This monolith was discovered in rural Utah, but officials do not know its source or reason for being installed.

Utah Department of Public Safety


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Utah Department of Public Safety

This monolith was discovered in rural Utah, but officials do not know its source or reason for being installed.

Utah Department of Public Safety

State officials were flying over southeastern Utah looking for sheep as part of a routine task. Instead they found something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

From a helicopter, officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety spotted a large metal monolith — a single block of metal — last week. It was sitting in Utah’s Red Rock Country in the southeast. Officials have no idea how or when it got there — or who might have placed it.

“That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying,” helicopter pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL TV.

Hutchings said the structure appeared to be 10 to 12 feet tall and looked like it was planted there — not dropped from the air. In any case, officials said it isn’t legal.

“It is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on federally managed public lands,” said the Utah Department of Public Safety in a statement, “no matter what planet you’re from.”

It also referenced the structure’s out-of-this-world appearance on social media.

“We came across this, in the middle of nowhere, buried deep in the rock. Inquiring minds want to know, what the heck is it? Anyone?” wrote the department in an Instagram post.

As for would-be visitors, officials decided not to disclose the exact location of the monolith. It’s in a remote area — and if people attempt to visit it, “there is a significant possibility they may become stranded and require rescue,” the department said in its statement.

Utah’s Bureau of Land Management is assessing whether further investigation is necessary.

Hutchings has his own theory.

In the classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a group of prehistoric ape-men was baffled by a large black monolith that appeared in an African desert.

“I’m assuming it’s some new-wave artist or something,” Hutchings said, according to KSL TV. “Somebody that was a big fan [of the film].”

One man stands on the shoulders of another to peer on top of the monolith.

Utah Department of Public Safety


hide caption

toggle caption

Utah Department of Public Safety

One man stands on the shoulders of another to peer on top of the monolith.

Utah Department of Public Safety

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/938572857/helicopter-pilots-spot-strange-sci-fi-looking-object-in-utahs-red-rock-country

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/11/24/purdue-pharma-pleads-guilty-charges-admits-role-opioid-epidemic/6413789002/

A veteran police lieutenant was reassigned last week after a one-day trip to Chicago by Attorney General William Barr caught Chicago Police Department leadership and the mayor’s office by surprise.

Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that Lt. Patrick Quinn was pulled from his position in the Crime Prevention and Information Center in police headquarters and sent to the Rogers Park District on the North Side after Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPD brass learned of Barr’s visit during a conference call Nov. 17 — just a day before Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, was scheduled to arrive in Chicago.

Quinn could not be reached Tuesday and representatives for the CPD lieutenant’s union did not respond to inquiries. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office referred questions to the CPD, which declined to comment on Quinn’s move.

“All personnel decisions are made by the Chicago Police Department Superintendent and his leadership team,” mayoral spokesman Pat Mullane said.

The nature of Barr’s visit remains unclear, and a representative for the Department of Justice declined to comment on the attorney general’s trip. A representative for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said Barr did not meet with anyone from the local federal prosecutors’ office.

Lightfoot was made aware of Barr’s trip during her weekly conference call with CPD leadership. Near the conclusion of the call, one officer noted some members of the department were monitoring for potential protests the next day, sources said. It was then that the officer disclosed to Lightfoot and CPD leadership that Barr would be in Chicago.

“That’s when the sparks started flying,” said a high-ranking CPD source familiar with the call.

The Crime Prevention and Information Center, known as CPIC, is a fusion center in the CPD’s Bronzeville headquarters that works to coordinate intelligence and law enforcement efforts among local, state and federal agencies.

At the time of his reassignment, Quinn was overseeing CPIC in place of Cmdr. Mel Roman, who was on furlough last week, according to police sources.

Quinn has been with the CPD for 19 years and is well-respected among his colleagues. “His institutional knowledge can’t be touched by anyone in this department. We are actually weaker now because of this,” another police source said.

Earlier this year, two other police officials were demoted and reassigned after a conference call with Lightfoot.

Sources previously told the Sun-Times that Ronald Kimble, the former commander of the CPD’s Narcotics Division, appeared to irk Lightfoot during a conference call in May. Shortly thereafter, Kimble and William Bradley, then the deputy chief of the CPD’s Criminal Networks Group, were demoted to the rank of lieutenant and assigned to patrol districts on the North Side.

Barr was also in Chicago last September, touting the efficacy of “Operation Legend,” a federal initiative aimed at curbing violent crime. CPD officials declined to join Barr at his news conference, which Barr said was “just the way things roll here in Chicago.” Lightfoot later told reporters the city would not be used as a “prop” by an administration that has continued to “bad-mouth Chicago, making misleading and outright false statements.”

Source Article from https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2020/11/24/21689921/chicago-police-lieutenant-reassigned-william-barr-visit-surprised-mayor-lori-lightfoot-cpd-brass

Donald Trump plans to pardon his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn before he leaves office, according to multiple media reports.

