- U.S.Yahoo News
EPA administrator criticizes inspector general's conclusions on Scott Pruitt's alleged abuses
Scott Pruitt, the onetime administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was once a potent symbol of corruption within the Trump administration, as well as of its push to roll back environmental protections. With his penchant for first-class flights and other reported excesses — including, most infamously, an ill-fated search for a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel — Pruitt became an increasing problem for a White House that had promised to hold public officials accountable. Trump fired Pruitt just a day after Ingraham's second call for him to do so.
- WorldAssociated Press
Bethlehem's storied Nativity Church closes amid virus fears
Palestinian officials on Thursday closed the storied Church of the Nativity in the biblical city of Bethlehem indefinitely over fears of the new coronavirus, weeks ahead of the busy Easter holiday season. The spread of the virus across the Middle East has already disrupted worship at other major holy sites. Iran, the epicenter of the virus in the region, meanwhile said it would set up checkpoints to limit travel between major cities and urged citizens to reduce their use of paper money to help slow the outbreak, which has killed at least 107 people in the country.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Biden is surging but his campaign has one weak spot: Joe Biden himself
Pew Research had shown several times that Democrats on Twitter are more liberal than Democrats overall and that Twitter Democrats are less supportive of Joe Biden and more supportive of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But pushed by some early wins, and the overwhelming presence of a loud minority on social media, the Sanders train took off in the traditional media too, bringing excitement and panic to liberal and moderate journalists and pundits alike. It was not to be.
- PoliticsNational Review
FISA Court Blacklists FBI Agents Involved in Surveilling Carter Page
The chief judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has barred Justice Department and FBI officials under review for wiretapping former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page from appearing before the Court. In a 19-page opinion, Judge James E. Boasberg ordered that “FBI personnel under disciplinary review in relation to their work on FISA applications accordingly should not participate in drafting, verifying, reviewing, or submitting such application to the Court while the review is pending. He added that any “DOJ or FBI personnel under disciplinary or criminal review” are also prohibited from working on FISA applications.
- BusinessArchitectural Digest
The 2020 Geneva Motor Show Is Canceled, Forcing Automakers to Unveil Their Cars Online
The major European event was canceled due to concerns over the coronavirus—but the cars revealed online proved to be as exciting as they are bold in design Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.USA TODAY
Feds: Keep Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff in prison for his 'extraordinarily evil' crimes
NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday night objected to Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff's bid for release from prison, arguing that the reviled and ailing ex-financier should continue serving his 150-year sentence. Charging that the 81-year-old convict who ran one of history's biggest scams has "demonstrated a wholesale lack of understanding of the seriousness of his crimes and a lack of compassion for his victims," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York urged a judge to keep him in prison. The recommendation came in response to Madoff's legal motion in February for compassionate release based on failing health.
- WorldReuters
Coronavirus death toll jumps to 107 in Italy, all schools shut
Italy closed all schools and universities and took other emergency measures on Wednesday to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Europe's worst-hit country as the death toll and number of cases jumped. The total number of dead in Italy rose to 107 after 28 people died of the highly contagious virus over the past 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said. Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said schools and universities all over the country would be closed from Thursday until at least March 15.
- U.S.Business Insider
A California man who self-quarantined after returning home from China amid the coronavirus outbreak said he is '100x more concerned' for his health in the US than he was in China
A Bay Area resident visited Kunming, in China's Yunnan province — about 1,000 miles southwest of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak originated — on January 25. Seeing how differently the Chinese and US governments handled the outbreak convinced him that he felt safer in China than he does on American soil. A 36-year-old US citizen from Cupertino, California, visited Kunming, China, almost 1,000 miles southwest of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, on January 25.
- BusinessBloomberg
Nigeria Senate Approves President’s $23 Billion Loan Request
Lawmakers gave their endorsement to the government during Thursday's proceedings in the capital, Abuja, to seek the funding expected from the Islamic Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and creditors in China, Japan and Germany. The government will use the money to expand the railways, build a new hydro power dam and fund special intervention projects across the West African nation, according to a letter sent to the parliament in November. While Nigeria's outstanding loans amount to about about a quarter of its economic output, Africa's largest oil producer spends more than half of its revenue servicing debts.
- PoliticsPolitico
Trump to talk Dreamers protections with Senate Republicans
President Donald Trump is expected to host Republican senators at the White House Thursday to discuss offers to give legal status to people who came to the country illegally as children, according to a person familiar with the plans. The group will include Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally who is pushing a proposal to protect the so-called Dreamers, an offer that would open up a contentious debate on immigration in an election year. Dreamers currently have temporary legal protections under an Obama-era program that Trump has tried to undo.
- U.S.The Independent
'Serial stowaway' beaten in jail after she was imprisoned, despite calls for her to be treated in community
The “serial stowaway”, Marilyn Hartman, has been beaten up inside a Chicago jail. Ms Hartman is currently serving time in Cook County Jail for violating her probation. CBS 2 reports that she was assaulted on Tuesday and that the offending inmate may have been having some kind of mental health episode at the time.
- PoliticsThe Week
Pollster declares Democratic race 'pretty much over' after Joe Biden jumps to jaw-dropping lead in Florida
Former Vice President Joe Biden may have just secured his nomination. When several more states vote and provide clarity in the 2020 Democratic primary race on March 17, Florida, the home of the fourth biggest chunk of delegates in the 2020 Democratic primary race, will be among them. Biden's backing is a dramatic increase from the 34 percent he received in late February, and seems to draw directly from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other moderate candidates' supporters.
- ScienceYahoo News Video
Large asteroid will fly close to, but won't hit, Earth next month: NASA
A large asteroid will fly close to, but won't hit, Earth next month, according to NASA data. CNN reports that the asteroid, predicted to be between 1.1 and 2.5 miles wide, is scheduled to fly past Earth on April 29.
- U.S.National Review
Arizona House Passes Ban on Male Participation in Women’s Sports
The Arizona House passed a bill on Tuesday that would ban the participation of males who identify as female in women's sports programs in the state. After an hours-long debate, the chamber passed the legislation 31-29 along party lines with Republicans in favor. The bill was sponsored by State Representative Nancy Barto (R., Phoenix), who argued that the participation of transgender women in women's sports was unfair to female athletes, especially if sports scholarships for universities are on the line.
- LifestyleUSA TODAY
A 95-year-old man has been 'working' at his local 7-Eleven for decades. He's paid in coffee.
Everyone calls him Mr. G. He grabs a cup and starts checking the coffee carafe levels. He doesn't make the coffee, he just keeps an eye on things and lets employees know. Years-old promise: College student brings llama in tuxedo to his sister's wedding No paychecks, just bananas and coffee For more than 30 years he's come to the 7-Eleven.
- U.S.Associated Press
Chicago cops in station shooting stripped of police powers
Chicago's interim police superintendent on Wednesday stripped two officers of their police powers pending the outcome of the investigation into their roles in the non-fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect inside of a downtown train station last week. Superintendent Charlie Beck made the decision hours after the head of the agency that investigates officer-involved shootings in Chicago, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, recommended that he take that step. The officers, whose names haven't been released, were placed on desk duty after Friday's shooting, in keeping with the department's policy in cases in which officers shoot people.
- WorldBusiness Insider
8% of Iran's parliament has the coronavirus, and it released 54,000 prisoners as the country descends into chaos
Eight percent of Iran's parliament — 23 out of 290 members — has been infected with the coronavirus. At least seven government officials also have it, including one of Iran's vice presidents, and a key adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died from the virus. Iran is descending into chaos amid the coronavirus outbreak, with the government seemingly incapable of handling the scale of the crisis and going as far as to threaten the death penalty to those who hoard necessary materials or equipment.
- WorldReuters
With North Korea border shut, China warns citizens to keep away, or else
SINGAPORE/SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have told people to stay away from the border with North Korea, which has banned people from China to keep out the coronavirus, or risk being shot by North Korean guards, residents of the area said. Residents said the warning came in a printed notice that Chinese authorities in the area issued this week, the latest indication of how seriously North Korea takes the threat of the virus. Close allies China and North Korea share a 1,400-km (880-mile) frontier that is especially porous in winter, when rivers separating the countries freeze, allowing people to cross.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Trump calls WHO's global death rate from coronavirus 'a false number'
Donald Trump declared live on television on Wednesday night that he did not believe the World Health Organization's assessment of the global death rate from coronavirus of 3.4%. “I think the 3.4% is really a false number,” he told Sean Hannity, one of his favorite conservative Fox News hosts, in a phone interview broadcast live. “Now, this is just my hunch,” Trump began, before continuing that “based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this, and it's very mild – they'll get better very rapidly, they don't even see a doctor, they don't even call a doctor.”
- WorldThe National Interest
Shocking: Why Israel Was Able to Win so Greatly During the Six-Day War
Key point: Israel launched a surprise attack and kept the initiative. The Israeli Defense Force's (IDF's, or Zahal's) strategic invasion of the West Bank region of Jordan began at 5 pm on June 5, 1967. The assault was launched by one of two armored brigades attached to the Peled Armored Divisional Task Force (Ugdah Peled), part of Zahal's Northern Command.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Biden Jokes That His Wife Is His Secret Service Protection
“I'm probably the only candidate who's run for president whose wife's my Secret Service,” Biden said at a Los Angeles fundraiser on Wednesday night, hours after congressional Democrats asked that major presidential candidates be provided a Secret Service detail. The Biden campaign declined to comment on whether it has made a formal request to the agency, as is required for it to begin considering whether to assign him a security detail. On Tuesday night, four protesters from an animal rights group called Direct Action Everywhere approached the stage in Los Angeles where Biden was delivering his Super Tuesday victory speech.
PoliticsAFPUS accuses Russia of breaking 'Open Skies' treaty
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper accused Russia Wednesday of violating the Open Skies Treaty designed to improve transparency and confidence between the militaries of the two superpowers. Esper told a congressional hearing Russia had been blocking the United States from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and near Georgia that are permitted by the 18-year-old agreement. The deal, which has 32 other signatories, permits one country's military to conduct a certain number of surveillance flights over another each year on short notice.
- U.S.National Review
Bloomberg: Guns for Me, but Not for Thee
More importantly, Clarke Chitty, one suspects, has zero interest in stripping away Bloomberg's constitutional right to own a firearm, or to hire professional armed bodyguards to protect him from legitimate threats. The former mayor of New York City, on the other hand, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in efforts to pass laws and regulations that would leave Americans like Clarke Chitty defenseless. It's this kind of arrogance that brought about District of Columbia v.
- WorldUSA TODAY
Pompeo says US will take 'all necessary measures' to bar war crimes probe of military
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday the Trump administration would take "all necessary measures" to shield U.S. military and other personnel from a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court. The international court, based in the Hague, Netherlands, ruled Thursday that its prosecutors could move forward with an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban, Afghan forces and American military and CIA personnel. "This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body," Pompeo said at the State Department.
- U.S.Yahoo News Video
California cruise ship held for coronavirus screening after 20 passengers ill
A California cruise ship is being held offshore after two passengers who previously stayed on the vessel contracted coronavirus, and around 20 people onboard fell ill.
"No Democrat this cycle did more to boost his political career."
"Yes, Buttigieg will almost certainly run for president again."
"At some point, the fact that a presidential candidate is LGBT will be a footnote rather than a headline."
"Those close to Mr. Buttigieg see no obvious political next step in Indiana."
"Buttigieg could run for president 40 years from now, but likely will not have to wait that long."
