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White House adviser Jared Kushner, left, is among those whose security clearance is being questioned by Democrats.

Susan Walsh/AP


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White House adviser Jared Kushner, left, is among those whose security clearance is being questioned by Democrats.

Susan Walsh/AP

Updated at 4:10 p.m. ET

An 18-year White House employee told congressional investigators that she and other career staffers denied security clearances for 25 Trump administration officials, including three “very senior” officials, only to see most of those recommendations overturned.

The employee, Tricia Newbold, was interviewed by staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Democrats on the panel released a summary of her interview, conducted over the weekend, raising new questions about how and why the White House issued security clearances to, among others, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Republicans argued in response that Democrats on the committee released “cherry-picked excerpts” of the interview with Newbold in order to “manufacture a misleading narrative that the Trump White House is reckless with our national security.”

According to Democrats, Newbold said security clearance applications “were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security,” and staff denials were frequently overturned by senior officials in order to grant the employees access to classified information.

Newbold said in the case of one official, named only as Senior White House Official 1, staff denied the security clearance request after a background investigation revealed “significant disqualifying factors, including foreign influence, outside activities and personal conduct.”

But Newbold said the denial was overturned by the director of the White House Personnel Security Office, Carl Kline. Staff also recommended denying a clearance to a second “very senior official” based on “foreign influence and outside activities,” but Newbold said Kline told her “do not touch” the case. That clearance was also granted.

Newbold also said Kline told her to change the recommendation against a third senior official, but she refused. That denial was ultimately upheld, the committee says, and the individual is no longer at the White House.

Newbold said in addition to the two current senior officials, security clearances were also granted to contractors and other individuals in the executive office of the president, despite having “a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct.”

She said when she raised concerns to her superiors, they ignored them. She said she was coming forward because she believes “that right now this is my last hope to really bring the integrity back into our office.”

Newbold also told the oversight committee staff that the White House Security Office stopped conducting credit checks on applicants to work in the White House during their initial suitability review. This, she said, prevents the White House from being able to assess whether applicants “could be susceptible to blackmail, depending on their debts.”

Republicans released their own memo Monday afternoon on what they called the “unilateral and partisan investigation,” painting Newbold as an employee primarily concerned about disagreements with her supervisor and unhappiness with her work environment.

The committee’s GOP staff also pointed out that of the 25 security unfavorable adjudications Newbold observed being overruled, she testified that just 4-5 were for “very serious reasons.”

Finally, they say that Newbold acknowledged during her interview with the committee that the Trump administration has begun to improve some aspects of the security clearance process.

The GOP committee staff memo also complained that they were not given sufficient time to prepare for an interview with Newbold and as such were unable to do proper due diligence.

The chairman of the oversight panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., plans to subpoena Kline to force him to testify before the committee. In a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Cummings said the subpoena is necessary because “The Committee has given the White House every possible opportunity to cooperate with this investigation, but you have declined. Your actions are now preventing the Committee from obtaining the information it needs to fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities.”

The White House has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

The ranking Republican on the Oversight and Reform Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “Cummings’ investigation is not about restoring integrity to the security clearance process, it is an excuse to go fishing through the personal files of dedicated public servants.” Jordan said one of the 25 people who received a security clearance despite being initially denied one was a General Services Administration custodian.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/01/708726227/whistle-blower-says-white-house-overturned-denials-of-25-for-security-clearances

A former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in Nevada has suddenly made Joe Biden’s all-but-certain presidential campaign uncertain. Lucy Flores says Biden touched and kissed her in a way that unsettled her during a campaign event nearly five years ago when he was Barack Obama’s vice president. Biden is disputing Flores’ story. Ed O’Keefe reports.

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LONDON (Reuters) – British lawmakers debated halting Brexit on Monday after a record six million people signed a petition to revoke the process that set Britain on course to leave the European Union.

Britons voted to leave the European Union by 52 percent to 48 percent in 2016, and the following year British Prime Minister Theresa May gave notice of the intent to leave the bloc on March 29, 2019 under Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.

But May has failed on three occasions to pass her EU Withdrawal Agreement, forcing a delay to Brexit until at least April 12 and leading to some for call for the whole divorce to be cancelled altogether.

The online petition to revoke Article 50 took off after a speech when May said that she was on the side of the British public over Brexit. Its website repeatedly failed as it garnered as many as 2,000 signatures a minute.

“This petition has been supported by an unprecedented number of people, although it’s not surprising because we live in unprecedented times,” Catherine McKinnell, an opposition Labour lawmaker, said as she introduced the debate.

The debate is largely symbolic and did not take place in the main chamber of the House of Commons, where discussions on alternatives to May’s Brexit plan were taking place.

Petitions on the government’s website are debated after they reach 100,000 signatures and the government must respond to all petitions with more than 10,000 names.

“This government will not revoke Article 50. We will honour the result of the 2016 referendum and work with parliament to deliver a deal that ensures we leave the European Union,” the government said in response to the petition.

The revoke petition is the largest parliamentary one ever, beating the 4.15 million signatures for a 2016 petition which called for another EU referendum in the event that neither the remain or leave camps achieved 60 percent of the vote.

More than 1.8 million people signed a petition calling for U.S. President Donald Trump to be prevented from making a state visit to Britain, leading to a debate in parliament in 2017

Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Michael Holden

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-article50/uk-lawmakers-discuss-halting-brexit-after-petition-hits-6-million-idUSKCN1RD2YK

Justice Gorsuch rejected that alternative. Nitrogen gas, he wrote, is not authorized by Missouri law and had never been used to carry out an execution in the United States. In dissent, Justice Breyer said that three states have authorized the use of nitrogen gas in executions.