Flynn will be among a series of pardons that Trump plans to grant before his term in office ends, multiple sources were reported as saying by Axios and the New York Times.

Flynn admitted lying to the FBI about his contact with the former Russian ambassador to the US, and became a cooperating witness in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s links with Moscow.

Flynn was the only White House official charged in Mueller’s investigation.

He has become a cause célèbre among the far right, with many of Trump’s most ardent supporters arguing the former national security adviser was a victim of the “deep state”.

Efforts by Trump and the justice department to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn have become mired in lengthy legal battles in the courts.

This is a developing news story, please check back for updates

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/25/donald-trump-plans-to-pardon-former-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-reports

“I know firsthand what it’s like to lose a national election, and it is a terrible feeling,” Ryan said, appearing at Bank of America’s virtual European Credit Conference on Tuesday. “But I think it’s really important that we’re clear about this. . . . The election is over. The outcome is certain, and I really think the orderly transfer of power is one of the most uniquely fundamental American components of our political system. And I think it’s really important that we respect the will of the people, and if we don’t, we will end up doing damage to our country, to our democratic institutions, to norms and to the cause of freedom.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-republicans-mcconnell-biden/2020/11/24/b742de9a-2e67-11eb-860d-f7999599cbc2_story.html

The event offered millions of Americans their first opportunity to hear directly from Biden’s nominees, who have decades of experience in foreign policy but are not necessarily household names. 

Taken together, their remarks previewed an approach to foreign policy that seems diametrically opposed to the one that President Donald Trump has pursued for the past four years. 

There was no talk of “America first” and no hint of crackdowns on immigration or refugees. There were no corporate CEOs or career military officers named to high posts and no suggestions that U.S. foreign policy needs to serve economic interests through trade deals and bilateral purchasing agreements.

Instead, the nominees spoke of the importance of reestablishing America’s moral leadership, championing human rights and strengthening multilateral relationships with allies and democracies around the world.

While few Republicans doubted the raw qualifications of Biden’s nominees, there was already grumbling on Tuesday from GOP senators about the new approach. Biden will likely need the votes of at least a few Republicans in order to confirm his nominees to their posts.

“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted Tuesday. “I support American greatness and I have no interest in returning to the “normal” that left us dependent on China.”

Yet judging from Biden’s past statements on China, his incoming administration is poised to take a tougher line with America’s top economic adversary than President Barack Obama did.

Below are some highlights from the nominees: 

Blinken: “We have to proceed with equal measures of humility and confidence. Humility because as the president-elect said, we can’t solve all the world’s problems alone. We need to be working with other countries, we need their cooperation and we need their partnership. But also confidence, because America at its best still has a greater ability than any other country on Earth to bring others together to meet the challenges of our time.”

Mayorkas: “The Department of Homeland Security has a noble mission to help keep us safe, and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome … My father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism. They cherished our democracy and were intensely proud to become United States citizens, as was I.” 

Thomas-Greenfield: “My fellow career diplomats and public servants around the world, I want to say to you: America is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back.”

Haines: “Mr. President-elect, you know that I’ve never shied away from speaking truth to power, and that will be my charge as director of national intelligence … you would never want me to do otherwise, and you value the perspective of the intelligence community, [and] will do so even when what I have to say may be inconvenient or difficult. And I assure you, there will be those times.”

Sullivan: Mr. President-elect, “You have also tasked us with putting people at the center of our foreign policy. You have told us the alliances we rebuild, the institutions we lead, the agreements we sign, all of them should be judged by a basic question — will this make life better, easier, safer for families across this country?”

Kerry: “The road ahead is exciting. It means creating millions of middle-class jobs, it means less pollution in our air and our oceans, it means making life healthier for citizens across the world, and it means we will strengthen the security of every nation in the world. In addressing the climate crisis, President-elect Joe Biden is determined to seize the future now and leave a healing planet to future generations.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/24/bidens-foreign-policy-team-lays-out-a-national-security-vision-that-differs-sharply-from-trumps-.html

This monolith was discovered in rural Utah, but officials do not know its source or reason for being installed.

Utah Department of Public Safety


hide caption

toggle caption

Utah Department of Public Safety

This monolith was discovered in rural Utah, but officials do not know its source or reason for being installed.

Utah Department of Public Safety

State officials were flying over southeastern Utah looking for sheep as part of a routine task. Instead they found something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

From a helicopter, officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety spotted a large metal monolith — a single block of metal — last week. It was sitting in Utah’s Red Rock Country in the southeast. Officials have no idea how or when it got there — or who might have placed it.

“That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying,” helicopter pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL TV.

Hutchings said the structure appeared to be 10 to 12 feet tall and looked like it was planted there — not dropped from the air. In any case, officials said it isn’t legal.

“It is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on federally managed public lands,” said the Utah Department of Public Safety in a statement, “no matter what planet you’re from.”

