If politics is just a big popularity contest, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is winning — or at least, she isn’t losing as badly as President Trump.

According to a new CBS poll, Pelosi is more popular than either Trump or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. When asked about her job performance, respondents gave Pelosi a 39 percent approval, with 50 percent disapproving.

Trump received only a 36 percent approval and 59 percent disapproval. McConnell didn’t fare any better, with a 25-55 approval-disapproval differential.

That politicians aren’t popular isn’t new. That Pelosi is more popular than the president after 32 days of a government shutdown over the border wall, however, is significant. At the very least, it shows that the new speaker, who retook the gavel for a second time at the beginning of the year, is weathering the crisis better than either of her negotiating partners.

The job approval polling tracks with overall opinion polling on the shutdown. The public blames Trump for letting the government go dark, though Republican voters are increasingly in favor of the wall as a concept.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nancy-pelosi-more-popular-than-trump-after-monthlong-shutdown

Without clear information from the government, rumors can flourish. Beth Taurasi, from Colorado, said she heard from a fellow SNAP recipient that if the shutdown continues past February, the Trump administration would try to replace food benefits with boxes of canned goods ― an idea that nobody in Washington has actually suggested as a solution. (The Trump administration did suggest partially replacing SNAP benefits with food boxes last year, though the idea had not been thought out very well and it went nowhere.)

Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/government-shutdown-food-assistance-snap_us_5c488cb1e4b0b66936760e94

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(CNN)A gunman who barricaded himself in a SunTrust Bank in Florida killed at least five people in the branch on Wednesday, Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund said.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/us/sebring-florida-bank-incident/index.html

    In the latest twist in the ongoing saga over the State of the Union, President Trump on Wednesday wrote that he planned to ignore House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s disinvitation and proceed with delivering his speech on Jan. 29 “on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!”

    So can Trump simply show up to the House of Representatives to deliver his speech? And if he does, can Pelosi just have security kick him out?

    The answer is multi-layered.

    Under the rules, declaring a formal joint session of Congress requires the agreement of both the House and Senate. Without Pelosi’s consent, in other words, there can’t be a joint session.

    At the same time, however, as described by McClatchy, no rules would prevent Trump from entering the House chamber, or speaking on the House floor, whenever he wants. So he’s perfectly within his powers to show up and deliver his speech.

    That said, Pelosi, D-Calif., has other tools at her disposal to thwart Trump. She could shut off the lights, turn off the microphones, and also make sure that no cameras are allowed because the House won’t be in session.

    Both parties have done this to each other in the past.

    In 2008, during her first term as speaker, Pelosi adjourned without allowing a vote Republicans wanted related to offshore drilling, shut off the lights, and cut off the microphones to block Republicans from complaining about it. Republicans refused to leave the floor and kept on talking anyway.

    In 2016, Pelosi was on the opposite side of this sort of situation, when she joined Democrats in staging a sit-in after the Republican majority blocked gun control votes. Democrats remained on the floor in the dark after the House was put in recess and used social media to broadcast video from the protest.

    A CNN report at the time noted, “At one point, a police officer told the Democrats that they would be conducting a daily security sweep. ‘I’d ask that you clear the floor while that happens,’ the officer said. Pelosi responded: ‘That’s not going to happen’ and the security check then took place involving five agents and a dog as the House Democratic leader continued speaking, undeterred.”

    So, the way things are going, it’s certainly easy to imagine something similar happening. For instance, Trump could show up and start tweeting out photos and videos of him from the House floor ready to deliver the speech and complaining that Pelosi is barring cameras and keeping it dark.

    But, while there is some precedent for these sorts of games, it would take things to a new level if something like this were to take place involving the president arriving on Capitol Hill to deliver the State of the Union.

    Trump and his team have now had time to discuss various responses to Pelosi’s letter, including the possibility of delivering the speech from the White House, the Senate, or another location. He clearly reached the conclusion that simply showing up is a win-win. In this way of thinking, if Pelosi relents, it makes him look like a stronger leader who stared down Pelosi and won. If she pursues some of the strategies above to thwart him, it could potentially backfire and start to make her look like the unreasonable party.

    Of course, none of this, in the end, will bring lawmakers any closer to resolving the border wall impasse that has led to the government shutdown.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-can-show-up-to-deliver-the-state-of-the-union-but-pelosi-could-shut-off-the-lights-and-keep-out-cameras

    Feeling paralyzed by a 33-day partial government shutdown, a group of moderate House Democrats are growing restless — but they still aren’t going to give in to President Trump.

    “There is broad and growing concern about the impact of the shutdown and the human cost it’s imposing, so there’s a lot of frustration in that area — but not with our leadership,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), the chair of the House Budget Committee.

    Still, at least one Democrat is asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give Trump something to get him to the negotiating table; Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), a first-term Democrat, is penning a letter to Pelosi asking her to guarantee a vote on some kind of border security package for the Department of Homeland Security by the end of February.

    Basically, Luria is trying to get Pelosi to agree that DHS officials will be given committee hearings to tell Congress what they need for border security, and secure a vote on the department’s funding request. That doesn’t mean it would get approved, but the hope is that the White House will see this as some sort of good-faith effort to negotiate and end the shutdown. A draft version of the letter was first reported by Politico.