Justice Gorsuch wrote that Mr. Bucklew had also not proved he would suffer less pain from nitrogen gas.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that the court had made things too complicated. The Eighth Amendment bars only the deliberate infliction of pain, he wrote, and there was no evidence that Missouri had designed its lethal injection protocol to hurt Mr. Bucklew.

In dissent, Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, wrote that Mr. Bucklew may face an “excruciating and grotesque” punishment.

“Bucklew cites evidence,” Justice Breyer wrote, “that executing him by lethal injection will cause the tumors that grow in his throat to rupture during his execution, causing him to sputter, choke and suffocate on his own blood for up to several minutes before he dies.”

In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority’s emphasis on addressing delays in carrying out death sentences.

“There are higher values than ensuring that executions run on time,” she wrote. “If a death sentence or the manner in which it is carried out violates the Constitution, that stain can never come out. Our jurisprudence must remain one of vigilance and care, not one of dismissiveness.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/politics/supreme-court-death-penalty.html

Citing a growing number of illegal border crossings, The White House also vowed to cut off millions in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

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Police are searching for a driver who plowed into a 9-year-old girl in her front yard in Georgia, leaving her with serious injuries including multiple broken bones.

Laderihanna Holmes was playing with another young girl outside her home in Lithonia, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, when a vehicle suddenly jumped the curb and smashed into her on Friday, authorities said.

A home security camera captured the terrifying scene, showing a black sedan blow past a stop sign and slam into the family’s home at full speed.

Watch the crash in the video player above. It has been edited, but may be difficult for some to watch.

The suspect slipped out through the passenger-side door as family members rushed to help the young girl. Security video showed him staggering a bit before he took off on foot, leaving behind the vehicle. The family said a second person also fled the scene.

The family shared the security footage with ABC News on Sunday hoping that the driver might come forward. The owner of the vehicle said she was at work at the time of the accident and had given the car to her boyfriend, police said.

Investigators have not released any information about a potential suspect.

“It’s hard, but I have to be strong for her,” Laderihanna’s mother, Charlette Bolton, told ABC News on Sunday. “I just want everybody to pray for Laderihanna. The community loves her, her school loves her, her friends love her and I just want the people involved to be caught.”

Bolton, who spoke to ABC News along with the girl’s father and older brother, issued a personal message to the people who fled the scene.

“You know what you did. You didn’t try to help my baby,” she said. “You almost killed my baby and I hope you do the right thing and turn yourself in.”

The family’s attorney, Chris Stewart, said two teenagers were seen running from the scene after the crash.

“Those were teenagers that were in that vehicle, so we have to learn what happened and how they got a hold of that car,” Stewart said.

He said it’s a miracle the that the young victim survived the head-on collision.

“If you didn’t believe in miracles, you should now,” Stewart said. “The video is really hard to watch but she survived somehow. You gotta believe in God after seeing this.”

“I was shocked,” he added. “I deal with wrongful death all the time, and I cannot believe she survived it. When I want to see her in the room, she does not have a mark on her face.”

The young girl’s family said she sustained several injuries, including multiple fractures to her skull and pelvis, but they’re confident that she’ll recover.

“She’s strong, and I know she’ll bounce back from this,” her mother said. “It’s just going to take a while.”

Source Article from https://www.abc15.com/national/driver-flees-car-after-slamming-into-9-year-old-girl-in-front-yard-video

A key House committee was gripped by infighting Monday as Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., released details of whistleblower allegations that dozens of people in the Trump administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds.

Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversees the issuance of clearances for some senior White House aides, said she compiled a list of at least 25 officials who were initially denied security clearances last year because of their backgrounds. But she said senior Trump aides overturned those decisions, despite it not being “in the best interest of national security.”

KUSHNER RESPONDS TO SECURITY CLEARANCE CLAIMS

Newbold’s allegations were detailed in a letter and memo released Monday by Cummings of Maryland, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform committee.

The move prompted a fiery retort from top committee Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, whose office described the publication of the information as “reckless.”

“It is extremely unfortunate and disappointing that Chairman Cummings is now using this sensitive topic as a pretense for a partisan attack on the White House,” Jordan said in a statement. “Chairman Cummings’ investigation is not about restoring integrity to the security clearance process, it is an excuse to go fishing through the personal files of dedicated public servants.”

He complained that Newbold’s interview was only conducted Saturday morning – and Republicans “were not informed of the interview’s topic or witness until 3:30 the day before.” He also said some of the 25 examples cited included “non-political officials such as a GSA custodian.”

CHAFFETZ: SCHIFF SHOULD LOSE SECURITY CLEARANCE

Jordan continued: “Chairman Cummings has departed from longstanding bipartisan oversight of the security clearance process to advance his partisan efforts to attack the President. His unilateral decision to release cherry-picked excerpts from one witness so early into an investigation is far from the constructive oversight he promised.”

The oversight panel has been investigating security clearances issued to senior officials including Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former White House aide Rob Porter.

The letter comes about a month after The New York Times reported that Trump ordered officials to grant Kushner a clearance over the objections of national security officials and after Newbold spoke out to NBC News and other news outlets about her concerns. It also sets the stage for another fight between the White House and the Democratic-controlled House. Cummings said he will move this week to authorize his first subpoena in the probe.

Cummings said the subpoena will be for the deposition of Carl Kline, who served as the White House personnel security director and supervised Newbold. He has since left the White House for the Defense Department.

Newbold laid out her experience in the White House during a March 23 interview with bipartisan committee staff. Portions of that interview were in the memo released by Cummings.

According to the memo, Newbold’s list of overturned security clearance denials included “two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals throughout different components of the Executive Office of the President.”

