| Trump Must Not Break His Promises to Gun-Rights Supporters Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Following the model of George H. W. Bush, Donald Trump is taking a major step toward becoming a one-term president. Bush thought he could become more popular by betraying his promises to defend the Second Amendment. Trump now feels the same; according to the New York Times, he has ordered his staff to work with Senate Republicans to pass a major gun-control package that would set the stage for gun confiscation. Bush's Good Talk and Hostile Action Let's remember how gun control worked out for George H. W. Bush. Like Trump, Bush had a long record of supporting some gun control; that record was part of the reason he lost the Texas Senate race in 1970 and the presidential primaries in 1980. Also as with Trump, the campaign that won Bush the presidency was strongly pro–Second Amendment: Shortly before running for president in 1988, Bush joined the NRA. His acceptance speech at the Republican Convention touted his devotion to gun rights. In a September 1988 public letter to the NRA, he promised to oppose gun bans and other forms of gun control.Bush won the general election in a landslide against the inept Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, who as governor of Massachusetts had declared that only the police and military should have guns. Bush's victory margin was so large that the pro–Second Amendment vote was not essential. Gun voters did, however, amplify Bush's win by carrying him to victory in states such as Pennsylvania, Montana, and Maryland.Bush's campaign promises apparently meant little to him. A few weeks into the Bush presidency, the administration was set back on its heels by the Senate's rejection of Secretary of Defense John Tower. Some conservative activists had raised concerns that Tower had a drinking problem, and that was the end of the nomination. So the White House cast about for what they thought would be a popular issue, and they chose gun control.In Stockton, Calif., a seriously mentally ill career criminal had murdered elementary-school children in a schoolyard. If California had had a functional criminal-justice system, the criminal would have been behind bars and receiving mental-health treatment.Bush denounced what he called "automated attack weapons" — that is, guns with a military appearance. Although the guns looked like machine guns, they functioned differently, with a much slower rate of fire — the same rate as common handguns. But Bush couldn't be bothered to know the difference between reality and appearance, and neither could many other politicians and the media. The same is true today.Using administrative authority, Bush banned the import of so-called "assault weapons" — almost all of which actually had well-established use in hunting and target shooting. In the courts, the Bush administration's lawyers insisted that individuals had no Second Amendment rights. Bush's Department of Housing and Urban Development urged local public-housing authorities to prohibit tenants from owning firearms in their homes. Bush promoted an early version of what would later become the 1994 Clinton-Biden crime bill, including a ban on many ordinary firearms. The leading Republican supporter was South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, the longtime segregationist and opponent of civil liberties.In 1991, Bush soared to 89 percent popularity after winning the First Gulf War against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. (At the time, few people realized that Bush's decision to let the tyrant stay in power would set the stage for more terrorism and another war.) Yet Bush had few accomplishments on the domestic side. He had already violated his "read my lips: no new taxes" pledge — and was perhaps surprised to find that the people who hated him before he broke his promise hated him just as much afterwards.In search of a domestic accomplishment, Bush again proposed a grand bargain: He would sign a crime bill with gun control if the bill would also eliminate the exclusionary rule for firearms seized as evidence. That rule, created by Supreme Court decisions starting in 1914, prevents the courtroom use of evidence that is obtained through illegal police conduct. The Bush proposal would have allowed government agents to break into someone's home with no warrant, no probable cause, and no exigent circumstances, ransack the home to look for a gun, and then use evidence of the seizure in court against the individual. Too bad for the Fourth Amendment.Perhaps Bush's opposition to judicial controls on law-enforcement misconduct was not surprising. Under his administration, federal law-enforcement agencies — including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms -- had become notorious for legally unjustifiable and excessive violence, often with deadly consequences for the victims. Then as now, most federal agents were decent people, but the Bush administration from the top down encouraged the recklessly violent ones.In September 1992, the National Rifle Association declined to endorse Bush for reelection. Instead, the association concentrated its resources on candidates in other races who had kept their promises. Bush lost handily to Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, in part because Bush's conservative base had realized that while Bush talked like a Texan, he governed like a northeastern aristocrat.The Clinton administration did everything it could to promote gun control, including winning enactment of a gun ban as part of its 1994 crime bill. (The one that most Democratic presidential candidates today accurately denounce as a disaster for civil rights.)Clinton's overreach on guns played a major role in flipping control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections, electing the most pro-gun Congress since the early 1920s. As this experience showed, it's better to be under frontal attack from an overt enemy than to be stabbed in the back by a purported ally. Trump's Good Talk and Planned Actions Trump's embrace of the Bush model is reported to include support of the Toomey-Manchin bill from 2013. The bill would forbid individuals to sell firearms to each other if the sales took place at a gun show or were advertised publicly; instead, the sellers would have to use gun stores as middlemen. As federally licensed retailers, gun stores must keep records on firearms transactions, and they contact the FBI or its state counterpart for a background check on buyers. All this has nothing to do with