| Trump says U.S. paid no money to North Korea over Warmbier Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:58 PM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of Otto Warmbier, a day after a report said Trump had approved a $2 million bill from Pyongyang for the American student's care. "No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else," Trump wrote in a tweet. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from Pyongyang to cover its care of the comatose college student, who was held in a North Korean prison for 17 months until June 2017.
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| Joe Biden's non-apology to Anita Hill casts long shadow over 2020 run Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Biden's bid for president has invited renewed questions over his handling of Hill's 1991 testimony – and his failure to say sorry Biden, the committe chair, points angrily at Clarence Thomas during the 1991 hearing. Biden on Friday did say he was sorry – but not for anything he had done. Photograph: Greg Gibson/AP After Joe Biden failed once more on Friday to apologize to Anita Hill for his handling of a 1991 Senate hearing at which she testified about being sexually harassed by supreme court nominee Clarence Thomas, questions surged anew. Why can't Biden just issue a straightforward apology? To what extent might the episode trip up his presidential candidacy? And what, exactly, is Biden said to have done wrong at the time? As he asks voters to choose him over multiple women candidates to run against Donald Trump, a president accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women, Biden has had to respond to complaints of unwanted touching. He has said "social norms are changing" and promised to 'be more mindful of personal space in the future". But according to experts in gender studies and sexual harassment interviewed by the Guardian, his failure to apologize to Hill, in a recent personal call with her and on the national TV program The View on Friday morning, is particularly frustrating and potentially damning. I am sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done Joe Biden Hill told the New York Times this week that Biden called her and expressed "his regret for what she endured". But, she said, it wasn't an apology. "I cannot be satisfied by simply saying, 'I'm sorry for what happened to you,'" Hill said. "I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose." On The View, Biden did say he was sorry – but not for anything he had done. "I am sorry she was treated the way she was treated," Biden said. "I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done. I did everything in my power to do what I thought was within the rules to try to stop things." But analysts questioned whether Biden had, as chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, done everything in his power to protect Hill. "He was the chairman of the committee and it was up to him to do something, and there's a kind of passivity about it, even in retrospect, and that's really upsetting," said Helena Michie, director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University in Texas. He was the chairman of the committee and it was up to him to do something Helena Michie, Rice University "Biden has done things since that time – and it has been a long time – on behalf of women, and on behalf of mitigating violence against women. But I think what Hill was saying was that until he takes full responsibility for his role, until he stops saying he wished he could have done something, or kind of underplaying his agency in the structuring of that event, then she's going to continue to be deeply suspicious of him." The event While it might be hard to believe, given the hyperpartisanship of today's Congress, in 1991 the Thomas nomination, put forward by Republican president George HW Bush, appeared to be sailing through the Democrat-controlled judiciary committee. At the head of the committee sat Biden, then 51, already in his fourth term as a senator. Then Hill's bombshell allegations emerged. She had told the FBI that Thomas, her supervisor at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, had sexually harassed her. "On several occasions, Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess," she would testify, describing multiple other specific instances of alleged harassment which Thomas denied. Biden called Hill to testify in an open hearing. What millions of viewers across the country saw was unforgettable: a young African American law professor – Hill was just 31 – facing a panel of mostly aged white men quizzing her about being harassed. The moment was a generational touchstone, said Amy Blackstone, a sociology professor at the University of Maine who conducted a long-running study of views on sexual harassment that surveyed people in their early 20s at the time of the hearings. "It's really interesting how many of them noted, without being prompted by me at all, the Thomas hearings as sort of this turning point for them in their consciousness about workplace sexual harassment," said Blackstone. "I don't think that cohort from our sample is unique in any way, at least in that respect. Certainly it was a turning point for many people in the country in terms of our awareness about harassment as an issue, and about the reality that for many women, they're not alone in that experience." It was a turning point for many people in the country in terms of our awareness about harassment as an issue Amy Blackstone, University of Maine The Thomas hearings were further charged by racial politics. Thomas, an African American circuit court judge, had been nominated by Bush to replace Thurgood Marshall, the high court's first African American justice. In his climactic testimony, Thomas said, in part, "from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned it's a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks". As committee chairman, Biden was responsible for calling and questioning witnesses, for controlling the pace of testimony and cross-examination and for defining the tenor of the hearing. His critics say he failed in each regard, calling witnesses inimical to Hill while failing to call corroborating witnesses, forcing Hill to describe in graphic detail scenes of harassment she had suffered, and in general failing to defend Hill's vulnerability and to direct the hearing. "Can you tell the committee what was the most embarrassing of all the incidences that you have alleged?" Biden asked Hill at one point. "He absolutely failed at almost every point to take control of the event and to make it dignified and safe for Anita Hill," said Michie. "The other thing he did is that he made her repeat in detail every sexual allegation in front of this panel. And she said repeatedly, 'It's all in writing, you have it all in writing.' And he would say, 'I know it's uncomfortable, but we have to do it.' "There was really a kind of repetition of the violation, but this time in public." Biden has blamed Republican intransigence for the failed hearing. "To this day, I regret I couldn't come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved, given the courage she showed by reaching out to us," he said last month. On The View, Biden credited Hill with creating support for the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, watershed legislation he authored to investigate and prosecute violent crimes against women. "She's responsible for significant changes and she deserves credit for it," Biden said. Hill has been careful about the spotlight. She did not respond to an interview request. But in her public statements and speeches she repeatedly calls for a better process for handling the testimony of victims of sexual violence. That was her message after the confirmation hearings last year for supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused by Dr Christine Blasey Ford of sexual assault. Hill told a group of Pennsylvania students more witnesses should have been called and more evidence allowed. "Anita Hill really has been just such an amazing leader in terms of speaking out about harassment and getting us to think more deeply about the impact that it has on people," said Blackstone. "And certainly I am grateful to her for that, as no doubt are many others."
