Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
The New Yorker: Chris Steven's Family: Don't Blame Hillary Clinton For Benghazi
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| Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens |
On Tuesday, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which is controlled by a Republican majority, charged the Obama Administration with diplomatic miscalculations, security failures, and a lengthy delay in rescue efforts, which contributed to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, after an attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. Initially, the State Department believed that the attack was inspired by an anti-Muslim video. The Committee’s eight-hundred page report, which wraps up a two-year, seven-million-dollar investigation, specifically reprimanded the State Department, then under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; the Pentagon, headed at the time by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta; and the C.I.A.
In a separate, forty-eight-page addendum, two Republican Committee members, Mike Pompeo, of Kansas, and Jim Jordan, of Ohio, went even further, alleging that the Administration deliberately covered up the full truth about the attack at a time when President Obama was facing a tough reëlection campaign. “We expect our government to make every effort to save the lives of Americans who serve in harm’s way,” Pompeo said, in a statement. “That did not happen in Benghazi. Politics were put ahead of the lives of Americans.” At a press conference on Tuesday, Pompeo charged that Clinton’s actions on Benghazi were “morally reprehensible.”
More: www.newyorker.com
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
CNN: Benghazi report: Clinton should have realized risks
Washington (CNN) House Republicans released a long-awaited report Tuesday on the Benghazi terror attacks that killed four Americans on Hillary Clinton's watch as secretary of state, reviving the politically charged issue less than five months before the election.
The report, parts of which CNN reviewed in advance, paints a picture of a perfect storm of bureaucratic inertia, rapidly worsening security in Libya and inadequate resources in the months that led up to the killings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on September 11, 2012.
Clinton told the House Benghazi Committee last year that she was aware of the dangers in Libya but "there was no actionable intelligence" indicating a planned attack.
More: www.cnn.com
REATED: LIVE hearing - House Select Committee on Benghazi Report
Monday, June 27, 2016
NBC: Supreme Court Strikes Down Strict Texas Abortion Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down one of the nation's toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women's groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state's clinics to shut down.
The decision was 5-3.
Passed in 2013, the law said clinics providing abortion services must meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers. And it required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
Since the law was passed, the number of clinics providing abortion services in Texas dropped to 19 from 42. Opponents said that number would fall to ten if the Supreme Court upheld the law.
The Center for Reproductive Rights called the law "an absolute sham," arguing that abortion patients rarely require hospitalization and that many patients simply take two pills.
More: www.nbcnews.com
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Saturday, June 25, 2016
USA Today: George Will leaves the GOP over Trump
WASHINGTON – Conservative columnist George Will has left the Republican Party, and he is urging others to make sure the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, doesn’t win.
“Make sure he loses,’’ Will told PJ Media, an online news company, in an interview Friday. “Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House.”
Will, a long-time columnist and commentator, spoke Friday at the Federalist Society luncheon. “This is not my party,’’ he said during the speech.
More: www.usatoda.com
Friday, June 24, 2016
AP: Clinton's State Dept. calendar missing scores of entries
WASHINGTON (AP) — Television cameras rolled when Hillary Clinton appeared on the central balcony of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell — just minutes after she attended a private breakfast in September 2009 with influential Wall Street and business leaders.
But the identities of her breakfast guests would be left off of her official State Department calendar — omissions that are among scores of names and events missing from Clinton's historical record of her daily activities as secretary of state, an Associated Press review found.
Now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Clinton met that morning with a dozen chief executives, most of whose firms had lobbied the government and donated to her family's global charity, the Clinton Foundation. The event was closed to the press and merited only a brief mention in her official calendar, which omitted the names of all her guests — among them Blackstone Group Chairman Steven Schwarzman, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and then-New York Bank of Mellon CEO Robert Kelly.
More: www.bigstory.ap.org
AP: UK leader David Cameron to resign after Brexit humiliation
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| UK Prime Minister David Cameron |
LONDON (AP) — It's often said that David Cameron is a lucky politician who has seemed to coast through politics on instinct and charm during a career that has culminated in six years as British prime minister. On Thursday, his luck ran out.