“According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,” the memo says.

Newbold said she raised her concerns up the chain of command in the White House to no avail. Instead, she said, the White House retaliated, suspending her in January for 14 days without pay for not following a new policy requiring that documents be scanned as separate PDF files rather than one single PDF file.

Newbold said that when she returned to work in February, she was cut out of the security clearance process and removed from a supervisory responsibility.

Cummings’ memo doesn’t identify the officials on Newbold’s list. The committee has previously singled out Flynn, Porter and Kushner as it sought records from the White House about how their clearances were handled.

Flynn maintained his clearance even after the White House learned he lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador and that he was under federal investigation by the Justice Department for his previous foreign work.

Kushner failed to initially disclose numerous foreign meetings on security clearance forms, and according to the Times, career officials recommended against granting him one before Trump personally overruled them.

Porter had high-level access with an interim security clearance even though the FBI repeatedly told the White House of past allegations of domestic violence lodged against him by two ex-wives.

Porter resigned after the allegations becoming public.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-team-overruled-25-security-clearance-denials-official

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(CNN)House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler will authorize a subpoena this week to obtain the full, unredacted report from special counsel Robert Mueller, teeing up a showdown between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration over the nearly 400-page report.

    “We have an obligation to read the full report, and the Department of Justice has an obligation to provide it, in its entirely, without delay. If the department is unwilling to produce the full report voluntarily, then we will do everything in our power to secure it for ourselves,” Nadler wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Monday. “We require the report, first, because Congress, not the attorney general, has a duty under the Constitution to determine whether wrongdoing has occurred. The special counsel declined to make a ‘traditional prosecutorial judgment’ on the question of obstruction, but it is not the attorney general’s job to step in and substitute his judgment for the special counsel’s.”

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/politics/house-judiciary-subpoena-full-muller-report/index.html

    Freshman Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley have in a matter of days rallied the progressive base against a plan by House Democrats’ campaign arm to isolate and discourage would-be challengers from running against incumbents in congressional primaries.

    Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Pressley, D-Mass., both insurgents who ousted entrenched members of their own party, over the weekend criticized a policy by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to blacklist political firms that work against sitting members of Congress.

    HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ CAMPAIGN ARM WARNS CONSULTANTS AGAINST HELPING PRIMARY CHALLENGERS

    Their cause has been promoted and cheered by allies on the left, exposing new tensions between the Democratic establishment and an outspoken liberal wing led by Ocasio-Cortez.

    Justice Democrats, the group that boosted Ocasio-Cortez’s primary bid last year, has blanketed its Twitter feed with shout-outs to the two freshmen, while its director Alexandra Rojas is doing the same – while accusing the DCCC of being “afraid” of the Pressleys and AOCs of the world.

    The same group also thanked Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., for taking a stand against the DCCC decision – citing an Intercept story in which the vice chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus condemned the move.

    Saying the new policy “stifles competition and blackballs any consultant who works for a challenger,” Khanna complained in a statement to The Intercept that the DCCC policy was “heavy-handed.”

    “This unprecedented grab of power is a slap in the face of Democratic voters across the nation,” he said. “Let’s be clear. If this policy remains in place, it will mean that we will not allow new Ayanna Pressleys or AOCs to emerge. It’s simply wrong.”

    Khanna and other caucus leaders reportedly voiced objections directly with DCCC leader Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill. The escalating fight marks another front in the battle between the progressive wing and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lieutenants.

    The tensions exploded publicly when Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Saturday: “The @DCCC’s new rule to blacklist+boycott anyone who does business w/ primary challengers is extremely divisive & harmful to the party.”

    MODERATE DEMS FUME OVER OCASIO-CORTEZ INCUMBENT HIT LIST

    The freshman then recommended a pause in all donations to the DCCC and encouraged donors to give directly to the “swing candidates” themselves. She provided a short list of swing-seaters with links to their donation pages.

    Pressley, who upset 20-year incumbent Michael Capuano, tweeted Saturday a lengthy thread offering her view that the DCCC policy risks hurting women and people of color.

    “If the DCCC enacts this policy to blacklist vendors who work with challengers, we risk undermining an entire universe of potential candidates and vendors — especially women and people of color — whose ideas, energy, and innovation need a place in our party,” Pressley wrote.

    The DCCC previously stated in a letter that its core mission is keeping the party’s newly won majority in the House by “electing House Democrats, which includes supporting and protecting incumbents.”

    The letter then clearly states that the committee “will not conduct business with, nor recommend to any of its targeted campaigns, any consultant that works with an opponent of a sitting Member of the House Democratic Caucus.”

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    Pressley warned of the “chilling effect” that creating such rules could have on the future of the Democratic Party, and called for “diversity.”

    “Our diversity is our strength,” she wrote. “When a candidate takes the risk to run, Democrats should not be in the practice of creating litmus tests or roadblocks that have a chilling effect on new candidates or those who would invest their sweat equity in support.”

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-rallies-progressives-against-dem-leaders-bid-to-shield-incumbents-from-primary-challengers

    The mother of Samantha Josephson, the University of South Carolina student who was killed after she mistakenly got into a car she thought was her Uber ride, pleaded with the judge to put suspect Nathaniel David Rowland away for life. Police have charged the 24-year-old man with Josephson’s kidnapping and murder.

    At a court hearing for the 24-year-old Rowland on Sunday, Marci Josephson was emotional as she read a statement, in which she said, “I cannot fathom how someone could randomly select a person, a beautiful girl, and steal her life away … There are no words to describe the immense pain his actions have caused our family and friends. He’s taken away a piece of our heart, soul and life.

