Exclusive: Siblings allegedly held captive said to experience freedom for 1st time

Source: ABC News

After what is described as a lifetime of imprisonment in a cramped, squalid home near Riverside, California, seven of the 13 siblings who were allegedly held captive by their parents got their first taste of freedom last week, ABC News has exclusively learned.

The newly freed siblings -- who are now adults -- were discretely whisked away Thursday from the Corona Regional Medical Center, where they had been nursed back to health after police rescued them in January. After being described as on the brink of starvation, the survivors were taught the basics about a world police say they never quite experienced.

But now, the young adults, ages 18 to 29, were taken by their attorney and public guardian from the carefully controlled ward of the hospital to an undisclosed rural house they now call home.

ABC News has interviewed several people who’ve spent time with the siblings -- whose lives until recently had been lived in near-complete isolation. Their native intelligence, coupled with their naiveté and complete lack of guile, makes them utterly charming, say those who’ve interacted with them.

Kelly taps Kushner ally Chris Liddell as deputy chief for policy

Source: Politico

White House chief of staff John Kelly has tapped Chris Liddell, a senior White House aide and former executive at Microsoft and General Motors, as his deputy.

Liddell, who currently serves as the White House’s director of strategic initiatives, will be named deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, filling out Kelly’s bare-bones team.

“Chris is widely respected across the administration and is highly qualified to oversee and coordinate our policy process,” Kelly said. “We look forward to having him in this new role.”

As of Monday, Kelly was down to just one deputy: Joe Hagin, who focuses on the day-to-day operations of the West Wing. Rick Dearborn, the deputy chief of staff for legislative and intergovernmental affairs, departed the White House on Friday.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/19/kelly-to-tap-kushner-ally-chris-liddell-as-deputy-chief-for-policy-470654

Clinton Apologizes For Critique Of Trump Voters

Source: TPM

Hillary Clinton on Saturday apologized for comments she made earlier this month when she claimed that states that supported her during the election were more wealthy than those who supported President Donald Trump.

In a lengthy Facebook post Saturday, Clinton clarified the intention of her remarks, that cities that do better economically “typically lean Democrat and and places where there is less optimism about the future lean Republican.”

“That doesn’t mean the coasts versus the heartland, it doesn’t even mean entire states,” she wrote. “In fact, it more often captures the divisions between more dynamic urban areas and less prosperous small towns within states. As I said throughout the campaign, Trump’s message was dark and backwards looking.”

She claimed that she meant for her “backwards” comments to reference his policy stances, not be reflective of the people or places that went for Trump.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-apologizes-critique-trump-voters

Kroger stops selling magazines featuring assault rifles

Source: USA Today

Kroger said it will stop selling magazines that feature assault rifles as part of a tightening of its policies in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting and growing national anger over gun violence.

The Cincinnati-based supermarket retailer said the new policy is being phased in now across its national chain. Kroger didn't name specific titles, but periodicals that have featured assault weapons include: Guns & Ammo, Tactical Life and Recoil.

“We regularly review the company’s assortment of periodicals and make merchandising decisions based on customer preferences,” said Kroger spokeswoman Kristal Howard.

Kroger officials said the latest decision dovetails with the retailer's move a few weeks ago to raise the minimum age to buy guns from its Fred Meyer chain from 18 to 21.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/retail/2018/03/19/kroger-stops-selling-magazines-featuring-assault-rifles/437289002/

Trump Organization's real estate partner in India accused of $147 million fraud

Source: The Washington Post

NEW DELHI — A real estate investment company that partnered with the Trump Organization on an office tower project in India has been accused of defrauding its foreign investors of at least $147 million, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Two global investment companies based in New York and London that have invested nearly $300 million in the Indian real estate development company IREO filed a criminal complaint with New Delhi police last month alleging that the fund’s Indian managing director, Lalit Goyal, co-founder Anurag Bhargava and others engaged in “large-scale fraud” by “illegally siphoning off” at least $147 million of investor money, although the actual sum could approach $200 million, they allege. Police in New Delhi said they have received the complaint but declined to discuss the matter further.

The two firms are the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a charity of the British billionaire Christopher Hohn, knighted for his philanthropic work in 2014, and Axon Partners, an equity firm run by former Goldman Sachs executive Dinakar Singh.

Both firms declined to comment.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/trump-organizations-real-estate-partner-in-india-accused-of-147-million-fraud/2018/03/18/0d7ef1fa-1c0e-11e8-98f5-ceecfa8741b6_story.html?tid=ss_tw-amp

Freedom!

Wow... U of M basketball:

Philippine leader calls for abandoning Int'l Criminal Court

Source: ABC News/AP

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte asked governments on Sunday to abandon the International Criminal Court, saying the world tribunal — where he is facing a possible complaint for the thousands of killings of drug suspects under his crackdown — is "rude."

Although the Philippine Senate has ratified the Rome Statute that established the ICC, Duterte said in a speech that the treaty was never enforced in the country because it was not published in the government journal, the official gazette, as required by law.

Due to what he said was that flaw, Duterte said the international court can never have jurisdiction over him, "not in a million years."

Last month, an ICC prosecutor announced she was opening a preliminary examination into a complaint by a Filipino lawyer of suspected extrajudicial killings under Duterte's anti-drug campaign, which could amount to crimes against humanity.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/duterte-calls-abandoning-international-criminal-court-53830784?cid=social_twitter_abcn

AP Exclusive: Kushner Cos. filed false documents with NYC

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — When the Kushner Cos. bought three apartment buildings in a gentrifying neighborhood of Queens in 2015, most of the tenants were protected by special rules that prevent developers from pushing them out, raising rents and turning a tidy profit.

But that’s exactly what the company then run by Jared Kushner did, and with remarkable speed. Two years later, it sold all three buildings for $60 million, nearly 50 percent more than it paid.

Now a clue has emerged as to how President Donald Trump’s son-in-law’s firm was able to move so fast: The Kushner Cos. routinely filed false paperwork with the city declaring it had zero rent-regulated tenants in dozens of buildings it owned across the city when, in fact, it had hundreds.

While none of the documents during a three-year period when Kushner was CEO bore his personal signature, they provide a window into the ethics of the business empire he ran before he went on to become one of the most trusted advisers to the president of the United States.

Read more: https://apnews.com/002703e70347481cb993027d04f543cc?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics

The morning Twit tweets have begun: