| After hours of questioning Lewandowski, Democrats finally land punches Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:24 PM PDT  When Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee turned to criminal defense lawyer Barry Berke to question Corey Lewandowski, the tenor of Tuesday's hearing abruptly changed.
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| A Florida couple was arrested on DUI charges. Then they had sex in the back of a police car Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:53 PM PDT  Aaron Thomas, 31, and Megan Mondanaro, 35, were arrested in Florida after they had sex in the back of a patrol car, according to police.
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| Retired federal judge gets fined and barred for 2016 anti-Republican comments Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:39 PM PDT  The U.S. Office of Special Counsel ruled against Carmene 'Zsa Zsa' DePaolo, a former immigration judge, for comments she made during a 2016 immigration hearing. Her comments reflected her beliefs that a Clinton administration would do more for immigration reform. She was fined the maximum possible civil penalty of $1,000 and slapped with a 30-month debarment from federal service.
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| A 22-year-old from Minneapolis who is jailed in Syria says ISIS recruited him on Twitter Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:10 AM PDT  Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, a naturalized US citizen, told CBS News his story from a prison in Syria, run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
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| White House upgrade: First lady's done a lot with the place Posted: 17 Sep 2019 04:34 PM PDT  Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency. There's refreshed wall fabric in the Red Room, repurposed draperies in the Green Room and restored furniture in the Blue Room. Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric "so faded it was almost pink," said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some rooms in the 132-room mansion.
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| Three hunters mauled in grizzly bear attacks at Yellowstone: 'He was in their face before they even had chance to grab a gun' Posted: 18 Sep 2019 02:37 PM PDT  Three hunters were badly hurt in two separate grizzly bear attacks in Montana on the same day, state officials have said.All three suffered "moderate to severe" injuries after being mauled by a lone bear in the Gravelley Mountains on Monday, according to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks agency.
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| What Were the Mach 10 UFOs That Iran's Jets Encountered? Posted: 17 Sep 2019 07:00 PM PDT  Does the U.S. have a super-secret spy plane?
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| Philippines Arrests Hundreds of Chinese For Alleged Cybercrimes Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:33 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- About 600 allegedly illegal Chinese workers have been arrested in the Philippines in less than a week after Beijing's call for a crackdown on online gambling.Some 324 undocumented Chinese nationals will be deported after being apprehended on Monday in the western Palawan province for alleged cybercrimes, the Philippines' immigration bureau said in a statement Tuesday.The agency also said in an earlier statement it had arrested 277 Chinese nationals last Wednesday for allegedly conducting illegal online operations in Pasig City in the Philippine capital, Manila. Those arrested are wanted for fraud and investments scams in China, the immigration bureau added, citing information from Chinese authorities.Last month, China urged the Philippines to crack down on online casino operations catering mostly to Chinese nationals. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not ban the billion-peso industry despite Beijing's opposition, as it benefits the Southeast Asian nation.To contact the reporter on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Ruth Pollard, Ditas LopezFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 2020 Vision Wednesday: Trump raised $15 million in California in one day. That should worry Democrats. Posted: 18 Sep 2019 06:10 AM PDT  When President Trump arrived in California Tuesday, Democrats saw his arrival as a platform for protest, but there's another reason his visit should concern them.
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| 29 bodies found in plastic bags in Mexico mass grave Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:05 PM PDT  Mexican forensics experts have found at least 29 bodies stuffed in 119 plastic bags that were dumped in the bottom of a well outside the western city of Guadalajara, officials said Tuesday. Experts have been working to establish how many victims are in the mass grave since it was discovered earlier this month in a remote area known as La Primavera, about a 45-minute drive outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second city. "We have 13 complete corpses and 16 incomplete, for a total of 29 bodies," said Gerardo Solis, chief prosecutor for the state of Jalisco, which has been hit by a wave of violence in recent years driven by drug cartel turf wars.