In calling a referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union, Cameron made a gamble that sank his career — and set his country on a course to leave an international alliance it joined more than 40 years ago. Speaking to assembled reporters outside his Downing Street office Friday, he said he would stay on for as long as was necessary for stability's sake, but that he could not be the one to lead Britain out of Europe.
"I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months," he said, "but I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination."
Brexit was a rare but fateful miscalculation for a politician who has a reputation for thriving under pressure and astutely judging political risks.
More: www.bigstory.ap.org
Thursday, June 23, 2016
KCRA3/AP: Gun control measure qualifies for November California ballot
By KCRA3 via AP, Jun. 23, 2016
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) —California voters will decide in November whether to tighten the state's already tough gun control laws after the secretary of state's office said a proposal exceeded the number signatures needed to qualify for the fall ballot on Thursday.
If voters approve, California would become the first state to require background checks at the point of sale for ammunition. Some other states already require buyers to get licenses and go through background checks ahead of time.
It would also streamline California's unique program that allows authorities to seize firearms from owners who bought guns legally but are no longer allowed to own them because they were later convicted of a felony or a violent misdemeanor, determined to be mentally unstable, or were the subject of a restraining order involving domestic violence.
Those people also would no longer be able to buy ammunition.
Gun owners would have to surrender large-capacity ammunition magazines.
California already bans selling assault-style magazines holding more than 10 bullets, but current law lets those who possess the large-capacity magazines to keep them.
Owners would be required to report lost or stolen guns to law enforcement. And the measure would reverse part of a 2014 voter-approved initiative by making it a felony to steal any gun, no matter its value.
Newsom, a Democrat, is running for governor in 2018 on a platform that includes gun control and legalizing recreational marijuana.
More: www.kcra.com
The Hill: Deadlocked Supreme Court blocks Obama on immigration
The Supreme Court dealt a critical blow to President Obama's immigration policies on Thursday, deadlocking in a 4-4 decision over two controversial programs the White House wants to implement.
The tied vote leaves in place a lower court ruling that blocks a program allowing undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to remain in the United States for three years and apply for work permits.
It also prevents the administration from otherwise expanding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program issued by Obama in 2012.
This is the most prominent Supreme Court case to stall in a 4-4 tie, and it raises the stakes further in this fall's presidential election.
After Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, Obama nominated federal Judge Merrick Garland to the court.
More: www.thehill.com
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
The New York Times: Senate Votes Down 4 Measures Meant to Curb Gun Sales
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday failed to advance four separate measures aimed at curbing gun sales, the latest display of congressional inaction after a mass shooting.
Eight days after a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State killed 49 people in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, the Senate deadlocked, largely along party lines, on amendments to block people on the federal terrorism watch list from buying guns and to close loopholes in background check laws. Families of gun violence victims looked on from the Senate chamber as the votes were held.
Further action on gun safety measures or mental health provisions seemed unlikely before the fall election, given the rush to finish a series of spending bills and the relatively limited time that Congress will be in session before November.
More: www.nytimes.com
Related: Senate Session, Jun. 20, 2016
Associated Press: FBI releasing conversations between gunman and police
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Federal investigators promised to provide more insight as to what was happening inside the Pulse nightclub after a gunman started a deadly assault that was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The FBI was releasing on Monday a printed, partial transcript of the conversations between the gunman within the Pulse gay nightclub and Orlando police negotiators, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.
An FBI spokesman said agents would offer further details about the shooting, including the transcripts, at a Monday news conference near the nightclub.
The release is coming a day after tens of thousands of people held a candlelight vigil in the heart of downtown Orlando for the 49 victims who died in the massacre. The victims also were remembered at church services and at makeshift memorials throughout Orlando.