It also referenced the structure’s out-of-this-world appearance on social media.

“We came across this, in the middle of nowhere, buried deep in the rock. Inquiring minds want to know, what the heck is it? Anyone?” wrote the department in an Instagram post.

As for would-be visitors, officials decided not to disclose the exact location of the monolith. It’s in a remote area — and if people attempt to visit it, “there is a significant possibility they may become stranded and require rescue,” the department said in its statement.

Utah’s Bureau of Land Management is assessing whether further investigation is necessary.

Hutchings has his own theory.

In the classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a group of prehistoric ape-men was baffled by a large black monolith that appeared in an African desert.

“I’m assuming it’s some new-wave artist or something,” Hutchings said, according to KSL TV. “Somebody that was a big fan [of the film].”

One man stands on the shoulders of another to peer on top of the monolith.

Utah Department of Public Safety


hide caption

toggle caption

Utah Department of Public Safety

One man stands on the shoulders of another to peer on top of the monolith.

Utah Department of Public Safety

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/938572857/helicopter-pilots-spot-strange-sci-fi-looking-object-in-utahs-red-rock-country

With coronavirus cases continuing to soar across the state, a divided Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors rejected calls Tuesday to walk back restrictions on outdoor dining meant to slow the virus’ rapid spread.

The political friction over the decision by health officials to clamp down on restaurants and bars played out as the state once again shattered its record for new coronavirus cases and the number of Californians dying from COVID-19 continued to climb on a trajectory that is expected to continue in the coming weeks, , the state’s health secretary said Tuesday.

Earlier this week, L.A. County officials announced they would ban for at least three weeks all in-person dining and restrict restaurants — along with breweries, wineries and bars — just to takeout and delivery service beginning at 10 p.m. Wednesday. The announcement came after the county’s five-day average of new coronavirus cases topped 4,000, a threshold officials had set for implementing the restriction.

The move was met with anger and desperation from restauranteurs, who have been reeling from the pandemic. Outdoor dining offered a lifeline, and many owners and workers felt they were doing everything they could to keep their establishments safe.

Others questioned the wisdom or efficacy of the restriction, and demanded to see the data justifying such a move.

The objections gained enough momentum to make their way to the five-member county board, which took up the dining ban at its meeting Tuesday and considered an emergency proposal to roll it back, even though county health officials had said it was necessary.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose Fifth District includes Santa Clarita and much of north L.A. County, said the suspension “will punish a sector that is unfairly shouldering the burden” — and added that she’s “concerned that this county has taken the approach of everything should be closed, unless we have a good reason to open it.”

“I feel that what is happening today is truly going to devastate not only the workers but their families,” she said. “And I cannot in good conscience support something that cannot be supported by data.”

Both Barger and Supervisor Janice Hahn questioned whether the dining ban was necessary and put forth a proposal that called for the board to keep in place the current restrictions , which allow restaurants and bars to fill half of their outdoor seating until 10 p.m.

The motion was voted down, with Supervisors Sheila Kuehl, Hilda Solis and Mark Ridley-Thomas opposing it.

They chose to stick with the dining ban after hearing from county health officials who said that although it was hard to say for certain how much in-person dining has contributed to the surge in cases, it was clear that people gathering with others outside their immediate families and removing their masks to eat increased the risk of new infections.

“This is the only business that allows its customers to remain, and often for quite a while, unmasked,” Kuehl said . “And that, I think, is enough so single it out right there. We tried, but the numbers have gone up.”

Solis, whose First District includes some of the hardest-hit communities in East L.A., urged her colleagues to listen to the public health experts.

“We will see the true impact in terms of hospitalizations, maybe not in this minute, but for sure, in the next two or three weeks,” she said.

Solis said she was at a private hospital over the weekend because her mother had a health issue and was alarmed at what she saw.

“I’ve never in my life seen the corridors in the ER completely full,” Solis said. “There were no rooms available to treat COVID patients. That to me was very startling.”

Whatever side of the debate they fell on, though, it was clear supervisors hadn’t anticipated having to face the prospect of additional measures so soon.

Hahn, whose Fourth District includes several beach cities, said when the board agreed with the restrictions put forth by the Public Health department during closed session last week, she thought L.A. County was “weeks away” from hitting those metrics.

“I honestly had hoped with our first six recommendations we put into place we could avoid getting to this point,” Hahn said.

The chorus of objectors included the Los Angeles City Council, which voted 11 to 3 Tuesday to seek a repeal of the outdoor dining restrictions — saying they would trigger a new round of restaurant closures.

“This will be the final nail in their coffin,” said Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who led the push.

Some council members said county officials had failed to produce a scientific rationale for seeking a halt to outdoor in-person dining. Others said they believed the steady increase in COVID-19 cases was linked to other factors, such as residents holding neighborhood barbecues or worshipping indoors.

