PoliticsSalonDemocrats alert inspector general that GOP's Biden probe “directly implicated” Perry in corruption
U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry Alex Wong/Getty Images The Republican report aimed at raising questions about the dealings of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine appears to have accidentally implicated former Energy Secretary Rick Perry in an energy scheme in the foreign nation, according to the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. Republicans led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. released their much-hyped report on Hunter Biden's role at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma on Wednesday.
PoliticsThe Independent‘They cover my shrapnel wounds’: Veteran Senate candidate responds to critics using photo of her tattoos
After a Republican super PAC in Texas posted a photo of Senate candidate MJ Hegar featuring her tattoos and calling her a “radical,” Hegar had a quick response on Twitter: the tattoos covered shrapnel wounds she received as an Air Force helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. A pro-Cornyn Super PAC is using a photo of my tattoos to make me seem 'radical. That's pretty funny to me,” Hegar tweeted on Thursday, referring to her opponent in the race, longtime GOP Senator John Cornyn.
U.S.INSIDERAmy McGrath, Mitch McConnell's Senate opponent, demands that Kentucky's AG release the full grand jury report that led to no charges for Breonna Taylor's killing
People flocked to a Louisville memorial honoring Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot and killed after officers entered her home on a no-knock warrant. On Wednesday, three officers involved in the incident were not indicted in relation to Taylor's death. The decision sparked protests across the state and across the country demanding justice for Taylor.
BusinessBusiness InsiderNY transit workers created an underground 'man cave' in Grand Central to 'get drunk and party,' MTA says
Three New York transit employees converted a Grand Central Terminal storage room into a secret lounge, according to a Thursday report from the Office of the MTA Inspector General. The Metro-North Railroad suspended all three without pay, but they deny the allegations. Three New York transit workers built a secret underground 'man cave' where they would 'hang out and get drunk,' according to a report issued Thursday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Office of the Inspector General.
PoliticsSalonSanders tells Fox that Trump doesn’t plan to exit: He doesn't expect "any type of transfer of power"
Sarah Sanders and Donald Trump Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Thursday that President Donald Trump is not planning for a peaceful transfer of power because he expects to win. During a press conference on Wednesday, Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses in November. "We're going to have to see what happens.
WorldThe Independent‘I’m very ashamed’: Argentine lawmaker suspended after kissing woman’s breast during virtual session of congress
A lawmaker in Argentina has been suspended after he was spotted kissing a woman's breast during a virtual session of congress. Juan Emilio Ameri, who represents the northern province of Salta, was seen by both colleagues and members of the public committing the lewd act as the chamber of deputies held a special meeting broadcast on Zoom. Footage of the incident quickly went viral on social media, sparking outrage and quickly leading to a vote in which the 47-year-old was suspended pending an investigation.
U.S.INSIDERInvestigators say they found thousands of child porn images in the home of a popular kids' YouTuber
A science educator whose YouTube channel "The Happy Scientist" taught children about science has been indicted on federal child pornography charges. Investigators allege that John Robert Krampf, 64, knowingly received and possessed pornographic content "involving a minor who had not attained 12 years of age," court documents show. Dixie State University Police Chief Blair Barfuss, involved in the case in his capacity as a special agent on the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force, told Insider that Krampf admitted to "downloading multiple files of child abuse material."
PoliticsSalonTed Cruz blocks resolution honoring Ginsburg after Tucker Carlson pushes conspiracy theory about her
Tucker Carlson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Ted Cruz Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images The Republican conspiracy theory that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not actually have a dying wish to have the winner of the 2020 election choose her replacement on the U.S. Supreme Court was on display on the Senate floor on Tuesday. "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed," Ginsburg dictated in a statement released by her granddaughter, Clara Spera. Related video: Trump reveals list of potential SCOTUS picks, including Ted Cruz But there's a right-wing conspiracy theory that the quote is not accurate, thus giving Republicans freedom to ignore her wish.
