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It’s Mueller time, at last


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On the roster: It’s Mueller time, at last - Harris doing best with major donors - Fox News Klobuchar town hall on deck - DNC considers higher standards for debates - Snot Otter 2020

IT’S MUELLER TIME, AT LAST 
Fox News: “Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released into Washington’s partisan scrum Thursday showing investigators did not find evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Moscow – as Attorney General Bill Barr declared last month – but outlining an array of controversial incidents involving the president that were examined as part of the investigation’s obstruction inquiry. This included President Trump allegedly telling his White House counsel in June 2017 to inform the acting attorney general that Mueller had conflicts of interest and ‘must be removed.’ The report said Trump also fumed over the original appointment -- lamenting it would mean the ‘end of his presidency’ -- first telling then-DOJ leader Jeff Sessions he should resign, and later trying to get Session to take back control of the probe. Mueller ultimately did not reach a conclusion on whether the president's conduct amounted to obstruction. ‘Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,’ the report says.”

Voters still skeptical - Fox News: “But don’t expect the release of Mueller’s report to put the issue to rest. The poll finds 35 percent of voters think the Russia investigation proves there was no collision, while 64 percent disagree or have no opinion. In addition, 57 percent think it is at least somewhat likely U.S. intelligence agencies broke the law when they started investigating the Trump campaign in the first place…”

[The Wall Street Journal has helpfully provided a graphic overview of the entire report. Click here to see it.]

THE RULEBOOK: SIGN OF THE TIMES
“The plan, like every thing from the same pen, marks a turn of thinking, original, comprehensive, and accurate; and is the more worthy of attention as it equally displays a fervent attachment to republican government and an enlightened view of the dangerous propensities against which it ought to be guarded.” – Alexander Hamilton or James MadisonFederalist No. 49

TIME OUT: THAT SPORT ROCKS
Nat Geo: “Last weekend, 450 of the world’s best rock climbers convened in the outskirts of Moscow at the CSKA Sports Complex for the second stop on the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s (IFSC) World Cup tour. All eyes were on Czech climber Adam Ondra, the reigning king of really hard rock climbing and a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. A week prior, Ondra had made a win at the first bouldering World Cup of the 2019 season, proving he deserves to be considered a frontrunner for competitive climbing’s first Olympics. With rock climbing’s debut in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo less than 16 months away, the effects are already being felt. Top athletes are vying for Olympics slots while a rush of business dollars and media attention bear down on the emerging sport. While most of the competitors in Moscow were not household names, the high level of competition highlighted how far the nascent sport has come.”

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

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval: 
42.8 percent
Average disapproval: 52 percent
Net Score: -9.2 points
Change from one week ago: up 1.2 points 
[Average includes: Fox News: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; Monmouth University: 40% approve - 54% disapprove; Gallup: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; GU Politics/Battleground: 43% approve - 52% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 52% disapprove.]

HARRIS DOING BEST WITH MAJOR DONORS 
Politico: “Hundreds of the biggest Democratic fundraisers in the past two presidential elections are already picking candidates for 2020 — and Kamala Harris has a significant early edge, while Pete Buttigieg and his from-scratch campaign has scrambled into the second tier. Harris has already received donations from 176 people or couples who raised at least $100,000, and sometimes many multiples of that, for Hillary Clinton in 2016 or at least $50,000 for Barack Obama in 2012, according to a POLITICO analysis of new campaign finance disclosures and ‘bundler’ data from the Center for Responsive Politics. While the Democratic presidential campaigns have been focused on building small-donor armies this year, bundlers mine their networks for checks to pass along to campaigns six or seven-figures at a time, giving them a potentially massive role in a crowded primary. Donations from these key fundraisers signal the out-of-the-gate interest the candidates are generating among many of the most wealthy and connected campaign supporters in the country.”