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| Andrew Yang’s Dumb Gimmick Stepped on His Own Important Message Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:25 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photo by Jayme Gershen/GettyAndrew Yang has been my favorite Democrat to watch this election cycle, partly because he's the candidate I would most like to be friends with. That's why I was so disappointed to see him resort to a cheap stunt during last week's debate. I assumed that having earned his way into the first debate where all the candidates would share the same stage at the same time, Yang would seize this moment to explain the core issue that has propelled his candidacy. In case you missed it (and you wouldn't have seen it during the debate!), Yang's fundamental message is that a lot of working-class Americans have been left behind, and the culprit is automation. This problem, Yang insists, is going to get much more pervasive. Like the Industrial Revolution, it will lead to tremendous dislocation and disruption. To manage this inevitable transformation, Yang proposes a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 a month, an amount specifically chosen to be big enough to mitigate the harm without being so big as to disincentivize work. Indeed, Yang argues that his "freedom dividend" could actually liberate us to pursue our inventions, passions, and dreams. The brilliance here is that Yang frames what might otherwise be seen as a radical progressive idea in language that sounds good to conservative ears. Democrats, Beware of Andrew Yang's Insane Vision for AmericaBut instead of telling this (admittedly longer) story, Yang chose to turn his opening debate statement into a raffle where 10 families will win a "freedom dividend" of $1,000 a month for a year. By turning his big idea into a sort of game, Yang doesn't just skip over the seriousness of a looming automation dystopia—he actually trivializes it. What is more, the idea of giving away money based on luck or need (it's not actually clear how winners will be determined) actually steps on Yang's own messaging. That's because Yang carefully avoids framing UBI as a giveaway (indeed, to qualify for the check, you'd have to opt out of welfare payments). Instead, he sells it as something you've earned—like Social Security—by virtue of being a "citizen of the richest, most advanced country in the world." So why would an obviously smart entrepreneur squander the best chance he might ever have to make his substantive argument to a large TV audience? According to Politico, the idea helped Yang "raise $1 million in the 72 hours since the debate and collect more than 450,000 email addresses from people who entered the online raffle…" Once you view the idea through the prism of list acquisition, rather than traditional message delivery, you begin to see the method to the madness. This, of course, raises legal questions. FEC experts seem to see this as problematic and dubious, though there is a general sense that nothing will be done to stop it. We live in a world where a foreign government providing opposition research to a candidate doesn't necessarily qualify as "a thing of value," and where using campaign funds to ostensibly pay voters can be seen as mere campaign advertising. It also raises a practical question: Where does this end?In recent years, we have seen the proliferation of cloying candidates begging us to "visit my website" or to text such-and-such message to such-and-such number. As far as I can tell, though, this is the first time audiences have been invited to participate by virtue of being given the chance to win cash. And since it has apparently worked, I'm worried that everyone else will get in on the act. That means we can expect to see more elites exploiting their positions of influence and undermining their credibility—all in the service of shameless self-promotion. I, for one, have had enough of that. Want to win a copy of my latest eBook? Sign up for my email newsletter at www.mattklewis.com. Terms and conditions may apply!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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| Afghan president sees his chance after collapse of U.S.-Taliban talks Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:33 PM PDT  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had no more than 20 minutes to study a draft accord between the United States and the Taliban on pulling thousands of U.S. troops out of his country, but upcoming elections could put him back at the heart of talks to end decades of war. What he read in the draft outlining the now collapsed deal left Ghani and his officials - who were shut out of the talks by the Taliban refusal to negotiate with what they considered an illegitimate "puppet" regime - badly shaken and resentful, said a senior Kabul official close to the Afghan leader. "Doesn't this look like surrender to the Taliban?" Ghani asked Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran Afghan-born diplomat who led negotiations for Washington, at a meeting the two held immediately afterwards, according to the source who was present.
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| Navy SEAL who oversaw the bin Laden raid says China's massive military buildup is a 'holy s---' moment Posted: 18 Sep 2019 12:51 PM PDT  Speaking at an event in Washington, William McRaven, a SEAL who oversaw the bin Laden raid, said the US was approaching a "Sputnik moment" with China.
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| Cash-starved Air India putting crews on low-fat diet Posted: 18 Sep 2019 04:57 AM PDT  Cash-starved Air India is putting its crew on a diet, changing their inflight menu to special low-fat meals. Dhananjay Kumar, the state-run airline's spokesman, said Wednesday that the objective is to provide healthy and cost-effective meals to crews on domestic and international flights. Kumar declined comment on media reports that the cost per meal, mostly vegetarian, will fall to one-third of the current 500-800 rupees (up to $11) per meal.
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| 2019 and 2020 Full-Size Pickup Truck Rankings Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:08 PM PDT |
| How Vietnamese Commandos Sank A U.S. 'Aircraft Carrier' Posted: 18 Sep 2019 07:43 AM PDT  The sinking of the Card was a stunning victory for the Viet Cong, yet little remembered today. It illustrated how vulnerable naval vessels can be even when faced with a low-tech enemy … and how difficult maintaining port security can be in a war with no real front.
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| Dozens of people charged for illegally distributing millions of opioid pills Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:38 PM PDT  Dozens of people - including six doctors and seven pharmacists - have been charged with fraud for illegally distributing more than 6 million opioid pills.Some of the pills were obtained using counterfeit prescription pads, and the stolen identities of legitimate doctors, prosecutors say.
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| White House, DOJ Reps Meet with Top Republicans on Expanding Background Checks for Gun Sales Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:22 AM PDT  Representatives from the White House and the Department of Justice met Tuesday with senior Republicans to discuss expanding background checks for the sale of firearms within the parameters of legislation first introduced by Senators Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).The relevant legislation seeks to expand background-check requirements to include "all advertised commercial sales, including sales at gun shows," according to an idea sheet first obtained by The Daily Caller.Such background checks would be conducted "either through an FFL [Federal Firearm Licensee] or through a newly-created class of licensed transfer agents."White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said that President Trump did not necessarily approve of the plan, despite the fact that White House Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Ueland is among those circulating the idea sheet.The Tuesday meetings were attended by Ueland as well as Attorney General Bill Barr. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina were also present. There was a planned meeting between Barr and Utah senator Mike Lee, but Barr canceled the meeting.The Manchin-Toomey bill failed to pass last April after it didn't muster enough votes to survive a filibuster. The bill has remained a moderate alternative to more sweeping legislation that would mandate background checks on any and all gun sales. It would require background checks for any commercial sales at gun shows as well as over the Internet. It also expressly prohibits the formation of a national gun registry.
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| Filipino coastguards convicted of killing Taiwanese fisherman Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:36 PM PDT  Coastguard sailors who opened fire on a Taiwanese fisherman in Philippine waters were convicted Wednesday of his 2013 killing, which strained ties between the historically friendly neighbours. The eight Filipino crewmen said they had shot in self-defence after the fisherman's vessel sailed directly at them in the seas just north of the main Philippine island of Luzon. "We are filing a notice of appeal so that what we perceived as errors of the trial court will be thrashed out," Paul Jomar Alcudia, one of the lawyers of the officers, told AFP.
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| Trump to bar California from setting vehicle emission rules: sources Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:38 PM PDT  The Trump administration will announce as early as Wednesday it is revoking California's authority to set its own greenhouse gas and vehicle fuel efficiency standards and barring all states from setting such rules, two auto industry officials said on Tuesday. The move is sure to spark legal challenges over issues including states' rights and climate change that administration officials say could ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump met with senior officials last Thursday and agreed to greenlight the plan to bar California from setting tailpipe emission standards or requiring zero emission vehicles, Reuters reported last week.
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| In leaderless Hong Kong movement, Joshua Wong just 1 voice Posted: 16 Sep 2019 08:02 PM PDT  Overseas, Joshua Wong has emerged as a prominent face of Hong Kong's months-long protests for full democracy. While not diminishing the importance of that role, other protesters say Wong does not speak for what is purposefully a leaderless movement. "Not that nobody cares about what he says, but it's just that Joshua Wong alone cannot represent the whole of Hong Kong," said Sean Au, a 17-year-old student.