PoliticsAssociated PressPompeo shatters diplomatic norms with political appearances
Undaunted by criticism, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is forging ahead with a series of events that have overtly political overtones ahead of the November presidential election. Casting aside a long tradition of the nation's top diplomat shunning partisan politics, Pompeo gave a speech on Wednesday in the swing state of Wisconsin, marking his participation in the fourth event this month alone that goes well beyond what previous secretaries of state have done in support of the presidents they have served. From the Republican National Convention, which he addressed by recorded video from Israel, to an evangelical megachurch in Texas over the weekend and the Value Voters Summit in Washington just on Tuesday, Pompeo has not been shy in taking his message to audiences considered essential to President Donald Trump's reelection.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderCoronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx reportedly says she is 'distressed' at direction of White House COVID-19 task force
US COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told those close to her that she is "distressed" at the direction of the White House coronavirus task force and is weighing if she will remain with the team, CNN reported Wednesday. The White House coronavirus expert told people close to her that she felt her role was diminished after neuroradiologist Dr. Scott Atlas joined the task force. "The president has found somebody who matches what he wants to believe," a source close to Birx told CNN.
- HealthYahoo News Video
Trump unveils his America First Healthcare Plan
In a speech delivered in North Carolina on Thursday, President Trump outlined his "vision" for affordable, high-quality health care called the America First Healthcare Plan.
U.S.INSIDER2 Black Lives Matter demonstrators are facing life in prison. Experts say the 'deeply disturbing' potential sentences are an 'unprecedented' form of government overreach.
Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman are facing life in prison after officials said they lit a police van on fire with a Molotov cocktail at a Black Lives Matter protest in Brooklyn in May. Experts told Insider that the charges are "unprecedented" and "deeply disturbing." Early on the morning of May 30, New York police officers arrested two lawyers during a Black Lives Matter protest.
PoliticsThe Independent'In the US, we count ballots': Trump slapped down by Electoral Commission chief over call to dump mail votes
A US Electoral Commission chief issued a sharp rebuke against Donald Trump on Wednesday after the president called for mail ballots to be dumped, as he refused to say whether he would leave office in the event of an election defeat to Democrat rival Joe Biden. Ellen Weintraub, Federal Commission Commissioner (FEC), warned the president that America does not simply "get rid" of ballots. In case anyone is unclear on the concept, in the United States of America, we do not 'get rid of' ballots.
- WorldReuters
Belarusian taxi driver who helped protester flee lights up internet
An unnamed Belarusian taxi driver who helped a man escape from riot police during protests against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko has transfixed social media users who have avidly shared footage of the dramatic incident. The 16-second video clip, filmed by a Euroradio.fm reporter, features a movie-like pursuit and escape that unfolded in a Minsk residential area on Wednesday evening as crowds protested against what they said was the illegitimate inauguration of Lukashenko. The video, viewed by tens of thousands of people on various online platforms, shows a young man being chased by baton-wielding policemen in riot gear who then manages to jump into a taxi.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderA voting advocacy group recorded over 40,000 new voter registrations in the 2 days after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Voter registration spiked following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Vote.org, a nonprofit that allows people to register through its website, told Business Insider that they had 40,771 new voter registrations on the Saturday and Sunday following Ginsburg's death. After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week, voter registration surged according to voting advocacy groups.
U.S.Associated PressOwner of fire-stricken ship to pay $1.8M for Sri Lankan help
The owner of a large oil tanker that caught fire off Sri Lanka's coast has agreed to pay $1.8 million to the island nation for its help in extinguishing the blaze, an official said Thursday. MT New Diamond, which was carrying nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil, was damaged by two fires over a week in early September. Last week, Attorney General Dappula de Livera submitted an interim claim of $1.8 million for services provided by the Sri Lankan navy, air force, ports authority and Marine Environment Protection Authority since the ship caught fire on Sept. 3.
PoliticsThe Independent2020 Election: Trump claims first presidential debate will be ‘unfair'
Donald Trump has claimed the first presidential debate next week will be "unfair." Mr Trump said in a radio interview that veteran moderator Chris Wallace was “controlled by the radical left” and would not ask Joe Biden tough questions. “Chris is good, but I would be willing to bet that he won't ask Biden tough questions,” the president told Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio.
