| The Real Winner in New Hampshire: Donald Trump Posted: 12 Feb 2020 04:05 AM PST  The Democrats' worst nightmare isn't just losing one presidential election for want of a solid candidate. Their unspeakable horror is that Trump has assembled a new and durable coalition—a new right—that will dominate politics for a generation just as the watershed New Deal and Reagan coalitions did in their times.
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| Democratic candidates silent on police shootings of black men Posted: 12 Feb 2020 07:12 AM PST  African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the country's population, were the victims of 31 percent of police shootings last year.
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| US military prepping for coronavirus pandemic Posted: 12 Feb 2020 04:50 PM PST  U.S. Northern Command is bracing for an outbreak of the new coronavirus on U.S. soil, if it should occur.
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| Coronavirus death toll leaps in China's Hubei province Posted: 12 Feb 2020 05:04 PM PST  The Chinese province at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak reported a record rise in the death toll on Thursday, as global health experts warned the epidemic could get far worse before it is brought under control. Health officials in Hubei province said 242 people had died from the flu-like virus on Wednesday, the fastest rise in the daily count since the pathogen was identified in December, and bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 1,310. The grim new tally came a day after China had reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in two weeks, bolstering a forecast by Beijing's senior medical adviser for the outbreak there to end by April.
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| Buttigieg lands black South Carolina lawmaker's endorsement Posted: 12 Feb 2020 07:01 AM PST  Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg is picking up his first endorsement among South Carolina's black lawmakers as attention in the early voting contest turns toward more diverse states. Buttigieg's campaign announced Wednesday that the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor would be receiving backing from state Rep. JA Moore, a Democrat from Charleston. Moore is a first-term lawmaker who initially backed California Sen. Kamala Harris last year, frequently appearing on cable networks to advocate for her candidacy.
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| A photographer captured how eerily empty Shanghai's normally bustling streets are amid the coronavirus outbreak Posted: 12 Feb 2020 07:56 AM PST  Shanghai-based photographer Nicoco captured the haunting difference between the crowds at Chinese New Year in 2014, and in 2020.
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| Lexus will introduce a rival to Tesla's Autopilot this year that will have one big feature that Autopilot doesn't Posted: 12 Feb 2020 08:24 AM PST  Unlike Tesla's Autopilot, Lexus' Highway Teammate system will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel in some situations.
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| 2 police officers serving attempted murder warrant shot in Baltimore; suspect dead Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:20 PM PST  One officer was shot in the leg and the other was shot in the stomach, but the injuries were not life-threatening.
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| Trump Denies Meddling in Stone Case and Then Scolds Prosecutors Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump denied meddling in his former associate Roger Stone's criminal prosecution, saying that tweets he issued about the case don't amount to political interference.Four federal prosecutors resigned from the Stone case on Tuesday after the Justice Department reversed a recommendation for a seven-to-nine-year prison sentence for Stone. He was convicted of lying to Congress and other charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.Trump remarked to reporters in a meeting with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno that the prosecutors "all hit the road pretty quickly" after the Justice Department signaled it would cut their recommended sentence."It was a disgrace to our country," he said of the initial sentencing recommendation. "Frankly, they ought to apologize to him.""They ought to go back to school and learn," he said later of the prosecutors.Trump didn't answer directly when asked whether he is considering a pardon for Stone."I don't want to say that yet but I tell you what, people were hurt viciously and badly by these corrupt people," he said. Trump said again that he "didn't speak" to the Justice Department before it countermanded the prosecutors."They saw the horribleness of a nine-year sentence," he said. "You have murderers and drug addicts that don't get nine years."The Justice Department reversed the recommendation Tuesday after Trump complained about the prosecution in a tweet. The president complimented Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday "for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought."Stone's motion for a new trial was denied by the judge in his case in a ruling unsealed on Wednesday. Barr will testify to the House Judiciary Committee on March 31, the panel's chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said in a letter to the attorney general. A Justice Department official confirmed Barr plans to appear.Separately, the White House confirmed that it had withdrawn the nomination of Jessie Liu, a former federal prosecutor, to be the top sanctions official at the Treasury Department. As the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Liu had overseen the Stone prosecution.The White House has not said why her nomination was withdrawn. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined to explain the move at a Senate hearing on Wednesday but told reporters that Trump was not retaliating against her for the Stone case.