PoliticsBusiness InsiderPete Buttigieg has emerged as the frontrunner to become Biden's secretary of transportation, new report says
Pete Buttigieg has emerged as a leading candidate to become President-elect Joe Biden's secretary of transportation, according to a CNN report. Buttigieg's nomination would elevate the profile of the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful. Buttigieg is widely expected to run for president again.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump signs executive order making Christmas Eve a federal holiday in 2020
Christmas Eve will be considered a federal holiday in the United States this year, according to a new executive order signed by President Trump. Under the executive order, signed Friday, “all executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, 24 December 2020, the day before Christmas Day”. The executive order does make an exception, however, for the heads of executive departments and agencies, who may determine that “certain offices and installations of their organisations, or parts thereof, must remain open,” as well as for employees who may be needed to work for “reasons of national security, defense, or other public need”.
LifestyleThe WeekRussian opposition leader Alexey Navalny may have been poisoned by a very bad Negroni, investigation suggests
A sweeping investigation into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny pins the non-fatal act on Russia's FSB spy agency, and suggests a very poor tasting cocktail may have been the source. Per the report — which was conducted by the investigative website Bellingcat in partnership with CNN, Der Spiegel, and The Insider — Navalny, a major thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was in the Russian city of Tomsk on Aug. 19 when he met his traveling team at a hotel bar for a drink around 11:15 p.m. He ordered a late-night Bloody Mary, but was told by the bartender the ingredients weren't on hand and that he should have a Negroni instead.
U.S.USA TODAYMan climbs on wing of Alaska Airlines plane departing Las Vegas airport, takes off shoes and socks
Police have arrested a man who managed to climb the wing of a departing Alaska Airlines plane at Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport on Saturday. Passengers watched in shock — and filmed — inside Alaska Airlines flight 1367 from Las Vegas to Portland when they saw the man climbing onboard the wing, sitting down and eventually taking off his shoes and socks during his estimated 45-minute stint. "WTH did I just witness?" passenger Erin Evans asked on Twitter, posting video of the incident.
HealthBusiness InsiderHead of White House security office has his right foot amputated because of severe COVID-19 and is facing 'staggering medical bills,' new report says
The head of the White House security office, Crede Bailey, had a part of his lower right leg and the big toe of his left foot amputated because of COVID-19, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Bailey has been hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19 for three months but is said to be recovering. Friends of Bailey's have raised over $35,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for his rehabilitation and "staggering" healthcare costs.
PoliticsThe IndependentMichigan lawmaker stripped of duties after refusing to rule out violence at electoral college vote
Republican legislative leaders in Michigan have stripped a lawmaker of his committee assignments on Monday after he hinted about his involvement in a group that intends to disrupt the Electoral College vote scheduled for the afternoon. Representative Gary Eisen, who represents St Clair Township, made the remarks in the morning during an interview with Port Huron-area radio station WPHM. When asked about the Electoral College, set to meet n the state Senate chamber to cast the state's 16 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden, Mr Eisen said that he and others were planning some sort of event and that he could not rule out the possibility of violence.
HealthThe WeekFauci: Americans without underlying conditions could get COVID-19 vaccine by late March, early April
A COVID-19 vaccine is officially being administered in the United States, and Dr. Anthony Fauci is predicting the "vast majority" of Americans could receive theirs by early summer. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, spoke to MSNBC on Monday after the first American health-care workers began to receive Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will first be available to those at the highest risk, including health-care workers and then those with underlying health conditions, but Fauci told MSNBC that "the normal, healthy man and woman in the street, who has no underlying conditions" will "likely" be able to get it by "the end of March, the beginning of April."
HealthThe TelegraphApathy found to be early warning sign of dementia in your 40s, giving hope of early treatments
Apathy in your 40s could be an early warning sign of dementia which appears decades before other symptoms, Cambridge University scientists have found. The study raises hopes of early treatment for the condition which affects almost a million people in the UK. Researchers found that apathy, such as a lack of interest or motivation, is an important symptom of dementia and one which can accelerate someone's decline in later life.