BusinessReutersU.S. ambassador says Turkey ignores pharma debt at its peril
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey said on Wednesday companies will consider abandoning its market if it fails to fully meet debt payments to American pharmaceutical firms, and he criticised a new Turkish law clamping down on big social media sites. Addressing a trade conference streamed online, David Satterfield said debts owed by government hospitals to pharmaceutical companies in the United States and elsewhere had risen to around $2.3 billion from some $230 million a year ago. Satterfield said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had raised the issue with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak a year ago and was assured that arrangements would be made for prompt payment.
PoliticsUSA TODAY OpinionDemocrats, not Republicans, are hypocrites on filling SCOTUS seat
In 2016, President Obama appointed Merrick Garland to fill the seat left vacant by the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that “Article II, Section II of the Constitution grants the Senate the right to withhold its consent, as it deems necessary” and that tradition holds that when a Supreme Court vacancy exists in an election year when there is a president of one party and a Senate controlled by the other, the nomination should wait until after the election. 11 Republican Senators, in a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, wrote in February of 2016 that you have to go back to 1888 “in order to find an election year nominee who was nominated and confirmed under divided government, as we have now.”
U.S.NBC News'Ashamed of this decision': Backlash toward Kentucky AG piles on after no charges are filed in Breonna Taylor's death
The death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman fatally shot by Louisville police in March, thrust Kentucky's top prosecutor, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, onto a national stage just a few months after he took office. In May, when the Louisville Metro Police Department turned over its files to Cameron as independent special prosecutor, scrutiny immediately began over how the untested attorney general would handle such a high-profile incident after months of public outcry to "arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" and whether he could satisfy a community cleaved by racial unrest and accusations of police brutality. He ultimately brought the criminal case before a grand jury this week.
- NewsFOX News Videos
Senate committees release interim Hunter Biden probe report
Author Peter Schweizer joins 'Bill Hemmer Reports' for analysis
PoliticsBusiness InsiderThe USPS claimed it can't restore some mail sorting machines because it 'dismantled' them
The US Postal Service claimed in a court filing Wednesday that it has already taken apart high-speed mail sorting machines and therefore can't put them back into service. The USPS claimed it was "not possible" to restore machines it had "dismantled" for parts, only those that had merely been "disconnected." A federal judge issued an injunction last week requiring the USPS to reverse those and other changes made by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, calling them an "an intentional effort" by Trump and DeJoy "to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of upcoming local, state, and federal elections."
WorldReutersThree Egyptian policemen, four militants killed in prison break attempt
Three Egyptian policemen were killed while preventing four Islamist militants on death row fleeing a Cairo prison on Wednesday, the interior ministry said. All four militants were killed in the failed attempt to escape from Tora prison, it added in a statement. Three of the prisoners named in the statement were convicted in 2018 with establishing and joining a militant group called Ansar al-Sharia and killing at least 10 policemen in a series of attacks between August 2013 and May 2014.
SportsThe IndependentESPN cuts off analyst Jalen Rose as he calls for arrest of cops in Breonna Taylor case
Basketball analyst Jalen Rose got cut off by ESPN on a live broadcast as he called for the arrest of the police officers in the Breonna Taylor case. The former NBA star weighed in after the announcement that none of the three officers would be charged with her killing. “It'd also be a great day to arrest the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor,” shouted Rose as he discussed the fourth game of the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderMary Trump says her uncle will go 'farther than you can possibly imagine' to hold onto power if he loses the election as he's afraid of prosecution
Mary Trump said that Americans should take Donald Trump's suggestion he might not accept the election result seriously. Speaking at a virtual fundraiser Thursday, when asked how far she believes her uncle would be willing to go to remain in the White House, she replied, "farther than you can possibly imagine," reported the Huffington Post. Mary Trump has emerged as a vocal critic of her uncle, claiming that a scarred childhood has left him with a series of pathological personality traits.
“Enfranchising 16-year-olds would be good for them and good for our democracy.”
“At 16, most kids have little awareness of politics, civics, or American history.”
“Voting is habit forming...which underscores the importance of having as stable an environment as possible for the youngest voters.”
“Keeping the voting age at 18 is not a slap at 16-year-olds. It is recognition that an informed electorate is the best kind.”
“When young people’s participation lags badly, issues important to them receive short shrift in the public discourse.”