(Updates with Liu withdrawal in last two paragraphs.)To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin BlumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Tom Steyer spent about $1,900 for every vote he got in New Hampshire Posted: 12 Feb 2020 10:33 AM PST  There are a lot of ways to spend $19 million. Buying TV ads in a presidential race you have close to zero chance of winning probably shouldn't be one of them.Billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer has dumped tons of his own money into the 2020 Democratic presidential race, coming in second to only former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in terms of spending on TV and Facebook ads. But unlike Bloomberg, Steyer has failed to gain more than an ounce of momentum after all was spent and done — a fact that was glaringly obvious after his sixth place finish in Tuesday's New Hampshire primaries.Steyer spent $19.2 million on TV and radio ads leading up the New Hampshire's vote, NBC News reports, and earned just over 10,000 votes. That's about $1,850 spent on each vote.> Tom Steyer spent $19.2 million in New Hampshire on TV and radio, per @amandawgolden, and received about 10,272 votes, per WaPo. That's close to $1,900 spent per vote https://t.co/68tItqcrFB> > — Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 12, 2020Reason to Believe, a PAC supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, meanwhile spent about $1,430 for every one of Patrick's 1,258 votes — and unlike Steyer, Patrick dropped out of the race immediately after that count was in.More stories from theweek.com How the Army could end Vindman's career without an investigation 8 Republicans join Democrats in vote to limit Trump's military powers in Iran Trump reportedly spent important policy meetings grilling Reince Priebus about badgers
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| How China Is Making the Coronavirus an Even Bigger Problem Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:25 PM PST  The International Civil Aviation Organization appears more concerned with doing China's bidding by prioritizing Beijing's political priorities over a global health emergency.
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| Coronavirus updates: Some test kits sent to states were flawed, CDC says Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:44 PM PST  As the death toll in mainland China reaches 1,113, here is the latest news.
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| Andrew Yang: After quitting the presidential race, will he run for mayor of New York? Posted: 12 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST  After two dismal performances in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, entrepreneur Andrew Yang has dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. It makes for a quiet end to a campaign in which he spent tens of millions of dollars and successfully vaulted himself into the national spotlight despite his paucity of political experience.Along the way, he injected some big ideas into the mainstream of Democratic debate — chief among them a universal basic income — and roused a movement of supporters big enough and enthusiastic enough to earn themselves a nickname: The Yang Gang.
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| House intelligence committee GOP boycott hearing due to Schiff’s refusal to address FISA abuses Posted: 12 Feb 2020 11:25 AM PST  Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee boycotted a hearing on Wednesday, complaining that the committee's Democratic chairman, Adam Schiff, has neglected proper oversight of the intelligence community by failing to hold a hearing on the Justice Department inspector general's report detailing the FBI's FISA abuses.
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| Man threatens to torch himself after virus cancels birthday Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:01 AM PST  A man in southwest China doused himself with petrol and tied firecrackers around his waist because authorities cancelled his birthday banquet as a precaution against spreading the coronavirus. The Chongqing resident, a 59-year-old surnamed Wang, had planned to hold a banquet with 10 tables late last month, state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday. Hundreds of millions of people across China face restrictions and interruptions to their lives due to efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which has now infected more than 44,600 people and killed over 1,100.
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| An engineer spent 15 years fireproofing his California home. Here's why his house was the last one standing after a devastating blaze last year. Posted: 12 Feb 2020 09:47 AM PST  Chris Arai's home in Sonoma County, California, was the only one on his ridge that was still standing after the Kincade Fire ripped through.
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| Cop on leave after putting high school student in chokehold Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:36 AM PST  "I will not tolerate misconduct from my officers and this matter will be dealt with accordingly," Camden Police Chief Boyd M. Woody said.
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| Stealth Killer? China’s Air Defenses Are Surpassing Russia’s Anti-Aircraft Weapons Posted: 11 Feb 2020 07:32 PM PST  While the West has been focusing on the power of advanced Russian anti-aircraft missiles such as the S-400, it should have been watching China.
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| Teacher under fire for questioning 5th graders' sexualities in front of class Posted: 12 Feb 2020 11:33 AM PST  A Port St. Lucie woman said her daughter is too embarrassed to return to class and will be homeschooled until the end of the year.
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| Voters approve of Romney's impeachment vote to convict Trump 50%-39%, poll finds Posted: 12 Feb 2020 12:53 PM PST  The Utah senator's vote marked the first time in U.S. history a senator voted to convict a president from his own party in an impeachment trial.
