Day: March 12, 2017

The Grove, a witness to slavery, war and civil rights opens

File-This Aug. 29, 2013, file photo shows the Grove, a historical mansion that once belonged to former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins in Tallahassee, Fla. Calling it a reflection of the “larger American experience,” the home that has been witness to slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights era has been opened to the public in Tallahassee.

Kremlin spokesman: Russian ambassador met with advisers to Clinton campaign too

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said in an interview Sunday that the Russian ambassador who met with Trump campaign officials also met with “people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.” Hillary Rodham Clinton Kremlin spokesman: Russian ambassador met with advisers to Clinton campaign too Breitbart takes aim at GOP healthcare bill Tech’s SXSW festival takes on Trump MORE during her campaign, you would probably see that he had lots of meetings of that kind,” Dmitry Peskov told CNN “GPS” host Fareed Zakaria.

Northey Highlights Avian Influenza Preparations Following Confirmation of the Disease in the U.S.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey has highlighted the continued biosecurity efforts by Iowa turkey, egg and broiler farmers and the preparations undertaken on the state and federal level following the confirmation of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Tennessee and low pathogenicity avian influenza in Tennessee and Wisconsin in the past week. Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus strains are extremely infectious, often fatal to domestic poultry, and can spread rapidly from flock-to-flock.

In 1st budget, Trump to push conservative view of government

President Donald Trump sends Congress a proposed budget this week that will sharply test Republicans’ ability to keep long-standing promises to bolster the military, making politically painful cuts to a lengthy list of popular domestic programs. The Republican president will ask his adopted political party, which runs Capitol Hill, to cut domestic agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, along with grants to state and local governments and community development projects.

Schiff: ‘I’m very pleased’ with increase in FBI cooperation

Ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, on Sunday said the FBI director has increasingly started to work with his group’s investigation into Russia’s role in hacks during the 2016 presidential election. “I have been critical of the FBI and their willingness to cooperate in the investigation.

Fed has been doing a good job, Trump economic adviser says

President Trump’s top economic adviser issued a vote of confidence in the Federal Reserve on Sunday, expressing trust in the central bank as it aims to raise interest rates several times this year. The favorable commentary on the Fed from Gary Cohn, director of Trump’s National Economic Council, marks a major turnaround from Trump’s bitter campaign rhetoric about the central bank.

HHS: ‘Nobody will be worse off financially’ with new bill

Health and Human Services Sec. Tom Price Sunday vowed no Americans would suffer financially as a result of the healthcare replacement bill House Republicans have rolled out and hope to pass soon. “I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through,” Price told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd.

Hospitals worry about caring for newly uninsured in GOP plan

When Colorado expanded Medicaid coverage under former President Barack Obama’s health care law, the largest provider in the Denver region hired more than 250 employees and built a $27 million primary care clinic and two new school-based clinics. Emergency rooms visits stayed flat as Denver Health Medical Center directed many of the nearly 80,000 newly insured patients into one of its 10 community health centers, where newly hired social workers and mental health therapists provided services for some of the county’s poorest residents.

Donald Trump Jr. says he misses campaign trail

Donald Trump Jr. made his first political public appearance since his father’s inauguration, taking an election victory lap and growing nostalgic for the campaign trail. “I thought I was out of politics after election day,” Trump said Saturday, speaking at the Dallas County Republican Party’s Reagan Day Dinner, where he recalled his father’s unpredictable path to the presidency.

White House told to prove wire-tap

The White House says President Trump did not know until this week that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had been working as a representative for Turkey, although the issue was raised with the Trump team before the Republican took office. THE Republican-chaired intelligence committee has demanded the Trump administration provide evidence to back the US president’s claim that Barack Obama “tapped his wires”.

House committee wants evidence for Trump’s wiretap claim

The House intelligence committee is asking the Trump administration for evidence that the phones at Trump Tower were tapped during the campaign as its namesake has charged. President Donald Trump asserted in a tweet last week: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory.

Joni Sledge of ‘We Are Family’ group dies at 60

Joni Sledge, one of four sisters who together sang one of disco’s most enduring songs with “We Are Family,” has died, a representative said Saturday. She was 60. Joni Sledge of the Musicl group Sister Sledge attending the “We Are Family” CD & DVD release party hosted by Rodney Jerkins and Robert Goodwin in New York City.

Almost all of Ohio’s voucher cash goes to religious schools

Almost all of the money from Ohio’s main tuition voucher programs – 97 percent of it – flows to private religious schools, a Plain Dealer examination of records from the 2015-16 school year shows. And Catholic and other Christian schools in Cleveland are the biggest winners, thanks to a Cleveland-only voucher program that was the first in the state when it started in 1996.

Texas redistricting plan violates Voting Rights Act, judges say

A three-judge panel in a Texas redistricting case has ruled that the Texas Legislature’s 2011 congressional redistricting plan discriminated against minority voters. The judges in a San Antonio federal district court concluded in a 2-1 vote late Friday that the drawing of some of the state’s congressional districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act or the U.S. Constitution.

Prepare For Market Beliefs To Be Challenged

Deeply ingrained beliefs can be hard to dislodge — and especially in markets when they have led to high investment returns over a prolonged period. That can encourage certain behaviors to last even in the face of contradictory indicators; and it may take a very large set of inconsistent data for behaviors to change.

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Tapp, tapp, tapp

Donald Trump has won the presidency after narrowly carrying a few states to put him above 270 electoral votes. But… At his Senate confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied under oath that he had never had contact with the… Despite promising to release his tax returns in a televised debate with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump continues to show that… Brian Klaas put out his guide to just how much damage one man can do to two centuries of democracy in fifty days back on Friday, but it’s worth pulling it up again.

Patricia Jones: Should Salt Lake County be a pizza or a doughnut?

Rep. Jason Chaffetz listens to questions as many of those in attendance hold signs and yell during a town hall meeting at Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. Do you prefer pizza or doughnuts? And what do those food items have to do with a raucous, crowded town hall meeting recently held in Salt Lake County by U.S. Congressman Jason Chaffetz? Lest it be lost on Chaffetz and others who are scratching their heads in wonder or dismissing the town hall attendees as simply left-leaning outsiders: Salt Lake County residents had a pizza-shaped redistricting plan forced down their collective throats as a result of the 2010 reapportionment process.

Advocates say First Amendment can withstand Trump attacks

Whenever Donald Trump fumes about “fake news” or labels the press “the enemy of the people,” First Amendment scholar David L. Hudson Jr. hears echoes of other presidents – but a breadth and tone that are entirely new. Trump may not know it, but it was Thomas Jefferson who once said, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper,” said Hudson, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.

World Briefs: 3-12-17

A Manhattan federal prosecutor who says “absolute independence” was his touchstone for over seven years as he battled public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a request a day earlier to resign. Preet Bharara, 48, made the announcement on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.

Hawaii Briefs: 3-12-17

Golfers are criticizing a plan by Maui County’s mayor to shut down an 87-year-old municipal golf course. During his recent state of the county address Thursday, Mayor Alan Arakawa proposed closing the Waiehu Municipal Golf Course, saying it is losing nearly $3 million a year.

Court revives suit over ban on colored underwear in jail

A federal appeals court says female inmates can sue a county jail in northwest Illinois for prohibiting them from wearing colored underwear. The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported Friday the Rock Island County Jail barred colored undergarments on grounds the color could be extracted to make tattoos.