Continuing battle with media, Trump avoids news conference

Less than a month from taking office, President-elect Donald Trump has yet to hold the traditional news conference that most incoming presidents have held within days of their victory. Trump, whose refusal to do news conference has been criticized by journalism groups and media watchdogs, has instead tried to convey his message directly to the American public, bypassing the media with pronouncements at his boisterous rallies and, of course, distributing his thoughts 140 characters at a time on his famed Twitter account.

Release of emails by Chicago mayor doesna t end dispute

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to release thousands of pages of private emails does not end a dispute in Illinois about public access to such emails from him and other officials when they deal with government business. Emanuel announced late Wednesday that he had settled a lawsuit by a government watchdog group over emails from his personal accounts, but it allows him and his personal lawyer to decide which emails are public records and which are not.

Lawyer says Wahlberg movie unfair to Boston bombera s widow

A lawyer for Katherine Russell, widow of one of the Boston Marathon bombers, says the new film “Patriots Day” is unfair because it suggests she knew something was up before the attack and then didn’t cooperate with the investigation afterward. “It’s just not true,” lawyer Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press.

5 things to know about Syriaa s Aleppo

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and years of fighting have laid waste to much of the city of Aleppo, but he has won it back after nearly six years of war. The president now looks more secure than ever since the 2011 uprising against his family’s four-decade rule.

License issued for $1B Montana power storage project

A Montana company has been granted a license to build a $1 billion, 400-megawatt power storage project in the central part of the state that would supplement electricity from wind turbines and other sources, according to documents released Thursday by federal regulators. The 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows Absaroka Energy, of Bozeman, Montana, to construct and operate the project on a 177-acre site near the tiny town of Martinsdale, home to fewer than 100 people.

UN Security Council delays vote on Israeli settlements

The UN Security Council on Thursday delayed a contentious vote on a draft resolution demanding that Israel halt settlements as President-elect Donald Trump weighed in and said the United States should veto the measure. Egypt requested that the vote be postponed, one day after submitting the draft text to the council, a move that triggered immediate calls from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a US veto to block the resolution.

DC subway working on fare card holders with Trump’s image

Washington’s subway system is now working with President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee to produce a commemorative sleeve to hold Inauguration Day fare cards. Metro revealed on Wednesday that the special Inauguration Day passes won’t have Trump’s picture on them, the way the cards honoring President Barack Obama’s did.

Appeals court: College’s drug tests of all students illegal

A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated a judge’s 2013 ruling that a central Missouri technical college’s mandatory drug testing policy is unconstitutional when applied to all students. The full 8th U.S. District Court of Appeals, in a 9-2 ruling, sided with the American Civil Liberties Union in reversing an earlier decision by a three-judge panel of the same St. Louis-based court.

North Carolina fails to repeal LGBT law as culture wars rage

Repealing North Carolina’s law limiting LGBT protections at the close of a bitter election year was supposed to heal blows to the economy and perhaps open a truce in the culture wars in at least one corner of the divided United States. The failure of state lawmakers to follow through instead shows how much faith each side has lost in the other, as Americans segregate themselves into communities of us and them, defined by legislative districts that make compromise unlikely.

Senate Dems press Trump’s wealthy picks for financial data

Top Senate Democrats are trying to put the brakes on President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, insisting on extensive financial information on some of the wealthiest Americans before moving forward on nominations. Frustrated by the slow response of billionaires and multimillionaires to their request, 16 Democrats delivered an ultimatum Thursday, saying no committee should vote on a nominee until the individual has cleared an FBI background check, provided a financial report and an ethics agreement with the Office of Government Ethics, and responded to “reasonable requests for additional information” such as tax returns.

States Won by Trump Have Highest ‘Obamacare’ Enrollment

Some 6.4 million people signed up by the mid-December deadline – 400,000 more enrollees than the same period last year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In a twist, the states with the most people selecting coverage all went for Trump in the presidential election: Florida, with just under 1.3 million selections; Texas, with about 776,000; North Carolina, with 369,077; Georgia, with 352,000; and Pennsylvania, with 290,950.

Some Christian Leaders Upset at Octavia Spencer’s Role as God in “The Shack”

North Carolina’s failure to repeal its so-called bathroom law, which limits LGBT rights and has sparked widespread boycotts and controversy, doesn’t end the… — Police in Australia say that they have foiled a terror attack that would have targeted the city of Melbourne, possibly on Christmas Day.Seven people … The close of any year is not complete without carving out time for reflection and review, celebrating accomplishments and preparing for new adventures. For American Ethanol S… Lincoln – No.

Trump’s Economic Plan is a Betrayal of the People Who Voted for Him

Trump’s economic plan has sent stocks ripping higher for six weeks straight. But what’s going to happen to stock prices when Congress gives Trump’s plan a big thumbs down? Has anyone thought about that yet? And what about the Fed? Does anyone seriously think that Fed chairman Janet Yellen is going to sit on her hands while Trump launches a $1 trillion fiscal stimulus package that triggers a sudden burst of growth followed by a sharp uptick in inflation? No, Yellen’s not going to sit on her hands.

Trump: US must ‘greatly strengthen’ nuclear capability

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly called for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” until the rest of the world “comes to its senses” regarding nuclear weapons. His comments on Twitter came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said strengthening his country’s nuclear capabilities should be a chief military objective in the coming year.

Wisconsin panel OKs investigation into John Doe leaks

The Wisconsin Assembly has authorized Attorney General Brad Schimel to investigate how evidence collected during a secret investigation into Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign was leaked to a newspaper. The Guardian US in September published hundreds of sealed documents from the so-called John Doe investigation, which was shut down by conservative state Supreme Court justices in 2015.

Cruise Ship Passenger ‘Intentionally’ Went Overboard

The United States Coast Guard was called in to search for a man who went overboard from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship off the coast of the Florida Keys Thursday morning. A 22-year-old man was reportedly seen jumping from the 12th deck of the ocean liner at 1:49 a.m. about 33 miles southeast of Key Largo.

North Carolina legislature’s special session ends without repealing discriminatory HB2 law

Donald Trump has won the presidency after narrowly carrying a few states to put him above 270 electoral votes.But according… Senate Republicans refused to give President Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Scalia even the courtesy of a… The North Carolina legislature ended its special session Wednesday, failing to fulfill the deal they had made with the city of Charlotte and incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to repeal the controversial and discriminatory HB2. Known as the “bathroom bill,” it’s actually an expansive restriction on civil and workers’ rights.

Trump voters will be hurt the most with Obamacare repeal and Democrats have to remind them of that

Donald Trump has won the presidency after narrowly carrying a few states to put him above 270 electoral votes.But according… Senate Republicans refused to give President Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Scalia even the courtesy of a… Liberal bloggers aren’t the only ones sending a strong warning to Democrats about not helping Republicans one iota when it comes to dismantling Obamacare, or their bullshit efforts to “replace” it. Here’s Theda Skocpol , a professor of government and sociology at Harvard and the director of the Scholars Strategy Network: For the Democratic Party, the coming Republican assault on public health insurance represents a huge political opportunity.

Photo credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid defended the unsubstantiated charges he made about Mitt Romney’s tax liability as “necessary” during an interview on Nevada public radio Wednesday. Asked by a caller about the “brazen lie” of claiming the former Republican nominee for president hadn’t paid taxes for a decade, Reid took issue with the characterization and said he spoke the “truth”-though he referenced a separate criticism of Romney, that he didn’t release several years of tax returns, as proof.

Clinton wins popular vote by nearly 2.9 million

In this Dec. 8, 2016 file photo, Hillary Clinton attends a ceremony to unveil a portrait of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Capitol Hill in Washington. Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump, giving her the largest popular vote margin of any losing presidential candidate, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

Sherr named new Greenwich Board of Ed chairman

Board of Education member Peter Sherr, seen here at a 2013 candidates forum, is the new chairman of the school board after a Thursday morning vote by the Board of Selectmen. Board of Education member Peter Sherr, seen here at a 2013 candidates forum, is the new chairman of the school board after a Thursday morning vote by the Board of Selectmen.