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| 29 Outdoor Fire Pit Ideas That Are Lit Posted: 12 Feb 2020 07:00 AM PST |
| Couple weds in Northern Ireland's first same-sex marriage Posted: 12 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  Two women tied the knot Tuesday in Northern Ireland's first same-sex wedding, after the region became the last part of the United Kingdom to legalize gay marriage. Care worker Robyn Peoples, 26, and waitress Sharni Edwards, 27 married at a ceremony in Carrickfergus, near Belfast. The couple said they had not intended to be the first to wed, but were thrilled to become symbols of change in Northern Ireland.
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| Leaked photos of woman's murder by partner with 'It was cupid’s fault' headline spark outrage in Mexico Posted: 12 Feb 2020 06:15 AM PST  The brutal murder of a young woman, who was allegedly stabbed to death by her partner, has sparked mass outrage in Mexico after photos of her mutilated body were leaked to the press.Ingrid Escamilla had her organs and skin removed, in what is believed to have been an attempt to hide evidence of her grisly murder.
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| Prominent Elizabeth Warren supporter says 'she's done' after her poor New Hampshire results Posted: 12 Feb 2020 08:46 AM PST  The Warren campaign was effective at reaching voters across New Hampshire, but still struggled to persuade people to vote for her.
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| Plant a trillion trees: U.S. Republicans offer fossil fuel-friendly climate fix Posted: 12 Feb 2020 03:10 AM PST  Republican lawmakers on Wednesday proposed legislation setting a goal for the United States to plant a trillion trees by 2050 to fight global warming, a plan intended to address climate change by sucking carbon out of the air instead of by cutting emissions. The proposed legislation reflects an acknowledgement by some in the Republican Party of rising voter demand for action on climate change, even as it seeks to preserve the economic benefits of a historic drilling boom that has made the United States the world's biggest oil and gas producer. Republican President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the science of climate change, had expressed support for the idea of a massive tree-planting campaign during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month.
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| These County Jails Shamelessly Detained Immigrants for ICE Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:09 PM PST  Holding immigrant detainees in jails may strengthen the public's unfounded assumptions about the criminality of immigrants, given that the public often assumes that jails are only for criminal defendants awaiting their trials or for those serving their criminal sentence.
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| Two dolphins found with gunshot and stab wounds in Florida Posted: 12 Feb 2020 12:31 AM PST  Federal officials are offering up to $20,000 for information about the two most recent cases.
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| The White House's never-Trumper problem is much bigger than Mitt Romney Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:30 AM PST  President Donald Trump should consider firing every single never-Trumper political appointee in his administration.
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| 'Invisible' and 'toxic' oil made the Deepwater Horizon spill worse than thought, study says Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:28 PM PST |
| Bat for sale at Indonesia's wildlife market despite virus warning Posted: 12 Feb 2020 02:47 AM PST  Bats, rats and snakes are still being sold at an Indonesian market known for its wildlife offerings, despite a government request to take them off the menu over fears of a link to the deadly coronavirus. Vendors at the Tomohon Extreme Meat market on Sulawesi island say business is booming and curious tourists keep arriving to check out exotic fare that enrages animal rights activists. A wildlife market in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, is thought to be ground zero and there is suspicion it could have originated in bats.
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| Ex-official kills himself in Moscow courtroom after verdict Posted: 12 Feb 2020 03:51 AM PST |
| Tour This Quintessential Beach Retreat in Amagansett Dunes Posted: 12 Feb 2020 07:08 AM PST |
| Chinese nurses heading to Wuhan are shaving their heads to treat coronavirus patients because long hair can spread the disease Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:34 PM PST  The nurses made the sacrifice with a smile before shipping out from other parts of China to face the virus.
