial vehicles?
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles has admitted his license should have been revoked following a drunk-driving incident last month in Connecticut, resulting in the resignation of the registry's top official.
How did he still have a license? Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles boss quits after crash kills 7
And yet there were several more incidents involving drugs and traffic infractions leading up to the devastating accident.
Here's what we know – and are still asking – about Zhukovskyy, who has pleaded not guilty to charges as new details into his past continued to emerge:
Involved in rollover crash this month
Zhukovskyy was involved in a June 3 rollover crash in Baytown, Texas, near Houston. He was driving a truck hauling five cars on Interstate 10 when he flipped the rig onto its side.
WCVB-TV reported that Zhukovskyy told police he was trying to avoid a car that had swerved in front of him. He was driving a red Mack truck car hauler with a Massachusetts registration.
Police said there were no injuries in the accident, no signs of intoxication and no citations reported, according to the television station.
Arrested in Texas with crack pipe in possession
Also in Baytown, Texas, police on Feb. 11 responded to a 2 a.m. call of a disorderly customer at a Denny's restaurant. In video captured by a body-worn police camera released this week, Zhukovsky is in constant motion and wailing his arms.
“I’m sorry guys. I’m just tired," Zhukovskyy says. "I need to go to sleep."
Police asked whether he was on drugs. He denied being on drugs but police arrested him for possession of drug paraphernalia after they found a drug pipe on him.
More: 'I need to go to sleep': Video shows prior arrest of suspect in crash that killed 7 motorcyclists
'Suicidal comments' and 'extreme behavior' in Connecticut arrest
Zhukovskyy's most recent arrest – which should have caused his commercial driver's licnsed to be taken away – occurred on May 11 in East Lindsor, Connecticut after he failed a sobriety test.
Police had been dispatched after he was seen "revving his truck engine and jumping around outside the vehicle."
During that arrest, Zhukovskyy made "suicidal comments" and exhibited "extreme behavior," according to a report filed by East Windsor police, prompting them to send him to a Hartford hospital for treatment. He was released on a $2,500 non-surety bond.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, stands during his arraignment in Springfield District Court, Monday, June 24, 2019, in Springfield, Mass. (Photo: Don Treeger, AP)
Mass. department's failure allowed driver to keep license
Massachusetts state officials say Connecticut failed to provide sufficient information about the May 11 arrest through the proper channels outlined in the federal commercial driver's license system. Doing so, they say, would have automatically applied the charges to his Massachusetts driving record and result in the immediate termination of his commercial driver's license, according to MassDOT.
Connecticut instead notified Massachusetts on May 29 through the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators messaging system. That generated a notification for RMV personnel to conduct a manual review of Zhukovskyy's record. They had not conducted it by the time of the crash, allowing him to still be licensed to drive.
Violations, arrests go back to teen years
Zhukovsky's traffic violations go back to when he was 16, when in 2012 he was charged with speeding, driving without a license and negligent operation of a motor vehicle in West Springfield.
Zhukovskyy's first drunk-driving charge was in 2013 as a minor in Westfield, Massachusetts. He was suspended, but it did not disqualify him from receiving the commercial license under state and federal law.
CLOSE A 23-year-old driver is facing charges after a gruesome collision left 7 motorcyclists dead. USA TODAY
7 motorcyclists killed in gruesome collision, driver charged (Photo: AP)
Arrests span 6 states
The Boston Globe reported that in 2014 he pleaded guilty in Ohio to driving with a suspended license, speeding, providing false information, and possessing drug paraphernalia. It was while he was suspended from his 2013 OUI in Massachusetts.
His Massachusetts driving record does not mention the 2014 Ohio arrest even though Ohio records indicate officials were "to notify Massachusetts” of Zhukovskyy’s troubles, The Globe reported.
He was arrested in Connecticut in 2015 for third-degree burglary related to the theft of ladders and windows from a Home Depot, The Journal Inquirer reported.
Zhukovskyy was charged of drug possession in January 2017 in West Springfield after heroin and cocaine were found inside his wallet. His wallet had been found by an employee of a station. He was ordered to pay a $200 fine.
In addition to his arrests in Ohio, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Zhukovskyy also received an improper lane violation in Iowa in February. The Globe reported he has arrests records in Iowa as well.
