Mayor Bloomberg Doles Out Questionable Advice to Cornell Graduates

13 mins ago

Meredith Watson, who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, details her experience since coming forward

Since I came forward less than two weeks ago, certain politicians offered to support me if I made it a partisan issue. I refused. Likewise, I have refused to make this a financial issue by suing for compensation. I have refused to make it a law-enforcement issue. Despite nearly 100 offers to be interviewed, I have refused to make my rape a media opportunity.

My motivation was never for personal gain.

And what have I gained? I have endured relentless scrutiny of my personal life and an unending, bitter flood of hurtful misinformation trumpeted by the media.

This occurred precisely because I sought to protect my privacy and the privacy of my family. There were inquiries into my years in elementary school. Personal medical records were probed, and financial information was revealed. None of this is relevant.

I’m willing to testify in public. Justin Fairfax should, too.

—The Washington Post

5:17 p.m.

A little radiation on your vacation

For nearly two decades at the Grand Canyon, tourists, employees, and children on tours passed by three paint buckets stored in the National Park’s museum collection building, unaware that they were being exposed to radiation.

Although federal officials learned last year that the five-gallon containers were brimming with uranium ore, then removed the radioactive specimens, the park’s safety director alleges nothing was done to warn park workers or the public that they might have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.

In a rogue email sent to all Park Service employees on Feb. 4, Elston “Swede” Stephenson — the safety, health and wellness manager — described the alleged cover-up as “a top management failure” and warned of possible health consequences.

Grand Canyon tourists exposed for years to radiation in museum building, safety manager says

—Arizona Republic

4:44 p.m.

A protester celebrates Presidents Day in front of the White House

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

4:06 p.m.

Roger Stone is at it again

Roger Stone posted a picture on his Instagram Monday of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the federal judge presiding over his case, with crosshairs in the corner.

In the post, he accuses “Deep State hitman Robert Mueller” of ensuring that his case landed in her hands, since she’s an Obama appointee – the implication being that she’s out to get him. He ends his post with his classic digital panhandling for his legal defense fund.

The post comes just days after Jackson instituted a partial gag order against Stone and advised him not to make comments that would endanger his own case.

Stone Posted A Picture Of The Federal Judge On His Case With Crosshairs

—Talking Points Memo

3:21 p.m.

More than a dozens AGs will sue over Trump’s national emergency

California and a dozen other states are filing a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on Monday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

“The president admitted that there’s not a basis for the declaration, he admitted there’s no crisis at the border, he’s now trying to rob funds that were allocated by Congress legally to the various states and people of our states,” Becerra told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC Monday afternoon.

“The separation of powers is being violated, we’re going to go out there and make sure that Donald Trump cannot steal money from the states and people who need them, since we paid the taxpayer dollars to Washington, D.C. to get those services,” he said.

California AG: At least 13 states suing over Trump's national emergency

—NBC News

2:43 p.m.

Sorry, Knicks fans

The New York Knicks‘ statement on discussions of owner James Dolan courting offers to sell the team: “The story is 100% false. There has been nothing. No discussions. No plans to have discussions – nothing.”

—@ShamsCharania

1:47 p.m.

Joe Biden tends to lead in 2020 polls. That might be meaningless.

Joe Biden’s big lead in early Democratic 2020 polling might be a bunch of malarkey.

While most polls show the former vice president hovering around 30 percent of the Democratic primary vote, well ahead of second-place Sen. Bernie Sanders, two recent surveys paint a starkly different picture — raising the question of whether Biden is a real front-runner or just has big name-recognition. Those polls show far more Democratic voters undecided about which candidate to support, and they pegged Biden’s backing at a much less intimidating 9 to 12 percent.

The results are so varied partly thanks to different methodological choices by the pollsters. But parsing the results is more than an academic exercise: While Biden weighs a third campaign for the presidency, he and his allies must consider whether polls a year before primary season really reflect Biden’s true strength — and his potential rivals have to calculate whether the former vice president could overwhelm lesser-known challengers in 2020.

Biden’s polling lead shaky ahead of 2020 decision

—Politico

1:14 p.m.

If you know a Flat Earther, they probably started on YouTube

Researchers believe they have identified the prime driver for a startling rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat: Google’s video-sharing site, YouTube.

Their suspicion was raised when they attended the world’s largest gatherings of Flat Earthers at the movement’s annual conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2017, and then in Denver, Colorado, last year.

Interviews with 30 attendees revealed a pattern in the stories people told about how they came to be convinced that the Earth was not a large round rock spinning through space but a large flat disc doing much the same thing.

Of the 30, all but one said they had not considered the Earth to be flat two years ago but changed their minds after watching videos promoting conspiracy theories on YouTube. “The only person who didn’t say this was there with his daughter and his son-in-law and they had seen it on YouTube and told him about it,” said Asheley Landrum, who led the research at Texas Tech University.

Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers

—The Guardian

12:03 p.m.

With Heather Nauert out of the running, Trump’s search for a new U.N. ambassador continues

LATEST on who Trump’s considering for UN ambassador:
—Dina Powell, his former deputy national security adviser
—Kelly Craft, US ambassador to Canada
—John James, former US Senate candidate from Michigan
—Richard Grenell, US ambassador to Germany

per sources w/ direct knowledge.

—@JenniferJJacobs

11:31 a.m.

Cory Booker is trying to woo Amazon to Newark

The anger and finger-pointing hasn’t let up in New York City over Amazon’s decision to abandon plans to local a new headquarters there, but Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey sees a clear next step: bring HQ2 to Newark.

Booker, who was once Mayor of Newark and is now running for president, said that ever since Amazon announced its retreat from New York, officials in New Jersey’s largest city have reached out to the retail and technology colossus.

“We want HQ2,” Booker declared emphatically in an interview with Cheddar’s J.D. Durkin. “We’ve sent that message out already. And everybody from the Governor to the Mayor to local leaders have been reaching out to Amazon.”

‘We Want HQ2’ — 2020 Hopeful Cory Booker Reignites Newark's Bid for Amazon

—Cheddar

10:58 a.m.

NYC to institute nation’s first ban on hair-based discrimination

Under new guidelines to be released this week by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the targeting of people based on their hair or hairstyle, at work, school or in public spaces, will now be considered racial discrimination.

The change in law applies to anyone in New York City but is aimed at remedying the disparate treatment of black people; the guidelines specifically mention the right of New Yorkers to maintain their “natural hair, treated or untreated hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, and/or the right to keep hair in an uncut or untrimmed state.”

In practice, the guidelines give legal recourse to individuals who have been harassed, threatened, punished, demoted or fired because of the texture or style of their hair. The city commission can levy penalties up to $250,000 on defendants that are found in violation of the guidelines and there is no cap on damages. The commission can also force internal policy changes and rehirings at offending institutions.

New York City to Ban Discrimination Based on Hair

—The New York Times

10:28 a.m.

An 11-year-old faces charges after refusing to stand for the pledge

A sixth grader in Florida was arrested after his refusal to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance escalated into a confrontation with police and school officials, authorities said.

The unnamed boy was charged with disrupting a school function and resisting an officer without violence on Feb. 4, the Lakeland Police Department said in a news release.

A local news outlet, Bay News 9, reported that the confrontation began after the student at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, near Tampa, called the flag racist and described the national anthem as offensive.

Sixth grader arrested in Florida after refusal to participate in Pledge of Allegiance led to confrontation

—NBC News

9:37 a.m.

The president celebrates Presidents Day with a gift to himself

President Trump has arrived at Trump International Golf Club for the third consecutive day since he declared a national emergency.

—@kathrynw5

9:00 a.m.

Bystanders caught in crossfire of police shootout in New Orleans

Five people waiting at a bus stop in New Orleans were shot during a police shootout with a robbery suspect Sunday, police said.

The suspect was fatally shot by a Louisiana State Police Officer at the end of foot chase with gunfire throughout, Chief Shaun Ferguson said.

Ferguson said detectives had been investigating two armed robberies in the city’s 6th district when they identified a person of interest near a bus stop at the intersection of Canal Street and Elk Place at 6:43 p.m. Sunday.

The detectives called uniformed officers to help question the suspect, but when they attempted to engage, the individual pulled out a weapon and began firing, he said.

A detective and one of the officers returned fire and five bystanders – all adults – were struck during the exchange of gunfire, Ferguson said.

Five bystanders shot during police shootout in New Orleans

—CNN

8:42 a.m.

Seven Labour MPs jump ship

Seven Labour MPs, including Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger, have resigned from the party over Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, saying they will sit as a new independent group.

In a press conference on Monday, the MPs – who also include Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey – delivered a scathing attack on the party for being “institutionally racist” and betraying its members over Brexit.

Seven MPs quit Labour in protest over Corbyn's leadership

—The Guardian

2/17/2019

Dozens of gay priests spoke with the Times about the reality of their closeted lives

“The vast majority of gay priests are not safe,” said Father Bob Bussen, a priest in Park City, Utah, who was outed about 12 years ago after he held Mass for the L.G.B.T.Q. community. “Life in the closet is worse than scapegoating,” he said. “It is not a closet. It is a cage.”

Even before a priest may know he is gay, he knows the closet. The code is taught early, often in seminary. Numquam duo, semper tres, the warning goes. Never two, always three. Move in trios, never as a couple. No going on walks alone together, no going to the movies in a pair. The higher-ups warned for years: Any male friendship is too dangerous, could slide into something sexual, and turn into what they called a “particular friendship.”