reducing mass shootings. From the Aurora theater to Newtown to Las Vegas, the guns used by mass shooters are overwhelmingly acquired by persons who passed background checks, or who could have passed any proposed system of checks. In a few cases, such as the shooting at Sutherland Springs, Texas, the criminal should have been stopped by the existing background-check system but wasn't, because the relevant conviction had not been reported to the FBI's National Instant Check System. Since 2008, Congress has enacted a variety of laws to address the problem of incomplete data.Like Bush and Clinton, Trump is determined to "do something" — even if that something is useless when it comes to preventing mass shootings. A RAND Corporation study evaluated different gun-control laws. According to RAND, which can hardly be accused of being "pro-gun," the social-science evidence does not provide even "limited" support for background checks, "assault weapon" bans, or other gun control having any effect on mass shootings.The Toomey-Manchin bill was promoted with the sweetener that it would toughen the existing ban on a federal gun registry and would improve the laws protecting the interstate transportation of firearms. In fact, close reading of the bill showed that it expressly authorized a vast amount of new gun registration and gutted the existing protections for interstate transport for persons who travel to the most restrictive states, such as New York, New Jersey, and Massaschusetts. It would have vastly increased data collection and retention on law-abiding gun owners.As the Obama administration's Department of Justice admitted in a 2013 memo, "universal background check" laws are unenforceable without gun registration. Retail gun sales are already registered via record-keeping by the retailer. When a dealer retires, all of his registration records must be delivered to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, where they are digitized. (ATF is currently not supposed to make its database searchable by the purchaser's name.) The purpose of the background-check laws being pushed in Congress and the states is to expand registration by requiring the use of gun stores as intermediaries for transfers between private individuals — even loaning your shotgun to your cousin for a week.Centralizing registration will be a future demand of the gun-prohibition lobby after Trump surrenders to the current demands. That is what has been enacted in California, where the government now has a comprehensive list of almost all gun owners and their particular firearms — thanks to records created for "universal background checks."Once there is registration, the next step is confiscation. Since 1967, all firearms in New York City have been centrally registered. Starting with mayor David Dinkins in the 1980s and continuing ever since, including under the regime of Michael Bloomberg, the registration lists have been used for confiscation, as more and more once-legal guns have been outlawed by the city council or the legislature.The New York City Administrative Code explains the process in section 10-303.1. When the city council decides that something is an "assault weapon" (a definition that has repeatedly expanded), the police are supposed to mail a notice to the licensed owner of the registered gun. The owner has two choices: 1. "peaceably surrender his or her assault weapon" to the police commissioner, who may destroy it or keep it for police-department use; 2. "lawfully remove such assault weapon from the city of New York."After the confiscation process for "assault weapons" was established, a slow-motion confiscation was introduced for more firearms. According to section 10-306, it is illegal in New York to acquire a rifle of shotgun with an ammunition capacity of more than five. Existing registered owners may keep theirs, but may not pass them on to heirs. The only dispositions allowed are surrender to the police, removal from the city, or sale to a licensed firearms dealer.Central registration lists have likewise been used for confiscation in Australia and the United Kingdom, both touted as models by American gun-control advocates. Laws to Reduce Mass Shootings Red-flag laws could stop mass shootings at least occasionally, which is why I testified in favor of such laws before the Senate Judiciary Committee last March. But unless the laws have very strong due-process protections (which the bills being pushed by the gun-control lobbies do not), these laws are easy to abuse. Trump himself demonstrated the problem by claiming that CNN host Christopher Cuomo should be prohibited from owning guns because Cuomo lost his temper and yelled at a lout who was harassing him and his family at a restaurant.Donald Trump did once propose something that would greatly reduce mass shootings. "I will get rid of gun-free zones," he promised over and over when addressing the NRA annual meeting in 2016. During the campaign he also promised, "I will get rid of gun-free zones in schools, and — you have to — and on military bases. My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones."Actually, he did nothing on the first day, and very little since then — not even on federal property, where many of the gun-free zones could be ended by executive-branch regulatory changes.The Army Corps of Engineers owns millions of acres of recreational land, and the corps' regulations ban Americans from possessing defensive arms while visiting or camping on that land. Just before the Ninth Circuit was slated to hear oral arguments in a constitutional challenge to that ban, the Trump administration told the court that the administration was considering changing the regulation. But the regulation was never changed. Instead, the Trump administration issued guidance to citizens to request written individual permission from a district commander to possess a defensive arm.The gap between Trump's promises and actions is unfortunate, because the vast majority of mass shootings take place in so-called gun-free zones. As studies of active-shooter incidents show beyond doubt, killing sprees almost always end when the people starting shooting back at the criminal. If law enforcement or security guards are already there, that's good. But the police cannot be everywhere at once, and the minutes that it takes for the police to arrive are the criminals' window of time for murder.Unlike Trump, President Obama actually did get rid of some gun-free zones. In 2009, Obama signed legislation to allow persons to carry arms on the lands (though not buildings) of national