Month: January 2017

Krauthammer Steams – Dems Are ‘Leaving Behind As Many Landmines As They Can’ [VIDEO]

Charles Krauthammer criticized Democrats for leaving behind “landmines” to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency during a panel discussion on Fox News Thursday night. “I don’t want to impute a general conspiracy but it looks as if the Democrats, on their way out the door, are trying to leave behind as many landmines as they can to at least cast doubts on the legitimacy of the Trump victory,” the Fox News host stated.

Report on Chicago police to raise questions about next steps

The U.S. Department of Justice is poised to release a report Friday detailing the extent of civil rights violations committed by the Chicago Police Department, which will trigger negotiations with the federal government and provide an early sign of how much pressure President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will be willing to exert on cities to reform police agencies. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department opened investigations into 25 law enforcement agencies and negotiated court-enforced settlements with most of the cities.

Bush twins write touching letter to Sasha and Malia Obama about being first daughters

In 2009, as their father penned a letter to his successor, the twin daughters of President George W. Bush, Jenna and Barbara, wrote a letter of their own. Their dad’s would be confidential and offer advice, tucked away in the top drawer of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, where incoming President Barack Obama would find it on his first day of work as leader of the free world.

The little-known ethics director who took on Trump

It was already a frantic day in the Donald Trump presidential transition: The incoming president had attacked a reporter at a circus-like press conference, and a series of Cabinet confirmation hearings were producing fireworks. Walter M. Shaub, the director of the previously obscure Office of Government Ethics, was speaking at the staid Brookings Institution, and he lit into the incoming president for his plan to separate himself from his business empire.

10 Things to Know for Today

Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis listens to questions from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., about his views on women and gays serving in the military, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. less Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis listens to questions from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., about his views on women and gays serving in the military, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate … more Cuban migrant Yarisel Isac Wilson, 20, right, cries as she talks about her journey to the U.S. at a migrant shelter in Panama City, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017.

Democrats find Trump’s picks more reasonable than Trump himself

The lack of fireworks surrounding Senate consideration of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks may reflect a belief by minority Democrats that the people chosen are more reasonable than Trump. It could also be the residue of a surprising number of statements by Trump’s Cabinet choices contradicting the billionaire businessman’s oft-stated positions on issues running the gamut from Russia and NATO to nuclear weapons and Muslims.

Obama gives emotional farewell speech

“By almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place” than it was eight years ago when he took office, he told thousands of supporters. He implored Americans of all backgrounds to consider things from each other’s point of view, saying “we have to pay attention and listen”.

Kerry visits Vietnam on last trip as US secretary of state

Secretary of State John Kerry met Vietnamese leaders Friday during his last trip as the top diplomat for the United States. Kerry later left for Ho Chi Minh City to meet a group of Vietnamese youth and is scheduled Saturday to tour the Mekong delta province of Ca Mau, where he fought during the Vietnam War almost 50 years ago.

Guilford Mom Shines Spotlight On Opioid Epidemic

Sue Kruczek didn’t know that when she began talking a year ago about how her son died of a drug overdose at the age of 20 that she would become one of the go to spokespeople on the opioid epidemic plaguing the state of Connecticut. She was at the side of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last May when he signed landmark legislation placing a 7-day cap on opioid prescription, a law sponsored by Guilford State Rep. Sean Scanlon, another politician that Kruczek has spent much of the past year with at events concerning the opioid crisis.

UPDATE 2-Australia’s DUET Group recommends raised offer from Hong Kong’s CKI

Jan 16 Australian energy firm DUET Group on Monday said its board would recommend a takeover offer from a consortium led by Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings after the price was increased slightly to value the company at A$7.37 billion . DUET shareholders will receive A$3.03 a share, up A$0.03 from the offer CKI made in December, the takeover target said in a statement, recommending the proposal in the absence of a higher offer.

blog-photo

Though he says it’s not a tooth-and-nail sibling rivalry, Sen. Mike Lee does see one advantage in getting the U.S. Supreme Court nomination over his older brother. If picked for a high-court post by President-elect Donald Trump, he’d be in a position to overrule decisions made by his brother, Thomas Lee, associate chief justice on the Utah Supreme Court.

blog-photo

Though he says it’s not a tooth-and-nail sibling rivalry, Sen. Mike Lee does see one advantage in getting the U.S. Supreme Court nomination over his older brother. If picked for a high-court post by President-elect Donald Trump, he’d be in a position to overrule decisions made by his brother, Thomas Lee, associate chief justice on the Utah Supreme Court.

Esteban Santiago opened fire at Fort Lauderdale’s airport / Courtesy: Broward Sheriff’s Office

Just weeks before a gunman opened fire at Fort Lauderdale’s airport, authorities said he walked into an FBI office in Alaska, telling agents the government was controlling his mind and that he was having terroristic thoughts. It’s a daily occurrence for law enforcement agencies and authorities say the difficulty is in assessing whether people are reporting a credible threat, whether or whether they need medical help.

Ohio seeks drug to reverse lethal injections

Ohio’s prisons agency is trying to obtain a drug that could reverse the lethal injection process if needed by stopping the effects of another drug previously used in problematic executions. The request to use the drug would come if executioners weren’t confident the first of three lethal drugs would render a prisoner unconscious, Gary Mohr, director of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said in federal court testimony on Jan. 6. “Governor, I am not confident that we, in fact, can achieve a successful execution.

Weird War Over Congress Pig-Cop PaintingBy Matt Laslo

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are supposed to be the grownups in the room, but a spat over a high school student’s painting is revealing their childish tendencies-and the episode could have broad implications for race relations under President Donald J. Trump . Every year high school students across the U.S. compete to get their art hung in the Capitol where it’s on display for the millions of visitors who walk through the complex annually, but this year one young artist’s work has inflamed racial tensions among lawmakers and revived a debate over police tactics.

Five reasons why the Justice Department watchdog is probing the Clinton case

An announcement Thursday that Michael Horowitz, inspector general for the Department of Justice, would lead a far-reaching probe into how officials at the Justice Department and the FBI handled an investigation into Hillary Clinton ‘s emails resurrected a controversy that many Democrats had blamed for the loss of their candidate in the presidential race. The year-long criminal investigation of Clinton’s private email network – and whether it compromised classified information from her tenure at the State Department – rankled Republicans and Democrats alike, both in the perfunctory way agents pursued it and the public way the FBI director closed it.

Movie Review: Patriots Day

Peter Berg’s Patriots Day is a true ensemble movie, marshaling the talents of many performers in the service of a multi-pronged narrative related with headlong purpose. The picture depicts the city of Boston as a community suddenly united by a surge of courage and resilience in the wake of an inexplicable horror-the Boston Marathon bombing of April 15, 2013.

The Comforting Convictions of Obama’s Farewell Speech

Watching President Barack Obama’s soaring 2008 Democratic National Convention speech in Denver, I never imagined the kind of turmoil his presidency would incite. Almost everything has changed in the subsequent years, and yet his farewell speech to the nation was brimming with the same brand of haughty lecturing.

Scientists Rebuke California Coastal Commission Over Desalination

The California Coastal Commission’s stated concern that a proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant’s intake pipes pose a threat to small and microscopic plankton has been rebutted in a letter from three prominent California marine biologists. Anthony Koslow, Eric Miller and John McGowan-marine biologists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla-were responding to comments made at a Dec. 1 panel about ocean desalination in Ventura County by Tom Luster, the agency’s lead staffer on the desalination issue.

States – Including West Virginia – Face Questions About Billionaire Leaders

Some of the conflict-of-interest issues swirling around President-elect Donald Trump in Washington are playing out on a smaller scale in West Virginia, where the richest man in the state – an Appalachian coal baron with real estate, resort and farm holdings, too – is about to be sworn in as governor. Democratic Gov.-elect Jim Justice, like Trump, has refused to shed his holdings, giving assurances he can be trusted to act honorably.

Robert John Sheehan, Jr.

Robert John Sheehan, Jr. age 73 of Lakehills, passed into the world of light on Monday, Dec. 26 at his home in Lakehills. He was born in Whitehall, NY to Elizabeth and Robert John Sheehan on February 19, 1943.