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| Moldova Turns to FBI for Help in Investigating $1 Billion Fraud Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Moldova requested assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to bring to justice participants in a $1 billion fraud that led to a bailout of three of the nation's banks.Interior Minister Andrei Nastase said he met with senior FBI officials and handed over a letter seeking assistance.The letter "put on the FBI's agenda the theft of the billion, the laundromat of the international mafia and all the other schemes that have ruined the financial and banking system and have deprived our country of much needed resources," he said Wednesday in a post on Facebook. The FBI gave assurances they would help, he said.The former Soviet republic of 3.5 million people was rocked by the 2014 theft that forced the government to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund. A new government led by Prime Minister Maia Sandu took power in June, and the banking sector has been overhauled and sold to foreign investors.\--With assistance from Olga Tanas.To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Eglitis in Riga at aeglitis@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrew LangleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Did a Russian-Made Submarine 'Sink' A U.S. Navy Nuclear Attack Sub? Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:13 AM PDT  Back in 2015, Indian media claimed that one of New Delhi's Russian-built Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarines managed to "sink" a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy Los Angeles-class attack submarine during exercises in October of that year.
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| It's National Cheeseburger Day: Here are some deals offered by SoCal restaurants Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:39 PM PDT  It's National Cheeseburger Day and plenty of local restaurants are offering deals to help you celebrate right.
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| FAA closes Area 51 airspace ahead of Alienstock for 'special security reasons' Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:28 AM PDT  Federal agencies are prepping for the alien-themed music festival Alienstock in the Nevada desert near the U.S. Air Force Base Area 51 this weekend. The event was spawned by the viral Facebook event "Storm Area 51," and while you can Naruto-run there, you sure can't fly there now.The Federal Aviation Administration announced two "temporary flight restrictions for special security reasons," effectively banning air traffic ahead of the festival from early Wednesday to late Sunday, CNET reports. The airspace will be closed to news helicopters, drones, private pilots, and any other aircrafts above Rachel, Nevada, U.S. Air Force's Nevada Test and Training Range, and Area 51 itself.SEE ALSO: People are already getting arrested at Area 51, and of course they're YouTubersWhile the original meme event "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us" was meant in jest, it garnered 2 million RSVPs worldwide and a pretty sick music video for one of Lil Nas X's many "Old Town Road" remixes. Eventually the Air Force had to step in to squash the tin foil hat dreams. Amidst reports that even the neighboring town couldn't hold the influx of tourists, a music festival was planned to either deter or distract alien-lovers from actually trespassing on government property. But Matty Roberts, the original poster of the page, has since severed his ties with Alienstock, calling it "a possible humanitarian disaster" and "FYREFEST 2.0." He cited the "lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ AlienStock attendees."Due to this risk, the original organizers moved away from the festival in Rachel and now encourages planned attendees to head to an alternative free Area 51 Celebration in the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. News outlets reported that Alienstock was dead. But, as you can probably guess by now, that's not stopping some folks from "seeing them aliens." Various organizers are claiming the festival in Rachel is still going ahead, with 2,600 camping spots booked. Additionally, YouTubers are already getting arrested for jumping the fence into the Area 51 base. So even if thousands of people do end up attending the event from the sheer force of meme power alone, the heavens above will be clear of any aircrafts, both unidentified and otherwise.
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| Ed Buck: Man suspected of preying on gay black men arrested after years of accusations Posted: 18 Sep 2019 04:40 AM PDT  A US businessman has been described as a "violent, dangerous sexual predator" after a man nearly died in his West Hollywood home, following two identical deaths.Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic donor, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with battery causing serious injury, after years of accusations that he preys on homosexual black men.
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| Artists refusing to make gay wedding invitations win US legal battle Posted: 16 Sep 2019 07:03 PM PDT  Two Arizona artists who refused to create invitations to same-sex weddings due to their Christian beliefs were within their legal rights, the US state's top court ruled Monday. The state Supreme Court's decision invalidates previous judgments against the two women for violating a "human relations ordinance" introduced by the southwestern city of Phoenix to safeguard LGBTQ rights. According to their lawyers, the two artists could have faced up to six months in prison and a $2,500 fine each time they refused to make invitations to gay weddings.
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| Trump wants you to think he's racist so you won't notice he's corrupt and killing jobs Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:06 PM PDT  'Who is the real racist, the person warning about illegal immigrants or the person saying that's racist?' When that's the debate, Donald Trump wins.
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| View Photos of Porsche's 911 RSR in Coke Livery Posted: 18 Sep 2019 11:39 AM PDT |
| The EU accuses Boris Johnson of only 'pretending' to negotiate a Brexit deal Posted: 18 Sep 2019 02:30 AM PDT  Johnson's negotiators have so far only presented the EU with a draft of the withdrawal agreement with the backstop scrubbed out.
