The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says there is no doubt President Trump has obstructed justice.

“It’s very clear that the president obstructed justice,” Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler told ABC Sunday. “It’s very clear — 1,100 times he referred to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, he tried to — he fired — he tried to protect Flynn from being investigated by the FBI. He fired Comey in order to stop the Russian thing, as he told NBC News. He — he’s dangled part — he’s threat — he’s intimidated witnesses. In public.”

Think what you will about the reasons — calling an investigation a “witch hunt” is obstruction of justice? — but Nadler sounded less like a man weighing the evidence than a man who has has made up his mind. Given that, Nadler’s ABC interview led to a question: President Nixon was threatened with impeachment for obstruction of justice. President Clinton was impeached for obstruction of justice. Why is Nadler, who heads the committee in the House that originates articles of impeachment, not moving forward with impeaching President Trump right now?

“We don’t have the facts yet,” Nadler said — a perplexing admission for a man who had just confidently enumerated the president’s crimes. “Impeachment is a long way down the road.”

As National Review’s Rich Lowry pointed out a short time later, no one should believe Nadler’s caution. “Don’t be fooled,” Lowry tweeted. “Being a ‘long way’ from impeachment is their first step to impeaching [Trump].”

Indeed, in that revealing ABC interview, Nadler went on to explain why Democrats have not yet moved to impeach the president. Essentially, Nadler explained, the party doesn’t yet have its ducks in a row. There is preparatory work, such as evidence gathering and a creating a communications strategy, to be done before going forward.

“We have to — we have to do the investigations and get all this,” Nadler said. “We do not now have the evidence all sorted out and everything to do — to do an impeachment. Before you impeach somebody, you have to persuade the American public that it ought to happen. You have to persuade enough of the — of the opposition party voters, Trump voters, that you’re not just trying to … that you’re not just trying to steal the last — to reverse the results of the last election.”

Nadler’s talk with ABC was the clearest indication yet that Democrats have decided to impeach Trump and are now simply doing the legwork involved in making that happen. And that means the debate among House Democrats will be a tactical one — what is the best time and way to go forward — rather than a more fundamental discussion of whether the president should be impeached.

On Monday morning Nadler released a list of 81 names of Trump associates from whom the Judiciary Committee is requesting documents in what Nadler called “the first steps of an investigation into the alleged corruption, obstruction, and other abuses of power by President Trump, his associates and members of his administration.”

Other House Democrats are sending similar messages. “There is abundant evidence of collusion,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on CBS Sunday. Schiff has launched a new Trump-Russia investigation to re-cover the territory covered in the probes done by his own committee, by the Senate Intelligence Committee, and by Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.

“I have said that I think we should await the evidence from Bob Mueller as well as our own work,” Schiff said. That could mean almost anything; Schiff’s committee can, and most certainly will, investigate Trump for the rest of the president’s term. What Schiff did not say is at what point House Democrats will decide to pull the trigger.

There will be other House leaders involved, too. A few days ago, NBC reported that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., has told his staff to prepare a request to the Internal Revenue Service for the president’s tax returns. It will in fact be a demand, “We will take all necessary steps, including litigation, if necessary to obtain them,” a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told NBC. The administration will likely resist the unprecedented House “request” and the process could take time, but Democrats believe, as Pelosi’s spokesman said, that “all roads lead[] back to President Trump’s finances.”

So now the Democratic plan is coming into sharper relief. The impeachment decision has been made. Various committee chairs are moving forward in gathering and organizing the formal justification for removing the president. The timing decision is still up in the air, as is an overarching communications plan — selling impeachment to the American public, or more specifically those Americans who don’t already support impeachment.

The sales campaign will most certainly be high minded. “It’s our job to protect the rule of law,” Nadler said Sunday, echoing the Republicans who impeached Bill Clinton in the 1990s. But whatever the stated rationale, impeachment is on.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-house-dems-send-message-impeachment-is-on

The search resumed Monday for victims of a vicious tornado outbreak that ripped across the South on Sunday killing at least 23 people in Alabama.

“I’m still thanking God I’m among the living,” said John Jones, who has lived most of his life in Beauregard, the southern Alabama community that was devastated by a tornado.

The violent storms left debris strewn across southern Alabama and Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and into parts of South Carolina. More than 10,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity as of 8 a.m. Monday, according to poweroutage.us. That had dropped to less than 3,000 by 11:30 a.m.

“Much colder air is pushing into the South from the Midwest, and that will make conditions even worse for those without power into midweek,” weather.com meteorologist Christopher Dolce said. Parts of Alabama and Georgia will see low temperatures in the 20s and low 30s each morning Tuesday through Thursday.”

(MORE: Here’s How the Deadliest Tornado Day in Years Happened)

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office told local media that no fewer than 23 people were killed and more than 50 people were hurt when a tornado roared through Beauregard, a community of about 10,000 people some 60 miles east of Montgomery, shortly after 2 p.m. CST.

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Sheriff Jay Jones said at a news conference Monday morning that the number of missing people was in double digits. He added, however, that some of those may be people who left the area and haven’t contacted family members.

“It’s extremely upsetting to me to see these people hurting like this and the families who have lost loved ones,” Jones said. “This is a very tight-knit community. These people are tough. They’re resilient people, and it’s knocked them down. But they’ll be back.”

“It hurts my heart to see this,” he said.

Jones said the devastation is shocking.

“It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground,” he said. “There are slabs where homes formerly stood, debris everywhere, trees snapped, whole forested areas where trees are snapped and lying on the ground.”

Kathy Carson, Lee County’s EMA director said, “This is the worst natural disaster that has ever occurred in Lee County.”

(PHOTOS: Deep South Tornado Outbreak)

The East Alabama Medical Center in nearby Opelika, where many of the injured were taken, canceled elective surgeries so it could focus on the injured people, Dave Malkoff of The Weather Channel reported.

The National Weather Service said Monday that two tornadoes hit southern Lee County. The damage from one of them indicated it was an EF4 tornado with winds of 170 mph.

Sunday was the deadliest day for tornadoes in the United States since May 20, 2013.

A makeshift morgue was set up in a parking lot and medical examiners from other locations were coming to assist in identifying the victims.

Lee County coroner Bill Harris said three children are among the dead: a 6-year-old, a 9-year-old who died at the hospital and a 10-year-old, the New York Times reported.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she would extend the current state of emergency to provide state resources for areas damaged by the storms.

“Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the storms that hit Lee County today,” Ivey said in a tweet. “Praying for their families & everyone whose homes or businesses were affected.”

President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday, “FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes.” He added that Gov. Ivey is working closely with FEMA.

<img class=”styles__noscript__2rw2y” src=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/ap19063063925259.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273″ srcset=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/ap19063063925259.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/ap19063063925259.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w” >

About 3:20 p.m. CST, the NWS issued a tornado emergency after a large and destructive tornado was confirmed near Smiths Station, also in Lee County.

Smiths Station Mayor Bubba Copeland told The Weather Channel that at least 12 houses were flattened.

“We have a lot of mobile homes turned upside down,” Copeland said.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported in Smiths Station.

Copeland said Lee County schools are canceled Monday because “several huge holes are on top of the (elementary) school.” Schools will also be closed again on Tuesday.

The storm also destroyed the Buck Wild Saloon, damaged a gas station and toppled a cell phone tower across U.S. 280.

(MORE: The 10 Worst U.S. Tornado Outbreaks)

Jonathan Clardy told the Associated Press he and his family hunkered down in their Beauregard trailer as the tornado ripped the roof off.

“All we could do is just hold on for life and pray. It’s a blessing from God that me and my young’uns are alive.”

Julie Morrison and her husband sought shelter in their bathtub as the storm lifted the house and tossed into nearby woods, AP reported.

“We knew we were flying because it picked the house up,” Morrison said. She credited their survival on the shower’s fiberglass enclosure and added that her son-in-law later dug them out.

The Lee County storm warnings were two of several tornado warnings issued for Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

Reports said multiple homes were damaged in Dupree, Alabama, south of Dothan. Other reports said the airport and a fire station were damaged in Eufaula, Alabama.

Georgia

Some 30 miles north of Tallahassee, the town of Cairo and its 9,500 residents suffered a direct hit from a tornado. Shortly after, authorities reported widespread damage in the town, but no injuries or deaths were reported.

<img class=”styles__noscript__2rw2y” src=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/D0x7qa3X4AAoW0f.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273″ srcset=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/D0x7qa3X4AAoW0f.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/D0x7qa3X4AAoW0f.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w” >

Speaking with Cairo Mayor Booker Gainor, Tallahassee Democrat reporter Jeffrey Burlew tweeted that dozens of structures were damaged or destroyed and some residents were trapped in their homes after the storm struck the town Sunday night.

It’s pretty bad,” Gainor told the Democrat. “We have a lot of trees down, debris and power lines. We have trees completely through houses. You would think a hurricane came after this, the way it looks.”

The National Weather Service on Monday confirmed that a tornado struck the town. A 102-mph wind gust was recorded on the tornado’s path, the NWS said.

Grady County EMA Director Richard Phillips told WCTV it appeared 500 to 1000 homes and businesses were affected by the tornado.

Several towns in Georgia reported damage earlier Sunday from several tornadoes that were confirmed on radar by the NWS.

In the town of Talbotton, located some 35 miles northeast of Columbus, several people were injured when a damaging storm rolled through the area, Talbot County Emergency Management Agency director Leigh Ann Erenheim told the Associated Press.

“The last check I had was between six and eight injuries,” Erenheim said in a phone interview with the AP. “From what I understand it was minor injuries, though one fellow did say his leg might be broken.”

The NWS said the Talbotton tornado has been given a preliminary rating of high-end EF2.

Social media was also sharing reports of damage in Perry, Georgia.

Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said trees were down and some houses were damaged, the Macon Telegraph reported.

While following the storm, Peach County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shane Brooks told the Macon Telegraph he was nearly hit directly by the tornado as he drove down Duke Road in Byron.

“It was moving so fast I didn’t have time do anything but just sit there and hold on,” he told the Telegraph. “It was not something I would want to experience again.”

Crawford County Fire Chief Randall Pate said a tornado destroyed four homes. Pate also reported one injury: a woman whose ankle was broken when her home was damaged.

Following the storms, Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for Talbot, Grady and Harris counties.

Florida

The NWS confirmed that an EF2 tornado struck the area of Baum in Leon County on Sunday.

<img class=”styles__noscript__2rw2y” src=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/LeonCountyHouse.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273″ srcset=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/LeonCountyHouse.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/LeonCountyHouse.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w” >

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that at least 10 homes in the community have substantial damage, and five of those were completely destroyed. At least two people were taken to a hospital.

The NWS also confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in the Jackson County town of Alford, about 70 miles northwest of Tallahassee.

Jackson County Emergency Management Director Rodney Andreasen told WCTV the tornado damaged three homes, including ripping the side off one of the houses.

An electrical substation and six homes were damaged in the city of Quincy in Gadsden County, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

The storm also caused a tree to crash into a home in Gadsden County where a family of four was. Two rooms were destroyed but no one was injured, WCTV reported.

A radar-confirmed tornado spread debris across Interstate 10 in Walton County, the AP reported. The eastbound lanes of the interstate had to be closed for cleanup.

South Carolina

Storms caused numerous reports of damage in and around Columbia Sunday night. The NWS said Monday that damage surveys indicated three tornadoes struck the Midlands area of the state.

