March 2, 2018

Kentucky's 'child bride' bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed

Source: Courier-Journal




Deborah Yetter, Louisville Courier Journal Published 4:08 p.m. ET March 1, 2018 | Updated 11:32 a.m. ET March 2, 2018

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill to make 18 the legal age for marriage in Kentucky has stalled in a Senate committee amid concerns about the rights of parents to allow children to wed at a younger age, according to several lawmakers.

Known as the "child bride" bill, Senate Bill 48 was pulled off the agenda just hours before a scheduled vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second time in two weeks.

"SO disappointed! My SB 48 (outlaw child marriage) won’t be called for a vote," sponsor Julie Raque Adams, a Louisville Republican, said in a Tweet early Thursday. "It is disgusting that lobbying organizations would embrace kids marrying adults. We see evidence of parents who are addicted, abusive, neglectful pushing their children into predatory arms. Appalling."

Eileen Recktenwald, the executive director of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, was more outspoken. "This is legalized rape of children," she said. "We cannot allow that to continue in Kentucky, and I cannot believe we are even debating this is the year 2018 in the United States."




Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/01/child-marriage-kentucky-brides-parents-rights/385489002/

March 2, 2018

Bridgegate defendants fight to stay out of jail

Source: NJ.com




Updated 11:48 AM; Posted 11:48 AM

By Ted Sherman tsherman@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The two former Christie administration officials convicted in the Bridgegate scandal are seeking a delay in the start of their prison terms.

Bill Baroni, who served as deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Anne Kelly, former Gov. Chris Christie's deputy chief of staff, were convicted in 2016 in connection with a scheme of political retribution involving the shutdown of several local access lanes to the toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge. Baroni was sentenced to 24 months in prison and Kelly, a single mother of four, received 18 months for fraud and conspiracy.

The two, who are both free on bail, are scheduled to voluntarily surrender to begin their sentences on April 2. But attorneys for both on Friday asked U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton for an extension because their appeals are still pending.

Wigenton has already previously extended their surrender date because on the ongoing appeal.


Read more: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/03/with_prison_looming_bridgegate_defendants_ask_to_r.html

March 2, 2018

Roy Moore says he's 'struggled to make ends meet,' raises $32,000

Updated 6:48 AM; Posted 6:48 AM

By Leada Gore lgore@al.com

Failed Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is asking supporters to donate to his legal defense fund in order that truth will "prevail against the unholy forces of evil."

In a message posted to Facebook, Moore indicated he'd raised $32,235 out of a goal of $250,000 for the fund, which was established to help the former Alabama chief justice fight a lawsuit filed by Leigh Corfman, one of the women who said Moore had sexual contact with her when she was a teenager. Corfman filed a defamation suit after the election, claiming Moore and his campaign defamed her by saying she was a liar and immoral.

Moore, who denies the allegations, has asked the judge to dismiss Corfman's suit over issues on where it was filed.

In his message, Moore said the legal defense funds is needed to fight "over $50 million dollars from Washington insiders who did not want me to bring the truth about God and our Constitution to Washington D. C."

"I have lawyers who want to help but they are not without cost and besides their fees, legal expenses could run over $100,000," Moore wrote to supporters. "The liberal media, in association with some who want to destroy our country do not want my influence in the 2018 elections and are doing everything they can to stop me.

more
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/03/roy_moore_says_hes_struggled_t.html

March 2, 2018

Kelly: 'We didn't cover ourselves in glory' over handling of Porter

Source: The Hill




BY JORDAN FABIAN - 03/02/18 01:11 PM EST

White House chief of staff John Kelly on Friday expressed remorse for how he handled the response to domestic abuse allegations against former top aide Rob Porter.

Kelly said he only knew about claims of emotional abuse and was unaware of accusations that Porter struck one of his ex-wives when he publicly praised Porter.

“We didn’t cover ourselves in glory in how we handled that,” Kelly told reporters at the White House.

The chief of staff said he engineered Porter’s exit once he learned about the physical-abuse allegations, which were backed up by a photo showing ex-wife Colbie Holderness with a black eye she claims Porter gave her.



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376465-kelly-we-didnt-cover-ourselves-in-glory-over-handling-of-porter

March 2, 2018

Hope Hicks Kept a Diary

March 1, 2018 at 10:46 pm EST By Taegan Goddard

A White House insider tells the Daily Mail that Hope Hicks has been secretly keeping what was described as a “detailed diary of her White House work, and her interactions with the president.”

Said the source: “Hope’s one of Donald Trump’s most loyal colleagues and friends. She’s not one to destroy that relationship. And she is certainly under some sort of nondisclosure agreement. Moreover, the various investigations by the special counsel and Congress could target her. So she has to be very careful about jumping into any deals.”