    But even if Luria is trying to signal an openness to the other side, she and other moderates are still aligned with Pelosi’s central position: open up the government first, and only then will Democrats agree to negotiate on border security with the president. Luria is advocating a sweetener for Trump, rather than playing hardball.

    “Every Democrat who’s gone down to the White House, sent a letter, has said, ‘Open up the government and we’ll negotiate,’” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). “I don’t know of any Democrat who has not said, ‘What we need to do first is open up the government.’”

    “Once the president walks out of a room, it’s up to them [the White House] to initiate the talks,” Yarmuth added.

    Pelosi’s spokesperson Drew Hammill told Vox the White House still hasn’t reached out to Pelosi for any further negotiations this week, even as the Senate plans to take up two bills aimed at reopening the government on Thursday — both of which are expected to fail.

    Pelosi and Trump are in a stalemate. Moderates want a way out.

    Moderates are from districts that lean more conservative, and they have a distinct interest in making sure they are trying to work with Republicans to fix things that are broken in Washington. And right now, the thing that is broken in Washington is Washington.

    The most notable example of this was Trump inviting moderate Democrats in the House Problem Solvers Caucus to the White House to talk with him. But Trump has always been eager to exploit the optics of this to give the appearance that he’s peeling people away from Pelosi’s caucus — something the moderates refuted.

    “We were there not to negotiate anything other than try to inspire a negotiation and with a strong message we’ve got to do so when the government is open,” said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) last week. “Reopen government and get back to the table.”

    Other moderate Democrats have made it clear they are willing to negotiate with Trump over some sort of physical barrier, an idea Vox’s Tara Golshan laid out in more detail.

    “I have said multiple times that I support some element of a physical barrier as part of an overall package on border security, but it’s also got to include more funding for border agents; it’s got to include more technology,” Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) told reporters. “But I’ve always been consistent in saying if the experts tell us a physical barrier makes sense, I will support it.”

    At least one moderate was willing to go further this week.

    “Give Trump the money,” said Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) in an interview with a local Minnesota radio station. “I’d give him the whole thing … put strings on it so you make sure he puts the wall where it needs to be. Why are we fighting over this? We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.”

    But even if everyone agrees that opening up the government is the starting point, many think Pelosi and Trump need to get together to talk — soon.

    “I agree with Ms. Pelosi. Open up government, pay the employees, then we negotiate,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who represents the border community of Laredo. “But now, I think pretty soon we’ve got to start looking at details. They’ve got to sit down and start negotiating, because right now it’s, ‘No, no.’”

    Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2019/1/23/18194327/moderate-house-democrats-shutdown-pelosi-trump

    President Trump often receives criticism for his supposed disinterest in the tradition of American moral leadership in international affairs. Some of this is fair, some is not. But when it comes to challenging the moral disgrace that is socialist Venezuela, Trump’s record is unequivocally stellar.

    Trump took this leadership one step further on Wednesday, when he officially recognized Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful president. This serves the better future of a suffering people.

    Why is this recognition so important?

    Primarily because it will force new pressure onto those who provide Venezuela’s pretender president, Nicolas Maduro, with his insulation of power. As I noted on Tuesday, “Maduro is hardly an inspiring leader. Instead, Maduro’s support flows from the assessment of powerful Venezuelan figures that he presently offers the best means to their better interest. But if they believe that Maduro’s continued power will only make them weaker, and open them up to the risk of a legal reckoning in the post-Maduro era, they will move away from the pretender president.”

    But the timing of Trump’s announcement is also excellent. After all, as you read this, millions of Venezuelans are marching through on their streets, demanding Maduro’s resignation. They are doing so because they have lived the lie of Maduro and Hugo Chavez’s socialist utopia for too long. And they know that lie for what it is: a Venezuela littered with starving children, professionals turned beggars and prostitutes, and the world’s most oil-rich nation now a political asylum.

    More U.S. action will yet be necessary. The Trump administration should work with its allies, especially Brazil and Colombia, to impose a wide-ranging oil embargo on Venezuelan oil exports. Trump should also confront nations such as China, Russia, and Spain, which support Maduro’s evil. Nevertheless, this is a good step that will send shivers down the spines of Maduro’s cronies. America has put them on notice as usurpers of democracy. They must now choose whether to remedy their misjudgment, or reap the whirlwind when Maduro’s political future reaches its inevitable destination.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trumps-recognition-of-juan-guaido-is-bold-moral-leadership-on-venezuela

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    (CNN)A 36-year-old nurse has been arrested on suspicion of impregnating a woman in a vegetative state who unexpectedly gave birth last month at a Phoenix health care facility, police said Wednesday.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/health/arizona-woman-birth-vegetative-state/index.html

      The only thing worse than a malicious lie is the people who try to keep it alive even after it has been thoroughly discredited.

      And that’s exactly what Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., did Tuesday evening when she repeated a series of disproven allegations leveled against a group of Covington Catholic High School students who attended the March for Life last week. They were falsely accused this weekend of “mobbing” Nathan Phillips, a Native American protester — footage of the incident shows otherwise.

      “The boys were protesting a woman’s right to choose & yelled ‘it’s not rape if you enjoy it,’” the congresswoman said in a since-deleted tweeted.