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| UPDATE 2-Iran warns of crushing response, blames U.S. for regional tension Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:08 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Iran warns of crushing response, blames U.S. for regional tension]( "UPDATE 2-Iran warns of crushing response, blames U.S. for regional tension") Iran on Wednesday threatened a crushing response to any military strike after attacks on Saudi oil sites blamed by Washington on Tehran, though it said the Islamic Republic had no desire for conflict in the Gulf region. In a letter sent on Monday to the United States via the Swiss embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran, Tehran said it "denies and condemns claims" by U.S. officials that "Tehran was behind the attacks".
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| Here Are the 5 Biggest Nuclear Weapons Tests Ever Conducted Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:42 AM PDT  We've got them ranked.
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| No severe impacts from Imelda as it moves through Texas Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:35 PM PDT  Tropical Depression Imelda has deluged parts of Southeast Texas with rain, but officials in Houston and surrounding communities said Wednesday that so far there have been no severe consequences. Glenn LaMont, deputy emergency management coordinator in Brazoria County, located south of Houston along the Gulf Coast, said that despite the heavy rainfall he has seen no reports of flooded homes or people stranded. "It's too early to breathe a sigh of relief," LaMont said.
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| Trial in 'heinous' gang-related murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee begins in Chicago Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:37 PM PDT  Trial of Dwright Boone-Doty and Corey Morgan, charged with the November 2015 attack on 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, began Tuesday in Chicago.
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| France gives more people iodine pills in case of nuclear accident Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:20 AM PDT  France will soon start distributing radioactivity-blocking iodine pills to an additional 2.2 million people living near the country's 19 nuclear power plants, to be taken in case of accidental radiation leaks, regulators said Tuesday. The ASN nuclear safety authority had announced in June an extension of the safety radius to 20 kilometres (12 miles) of each plant, up from 10 kilometres set in 2016, when some 375,000 households were prescribed the pills. The watchdog said Tuesday that affected residents will receive a letter in the coming days with a voucher to collect stable iodine tablets from pharmacies, as well as information on what to do in case of a nuclear accident.
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| Israelis Just Saved Their Democracy Posted: 18 Sep 2019 06:31 AM PDT ![Israelis Just Saved Their Democracy]( "Israelis Just Saved Their Democracy") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- It's tempting to say about an election in any country that this is the election that really matters, that this time, the results will determine the fabric of society for generations to come. In Israel, on the day after the second election of 2019, that's not bombast.Had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu achieved the solid victory that he sought when he had the Knesset dissolve itself almost immediately after a hair-thin victory in April, Israel could have become a different country. He had promised to annex portions of the West Bank — first the Jordan River valley, which would remain under Israeli control under any prime minister, but other places as well — which would erode any hope of an accommodation with Palestinians.He's likely to be indicted for corruption, and had thus pledged to have the Knesset give him immunity from prosecution. Since it's almost a foregone conclusion that the Supreme Court would invalidate such an action, he and his colleagues were openly discussing making the court subservient to the Knesset, essentially ending judicial review in Israel.To bolster the number of votes his right-leaning bloc would receive, Netanyahu also essentially endorsed a racist party that draws from the intellectual legacy of Rabbi Meir Kahane, whom the Supreme Court ruled in 1988 was too dangerous to be allowed to run for office. Netanyahu, in short, was willing to shred Israel's democracy to stay in power and out of jail.Netanyahu, though, is a charismatic personality and political genius, and he has long had a spellbinding hold on the Israeli electorate. Most Israelis understood at least some of the dangers he represented, but they also knew that though he is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, he has almost never taken his country to war. He has kept them and their children safe. He has managed belligerents like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with Syria and Iran. He's bonded with U.S. President Donald Trump, who moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognized Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, and tore up the Iranian nuclear agreement, which Netanyahu despised. Many Israelis, Netanyahu was sure, would hold their noses and vote for him again, because Israelis vote security first and economics second.But it seems that Netanyahu didn't pull it off. The Kahanist party he essentially endorsed did not get enough votes to win seats in the Knesset, where they might have