Councilman Mike Bonin, who cast a dissenting vote along with members Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Curren Price, said some restaurants have set up outdoor dining areas with barriers so significant that their patrons are effectively experiencing indoor dining

He also argued that the council, which lacks its own health department, does not have a team of experts to guide them on their decision.

“Since we don’t have the scientists … I would prefer to think that we would defer to the county, which is in charge of the issue,” he said.

L.A. County, like the state as a whole, is wrestling with an avalanche of coronavirus cases that officials warn will lead to increased levels of hospitalizations and deaths.

“Certainly, the numbers of deaths will likely go up. Just as we are exceeding our highest-ever numbers of cases, and beginning to see our hospital systems pressed with COVID beyond where they’ve ever been pressed before, the idea that the numbers of deaths could exceed where we’ve been before is also real and true,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, the California health and human services secretary, said on Tuesday.

The state recorded 20,654 cases Monday, easily surpassing the previous high of 13,400 infections. L.A. County announced more than 6,000 new cases, which was also a daily record.

“We are truly in the midst of a surge here in California,” Ghaly said.

Statewide, the daily average of new coronavirus cases, calculated over a seven-day period, more than doubled in the past two weeks. Most of California’s counties also reported the same doubling or worse.

In southeastern California, Imperial County has seen its daily average of coronavirus cases nearly quadruple in the last two weeks. That county has been forced to erect a 50-bed tent to help deal with a surge in COVID-19 patients and has requested dozens of additional healthcare workers, including 33 intensive care unit nurses, three lab scientists, 21 emergency room nurses and six respiratory therapists, officials said last week.

Imperial County has also seen its coronavirus test positivity rate double in the course of a month, from 10.5% to 23.8%.

Between Nov. 1 and Monday, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide has more than doubled, Ghaly said, from about 2,500 to more than 5,800. Some hospitals’ intensive care units “are already being pressed to a significant degree,” he added.

“When you see the numbers more than double in just under three weeks, we’re concerned,” Ghaly said.

A judge rejected a plea by a restaurant group to block the ban on outdoor dining amid surging coronavirus cases.

More Coverage

The massive rise in new infections has moved the state into uncharted territory, far beyond the number of new infections the state was tallying just a few weeks ago.

During the five-day period ending Oct. 23, California recorded 24,263 total new coronavirus cases, according to data compiled by The Times. Over the last five days, there have been 65,168 cases.

The percentage of tests being performed that are coming back positive for the coronavirus — a benchmark referred to as the test positivity rate — has dramatically increased by more than 50%. More than 5.5% of tests for the 14-day period ending Tuesday were positive, up from 3.7% two weeks ago.

The skyrocketing case count is the latest sign that California has entered a critical moment just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Records are being shattered by the number of people whose lives are being shattered by COVID-19,” L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday.

Officials are hoping that restrictions imposed over the last week will slow the unprecedented spread of the virus and that residents will avoid big Thanksgiving gatherings that experts fear will further fuel infections.

“There’s too much transmission happening here right now in this county — too much transmission with too many meetings of too many people,” Garcetti said during a briefing. “So the solution is simple; we know it, and we can do it: Stay away from each other. Assume everybody you would see is infectious and, please, let us not make this Thanksgiving the deadliest day of this pandemic.”

Last week, state officials announced a new order prohibiting most nonessential activity outside the home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in counties in the strictest “purple” tier of the state’s color-coded reopening road map. Roughly 95% of Californians — including all those in the southern third of the state — are subject to that order, which lasts until Dec. 21, though it could be extended.

“We’re hoping that’s all we’ll need, but we’ll see,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday. “We’re open-minded to the dynamics of the conditions that are changing in real time.”

Amid pandemic fatigue, people are questioning the new California COVID-19 lockdown measures. Experts say these rules could help slow the infection rate.

More Coverage

As the wave of new cases climbs, officials warn that it will eventually crash down on the healthcare system. Authorities have estimated that about 12% of cases will end up in a hospital in two to three weeks — a potentially unmanageable number of patients, should the number of cases remain high.

Last week, officials in L.A. County warned that hospitals were in danger of being overwhelmed. Garcetti said Monday that, “at this rate, our hospitals won’t have any spare beds by Christmastime.”

“Los Angeles is on a very dangerous path,” he said. “And if we don’t make changes soon to our day-to-day lives, we’ll have more infections, more suffering, more hospitalizations and, yes, more death.”

L.A. County residents are already dying from COVID-19 at an increasing pace. A recent Times analysis found that an average of 26 deaths were reported every day over a seven-day period, more than double the number experienced in early November.

At this pace, California as a whole will see its cumulative death toll double just before spring, from the more than 18,700 deaths currently tallied to over 37,000 by March 1, according to model forecasts by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Amid the worsening surge, L.A. County is moving closer to another shutdown.

Officials said last week that if the average number of new daily coronavirus cases over a five-day period reached 4,500, it would trigger some kind of new stay-at-home order for at least three weeks.

