| Trump: Impeachment 'has been very hard on my family' Posted: 14 Nov 2019 06:26 PM PST  President Trump campaigned in Louisiana for the first time since the House began public hearings in his impeachment inquiry.
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| American Airlines flight attendants have literally begged not to work on the Boeing 737 Max when it returns, union boss says (BA) Posted: 15 Nov 2019 08:43 AM PST  Lori Bassani heads the union for 28,000 American Airlines flight attendants, and she warned of genuine fear among staff over returning to the 737 Max.
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| Chicago gang leader accused of trying to help Islamic State Posted: 15 Nov 2019 09:11 AM PST ![Chicago gang leader accused of trying to help Islamic State]( "Chicago gang leader accused of trying to help Islamic State") A purported street-gang leader from suburban Chicago who became radicalized in prison faces federal charges accusing him of seeking to provide money to Islamic State militants in Syria, according to a complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Jason Brown, the 37-year-old leader of the AHK gang, could be heard on secret FBI recordings speaking admiringly about beheadings by the Islamic State group, the 27-page complaint says. AHK, which prosecutors say traffics drugs throughout the Chicago area, is comprised of former members of the Black P-Stone, Gangster Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers who converted to Islam, the court filings say.
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| American teacher's death in D.R. is being investigated Thursday as a murder Posted: 14 Nov 2019 06:30 AM PST  An American teacher's death in the Dominican Republic was being investigated Thursday as a murder. Police said they found Patricia Anton deceased in her apartment in Puerto Plata, on the country's northern coast, with her hands and feet bound.
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| Tempers flare over rebuilding of Notre-Dame spire Posted: 14 Nov 2019 03:14 AM PST  The French army general charged with overseeing the rebuilding of Paris' fire-mangled Notre-Dame, has caused astonishment by publicly telling the cathedral's chief architect to "shut his mouth" in a sign of tension over the monument's future look. General Jean-Louis Georgelin and chief architect Philippe Villeneuve are at odds over whether to replace the cathedral's spire -- which was toppled in the April 15 blaze -- with an exact replica, or mix things up with a modern twist.
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| Turkey sends American Islamic State fighter to U.S. after stalemate with Greece Posted: 15 Nov 2019 05:41 AM PST ![Turkey sends American Islamic State fighter to U.S. after stalemate with Greece]( "Turkey sends American Islamic State fighter to U.S. after stalemate with Greece") Turkey sent a U.S. citizen suspected of fighting for Islamic State to the United States by plane on Friday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, after the man was refused entry to Greece earlier this week. Turkish authorities started deporting captured Islamic State suspects to their home countries on Monday. Ankara says it has captured 287 militants in northeast Syria, where Turkish troops launched an assault against the Kurdish YPG militia last month, and has hundreds more jihadist suspects in detention.
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| Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh gets hero's welcome from conservative Federalist Society Posted: 14 Nov 2019 07:38 PM PST  A hero's welcome was delivered Thursday to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who addressed the Federalist Society a year after his confirmation.
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| Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings Faces House Ethics Investigation of Relationship with Top Staffer Posted: 14 Nov 2019 03:29 PM PST  Representative Alcee Hastings (D., Fla.) is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over his relationship with a top staffer, according to a Thursday press release from the Committee."The Committee is aware of public allegations arising out of Representative Alcee Hastings' personal relationship with an individual employed in his congressional office," read the statement. "On May 14, 2019, the Committee . . . began an investigation regarding the allegations."While the announcement does not name the staffer, it is almost certainly Patricia Williams, Hastings's district-office director and long-time partner, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Williams is Hastings's highest-paid staffer and has worked in his office since 1993."As they continue to conduct their work, I stand ready to fully cooperate with their inquiry," Hastings said in a statement in response to the Committee's announcement.Hastings was indicted on bribery charges in 1981 stemming from actions he allegedly took while he served as a federal judge. During that case, he was represented by Williams. He was acquitted in court, but was impeached and convicted in Congress, marking the sixth time in history that the Senate authorized the removal of a federal judge.Williams has since been disbarred for numerous ethics violations.
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| Look Out, Israel: China May Have Stolen The Iron Dome Posted: 15 Nov 2019 01:00 AM PST  Chinese hackers, that is.
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| 'You embarrassed yourself': Kellyanne Conway blasts CNN's Wolf Blitzer for playing George Conway clip Posted: 14 Nov 2019 07:29 AM PST  On CNN Thursday, Kellyanne Conway, special counselor to President Trump, was asked to respond to the assessment given by her husband, George, that testimony in the first public impeachment hearings was damning for her boss.