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| F-35s vs. J-20s: How America's 5th Generation Stealth Fighters Would Crush China Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:32 AM PDT  This can be explained in terms of a well-known Air Force strategic concept pioneered years ago by air theorist and pilot Col. John Boyd, referred to as the "OODA Loop," --- for observe, orient, decide and act. The concept is to complete this process quickly and make fast decisions while in an air-to-air dogfight -- in order to get inside the enemy's decision cycle, properly anticipate, and destroy an enemy before they can destroy you.The Air Force is accelerating development of a special, high-tech, on-board threat library for the F-35 designed to precisely identify enemy aircraft operating in different high-risk areas around the globe - such as a Chinese J-20 stealth fighter or Russian T-50 PAK FA 5th Gen fighter, service leaders said. (This first appeared in late 2017.)Described as the brains of the airplane, the "mission data files" are extensive on-board data systems compiling information on geography, air space and potential threats in areas where the F-35 might be expected to perform combat operations, Air Force officials explained."Mission data files are the key that unlocks the F-35," Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, Director of the F-35 Integration Office said.
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| Correction: Confederate Monuments-North Carolina story Posted: 27 Apr 2019 04:28 PM PDT  HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) — In a story April 25 about the toppling of a Confederate monument, The Associated Press reported erroneously that 11 other people besides Raul Arce Jimenez and Shawn Birchfield-Finn have been convicted in connection with the August melee in which the statue was toppled. At least seven other people besides those two men have been convicted in connection with various protests over the statue. The Associated Press also reported erroneously that one of the defendants is named Shawn Birchfield-Finn Jimenez. His name is Shawn Birchfield-Finn.
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| UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley sees US Q2 GDP growth at 1.1%, Goldman view 2.2% Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:12 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley sees US Q2 GDP growth at 1.1%, Goldman view 2.2%]( "UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley sees US Q2 GDP growth at 1.1%, Goldman view 2.2%") Morgan Stanley's economists said on Friday they expect that U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% annual pace in the second quarter due to a reversal of the surge in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs analysts marked down their estimate on U.S. gross domestic product in the current quarter, but the pace was still twice as fast as Morgan Stanley's projection. "Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q," Morgan Stanley economists wrote in a research note.
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| AJ Freund cause of death released, parents bond set at $5M each for Joann Cunningham, Andrew Freund, Sr. Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:30 PM PDT  Andrew "AJ" Freund died of multiple blunt force injuries to the head, the McHenry County Coroner said Thursday.
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| Twitter CEO phoned Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar to defend Trump’s tweet that sparked death threats Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:38 AM PDT  Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey phoned Ilhan Omar on Tuesday and stood by the company's decision to permit a tweet from President Donald Trump that later resulted in a flood of death threats targeting the congresswoman.The previously unreported call focused on an incendiary video that Trump shared on April 12, which depicts Ms Omar discussing the 9/11 attacks interspersed with footage of the Twin Towers burning.The clip did not include the full context of Ms Omar's remarks, which were taken from a public event on the broader issue of Islamophobia.Ms Omar pressed Mr Dorsey to explain why Twitter didn't remove Trump's tweet outright, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private.Mr Dorsey said that the president's tweet didn't violate the company's rules, a second person from Twitter confirmed.He also pointed to the fact that the tweet and video already had been viewed and shared far beyond the site, one of the sources said.But the Twitter executive did tell Ms Omar that the tech giant needed to do a better job generally in removing hate and harassment from the site, according to the two people familiar with the call.On Thursday, a spokesman for Ms Omar declined to comment. Following the president's tweet, Ms Omar said on 14 April that she had witnessed an "increase in direct threats on my life – many directly referencing or replying to the president's video".Other Democratic leaders later condemned Mr Trump as well.In a statement, Twitter confirmed the call took place. "During their conversation, [Mr Dorsey] emphasised that death threats, incitement to violence, and hateful conduct are not allowed on Twitter," the company said."We've significantly invested in technology to proactively surface this type of content and will continue to focus on reducing the burden on the individual being targeted. Our team has also consistently been in touch with Rep Omar's office."The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Mr Trump is one of Twitter's most popular yet controversial users, whose political salvos are broadcast to nearly 60 million followers each day.Critics say his comments often violate site rules that prohibit hate speech, attacks on the basis of one's personal characteristics and incitements to violence.But Twitter ultimately has allowed the president to tweet without limit, arguing there's a public interest in allowing a head of state to communicate such views unfettered.But in recent weeks, Twitter has signalled it is rethinking that policy.Company leaders recently said they are planning to institute a new approach that would provide more context around tweets that its rules would have prohibited but were permitted to remain on the site anyway because of the speaker.Such a policy could result in public notations on Trump's own tweets.Mr Dorsey's outreach to Ms Omar came on the same day that the Twitter chief executive met with Trump at the White House, a meeting convened at the president's invitation.During the conversation, Trump spent a significant amount of time raising his concerns that Twitter deliberately targets and removes his followers, the Washington Post previously reported.Trump has made those claims in connection with his belief that social media sites are biased against conservatives.But Mr Dorsey said that Twitter's efforts to combat spam result in fluctuations in a user's follower count, noting even he had been affected.Asked about that meeting, Twitter noted in a statement that Dorsey and the president also discussed the 2020 election and efforts to stop the opioid epidemic. A source at the time described the meeting as cordial.The Washington Post
