WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is expected to designate Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country’s military a terrorist group.

The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years.

The Pentagon declined comment and referred queries to the State Department. The State Department and White House also declined to comment.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration’s tough posture toward Tehran.

The announcement would come ahead of the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Iran’s economy.

The administration’s decision to make the designation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not.

In 2007, the U.S. Treasury designated the IRGC’s Quds Force, its unit in charge of operations abroad, “for its support of terrorism,” and has described it as Iran’s “primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups.”

Iran has warned of a “crushing” response should the United States go ahead with the designation.

IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned in 2017 that if Trump went ahead with the move “then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world.”

Such threats are particularly ominous for U.S. forces in places such as Iraq, where Iran-aligned Shi’ite militia are located in close proximity to U.S. troops.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse said the move would be an important step in America’s maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. “A formal designation and its consequences may be new, but these IRGC butchers have been terrorists for a long time,” Sasse said in a statement.

Former Under-Secretary of State and lead Iran negotiator, Wendy Sherman, said she worried about implications for U.S. forces.

“One might even suggest, since it’s hard to see why this is in our interest, if the president isn’t looking for a basis for a conflict,” said Sherman, who is director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. “The IRGC is already fully sanctioned and this escalation absolutely endangers our troops in the region.”

IRGC’S REACH

Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi’ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Iran’s most powerful security organization. It has control over large sectors of the Iranian economy and has a huge influence in its political system.

The IRGC is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missiles and nuclear programs. Tehran has warned that it has missiles with a range of up to 2,000 km (1,242 miles), putting Israel and U.S. military bases in the region within reach.

The IRGC has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It is unclear what impact the U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization might have on America’s activities in countries that have ties with Tehran, including in Iraq.

Baghdad has deep cultural and economic ties with Iran and Oman, where the United States recently clinched a strategic ports deal.

Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Michelle Nichols and Parisa Hafesi; Editing by Mary Milliken, Tom Brown and Daniel Wallis

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran/us-to-designate-elite-iranian-force-as-terrorist-organization-idUSKCN1RH2I4

President Trump had been vocally considering shutting down the southern border until he scaled back slightly on Thursday, giving Mexico one year to decide whether or not they’ll comply with his demands. His White House team probably talked him back from the ledge, since it seems he’s the only one in his own administration willing to take such a drastic step.

Indeed, senior staffers and Department of Homeland Security officials view closing ports of entry, what Trump calls a border shutdown, as a method of “last resort.” It’s not often that Trump entirely turns his back on his administration’s 2 cents, but when he does, it’s generally over immigration. This isn’t the first threat of this nature from Trump, and surely it won’t be the last, because, as is evident by his recent backtrack, the president’s not actually serious about shutting down the border. He really just wants the immigration debate to be framed in his favor. He hopes this will all be seen as a dichotomy between his pro-American immigration policy and the Democrats’ anti-American one.

It’s easy to see how empty Trump’s threat was: If he were to actually close the border, there would be dire economic consequences. It’s estimated there’s $1.5 billion worth of commerce occurring along the southern border every day. Meanwhile, from an immigration standpoint, nearly 500,000 people cross the border legally each day, and that’s just through Texas ports. With a border closure, shipments of vegetables and other goods would be halted, truck drivers blocked and stranded, and tourists denied passage of any kind. Trump loves to claim credit for the strong economy, but if he were to close the border, a plunge in stocks would most certainly follow.

It would punish a lot of innocent people, and Trump knows it. Following through on this threat as a political statement would have been extremely costly for Trump. But a claim like this one does force the Democrats who are running for president to reveal their stance on immigration, opening them up to attacks from Trump.

After all, President Trump’s 2016 campaign relied on the anxieties of middle America over immigrants taking jobs. He likely won’t stray from this strategy for the 2020 election, which is news to no one, including Democrats. But as Trump opponents elaborate on their positions in response to his pressure, the president is hoping they fall into his rhetorical trap by labeling themselves as open-border activists or “soft on crime” for their tolerance toward illegal immigration.

Trump recently unleashed a characteristic Twitter storm on the subject, prompting Democratic presidential hopefuls Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from Texas, and Julián Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, to respond with their own sweeping immigration plans. For his part, Castro divulged that he wouldn’t consider an immigrant entering the U.S. without papers, no matter the circumstance, a federal crime. Trump will have a field day tearing down this proposal by attempting to rely on his “tough on crime” mentality, even though the electorate has steered away from this Reagan-era viewpoint.

O’Rourke is a native of El Paso, Texas, a city experiencing overcrowding due to customs and Border Patrol agents being reassigned to take care of unauthorized migrants. O’Rourke has highlighted Trump’s naive understanding on this matter by emphasizing that immigration policy is actually heavily tied to foreign policy, a reality Trump likes to avoid, evidenced by his recent call to cut off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which would only exacerbate the flow of immigrants toward our borders.

One other presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., already tried to distance herself from Trump by passionately advocating for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, known as “Dreamers.” On April 3, she introduced a bill to Congress, perhaps intended to differentiate herself from primary opponent O’Rourke, that would allow “Dreamers” to work as staffers or interns in Congress.

The immigration debate will be the main focus of the 2020 election, which means Democrats must fine-tune their positions on immigration in order not to fall into Trump’s rhetorical trap. But we should all remember that Trump’s first two years of hard-line stances on immigration hasn’t actually alleviated the biggest source of conservative apprehension: the surge in migration. In fact, March 2019 saw the highest migrant rate since 2008.

Who knows, Trump could easily be provoked once again to follow through on his threat, even if his original intent was to force Democrats to show their cards. But if he does, he’s not going to do anything but hurt his chances at a 2020 victory — and the everyday Americans he claims to champion.

Natalie Dowzicky (@Nat_Dowzicky) is a researcher at a think tank in Washington, D.C., and a Young Voices contributor.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trumps-threat-to-close-the-border-was-just-a-trap-for-democrats


Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal demanded that the administration turn over over six years’ worth of President Donald Trump’s tax returns — but Democrats may face a tougher-than-normal situation with taxpayer secrecy rules. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Congress

There will be a period, possibly lasting months, when Democrats will have seen the president’s taxes, but they won’t be able to talk about them.

Democrats’ bid to seize President Donald Trump’s tax returns will come with some serious legal risk to themselves.

Lawmakers are concerned that, even if they get the president’s filings, his returns will still be protected by strict confidentiality laws — it is a felony, punishable by up to five years, to improperly disclose private tax information.