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| One of Jamal Khashoggi’s close friends said Twitter is the 'only free platform' for many Saudis, but it also may have led to Khashoggi’s brutal murder Posted: 15 Nov 2019 02:12 AM PST  Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi activist and close friend of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, wrote in an op-ed that Twitter is "crucial" for Saudi freedom.
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| Ray Cromartie: Death row inmate executed without testing DNA evidence ‘that could have proved his innocence’ Posted: 14 Nov 2019 01:38 AM PST  A man has been executed in the US state of Georgia despite a request from his lawyers for DNA evidence which they claimed would clear him of murder.Ray Jefferson Cromartie was convicted of the April 1994 shooting of shop worker Richard Slysz twice in the head at the convenience store in the city of Thomasville.
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| Fuel rations, price hike hit Iranians amid plunging economy Posted: 15 Nov 2019 04:48 AM PST  Across the capital, Tehran, long lines of cars waited for hours at pumping stations following the changes in energy policy, which state media announced around midnight without any prior warning to the public. The U.S. withdrew from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers last year, and re-imposed crippling trade sanctions that have sent the Iranian economy into free-fall. In several locations, Iranian police were seen deployed near gas stations.
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| 20 Great Gifts for Boys Who Love to Tinker Posted: 15 Nov 2019 01:13 PM PST |
| Iran moves on ultra-cheap petrol, starts rationing Posted: 15 Nov 2019 06:09 AM PST  Iran imposed petrol rationing and raised pump prices by at least 50 percent Friday, saying the move aims to help the needy with cash handouts and is not due to a budget deficit. The Islamic republic provides some of the most heavily subsidised petrol in the world, with the pump price previously standing at just 10,000 rials (less than nine US cents) a litre. "Increasing petrol prices is to the people's benefit and also to help the society's strata under (economic) pressure," President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
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| Jackie Speier erupts at reporter for The Hill Posted: 15 Nov 2019 01:07 PM PST  Angered by the testimony of ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, California Rep. Jackie Speier upbraided a reporter for The Hill and ripped the outlet's publication of columns by John Solomon, the conservative journalist whose work is at the center of what Yovanovitch described as a "smear campaign" against her. "I just find it reprehensible that any newspaper would just be willing to put that kind of crap out that is not — has no veracity whatsoever, and not check to see if it had any veracity," said Speier, a Democrat serving in her seventh term in the House, according to audio of the exchange reviewed by POLITICO. Speier launched into her critique of The Hill after fielding a question from its senior staff writer Scott Wong about who her dream witness would be at the impeachment proceedings.
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| The Army Plans To Use These 6 Weapons In A War Against Russia Or China Posted: 15 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST  The Army is transitioning away from fighting terrorism.
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| As Supreme Court weighs DACA, Trump pushes fiction about 'hardened criminals' Posted: 14 Nov 2019 02:55 PM PST  As the Supreme Court considers whether it is legal for the Trump administration to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, the president and his allies have begun spinning a familiar — and false — narrative about the program's nearly 700,000 beneficiaries.
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| China envoy threatens Sweden over award to detained writer Gui Minhai Posted: 15 Nov 2019 03:51 AM PST ![China envoy threatens Sweden over award to detained writer Gui Minhai]( "China envoy threatens Sweden over award to detained writer Gui Minhai") China threatened Sweden with unspecified "counter measures" if its culture minister attends a literary award ceremony on Friday for Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen who was abducted in Thailand in 2015 and is now in detention in China. The case of Chinese-born Gui Minhai, who studied in Sweden in the 1980s and was based in Hong Kong when he published books critical of China's leaders, has soured relations between Sweden and China.
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| Authorities are searching for a woman after finding her husband's corpse in a bedroom freezer Posted: 14 Nov 2019 12:57 PM PST  Authorities are searching for a woman after finding her husband's corpse in a freezer in a bedroom inside her Missouri home, where it may have been stored for nearly a year. Barbara Watters of Joplin, Mo., was charged Wednesday with abandonment of a corpse, a felony that is punishable by up to four years in prison.
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| Yale student fights against his mom’s possible deportation Posted: 14 Nov 2019 03:45 PM PST  A Yale University graduate student is constantly watching his phone as he waits for news on his mother, who is detained and could be deported to Honduras, a country where he says she won't get the medical treatment she needs as a survivor of stage-four cancer. Cristian Padilla Romero, a 24-year-old doctoral student, created an online petition asking for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release his mother, and raised more than $39,000 through a crowdfunding campaign for her legal and medical needs. Padilla Romero, a Ph.D student in Latin American history, faces an uncertain future himself: He is part of a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which shields young immigrants from deportation.