parks, national monuments, and national wildlife refuges when in compliance with the host state's laws for lawful carry. The carry reform was attached to a bill on credit-card reform that Obama favored. Additionally, Obama signed defense-appropriations bills that ended gun registration for military personnel in off-base housing and that allowed licensed handgun carry on-base by some personnel.Ever since 2015, Trump has always talked big about this support for gun rights. He has one major accomplishment: unsigning the U.N. gun-control treaty that Obama had signed in 2013. He also signed a bill in early 2017 that blocked proposed Obama gun-control regulations.Gun-rights activists might tolerate Trump's very high ratio of talk to action. But they won't tolerate him switching sides. Arrogance and Ignorance Donald Trump has flirted with the Bush model before, endorsing gun control in a February 2018 meeting with Senators Feinstein and Schumer. But Trump quickly pulled back. Now he seems more determined, apparently believing that the NRA, which is embroiled in internal conflicts and lawsuits over management issues, is too weak to stop him. Like many New Yorkers, Trump does not realize that the NRA itself is a consequence of American gun culture. If the NRA disappeared tomorrow, American gun owners would spontaneously self-organize in defense of their rights. The same is true for the pro-life movement, the environmental movement, and many others. Strike down their national organizations, and thousands of grassroots organizations will arise to take their place.The same is not true for the anti-gun movement. There has always been a hard core of anti-gun extremists, exemplified by the 20 percent of persons in opinion polls who want to ban all handguns. But the anti-gun grassroots never did spontaneously self-organize to any significant degree. Today, that doesn't matter, since anti-gunners are now organized by the best professional organizers that money can buy, thanks to Michael Bloomberg and other malefactors of great wealth. This creates the impression among some politicians that the anti-gun movement is larger than ever before, in terms of voting support. This is not true, but the anti-gunners are now much more visible.Trump imagines that he will win reelection because the other party's nominee will be so extreme. He should ask Jimmy Carter about that one. In 1980, Ronald Reagan's ideas were indeed far from the center of gravity of American politics. But the American people were tired of Carter's weakness, indecisiveness, and incompetence, and by a landslide they decided to give the opposing candidate a chance.Trump's personal flaws are different from Carter's, but more visible. In childish and unpresidential public behavior he far exceeds the previous record-holder, Bill Clinton.For over three decades I have been in close contact with grassroots gun-rights activists. In 2016 there were a few such activists who genuinely liked Trump; the vast majority viewed him with disgust, based on his character. Yet these same activists worked relentlessly to get gun owners to the polls and thereby carried Trump to narrow victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. If Trump follows through on his plans to betray them, they won't forgive and they won't forget.
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| Mexico is busing asylum-seeking migrants to southern border Posted: 16 Aug 2019 08:17 PM PDT ![Mexico is busing asylum-seeking migrants to southern border]( "Mexico is busing asylum-seeking migrants to southern border") The Mexican government said Friday it is busing migrants who have applied for asylum in the United States to the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. About 30,000 migrants have been sent back to northern Mexican border cities to await U.S. asylum hearings under a policy known as "Remain in Mexico" under which they have to wait for hearings months away.
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| Mom aims head-on at a tanker to kill herself, sons. When truck dodges, she doubles back Posted: 17 Aug 2019 02:25 PM PDT  Police say a Gainesville, Florida, mom of two young boys told a friend she was going to kill herself and her sons by crashing her car with everyone inside.
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| 'Explosive' situation on migrant rescue boat in limbo off Italy Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:05 PM PDT  The captain of a Spanish charity ship carrying 134 rescued migrants warned Friday of an "explosive" situation on board the vessel anchored within swimming distance of Italy's Lampedusa island but forbidden to approach. Italy has evacuated a handful of people from the Open Arms ship for medical treatment but far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refuses to allow the vessel to dock despite other European countries agreeing to take in the people on board. The captain of the ship operated by Proactiva Open Arms, Marc Reig, said the migrants, rescued after leaving chaos-stricken Libya, were "broken psychologically".
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| How Kamala Harris was shaped by 'the People's Republic of Berkeley' Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:23 AM PDT  Kamala Harris grew up in the radical environs of Berkeley and spent her childhood at marches and protests with her parents. But she went to law school and became a prosecutor, an unexpected career choice that she has to explain — and defend — to Democratic voters as she seeks the presidency.
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| EXCLUSIVE-China-owned oil tanker changes name in apparent effort to evade U.S. sanctions Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:40 AM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-China-owned oil tanker changes name in apparent effort to evade U.S. sanctions]( "EXCLUSIVE-China-owned oil tanker changes name in apparent effort to evade U.S. sanctions") SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 (Reuters) - While in the Indian Ocean heading toward the Strait of Malacca, the very large crude carrier (VLCC) Pacific Bravo went dark on June 5, shutting off the transponder that signals its position and direction to other ships, ship-tracking data showed. A U.S. government official had warned ports in Asia not to allow the ship to dock, saying it was carrying Iranian crude in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. A VLCC typically transports about 2 million barrels of oil, worth about $120 million at current prices.