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| Russian Agent Maria Butina Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison: ‘I Destroyed My Own Life’ Posted: 26 Apr 2019 08:08 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Alexandria Sheriff's Office via GettyMaria Butina, who admitted to conspiring to act as a covert Russian agent and charmed American conservative leaders with her gun-rights activism, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on Friday. The prison term was what the Justice Department requested for Butina, though she'll spend closer to nine months behind bars thanks to time already served in jail. "The conduct was sophisticated and penetrated deep into U.S. political organizations," D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said before handing down the stiff sentence. Butina is a 30-year-old Russian national who came to the U.S. to study at American University in Washington, D.C. and courted gun-rights and conservative activists, especially in the National Rifle Association. She was arrested last July and charged with violating a U.S. law that bars people from acting as foreign agents without telling the attorney general—a charge Justice Department lawyers characterize as "espionage-lite." Butina pleaded guilty in December and agreed to cooperate with the government.Just before she was sentenced, Butina made an emotional plea for leniency. Her voice shook as she spoke. "My parents discovered my arrest on the morning news they watch in their rural house in a Siberian village," she said. "I love them dearly, but I harmed them morally and financially. They are suffering from all of that. I destroyed my own life as well. I came to the United States not under any orders, but with hope, and now nothing remains but penitence."While living in the U.S., Butina communicated with then-Russian Central Bank official Alexander Torshin about her efforts to build relationships with Americans. In one instance, she claimed she had influence over who would become Trump's secretary of state. In December 2015, she even helped arrange for a delegation of NRA leaders to visit Moscow, where they met with powerful figures in the Russian government. Butina said she would have registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department, but she claimed not to have known U.S. law. "I deeply regret this crime, not merely because it has harmed me, my beloved friends, and my cherished family, but ironically, it has harmed my attempts to improve the relationships between the two countries," she said. Chutkan had none of it."This was no simple misunderstanding by an overeager foreign student," Chutkan said, saying the crime Butina pled guilty to "is serious, and jeopardized this country's national security." Erik Kenerson, the prosecutor handling her case, told Chutkan that Butina was executing a plan to establish contact between the two governments, for the benefit of Russia. The information was "of extreme importance to the Russian Federation," he said. "There is no doubt that she was not simply a grad student," he said."Her conduct shows how easy it can be for a foreign government to target Americans in the U.S.," he added. One of her lawyers, Alfred Carry, pushed back against Kenerson's argument. "Maria is not a spy," he said. "She's not intelligence. She's never been employed by the Russian government. She knows of no secret codes, safehouses, illegals. She has never engaged in covert activity and she has never lied to our government."During her time in the U.S., Butina also entered a romantic relationship with Paul Erickson, a longtime conservative-movement insider who helped her befriend people in the NRA. Erickson was indicted this year in South Dakota on charges of several financial crimes, none of which involved Butina or Russia. The sentence marks the end of a two-year saga that has riveted Washington and embodied tensions between the U.S. and Russia stemming from Moscow's interference in the 2016 election.The Justice Department asked for Butina to receive an 18-month sentence. Butina asked the judge to sentence her to the time she has already served. Butina noted that she has cooperated with federal investigators extensively since entering her guilty plea last December. And she said that in the wake of her plea, her future looks bleak. "I have three degrees, but now I'm a convicted felon with no job, no money, and no freedom," she said. "My reputation is ruined, both here in the United States and abroad. And while I know that I am not this evil person who has been depicted in the media, I'm responsible for these consequences."Butina will be deported back to Russia after she is released from prison."I still hold a whisper in my heart to one day return to this country," she added, "but I know this wish is only a dream."Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| Fighter Fight: Russia's Su-35 vs. America's F-15, F-16 or F-35 (Who Dies?) Posted: 26 Apr 2019 04:00 PM PDT  As history shows us, many times in war you do not always get to chose from the most optimal of solutions.Russia's Su-35 fighter certainly has western defense outlets buzzing--and for good reason.Moscow, despite heavy sanctions and an economy that has certainly seen better days, keeps pumping out new combat systems one after another--items like new tanks, submarines, nuclear weapons platforms and more.While many were indeed designed and planned for ahead of the imposition of sanctions, Russia is clearly making a big effort to modernize its armed forces, especially its air force, and moving past older Soviet platforms. The Su-35 is a good example of such efforts.So how would the Su-35 do against America's best planes? How would it fare against an American air force that is clearly the best in the world. How would, for example, the Su-35 do in a combat situation against Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter? How would Russia's new plane do against older aircraft like the F-15 or say F-16?Such scenarios matter--and not just in the context of a possible NATO/Russia or Middle East situation, but now that Russia is set to deliver the Su-35 to China, such comparisons matter even more. There are many places where all of these lethal aircraft will overlap, making such comparisons even more timely.Compiled below are three articles, written several years ago by TNI's former Defense Editor, Dave Majumdar, that looks at these questions in depth, combined in one posting for your reading pleasure. With that said, let the debate begin.This first appeared in September 2016.
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| Sri Lanka political rivalry seen as factor in Easter blasts Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:46 AM PDT  COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.