Story Continued Below

There are ways around the dilemma, and Democrats intend to make at least some information about Trump’s taxes public — that is much of the point of their entire effort. But that probably won’t happen right away. Lawmakers say they will likely take some time to examine his filings behind closed doors before making anything publicly available.

That means there will be a period, possibly lasting months, when Democrats will have finally seen the president’s long-hidden taxes — and they will be inundated with questions about what’s in them — but they won’t be able to talk about them. If they let anything slip, Republicans will surely jump, demanding an investigation by the Justice Department.

“We’re going to have to be circumspect in terms of the way we handle this,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. “That’s the responsibility of every member.”

It’s a risk that’s been barely acknowledged in the battle over Trump’s returns, though it is one reason why Democrats have taken so long to formally request them.

Of course, Democrats have to get the returns first, and they’re a long way from that. Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) demanded this week that the administration turn over six years’ worth of Trump’s individual and business tax returns, giving them a deadline of April 10.

The administration has indicated it plans to fight the demand in court.

“From what I understand, the law is 100 percent on my side,” Trump said Friday.

That Democrats may have to keep Trump’s taxes secret for a time has been largely overlooked in the debate over the returns, probably because of a misconception of how the law Democrats are tapping works.

They are relying on a statute that allows the heads of Congress’s tax committees to examine anyone’s confidential taxes. Advocates of the effort emphasize that the law says the Treasury Secretary “shall” hand over any requested returns.

But that’s just the question of whether the administration must give up the documents — even if Trump’s returns are handed over, they will still be protected by privacy laws. Making them public will be a separate matter.

Experts say lawmakers can do that by essentially having the Ways and Means Committee vote in a closed session to release them.

Though Democrats haven’t worked out exactly how they’ll proceed, there’s likely to be some time between when they receive the returns and when they consider divulging them.

There seems to be a “false presumption” that lawmakers will simply release the returns the moment they get them, said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), another Democratic tax writer who has helped lead the push to get the president’s returns.

“There is a need for a thorough review of them to see if there’s anything in them that justifies releasing them and that’s something that could take awhile to do because they are, according to the president, very complex,” he said. “I hope it’s not months, but I don’t think it will be days.”

“Until such time as that review is complete and a vote is taken to forward them to congress and the public, they will be protected.”

Democrats may want to redact certain information from the returns. Trump’s filings could reveal private information about other people he’s in business with who are of little interest to lawmakers, for example.

Tax veterans say the period between when Democrats get Trump’s returns and if and when they release something will be stressful for lawmakers, given the criminal penalties for even inadvertent disclosure. Democrats won’t be able to discuss even basic things about Trump’s returns, like how much he paid in taxes, what he reported earning or if he gave to charity.

“When we’ve had members in these situations before, we frequently have members say, ‘I don’t know if I want you to tell me or not, because I don’t know if I can trust myself not to say anything,’” said Rick Grafmeyer, a former deputy head of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation and expert on taxpayer privacy laws.

Tax writers typically use their power to examine private tax returns to help inform the policymaking process. If they are trying to write legislation outlawing a corporate tax shelter, for example, they might look at an individual company’s tax documents to better understand how the dodge works.

Some say Democrats’ situation will be tougher than what most lawmakers deal with when it comes to taxpayer secrecy rules. Everyone will likely know Democrats have Trump’s returns and lawmakers would be besieged with questions from reporters, constituents and other lawmakers. That’s a lot different than when lawmakers quietly examine an oil company’s tax return.

Also, the Ways and Means Committee is loaded with new members who aren’t steeped in the intricacies of the tax secrecy rules — the closest analogue many say is when lawmakers received classified intelligence briefings.

“I’m sure that there will be briefings about all the ethical issues that surround this,” said Larson.

Many of the details of how exactly Democrats would handle the returns have not been worked out.

Neal could keep Trump’s documents to himself and a few close aides — and not even let other members of his panel see them. He has already said he won’t share the returns with any other committees, including the Judiciary and Oversight panels, which have been conducting their own high-profile investigations of the administration.

That would keep the circle of people who’ve seen Trump’s taxes tight — and the more people who see the returns, the more likely there will be leaks.

But many of his colleagues have been clamoring for the president’s returns for months, and will surely be unhappy to learn they won’t be able to examine them.

Another option: Lawmakers turn the filings over to the JCT and ask its staff of tax experts to analyze Trump’s returns and report back on what they find.

“They’re going to have to think carefully about how they’re going to want to do this,” said Dean Zerbe, a former Senate tax aide. “The penalties are certainly quite real.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/05/democrats-trump-tax-returns-1329795

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane sits on the assembly line on March 27, in Renton, Wash. Boeing is slowing production of its grounded Max airliner while it works on fixing flight-control software in the wake of fatal crashes.

Ted S. Warren/AP


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Ted S. Warren/AP

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane sits on the assembly line on March 27, in Renton, Wash. Boeing is slowing production of its grounded Max airliner while it works on fixing flight-control software in the wake of fatal crashes.

Ted S. Warren/AP

Boeing says it is reducing production of its 737 Max planes, and the temporary slowdown will begin in mid-April.

CEO Dennis Muilenburg says the company will build 42 of the planes per month, down from the current 52, while keeping the same number of workers. Boeing still has an enormous backlog of orders — about 4,600 — for the Max planes. That will take years to fill.

Muilenburg says he now knows that two deadly crashes within five months of each other, involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, had a common link of a malfunctioning flight-control software called MCAS.

He says he has asked Boeing’s board of directors to create a committee to review company policies for airplane development and recommend improvements.

Ethiopian Airlines released a preliminary report Thursday on the crash of its plane on March 10. Investigators say the pilots used procedures provided by Boeing but couldn’t stop the plane’s repeated nose dives. All 157 people on board died in the crash just after takeoff from Addis Ababa.

A Lion Air 737 Max jet crashed in a similar way on Oct. 9, with pilots frantically trying to stop the nose from dropping. The plane went down off the coast of Java, killing 189 people.

The 737 Max planes have been grounded worldwide for nearly a month as Boeing works on a software fix.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/710477435/boeing-to-slow-production-of-737-max-jets-as-it-works-on-flight-control-software

CLOSE

Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate after an upheaval that split Democrats and clouded their agenda. But Pelosi said the measure won’t name Ilhan Omar. (March 7)
AP

ELMIRA, N.Y. – A New York man is in custody after federal authorities allege he made death threats against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Patrick W. Carlineo, 55, of Addison, was arrested Friday morning and charged by criminal complaint with threatening to assault and murder a United States official. 