ICE could seek deportation
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency this week placed a detainer on Zhukovskyy to take him into custody at the conclusion of local criminal proceedings, regardless of the outcome.
Zhukovskyy was born in the Ukraine and had been a legal permanent resident of the U.S. since 2008. He's set for trial in Roos County, New Hampshire tentatively set for November and December.
His criminal history puts him in violation of his resident status, opening the door for ICE to have him removed to his home country.
Unanswered questions about the wreck
The seven complaints filed against Zhukovskyy say he was driving his 2016 Dodge 2500 pickup truck "erratically" before crossing the double-yellow line.
But there's still no explanation why he was driving so negligently. Prosecutors have not released evidence that led them to file criminal charges.
A defense from Zhukovskyy will presumably come out of future court documents in his vehicular homicide case.
The National Transportation Safety Board has teamed with local authorities to conduct an investigation into the wreck.
Day 3 working for company with numerous violations
His father, who has the same name, told the Boston Herald the wreck last Friday took place on his son's third day on the job with Massachusetts-based Westport Transport.
Records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicate that the company Zhukovskyy was driving for, Westfield Transport, has been cited for various violations in the last two years, MassLive.com reported.
Contributing: John Bacon
Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/28/more-arrests-emerge-what-we-know-truck-driver-who-killed-7-motorcyclists-new-hampshire/1593675001/ | null | 0 | -1 | null | 57 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | "I think he's the right candidate for the job," Singleton said, adding of the other candidates: "I don't feel any of them is strong enough to beat Donald Trump." He includes Harris in that assessment, even though he’s proud to see her running for president. Referring to the women in the presidential race, he added, "I see what they did to Hillary Clinton." | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | In California, school desegregation was part of broader integration efforts, including the elimination of redlining, which kept blacks and members of other minority groups from living in “white” neighborhoods. It was this practice, in L.A. and elsewhere, that gave rise to mandatory busing as a potential remedy to the harms of segregation. The idea was that schools for all students would improve if white students had to share the fate of black students. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 3 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | Justice Clarence Thomas on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2017. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Although there were a few nationally important cases decided by the Supreme Court this term, such as Thursday’s decision that courts may not review partisan gerrymandering claims, the justices spent more time debating the question of stare decisis (to stand by things decided) than any other legal issue. Under what circumstances the court should reverse prior decisions was hotly contested by the justices throughout the term. This issue is vitally important because if the Supreme Court reverses its own cases too frequently, people can sensibly question whether we are governed by the rule of law or the rule of justices.
Much has been made by Supreme Court watchers of the dire warnings sounded by the normally calm Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer about the conservative justices’ willingness to reverse prior cases. For example, Breyer, angrily dissenting in Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt (which overruled a decision allowing states to be sued in the courts of another state), complained that “it is … dangerous to overrule a decision only because five Members of a later Court come to agree with earlier dissenters on a difficult legal question. … Today’s decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next.” And in Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania (which reversed a 34-year-old rule barring plaintiffs from bringing takings claims in federal versus state courts), Kagan complained bitterly that the majority “transgresse[d] all usual principles of stare decisis” and, after quoting Breyer’s concern about which cases the court would overrule next, quipped, “Well, that didn’t take long. Now one may wonder yet again.”
In addition to Breyer and Kagan disagreeing with the court’s lack of respect for prior cases, Justice Clarence Thomas, the most senior justice, not only advocated overturning a number of landmark decisions such as New York Times v. Sullivan and Batson v. Kentucky, but he also wrote an ode to overturning prior cases in his concurring opinion in Gamble v. United States. He said that “underlying this legal system is the key premise that words, including written laws, are capable of objective, ascertainable meaning. … When faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it.”
Of course, whether a case is “demonstrably erroneous” is often in the eye of the beholder, not some “objective” truth, despite Thomas’ reductionist dogmatism. Moreover, traditionally the justices have at least talked the talk of not overturning cases simply because five justices thought the prior decision incorrect. Apparently, Thomas disagrees, and for once, he is right.
