January, 2019

Asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if people who like their current health care insurance could keep it under Harris' "Medicare for All" plan, Harris indicated they could not -- but that, in turn, they would experience health care without any delays.
[...]
"Well, listen, the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care. And you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require," Harris told Tapper.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told reporters in Washington that a 13-count indictment had been unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, charging Huawei as a company, and its chief financial officer, Wanzhou Meng, with money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Huawei also was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

National Security Adviser John Bolton and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin join Spokesperson Sarah Sanders in the White House Briefing Room to announce new sanctions against the Venezuelan oil sector. Larry Kudlow also speaks about the U.S. economy.

A gun-wielding good Samaritan brought a harrowing road rage incident to a safe end, reportedly stopping a driver who'd been racing through Massachusetts -- with a 65-year-old man clinging to the hood of his SUV.

An unidentified person ordered Mark Fitzgerald, 37, at gunpoint out of his SUV, allowing Richard Kamrowski to climb down from the car unscathed, police said

It can beam tones, music and speech to someone's ear from a distance.

Researchers from MIT have discovered a way to send highly targeted audio signals directly to someone's ear at a distance using laser beams. The system works using the "photoacoustic" effect, where water vapor in the air absorbs light, forming sound waves. The research may pave the way to systems that allow audible messages to be transmitted to spies or other agents, warning them of impending danger like an active shooter.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers Juarez-Lincoln Bridge recently seized nearly $1 million in unreported currency hidden within a passenger vehicle during an outbound examination.
[...]
The seizure occurred on Friday, Jan. 25 at Juarez-Lincoln Bridge when a CBP officer conducting outbound examinations selected a 2010 Nissan Maxima driven by a 20-year-old female U.S. citizen for examination. After initial inspection utilizing a non-intrusive imaging systems scan, CBP officers conducted an intensive physical examination and discovered 53 bundles containing a total of $988,550 in unreported currency hidden within the vehicle.

A bakery owner in Washington state apologized after sparking controversy over a "Build that Wall" Valentine’s Day cookie.

Edmonds Bakery owner Ken Bellingham told NBC-affiliate King 5 News that the cookie was supposed to be a light-hearted joke and not a political statement.

Grab the popcorn, folks! We’re only gettin’ started...

• A federal court is keeping documents justifying an FBI raid on a reportedly recognized whistleblower secret.
• Attorneys and whistleblower advocates say the court should disclose whether prosecutors told the judge that Dennis Cain was a whistleblower.
• Cain reportedly gave documents pertaining to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to a presidentially appointed watchdog before the raid.

NBC News veteran Tom Brokaw said Hispanics need to make an effort to assimilate on Sunday's broadcast of NBC's 'Meet the Press' with host Chuck Todd.

"I feel terrible a part of my comments on Hispanics offended some members of that proud culture," Brokaw tweeted.

On Jan. 24, Border Patrol agents from the Carrizo Springs Station arrested a 53-year-old Mexican national for illegal entry into the United States. Records checks revealed he was convicted in 2012 for child molestation in Decatur, Illinois. The man served five years of a 10-year sentence and was removed from the United States in April 2017.

On Jan. 27, Border Patrol agents from the Brackettville Station arrested a 48-year-old Mexican national for illegal entry into the United States. Records checks revealed he was arrested and convicted in 1996 of rape in La Grange, Kentucky. The man served two years of a five-year sentence and was removed from the United States in September 1998.

According to Italian newspaper Il Giornale, the Italian secret services are warning of the possibility of people-smugglers purposely causing a disaster at sea in order to garner sympathy from the West and resume the flow of migration.

Such a move could be a repeat of other major humanitarian disasters such as a shipwreck which killed around 700 migrants on April 18th, 2015, and led to the commencement of Operation Sophia and an outpouring of support for migrant ferry NGOs operating in the Mediterranean Sea.

According to some of the few migrants who survived the incident, people-smugglers had forced the migrants to set sail knowing full well that the weather had been gale force winds, leading some to speculate the disaster was sought or even caused on purpose by the smugglers.

An ethics complaint against former Tallahassee mayor and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum is moving forward after state officials found probable cause on five of six counts that Gillum violated ethics laws by allegedly accepting gifts during trips with lobbyists in 2016.

Though records in the case have not yet been made public by the state Commission on Ethics, Gillum’s lawyer Barry Richard said Friday after the closed-door hearing at the First District Court of Appeal that the case would next go before an administrative law judge, likely in the next 45 to 60 days.

The drugs are 100 times cheaper to produce when laid than when manufactured in factories. The researchers believe that in time production can be scaled up to produce medicines in commercial quantities.
[...]
The biggest saving comes from the fact that chicken sheds are far cheaper to build and run than highly sterile clean rooms for factory production.

A new legislative bill aimed at preserving Florida’s status as a pioneering state for autonomous vehicle development would eliminate requirements that human operators always be on hand to take control of fully autonomous cars while in turn legalizing driverless vehicles fully run by software systems.

The proposed law by Duval County state Rep. Jason Fischer would establish that “a licensed human operator is not required to operate a fully autonomous vehicle.” Eliminating the human safety net would be a significant show of confidence for a technology that some experts caution still isn’t ready for everyday use.

Tariffs on the “dumping” of Steel in the United States have totally revived our Steel Industry. New and expanded plants are happening all over the U.S. We have not only saved this important industry, but created many jobs. Also, billions paid to our treasury. A BIG WIN FOR U.S.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2019

For when your friends and twitter enemies say "name one, liar" here are two examples:
Link 1: Mississippi
Link 2: Illinois

Then show them this:

Source.

BuzzFeed has responded to the Medium open letter. Note that everyone got a minimum of 10-weeks severance.

BuzzFeed management responded internally tonight to the Medium open letter signed by 350 employees demanding that the company pay out earned time off: “We are open to re-evaluating this decision...” pic.twitter.com/llci0v08Bi

— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) January 28, 2019

Lacking the manpower and sophisticated technology necessary to monitor more than 250,000 miles of power lines across the state, regulators rely on something of an honor system, with utilities responsible for ensuring all trees and vegetation are cut back far enough from electrical equipment before the onset of dry, high-fire danger conditions.
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Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility providing electricity from Eureka to Bakersfield, reported 1,552 equipment-related fires from June 2014 through the end of 2017. Southern California Edison, the electricity supplier for 15 million people mostly south of Fresno County, reported 347 fires in that time. Serving a 4,100-square-mile area from San Clemente to the Mexican border, San Diego Gas & Electric disclosed 115 fires in the time period.