Local sports fans – the people who didn’t care about the debut of the Good Wife spinoff – had a decision to make Sunday night.
Day: February 22, 2017
The School Project That Sets Parents Free
“We’re both very cautious,” says Amy Thornborrow of herself and her husband. “He’s actually more so.”
Judge Blocks Texas Cutting Medicaid to Planned Parenthood
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Texas can’t cut off Medicaid dollars to Planned Parenthood over secretly recorded videos taken by anti-abortion activists in 2015 that launched Republican efforts across the U.S. to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider. An injunction issued by U.S. District Sam Sparks of Austin comes after he delayed making decision in January and essentially bought Planned Parenthood an extra month in the state’s Medicaid program.
Top Ten Movies of 2016
Yet Hillary lost, so I was out of luck. The exception to my disillusionment with 2016, is the exceptional quality of films released, emphasizing documentaries.
Deportation nation
The Trump administration on Tuesday moved one step closer to implementing the president’s plans to aggressively rid the country of undocumented immigrants and expand local police-based enforcement of border security operations. In a fact sheet outlining the efforts, the Department of Homeland Security said that though their top priority is finding and removing undocumented immigrants with criminal histories, millions more may also be subject to immediate removal.
Trump approval
In his second month in office, President Donald Trump is getting overwhelmingly good grades on his job performance from the state’s Republicans, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Trump is popular enough to cast positive light on Russian President Vladimir Putin, a world figure who turns out to be markedly more unpopular with Texas Democrats than with Texas Republicans.
A bill designed to boost Florida’s private alternatives to federal…
A bill designed to boost Florida’s private alternatives to federal flood insurance cleared an early stop Tuesday, though not without a bit of protest and unease about moves that whisk away price regulation. Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St.
American artist displays his works in Baku [PHOTO]
Entitled “The OBSERVER is the OBSERVED”, the expo was co-organized by art agency Marika Parkdale and Carpentier Art Paris, with the support of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the U.S Embassy in Baku and Arts Council Azerbaijan. Chairperson of the Azerbaijan Artists Union, People’s Artist Farhad Khalilov addressed the opening ceremony and stressed that the exhibition will attract the attention of art critics and a wide audience of art lovers.
Bill Hasten
Billie L. “Bill” Hasten, 86, of Phoenix, formerly of La Harpe, Ill., died at 1:11 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017, at Ryan House – Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix. Born Dec. 13, 1930, in Fountain Green, Ill., he was the son of Carl and Jessie McConnell Hasten.
Group rallies for Donnelly to confirm Gorsuch
FORT WAYNE, Ind. Dozens gathered outside Senator Joe Donnelly’s office in Fort Wayne Tuesday, asking him to confirm the Supreme Court nominee.
Bustos visits Monmouth hospital to talk ACA
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., representing Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, met with hospital staff and board members Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 at OSF Family Medical Center in Monmouth, Ill. MONMOUTH, Ill.
Trump administration working on trans bathroom guidelines
The Trump administration is working on a new set of directives on the use of school bathrooms by transgender students, the White House said Tuesday. The announcement alarmed LGBT groups throughout the country that have urged President Donald Trump to safeguard Obama-era guidelines allowing students to use school restrooms matching their gender identity, not their assigned gender at birth.
Saudi Arabia ready to send ground troops to Syria
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has said the kingdom is prepared to send ground troops to Syria to fight the Daesh group, as US Senator John McCain met with the Saudi King. Adel al-Jubeir told German daily SA1 4ddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday that Saudi forces could battle Daesh alongside US special forces assisting US-backed Kurdish-Arab fighters.
Deadline to leave Dakota Access Pipeline site approaching
As Wednesday’s deadline set by the governor to evacuate the Standing Rock camp site looms, a number of Dakota Access Pipeline protesters have vowed to stay put. Last week, Gov. Doug Burgum signed an emergency evacuation order of the property to allow private contractors to remove waste from the Oceti Sakowin camp area, which officials say is in floodplain.
