A mile-wide tornado that ripped through northeast Kansas Tuesday evening was classified as an EF-4, according to preliminary findings released by the National Weather Service.
The tornado, with estimated winds up to 170 mph, touched down in Douglas County shortly after 6 p.m. It stayed on the ground for more than 31 miles before lifting in southern Leavenworth County, the weather service posted on Twitter. The weather service sent crews out on Wednesday to survey the damage.
Eighteen people were injured, it said. No fatalities were reported.
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No injuries were reported, but the tornado left a path of mangled roofs, uprooted trees and scattered debris.
Two tornadoes hit the Kansas City region Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. One tore though Lawrence, Kansas, and moved on toward Linwood in Leavenworth County, leaving about 15 people hurt. A second hit Missouri.
Fox News Flash top headlines for May 29 are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo closed his show on Tuesday night slamming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over his Supreme Court remarks, stunningly comparing him to a “fever rash” and suggested to his viewers he should be voted out of office.
McConnell drew a lot of ire from critics during the 2016 election when he derailed the nomination President Obama’s Supreme Court pick Judge Merrick Garland and kept it vacant for President Trump to fill in 2017.
“Oh, we’d fill it,” the Senate Majority Leader grinned, causing the room to roar with laughter.
During his “Closing Argument” segment, Cuomo lambasted McConnell, decrying “the hypocrisy.”
“Shame on McConnell, poster child for perfidy, all things wrong with politics,” Cuomo began. “Except he isn’t the problem, is he? He’s a symptom, like a fever rash, or clammy hands, or gas.”
After reiterating the “elections have consequences” mantra, Cuomo told viewers, “You control all of it — what McConnell does, what deals are made, they’re all vote in or out these people and they act in no fear of consequence more than good conscience… too many put too much emphasis on the players and not the reality of who controls the game.”
The CNN anchor then argued for McConnell’s ousting.
“If you were to look at this and say, ‘I don’t want to see another one of these guys do this again. I hate this.’ If you feel like that and you’re in Kentucky, there will never be another Mitch McConnell moment like this if he gets voted out,” Cuomo urged his viewers. “These people are only as bad as you allow them to be. Elections do have consequences.’
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MIAMI – An exotic dancer leaving a Miami nightclub was driving drunk when she plowed into three teenagers, killing all of them, early Saturday, according to police.
Mariam Coulibaly, 31, was charged with three counts of DUI manslaughter and three counts of vehicular manslaughter late Tuesday, according to the North Miami Police Department.
“The North Miami Police Department will continue to work with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to ensure the prosecution of this case,” the department said in a statement. “Furthermore, we will collaborate with our community partners to assist and provide support to the victims’ families.”
Gideon Desir, 13, Lens Desir, 15, and Richecarde Dumay, 17, were killed while they were walking to a bus stop at about 5 a.m. The trio, members of Little Haiti Football Club, was heading to a soccer tournament in Weston, about 30 miles northwest of North Miami.
Coulibaly, who was also hurt in the accident, was still being held at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center late Tuesday, according to Miami ABC affiliate WPLG.
Sources told WPLG she was at the strip club the night before the accident.
“Our hearts go out to the loved ones of these young boys as they mourn this tragic loss,” Danielle Levine Cava, Miami-Dade commissioner for District 8, said in a statement. “We can and must do better to ensure the safety of pedestrians.”
Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime, who was sworn in Tuesday evening, mentioned the three teens during the ceremony.
The announcement of charges against Coulibaly brought to an end frustration from the parents, who believed the police were not being upfront about the case.
“For some reason, we’re protecting the identity of somebody that has killed and murdered three young boys,” Brett Rosen, an attorney for the boys’ families, had told WPLG early Tuesday. The families did not know the identity of the driver for three days.
A GoFundMe page set up for the boys had raised $61,000 for funeral expenses as of early Wednesday morning.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States believes Russia may be conducting low-level nuclear testing in violation of a moratorium on such tests, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday.
“The United States believes that Russia probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the ‘zero-yield’ standard,” Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley said at an arms control forum at the Hudson Institute.
Negotiated in the 1990s, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) enjoys wide global support but must be ratified by eight more nuclear technology states — among them Israel, Iran, Egypt and the United States — to come into force.
Russia ratified the treaty in 2000.
“We believe they have the capability in the way they are set up” to conduct low-level nuclear tests that exceed the zero yield limit set in the CTBT, Ashley said.