U.S.Miami HeraldTwo inmates who escaped a Tennessee prison arrested in South Florida
Two inmates who escaped from a prison in Tennessee were arrested in Pompano Beach Sunday night, officials said. According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Robert Lee Brown and Christopher Osteen were arrested by the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals Service after the two absconded from Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Friday. Brown, 36, was serving an 18-year sentence for aggravated rape, and Osteen, 34, was serving an eight-year sentence for burglary.
BusinessBusiness InsiderThe Trump administration turned down more vaccine doses 'as recently as November,' former FDA commissioner says
The Trump administration once again rejected an offer from Pfizer for more COVID-19 vaccines "as recently as November," according to former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb. "There were multiple conversations with the U.S. government about taking more supply in the second quarter," Gottlieb, who is a Pfizer board member, told CNBC on Monday. This comes on the heels of the Trump administration reportedly rejecting 100 million doses of Pfizer's recently approved COVID-19 vaccine over the summer, according to The New York Times.
PoliticsThe Independent‘One of the worst attorneys general in American history’: Criticism of Bill Barr pours in as he resigns
The criticism has been pouring in from all sides for Attorney General William Barr after Donald Trump announced he would be stepping down from the Justice Department before Christmas. Mr Barr has long been a lightning rod of anger and frustration from Democrats for his handling of the Mueller report, his heavy-handed response to racial justice protests this past summer, and his attempts to investigate FBI and DOJ officials who led probes into Mr Trump's 2016 campaign. Recently, the attorney general has become something of a pariah on the right for defying Mr Trump's claims of election fraud.
- NewsYahoo News Video
Newsom could face recall, as resistance to California governor is growing
An effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is gaining momentum, partly fueled by outrage over the Democrat dining with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling residents to stay home.
WorldThe TelegraphSupermarkets to implement rationing within 24 hours of a run on essential goods being detected
Supermarkets are poised to implement rationing within 24 hours of a run on essential goods being detected, amid growing fears panic buying will erupt if the UK confirms a no-deal Brexit, The Telegraph has learnt. One major chain is preparing to intervene at high speed to implement a three-item limit on specific products, and could even impose a one-item limit on certain baby goods, in order to ensure all customers have access to essentials, according to a senior industry source. Moves to start rationing are expected to be expedited this winter after many stores took a week or more to levy item limits when coronavirus sparked a spate of customer stockpiling in the spring.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderGeorgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler posed for a photo with a former KKK chief - but says she didn't know who he was
Sen. Kelly Loeffler has been photographed with Chester Doles, a former head of the Ku Klux Klan and member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Doles posted a selfie of them at a rally for Loeffler in Dawsonville, Georgia, on Friday, on the Russian social-media site VKontakte. The image was reshared on Twitter by a Jewish advocacy group, which criticized Loeffler.
U.S.USA TODAYMichigan man imprisoned for nearly 4 decades exonerated after witness admits lying
It felt like all the possibilities that I was working on all those years were coming to fruition,” Forbes said. I didn't think it would take that long, but patience paid off. COVID-19 gave this Ohio family a 'sucker punch': Powerful family emails show how tragedy unfolded Witness comes forward Key evidence used to implicate Forbes was witness testimony from a woman, Annice Kennebrew, who said she saw three men, including Forbes, burn down the century-old, two-story house-turned-apartment in Jackson.
PoliticsThe IndependentMeet the Republican who wants to nullify Monday’s Electoral College vote
As Donald Trump promises to wage his war against the 2020 election results to the bitter end, a small handful of his most ardent backers in Congress has formulated a far-fetched plan to help him cling to power. Conservatives have been arguing for weeks that there was widespread election fraud in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin, although the paucity of evidence they have presented so far has led to a string of humiliations in the state and federal court systems. Leading the effort to overturn the electoral vote is Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, who has been prowling around the US Capitol in recent weeks trying to drum up support for the scheme among conservative House members and senators.
HealthMiami HeraldWhat are your chances of dying from COVID? This calculator gives you a hint
Studies and statistics alike have shown that people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions face the highest risks of dying from COVID-19 compared to the rest of the population. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health developed an online calculator that can answer these questions. The tool, which is updated on a weekly basis, incorporates information on mortality risks and statistics from several data sets on the community and state level.
