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Sen. Coons: McCabe’s Remarks on Removing Pres. Trump From Office Should be Scrutinized

Sen. Coons: McCabe’s Remarks on Removing Pres. Trump From Office Should be Scrutinized

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:54 PM PT — Sun. Feb. 17, 2019

Democrat Senator Chris Coons addresses remarks by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about removing President Trump from office.

In a Face The Nation interview on Sunday, Coons said McCabe’s remarks about invoking the 25th amendment are problematic and should be looked in to.

FILE – In this June 7, 2017, file photo, then-FBI acting director Andrew McCabe listens during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The Delaware Senator dismissed suggestions made by some Republicans that McCabe’s statements reflect a conspiracy against President Trump.

This comes after McCabe said the DOJ considered removing the President, deeming him “unfit to serve.”

Coons defended McCabe, saying his remarks were probably taken out of context.

Additionally, Coons admitted the alleged abuses of the FISA court by Obama officials should be part of an oversight review of the Mueller probe.

Source: OANN Top News

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Former Israeli minister sentenced for funneling ‘top secret information’ to ‘enemy’ Iranian agents

An ex-Israeli government official convicted for funneling a range of “top secret information” to Iranian agents “with the intent of harming national security” was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in prison, prosecutors say.

The punishment handed down to Gonen Segev, a former infrastructure and energy minister, comes after he was tracked down in the African country of Equatorial Guinea last year and brought back to Israel to face trial.

"Segev confessed that he acted on behalf of the Iranian intelligence forces for five years, maintained regular communications with his handlers using a clandestine channel and that he provided them a diverse range of information -- including top secret information," prosecutors Geula Cohen and Rachel Aharoni Zeevi said in a statement, according to the Jerusalem Post.

SEGEV FOUND GUILTY OF FORGING DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT

"The indictment which Segev confessed to as part of the plea bargain included grave crimes of spying and providing information to an enemy with the intent of harming national security,” they added.

Segev was convicted in early January, but details on the case have been kept under wraps because of a gag order, the Jerusalem Post reports.

GERMANY ARRESTS LINGUIST, ACCUSES HIM OF PASSING MILITARY SECRETS TO IRAN

The newspaper, citing Channel 10 News, also says Segev told Shin Bet investigators following his arrest that he was trying to help Israel.

“I wanted to fool the Iranians and come back to Israel a hero,” Segev reportedly said, while insisting he did not hand over any classified information.

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But prosecutors claim he met with Iranian handlers in the Islamic Republic and other secret locations and provided them with information related to Israel’s energy industry and security sites, among other topics.

Shin Bet investigators say Segev first met with Iranian intelligence agents in Nigeria in 2012, where he was practicing medicine after having his license revoked in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports. He also has been convicted in the past of trying to smuggle more than 30,000 ecstasy tablets into Israel from the Netherlands.

Source: Fox News World

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Charges filed in student stabbing at Chicago university

A 42-year-old man has been charged with critically wounding a fellow student at a university in Chicago.

Chicago police say Dejuan Doby pulled out a knife while in a classroom Tuesday at East-West University and stabbed a 20-year-old student in the back. Doby faces one count of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery.

Responding police officers arrested the Chicago resident at the school. The classmate was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but university officials have since said his condition has stabilized.

A Cook County judge on Thursday ordered Doby held on $7,000 bail and barred Doby from having any contact with the victim.

Doby doesn't have a listed phone number to pursue comment.

Source: Fox News National

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How the Feds Promoted Segregated Housing

Was the New Deal responsible for segregated housing?

The New Deal was filled with legislation that disproportionately hurt minorities such as African Americans. The Wagner Act of 1935, which granted entrenched labor unions major leeway in excluding low-wage workers, allowed these same unions to discriminate against blacks. Additionally, the Davis-Bacon Act was designed to prevent African American construction workers from working on public projects during the Great Depression.

However, one of the least discussed aspects of discriminatory government policy during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration was in housing.

In the article, How FDR Promoted Racial Segregation , Jim Powell detailed some interesting facts about New Deal housing policy. With the Great Depression in full swing, once FDR stepped into office, one of his legislative priorities was to promote home ownership among America’s middle class. FDR established the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), which spent roughly $3 billion refinancing mortgages for people who failed to make their mortgage payments.