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| House Intel Committee Republicans Boycott Hearing Due to Schiff’s Refusal to Address FISA Abuses Posted: 12 Feb 2020 09:29 AM PST  Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee boycotted a hearing on Wednesday, complaining that the committee's Democratic chairman Adam Schiff has neglected proper oversight of the intelligence community by failing to hold a hearing on the Justice Department inspector general's report detailing the FBI's FISA abuses."Under your chairmanship, the House Intelligence Committee has strayed far from its mandate of overseeing the Intelligence Community," the panel's nine GOP members wrote in a letter to Schiff obtained by the Daily Caller."Until the Committee prioritizes oversight activities related to urgent and critical concerns, Republican Members cannot support distractions from our core responsibilities," they added.The Republican representatives afterwards boycotted a hearing of the Strategic Technology and Advanced Research Subcommittee on the development of artificial intelligence for national security, criticizing the hearing as a "publicity event."In December, the Justice Department's inspector general released a report concluding that the FBI omitted crucial details in its requests for warrants to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page, specifically that the agency neglected to inform the FISA court that the controversial Steele dossier, cited in applications to spy on Page, was unreliable.The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele who was investigating Donald Trump for an opposition research firm hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign. The dossier purported to show connections between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.The DOJ inspector general did not say the FISA court should have declined to grant the warrants, but Attorney General William Barr has disagreed, saying the FBI launched an "intrusive investigation" of the Trump campaign on the "thinnest of suspicions" that were "insufficient to justify the steps taken.""We have gone months at a time in which we've hardly held any oversight-related briefings or hearings at all," the Intelligence Committee Republicans wrote to Schiff. "Until the Committee prioritizes oversight activities related to urgent and critical concerns, Republican Members cannot support distractions from our core responsibilities."
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| The U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Stealth Fighter Is Older Than You Think, and Getting Better by the Day Posted: 12 Feb 2020 04:52 PM PST  The Raptor's basic design might be more than 30 years old, but it's still at the cutting edge of military aviation.
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| CDC confirms 14th U.S. case of coronavirus with patient in San Diego Posted: 12 Feb 2020 05:10 PM PST  A second person evacuated from Wuhan, China, to a U.S. Marine base near San Diego has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, raising the tally of confirmed cases in the United States to 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Wednesday. The patient was among 232 individuals who had been placed under quarantine at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after being airlifted from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan earlier this month, CDC spokeswoman Ana Toro said.
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| ‘The Gloves Are Off’: Trump Pushes Revenge Operations Posted: 11 Feb 2020 11:49 PM PST  Since his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, President Donald Trump has privately encouraged his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to keep investigating the Biden family and Ukraine, and to keep updating him and his administration, including the Justice Department, on his findings, according to two people familiar with their discussions.Reached for this story on Monday evening, Giuliani repeatedly declined to comment on specifics, but did say that his relationship with the president remained intact and that he'd just "talked to him twice today." Asked what those conversations regarded, the Trump attorney replied, "no comment."To those who know this president, this comes as little shock. "In my conversations with the president, he has, on more occasion than one, said that he wants to get to the bottom of the Ukraine issue in a very similar way that he's talked about investigating the 'Russia hoax,'" said another source close to Trump.President Trump's conversations with Giuliani come just one week after the Senate acquitted him of abusing his office during his interactions with Ukraine. Since then, Trump has embarked on the predictable victory lap, claiming complete vindication and ousting witnesses who participated in the House impeachment investigation, including Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman as well as EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland. Some officials said they fear Giuliani's work will now proceed but with the president's official imprimatur. Giuliani & Co. Plot New Biden Probes as Trump's Ukraine Team Lies in Ruin"I think he feels like the chains are off now," said one senior administration official. "It's like things have taken a turn. The gloves are off. And everything that used to be hush hush is now just… out in the open."At the same time as he is pushing out his foes and scheming to investigate his future rivals, President Trump is also publicly flirting with the idea of helping save those who were pulled into the Russia investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. On Tuesday, Justice Department headquarters overruled prosecutors' recommendation that former Trump adviser Roger Stone serve seven to nine years in prison for lying to Congress and witness tampering. Shortly after that news broke, all four prosecutors involved in the case withdrew from their work there, and one left the Justice Department altogether. A senior Justice Department official said it was not an easy day, but an early-morning Trump tweet—which called the initial recommendation a "miscarriage of justice"—had nothing to do with the department's move to override the prosecutors. Following Trump's acquittal last week, Giuliani and his allies continued ramping up their probes into Hunter and Joe Biden and Ukraine matters. And on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CBS's Margaret Brennan that the Department of Justice had established an "intake process" whereby Giuliani could pass off information he gathered from Ukraine to prosecutors. "I have no idea what he's got. I have no idea if the information is credible or not," Graham told The Daily