Monday’s record number of reported cases was enough to push the county past that average. What precise form that new order will take, however, is unclear at this point. L.A. County’s director of public health, Barbara Ferrer, on Monday said, “For sure, we’re not going back to all of the restrictions that were in place in the original Safer at Home order.”

She described proposed restrictions that would be less encompassing than those issued in March. It’s unnecessary to be as broad, she suggested, because officials know more about the virus and testing capacity has improved. The specifics will be discussed Tuesday with the five-person Board of Supervisors, which represents the county’s 10.1 million residents.

The lucky among California’s small businesses have cobbled together loans and grants to get through the pandemic so far. But that money has dried up, and “you can only take on so much debt.”

The severity of the current spike has already brought about significant new restrictions at the county and state levels.

Ahead of Thanksgiving, California issued a travel advisory urging residents not to travel out of state for the holiday, and recommending that those who do quarantine for 14 days when they return.

Starting Wednesday, travelers at the Los Angeles International and Van Nuys airports, as well as at Union Station, will need to fill out an online form prior to or upon arrival acknowledging the advisory, Garcetti said.

Garcetti, however, urged all Angelenos to stay home as much as possible until the surge subsided.

“If everyone abides by these rules, if everyone takes these seriously — these small but critical sacrifices — we will get through this,” he said. “We’re not asking you to take up arms and to go overseas to fight a war. We’re not looking at some of the sacrifices that have been made by generations before us. We’re just asking for you to stay home.”

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-24/california-coronavirus-covid-19-records-surge

The event offered millions of Americans their first opportunity to hear directly from Biden’s nominees, who have decades of experience in foreign policy but are not necessarily household names. 

Taken together, their remarks previewed an approach to foreign policy that seems diametrically opposed to the one that President Donald Trump has pursued for the past four years. 

There was no talk of “America first” and no hint of crackdowns on immigration or refugees. There were no corporate CEOs or career military officers named to high posts and no suggestions that U.S. foreign policy needs to serve economic interests through trade deals and bilateral purchasing agreements.

Instead, the nominees spoke of the importance of reestablishing America’s moral leadership, championing human rights and strengthening multilateral relationships with allies and democracies around the world.

While few Republicans doubted the raw qualifications of Biden’s nominees, there was already grumbling on Tuesday from GOP senators about the new approach. Biden will likely need the votes of at least a few Republicans in order to confirm his nominees to their posts.

“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted Tuesday. “I support American greatness and I have no interest in returning to the “normal” that left us dependent on China.”

Yet judging from Biden’s past statements on China, his incoming administration is poised to take a tougher line with America’s top economic adversary than President Barack Obama did.

Below are some highlights from the nominees: 

Blinken: “We have to proceed with equal measures of humility and confidence. Humility because as the president-elect said, we can’t solve all the world’s problems alone. We need to be working with other countries, we need their cooperation and we need their partnership. But also confidence, because America at its best still has a greater ability than any other country on Earth to bring others together to meet the challenges of our time.”

Mayorkas: “The Department of Homeland Security has a noble mission to help keep us safe, and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome … My father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism. They cherished our democracy and were intensely proud to become United States citizens, as was I.” 

Thomas-Greenfield: “My fellow career diplomats and public servants around the world, I want to say to you: America is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back.”

Haines: “Mr. President-elect, you know that I’ve never shied away from speaking truth to power, and that will be my charge as director of national intelligence … you would never want me to do otherwise, and you value the perspective of the intelligence community, [and] will do so even when what I have to say may be inconvenient or difficult. And I assure you, there will be those times.”

Sullivan: Mr. President-elect, “You have also tasked us with putting people at the center of our foreign policy. You have told us the alliances we rebuild, the institutions we lead, the agreements we sign, all of them should be judged by a basic question — will this make life better, easier, safer for families across this country?”

Kerry: “The road ahead is exciting. It means creating millions of middle-class jobs, it means less pollution in our air and our oceans, it means making life healthier for citizens across the world, and it means we will strengthen the security of every nation in the world. In addressing the climate crisis, President-elect Joe Biden is determined to seize the future now and leave a healing planet to future generations.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/24/bidens-foreign-policy-team-lays-out-a-national-security-vision-that-differs-sharply-from-trumps-.html

Sen. Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioDemocrats brush off calls for Biden to play hardball on Cabinet picks GOP senator congratulates Biden, says Trump should accept results GOP lawmaker patience runs thin with Trump tactics MORE (R-Fla.) on Tuesday sharply criticized a number of President-elect Joe BidenJoe BidenBiden team wants to understand Trump effort to ‘hollow out government agencies’ Overnight Defense: Trump transgender ban ‘inflicts concrete harms,’ study says | China objects to US admiral’s Taiwan visit Protect our world: How the Biden administration can save lives and economies worldwide MORE‘s intended Cabinet nominees, calling them “caretakers of America’s decline” and suggesting he might vote against their confirmation next year.

