Big Time News Blog: 12/18/19

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

NTSB: Icy conditions during deadly South Dakota plane crash

The pilot and a passenger of a small plane that crashed after taking off from a small South Dakota airport on Thanksgiving weekend, killing nine of 12 members of an Idaho family who were on board, spent three hours clearing snow and ice from the aircraft before departure, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released Tuesday. The single-engine plane made it less than a mile from the airport in Chamberlain, South Dakota, and only 460 feet into the air before it crashed shortly after noon on Nov. 30, according to the report, which doesn't list a cause of the crash or the name of the pilot. The family, which is from Idaho Falls, Idaho, flew to South Dakota for an annual pheasant-hunting trip.

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Group of House Democrats Pushing to Withhold Impeachment Articles from Senate to Gain Leverage in Trial: Report

A group of House Democrats is urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to withhold articles of impeachment against President Trump from the Senate in order to gain leverage over the parameters of the Senate trial, the Washington Post reported Wednesday just hours before the House vote on impeachment.Representative Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.) publicly floated on Wednesday the idea of withholding the articles until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to allow testimony from witness the Democrats desire to hear."Who knows what would happen to augment the record?" Blumenauer said. "This ought to be able to play out…There’s no advantage to rushing this." Blumenauer asserted he had spoken to over 30 House Democrats who had expressed interest in the idea.Another House Democrat told the Post on condition of anonymity that representatives were discussing the idea of withholding the articles due to what they view as "serious concern about whether there will be a fair trial on the Senate side."A senior Democratic aide told the Post that the articles will be sent to the Senate only after Pelosi decides on impeachment managers to present the case for Trump's removal at trial.The House will vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against President Trump, one for obstruction of Congress and the other for abuse of power. The articles are expected to pass with a solid majority of Democrats and no Republican support.Withholding impeachment articles from the Senate may rankle moderate Democrats from swing districts that voted for Trump in 2016. Several of these Democrats have announced they will vote for impeachment only after weeks of deliberation and pushback from Trump-supporting constituents.

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A Bronx Teen Reportedly Faked Her Own Kidnapping

Her disappearance unnerved New Yorkers after a disturbing video released by the New York City Police Department

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Mexico probes embezzlement by former top cop

The head of Mexico's financial crimes unit said Wednesday he is looking into evidence that the country's former top security official embezzled as much as 2 billion pesos (equal to about $170 million at the time) in government funds. Santiago Nieto, who heads the Financial Intelligence Unit, said perhaps $2 million of that money wa s transferred to relatives of Genaro Garcia Luna, who served as public safety secretary from 2006 to 2012. Santiago Nieto said five former officials who worked under Garcia Luna are also under investigation for embezzlement, conflict of interest and money laundering.

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Ex-Texas cop pleads guilty to killing pregnant girlfriend

A former Texas police officer has admitted that he fatally shot his pregnant girlfriend, reversing his not guilty plea and bringing his capital murder case to a close just months before he was scheduled to go on trial. Ex-Austin officer VonTrey Clark will be sentenced to life in prison without parole under the plea agreement, the Austin American-Statesmen reported. Clark, 36, read his confession in the Bastrop County state District Court on Monday afternoon.

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In a rare move, Apple, Amazon, and Google just announced a major partnership

The three tech giants are often competitors, but in the case of the smart home, they're unlikely bedfellows.

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Trump impeachment: Administration 'unceremoniously' recalls US diplomat who condemned decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine

The Trump administration is recalling early a senior US diplomat who condemned the president’s threat to withhold military aid to Ukraine.On the eve of an impeachment vote in the House, reports said William Taylor, a veteran diplomat who had once served as ambassador to Kiev and again filled that role after Mr Trump and Rudy Giuliani ordered Marie Yovanovitch, to be returned to Washington, will leave at the beginning of the new year.

