It may seem dark at times, but we have to remember that behind the scenes, millions of us are working for good. And it’s not just politicians that are working for us, but scientists, engineers, writers, and yes, schoolchildren.
Dow Recovers:
During the trading day, stocks swung from negative to positive after indexes started the session 2 percent lower. The S&P 500 ended 6.2 percent below its Jan. 26 peak.
The sharp declines in recent days marked a pullback that had been long awaited by investors after the market minted record high after record high in a relatively calm ascent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 567.02 points, or 2.33 percent, to 24,912.77, the S&P 500 gained 46.2 points, or 1.74 percent, to 2,695.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 148.36 points, or 2.13 percent, to 7,115.88.
Girl Scouts lobby to change name of bridge:
At issue is a bridge that spans Savannah Harbor. It honors Eugene Talmadge, a former Georgia governor and white supremacist who died in 1946. Girl Scouts want lawmakers to name it instead for Juliette Gordon Low, the Savannah native who founded the group in 1912. The Girl Scouts were open to "all of America" and became integrated decades before much of the country.
Alabama joins opioid lawsuit epidemic:
Alabama on Tuesday became the latest state to file a lawsuit accusing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP of fueling the opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing prescription painkillers to generate billions of dollars in sales.
Trump calls for another shutdown:
Trump suggested a government shutdown with only days left to avoid one. “If we have to shut it down because the Democrats don’t want safety,” Trump said at a White House event, “then shut it down. We’ll go with another shutdown.”
The federal government is funded through midnight Thursday, and lawmakers are working on reaching a two-year spending deal. Trump has called for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, but has also insisted on a border wall. He repeated his demand for a wall during the White House event, which was a roundtable with law enforcement about the gang MS-13.
But he might not get it:
The House of Representatives on Tuesday night approved a stopgap spending bill to run the government through March 23 and bolster defense funding, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration.
The vote was 245 to 182. Eight Republicans voted no, while 17 Democrats voted yes.
This is the first step in averting a possible government shutdown before 11:59:59 p.m. ET Thursday.
Trump’s military strategy called into question:
In their first hearing on the war since the Republican president unveiled his strategy in August, Senate Foreign Relations Committee members expressed concern to State Department and Pentagon officials that the plan will not achieve its goal of forcing the Taliban into peace talks.
Insurgents, they noted, control more Afghan territory than they have since the October 2001 U.S. invasion, and a spate of attacks in Kabul last month killed scores.
Trump in August committed to an open-ended conflict in Afghanistan and signaled he would send more troops as he vowed “a fight to win,” in a reversal of his call during the presidential election campaign for a swift U.S. withdrawal.
And he breaks another campaign promise:
The trade deficit with China hit a record high in 2017, defying President Trump’s repeated promises to shrink a number that he regards as a test of whether other nations are treating the United States fairly.
US purchases of Chinese goods and services last year were $375 billion greater than Chinese orders from the United States, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Release of the new trade figures came one week after the president boasted in his State of the Union address that the United States had ‘‘finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our nation’s wealth.’’
Schiff trolls the trolls:
The call, made a year ago, was reportedly from two Russian comedians nicknamed 'Vovan' and 'Lexus' who have become notorious for their phony calls to high-ranking American officials and celebrities, including UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Elton John. The call was first reported in The Atlantic's Jan/Feb 2018 issue, where a spokesman for Schiff said: "Before agreeing to take the call, and immediately following it, the committee informed appropriate law-enforcement and security personnel of the conversation, and of our belief that it was probably bogus."
"There were pictures of naked Trump," one of the pranksters told Schiff, explaining that they were obtained by Putin's goddaughter.
Schiff asks: "And the materials you can provide to the committee and to the FBI, would they corroborate this allegation? ... So you have recordings... where they're discussing the compromising material?"
"Obviously we would welcome the chance to get copies of those recordings," Schiff tells them. "So we will try to work with the FBI to try to figure out how we can take copies of those... I'll be in touch with the FBI about this, and we'll make arrangements with your staff. I think it would be best to provide these materials to both our committee and the FBI. We'll make arrangements between my staff and yours on how to facilitate that."
House streamlines sexual harassment complaint process:
The House on Tuesday passed legislation to change the way Congress handles sexual harassment allegations and settlements.
The legislation would streamline the process for how staffers on Capitol Hill lodge complaints and offer them more resources.
[...]
In addition to the legislation, the House passed a resolution that bans sexual relationships between members of Congress and any staffer they oversee.
Everybody loves a parade, but . . . (the whole article is worth a read)
President Donald Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces.
[...]
There is no law or regulations preventing Trump from putting on a military parade, but there are plenty of potential complications that military leaders are likely to raise with the president. One worry is practical: that 70-ton tanks built for the battlefield would chew up Pennsylvania Avenue blacktop.
SpaceX success:
After SpaceX successfully blasted its Falcon Heavy mega-rocket into outer space today, two of the rocket's three boosters turned around, plummeted through the atmosphere, and landed back on Earth.
Memory booster:
Scientists have developed a brain implant that noticeably boosted memory in its first serious test run, perhaps offering a promising new strategy to treat dementia, traumatic brain injuries and other conditions that damage memory.
The device works like a pacemaker, sending electrical pulses to aid the brain when it is struggling to store new information, but remaining quiet when it senses that the brain is functioning well.
In the test, reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, the device improved word recall by 15 percent — roughly the amount that Alzheimer’s disease steals over two and half years.
Tesla to sell solar roofs and Powerwall in Home Depot:
Tesla is adding its own selling spaces at 800 of Home Depot's stores across the U.S., the person told CNBC, to sell residential solar panels and Powerwall (batteries) to begin with. Those areas are scheduled to be built in the first half of 2018, and Tesla employees will man them.
Meanwhile, Lowe's has also held talks with Tesla about selling solar products, Bloomberg reported, based on conversations with familiar sources.
A representative from Lowe's told CNBC: "We don't have any plans to carry the products at this time."