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| Hong Kong leader condemns London protester 'attack' on minister Posted: 14 Nov 2019 10:06 PM PST  Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam on Friday condemned a "barbaric attack" on her justice minister, who fell while being surrounded by a crowd of jeering pro-democracy protesters in London. It was the most physical confrontation involving a member of Lam's cabinet since the protests, now in their sixth month, erupted in the international finance hub. Teresa Cheng, Hong Kong's deeply unpopular Secretary for Justice, was ambushed by around a dozen masked demonstrators as she prepared to attend a speaking event on Thursday night in London.
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| From 'Anonymous,' key excerpts from inside Trump White House on Putin, Hillary Posted: 15 Nov 2019 11:10 AM PST  Key excerpts from "A Warning," a book by an anonymous senior administration official about President Trump and his administration.
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| Black South Carolina Leaders Distance Themselves from Buttigieg Campaign’s ‘Douglass Plan’ Posted: 15 Nov 2019 06:58 AM PST  Several black leaders in South Carolina who were listed as supporters of the Buttigieg campaign's "Douglass Plan" distanced themselves from the proposal and the campaign when pressed for comment, saying that the campaign was "intentionally vague" in asking for their endorsements.According to a report from The Intercept, three South Carolina black leaders — Columbia City Councilwoman Tameika Devine, Rehoboth Baptist pastor and state Representative Ivory Thigpen, and Johnnie Cordero, chair of the state party's Black Caucus — all expressed misgivings over the way that the Buttigieg campaign featured their names prominently in an open letter published in the the HBCU Times touting the plan's details."We are over 400 South Carolinians, including business owners, pastors, community leaders, and students. Together, we endorse his Douglass Plan for Black America, the most comprehensive roadmap for tackling systemic racism offered by a 2020 presidential candidate," the letter reads.Buttigieg, who polled at zero percent among black voters in South Carolina earlier this year, recently called his plan "the most comprehensive vision put forward by a 2020 candidate on the question of how we're going to tackle systemic racism in this country."When reached for comment, Devine, Thigpen, and Cordero all denied that they intended their correspondence with the Buttigieg campaign over the plan to be read as an endorsement of the candidate."Clearly from the number of calls I received about my endorsement, I think the way they put it out there wasn't clear, that it was an endorsement of the plan, and that may have been intentionally vague. I'm political, I know how that works," Devine said. "I do think they probably put it out there thinking people wouldn't read the fine print or wouldn't look at the details or even contact the people and say, 'Hey, you're endorsing Mayor Pete?'""How it was rolled out was not an accurate representation of where I stand," Thigpen added. "I didn't know about its rolling out. Somebody brought it to my attention, and it was alarming to me, because even though I had had conversations with the campaign, it was clear to me, or at least I thought I made it clear to them, that I was a strong Bernie Sanders supporter — actually co-chair of the state, and I was not seeking to endorse their candidate or the plan."Cordero, who has since been removed as a public supporter, said he did not know "how my name got on there," and was simply emailed the plan by the campaign and asked for feedback."What I was talking back and forth with them about was, who drafted the plan? I know Pete didn't draft the plan. I'm sure he had his advisers do it. But I wanna know who was involved in this plan such that you can claim that you speak for black America," Cordero said. "The long and the short of it was they never sufficiently answered my questions, so I never actually endorsed the plan. They went ahead and used my name."In a statement to National Review, the Buttigieg campaign said that "we never gave the impression publicly that these people were endorsing Pete, only that they supported the plan.""After they indicated their support, we reached out to people multiple times giving them the opportunity to review the language of the op-ed and the option to opt-out. We did hear from people who weren't comfortable being listed and we removed them," the statement said.A source with knowledge of the situation said that the campaign reached out to Devine on Thursday night, who remained supportive of the plan. It is unclear whether the campaign also reached out to Thigpen.
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| Trump attack on Yovanovitch exposes GOP's muddled impeachment defense Posted: 15 Nov 2019 03:42 PM PST ![Trump attack on Yovanovitch exposes GOP's muddled impeachment defense]( "Trump attack on Yovanovitch exposes GOP's muddled impeachment defense") Donald Trump is alone. Not a single Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee backed up the president's midhearing attacks on veteran diplomat Marie Yovanovitch Friday as she described a Trump-fueled "smear campaign" that effectively ended her career. Not a single one sought to legitimize the "campaign of disinformation" she described, which was perpetuated by Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and led Trump to abruptly recall her from Ukraine in May and badmouth her to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in July.