The storm caused damage to a church in Lexington, South Carolina, and ripped a roof off a home and blew recreational vehicles onto their sides near Lexington. The damage was consistent with a tornado, the NWS said.

The front of the Red Bank Baptist Church in Lexington was damaged by the storm.

Around 150 adults and children were at the church for Sunday night services when the storm hit, the State reports. Children sang “Jesus Loves Me” as they huddled with adults in a long hallway.

The Columbia Police Department tweeted a photo of a tree that had fallen on a house north of downtown. Trees also fell on cars downtown, the State reported.

The NWS confirmed that an EF1 tornado struck north of downtown. It also said

In Edgefield County, seven people were injured when the storm hit a gas station in Merriwether, north of Augusta, Georgia, WRDW reported. The NWS said the damage here was also consistent with a tornado.

Trees were knocked down in North Augusta, South Carolina, and Aiken, South Carolina.

<img class=”styles__noscript__2rw2y” src=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/ap_19063614977129.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273″ srcset=”https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/ap_19063614977129.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/ap_19063614977129.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w” >

Source Article from https://weather.com/news/news/2019-03-03-southern-storm-bring-tornado-warnings

The White House told Senate Republicans on Monday to “keep their powder dry” ahead of a vote to nullify President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the administration worked to limit defections on a measure rebuking the president.

The message was delivered by Zach Parkinson, White House deputy director of government communications, in a meeting Monday morning with Senate Republican communications staffers, according to two people who attended the meeting.

It came as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted that the resolution to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration would pass in the Republican-led Senate — but ultimately not survive a veto. Over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) became the fourth Republican to announce he would vote for the disapproval resolution, ensuring its passage with unified Democratic support.

But the White House is eager to contain further defections from members of Trump’s own party on his signature issue of building a wall along the southern border. The emergency declaration is aimed at getting additional money for border barriers after Congress refused to grant Trump’s funding request.

At Monday’s meeting, Parkinson cautioned GOP Senate communications aides against public criticism from their bosses over the emergency declaration, saying that if senators are planning to vote to overturn it they should contact the White House to get further information on Trump’s rationale, according to the two people who attended the meeting.

And if GOP senators don’t have anything good to say, Parkinson said, they should “keep their powder dry,” according to the two people, who requested anonymity to detail the private discussion.

White House spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the account or offer a comment.

At an event in Kentucky on Monday, McConnell told reporters: “I think what is clear in the Senate is that there will be enough votes to pass the resolution of disapproval, which will then be vetoed by the president and then, in all likelihood, the veto will be upheld in the House.”

The Senate vote is expected next week. The House previously passed the measure to block Trump’s declaration, but Democrats in the chamber fell well short of securing the two-thirds vote that would be necessary to overturn a threatened veto from Trump.

While Trump appears to have the votes to withstand a veto in the Republican-led Senate as well, passage of the measure would still serve as rebuke of the president’s policy — and large-scale defections by GOP senators could prove embarrassing for Trump.

In addition to the four Republican senators who have announced support for the disapproval resolution, numerous others have expressed serious reservations about Trump’s move, pointing to concerns about constitutional separation of powers, and the potential for future Democratic senators to declare national emergencies on other issues.

Paul joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) in opposing Trump’s move. Paul announced his opposition to the emergency declaration at an event in Kentucky over the weekend, and elaborated in an opinion piece for Fox News Channel, writing: “I would literally lose my political soul if I decided to treat President Trump different than President Obama.”

“Every single Republican I know decried President Obama’s use of executive power to legislate. We were right then. But the only way to be an honest officeholder is to stand up for the same principles no matter who is in power,” Paul wrote.

Fifty-three senators caucus with Republicans and 47 with Democrats, meaning that four Republican defections are enough to ensure passage.

McConnell told reporters that he had hoped Trump “wouldn’t take that particular path” of declaring a national emergency.

McConnell said he agreed with Republicans who have argued that the declaration could set a precedent for future Democratic presidents to declare emergencies on issues on which they cannot have their way in Congress.

“That’s one reason I argued, obviously without success, to the president that he not take this route,” McConnell said.

The president’s national emergency declaration, issued Feb. 15 after Congress failed to produce the border-wall money he wants, allows him to access $3.6 billion in funds allocated for military construction projects.

That money would be tapped after the administration exhausts funding from other sources, including $1.375 billion provided by Congress; $2.5 billion from a Pentagon counter-drug account that the administration can access without an emergency declaration; and $601 million from a forfeiture fund in the Treasury Department.

Trump himself has warned about negative political consequences for senators who go against him, telling Sean Hannity of Fox News last week: “I really think that Republicans that vote against border security and the wall, I think you know, I’ve been okay at predicting things, I think they put themselves at great jeopardy.”

Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/mcconnell-measure-to-block-trumps-national-emergency-has-enough-votes-to-pass-senate/2019/03/04/f61a1a3c-3e9c-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html

President Trump on Monday announced that he had directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide “A Plus treatment” to the state of Alabama and its governor after tornadoes ripped across the state, killing at least 23 people.

“FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes,” Trump tweeted. “@GovernorKayIvey, one of the best in our Country, has been so informed. She is working closely with FEMA (and me!).”

According to the National Weather Service, a tornado with at least an F3 rating (carrying winds of at least 158 mph) and a track at least half a mile wide caused catastrophic damage in Beauregard, Ala., on Sunday. Officials in Lee County warned that the death toll could rise.

“To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe,” the president tweeted late Sunday. “To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!”

Trump has come under fire for his response to past natural disasters, including last year’s wildfires in California and, most notably, Hurricane Maria, which left thousands of people dead in Puerto Rico.

