Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Maga First News with Peter Boykin

8:00 am 9:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Finland's outgoing premier may bow out as party chair

Finland's outgoing prime minister, who abruptly tendered the resignation of his center-right government just weeks before the general election, says he won't seek to remain as chairman of his party next year if support continues to decline.

Juha Sipila, now heading a caretaker government in the Nordic country, told Finnish public broadcaster YLE on Saturday that polls showing 14-percent support for the ruling Center Party meant "that I won't for sure be running as a (chairman) candidate with that kind of support" at the 2020 party congress.

Sipila had headed a three-party coalition government since 2015, deciding in a surprise move Friday to step down because of the Cabinet's failure to push through a social and health reform package.

Finland will hold a parliamentary election on April 14.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

FBI investigating Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoisky over alleged financial crimes: reports

The FBI is reportedly investigating Ukrainian business tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky for financial crimes, including money laundering, as part of a wide-ranging probe -- but news of the inquiry has raised eyebrows given Ukraine's presidential vote is fewer than two weeks away and Kolomoisky is tied to the leading candidate.

PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE PRAISES WAY TRUMP HANDLES PUTIN

Kolomoisky is not currently charged by the FBI with a crime.

His lawyer Mike Sullivan told The Daily Beast that "Mr. Kolomoisky categorically denies that he has laundered any funds into the United States, period. He's a businessperson. His bank was seized by the government, claiming the bank was on the verge of collapse. That information turned out to be false."

According to the Kyiv Post, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Ohio is involved in the investigation because Kolomoisky had investments there. Calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office by Fox News were not immediately returned.

Kolomoisky is the founder of business group Privat and a former owner of one of the largest commercial banks in Ukraine, the PrivatBank. In 2016, Kiev nationalized the bank as part of the 2014 investigation into the misappropriation of its money. The bank bailout scandal cost Ukraine $5.6 billion - a fortune for a country whose government was basically running on loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Kolomoisky has also been extremely vocal about his country's politics and has taken Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine who is up for reelection, to task. But after complicating relations in Ukraine, Kolomoisky, whose net worth hovers around $1.2 billion, has moved to Israel -- something which could complicate any potential extradition attempts made by the U.S.

EXIT POLL SHOWS COMEDIAN LEADING UKRAINE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, reacts as he responds to a journalist question during a press conference, after the presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, March. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, reacts as he responds to a journalist question during a press conference, after the presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, March. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

News of the investigation also comes at a pivotal point in Ukrainian politics -- and Kolomoisky's ties to a leading candidate means the reported FBI investigation has to be viewed through a political prism, too.

On March 31, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky won the first round in the country's presidential election and the right to face incumbent Poroshenko in a runoff on April 21. Zelensky is widely known for his role in "Servant of the People," a popular Ukrainian sitcom about a schoolteacher whose speech about corruption goes viral on YouTube and inadvertently propels him to the highest office in the land. The sitcom airs on a television channel owned by Kolomoisky.

Ukrainian artist Dasha Marchenko adds a chocolate wrapper to her portrait of Ukraine's President and chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko at her studio in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, March 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian artist Dasha Marchenko adds a chocolate wrapper to her portrait of Ukraine's President and chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko at her studio in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, March 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Acting aside, Zelensky's popularity in Ukraine rose in part by an insurgent campaign that railed against corrupt politicians influenced by the country's rich oligarchs, and Zelensky has been known to take on oligarchs -- including his boss -- too. Ukrainian politics have been mired in scandals and corruption for the past half decade and Zelensky is seen as a fresh face in Ukrainian politics.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

But Zelensky's meteoric political ascent has some government officials and Western-Ukraine watchers worried. In 2014, Zelensky, then just a performer and not a political candidate, said he would go "down on his knees" to beg Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay away from Ukraine. Still, the comedian-turned-politician is doing well in the polls.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a candidate for the presidential elections, talks to the media after casting her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a candidate for the presidential elections, talks to the media after casting her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

According to a survey released last month by Ukrainian polling agency Rating, Zelensky is in the lead with support from 25 percent of the voters. Incumbent Poroshenko, has 17 percent while former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko comes in third with 16 percent.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Fed may raise rates, or cut them, Bostic says

FILE PHOTO: President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Raphael W. Bostic speaks at a European Financial Forum event in Dublin
FILE PHOTO: President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Raphael W. Bostic speaks at a European Financial Forum event in Dublin, Ireland February 13, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyn/File Photo

March 23, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s patient approach to monetary policy does not mean the U.S. central bank will not increase interest rates, or cut them, should the need arise, the president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, Raphael Bostic, said on Friday.