In a tweet Tuesday morning, the Florida Republican suggested that the president-elect’s nominees “went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline.”

“I support American greatness,” the senator continued, adding: “And I have no interest in returning to the ‘normal’ that left us dependent on China.”

Rubio’s remarks come a day after Biden announced that he would nominate his longtime aide Antony Blinken to lead the State Department while former assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield would be his pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Both roles require Senate confirmation.

The Florida senator, who is one of a handful of GOP senators to acknowledge Biden as the victor of the 2020 election, previously ran against President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden team wants to understand Trump effort to ‘hollow out government agencies’ Trump’s remaking of the judicial system Overnight Defense: Trump transgender ban ‘inflicts concrete harms,’ study says | China objects to US admiral’s Taiwan visit MORE in the 2016 GOP primary and is seen as a potential contender for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Rubio attacked the Ivy League credentials of Biden’s picks as he has positioned himself in recent weeks as a proponent of the GOP’s shift towards targeting working-class voters. Earlier this month said that the future of his party was “based on a multiethnic, multiracial, working-class coalition” of supporters.

“If the takeaway from all of them is now is the time to go back to sort of the traditional party of unfettered free trade, I think we’re gonna lose the [Trump] base as quickly as we got it. … We can’t just go back to being that,” the senator added in an interview with Axios.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/527378-rubio-signals-opposition-to-biden-cabinet-picks

First lady Melania Trump watches as President Trump gives the turkey Corn a presidential pardon outside the White House on Tuesday.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

First lady Melania Trump watches as President Trump gives the turkey Corn a presidential pardon outside the White House on Tuesday.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Updated at 2:40 p.m. ET

A U.S. president again took part in the very strange and myth-filled tradition of pardoning a turkey at the White House on Tuesday.

This year’s bird, Corn, was chosen over compatriot Cob after the White House ran a poll on Twitter asking which one should be spared between the two.

It all seemed normal. That’s one effect presidents hope for out of this tradition — to show a sense of normalcy. Trump, as presidents usually do, made a few fowl puns. He briefly acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic, thanking medical workers and scientists, and praising the progress of fast-tracked vaccines.

Still, this year, it all seemed wildly off and out of place.

The sitting president has refused to concede, though he lost the election. On Monday night, there was a sign of acceptance as he said he directed his administration to begin President-elect Joe Biden’s transition. But he vowed to keep fighting to overturn the election, though he has mostly exhausted his legal options.

He also continues to level baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud, which his team has barely even attempted to prove in court.

Trump has held few events since Election Day, while the country continues to reel from the coronavirus pandemic. And yet he held a soft-spotlight event Tuesday pardoning turkeys with the White House in the background and Americana all around him, as if to say, everything is fine.

But it’s not fine. Trump is undermining the very thing that has distinguished America for more than two centuries from corrupt countries — free, fair and transparent elections and the peaceful transfer of power.

Always an odd event with an odd history

So, this usually light event felt otherworldly this year. It’s one that always is something of the bizarre anyway. The whole spectacle — including the turkeys coming to Washington, D.C., staying in hotels (yes, they get posh hotel rooms) — is a production of the National Turkey Federation, the turkey lobby.

The federation has spent more than $1.5 million in the past decade on lobbying. In 2008 and 2009, it doubled its spending, presumably to keep the industry from being left behind during the financial crisis, to keep this event at the White House and keep turkey on people’s plates on Thanksgiving.

How this even became an annual tradition is an odd piece of White House history. The turkey federation has been giving turkeys to presidents since 1947. (Various other groups did so in a less-organized way dating back to the 19th century.)

But those turkeys were always meant to be carved at the Thanksgiving dinner table. The goofy tradition of pardoning a turkey wasn’t made official until 1989 when George H.W. Bush formalized the event.

That followed the first use of the word pardon related to a turkey by a president, used as a deflection technique by Ronald Reagan. Reagan in 1987 was embroiled in controversy because of the Iran-Contra weapons-sale scandal.

Asked at that year’s turkey presentation if he’d pardon two of the key players in the Iran-Contra scandal, Reagan joked about the bird in front of him: “If they’d given me a different answer on Charlie and his future, I would have pardoned him,” he said.

And so a tradition was born.

President John F. Kennedy reaches out to touch a turkey presented to him at the White House from the turkey industry in 1963.

Harvey Georges/AP


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Harvey Georges/AP

President John F. Kennedy reaches out to touch a turkey presented to him at the White House from the turkey industry in 1963.

Harvey Georges/AP

Presidents had started informally and sporadically sending Thanksgiving turkeys to petting zoos or farms dating back to John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The turkey federation gave Kennedy a big bird with a sign hanging around its neck that read, “Good eating, Mr. President.”

With cameras trained on him, Kennedy got cold feet and said, “We’ll just let this one grow.”