      Her comments were made specifically in response to President Trump, who also tweeted Tuesday in reference to the March for Life incident that “the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good – maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!”

      Rep. Omar’s tweet also claimed, falsely, that the Covington students “were taunting 5 Black men before they surrounded Phillips and led racist chants.”

      Her note concluded with a reference to Nick Sandmann, the most visible student from the March for Life incident, claiming the teen’s “family hired a right wing PR firm to write his non-apology” for his interview this week with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie.

      It’s rare when someone manages to get this much wrong in such little space with so few words, but Omar has so far shown a special talent for this sort of thing. Let’s work through her baseless accusations, misleading statements, and outright falsehoods one by one.

      First, as far as we know, no one from Covington shouted, “it’s not rape if you enjoy it.” Someone did yell that, which is indefensible, but video of the incident also includes people stressing that the teen who yelled the offending phrase is not a Covington student. This is all the information we have regarding what was yelled and who yelled it — which is to say, Rep. Omar is making an accusation she can’t back up.

      Second, the congresswoman’s claim that the students “were taunting 5 Black men” is an outright lie. It was the other way around. The men in the video are members of the Black Israelites, a loathsome fringe hate group, and they were the ones who did the taunting. The Black Israelites called the high school students “crackers,” “faggots,” and accused them of being pedophiles. They accused the teens of “giving faggots rights.” They threatened the Covington students with violence. They also targeted a black Covington student, calling him a “n-gger” and telling him his classmates were going to murder him and harvest his organs (what?).

      Third, Omar’s claim that the students “surrounded Phillips and led racist chants” is misleading at best. Phillips approached the teens, banging away on a drum, and only then did the crowd part to form what I guess you could call a drum circle. Also, there is nothing to show the teens led racist chants, contrary to what Phillips told the Washington Post. The most controversial thing that can be seen in footage of the incident is when a few of the students appear to perform the “tomahawk chop” in response to Phillips’ provocation.

      I’m not going to die on the hill of a technicality like the difference between a chant and a hand motion, but it’s clear Omar is misrepresenting what actually happened. She characterizes Phillips as a passive victim of “racist chants.” That not accurate. The videos show he instigated the confrontation. What the footage does not show, however, is that the teens chanted things like “build the wall,” contra Phillips’ claims in subsequent interviews.

      Lastly, as to her point about the Sandmann’s hiring a public relations firm: Yes, and? Is enlisting the aid of spin doctors in and of itself a damning action? If so, I look forward to the forthcoming denunciations of the Planned Parenthood media machine, which includes SKD Knickerbocker and Fusion GPS, both of which are hugely successful in getting a submissive press to repeat the abortion provider’s talking points.

      On Wednesday, Rep. Omar’s nonsense tweet regarding the March for Life incident was deleted without explanation or apology.

      You know, between showing up late to the Covington smear campaign and the nonsensical, stumbling defense she offered last week of her conspiracy-mongering against Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., I’d say the congresswoman is not off to a great start.

      On the other hand, at least Omar has finally found some “Israelites” she is willing to defend.

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/rep-ilhan-omar-quietly-deletes-inaccurate-attack-on-students-from-covington-catholic

      President Donald Trump’s advisers are reportedly urging him to bench his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and prevent him from making televised appearances following his hapless performances of late.

      According to The Associated Press, citing sources in and close to the White House, Trump is irritated by Giuliani’s recent mistakes, involving bombshell statements rapidly followed by confusing backtracking. The president reportedly thinks they distracted from what he views as vindication after an explosive BuzzFeed report was later brought into question.

      The ordeal has caused some of Trump’s advisers to urge the president to pull Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, from television appearances, though there is not a push for the lawyer to be fired, the AP reported. 

      Moreover, Republicans close to the White House told the AP they believe Giuliani may be appearing on TV after drinking alcohol, so he should be banned from evening appearances on news shows.

      Read more: “Wait, what tapes…?” Rudy Giuliani reveals he’s heard taped evidence in Trump-Russia investigation

      The White House and Giuliani did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

      Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office took the unusual step of disputing a report by BuzzFeed. Normally, Mueller does not comment on media reports. Citing two anonymous federal investigators, BuzzFeed reported that Mueller’s Russia investigation uncovered evidence showing Trump directed his former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about his business dealings in Moscow.

      Mueller’s office described the report as “inaccurate.” This was seized on by Trump and his allies, who accused BuzzFeed—which stands by its reporting—of spreading “fake news” and misinformation against the president.

      Meanwhile, Giuliani made headlines of his own. The lawyer recently tackled questions regarding the timeline for a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow. He told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Trump was involved in talks about the business deal throughout the 2016 general election—which would have been as he simultaneously pushed for the lifting of sanctions against Russia and called on its government to expose the emails of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. 

      Giuliani then issued a statement on Monday saying his comments “were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the President. My comments did not represent the actual timing or circumstances of any such discussions.” 

      Read more: MSNBC panel savages Rudy Giuliani: “worst lawyer ever,” “he should be disbarred,” doesn’t understand “anything”

      Then, in an interview with The New Yorker, when asked about the BuzzFeed story, Giuliani revealed that he had listened to tapes.