Carlineo threatened to kill Omar, a Democrat, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Harvey, who is prosecuting the case.

On March 21, a staff member in Omar’s office received a phone call around 12:20 p.m., the criminal complaint stated. 

During the call, an individual, eventually identified as Carlineo, allegedly stated to the staff member, “Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she’s an (expletive) terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her (expletive) skull.”

More: Fox News condemns host Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Omar’s hijab

After receiving the call, Omar’s office referred the threat to the United States Capitol Police, which began an investigation in coordination with the FBI.

Omar is a freshman representative who was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm election and one of three members of Congress who are Muslim. 

Omar faced backlash in recent months for tweets and comments she made that critics say played into enduring anti-Semitic stereotypes.

More: House overwhelmingly passes resolution condemning hate after Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments

Carlineo provided a name and phone number to Omar’s staff member, and authorities were able to trace the phone number to an Addison address. 

He was questioned March 29 by FBI agents at his residence in Steuben County, according to the criminal complaint.

Carlineo told the agents he is a patriot, that he loves President Donald Trump and hates radical Muslims in government, the complaint stated.

He also told agents he didn’t remember exactly what he said to Omar’s staffer but admitted it might have been close to what her office reported to authorities.

When asked if there were any weapons in the residence, Carlineo confirmed there was a shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle, according to the complaint.

OPINION: You can critique Israel without sounding anti-Semitic. Rep. Ilhan Omar should learn how.

Carlineo made an initial appearance Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian W. Payson and is being held pending a detention hearing at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Follow Jeff Murray on Twitter @SGJeffMurray

 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/05/ilhan-omar-death-threat-leads-to-arrest-of-new-york-man/3379387002/

When Israel’s top satire show launched its recent election special, it depicted an impersonator of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu breaking out of chains in a Houdini-like feat. With a smirk he turned to exit, before realizing his foot was still shackled.

Netanyahu has escaped many a peril in the quarter-century that he has been a dominant ­figure in Israeli politics, including 13 years as prime minister.

There was the first “Bibigate,” when he dramatically confessed an extramarital affair to the Israeli public, and the second, when he was investigated during his first year in office amid allegations of influence peddling. More investigations would follow over the years as stories of extravagant spending by him and his wife, allegedly at taxpayers’ expense, filled Israeli newspapers.

There was the $1,600 bill for his hairstyling and $1,750 for makeup on a 2015 New York trip. There was the $127,000 spent on installing a double bed on an El Al plane for a five-hour flight to London and a $2,700 ice-cream budget. 

And still he has survived, denying all accusations of wrongdoing, staying put when others might have resigned and winning a pair of elections in which he was widely written off.

But the latest corruption cases, which involve allegations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery, have overshadowed this year’s election campaign and left Israelis wondering whether he could be caught in that last shackle. Just days before Israelis vote on Tuesday, polls suggest the prime minister is in a very tight race with his main rival.

If he prevails and stays in office through mid-July, Netanyahu will become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, surpassing the country’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion. But the question remains: Will his legal troubles catch up with him, or can he escape them once more?

“The guy has the best staying power in politics,” said Eyal Arad, an Israeli political strategist who was an adviser to Netanyahu in the 1980s and 1990s. “He falls, he recuperates, but then he goes on to the next battle.”

That, in part, Arad said, comes from his unshakable belief in himself. 

“He believes that he is the only one who is capable to lead Israel,” he said. “He absolutely believes that.” 

That self-belief has only grown over the years, former advisers say, as Netanyahu has defied the odds to stay in power.

Last time around, in the 2015 election, Netanyahu had been widely expected to lose. Aron Shaviv, his campaign adviser, recalls how five days before the vote, defeat seemed imminent. 

“We were staring down the barrel of a 5 or 6 percent loss,” Shaviv said. But Netanyahu remained “cool and calculated,” he said. “Straight away we got down to business to work through all the options of this serious problem.”

Netanyahu would call him throughout the night. If Shaviv screened the calls on his cellphone, Netanyahu would call on the house phone and keep ringing until Shaviv picked up.

“My wife always used to joke that she felt like she was in bed with him,” he said. “He has such a deep voice, she could still hear him through the phone.” 

To win, Netanyahu had to do something that did not come naturally — acknowledge he was likely to lose. Campaign research showed that right-wing Israelis were leaning toward smaller parties instead of Netanyahu’s Likud, confident that Netanyahu would still be the prime minister. He was not quick to heed the warnings.

“Bibi being Bibi said: ‘I don’t trust you. But I do trust the data, so prove it to me,’ ” Shaviv said. He watched five hours of focus-group videos before he was convinced. 

Shaviv said Netanyahu immediately went out to do what he does best: He conducted more than 40 media interviews to warn supporters that he was about to lose — and that the left would win. 

Then, on election day, his campaign released a last-minute video declaring that Israeli Arabs were flocking to the polls, potentially threatening to thwart his reelection. The video, which was condemned by many Israelis as racist but may have succeeded in spurring his supporters to vote, was entirely the prime minister’s call, Shaviv recalled.

It worked, and Netanyahu ultimately won. 

“He felt that almost with his bare hands, he managed to win,” said Aviv Bushinsky, a former adviser and chief of staff to the prime minister.

Netanyahu’s decision to release that video fits a long pattern of divisive politics, critics say, and early on those politics almost tripped him up.

When Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an ultranationalist Israeli in 1995, Netanyahu, as leader of the opposition, was blamed by some Israelis, including members of Rabin’s family, for stirring up an atmosphere of hate and fear. Many political observers thought he was too tarnished to defeat Rabin’s successor, Labor Party leader Shimon Peres, in the election a year later.

“After Rabin’s assassination, everyone thought it would be a walk in the park for Peres,” recalled Nahum Barnea, a veteran Israeli journalist. “Nobody believed Netanyahu had a chance.” 

But when Palestinian suicide bombers began blowing up buses and restaurants in Israel, the shine came off the peace process championed by Rabin and Peres. Public opinion swung toward Netanyahu.

Barnea said Netanyahu’s skills as a public speaker also helped him turn the campaign around. 

Shortly before the election, Netanyahu participated in a televised debate, prerecorded at the Labor Party headquarters in Tel Aviv. Barnea watched the session live with about a dozen other journalists. They thought Netanyahu performed well. Then, when Barnea reviewed the recording on television, Peres came off even worse, he said. 

“I ran from the studio to our office,” Barnea said. “I went to the editor in chief and said Bibi won the debate.” 

Netanyahu would go on to win the election with a razor-thin majority. 