To minimize risks, HOLC would develop more standardized methods for property assessment. According to Powell, “HOLC rated properties and neighborhoods on a descending scale from most desirable to least desirable, and maps were produced to help speed up the process of evaluating mortgage applications.”

The neighborhoods were divided up into four categories:

Neighborhoods were marked as A (green), B (blue), C (yellow) or D (red). An “A” neighborhood was suburban with recent construction, low crime, business and professional people – a white neighborhood. A “D” neighborhood was inner city, old buildings often in need of repair, sometimes high crime – a minority neighborhood. HOLC avoided “D” neighborhoods. This was how official redlining began.

One year after FDR created the HOLC, he established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Instead of loaning money or building anything, it provided insurance “that guaranteed to make bankers whole when they wrote mortgages for properties approved of by the FHA.”

Since the probability of mortgage defaults was high, the FHA took a page out of the HOLC’s playbook and crafted policies to minimize risk. Powell explains how the FHA fostered discrimination:

FHA mortgage insurance was originally limited to $20,000, so FHA officials favored “B” housing — modest, single-family homes with comfortable lots in all-white suburban residential neighborhoods where business and professional people lived. In “A” neighborhoods, homes tended to cost more than $20,000, and not many people needed help from the FHA. Officials were concerned about the presence of “inharmonious racial or nationality groups.” Few FHA-insured loans went to blacks. The FHA steered mortgage lending away from cities.

Discriminatory housing policies were a hallmark of the New Deal. Historian Kenneth H. Jackson argued that the “FHA exhorted segregation and enshrined it as public policy” for decades.

The Revival of the Segregated Housing Question

There was relative silence on the discriminatory nature of the New Deal housing policy until Richard Rothstein broke the silence in his book The Color of Law .

In an interview , Rothstein emphasizes that the government was the main catalyst of housing segregation:

“In many cases, the federal government did create…segregation in metropolitan areas and in cities that had never known segregation before. In other cases…it did reinforce segregation that was already in existence. But the country was much, much more segregated as a result of these federal policies than it was before, or would be today without them.”

World War II saw a significant portion of the population uprooted from their homes in order to contribute to the war effort either on the battlefield or in the domestic defense industry. Rothstein highlighted the case of Richmond, California and its segregationist policy:

From 1940 to 1945, the influx of war workers resulted in Richmond’s population exploding from 24,000 to more than 100,000. Richmond’s black population soared from 270 to 14,000….With such rapid population growth, housing could not be put up fast enough. The federal government stepped in with public housing. It was officially and explicitly segregated. Located along railroad tracks and close to the shipbuilding area, federally financed housing for African Americans in Richmond was poorly constructed and intended to be temporary. For white defense workers, government housing was built farther inland, closer to white residential areas, and some of it was sturdily constructed and permanent. Because Richmond had been overwhelmingly white before the war, the federal government’s decision to segregate public housing established segregated living patterns that persist to this day.

Although the South is commonly perceived as the hyper-segregated region of the country, Rothstein uncovered that Northern, liberal Democrats like Hubert Humphrey, who sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1964, were adamant about maintaining segregated housing. As Rothstein points out in the interview, Northern liberals were actually opposed to any form of housing integration during the amendment process of the Housing Act of 1949:

Republicans in Congress put forward an amendment to Truman’s 1949 Housing Act, requiring that from now on, public housing had to be integrated. No more segregation in public housing. They assumed that conservative republicans would be able to get northern liberal democrats to support this amendment, and the amendment would pass. Then once the housing bill was saddled with an integration amendment, southern democrats would abandon it, and the entire bill would go down to defeat.

Well, the result was that northern liberals campaigned against the integration amendment. They were led by Hubert Humphrey, a civil rights advocate in the Senate, the leading civil rights advocate in the Senate was Paul Douglas of Illinois, and he also led the campaign against the integration amendment. The integration amendment was defeated. The 1949 Housing Act was adopted, preserving segregation in public housing.