      “I can tell you, from the moment I read the story, I knew the story was false. Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the emails, and I knew none existed,” he said.

      The New Yorker asked: “Wait, what tapes have you gone through?”

      Giuliani replied, “I shouldn’t have said ‘tapes.’ They alleged there were texts and emails that corroborated that Cohen was saying the president told him to lie. There were no texts, there were no e-mails, and the president never told him to lie.”

      Trump’s lawyer then clarified that he had listened to tapes “but none of them concern this.”

      Just before the media fallout from the BuzzFeed article, Giuliani told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that he “never said there was no collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign, a focus of the Mueller investigation, just that the president would not necessarily be aware of it because thousands of people worked to get him elected.

      This is despite President Trump’s repeated and frustrated insistence that there was no collusion with Russia. Giuliani has also in the past said there was no collusion.

      Giuliani told Politico that he and Trump have known each other for 30 years “and I haven’t heard him complain. And nobody in the White House would complain to me. They just do it behind my back.”

      He added: “I do have a mastery of the facts, which is why I can spin them honestly, argue them several different ways… The problem is people don’t understand, or people don’t want to understand, alternative arguing, which is what you do in court all the time. People who want to understand it, do.”

      This article has been updated with another comment from Rudy Giuliani.

      President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the White House July 9, 2018, in Washington, D.C. Trump is reportedly frustrated by Giuliani’s recent media gaffes. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

      p:last-of-type::after, .node-type-slideshow .article-body > p:last-of-type::after{content:none}]]>

      Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-media-tv-appearances-1301162

      The Covington Catholic High School students were criticized for their manic response to the Native drummer, Nathan Phillips, who was participating in the Indigenous Peoples March. One student, Nick Sandmann, stood inches from Phillips with a wide smirk. 

      Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sarah-huckabee-sanders-covington-kentucky-teens_us_5c487c4fe4b025aa26bf04aa

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      (CNN)A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of impregnating woman in a vegetative state who gave birth last month at a Phoenix health care facility, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said Wednesday.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/health/arizona-woman-birth-vegetative-state/index.html

      Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is facing a social media backlash for going after Covington Catholic students anew Tuesday night, even after many in the media acknowledged initially misreporting on their widely viewed confrontation with a Native-American elder in Washington last week.

      Media figures initially seized on the viral confrontation between the group of students and Native-American elder Nathan Phillips. The initial clip appeared to show students antagonizing him, but additional video then emerged offering context, including that Phillips approached them amid a confrontation between the students and Black Hebrew Israelite protesters. The students pushed back on the initial criticism, and many of those critics have since retracted their statements — but others have revived the criticism.

      MEDIA TREATMENT OF COVINGTON STUDENTS ‘WAY WORSE’ THAN KAVANAUGH COVERAGE, CRITIC SAYS

      Omar weighed in on the subject, responding to President Trump’s tweet defending Covington student Nick Sandmann and his peers — by claiming they were taunting the black protesters despite accounts to the contrary and citing a videotaped comment about rape, though it’s unclear whether it was one of the Covington students who said it.

      Omar faced plenty of criticism for her tweet, with many calling her a “liar.”

      TUCKER CARLSON: THERE’S NO SYMPATHY FOR COVINGTON CATHOLIC TEENS IN AMERICA’S NEWSROOMS

      CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

      The newly elected representative was also criticized for a tweet claiming that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was “compromised,” admitting later to CNN that it was an “opinion.”

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-ilhan-omar-faces-backlash-for-new-attacks-on-covington-students

      Democrats have the opportunity to show the world which matters more to them: handing a defeat to President Trump or helping the people they care about, such as refugees, illegal immigrants in the U.S. since childhood, and federal workers.

      The White House over the weekend put forth a proposal that gives Democrats a lot on immigration while asking for very little.

      The trade: extended legal protection for thousands of immigrants living in the country currently awaiting the court system to determine their fate in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for construction of more wall barrier on the southern border.

      An agreement on such a deal would ideally reopen the full federal government and give both sides victories, however small, on immigration. It would also create breathing room for future negotiations on a bigger deal that would offer more security on the border and perhaps some kind of permanent status for immigrants here now in an uncomfortable legal limbo.

      Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Sunday that he would put the White House’s proposal to a vote this week. The bill’s passage would require the support of all Republicans, plus an additional seven Democrats, no doubt a high threshold to meet.

      But Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have called any vote pointless, a “nonstarter.”

      Is it a nonstarter for the 800,000 federal workers, some of whom are going on their second round without a paycheck? Is it a nonstarter for the farmers and other Americans who’ve seen their livelihoods stalled because they can’t access government agencies and services on which they rely? Is it a nonstarter for the thousands of immigrants in the country watching their futures hang in the balance?

      The shutdown started with Trump. He said he was proud to own it. But Democrats have a lot to gain by working with him to end it. They should invite the opportunity to debate the bill and offer up any amendments they see to their advantage.

      If, after the offer of a floor debate and a chance to add their amendments on immigration, they refuse to allow an up-or-down vote on the measure, the public will know that Democrats care more about opposing Trump than they care for immigrants in legal jeopardy.