There was no immediate response from the Russian government, but the head of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, Vladimir Shamanov, told the Interfax news agency that Ashley “could not have made a more irresponsible statement.”
“Nuclear tests cannot be carried out secretly,” it quoted him as saying.
“These kinds of statements reveal that the professionalism of the military is systemically falling in America,” Shamanov said.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus referred specific questions to the DIA, but charged that Russia “routinely” disregarded its international obligations and was in breach of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
“They have been in breach for several years and they have tested, produced, fielded an INF weapon … We are certainly alarmed that they continue to disregard their international obligations as it relates to arms control.”
Russia announced last month it was suspending the INF treaty after the United States said it would withdraw because of violations by Moscow. Russia denies flouting the accord and has accused Washington of breaking the accord itself.
Reporting by Jonathan Landay and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Susan Thomas
Image caption
Boeing’s Dennis Muilenburg says steady progress is being made to get the 737 Max back into the skies
Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft is unlikely to re-enter service before August, according to the head of the airline industry’s trade body, IATA.
Director General Alexandre de Juniac said “we do not expect something before 10 or 12 weeks”, although he added a final decision was up to regulators.
The aircraft was grounded globally in March after two crashes within months.
It comes as Boeing boss Dennis Muilenburg issued another apology, saying “it feels personal”.
Media captionBoeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg: “We apologise to the families”
The aircraft was grounded by regulators worldwide after 157 people were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines’ 737 Max crashed. Five months previously a Lion Air 737 Max crashed, claiming 189 lives.
Mr de Juniac told reporters in Seoul on Wednesday that IATA was organising a summit with airlines, regulators and Boeing in five-to-seven weeks to discuss what is needed for the 737 Max to return to service, he said.
Image copyright Rex Features
Image caption
Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft was grounded in March
He hoped that regulators can “align their timeframe” on when the aircraft will be back in the skies.
US operators United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines have removed the 737 Max from their flight schedules until early to mid-August.
Later, Mr Muilenburg told US television station CBS that the crashes have had “the biggest impact on me” of anything in his 34 years at the planemaker.
‘Steady progress’
In another apology, he said: “We are sorry for the loss of lives in both accidents, we are sorry for the impact to the families and the loved ones that are behind, and that will never change. That will always be with us. I can tell you it affects me directly as a leader of this company, it’s very difficult.”
Earlier in the day, Mr Muilenburg said he was confident about getting the 737 Max back in the skies.
He told an investor conference: “We’re making clear and steady progress, and that includes the work that we’re doing on the airplane update, the software update, working through the certification process with the FAA [US regulator].”
He said Boeing continues to expect to ramp-up its long-term production rate to 57 a month after cutting monthly output to 42 planes in response to the groundings.
In Robert Mueller’s first and only public remarks regarding the special counsel investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election, Mueller reiterated that the office declined to come to a conclusion about whether President Trump committed any obstruction of justice offenses.
“If we had had the confidence that the president had not clearly committed a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller announced. He once again pointed both to inconclusive evidence as well as his assertion that charging a sitting president with a crime was “prohibited” and “unconstitutional.”
None of this is explicitly new information, but that Mueller found it necessary to use his lone eight minutes of public speaking time out of the past three years is telling. It also further counters the charge that Attorney General William Barr misrepresented the outcome of the special counsel investigation.
Outside of Mueller’s specific request that Barr use the executive summaries and introductions from the report as the initial summary of the investigation to the public — a move that was practically improbable and functionally impossible, given Barr’s duty to decide after Mueller punted the obstruction question — Mueller’s statement today only further bolsters the accuracy of Barr’s framing in his letter summarizing the principle conclusions of the Mueller report.
Just 48 hours after receiving the Mueller report, Barr wrote:
Compare this to the Executive Summary of Volume II of the Mueller report:
Even if Barr had subscribed to the exact same legal theories on obstruction and the criminal prosecution of a sitting president as Mueller does, his and Rosenstein’s decision not to prosecute falls squarely in line with Mueller’s. Perhaps Mueller wanted Barr to explain that Congress could still impeach Trump as a form of checks and balances on Trump, but why would Barr need to say so? He didn’t exactly hide the ball that the evidence simply would not successfully clear the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required to convict Trump or any of his associates.
Barr’s job is not to encourage Congress to use impeachment proceedings as a criminal trial. High crimes and misdemeanors posit a political reading, not a strictly legal one. Mueller couldn’t have his cake (refusing to charge the president with a crime) and eat it too (fairly setting the stage for Congress to impeach Trump).
