Day: January 18, 2017

California withdraws immigrant health care request

California officials on Wednesday withdrew their request to sell unsubsidized insurance policies to people who can’t prove they’re legally in the United States after learning the decision would fall to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Calling the decision “the first California casualty of the Trump presidency,” Sen. Ricardo Lara said he doesn’t trust the incoming administration to protect people’s privacy and health.

Assange walks back extradition pledge after Manning clemency

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange retreated from his pledge to accept extradition to the U.S. if Chelsea Manning was granted clemency, arguing Wednesday via his lawyers that what he was really asking for was an immediate pardon for the ex-Army analyst. It was only last week that Assange raised eyebrows across the internet when he appeared to offer himself up as a kind of swap for Manning, the former private convicted of leaking the hundreds of thousands of documents that made WikiLeaks a household name.

Ethics office tweets in middle of Tom Price hearing

The Office of Government Ethics Wednesday sent a series of four tweets outlining its procedures examining incoming Trump administration officials — right in the middle of a contentious Senate hearing about Rep. Tom Price’s stock transactions. The tweets came less than an hour after Price — Preisdent-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services — defended himself against questions about his stock transactions at a Senate hearing and invoked the ethics office’s approval.

Sign Help

I have a friend heading to the march in Washington, and we are looking for some ideas for a sign for her to carry. Personally, I would just carry a sign that says “FUCK THIS BULLSHIT” but I am a crude vulgarian. She would prefer something punny and clever.

Obama offers reassurance mixed with warnings

With that parting message to the nation, a sanguine Barack Obama sought to reassure the millions of Democrats disorientated and fearful about Donald Trump’s pending inauguration that presidents may change but the nation always endures. Still, in his final news conference as president, Obama warned that only an active citizenry and relentless political engagement can preserve what he sees as the successes of his administration and the values he believes have already made America great.

Chicago cop faces murder charges in off-duty shooting

A Chicago police officer was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the killing of a man while the officer was off duty, police said. Lowell Houser, 57, allegedly got into an argument with a man who was moving into a home on Chicago’s Northwest Side on January 2. The argument escalated, and Houser allegedly fired multiple shots at the man, Jose Nieves, killing him.

James Richard Pate

Mr. James Richard Pate, age 91, of Douglasville, GA, passed away January 16, 2017. He was born December 7, 1925 in Atlanta, GA to the late Albert and Eva Bell Swords Pate.

Trump taps former Georgia governor for agriculture secretary

After weeks of speculation , former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue was selected to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary, according to an official knowledgeable of the nomination but not authorized to speak publicly. Some agriculture leaders see Perdue, who grew up on a farm and earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine, as a strong supporter of farmers and ranchers who understands the issues facing rural America.

New survey shows how much Fox News dominated the 2016 election

Fox News dominated the airwaves during the 2016 election season, serving as the main source of news for more people than any other media outlet, a new survey showed on Wednesday. The survey, conducted by Pew Research Center, found that 19% of Americans who were surveyed considered Fox News their “main source” of news during the election.

Dem strategist: Time to a Unleash The Biden

Readers may laugh , but Joe Biden might just be the short-term patch for what ails the Democratic Party. Longtime Democratic strategist Mark Alderman advises Democrats to put the 4o-plus-year denizen of DC on the road to connect with Middle America, calling the outgoing vice-president “the party’s best asset” for the task.

Supreme Court hears case on Muslims rounded up after 9/11

The US high court reviewed whether the men, who say they were held after the Al-Qaeda attack based solely on their identity as Arab Muslims, had the right to sue top US officials including then-attorney general John Ashcroft and Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller, for their allegedly illegal detention. WASHINGTON: Muslims in the United States who were rounded up and detained in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 , 2001 attacks took their case before the US Supreme Court .

Bush senior in intensive care, wife Barbara also hospitalized

Former president George H.W. Bush was admitted to an intensive care unit Wednesday suffering from pneumonia, highlighting concerns about the health of a political dynasty’s patriarch just as a new US leader prepares to enter office. Bush, 92, was initially hospitalized Saturday for shortness of breath, but was moved to intensive care “to address an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia,” Bush’s office said in a statement.

US Rep. Capuano also planning Trump inauguration boycott

A second member of Massachusetts’ all-Democratic congressional delegation has decided to skip the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Rep. Michael Capuano said in a series of tweets Wednesday that although he has great respect for the office of the president and accepts the result of the November election, he won’t attend the inauguration.

Woman who sought kidney on Craigslist gets it from mother

A New Jersey woman who found a kidney donor on Craigslist in 2015 but later was told the organ transplant couldn’t happen because of complications has now received a kidney. Egg Harbor City resident Nina Saria, 34, said Tuesday she got a kidney last month from her mother, who lives in the Republic of Georgia.

Colorado hospitals could close if Obamacare is repealed and not replaced, execs say

Hospitals across the state could be forced to cut back services or even close if the Affordable Care Act is repealed without adequate replacement, several health care executives in Colorado warned on Wednesday. A hospital in the San Luis Valley, for instance, may not be able to maintain a level of care that means patients currently don’t have to leave the valley for chemotherapy or to have surgery on broken bones, its CEO said.

Chamber passes resolution supporting Orr for Sessions’ seat

The Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution today supporting the selection of state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, to replace U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions if Sessions is confirmed as U.S. attorney general. Because of Judiciary Committee rules, Sessions has to wait longer than other Cabinet picks until his nomination can come to the floor.

Hedwig ‘Hedy’ Ruth Smith

Hedy was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Adolf and Marie Mantek. After her graduation from high school, she was employed by Bell Telephone Company until 1950 when she enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Virginia set to execute man convicted in family’s slaying

This undated photo provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections shows convicted murderer Ricky Gray who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening, Jan. 18, 2017, at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. Gray is scheduled to be put to death for the murders of 9-year-old Stella Harvey and 4-year-old sister, Ruby, as well as their parents Bryan and Kathryn Harvey in 2006.

Famed OJ lawyer, Delaware justice clash over translation firm sale

Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz and a rare protest outside Delaware’s Supreme Court fueled an unusually heated hearing on Wednesday, in a battle between the warring co-founders of TransPerfect Global Inc, a leading translation firm. The hearing ended with Dershowitz shouting for more time to make his case, a request Chief Justice Leo Strine curtly and firmly denied as the four other justices filed out of the court.

scattertext 0.0.2.1.1

Exploratory data analysis just got more fun. ## Installation `$ pip install scattertext && python -m spacy.en.download` ## Changelog ### 0.0.2.1.0 I’ve added support for Chinese, including the ChineseNLP class, which uses a RegExp-based sentence splitter and [Jieba] for word segmentation.

‘I believe in the American people’: Obama upbeat in last news conference

President Obama championed America’s diversity in an upbeat final news conference Wednesday, challenging Americans to do more to ensure civil rights for everyone and insisting that future presidents will reflect the mixed-up “stew” of Americans of all faiths and backgrounds. ‘I believe in the American people’: Obama upbeat in last news conference President Obama championed America’s diversity in an upbeat final news conference Wednesday, challenging Americans to do more to ensure civil rights for everyone and insisting that future presidents will reflect the mixed-up “stew” of Americans of all faiths and backgrounds.

DeVos confirmation hearing elicits intense reactions

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, emerged from her confirmation hearings with Republicans praising her commitment to school choice and with Democrats voicing concerns over what they see as a lack of experience to ensure equity for students of all backgrounds and abilities. During the hearings, Sen. Tim Kaine did not back down as he repeatedly asked DeVos to address yes-or-no questions about a variety of education issues, including the Individuals with Disabilities Act-a key federal law that allocates federal funding to schools to ensure the needs of students with disabilities are met.

The Republicans’ Counterrevolution

For referring to Donald Trump’s presidency as illegitimate, Rep. John Lewis found himself in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s weaponized iPhone and his itchy Twitter-finger. And having been in the fight to secure voting rights for Americans, facing bricks, water cannons, attack dogs, batons and the threat of imminent death from the Klan, he speaks from a place of some knowledge.

Federal study on Dakota Access pipeline to move forward

A federal judge said Wednesday he won’t keep the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from launching a full environmental study of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline’s disputed crossing under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ request to stop the Corps from proceeding until he rules on whether the company already has the necessary permission to lay pipe under Lake Oahe, the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

Discredited Former New York Times Reporter Disregards Her Own Record While Smearing Chelsea Manning

A prominent journalist who spread lies the U.S. government used to sell the war in Iraq-which led to the deaths of an estimated 1 million-plus people-implied that whistleblower Chelsea Manning has blood on her hands for exposing U.S. atrocities in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Manning, who has been serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, had her prison sentence commuted on Tuesday, January 17, after years of pressure from grassroots activists and advocacy groups.