The federal response to the storm — in contrast to the better-coordinated relief effort in Texas following Hurricane Harvey — received widespread criticism in the press and from Puerto Rican officials.

Trump denied responsibility for the slow response, blaming Puerto Rico’s inadequate electrical distribution system and the difficulty of bringing in relief supplies by ship.

Weeks after the hurricane hit, Trump said the administration’s response deserved a grade of 10 out of 10, even as most of the U.S. territory remained without power.

“I think we did a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in October 2017. “We have done a really great job.”

Yet Trump also reportedly tried to deny Puerto Rico federal relief money. According to the Washington Post, the president told then-White House chief of staff John Kelly and and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney that “he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico, because he thought the island was misusing the money.”

Trump has also disputed the death toll from Hurricane Maria, which was revised upward from less than two dozen in the immediate aftermath to several thousand, blaming Democrats, without evidence, for inflating the figure.

Last May, a Harvard study estimated the death toll from Maria to be 4,645. In August, the official death toll from Puerto Rico officials, calculated by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, was put at 2,975. Either number would make Maria the deadliest natural disaster in the United States in over a century.

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Trump tweeted in September. “When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000.”

At a briefing with FEMA officials on Hurricane Florence at the White House, Trump said the Puerto Rican response was “incredibly successful” and “one of the best jobs that’s ever been done.”

_____

Read more from YahooNews:

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/03/04/trump-tells-fema-to-give-alabama-a-plus-treatment-after-tornadoes/23683958/

NAIROBI, Kenya — Four Americans and their pilot were killed when a helicopter crashed on a remote island in northwest Kenya, police said on Monday.

The aircraft came down in Central Island National Park at around 8 p.m. on Sunday, police said.

Central Island National Park is located in Lake Turkana.Bing Maps

The cause of the crash had yet to be determined.

The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi identified three of the American victims as Anders Asher Jesiah Burke, Brandon Howe Stapper and Kyle John Forti, but released no other details.

The crash comes less than a month after three Americans were among five who died in a plane crash in the west of the country.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-helicopter-crash-kills-four-americans-their-pilot-n978791

A coalition of 20 states and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) separately announced lawsuits Monday seeking to block changes to the Title X family planning program that would shift tens of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood toward faith-based pregnancy clinics.

The lawsuits seek a court injunction to stop the rule from taking effect in 60 days. The filings are the first of what is expected to be a flurry of challenges to the new rule that would affect more than 4 million low-income women who receive services including cancer screenings and pregnancy tests through the Department of Health and Human Services program.

The California suit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Monday. The multistate lawsuit, brought mostly by Democratic-controlled states, is expected to be filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore.

“Everyone deserves the ability make their own decisions about their health care,” Kate Brown, governor of Oregon, which is leading the 21-state effort, said in a statement. “It is appalling that the federal government wants to rob individuals of the right to complete medical information and full access to the critical health care services they rely on.”

The rule imposes what administration officials have referred to as a “bright line” of physical and financial separation between the provision of family planning and abortion services, effectively requiring Planned Parenthood to drastically alter its operations, or else cease to receive an estimated $60 million in annual funding.

Opponents have called it a “gag” rule that compromises medical ethics and endangers the lives of patients because it explicitly bars doctors, nurses or other care personnel from referring a woman for an abortion.

In a statement, Becerra said the rule would deny “patients access to critical health care services and prevents doctors from providing comprehensive and accurate information about medical care.”

The 21 states are just some of the parties — including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights — that have vowed to sue over the rule, which was published Monday in the Federal Register.

Supporters of the rule, which include numerous religious and antiabortion organizations, have pointed to how the Supreme Court upheld similar regulations in 1991′s Rust v. Sullivan in a 5-to 4 decision. But those regulations, introduced under President Ronald Reagan and tied up in legal challenges, were in effect only several weeks before the arrival of the Bill Clinton administration, which promptly eliminated them.

One of the main legal arguments in both lawsuits is a provision of the Affordable Care Act, which wasn’t in place 28 years ago, that forbids regulations that create “unreasonable barriers to the ability of individuals to obtain appropriate medical care.”

The multistate lawsuit also described the requirement of physical and financial separation as onerous. In a news statement, Oregon officials explained, for example, that “it would require health clinics to open another location, or create a separate entrance for patients, have separate examination rooms, hire separate personnel to work at separate workstations, maintain a separate phone number and website, and have separate electronic medical systems in order to continue to accept Title X funds.”

That lawsuit also takes issue with the rule’s mandate that every pregnant patient get a referral for prenatal care “regardless of the needs or the wishes of the patient.”

In addition to Oregon, the states participating in the lawsuit are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia is also a party to the lawsuit.

Becerra said that California is home to the largest Title X provider network in the nation, serving about 1 million women, and contends that the rule places its clinics “in an untenable situation.”

The nation’s Democratic attorneys general have repeatedly challenged initiatives of the Trump administration, weighing in on everything from the president’s immigration policy to efforts to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border through an emergency declaration.

Read more:

Democrats call on Trump administration to delay Title X family planning rule, citing ‘serious concerns’

Trump administration bars clinics that provide abortions or abortion referrals from federal funding

Administration seeks to fund religious foster-care groups that reject LGBTQ parents

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/04/california-files-suit-block-trump-administrations-abortion-gag-rule-family-planning-program/

CLOSE

At least 23 people are known dead and more are injured after a tornado struck southeastern Alabama on Sunday. Crews are still searching for more dead and wounded. (March 4)
AP

First responders in Lee County, Alabama, were picking through the rubble Monday of a devastating tornado that killed at least 23 people and injured dozens more.

The tornado smashed homes and toppled power lines and a massive steel cell tower. The twister was part of a brutal system packing strong winds that also roared through parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

“The devastation is incredible,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said. Jones said several people were missing, but that it was not clear whether they actually had fled the area without telling all of their concerned friends and family members.

