Big Time News Blog: 07/13/20

Monday, July 13, 2020

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

After a 25-year absence, Ford unveils the reborn Bronco with retro styling and off-road tech

07/13/20 5:12 PM

New York Judge Clears Publication of Trump Tell-All

By BY ALAN FEUER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2WgWSUk

Millions Have Lost Health Insurance in Pandemic-Driven Recession

By BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3embfNj

Navy Warship Is Still Ablaze, and Now Tilting to One Side

By BY JOHN ISMAY AND RICHARD A. OPPEL JR. from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2AUqD5V

In Some Countries, Normal Life Is Back. Not Here.

By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2CBFYZx

Cocktail Veterans Create a Few Canned Drinks

By BY ROBERT SIMONSON from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2CBohcw

Joe Biden: Quién es y qué representa

By POR KATIE GLUECK from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/3j1Inxq

A Bakery Gets Into the Ice Cream Business

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/3gVyKhV

Donald Trump: Quién es y qué representa

By POR ANNIE KARNI from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2AVTg2N

A Rare Honey for Your Table

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/38SyjlP

New Seasoned Fonio Pilafs From Pierre Thiam

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/3fqq03f

‘I Can’t Keep Doing This:’ Small-business owners are giving up.

By BY EMILY FLITTER from NYT Business https://ift.tt/306YNfh

A Reissue of John Cage’s Mushroom Book

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/3fqKdGb

Ted Cruz Was Seen on a Flight Without a Mask. His Office Says He Followed Airline Policy.

By BY CHRISTINA MORALES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3gX2kDP

Judge seeks more details on Trump's clemency for Roger Stone

A federal judge on Monday demanded more information about President Donald Trump's decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the parties provide her by Tuesday with a copy of the executive order that commuted Stone's sentence.

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Sen. Ted Cruz 'Consistent With Airline Policy' After Being Photographed Maskless on American Airlines Flight

American Airlines customers are required to wear face coverings while on board flights

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Zpiik2

Ousted U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman: Deal Barr Offered ‘Could Be Seen as a Quid Pro Quo’

The federal prosecutor whom Attorney General Bill Barr ousted in June told House investigators that he was alarmed at the way Barr attempted to replace him, saying that “the “irregular and unexplained actions by the Attorney General raised serious concerns for me,” according to a transcript of the closed-door interview released by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday. Geoffrey Berman, formerly the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was brought in for a closed-door session of the Judiciary Committee on July 9 to talk about the events surrounding Barr’s public announcement on June 19 that Berman had “stepped down” from his post, even though the U.S. attorney made clear to Barr multiple times that he was not stepping down. The late-night announcement by Barr immediately sparked confusion and raised questions about his involvement in a crucial prosecutor’s office. The next day, Berman said he would leave the job when Barr agreed to let his deputy take over as acting U.S. attorney, as opposed to Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, whom Barr wanted to install in the position until the Trump administration’s pick, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Jay Clayton, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.Berman, who at SDNY handled sensitive investigations into Trumpworld figures such as Rudy Giuliani, did not comment specifically to the Judiciary Committee on what he believed Barr’s motivations to be, and he studiously avoided any questions about how specific SDNY probes might have factored into the situation. But Berman made clear that the attorney general’s preferred plan would have slowed and complicated the work of the office, and he raised several questions challenging Barr’s handling of the process. Trump Thought He’d Picked His Perfect U.S. Attorney in Geoffrey Berman. He Was Very Wrong.“Why did the attorney general say that I was stepping down when he knew I had neither resigned nor been fired?” Berman asked rhetorically, in response to questions from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY). “Why did the attorney general not tell me the actual reason he was asking me to resign instead of saying that it was to get Clayton into the position? And why did he announce the appointment of Craig Carpenito as acting U.S. attorney when Audrey Strauss was the logical and normal successor?”“Replacing me with someone from outside the district would have resulted in the disruption and delay of the important investigations that were being conducted,” Berman said later. “I was not going to permit that. And I would rather be fired than have that done.” At numerous points, Berman expressed his dismay at Barr’s wish to install Carpenito—who would have retained his previous job in New Jersey—in the job instead of Berman’s top deputy, Strauss, a move he said violated 70 years of precedent at SDNY.According to his opening statement that was obtained by The Daily Beast last Thursday, Berman said that during a private meeting in New York that Barr called to open the discussion, the attorney general praised his performance as U.S. attorney but said the Trump administration wanted Clayton to take the SDNY post. Berman said Barr tried to lure him away by dangling other offers—to head the Department of Justice’s civil rights division and, later, the SEC—but Berman declined. Barr told him that if he did not resign, he would be fired. “I believe the attorney general was trying to entice me to resign so that an outsider could be put into the acting U.S. attorney position at the Southern District of New York, which would have resulted in the delay and disruption of ongoing investigations,” Berman told the Judiciary Committee.At one point in the interview, GOP committee attorney Steve Castor asked if Barr had laid out to Berman a set of actions that would have allowed him to keep his job—if there was any “quid pro quo for you getting to keep your job.”Berman said no, and he confirmed that Barr did not mention any specific SDNY investigations—Castor raised Jeffrey Epstein and Guiliani-related probes—in pressuring him to leave. But Berman did say Barr’s offering of other positions could have been construed as a quid pro quo.“You know, he wanted me to resign to take a position. I assume you could call that a quid pro quo. You resign and you get this, that would mean quid pro quo,” said Berman. Asked to clarify those comments later, he said it wasn’t his term but reiterated that “it could be seen as a quid pro quo, his offering me a job in exchange for my resignation.” Berman is a rare U.S. attorney in that he was not confirmed by the Senate but was appointed by the judges of SDNY to hold the position in April 2018. Berman insisted that, as he was a court-appointed prosecutor, neither Barr nor President Trump had the authority to fire him before the Senate confirmed a successor, but some past legal precedent has indicated the president can fire a court-appointed U.S. attorney. Trump has said he had nothing to do with Berman’s ouster. 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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AOC suggests NYC crime spike linked to unemployment and parents shoplifting to feed children