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/what-do-democrats-care-about-helping-people-or-hurting-trump

      On Tuesday evening, Ms. Pelosi took another swipe at the president, using the phrase “Trump Shutdown” — which irked Mr. Trump in their televised Oval Office meeting last year — as she implored Republicans to vote for the Democrat-backed spending bill.

      “On Thursday, the Senate will have the opportunity to put a bipartisan bill on the president’s desk to reopen government and end this senseless shutdown,” Ms. Pelosi said.

      In the Senate, Mr. Trump’s proposal, which he promoted in a televised address on Saturday as a bipartisan compromise to pair wall funding with temporary legal protections for some immigrants, is facing all but certain death after White House officials conceded privately on Tuesday they had tacked on controversial proposals anathema to Democrats that would block many migrants from seeking asylum.

      The Republican legislation, unveiled Monday night, would provide $5.7 billion in wall funding and large spending increases for the detention and removal of immigrants, as well as three-year provisional protections for 700,000 of the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers and for about 325,000 immigrants mostly from Latin American countries and Haiti who have been living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status.

      As sweeteners to entice Democrats to back the measure, Mr. McConnell added $12.7 billion in disaster aid and an extension of the Violence Against Women Act, a measure that expired last year when government funding lapsed.

      “The opportunity to end all this is staring us right in the face,” Mr. McConnell said Tuesday, calling the president’s proposal “a comprehensive and bipartisan offer.”

      But the measure also included several changes to asylum law, long advocated by Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior adviser and an architect of his immigration agenda, that would make it more difficult for people to seek refuge in the United States from persecution and violence at home. Among them were provisions to bar Central American children from claiming asylum inside the United States, requiring them instead to do so in their own countries, and allow any of them to be quickly sent back to their own countries.

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/politics/government-shutdown-senate.html

      The strike has made teachers realize that, “we’re a lot stronger than we thought we were, so now we’re not going to let things slide,” said Nancy De La Torre, a first-grade teacher at Corona Avenue Elementary School in Bell. She’s OK knowing that the union didn’t get everything it set out for, because she feels that teachers will have more power in future negotiations, she said.

      Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-teachers-strike-reaction-20190122-story.html

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      (CNN)The discussion over what happened between competing groups of people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/us/lincoln-memorial-rally-video-viral-trnd/index.html

        White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders derided New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent claim that the world will end in 12 years due to climate change, and suggested the Trump administration has little need for the progressive firebrand’s thoughts in general, in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview Tuesday night with Fox News’ “Hannity.”

        Sanders also slammed what she called the “disgraceful” media coverage of the previous week, which included a discredited BuzzFeed News report on the Russia investigation and a social media harassment campaign against pro-Trump Catholic high school students — based largely on incomplete and selectively edited videos of their encounter with a Native American man and other activists shouting homophobic slurs.

        “I don’t think we’re going to listen to [Ocasio-Cortez] on much of anything — particularly not on matters we’re gonna leave in the hands of a much, much higher authority — and certainly, not listen to the freshman congresswoman on when the world may end,” Sanders said.

        Speaking at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that climate change constituted “our World War II” and added: “Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is, how are we gonna pay for it?'”

        A protestor leads a Native American prayer with a traditional drum outside the Catholic Diocese of Covington Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Covington, Ky. The diocese in Kentucky has apologized after selectively edited videos emerged showing students from Covington Catholic High School seeming to mock Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial on Friday after a pro-life rally in Washington. Later, unedited videos showed the students themselves were harassed and approached by other activists. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

        A United Nations report on climate change warned late last year that the world will face several consequences from climate change – extreme drought, food shortages and deadly flooding – unless there’s an “unprecedented” effort made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

        Then, in November, the Trump administration released a federal report that found that the impacts of climate change are being felt across the country, and “extreme weather and climate-related events” are going to worsen in the years to come — with a significant possible impact on the economy by the end of the century.

        Some conservative commentators have argued that most proposed solutions would do more harm than good, and also have accused climate activists of crying wolf. In 2006, a NASA scientist and leading global warming researcher declared that the world had only 10 years to avert a climate catastrophe. Meantime, President Trump repeatedly has cast doubt on the risks posed by global warming, despite the report from his administration.

        ‘‘Large parts of the Country are suffering from tremendous amounts of snow and near record setting cold,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “Amazing how big this system is. Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!’’

        In 2012, Trump famously wrote: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

        Now, Sanders said, the attention should be on pressing matters like the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall.

        CRITIC: MEDIA TREATMENT OF COVINGTON CATHOLIC KIDS ‘WAY WORSE’ THAN KAVANAUGH EPISODE

        “We’re focused on what’s happening in the world right now,” Sanders told host Sean Hannity. “We wish that Democrats like herself would engage in that conversation, help us fix some of the current problems we know exist, and work with us to get some things done — particularly on the border, fixing the national and humanitarian crisis.”

        Sanders added, in an apparent reference to God: “That’s the kind of stuff we’re focused on, not things we’re gonna leave up to the hands of something and someone much more powerful than any of us.”

        A man places a sign showing support for the students of Covington Catholic Catholic High School in front of the Catholic Diocese of Covington in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

        The president himself seemingly has little patience for Ocasio-Cortez. Asked last week outside the White House for his response to Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that there is “no question” he’s a racist, Trump responded simply: “Who cares?”