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| The U.S. Marine Corps Is Making Big Changes (Thanks to Threats from Russia and China) Posted: 14 Nov 2019 09:00 PM PST  It's no secret that the U.S. Marine Corps is changing in order to better prepare for major warfare with China and Russia. Gen. David Berger, the Marine commandant, is overseeing several studies that could result in the Corps cutting some units and adding others and, in the process, radically changing how and why it functions.
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| Scientists Are Fighting Over One of the Hottest Places on Earth Posted: 15 Nov 2019 08:30 AM PST  Some say life can exist there. Others say no way.
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| A British woman was sentenced to just a year in prison for performing an illegal butt injection that caused a 34-year-old American woman's death Posted: 15 Nov 2019 07:48 AM PST  Donna Francis fled to the UK a day after killing Kelly Mayhew in 2015. She was extradited back to the US in August to face trail. She pleaded guilty.
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| After 50 years, it's past time to bring human LGBTQ+ characters to America's Sesame Street Posted: 15 Nov 2019 05:45 AM PST  International versions of Sesame Street reflect local audiences. America is ready for gay characters but cancellation is a risk in some countries.
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| Vietnam jails music teacher for 'undermining' state Posted: 15 Nov 2019 05:11 AM PST  Vietnam sentenced a music teacher to 11 years in prison on Friday for Facebook posts that allegedly undermined the one-party state, which has been accused of tightening the noose on online dissent. Communist Vietnam has long jailed its critics but has come under fire recently for targeting users on Facebook, a popular forum for activists in the country where all independent media is banned. Nguyen Nang Tinh is the latest activist jailed for his Facebook comments, including posts about police brutality, land rights, and a Taiwanese steel firm that dumped toxic sludge into the ocean, killing masses of fish off the coast of Vietnam.
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| N. Korea calls Biden a ‘rabid dog’ for insulting its dignity Posted: 14 Nov 2019 09:03 PM PST  North Korea called former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden a "rabid dog" that "must be beaten to death with a stick" in its latest swipe against foreign and political leaders it sees as hostile to the North's leadership. The North correctly spelled Biden's name in May when it labeled him a "fool of low IQ" after he called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a tyrant during a speech. North Korea often insults foreign leaders and politicians over what it sees as slanderous remarks toward its leadership or hostile policies against its government.
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| Former top diplomat to Russia suggests 'Putin has the transcript' of Trump's Ukraine call Posted: 15 Nov 2019 06:58 AM PST  New reports suggesting Donald Trump called his EU ambassador on an unsecured line while he was visiting Ukraine could mean that "Vladimir Putin has the transcript", according to the former top US diplomat to Russia.Michael McFaul, who served as the US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, slammed the White House for its "incredibly sloppy" dealings involving Ukraine.
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| Rather Than Retiring, The Storied B-52 Is Getting Upgraded. Here's Why Posted: 14 Nov 2019 06:30 PM PST  The Air Force isn't done with it yet.
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| The new seal for the Navy's next aircraft carrier contains a hint about big changes coming to naval aviation Posted: 15 Nov 2019 09:11 AM PST  The recently unveiled seal for the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy features its best-known aircraft, along with a future addition.
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| See Photos of the 2020 Nissan Titan Posted: 15 Nov 2019 06:02 AM PST |
| Virginia police say wanted Marine deserter sought family Posted: 14 Nov 2019 03:29 PM PST  Police in Virginia say the Marine deserter wanted for questioning in a murder case was trying to reach out to a family member when he was spotted. Roanoke Police Chief Tim Jones told a news conference that it's believed Michael Alexander Brown was trying to contact his grandmother when a neighbor saw him early Thursday. The Roanoke Times reports the U.S. Marshals Service learned Sunday night that Brown might be driving a recreational vehicle near Clarendon County, South Carolina, about four hours southwest of Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, where he had been stationed as a U.S. Marine until leaving his post last month.
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| An expert in fraternity hazing deaths says coddling parents are part of the problem Posted: 15 Nov 2019 11:32 AM PST  Hank Nuwer, a journalist who keeps a database on fraternity deaths, thinks parents aren't teaching their children "self-restraint."
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| Federal judge rules U.S.-born 'ISIS bride' is not an American citizen Posted: 14 Nov 2019 02:44 PM PST  A federal judge ruled Thursday that 25-year-old Hoda Muthana, who lived in Alabama but left the U.S. in 2014 to join ISIS, is not an American citizen and therefore the country is not required to repatriate her.
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| Israel to probe 'unexpected' civilian casualties in Gaza strike Posted: 15 Nov 2019 11:20 AM PST  Israel's military pledged Friday to investigate unexpected civilian casualties in a strike targeting Islamic Jihad in Gaza, where a ceasefire agreement remained fragile after fighting left 34 Palestinians dead. Israel hit back with strikes early Friday against Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip after Islamist movement Hamas which runs the enclave.