The turkeys have not always lived very long after their pardoning, because they’re farm-raised and bred to be eaten. These aren’t wild turkeys.

They used to be sent to Disneyland, then to the aptly named Frying Pan Farm Park (seriously, that’s real) in Virginia, and for the last several years to Gobblers Rest at Virginia Tech’s Department of Animal and Poultry Science.

This was not the first time presidents have held the turkey pardon in the midst of a crisis. George W. Bush held the event just two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; Barack Obama did so in the midst of the Great Recession. Both presidents struck a somber tone and reflected on what the country was dealing with.

“We’ve been through some tough times, some testing moments during the last months, yet we’ve never lost sight of the blessings around us,” Bush said. “The freedoms we enjoy, the people we love, and the many gifts of our prosperous land. On this holiday, we give thanks for our many blessings and for life itself.”

In 2009, Obama, with his daughters at his side, said, “In more tranquil times, it’s easy to notice our many blessings. It’s even easier to take them for granted. But in times like these they resonate a bit more powerfully.”

He noted that Abraham Lincoln created the Thanksgiving holiday during the Civil War as a way to try and bring the country together.

“When times were darkest,” Obama said, “President Lincoln understood that our American blessings shined brighter than ever.”

Trump has struggled to console during tough times, and the trappings of the event seem even more inconsequential than it does in normal years. Key states where Biden won are certifying the presidential election results this week and next, and it became harder for Trump to deny reality.

Trump should perhaps look to his own words from 2018, urging another candidate to accept the results of a “fair and open election” for him to be able to quit his legal challenges … cold turkey.

“This was a fair election. Unfortunately, Carrots refused to concede and demanded a recount, and we’re still fighting with Carrots,” Trump said, jokingly chiding Carrots, the turkey, for not accepting the outcome of a White House poll that voted for Peas to be pardoned.

“And I will tell you we’ve come to a conclusion, Carrots, I’m sorry to tell you the result did not change. It’s too bad for Carrots.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/937997025/trump-to-pardon-turkey-again-trying-to-show-normalcy-amid-the-abnormal

Part of the problem, the task force wrote, was that, unlike at least 35 other states, California lacks the technology to crosscheck its state prison rolls and jail rosters against its lists of unemployment insurance claimants.

About two weeks ago, however, the group received a crosscheck from the U.S. Department of Labor between federal unemployment insurance claims data and a list of California prison inmates that federal officials had subpoenaed from the state.

The 35,000-plus payments sent out in the name of state prisoners alone, they discovered, totaled more than $140 million between March and August, with nearly a half-million dollars disbursed in the names of 133 death row inmates. Among the largest: a claim for $19,676 disbursed in the name of a death row inmate and another for $48,600 in the name of another felon.

The crosscheck did not include the state’s 58 county jails, state hospitals where sexually violent predators and mentally ill inmates are incarcerated or other institutions where people are being held under civil commitments.

However, Ms. Schubert said, the task force investigation has uncovered fraudulent claims filed under the names and Social Security numbers of inmates at every level of the corrections system, including most of the jails, all of the state’s 30-plus prisons and thousands of federal prisoners.

A spokeswoman for the Employment Development Department said it would be “pursuing how to integrate such cross-matches moving forward as part of enhanced prevention efforts during this unprecedented time of pandemic-related unemployment fraud across the country. In addition, EDD is working collaboratively with state cybersecurity experts.”

“The volume of fraud as well as the types of inmates involved is staggering,” the task force wrote to Mr. Newsom, adding that many of the claims filed under the names of inmates were being paid to recipients in other states and, in some cases, other countries.

“This needs to be halted,” Ms. Schubert said. “We are paying hundreds of millions of dollars in the name of serial killers, rapists and child molesters. We need to turn the spigot off.”

Ben Casselman contributed reporting from New York.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/us/california-unemployment-fraud-inmates.html

Stewart was leading the transition effort before she left the Pentagon, so it was expected that Patel would take over those responsibilities.

Patel previously worked for Rep. Devin Nunes (R.Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and as a staffer played a key role in helping Republicans discredit the Russia probe.

He also held a number of roles in the Trump administration, including on the National Security Council staff, in the office of former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, and most recently as a top White House counterterrorism official.

Other personnel moves: Tom Muir, the director of Washington Headquarters Services, will be the agency transition director, the Defense Department transition task force lead and the senior career executive for transition, the spokesperson said.

On the Biden team: Kathleen Hicks, a senior vice president at the center for Strategic and International Studies, is leading a group of more than two dozen people handling the Defense Department transition for the Biden team.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/24/kash-patel-pentagon-transition-440293

New Secretary of State pick Antony Blinken has a long-standing relationship with President-elect Joe Biden going back to their days in the Obama administration, but State Department emails revealed that during that time Blinken appeared to have made a connection with Hunter Biden as well.