“You couldn’t have a particular friendship with a man, because you might end up being homosexual,” explained a priest, who once nicknamed his friends “the P.F.s.” “And you couldn’t have a friendship with a woman, because you might end up falling in love, and they were both against celibacy. With whom do you have a relationship that would be a healthy human relationship?”

Today, training for the priesthood in the United States usually starts in or after college. But until about 1980, the church often recruited boys to start in ninth grade — teenagers still in the throes of puberty. For many of today’s priests and bishops over 50, this environment limited healthy sexual development. Priests cannot marry, so sexuality from the start was about abstinence, and obedience.

‘It Is Not a Closet. It Is a Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out

—Elizabeth Dias

National Faith and Values Correspondent, New York Times

2/17/2019

Japan’s prime minister nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize at White House’s request

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize last autumn after receiving a request from the U.S. government to do so, the Asahi newspaper reported on Sunday.

The report follows Trump’s claim on Friday that Abe had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize for opening talks and easing tensions with North Korea. The Japanese leader had given him “the most beautiful copy” of a five-page nomination letter, Trump said at a White House news conference.

The U.S. government had sounded Abe out over the Noble Peace Prize nomination after Trump’s summit in June last year with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the first meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president, the Asahi said, citing an unnamed Japanese government source.

Japan's PM nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize on U.S. request: Asahi

—Reuters

2/17/2019

Anthony Weiner is no longer in prison, but will need to register as a sex offender

Convicted ex-congressman Anthony Weiner has been sprung from prison — and is now part of a federal re-entry program in New York, records show. Weiner has been transferred from Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass. where he served a bulk of his 21-month sentence for sexting a 15-year-old girl from North Carolina, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.

The 54-year-old is now being supervised by the federal Residential Reentry Management, which has a field office in Sunset Park and operates multiples facilities, the records say. He is either in a halfway house or in home confinement, TMZ reported. It’s not clear when the transfer took place. Weiner is set to be released from federal custody on May 14, thanks to good conduct behind bars that shaved about three months off his sentence.

Anthony Weiner released from prison, will register as sex offender

—New York Post/TMZ

2/17/2019

Vetting a new contender in Mason City

Photo: Guests listen as U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) speaks during a campaign stop at Lorados on Saturday in Mason City, Iowa. The stop was her first in the state as a presidential candidate seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

2/17/2019

Meanwhile, in real national emergencies…

Student-loan delinquencies surged last year, hitting consecutive records of $166.3 billion in the third quarter and $166.4 billion in the fourth. Bloomberg calculated the dollar amounts from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s quarterly household-debt report, which includes only the total owed and the percentage delinquent at least 90 days or in default.

That percentage has remained around 11 percent since mid-2012, but the total increased to a record $1.46 trillion by December 2018, and unpaid student debt also rose to the highest ever.

Delinquencies continued to climb even as the unemployment rate fell below 4 percent, suggesting the strong U.S. job market hasn’t generated enough wage growth to help some people manage their outstanding obligations.

U.S. Student Debt in ‘Serious Delinquency’ Tops $166 Billion

—Bloomberg

2/17/2019

And if that’s not enough, maybe Mitch McConnell can find some wall money at all those overfunded schools at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina

Face the Nation anchor Margaret Brennan, on Sunday: The president just declared a national emergency in regard to getting the funds for his border wall. In terms of getting those funds though through this emergency action and there’s about three point six billion of it that could come from military construction efforts, including construction of a middle school in Kentucky, housing for military families, improvements for bases like Camp Pendleton and Hanscom Air Force Base. Aren’t you concerned that some of these projects that were part of legislation that you helped approve and Congress are now going to possibly be cut out?

Senator Lindsey Graham: Well the president will have to make a decision where to get the money. Let’s just say for a moment that he took some money out of the military construction budget. I would say it’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border. We’ll get them the school they need. But right now we’ve got a national emergency on our hands.

Transcript: Sen. Lindsey Graham on "Face the Nation," February 17, 2019

—Face the Nation

2/17/2019

A record number of women running for president will provide a record number of chances to avoid sexism in how they and their campaigns are covered

“There is a narrow universe of acceptable behavior for women,” explained [media consultant] Heidi Moore[.]

In politics — as in so many other spheres — women get bashed far more than their male counterparts for personality quirks, vulnerabilities and actions of all sorts. Not to mention their appearance and speaking voices. Think of how far a female candidate would get if she came off like the rumpled and ranting Bernie Sanders.

“We see in coverage of women lawmakers that even minor flaws are treated as disqualifying,” Moore told me, “while men’s flaws get brief attention but are glossed over as a case of ‘nobody’s perfect.’ ” …

Society and journalism conspire, Moore noted, creating an unfair standard: “While men get to be flawed and human and complex, women are mostly allowed to audition only for pedestals, for sainthood, for absolute purity.”