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Here is what we know about the storm so far:

How strong was the tornado?

The National Weather Service in Birmingham said the initial tornado to hit Lee County was “at least” an EF-3, considered a “severe” tornado with winds 158 to 206 mph. The storm cut a path at least a half-mile wide, the weather service said. The information was pending further investigation in coming days, the weather service added.

Are people injured or missing?

The numbers were not firm, but East Alabama Medical Center said it had received more than 40 patients as a result of the tornado. Some patients have also been sent to surrounding hospitals, the medical center said. Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said two people were in critical condition. Harris also said he knew of at least six people who were not accounted for, but that he had heard that the number could be as high as 20. 

More: ‘This just came on so quick’: Alabama tornado kills at least 23

Was there any warning?

A warning had been issued for the deadly tornado in Lee County about 20 minutes before it hit, said Bryan Wood, a meteorologist at Assurant. And for tornadoes in general in that area, the Storm Prediction Center had given a head’s-up about 90 minutes prior to touchdown. 

How severe is the property damage?

Rita Smith, spokeswoman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said numerous homes were destroyed or damaged in Beauregard, about 60 miles east of Montgomery. A massive cell tower collapsed. Smith said about 150 first responders are aiding the rescue effort and assessing damage.

Was this the deadliest tornado in years?

It was the nation’s deadliest tornado outbreak in six years, since May 20, 2013, when a tornado killed 24 people in Oklahoma, the Storm Prediction Center said. 

Were there other tornadoes Sunday?

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee confirmed the system spawned tornadoes in Cairo, Georgia, and Leon County, Florida. Cairo Mayor Booker Gainor said the tornado struck just off the downtown area, damaging dozens of homes and businesses. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, but Gainor said several residents had been trapped in their damaged homes. In Florida, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office said at least 10 homes were damaged.

Contributing: Grace Pateras, Tallahassee Democrat; Alyssia Pacheco, Montgomery Advertiser

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/04/alabama-tornado-what-we-know-now-southeast-storms/3053326002/

House Democratic leaders could be hoping to use the routine mechanisms of Congress to effectively put President Trump on trial even as others in the party push for outright impeachment.

Leaders are planning to roll out a “slow-bleed strategy with lengthy public hearings and scores of witnesses to methodically pick apart Trump’s finances and presidency,” according to Axios’ Mike Allen.

The president would “essentially be on public trial for months to come” under the plan being coordinated among as many as eight House committees, Axios reported.

SCHIFF SAYS THERE IS ‘DIRECT EVIDENCE’ OF COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA

Some of the areas Trump where could reportedly find himself under scrutiny include abuse of power, conflicts of interest, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

A House leadership source told Axios the push is designed to avoid giving Trump a boost in 2020 by going the impeachment route.

“Many in leadership believe impeachment could help Trump get re-elected,” the leadership source said.

NADLER ANNOUNCES SWEEPING DOCUMENT REQUEST, SAYS TRUMP OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE

Many in leadership believe impeachment could help Trump get re-elected

— House leadership source, according to Axios

“The last thing they want to do is help Trump.”

The report comes as Democratic leaders — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — have repeatedly appeared uncomfortable with directly calling for impeachment proceedings, despite some rank-and-file members pushing for it.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Sunday he thinks a 2016 offer for dirt on Hillary Clinton by a Russian lawyer to members of the Trump campaign and the subsequent meeting is “direct evidence” of collusion on the part of the president’s team.

“They offer that dirt. There is an acceptance of that offer in writing from the president’s son, Don Jr., and there is overt acts and furtherance of that… That to me is direct evidence,” he told CBS’ “Face The Nation.”

MUELLER PROBE NEARING ENDGAME, SOURCES TELL FOX NEWS

However, The California lawmaker, who has been one of Trump’s fiercest critics, stopped short of calling for impeachment.

“That is something that we will have to await Bob Mueller’s report and the underlying evidence to determine. We will also have to look at the whole body of improper and criminal actions by the president including those campaign finance crimes to determine whether they rise to the level of removal from office,” Schiff said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who would oversee any impeachment proceedings against Trump, also did not directly mention impeachment when announcing he will submit more than 60 document requests to the White House and Justice.

MARK WARNER SAYS THERE’S ‘ENORMOUS’ EVIDENCE OF RUSSIA-TRUMP COLLUSION

“We will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Jr., [Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg, to begin the investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power,” the New York Democrat said on ABC News’ “This Week.”

In response, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on “This Week” that Nadler had “decided to impeach the president the day the president won the election.”

“Listen to exactly what he said. He talks about impeachment before he even became chairman and then he says, ‘you’ve got to persuade people to get there,'” McCarthy said. “There’s nothing that the president did wrong.”

MICHAEL COHEN HEARING IS ‘OFFICIAL UNVEILING’ OF DEMS’ PUSH TO IMPEACH TRUMP, RUSH LIMBAUGH SAYS

The issue of impeachment has been a hot topic for Democrats since taking control of the House, with some seizing on a January report by BuzzFeed claiming Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie about the timing of discussions over a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow to publicly float the possibility. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office, though, sharply disputed the report.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, had called for Trump to leave office or face impeachment if the report was accurate.

“If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached.”

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Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said the House should begin to “establish a record” of whether Trump “committed high crimes,” repeatedly hinting on Twitter at impeachment proceedings.

House Democrats, like Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Al Green, D-Texas, on the first day of the new Congress, introduced articles of impeachment against the president.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrat-leaders-hope-to-put-trump-on-trial

Patrick Moore, the co-founder of the environmentalist group Greenpeace, ripped into New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over the weekend as a “pompous little twit,” saying the Green New Deal plan she’s advocating is “completely crazy.”