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| Gingrich on Tlaib visiting Israel, Trump's New Hampshire rally, 2020 Democrat polls Posted: 16 Aug 2019 04:26 AM PDT  Former House speaker and Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich talks the news of the day on 'Fox & Friends.'
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| Trump to drop out of 2020 race within months, former aide Scaramucci claims Posted: 17 Aug 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Donald Trump will quit the 2020 race and not seek re-election, according to a former top aide.Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, said the president will likelu quit the race in March to avoid the humiliation of defeat."He's gonna drop out of the race because it's gonna become very clear. Okay, it'll be March of 2020. He'll likely drop out by March of 2020. It's gonna become very clear that it's impossible for him to win," he said in an interview with Vanity Fair."He's got the self-worth in terms of his self-esteem of a small pigeon. It's a very small pigeon. And so you think this guy's gonna look at those poll numbers and say — he's not gonna be able to handle that humiliation."He also encouraged a primary challenger to take on Mr Trump, using a Game of Thrones analogy to make his case. "You know, this is like 'Game of Thrones.' We need an Arya Stark, okay? We gotta take this guy out because this is like the Night King."The minute the Night King is vaporised, all the zombies are gonna fall by the wayside, right? We had the Wicked Witch of the West, but he is the Wicked Witch of the West Wing. We gotta get some water thrown on him. He'll start melting."In recent weeks, Scaramucci has escalated the feud with his old boss, saying Mr Trump would eventually "turn" on the "entire country", and likening him to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.He also claimed this week that Twitter temporarily locked him out of his account after he called Mr Trump "the fattest president" after the president fat-shamed a protester.Mr Trump has previously hit back at Scaramucci, saying he was "incapable" of handling his White House role - which lasted just a few days - and would "do anything to come back in".
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| Yemen rebel drone attack targets remote Saudi oil field Posted: 17 Aug 2019 10:04 AM PDT  Drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia's sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a "limited fire" in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry. The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom's border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis' drone program. Shaybah sits some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels' ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen's yearslong war.
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| Store clerk found guilty of murder for chasing, fatally shooting teen who stole $2 drink Posted: 16 Aug 2019 09:15 AM PDT  The former convenience store employee was accused of gunning down a teenager that stole a beer from a Tennessee convenience store.
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| Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad' Posted: 16 Aug 2019 12:15 PM PDT ![Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad']( "Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad'") Mexican authorities arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of supporting militant Islamists in an example of Mexico's security cooperation with the United States even as the two neighbors grapple with sharp disagreements over trade and migration. The unidentified American man sought by Interpol was under investigation for supporting terrorist groups and will be deported to the United States later on Friday, the Mexico's attorney general's office said in a statement. The man was detained at a migrants office near Mexico's border with Guatemala in the town of Huehuetan with the help of officials from Mexico's National Migration Institute.
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| Smiling cops take selfie near where dead baby was just found. Missouri city apologizes Posted: 17 Aug 2019 05:09 AM PDT  "The photos were by no means meant to take away from the extremely serious nature of the incident," city officials say.
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| 'A new Hawaiian Renaissance': how a telescope protest became a movement Posted: 16 Aug 2019 10:30 PM PDT  Demonstrators opposed to the building of a telescope on Mauna Kea, the state's highest peak, have forged a communityThe actor Jason Momoa exchanges a traditional greeting with an elder while visiting protesters last month. Photograph: Hollyn Johnson/APOn Hawaii's Big Island, a protest against a $1.4bn observatory on Mauna Kea, a mountain considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians, is entering a second month. In that time, the protest site has swelled from a few hundred to several thousands, attracted celebrity visitors, and built a community of Native Hawaiians who see it as a pivotal moment.The protest site sits at an elevation of 6,632ft, where the cold wind whips across hardened lava fields. But amid this inhospitable environment, weeks of demonstration have given rise to a sense of permanence.The site stretches across a two-lane highway, where trucks flying a Native Hawaiian flag and the upside-down state flag line both sides of the road. A "Kūpuna tent", where the elders of the community gather, is strategically placed to block an access road up the mountain in order to stop construction vehicles from reaching the summit.New arrivals are encouraged to sign in at an orientation station. There is a tented cafeteria providing free meals, and a community-run medic station, daycare and school. Along the barren roadside, tropical flowers have been casually stuck in traffic cones. People pound taro, a Hawaiian crop, in the traditional way on wooden boards to make poi, a local dish.The protest stems from controversy over the fate of Mauna Kea, the tallest peak in Hawaii and the proposed site of an enormous observatory known as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The summit, 13,796ft above sea level, is said to be an ideal location to look into deep space. TMT is expected to capture images 'that look back to the beginning of the universe. Protesters, who call themselves kia'i, or "protectors", argue the construction will further desecrate Mauna Kea, which is already home to about a dozen telescopes.The sun sets behind telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Photograph: Caleb Jones/APKealoha Pisciotta, one of the protest leaders and a spokesperson for Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, a Native Hawaiian group, says the movement is "pushing back on corporate culture" through Hawaiian concepts of "Kapu Aloha", which emphasizes compassionate responses, especially towards opponents, and "Aloha ʻĀina", a saying that translates to "love of the land"."We are just joining the world's indigenous movements," Pisciotta says. "We need Kapu Aloha ... to bring back the balance from the insanity and destruction of our earth."Pisciotta said that the protesters were showing the world a way "to really live differently" while protecting the land."For Native Hawaiians, there is a question of our right to self-determination as defined by international law, but I think it's so much bigger than that," said Pisciotta. "It's about us learning to live and be interdependent." Why are the protests happening?Protesters continue their vigil, on 19 July. Photograph: Bruce Asato/APHawaiians consider Mauna Kea sacred for numerous reasons. The mountain is known as the home to Wākea, the sky god, who partnered with Papahānaumoku, the earth goddess. Protesters hope to protect and help restore the native ecosystem on Mauna Kea.But the protests are also part of a legacy for Native Hawaiians that goes back to 1893, when the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown. Hawaiians lost their land as well as their culture, as the latter was suppressed through law and religion. It wasn't until the 1970s, during a period of cultural flourishing known as the Hawaiian Renaissance, that the Hawaiian language was allowed to be spoken in school and that the hula was revived.The period was defined by its own resistance movement, as activists focused on stopping the US military from using Kahoʻolawe, one of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, as a target for bombing practice. After more than a decade of peaceful protests and occupations of the island, the US government ended the live-fire training in the 1990s.Some see the latest protest action as a new Hawaiian Renaissance. Days are punctuated by the blowing of the conch shell to announce ceremonies that include chanting, hula, and hoʻokupu (offerings). Several celebrities with Hawaii ties have travelled here to participate, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Momoa, and Jack Johnson.Hawaii's governor, David Ige, right, watches a performance during a visit to the ninth day of protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope, on 23 July. Photograph: Jamm Aquino/AP"The atmosphere here is incredible. We're all here protecting our ʻāina [land]", said Kamuela Park, a protester at the site. He added that it had been "awesome to see people from all spectrums coming here in support".Peaceful demonstrators have faced one major confrontation with police. Three days into the protest, 38 kūpuna (revered elders) were arrested for blocking the road that leads to the construction site. That same day, Hawaii's governor, David Ige, signed an emergency proclamation giving law enforcement more control over the area and allowed them to bring in National Guard troops. Images of the elderly being arrested quickly spread, garnering sympathy for the movement and attracting more people to the site. What comes next?Demonstrators block a road at the base of Hawaii's tallest mountain, on 15 July. Photograph: Caleb Jones/APNegotiations between government officials and protesters have slowed since the arrests. On 30 July, the governor rescinded his emergency proclamation. He also extended the window during which construction could begin from 60 days to two years, meaning the protesters would theoretically need to block the road until September 2021."I want to assure everyone that we are committed. Our law enforcement officers will remain at the site to ensure the safety of all of those involved," said Ige at a press conference. "We continue to seek and find a peaceful solution to move this project forward."While tensions may have eased, protesters have said they will stay until they stop TMT from being built. Demonstrators proved their endurance in early August as many of them stayed at the protest site while two consecutive storms passed by the islands.Pisciotta, who used to work at the Mauna Kea observatories as a telescope systems specialist, says the movement has been especially "huge" for young people."Some of the elders, they lived through the time it was prohibited to speak the language," she says. Now younger Hawaiians grow up speaking it in school and with strong cultural affiliations. Hawaiian youth who are camping out are helping to organize donations, teaching some of the courses at the community-led school, and spreading the word on social media."In our philosophy, the land and the people are one," said Pisciotta, about Aloha ʻĀina. "So it was a rallying point for the renaissance and now this is a kind of new renaissance."
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| 2020 Vision: Trump gets surprise Log Cabin Republicans endorsement Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:23 AM PDT  During the 2016 election the conservative LGBT organization declined to endorse him for president.
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| Video shows moments before toddler fatally struck in Houston parking lot Posted: 16 Aug 2019 08:02 AM PDT  Surveillance video shows the child's mother walking across the parking lot, leaving two small children behind her just before tragedy struck.
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| Reporter ID'd in New Orleans small plane crash Posted: 16 Aug 2019 05:45 PM PDT  WVUE-TV confirms that Nancy Parker, a reporter and anchor at the television station for 23 years, was killed in the crash near Lakefront Airport, which accommodates smaller aircraft. A Federal Aviation Administration statement said the plane was a 1983 Pitts S-2B aircraft that crashed in an empty field about a half-mile south of the airport, which accommodates smaller aircraft, under unknown circumstances. New Orleans Homeland Security Director Collin Arnold told reporters the plane crashed about 3 p.m., causing a fire.
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| Kazakhstan court frees anti-Beijing activist Posted: 16 Aug 2019 04:24 PM PDT  A rights activist in Kazakhstan who faced seven years imprisonment over his outspoken opposition to neighbouring China was unexpectedly freed Friday as public and international pressure over his case mounted. Serikjan Bilash, whose activism in defence of Muslim and Turkic minorities in Xinjiang earned him global media attention, told AFP he struck a plea bargain with the court that allowed him freedom but will end his activism. "I had to end my activism against China.