        Separately, Sanders said it was “a sad day in America” when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., preemptively rejected Trump’s compromise proposal to end the partial federal shutdown. The White House offered various immigration-related concessions to Democrats in exchange for border wall funding.

        “Republicans have been in lock-step with the president, because we actually believe in getting something done,” Sanders said. “[Democrats] are not looking to solve problems, but they’re simply looking to kick the can down the road.”

        KENTUCKY HIGH SCHOOL CLOSED AFTER DEATH THREATS DIRECTED AT STUDENTS IN VIRAL VIDEO 

        Sanders added, “The president is a leader, and Nancy Pelosi is nothing more than an obstructionist.”

        The White House press secretary said Pelosi’s security concerns about the upcoming planned Jan. 29 State of the Union address were unfounded, and that the White House was “moving forward” with plans for the address in Congress.

        “I don’t know if there would be a place that all of those members would attend, but the president’s focus is on speaking to the American people.”

        House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Fox News’ “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Tuesday that he would have no objections to Trump delivering a State of the Union address in the House of Representatives, despite Pelosi’s repeated threats that the traditional speech be delayed.

        “Sure,” Hoyer, D-Md., responded, when asked if he’d be open to Trump speaking in person in the House for the State of the Union. Asked if Pelosi would agree, he added, “I don’t know what the discussions have been.”

        “What happened for BuzzFeed is a great lesson for the news media. Quit trying to be first, and start trying to be right.”

        Sanders concluded by bashing BuzzFeed News, which authored a bombshell report alleging Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress — a report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team dismissed as inaccurate. Sanders, like Donald Trump Jr. on Monday, said the episode was similar to the media coverage of a Catholic high school pro-life trip to Washington over the weekend.

        A police car sits at the entrance to Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Ky., Saturday, Jan 19, 2019. The school has been besieged by threats of violence and was closed for safety reasons on Tuesday, after viral videos misrepresented the actions of its students at a pro-life march.  (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

        The Covington High School students stood near the Lincoln Memorial as activists identified as Black Hebrew Israelites shouted homophobic slurs at them, and a Native American man approached them banging a drum. Initial videos of the episode suggested that the students were harassing the man.

        Many liberal and conservative commentators criticized the students — and, in some cases, called for them to be personally harassed and their school closed — based on initial, incomplete videos, only to walk back their comments after a fuller video showed that the students themselves had been harassed, and that the students did not appear to approach the Native American man or the activists at any point.

        “I’ve never seen so many people so happy to destroy a kid’s life,” Sanders said, referring to the social media response to the episode — which included multiple death threats and verbal intimidation directed at the students.

        Covington High School Principal Robert Rowe announced Tuesday that the school was closed for the day due to safety concerns.

        Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

        Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sanders-white-house-not-listening-to-ocasio-cortez-on-much-of-anything-including-doomsday-prediction

        The position of most Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill is that lawmakers are waiting until Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller delivers his report before considering whether to impeach President Trump. But what if Mueller does not accuse the president of wrongdoing, or at least impeachable wrongdoing? Would Democrats say, ‘Never mind,’ put away thoughts of impeachment, and move on to the next item on their agenda?

        That seems unlikely. Many Democrats are deeply, emotionally committed to resisting Trump. Sixty-six House Democrats voted to allow impeachment articles to move forward a year ago. Now, with the House in Democratic hands, and after another year of media-hyped Trump-Russia allegations, there’s no reason to believe Democrats would abandon the Russia issue regardless of what Mueller does.

        In addition, some Democrats are warning that the public might not see all of Mueller’s report. Justice Department rules don’t require it, and attorney general nominee William Barr, in recent confirmation hearings, did not promise to release the whole thing.

        So now there is talk about starting a new House Trump-Russia investigation that would essentially replicate what Mueller is doing now, but with the assurance that the proper (anti-Trump) result would be reached and that it could be used for impeachment purposes.

        When Mueller poured water on the BuzzFeed report claiming that Trump directed fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, pledged to take up where BuzzFeed left off, no matter what Mueller said.

        “Are you still going to investigate the claims?” Schiff was asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

        “Absolutely, absolutely,” Schiff said.

        Later on the program, Schiff said that whatever Mueller does, Congress needs to do for itself. “We need to do our own investigations,” he said, “because at the end of the day, if the Justice Department tries to stonewall the release of that report for whatever reason, the American people are going to need to know what happened, and we’re going to have to press forth.”

        But it’s not just a powerful House committee chairman talking about a parallel investigation. A few days ago, former CIA chief Michael Hayden and former solicitor general Neal Katyal took to the Washington Post to call for a new “investigation into whether impeachment is appropriate.”

        Hayden and Katyal suggested that Mueller might not be able to satisfactorily investigate the subject covered by the BuzzFeed report, that is, whether Trump directed Cohen to lie:

        The recent statement by the special counsel’s office disputing the BuzzFeed article itself highlights the need for a congressional investigation. The BuzzFeed article alleges that Trump ordered Cohen to lie to Congress. Congress of course is the entity with the most at stake when it comes to such a crime. No entity is better poised to find the truth and reveal the facts to the American people.