More: www.bigstory.ap.org
Politico: Trump campaign manager Lewandowski out
Corey Lewandowski is no longer with Donald Trump's campaign, the presumptive Republican nominee's team announced Monday.
“The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican Primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The New York Times, which reported the news on Monday. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.”
More: www.politico.com
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Slate: Sanders’ Refusal to End Campaign Costs Taxpayers $38,000 a Day
Sen. Bernie Sanders may not have a single bit of chance to clinch the Democratic Party presidential candidacy. But he hasn’t actually ended his campaign, which means the U.S. Secret Service is still traveling with him wherever he goes and a team of agents is guarding his home. The 24-hour protection is hardly cheap, costing taxpayers some $38,000 a day, according to the Washington Post.
If Sanders chooses to stay in his current limbo it means his security detail could cost taxpayers more than $1.56 million in the weeks between the last primary and the Democratic convention that begins on July 25. Sander aides did not dispute the Post’s figure but did insist that the cost now is lower than in the past when the senator held several rallies a day in different cities.
More: www.slate.com
The Hill: Major companies decline to fund 2016 GOP convention
Several major companies that sponsored the 2012 Republican National Convention will not be sponsoring the event this year in Cleveland, where Donald Trump is expected to be officially nominated as the party’s presidential nominee.
Wells Fargo, UPS, Motorola, JPMorgan Chase, Ford and Walgreens all told Bloomberg they won’t sponsor this year’s convention, despite helping to fund the last GOP summit in 2012.
None of the companies commented on whether their decision to pull out was because of the GOP’s divisive presumptive nominee.
Trump routinely lashes out at Ford in his stump speech, blasting the company for moving a factory from the U.S. to Mexico. The car company said it would not support either party’s convention.
More: www.thehill.com
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Chicago Tribune: Sources: Dennis Hastert to serve prison sentence in Minnesota
Dennis Hastert will serve his 15-month sentence at a federal medical prison in Minnesota, as recommended by the judge who rejected the former U.S. House speaker's plea for probation, sources close to the case confirmed Friday.
Hastert must surrender by 2 p.m. Wednesday for his conviction on federal bank violations stemming from a sensational hush-money case that unearthed decades-old sexual misconduct against minors.
At sentencing in late April, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin said Hastert, 74 and in declining health, should go to a prison with a high-level medical facility. With credit for good behavior, Hastert could be in custody for about 121/2 months.
Once second in line to the presidency, he will be known while confined only as federal inmate No. 47991-424.
More: www.chicagotribune.com
Forbes: Federal Reserve: American Credit Card Debt Could Hit $1 Trillion this Year
by Sy Mukherjee, Jun. 13, 2016, Forbes.com
Or, you know, don’t.
A strong majority of millennials continues to shun credit cards, according to a new survey.
A Bankrate study released Monday finds that 67% of millennials don’t have credit cards. It’s the only adult demographic group where credit card ownership is that low—55% and 62% of 30-to-49 year olds and 50-64-year olds, respectively, have them, while ownership among American 65 and older is even higher.
The survey also highlights several other distinct socioeconomic trends when it comes to credit cards. For instance, nearly three-quarters of poor American how make less than $30,000 per year don’t have them while 81% of those who make more than $75,000 do. There are similar disparities between high school diploma holders and college graduates.
More: www.fortune.com
CNN: Trump: Sanders 'waiting for the FBI convention' to nab nomination from Clinton
Washington (CNN)Donald Trump on Saturday suggested Bernie Sanders is staying in the Democratic race because of an "FBI convention" that would lead to prosecution of Hillary Clinton over her private email server while secretary of state.
At a Las Vegas rally, Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, implied that Sanders is waiting for Clinton to be indicted so he can then claim the Democratic nomination himself at the party's convention in Philadelphia.
"Crazy Bernie," Trump said of the Vermont senator. "He's crazy as a bed bug, but he doesn't quit."