Beast in a phone interview. "Anything that comes out of Ukraine needs to be run through intelligence. Rudy is also on TV saying he has the smoking gun. When somebody goes on TV and talks about what they got in Ukraine... that needs to be checked. Everyone should be suspicious."Graham went on to denounce the Democrats' embrace of Lev Parnas, a former associate of Giuliani who recently pushed out recordings of President Trump advocating for the firing of former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. "You know, we have the Democrats who are embracing Parnas… putting people on TV to make outlandish claims. We should run him and that information through the system," Graham said, adding that he was "skeptical" of any information emanating from Ukraine.Speaking to reporters on Monday, Attorney General Bill Barr acknowledged that the department would evaluate Giuliani's information but waved off any notion that the president's personal attorney was being given special attention or priority. The Washington Post later reported the District Attorney's office in Pittsburgh had been tapped to handle the case.Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are actively working to gather additional information on the Bidens and Burisma. Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI), Graham, and Chuck Grassley—the Republican chairmen of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Finance Committee, respectively—previously requested the State Department hand over any documents tied to the Bidens or Ukraine. A source briefed on the investigation confirmed to The Daily Beast that it is focusing on witnesses from Blue Star and the State Department who are seen as close to Biden: David Wade, the communications chief for the former vice president; former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken; and Amos Hochstein, an envoy for energy policy in the Obama administration. As previously reported by BuzzFeed, Senate investigators have said they expect to soon get records from the National Archives about meetings in 2016 between Obama administration officials, Ukrainian representatives and the Democratic National Committee, the source said. Once the archive and State documents come through, investigators plan to set up witness interviews, the source said, adding that investigators have indicated the probe could extend into the summer."We don't give our investigations artificial deadlines and we haven't speculated on any timeframes," a spokesman for Grassley said. "We follow the facts where they lead and each inquiry is done on a case by case."Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat who has long claimed the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election to damage Hillary Clinton, has previously stated that he's agreed to cooperate with the probe into the Bidens. He told The Daily Beast he shared additional documents with investigators on Monday. The lawmakers leading the investigation have sought to investigate claims related to Ukraine and 2016, including Telizhenko's. Telizhenko said the documents included emails, and did not share further detail about the materials, which he said were in response to queries from the Senate investigators. Spokespersons for the senators did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Coronavirus 'to take a foothold' in US warn experts Posted: 12 Feb 2020 12:14 PM PST  Health experts have warned that the new coronavirus, which has killed at more than 1,100 people and made ill a further 45,000 globally, is will likely "take a foothold in the US".As officials said the number of new cases in China appeared to have stabilised, experts at the centres for disease control (CDC) said they were preparing for the disease to spread here.
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| Mountain lion is first to be killed under California's "3-strike" law Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:27 PM PST  This marks the first time a mountain lion with a tracking collar has been killed under the state's depredation law in the Santa Monica Mountains, according to the National Park Service.
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| New York man accused of manipulating daughter's college friends charged with sex trafficking Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:09 PM PST  Lawrence Ray, the father of a former Sarah Lawrence College student, is accused of manipulating and abusing her school friends.
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| Asian carp roundup in Kentucky opens new front in battle Posted: 11 Feb 2020 10:12 PM PST  Like a slow-motion, underwater cattle drive, wildlife officials in a half-dozen aluminum boats used pulses of electricity and sound on a recent gray morning to herd schools of Asian carp toward 1,000-foot-long (305 meters) nets. The ongoing roundup on wind-rippled Kentucky Lake opens a new front in a 15-year battle to halt the advance of the invasive carp, which threaten to upend aquatic ecosystems, starve out native fish and wipe out endangered mussel and snail populations along the Mississippi River and dozens of tributaries. Programs aim to reduce established populations and prevent further spreading, but wildlife officials concede they may never be able to eradicate the prolific fish.
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| Boeing is flying the 737 Max around the US with test crews and no passengers to prepare for the plane's return Posted: 12 Feb 2020 03:18 AM PST  Boeing is running test flights in advance of regulators testing the 737 Max to see if it should fly again after two fatal crashed killed 346 people.
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| Bernie Sanders is now the front-runner. And moderates may be too divided to stop him. Posted: 12 Feb 2020 06:02 AM PST  While liberals rally for the Vermont senator, moderate and conservative Democrats are divided among Buttigieg, Biden and Bloomberg. The party establishment is worried.
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| America's Use of Agent Orange: 45 Million Liters of Dioxin Compound Dumped On Vietnam Posted: 11 Feb 2020 04:28 PM PST  What a disaster.
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| Car-sized prehistoric South American turtle was built for battle Posted: 12 Feb 2020 12:43 PM PST |
| House Judiciary Committee goes after Barr over backchannel for Giuliani to give info on Ukraine Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:22 PM PST  The House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr on Monday demanding answers regarding the Justice Department's new "intake process" to receive information from Rudy Giuliani about Ukraine and the Bidens.
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