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| Trucker arrested in fiery Colorado pileup that killed four Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:48 AM PDT  The crash turned a stretch of Interstate 70, a major east-west highway, into a raging inferno on Thursday that involved at least 28 vehicles and may have damaged the road surface and an overpass, authorities said. Lakewood, Colorado police said they arrested Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, after he lost control of his tractor-trailer truck and started a chain-reaction during the late afternoon rush hour. "At that time of day we all know that I-70 can be very jammed," police spokesman Ty Countryman told reporters near the scene.
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| American Airlines cuts profit forecast as 737 MAX woes bite Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:17 PM PDT  American Airlines slashed its profit forecast Friday largely due to the crisis around the Boeing 737 MAX, a somewhat more profound hit to operations and customer bookings than at other carriers affected by the jet's grounding. "That's not just our passengers," said American Airlines President Robert Isom. American's hit from the MAX crisis came as the aviation industry watches for Boeing to clear several key hurdles with the US Federal Aviation Administration and other global regulators to allow the planes to resume service.
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| Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton of 2020 – and it won't end well this time either Posted: 25 Apr 2019 11:00 PM PDT  His is the vaguest and most centrist of battle cries: let's go back to, you know, 'all those good things' Joe Biden: expect to hear that he is the only Democrat who can win the white working class over – despite Bernie Sanders' success with that demographic. Photograph: Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images Joe Biden wants to make America straight again. "America's coming back like we used to be," the former vice-president told reporters in Delaware on Thursday, shortly after he released a video officially announcing his 2020 campaign. "Ethical, straight, telling the truth … All those good things." It was unfortunate phrasing, but what else would you expect from a man whose foot always seems to be hovering somewhere near his mouth? Gaffes are part of Biden's brand and, we will, no doubt see a lot more of them in the coming months. We can also expect to see a lot more lofty promises about turning the clock back on Trumpism, and returning America to the (entirely mythical) days when the country was a bastion of morality. While it's still early in the 2020 race, Biden has focused his campaign directly around Trump's character, or lack thereof, in a way no other Democratic candidate has. His announcement video centered on the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, where Trump infamously claimed that there "were very fine people of both sides". For Biden, that was a defining point in Trump's presidency. "[I]n that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I'd ever seen in my lifetime," Biden says. "If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House I believe he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation." Sign up to receive the latest US opinion pieces every weekday Is Trump a morally bankrupt racist? Yes, obviously. However, there is a reason that the other Democratic candidates didn't launch their campaigns with attacks on Trump's character: that strategy was tried, tested and proved an abysmal failure by Hillary Clinton. You don't get Trump supporters to see the error of their ways by calling them "a basket of deplorables"; you simply fuel a culture war. (Not to mention, when you have a history of implementing racist legislation like the 1994 Crime Act, a key driver in the mass incarceration of African American men, you set yourself up to be called a hypocrite.) One of the many reasons the Clinton campaign failed was that it spent more time and energy criticizing Trump than interrogating the underlying reasons why he was popular. Clinton parroted the idea that "America is already great!" to people whose lives were anything but. She offered business as usual to people who desperately wanted change. Now we've got Biden, another establishment Democrat, doing exactly the same thing. Let's rewind the clock a few years to when everything was just fine and dandy Biden's answer to Trump isn't systemic change that will make America a more equitable place. He's not offering progressive policies like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. His is the vaguest and most centrist of battle cries: let's go back to, you know, "all those good things". Let's go back to a time where racism was a little more polite and white people could pretend America was a post-racial society. Let's fight for the soul of America by pretending that Trump is the problem, not just a symptom of the problem. Let's pretend that Charlottesville was a direct result of Trump – an aberration – and not a product of a racism that has always existed in America. Let's rewind the clock a few years to when everything was just fine and dandy. What's really frustrating about Biden is the fact that, even though he is another version of Clinton, and seems to be getting set to run a carbon copy of Clinton's campaign, we're going to be told ad nauseum that he's our best bet at beating Trump. We're going to be told that he's the only Democrat that can win the white working class over – forget the fact that Sanders is currently the candidate best connecting with that demographic, gaining cheers and enthusiasm at a Fox town hall with his vision for universal healthcare. We're going to be told that candidates offering real change, like Sanders and Warren, are too progressive for America. That they're not "electable". We're going to be told that we should repeat the mistakes of 2016 all over again. We're going to be told that it will work out this time. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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| Florida man arrested after disabled, bedridden woman in his care was discovered living among trash and feces Posted: 26 Apr 2019 07:54 AM PDT  65-year-old Lawrence Goodwin arrested for the abuse and neglect of a 67-year-old disabled, bedridden woman who was found living in a home filled with trash, feces and rotting trash.