HealthINSIDERFamily was kicked off United Airlines flight because their 2-year-old refused to keep her mask on
Eliz Orban says she and her family were kicked off a United Airlines flight after being unable to get her 2-year-old daughter to keep her mask on. United Airlines has a policy that states all passengers over the age of 2 must wear a "face covering" during flights. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children over the age of 2 should wear a mask, the World Health Organization says that children under the age of 5 should be exempt.
WorldBusiness InsiderHours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, US Marines took on the Japanese in what became the Alamo of the Pacific
On December 8, 1941, the US garrison on Wake Island awoke to news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan's destruction of the US Pacific Fleet meant Wake Island was on its own against Japan's advance across the Pacific. The garrison surrendered after a 16-day battle, but their resistance gave the US Navy breathing room and became a rallying cry for Americans.
U.S.The IndependentFlorida newspapers sue DeSantis for ‘covering up Covid reports’
Two newspapers are suing Florida for allegedly suppressing information about the coronavirus pandemic in the Sunshine State. The Orlando Sentinel and its sister publication, the South Florida Sentinel, accuse the Ron DeSantis-led administration of violating freedom of information laws. Both titles claim officials have been burying weekly reports by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which make recommendations on how to slow the spread of the infection.
U.S.USA TODAYMississippi police identify 2-year-old boy abandoned at Goodwill donation outlet, arrest suspect
Police in Mississippi police say a 2-year-old boy left abandoned at a Goodwill donation outlet on Monday has been identified and is in the custody of Mississippi Child Protective Services. "Southaven Police received numerous tips, and with the assistance of F.B.I. offices in both Mississippi, and Tennessee, along with the Shelby County Sheriff's Department a suspect related to this case was taken into custody in Memphis," the department said. Officers responded to the Goodwill outlet around 9:30 a.m., where they learned the boy was left with a plastic bag that contained a note and a change of clothes.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderAttorney General Barr reportedly instructed prosecutors not to reveal the Hunter Biden tax probes before the election to keep the DOJ out of politics
Attorney General William Barr went to great lengths to prevent prosecutors and senior Justice Department officials from revealing the existence of federal tax investigations into Hunter Biden before the election, The Wall Street Journal reported. The report includes new details of Barr's efforts to keep the investigations under wraps. Monday's report adds to a growing list of frustrations President Donald Trump has with Barr and may catalyze the president's efforts to fire the attorney general weeks before he leaves office.
U.S.INSIDERTiny house owners are facing evictions or living under the radar because their homes are considered illegal in most parts of the US
Tiny house owners across the country are facing the struggles of zoning ordinances that exclude tiny homes. Zoning differs from state to state and even from community to community, so tiny house owners need to work with their local governments to pass tiny house-friendly ordinances if they don't exist. Brianna O'Brien said she was forced to move out of her tiny house after she parked it on her parents' property in New Hampshire and the zoning board told her it wasn't allowed.
PoliticsThe IndependentJoseph Epstein wiped from university website after backlash over ‘sexist drivel’ Jill Biden column
Northwestern University has distanced itself from its former lecturer Joseph Epstein who, in an article published by the Wall Street Journal, criticised the incoming first lady for using the title Dr when she is not a medical professional. Epstein's article has met with a backlash after he said the use of the title by Dr Jill Biden, who has a doctorate in education, “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic”. Northwestern has now scrubbed Epstein's page from its website, where he was previously listed as an emeritus lecturer of English.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRepublican congressman pretends to attack antifa in an ad released after a weekend of violent political protests
Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw released a video ad on Sunday showing him pretending to attack antifa activists in Georgia. The ad comes as President Donald Trump and his GOP allies have continued to spread baseless claims about the outcome of the presidential election and attempt to overturn the results. Over the weekend, violence broke out in Washington, DC, and Washington state between Trump supporters and counterprotesters.
“The prospect of a 2024 run is politically significant. It’s also a complete fiction.”
“His flirtation with a 2024 bid ensures he’ll remain the dominant force in the Republican Party.”
“He shouldn’t run for president again. There’s a better job and life for him on the horizon.”
“Trump is in for years of scandals and humiliations…He’ll have to devote much of his energy to trying to stay out of prison.”
“If Trump himself passes on the opportunity, his two very political children could also potentially pick up the mantle.”