Dec 29 The FBI squarely blamed Russian intelligence services on Thursday for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, releasing the most definitive report yet on the issue, including samples of malicious computer code said to have been used in a broad hacking campaign. Starting in mid-2015, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the FSB, emailed a malicious link to more than 1,000 recipients, including U.S. government targets, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a 13-page report co-authored with the Department of Homeland Security.
Day: December 29, 2016
Carjacking turned to Kidnappinga Child found safe
A 6-year-old girl was found safe today after a suspect stole the running car in which she was left waiting while her mother went into a South Los Angeles laundromat. The vehicle was taken just after 2 p.m. in the 7800 block of Broadway, according to Officer Aareon Jefferson of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section.
Tribes get say in land management but worry about Trump
In this July 14, 2016, file photo, the Newspaper Rock featuring a rock panel of petroglyphs in the Indian Creek Area is shown to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell near Monticello, Utah, during a tour to meet with proponents and opponents to the “Bears Ears” monument proposal. President Barack Obama on Wednesday, Dec. 28, designated two new national monuments in Utah and Nevada.
Sanders’ bid, Hardwood tragedy top stories
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid exposed a streak of progressivism in a swath of the American electorate, and the Vermont independent’s performance in the Democratic presidential primaries was voted the top story of 2016 in his adopted home state by Associated Press member editors and broadcasters. The AP gathered nominations from Vermont news organizations that belong to the news cooperative, developed a list and asked journalists to rank the top 10 stories, using a point system in which each ballot’s top-ranked story got 10, the second-ranking story 9 and so on.
GOP readies swift Obamacare repealwith no replacement in place
The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare. But the euphoria of finally acting on a long-sought goal will quickly give way to the reality that Republicans – and President-elect Donald Trump – have no agreement thus far on how to replace coverage for about 20 million people who gained insurance under the health-care law.
Israel and the damage done by Obama
In this Nov. 9, 2015, file photo, President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House. The audience – overwhelmingly Jewish, passionately pro-Israel and supremely gullible – applauded wildly.
2 hurt as helicopter makes hard landing on Mount Baldy
The San Bernardino County Fire Department says the chopper went down Thursday about 1,000 feet below the 10,000-foot summit. Video shows the battered craft lying in the snow on the mountain northeast of Los Angeles.
Abe’s Popularity Hits Three-Year High After Pearl Harbor Visit 18 minutes ago
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s public approval rating has risen to a three-year high following his visit to Pearl Harbor, according to a survey by the Nikkei newspaper and TV Tokyo. The rating rose six points from a month earlier to 64 percent, the highest level since October 2013, according to the poll taken on Dec. 28 to Dec. 29. Most Japanese supported Abe’s trip to the site of the nation’s 1941 attack, with 84 percent in agreement and 9 percent opposed, the survey showed.
Matt Drudge suggests U.S. government could be attacking Drudge Report website
Via the Twitter account for his Drudge Report, he said his news-aggregation site is the victim of the “biggest DDoS since site’s inception,” referring to a Direct Denial of Service attack. Mr. Drudge’s news-aggregation site was one of the highest-profile sites to take a favorable tack on Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
John Kerry’s practiced betrayal of friends
In 1971, when he was a young lieutenant just back from Vietnam, where he was a decorated skipper of a Swift Boat patrolling the Mekong River, he appeared before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to pay his “respects” to the American soldiers, sailors and Marines he fought a war with. Representing all those veterans, he told the senators, he wanted to talk about war crimes he said “were committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”
Final step of Indiana income tax cut effective Jan. 1
Indiana’s personal income tax rate will drop slightly beginning New Year’s Day, completing a phased-in reduction that’s half of the 10 percent cut Republican Gov. Mike Pence pushed during his 2012 campaign. The state income tax rate will become 3.23 percent for 2017, down from the 3.3 percent rate that’s been in place the past two years.
Trump on Russia sanctions: Time to move on, but I’ll meet…
President-elect Donald Trump responded Thursday to President Barack Obama’s fresh sanctions against Russia, saying that it’s “time to move on,” but that he’ll meet with intelligence officials to discuss Russian involvement in election hacks anyway. “It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” Trump said in a brief evening statement.
Russia expert: New US sanctions ‘clearly meant to throw a…
New US sanctions on Russia could complicate the Trump administration’s relations with the Kremlin, as the president-elect seeks to warm relations while other US officials insist on harsh punishments for election meddling. Boris Zilberman, a Russia expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said increased sanctions from the US are “clearly … meant to throw a wrench into next [administration’s] dealings with Moscow.”