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| A Federal Judge Has Defied the Law to Protect Abortion Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:57 PM PDT  Honestly, after two years of nationwide injunctions, ludicrously expanded standing rules, and blatant disregard for precedent, it's become hard for the judicial resistance to surprise. If there is a Trump regulation they can block — at least temporarily — they will do so, sound reasoning be damned. But even my cynical heart received a jolt at the sheer brazenness of Judge Stanley Bastian, from the Eastern District of Washington.Yesterday he issued (yes, of course) a nationwide injunction blocking implementation of the Trump administration's new Title X regulations — regulations that were a milder version of the Reagan administration's so-called "gag rule" against abortion counseling by Title X recipients. Whereas the Reagan rule prohibited Title X projects from counseling or referring for abortion, the Trump rule limits the referral. Both the Trump and the Reagan rules required physical and financial separation of Title X projects from abortion-related activities.But here's what makes Judge Bastian's decision so brazen. The stricter Reagan rules were upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Rust v. Sullivan, one of the seminal abortion decisions of the Rehnquist Court. The Court noted that Title X itself states that "none of the funds appropriated under this subchapter shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning" and then held that the Reagan rule — which, again, prohibited even abortion counseling — "plainly allow[ed] the Secretary's construction of the statute" and that the administration's break with past regulatory practice was supported by "reasoned analysis."Given this on-point Supreme Court precedent, you would think that a judge contradicting it would engage in searching analysis of why the Court's ruling doesn't govern the case.The Affordable Care Act, for example, does contain provisions prohibiting regulations that "interfere with communications regarding a full range of treatment options between the patient and the provider" or that create "unreasonable barriers to the ability of individuals to obtain appropriate medical care." But the ACA does not disturb Title X's prohibition against use in programs "where abortion is a method of family planning," and that is the key language the Supreme Court used to uphold Reagan's rule.Oddly enough, Judge Bastian held that the administration's regulation "likely violates the central purpose of Title X, which is to equalize access to comprehensive, evidence-based, and voluntary family planning." Yet that "central purpose" is unchanged since Rust and was no impediment to Reagan's rule.He called the Trump rule "arbitrary and capricious." The Supreme Court called the Reagan rule "plainly allowed."He claimed that the Trump administration offered "no reasoned analysis" for its regulation, but a virtually identical "reasoned analysis" was unequivocally upheld by the Court almost three decades ago.As a general rule, it is far more preferable to legislate than to regulate, but when the Supreme Court has specifically upheld remarkably similar regulations — or when a president is acting pursuant to specific congressional delegations — it is not the role of a mere district-court judge to wave away precedent. It is especially not the role of a mere district-court judge to increase his reach from coast to coast.Moreover, given the relatively glacial pace of even injunction litigation, this same district-court judge knows that he can have his way for months on end as the case winds its way through appeals and as the clock ticks down on Trump's first term. Judicial overreach and judicial delaying tactics are now the new normal.Our nation is moving deeper into contention, division, and stagnation. Thanks to precedents being set now, look for this pattern to repeat itself time and again. Activists and attorneys general from opposing parties will race to favorable jurisdictions, block disfavored policies, then try to hold on for dear life for month after month until the next election.There has been a great deal of hand-wringing (especially on the left) about America's allegedly "undemocratic" institutions. The Senate is under fire now. So is the Electoral College. But I see absolutely no handwringing from those same individuals when unelected district judges defy statutes drafted by the democratically elected Congress or regulations crafted by a democratically elected president.The Constitution trumps Congress and the president, of course, but the hallmark of decisions such as Judge Bastian's is not respect for the Constitution but rather contempt for the administration. Based on the belief that Trump is a threat to America, decisions like this threaten our constitutional order, and they set negative precedents and establish negative practices that will doubtless persist well beyond the end of the present administration. Both sides, at different times, will come to regret the toxic legacy of the judicial resistance.
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| Snow in Chicago this close to May is unusual, but we're getting numb to abnormal weather Posted: 27 Apr 2019 01:46 PM PDT  Yes, it is snowing in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest. Yes, it is April 27 — a mere four days until May. Yes, people are heading to Twitter and social media to freak out. And finally, yes, we'll forget our shock as soon as the next extreme weather event happens. That's what a study from earlier in 2019 conducted by the UC Davis environmental science and policy researcher Frances Moore found after examining 2 billion tweets over a two-and-half year period. It found that we tweet about unusual weather because it stands out, but as it becomes more normal, we accept it as how it is and post about it less. In this way we slowly acclimate to extreme weather from climate change, the study asserts. So Saturday's late-April snowstorm in Chicago stands out now, but in the long-run it'll blend into the February heatwaves, torrential flooding, and other once-remarkable-but-now-not-so-notable weather we experience as the climate changes. SEE ALSO: This Twitter bot forecasts the weather with emoji In this particular situation, as more snow and cold temperatures strike later into spring, we're more likely to not notice the strangeness and bizarre patterns — and eventually accept May snowfall as a normal trend, even if it's not. Who says Chicago isn't a great place to live? Snow today! pic.twitter.com/OTetTgtdNz — michaelj (@mjc5169) April 27, 2019 Snow again here in Chicago... Chicago pic.twitter.com/Y0Uy3oFa0T — y2 (@y2_i) April 27, 2019 Enjoy the weather ��Let it snow again #Chicago April 27 ❄️#WeLoveChicago �� #Chicagoweather☃️There are parts of the city are expected to see 4 to 8 inches of snow. Yikes.☃️Chicago could receive latest snowfall in 30 yearshttps://t.co/JSKp02fyzv pic.twitter.com/Qt9Lwmo9TQ — ChiStock$��️ (@ChiStocks) April 27, 2019 Only in Chicago can @Skilling give you an allergy report and a snow total map in the same forecast pic.twitter.com/CuTmG1UStn — WGN TV News (@WGNNews) April 26, 2019 And while it seems outrageous for this much snow to accumulate in the middle of spring, it has happened in the past, and even later into the season. The probabilities of exceeding 6" of snow over the next 24 hours — through 1 a.m. Sunday CDT. Heavy snow can occur in the Upper Midwest into May. A couple memorable May events were May 1-3, 2013 and May 27-29, 1947. pic.twitter.com/pRADs7o0nb — NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) April 27, 2019 April showers? More like April snow. Get used to it. WATCH: Finally, a car umbrella to keep your vehicle cool in high temps
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| Ex-Minnesota cop denies overreacting when he shot Australian woman Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:00 AM PDT ![Ex-Minnesota cop denies overreacting when he shot Australian woman]( "Ex-Minnesota cop denies overreacting when he shot Australian woman") A former Minnesota policeman on trial for murder on Friday denied overreacting when he fatally shot an Australian woman who approached his patrol car in a dark alley. Mohamed Noor, 33, was testifying for a second day in a Minneapolis court. Prosecutor Amy Sweasy asked Noor whether Damond could have been flagging him down when he saw her raise her right arm.