In the weeks leading up to the 2020 election, Hunter Biden was the subject of reports about business dealings in Ukraine and China and possible links to his father. Records show that the younger Biden also had ties to Blinken, having scheduled meetings with him while he was on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma and Blinken was deputy secretary of state.

BIDEN PICKS BLINKEN, MAYORKAS, SULLIVAN FOR KEY CABINET POSITIONS

“Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things,” Hunter Biden said in a May 22, 2015 email to Blinken that the State Department released in 2019, pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request.

“Absolutely,” Blinken replied. Several emails followed discussing logistics. A separate email from Blinken’s assistant on May 27, 2015, listed his schedule for that day. It included a meeting with Hunter Biden set for 3:30 p.m.

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Records related to that meeting and another in July 2015 raised concerns from Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who asked the State Department for more information.

Blinken and Biden.

In a Nov. 7, 2019, letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the senators asked for all records related to the Hunter Biden and Antony Blinken meeting, as well as information regarding what any meeting was about.

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Fox News reached out to Grassley’s office for any answers it may have received, but it did not immediately respond.

President Trump has long claimed that there was something improper about Hunter Biden doing business with a Ukrainian firm while his father was vice president. The elder Biden, while in office, had pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who had been investigating the company, but Biden’s campaign claimed it was due to concerns that the prosecutor had been corrupt.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-dept-emails-reveal-that-after-joining-burisma-hunter-biden-requested-meetings-with-antony-blinken

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz traded barbs over whose party is responsible for a high-stakes stalemate over another coronavirus aid package after Congress left Washington for a weeklong Thanksgiving recess with no deal in place. 

“People across the country are going hungry, COVID is set to explode, and Mitch McConnell dismissed the Senate last week,” Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted Monday. “I don’t know how these people can sleep at night. I really don’t.”  

Firing back at the progressive firebrand, Cruz accused Democrats of repeatedly blocking a scaled-back stimulus proposal backed by the majority of Senate Republicans. 

“Why is your party filibustering $500 billion in COVID relief?” the Texas Republican asked. “And Joe Biden is cheering them on. Thinking that blocking relief somehow helps Dems win Georgia.”

PELOSI, SCHUMER URGE MCCONNELL TO RESTART CORONAVIRUS RELIEF TALKS

Ocasio-Cortez, alongside other House Democrats, previously voted to pass the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act in May, and the updated, scaled-backed $2.2 trillion legislation in October.

“The House doesn’t have filibusters, @tedcruz,” she shot back. “We also passed several COVID relief packages to the Senate that not only include >$500 billion, but also prioritize helping real people as opposed to Wall St bailouts the GOP tries to pass off as ‘relief.’ Nice try though.” 

Democrats in the Senate have more than once filibustered a vote on the scaled-back GOP proposal, most recently at the end of October. The bill, less than a third of the size of the $2.2 trillion figured back by Democratic leaders, included boosted federal unemployment benefits, another round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, a key small business rescue program, money for schools and liability protections for businesses.

12 MILLION AMERICANS FACE LOSS OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

Cruz replied: “AOC seems not to know there are Democrats in the Senate. Or that Joe Biden (also a Dem) is publicly calling on Senate Dems to continue filibustering COVID relief because he thinks it will help them win Georgia.”

For months, Congress has struggled to reach an agreement over another round of emergency relief for families and businesses still reeling from the pandemic after they passed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March. Ocasio-Cortez was one of the few lawmakers to vote against the bipartisan legislation, which she said left out key Democratic priorities. Cruz voted for the bill.

While there is broad support among members of both parties to pass another coronavirus relief bill, they disagree sharply over the size and scope of it. With just eight legislative days left in their calendar, it’s increasingly unlikely that lawmakers will be able to strike a deal before the year ends.

BIDEN CALLS FOR ERASING SOME STUDENT LOAN DEBT, FACES PROGRESSIVE PRESSURE TO GO FURTHER

Key policy differences, including funding for a virus testing plan, aid to state and local governments and tax cuts for low- and middle-income families, have confounded lawmakers since May, and they remain no less of a challenge in the wake of the 2020 election.

But the deadlock comes at a perilous time for the U.S. economy: Some 12 million Americans will be left with no income the day after Christmas after two federal jobless aid programs created in March expired, according to a study published by the Century Foundation, a nonprofit think tank.

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program created to provide jobless benefits to gig workers and others typically not eligible for benefits, and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which extends state unemployment benefits an extra 13 weeks, are both set to lapse at the end of the year.

Another program that padded jobless aid by $600 per week ended in July.

Job losses remain elevated, and as COVID-19 cases surge across the country, prompting state and local governments to implement new lockdown measures, economists are increasingly warning of a bleak winter.

“There hasn’t been a bigger need for it in a long, long time here,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last week, his latest appeal to Congress and the White House regarding another stimulus package.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-ted-cruz-trade-barbs-over-coronavirus-aid-stalemate-as-clock-ticks-for-congress-to-make-a-deal