Approximately 20 years later, the passage of the Fair Housing Act ended discrimination against African Americans during the home buying process. However, there was one problem — most housing was now unaffordable for both African Americans and working-class whites. Rothstein adds:

By the time the federal government decided finally to allow African Americans into the suburbs, the window of opportunity for an integrated nation had mostly closed. In 1948, for example, Levittown homes sold for about $8,000, or about $75,000 in today’s dollars. Now, properties in Levittown without major remodeling…sell for $350,000 and up. White families who bought those homes in 1948 have gained, over three generations, more than $200,000.

Most American families from the 1940s until the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act built their wealth from equity. On the other hand, African Americans were usually renting properties and accumulating no equity or owned less attractive properties. This is arguably one of the reasons why white Americans dwarf African Americans in terms of accumulated wealth .

What Must be Done?

Rothstein’s research has brought new light to segregation in the United States. It’s clear that government policy may have played a larger role in institutionalizing segregation than cultural norms. So what can be done to resolve this problem?

On one hand, completely getting rid of segregation is not very feasible when taking into account that people tend to self-segregate . And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. People should have the right to associate with whomever they please. Numerous ethnic enclaves such as Black Wall Street, Chinatown , and Koreatown have thrived without any need to be forcibly integrated.

Rothstein is no libertarian, and in fact, has actually floated the idea of “federal subsidies for middle-class African-Americans to purchase homes in suburbs.” Frankly, with so much government involvement in housing, adding more subsidies into the mix is simply sub-optimal.

Instead, we need genuine liberalization in housing markets. That means doing away with zoning laws and land-use regulations that restrict housing supply, thus pricing out many potential buyers, especially African Americans.

Source: InfoWars

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Thousands attend climate march in Dutch capital

Thousands of people, many warding off rain under umbrellas, have packed a central square in Amsterdam to march for more progressive climate policies in the Netherlands.

Organizers estimated that 30,000 people were attending Sunday's march.

One carried a banner with the simple appeal: "Do something."

In January, an environmental research institute said the Netherlands wasn't doing enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions to levels ordered in a landmark court ruling.

The Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency said that the target of reducing emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 is "out of reach."

Dutch lawmakers have approved legislation that set as benchmarks a 95-percent reduction of emissions by 2050 compared with 1990 levels and a 49-percent cut by 2030.

However, a plan to achieve the targets hasn't been approved.

Source: Fox News World

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Egypt executes nine men over killing of public prosecutor: prison source, lawyer

A man holds a cross and a Koran at the funeral of Egyptian public prosecutor Hisham Barakat, on the second anniversary of the June 30 protests that toppled former President Mursi, in Cairo
A man holds a cross and a Koran at the funeral of Egyptian public prosecutor Hisham Barakat, on the second anniversary of the June 30 protests that toppled former President Mohamed Mursi, in Cairo, Egypt, June 30, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

February 20, 2019

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt has executed nine men convicted over the 2015 killing of the country’s top prosecutor, a prison source and a lawyer said on Wednesday.

The men were among a group of 28 who were sentenced to death in the case in 2017. Public prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in a car bomb attack on his convoy in the capital, Cairo.

(Reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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U.S. health spending to rise 5.5 percent per year over next decade – CMS

Nurse prepares a bag of saline at Intermountain Healthcare's Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo
FILE PHOTO: A nurse prepares a bag of saline at Intermountain Healthcare's Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah April 1, 2014. REUTERS/George Frey

February 20, 2019

By Tamara Mathias and Saumya Joseph

(Reuters) – U.S. health spending is expected to grow at an average rate of 5.5 percent every year from 2018 over the next decade and will reach nearly $6 trillion by 2027 as more people become eligible for Medicare, a government health agency said on Wednesday.

Rising income levels, better employment rate and more people enrolling for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and above and the disabled, will cause healthcare spending to rise to 19.4 percent of the U.S. economy by 2027, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said.

In 2017, healthcare spending accounted for 17.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Annual spending growth for Medicare is expected to average 7.4 percent over the 10-year period, CMS said.

That number exceeds spending projections for Medicaid — the government insurance program for low income Americans — and private health insurance plans, which are expected to average 5.5 percent and 4.8 percent respectively, over the same period.

The CMS said it expects Medicare enrollment growth to peak at 2.9 percent in 2019.

Prescription drug spending is also expected to rise and average 5.6 percent annually between 2018 and 2027 as employers and insurers push patients with chronic conditions to adhere to medications better, and as new and expensive drugs enter the market.