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| Biden makes Trump 'look very young,' US president says Posted: 26 Apr 2019 08:09 AM PDT  President Donald Trump opened a fresh line of attack Friday against his leading White House rival Joe Biden, saying the 76-year-old Democrat is "making me look very young" and vibrant by comparison. "I look at Joe, I don't know about him," he said of Biden, who launched his 2020 presidential bid Thursday with direct attacks on Trump's character and controversial performance in office.
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| MetLife’s Departing CEO Urges Executives to Take Public Stances Posted: 26 Apr 2019 05:04 AM PDT  In his parting letter to shareholders, Chief Executive Officer Steven Kandarian urged fellow executives to push for policies that preserve free markets, create wealth and raise living standards. Kandarian cited stances MetLife took during his tenure, which he said helped both the insurer and the country overall.
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| Now Is Not the Time to Get Rid of the A-10 Warthog (And Replace It with the F-35) Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:07 PM PDT  I admit it, as a former infantryman, I'm a partial to the A-10 Thunderbolt II. I don't mind that it's ugly. I don't mind that it entered service all the way back in the mid 1970s, making it older than me. I don't mind that it's slow, basically a flying 30 mm cannon sheathed in a 1,200-pound titanium "bathtub." In fact, these are exactly the things that endear the A-10 to grunts like me. It's our plane. It was made for us and us alone.The Warthog was, is, and will be for the foreseeable future the premier close-ground support plane. And all the things that I mentioned above — its simplicity and weight — are what make it so effective at its job. The titanium armor encasing the plane makes it impervious to high-explosive and armor-piercing projectiles up to 23 mm. It can even take a few hits from 57 mm rounds. Parts of the cockpit interior is covered with a nylon spall to protect the pilot from fragmentation. In other words, this is a plane meant to fly low and slow, mix it up in close quarters with ground targets that can return fire, and get its hands a little bit dirty. The A-10 is notorious for being able to take damage and keep flying. It's battle tested and soldier approved.(This article by Scott Beauchamp originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. This article first appeared in 2016.)
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| UPDATE 1-Saudi, UAE overstate their oil capacities - Iran oil minister Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:15 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Saudi, UAE overstate their oil capacities - Iran oil minister]( "UPDATE 1-Saudi, UAE overstate their oil capacities - Iran oil minister") Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates overstate their oil capacities, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported on Friday. The comments were in reaction to expectations the two countries would fill any supply gap caused by a tightening of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Washington has decided not to renew its exemptions from U.S. sanctions to buyers of Iranian oil.
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| This is how NASA would respond to an asteroid impacting Earth Posted: 27 Apr 2019 10:09 AM PDT  If an asteroid were ever to be come hurtling towards Earth, what would be the plan to stop it from impacting the planet? That's the question NASA and its partners, including the European Space Agency and the U.S.'s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are gathering at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in early May to investigate. SEE ALSO: Behold, the very bizarre Facebook auto-captions from NASA launch During the five day conference, NASA and its partners plan to engage in a "tabletop exercise" that simulates what would happen if scientists and authorities were to learn of a near-Earth Object (NEO) impact scenario. "A tabletop exercise of a simulated emergency commonly used in disaster management planning to help inform involved players of important aspects of a possible disaster and identify issues for accomplishing a successful response," says NASA. In the exercise (detailed by the ESA here), NASA and its partners have to respond to a "realistic — but fictional — scenario" involving a NEO named "2019 PDC," which has a 1 in 100 chance of impacting Earth in 2027. Each day of the #PlanetaryDefense Conference, a press release will be put out, updating participants on the hypothetical asteroid #2019PDC - now (hypothetically) hurtling towards Earth.��☄️More on this year's #ImpactScenario on the #rocketscience blog:https://t.co/kn9xsTABg2 pic.twitter.com/AAC5B9mzje — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) April 27, 2019 Armed with all of the hypothetical information about "2019 PDC," the exercise is intended to see how the various organizations and governments would handle the situation as it unfolds. "The first step in protecting our planet is knowing what's out there," said Rüdiger Jehn, the ESA's Head of Planetary Defence. "Only then, with enough warning, can we take the steps needed to prevent an asteroid strike altogether, or minimize the damage it does on the ground." In such a situation, the ESA says it would live tweet details "so you'll find out the 'news' as the experts do." And for the hypothetical 2019 PDC asteroid exercise at the conference, the agency will indeed live tweet the series of decided actions as if they are made. "These exercises have really helped us in the planetary defense community to understand what our colleagues on the disaster management side need to know," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer. "This exercise will help us develop more effective communications with each other and with our governments." Despite NASA having participated in six NEO impact exercises before, each scenario is different and the agency says it's learned that the focus is not always on the asteroid details, even though that's still crucial to creating a plan to either deflect it or reduce its impact. "What emergency managers want to know is when, where and how an asteroid would impact, and the type and extent of damage that could occur," said Leviticus Lewis of the Response Operations Division for FEMA. Well, you know what they say...it's better to be prepared. At the very least, NASA and friends won't be panicking as hard if an asteroid were ever to really hit Earth. WATCH: NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine warns India's anti-satellite test could be dangerous for the ISS
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| Venezuelan government denounces regional OAS forum Posted: 27 Apr 2019 02:04 PM PDT  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday staged a rally to celebrate its split with a key regional forum, the Organization of American States.