Debate over religious freedom returns to Georgia legislature
Georgia Republicans have again proposed legislation they argue will protect people acting on religious beliefs, undaunted by Gov. Nathan Deal’s veto of a proposal last year. The proposal’s odds of becoming law aren’t yet clear.
Trump Eyes Easing Obama Rules for Sprawling Pipeline Network
The hints of a pipeline spill are subtle: the hiss of rushing fluid, a streak of rainbow sheen. Tucked far below ground, a ruptured line can escape notice for days or even weeks, especially in the backcountry, where inspectors rarely venture.
How we can make the popular vote matter again
Students wait in line to vote at the Mansfield Community Center on November 8, 2016. Democratic presidential candidates have won the popular vote in six of the last seven elections, and yet, there’s been an equal number of Republicans and Democrats in the White House since 1992.
Guantanamo Bay Prison ‘Healthy’ For National Security: White House
The Trump administration has indicated that it is unlikely to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison for dangerous terror suspects, saying it is serving a “healthy purpose” towards the national security, the Press Trust of India reported. “I think he has made very clear though, that he believes that Guantanamo Bay does serve a very, very healthy purpose in our national security and making sure that we don’t bring terrorists to our seas,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Tuesday.
GOP members of Congress meet with protests at town halls
Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn returned to her district Tuesday in Tennessee and was greeted by tough questions on topics from health care reform to President Donald Trump’s cabinet appointees. She also was met with protests.
Trump officials seek to prevent ‘panic’ over new immigration policies
The Trump administration on Tuesday sought to allay growing fears among immigrant communities over wide-ranging new directives to ramp up enforcement against illegal immigrants, insisting that the measures are not intended to produce “mass deportations.” Federal officials cautioned that many of the changes detailed in a pair of memos from Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly will take time to implement because of costs and logistical challenges, and that Border Patrol agents and immigration officers will use their expanded powers with care and discretion.
Demolition begins on Lake Shore Plant
Demolition crews detonated more than 200 pounds of explosives overnight, bringing down FirstEnergy’s 306-foot tall Lake Shore power plant. The demolition took place around 1 a.m. on Friday.
Cory Gardner town halls
The face of Sen. Cory Gardner – accompanies by words and moving text as part of an environmental protest and unauthorized art installation – is displayed Tuesday on the wall of the Denver Art Museum. “A lot of people have been trying to get some face-to-face time with Sen. Gardner – especially in the last month,” said Boulder resident Eve Rose, one of the organizers of the event and a member of SoBo Rise, an offshoot of Indivisible Front Range Resistance.
Supreme Court Limits Patent Liability for Component Makers in Global Supply Chain
A unanimous court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, ruling that shipping a single component cannot trigger a provision of the Patent Act that applies extraterritorially.
Kansas governor to wield veto pen on tax bill
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is preparing to make good on a pledge to veto a bill increasing personal income taxes as a budget fix. Brownback has a Statehouse news conference scheduled Wednesday morning to act.
Officials want coin created for New York’s Purple Heart hall
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney says he will join other officials Wednesday at the hall in New Windsor, about 60 miles north of New York City, to announce federal legislation to honor the museum with a commemorative coin. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is dedicated to the more than 1.7 million service members who have been awarded the Purple Heart.
Indivisible of Smith County requests town hall with Gohmert
After a morning protest in Tyler on Tuesday, a new grassroots organization continues to request a town hall meeting with Congressman Louie Gohmert. Indivisible of Smith County is a local chapter of the national organization, Indivisible.
Chelsea Clinton, daughter attend Muslim solidarity rally
New york, Feb 22 – Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of President Donald Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, attended with her two-year-old daughter Charlotte an anti-Trump rally here to show solidarity with the Muslim community. Clinton on Sunday joined hundreds of protesters to attend the rally in Times Square here, The Hill magazine reported.
Stir It Up: The Government Apprentice
Donald Trump gazes into the mirror being held by someone or other, adoring himself for a few moments. Ah, my hair is perfect, he thinks.
Francis Wilkinson, Bloomberg View: Trump right to consider saving Dreamers in immigration orders
President Trump hinted at his news conference last week that he may yet unveil a surprise on the fate of “Dreamers” – the undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. If it truly favors Dreamers, it could be a shrewd move.