Even if Mueller’s read of the law is accurate, Congress would have to reasonably believe that Trump committed some sort of political crime to then begin proceedings. Investigators aren’t supposed to look for exculpatory evidence and then impugn a suspect when there isn’t any, even more so when it’s a politically charged body aimlessly searching for an underlying crime.
Barr’s letter may have been cursory, but it certainly wasn’t dishonest, and Mueller proved that on Wednesday.
Fox News Flash top headlines for May 29 are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com
Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “amoral” for stating that Republicans would confirm a new Supreme Court justice in 2020 if given the chance.
Lockhart, now a CNN contributor, assailed the top Senate Republican by saying during a Wednesday CNN “New Day” broadcast that his leadership “was never about principle.”
“I don’t think McConnell is flip-flopping. It was never about a principle. Not the one he articulated. It is about power,” he said. “McConnell is symbolic of the amoral politician that will say anything at any point in order to pursue their own goals. Hypocrisy no longer has a heavy price.”
“It was never about a principle. Not the one he articulated. It is about power. McConnell is symbolic of the amoral politician that will say anything at any point in order to pursue their own goals.”
— Former Bill Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart
“McConnell could not care less what we say about him this morning. We could call him every name in the book and it wouldn’t bother him. He has power. Only when he becomes minority leader will he pay attention,” Lockhart added.
The comments from the former press secretary under President Bill Clinton came after McConnell said Tuesday that he would have no qualms to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat if the opportunity arose.
The comments prompted accusations of flip-flopping, as McConnell and other Senate Republicans chose not to vote on Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, back in 2016 and said that the next president should get to make that decision.
As a result, President Trump later successfully nominated the conservative Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland is widely considered more centrist.
Multiple Democrats promptly jumped to criticize the top Republican, with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., calling him a “hypocrite” in a Twitter thread.
“Anyone who believes he’d ever allow confirmation of a Dem President’s nominee for SCOTUS is fooling themselves,” he wrote.
McConnell’s communications director David Popp fired back against critics, saying that the criticism is unwarranted and that McConnell was clear about why Garland wasn’t given a vote.
He argued that the White House and Senate are controlled by the same party, while that was not the case during President Obama’s last year in office.
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
Former Dallas Fed adviser Danielle DiMartino Booth on the impact of U.S. trade tensions with China on the markets and the impact of the strong U.S. economy on President Trump’s reelection efforts.
FOX Business Network (FBN) is a financial news channel delivering real-time information across all platforms that impact both Main Street and Wall Street. Headquartered in New York — the business capital of the world — FBN launched in October 2007 and is the leading business network on television, topping CNBC in Business Day viewers for the second consecutive year. The network is available in more than 80 million homes in all markets across the United States. Owned by FOX, FBN has bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and London.
Family-run Latin food giant Goya weighs possible $3 billion sale
Goya, one of the most iconic names in Latin American cuisine, has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to weigh options that could include a sale of the 83-year-old company,…
After 19 reported tornadoes across five states on Tuesday, another day for severe weather is in the offing on Wednesday.
In the last 12 days, the U.S. has had 352 reported tornadoes in 22 states from California to New Jersey. In fact, this May has been the most active month for tornadoes since April 2011, when there were more than 800 reported tornadoes.
Unfortunately, more severe weather is forecast Wednesday from Texas to New York, including tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail.
The biggest threat for tornadoes Wednesday will be from Texas into southeastern Oklahoma and into western Arkansas. That includes the Dallas metro area.
ABC News
Severe weather is again possible from Texas northeast to Illinois and eastward over to Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will see severe storms again Wednesday — mostly with damaging winds and hail, but an isolated tornado or two cannot ruled out. Major cities in the Northeast that will see these damaging storms include New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
More heavy rain is expected with these storms, which could bring flash flooding from Texas all the way to New Jersey.
ABC News
Flood warnings are in effect along the Arkansas River due to heavy rains over the past few weeks.
In the next 24 to 36 hours, as much as 6 inches of rain could fall, especially from northern Texas into eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. These areas are dealing with historic flooding and cannot take any more rain. Historic flooding will continue for the Arkansas River because of the coming rain.
ABC News
The highest rainfall totals will come in Texas and northern Arkansas over the next few days.
Finally, there is some good news. It looks like Wednesday will be the last big severe weather day.
Over the next couple of days the pattern will shift slightly, giving most of the U.S. a break from severe storms and tornadoes.
LAWRENCE, Kansas – A two-week barrage of tornadoes that’s ravaged much of the Midwest left this university town reeling Wednesday after tearing apart dozens of homes and businesses and injuring at least 15 people.
The latest wave of severe weather wreaked havoc Tuesday all the way to Pennsylvania, where Caernarvon Township Police Chief John Scalia said no injuries were reported but confirmed that “we have devastation.”
In Lawrence, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said three of the injuries from their tornado were serious. However, “we are happy to report that no fatalities have been reported,” the sheriff’s office said on Twitter.
Downed power lines, trees and debris blocked off roads in and around Lawrence, the home to the University of Kansas about 40 miles west of Kansas City. Billy and Julie Brumley, both 59, picked through the wreckage of their bedroom Wednesday, the roof and two walls ripped away.
Billy Brumley recalled being alone in the home when the storm hit – rushing to the basement, lying face down with a blanket pulled over his body as the storm roared overhead.
Vic and Colleen Strnad had spent several minutes hunkered down beneath their basement stairs, hands over their heads, as the twister slammed through their Shank Hill neighborhood.
Colleen Strnad, 68, recalled hearing the winds pick up above them and the sounds of shattering glass. The power was still out Wednesday and their home of 40 years will need substantial repairs, but the couple were thankful it was still standing.
Power lines hung low over their street, and utility trucks were lining up a few miles away. A neighbor lost the second floor of the family’s home. A trampoline was overturned in a nearby tangle of trees.
Vic Strnad, 71, pointed to a mangled 6-foot-tall decorative windmill sitting in a neighbor’s ditch. Before the storm, the windmill was on display in Strnad’s yard.
“You want me to come get my windmill?” Strnad asked the neighbor with a laugh.
“Nah, I think it’ll be OK,” he responded, waving him off with a chuckle before returning his attention to his own mangled home.
The storm spared the immediate Kansas City metro area, but travelers at Kansas City International Airport took shelter in parking garage tunnels as a precaution. Air traffic controllers delayed all flights until just after midnight local time.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the airport said in a tweet at 12:20 a.m. Wednesday. “A tornado destroyed homes and businesses miles away & debris rained down onto the airport. Our crews had to clean it up in order to be safe.”
As the system moved into Missouri, the weather service urged residents of areas such as Excelsior Estates and Mosby to take shelter from confirmed tornadoes. Damage reports were not immediately available, but about 13,000 customers lost power throughout the state.
The White House issued a state of emergency in 18 Kansas counties Tuesday evening.
The tornado sightings are part of a massive severe weather system mostly positioned in the central United States. Preliminary reports show 28 tornadoes struck mainly Kansas and Missouri on Tuesday, the Storm Prediction Center said. But the East has not been entirely spared.
On Monday, tornadoes reached into Ohio, killing one person, injuring several more and causing severe damage to neighborhoods. Almost 40,000 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday morning.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado hit eastern Pennsylvania, and a team was sent to Morgantown in Berks County to survey the damage and determine its strength. County emergency officials reported structural damage to about 20 properties.
“We are very, very lucky and blessed,” Chief Scalia said. “When you drive around and see the destruction, you realize how lucky we are that nobody was hurt.”
Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Kristin Lam, USA TODAY; Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, York Daily Record; William Westhoven, Morristown Daily Record; The Associated Press
Ashton Kutcher is expected to testify Wednesday in the trial of an alleged serial killer called the “Hollywood Ripper.” Los Angeles prosecutors say Michael Gargiulo murdered three women including Ashley Ellerin who was friendly with the actor. Kutcher’s testimony is only expected to take a few minutes but it will be the first time we’ve heard Kutcher speak publicly about the case.
As a prosecution witness, Kutcher is expected to help establish the time of death for Ellerin. Kutcher and Ellerin were scheduled to go out on a date on the night she was murdered. When Ellerin failed to answer her cellphone earlier in the evening, Kutcher went to her Hollywood home and knocked on the door.
During opening statements, prosecutors told jurors they believe Ellerin was attacked from behind by Gargiulo after she exited her shower on February 21, 2001. Around 10:45 p.m., Kutcher arrived to take her to a Grammys party. According to deputy district attorney Daniel Akemon, Kutcher looked in the window when he arrived at Ellerin’s home and thought he saw wine spilled on the floor. “We believe now the evidence will show that was actually blood,” Akemon said.
Kutcher allegedly told police, when she didn’t answer the door he left. Ellerin was found brutally stabbed to death by her roommate the next morning.