AFP corrects misleading story that suggested Russia tampered…
The Agence France-Presse on Thursday updated a misleading headline that suggested that Russia manipulated US vote totals on Election Day through hacking. The Obama administration leveled sanctions against Russia on Thursday for election-related hacking.
Petrobangla Signs $950mln Deal with Petronet for LNG Terminal
Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation signed an initial agreement with India’s energy company Petronet LNG Limited to set up an LNG re-gasification terminal on Kutubdia Island and a pipeline at an estimated cost of $950 million . Prabhat Singh, managing director and chief executive officer, Petonet and Syed Ashfaquzzaman, secretary, Petrobangla, sign an agreement at Petrobangla Bhaban in Dakka.
a Faithless electorsa in Washington face $1,000 fines
Democratic electors Phillip Tyler, left, and Esther John fill out their ballots with ceremonial plastic “quill” pens during a meeting of Washington state’s Electoral College Monday, Dec. 19, 2016, in Olympia, Wash. For the first time in four decades, members of the Electoral College in Washington state broke from the state’s popular vote for president, with four electors casting their votes for candidates other than Democrat Hillary Clinton.
US punishes Russia for hacking presidential campaign
The United States struck back Thursday at Russia for hacking the U.S. presidential campaign with a sweeping set of punishments targeting Russia’s spy agencies and diplomats. The U.S. said Russia must bear costs for its actions, but Moscow called the Obama administration “losers” and threatened retaliation.
US considers mining limits in West to save sage grouse
The Obama administration offered five possible plans Thursday for limiting mining on federal land in the West to protect the vulnerable greater sage grouse, but it isn’t saying which it prefers. The options range from banning new mining activity on approximately 15,000 square miles for up to 20 years to imposing no additional restrictions on mine locations.
Garbage trucks to block possible Times Square truck attacks
Massive 20-ton sanitation trucks, weighted with an extra 15 tons of sand, will surround the iconic New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, officials said Thursday, describing a security measure meant to stop deadly truck-driving attacks into crowds like those in Germany and France. The placement of the 65 trucks, along with 100 patrol cars, at intersections surrounding Times Square is a new element to an already heavily policed event that will include 7,000 officers, specially armed counterterrorism units and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Kasich Veto Of Energy Bill Sets Up 2017 ‘Lame Duck’ Shooting Season
When Republican State Senator Bill Seitz issued his statement Monday, following Gov. John Kasich’s veto of Ohio House Bill 554, he didn’t spare the rod to spoil this governor. “It is apparent that Governor Kasich cares more about appeasing his coastal elite friends in the renewable energy business than he does about the millions of Ohioans who decisively rejected this ideology when they voted for President-elect Trump,” Seitz, representing Ohio’s 8th District from Cincinnati, said.
Predictions: DeWine-Rosenberger Gov. Ticket, Householder Returns To House Speaker
Governor John Kasich, who is being dubbed by some statehouse insiders these days as “John Who?” still has two years left in his term, but with the clout Majority Caucus Republicans will yield next year in the House and Senate, his last biennial budget could be dead on arrival, and any bills sent to him that he chooses to veto can be easily over ridden if Republican will is strong enough.
When telling the truth is actually dishonest
In the taxonomy of deception, many believe that the worst kind of lie is one of “commission” – intentionally misleading someone by knowingly making a false statement. But another common type of deception – one many have witnessed but probably didn’t know what to call – may be viewed just as badly.
U.S. punishes Russia for election hacking with sanctions, expulsion of diplomats
The Obama administration announced Thursday the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and new sanctions as punishment for meddling in the U.S. presidential election. The White House and the Treasury Department announced sanctions against Russia’s main intelligence organizations — the Federal Security Service, which is the main successor to the KGB, and the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence operation.
Obama retaliates against Russia for election hacking
Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, right, looks at US Sen. John McCain centre left, during a press conference, Wednesday in Riga, Latvia, while Lindsey Graham, R-SC., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., stand in the background. Russia can expect hard-hitting sanctions from United States lawmakers if an investigation proves that Moscow interfered in the presidential election, a U.S. senator said Wednesday during a visit to Latvia.
Indiana University same sex partner benefits end Dec. 31
More than 20 Indiana University employees will lose health care coverage if they don’t marry their same-sex partners by the end of the month. University employees in same-sex relationships have relied on a domestic-partner health care policy offered since 2002, the South Bend Tribune reported.