given Netanyahu the support he needed to form a government.As of Wednesday morning, with just over 90% of the votes counted, Blue and White, the party created and led by former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, is ahead by a slim margin. Gantz may end up prime minister, or Netanyahu could again, if the results shift or Gantz cannot form a coalition. Whatever the outcome, however, Netanyahu does not have the votes to get himself a government that will pass the immunity law or tinker with the Supreme Court. Annexation is probably on hold. Israelis have apparently voted to end the Netanyahu era, deciding to trust a former general even if untried in the political world, and to save their democracy.Assuming that these results hold, pundits will quarrel about what cost Netanyahu his political hegemony. Was it Trump's flirtation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani? Was it the revelations in the Israeli news media that Netanyahu was about to take Israel into a military operation in Gaza a week or two ago without consulting the cabinet until he was prevented from doing so by the attorney general? Was it worry about democracy? We may never know, but we do know that Israelis appear to have voted to save themselves and their country.American Jews will hail this result, because they hate Netanyahu, whom they associate with Trump. But they should be prepared to be disappointed. Gantz appears to be honest, will not pass an immunity law, will not dent the Supreme Court, will stop the race-baiting of Israeli Arabs, and will be a more palatable Israeli leader for American Jews. But he is not going to end the occupation of the West Bank or reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, because the Palestinians have no interest in the compromises required to reach such a deal at the moment.What a Gantz administration would show American Jews is that the occupation wasn't Netanyahu's doing — it is the product of a world in which Israel tragically has no good alternatives. Gantz the general may not be as reticent about hitting back at Gaza as has been Netanyahu; he may actually decide to batter Hamas, the radical faction that governs that benighted sliver of Arab territory, because he understands that the violent status quo is untenable.If these results do hold, Israelis will have much to celebrate. American Jews, who tend to imagine an Israel that acts in accord with their progressive values, may find that Netanyahu's defeat is just the beginning of an even more complex relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state.To contact the author of this story: Daniel Gordis at dgordis@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Daniel Gordis is senior vice president and Koret distinguished fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem. Author of 11 books, his latest is "Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Frivolous Lawsuits Once Again Threaten the Gun Industry Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  In 2005, a wave of lawsuits threatened to bankrupt the gun industry. These suits were based on — pick your adjective — "creative," "novel," "inventive," and "imaginative" legal theories that rarely held up in court, and they did their damage primarily by forcing gun companies to incur the costs of defending against them. Congress, seeing the problem, stepped in to put a stop to it — or at least tried to — by passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).A decade and a half later, anti-gun activists have responded with yet more new legal theories, and the Connecticut courts have bought one of them. Some families victimized by the Newtown massacre are being allowed to pursue a wrongful-death claim against Remington, which owns Bushmaster, the company that made the rifle used in the attack.The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to take the case and reverse the Connecticut supreme court's decision. It should, as numerous briefs from gun-rights supporters have argued this month.The problem here traces back to a flurry of legal activity in the 1980s and 1990s. Anti-gun activists faced a conundrum: It's easy enough to file a wrongful-death suit against someone who committed murder with a gun, or to sue a company that sold a defective gun, or to go after a gun store that knowingly sold a gun to a criminal. But the activists didn't just want to punish those who broke the existing rules; they thought the rules were too lax, and they'd had little success getting legislatures to change them.So they sued gun companies for following the rules, spinning elaborate theories about why different, stricter rules should apply instead. Those companies were creating a "public nuisance." They were "oversupplying" guns to high-crime neighborhoods, or continuing to send guns to stores that had had too many crimes traced back to them, or making products that appealed to the wrong sorts of people. Never mind how bizarre it is to hold a company liable for the criminal misuse of its legal products; never mind that state and federal governments had already written detailed laws about which guns were legal to sell and how gun sales were to take place; never mind that the targeted companies were following the prescribed process of dealer licenses and background checks; never mind that the alleged "bad apple" gun stores were licensed by the federal government to continue selling guns. If legislatures wouldn't draw the lines the way the activists wanted, maybe judges and juries would instead.Practically speaking, the problem with these suits was not that they had much chance of succeeding on the merits. The plaintiffs