Big Time News Blog: 03/07/20

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Pence gently tries to correct Trump's false coronavirus testing claims

Friday evening found Vice President Pence in an uncommon and uncomfortable position: Having to downplay and contradict assertions made by his boss.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3aB1QjG

Sen. Klobuchar calls for independent review of black man's case

Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked a top Minnesota prosecutor to initiate an independent investigation into the case of Myon Burrell, a black man who as a teenager was sentenced to life in prison after the stray-bullet killing of an 11-year-old black girl.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3cFD9Ej

Warren slams 'bullying' Sanders supporters as she exits race, says candidates are responsible for followers' actions

"We are responsible for the people who claim to be our supporters and do really dangerous, threatening things to other candidates," Warren said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38uyQbC

Report: Iran Revolutionary Guard commander killed in Syria

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38vYQDB

Now this: Tornado clobbers African American North Nashville

On a frigid Friday morning in North Nashville, Ishvicka Howell stood in her driveway and peered down the street at several utility trucks. “When I saw those blinking lights, it was like Christmas," she said. The tornado that struck Nashville wrecked several neighborhoods as it hopped across the city, smashing in trendy Germantown and Five Points, where two people died.

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

Top Trump Communications Strategist Set to Leave White House

(Bloomberg) -- Deputy White House communications director Adam Kennedy, who was part of the administration’s rapid response efforts during the impeachment trial, is leaving his post for a job in the private sector, an official said.Kennedy’s last day will be Friday, but he’ll remain on staff until the end of the month, the official added.Kennedy wasn’t a familiar face on cable news networks but played a behind-the-scenes role for the administration, most notably during the Senate impeachment trial that resulted in the acquittal of President Donald Trump.“Adam has been a key component of the president’s communication efforts since the beginning of the Administration, particularly running rapid response during impeachment, and will be greatly missed,” acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said in a statement.Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said in a statement to Bloomberg News that Kennedy was “a fantastic colleague” who was “instrumental in providing strategic communications to advance the president’s priorities.”Kennedy is one of the few remaining original Trump White House staffers. He joined in 2017 for a role in the White House’s communications research arm. Before that, he was the deputy director of research for policy at the Republican National Committee.His departure comes as Trump’s re-election campaign gets into full swing, and as the administration has faced criticism over its response to the coronavirus.To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2W2CcAr

Trump rejects suggestion sexism contributed to Warren's demise

Trump then claimed that "people like a person like me, who is not mean." It was not clear whether he was joking.

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

Nursing Home Hit by Coronavirus Says It Still Lacks Test Kits

By BY MIKE BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3aEkGWS

Alabama executed Nathaniel Woods for killing 3 cops — even though his co-defendant confessed to shooting them

Nathaniel Woods' co-defendant who admitted to killing the police said Woods didn't have a gun on him and had run away when shots rang out.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38x9ry6

Trump says he'd rather keep people on cruise ship to keep numbers down

While at the CDC, President Trump said that he didn't want people to leave the cruise ship that's currently being quarantined because the number of infected people with coronavirus in the U.S. would likely go up.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2PW3Ued

China may soon lift quarantine on virus-hit Hubei province: official

China may soon lift the quarantine imposed on the province at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak which has been under lockdown for more than a month, a senior government official hinted Friday. Asked about the draconian measures taken in central Hubei province to contain the spread of the virus, Ding Xiangyang, deputy secretary-general of China's State Council, told journalists "the day everyone is waiting for will not be too far away". Some 56 million people in Hubei have been effectively quarantined since late January, to stop the virus from spreading across the country when people returned to work from their hometowns after the extended Lunar New Year break.

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

UN gender bias report offers a simple explanation for Elizabeth Warren

On the same day Elizabeth Warren ended her presidential bid, a UN report found about half the world feels men make better political leaders.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2VR4JbK

Mitt Romney might thwart a Senate investigation of Hunter Biden

After former Vice President Joe Biden revived his Democratic presidential candidacy with a win in South Carolina, Senate Republicans suddenly started making noise about an investigation into Biden's son Hunter and his work for Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Before Biden won 10 of 14 states on Super Tuesday, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he might try to subpoena documents on Hunter Biden's Burisma work, and he's now set a committee vote on the motion for next Wednesday.Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) could derail the subpoena. And he suggested Thursday that he's seriously considering it. "I would prefer that investigations are done by an independent, nonpolitical body," he told The Washington Post. "There's no question the appearance is not good." Romney added that "looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political," and "I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations."> Romney indicated to me today that he is still weighing whether to vote for a subpoena in Burisma probe. (He could kill the effort if he votes 'no' on Wednesday.) "There's no question the appearance of looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political," he said pic.twitter.com/YfeKYGM9v6> > — Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 5, 2020The Homeland Security Committee has eight Republicans and six Democrats, and if Romney sides with the Democrats and causes a 7-7 split, the subpoena motion fails.Joe Biden was the Obama administration's point person on Ukraine corruption when Burisma hired Hunter Biden, and Republicans are search for evidence that there was something corrupt in this arrangement, not just unseemly — like, say, overcharging the Secret Service to stay at your president-father's property, or profiting off a rule you pushed while working at your father-in-law's White House.Romney is already a pariah in some Republican circles because he voted to convict Trump on one impeachment count — abuse of power for trying to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden — and in his speech explaining that vote, Romney made clear he thinks Hunter Biden "taking excessive advantage of his father's name is unsavory but also not a crime," adding: "There is no question in my mind that were their names not Biden, the president would never have done what he did." Trump has made clear he plans to make Burisma a campaign issue.More stories from theweek.com China's coronavirus recovery is 'all fake,' whistleblowers and residents claim An ex-MI6 officer reportedly recruited by security contractor with Trump ties helped infiltrate a major teachers union Trump says doctors keep asking how he knows so much about the coronavirus

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3cGi78X

Mom of missing kids gets bond reduced to $1 million in Idaho

A judge on Friday reduced bail to $1 million for the mother of two missing children after her lawyer contended at her first hearing in Idaho that the amount had been set too high because of media attention. Wearing faded orange-and-white striped jail garb and bright pink lipstick, Lori Vallow Daybell spoke little but nodded emphatically whenever her attorneys mentioned her desire to vigorously defend herself against the child abandonment charges. On the other side of the room were Kay and Larry Woodcock, the grandparents of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/32YviNU

UK police review probe into abduction of Dubai ruler's daughter

British police said Saturday they were reviewing an investigation into the disappearance of the ruler of Dubai's daughter after a court found that she had been abducted by her father. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who is vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, orchestrated the forcible return home of Sheikha Shamsa from Britain in 2000, the High Court ruled earlier this week. The finding was part of a damning judgement that also revealed the sheikh had seized Shamsa's sister Latifa, now 35, twice and returned her to Dubai.

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

Across Asia, countries race to boost face mask supplies

At a face mask factory just outside the South Korean capital of Seoul, workers are churning out 300,000 masks a day - and it's still not enough. Some governments, like those in Australia and Singapore, have urged their citizens not to buy or wear the masks unless they are sick. Other countries, like South Korea, have launched public information campaigns to encourage everyone to wear masks.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2TqwZ3A

Superdelegates might doom Bernie Sanders — again

By this time in the last presidential race, Hillary Clinton had won 672 delegates in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had won 477. A 40 percent lead with most state contests still to go might not seem insurmountable — except for the Democratic Party's "superdelegate" system, in which hundreds of party leaders and elected officials choose which candidate to back at the national convention regardless of their states' votes. And in early March of 2016, Clinton had collected the endorsements of 458 superdelegates to a mere 22 on Sanders' side. At the end of the race, the gap had only grown, with Clinton's superdelegate count finishing at 609 and Sanders' at 47. The Vermont senator would have had to take huge majorities in the primaries to overcome that advantage. He couldn't do it.Sanders fans were pissed, and understandably so. They and their champion sought rules changes for the next cycle, and the biggest one they got is that the 771 superdelegates can no longer participate in the first vote at the Democratic National Convention. Yet if no single candidate in that initial round wins a majority plus one of the ordinary, voter-pledged delegates (1,991 of 3,979), superdelegates get to jump in for subsequent votes.This doesn't necessarily mean Sanders is finished, but it does mean he must win that first ballot at the convention if he's going to win at all. Heading to Milwaukee with a plurality of pledged delegates might have been enough, in a larger field, to fight to victory at a contested convention. Not anymore. Now Sanders needs a 1,991-vote majority.The math here isn't quite as grim as it was for Sanders in 2016, but it's pretty bad. (FiveThirtyEight put his odds of winning the nomination to one in 30 after Super Tuesday.) Superdelegates have been far slower to endorse this cycle — as of this writing, 530 of 771 have yet to announce their preference. With only Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, and extreme longshot Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) left in the race, however, those endorsements will likely begin dropping soon. Where will they fall?Well, Gabbard has a single superdelegate behind her: herself. Sanders so far has 25 endorsements, remarkably similar to his count this time four years ago and barely more than the 24 who backed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or the 23 who went for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg before they each left the race. Biden is leading the pack with 104 superdelegate endorsements, including the only active 10 from "distinguished party leaders" — a category of former Democratic presidents, vice presidents, House and Senate leaders, and DNC chairs, none of whom have supported Sanders.Biden's advantage is far smaller than Clinton's was in March of 2016, but it will only get bigger from here. His endorsements from recently fallen rivals including Bloomberg will probably send their superdelegates his way, a gain of about 40, and possible veep picks like Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) or Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) would each bring some superdelegate endorsements of their own.Still, Biden is unlikely to need that sort of connection to pick up most of those remaining 530 votes. Sanders has slammed the former vice president as someone "running a campaign that is heavily supported by the corporate establishment," but it's not just corporate leaders who would prefer Biden and the status quo he represents. It's looking a lot like the Democratic Party establishment would, too.Superdelegates who are also members of Congress or other officials facing a difficult re-election campaign this fall may see their opportunity to put a thumb on the scale for Biden through the lens of self-interest. The GOP will brand every Democrat running as a socialist if Sanders is the party's leader, a very risky label in purple districts. A New York Times report from late last month informed by interviews with 93 superdelegates found these party leaders are thus overwhelmingly "willing to risk intraparty damage to stop [Sanders'] nomination ... if he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority."That's why Sanders must win the first vote at the convention if he's going to win at all. He's argued superdelegates should back him in the second vote if he has a plurality to avoid the appearance of the party elite stealing the decision from the people. The superdelegate endorsements so far and the Times interviews both indicate that argument is unlikely to prevail.Instead, superdelegate proportions look to be headed to a similar final spot as in 2016, choosing Sanders' opponent by a margin of five or six to one. The rule change keeps them out of the first vote. But if there's a second vote, it will almost certainly mean an influx of hundreds more delegates who will vote for Joe Biden.More stories from theweek.com China's coronavirus recovery is 'all fake,' whistleblowers and residents claim An ex-MI6 officer reportedly recruited by security contractor with Trump ties helped infiltrate a major teachers union Trump says doctors keep asking how he knows so much about the coronavirus

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

A senior Chinese official was heckled while visiting Wuhan, showing how much the coronavirus has weakened the Communist Party's grip on power

Residents under lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus, shouted at Sun Chunlan: "Fake, fake, everything is fake."

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38uFQ8H

US seeks UN backing for Taliban peace deal to end Afghan war

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39uKeFM

South Korea's coronavirus cases climb above 7,000, most cases traced to church

South Korea's coronavirus cases jumped above 7,000 on Saturday, up by 448 from the previous day, with more than half of the total number linked to a secretive church at the center of the country's outbreak, health authorities said. The death toll rose by two to 46, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Since mid-February when a woman tested positive after attending services at a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu, the number of infections has exploded in South Korea, giving it the most cases outside China.