Day: January 19, 2017

Obama grants 330 more commutations, bringing total to a record 1,715

Obama grants 330 more commutations, bringing total to a record 1,715 “The president set out to reinvigorate clemency, and he has done just that,” White House says. Check out this story on thestarpress.com: http://usat.ly/2jEkik1 WASHINGTON – President Obama commuted the sentences of 330 more federal inmates Thursday, capping an unprecedented clemency effort that has now released 1,715 prisoners – more than any other president in history.

As Trump takes office, – get rid of lines’ has limits in…

U.S. Rep. Tom Price, Georgia during a Jan. 18, 2017 confirmation hearing as White House nominee for the post of secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg less U.S. Rep. Tom Price, Georgia during a Jan. 18, 2017 confirmation hearing as White House nominee for the post of secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Company that Trump HHS pick invested in faced criminal fine

A medical device company in which Rep. Tom Price purchased stock last year has faced years of legal problems and agreed in December to a $17 million Justice Department criminal penalty in a foreign bribery case. Democrats this week challenged the Georgia Republican, who is President-elect Donald Trump ‘s pick for health secretary, on his investments and potential conflict of interest.

Bernie Sanders Said America Is Not a Compassionate Country. The Numbers Say He’s Right.

“No we are not a compassionate society,” Sen. Sanders interjected during Tom Price’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday as he pointed to the rate of child poverty and to the fact that so many “older workers have nothing set aside for retirement.” On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders had his chance to question Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Treasury Nominee Steven Mnuchin’s ‘Avatar’ Profits Shelter Attacked at Confirmation Hearing

On Thursday morning, Steven Mnuchin, the president-elect’s nominee to head the U.S. Treasury Department, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee. Although the bulk of the confirmation hearing was expected to focus on his positions on tax reform and his role during the mortgage crisis nearly a decade ago, his Hollywood connections got some heavy attention with an attack on where his profits from Avatar were funneled.

VP Mike Pence announces that the transition team did their job

With just one day left until president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Vice President-elect Mike Pence announced that the transition team finished their job “on schedule and under budget”, using the same like Trump has used several times, when talking about his real estate projects. The VP announced that there’s still “some 20 percent of taxpayer funding” left and they’re planning to return it to the U.S. Treasury, according to ABC News .

Author Sued for “Children’s Versions” of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Big publishers and the estates of Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway and Arthur C. Clarke have teamed up for a copyright lawsuit. Swedish author Fredrik Colting, who infamously went to court a decade ago after writing a “sequel” to J.D. Salinger’s classic novel, Catcher in the Rye , is now in a legal dispute for allegedly infringing the copyright to four classic novels – Breakfast at Tiffany’s , The Old Man and The Sea , On the Road , and 2001: A Space Odyssey .

Blame insurers, not Obamacare

Blame insurers, not Obamacare The recent op-ed by Congressman Scott Perry misleads your readership on the effects of the Affordable Care Act. Check out this story on ydr.com: http://on-ydr.co/2jDAkLh The recent op-ed by Congressman Scott Perry seriously misleads your readership on the effects of the Affordable Care Act and the Republican plan to repeal it.

There Have Been Rockier Transitions Than This One

Larry Sabato : “Truly, has there ever been as dramatic a contrast between outgoing and incoming chief executives as Barack Obama and Donald Trump? Actually, yes: the refined John Quincy Adams and the rough-hewn populist Andrew Jackson despised each other. Jackson believed he had been cheated out of the White House by a corrupt bargain during 1824’s House of Representatives “run-off” that installed Adams as president.

Perry regrets call to eliminate Energy Department

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Energy Department, said Thursday he regrets his infamous statement about abolishing the federal agency and insisted it performs a critical function. Perry told a Senate committee that if confirmed, he will be a passionate advocate for the department’s core missions and will seek to draw “greater attention to the vital role played by the agency,” especially in protecting and modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

Army mom: ‘My children have always been first’

Simone Holcomb has put her Army career in jeopardy to provide care for her husband’s children in a custody dispute. A Colorado court has ruled that either Holcomb or her husband Vaughn must remain in the United States in order for the Holcombs to retain full custody of Vaughn’s two children from a previous marriage.

Inauguration Eve: Trump juggles work, play, preps to party

Ready for his big moment, Donald Trump traded in his beloved private plane for a military jet Thursday and swooped into Washington for three days of inaugural festivities. As the president-elect left New York behind, the capital braced for an onslaught of inaugural crowds and demonstrators numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

GOP selects Romney McDaniel to lead party operation

Musician Kid Rock will kick off the opening of the new home arena for the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons with four con HOLLAND, Mich. – Officials in the western Michigan city of Holland are moving forward with plans to build a bridge for walkers and bicy Michigan Republican Ronna Romney McDaniel was elected to serve as RNC chairman on Thursday.

Kremlin worries that Trump wona t be such a great deal after all, officials say

Russia is giving Donald Trump the kind of fawning television coverage usually reserved for Vladimir Putin, with its most popular propagandist hailing the president-elect this week as “a man of his word.” But inside the Kremlin, the initial euphoria over having a Putin admirer in the White House is giving way to skepticism that any meaningful detente with the U.S. can be achieved, according to four senior officials in Moscow.

Well Wishes Pour In For Ex-President, First Lady

Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, remain hospitalized in Houston, where he was in intensive care for pneumonia and she was being watched after complaining of fatigue and coughing. The 92-year-old former president went into the ICU on Wednesday and underwent a procedure “to protect and clear his airway that required sedation,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement.

Former President George H.W. Bush and wife hospitalized

In this Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 file photo, former President George H. W. Bush, right, and his wife, Barbara, are greeted before a Republican presidential primary debate at The University of Houston in Houston. On Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, the former president was admitted to an intensive care unit, and Barbara was hospitalized as a precaution, according to his spokesman.

Mideast Expects Big Changes Under Trump

Donald Trump’s all-but-dismissal of human rights as a foreign policy principle could hit like an earthquake across a Middle East landscape beset by warring factions and beleaguered governments, with some players eyeing the prospect of once unimaginable new alliances. Syria is the foremost test of Trump’s promise of a return to a hard-headed realpolitik and could quickly show whether America is truly abandoning promotion of democracy and the rule of law in a way that could reshape much of the region’s post-Cold War, post-9/11 order.

Even Before Taking Office, Trump Has Changed The Presidency

Donald Trump enters the White House on Friday just as he entered the race for president: defiant, unfiltered, unbound by tradition and utterly confident in his chosen course. In the 10 weeks since his surprise election as the nation’s 45th president, Trump has violated decades of established diplomatic protocol, sent shockwaves through business boardrooms, tested long-standing ethics rules and continued his combative style of replying to any slight with a personal attack – on Twitter and in person.

Missouri, New Hampshire could become right-to-work states

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens delivers his State of the State address at the Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. Greitens during the address on Tuesday outlined a policy plan he says will help grow jobs, including passing a right-to-work law barring mandatory union fees and paring back government regulations.

POLL: Trump’s Inauguration: Celebration for Some, Stress for Others

Not only did his If I’m Honest project win the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Album, he’s the first country artist ever to… NBA Wednesday’s Games Charlotte 107, Portland 85 Philadelphia 94, Toronto 89 Washington 104, Memphis 101 New York 117, Boston 106 Detroit 118, Atlanta 95 Houston 111, M… – A day of celebration for Donald Trump’s supporters has another impact on his critics: for them, the inauguration brings stress. Stress soars, unsurprisingly, among Americans who preferred Hillary Clinton for the presidency: 65 percent of them in this ABC News/ Washington Post poll say Trump’s election has increased their stress above its usual level.

Dear Mr. President: Students Write Letters to President-Elect Donald Trump

Not only did his If I’m Honest project win the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Album, he’s the first country artist ever to… NBA Wednesday’s Games Charlotte 107, Portland 85 Philadelphia 94, Toronto 89 Washington 104, Memphis 101 New York 117, Boston 106 Detroit 118, Atlanta 95 Houston 111, M… – The divisive campaign season and the subsequent election of Donald Trump left many in the country very emotional and searching for ways to express their feelings. Suki Highers, a sociology teacher at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Arkansas, found that her students were in a similar state of mind.

The Latest: LGBT activists hold dance party near Pence home

In this Dec. 1, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence wave as they visit to Carrier factory in Indianapolis, Ind. Donald Trump enters the White House on Jan. 20 just as he entered the race for president: defiant, unfiltered, unbound by tradition and utterly confident in his chosen course.

Thursday’s Trump Cabinet confirmations: What to watch

Donald Trump’s Cabinet confirmation hearings continue Thursday, just one day before the President-elect is set to take the oath of office. Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, is scheduled to face the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET, according to the committee’s website.

Afghan journalists face more threats as violence spreads

Afghan journalists say they are facing more risks than ever as both insurgents and unscrupulous government officials increasingly threaten, assault, and even murder reporters. At least 13 journalists were killed in Afghanistan last year, making it the deadliest year on record for Afghan media, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee said on Wednesday.

Intact Mexico-to-US border tunnels post security risk

Mexican drug cartels have burrowed dozens of tunnels in the past decade, outfitted them with rail and cart systems to whisk drugs under the U.S. border and, after being discovered by authorities, abandoned them. At least six previously discovered border tunnels have been reactivated by Mexican trafficking groups in recent years, exposing a recurring large-scale smuggling threat, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials.

County residents to attend inauguration

Donald Trump will be sworn in as America’s 45th president on Friday and Delaware County will be far from underrepresented for the celebrations and the protests.Ohio Wesleyan University will send about 30 students for the inauguration, said Dwayne Todd, vice president of student engagement.