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| Client says Arizona massage therapist's 'cuddling' session turned sexual Posted: 17 Aug 2019 03:56 PM PDT  A Phoenix woman's complaint says a "cuddling" session with a massage therapist turned sexual.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Drako GTE Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:50 AM PDT |
| 'Portland is being watched very closely': Trump stokes tension over far right rally Posted: 17 Aug 2019 01:17 PM PDT  * President links leftwing 'antifa' groups to terror * Portland mayor: 'Frankly, it's not helpful'Rightwing groups rally in Portland, Oregon. Photograph: Karen Ducey/Getty ImagesAs Portland prepared for what was likely to be one of the biggest political demonstrations of the summer, which authorities expected would lead to violence, Donald Trump threw into the mix a characteristically explosive tweet."Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an 'ORGANIZATION OF TERROR'," the president wrote from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Saturday morning. "Portland is being watched very closely. Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job!""Antifa" is a collective term for a loose affiliation of anti-fascist groups. Such counter-protesters have clashed with far-right activists in the Oregon city throughout the Trump era, some wearing "black bloc" attire and face masks.Texas Republican Ted Cruz has proposed a Senate resolution which would designate antifa a domestic terrorist group. The resolution says Rose City Antifa, a prominent Portland group, "explicitly rejects the authority of law enforcement officers in the United States".Speaking to CNN, Portland mayor Ted Wheeler said of Trump's tweet: "Frankly, it's not helpful. This is a potentially dangerous and volatile situation, and adding to that noise doesn't do anything to support or help the efforts that are going on here in Portland."On Friday, longtime rightwing leader and rally organizer Joey Gibson turned himself in to city authorities. Outside the Multnomah County Justice Center, he told reporters, and his supporters via Facebook, his arrest warrant was "without a doubt an assault on the first amendment"."I have never been violent," he said.A booking photo shows Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson. Photograph: Multnomah County Sheriff's Office/APThe 35-year-old is one of six men associated with rightwing rallies in the city to be arrested or charged since 7 August, relating to a violent incident on 1 May at Cider Riot, a bar favored by the left.Video shows men who have attended Gibson's Patriot Prayer rallies, and who arrived at the bar in his company, exchanging pepper spray with bar patrons, striking people with batons and fighting.Gibson claimed the charges were "completely political. This is Ted Wheeler doing everything he can because he's been caught." He accused Wheeler, a Democrat, of "coordinating with" and "protecting" anti-fascist demonstrators, a refrain in his speeches since 2017.Gibson's attorney, Multnomah county Republican chair James Buchal, said the charges were "part and parcel of the dishonest campaign by Portland leaders to blame out-of-town demonstrators for violence that began and persists because antifa wants to shut down any rightwing demonstrations in Portland".Asked via email if he thought the charges were timed in relation to the planned Saturday rally, Buchal answered: "Yes."Gibson was bailed out of Multnomah county jail overnight. On Saturday, as around 500 people gathered for the "End Domestic Terrorism" rally in a riverside park, he was in attendance, waving an oversized American flag.From 9.30am, a growing counter-protest featured Buddhist and Jewish prayers, speeches and music.Ed Mondaine, of the Portland chapter of the National Association fore the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), addressed the crowd, saying: "It's time to stand up and annihilate bigotry."He called upon white allies to help with "fighting white nationalism" in "one of the whitest cities in America", and concluded by leading a civil rights song, Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.At around 10am a small group of protesters from the rightwing group Portland's Liberation made their way through the area of the counter-protest, without incident.Gibson has organized protests in Portland under the banner of the organization he founded, Patriot Prayer. Several have become violent.Critics have pointed to the presence at times of members of white nationalist groups like Identity Evropa and the PDX Stormers. But above all the events have been characterized by the presence of the Proud Boys, a "western chauvinist" group.Saturday was no exception. The main promoter of the rally, Joe Biggs, is a Proud Boy, a combat veteran and a sometime presenter on the Infowars conspiracy channel.Biggs has issued a series of threats to "antifa" in recent weeks, leading up to an event framed by the right as a response to the conservative writer Andy Ngo being milkshaked – having a drink poured over him – and punched at a rally on 29 June.On Friday, city authorities fortified the waterfront area where attendees and counter-protesters were expected to face off. The Portland Bureau of Transportation brought in concrete barriers.Portland Police Bureau (PPB) spokeswoman Lt Tina Jones said the event was likely to be "beyond the resources" of her department, even though all leave had been cancelled. PPB issued a list of partner agencies, including police departments statewide, state police, the FBI and various municipal authorities.Counter-protesters debate with alt-right groups at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Photograph: Karen Ducey/Getty ImagesAt 11am, a large group of rightwing protesters, mostly in Proud Boys colors, marched west across Morrison Bridge and into the waterfront area, led by Biggs and group chair Enrique Tarrio.Police closed the main street parallel to the Willamette river and enforced a gap about the size of a city block between the marchers and the counter-protest. When they arrived in the park, the Proud Boys knelt in prayer and sang the US anthem.They spent just over half an hour on the city's west side. The atmosphere was occasionally tense. Six counter-protesters who managed to enter the enclosure were engaged by some Proud Boys in heated discussion. Some rightwing live-streamers arriving late were briefly mistaken for counter-protesters.Just after 11.30am, the marchers started back over Hawthorne Bridge, traveling east. It had been closed to traffic. "They opened the bridge just for us," Tarrio said through a bullhorn.Visible insignia included that of a "patriot movement" group, the Three Percenters, and American Guard, who the Anti-Defamation League calls "hardcore white supremacists".After crossing the river, the crowd milled around in the parking lot of a fire and rescue installation, under the I-5 freeway.