        The president and his advisers have tried already to block the government from investigating these questions. They have criticized special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as engaged in a “witch hunt” and attacked Cohen as a “rat” and a liar. Trump’s lawyers have threatened to assert executive privilege to block answers to Mueller’s questions and threatened to block release of Mueller’s report. A senator has indicated he won’t pursue the interpreter’s notes due to executive privilege. All of this points to a severe danger that, absent an investigation into impeachment, there will be no process to ferret out the truth and report it to the American people.

        It is hard to understand what evidence Congress, which does not have law enforcement powers, could find that Mueller’s office, which does have those powers, could not. Instead, it appears that the utility of a new congressional investigation would be that it would keep a Mueller-like probe going even if Mueller falls short.

        Of course, House Democrats are already starting, or promising to start, all sorts of investigations into the president and his affairs. What seems different about the recent talk is that it envisions an investigation specifically designed to lead to impeachment — something Democrats thought Mueller was doing for them.

        It is important in any discussion of the Trump-Russia matter to say that we do not know what Mueller will do. For all we know, he might be planning dramatic action in the next 24 hours, or he might be putting the finishing touches on an “anti-climactic” report.

        The second possibility could leave Democrats in a very difficult position. Party leaders have invested a lot in their across-the-board opposition to the president. If Mueller does not come up with something that supports what Democratic lawmakers want to do, they will have to do it themselves.

        Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-what-if-mueller-doesnt-give-democrats-what-they-want

        (Reuters) – Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat” law, the most restrictive abortion ban in the United States, was declared unconstitutional Tuesday, as it violates the Iowa state constitution, a state judge ruled.

        Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the restriction in May 2018, outlawing the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected, often at six weeks and before a woman realizes she is pregnant.

        In the ruling, posted online, District Court Judge Michael Huppert wrote, “It is undisputed that such cardiac activity is detectable well in advance of the fetus becoming viable.”

        A fetus that is viable outside the womb, usually at 24 weeks, is widely considered the threshold in the United States to prohibit an abortion.

        The district court decision is a victory for supporters of abortion rights, but abortion opponents have vowed to take the fight to Iowa’s appellate courts, the Des Moines Register and other media reported.

        The legislation is aimed at triggering a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision which established that women have a constitutional right to an abortion, activists on both sides of the issue previously told Reuters.

        Iowa state Sen. Janet Petersen of Des Moines, the Democrats’ leader in the Iowa Senate, praised the ruling.

        “The extreme law should have been overturned, because it restricted the freedom of Iowa women and girls to care for their bodies, and it forced motherhood on them,” she told the Register. “The governor and legislative Republicans should stop attacking women’s health care.”

        Proponents of the law had expected a long court fight.

        The ultimate goal, abortion opponents have told multiple media outlets, is to get the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has become more conservative under President Donald Trump.

        When the Iowa law was first passed, Republican state senator Rick Bertand of Sioux City told Reuters, “We created an opportunity to take a run at Roe v. Wade – 100 percent.”

        Editing by Nick Macfie

        Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iowa-abortion/iowas-fetal-heartbeat-abortion-ban-ruled-unconstitutional-idUSKCN1PH0BN

        The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) repeated its call for the partial government shutdown to end, arguing that it is undermining the bureau’s ability to protect the nation.

        On Tuesday, FBIAA released a report of first-person accounts from special agents in the field on how the shutdown is compromising their work on a host of issues, including terrorism, drugs, gangs and child trafficking.

        “Victims from domestic minor-sex-trafficking cases are not receiving the attention they need and/or visits and counseling services,” one agent said.

        “The shutdown has eliminated any ability to operate…. It’s bad enough to work without pay, but we can only conduct administrative functions while doing it,” another said. “The fear is our enemies know they can run freely.”

        Founded in 1981, the FBIAA represents more than 14,000 active and retired FBI special agents. The organization sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 10 — a day before furloughed government workers missed their first paycheck — requesting immediate funding for the bureau and outlining how the shutdown could disrupt operations.

        With Jan. 25 (the date of their likely second missed paycheck) approaching, FBIAA President Tom O’Connor held a news conference to repeat his plea for funding. He said the new report demonstrates that the concerns voiced in their letter two weeks ago are becoming a reality.

        IRS worker Christine Helquist joins a federal workers protest rally outside the Federal Building, Thursday, Jan., 10, 2019, in Ogden, Utah. Payday will come Friday without any checks for about 800,000 federal employees affected by the government shutdown, forcing workers to scale back spending, cancel trips, apply for unemployment benefits and take out loans to stay afloat. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

        IRS worker Angela Gran, center, and others participate in a federal workers protest rally outside the Federal Building, Thursday, Jan., 10, 2019, in Ogden, Utah. Payday will come Friday without any checks for about 800,000 federal employees affected by the government shutdown, forcing workers to scale back spending, cancel trips, apply for unemployment benefits and take out loans to stay afloat. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

        Furloughed National Park Service ranger Kathryn Gilson, center, listens as fellow furloughed ranger Sean Ghazala, left, speaks to the media, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, during a press conference and rally at Staten Island’s La Colmena Center in New York. Ghazala is based at Manhattan’s African Burial Ground, and Gilson works at Gateway National Recreation Area, a national park encompassing wetlands surrounding New York city and parts of New Jersey’s coastline. Gilson says she is home “bouncing off the walls” and worrying about paying her bills and student loan. Staten Island is a largely Republican borough of New York city, but Democrat Max Rose recently defeated his Republican opponent in the 2018 congressional elections. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)




        “While special agents remain on the job and will continue on the job, to be effective the operations of the FBI require funding,” O’Connor told the press.

