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St. Louis prosecutor urges steps for bail-posting nonprofit

St. Louis' top prosecutor on Wednesday urged a nonprofit group to review court records before posting bail for inmates, days after a man freed from jail was charged with killing his wife soon after his release.

Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner also asked the Bail Project to contact her office before posting bail for anyone accused of crimes involving victims, including domestic violence. Gardner said in a statement that would allow victims and witnesses to be told about the release.

Prosecutors said Samuel Lee Scott, 54, attacked his wife, Marcia Johnson, at her home on April 9, soon after $5,000 bail was posted to free him from jail. He was awaiting trial for domestic violence.

When a friend found her, Johnson "was unconscious, had a broken eye socket, several broken ribs, and was bruised from head to toe," a probable cause statement said. Johnson died days later at a hospital.

Scott is now charged with first-degree murder and jailed on $1 million bond. A phone message left with his attorney was not immediately returned.

Scott was initially jailed in January on an accusation that he struck Johnson in the face. A probable cause statement said he also threatened that he "might as well finish what (he) started since (she) was going to contact the police."

A misdemeanor domestic assault charge was filed April 5, four days before the St. Louis branch of the Bail Project bailed him out.

"If all of the charging documents were reviewed by the Bail Project, they would have seen the safety concerns of the victim, prosecutors and courts," Gardner said. "This information would have given the Bail Project an appreciation for the level of risk associated in the case."

Bail Project Executive Director Robin Steinberg said in a statement that it's "inexcusable to use Ms. Johnson's memory to stoke fear and undermine the real dialogue that needs to happen here, which is how can we prevent gender-based violence without relying on the very jails that break people and perpetuate harm, violence and poverty in families for generations."

Gardner said she shares a desire for criminal justice reform, including reducing the number of people jailed unnecessarily while awaiting trial. But she cited an obligation "to put victims' safety first."

Source: Fox News National

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Donald Trump Jr. says family has no fears over Mueller investigation report

Donald Trump Jr. dismissed any notion that he, the President or his family have any fears relating to the Mueller investigation or a probe by the Southern District of New York.

“‘This is going to be it, we finally got him.’ I’ve been hearing this for two years,’” Trump Jr. told “Fox & Friends" on Monday morning.

“This is as political as it gets. Their dream in life is to try to find something to get Trump. I mean, it’s that old Stalinist tactic, you know? ‘Show me the men, and I’ll show you the crime.'

SCHIFF: DEMS 'ABSOLUTELY' WILL TAKE DOJ TO COURT OVER MUELLER REPORT IF NECESSARY

“So, you know, there’s no doubt that they’ll try. But again, I know how we functioned as a company. I know how we function as individuals, and that’s why despite all this – for two years – we don’t appear all that worried, because we know there’s nothing there.”

We know there’s nothing there

— Donald Trump Jr.

Sunday former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was on ABC’s “This Week” and highlighted the Southern District of New York’s investigation into the Trump Organization and the Trump Inaugural Committee, saying that it poses a bigger threat to Trump than the Mueller report does.

MUELLER PROBE 'NEAR THE END GAME' AMID SHAKEUP AT DOJ, SOURCES SAY

“The Southern District of New York investigation is monumentally more perilous to the president than Bob Mueller ever was or ever will be. They have two tour guides and no restriction on where they can go,” Christie told host George Stephanopoulos.

“What they did was – they put incredible pressure on regular guys that couldn’t afford millions of dollars in legal fees, and got them to slip up and say something incorrectly,” Trump Jr. said of the Southern District of New York’s investigation.

The Mueller report is expected this week according to reports.

MUELLER SENTENCING MEMO SAYS MANAFORT 'REPEATEDLY AND BRAZENLY' VIOLATED LAW

Trump Jr. also commented on President Trump’s former attorney testifying before Congress this week while his father is having a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam.

“You got a President trying to deal with a major world issue, and to try to distract – or whatever it is – by bringing in a convicted felon and known liar. I mean, it’s pretty pathetic, but it really shows you how much the Democrats hate Trump. They hate Trump more than they love America, by a long shot, and it’s pretty disgusting that they would do that,” Trump Jr. said.

Cohen has closed-door hearings set for Tuesday and Thursday with Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

Wednesday Cohen has a public Congressional hearing with the House Oversight Committee the same day President Trump will meet with Jon-un in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Source: Fox News Politics

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BP CEO Dudley’s 2018 pay slips to $14.7 million

Group Chief Executive of BP Bob Dudley poses for a photograph at the BP International Headquarters in central London
Group Chief Executive of BP Bob Dudley poses for a photograph at the BP International Headquarters in central London, Britain, May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

March 29, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley’s 2018 remuneration slipped to $14.7 million from a year earlier, as the oil and gas company’s profits doubled to a five-year high.

Dudley’s 2017 remuneration was revised upwards to $15.1 million from the previous $13.4 million due to changes in the value of BP’s shares over the period.

The drop in pay in 2018 was a result of a reduced annual bonus and pension, which was partly offset by a rise in BP’s share price, the company said in its 2018 annual report.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso, editing by Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Reputed Gambino crime boss' suspected killer flashes 'MAGA,' other slogans on hand

The 24-year-old man charged with killing the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family wrote a string of slogans on his hand, including "MAGA Forever," and flashed them before a court hearing Monday.

Anthony Comello held up his left hand while waiting for a hearing to begin in Toms River, New Jersey, in which he agreed to be extradited to New York.

On it were scrawled slogans including “MAGA Forever,” an abbreviation of President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” It also read “United We Stand MAGA.”

It's unclear what his motivations were for showing off the hand-written words.

Comello was arrested Saturday in New Jersey in the death of Francesco Cali last week in front of his Staten Island home.

Comello’s lawyer, Brian Neary, would not discuss the writing on his client’s hand, nor would he say whether Comello maintained his innocence.

MAFIA KILLING IS FIRST NEW YORK MOB BOSS HIT EVER RECORDED ON VIDEO: REPORT

The New York Times reported Monday afternoon that Comello told detectives he was high on marijuana and allegedly shot Cali because he feared for his life.

Police said Cali, 53, was shot 10 times.

Federal prosecutors referred to Cali in court filings in 2014 as the underboss of the Mafia’s Gambino family, once one of the country’s most powerful crime organizations. News accounts since 2015 said Cali had ascended to the top spot, though he never was charged with leading the gang. His only mob-related conviction came a decade ago, when he was sentenced to 16 months in prison in an extortion scheme involving a failed attempt to build a NASCAR track on Staten Island. He was released in 2009, and hadn’t been in legal trouble since then.

The last Mafia boss to be rubbed out in New York City was Gambino don “Big Paul” Castellano, who was assassinated in 1985.

Anthony Comello was arrested Saturday in New Jersey in the death of Francesco Cali last week in front of his Staten Island home. (AP)

Anthony Comello was arrested Saturday in New Jersey in the death of Francesco Cali last week in front of his Staten Island home. (AP)

Officials haven’t confirmed that the Gambino crime family has posted a bounty on Comello, but “the general feeling is that there’s an ‘X’ on this guy’s back,” one source said.

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“He’s going to have some issues in jail,” a high-ranking NYPD official said.

“Maybe there’s some guys who are wiseguys in jail who will show their allegiance to the Gambinos and say, ‘We’ll take care of this guy.’”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Bernie faces voters in the heart of Trump country 


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On the roster: Bernie faces voters in the heart of Trump country - Welcome to the race Mayor Pete - Mueller report expected Thursday morning - Trump stays on attack mode with Omar - Either a solid prank or a lot of leftovers

BERNIE FACES VOTERS IN THE HEART OF TRUMP COUNTRY 
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – If there’s an argument to be made to skeptical mainstream Democrats for nominating Bernie Sanders, it starts right here in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

The 2016 election was a political earthquake in Bethlehem and nearby communities to the north like Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. Here in Northampton County, voters hadn’t gone for a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988 before it went for Donald Trump by 4 points. The shift was even more pronounced in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre) where the Republican share of the vote increased by 13 points from 2012 to 2016.

Without this region, Trump would have come up short instead of his 44,292-vote nail-biter win in Pennsylvania. And if he had missed with kindred voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, he wouldn’t be president today. 

Americans who aren’t familiar with these communities or ones like them stretching out into the industrial Midwest and Appalachia may be tempted to accept the version offered by the scores of journalists who have fanned out in the region over the past four years: Doped up, out of work, undereducated xenophobes who voted for Trump out of some malign impulse for revenge against the elites who had ruined their lives. 

Not only does that badly shortchange the people who live here it misses the real dynamics at work.

These counties were certainly up for grabs in 2016. This was rock-solid Obama country and, as the 2018 midterm results showed, the reversal to red was hardly permanent. But Democrats are very nervous that it might happen again. The fascination with former Vice President Joe Biden is related to his strong brand and famous name, yes, but also because he is a son of Scranton. Sheriff Joe, the human firewall.

Sanders, though, has a different argument to make. And it includes a subtle threat.

His campaign points to survey data that say 12 percent of Sanders’ 2016 primary voters ended up voting for Trump in November. That would be something like 1.5 million Democratic primary voters switching sides, and plenty of them were in post-industrial eastern Pennsylvania.

Sanders argues that without him, these voters will drift back to Trump. But he also makes the case that he is the candidate who can best undo the party’s long slide with white, middle class voters. These folks have radicalized and become populists who will only respond to a candidate who promises to attack the bipartisan establishment in Washington and Wall Street.

There’s another theory of the case, however. This holds that Hillary Clinton was the worst big-time politician of her era and certainly the worst Democratic nominee since at least Michael Dukakis. Sanders’ own success actually reinforces this thesis. There’s no way he would have had the stunning success he did in 2016 had it not been for the intense, visceral rejection of Clinton and Clintonism by so many Democrats.

Was Sanders, like Trump, the beneficiary of the black hole that has become the Clinton legacy? Or is he the vanguard of still churning populist revolt that will not be sated until massive change comes to the American way of life?

Tonight, Sanders gets to make his case to a local audience here on the grounds of the old Bethlehem Steel Plant. Will they adjudge him to be a re-run of a played-out drama or the leader of a revolution that has only just begun?

[Watch Fox: Hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will help local voters take Sanders’ measure tonight starting at 6:30 p.m. ET] 

THE RULEBOOK: EVERYONE’S A CRITIC
“Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

TIME OUT: ‘YOU WATCH ME, I’LL GET IT DONE’
History: “On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American in the major leagues when he plays his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. … 28-year-old Jackie Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut with the Dodgers, against the Boston Braves, in front of more than 25,000 spectators at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Robinson played first base and went zero for three at the plate. During his first season in the majors, Robinson encountered racism from opposing teams and fans, as well as some of his own teammates. However, the abuse didn’t affect his performance on the baseball field. Robinson played in 151 games, hit .297, stole more bases than anyone else in the National League and was awarded the first-ever Rookie of the Year title. … In 1955, Robinson helped the Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees to win the World Series. He retired from baseball after playing his last game on October 10, 1956…”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval: 
43.2 percent
Average disapproval: 51.6 percent
Net Score: -8.4 points
Change from one week ago: up 1.8 points 
[Average includes: Gallup: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; GU Politics/Battleground: 43% approve - 52% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 52% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 44% approve - 50% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 43% approve - 53% disapprove.]

WELCOME TO THE RACE MAYOR PETE
AP:Pete Buttigieg, the little-known Indiana mayor who has risen to prominence in the early stages of the 2020 Democratic presidential race, made his official campaign entrance Sunday by claiming the mantle of a youthful generation ready to reshape the country. … In the hours after his announcement, more than $1 million in donations poured in, said Lis Smith, speaking for the campaign. … Buttigieg will return this week to Iowa and New Hampshire … to campaign as a full-fledged candidate now being taken more seriously. Over the past few months, Buttigieg has appeared frequently on national TV news and talk shows and developed a strong social media following with his message that the country needs ‘a new generation of leadership.’ Buttigieg’s poll numbers have climbed. Some polls put him behind only Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sought the party’s nomination in 2016, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet said he’s running.”

Gillibrand hits $3 million for first quarter fundraising - NYT: “Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign raised $3 million in the first quarter of the year, a spokeswoman said on Sunday, a disappointing sum that ranked her last among the six senators currently running for president. Ms. Gillibrand, New York’s Democratic junior senator, has made running as a woman a central theme of her candidacy, and nearly two-thirds of the campaign’s donors were women, said the spokeswoman, Meredith Kelly. Ms. Kelly did not disclose how many donors the campaign had, but she said that 92 percent of contributions were under $200. Given her modest haul so far, Ms. Gillibrand will likely need to rely heavily upon the roughly $10 million in campaign funds she had left over after her Senate re-election bid last year. Only a few 2020 candidates had such a large cash stockpile to supplement their presidential fund-raising.”

Warren makes pledge to ban oil and gas drilling on federal lands - WashEx: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Monday that she would ban all drilling on federal lands and waters on her first day in office. ‘On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that says no more drilling — a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases, including for drilling offshore and on public lands,’ the Massachusetts Democrat said in post on Medium outlining her public lands agenda. Warren also said she would reinstate an Obama-era Interior Department rule that the Trump administration has proposed rolling back limiting leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations.”

Caucuses continue to dwindle - NYT: “In this cycle, caucuses are dwindling. Democratic National Committee rules now encourage states to use a government-run primary, where more people participate, and to increase participation in the caucuses that remain. … Already, the three largest caucus states — Washington, Minnesota and Colorado — have flipped to primaries. So have Utah, Idaho and Nebraska. Two more caucus states — Alaska and Hawaii — are using party-run, rather than government-run, primaries. This switch can increase participation and turnout to levels somewhat more like in a traditional primary, depending on how they are administered. That leaves just six caucus states: Iowa and Nevada — the two highest-turnout caucuses… and Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming and Maine. … The overall effect seems as if it will be pretty modest. That might be something of a surprise. After all, the effect of having a caucus is substantial.”

MUELLER REPORT EXPECTED THURSDAY MORNING
Fox News: “Special Counsel Robert Mueller's much-anticipated Russia report is set to be released to the public and Congress on Thursday morning, the Justice Department announced. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told Fox News on Monday the report would be made available -- with redactions -- Thursday morning to lawmakers and to the public. The news comes despite mounting calls from Democrats to first release the report to Congress without redactions. Attorney General Bill Barr testified last Wednesday he planned to have the report available ‘within a week,’ maintaining his original vow to release Mueller's full report by mid-April. … Most congressional Democrats demanded Barr turn over the full report, without redactions, to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for review, prior to releasing it to the public. … Barr maintained the DOJ is working ‘diligently to make as much information as possible available to Congress.’ Meanwhile … the DOJ defended Barr's rollout of Mueller's conclusions.”

Team Trump taking a relaxed approach to Mueller report - Axios: “Two of the president's top advisers who will be handling the response to Mueller’s report were watching the Masters when [Axios’ Jonathan Swan] called them about it this weekend. By all accounts, the president himself is also taking a fairly blasé approach. The subject has barely come up, if at all, in recent senior staff meetings, according to two sources with direct knowledge. … Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, told [Swan] Trump hasn't seen the report. And senior White House aides have scant details about it, telling me they could only guess when exactly it will come out and how much of it will be redacted. Most expect Attorney General Bill Barr to release the report mid-week. … The president's outside legal team will not read the report alongside his White House lawyers. Rather, the two groups of attorneys plan to go through it separately. A senior Trump adviser said the two groups will write separate responses — with the outside response likely more aggressive than the White House's institutional response.”

Trump maintains ‘no collusion, no obstruction’ - Fox News:President Trump on Monday said it was time to ‘investigate the investigators,’ doubling down on Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia investigation. ‘Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!’ Trump tweeted early Monday. The president’s tweet comes following a week of mounting scrutiny on the attorney general for his testimony that ‘spying did occur’ on the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Democrats blasted Barr, and accused him of ‘peddling conspiracy theories.’ But despite the backlash from Democrats over his use of the term, Barr's testimony appeared to refer to intelligence collection that already has been widely reported and confirmed.”

TRUMP STAYS ON ATTACK MODE WITH OMAR
USA Today: “Before taking off Monday for Minnesota, President Donald Trump again attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minneapolis and one of the first two Muslim-American women to serve in the U.S. Congress. On Twitter, Trump also criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for defending Omar, saying she ‘should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!’ Omar, Pelosi and other Democrats said Trump's frequent attacks on the freshman congresswoman from Minnesota smack of being anti-Muslim, and are spiking death threats against Omar. Saying threats have escalated since Trump backers used her comments in a 2020 campaign video, Omar tweeted this weekend: ‘We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop.’ Trump's latest attacks came hours before he left for Minnesota, where he is scheduled to hold an economic policy event related Monday's deadline for tax filings.”

Trump still likes idea to send immigrants to sanctuary cities - LAT: “President Trump still ‘likes’ the idea of transferring immigrants in the U.S. illegally to so-called sanctuary cities like San Francisco, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday. But she portrayed the notion as a burden-sharing strategy that the Democrats should welcome rather than a plan designed to punish political adversaries like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Senior Democrats pushed back on the idea, previously rejected by administration lawyers in internal White House deliberations, as probably illegal and emblematic of the administration’s failure to conceive of a fair and coherent immigration policy. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, described the administration’s policymaking on immigration as built around crises that the president had created.”

Dems think Miller’s to blame - WaPo: “House Democrats are sharpening their focus on White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller, with key lawmakers saying he should be brought before congressional committees to testify about his role in recent policy controversies. The talk of hauling Miller before lawmakers comes days after The Washington Post reported that he played a key role in a plan first discussed last year to release undocumented immigrants into ‘sanctuary cities’ represented by President Trump’s Democratic critics. While the plan never came to fruition because of objections from agency officials, Trump has since embraced the idea. With a spate of new vacancies at the Department of Homeland Security … Miller has emerged as a key target for Democrats who see him as an influential survivor in an administration that has otherwise churned through personnel.”

Graham to introduce immigration legislation - Fox Business: “Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he will draft legislation in an effort to fix immigration laws in the U.S. ‘I’ll be introducing a package, and hopefully with Democratic support, that will change our asylum laws,’ Graham, R-S.C., told ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a large majority of people who apply for asylum are released, but never return for their hearing. … ‘It’s impossible to do a hearing in 20 days,’ Graham said, adding that he wants to modify the decision and asylum laws. ‘So we’re going to try to change the time you can hold an unaccompanied minor or a minor child beyond 20 days because if you come up with a family and you have minor kids in the family, we release the whole family in 20 days because you don’t want to separate families.’”

TWO YEARS LATER TRUMP TAX CUTS STILL UNPOPULAR
Politico: “President Donald Trump boasted in Michigan last month that he signed into law ‘massive tax cuts, the biggest in the history of our country.’ As Americans rush Monday to finish up their own taxes, their judgment on Trump’s beloved tax cut bill is pretty clear: Most really don’t like it. Multiple polls show a majority of Americans don’t think they got a tax cut at all — even though independent analyses show they did. And only around a third of the country approves of the legislation itself, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by Congress at the end of 2017. So as Trump moves closer to full-time reelection mode later this year, he will have to battle a stark reality: While his personal rating on the economy remains high, his signature legislative achievement is widely viewed as a political dud, one that has drawn special anger in places with high state and local taxes and pricey housing markets where deductions were limited to reduce the overall cost of the tax plan.”

Sarah Sanders: Congress is not ‘smart enough’ for Trump’s taxes - WaPo: “White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn’t believe members of Congress are ‘smart enough’ to examine President Trump’s tax returns, pushing back against Democrats’ demands for information on the president’s finances. House Democrats have given the Trump administration a hard deadline of April 23 to turn over the president’s tax returns, arguing that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s concerns about the request ‘lack merit.’ In an interview with ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Chris Wallace, Sanders said that Democrats were treading a ‘dangerous road’ and that their request for Trump’s tax returns is ‘all about political partisanship.’ ‘Frankly, Chris, I don’t think Congress — particularly not this group of congressmen and women — are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump’s taxes will be,’ Sanders said.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Trump campaign raked in over $30M in first quarter - Fox News

Looking at Ohio swing voters, Obama is still candidate of choice - Axios

Pergram: ‘Black holes and Congress’ accomplishments at 100 days’ - Fox News

AUDIBLE: OH NOW…  
“Candidly, I don’t even know all the reasons why this is going so well.” – Pete Buttigieg in an interview with New York Magazine.

Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

EITHER A SOLID PRANK OR A LOT OF LEFTOVERS
WJTV: “Mystery mashed potatoes are popping up on front porches in the Belhaven (Miss.) community. … Who leaves mashed potatoes on someone's front porch? … ‘This neighborhood does a lot of quirky things, we decorate road signs we put Christmas trees in our potholes, so it's not surprising at all, that's why I love this neighborhood, because they do so many strange things, but it's definitely one of the weirdest things I've seen since living in Jackson,’ Jordan Lewis said she found mashed potatoes left on her car. After posting to Facebook, Jordan Lewis found she wasn't alone, several others said they also found a bowl of potatoes on their property. ‘They've found it on their mailboxes, on their cars... So we don't know if someone is just playing a prank or if someone just had a lot of leftovers,’ Lewis joked.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“While retrospective judgment tends to make us feel superior to our ancestors, it should really evoke humility. Surely some contemporary practices will be deemed equally abominable by succeeding generations. The only question is: Which ones?”  – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the National Review on May 8, 2015.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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4th victims dies following March 18 Utrecht tram attack

Authorities say a fourth victim has died from injuries sustained in the March 18 tram shooting in Utrecht, an incident being investigated as a possible extremist attack.

The 74-year-old man died Thursday. Two men and a woman died on the day of the attack, and one victim remains injured in hospital. No further details were available.

The main suspect in the shooting in the central Dutch city faces multiple manslaughter or murder charges and authorities continue to investigate "terrorist intent" in the attack, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The suspect, a Utrecht resident of Turkish descent, was arrested hours after the shooting. He has said he acted alone. Prosecutors say the man has a long criminal record and did not know any of his victims.

Source: Fox News World

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Czechs to buy army helicopters from U.S. company: deputy minister

FILE PHOTO: Members of Austrian special operations unit Jagdkommando perform an exercise on an Agusta Bell 212 helicopter in Wiener Neustadt
FILE PHOTO: Members of Austrian special operations unit Jagdkommando perform an exercise on an Agusta Bell 212 helicopter in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo

March 16, 2019

PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech Republic will buy 12 military helicopters from a U.S. company, narrowing the field of possible suppliers, Deputy Defense Minister Jakub Landovsky told a paper on Saturday.

The Defense Ministry scrapped a tender for helicopters in 2017 and planned to launch another in summer 2018, meant to include bidders from Germany and Italy too.

The contract, estimated at 12.5 billion crowns ($553 million), will now go to Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron, or Lockheed Martin’s Sikorski, the Pravo daily paper said.

“It is true that we did not have any large project with the United States for a long time,” Landovsky said in an interview published by Pravo.

“The helicopters are now on the table. And it is possible to say that we are in exclusive talks with the United States now about a purchase of new helicopters,” he said.

(Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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“Outdated laws” need fixing to deal with the surge in illegal immigrant families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico, a top Border Patrol official said Friday.

Migrant families face no consequences if apprehended trying to cross the border illegally under present law, Border Patrol chief of Operations Brian Hastings claimed during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“We need a change in the current outdated laws that we’re dealing with for this current demographic and this crisis that we have,” he said.

Hastings said as of Thursday there have been 440,000 apprehensions along the southwest border. There were 396,000 apprehensions all of last year.

SOUTHERN BORDER AT ‘BREAKING POINT’ AFTER MORE THAN 76,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TRIED CROSSING IN FEBRUARY, OFFICIALS SAY

And those numbers continue to rise, he said.

Historically 70 to 90 percent of apprehensions at the border were quickly returned to Mexico, Hastings said.

Now, 83 percent of those apprehended have come from the Central American northern triangle which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and of those 63 percent are “family units” and children who cannot be returned, he said.

“There are no consequences that we can apply to this group currently,” Hastings said. “We’re overwhelmed. If you look at agents there doing a tremendous job trying to deal with the flow.”

The law dictates children have to be released after 20 days of detention.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says that has forced immigration officials to release entire families because “you don’t want to separate families.”

Recently, he said he is drafting legislation that would allow children to be detained for more than 20 days.

Hastings said agents are frustrated with the situation but are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

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“Up to 40 percent of our agents are processing at any given time,” he said. “That should say that in and of itself is pulling from those border security resources.”

Source: Fox News National

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President Trump on Friday blasted liberal billionaire activist Tom Steyer for his continued push to impeach Trump — with Trump claiming Steyer is “trying to remain relevant” and doesn’t have the “guts” to run for the White House himself.

“Weirdo Tom Steyer, who didn’t have the ‘guts’ or money to run for President, is still trying to remain relevant by putting himself on ads begging for impeachment,” the president tweeted. “He doesn’t mention the fact that mine is perhaps the most successful first 2 year presidency in history & NO C OR O! [Collusion or Obstruction]”

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT BACKERS NOT GIVING UP AFTER MUELLER REPORT

Trump and his allies have pointed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report’s conclusions that there was no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and its decision not to make a conclusion on obstruction of justice as a vindication for the president.

But some Democrats and left-wing activists have pointed to the instances of possible obstruction of justice that the investigation looked into as proof of the need for more investigations or even impeachment proceedings.

ELIZABETH WARREN DOUBLES DOWN ON TRUMP IMPEACHMENT PUSH, SAYS IT’S ‘BIGGER THAN POLITICS’

Steyer has been one of the leaders backing a push to impeach Trump and founded “Need to Impeach” and has kept up that push since the report’s release. He announced on Thursday that he was calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to support impeachment proceedings.

On Friday he responded to Trump’s tweet, calling him “angry and scared.”

“I know you want it all to go away. But for the sake of the country you must face your transgressions. Rage away, but that anger doesn’t matter,” he said in a tweet. The truth and the people will prevail.”

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Impeachment hearings have been backed by a number of House Democrats, as well as 2020 presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. However, Pelosi has long been skeptical of impeachment proceedings against Trump.

“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in an interview last month. “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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A Florida measure that would ban sanctuary cities is set for a vote Friday in the state’s Senate after clearing its first hurdle earlier this week.

The bill would effectively make it against the law for Florida’s police departments to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

“The Governor may initiate judicial proceedings in the name of the state against such officers to enforce compliance,” a draft version of the Senate bill reads.

A House version of the bill, which passed by a 69-47 vote Wednesday, adds that non-complying officials could be suspended or removed from office and face fines of up to $5,000 per day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign off on the measure, although it’s not clear which version.

FLORIDA MAY SEND A BIG MESSAGE TO SANCTUARY CITIES

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state.

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state. (AP)

LAWRENCE JONES: NEEDLES, DRUG USE AND HUMAN WASTE ARE THE NEW NORMAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

Florida is home to 775,000 illegal immigrants out of 10.7 million present in the United States, ranking the state third among all states.

Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — already have enacted state laws requiring law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Florida doesn’t have sanctuary cities like the ones in California and other states. But Republican lawmakers say a handful of their municipalities — including Orlando and West Palm Beach – are acting as “pseudo-sanctuary” cities, because they prevent law enforcement officials from asking about immigration status when they make arrests.

“There are still people here in the state of Florida, police chiefs that are just refusing to contact ICE, refusing to detain somebody that they know is here illegally,” Florida Republican Rep. Blaise Ingoglia said earlier this month. “So while the actual county municipality doesn’t have an actual adopted policy, they still have people in power within their sheriff’s department or police department that refuse to do it anyway.”

Florida’s Democratic Party has blasted the anti-Sanctuary measures, while the Miami-Dade Police Department says it should be up to federal authorities to handle immigration-related matters.

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“House Republicans today sold out their communities to Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis by passing this xenophobic and discriminatory bill,” the state’s Democratic Party said Wednesday after the House passed their version of the bill. “It’s abhorrent that Republican members who represent immigrant communities are now turning their backs on their constituents and jeopardizing their safety.

“Florida has long stood as a beacon for immigrant communities — and today Republicans did the best they could to destroy that reputation,” they added.

Fox News’ Elina Shirazi contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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The Amish population in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is continuing to grow each year, despite the encroachment of urban sprawl on their communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the county added about 2,500 people in 2018. LNP reports that about 1,000 of them were Amish.

Elizabethtown College researchers say Lancaster County’s Amish population reached 33,143 in 2018, up 3.2% from the previous year.

The Amish accounted for about 41% of the county’s overall population growth last year.

Some experts are concerned that a planned 75-acre (30-hectare) housing and commercial project will make it more difficult for the county to accommodate the Amish.

Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, told Manheim Township commissioners this week that some in the community are worried about the development and the increased traffic it would bring.

___

Information from: LNP, http://lancasteronline.com

Source: Fox News National

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