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| Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Permit Employment Discrimination Against Transgender Workers Posted: 17 Aug 2019 02:12 PM PDT  DOJ argued that Title VII does not protect transgender people
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| Iranian tanker to leave Gibraltar soon despite US pressure Posted: 17 Aug 2019 08:39 AM PDT  The shipping agent for an Iranian supertanker caught in a diplomatic standoff says the vessel is ready to depart Gibraltar on Sunday or Monday, as the U.S. made a last-minute effort to seize it again. The head of the company sorting paperwork and procuring for the Grace 1 oil tanker in the British overseas territory said the vessel could be sailing away in the next "24 to 48 hours," once new crews dispatched to the territory take over command of the ship. "The vessel is ongoing some logistical changes and requirements that have delayed the departure," Astralship managing director Richard De la Rosa told The Associated Press.
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| Epstein died by suicide using his jail bed sheet while his guards slept, according to report Posted: 17 Aug 2019 09:47 AM PDT  While in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Jeffrey Epstein used his jail bed sheet to commit suicide.
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| Afghan palace emerges from ruins as centenary nears Posted: 16 Aug 2019 02:29 PM PDT  Inside an imposing building in Kabul, a team of welders hastily fuse a sweeping metal bannister to a grand staircase. With questions looming over Afghanistan's future and a possible deal between the US and the Taliban imminent, the war-torn nation is this month hoping to briefly celebrate its past -- and Darulaman will be the centrepiece. Work at the famed palace must be completed by August 19, the date marking 100 years of Afghan independence from Britain, when President Ashraf Ghani will inaugurate the newly renovated structure.
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| X-Ray Scans Uncover da Vinci's Hidden Painting in All Its Glory Posted: 16 Aug 2019 06:30 AM PDT  The breakthrough confirm's Leonardo's legacy: "Always adjusting, always seeking more."
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| UK judge to allow firm to try to seize $9 billion in Nigerian assets in gas dispute Posted: 16 Aug 2019 05:30 AM PDT  A judge in London said on Friday he would grant a firm called Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to seek to seize some $9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project. The company was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over a failed project to build a gas processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. The judge's decision, issued on Friday, converts the arbitration award to a legal judgement, which would allow P&ID to try to seize international assets.
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| She was raped 36 years ago. Blood on her clothes finally led police to a suspect. Posted: 16 Aug 2019 07:27 AM PDT  More than three decades ago, a man broke into a Coral Springs woman's home and raped her. Police weren't able to figure out who did it for 36 years.
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| Donald Trump is touting voter ID laws as an issue in the 2020 election. Here’s why. Posted: 17 Aug 2019 06:09 AM PDT  As Donald Trump ramps up his reelection for 2020 he is resurfacing a controversial gripe held over from 2016: That voter fraud cost him support.