###

https://politicalwire.com/2018/03/01/hope-hicks-kept-diary/

March 2, 2018

Lester Holt to presidential debate commission on moderating again: 'Lose my number'

BY JOE CONCHA - 03/02/18 12:26 PM EST

NBC "Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt said Wednesday night he told a presidential debate commission to lose his number after moderating the first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in September 2016.

The revelations came during a Black History Month event at New York's Paley Center for media, where the 58-year-old Holt spoke with NBC News colleague Andrea Mitchell.

It was “incredibly gratifying to be a part of it," Holt said of the Sept. 26, 2016 debate from Hofstra University watched by more than 84 million people at home, the largest audience for any presidential debate in history. Holt said he still hasn't watched the record-setting-ratings event.

“I remember at the end of the evening, we had a little reception with our staff and I was leaving and one of the people from the debate commission said ‘great job, hope you see you in four years’ and I said ‘lose my number,'” Holt added.

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/376450-lester-holt-to-presidential-debate-commission-on-moderating-again-lose-my

March 2, 2018

Democrat reiterates doubts about Jared Kushner's loyalty to the U.S.

Source: Yahoo News




Michael Isikoff Chief Investigative Correspondent,Yahoo News•March 2, 2018

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said he was “absolutely” impugning Jared Kushner’s patriotism when he tweeted Wednesday that “we don’t know where his loyalties lie” — whether to America or “bailing out his and his family’s debts.”

“It’s one of the reasons he can’t get a high-level security clearance,” Lieu said in an interview on Yahoo News’ podcast, Skullduggery, when asked about his tweet questioning Kushner’s loyalty.

“He has a web of financial arrangements. He has mounting debts — both to himself and his family. He refuses to answer a very simple question from Congress. I wrote him a letter over two months ago, we asked him to answer this basic question: Did you talk to any foreign nationals about 666 Fifth Avenue [the family owned property that has been heavily in debt]?”

“And he can’t answer that simple question. What we have here is a person who is subject to blackmail risk — or he is doing his job with these conflicts of interest that are so massive that anybody who, but for [being] the son-in-law of the president, would have been fired long ago.”

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrat-reiterates-doubts-jared-kushners-loyalty-u-s-100050660.html

March 2, 2018

Chris Wallace: '"Game of Thrones" has nothing on this White House'

BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 03/02/18 12:30 PM EST

Fox News host Chris Wallace says President Trump’s West Wing has more drama than Westeros.

“‘Game of Thrones’ has nothing on this White House and this administration,” Wallace said on Friday.

His reference to the hit HBO drama came after a tumultuous week for Trump, including the resignation of communications director Hope Hicks, senior adviser Jared Kushner being stripped of his top-secret security clearance, and rumors about possible departures for chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

“What's clear to me in all of this is that the long knives are out for Jared Kushner," Wallace said.

more
http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/376448-chris-wallace-game-of-thrones-has-nothing-on-the-drama-coming

March 2, 2018

NYT: Trump asking John Kelly for help in pushing Ivanka, Kushner out of White House

Source: CNN




By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

Updated 11:06 AM ET, Fri March 2, 2018

Washington (CNN) - President Donald Trump is asking chief of staff John Kelly for help in pushing his daughter and son-in-law out of the White House, The New York Times reports.

The Times, citing two people familiar with Trump's views, said Trump has been frustrated with his son-in-law Kushner after his top secret security clearance was downgraded this week and a report came out that officials from four countries had discussed ways to manipulate him during their dealings on foreign policy. But Trump has told Kushner, who is a senior adviser, and his daughter Ivanka that they should remain in their roles, the Times reported.

Trump has vented at times that the couple should have never come to the White House and should leave, White House aides told the newspaper.

CNN has not independently confirmed the Times' report. A message left with the White House seeking comment Friday was not immediately returned.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/politics/trump-john-kelly-ivanka/index.html?CNNPolitics=Tw

March 2, 2018

Gun-related injuries decrease during NRA conventions, study finds

Source: The Hill




BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/02/18 11:58 AM EST

Gun-related injuries and deaths drop significantly during the National Rifle Association's (NRA) annual conference, according to a new analysis published by the The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study's authors, Anupam Jena of Harvard University and Andrew Olenski of Columbia University, used private health insurance data to compare the rates of firearms injuries during the convention to those three weeks before and three weeks after the gatherings. The analysis covers the period from 2007 until 2015.

What they found is that gun-related injuries decreased by an average of 63 percent in the states where conventions were being held, and a 20 percent reduction in gun-related injuries nationally during the conventions.

The analysis suggests that gun-related injuries drop when gun owners – even experienced ones – are put in a place where they might not be as likely to use firearms, such as the NRA convention.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/376441-gun-related-injuries-decrease-during-nra-conventions-study