As I’ve previously written, whether by explicit reversals, or through slicing and dicing, or through subtle and clever legal or factual distinctions, the Supreme Court has reversed itself in virtually every major category of litigated constitutional law based on the values of the justices sitting at the time. Though the justices try to deny it, their values, not legal rules, decide when the court will change course, and they do so at an alarming rate.
After the Civil War, the court was faced with one of the most important economic issues this country has ever faced. To fund the war, Congress for the first time made paper money legal tender for the repayment of debts. The Constitution, however, only mentions “Coin.” In 1870, the justices voted 5–3 (there were only eight justices at the time) that Congress did not have the authority to require creditors to accept “greenbacks” rather than gold or silver. The opinion pleased Democrats, who represented the creditor class, while angering the Republican Party and President Ulysses S. Grant, who sided more with debtors.
Just one year later, after one justice retired and Congress added a new seat, the three dissenters in the first case joined the two new justices appointed by Grant and reversed that decision. The dissenters argued that nothing about the facts and the law had changed, and they were right. This reversal was based on nothing other than a change in the court’s personnel, prompting the New York World newspaper to complain that the new “decision provokes the indignant contempt of thinking men. It is generally regarded not as the solemn adjudication of an upright and impartial tribunal, but as a base compliance with Executive instructions by creatures of the President placed upon the Bench to carry out his instructions.”
From 1903 through 1936, the Supreme Court invalidated hundreds of laws relating to employment and labor conditions including minimum wage requirements, union protections, and workplace safety rules. This Lochner era, named after a case striking down a New York statute limiting the hours of bakery employees, came to an end when President Franklin D. Roosevelt threatened to add new justices to the court. (Scholars debate how much of a role that threat played in the court’s change of heart.) The court’s new hands-off doctrine was not accompanied by any new evidence about what the Constitution originally meant or a change in text but was solely based on a change in the justices’ perceptions about the appropriate role of governmental regulation of our national economy. In other words, politics, not law, made all the difference.
Examples of the justices reversing course on our most fundamental legal questions could fill a casebook. In 1990’s Metro Broadcasting v. Federal Communications Commission, the court upheld a federal affirmative action law, saying that Congress has much more discretion to use racial preferences than the states do because of its power under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment to enforce the equal protection of the laws. Just a few years later, however, the court flatly overruled that case and held that strict scrutiny, the test used to evaluate state affirmative action programs, applied to such laws. Nothing had changed but the personnel on the court.
Examples of the justices reversing course on our most fundamental legal questions could fill a casebook.
In 1939, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment only applied to military-style weapons. That decision lasted nearly 70 years, until the justices ruled in 2008 that the amendment protects an individual right to own handguns.
From 1791 to 1963, the First Amendment’s free exercise clause did not, according to the justices, require religious exemptions from generally applicable laws. From 1963 to 1990, the court held such exemptions were required in some circumstances. Then in 1990, the court reversed course again and said the old rule was better.
The establishment clause of the First Amendment at one time didn’t limit government aid to religious schools; then the court ruled that it prohibited most aid, and now all such aid is legal as long as similar assistance is also provided to nonreligious schools. On Friday, the court took up a case that would require some states to fund religious schools.
These reversals, and many, many others, didn’t involve peripheral or discreet legal issues but our most important social and political questions. The justices have gone back and forth on affirmative action, abortion, campaign finance reform, gun control, free speech, government regulation of the economy, and numerous other country-defining issues solely because the court’s politics and values changed as the justices changed.
This past demonstrates that Kagan and Breyer are right to be worried about how many important cases are likely on the chopping block given the new conservative majority. Unless another liberal replaces a conservative justice, the next few years will likely bring the overturning of Roe v. Wade, much stricter review of gun control legislation, greater protections for “religious liberty” at the expense of LBGTQ rights, and even a return to the judicial overruling of laws regulating the economy. These changes will come about not because of any new insights into the Constitution’s original meaning or because of new constitutional text, but because the justices will decide cases the same way they always have—according to their values and politics, not the rule of law. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 43 |
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Name: id, Length: 162994, dtype: int64 | The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has agreed with the report’s recommendations and said it will work with the federal government to determine the exact amount of money to return, once it finishes going through outstanding claims to see if it can seek more rebates. | null | 0 | -1 | null | 1 |
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