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| Planned Parenthood May Reject Federal Funds Over Trump Administration Rule Posted: 17 Aug 2019 12:07 PM PDT  Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesDespite years of fighting calls to "defund Planned Parenthood," the reproductive healthcare organization may now voluntarily remove itself from a massive government funding program, after a federal appeals court allowed a controversial new abortion rule to go forward.For months, Planned Parenthood has been battling a new Trump administration rule that bars taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from talking with their patients about abortion, or referring them to abortion providers. Planned Parenthood deemed the measure a "gag rule" and said it would pull out of Title X—the program that administers the funds—rather than comply with the new regulations.The court ruling Friday put that declaration to the test: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear its previous order allowing the rule to go forward. "The full court has been advised of the motions for full court en banc reconsideration and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter as a full en banc court," Chief Judge Sidney Thomas wrote. "The motions for full court en banc reconsideration are denied."In a statement, Planned Parenthood leadership said they would consider their options and announce next steps on Monday. "We refuse to cower to this president," acting PPFA President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said. "The gag rule is unethical, dangerous, and we will not subject our patients to it."The Title X program provides funding for family planning services to an estimated 4 million people every year, the majority of whom are low-income and people of color. While Planned Parenthood serves more than 40 percent of these patients, the rule will also affect independent clinics and doctors' offices. Approximately 60 percent of women get their usual medical care from a Title X-supported healthcare center, according to the Guttmacher Institute. "If Planned Parenthood is forced to withdraw from Title X funding because of Trump, countless patients will not have access to basic services like contraception and pap smears," NARAL president Ilyse Hogue tweeted. "This will disproportionately affect low income and rural women. This Administration may not care but we do!"Planned Parenthood, several medical organizations, and 21 states filed a challenge to the new Title X rule in May, claiming the change would cause "significant public health impacts." A federal judge in Oregon blocked the rule in April, calling it a "ham-fisted approach to public health policy," but the 9th circuit court ruled in June that it could go forward. Planned Parenthood appealed the 9th circuit's decision in July, and this month issued a letter saying they would pull out of the Title X program if the ruling was not overturned. "Planned Parenthood has long been firmly committed to its Title X patients and to the Title X program, which it has served for nearly 50 years," attorneys for the organization wrote. "With deep regret, however, its direct grantees now have no option but to withdraw from the Title X program."HHS fired back with its own letter, claiming the healthcare provider sought "extraordinary, if not unprecedented, relief, based on self-inflicted harms.""If the seven Planned Parenthood direct grantees insist on providing abortion referrals even within a federally funded program, and feel so strongly that they would withdraw from the program and the public they serve, that is their own choice, not a consequence of the Rule," attorneys for HHS wrote.HHS officials have already begun enforcing the rule, according to a notice it sent to Title X grantees last month. An HHS spokesperson told CNN they would consider funding a new organization that complies with the rules to fulfill Planned Parenthood's obligations.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| All The Most Delicious Ways To Use Up Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Posted: 16 Aug 2019 07:28 AM PDT |
| Claims: Migrant children molested in U.S.-funded foster care Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:11 PM PDT  This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children, which includes an upcoming film. Dozens of families separated at the border as part of the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy are preparing to sue the federal government, including several who say their young children were sexually, physically or emotionally abused in federally funded foster care. A review of 38 legal claims obtained by The Associated Press — some of which have never been made public — shows taxpayers could be on the hook for more than $200 million in damages.
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| Israel intercepts Gaza rocket after weeks of calm Posted: 16 Aug 2019 12:12 PM PDT  Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at southern Israel on Friday night in what the army said was the first such attack in over a month. A military statement said the projectile was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, after air raid sirens sounded in the southern town of Sderot and its surroundings. Earlier, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that 32 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli live fire along the Gaza border fence as part of weekly protests there.
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| Unprecedented heatwave 'kills thousands of fish' in Alaska Posted: 17 Aug 2019 04:52 AM PDT  Climate change and warming rivers may have caused the mass death of salmon in parts of Alaska, scientists say.Large numbers of salmon died prematurely in some Alaskan rivers in July according to local reports, and scientists believe the cause could be the unprecedented heatwave that gripped the state last month."Climate change is here in Alaska. We are seeing it. We are feeling it. And our salmon are dying because of it," said Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, a biologist specialising in salmon and the director of the Yukon Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, in a Facebook post.> 200 miles of river. Dead chum consistently along entire stretch. None had spawned. 850 counted, many more missed. Likely ruled out mining, disease/parasites. All signs point to heat stress. Sad to see. Hoping this is not the new normal. climatechange salmon yukonriver alaska pic.twitter.com/zAHWSgy3pg> > — Steph Quinn-Davidson (@SalmonStephAK) > > July 29, 2019
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| Child found dead in hot vehicle at New Jersey train station Posted: 16 Aug 2019 02:56 PM PDT  Authorities are investigating the death of a young child who was left in a vehicle parked at a commuter train station in New Jersey.
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| ‘A good 100 kills would be nice.’ Another Florida man arrested for mass shooting threats Posted: 17 Aug 2019 11:48 AM PDT  In the weeks following the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Florida has seen a fair share of mass shooting threats — from Walmarts to schools.
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| Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal Posted: 16 Aug 2019 08:40 PM PDT ![Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal]( "Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal") Argentine authorities and Interpol detained on Friday a businessman who was at the center of a Mexican corruption scandal in 2004 that hurt the reputation of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who at the time was Mexico City's mayor and is now the nation's president. The detained Argentine businessman Carlos Ahumada was filmed in 2004 giving bundles of money to Lopez Obrador's main ally in the City Council, Rene Bejarano. Support for Lopez Obrador at the time was battered by the graft scandal.
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| Shell workers in Pennsylvania say they were told to either attend a recent Trump event, or not get paid Posted: 17 Aug 2019 09:10 AM PDT  Workers at a new Shell plant in Pennsylvania were told they had to attend a speech by President Donald Trump in order to get paid.
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| Frustrated Philadelphia mayor calls for gun control. Here's why it hasn't happened in his city. Posted: 16 Aug 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Following a standoff between police and an armed gunman, Philadelphia's mayor calls on legislators to let the city pass its own gun laws.
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| Patterson Fire is fully contained, while Cottage Fire is nearly so Posted: 17 Aug 2019 01:56 PM PDT  Firefighters in California have mostly contained two of the wildfires threatening parts of Northern California this week, according to Cal Fire.
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