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Trump allies await results of two internal probes that could expose Russia investigation backstory

Following the revelation that Special Counsel Robert Mueller unearthed no evidence that President Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election, Trump allies are now awaiting the results of two long-running internal probes that could expose the backstory behind the Russia probe's beginnings -- and provide more detail on already-documented misconduct among top FBI and DOJ officials.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed at a panel discussion last week that his office is continuing to review potential surveillance abuses by the FBI, a review that began last March and that Fox News is told is nearing completion. Horowitz has previously found that senior FBI officials routinely leaked information without authorization to the media, and also received "improper gifts" from reporters, including meals and sporting event tickets. Most notably, Horowitz found that FBI officials' anti-Trump communications raised doubts as to the integrity of their work.

Republicans are increasingly looking for answers from U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber, who was appointed a year ago by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to review not only surveillance abuses by the FBI and DOJ, but also authorities' handling of the probe into the Clinton Foundation.

Huber, Republicans have cautioned, has apparently made little progress, and spoken to few key witnesses and whistleblowers. But in January, then-Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker reportedly indicated at a private meeting that Huber's work was continuing apace.

Among the primary looming questions that the IG has said he will address, and that Huber is expected to review: Did the FBI follow all applicable "legal requirements" when FBI lawyer Lisa Page and then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil Trump aide Carter Page -- weeks before the 2016 presidential election -- by relying heavily on a dossier created by a firm working for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC)?

STRZOK-PAGE TEXT MESSAGES REVEAL FBI 'LEAKING LIKE MAD'; STRZOK VOWS TO 'STOP' TRUMP FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT

Internal text messages exclusively published last week by Fox News showed that a senior DOJ official apparently battled with the FBI over the political bias of the author of the dossier, British ex-spy Christopher Steele.

 Michael Horowitz, inspector general of the Justice Department, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee in Hart Building titled "Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations," on July 26, 2017.  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

 Michael Horowitz, inspector general of the Justice Department, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee in Hart Building titled "Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations," on July 26, 2017.  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) (2017 CQ-Roll Call, Inc.)

The texts also showed FBI brass circulating a Mother Jones article, among others, that racheted up media attention on Page's supposed links to Russian officials and ominously warned of a "Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump."

Page has not been charged with any wrongdoing despite more than a year of federal surveillance, and he is now suing multiple actors, including the Democratic National Committee, for defamation.

In its FISA application, the FBI incorrectly assured the FISA court that a Yahoo News article provided an independent basis to surveil Page, even though Steele was the source of the Yahoo News article. The FISA application also did not make clear that the Steele application had been funded by Fusion GPS, a firm retained by the Clinton team.

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: NEW TEXT MESSAGES SHOW FBI FIGHTING WITH DOJ OVER WARRANT TO MONITOR TRUMP AIDE

The text messages also revealed that, just days after Trump said during an October 2016 presidential debate that a special prosecutor should investigate the tens of thousands of emails deleted from Hillary Clinton's private email server, FBI lawyer Lisa Page pushed for the FISA warrant to monitor the Trump aide.

"We have a FISA-related review that people might have heard about that the deputy attorney general asked us to take a look at," Horowitz told attendees at a Washington, D.C. event organized by the Atlantic Council. He took no further questions on the topic. Although only the government presents a case at FISA warrant hearings, defendants retain their constitutional rights against unlawful searches, and DOJ guidelines preclude the FBI from omitting exculpatory evidence, or misrepresenting sources, in FISA applications.

SYSTEM-WIDE FBI SOFTWARE FAILURE BLAMED FOR MISSING STRZOK-PAGE TEXTS; STRZOK'S PHONE FROM DAYS ON MUELLER TEAM TOTALLY WIPED

Separately, federal investigators are also continuing their review of systemic leaks at all levels of the FBI. Former FBI Acting Director McCabe was fired from the bureau in March 2018 after it was determined he lied to FBI investigators and then-FBI Director James Comey about a leak four times, including under oath, and a grand jury has been impaneled to investigate the matter.

McCabe, officials say, authorized a leak to a newspaper reporter about the contents of a telephone call on August 2016 in order cast himself in a positive light in the upcoming story about an investigation involving Hillary Clinton. While McCabe had the authority to authorize such a disclosure, the IG determined that the authorization was aimed at advancing his own rather than the bureau’s interests.