Prosecutors describe Gargiulo as a “methodical and systematic” killer. He is accused of attacking at least four women, three in California and one in Illinois.
Michelle Murphy, the prosecution’s first witness, was allegedly Gargiulo’s only survivor. Prosecutors claim Murphy battled for the knife and say Gargiulo used to stab her, cutting him, and leaving his DNA at the crime scene – DNA that was found years earlier on another victim, Tricia Pacaccio, across the country.
The family of 18 year-old Tricia was called to testify in this trial because of the similarities between Tricia’s 1993 death in suburban Chicago and the three cases from L.A. County. Investigators believe Pacaccio was Gargiulo’s first victim.
Her murder was unsolved until 2011, when two witnesses came forward after watching a “48 Hours Mystery” report on the case. Within a few weeks, Gargiulo was indicted, but has not yet been tried. His attorneys deny he killed anyone.
The Pacaccio family had never met the two witnesses who blew open the case until they all came to L.A. to testify. But the Pacaccios must wait for the trial in L.A. to end, before Gargiulo can be brought back to stand trial for their daughter’s death.
“Fighting for this case goes on with me forever. And that’s the way it’s gonna be,” Diane Pacaccio said.
LAWRENCE, Kansas – A two-week barrage of tornadoes that has ravaged much of the Midwest descended on this university town Tuesday, blasting homes and businesses and injuring at least a dozen people.
The latest wave of severe weather wreaked havoc as far east as Pennsylvania, where Caernarvon Township Police Chief John Scalia said no injuries were reported but confirmed that “we have devastation.”
Downed power lines, trees and debris blocked off roads in and around Lawrence, the home to the University of Kansas about 40 miles west of Kansas City. Vic and Colleen Strnad had spent awful minutes hunkered down beneath their basement stairs, hands over their heads, as the twister slammed through their Shank Hill neighborhood late Tuesday.
Colleen Strnad, 68, recalled hearing the winds pick up above them and the sounds of shattering glass. The power was still out Wednesday and their home of 40 years will need some repairs, but the couple were thankful it was still standing.
Power lines hung low over their street, and utility trucks were rolling into the neighborhood. A neighbor lost the second floor of the family’s home. A trampoline was overturned in a nearby tangle of trees.
Vic Strnad, 71, pointed to a mangled 6-foot-tall decorative windmill sitting in a neighbor’s ditch. Before the storm, the windmill sat in Strnad’s yard.
“You want me to come get my windmill?” Vic Strnad asked the neighbor with a laugh.
“Nah I think it’ll be OK,” he responded, waving him off with a chuckle before returning his attention to his own mangled home.
The storm spared the immediate Kansas City metro area, but travelers at Kansas City International Airport took shelter in parking garage tunnels as a precaution. Air traffic controllers delayed all flights until just after midnight local time.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the airport said in a tweet at 12:20 a.m. “A tornado destroyed homes and businesses miles away & debris rained down onto the airport. Our crews had to clean it up in order to be safe.”
As the system moved into Missouri, the weather service urged residents of areas such as Excelsior Estates and Mosby to take shelter from confirmed tornadoes. Damage reports were not immediately available, but about 13,000 customers lost power throughout the state. The White House issued a state of emergency in 18 Kansas counties Tuesday evening.
The tornado sightings are part of a massive severe weather system mostly positioned in the central United States. Preliminary reports show 27 tornadoes struck mainly Kansas and Missouri on Tuesday, the Storm Prediction Center said. But the East has not been entirely spared.
On Monday, tornadoes reached into Ohio, killing one person, injuring several more and causing severe damage to neighborhoods. On Tuesday, tornado warnings reached as far east as Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado hit eastern Pennsylvania, and a team was sent to Morgantown in Berks County to survey the damage and determine its strength. County emergency officials reported structural damage to about 20 properties.
“We are very, very lucky and blessed,” Chief Scalia said. “When you drive around and see the destruction, you realize how lucky we are that nobody was hurt.”
Bacon reported from McLean, Va.; Lam from Los Angeles. Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, York Daily Record; William Westhoven, Morristown Daily Record; Contributing: The Associated Press
Mr. McConnell did occasionally mention the divided government in 2016, but it was not his chief argument at the time and was frequently omitted from his remarks. Last October, when asked about the issue on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” he said, “What I did was entirely consistent with what the history of the Senate’s been in that situation going back to 1880.”
The last time a Republican-led Senate confirmed a nominee put forth by a Democratic president was 1895, when it confirmed Rufus W. Peckham after he was nominated by Grover Cleveland. Since then, Democratic-controlled Senates have approved 13 nominees by Republican presidents.