In a series of tweets, Moore argued Ocasio-Cortez, who has called for drastically reducing fossil fuel production, doesn’t realize what would happen across the world if the radical plan were implemented.

OCASIO-CORTEZ CALLS CLIMATE CHANGE ‘OUR WORLD WAR II,’ WARNS THE WORLD WILL END IN 12 YEARS

“If fossil fuels were banned every tree in the world would be cut down for fuel for cooking and heating,” Moore said in a tweet Saturday directed at Ocasio-Cortez. “You would bring about mass death.”

Moore left Greenpeace after 15 years and is now critical of the group, later writing the book, “Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist.” Greenpeace, years ago, distanced themselves from Moore.

Referring to the New York Democrat as a “pompous little twit,” Moore said, “You don’t have a plan to grow food for 8 billion people without fossil fuels, or get food into the cities.”

Moore also unloaded on her for calling climate change “our World War II.”

“It’s her @GND that would be worse than WW2,” he said. “Imagine no fuel for cars, trucks, tractors, combines, harvesters, power-plants, ships, aircraft, etc. Transport of people & goods would grind to a halt.”

In another tweet, Moore called the Green New Deal “so completely crazy it is bound to be rejected in the end.”

OCASIO-CORTEZ RESPONDS AFTER REPORT ACCUSES HER OF ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ HYPOCRISY

He also referred to Ocasio-Cortez as a “garden-variety hypocrite,” in response to a New York Post story that said the Democrat frequently used gas-guzzling Uber and Lyft rides during her 2018 campaign instead of taking the subway station near her campaign office.

“You’re just a garden-variety hypocrite like the others. And you have ZERO expertise at any of the things you pretend to know,” Moore said.

Ocasio-Cortez responded to that story over the weekend saying she’s “living in the world as it is.” But she said that shouldn’t be “an argument against working towards a better future.”

“The Green New Deal is about putting a LOT of people to work in developing new technologies, building new infrastructure, and getting us to 100% renewable energy,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/greenpeace-co-founder-tears-into-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-pompous-little-twit

In 2018 file photo, a shopper walks past a Huawei store at a shopping mall in Beijing.

Mark Schiefelbein/AP


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In 2018 file photo, a shopper walks past a Huawei store at a shopping mall in Beijing.

Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Canada violated the constitutional rights of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou when border officials detained and interrogated her for hours, lawyers for Meng are alleging in a lawsuit against the Canadian government.

Meng, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei, was arrested by Canadian officials in December at the request of the United States. The U.S. had sought Meng’s arrest on charges of fraud, arguing Huawei had violated U.S. sanctions on Iran.

In detaining Meng, Canada became entangled in the ongoing legal battle between the U.S. and China, which have been sparring over alleged spying by the Chinese telecom company. China has detained more than a dozen Canadian citizens, possibly in retaliation for its arrest of Meng.

Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder, claims border officials engaged in a “deliberate and pre-meditated effort” to obtain evidence from her in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the CBC reports. The Charter says that everyone has the right to be secure against “unreasonable search or seizure,” and has the right “not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.”

Meng’s suit alleges that, after securing a warrant for her arrest, officers intentionally delayed that arrest to give them time to conduct a border check in order to extract information from her. The lawsuit implicates the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging that Canadian border officials detained Meng to obtain information “which they and the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and/or U.S. D.O.J. did not believe would be obtained if the Plaintiff was immediately arrested.”

The suit alleges border officials unlawfully seized cellphones, an iPad, and a computer, and then demanded Meng give police her passwords, the CBC reported.

On Friday, Canada said it would allow the extradition hearing against Meng to proceed. The U.S. has sought the extradition of Meng since her arrest. The Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges against Huawei in January, indicting the company on 13 criminal counts.

The U.S. in January unsealed 13 criminal criminal charges against the company; according to the New York Times, Huawei is expected to sue the U.S. this week for banning federal agencies from using the telecommunications company’s products. “It is part of a broad push by Huawei to defend itself against a campaign led by the United States to undermine the company, which Washington sees as a security threat.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699953310/huawei-exec-sues-canada-argues-december-arrest-violated-constitution

Sen. Rand Paul, who has joined with four other GOP senators against approving President Trump’s national emergency declaration, predicted that the Supreme Court will strike down the action because it violates the “will of Congress.”

“Without question, the president’s order for more wall money contradicts the will of Congress and will, in all likelihood, be struck down by the Supreme Court,” Paul wrote in an op-ed for Fox News published late Sunday.

He went on to say that he believes Trump’s picks to the court — Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — “may rebuke him on this.”

Trump declared a national emergency last month in a maneuver that would allow him to siphon funds from the military construction budget to pay for a wall on the southern border, a signature issue of his presidential campaign.

The declaration came after Congress refused to authorize the $5.7 billion in funds Trump demanded for the barrier — appropriating only $1.375 billion.

“Congress clearly expressed its will not to spend more than $1.3 billion and to restrict how much of that money could go to barriers,” the Kentucky Republican wrote in the piece.

“Therefore, President Trump’s emergency order is clearly in opposition to the will of Congress.”

Paul recalled that he and Trump objected to President Barack Obama’s use of executive power in 2014 to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and said he has to view Trump’s order the same way.

“I would literally lose my political soul if I decided to treat President Trump different than President Obama,” Paul said, adding that he supports Trump’s views on immigration.

“I supported his fight to get funding for the wall from Republicans and Democrats alike, and I share his view that we need more and better border security,” he wrote. “However, I cannot support the use of emergency powers to get more funding, so I will be voting to disapprove of his declaration when it comes before the Senate.”

Three other Republicans in the chamber — Thom Tills of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — also said they won’t back Trump’s emergency declaration.