almost never won. Rather, the suits threatened to drown the industry in a sea of legal costs. Late in the Clinton administration, Andrew Cuomo, who was organizing lawsuits by federally funded housing authorities as the secretary of housing and urban development, told gunmakers they'd suffer "death by a thousand cuts" if they didn't give in to the gun-control lobby's demands. Some gunmakers did in fact go bankrupt.So Congress decided to nip these suits in the bud. Under the PLCAA, there would be no more lengthy court proceedings: Whenever a court was asked to find a gun company liable simply because someone else had misused its products, the lawsuit would be unceremoniously tossed out. Contrary to some of the lies about the law spread in the media, it didn't touch legitimate lawsuits. You can still sue gun companies if they sell defective products or break the law. Indeed, gun-rights supporters often cheer such lawsuits.Eventually, though, activists came up with creative theories as to why the law against creative theories didn't apply.The case against Remington alleges that the marketing of the gun used in the Newtown massacre violated the Connecticut Uniform Trade Protection Act, which prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce." This is relevant because the PLCAA allows lawsuits when a gun company "knowingly violated a State or Federal statute applicable to the sale or marketing of the product" and the violation was a "proximate cause" of the harm at issue.There are several layers of problems here.For one thing, it's not clear that a generic law like Connecticut's is "applicable" to guns in the relevant sense. (The word can mean "capable of being applied" or "specifically applied.") As 22 members of the House note in their brief, two different appeals courts have interpreted the word narrowly, and Congress clearly meant to bar lawsuits based on "remote theories" tying marketing to criminal acts.Nor is it easy to see how Bushmaster violated the statute at all, much less knowingly violated it. Some of Bushmaster's ads were cringeworthy; the "CONSIDER YOUR MAN CARD REISSUED" one is the most famous example. But it's a hell of a stretch to say that to run such an ad is to knowingly engage in an "unfair or deceptive act or practice." And as a group of Second Amendment scholars explain in another brief, the advertising themes decried in the lawsuit — military imagery, defense against adversaries — "have necessarily been common in American arms culture."Yet as the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) notes, the Connecticut supreme court found that "the plaintiffs could survive a motion to dismiss by simply alleging that the defendant[s] . . . had marketed their products in a manner that encouraged their use for offensive assault missions."The idea that the gun's marketing directly contributed to the massacre is absurd as well. There is no evidence the shooter ever saw any Bushmaster ads, and he did not even buy the gun himself; he stole it from his mother. This, too, should protect Remington under the PLCAA.Put simply, if a dubious allegation that a company violated a generic statute is enough to punch through the protections of the PLCAA, the PLCAA won't mean much at all. As the NSSF argues, an attorney "can easily craft an allegation of 'unfair' conduct sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss under modern pleading standards. And nearly all states have statutes that prohibit 'unfair' trade practices in language as broad and as vague as the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act."If the PLCAA doesn't mean much, the Second Amendment itself won't mean much, either. Just as they did last time around, anti-gun activists will be free to flood the courts with lawsuits that have little chance of success but are guaranteed to rack up massive legal fees capable of bankrupting gun companies. And the people can't keep and bear arms if businesses can't make and sell them.The Supreme Court needs to take this case — and then nuke it into oblivion.
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| How 3 guys and 3 dogs caught this 411-pound feral hog that infiltrated a San Antonio golf course Posted: 16 Sep 2019 06:25 PM PDT  A 411-pound feral hog was spotted near a golf course in San Antonio. One of the men who humanely captured and removed it told Insider how they did it.
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| Maduro left Norwegian mediators in the dark about side deal: Venezuela opposition negotiator Posted: 18 Sep 2019 09:38 AM PDT  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro did not inform Norway's foreign ministry, which is mediating a dialogue between his government and opposition leader Juan Guaido, about a side deal with a smaller sector of the opposition before it was announced earlier this week, a member of Guaido's negotiating team said on Wednesday. Guaido, leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, over the weekend declared the Oslo-backed talks dead more than six weeks after Maduro walked away in protest over U.S. sanctions. The government responded on Monday by announcing a deal with smaller opposition parties to resolve the South American country's deep political divide by reforming the National Electoral Commission, accused of bias in favor of the ruling socialists.
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| Your History Book Forgot This War: In 1979, China Was Beaten Badly by Vietnam Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:21 AM PDT  "The PLA's performance in the 1979 war was so bad, even Vietnamese commanders were surprised, according to some sources."