Buttigieg uses Obama and Hillary fundraisers for gains - CNBC: “Pete Buttigieg’s increasingly popular presidential run has drawn the support of more than two dozen top Democratic fundraisers, including people who bundled big-dollar donations for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during their White House bids, according to a list CNBC obtained from campaign aides. The financiers on the roster range from former U.S. ambassadors to real estate executives, the latest evidence that the South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s underdog bid to challenge President Donald Trump next year is catching on with Democrats as the party sorts through a crowded primary field. Particularly, Buttigieg’s sincere approach is generating enthusiasm among the Democratic donor class. One of the leading names on the list, lobbyist and former John Kerry 2004 campaign official Steve Elmendorf, decided to back Buttigieg on Sunday, the day the mayor officially launched his campaign with a speech in South Bend.”

Former Obama campaign boss says Bernie can’t beat Trump - WaPo: “Jim Messina was Barack Obama’s campaign manager in 2012 when the former president won reelection. On Wednesday, Messina spoke with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl about the reelection bid of Obama’s successor. Specifically if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could beat President Trump — a question that Messina answered in the negative. ‘I think if you look at swing voters in this country, they are incredibly focused on the economy,’ Messina said. ‘I think today you look at it and say that Bernie Sanders is unlikely going to be able to stand up to the constant barrage that is Donald Trump on economic issues.’ This is a somewhat baffling comment. It suggests that Sanders’s rhetoric won’t be able to match Trump’s on economic issues, which seems detached from what we know about each candidate. But it also leverages a consistent argument that we’ve heard elsewhere: The strength of the economy generally will make Trump hard to beat.”

FOX NEWS KLOBUCHAR TOWN HALL ON DECK
​​​​​​Politico: “Fox News announced Wednesday that it will host a town hall with Sen. Amy Klobuchar next month, its second event of the nascent 2020 campaign with a Democratic presidential candidate. The town hall is scheduled for May 8 in Milwaukee and is to be hosted by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. News of Klobuchar’s town hall with the Trump-friendly network comes just days after Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the Minnesota senator's opponents for the 2020 Democratic nomination, participated in well-received town hall put on by Fox News. It also comes as Democrats reach out to voters outside their typical audience in an effort to defeat President Donald Trump next year.”

McAuliffe bows out of 2020 race - WaPo: “Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday he will not join the crowded field of Democrats running for president, citing the need to raise money and campaign for Virginia General Assembly candidates as his successor, Gov. Ralph Northam, tries to recover from a blackface scandal. ‘My heart was with Virginia, as much as I wanted to run for president,’ McAuliffe said. ‘It kept tugging at me. . . . I just didn’t think I could walk away from Virginia.’ The 62-year-old Democrat has been publicly mulling a White House bid since leaving the Executive Mansion in January 2018. He originally said he would decide by March 31 but stayed mum as he continued visiting early-primary states. … Just last week, McAuliffe created a buzz by saying in a speech and on Twitter that he’d dispatch Trump — a onetime campaign donor — like the 280-pound alligator he wrestled in a 1980 fundraising stunt.”

Harris shares regret over California truancy policy - WaPo: “Sen. Kamala D. Harris, the former California attorney general whose prosecutorial record is drawing criticism from some as overly harsh, expressed ‘regret’ on Wednesday for a truancy program she implemented and said she would not support expanding nationally if she becomes president. While district attorney of San Francisco, Harris tried to combat waning school attendance by criminalizing truancy. She was then able to use the threat of fines or jail time for parents of children who missed too many school days. … [W]hen she became attorney general of California in 2011, she implemented the policy statewide. … On Wednesday, speaking on the left-leaning podcast Pod Save America, Harris lamented what she called ‘unintended consequences’ of the policy — in other words, that the policy was never intended to criminalize parents, just motivate them to ensure their children attended school — and distanced herself from the detentions that resulted from it.”

Yang: Companies like Amazon will fund my Universal Basic Income plan - Fox News: “Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang promoted his ‘Freedom Dividend’ plan while appearing on ‘Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream’ Thursday and revealed that tech companies like Amazon would fund his proposed program which aims to give American adults $1,000 dollars monthly. ‘We all can see that Amazon paid zero in federal taxes last year despite record revenues. And so, if we know that the big winners in the new technology age are going to be paying zero taxes then of course were not going to have enough money to go around,’ Yang told Bream when pressed about how he would fund Universal Basic Income plan. ‘But if we follow other countries examples and create a mechanism where we all benefit from these innovations, then we can pay for a $1,000 dividend for every American adult. Our economy is up to a record $20 trillion.’”

Of 2020 senators running Harris, Booker miss the most votes - AP: “Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have each missed more than one-fifth of the Senate’s votes so far this year as they campaign for president, according to an Associated Press analysis of congressional data. With 16 missed votes of the 77 that the Republican-controlled Senate have held in 2019, Harris and Booker far outpace the number missed by their fellow senators also vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Bernie Sanders has missed seven votes so far this year, while Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar have each missed three and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has missed one vote, the AP found. Seeking the presidency as a sitting member of Congress requires a logistical juggling act that often results in candidates taking hits for missed votes as the pace of campaign season picks up.”

The women of 2020 provide a choice, that’s not Hillary - The New Republic: “During the 2016 campaign, there was scant discussion of which women candidates were available besides Hillary Clinton—as if she were the only woman in the political world. Now, the post-Hillary truth emerges: The Democratic Party had a bench. And because they are not Hillary, this group will present a purer test of how voters and members of the chattering classes react to women. ‘Although they all have baggage and have all made missteps, they don’t have the Hillary Clinton baggage,’ [Jennifer Lawless, a UVA political scientist]. Lawless observed. The 2020 election will not be a referendum on Clinton and everything she and her husband represented. Instead, it will be ‘an actual choice’ between women whose backgrounds, careers, and accomplishments have nothing to do with their husbands.”

DNC CONSIDERS HIGHER STANDARDS FOR DEBATES
RCP: “The Democratic National Committee may have an overcrowding problem on its hands, and is considering ways to address it. After relaxing its rules, the party must now accommodate a sprawling field of presidential candidates who have qualified for the first two primary debates this summer. Based on the current formula, 15 hopefuls have already earned a spot on stage for the first nationally televised debate, which will be spread over two nights, June 26-27. But following the second debate on July 30-31, some of those same candidates might not make subsequent cuts. Sources with direct knowledge told RealClearPolitics that the DNC is considering a rule change. ‘This sort of low entry point into the debates is not going to last forever,’ one party official said before mentioning possible higher standards in terms of fundraising and polling that would create ‘a natural winnowing before we get to Iowa.’”

THE JUDGE’S RULING: THE MEANING OF EASTER
This week Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano explains why with Easter, there is still hope: “Freedom is the ability of every person to exercise free will without a government permission slip or watchdog. Free will is the natural characteristic we share in common with God. He created us in His image and likeness. As He is perfectly free, so are we. When the government takes away free will, whether by fiat or by majority vote, it steals a gift we received from God; it violates natural law; it prevents us from having and utilizing the means to seek the truth. … What does Easter mean? Easter means that there's hope for the dead. If there's hope for the dead, then there's hope for the living. But like the colonists who fought the oppression of the king, we the living can achieve our hopes only if we have freedom. And that requires a government that protects freedom, not one that assaults it.” More here.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Fox News Poll: Immigration, economy top list of voter concerns - Fox News

AUDIBLE: FOREVER COUPLE GOALS
“She gave him permission to live, he gave her permission to die — and you know what they did then? They had a drink.” – Susan Page, author of ‘The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty,’ detailed one of the last moments shared between Barbara and her husband George H.W. Bush on America’s Newsroom on Wednesday.

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“It is sad that we are discussing this topic in light of the fire at Notre Dame, but I wanted to recommend a video series by the late Francis Schaeffer, one of my favorite Christian authors. The series, ‘How Should We Then Live,’ originally came out in 1977. It was updated in 2009 and discusses Western culture from a Christian perspective. I believe it was Schaeffer’s response or alternative to Sir Kenneth Clark’s ‘Civilisation’ series. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend it highly. As always, I wish you and your family God’s richest blessings!” – Paul K. Schnier, Shoreham, N.Y.

[Ed. note: Not only have I seen it, but Schaeffer is a graduate of my alma mater, Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Fun fact: his follow up “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” was narrated by future Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.]

“I've almost finished reading Accidental Presidents.  I am confused about whether it's possible to participate in the book club discussion - or to listen in real time - or do we simply listen once the ‘I'll Tell You What’ podcast has been released next week?” – Nancy Hemstreet Eaton, Glastonbury, Conn.

[Ed. note: I think I may have gotten us all a one-week extension from Professor Perino. Stay tuned!]

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

SNOT OTTER 2020
NPR: “Pennsylvania's soon-to-be official amphibian has more than its fair share of nicknames: snot otter, mud devil, Allegheny alligator, devil dog, lasagna lizard. In short, it's not exactly a looker. But the Eastern hellbender salamander was the overwhelming choice of lawmakers for amphibian representation in the state. On Tuesday, the state's House of Representatives voted 191-6 on a bill that would name the aquatic creature its state amphibian. The Senate passed the bill in February. The hellbender is a nocturnal salamander that can grow more than 2 feet long. The mud-colored creature, covered in a layer of mucus, breathes primarily through loose flaps of thick, wrinkled skin that look a little bit like lasagna noodles. The hellbender is also a canary for environmental degradation.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“I think we have an electorate that’s beginning to feel soiled, and in need of a shower. The hypocrisy, and the real damage is to both parties and the political system.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) on “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Oct. 12, 2016. 

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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Attorney Avenatti faces new criminal charges in California

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that attorney Michael Avenatti has been charged in a 36-count federal indictment in Southern California.

Details of the case were scheduled to be made public at a midmorning news conference by U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna and the Internal Revenue Service, Hanna's office said in a statement to news outlets.

The new charges follow Avenatti's arrest in New York last month for allegedly trying to shake down Nike for up to $25 million and on two counts of wire and bank fraud from Southern California, where his firm is based. Avenatti has said he expects to be cleared.

The attorney is best known for representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump.

The charges are the latest major blow to a career that took off last year when Avenatti represented Daniels in her lawsuit to break a confidentiality agreement with Trump to stay mum about an affair they allegedly had.

Avenatti became one of Trump's leading adversaries, attacking him on cable news programs and Twitter. At one point, Avenatti even considered challenging Trump in 2020.

But back home in California, his business practices had come under scrutiny from the IRS and a former law partner who was owed $14 million by Avenatti and the Eagan Avenatti firm, which filed for bankruptcy.

Source: Fox News National

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Trump Curses Dem Probes

President Donald Trump on Thursday — energized by the completion of a nearly two-year Russia collusion investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller — ripped into congressional Democrats for "ridiculous bullsh–, partisan investigations."

In a Michigan rally, Trump declared "the deep state attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election have failed."

"So, the Russia hoax proves more than ever that we need to finish exactly what we came here to do: Drain the swamp," Trump said to cheers. 

"The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullsh–, partisan investigations, or ways they will apologize to the American people and it join us to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure," he said.

Source: NewsMax America

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Tiffany holiday-quarter sales miss expectations on weak tourist spending

A Tiffany & Co logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York
FILE PHOTO: A Tiffany & Co logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York, New York, U.S., March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

March 22, 2019

(Reuters) – Tiffany & Co narrowly missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly sales on Friday, two months after the luxury retailer signaled soft demand in the holiday season because of low spending by Chinese tourists and weakness in Europe and at home.