    “It sickens us to think that his face was the last thing that my baby girl saw on this Earth. Does he even know her name?

    University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson.

    Family Photo


    “He should never be given the right to walk free again for what he did to my daughter, or given the opportunity to hurt anybody else … My daughter’s name is Samantha Josephson. Don’t ever forget her name. Samantha Josephson.

    “Shame on him.”

    Last night, hundreds of students held a vigil to pay their respects, reports correspondent David Begnaud.

    Josephson was last seen Friday after a night out with her friends. After separating form her roommates, she mistakenly got into a black Chevy Impala thinking it was her Uber. Police say not only did she get into the wrong car, but that she could not get out because the suspect had the child safety door locks on.

    At about 1:30 Friday afternoon Josephson’s friends reported her missing. Later that day, turkey hunters discovered her body more than 65 miles away in a secluded, wooded area.

    Early Saturday morning officers pulled over Rowland while he was driving the Impala they had been looking for. He fled on foot before officers caught him.  Police say they found blood, window cleaner, bleach, and the victim’s cellphone in his car.

    According to a source, Uber does not have a record of any driver with the suspect’s name.

    Those who knew the 21-year-old college senior remember Samantha Josephson as having an infectious smile and contagious laugh. “She had a personality and a presence that lit up a room every time she entered,” said one.

    “She truly was the love of my life,” her boyfriend said.

    Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/samantha-josephson-murder-mother-usc-student-in-uber-mixup-blasts-accused-killer-nathaniel-david-rowland/

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    Source Article from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-01/nyc-congestion-fee-mansion-tax-ushered-in-by-state-s-new-budget

    On March 24, 1973, President Richard Nixon told his Attorney General John Mitchell, “I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover-up or anything else, if it’ll save it–save the plan.” That conversation, revealed in a tape during the height of Watergate, led to Mitchell’s indictment on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and ultimately the resignation of Nixon.

    So it’s fitting that last Sunday, on the 46th anniversary of the Watergate Stonewall tape, that we learned Robert Mueller submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr. A three page letter written by Barr did little to tell the American people what the Mueller Report found. It did, however, give Donald Trump a political advantage by creating the impression that he’d been exonerated when it wasn’t true.

    Just like Nixon and Mitchell, Trump and Barr are stonewalling.

    ‘DADDY WON,’ ALEC BALDWIN’S TRUMP BOASTS IN FIRST ‘SNL’ SINCE END OF MUELLER PROBE

    After a week of giving Trump the political advantage – boosted by poor reporting and repeated claims of exoneration – a backlash followed about Barr’s stonewall attempt, not only in his three-page letter but also in his refusal to say when he would release the Mueller Report and in what form. That is why on Friday afternoon Barr resorted to damage control that will only result in more damage.

    Barr announced he would make a version of the Mueller Report available by the middle of April, almost a month after Mueller submitted it to him, unredacted and with all the evidence. Specifically, a nearly 400-page report with thousands of pages of evidence that Congress and the public may never see if Barr has his way. That is unacceptable.

    Congress’ responsibility is to hold the president accountable. They can’t do their job if the full Mueller Report isn’t provided. Anything less than that is the Trump-Barr Stonewall Report, not the Mueller Report.

    Furthermore, Barr has no right to opine about the Mueller Report let alone revise or stonewall it. There is nothing in the regulations that govern the special counsel that permits the attorney general to do anything like it. Nothing. Yet Barr has opined three times to date, apparently now editing the Mueller Report, and taking a month to do it. The only job Barr has is to hand over the full Mueller Report, intact with the evidence, and it should have been done last Sunday.

    Congress can’t do its job if the full Mueller Report isn’t provided. Anything less than that is the Trump-Barr Stonewall Report, not the Mueller Report.

    Barr states he is going to redact all the grand jury testimony from the Mueller Report. That alone will result in a substantial portion of the report being redacted – and it is unnecessary.  A judge can allow the grand jury material to be made public, just as Leon Jaworski did during Watergate, and Ken Starr followed suit in the Bill Clinton investigation. They sought and received permission from federal judges to release grand jury material. Starr, furthermore, submitted his report and evidence, equally voluminous to the Mueller Report, and it was made public within 48 hours of its completion.

    The fact is there is no reason to believe Barr is an honest broker, and every reason to believe he is doing Trump’s bidding. If the Mueller Report exonerated Trump, then it would have been released in its entirety last Sunday, not sometime in mid-April with redactions, omissions, and interpretations by Barr, followed by his promised Congressional testimony in May.

    Barr, in fact, has a history of stonewalling and helping presidents avoid the consequences of investigations. The last time Barr served as attorney general, during the Iran-Contra investigation, the late New York Times columnist William Safire referred to him as the “Cover Up General” because he rejected calls to appoint an independent counsel that could have ensnared many members of the Reagan administration, including himself.

    Barr finally relented when members of Congress considered impeaching him, and appointed Lawrence Walsh as special counsel, allowing Barr to oversee Walsh even though he was under scrutiny in the investigation. It was also reported that Barr then considered firing Walsh for “misconduct,” believing his investigation cost Bush re-election.

    After the 1992 election, Barr then proceeded to help President George H.W. Bush grant pardons to six figures in the Iran-Contra case, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as he was about to go on trial to face charges about lying to Congress. That action undercut the Iran-Contra investigation and Special Counsel Walsh. When the pardons were announced Walsh said, “It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences”.

    Barr’s record of stonewalling is clear. The fact that Barr was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate based on his record is stunning. Now, it is clear that his record is the reason Barr was picked as attorney general.

