Big Time News Blog: 11/07/19

Thursday, November 7, 2019

James Dean Starring in a New Movie? Some in Hollywood See ‘an Awful Precedent’

By BY LAURA M. HOLSON from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2CpkHyY

La intriga del palacio en Tailandia queda al descubierto

By BY HANNAH BEECH from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/34GUhoI

Trump fumes about reports that he wanted Barr to host news conference clearing him on Ukraine call

The president is lashing out on Twitter over news first reported by the Washington Post that he wanted the attorney general to hold a press conference declaring he had broken no laws during the July 25 phone call in which he urged Ukraine’s new president to investigate his political rival.

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A former Oklahoma prisoner told us what it was like to be part of Monday's historic mass release of more than 450 inmates

Calista Ortiz, 26, had her drug possession conviction commuted on Monday and released in the largest single-day prison release in US history.

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Trump impeachment: President fumes at report attorney general refused to endorse his Ukraine call

Donald Trump has angrily denied a report by The Washington Post that Attorney General William Barr refused his request to clear him of breaking the law in a telephone call with Ukraine‘s president.“The story was a Fake Washington Post con job with an ‘anonymous’ source that doesn’t exist,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

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Republican wins competitive race for Mississippi governor

Republicans strengthened their dominance in Mississippi by keeping the governorship and picking up the last remaining statewide office that has been held by a Democrat. Second-term Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday defeated fourth-term Attorney General Jim Hood in the hardest-fought Mississippi governor's race since 2003. "I want to be the governor for all Mississippians, and I'm going to work hard every day to do that," Reeves told The Associated Press after his victory.

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Fox News Guest Lars Larson Breaks Network Rule Against Naming Alleged Whistleblower

Conservative radio host Lars Larson blurted out the name of the alleged whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry Thursday afternoon on Fox News, breaking the network’s recently implemented rule against doing so.Appearing on Outnumbered Overtime alongside liberal Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall, Larson ranted about the impeachment inquiry process and casually dropped the name of a person right-wing media has publicly alleged to be the whistleblower.Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner did not push back or react to Larson openly breaking the network’s edict, instead chastising Larson for mocking “people who use different pronouns” (the radio host had earlier snarked about gender pronouns).In the wake of conservatives and the president’s son naming the suspected whistleblower, Fox News brass reportedly instructed the network’s hosts and commentators to not do the same.According to CNN, Fox employees were told that the network had not “independently confirmed [the] name or identification of the anonymous whistleblower.” Furthermore, production staffers were ordered to “NOT fulfill any video or graphic requests” regarding the whistleblower's identity.Larson told The Hollywood Reporter that he named the alleged whistleblower “because the American people deserve to know the name of the man making the accusation that the Democrats hope to use to remove an American president.”A Fox News spokesperson gave the following statement to the Daily Beast when reached for comment: “FOX News has not confirmed or independently verified the name of the whistleblower.”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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Family attacked in Mexico has had "a few run-ins" with drug cartels

The family is part of a group of fundamentalist Mormons who migrated to Mexico after polygamy was outlawed in the United States in the 1800's

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Chicago's top cop retiring after turbulent 3-plus years

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced Thursday that he's retiring after more than three years as the city's top cop, a post he took over during one of the most violent chapters in the city's history and amid public outcry over the release of a video showing an officer shooting a black teen 16 times. During a news conference in which Johnson announced his retirement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said he'd agreed to serve through the end of the year.

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UK plans fast-track visas for migrants working in health service

Britain said on Friday it would make it easier for migrants to move to the United Kingdom to work in the National Health Service (NHS), helping to offset a possible fall in numbers caused by the exit from the European Union.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2NWDpnc

Child seats in Italy to be fitted with alarms after spate of deaths of children trapped in hot cars