Weakening economic growth in China, especially against the backdrop of an ongoing trade spat between Beijing and Washington, has been a worry for luxury goods companies that rely on the country’s burgeoning middle class to boost sales.

“Softer trends in the second half of the year reflected, in part, what we believe were external challenges and uncertainties,” Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Bogliolo said in a statement.

In January, the company blamed a stronger dollar for weak tourist spending globally.

The company reaffirmed its financial forecasts for fiscal 2019 and expects a decline in per share profit in the first half of the year, due to the external factors.

In the reported quarter, comparable-store sales dropped 1 percent as demand for engagement and designer jewelry fell.

Tiffany’s net sales fell to $1.32 billion, while analysts on average were expecting sales of $1.33 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company’s net earnings rose to $204.5 million, or $1.67 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Jan.31, from $61.9 million, or 50 cents per share, a year earlier, when the company had higher provisions for income taxes.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Source: OANN

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NYPD backtracks, says officer wasn't killed in 1999 shooting

The New York Police Department says confusion surrounding a long-awaited arrest led officials to wrongly declare that an off-duty officer had been killed in a 1999 shooting in the Bronx.

A police spokeswoman said Monday that Officer Vincent Ling survived and has since retired. Commissioner James O'Neill tweeted Sunday that Ling had been killed.

Sgt. Jessica McRorie said in a statement that a misreading of the attempted murder charge on suspect Lester Pearson's arrest warrant "led to the confusion about (Ling's) death."

Pearson was arrested Friday in Jacksonville, Florida. The New York Daily News heralded the development on its front page with the headline: "COP KILLER CAUGHT."

It wasn't clear if Pearson had a lawyer. Prosecutors said charging documents weren't in a database because the case is old.

Source: Fox News National

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Smollett Case Focused Unwanted Attention on Chicago Police

The surprise decision by prosecutors to drop charges against Jussie Smollett angered Chicago's police superintendent and mayor, who said the alleged hoax was costly to investigate and dragged the city's reputation through the mud. It also focused attention on a police department that has struggled to reduce violent crime while defending itself against allegations of brutality.

Police and prosecutors continue to believe that the former "Empire" cast member hired two men to fake a racist and anti-gay attack and then lied about it.

But the charges were dropped without Smollett admitting wrongdoing, typically a requirement in such cases.

Instead, he stood in front of reporters Tuesday and insisted that he'd done nothing wrong and had been "truthful and consistent on every single level since day one." His attorneys said his record had "been wiped clean."

"This is a whitewash of justice," said a visibly angry Mayor Rahm Emanuel, standing beside police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, whom he handpicked to lead the department in a shakeup after the shooting of a black 16-year-old Laquan McDonald by a white officer. "Where is the accountability in the system? You cannot have, because of a person's position, one set of rules apply to them and another set of rules apply to everybody else."

Prosecutors said they needed to focus their own resources on violent crimes, and Smollett's case was treated like thousands of others that have been dropped through a deferred-prosecution program. Cook County First Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Magats said Smollett forfeited a $10,000 bond payment and did community service.

"We are focusing resources combatting violent crime, gun crime and the drivers of violence," Magats said, adding later: "This was not an exoneration."

Johnson said Smollett still owes the city an apology — and that he should have been willing to prove his innocence.

"If someone falsely accused me I would never hide behind a brokered deal and secrecy. Period," Johnson said.

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police he was physically attacked by two men who shouted anti-gay and racial slurs at him before beating him up and throwing some kind of chemical on him the early morning of Jan. 29. He also said his attackers shouted, "This is MAGA country," an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," and looped a rope around his neck.

But police say brothers Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo — bodybuilders and aspiring actors who Smollett knew from the "Empire" set and the gym — told them that Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the attack because he was unhappy about his salary and wanted to promote his career.

Johnson said he was offended when detectives determined that Smollett allegedly lied, saying he'd taken "advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career." He also called it a "publicity stunt" that Chicago didn't deserve.