"He's waiting for the FBI to do what everybody thinks they're going to do," Trump added. "I think he's saying, 'Let's hang in there because its ultimately called the FBI... We'll see if the right thing happens. Everybody knows what the right thing is."
More: www.cnn.com
C-SPAN: State Department Reacts to Syria Memo Leak
By Caitlin Hillyard, Jun. 17, 2016
Friday, June 17, 2016
CBS News: Jeh Johnson: Gun control is now a matter of homeland security
Just days after the massacre in an Orlando nightclub left 49 people dead and 53 wounded, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Tuesday said that gun control is now a critical element of protecting the U.S. homeland and keeping Americans safe.
"We have to face the fact that meaningful gun control has to be a part of homeland security," Johnson said in an interview on "CBS This Morning." "We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get a gun in this country."
On the issue of people on the no-fly list and various other lists being able to purchase a weapon in the U.S., Johnson said, "I believe that that's something that has to be addressed."
More: www.cbsnews.com
Thursday, June 16, 2016
RT: Police refuse to release Orlando 911 call causing suspicion over Mateen’s motives
By RT, Jun. 16, 2016
Alternet reports that the Orlando Police Department denied a Freedom of Information request made by the website’s Grayzone Project, which sought a transcript or audio recording of any calls made by the mass shooter that night.
“The records being requested are exempt from disclosure at this time. Section 119.071(2)(c)1., Florida Statutes, exempts from disclosure all active criminal investigative information,” read the police department’s response.
The statute doesn’t stop police from selectively releasing information that it chooses to, which in this case is limited to information about Mateen’s alleged ties to terrorist organizations.
The narrative claiming that Mateen was a member of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has already been called into question due to his apparent confusion over the difference between various terrorist groups and details about his background, suggesting that a more complex motivation, possibly linked to his sexuality, may have been behind the attack.
More: www.rt.com
CNN: CIA director warns ISIS terror capability not slowed despite battle losses
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| CIA Director John Brennan |
(CNN)ISIS has a "large cadre of Western fighters" who could attack in the West and is continuing to inspire sympathizers with no "direct links" to ISIS to attack on their own as it did in Orlando, the director of the CIA will warn this morning, according to excerpts of his statement to the Senate provided to CNN.
"We judge that ISIL is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks. ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West. And the group is probably exploring a variety of means for infiltrating operatives into the West, including refugee flows, smuggling routes, and legitimate methods of travel," CIA Director John Brennan will tell the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning.
Brennan also says despite all the efforts by the U.S. against ISIS, it has not stopped the group.
More: www.cnn.com
Fox News: Double-digit ObamaCare premium hikes projected in 2017
Americans in markets across the country could be looking at double-digit premium hikes under ObamaCare next year, according to a new study that's already fueling election-year finger-pointing.
The Kaiser Family Foundation report found premiums for popular low-cost plans under the health care law are projected to increase an average 11 percent in 2017.
Among the sharpest projected increases are: 26 percent in Portland, Ore.; 21 percent in the District of Columbia; and 16 percent in New York City.
The study focused on the two least-expensive -- and very popular -- "silver" policies. It specifically examined the impact of rising premiums on those whose income exceeds the limit to get government subsidies to defray the cost of mandatory insurance.
The income cutoff for those tax credits is $47,520 for an individual and $97,200 for a family of four.
More: www.foxnews.com
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
ABC News: Witnesses Say Orlando Shooter at Gay Clubs on a 'Regular Basis'
The man who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Omar Mateen, was himself a regular patron of gay clubs in Florida for years, classmates, friends and club employees told ABC News.
“Sometimes he would be there for a few weeks at a time and maybe on the weekends and then you wouldn’t see him for a little while, then you'd see him again and that's the way it kind of went,” said 71-year-old James Van Horn, a frequent visitor to Pulse.
Two people who worked at Pulse said they also recognized Mateen as a customer. One of them, head of security Estella Peterkin, said she had to kick him out multiple times for bad behavior.
More: www.abcnews.go.com
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