So far, no one in this field looks like a candidate for sainthood. And if such a woman could be found, surely her unbearable piety would disqualify her immediately.

How sexist will the media’s treatment of female candidates be? Rule out ‘not at all.’

—Margaret Sullivan

Washington Post media columnist

2/17/2019

Be it business or politics, this emperor has never been wearing clothes

It was inevitable that Trump would refuse to be stymied by Congress, and that he would take a victory lap regardless of what happened in the real world. In that context, his border-wall machinations are only partially about appeasing conservative pundits or his political base; for the most part, they’re about appeasing his sense of himself. He’s been doing this sort of thing his entire life: Spinning victory yarns from incontrovertible losses was a hallmark of his troubled business career.

—Timothy L. O’Brien

Trump biographer, at Bloomberg, on the president's fake national emergency

2/17/2019

Trump’s DC hotel continues to be a monument to emolument

Former [Maine] Gov. Paul LePage and his staff members paid for more than 40 rooms at Washington, D.C.’s Trump International Hotel during a two-year period, spending at least $22,000 in Maine taxpayer money at a business owned by the president’s family.

Documents recently obtained by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram show that the LePage administration paid anywhere from $362 to more than $1,100 a night for rooms at the luxury hotel during trips to meet with President Trump or his inner circle, attend White House events or talk to members of Congress. Receipts from those dozen trips also show the Republican governor or his administration spending hundreds of dollars on filet mignon or other expensive menu items at the restaurant in the Trump hotel. Those expenditures are likely to draw additional scrutiny from attorneys who have cited LePage’s previously disclosed stays at the D.C. hotel in a federal lawsuit alleging the president is improperly profiting from the business.

The spending levels at the Trump hotel were so high that they were flagged by a worker in the state controller’s office, who sought guidance on state regulations for reimbursing such expenditures. …

While LePage stayed at multiple D.C.-area hotels during the two-year period, receipts and out-of-state travel authorization forms show the governor and senior staffers returned to Trump International again and again. And during most trips where they stayed at the Trump hotel, LePage or administration members expected to have some interaction with the president or his Cabinet.

Maine paid for 40 rooms at Trump hotel for LePage, staff

—The Portland Press-Herald

2/17/2019

Stephen Miller had a little trouble faking the national emergency on Fox News Sunday (thanks to some aggressive disbelief from a well-prepared Chris Wallace)

On this week’s Fox News Sunday, Wallace was all over Miller, challenging him to provide some explanation for how Trump’s national emergency is a national emergency, when Trump himself essentially admitted it wasn’t a national emergency. And when Miller tried to fend off the questions with talking points, Wallace peppered him with followups. But Miller had an especially tough time getting around one line of questioning.

Wallace began by schooling Miller on the U.S. Constitution, telling him “I know that you are a constitutional conservative, and you believe that the constitution should be interpreted as written,” then proceeding to read to him from the Constitution. “Article 1 section 9 clause 7 of The Constitution, as written, ‘No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law,’” he read.

“Isn’t what President Trump want to do a clear violation of what the founders, what James Madison talked about, was giving Congress the power of the purse?” Wallace asked.

Miller countered by citing the National Emergencies Act, which actually doesn’t overrule the constitution. Wallace interrupted him. “But let’s talk about national emergency, national emergencies have been declared 59 times since 1976 when the law was passed, the National Emergencies Act,” Wallace said. “Can you point to a single instance, even one, where the president asked Congress for money, Congress refused to give him that money, and the president then invoked national emergency powers to get the money?”

He couldn’t. Full video here.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace Repeatedly Nails Stephen Miller on National Emergency: ‘Answer My Question!’

—Mediaite

(coverage of Fox News Sunday)

2/17/2019

Mueller subpoenaed Cambridge Analytica director

A director of the controversial data company Cambridge Analytica, who appeared with Arron Banks at the launch of the Leave.EU campaign, has been subpoenaed by the US investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

A spokesman for Brittany Kaiser, former business development director for Cambridge Analytica – which collapsed after the Observer revealed details of its misuse of Facebook data – confirmed that she had been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller, and was cooperating fully with his investigation. He added that she was assisting other US congressional and legal investigations into the company’s activities and had voluntarily turned over documents and data.

Kaiser, who gave evidence to the UK parliament last April in which she claimed Cambridge Analytica had carried out in-depth work for Leave.EU, is the second individual connected to the firm subpoenaed by the special counsel. The Electoral Commission has said its investigation into Leave.EU found no evidence that the campaign “received donations or paid for services from Cambridge Analytica …beyond initial scoping work”.

Mueller questions Cambridge Analytica director Brittany Kaiser

—The Guardian

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