Violent crime and police brutality claims have dogged Emanuel throughout his two terms as mayor, though he and Johnson have said they're making progress in combatting it. Emanuel did not seek re-election and his term ends in May.

He fired former Superintendent Garry McCarthy in 2015, following the release of dashcam footage showing a white police officer fatally shot McDonald, who had only a small knife on him. He hired Johnson, a lifelong Chicagoan and career police officer, to lead the department in 2016, hoping he could help repair trust between the police and residents.

Johnson, who has pointed to double-digit decreases in gun violence over the past two years, said Smollett's accusations were an undeserved distraction from the city's efforts. While there has been progress in reducing violent crime, Chicago still has more murders than the larger cities of New York and Los Angeles.

Police reviewed video from more than four dozen cameras to trace the brothers' movements before and after the reported attack, determining where they lived and who they were before arresting them a little more than two weeks later. They also reviewed in-car taxi videos, telephone logs, ride-share records and credit card records, according to a summary of the case released by prosecutors.

Emanuel said he felt Tuesday's decision was unfair.

"There is no accountability then in the system. It is wrong, full stop," said Emanuel. He also said the $10,000 paid by Smollett "doesn't even come close to what the city spent in resources."

"Our officers did hard work ... to unwind what actually happened that night, he said. "The city saw its reputation dragged through the mud."

Phil Turner, a Chicago defense attorney and former federal prosecutor with no ties to the case, also said it would be wrong to say leniency was warranted because no serious harm was done. "The reputation of the city has taken a tremendous blow," he said.

Magats, the prosecutor, said he understands why Johnson and Emanuel are upset, but that the agreement was fair.

"I would just say they did a great job and thank them for the work they do." Magats said of the police. "They did great work on this investigation."

Source: NewsMax America

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U.S. energy exports a lever in trade talks with China: Perry

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry attends a news conference after meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih in Baghdad
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry attends a news conference after meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih in Baghdad, Iraq December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

March 11, 2019

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rapidly expanding exports of U.S. fossil fuels, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), serve as leverage in trade negotiations with China, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Monday.

“It’s part of the mix, it may not be the driver, but it’s always hanging out there as part of the matrix,” Perry said in an interview on CNBC. “America now has the ability to use that in a very positive way when it comes to trade negotiations.”

When asked if U.S. energy was a lever in the talks, Perry said, “Yeah, sure it is.” U.S. technology on renewable energy and small modular nuclear reactors is also part of what Washington can use as leverage, he said.

The United States is the world’s fastest-growing exporter of LNG and China is the fastest-growing importer of the fuel. Natural gas emits far less unhealthy pollution and carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, when burned.

While the U.S. LNG business is booming, shipments are controlled by private companies. Perry did not explain how leverage could be used, but the Trump administration could conceivably prolong tariffs or take other measures if China, or other major buyers, place tariffs on U.S. oil or LNG exports or energy technology.

The governments of the world’s two largest economies have been locked in a tariff battle for months as Washington presses Beijing to address long-standing concerns over Chinese practices and policies around technology transfers, market access and intellectual property rights.

The countries are working to achieve a trade deal that matches the interests of both sides and the hopes of the world, including eliminating tit-for-tat tariffs, a senior Chinese official said over the weekend.

The trade war contributed to a 20 percent fall in U.S. shipments of LNG to China last year from the previous year. The shipments also slipped on weak demand for heating amid mild winter weather.

But Perry was confident about the power of U.S. energy abundance and China’s hunger for U.S. LNG, even if all of the more than a dozen U.S. LNG projects being developed were completed.

“As we look at India, as we look at China, these massive economies, we probably need more projects than we’ve got on the books today to be able to meet that demand,” Perry said.

Last month the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, approved Venture Global LNG Inc’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana. The company said it had binding 20-year sale and purchase agreements with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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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