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R. Kelly’s accuser wins judgment in suit singer failed to answer

FILE PHOTO: Recording artist R. Kelly leaves the Cook County Criminal Courthouse in Chicago
FILE PHOTO: Recording artist R. Kelly leaves the Cook County Criminal Courthouse after being acquitted of child pornography charges in Chicago June 13, 2008. REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)/File Photo

April 24, 2019

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – A woman who accused R. Kelly of sexual abuse has won a civil case by default against the singer, after he failed to respond to her lawsuit and was a no-show in court.

The woman, who accused Kelly of repeatedly having sex with her when she was 16 years old, filed the case in Chicago in February, a day before Kelly was arrested on 10 charges of sexual abuse.

She is one of four accusers – three of whom were underage at the time of the alleged crimes – at the center of the criminal case against Kelly, according to her lawyer, Jeffrey Deutschman. She is identified as “H.W.” in criminal court filings.

A Chicago judge on Tuesday entered a default ruling against Kelly, according to court records, after he did not respond to the lawsuit and missed the hearing.

The judge, Moira Johnson, will hear from the victim at a hearing next month before determining how much Kelly should pay in damages.

Kelly’s criminal defense attorney, Steve Greenberg, said he was not involved in the civil litigation and declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Kelly, 52, sexually assaulted three teenage girls as well as a woman. Kelly, who has faced similar allegations for decades, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrongdoing.

He was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008.

The lawsuit said Kelly first met the woman when she was 16 years old and initiated a sexual relationship that lasted for more than a year.

Kelly, whose first name is Robert, is an R&B star known for hits like “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Bump N’ Grind.”

(Reporting by Joseph Ax)

Source: OANN

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Chief: Ride share mistake led to death of SC college student

Authorities say the man who kidnapped and killed a South Carolina college student who mistakenly thought she was getting in her ride share car was arrested in the same area the next night.

Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook says 24-year-old Nathaniel David Rowland will be charged with kidnapping and murder in the death of 21-year-old Samantha Josephson.

Holbrook says quick DNA testing determined Josephson's blood was in Rowland's car after his arrest Saturday near the same bar district in Columbia where Josephson was kidnapped the night before. The chief says her cellphone was also found in the vehicle.

Holbrook says Rowland activated the child locks so the back doors could only be opened from the outside.

Rowland is being held without bond. It wasn't known if he had a lawyer.

Source: Fox News National

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To survive trade battles, China manufacturers deploy every weapon they can

FILE PHOTO: Visitors attend the China Import and Export Fair, also known as Canton Fair, in the southern city of Guangzhou
FILE PHOTO: Visitors attend the China Import and Export Fair, also known as Canton Fair, in the southern city of Guangzhou, China April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

April 22, 2019

By John Ruwitch

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Manufacturers in China facing trade barriers are deploying an array of moves to try to keep foreign customers – giving discounts, tapping tax breaks, trimming workforces and, occasionally, shifting production overseas to skirt tariffs.

Tit-for-tat tariffs from the China-United States trade war have been costly for many. Adding to the strain on Chinese manufacturers have been European Union duties on Chinese products ranging from electric bikes to solar panels.

March brought some encouraging news for manufacturers. Industrial output rose at its fastest rate since mid-2014 and exports rebounded more than expected, while first-quarter growth was better than expected.

Still, some manufacturers who depend on U.S. sales are struggling. At the Canton Fair in southern China this past week, they put on a brave face, but feared they will need to take more measures to survive if Beijing and Washington fail to seal a trade deal.

Botou Golden Integrity Roll Forming Machine Co lost some U.S. customers when tariffs pushed up prices for its machines making light steel girders and bars for building frames, according to Hope Ha, a saleswoman.

It now offers an 8 percent discount as a sweetener.

“We have to give discounts because they pay high tariffs,” said Ha.

Ball bearing maker Cixi Fushi Machinery Co gave long-term customers a 3-5 percent discount, according to representative Jane Wang.

But that was not enough, so the company suspended a product line generating $30,000 monthly revenue, she said.

“We will wait for the agreement and then we will see again,” she said. Now, the focus is on its main market, the Middle East.

Some have been able to pass along increased costs.

UNAVOIDABLE PRICE HIKES

California-based ACOPower has increased prices about 10-15 percent on some of its made-in-China, solar-powered refrigerators, said founder Jeffrey Tang.

“We have no choice,” he said. “We must increase the price.”

Tang says his portable fridges cannot be made affordably in other countries. But if there’s no trade agreement, and tariffs rise, the equation could change.

“Maybe I’ll just ship all the components to Vietnam to do the assembly.”

Aufine Tyre rented and filled a warehouse last year in California in anticipation of anti-dumping duties, which were later imposed. In another move to circumvent tariffs, it will soon open a plant in Thailand to make tires.

Jane Liu, a sales manager, said Aufine plans to send 50 containers a month from Thailand, with 220-240 tires in each, and later expand.