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| AMBER ALERT: Missing New Jersey girl vanishes, here's everything we know about possible abductor Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:34 PM PDT  Missing New Jersey Girl: Here's what we know about the possible abductor sought in the disappearance of a Bridgeton, New Jersey girl.
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| Arkansas attorney general wants judge barred from her cases Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:25 PM PDT  Arkansas' attorney general is asking the state Supreme Court to reassign cases involving her office from a judge who has been prohibited from handling execution cases, accusing him of regularly being biased against her staff. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office on Tuesday requested that the court reassign cases from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.
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| 'A serial killer off the streets': Florida man charged in woman's death linked to slayings of three others Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:03 AM PDT  A man arrested in the 2016 death of a woman in Palm Beach has also been genetically linked to the slayings of three women in Daytona Beach.
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| Lebanon's Hariri suspends work at his TV channel Posted: 18 Sep 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Wednesday the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had recently been on strike over unpaid wages. The channel set up by his father Rafiq al-Hariri in 1993 follows several other once-thriving Lebanon-based media outlets into bankruptcy. "It is with a sad heart that I announce today the decision to suspend the work at Future TV and settle the rights of the workers," Hariri's office said in a statement.
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| Trump and Iran may be on the brink of a war that would likely be devastating to both sides Posted: 18 Sep 2019 11:32 AM PDT  A war with Iran would likely be disastrous and further destabilize a region that's been consumed by conflict for years.
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| Investors Urge South Africa to Leave Their $163 Billion Savings Posted: 18 Sep 2019 05:08 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- South Africa's 2.4 trillion rand ($163 billion) savings industry has a request for the ruling party: stop threatening to dictate where funds must invest and get going on projects that pensions can help finance."You can prescribe, but nothing will happen unless you have proper projects," Leon Campher, the chief executive officer of the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa, an industry body of fund managers and insurers, said in an interview in Johannesburg. "The savings industry would gladly invest in infrastructure or developmental projects provided they are properly done."President Cyril Ramaphosa last month echoed the election manifesto of the African National Congress saying a discussion was required to investigate the use of prescribed assets as a tool for fostering economic growth. A lack of detail on how retirement funds could be forced into investing in state-owned companies or government projects has stoked concerns it could leave pensioners poorer if these don't make inflation-beating returns.There has been very little visible progress since Ramaphosa last year announced that the government would create a multi-billion rand infrastructure fund. Banks and even Ramaphosa's envoys appointed to lure investment into the country have complained over a dearth of projects that has led to the near demise of South Africa's construction industry."If it's funding for developmental projects South Africa is after, government would be better off ensuring that the infrastructure initiative proposed by the president in his fiscal stimulus plan a year ago gets going," Campher said.Managers WorriedThe association and banking industry are working with the Development Bank of Southern Africa to flesh out details of an infrastructure initiative, Campher said, adding that DBSA has indicated it could be up and running by the end of this year."The concept is that you have the government pot, the DBSA pot and you have got the savings pot so you can create what is called a blended-finance model," he said. "Recruiting retired and semi-retired technical experts, people with the appropriate skills, to prepare projects will be important for attracting funding."Money managers are worried that "sooner or later" prescribed assets will be implemented, according to the 2019 BEE.conomics survey done for 27four Investment Managers and published on Wednesday. At least 83% of participants from the industry said they consider prescribed assets as threat."Prescription is a clear violation of property rights, because it impairs choice," said Andrew Canter, chief investment officer at Futuregrowth Asset Management in Cape Town, South Africa's biggest specialist fixed-income money manager. "There is ample global evidence that where prescription has been tried it has reduced returns," he added, citing Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa during racial-segration rule as examples."If you tell people how to invest their funds, you are undermining the savings culture and effective asset allocation," Canter said. "It will go to court, no matter what the government proposes. If you let the wolf into the hen house, the wolf will eventually eat the chickens."(Updates with comment from BEE.conomics survey, Futuregrowth starting from third-to-last paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Roxanne Henderson in Johannesburg at rhenderson56@bloomberg.net;Mike Cohen in Cape Town at mcohen21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels, Alastair ReedFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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