Before 2016, there had been just seven election-year confirmation battles since the beginning of the 20th century. In the most recent case, Anthony M. Kennedy, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, was confirmed in 1988 by a Democratic Senate in a 97-to-0 vote after a grueling seven-month process.
The only time a Senate has failed to confirm a nominee in an election year was 1968, when the nomination of Abe Fortas was withdrawn. Both the Senate and the White House were controlled by Democrats at the time.
On the current court, two of the justices are in their 80s, and one of them, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, has suffered a series of health problems.
In Mr. McConnell’s remarks to the Paducah Chamber of Commerce, in his home state of Kentucky, he said that legislative accomplishments like tax reform could be undone by future administrations, but that Supreme Court confirmations could have a more lasting impact.
“What can’t be undone is a lifetime appointment to a young man or woman who believes in the quaint notion that the job of a judge is to follow the law,” he said. “That’s the most important thing we’ve done for the country, which cannot be undone.”
In a gloriously brutal concurring opinion published Tuesday, Justice Clarence Thomas took on Planned Parenthood, the meaning of abortion, and birth control. While writing a concurring opinion in Box v. Planned Parenthood, Thomas likened abortion to eugenics and scolded Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for nonsensical opinions in the same case.
Thomas wrote his opinion in response to the court’s opinion about Box, which addressed two provisions in an Indiana law. The first provision prohibits abortion providers from treating the bodies of aborted children as “infectious waste” and incinerating them alongside used needles and the like. The second provision “made it illegal for an abortion provider to perform an abortion in Indiana when the provider knows that the mother is seeking the abortion solely because of the child’s race, sex, diagnosis of Down syndrome, disability, or related characteristics.”
The 7th Circuit ruled these laws should be struck down. However, the Supreme Court ruled the former should be reversed and they said they wouldn’t hear the second. However, Thomas took on the second provision in his 20-page opinion, which included legal analysis, historical anecdotes, and moral indignation.
As if he had been waiting all of his 27 years on the court for the right case to come to his desk so he could unleash hell on Planned Parenthood, Thomas agreed with Indiana’s law and said, “this law and other laws like it promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.” In a lengthy diatribe connecting Planned Parenthood’s roots to cherry-picking abortionists today, he wrote:
Thomas went on like this, giving a multi-page history lesson on eugenics and birth control, occasionally excoriating Ginsburg’s opinion on this case by way of footnote — as Supreme Court justices do. Even though the court won’t hear further argument on this particular case, Thomas said the time will come. ”Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the Court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s.”
Of course, conservatives were relieved to see Indiana’s law upheld, requiring aborted babies to be buried humanely, but Thomas’ one-man manifesto, a moral crusade against abortion, articulated what many pro-life advocates have believed for decades.
In a statement, Jeanne Mancini, the president of the March for Life said, “Every human life has inherent value and dignity. We welcome the Supreme Court’s ruling today in favor of a provision requiring more dignified treatment of human remains following the tragedy of abortion. We look forward to the day, too, when the Court will consider the use of abortion to eliminate persons on the basis of race, sex, or disability.”
The Left of course, has freaked out about Thomas’ opinion, particularly since he cited conservative columnist George Will. Will once said in a piece the abortion rate for children diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero in Iceland was nearly 100% (Will’s critics said the statistic was false). The Daily Beast published a piece already saying today’s opinion proves the Supreme Court “chips away at abortion.”
I’m glad to see a man such as Thomas, what with his quiet dignity, moral fervor, and legal chops, address the abomination that is abortion, both in terms of history and jurisprudence. More black babies are aborted in New York City than are born. Who better to speak up for them than the second African American Supreme Court justice?
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
TULSA, Okla. — The 3,000 electronic games and gaming tables are silent at River Spirit Casino Resort as the water encroaches, idling more than 1,500 employees in an eerie scene threatening to repeat itself in flood-soaked communities across the Midwest and the Great Plains.
The casino’s pool bar is under water, which has even entered its famed tiki bar, the resort said.
“We’re still at the mercy of Mother Nature, waiting for the water to stop rising,” Pat Crofts, the company’s chief executive, said Tuesday.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing 275,000 cubic feet of water per second from the Keystone Dam, which protects Tulsans from the waters of Keystone Lake and the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers upstream.
Authorities warned Tuesday that the release could raise standing floodwaters by more than a foot in Tulsa and the communities of Sand Springs and Bixby.
More than 2 million gallons of water a second is flowing toward Tulsa, putting the city’s 75-year-old network of levees at risk of failing. If that were to happen, entire neighborhoods would flood with water that the Tulsa Health Department said is likely to be full of snakes, sewage and debris.
“We are planning for and preparing for the flood of record, and we think everybody along the Arkansas River corridor ought to be doing the same,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said Tuesday.
With more storms expected arrive Tuesday night, “please prepare for the worst-case scenario that we’ve had in the history of the city,” Bynum urged Tulsa’s 400,000 residents.
At least six deaths have been confirmed in Oklahoma since the severe weather and flooding began early last week, the state’s chief medical examiner said. Every county in the state remained under emergency declarations on Tuesday.
Two levees northwest of Little Rock on the Arkansas side of the river have already been topped as the flooding swallows up much of the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, said the state Department of Emergency Management, which closed two major bridges spanning the river on Monday night.
In Pulaski County, Arkansas, Two Rivers Park and its dam, along with the Big Dam Bridge, were closed as the Arkansas River reached 22.4 feet on Tuesday, on its way to a forecast crest of 27.2 feet by Sunday, well above flood stage.
And with several more inches of rain still in the forecast, the outlook isn’t good.
“This is a very catastrophic, not-yet-over scenario that we’re dealing with,” said Rep. Steve Womack, D-Ark.
At the tip of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in Missouri, the Rivers Pointe Fire Protection District told residents of Portage Des Sioux and West Alton to evacuate as the Mississippi crests.
“The levees are tired, just plain and simple,” Fire Chief Rick Pender said.
At least seven people have died because of flooding and tornadoes across Missouri, the Highway Patrol and the state Department of Public Safety said Tuesday.
“I’ve been here 5½ years, and I’ve been through two 50-year floods,” Mark Newlin of Portage De Sioux told NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis. “And they’re calling this a 100-year flood.”
One death has been confirmed in Iowa, that of an unidentified person the town of Adair, near Des Moines, authorities said.
“This is the worst I’ve seen it,” Russ Bates of Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska, told NBC affiliate WOWT of Omaha. “I think the storm drains just can’t handle it.”
Bates said he thought he was OK when he left for work on Tuesday morning. But when he returned home in the afternoon, water “was coming in my doors.”
Flooded homes along the Arkansas River in Sand Spring, Oklahoma, on Tuesday. Communities that have seen little rain are getting hit by historic flooding along the Arkansas River thanks to downpours upstream.DroneBase via AP
In Casey, about 25 miles west of Des Moines, winds associated with the storm were so fierce that they flipped over four semi-trailers on Interstate 80 on Tuesday morning.
“One minute you’re driving, and the next second you’re on your side sliding down the interstate,” Sgt. Nathan Ludwig, a spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol, told NBC affiliate WHO of Des Moines.
The storm knocked over several large trees at Oakwood Cemetery nearby.
“Oh my goodness. I can’t believe how such old trees can just be toppled,” Romonia Dinkla, the cemetery’s treasurer, told WHO. It’s just amazing, and I didn’t want to look in that hole.”
While no coffins were disturbed, the cemetery is faced with a mammoth cleanup effort.
“We really don’t have the budget for something like this, so we’re going to have to rely on volunteers,” Dinkla said. “We have a volunteer cleanup every year, but this is going to take major volunteers.”
Kerry Sanders reported from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Alex Johnson reported from Los Angeles.
The race is closer in Iowa, with the RealClearPolitics average showing Biden up 4 points on Sanders and 12 points on third-place Buttigieg. In New Hampshire, he has a 13-point lead on Sanders and an 18-point lead on Buttigieg.
Warren has seen her numbers inch upward in recent weeks, but she’s still well behind Biden.
Still, the Iowa caucuses, when the first balloting of the 2020 primary season begins, are still nine months away. And many candidates are quick to note that they are very much in the early phases of their campaigns, insisting that they are more focused on introducing themselves to voters and mapping out coherent policy proposals than jockeying for front-runner status in opinion polls.
But at the same time, the White House hopefuls are betting on standout performances in the first Democratic primary debates next month to bolster their campaigns and pitch their visions before a national audience.
Their shifting strategies underscore a political reality: With more than 20 people vying for the party’s nomination, candidates are under more pressure than ever to compete for the votes, donations and media attention necessary to power a prolonged national campaign.
“In this business there are winds that blow, and seasons tend to change quickly,” said Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina–based Democratic strategist. “I think people are recalibrating. They’re making adjustments and they’re trying to figure out how to stay on the tops of the hearts and minds of voters.”
O’Rourke conceded earlier this month that he needed to “do a better job” reaching national audiences after largely avoiding high-profile television appearances for most of his presidential campaign so far.
That remark, made during an appearance on MSNBC, was followed the next day by an appearance on ABC’s “The View” and later by a well-received televised town hall on CNN.
“The CNN town hall was a big success for him, the kind of national TV that I think people had been asking for,” one aide to O’Rourke told The Hill. “I think they got to see on stage that he hasn’t forgotten how to play ball. He’s getting better.”
O’Rourke has focused on expanding his national team — bringing on Jeff Berman, who ran former President Obama’s delegate operation, as his senior adviser on delegate strategy — and building out his top aides in New Hampshire.
While his presidential announcement in March was met with fanfare by supporters, he has seen his poll numbers drop into the low single digits in recent weeks and has faced criticism for lacking policy specifics.
O’Rourke’s aides and allies argue that the fundamentals of his campaign — he has said he prefers face-to-face interactions to TV appearances and large campaign rallies — remain the same.
But his reemergence on national TV underscores how much of the 2020 presidential contest has been driven by viral moments and media exposure.
That line of questioning was reflective of a shift in strategy for Harris after struggling for months to hone her campaign message.
She has sought to court the Democratic Party’s liberal base by taking more progressive positions on issues like health care and voting rights. But some strategists say that in doing so, Harris has risked alienating more moderate voters.
Harris in recent weeks has more aggressively positioned herself as the candidate willing to take on Trump, a nod to the overwhelming desire among Democratic primary voters to pick a nominee who is capable of defeating the president in 2020.
“We cannot abandon our democracy for the sake of appeasing somebody who is completely focused on his interests only,” Harris said.
Harris’s more aggressive posturing against Trump, as well as her questioning of Barr, may be paying off. A Monmouth University poll released Thursday showed her tied with for second place with Sanders, at 14 percent, among early primary and caucus voters.
For Buttigieg, who saw his political stock rise quickly after entering the presidential contest as a relative unknown, the shift in campaign tactics is in part a response to criticism that he has drawn mostly white audiences on the trail.
He met earlier this month with civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem and has said he plans to spend more time in South Carolina, the first state to vote in the primaries where a majority of the Democratic electorate is made up of black voters.
Adding even more weight to the vote in South Carolina is the fact that the Palmetto State is the last state to vote before Super Tuesday, when delegates from 13 states will be up for grabs.
Biden has built up a sizable lead in South Carolina. A poll released earlier this month by Change Research and The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston showed the former vice president with 46 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters in the state. Sanders came in second, with 15 percent, followed by Buttigieg, with 8 percent.
Seawright, the Democratic strategist, said that carrying the support of African American voters in South Carolina will be crucial not just to winning that primary, but to taking the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Black people will decide who our nominee will be. Anything other than making our community a priority is not smart political thinking,” Seawright said. “The ballgame is going to be in South Carolina. If you’re not making serious investments here, you may as well not even participate.”
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau believes that the media will help President Trump win reelection in 2020.
“Trump’s surest path to victory in 2020 will be the same as it was in 2016: depress Democratic turnout. He’ll hit the nominee from the left, knowing that reporters will be more interested in chasing his attacks than calling out his lies and hypocrisy,” Favreau tweeted Monday.
Trump’s surest path to victory in 2020 will be the same as it was in 2016: depress Democratic turnout. He’ll hit the nominee from the left, knowing that reporters will be more interested in chasing his attacks than calling out his lies and hypocrisy.
Favreau, 37, joined Barack Obama’s speechwriting team in 2005 when Obama was a freshman senator. After Obama won election to the presidency in 2008, Favreau joined Obama in the White House as the president’s speechwriting director, the second-youngest person to ever hold that position.
Favreau gained fame and some notoriety while working for Obama. Time named Favreau one of the world’s most influential people in 2009.
A picture of Favreau groping a cardboard cutout of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a party surfaced online in 2008 weeks after Obama won election. Obama had beat out Clinton in the Democratic primary. Favreau was forced to apologize for the incident.
The former speechwriter later joined with several other Obama administration alums to launch the “Pod Save America” podcast, one of the top podcasts on iTunes. Favreau hosts the podcast along with Obama’s former joke writer Jon Lovett, former communications director Dan Pfeiffer, and former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.
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