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| 'People running everywhere': 1 dead, 3 wounded in Passover shooting at synagogue near San Diego Posted: 27 Apr 2019 05:25 PM PDT  Among the injured: a rabbi addressing the congregation and a juvenile female, authorities said. An older woman died. A suspect was detained by police.
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| Trump to Hannity: Russia Investigation ‘Was a Coup’ and ‘Attempted Overthrow’ of Government Posted: 25 Apr 2019 07:57 PM PDT  In his first television interview since the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report, President Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election was a "coup" and an "attempted overthrow of the United States government."Trump, who has largely avoided reporters since last week's release of the special counsel's report revealed at least 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice, called his good friend Hannity to discuss the findings. Or, more accurately, to rant to a pro-Trump audience about how there was "no collusion" and it's time for some payback.Having begun his broadcast by hyping a new Fox News story about texts previously released last year between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the conservative primetime star said he disagreed with the president when he said at the beginning of his presidency that he wanted to move past investigating 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton."Do you regret saying that?" Hannity asked, expressing an urgent need to get to the bottom of Clinton's private email server, something Hannity described last week as a current threat to national security."No, I don't regret saying it," Trump replied. "When I won, they were all saying lock her up. Lock her up. I said no, no. Let's get on with life. That was different."Trump went on to claim that he felt differently now because shortly after the election, "they started coming at us with the insurance policy," referring to the Russia probe. After railing against the investigation into Clinton's email server and claiming Clinton "destroyed" lives, the president called former FBI officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe "dirty cops.""This was a coup," Trump exclaimed. "This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government... This was an overthrow and it's a disgraceful thing."The president also revisited his unsubstantiated March 2017 claim that President Obama had wiretapped him at Trump Tower during the election, boasting to Hannity that his assertion had received attention "like you've never seen" while admitting that it was based only on a "little bit of a hunch."Trump said the claim "blew up because they thought maybe I was wise to them."During his congressional testimony earlier this month, Attorney General William Barr prompted Democratic backlash when he said he believed "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign during 2016, remarks he would somewhat walk back later.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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| Deutsche Bank focused on solo destiny after Commerzbank deal demise Posted: 26 Apr 2019 08:18 AM PDT ![Deutsche Bank focused on solo destiny after Commerzbank deal demise]( "Deutsche Bank focused on solo destiny after Commerzbank deal demise") Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet. The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been "skeptical" about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.
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| Amazon delivers record profits on gains in cloud, advertising Posted: 25 Apr 2019 10:16 PM PDT  Amazon on Thursday delivered record profits for the first quarter, fueled by gains in cloud computing and new business segments for the US technology colossus. Net profit in the quarter more than doubled from the same period last year to $3.6 billion, extending Amazon's trend of rising profitability. Seattle-based Amazon said revenue from online sales was up 10 percent billion while money taken in from subscription services and the Amazon Web Services cloud platform leapt some 40 percent.
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| Someone Please Save This Outrageous Corvette Wagon Posted: 26 Apr 2019 06:56 AM PDT ![Someone Please Save This Outrageous Corvette Wagon]( "Someone Please Save This Outrageous Corvette Wagon") The world needs more six-headlight shooting-brake Corvette show cars.
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| India Amory Releases New Table Linens, and Partners with Mottahedeh to Show Them Off Posted: 26 Apr 2019 01:31 PM PDT  Julia Amory, purveyor of colorful block-printed linens, is out with her spring collection of tablecloths and napkins
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| How Does the GMC Sierra's CarbonPro Bed Compare vs. the Ford F-150's Aluminum Bed? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 11:41 AM PDT  Which material is best for a pickup bed?
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| US imposes sanctions on Venezuelan foreign minister Posted: 26 Apr 2019 10:09 AM PDT  The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza as it tries to ramp up pressure to remove President Nicolas Maduro. "The United States will not stand by and watch as the illegitimate Maduro regime starves the Venezuelan people of their wealth, humanity and right to democracy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing that any US assets of Arreaza would be blocked. The sanctions are the latest slapped by the United States against senior figures in Venezuela as it seeks to install in power Juan Guaido, the opposition leader.
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| 1 dead, several injured following fiery crash on I-70 in Denver Posted: 25 Apr 2019 06:32 PM PDT  Several vehicles were on fire following a crash on eastbound Interstate 70 under the Denver West Colorado Mills Parkway bridge.
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| Family of slain motorist celebrates after officer sentenced Posted: 25 Apr 2019 08:00 PM PDT  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Corey Jones's family sang the gospel song "Victory is Mine" as they walked out of a Florida courthouse, celebrating after a judge handed a 25-year sentence to a former police officer for killing the stranded black motorist in 2015.
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| Huawei hopes for Britain-like solution in New Zealand 5G bid Posted: 26 Apr 2019 12:43 AM PDT  Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei's equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage. Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world's top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded. In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.