DOJ investigators have also uncovered a slew of unauthorized contacts between FBI agents and reporters. Remarkably, at least two unauthorized phone calls to reporters came from an "unattributed FBI HQ phone number," the IG said last year -- suggesting that some employees at the bureau were brazenly leaking information from phones in the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Huber's investigation, meanwhile, has been dogged by allegations that he has not interviewed witnesses who could shed light on those topics. In a letter to Mr. Huber, Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan and Georgia GOP Rep. Doug Collins said they interviewed dozens of witnesses while his probe was simultaneously running.

“During the course of our extensive investigation we have interviewed more than a dozen current and former DOJ and FBI personnel, and were surprised to hear none of these potentially informative witnesses testified to speaking with you,” Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Collins, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Huber.

Republicans have charged that John Huber, the U.S. Attorney assigned to probe the FBI's handling of Clinton and FISA matters, has not done his job. (Official government photo.)

Republicans have charged that John Huber, the U.S. Attorney assigned to probe the FBI's handling of Clinton and FISA matters, has not done his job. (Official government photo.)

In a deep dive published late last year, RealClearInvestigations reported that Huber's appointment was internally seen as little more than a political effort to placate Republicans.

“At the time, people wanted a special counsel, but Jeff Sessions announced he brought in Huber and people said, ‘OK, we got Huber on it,’" former Justice Department prosecutor Victoria Toensing told the outlet. “But it was a head fake.”

Toensing added: “It’s a farce. It's an embarrassment how this has been handled.” (Weeks later, Whitaker reportedly told former Attorney General Ed Meese over breakfast, in a meeting first reported by the Associcated Press, that Huber's work was ongoing.)

Carter Page told The Washington Times late last year that he had not spoken to Mr. Huber, but was eager to do so.

ANALYSIS: BRUCE OHR TESTIMONY SHOWS SOMETHING'S REALLY ROTTEN AT THE DOJ

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr also told Congress in August that he had not spoken with Huber. Ohr effectively served as a back channel between Steele and the FBI, after the FBI dropped Steele as a source for leaking to the media.

New details, nevertheless, have emerged about the FBI's handling of its investigation into the Clinton Foundation -- ostensibly an area of focus for Huber. Among the key new information: The Justice Department "negotiated" an agreement with Clinton's legal team in 2016 that ensured the FBI did not have access to emails on her private servers relating to the Clinton Foundation.

Former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, who was fired for breaking FBI protocol by sending numerous anti-Trump text messages on his government-issued phone while working as the No. 2 official on the Clinton and Trump investigations, first acknowledged the arrangement during a secretive closed-door appearance before the House Judiciary Committee last summer.

Senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, left, continued to communicate with former British spy Christopher Steele, right, even after the FBI cut ties with him.

Senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, left, continued to communicate with former British spy Christopher Steele, right, even after the FBI cut ties with him. (AP)

Republicans late last year renewed their efforts to probe the Clinton Foundation, after tax documents showed a plunge in its incoming donations after Clinton’s 2016 presidential election loss. The numbers fueled longstanding allegations of possible “pay-to-play” transactions at the organization, amid a Justice Department probe covering foundation issues.

Even aside from the probes by Huber and the IG, Republicans on Monday called for new inquiries, including a special counsel to probe "the other side of the story."

“I’d like to find somebody, like a Mr. Mueller, that can look into what happened with the FISA warrants, the counterintelligence investigation," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Monday. "Am I right to be concerned? It seems pretty bad on its face—but there are some people that are never going to accept the Mueller report, but by any reasonable standard, Mueller thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign. You cannot say that about the other side of the story."

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Graham added: “I hope Mr. Barr will appoint somebody outside the current system to look into these allegations, somebody we all trust, and let them do what Mueller did,” he continued, adding that he has been calling for the appointment of a second special counsel since 2017 to investigate “whether or not a counterintelligence investigation was opened as a back door to spy on the Trump campaign.”

“A counterintelligence investigation is designed to protect the entity being targeted by a foreign power…I still am at a loss as to why nobody went to President Trump to tell him,” Graham told reporters.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Brooke Singman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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White House Predicts 10-Year Economic Boom

Contrary to the views of most economists, the Trump administration expects the U.S. economy to keep booming over the next decade on the strength of further tax cuts, reduced regulation, and improvements to the nation's infrastructure.

The annual report from President Donald Trump's Council of Economic Advisers forecasts that the economy will expand a brisk 3.2 percent this year and a still-healthy 2.8 percent a decade from now. That is much faster than the Federal Reserve's long-run forecast of 1.9 percent annual economic growth.

