August, 2019

The Russian military on Tuesday told residents of a village near a navy testing range to evacuate, but cancelled the order hours later, adding to the uncertainty and confusion fueled by a missile explosion last week that led to a brief spike in radiation that frightened residents and raised new questions about the military’s weapons program.

Initially the military told residents of Nyonoksa, a village of about 500, to move out temporarily, citing unspecified activities at the range. But a few hours later, it said the planned activities were cancelled and rescinded the request to leave, said Ksenia Yudina, a spokeswoman for the Severodvinsk regional administration.

The ominous and unusual warning was delivered as part of a brief filed Monday in a case related to a New York City gun law. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., referenced rulings by the court's conservative majority in claiming it is suffering from some sort of affliction which must be remedied. "The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it," the brief said. "Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.'" The last part was quoting language from a Quinnipiac University poll, in which 51 percent favored such restructuring. In the same poll, 55 percent believed the Supreme Court was "motivated by politics" more than by the law.

Local law enforcement responded around 3 a.m. CT Tuesday to shots fired at the ICE field office located north of Interstate 410 near Brookhaven Drive. Police told News 4 the man is believed to have fired the shots from across the highway into the windows of the building. The building does not have bulletproof windows, and at least one shot penetrated a window. "They have a 24/7 command center in there so there were people in the building," a former senior ICE official who spoke with an official based at the office told the Washington Examiner.

If you had "Tom Steyer manipulates the DNC's small donor incentives to become the dark horse to make the September debate stage" on your 2019 bingo card, get ready to collect your winnings. After spending more than $7 million on ads, the billionaire has managed to buy — I mean earn — the 130,000 unique donor threshold and meet the requirement for the September Democratic presidential debate stage. Steyer, who entered the race late with the promise of committing $100 million of his own money to his campaign, needs just one more qualifying poll to secure his position... the DNC enacted the unique donor qualification to keep a candidate from buying their way onto the debate stage, yet Steyer did just that, asking for $1 donations that probably caused him to lose money with every transaction... Even better yet, you don't just have to see Steyer on September's stage. Assuming he gets the final poll he requires, the DNC rules dictate that he'll qualify for the October debates too.

The nine-count Indictment, returned on August 6 and unsealed yesterday, named Danielle Strother-Rush, 32, of Pittsburgh, PA as the sole defendant. According to the Indictment presented to the court, from approximately August 2014 until August 2016, Strother-Rush committed bank fraud and mail fraud in order to embezzle funds from her employer, Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council, which is a nonprofit organization that assists with creating business opportunities for minority-owned supply companies. The Indictment further alleges that the total amount embezzled was approximately $321,000.

Trump told reporters "We're doing this for the Christmas season," "Just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers."

The United States Trade Representative office said Tuesday that new tariffs on certain consumer items would be delayed until Dec. 15, while other products were being removed from the new China tariff list altogether. It cited health and security factors. The duties had been set to go into effect on Sept. 1, so the announcement eased concerns about the holiday shopping season.

New photos have emerged showing the fresh-faced 17-year-old wearing a crop top and shiny pants alongside Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime girlfriend who allegedly recruited Giuffre as the financier’s sex slave... A rep for Campbell denied she was friends with Epstein and said he had been invited to the party by Briatore, The Sun reported.

Sprecher, 65, was picked up by the feds around 6 a.m. at his home on West 122nd Street in Morningside Heights, which agents were searching, the sources said. The case was brought by Homeland Security Investigations in conjunction with the NYPD...

15 defendants are in custody after a DEA operation led to several arrests this morning as part of a federal drug investigation. Operation Mad Hatter has resulted in the identification of several drug traffickers and the seizure of large quantities of cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and heroin.
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During the course of Operation Mad Hatter, investigators have seized 17 kilograms of methamphetamine, 4 kilograms of cocaine, 249 grams of crack cocaine, over 1 kilogram of heroin, over 200 diverted prescription pills, over $107,000 in assets, and numerous firearms...

The move comes a day after Attorney General William P. Barr decried what he called a “failure” by officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan to secure the multimillionaire sex offender. In leveling his criticism, Barr cited unspecified “irregularities” at the facility. On Tuesday, Barr “directed the Bureau of Prisons to temporarily assign” warden Lamine N’Diaye to a regional office, pending the outcome of internal investigations into Epstein’s death, the Justice Department said in a statement. Two staffers who were assigned to Epstein’s unit at the time of his death were placed on administrative leave, the department said.

That is similar to the proportion Trump raised during the 2016 election cycle, when 65 percent of donations were under $200. And this is dramatically higher than previous Republican nominees. Mitt Romney raised 26 percent of his direct contributions from small donations in 2012, and John McCain raised 25 percent from small donations in 2008. Campaign finance analysts say the data indicates grassroots enthusiasm for Trump's populist message.

Our Intelligence has informed us that the Chinese Government is moving troops to the Border with Hong Kong. Everyone should be calm and safe!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2019

"The Hong Kong thing is a very tough situation, very tough. We'll what see what happens. But I'm sure it'll work out. I hope it works out for everybody, including China, by the way," President Trump told reporters prior to boarding Air Force One and before issuing the tweet.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Mr. Craig’s criminal trial for making false statements to investigators to resume Wednesday, restarting the jury selection process from scratch. Mr. Craig’s attorneys raised concerns about Judge Jackson shielding the jury selection process Monday from the public and and press. She had ordered the courtroom closed while prosecutors and the defense questioned potential jurors. On Tuesday, defense attorney William Murphy said secretive process may have violated Mr. Craig’s constitutional right to a public trial.

Two French government ministers called on Monday for an investigation into the activities in France of Jeffrey Epstein, the US financier found dead in an apparent suicide while being held on sex-trafficking charges... "The American investigation has highlighted ties with France. It therefore seems fundamental to us, and for the victims, that an investigation should be opened in France so that all the light is shed on this matter," France’s Gender Equality Minister Marlène Schiappa said in a joint statement with the child welfare minister, Adrien Taquet. “Epstein’s death must not deny his victims the justice they are entitled to,” the ministers added, noting that an investigation would help ensure young women are given better protection in future.

Researchers believe dark matter makes up about 80% of the universe's mass, but its origins and composition remain among the most elusive mysteries in modern physics.
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Using a new, simple mathematical framework, the study shows that dark matter may have been produced before the big bang during an era known as the cosmic inflation when space was expanding very rapidly. The rapid expansion is believed to lead to copious production of certain types of particles called scalars. So far, only one scalar particle has been discovered, the famous Higgs boson.

"We do not know what dark matter is, but if it has anything to do with any scalar particles, it may be older than the big bang," Tenkanen explains. "With the proposed mathematical scenario, we don't have to assume new types of interactions between visible and dark matter beyond gravity, which we already know is there."...