Big Time News Blog: 10/16/19

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Court seems split on possible resentencing for teen sniper

Liberal and conservative justices seemed split Wednesday on whether to grant a new sentencing hearing to Lee Boyd Malvo, one of two snipers who terrorized the Washington, D.C., region in 2002 when he was a teenager. The Supreme Court heard arguments on whether Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings, was wrongly sentenced in Virginia to life without parole. Virginia argues Malvo's life sentence was not mandatory because the judge theoretically had discretion to suspend part of Malvo's life sentence, despite a state law mandating either execution or life without parole as the only sentencing options for a capital murder conviction.

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India blocks SMS services in Kashmir after trucker killed

Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected militants and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said Tuesday. Separately, Indian officials said a 24-year-old woman died in the latest exchange of artillery fire with Pakistan over their de-facto border dividing the blood-soaked Himalayan region.

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Joe Biden, Bleeding Cash, Spent Nearly $1 Million on Private Jets

REUTERSJoe Biden’s presidential campaign is bleeding cash. And a big reason why appears to be an antiquated, higher-end approach to electoral politics that the former vice president has adopted. Biden’s team spent more than $923,000 on private jets during the third quarter of 2019, according to recently filed Federal Election Commission data. The expenses, all made to the company EJCR, LLC Dba Advanced Aviation Team, represented a major chunk of change—accounting for roughly one out of every 16 dollars the campaign raised. It’s not uncommon for candidates to lean on private jets as they crisscross the country in an effort to keep a schedule packed with speeches, rallies, and debates. But a review of Biden’s expenditures suggest that a good deal of what he’s spending money on currently involve efforts to simply raise more money. The former vice president spent more than $230,000 on “fundraising consultants” during Q3; nearly $500,000 on direct mail; and major chunks of change on high-end hotels in cities that serve as donor hubs but aren’t centrally located in early-voting states. During the third quarter period, the Biden campaign spent more than $20,000 at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City; more than $14,000 at the Coronado Island Marriott in San Diego; more than $4,400 at the Hotel Jerome Auberge in Aspen; more than $10,500 at the W Hotel in Los Angeles, and more than $3,000 at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho. While the campaign’s major expenses involved traditional campaign functions like payroll (which was nearly $9 million), office rentals, and digital advertising, the campaign also spent heavily on consultants—including several big-named aides. During Q3, the Biden campaign spent $228,378 on research consultants and $150,400 on “strategic consultants.” The firm Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Inc., run by longtime Biden pollster John Anzalone, received more than $122,000 for polling. And two well-known Biden advisers, Bruce Reed and Anthony Blinken, received $35,000 and $10,500 respectively for “policy consulting.” Asked what type of policy work he was doing, Reed told The Daily Beast only: “Domestic.” Collectively, the expenditures have taken a toll on the Biden campaign’s bottom line and raised questions about its long-term viability. Overall, Biden currently has less than $9 million cash on-hand after taking in roughly $15.7 million during Q3 and spending $17.6 million during that same period.Asked for comment, a Biden aide noted that some of the cost of the private jet travel was for carbon offsets. As for the broader financial picture, Biden, standing outside of the IBEW Electrical Trade Center in Columbus, Ohio, told reporters that he was not worried about his campaign’s financial situation. “We are doing fine. Fundraising is building, we’ve raised a lot of money online, and we’ve raised money offline as well. So we feel confident we're going to be ready,” said Biden.But Democrats who have worked on past campaigns that bled cash recognize some similarities. “When you are a candidate running for president, the other thing to keep in mind is, it is a difficult and rigorous schedule, and to the extent there are creature comforts that people have, they are going to do whatever they can to make the person comfortable,” said Phil Singer, who worked as a press hand for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, which also ended up in difficult financial straits. “But it is something they will have to solve fairly soon. Money, after all, doesn’t grow on trees.”—With additional reporting from Jackie Kucinich.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Rudy Giuliani urged Trump to turn over an exiled Muslim cleric to Erdogan, raising concerns that he was lobbying for Turkey

Giuliani is already under scrutiny for his ongoing efforts to push Ukraine's government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

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Protest against separatists' sentencing sets Barcelona streets ablaze

Protesters set cars on fire and threw petrol bombs at police in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Wednesday, intensifying unrest sparked by the sentencing of Catalan separatist leaders who had sought to declare an independent state.

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U.S. diplomats, Congress take aim at China; Trump expects trade deal signing

The U.S. State Department and Congress took aim at China on Wednesday, even as President Donald Trump hailed "goodwill" between Washington and Beijing and said he expected to sign the first phase of a trade deal with President Xi Jinping next month.

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Someone Had a ‘Meltdown’ at the White House. Pelosi and Trump Just Disagree on Who.