Parents of babies and toddlers will be required to use special alarmed child seats under a new law in Italy, in response to a spate of children dying in cars from extreme heat. Parents who fail to buy the alarmed car seats, or buy alarm attachments, face fines of up to €326 and five points being docked from their driving licence. If, within two years, a parent is caught again without the special seat, their driving licence will be suspended for two weeks. The special car seats work by motion sensor and set off audio alarms and flashing lights if a child is left alone in the car. Devices can also be linked to a parent’s mobile phone. Under the law adopted on Thursday, they are now compulsory for all children under the age of four. The government has promised to contribute €30 to each family that has to buy the specially-equipped seats, which cost around €100. It will operate on a first-come-first-served basis, with warnings that there is unlikely to be enough money for every family in the country. The law was introduced in response to cases of babies and children dying in cars after being accidentally forgotten by their parents or carers during the scorching heat of summer. It applies not only to Italians but to foreigners visiting the country. An Italian road safety group said that parents “need to hurry” to buy the seats or fit alarms to their existing seats, or risk fines and the docking of licence points. Aside from car accidents and collisions, heat stroke is the main cause of vehicle-related death for children under the age of 15, according to the American Academy of Paediatrics. A small child’s body heats up much faster than that of an adult’s and vital organs start to shut down quicker.

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Elizabeth Warren willing to show Bill Gates how much she'd tax him: 'I promise it's not $100 billion'

Bill Gates joked on Wednesday that "when you say I should pay $100 billion, OK, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have left over."

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Secret Service study: School attackers showed warning signs

Most students who committed deadly school attacks over the past decade were badly bullied, had a history of disciplinary trouble and their behavior concerned others but was never reported, according to a U.S. Secret Service study released Thursday. In at least four cases, attackers wanted to emulate other school shootings, including those at Columbine High School in Colorado, Virginia Tech University and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The research was launched following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

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Johnson, Grassley ask State Department for Hunter Biden docs

Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to release any State Department records related to Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. As President Donald Trump faces a House impeachment inquiry for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, Republicans are focusing on Hunter Biden’s role on the board the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings while his father was vice president.

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Trump news: Giuliani accused of 'campaign of lies' in impeachment inquiry, as president ordered to pay $2m over misuse of foundation

The House impeachment inquiry interviewed Mike Pence special adviser Jennifer Williams, a specialist on European and Russian affairs who listened in on Donald Trump’s “quid pro quo” call with Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, after issuing a subpoena commanding her to appear, circumventing White House objections to her giving testimony.The president has meanwhile angrily denounced as “degenerate” a Washington Post report that he asked his attorney general, William Barr, to declare publicly that the Zelensky call of 25 July contained no illegality, only for Mr Barr to decline.

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Texas executes white supremacist convicted of strangling woman

Justen Hall, 38, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:32 p.m. CST at the state execution chamber in Huntsville, according to a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. According to prosecutors, Ted Murgatroyd, a recruit to Hall's gang, got into a fight with Billhartz that day in her truck on the way to a convenience store in El Paso County. When the pair returned to the drug house where gang members were gathered, Hall decided to kill Billhartz to keep her from reporting the fight or the meeting place to police, according to court documents in the case.

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One of the world's thickest mountain glaciers is melting because of global warming

For half a century, Taku had been the one known Alaskan glacier to withstand the effects of climate change – until now.

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Amazon poured $1.5 million into Seattle City Council races. It apparently backfired.

"First, Amazon dropped a money bomb on the Seattle City Council elections," says Daniel Beekman at The Seattle Times. "Then, voters dropped their own bomb with Tuesday night's election results."Amazon dumped $1.5 million into the city council races via a political action committee of the Metropolitan Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Lots of votes still have to be counted, but of the seven candidates the business organization backed in Tuesday's election, it appears no more than two will prevail."On balance, this is not the city council that Amazon or the chamber of commerce wanted to see," councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, who was not up for re-election, told The Associated Press on Wednesday as the votes trickled in. In 2010, seven of the nine city council members were backed by the chamber, former Mayor Mike McGinn added, and now they will have just two or three allies. "Amazon's spending helped unite and grow the left," he told AP. "The labor and social justice block gained seats in this election."Even Egan Orion, a chamber-backed candidate trying to unseat Socialist Council member Kshama Sawant, seemed annoyed at having "the shadow of Amazon hanging over me." Having Amazon's backing "was completely unnecessary" and "a big distraction from our closing arguments," Orion added.The city council clashed with Amazon in 2018 when it passed an "Amazon tax" to get large Seattle companies to help pay for homeless services. It later repealed the tax after fierce blowback from Amazon. The online retailer said it's pleased with Tuesday's election results. "We're looking forward to working with the new city council, which we believe will be considerably more open to constructive dialogue and making the decisions that need to be made in order for Seattle to be world-class city to live and do business," Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement.

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