Netanyahu was not originally tapped to be the star of his family, growing up in the shadow of his older brother Yonatan, or Yoni, whom he idolized. But Yoni was killed in 1976, the lone Israeli military casualty in an operation to rescue more than 100 Israeli passengers and a flight crew held hostage at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport after their plane was hijacked. 

If Yoni had lived, Netanyahu might have stayed in the United States — where he was partly raised and attended Harvard and MIT — and never entered politics. But he did, and despite that privileged upbringing, he went on to find a fierce following among Israel’s blue-collar voters.

Painting himself as a repeated underdog who has been unfairly targeted by the elitist establishment, Netanyahu has tapped into the resentment of Israel’s Mizrahi Jews, whose roots mostly lie in other Middle Eastern and North African countries and who felt shut out of power in Israel’s early years by Ashkenazi Jews of European ancestry.

While Netanyahu is also of Ashkenazi stock, his family had felt alienated from Israel’s Zionist establishment. Netanyahu’s father, Benzion, had been a follower of the revisionist leader Binyamin Zeev Jabotinsky, a rival of left-leaning socialists who dominated the early Zionist movement. 

Netanyahu has survived in part by telling his political base that it is us against them, the right vs. the weak, dangerous and Arab-loving left. 

“Netanyahu’s greatest achievement is keeping his base disgruntled and dissatisfied and angry despite Likud having been in power for three-quarters of the last four decades,” said Anshel Pfeffer, author of “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu.” “Netanyahu’s biggest political asset is that he knows how to latch onto his voters’ phobias and keep them alive.”

Yet despite presenting himself as a candidate of the people, he has a love for the high life, which biographers say is his Achilles’ heel.

Over the years, Israeli newspapers have highlighted his penchant for leaving restaurants without picking up the bill and reported scintillating details of the extravagant habits of the Netanyahus. 

Two months ago, the Israeli attorney general decided to charge him in three criminal cases, pending a hearing in which he can present his defense. One of those cases centers on allegations that he and his wife, Sara, received gifts of cigars and jewelry worth around $280,000 in exchange for ­political favors.

But Netanyahu, who denies all charges, has built a loyal base that supports him no matter what and can deliver enough votes to keep him atop Israel’s fragmented politics.

“He just needs to keep his right-wing base voting for him, which he’s done very effectively,” Arad said. 

The personal stakes for Netanyahu are higher in this election than ever before. 

“He understands that the only good way, from his perspective, to fight his legal battles is from power,” Bushinsky said.

Others might have resigned already. Rabin stepped aside in his first term when it emerged that he still had a U.S. bank account several years after working at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, in contravention of Israeli currency regulations. 

Netanyahu’s most recent predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who stepped down when he was indicted, served 16 months in jail for corruption.

But Netanyahu is cut from different cloth and has vowed to stay in office even if he is indicted.

Bushinsky said that if Netanyahu is in power, he is in a stronger position to influence the time frame of the corruption investigations and could even push for legislation to prevent charges being pursued against a sitting prime minister.

He has beaten the legal rap each time since the first criminal investigation back in 1997. At the time, police recommended he be indicted after he was accused of appointing an attorney general who, in return for political support, agreed to be lenient in pursuing an extortion case against one of the prime minister’s political allies.

In an April 1997 editorial, The Washington Post asked, “Can Mr. Netanyahu hang on?” The editorial noted that less than a year into office he was already “hip-deep” in controversy. But already, he had a reputation as a survivor, if not an escape artist.

“The prudent expectation must be that Mr. Netanyahu will somehow come through,” the Post editorial said. 

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israels-netanyahu-a-political-houdini-is-facing-his-toughest-escape-act-yet/2019/04/05/b57113c8-4b21-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html

Bill Maher came out strongly in favor of Veep Joe Biden’s decision to make jokes on Friday about his past uncomfortable-making hugging and hair-kissing of women.

The presumed Dem candidate “is still at large,” Maher joked at the top of his HBO late night show, Real Time.

“Women are still being urged to walk at night in pairs.”

Maher explained to younger viewers that Biden’s hands have been part of an exploratory committee for decades.

“We’re getting a little nit-picky,” Maher scoffed. “No one likes to be touched unwantedly, and women get lots more of that than men. But the first person who brought this up said he made her feel gross and uneasy. You know what makes me feel gross and uneasy? A second Trump term!”

“He’s not Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly. He’s more like the TSA,” Maher insisted.

Speaking to his first guest, Dem candidate/ former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Maher credited Biden for being the first Dem to say, “I don’t say I’m sorry…I’m not sorry for my intentions.”

‘I like that,” Maher said, noting Castro had spoken to Biden’s past behavior “with great gravitas” on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show earlier in the week.

“I think he should joke about it. I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” Maher scolded Castro.

“I disagree,” the former San Antonio mayor Castro shot back, arguing that Biden was indeed out of line and, by implication, out of step with the times. For too long, he said, women have been told they have to be quiet “about stuff like this.”

Maher pounced on that, arguing Biden’s behavior “is not the same as sexual harassment,” adding, “He did it to men, too, and children. He’s a toucher!”

Castro conceded Biden did not intend to make people uncomfortable, but insisted it’s incumbent on men “to understand it’s not just your intention, it’s also how your actions are making somebody feel.”

“I think it’s bullshit to say people can get away with laughing it off,” Castro challenged Maher. “I think that’s completely the wrong way to look at it.”

But Maher stuck by his guns, saying Biden should joke about it, because “I don’t think it’s that big a deal.”

As mid-show guest Chelsea Handler came out and went for him with a hug, Mahrer gently pushed her away, saying we don’t touch any more, leading to a more than awkward moment.

Maher also wished the media would stop using #MeToo movement terms to report on Biden. “We have no sense of perspective Everything has to be…DEFCON 1,” he complained.

“These are not allegations. They actually happened. It’s on tape,” he pointed out during the show’s panel conversation. The women, he said,  “are not victims stepping forward. All this is bullshit – he kissed the back of somebody’s head!”

Maher singled out Chris Cillizza’s coverage on CNN; he had described the controversy as “not a joking matter.”

“Yes it is,” Maher barked back. “It is exactly what is perfect for joking matter. It’s not that fucking serious!”

Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/04/bill-maher-joe-biden-controversy-metoo-donald-trump-julian-castro-bullshit-real-time-video-1202589585/

Singer told Caplan to bring his daughter to Los Angeles to meet with a psychologist he trusted. The girl should act “stupid,” Singer said, to be falsely diagnosed with a learning disability, a key component of the scheme. Once diagnosed, the girl could receive extra time on her ACT, allowing Singer’s accomplice and ace test-taker to correct her answers, according to the affidavit.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-parent-college-admissions-scandal-gordon-caplan-20190405-story.html

President Trump had been vocally considering shutting down the southern border until he scaled back slightly on Thursday, giving Mexico one year to decide whether or not they’ll comply with his demands. His White House team probably talked him back from the ledge, since it seems he’s the only one in his own administration willing to take such a drastic step.

Indeed, senior staffers and Department of Homeland Security officials view closing ports of entry, what Trump calls a border shutdown, as a method of “last resort.” It’s not often that Trump entirely turns his back on his administration’s 2 cents, but when he does, it’s generally over immigration. This isn’t the first threat of this nature from Trump, and surely it won’t be the last, because, as is evident by his recent backtrack, the president’s not actually serious about shutting down the border. He really just wants the immigration debate to be framed in his favor. He hopes this will all be seen as a dichotomy between his pro-American immigration policy and the Democrats’ anti-American one.

It’s easy to see how empty Trump’s threat was: If he were to actually close the border, there would be dire economic consequences. It’s estimated there’s $1.5 billion worth of commerce occurring along the southern border every day. Meanwhile, from an immigration standpoint, nearly 500,000 people cross the border legally each day, and that’s just through Texas ports. With a border closure, shipments of vegetables and other goods would be halted, truck drivers blocked and stranded, and tourists denied passage of any kind. Trump loves to claim credit for the strong economy, but if he were to close the border, a plunge in stocks would most certainly follow.

It would punish a lot of innocent people, and Trump knows it. Following through on this threat as a political statement would have been extremely costly for Trump. But a claim like this one does force the Democrats who are running for president to reveal their stance on immigration, opening them up to attacks from Trump.

After all, President Trump’s 2016 campaign relied on the anxieties of middle America over immigrants taking jobs. He likely won’t stray from this strategy for the 2020 election, which is news to no one, including Democrats. But as Trump opponents elaborate on their positions in response to his pressure, the president is hoping they fall into his rhetorical trap by labeling themselves as open-border activists or “soft on crime” for their tolerance toward illegal immigration.

Trump recently unleashed a characteristic Twitter storm on the subject, prompting Democratic presidential hopefuls Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from Texas, and Julián Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, to respond with their own sweeping immigration plans. For his part, Castro divulged that he wouldn’t consider an immigrant entering the U.S. without papers, no matter the circumstance, a federal crime. Trump will have a field day tearing down this proposal by attempting to rely on his “tough on crime” mentality, even though the electorate has steered away from this Reagan-era viewpoint.

O’Rourke is a native of El Paso, Texas, a city experiencing overcrowding due to customs and Border Patrol agents being reassigned to take care of unauthorized migrants. O’Rourke has highlighted Trump’s naive understanding on this matter by emphasizing that immigration policy is actually heavily tied to foreign policy, a reality Trump likes to avoid, evidenced by his recent call to cut off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which would only exacerbate the flow of immigrants toward our borders.

One other presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., already tried to distance herself from Trump by passionately advocating for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, known as “Dreamers.” On April 3, she introduced a bill to Congress, perhaps intended to differentiate herself from primary opponent O’Rourke, that would allow “Dreamers” to work as staffers or interns in Congress.

The immigration debate will be the main focus of the 2020 election, which means Democrats must fine-tune their positions on immigration in order not to fall into Trump’s rhetorical trap. But we should all remember that Trump’s first two years of hard-line stances on immigration hasn’t actually alleviated the biggest source of conservative apprehension: the surge in migration. In fact, March 2019 saw the highest migrant rate since 2008.

Who knows, Trump could easily be provoked once again to follow through on his threat, even if his original intent was to force Democrats to show their cards. But if he does, he’s not going to do anything but hurt his chances at a 2020 victory — and the everyday Americans he claims to champion.

Natalie Dowzicky (@Nat_Dowzicky) is a researcher at a think tank in Washington, D.C., and a Young Voices contributor.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trumps-threat-to-close-the-border-was-just-a-trap-for-democrats

“Teams are working tirelessly, advancing and testing the software, conducting non-advocate reviews and engaging regulators and customers worldwide as we proceed to final certification,” Mr. Muilenburg said. “We’re also finalizing new pilot training courses and supplementary educational material for our global Max customers.”

Boeing is now under pressure from some airlines to compensate them for the cost of the grounded jets. Norwegian Air’s chief executive said previously that he expected Boeing to “take this bill.”

The airline Garuda Indonesia asked to cancel an order for 49 Max planes last month. And on Friday, Bloomberg reported that Ethiopian Airlines was reconsidering its order for 25 additional Max planes because of the “stigma” surrounding the aircraft.

“We may reach the decision: Look, we just had a very tragic accident a few weeks ago, and customers still have the accident in their mind,” Tewolde GebreMariam, chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines, told Bloomberg. “So it will be a hard sell for us to convince our customers.”

Though the airlines have mostly been able to manage the grounding of the Max so far, the credit agency Fitch Ratings said in a note on Friday that the impacts may begin to ripple across Asia in the coming weeks as seasonal air travel picked up.

“If there is a delay in the delivery schedule of the 737 Max jets by Boeing, affected airlines may choose to either scale back their expansion plans to strengthen their balance sheets or continue to grow by leasing aircraft at increased rates,” Fitch said.

Boeing is also facing growing pressure from Washington. The Justice Department and the Transportation Department’s inspector general are investigating the design, manufacturing and certification of the Max. Lawmakers have raised questions about Boeing’s close relationship with the F.A.A., which in recent years has given aircraft makers more authority to certify their own products.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/business/boeing-737-production.html

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Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump continues to hold his ground against Democratic efforts to obtain his tax returns, with one administration official telling CNN that the President and his team are willing to fight the House Democratic request all the way to the Supreme Court.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/05/politics/donald-trump-tax-returns-supreme-court/index.html

    A family staying in an Airbnb in Ireland discovered they were being livestreamed by a hidden camera.

    The Barkers found the camera concealed in the living room after father of five Andrew tried to connect his phone to the Wifi and saw a device labelled “IP camera”.

    “He scanned that device’s ports and found the live video feed,” his wife Nealie told Stuff. “We were all watching ourselves on his mobile phone.”

    The camera was in the lounge, positioned so it had a view of the dining and kitchen area as well.