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Trump Called Boeing C.E.O. About Potential Shutdown of 737 Max

By BY NATALIE KITROEFF AND DAVID GELLES from NYT Business https://ift.tt/38RlI1R

La aldea japonesa en donde hay más muñecos que personas

By BY MOTOKO RICH AND NADIA SHIRA COHEN from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2PzNDLY

Archaeologists in Greece find 3,500-year-old royal tombs

American archaeologists have discovered two monumental royal tombs dating from about 3,500 years ago near a major Mycenaean-era palace in Greece's southern Peloponnese region, the Greek culture ministry said Tuesday. A ministry statement said the dome-shaped roofs of both tombs near the Bronze Age palace of Pylos collapsed during antiquity, and the chambers became filled with so much earth and rubble that grave robbers couldn't get in to plunder them. Recovered grave goods from the two tombs included a golden seal ring and a golden amulet of an ancient Egyptian goddess, highlighting Bronze Age trade and cultural links.

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Whistleblower accuses Mormon Church of hoarding $100 billion intended for charitable purposes

The Mormon Church may be misleading its congregation when it comes to its tax-exempt investment fund, The Washington Post reports.David Nielsen, a former senior portfolio manager at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' investment division, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service in November alleging the Mormon church's leaders stockpiled $100 billion in surplus donations rather using them for charitable purposes as intended.Nielsen, who did not respond to the Post's queries, reportedly urged the IRS to strip the church's investment arm, Ensign — a non-profit required to operate exclusively for religious, educational, or other charitable purposes — of its tax-exempt status. He also accused church leaders of using donations to bail out a church-run insurance company and a Salt Lake City, Utah, mall that was part of a joint venture between the church and a local real estate company.No documents were provided to support Nielsen's claims, but Philip Hackney, a former IRS official who teaches tax law at the University of Pittsburgh, said the complaint raised a "legitimate concern" about whether Ensign deserved its tax-exempt status."If you have a charity that simply amasses a war chest year after year and does not spread any money for charity purposes, that does not meet the requirements of tax law," he told the Post. Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com Democrats are sleepwalking into a Biden disaster GOP senators reportedly unhappy with Trump's impeachment rant The Trump impeachment's failure before launch

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Mormon-church-linked investment fund amassed $100 billion in tax-free money and claimed it was being stored in preparation for 'the second coming of Christ,' according to a whistleblower complaint

A former employee of the Mormon church's investment division said in a whistleblower complaint that the church dodged taxes on billions in donations.

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Note says wife didn't kill man found in Utah freezer

Detectives have found a notarized letter they believe was written by a man whose body had been in a freezer in a Utah apartment for a decade that says his wife did not kill him, authorities said. The note discovered Monday appears to have been written by Paul Edward Mathers, 69, whose body was found inside a freezer last month after police found his wife dead of natural causes in the apartment in the small city of Tooele near Salt Lake City. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the couple devised the scheme together before he died or that the woman forged the letter, but they are waiting on evidence that includes medical and financial records, Hansen said.

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Donald Trump has a deranged view of his deranged letter to Nancy Pelosi

If you care about Donald Trump, you should be worried. If you're not worried, I'm worried about you.

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Former Fox News employees ask 2020 candidates to speak out against nondisclosure agreements

Gretchen Carlson and other former Fox News employees are seeking help from 2020 candidates in their fight against nondisclosure agreements.Carlson in 2016 filed a retaliation and sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the late CEO and chair of Fox News, but signed a nondisclosure agreement in a settlement. She has formed the group Lift Our Voices along with two other Fox News employees who sued the network and signed nondisclosure agreements, Julie Roginsky and Diana Falzone, to end the practice of silencing workers from speaking out about such workplace issues.The group is now calling on 2020 candidates for president to publicly condemn these nondisclosure agreements, The New York Times reports."It is time for our leaders to demonstrate that they are on the side of the women and men who have been silenced for too long from discussing the hostility they have encountered by speaking out loudly and publicly against NDAs," the letter says.The Times notes that the group is not calling for the end of all nondisclosure agreements in general but specifically ones having to do with workplace environment issues like sexual harassment. Carlson, whose story of alleged sexual harassment at Fox News is depicted in the new movie Bombshell, has spoken out about being "forced into silence" by a nondisclosure agreement she has asked to be release from, as she wrote in a recent Times op-ed."This is the next phase in the MeToo movement, and it is one that needs to gain traction if we truly want to change the culture for better," she wrote.More stories from theweek.com Democrats are sleepwalking into a Biden disaster Beto O'Rourke has a post-presidential run beard, and Ted Cruz loves it Wait — did liberals actually think they'd remove Trump from office?