New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has insisted that spikes in New York crime are not related to police budget cuts but people needing to pay rent and feed their children.In a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday, reported by The Hill, AOC was questioned about the significant rise in crime in the city.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3iZq108

'Moving target': Schools deal with new plans, Trump demands

Last week, President Donald Trump and his administration demanded schools fully reopen right away, calling for new guidance from federal health officials and slamming schools that want to bring students back for only a few days a week. Here is a look at what several school districts are planning and discussing. Like many schools, the Forth Worth Independent School District in Texas will give parents a choice between in-person and remote learning.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2OjYGYt

As virus rages in US, New York guards against another rise

As coronavirus rages out of control in other parts of the U.S., New York is offering an example after taming the nation's deadliest outbreak this spring — while also trying to prepare in case another surge comes. New York’s early experience is a ready-made blueprint for states now finding themselves swamped by the disease. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has offered advice, ventilators, masks, gowns and medicine to states dealing with spikes in cases and hospitalizations and, in some places, rising deaths.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZlDHe4

Robert Mueller breaks his silence and condemns Trump for commuting Roger Stone's sentence

US special counsel defends his investigation into allegations of corruption during 2016 electionThe former special counsel Robert Mueller made a rare move on Saturday to publicly defend his two-year investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election – and to castigate Donald Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence.Mueller wrote an opinion article for the Washington Post [paywall] published under the headline “Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so”.“The work of the special counsel’s office – its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions – should speak for itself,” he wrote.“But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office ...“Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”Trump commuted Stone’s sentence on Friday night, sparking outrage from Democrats and some senior Republicans.Stone was a former campaign adviser to the president, convicted in November 2019 of seven crimes including obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering.He was sentenced in February to 40 months in prison and was due to surrender on Tuesday, until the president commuted his sentence.Speaking on Sunday to CNN’s State of the Union, the House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats in the House will pursue legislation to restrict clemency powers related to the president’s own conduct. “It’s a threat to our national security,” she said.The 2017-19 Mueller investigation uncovered evidence of communications between Stone and WikiLeaks related to the release of hacked Democratic party emails during the 2016 election, discovered in a separate inquiry into Russian intelligence officers charged with hacking the emails and staging their release.The partially released Mueller report in April 2019 described Russian efforts to tamper with the election and the Trump campaign’s receptivity to certain “Russian offers of assistance to the campaign”.It outlined actions by Trump that may have amounted to obstruction of justice and concluded: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”Mueller also concluded he did not have the power to charge Trump even if he thought it was warranted.Mueller wrote: “The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election: hacking and dumping Clinton campaign emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate.“We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel – Stone among them. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government …“The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. [And] that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”> Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy> > Robert MuellerTrump has repeatedly attempted to discredit Mueller and his investigations.Mueller has kept his counsel since he testified in Congress in July last year. It was a muted affair, and many perceived Trump was emboldened in his efforts to seek assistance in his current election campaign from the Ukraine.This led to the historic impeachment of the president, and Trump’s ultimate acquittal by the Senate earlier this year.On Saturday Mueller wrote: “Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood.” ‘Historic corruption’ – RomneyRepublicans largely stayed silent on the issue on Saturday, however Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who was also the lone GOP senator to vote to convict the president during his impeachment trial earlier this year, attacked Trump’s move.“Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president,” Romney tweeted.Senator Pat Toomey, of Pennsylvania, a Republican, also called the move to commute the sentence a mistake.Toomey pointed to the backing that the US attorney general, William Barr, had given to the Stone prosecution. Barr, who has faced allegations of using the justice department to defend the president and his associates, had said earlier this month that he regarded the prosecution of Stone as “righteous”.But most Republicans who did speak out about the decision supported it. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, said Stone was convicted of a nonviolent, first-time offense and the president was justified in commuting the sentence.Graham, chair of the Senate judiciary committee, tweeted on Sunday that he would now grant Democrats’ request to call Mueller to give evidence to the committee, as he was willing to defend the Russia investigation in a newspaper.Graham is leading an investigation by Republicans on the judiciary committee into the origins of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and links to the Trump campaign, and alleged misconduct by US intelligence officials.Democrats say the investigation is a move to appease President Trump ahead of November’s election.• Associated Press contributed to this report. Additional reporting by Mark Oliver.