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| Huge new iPhone 11 leak reminds us how much better Apple is at hardware than Android vendors Posted: 26 Apr 2019 05:23 AM PDT  Despite the fact that we still have nearly five months left to wait before Apple releases its next-generation iPhone 11 series smartphones, the pace of leaks has really picked up in recent weeks. The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max, and iPhone 11R (or whatever Apple ends up calling it) were shaping up to be boring updates a few short months ago, but more recent reports suggest that Apple is cooking up far more new features and upgrades than we had previously thought.Notes over the past month from the world's top Apple insider, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, have revealed a number of big upgrades coming to this year's iPhone 11 lineup. According to Kuo, the iPhone 11R will be bumped up to a dual-lens rear camera, while the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will both get huge camera upgrades, including a new triple-lens array. Kuo also says they'll have new frosted glass backs, and we might even have a new finish to look forward to.In terms of hardware, it looks like 2019's iPhone 11 will follow the same path as 2016's iPhone 7 series; the phones will look the same as their predecessors for the most part, but they'll pack huge performance improvements and a bunch of exciting new features. Those of us who follow the industry closely will immediately recall that the holiday quarter following the iPhone 7's release remains Apple's biggest quarter ever for iPhone sales. A whopping 78.29 million iPhones were sold in that three-month period, proving that iPhones can still drum up a ton of buzz despite modest design changes. But while the visual design changes on this year's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will indeed be modest, a new leak reminds that Apple's attention to detail remains unrivaled in the smartphone industry.It wasn't very long ago that a massive gap existed between iPhones and every other smartphone out there. Where design, build quality, and premium materials were concerned, nothing else on the market even came close. Android smartphones from vendors like Samsung and LG felt cheap and plasticky because, well, they were made out of cheap plastic. If you wanted a flagship smartphone that looked and felt like a flagship smartphone, you bought an iPhone.Needless to say, this is no longer the case. Samsung and other Android phone makers have invested a tremendous amount of effort and resources into building flagship phones that are on par with Apple's iPhone handsets. In 2019, even small Chinese smartphone vendors that most people in the US have never heard of build sleek flagship phones made of glass and metal. There is absolutely no question that the gap between the iPhone and flagship Android phones has narrowed -- but it's still there.We've seen Apple's 2019 iPhone designs leak a few times now. In fact just yesterday a Japanese blog posted a video that shows physical mockups of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max side by side. The video gives us a very good idea of what Apple's next-generation iPhones will look like in real life when they're released in September, but 3D printed mockups obviously don't feature the refinement we can expect from Apple's actual handsets.That brings us to a fresh new leak from Thursday morning. Twitter use @OnLeaks is known for getting his hands on files from Foxconn servers and using them to create renders of unreleased smartphones. The iPhone 11 has been been rendered before in the past, but @OnLeaks apparently received updated information recently because a new set of renders was just released with a number of key changes compared to the ones we saw earlier this year.The new iPhone 11 renders from @OnLeaks were posted on some website called Cashkaro, and they likely give us a very good idea of what to expect when Apple announces the iPhone 11 in the late summer. The square triple-lens rear camera array is where you should focus your attention, because that's where you'll find the biggest changes compared to earlier renders.The holes cut out above the camera lenses are much larger than they had been previously, but the camera bump itself is where your attention should be directed. First off, it looks a bit thinner than it has in previous renders. But more importantly -- and more impressively -- the camera bump on the iPhone 11 is apparently made entirely of glass. In fact, @OnLeaks tweeted that the entire back of the phone is a single piece of molded glass, camera bump included.Earlier iPhones will glass backs like the iPhone X and iPhone XS have metal inserts to house the rear camera, and those designs are far easier to manufacture. Of course Apple has never shied away from a challenge when it comes to manufacturing, and that's why it's still the only smartphone maker that uses a brilliant but expensive engineering trick to almost completely eliminate the bottom "chin" bezel beneath its iPhone displays.Most people probably won't even notice the difference if they upgrade from an iPhone X to the iPhone 11 later this year. But those of us who appreciate design know that many small details like this add up to a device with a fit and finish like no other.
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| Dead Falcon: Could Russia's Su-35 Beat an Air Force F-16 in Battle? Posted: 26 Apr 2019 04:45 AM PDT  With an AESA, the F-16 could probably hold its own against the Su-35 at longer ranges—but it would still be a challenge.The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon has been the mainstay of the U.S. and allied air forces for decades. Over the years, the aircraft has evolved from a lightweight visual range dogfighter into a potent multirole warplane that flies the gamut of missions ranging from the suppression of enemy air defenses to air superiority. Though it has been operational since 1980, the "Viper" continues to evolve and will remain in service with the U.S. Air Force and other militaries for decades to come. But while the F-16 remains a potent fighter, potential adversaries have caught up—the latest Russian aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-35 can match or exceed the Viper in many respects.While the Su-35 is more of an analogue to the Boeing F-15 Eagle, Russia is selling many more Flankers than MiG-29 Fulcrum derivatives around the world. Indeed, the U.S. Air Force usually has its "red air" aggressors replicate Flanker variants (usually the Flanker-G) rather than the MiG-29 or its derivatives during large force exercises like Red Flag or Red Flag Alaska. That's because derivatives of the massive twin-engine Russian jet are amongst the most likely aerial adversaries American pilots might face.(This first appeared in September 2015.)
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