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    The only way to know if a conspiracy or obstruction of justice has been committed by Trump is to provide the full Mueller Report to Congress and to the public. The American people deserve the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth. As we have learned throughout our country’s history, and especially during Watergate, you can’t stonewall the truth. Not even Trump and Barr.

    And if they continue to stonewall, then Trump and Barr will face the consequences rendered by the American people and history…just like Nixon and Mitchell.

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    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-and-barr-are-stonewalling-on-the-mueller-investigation-just-like-nixon-did-on-watergate

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    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has lost the capital Ankara and looks set to lose the commercial hub of Istanbul after 25 years in power in both cities, as Sunday’s municipal election results — largely seen as a referendum on the president himself — roll in.

    The Turkish lira fell sharply at the opening of London trade on Monday, the latest rout after a turbulent week that saw Turkey’s overnight swap rate shoot up as high as 1,200 percent as the central bank tried to shore up the currency.

    The lira sunk at roughly 8:30 a.m London time Monday after the country’s election board said the opposition party was ahead in Istanbul’s mayoral election, briefly trading at $5.6913. But by 1:00 p.m. the currency had regained those losses and was trading at $5.5212.

    The currency had traded at 5.61 to the dollar after the initial results came in on Sunday evening, compared with 5.55 at Friday’s close. The country’s BIST 100 stock index was down 1.65 percent in the morning session, after falling more than 7 percent last week.

    “The events of the last 12 to 18 months have caused a lot of grief to the business community, the financial services, and also the investors and their confidence.”
    -Sanjay Uppal, CEO, StraitsBridge Advisors

    Markets now fear that the electoral losses will push Erdogan to double down on populist policies that helped send the currency tanking last year, when his interference in central bank independence held interest rates down despite soaring inflation and sent investors running for the hills. Last year saw the lira lose as much as 40 percent of its value against the dollar, although it had trimmed some of those losses by year end.

    The victories claimed by the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) are a formidable blow to the ruling right-wing AK Party — particularly the expected loss of Istanbul, where Erdogan first made his political debut as city mayor in the 1990s. Still, the AK Party and its far-right coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) secured more than 50 percent of the national vote and won a majority of Istanbul’s districts.

    “It appears that the worsening economic condition of the household had a say on the results,” Can Selçuki, general manager of Istanbul Economics Research, told CNBC on Monday morning.

    “A combination of economic conditions and candidates that has appeal to both sides of the aisle has helped the opposition to win a number of large cities including Ankara, Adana, Mersin, Antalya and very likely Istanbul.”

    Market will look for reforms

    Voters went to the polls with a major concern at the top of their list: the economy. Given this, the results shouldn’t take anyone by surprise, said Sanjay Uppal, CEO of StraitsBridge Advisors.

    “The events of the last 12 to 18 months have caused a lot of grief to the business community, the financial services, and also the investors and their confidence,” Uppal told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Monday.

    “On the back of this, the current reforms so far haven’t delivered a message that would bring that confidence back … So the populace has voted for an alternative to balance out the national government.”

    Turkey’s economy fell into a recession last year, and unemployment is now around 13 percent, nearly a decade high. Inflation sat at 19.7 in February — though that’s the first time it’s dropped below 20 percent since August.

    “The market will now want to see what reforms the AKP is going to roll out, after the new promises made by Erdogan,” Timothy Ash, senior emerging markets strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, commented in an email note Monday, noting that the president will remain powerful and well-supported among his more religious and rural base.

    “The actual election results don’t change that much, Turkey still faces huge economic challenges based around a loss of confidence in policy making,” he said.

    “First and foremost confidence in economic policy making has to be rebuilt to stop the trend of rising dollarization … AKP government (is) over 50 percent nationally, promising reform, and they now have to deliver otherwise markets will punish Turkey brutally. That is the lesson from recent months.”

    Rebuilding credibility will be crucial

    The drop in the lira has led to the weakening of consumer purchasing power and caused acute pain for Turkish banks and businesses with high dollar-denominated debt — reports have put the volume of Turkey’s foreign-currency denominated corporate debt at 50 percent of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).

    Erdogan is credited with transforming Turkey’s economy into a powerhouse in the early 2000s, drawing unprecedented foreign investment and creating more than 1 million jobs. But recent years have seen the leader adopt a more populist and nationalist bent, featuring various diplomatic spats with Western allies, while consolidating executive power through constitutional changes and a heavy crackdown on dissent.

    Turkey’s large current account deficit, its shrinking foreign exchange reserves, and relations with key Western allies remain top challenges for the country — the lira is set to remain “on the front line over the next few weeks” until the government resolves those issues, Ash said.

    And the central bank’s efforts to prop up the currency will run out of steam as it’s already burned through one-third of its foreign reserves in the first three weeks of March alone.

    “(Turkish Finance Minister) Albayrak has to come up with a program to convince markets and importantly locals that the current management team know what they are doing, rebuilding credibility in the process,” Ash said. “If they are not able to do this under their own steam, then it is hard to imagine a scenario where they can avoid going to the IMF.”

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/turkey-lira-slides-as-erdogans-party-suffers-pivotal-losses.html

    Still, Boeing representatives faced caustic comments from some at the Wednesday session, said one of the people familiar with the discussions. As Boeing test pilots demonstrated old and new versions of MCAS, attendees were especially interested in re-enacting the sequence of events leading to the Lion Air crash, the person said. Pilots also demonstrated how the 737 Max would behave if an angle-of-attack vane was sheared off by, say, a bird strike.

    Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-737-max-boeing-eu-20190331-story.html

    Shortly after her election in November, New York Attorney General Letitia James vowed to “use every area of the law” to probe President Donald Trump, his family and associates, and his business.