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| Man caught at Houston airport with 35 pounds of liquid cocaine in shampoo bottles Posted: 15 Nov 2019 09:15 AM PST  The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says an arriving passenger tried to smuggle 35 pounds worth of liquid cocaine in shampoo bottles into the country.
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| Trump Admin. Prepares Court Filings to Seize Private Land in Texas for Border Wall: Report Posted: 14 Nov 2019 02:28 PM PST  The Trump administration is preparing to submit court filings as early as next week as a necessary step toward seizing private land in Texas for its wall on the border with Mexico, NBC reported Thursday. Administration officials still haven't said how much the government will compensate affected landowners."I still think we're on track to get the land we need for 450 miles" of border wall, Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan told reporters on Thursday.The government may file to appropriate the land in federal court in Texas under the Declaration of Taking Act, which would expedite the appropriation process. The law, which is meant to be used in emergencies, allows the federal government to take over the land before beginning negotiations with its former owners over compensation.Department of Justice and Department of Defense attorneys have already prepared letters of rights of entry, which inform property owners of the government's impending use of their land. Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner is scheduled to meet with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chief of engineers Todd Semonite, Assistant Defense Secretaries Kenneth Rapuano and Robert Salesses, and other officials Friday at the White House to discuss taking over lands on the southern border.The White House has previously faced legal challenges to its efforts to fund construction of the border wall. In December of 2018, Democrats refused to allocate funding for the wall in the 2019 budget, and the ensuing standoff with President Trump led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Trump eventually relented, deciding instead to declare a state of emergency in order to allocate funds from the Pentagon's budget, in a move a federal judge deemed "unlawful" last month.
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| Dressed to Kill: Arming Ukraine Could Put It on a Path Towards War Posted: 14 Nov 2019 09:32 AM PST  Even after Russian military forces withdrawal, deep-seated resentments will linger in Donbas. The lethal aid policy's greatest flaw is that it completely fails to address these resentments, and in doing so, artificially simplifies the conflict to a proxy war with Russia.
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| Gay employee says salary was halved to be even with 'females in the office' Posted: 15 Nov 2019 06:33 AM PST  Man claims in lawsuit against New York events company that employers sought to degrade him after they learned he was gayThe New York company stages promotional events for companies including Nike, Twitter and Amazon. Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty ImagesA gay man working at a New York events company has claimed in a discrimination lawsuit that his pay was halved so he would be on a par with "other females in the office".In the lawsuit against Eventique, a company that stages promotional events for companies including Nike, Twitter and Amazon, Wesley Wernecke claims his employers sought to alienate and degrade him after they learned he was gay, NBC news reported.Wernecke claims that a week after he was hired in June, co-workers began to make comments on his "girly" engagement ring. Asked if his wife wore a similar ring, Wernecke replied that his partner, Evan, did.It was then, he claims, that a tense office environment began to develop between him, co-workers and the company's chief executive, CEO Henry Liron David. He was then excluded from meetings and after-work drinks with "the fellas", passed over for assignments and subjected to discriminatory remarks.Wernecke was then called into David's office and told his salary was being cut by more than 50%, from $145,000 to $70,000."I couldn't sleep at night thinking that you were being paid so much more than the other females in the office," David is alleged to have told Wernecke. The CEO, the complaint alleges, "simply could not bear the thought that Eventique would continue to be represented by a gay man".Not long after, Wernecke found his salary had been cut more drastically to $58,000."David took pains to mark Wernecke as different from the other employees through these physical demonstrations," the complaint alleges. The pattern of discrimination taxed Wernecke's mental health and he began taking anti-anxiety medication to cope, he said. By October, he had been fired."Wesley was personally recruited by this employer to be a senior producer, and once [David] learned he was gay, the employer began shutting him out of the business," Wernecke's lawyer Anthony Consiglio told NBC News.A lawyer for David and Eventique described the allegations as "baseless".
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| The world's 20 best airlines for 2019 Posted: 15 Nov 2019 08:05 AM PST  The consumer aviation website Skytrax announced its 2019 ranking of the best airlines in the world in June.
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| Police: No indication restaurant staff heard racial comment Posted: 14 Nov 2019 12:50 PM PST  Police looking into an incident at a Chicago-area Buffalo Wild Wings found no indication that workers heard a white patron mention the race of a group of black customers when he asked that they not be seated next to him, but investigators said the employees had heard him make racist comments before. Some of the customers told to move to different tables were children who were there to celebrate a birthday.
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