Under Israeli pressure, UN vote on settlements postponed

Under heavy Israeli pressure, Egypt on Thursday indefinitely postponed a planned U.N. vote on a proposed Security Council resolution that sought to condemn Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, diplomats and Western officials said, just a few hours before the vote was set to take place. The vote would have been one of the last opportunities for President Barack Obama to take a stand against Israeli settlement building after years of failed peace efforts, but doing so could re-ignite a dispute with a close ally in the waning days of his tenure.

Suspicious fumes at Florida home leads to FBI-assisted probe

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it’s assisting a Tampa Bay area law enforcement agency in the potential terrorism activity of a 21-year-old man who was arrested after his father was taken to a hospital due to suspicious fumes in the family home. Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said Thursday there is no indication that Sherif Eleganainy has terrorist ties.

Trump: U.S. must ‘greatly strengthen’ nuclear capability

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly called for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” until the rest of the world “comes to its senses” regarding nuclear weapons. Trump made the statement on Twitter and did not expand on the actions he wants the U.S. to take or on the issues he sees around the world.

Florida may let some death row inmates avoid executions

More than half of Florida’s inmates sentenced to death may avoid execution under a far-reaching ruling handed down by the state’s Supreme Court. A sharply divided court agreed Thursday to stop blocking the execution of Mark Asay, a Jacksonville man sentenced to death in 1987 for murdering two men.

Lawyer says Wahlberg movie unfair to Boston bomber’s widow

A lawyer for Katherine Russell, widow of one of the Boston Marathon bombers, says the new film “Patriots Day” is unfair because it suggests she knew something was up before the attack and then didn’t cooperate with the investigation afterward. “It’s just not true,” lawyer Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors: ‘Making a Murderer’ inmate’s confession legal

A Wisconsin inmate featured in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” has no basis for his claims that his confession wasn’t voluntary and shouldn’t be released from prison as a judge has ordered, state attorneys argued in a court filing. Brendan Dassey, now 27, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach two years earlier.

‘It’s a hassle’: Pennsylvania driver’s licenses…

Pennsylvanians planning on traveling in 2018 will be required to have more than their driver’s license to fly as the state-issued ID will no longer be accepted for domestic air travel. ‘It takes a while to get a passport and if they’re not aware of it, they’re not going on a trip’ – Kimberly Wilson Pennsylvanians planning on traveling in 2018 will be required to have more than their driver’s license to fly as the state-issued ID will no longer be accepted for domestic air travel.

Another view: Trumping the environment

Another view: Trumping the environment Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump was elected, the environment is going to suffer. Check out this story on ldnews.com: http://ldne.ws/2ikiTeq President-elect Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to the crowd during a campaign rally on Aug. 31 in Phoenix.

Trump meets with one-time adversary David Koch at Mar-a-Lago

President-elect Donald Trump may be making peace with the Koch brothers, the influential Republican billionaires who frequently criticized him during the election campaign. Sources familiar with the impromptu meeting told the Washington Post that Mr. Trump had met with billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Koch at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

Capitol Report: Senate Dems say Wells Fargo not responding to fraud info requests

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, holds up copies of Wells Fargo earnings call transcripts as she questions John Stumpf, then chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo The bank’s management has so far failed to answer all the questions the committee members have put to it, the letter says, following its settlement with multiple regulatory authorities in September for multi-year fraudulent sales practices. The letter , jointly signed by nine Democrats including Ranking Member Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, again asked Wells Fargo’s board for a status report on its ongoing investigation of the fraud and a detailed timeline of when the board learned about the illegal practices and actions it took.

Gallup’s Top Well-Being Discoveries of 2016

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index provides nearly real-time data on Americans’ well-being across five elements: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. The following are Gallup editors’ picks for the most important health and well-being findings reported in 2016.

Trump after Berlin, Turkey attacks: ‘I’ve been proven to be right’

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called the attacks this week in Berlin and Ankara “terrible” on Dec. 21 and said he has been proven to be correct about his plans to impose curbs on Muslims immigrating to the United States. “What’s going on is terrible, terrible,” Trump told reporters, when asked about the truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin and the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey by a gunman in Ankara, Reuters reported.