By BY KATIE ROGERS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Mn7MDw

Two-Person Race? Moderates, and Bernie Sanders, Say Not So Fast

By BY ALEXANDER BURNS AND JONATHAN MARTIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33G4HEz

Court Blocks Trump’s Plan to Ease Bird Protections on Oil Lands

By BY LISA FRIEDMAN from NYT Climate https://ift.tt/2MQRodH

Yang and O'Rourke propose decriminalizing opioids, including heroin

Two Democrats suggested making small amounts of heroin legal as a way to combat the drug epidemic.

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Dark web child porn bust leads to 338 arrests worldwide

Law enforcement officials said on Wednesday they had arrested hundreds of people worldwide after knocking out a South Korea-based dark web child pornography site that sold gruesome videos for digital cash. Officials from the United States, Britain and South Korea described the network as one of the largest child pornography operations they had encountered to date. Called Welcome To Video, the website relied on the bitcoin cryptocurrency to sell access to 250,000 videos depicting child sexual abuse, authorities said, including footage of extremely young children being raped.

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All of the Google Pixel and Home Products on Sale Now

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Warren Deletes Infamous DNA Test Tweet One Year After Reveal

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) deleted from her Twitter and YouTube accounts a now-infamous video announcing the results of her DNA test on Wednesday, one year after its initial unveiling was met with heavy bipartisan criticism.A story titled “Happy Anniversary to Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Test!” by Jim Treacher, a columnist at PJ Media, revisited the reveal by Warren on Tuesday, a year to the day after the initial video was posted. Treacher then later went to look for the tweet, but found it deleted.“My family (including Fox News-watchers) sat together and talked about what they think of @realDonaldTrump’s attacks on our heritage. And yes, a famous geneticist analyzed my DNA and concluded that it contains Native American ancestry,” the text of the tweet read.The test, which was analyzed by Stanford professor Carlos D. Bustamante, found Warren to be between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American and prompted further criticism from President Trump, who began calling Warren “Pocahontas” during the 2016 campaign.Following Warren’s announcement, Trump mocked the Massachusetts Senator after the Cherokee Nation criticized Warren’s use of the test as "making a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven.”“Now Cherokee Nation denies her, “DNA test is useless.” Even they don’t want her. Phony!” Trump tweeted.Though Warren had initially said in March 2018 that she would not undergo a DNA test, she responded to criticism in the aftermath by saying “I believe one way that we try to rebuild confidence [in government] is through transparency.”In February, Warren apologized to Bill John Baker, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, for her public advertising of the test. “The chief and secretary of state appreciate that she has reaffirmed that she is not a Cherokee Nation citizen or a citizen of any tribal nation,” Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Julie Hubbard said in the aftermath.

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Ocasio-Cortez endorsement gives Sanders shot in the arm at critical time

Sanders’ recent heart attack was a reminder that he would be the oldest person ever elected president Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks alongside Senator Bernie Sanders during a press conference to introduce college affordability legislation outside the US Capitol in June. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesBernie Sanders was in trouble. Why, pundits asked, would anyone vote for a 78-year-old white man – and socialist! – who just had a heart attack? On Tuesday the Vermont senator delivered a dramatic riposte; first with a feisty debate performance, then by gaining the backing of three rising stars of the progressive movement – all young congresswomen of colour. Among them was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who, with megawatt charisma and 5.5m Twitter followers, is one of the most coveted endorsements in the Democratic presidential party.“AOC”, as she is known, is expected to appear at a “Bernie’s Back” rally in her home city of New York on Saturday alongside Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. That leaves Ayanna Pressley, who hails from Sanders’ rival Elizabeth Warren’s home state of Massachusetts, as the only member of “the squad” not in his camp.Whether it will have any long-term impact on the race is pure guesswork, but as a shot in the arm it comes not a moment too soon. Sanders’ heart attack on 1 October was a reminder that he would be the oldest person ever elected president, while Warren has surged past him in the polls to frontrunner status.“My gut is that Sanders’ campaign had this endorsement in their back pocket for a long time and they were waiting to deploy it at a moment where it would be most helpful,” said one progressive politician, who did not wish to be named.“The greatest tell on that was the fact that Sanders rolled it out in the way he did on the debate stage, specifically on a question about his health. That’s fine: that’s what a smart campaign would do. It’s designed to inject new energy into the campaign.”Suggestions that Sanders might bow out of the race were evidently premature. He raised $25.3m for his campaign in the last quarter, more than any other Democrat. At Tuesday’s night’s three-hour debate in Ohio, he forcefully defended his healthcare plans and was even humorous; when Cory Booker pointed out that Sanders supports legalising marijuana, Sanders replied: “I’m not on it tonight.”Ocasio-Cortez could prove an invaluable asset and antidote to his perceived weaknesses. While he is in his late 70s, she has just turned 30. While his supporters have sometimes struggled to escape their 2016 reputation as white male “Bernie bros”, she is a Hispanic woman with an ability to inspire big, diverse crowds.For Ocasio-Cortez, not endorsing Sanders would have been something of a snub. She was an organizer for his insurgent 2016 primary campaign against Hillary Clinton and has credited him for inspiring her, while working as a bartender, to go into politics. They are aligned as democratic socialists with millennial appeal and a passion for combating the climate crisis.Democratic Socialists of America welcomed the endorsements. “Backed by a diverse, energetic working-class movement and by democratic socialist politicians like Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders can win the Democratic nomination, beat Donald Trump, and, together, we can transform politics in this country and around the world forever,” it said in a statement.Should Sanders claim the nomination, however, the endorsements will likely delight Trump. He has sought to raise the profile of the squad and portray them as the face of a Democratic party taken over by radical leftists with trillion dollar spending plans. The idea of nominee Sanders sharing a stage with Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar would be fodder for the president’s ad-making machine.But for now, the squad represents Sanders’ best hope of blunting Warren’s momentum. Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America, said: “This is an important boost for Senator Sanders at a critical time. There is no doubt that the heart attack amplified concerns people might have had about Senator Sanders and his health.”Sroka added: “Whenever you have a situation like that, you want to show a new sort of energy and I think getting this endorsement at this critical time is a smart move and will undoubtedly be helpful.”

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Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta is due to open a new $1.5 billion Chinese rail line on Wednesday linking the capital Nairobi to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha, despite delays in establishing an industrial park there to drive freight traffic. The development of Kenya's railways has been part of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a multi-billion dollar series of infrastructure projects upgrading land and maritime trade routes between China and Europe, Asia and Africa. Kenya had planned to open an industrial park in Naivasha, offering companies tax breaks for investing in manufacturing, and preferential tariffs for electricity generated in the nearby geothermal fields.

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McConnell eyes quick impeachment trial in Senate

Senate Republicans are preparing for a speedy impeachment trial that concludes before the end of the year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Senate Republicans on Wednesday that he expects Speaker Nancy Pelosi to approve articles of impeachment as early as Thanksgiving, according to five people familiar with Wednesday’s party lunch. McConnell then surmised that the Senate could deal with the trial by Christmas, concluding the impeachment proceedings before the Democratic presidential primaries begin.

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Pastor at Pro-Trump conference: 'We've come to declare war'

If the video depicting a fake President Trump massacring members of the media -- which was condemned by the White House -- wasn't too much to handle already, ProPublica and WNYC released more disturbing audio from the conference where the footage was originally shown.While speaking at the pro-Trump conference in Miami, Florida, at the Trump National Doral Miami, Mark Burns, a pastor, told the crowd multiple times that "we've come to declare war." As he continued, he reportedly asked if anybody was "read to go to war for Donald J. Trump, this nation?" as the audience reportedly cheered him on.Additionally, radio host Wayne Allyn Root reportedly boasted about a time in his childhood when, as one of the few white students at a predominantly black high school, he knocked one classmate unconscious and shattered another kid's teeth. "My buddies and I were high-fiving and laughing," Root reportedly said during his speech. "Man, it was funny."Root reportedly went on to say that "you've got to be a natural-born killer" to win in politics. Listen to the audio clips at ProPublica.

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Trump says PKK is worse than ISIS, and that Graham would stay in Middle East for ‘the next thousand years’

At a press conference with the president of Italy, President Trump said that the Kurdish group PKK is worse than ISIS, and that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., would keep the U.S. in the Middle East for “the next thousand years with thousands of soldiers fighting other people’s wars.”

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Elizabeth Warren Resurrects ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Line That Dogged Obama

Win McNamee/GettySen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) made remarks in the Democratic debate Tuesday night that harked back to President Obama’s “You didn’t build that” line, which became fodder for Republican attacks in the 2012 presidential election. “Look, I don’t have a beef with billionaires,” Warren said at the debate, arguing for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy. “My problem is, you made a fortune in America, you had a great idea, you got out there and worked for it, good for you, but you built that fortune in America, I guarantee you built it in part using workers all of us help pay to educate.” Warren’s debate argument was the latest iteration of a line she pioneered during her 2012 campaign for a Massachusetts Senate seat. But when Obama tried to use Warren’s messaging in his 2012 presidential re-election campaign, he phrased it less clearly, leaving an opening for GOP attack ads that took Obama’s remarks out of context and made it seem as if he was saying business owners “didn’t build” their companies. “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama said. “There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”Obama rival Mitt Romney soon brought up the “you didn’t build that” line in a speech, claiming that it was akin to saying that “Steve Jobs didn't build Apple.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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