    “We have encountered lots of weird and wonderful things and like to think we take most things in our stride,” added Nealie. “However, this was shocking.”

    The Barkers had checked in with their children on 3 March, having paid in full for three nights’ accommodation.

    “It was late at night, but we decided fairly quickly we didn’t feel comfortable about staying at the house,” said Nealie.

    They immediately left and checked into a nearby hotel.

    When the Barkers subsequently asked the Airbnb host about the camera, he refused to answer their questions at first and denied the device’s existence.

    However, when Andrew said they could see themselves on the camera, the host “became flustered and hung up”.

    He rang back later and said that he had only installed the camera to “protect his asset”.

    Nealie said Airbnb’s response was initially “hopeless”: it took weeks to hear back about the outcome of the investigation.

    An Airbnb spokesperson said: “We have permanently removed this bad actor from our platform.

    “Our original handling of this incident did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves, and we have apologised to the family and fully refunded their stay. There have been over half a billion guest arrivals in Airbnb listings to date and negative incidents are incredibly rare.” 

    Airbnb has strict policies governing the use of cameras in listings – they are never allowed in bathrooms or bedrooms or to be hidden – and has a zero tolerance stance when it comes to violations.

    There have been several high profile cases of holidaymakers finding hidden cameras in Airbnb properties in recent years.

    Dougie Hamilton was on holiday with his girlfriend in Toronto, Canada, in 2018 when he found one hidden in a digital clock.

    The Scottish holidaymaker told the Daily Record: “We were only in the place for 20 minutes when I noticed the clock. There was just something in my head that made me feel a bit uneasy.

    “I took the charger out of it and saw there was a lithium battery in the back. At this point, I slid the front facing off the clock and could see there actually was a camera. The hidden camera was facing into the living area and open-plan bedroom, so it could see everything. We didn’t know if the owner had been watching. It just felt really creepy and we didn’t want to stay.”

    Source Article from https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airbnb-hidden-camera-live-stream-wifi-family-a8854341.html

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he would not attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner later this month, confirming his plan to skip the event traditionally attended by sitting presidents for the third year in a row.

    Trump told reporters that the event was “negative” and “boring” as he was leaving the White House on his way to visit the southern border in California Friday morning.

    “We’re going to hold a very positive rally,” Trump said, instead of attending the annual event on April 27. “It’ll be big,” he promised.

    Trump said that a location for the rally has not been determined, but that he has sites in mind for the event in three weeks. “I like positive things, okay?” he added.

    Last year the White House Correspondents Dinner, a night that is supposed to celebrate the First Amendment, touched off a firestorm after comedian Michelle Wolf made fun of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. Although comedians typically roast White House officials at the event, some viewed the jokes aimed at Sanders as unfair.

    In response to the backlash from last year’s dinner, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced that they would break with tradition of having a comedian host the event and instead invite historian Ron Chernow would deliver the keynote address. There was some speculation that the president might attend this year given that there would be no comedian to crack jokes at the administration’s expense.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-skip-white-house-correspondents-dinner-third-year-row-n991346

    Image copyright
    AFP

    Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on the US Federal Reserve by calling for the central bank to cut interest rates.

    The US President claimed that the Fed has “really slowed us down” in terms of economic growth, adding that “there’s no inflation”.

    Mr Trump made the comments as data showed a sharp rebound in new jobs growth during March.

    US firms added 196,000 jobs last month, compared to 33,000 in February.

    Mr Trump said: “I think they should drop rates and get rid of quantitative tightening. You would see a rocket ship.”

    The Fed has raised interest rates four times since Jerome Powell took over as chairman in February last year.

    Mr Powell was appointed by Mr Trump but the president has frequently criticised the Fed chairman for increasing rates.

    The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Mr Trump told Mr Powell in a recent phone call: “I guess I’m stuck with you.”

    Image copyright
    Reuters

    Image caption

    US President Donald Trump appointed Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve

    The Fed had been forecast to raise interest rates a further two times this year. However, it has since said it is now taking a “patient approach” to interest rates.

    Last month, it indicated that it did not expect to raise interest rates for the rest of 2019 amid slower economic growth.

    Mr Trump said earlier this week that he would nominate the former boss of Godfather’s Pizza to the Fed’s board of governors.

    Herman Cain, 73, ran to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and is a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

    Along with Mr Cain, Mr Trump also intends to nominate Stephen Moore, who advised the president during his election campaign, to join the Fed’s board of governors.


    The politicisation of the Fed

    By New York business correspondent, Michelle Fleury

    With his picks of Herman Cain and Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, Donald Trump appears to be politicising America’s central bank.

    Their candidacy marks a shift from the president’s first few nominees to America’s central bank. They were more traditional candidates and were more or less greeted with bipartisan approval.

    By contrast, Cain and Moore appear to have been picked less for their experience and more for their loyalty to the President and have therefore provoked a great deal of political criticism.

    Donald Trump has been openly critical of recent Fed policy, heckling Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Twitter.

    The President favours lower interest rates and switching from quantitative tightening to quantitative easing.

    Economist Stephen Moore has been openly critical of the Fed. While Herman Cain, the former boss of Godfather’s Pizza and who has worked at the Kansas City Federal Reserve has often stated his anachronistic view that the US should return to the gold standard.

    If their nominations go through, they would be in a position to promote his view that the economy can grow much faster without overheating.

    For investors, it would raise fears about the independence of America’s central bank.


    While new jobs figures for March beat forecasts – analysts had been expecting growth of between 170,000 and 180,000 roles – earnings data showed that the annual rate of wage increases slowed to 3.2% in March, down from 3.4% in February.

    Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “Overall, these data won’t change anyone’s mind about whether the Fed ultimately will have to hike this year.

    “The payroll gain is welcome but one month does not prove that the trend remains close to 200,000, and doves will point to the modest average hourly earnings gain as evidence that the Fed’s ‘patient’ stance is justified.”

    Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said it was a “mixed report” with highlights including an upwards revision to the 20,000 new jobs initially reported in February.

    But he said: “The average hourly earnings was a big disappointment.”

    The unemployment rate remained at 3.8% for a second month.

    The healthcare sector saw jobs rise, but the retail and manufacturing sectors both saw declines.

    Some 6,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing, the first decline in the sector since July 2017.

    Car companies have been cutting thousands of jobs, including General Motors which is cutting about 14,000 workers.

    Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47822492

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    The United States is expected to designate Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has labeled another country’s military a terrorist group.

    The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years.

    The Pentagon declined comment and referred queries to the State Department. The State Department and White House also declined to comment.

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration’s tough posture toward Tehran.

    The announcement would come ahead of the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Iran’s economy.

    The administration’s decision to make the designation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

    The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not.

    In 2007, the U.S. Treasury designated the IRGC’s Quds Force, its unit in charge of operations abroad, “for its support of terrorism,” and has described it as Iran’s “primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups.”

    Iran has warned of a “crushing” response should the United States go ahead with the designation.

    IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned in 2017 that if Trump went ahead with the move, “then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world.”

    Such threats are particularly ominous for U.S. forces in places such as Iraq, where Iran-aligned Shi’ite militia are located in close proximity to U.S. troops.

    Former Under-Secretary of State and lead Iran negotiator, Wendy Sherman, said the move had implications for U.S. forces.

    “One might even suggest, since it’s hard to see why this is in our interest, if the president isn’t looking for a basis for a conflict,” said Sherman. “The IRGC is already fully sanctioned and this escalation absolutely endangers our troops in the region.”

    IRGC’S reach

    Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi’ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Iran’s most powerful security organization. It has control over large sectors of the Iranian economy and has a huge influence in its political system.

    The IRGC has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    But it is the IRGC’s Quds Force, led by Major-General Qassem Soleimani, which operates outside Iran and has drawn much of Washington’s attention for its role in places such as Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

    Pompeo has repeatedly singled out Soleimani and in 2017, when he was CIA director, he wrote to Soleimani and other Iranian leaders warning that the United States would hold them accountable for any attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq by forces under their control.

    It is unclear what impact the U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization might have on America’s activities in countries that have ties with Tehran, including in Iraq.

    Baghdad has deep cultural and economic ties with Iran and Oman, where the United States recently clinched a strategic ports deal.

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/05/us-to-designate-elite-iranian-force-as-terrorist-organization.html

    President Trump, speaking at a roundtable on the southern border today, said the immigration system is full, regardless of whether the individuals seeking to come into the US are seeking asylum or not. 

    “The system is full. We can’t take you anymore. Whether it’s asylum. Whether it’s anything you want. It’s illegal immigration,” Trump said. “Can’t take you anymore. Can’t take you. Our country is full… Can’t take you anymore, I’m sorry. So turn around. That’s the way it is.”

    Trump also claimed that ���close to 400 miles” of border wall will be completed within the next two years.

    The President said his administration has made progress in its push to define the situation at the border as “an absolute emergency.”

    “I see some of our biggest opponents over the last two days have said it really is an emergency, they can’t believe what’s happening. Part of it is because of the fact that the country is doing so well. Part of it is a scam. People want to come in. They shouldn’t be coming in. They shouldn’t be coming in,” he said.

    The President called his one-year warning on a southern border closure “fake news.” 

    “Somebody said it will take a year. No, it won’t take a year. It’ll take a day. They wrote a lot of fake news. I said in a year,” Trump said. “Well the tariffs will work, number one, but what will really work is closing our border. We hope we don’t have to do that, but I’ll do it because ultimately the security of our nation is the most important thing.”

    What Trump said Thursday: He threatened to slap tariffs on automobiles made in Mexico and close the US-Mexico border if the country didn’t stop “massive amounts of drugs” coming into the US within one year.

    “We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or (are) largely stopped, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular, the cars … and if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border,” Trump told reporters during a meeting of his Opportunity and Revitalization Council.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-border-04-05-19/index.html

    April 5 at 4:42 PM

    An attorney for President Trump on Friday told the Treasury Department it should not turn over the president’s tax returns until it receives a legal opinion from the Justice Department, calling on Treasury to deny Democrats’ demands for 6 years of the president’s records.

    William S. Consovoy, the attorney, attacked the request from Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, as a “gross abuse of power,” arguing it risks encroaching on taxpayers’ privacy.

    Consovoy’s letter is one of the early moves in what is expected to be an extensive legal fight over who has the authority to release Trump’s tax returns.

    On Wednesday, Neal formally requested that the Internal Revenue Service, which is part of the Treasury Department, turn over six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns.

    A 1924 law cited by Neal states that the treasury secretary “shall furnish . . . any return or return information specified” in a request from the head of the House or Senate tax-writing committees.

    Trump has for months signaled he would resist attempts to compel him to turn over his taxes. And Friday’s letter from Consovoy states that the IRS should wait for a “formal legal opinion” from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel before divulging the returns.

    The letter from his attorney, addressed to Treasury general counsel Brent J. McIntosh, echoes arguments made for months by congressional Republicans.

    Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said that he would consult with department attorneys before making a decision about a request to turn over the returns. The fight is expected to be settled by the courts.

    “The Tax Code zealously guards taxpayer privacy,” Consovoy says in his letter. “…It would be a gross abuse of power for the majority party to use tax returns as a weapon to attack, harass, and intimidate their political opponents.”

    The White House has moved to block the release of the president’s tax returns, which have been the source of significant speculation since Trump refused to release them as a candidate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

    Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Trump, said he would not turn over “a single thing” to congressional Democrats, arguing the opposition party was simply aiming to embarrass the president. Neal has said he is aiming to conduct oversight and debate legislative proposals over how federal tax laws are enforced against a U.S. president.

    “They’ll be in court for two or three years on those taxes. It’s pure harassment,” Giuliani said in an interview. “They want his tax returns so they can find something even if nothing is there.”

    Tim O’Brien, a financial journalist who has seen Trump’s tax returns but is under court order not to disclose details, said Trump’s main concerns are what kind of income he receives, what his philanthropic activities might have been, and whether he is compromised related to certain countries.

    “This is something he is going to fight tooth and nail. It opens a vein,” O’Brien, who saw the tax returns as part of a lawsuit, said. “He’s the most financially conflicted president of the modern era. The tax returns are both emblematic of that and a potential roadmap of what his conflicts might look like.”

    O’Brien said he was opposed vociferously by Trump at every turn when he sought to see what the real estate mogul was really worth.

    “The first return we got from them was so redacted that it looked like a crossword puzzle,” O’Brien said. “Our lawyers ended up having to fight tooth and nail for them. He definitely didn’t want to go there.”

    Trump has again recently asserted that he cannot release his tax returns because they are under audit, although numerous independent experts have said that does not prevent him from releasing the taxes.

    Some critics rejected the contention that Treasury needed to wait for the Justice Department.

    “It’s a stalling tactic, which is key to all of this,” said Steve Rosenthal, a tax policy expert at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think-tank. “The strategy here is to delay this beyond the election.”

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-lawyer-contends-treasury-must-not-release-presidents-tax-returns-until-the-justice-department-weighs-in/2019/04/05/172a9dfa-57de-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html

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    Boeing is cutting production of 737 Max jets as the company moves quickly to finalize a fix that will get the grounded aircraft flying again.

    Boeing’s monthly production of the aircraft, involved in two crashes since October, is dropping by 20 percent from the current level of 52 a month to 42 a month, the company said Friday.

    “We’re adjusting the 737 production system temporarily to accommodate the pause in MAX deliveries, allowing us to prioritize additional resources to focus on software certification and returning the MAX to flight,” Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement announcing the rate cut. Muilenburg said the aerospace giant is already working with suppliers to, “minimize operational disruption and financial impact of the production rate change.”

    The production cut is likely to weigh on shares of Boeing which have held up relatively well after initially dropping more than 10% in mid-March after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8. It was the second crash of a 737 Max in the last six months and led countries around the world to ground the airplane or ban it from flying in their airspace.

    Boeing’s shares were down 2.3% in after-hours trading Friday.

    The FAA, after initially calling the plane “airworthy,” joined the rest of the world on March 13 in grounding the Max.

    At the time, Boeing said it had no plans to cut production and many analysts agreed with the decision. Jose Caiado, airline analyst at Credit Suisse, said in mid-March that he expected Boeing to keep the assembly lines rolling at current levels so it didn’t disrupt supply chains.

    “They will just have to carry that inventory on their balance sheet a little while longer,” he told CNBC.

    Boeing says it hopes to have a software fix for the 737 Max in the coming weeks that it will submit to the FAA and international regulators for approval. Their review and a potential certification could take several more weeks, even months, meaning the 737 Max could be grounded well into June, if not later. As a result, Boeing has decided it is smarter to roll fewer 737s out of its plant in Renton, Washington.

    Separately, Muilenburg says the Boeing board of directors has formed a committee to “review our company-wide policies and processes for the design and development of the airplanes we build.”

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/05/boeing-slows-737-max-production-beginning-in-mid-april.html

    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was ripped as “financially illiterate” Friday for her role in killing the Amazon deal at the same Midtown conference where she was a featured speaker a couple of hours earlier.

    “The people campaigning against the Amazon campus are financially illiterate,” Tracy Maitland, president and chief investment officer of Advent Capital Management, said during a panel discussion at the National Action Network conference in Midtown.

    Afterwards Maitland told The Post, “This was a disgrace. I partially blame AOC for the loss of Amazon. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. That’s scary. We have to make sure she’s better educated or vote her out of office.”

    Maitland said the misimpression created by Ocasio-Cortez and other Amazon critics was that the state and city were giving the company a blank $3 billion check.

    The reality, he said, is that Amazon was only getting tax credits based on the number jobs created. Amazon and New York officials estimated a new headquarters in Queens would generate up $30 billion in tax revenues as well as 25,000 jobs.

    Another panelist, CUNY chairman Bill Thompson, said that job opportunities were “snatched away” from the predominately black and Latino students of the City University.

    We were at the table talking to Amazon on how students could get jobs … those opportunities were snatched away,” said Thompson, the former city comptroller.

    “Those students look like us … We’re talking thousands of high-paying jobs. It was a disappointment from a CUNY perspective.”

    Thompson and Maitland spoke on a panel about “The Black Economic Agenda: Driving Capital into the Hands of Black Asset managers and Housing Developers” in the Empire Room of the Sheraton New York.

    A couple of hours earlier, Ocasio-Cortez addressed the conference’s main audience in the ballroom across the hall and spoke mainly about inequality. Amazon’s sudden decision to withdraw from the Queens — and bring 25,000 high-paying jobs — didn’t come up in that venue.

    But former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford Jr., now a New York City businessman, raised it on his panel.

    “Creating 25,000 jobs is always a positive thing,” he said. “There’s a multiplier effect.”

    Sharpton opened the panel discussion but left before the Ocasio-Cortez backlash erupted.

    He said he supports capitalism — as long as there is a level playing field and “access to capital” for minorities.

    “We’re not asking for favors. We could also play baseball before Jackie Robinson but we couldn’t get on the field,” he said, referring to the first black major league baseball player.

    He also said he spoke to Ocasio-Cortez about the need to “see people” in the minority business community to discuss their concerns.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/investor-rips-ocasio-cortez-as-financially-illiterate-at-sharpton-conference/

    “My heart goes out to the family of Timmothy Pitzen,” Benjamin C. Glassman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said, announcing the charge against Mr. Rini, which can carry up to eight years in prison. “I can only imagine the kind of pain that they have been through and that this episode has caused for them.”

    Image
    Timmothy Pitzen, of Aurora, Ill., has been missing since May 11, 2011, when he was 6 years old.CreditNational Center for Missing and Exploited Children, via EPA, via Shutterstock

    A lawyer for Mr. Rini did not respond to phone and email messages.

    The odd events, which played out over two days amid intense media attention, at first raised the possibility of a happy ending for Timmothy’s extended family, which had waited years for just such a moment. But it soon spiraled into a new layer of misery, as word of a hoax filtered out and the police and relatives in Illinois, where Timmothy had lived, were sent reeling once more. “It’s been awful,” Alana Anderson, Timmothy’s grandmother, said.

    All along, parts of Mr. Rini’s story were peculiar.

    On Wednesday, he emerged, agitated and bruised, along a Newport, Ky., street, seeking help from passers-by and saying that he was Timmothy, the missing boy, and that he had escaped from captors and was trying to get home. The authorities soon took him to an emergency room at a children’s hospital in Cincinnati, court documents say, but he declined to let the authorities take impressions of his fingerprints, raising early suspicions and complicating efforts to quickly identify him.

    Mr. Rini’s age might have seemed to be a tipoff: He is 23, far from the 14 years of age that Timmothy would now be. Images of Mr. Rini suggest someone beyond adolescence, with a 5 o’clock shadow.

    “One can imagine that if you were actually a child who had been abducted since 2011 and subjected to who knows what — if those allegations were true — who knows what kind of condition that person would be in?” Mr. Glassman said. “So it’s incumbent on law enforcement in doing the investigation, this one or any others, to make sure that if this person does turn out to be the victim, you’re giving them the care that they need.”

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/us/timmothy-pitzen-missing-brian-rini.html

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    (CNN)Gordon Caplan, a former partner of an international law firm who has been tied to the college admissions scandal, said Friday he plans to plead guilty for his role in the scam.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/05/us/college-admissions-scam-court/index.html