The administration's forecast hinges on an expectation that it will manage to implement further tax cuts, incentives for infrastructure improvements, new labor policies and scaled-back regulations — programs that are unlikely to gain favor with the Democratic-led House that would need to approve most of them.

Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House council, insisted that the president's economic agenda would provide enough fuel to drive robust growth at a time when the majority of economists foresee a slowdown due in part to the aging U.S. population.

He said the biggest risk to growth would be if financial markets anticipate that Trump's existing policies would be reversed. Without getting into specifics, Hassett said the risk would be if markets expect that the winner of the 2020 presidential election would shift away from policies such as the tax overhaul that Trump signed into law in 2017.

"Uncertainty over the policies themselves could slow their positive impact," Hassett said.

The tax cuts added roughly $1.5 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade, not accounting for economic growth. The report suggests that the lower tax rates have increased business investment in ways that will make the economy more productive, while also creating a surge in people coming off the sidelines to search for work.

The administration's optimism comes amid signs of slowing global economic growth, as well as a recent slowdown in manufacturing production and weakness in retail sales in January and December.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Ex-CIA Brennan: No Doubt Trump Will Pardon Manafort

Former CIA Director John Brennan is predicting President Donald Trump will pardon his former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

In an interview on MSNBC posted on Twitter, Brennan said the only question is “when.”

“I don't have any doubt that Mr. Trump is going to pardon Paul Manafort at some point,” said Brennan, who is a contributor at the cable network.

If Manafort is convicted on state charges, however, “Donald Trump is not going to be able to pardon him for that,” Brennan said.

Manafort, a longtime lobbyist who led a presidential campaign, got less than four years behind bars for eight financial crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose a foreign bank account. 

But the light sentence could be extended in a Washington, D.C., federal court in an illegal lobbying case, the Washington Examiner noted.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday Trump will "make his decision" on whether to pardon Manafort "when he's ready,” CNBC reported.

Related Stories:

Source: NewsMax Politics

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DA: Man ran prostitution ring out of parents’ basement

Authorities say a Long Island man ran a prostitution ring out of his parents' home, luring women with drugs, locking them in a basement dungeon and making them use a bucket instead of a bathroom.

Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini says Raymond Rodio III ran the prostitution ring out of the Sound Beach home for about four years. Sini said Rodio used social media to recruit women, got them hooked on heroin and crack cocaine and forced them to have sex.

Prosecutors say Rodio's parents weren't aware of what was going on.

Rodio pleaded not guilty on Thursday to sex trafficking and other charges. The 47-year-old remains jailed because he hasn't posted $1 million cash bail or $2 million bond.

A message seeking comment was left with his lawyer.

Source: Fox News National

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German market regulator lifts short sale ban on Wirecard

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim
FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim near Munich, Germany September 6, 2018. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

April 18, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s markets regulator Bafin on Friday said its two-month ban on short-selling shares of payments company Wirecard had expired.

In February, Bafin initiated the ban due to volatility in Wirecard’s stock following reports in the Financial Times that became the subject of an investigation by German authorities.

Wirecard has denied wrongdoing and the FT has stood by its reporting.

The short-selling ban “has now expired”, Bafin said in a statement, without elaborating further. Short-selling is when an investor borrows shares to sell in the hope of being able to buy them back later at a lower price.

Earlier this week, Bafin filed a complaint with the Munich Prosecutor’s Office alleging market manipulation in the shares of Wirecard.

A series of reports run by the FT, citing a whistleblower’s claims of fraud and creative accounting at its Singapore office, have wiped billions off Wirecard’s market value and triggered a police investigation in the Asian state.

(Reporting by Tom Sims, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Source: OANN

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House Dems criticize Trump's wall, try to override his veto

House Democrats accused President Donald Trump on Tuesday of wasting money on outdated border barriers and violating the Constitution to do it, but they seemed headed toward defeat in an effort to override Trump's first veto.

In the legislative finale of a showdown that's been building for months, Democrats were trying to annul Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border. But they seemed sure to fall short of the two-thirds majority required for veto overrides to succeed.

Congress passed legislation voiding the emergency earlier this month, but Trump vetoed it almost immediately. Under the declaration, Trump wants to shift $3.6 billion from military construction projects to erecting barriers. Building a wall along the boundary was one of his most oft-repeated campaign promises, though he claimed the money would come from Mexico, not taxpayers.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said spending money on "a stupid, static wall" was a waste of money. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, called Trump's action "constitutional vandalism" because Congress has the power to control spending.

Republicans said Trump was merely exercising his legal authority to declare emergencies and said Democrats were going too far.

Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., called the Democratic effort "a partisan whack job" that would fall short. And Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said Trump was acting to defeat the efforts of the "radical left in this House that would dissolve our borders entirely if given the chance" — a position that no Democrats have taken.

When Congress voted initially to block Trump's emergency declaration , it drew unanimous opposition from Democrats and opposition from some Republicans, especially in the Senate , where lawmakers objected that he was abusing presidential powers.

But while Congress approved a resolution voiding Trump's move, the margins by which the House and Senate passed the measure fell well short of the two-thirds majorities that will be needed to override the veto.

"The president will be fine in the House," said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a brief interview. "The veto will not be overridden."

Even with his veto remaining intact, Trump may not be able to spend the money for barriers quickly because of lawsuits that might take years to resolve.

Tuesday's vote was coming as Trump claimed a different political triumph after Attorney General William Barr said special counsel Robert Mueller had ended his two-year investigation without evidence of collusion by Trump's 2016 campaign with the Russian government.

Democrats were hoping to use the border emergency battle in upcoming campaigns, both to symbolize Trump's harsh immigration stance and claim he was hurting congressional districts around the country.

The Pentagon sent lawmakers a list last week of hundreds of military construction projects that might be cut to pay for barrier work. Though the list was tentative, Democrats were asserting that GOP lawmakers were endangering local bases to pay for the wall.

Congress, to which the Constitution assigned control over spending, voted weeks ago to provide less than $1.4 billion for barriers. Opponents warned that besides usurping Congress' role in making spending decisions, Trump was inviting future Democratic presidents to circumvent lawmakers by declaring emergencies to finance their own favored initiatives.

Trump supporters said he was simply acting under a 1976 law that lets presidents declare national emergencies. Trump's declaration was the 60th presidential emergency under that statute, but the first aimed at spending that Congress explicitly denied, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks the law.

The House approved the resolution blocking Trump's emergency by 245-182 in February. On Tuesday, Trump opponents will need to reach 288 votes to prevail.

Just 13 Republicans opposed Trump in February, around 1 in 15. Another 30 would have to defect to override his veto.

This month, the GOP-led Senate rebuked Trump with a 59-41 vote blocking his declaration after the failure of a Republican effort to reach a compromise with the White House. Republicans were hoping to avoid a confrontation with him for fear of alienating pro-Trump voters.

Twelve GOP senators, nearly 1 in 4, ended up opposing him.

If the House vote fails, the Senate won't attempt its own override and the veto will stand.

Source: Fox News National

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EU adopts new tax-haven blacklist, adds UAE, Bermuda, Aruba

EU flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: European Union flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

March 12, 2019

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union governments adopted a broadened blacklist of tax havens on Tuesday, the EU commission said in a statement.

Ten jurisdictions were added to the list. It had previously included five.

Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu and Dominica are added to the list.

The additions are the largest review of the list since the EU adopted it in December 2017. It was drawn up after revelations of widespread tax-avoidance schemes used by corporations and wealthy individuals to lower their tax bills.

Jurisdictions are added to the list if their tax rules enable tax evasion in other states. They are removed if they commit to reforms.

Blacklisted jurisdictions face stricter controls on transactions with the EU, although no sanctions have yet been agreed by EU states.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Andrew Heavens, Larry King)

Source: OANN

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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

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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

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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

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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

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FILE PHOTO: Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
FILE PHOTO: Pallbearers carry the coffin of journalist Lyra McKee at her funeral at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

April 26, 2019

BELFAST (Reuters) – Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity.

McKee’s killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people.

The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the peace accord, has said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead in the Creggan area of the city on Thursday when opening fire on police during a riot McKee was watching.

The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Police released footage on Friday of immediately before and after the shooting showing three men who were involved in the rioting and identified one as the gunman who they believe is in his late teens. 

“I believe that the information that can help us to bring those responsible for her murder to justice lies within the community. I need the public to tell me who he is,” Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters.

Murphy said those involved in the disorder on the night were teenagers or in their early 20s, and that about 100 people were on the ground watching the trouble as it unfolded.

He added that police believed the gun used in the attack was of a similar caliber to those used before in paramilitary type attacks in Creggan. 

“I recognize that people living in Creagan may find it’s difficult to come forward to speak to police. Today, I want to provide a personal reassurance that we are able to deal with those issues sensitively,” Murphy said, echoing similar appeals in recent days.

(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by Padraic Halpin and Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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