Hospital spending growth is projected to average 5.6 percent per year between 2018 and 2027.

By 2027, federal, state and local governments are expected to fund 47 percent of national health spending, compared with 45 percent in 2017, according to the report.

The CMS said that all projections are reflective of current laws and do not take into account policy changes under consideration.

(Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph and Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

Source: OANN

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Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk
Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk, Belarus April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

April 26, 2019

By Katya Golubkova and Andrei Makhovsky

MOSCOW/MINSK (Reuters) – Russia is confident it can soon resolve a problem of polluted Russian oil contaminating a major pipeline serving Europe and affecting supplies as far west as Germany, a senior official said on Friday at talks with importers about the issue.

Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin did not give a precise timeframe but Moscow has previously said it would pump clean oil to the border with Belarus from April 29, seeking to end a crisis hitting the world’s second-largest crude exporter.

Sorokin was speaking at talks with officials from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine in Minsk on the issue. Belarus said the issue had cost it $100 million, while analysts say alternative supply routes for refiners cannot fully fill the gap.

Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline. Halting those supplies has knock-on effects further along the network.

The problem arose last week when an unidentified Russian producer contaminated oil with high levels of organic chloride used to boost oil output but which must be separated before shipment as it can destroy refining equipment.

Russia’s Energy Ministry said pipeline monopoly Transneft and other Russian companies had a plan to mitigate the effects of the contaminated oil. It did not give details.

Russian officials have said contaminated oil has already been pumped into storage in Russia and Friday’s talks would focus on how to partially withdraw the tainted crude from the Druzhba pipeline running via other countries.

The suspension cuts off a major supply route for Polish refineries owned by Poland’s PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos, as well as plants in Germany owned by Total, Shell, Eni and Rosneft.

Some refiners have outlined plans for alternative supplies, but analysts say other routes cannot meet the shortfall.

OIL PRICES

Ukraine’s Ukrtransnafta suspended the transit of oil through the pipeline on Thursday, closing supplies via Druzhba’s southern route to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The pipeline issue, which has supported global oil prices, lifted Russian Urals crude differentials to an all-time high on Thursday.

With pipeline supplies to Europe shut, Russia faces a challenge of how to divert about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) that was meant to be shipped through the network to other destinations at the time when export capacity is at its limits.

State-run Russian Railways held talks with energy firms on using up to 5,000 rail tankers to transport crude, RIA news agency reported on Friday.

Concerns about the quality of Urals crude also caused delays in loadings at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, when buyers refused to lift cargoes, resulting in a brief shutdown of the port on Wednesday and Thursday. An Ust-Luga official and traders said on Friday loadings had resumed.

Russian loading plans indicate it aims to boost Urals exports in May before the expiry of a deal on output cuts agreed with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Reuters calculations and Energy Ministry data show.

The provisional loading plan for Russia’s Baltic Sea ports and Novorossiisk in May show exports rising to 10.7 million tonnes, the highest level in half a decade.

Minsk estimated its loss from lower oil product exports due to contaminated Russian oil at around $100 million, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing Belarusian state oil company Belneftekhim.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, in charge of government energy policy, said this week that those found responsible for contaminating the oil could be fined. He did not provide names.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko in WARSAW, Sandor Peto in BUDAPEST, Jason Hovet in PRAGUE, Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets in KIEV, Katya Golubkova, Olesya Astakhova, Gleb Gorodyankin, Olga Yagova and Maxim Rodionov in MOSCOW, Andrei Makhovsky in MINSK; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by Michael Perry and Edmund Blair)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

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But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations has blasted the United State and the European Union for imposing sanctions on his country, describing them as “economic terrorism.”

Bashar Ja’afari made his comments Friday in the Kazakh capital of Astana where Russia, Turkey and Iran held a new round of talks with the Syrian government and the opposition on steps to bring peace to the country.

His comments came as government-held parts of Syria are witnessing widespread fuel shortages that are largely the result of Western sanctions on Syria and its key ally Iran.

Ja’afari says: “This is economic terrorism that is escalating through unilateral economic measures.”

A final statement issued at the end of Astana’s 12th round rejected President Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.

Source: Fox News World

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