        According to the report, the lack of funding is preventing FBI agents (most of whom are still working) from paying for their basic operational needs, such as booking flights, filling official FBI vehicles with gas or purchasing pre-paid phone cards. The agents also said they haven’t gotten the same support from their respective offices because many staffers are furloughed. The report outlines many other ways the lack of funding impedes training and investigations.

        He said politicians in Washington need to listen to the voices of the men and women in the FBI who have committed to protecting the American people. He said some agents are struggling to provide for their families and that this precarity may prompt good workers to find employment elsewhere or make it difficult to attract qualified candidates.

        When asked whether he thinks airing their grievances risks damaging the FBI’s relationship with President Trump, O’Connor said neither the bureau nor the agent’s association are political and that his statement has “no politics in it.”

        Trump already has a strained relationship with the intelligence community. The FBI is part of the investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election, which has resulted in a stream of indictments and guilty pleas from the president’s associates.

        The FBIAA’s appeal to funding the bureau on the grounds of national security detracts from Trump’s explanation for continuing the shutdown — insisting that a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to reduce illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

        “I want to make one point clear. Agents were working cases yesterday, they are working cases today, and they will be working cases tomorrow,” O’Connor said. “They are doing so without pay and under conditions that grow more challenging every day.”

        _____

        Read more from YahooNews:

        Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/01/22/fbi-agents-say-shutdown-hinders-fight-against-gangs-and-terrorism/23649946/

        When a video went viral that supposedly showed white high school students wearing pro-Trump hats getting in the face of an elderly Native American activist, many online compared the teenagers to everything from Nazis to the Ku Klux Klan. The social media mob branded these kids hateful white supremacists immediately and ferociously.

        When a longer video emerged later showing a fuller context that largely exonerated the students from what they had been accused of, it appears that the young man receiving the most venom, Covington Catholic High School junior Nick Sandmann, was actually trying to defuse the situation. Sandmann released a statement Sunday saying exactly that.

        “I was not intentionally making faces at the protester. I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation,” Sandmann said. “[I] do not have hateful feelings in my heart.”

        Still, the initial reaction to the most widely spread image, a white teen in a MAGA hat appearing to smirk at an older man of color, was infuriating. I became angry upon seeing it before learning the larger story.

        It’s not an unreasonable reaction to have without also having all the facts. It’s particularly reasonable if you’re a racial minority.

        Or as black pastor and activist Bishop Talbert Swan put it on Twitter:

        Swan has a valid point, one brought up more than once on social media.

        I’m a white libertarian conservative. I know plenty of nonracist, well-meaning young conservatives who admire the president even to the point of wearing his signature red hat. I know through experience that most pro-Trump young people who present themselves in this manner are not remotely equivalent to the white supremacists and neo-Nazis that marched in Charlottesville, Va., two years ago, where a young woman was murdered by a racist.

        I know that. But would everyone, necessarily?

        Because of my background, I am more easily able to put myself in Nick Sandmann’s shoes. He could have been my son. There’s more to his story than his hat, smirk, and the color of his skin, though that’s all many continue to see in this tense moment.

        Similarly and to Swan’s point, how many conservatives drew their own conclusions about the late Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old kid, close in age to Sandmann, based on his appearance?

        “You dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug,” Geraldo Rivera infamously said on Fox News in 2012. Ted Nugent called Martin a “Gangsta wannabe, Skittles hoodie boy,” referring to the candy the teen purchased. The constant anti-hoodie drumbeat targeting Martin was relentless on the Right during that time.

        Conservatives spent nearly a year-and-a-half smearing a dead teenager while turning his problematic gunman (“problematic” is an understatement, though George Zimmerman was found not guilty) into a hero.

        But how many black Americans, then and now, can put themselves in Trayvon Martin’s shoes? How many could imagine Trayvon being their kid? Could their perception of the perils young black men face in society be significantly different than that of predominately white conservatives?

        How observers perceived the deceased Martin at that time skewed significantly depending on one’s political leanings.

        The same is true today of the controversy involving the Catholic teenagers, much of it based on appearance. The Trump “Make America Great Again” hat has become a political flashpoint, just as Martin’s hoodie became a political symbol too.

        To many people (too many) Trayvon Martin will forever be just a scary black “thug” who got what he deserved, just as many will continue to insist that Nick Sandmann is merely a scary white terrorist who deserves whatever misfortune comes his way.

        We could all do more to judge people by the overall content of their character, rather than the color of their skin or choice of headwear. Much of the criticism in both cases says far more about the irrational prejudice of critics than the actual lives and experiences of these young men.

        Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Sen. Rand Paul.

        Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-media-debacle-over-covington-catholic-says-a-lot-about-blind-prejudice-on-both-sides