Pilot yelled ‘Mayday’ before shopping centre plane crash
A pilot repeatedly yelled “Mayday” but did not say what the emergency was before his plane crashed into the roof of an Australian shopping centre, killing himself and four American tourists, an accident investigator has said. A pilot repeatedly yelled “Mayday” but did not say what the emergency was before his plane crashed into the roof of an Australian shopping centre, killing himself and four American tourists, an accident investigator has said.
British IS ‘suicide bomber was former Guantanamo Bay detainee’
The British IS fighter is said to have detonated an explosives-filled vehicle in a village to the south of Mosul, Iraq. A British Islamic State fighter who is believed to have carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq was a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, according to reports.
Detroit’s Muslim community promises it – will not be bullied’
Even before he took office, President Donald Trump dropped some of the promises that fired up his far right base during his campaign. Among other quick reversals, he decided Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be locked up, and the swamp won’t be drained.
Trump to spare U.S. ‘dreamer’ immigrants from crackdown
President Donald Trump’s administration plans to consider almost all illegal immigrants subject to deportation, but will leave protections in place for immigrants known as “dreamers” who entered the United States illegally as children, according to official guidelines released yesterday. The Department of Homeland Security guidance to immigration agents is part of a broader border security and immigration enforcement plan in executive orders that Republican Trump signed on Jan. 25. Former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, issued an executive order in 2012 that protected 750,000 immigrants who had been brought into the United States illegally by their parents.
Israeli jets strike outside Damascus – Syrian media
An Israel Air Force F-15 flies overhead during an exercise in the Golan Heights on February 23, 2014. Syrian media reported that Israeli aircraft targeted a Syrian Army convoy bearing weapons for the Hezbollah terrorist group early Wednesday morning.
In rare concession, top Dem predicts Gorsuch will be confirmed
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that President Trump’s pick to replace Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court will likely be confirmed because even if he does not win enough votes, the “nuclear option” would likely be employed. “I hope we do vote him down,” she said in an interview with NY1 .
Amnesty says Trump’s “poisonous” rhetoric makes world a darker place
Amnesty International said yesterday U.S. President Donald Trump’s “poisonous” rhetoric on his way to winning the White House led a global trend towards increasingly divisive politics in 2016 that had made the world a “darker” place. In its annual report covering 159 countries, the human rights group said principles of human dignity and equality had come under assault from politicians seeking election and it zeroed in on Trump, who took office on Jan. 20. “Donald Trump’s poisonous campaign rhetoric exemplifies a global trend towards angrier and more divisive politics,” Amnesty said in a statement issued in Paris.
Deporting undocumented immigrants is about to get easier, more common
About 100 protesters marched in the streets of downtown Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, blocking streets and disrupting traffic after reports that federal agents had carried out a series of immigration raids across Southern California earlier in the day. Late Monday night, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued two memos that outline the department’s guidelines for carrying out executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 25. The memos detail how immigration enforcement will be stepped up along the United States-Mexico border and within the United States, giving federal agents broad authority to arrest and deport virtually any undocumented resident who entered the U.S. as an adult.
US Plans To Deport Undocumented Immigrants
The US government today issued a sweeping set of orders that implement President Donald Trump’s plan to increase immigration enforcement, placing the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation. “The Department no longer will exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” the Department of Homeland Security said in an enforcement memo.
FBI agent talks scams with Sun City residents
More than 100 Sun City residents filled the Lakehouse ballroom on Feb. 8 to get tips on how to protect themselves from becoming a victim of financial fraud. Hosted by Securitas and the Sun City Community Association, the lecture was presented by FBI Special Agent George Graves, who works out of the FBI field office in Columbia.
Unfazed: GOP senators insist on keeping Obamacare option
Two Republican senators aren’t deterred by conservative pushback to their Obamacare replacement plan, saying if President Trump is serious about giving insurance to everybody, their idea is the best way to go. Sens. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, and Susan Collins, of Maine, are working with lawmakers in both chambers to whip up support for their replacement plan.