    As the chief legal officer in a state with that provides her with sweeping investigatory and prosecutorial powers, she can keep that promise.

    With special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe now complete, others’ investigations, including the New York attorney general’s, are continuing.

    James recently subpoenaed Trump’s banks, seeking information about the Trump Organization and the president’s finances. Though Trump has dismissed these efforts as “presidential harassment” and tweeted that James, a Democrat, “openly campaigned on a GET TRUMP agenda,” several former New York attorneys general and legal experts say the president could have plenty to fear.

    “There’s broad power — there’s no question,” Oliver Koppell, a Democrat who served as New York attorney general in 1994, told NBC News of the substantial authority and tools the office has to investigate and prosecute businesses for fraud.

    The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment.

    New York law allows the attorney general to seek restitution and damages — and, in extreme cases, dissolution — if a business is found to have engaged in persistent fraud. There’s also the Martin Act, a 1921 statute designed to protect investors.

    Past attorneys general have used the Martin Act, considered to be the U.S.’s toughest such state statute in this realm, to expand their powers in the financial crimes sector. The law empowers the attorney general to subpoena witnesses and documents for information pertaining to possible fraud.

    “The Martin Act gives really broad powers,” said Dennis Vacco, a Republican who served as New York attorney general from 1995 to 1998. (Vacco declined to comment on whether Trump or associates have sought his legal counsel regarding this investigation.)

    Vacco said the Martin Act is one of few in the nation that provides the attorney general with criminal investigative authority without having to first receive a referral from the governor or a state agency and he noted that a criminal prosecution often will start off as a civil investigation, which is what the Trump Organization is currently facing.

    The statute “really does apply to almost any financial transaction in New York state,” he said.

    Koppell said that it was former Democratic New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who served from 1999 to 2006, who wrote the modern playbook that James could follow. Spitzer “really kind of expanded the scope of attorney general work in the area of financial fraud,” Koppell said.

    Spitzer, who later was elected governor only to resign amid a prostitution scandal in 2008, aggressively pursued white-collar crimes like securities fraud and used statutes such as the Martin Act to pursue prosecutions that had been typically left for federal authorities.

    Spitzer’s investigation of American International Group and its then-CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, for example, may have parallels to James’ latest lines of inquiry into Trump’s businesses. The then-attorney general alleged that the insurance giant’s top executives engaged in fraudulent business practices. Those executives settled with the state in 2017, agreeing to forfeit about $10 million in performance bonuses, a fraction of what New York sought.

    Through a spokesperson, Spitzer declined to comment to NBC News.

    Could James dissolve the Trump Org?

    It’s rare for the attorney general to seek the dissolution of a business, but it has happened. In 1994, the state closed down an education company that repeatedly failed to comply with student loan regulations.

    In “People by Abrams v. Oliver School,” a New York appellate court affirmed the dissolution and said the power was typically used “as a remedy for persistent consumer fraud.”

    The power has been described by the state Supreme Court as a “judgment of corporate death,” with the offending company’s transgressions needing to be so serious “as to harm or menace the public welfare” in order for it to be an appropriate remedy.

    The public first became aware of James’ new inquiry into Trump and his business after she recently subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records regarding some of Trump’s business dealings and his failed 2014 effort to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Like her office’s ongoing probe into the Trump Foundation, which led to the dissolution of the president’s charity, the latest inquiry into Trump’s business dealings is a civil investigation.

    James opened the probe after Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney, testified to Congress last month that Trump inflated the worth of his assets in financial statements that he provided to banks to secure loans. A source familiar with James’ investigation told NBC News the probe appears to be moving quickly.

    It is not yet clear what the scope or focus of James’ new probe is, but former New York attorneys general told NBC News that she could use her office’s sweeping powers as part of an investigation into whether Trump had defrauded consumers, which is when those powers are typically used, or financial institutions.

    “The DNA of the conduct is the same, whether it’s defrauding a financial institution or defrauding investors or consumers,” Vacco said, adding that he was not vouching for the basis of James’ investigation. “Because, at the end of the day, it’s still fraud.”

    “In this instance, it’s a legitimate business (banks that loaned to Trump) that is being defrauded,” former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, a Democrat who served from 1979 to 1993, told NBC News. “Decisions are being made against fraudulent information.”

    “There’s a wide variety of roles and opportunities for enforcement of the law and protection for those who are being victimized by false representations, misleading statements, advertising information provided in the application process, whatever,” added Abrams, who said he went after businesses for fraud “virtually every day and every week.”

    Jed Shugerman, a Fordham University law professor who advised Democrat Zephyr Teachout in her 2018 attorney general campaign, told NBC News that no matter what legal authority James is using to back her latest inquiry, she must be speedy. Shugerman said it would be unfortunate for the results of the probe to come to light close to the 2020 election, which could give critics of the investigation ammunition to attack it as partisan.

    “Now we have this delicate balance of being able to move fast enough so that they can get evidence with civil subpoenas and civil process of discovery, but not so aggressively that they look to be moving politically with potentially abusing their power,” he said.

    Nonetheless, the probe itself poses danger to Trump because of James’ broad powers, according to NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.

    Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, said if the documents James is seeking show that Trump misled banks about his assets, proving fraud “should be like shooting fish in a barrel for the New York AG.”

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ny-s-attorney-general-one-most-powerful-nation-should-worry-n985086

    BEIJING — China announced on Monday that it would treat all variants of the powerful opioid fentanyl as controlled substances, making good on a pledge the country’s leader, President Xi Jinping, made to President Trump late last year.

    China’s export of the drug, a family of synthetic opioids blamed for tens of thousands of overdoses in the United States, has long been a source of tension in relations and has, more recently, become tangled up in the continuing trade war.

    China already treats more than two dozen variants of fentanyl and its precursors as controlled substances, thus strictly regulating their production and distribution, but it has banned those variants only after reviewing them case by case, a process that can be lengthy.

    The latest step would expand restrictions to all “fentanyl-related substances,” effective May 1. That could plug gaps that, experts and American officials have said, allowed manufacturers in China to make novel variations of the drug that were not technically illegal.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/world/asia/china-bans-fentanyl-trump.html

    Joe Biden has an Al Franken problem.

    Though he hasn’t even officially announced he’s running for president, on Friday Biden was hit with the first of what could be more #MeToo accusations. Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman, wrote that in 2014, when she was seeking office and Biden was still vice president, he smelled her hair and then planted an unwanted kiss on the back of her head.

    The problem for Biden is similar to the one faced by Franken when he was forced to resign from the Senate: Descriptions of misconduct are more believable when consistent with visual evidence.

    In the case of Franken, who several women accused of groping them, we had a photo in which he mocking groped a sleeping Leeann Tweeden when the two were touring together for the USO. The existence of the photo made it impossible for Franken or his defenders to dismiss Tweeden or other female accusers.

    In Biden’s case, there is not just photo evidence, but video evidence of him acting creepily among younger women as VP. His antics of rubbing women’s shoulders at events, sniffing their hair, and pecking at them has been the subject of YouTube compilations for years. There’s also a photo of Biden planting his nose in the hair of actress Eva Longoria at the same fundraiser in which Flores said he took liberties with her.

    At the time he was vice president, many conservatives were frustrated by the fact that these incidents were dismissed as just crazy Ole Uncle Joe doing his thing. Among others, my friend and occasional Washington Examiner contributor Karol Markowicz called him out and said his antics should not be tolerated.

    Had Biden quietly faded into the sunset after leaving office, he probably would have gotten away with it. However, now he’s expected to seek the Democratic nomination in the first election since the #MeToo era began, and he currently is atop polls, and so his rivals are coming for him and the media are much less likely to overlook his problem.

    Given how much awkwardness we’ve seen publicly from Biden, it would be surprising if Flores were the only woman to come out and say he made her feel uncomfortable, and the ample visual evidence of him acting creepy will make it hard to dismiss any accusers.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/joe-bidens-al-franken-problem

    Tension is simmering between U.S. and Ethiopian officials as investigators prepare to release in the coming days an interim report about the Boeing Co. 737 MAX jetliner that nose-dived after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, according to people from both countries.

    U.S. investigators, according to people familiar with their thinking, have privately complained that Ethiopian authorities have been slow to provide data retrieved from the black-box recorders of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which went down minutes into a…

    Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-ethiopian-investigators-tussle-over-737-max-crash-probe-11554073749

    ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party on Sunday was facing defeat in local elections in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and possibly even Istanbul, its largest city, a result that shook the nation as Mr. Erdogan suffered the first major electoral setback of his decade and a half in power.

    The municipal balloting around the country came nine months after national elections that extended Mr. Erdogan’s hold on power. It was closely watched as a barometer of his standing with voters after Turkey’s economy fell into recession and he assumed sweeping new executive powers.

    Mr. Erdogan claimed victory over all in the elections, pointing to results that showed his Justice and Development Party 15 points ahead of the opposition Republican People’s Party in districts nationwide.

    But for the first time in his political career, Mr. Erdogan was tasting defeat in mayoral races in the center of Turkish political power, Ankara, and maybe even in his hometown, Istanbul, the country’s business center.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/world/europe/turkey-election-erdogan.html

    A 47-year-old man was hospitalized after an argument turned violent outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, police said. Christel Reyna said her husband, Rafael Reyna, sustained a skull fracture and is on life support following the encounter in a parking lot Friday evening.

    Police said a male suspect punched Rafael Reyna, who fell to the ground following the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Police are investigating the encounter as an assault. No arrests have been made.



    The suspect may have driven off in a white SUV, possibly a Toyota 4Runner, according to investigators. The Dodgers released a statement saying the team was cooperating with police.

    Christel Reyna said she was on the phone with her husband, a father of four, as he was leaving the stadium. She said she heard a woman and a man arguing with him.

    “The next thing I heard was like a bat sound. Now I know that was him hitting the ground,” Reyna told CBS Los Angeles. “Why does everything have to turn to violence?”

    In 2011, a fight at Dodger Stadium left a San Francisco Giants fan with permanent brain injuries. Two men pleaded guilty to the attack and were sentenced to federal prison. They were also ordered to pay a share of the $18 million judgment against the Dodgers. The attack drew national attention and led to increased security at the stadium.

    Reyna questioned why the stadium is still unsafe after the 2011 attack. “We’re a huge Dodgers fan family. Is this how they treat their fans?”

    Source Article from https://www.10tv.com/article/man-life-support-after-fight-dodger-stadium-2019-mar

    The White House doubled down Sunday on President Trump’s threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, despite warnings that the move would inflict immediate economic damage on American consumers and businesses while doing little to stem a tide of migrants clamoring to enter the United States.

    Sealing the border with Mexico, America’s third-largest trading partner, would disrupt supply chains for major U.S. automakers, trigger swift price increases for grocery shoppers and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.

    “First, you’d see prices rise in­cred­ibly fast. Then . . . we would see layoffs within a day or two,” said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Nogales, Ariz. “This is not going to help border security.”

    Two of the president’s most senior aides nonetheless defended the move on the Sunday news shows. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on ABC News’s “This Week” that it would take “something dramatic” to persuade the president to abandon his border-closing plans. And Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway insisted on “Fox News Sunday” that the president’s threat “certainly isn’t a bluff.”

    Trump sparked the latest immigration-related controversy Friday when he complained to reporters about Mexico’s failure to stem the migrant influx, a point he underscored in a tweet the next day. “If they don’t stop them, we are closing the border. We’ll close it. And we’ll keep it closed for a long time. I’m not playing games,” Trump said Friday.

    Administration officials have offered no details about the president’s intentions, and border control officials have received no instructions to prepare for a shutdown, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue. Implementing such an order would require time to notify Congress and labor unions representing Border Patrol agents and customs officers, the official said.

    A Pentagon spokesman said the military, which has about 5,300 troops in the border region, has not received such orders either.

    Mexican officials have tried to avoid inflaming the situation, offering no public comment since Friday, when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: “We are going to help, to collaborate. We want to have a good relationship with the government of the United States. We are not going to argue about these issues.”

    Closing the border could complicate efforts to secure congressional ratification of Trump’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, said economist Phil Levy, who worked on trade issues in the White House under President George W. Bush and is now a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

    The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the signature achievement thus far of the president’s “America First” trade offensive, faces an uphill battle in Congress.

    The U.S.-Mexico border is a key artery in the global economy, with more than $611 billion in cross-border trade last year, according to the Commerce Department. Each day, more than 1,000 trucks cross the border at the port of Calexico East, Calif., while more than 11 daily international trains go through Laredo, Tex., according to the U.S. Transportation Department.

    In Laredo, business leaders and elected officials held frantic conference calls over the weekend about the threatened closure. Gerry Schwebel, executive vice president of the international division of Laredo-based IBC Bank, said U.S.-Mexico traffic has occasionally been restricted, but only temporarily and only in the event of emergencies, such as floods, tornadoes or security checks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

    Even a border slowdown could create shortages of goods and services and lead to higher prices for consumers, he said, adding: “If you want to create an economic crisis, then shutting down the border will create an economic crisis.”

    The economic consequences of a complete shutdown would be immediate and severe, trade specialists said, with automakers and American farmers among the first to feel the pain.

    “It’s unworkable and unrealistic, and I don’t think he could really do it,” said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents multinational corporations. “There would certainly be legal challenges from lots and lots of companies.”

    In his TV appearances, Mulvaney also reiterated the administration’s intention to end hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to the “Northern Triangle” countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including programs designed to curb the gang violence that has caused many people to flee north.

    The three nations are the primary source of a growing wave of migrants, including caravans of families with children, who have been crossing the U.S. border to seek asylum in an escalating humanitarian crisis.

    “Democrats didn’t believe us a month ago, two months ago when we said what was happening at the border was a crisis, a humanitarian crisis, a security crisis,” Mulvaney said on “This Week.”

    He called on the Mexican government to tighten its southern border and said Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador need to do more to prevent their citizens from entering Mexico.

    Until they do, Mulvaney said, the administration sees a need to close ports of entry to free up border agents “to go out and patrol in the desert, where we don’t have any wall.”

    That redeployment of border agents threatens to pinch commerce. On Friday, the Border Patrol’s Tucson field office issued a notice that it would immediately end Sunday processing of commercial trucks at the Port of Nogales, Ariz.

    To deal with “an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border,” the agency said it had redeployed 750 border agents from ports of entry to areas affected by the migrant flood.

    Jungmeyer, the produce industry representative, said the reduction to six days of operation each week will have a significant effect on the fresh produce industry, which operates on a “just-in-time” schedule of deliveries.

    At this time of year, trucks travel to Mexico to collect watermelons and table grapes. Once full, they head for the United States, where they drop their cargo at American warehouses before quickly returning to Mexico for another load.

    Eliminating one workday at a port that handled 337,179 trucks last year would disrupt that carefully-calibrated schedule.

    “It messes up harvests. It messes up your ability to service customers on the U.S. side of the border,” Jungmeyer said.

    Suddenly halting the passage of people and goods between the United States and Mexico also would interrupt the flow of parts headed to American factories, which could bring some production to a halt. Likewise, refrigerated trucks full of perishable commodities such as beef would jam border crossings.

    “The first question would be: Where do you put it?” said William Reinsch, who served in the Commerce Department under President Bill Clinton. “Stuff is going to stack up at the border because it’s already on the way there.”

    Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2013, said farm states, many of which backed Trump in 2016, would be among the casualties. Closing the border would be a “self-inflicted wound,” he said.

    “I’m not going to try to second guess whether the president is playing chicken, bluffing or spewing whatever comes to his mind,” Sarukhan said Sunday. “The reality is that it would be extremely costly for the United States in terms of trade and economic well being.”

    Stephen Legomsky, professor emeritus at the Washington University School of Law and former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said closing the ports would likely end up in court because it would violate federal immigration laws.

    Trump “cannot close every port on the border,” Legomsky said. “If he did so, he would effectively undermine the entire congressional scheme for who may enter the U.S. and who may not.”

    Closing the border is also unlikely to stanch the influx of asylum seekers, he said, because federal law authorizes them to request protection once they step on U.S. soil. “If anything, closing the authorized points would just drive more traffic between the ports of entry where people can enter illegally,” he said.

    Administration officials insist that inaction is not an option. About 100,000 migrants are believed to have arrived at the border this month, Mulvaney said, a human tide that has overwhelmed U.S. authorities and sparked profound partisan disagreement over potential remedies.

    On Saturday, Trump tweeted: “Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border!”

    Mary Beth Sheridan and Kevin Sieff in Mexico City and Nick Miroff and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-white-house-doubles-down-on-threat-to-close-us-mexico-border/2019/03/31/bd2e070a-53c9-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html