Law allows huge expansion of historic Civil War battlefield
In this Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, Petersburg National Battlefield Superintendent Lewis Rogers poses at the park’s headquarters in Petersburg, Va. The national park in Virginia could expand by more than 7,000 acres under legislation Congress recently passed.
Super rich always have divided the working class
After an uprising that grew from many voices, including my own, A&E has wisely canceled the eight-hour docu-series that was originally dubbed Generation KKK. A&E has canceled an upcoming documentary about efforts to help Ku Klux Klan members break away from the hate group after learning that cash payments were made “to facilitate access” to the filmA s subjects.
Highlights from New Yorker Interactive and Multimedia Stories of 2016
One mark of a good story is that you fall into it, enraptured by every detail. The same is true of multimedia storytelling-except that, depending on the medium, you can sometimes virtually “fall in.”
Spicer: Why won’t the DNC take some blame for hackings?
President-elect Donald Trump’s top spokesman demanded Thursday that Democrats take more responsibility for not preventing alleged Russian cyberintrusions. Sean Spicer, a top strategist at the Republican National Committee and the incoming White House press secretary, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that while he condemned the hackings, too much emphasis had been placed on the attempts and not enough on ways to prevent them.
Russia sanctions announced by White House
President Barack Obama took unprecedented steps Thursday retaliating against what the administration described as “Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” including sanctioning six Russian individuals and five Russian entities as well as ordering Russian diplomats to leave the country. This is the first time the names of Russian officials involved in the hacking have become public on the sanctions list.
Sen. Ted Cruz Slams Obama and Kerry Over Israel
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., blasted President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry for their actions regarding Israel, calling both men “bitter clingers” who “are spending every last minute of this administration wreaking havoc domestically and abroad.” The Washington Examiner reports that Cruz claimed the lame duck administration’s actions were “designed to weaken and marginalize Israel and to embolden its enemies.”
Rep. Franks: Sanctions Based on ‘Leaks,’ Obama Acting ‘Hypocritically’
Congress has not yet been briefed on whether Russia interfered in the presidential election, and it’s a “little premature” to come to conclusions that lead to President Barack Obama’s sanctions against Russia, Rep. Trent Franks said Thursday, and he finds it hypocritical that Obama is making such accusations. “What we’re hearing is information leaked from the intelligence community, primarily from the Barack Obama administration apparatus,” the Arizona Republican, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told MSNBC Thursday afternoon.
A News Quiz for 2017
6) In 2017, WikiLeaks will release d. face a very serious challenge by a popular and wealthy Republican congressman from Texas.
Why political satire may become even more important in Trump era
John Oliver, pictured here at a February 2015 Comedy Central event, used nearly the entire season finale of his HBO show on Nov. 13, 2016, to criticize President-elect Donald Trump. “This week saw the biannual nuclear security summit in Washington,” begins John Oliver to a cheering crowd on a segment of his HBO show, “Last Week Tonight.”
new Obama retaliates against Russia for election hacking
In a sweeping response to election hacking, President Barack Obama on Thursday sanctioned Russian intelligence services and their top officials, kicked out 35 Russian officials and shuttered two Russian-owned compounds in the U.S. It was the strongest action the Obama administration has taken to date to retaliate for a cyberattack. “All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” Obama said in a statement released while he was vacationing in Hawaii.
Obama Sanctions Russia For Interference in the U.S. Election
President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized a series of sanctions against Russia for intervening in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and warned of more action to come. “These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Obama said in a statement.
Complete White House statement on sanctions against Russia over alleged cyberattack
As telegraphed , the Obama administration on Thursday leveled new sanctions against Russia, its intelligence agencies and individual Russian officials and diplomats. Below is the White House statement in its entirety.
Seventh Circuit Allows FCA Claim Based on Inferences of Fraud to…
In United States ex rel. Presser v. Acacia Mental Health Clinic, LLC , 836 F.3d 770 , the Seventh Circuit addressed Rule 9 ‘s application to a False Claims Act complaint, elaborating on when it considers a relator’s allegations sufficiently particular to meet Rule 9 ‘s heightened pleading standard when a relator does not have access to the particular claims being submitted to the government for payment.
Utah attorney general to sue over monument
The Republican attorney general of Utah says he’s going to sue over President Barack Obama’s designation of the Bears Ears National Monument that spans 1.35 million acres in the state. Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a statement Wednesday that he’s working with local officials to file a lawsuit.
Utah attorney general to sue over monument
The Republican attorney general of Utah says he’s going to sue over President Barack Obama’s designation of the Bears Ears National Monument that spans 1.35 million acres in the state. Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a statement Wednesday that he’s working with local officials to file a lawsuit.