If those four join with all the 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats, there would be a bipartisan majority to block the declaration, leaving Trump with the choice to veto the legislation, which has already passed the House.

But Congress does not appear to have the two-thirds majority needed to override his veto — meaning Trump’s declaration could stay in place.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/03/04/rand-paul-supreme-court-will-likely-strike-down-trumps-border-emergency/

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Denver (CNN)Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday announced he is running for president, launching a 2020 campaign in which he will lean on his Western roots and decades of executive experience.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/politics/john-hickenlooper-presidential-campaign/index.html

    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., one of several Senate Democrats who are running for president in 2020, has been cautious to back a proposal to end the legislative filibuster.

    J. Scott Applewhite/AP


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    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., one of several Senate Democrats who are running for president in 2020, has been cautious to back a proposal to end the legislative filibuster.

    J. Scott Applewhite/AP

    Most of the Democrats running for president want to create a national single-payer health care system. They want to begin a massive transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. They want to legalize marijuana, pass broad family leave policies, and do a whole lot of other things that previous generations of presidential candidates have balked from fully endorsing.

    But most of these presidential candidates are shying away from endorsing — or outright opposing — a Senate rules change that a growing number of progressive activists say would be essential to making any of these proposals reality.

    They’re calling on Democratic candidates to endorse ending the legislative filibuster, which requires support from at least 60 senators — in almost all cases, that means bipartisan support — to pass most bills. “In order to actually pass a big, bold pro-democracy package, or a big, bold climate package, or a health care package, we’re going to need to be able to do that with 51 votes,” said Ezra Levin, the co-founder of the grassroots organizing group the Indivisible Project.

    The push to eliminate a rule that isn’t constitutional, but is so bound into Senate history and culture that it may as well be, has this field of unapologetic progressives uncharacteristically cautious.

    “Great question,” California Sen. Kamala Harris, a candidate running on a promise to “speak truths,” said when an Iowa voter asked her about killing the legislative filibuster. “Let’s change the subject!”

    Harris isn’t the only candidate cautious about the idea. Many senators see the filibuster as the one essential tool a minority party has to hold leverage and block legislation it opposes. Fresh off a two-year stretch where Republicans held all the levers of power in Washington, D.C., many Democratic senators see the hassles of the filibuster when a party is in the majority as worth the cost of the protections it affords for years in the minority.

    A brief history of the filibuster for those who aren’t steeped in Senate history: it’s not in the U.S. Constitution, but for most of the Senate’s history, the body has required a super-majority of members to agree to end debate and move forward to final votes. That meant even if the majority of lawmakers supported a bill, or a judicial nominee, a large-enough minority could block a vote.

    In the face of increased Republican filibustering, Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, eliminated the filibuster for lower court and executive nominations in 2013. Four years later, when Republicans held the Senate and the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., eliminated filibusters for Supreme Court picks. That meant all these nominees could be confirmed with simple majorities, rather than needing 60 votes of support. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were both confirmed with fewer than 60 votes, among many other lower court nominees.

    The filibuster’s last stand: legislation. Most bills still need 60 votes to move forward. That’s why Levin and many other progressive activists are arguing for Democrats to kill it, should the party retake the Senate in 2020.

    “We know that the Republicans will utilize every tool available to them to prevent these kinds of big reforms from getting done. They’ve done it before. They did it during the entirety of the Obama administration,” he said.

    But of the seven U.S. senators running or considering running for president, only one – Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren – is even open to the idea of eliminating the barrier.

    New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rejected the argument that a 60 vote threshold would block all major Democratic policies during a recent interview on Pod Save America. “If you’re not able to get 60 votes on something, it just means you haven’t worked hard enough, talking to enough people.”

    Progressives like Levin point to the fact that the Obama Administration worked hard to court Republicans during the push for the Affordable Care Act and other major bills, and often got, at most, one or two GOP votes.

    Still, Gillibrand’s not alone. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told CBS he’s “not crazy about getting rid of the filibuster.” California Sen. Kamala Harris is “conflicted,” and said “I see arguments on both sides.”

    New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is more forceful. “I will personally resist efforts to get rid of it,” he told reporters on the first day of his presidential campaign.

    Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar both signed a letter urging the Senate to keep the legislative filibuster in 2017, when President Trump began his on-again, off-again Twitter calls to blow up the rule.

    But Warren indicated it’s a proposal worth considering. “If the Republicans are going to try to block us on key pieces that we’re trying to move forward, then you better believe we’ve got to keep all the options on the table,” she told Pod Save America.

    It’s a sharp break from some of the non-senators in the race, including Washington Democratic Governor Jay Inslee. “The filibuster will essentially doom us to a situation where we’ll never be able to fight climate change,” he said, blaming the senators’ support for the rule as a byproduct of their life in a fiefdom.

    Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said it’s not about Senate power — it’s about giving minority parties protection and encouraging bipartisan.

    “It’s a terrible idea,” Coons — who isn’t running for president but has long defended the filibuster — told NPR. “Democrats would reap the whirlwind almost immediately.”

    “It is the last bulwark of the rights of the minority in the Senate,” he said. “If a simple majority could carry the day, we’d have a right-to-work law signed into law by President Trump — I could give you a list of 20 things that President Trump would have signed into law in his first few weeks that would either repeal any positive thing that President Obama did, or anything that a progressive Democrat would hope to do in the future.”

    In addition to measure curbing collective bargaining powers, Democrats were able to use the filibuster last session to block attempts to repeal Obama-era financial reforms and abortion restrictions, among other measures.

    Levin says he’s willing to make that trade-off. “Look, Democracy is the theory that people know what they want, and they deserve to get it. And I don’t think as pro-democracy progressive we can afford to be scared of the will of the people,” he said.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699465964/most-democratic-2020-hopefuls-not-ready-to-bust-the-filibuster-to-push-party-age

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    (CNN)Search and rescue operations will intensify Monday morning for victims of a devastating series of tornadoes that ripped through Alabama on Sunday, killing at least 23 people in one county.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/us/tornadoes-alabama-monday-wxc/index.html

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      (CNN)The impeachment of President Donald Trump suddenly looks like much more than just a theoretical possibility.

        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/politics/trump-mueller-report-nadler-investigation-impeachment/index.html

        President Trump late Sunday tweeted that the call to have his former attorney Michael Cohen testify Wednesday in front of the House Oversight Committee may have contributed to the “walk” that resulted in his second nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

        Trump initially blamed North Korea for demanding too much in sanction relief that would only come with total denuclearization. Trump said last week simply that he “had to walk away” from the table.  Trump was asked about the Cohen hearing on Thursday while in Hanoi and said “having it [the hearing] in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing.”

        Trump was apparently still considering where the summit went wrong on Sunday night and tweeted, “For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with north Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!”

        HANOI SUMMIT MISS MAY BE MESSAGE TO BEIJING: EXPERT

        Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress about the Moscow real estate project and reports to prison in May for a three-year sentence, gave harsh testimony about Trump on several fronts Wednesday. He said Trump knew in advance that damaging emails about Democrat Hillary Clinton would be released during the 2016 campaign — a claim the president has denied — and accused Trump of lying during the 2016 campaign about the Moscow deal.

        The hearing was seen as politically bruising for Trump who hoped to approach the meeting with Kim from a position of political strength.

        Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho commented on the talks during an abruptly scheduled middle-of-the-night news conference after Trump was flying back the the U.S.

        CHAD PERGRAM: DURING SEMINAL MICHAE: COHEN HEARING, THE INSIDERS BECAME OUTSIDERS

        Ri said the North was also ready to offer in writing a permanent halt of the country’s nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and Washington had wasted an opportunity that “may not come again.”

        North Korean state news agency KNCA’s report Friday offered an upbeat takeaway of the meeting, saying both leaders walked away with a deeper commitment to forging ties between the two historically hostile nations.

        The report said Kim was appreciative that Trump had made “active efforts towards results” and that he regarded the summit talks as “productive,” Reuters reported.

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        South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for new talks between the U.S. and North Korea on Monday, reportedly saying that he believes there will eventually be an agreement.

        Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report

        Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-blames-cohen-hearing-for-possibly-contributing-to-summit-result

        First responders scoured debris Monday searching for missing people after several tornadoes devastated communities in the Southeast. 

        At least 22 people died in one Alabama county, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said. Officials expect the numbers to rise as they assess damage and begin recovery. Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told The Associated Press that he had to call in help from the state because there were more bodies than his office could handle.

        The tornado wrecked an area several miles long and a fourth-of-a-mile wide in the county about 60 miles east of Montgomery, Jones told WRBL-TV. Numerous injuries were reported with more than 40 patients at the East Alabama Medical Center by Sunday evening, the hospital said

        In Georgia’s Talbot County, emergency officials initially reported six to eight minor injuries. No seriously injured or dead were found in damaged mobile homes or buildings Sunday night, emergency management spokesperson Ann Erenheim said. 

        More than 35,000 customers in Alabama and Georgia lost power Sunday following the tornadoes, strong winds and severe thunderstorms, AccuWeather said. Crews are expected to continue restoring electricity as they survey damage to other utilities. 

        No tornadoes are expected Monday or through the rest of the week, the Storm Prediction Center said. Conditions will be drier Monday,  AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said, with highs in the lower to middle 50s.

        “Colder air will sweep into the Southeast behind the severe weather with temperatures dropping into the 30s southward to central Georgia and across most of Alabama by Monday morning,” Pydynowski said. “Those without power who rely on electric heat need to find ways to say warm.”  

        Sunday marked the nation’s deadliest day for tornadoes in over two years. The last day so many people died in the U.S. due to tornadoes was Jan. 22, 2017, when 16 people were killed in south Georgia. It  was also the USA’s deadliest March day for tornadoes since March 2, 2012, when 40 died.

        Contributing: The Associated Press

        Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/03/alabama-tornado-aftermath-workers-search-missing-asses-damage/3052486002/

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        (CNN)More than a dozen people have been confirmed dead after a series of tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

          Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/03/us/tornadoes-alabama-georgia-wxc/index.html

          Mr. Trump, who was repeatedly denied wall funding by lawmakers, hopes to use $3.6 billion from military construction projects to fulfill his campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. He has dismissed concerns about the precedent, saying in a speech on Saturday that “they’re going to do that anyway, folks.”

          Some Republican senators — including Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee — have voiced concerns about the effect on military readiness, seeking assurances that projects in their states will not be affected. The Defense Department has yet to release a list of projects affected.

          Others, including Mr. Paul, have objected to a possible overreach of executive power that future presidents could take advantage of. But few have been willing to publicly say how they will vote on the resolution.

          Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said it was “unnecessary and unwise to turn a border crisis into a constitutional crisis about the separation of powers” in a floor speech on Thursday, where he outlined other means for obtaining funds.

          “There is no limit to the imagination of what the next left-wing president could do to harm our country with this precedent,” he added. But pressed by reporters, he declined to reveal his planned vote.

          “I learned a long time ago in the United States Senate, it’s not wise to announce how you will vote on a vote you may never have to take,” he said.

          Conversely, Ms. Collins joined Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, in introducing a resolution of disapproval on Thursday. Ms. Murkowski joined the pair in co-sponsoring the resolution.

          Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/us/politics/national-emergency-vote-republicans-rand-paul.html

          “Tomorrow, we will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Jr., to [Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer] Allen Weisselberg, to begin the investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power,” Nadler said.

          Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-congress-wall-emergency-investigations-20190303-story.html