Some companies at the fair cheered Beijing’s move to trim China’s value-added tax to 13 percent from 16 percent at the start of April, and its pledge of tax rebates for exports.

“Things like this give us some protection or else we would suffer losses,” said Wills Yuan, a salesman at Ningbo Yourlite Import & Export Co in Shenzhen, which produces LED lights.

Shenzhen Smarteye Digital Electronics Co, a maker of surveillance cameras, which are not on the U.S. tariff list, was able to drop prices because of the tax break, according to sales manager Simple Yu.

“We save a lot on costs, so we can sell at a low price,” he said.

EXCHANGE RATE CONCERN

But Smarteye has worries, including increasing rent and labor costs that led it to trim its workforce.

Yu said he’s also concerned about the trade war’s potential effect on the yuan-dollar exchange rate. “Before it was 6.9 per dollar, now it’s 6.7 per dollar. We worry that it will go to 6.5.”

Electric bike makers have reacted nimbly to European anti-dumping duties of between 18.8 and 79.3 percent imposed in January. Many have started assembling some bikes in Europe; Zhejiang Enze Vehicle Co does so in Poland and Finland.

“We take the battery, frame, and the other parts, package them up separately and send them over to be assembled by partners,” said sales rep Dylan Di.

Anhui Light Industries International Co, which makes products ranging from plastic protractors for math to movie theater popcorn cups, says it has lost more than 1 billion yuan $149.2 million) after U.S. President Donald Trump raised import taxes.

Still, company representative Han Geng is optimistic the trade war will get resolved.

“It’s not good for America, not good for China,” he said, expressing the view that Trump knows the trade war is hurting business and “he will end it”.

When that day comes, Han said, “we will sell to America again… We need to make money. Everybody loves money.”

($1 = 6.7024 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Simon Webb and Richard Borsuk)

Source: OANN

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Court wonders if it can rule on Manson follower’s parole

A California appeals court on Wednesday questioned whether it has jurisdiction to decide on parole for Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten or whether the issue becomes moot after the governor weighs in.

Van Houten's attorney told a three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles that his client is remorseful and takes responsibility for her crimes. A state prosecutor said the 69-year-old has placed too much blame on Manson himself.

Van Houten was 19 when she and fellow members of Manson's cult stabbed Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, to death in 1969. The killings took place a day after other so-called Manson family members killed actress Sharon Tate and four others in crimes that shocked the world.

Van Houten was not involved in the other killings. She's serving a life sentence and has been recommended for release twice before but ultimately denied.

The appeals judges are reviewing a lower court's ruling that denied her parole. Since that ruling, a parole board recommended for the third time that Van Houten be freed, a decision undergoing a five-month review process before heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The judges wondered whether they still would have jurisdiction to rule if Newsom denies Van Houten parole.

Van Houten's attorney, Rich Pfeiffer, told the judges they not only have jurisdiction but a duty to decide, adding that no elected politician will ever agree to Van Houten's parole because of the infamy of the case.

"If the courts don't release Miss Van Houten, she's never going to be released," Pfeiffer said. "The courts are empowered to make difficult decisions, and sometimes unpopular decisions, to be able to enforce the law. That's what courts are there for. Otherwise it turns into mob rule."

Deputy Attorney General Jill VanderBorght said the issue should rest with whatever Newsom decides. She said Pfeiffer's argument that Van Houten is unlikely to get released without a court decision was irrelevant.

"We're only looking at this single instance of parole reversal," she said. "We don't have to think of tomorrow or ever or politics. In fact, the court should not."

The judges gave Pfeiffer and VanderBorght five days to file arguments on the jurisdiction issue. The judges have three months to decide on Van Houten's parole.

Every year since 2016, a parole board has recommended that Van Houten be released, finding that she's no longer a threat to society. Former Gov. Jerry Brown blocked the first two recommendations.

Courts in general can be reluctant to interfere in parole matters, said Samuel Pillsbury, a criminal law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

"It is highly emotional," Pillsbury said. "The voters have decided the governor should have a veto on this, so the courts would prefer to let this process play out."

If the decision comes down to the governor, Pillsbury agreed that Van Houten has an uphill battle.

"The Manson case is one of a kind," he said. "There's no other case like it in terms of the number of people in California who feel strongly about it, who've lived through it. The entire state and much of the nation still feel some degree of trauma from that, and it makes it a very different kind of case from an elected official's point of view."

In denying Van Houten parole last year, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Ryan found that she would "pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society," citing the brutal nature of the crimes.

During one of her parole hearings, Van Houten said the killings were the start of what Manson believed was a coming race war that he dubbed "Helter Skelter," after a Beatles song, and that he had the group prepare to fight and learn to can food so they could go underground and live in a hole in the desert.

Van Houten said she was traveling up and down the California coast when acquaintances led her to Manson. She candidly described how she joined several other members of the group in killing the LaBiancas, carving up Leno LaBianca's body and smearing the couple's blood on the walls.

Manson died of natural causes in 2017 at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.

___

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP

Source: Fox News National

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Ex-officer arrested on rape charges related to witnesses

A former Philadelphia police officer has been arrested on allegations that he sexually assaulted male witnesses and suspects over more than a decade.

A spokesman for the Philadelphia District Attorney confirmed that 52-year-old Philip Nordo was arrested Tuesday morning and was scheduled to be arraigned in the multi-count grand jury presentment Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities allege that Nordo used his position to intimidate and groom male suspects and witnesses into sexual encounters. The heavily redacted presentment contains roughly 35 charges related to three victims including rape, stalking and sexual assault.

Nordo was fired in 2017 after an allegation was received that he improperly paid a witness and had fraternized with people connected to criminal conduct.

A phone call to an attorney previously listed for Nordo was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Source: Fox News National

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Mexico president seeks investigation of losses at Pemex plants

FILE PHOTO: The Pemex logo is pictured during the 80th anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico's oil industry in Mexico City
FILE PHOTO: The Pemex logo is pictured during the 80th anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico's oil industry in Mexico City, Mexico March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo

February 26, 2019

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s president said on Tuesday his government would push for an investigation into the hundreds of millions of dollars squandered by state oil company Pemex after its purchase of two struggling fertilizer plants during the previous administration.

A report by the Federal Audit Office last week said that Pemex burned through $665 million at its fertilizer unit in 2017 after purchasing the plants in 2013 and 2016 that became a major burden for the cash-strapped firm.

Pemex is highly indebted and last month suffered a downgrade to its credit rating, which triggered concern at the central bank and has put pressure on the peso currency.

Both plants had once belonged to Pemex before being privatized in the 1990s by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which long dominated Mexican politics and handed over power to Lopez Obrador in December.

The first plant, ProAgro, was not operational when Pemex bought it back for $475 million. In spite of three attempts to revive it, the facility was still not up and running this year, according to the report by the audit office. The second plant, Fertinal, operated well below capacity, the report said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who handed the PRI a crushing defeat in last July’s presidential election, told his regular morning news conference the plants had been turned into “junk” and that his government had an obligation to act.

“In all these cases we’re going to present complaints so that we’re not accomplices,” Lopez Obrador said after being asked about several cases of public money being wasted.

He said it would be up to the attorney general’s office to investigate the complaint.

Lopez Obrador has pledged to revive Pemex and he told the news conference his government would weed out employees who were “not helping” there and in other parts of the public sector.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Source: OANN

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Australia central bank research shows income, not just property weakness, key for policy

FILE PHOTO: Two women walk next to the Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters in central Sydney
FILE PHOTO: Two women walk next to the Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters in central Sydney, Australia February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

March 21, 2019

By Swati Pandey

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s tumbling house prices would not necessarily translate into cuts in official interest rates if growth and inflation expectations remain strong, central bank research showed on Thursday.

While the report from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is not a policy outlook paper, it provides an insight into the research that shapes its views.

The paper also comes as the country’s once high-flying property market nosedives and consumers in the A$1.9 trillion ($1.36 trillion) economy cut back on spending.

The article, which appeared in the RBA’s monthly bulletin, said “a fall in housing prices would have fewer negative consequences if it was offset by other developments which meant that the overall economic outlook was positive and the unemployment rate was falling.”

It also noted that “despite the fall in housing prices, interest rates may not need to be reduced as much to offset the effect of that price fall” if households and businesses expected strong growth and inflation in line with central bank targets.

The research noted the uncertainties related to estimating the effects of plunging property prices on household consumption. It identified a “positive and stable relationship” between household wealth and consumption, but that link somewhat broke when prices were in a downward spiral.

“A decline in household wealth is less likely to coincide with weaker consumption growth if it occurs at a time when the labor market is strong and household income growth is firm,” the RBA’s researchers noted.

The RBA has said previously the economy is entering “uncharted territories” as this housing downturn has occurred alongside record-low policy rates and solid jobs momentum.

Data out earlier in the day showed Australia’s jobless rate fell to a near eight-year low of 4.9 percent as employment growth extended its dream run.

However, there are questions over how much further unemployment could fall and how households would react to an extended downturn in the property market. Australia’s housing stock is worth a cool A$6.68 trillion, but has fallen by A$280 billion since its peak in early 2018.

An increasing number of economists already expect a cut in the official cash rate from a record low of 1.50 percent this year, while financial markets are fully pricing in a policy easing as early as September.

The RBA’s modeling shows net wealth is not the sole determinant of consumption though. Household disposable income, the level of real interest rates, the unemployment rate and the economic performance also matter.

The RBA also looked at the effects of a prolonged fall in housing prices – an experience that Australia has not had in the past.

“The net effect of a fall in housing prices that occurs when broader macroeconomic conditions are positive might be only a small slowdown in the pace of economic activity,” the RBA said.

“However, if the same fall in housing prices occurred alongside a broader slowdown in economic conditions, this could add to any case for an easing of monetary policy coming from the broader slowdown.”

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“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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