Democratic senator wants probe into interior secretary’s helicopter use

A Democratic senator is calling for the investigation into Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's travel to include his use of government helicopters. Zinke's use of Interior Department and other helicopters was revealed earlier this year when the department released his office and travel schedules in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Trump boasts of defeating – savage killers’ here and abroad

President Donald Trump on Friday touted his efforts to secure the homeland, telling a raucous rally crowd in the Florida panhandle that his administration is "taking care of our citizens at home" by defeating the Islamic State abroad and expelling violent street gang members from the U.S. "Not only are we defeating these killers, these savage killers, horrible, horrible," Trump told hundreds of supports at a rally in Pensacola, Florida, a region a White House spokesman called "Trump country." Florida helped Trump win the White House.

2 questions loom over House-Senate talks on GOP tax bill

Two looming questions threaten to snag the seemingly smooth trajectory of the Republicans ' massive tax legislation now in its final leg in Congress. How to satisfy demands of the rebellious GOP lawmakers from high-tax states who demand concessions over a cherished deduction? And how to pay for those concessions? Even President Donald Trump has dropped his stubborn resistance to a smaller cut in the corporate tax rate as Republican leaders consider it as a way to pay for the House GOP rebels' demands.

Trump Shows Love For Moore, Dismisses Accuser At Rally

Attorney Gloria Allred and Beverly Young Nelson hold up a picture showing a message and a signature of Roy Moore during a press conference on November 13, 2017, in New York, alledging that Roy Moore sexually assaulted Nelson when she was a minor in Alabama without her consent. The US Senate's top Republican on Monday urged scandal-hit conservative Roy Moore to end his Senate campaign, saying he believes the women who have accused the Christian evangelical candidate of sexual misconduct.

North Korea Says War Is Inevitable Because of Trump’s ‘Warmongering’ Inner CircleNewsweek

North Korea believes the outbreak of a war on the Korean Peninsula is inevitable because of continual provocations from the U.S., including ongoing military drills with South Korea and statements from high-ranking U.S. politicians and officials. In an article published by state-controlled news agency KCNA on Wednesday, a spokesperson for North Korea's Foreign Ministry called the start of war "an established fact."

White House Names Trump Loyalist to Iran Policy Job at State Department

The Trump administration plans to install a political appointee at the State Department to a key position managing policy on Iran and Iraq, a move that will replace a career diplomat with a loyal supporter of the president. Andrew L. Peek, a former captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and member of the president's State Department transition team, will become the new deputy assistant secretary of state covering Iran and Iraq, according to three State Department officials familiar with the matter.

How Did a White Supremacist Get a Job as an Equal Employment Officer? …

Exclusive: Email shows effort to give Trump campaign WikiLeaks documents - STORY HIGHLIGHTS - Washington Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address Email pointed Trump campaign to WikiLeaks documents that were already public A 2016 email sent to President Trump and top aides pointed the campaign to hacked documents from the Democratic National Committee that had already been made public by the group WikiLeaks a day earlier.

Republicans Lead the Way on Ending Taxpayer-Funded Animal Torture

An organization that is fighting to stop wasting tax money on unnecessary painful animal testing has named the top 15 members of Congress that have been the best on the issue in 2017 - and eleven of them are Republicans. found that while the majority of Americans across party lines care about ending painful animal testing - right wing voters care 5% more.

CNN Botches Major ‘Bombshell’ Alleging Contacts Between Don …

Exclusive: Email shows effort to give Trump campaign WikiLeaks documents - STORY HIGHLIGHTS - Washington Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address Email pointed Trump campaign to WikiLeaks documents that were already public A 2016 email sent to President Trump and top aides pointed the campaign to hacked documents from the Democratic National Committee that had already been made public by the group WikiLeaks a day earlier.

Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. fired for alleged ‘misconduct;’ denies wrongdoing

Ford, formerly of Memphis, was terminated for "conduct inconsistent with our values and in violation of our policies," according to a statement from the Wall Street bank. Morgan Stanely spokeswoman Margaret Draper would not say why he was fired, although HuffPost reported the company had investigated claims of harassment and intimidation.

The Note: In #MeToo moment, will Congress ponder pace and process?

In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., speaks on the Senate floor of the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 7, 2017. Franken said he will resign from the Senate in coming weeks following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations and a collapse of support from his Democratic colleagues, a swift political fall for a once-rising Democratic star.

Democrats saw Franken as a liability

Alan Stuart Franken Democrats turn on Al Franken Schumer called, met with Franken and told him to resign Overnight Finance: Trump says shutdown 'could happen' had been resisting behind-the-scenes pressure from fellow Senate Democrats to step down for some time before his resignation on Thursday. Sources familiar with deliberations within the caucus said women Democratic senators pressed their leadership to resolve the Franken situation and the leaders relayed their concerns to him.

LA-area Assemblyman Matt Dababneh resigns after sexual misconduct allegations

San Fernando Valley state Assemblyman Matt Dababneh on Friday became the second California lawmaker to abruptly leave office in a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations, just days after a lobbyist accused him of sexually assaulting her in a hotel bathroom. Dababneh had adamantly denied that he cornered lobbyist Pamela Lopez in a Las Vegas bathroom in January 2016 and urged her to touch him as he masturbated - submitted his resignation late Friday afternoon, effective Jan. 1. "To be absolutely clear, the allegations against me are not true," Dababneh wrote in a letter to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-South Gate.

In Franken’s fall, sudden Senate pickup chance for GOP

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., second from right, holds hands with his wife Franni Bryson, left, as he leaves the Capitol after speaking on the Senate floor, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Franken said he will resign from the Senate in coming weeks following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations and a collapse of support from his Democratic colleagues, a swift political fall for a once-rising Democratic star.