“We may move up; we may move down,” Bostic said in remarks prepared for delivery to a monetary policy conference at the San Francisco Fed.

The comments were Bostic’s first since the Fed made an unexpectedly dovish shift on Wednesday. Eleven of its 17 policymakers forecast no rate hikes this year, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell cited low inflation, a slowing global economy and risks like U.S. trade tensions with China for the need to remain patient “for some time.”

After the Wednesday announcement, financial markets, which had already priced out any chance of a rate hike this year, began pricing in the likelihood of a rate cut next year.

But to see the Fed’s recent pronouncements as a “definitive signal” that the central bank will hold rates steady for the balance of the year is not accurate, Bostic said on Friday, adding that patience does not constrain the Fed’s options.

“I am open to all possibilities as we aim to support sustained economic expansion, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near the Committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective,” Bostic said, referring to the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. “Markets should understand that, so I hope I have made my position clear.”

In February, Bostic said he expected the Fed would need to raise interest rates once this year, after raising rates four times in 2018. He did not say how many rate hikes he now thinks are appropriate.

The Fed has become increasingly worried about meeting its 2 percent inflation target and skeptical that the Trump administration’s tax cuts and deregulation will unleash faster economic growth.

So have financial markets.

Data published earlier on Friday showed U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly cooled in March, a troubling sign for the U.S. economic outlook that helped push long-term borrowing costs below short-term ones, an indication of near-term risk and seen by many as a potential harbinger of recession.

The spread between yields on three-month Treasury bills <US3MT=RR> and 10-year notes <US10YT=RR> fell below zero for the first time since 2007 after U.S. manufacturing data missed estimates.

Earlier on Friday, data out of Germany showed the factory sector there was continuing to contract, another worrying sign for the global economy.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir;Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

0 0

Hungary’s ruling party doesn’t belong in Europe’s center-right: Juncker

Hungary PM Orban delivers annual state of the nation address
FILE POTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his annual state of the nation speech in Budapest, Hungary, February 10, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

February 19, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The party of right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban does not belong in the European People’s Party (EPP), the main center-right grouping in the European Parliament, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday.

Juncker, previously the longtime center-right prime minister of Luxembourg, was asked at a public forum in Stuttgart, Germany, for his reaction to a Hungarian government advertising campaign that accuses Juncker and philanthropist George Soros of seeking to flood Hungary with immigrants.

“Against lies there’s not much you can do,” Juncker replied, adding that Manfred Weber, the EPP’s lead candidate for the upcoming European elections, would certainly be asking himself “if I need this voice” in the EPP.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

0 0

Democratic senators urge FTC to act on Facebook ‘friendly fraud’ practices

FILE PHOTO: Two women take photos in front of the entrance sign to Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park
FILE PHOTO: Two women take photos in front of the entrance sign to Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo

February 22, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Two Democratic U.S. senators called for the Federal Trade Commission to act on a complaint filed by consumer groups against Facebook on Thursday that alleged the company scammed children into spending money on its platform.

A coalition of consumer groups asked the FTC to investigate whether Facebook had engaged in deceptive practices, claiming the company lured children into making extensive in-game purchases without parental consent.

The social media company settled a class action lawsuit on the issue in 2016, but further details came to light last month after a request by the Center for Investigative Reporting resulted in the unsealing of the court documents.

The documents revealed that Facebook employees referred to the practice as “friendly fraud” and called children who racked up thousands of dollars in charges “whales,” a term commonly used in casinos to describe high-spending gamblers.

“We urge the FTC to review in detail the complaint that was filed today on this issue. It shouldn’t take another settlement for Facebook to meet its ethical obligation to protect kids and families on its platform,” Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

They said Facebook dodged their questions on the issue, posed to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter last month after the documents were unsealed.

“Facebook’s answers to our reasonable questions were inadequate and do not inspire trust,” they said.

Facebook was not immediately available for comment.

In its prior response to the lawmakers, Facebook did not explain why it did not act on widespread complaints before the case went to court and declined to answer specifically when Zuckerberg became aware of the issue, the senators said.

Facebook is facing a slew of lawsuits and regulatory inquiries over its record on privacy, security and the use of its platform by groups spreading disinformation.

The FTC is already investigating revelations that Facebook inappropriately shared information belonging to 87 million users with the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: OANN

0 0

Netanyahu makes deal with far-right party ahead of Israeli election

FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks as he meets with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in Warsaw
FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks as he meets with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in Warsaw, Poland, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel -/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an election alliance with a far-right party on Wednesday that could give followers of the late anti-Arab rabbi, Meir Kahane, a stronger voice in Israeli politics.

The deal, announced by Netanyahu’s Likud and the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, was aimed at solidifying a potential right-wing coalition after the April 9 parliamentary election.

Opinion polls predict Netanyahu’s Likud will win the most parliamentary seats and will be in a position to form a governing coalition of rightist and religious parties similar to the one he now heads.

But the surveys also show that a possible alliance between two of his strongest centrist opponents, former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, who leads the Resilience Party, and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid faction, could spark an upset.

Gantz and Lapid met on Wednesday, with speculation high they could strike a deal.

Moving to counter that prospective partnership, Netanyahu agreed to set aside two cabinet posts for Jewish Home on condition it agreed to a merger with the Jewish Power party, whose leaders have portrayed themselves as Kahane’s successors.

Jewish Home’s chairman said in a statement he accepted the deal after talks with Netanyahu. Its central committee then met and ratified the pact, party officials said.

Jewish Power has already agreed to the merger, saying it would “prevent the establishment of a leftist government, God forbid”.

Such an alliance could be crucial to the two parties’ survival: opinion polls have shown that Jewish Home and Jewish Power might not garner enough votes on their own to win even a single seat in the Knesset.

Kahane, a U.S.-born rabbi, served one term in the Knesset in the 1980s as head of the Kach party, which advocated the “transfer” of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries and also called for a ban on intermarriage between Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Kahane’s movement was subsequently banned from Israeli politics as racist. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York by an Egyptian-born American.

Netanyahu’s political future has also been clouded by three corruption cases. The attorney-general is weighing whether to accept police recommendations to indict him over allegations he wrongfully accepted gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensed favours to try to win favourable coverage in an Israeli newspaper and a website.

In office since 2009, after an earlier term as prime minister from 1996 to 1999, Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing. He says he is a victim of a left-wing witchhunt to topple him.

(Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source: OANN

0 0

U.S. weekly jobless claims fall, but trend weakening

Job seekers line up at a job fair of an oil services giant Halliburton at the MCM Grande Fundome hotel in Odessa Texas
Job seekers line up at a job fair of an oil services giant Halliburton at the MCM Grande Fundome hotel in Odessa, Texas, U.S., July 19, 2018. Picture taken on July 19, 2018. REUTERS/Liz Hampton

February 21, 2019

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, but the four-week moving average rose to a more than one-year high, suggesting the labor market was slowing down.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended Feb. 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

But the Labor Department said claims for California, Virginia, Hawaii and Puerto Rico were estimated last week because of Monday’s Presidents’ Day Holiday. That could have exaggerated the drop in claims.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 229,000 in the latest week. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 4,000 to 235,750 last week, the highest level since January 2018.

The claims data covered the survey week for the nonfarm payrolls portion of February’s employment report. The four-week average of claims rose by 15,250 between the January and February survey periods, suggesting a moderation in the pace of job growth this month. Payrolls jumped by 304,000 jobs in January, the most in 11 months, after increasing by 222,000 in December.

The claims report showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid dropped 55,000 to 1.73 million for the week ended Feb. 9. The four-week moving average of these so-called continuing claims rose 2,750 to 1.75 million.

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Maga First News with Peter Boykin

8:00 am 9:00 am



FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist