There’s always good news. But some days are better than others. Some of these you will have already heard, but hey, I’m trying not to overlook anything. We can use all the good news we can get.
Mueller sends a warning to all lawyers (and indeed, everyone) with this indictment. I know this seems slow, but as a relative pointed out to me, we really don’t want Mueller to hurry up the indictments because too many at once will cause unprecedented turmoil in our government at a time when it’s already deeply in trouble.
Don’t lie to me:
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday stepped up pressure on two former Trump campaign aides to cooperate in his probe into possible collusion with Russia, unsealing a criminal charge against a lawyer for lying to Mueller’s investigators.
The attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, the son-in-law of one of Russia’s richest men, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to a charge of lying to the Special Counsel’s office. A U.S. judge set his sentencing for April 3.
The case involves work that van der Zwaan, a 33-year-old Dutch citizen, performed in 2012 about Ukraine for Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, senior officials in Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Democrats continue winning special elections all over the place! This article tries to downplay the importance, but even taking into account her narrowly-lost last election, this is still an 18-point swing to the blue side!
Dem swings KY by 86 points:
Democrat Linda Belcher was just pronounced the winner of the special election in Kentucky’s House District 49, a seat that Donald Trump carried by a 72-23 margin in 2016 and that went 66-33 for Mitt Romney in 2012.
Her 68-32 victory represents a ridiculous 45-point improvement on Hillary Clinton’s performance. In fuller context, it’s a little less ridiculous than that. Belcher had previously represented this district in the state legislature, lost a very narrow 50.4-49.6 race in 2016; then the man who defeated her, Dan Johnson, killed himself while under a cloud of sexual assault allegations. The GOP nominated Johnson’s widow and Belcher reclaimed her old seat.
We’re not going to sit down and shut up. We’re going to get up offa that thing and run for office.
Trump accuser running for office:
Rachel Crooks, one of the women who accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, is running for Ohio’s state legislature.
The 35-year-old Democrat filed petitions on Monday to run for Ohio’s 88th House District, currently represented by Republican Bill Reineke. Crooks told Cosmopolitan that she was inspired to run, in part, because her voice wasn’t heard when she accused then-candidate Trump in October 2016 of kissing her without her consent, allegations which Trump has denied.
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Crooks, one of a record number of first-time female candidates running for office in 2018, said she doesn’t want the allegations to define her campaign, which has the backing of the Ohio Democratic Party. She said she wants to help create jobs, repair the state’s education system and increase access to affordable health care.
Finally, Trump does something that might be considered a sign of basic humanity.
Trump to propose bans:
President Donald Trump says he’s signed a memo directing the Justice Department to propose regulations to “ban all devices” like bump stocks used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre.
The president is making the announcement to curb the use of the rapid-fire devices during a ceremony recognizing bravery by the nation’s public safety officers.
Trump is responding days after the shooting deaths of 17 people at a Florida high school. He’s pointing to the need to propose regulations to ban the device that was used in the October shooting deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas.
Yes, we have no immediately available guns in California.
Justices refuse to take on waiting period:
In a blow to gun rights activists, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a challenge to California’s 10-day waiting period for firearms purchases that is intended to guard against impulsive violence and suicides.
The court’s action underscored its continued reluctance to step into a national debate over gun control roiled by a series of mass shootings including one at a Florida school last week. One of the court’s staunchest conservatives, Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented from the decision to reject the case and accused his colleagues of showing contempt toward constitutional protections for gun rights.
The justices also declined to take up a separate gun case involving a National Rifle Association challenge to California’s refusal to lower fees on firearms sales and instead use some of the fee money to track down weapons owned illegally.
In a place that loves its guns so much, this is significant!
NRA, Go away/Don’t come again another day:
Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway on Monday urged the National Rifle Association to find a new home for its annual meeting in May.
Caraway said that the NRA event, scheduled for May 3-6 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, is inappropriate for Dallas after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last week. The NRA's meeting will include firearms displays and exhibits, and the group's national elected officials will participate in leadership meetings. According to the website, ammunition sales are permitted, but on-site firearm sales are not.
In a written statement, Caraway said that it's "time to put the heat on the NRA." He followed up his written comments with a news conference outside City Hall in which he decried high-powered civilian-owned weapons and gun violence in Dallas, referencing both the 1963 Kennedy assassination and the July 7, 2016, ambush on police.
Obama honored again:
City officials in St. Petersburg, Fla., announced that the city's main library would be renamed after former President Barack Obama.
Mayor Rick Kriseman announced on President's Day that the library would be receiving a $6 million renovation and would be renamed after the ex-president.
"We felt the most appropriate thing to name after President Barack Obama was a library, where books are read, ideas are exchanged, research is conducted, and where forums and lectures can take place," Kriseman said on Twitter.
“Political” and a “witch hunt.” Sound familiar?:
Israeli police alleged on Tuesday that Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesman tried to bribe a judge to drop a fraud case against Netanyahu’s wife, the latest corruption investigation encircling the long-serving prime minister.
The new bribery case was one of two revealed on Tuesday involving the same former spokesman, a close Netanyahu confidant. Police also named him as someone they had arrested two days earlier in a separate case involving allegations of corruption at Israel’s biggest telecoms company.
The rightwing leader, in office for 12 years since 1996, has seen his dominance of Israeli politics threatened by corruption investigations since police recommended a week ago that he be indicted for bribery and fraud.
Peanut allergy treatment shows promise:
An experimental treatment to reduce the risk of serious allergic reactions to peanuts yielded promising results in a study conducted by the company that developed the therapy.
The study included nearly 500 youngsters, ages 4-17, with severe peanut allergies. They took either capsules of peanut flour or a dummy (placebo) powder in steadily increasing quantities for six months, then kept taking that final level for another six months, the Associated Press reported.
By the end of the study, 67 percent of the participants who took the peanut flour were able to tolerate the equivalent of roughly two peanuts, compared with only 4 percent of those who took the placebo.
This revolution in mobile wireless speed with support all kinds of innovations. For example, the best surgeon in the world for a particular procedure can program a robot to perform the surgery remotely, or people can use waldoes at a long distance for something like disaster cleanup, without risking their lives.
5G is here but you can’t use it quite yet: (there aren’t any 5G phones availabe)
AT&T announced late Tuesday it will first roll out 5G to three locations: Dallas, Texas; Waco, Texas; and Atlanta.
The wireless giant previously said it would introduce the service to about a dozen U.S. markets by late 2018, but it didn't specify which cities or a specific timeline. The company said it would announce more cities in the coming months.
5G, heralded as the next generation of wireless network technology, is about 10 times faster than 4G, according to experts. That's enough to download a 3D movie in 30 seconds. It would take six minutes on 4G.
Remember during the ACA debate that we said, “if these government guys can have these gold-plated plans, why can’t we?” The same debate might be coming to mass transit.
Modern mass transit coming to DC?:
Elon Musk's Boring Company has taken the first steps toward potentially building a tunnel system in Washington D.C. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the Boring Company received a permit from the D.C. government that will allow it to begin some initial digging and other preparatory work in a parking lot about a mile from the US Capitol.
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The Boring Company hopes to decrease traffic congestion and commute times with a series of underground tunnels it hopes to build across the US. The tunnels could one day house the Loop transit system, which would use electric skates to transport commuters and cars at up to 150 mph, and the high-speed Hyperloop system, in which commuters would travel in pods that could move at over 600 mph. A Hyperloop system could allow commuters to travel between Washington, D.C. and New York in 29 minutes.
Other tidbits:
- Romney is being blasted for being a flipflopper on accepting Trump’s endorsement. Keep up that pressure!
- Students all over the country are planning marches for new gun regulations called “March for our lives.” Oprah, Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw, Jeffrey and Marjorie Katzenberg, and George and Amal Clooney have already donated half a million dollars each as I write this.
Everyone have a happy Wednesday!