Keystone XL builders can use non-U.S. steel, White House says now

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone-steel-idUSKBN16A2FC

The Keystone XL oil pipeline does not need to be made from U.S. steel, despite an executive order by President Donald Trump days after he took office requiring domestic steel in new pipelines, the White House said on Friday.

"It's specific to new pipelines or those that are being repaired," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One, when asked about a report by Politico that Keystone would not need to use U.S. steel, despite Trump's order issued on Jan. 24.

"Since this one is already currently under construction, the steel is already literally sitting there, it's hard to go back. Everything moving forward would fall under that executive order," Sanders said. The southern leg of Keystone is completed and started pumping oil in 2013. Some pipe segments that could be used for Keystone XL, which would bring oil from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, have already been built.

Former Democratic president Barack Obama rejected TranCanada Corp's (TRP.TO) multibillion-dollar pipeline, saying it would not benefit U.S. drivers and would contribute emissions linked to global warming.

Missouri Republican tries to block minimum wage hike because pay ‘wasn’t meant to be a living wage’



http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/missouri-republican-tries-to-block-minimum-wage-hike-because-pay-wasnt-meant-to-be-a-living-wage/

A Missouri Republican introduced legislation that would stop Kansas City from enacting a higher minimum wage — because he said workers weren’t meant to live on those wages.

Rep. Dan Shaul (R-Jefferson City) wants the statehouse to quickly pass his bill that would prohibit cities and counties from paying a higher minimum wage than what is set by state law, reported the Kansas City Star.

The bill contains an emergency clause that would allow it to go into effect as soon as the governor signs it, and the newspaper reported Shaul’s bill is moving quickly through the legislative process.

“The minimum wage wasn’t meant to be a living wage,” Shaul told the Star. “I’m all for family sustainable wages, and I certainly don’t want a family to have to work two or three jobs to get by. But grocery store baggers and fast food work isn’t where you should be working to sustain your family.”

Mexico’s former president Vicente Fox has issued some stern words of warning to President Donald Trump.

“Don’t mess around with us Señor Trump, because if you look for it, you’re going to find it,” he said on a special Mexico edition of Conan O’Brien’s late night show that aired Wednesday.

Fox arrived for the interview bearing a gift of cowboy boots for O’Brien, after earlier trolling Trump on Twitter during his first major speech to congress Tuesday.

The shoes were inscribed with the words “No Fucking Wall” — in reference to his oft-repeated statement that Mexico would not pay for Trump’s proposed southern border barrier.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vicente-fox-donald-trump-conan-obrien_us_58b7f5f0e4b0a8ded67a74f7

“Al Franken had a tortured, circuitous question,” said Brian Kilmeade.

“It was a very long question,” Steve Doocy agreed.

Kilmeade continued by saying that “there’s an excellent chance that [Sessions] didn’t even — because nothing happened significantly — he didn’t even remember about the Heritage Foundation incident or this ambassador came through.”

Doocy later reiterated, “Well, it was — to his credit, it was a crazy question, a very long question.”

“He certainly did not perjure himself,” Doocy said. “Everybody agrees on that. But nonetheless, the Democrats are saying, ‘OK, he’s got to recuse himself. Oh, he did that? All right. Now he’s got to resign.’ He is not going to resign over this.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/fox-friends-sessions-didnt-perjure-himself-he-didnt-understand-frankens-crazy-question/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-white-house-sessions-russia_us_58b8a681e4b05cf0f3ff38b1?pr6ldswrvfgca0pb9&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

The attorney general’s relationship with Trump goes back further than the one he had with Flynn, who endorsed Trump in 2015. In 2014, Trump donated $2,000 to Sessions’ Senate re-election campaign, even though the senator was unopposed. And when Trump began running for president, it was the Alabama Republican who served as a sounding board. Trump decamped to Sessions’ Senate office after attending an anti-Iran nuclear deal rally on Capitol Hill last summer. And he plucked Sessions’ top communications aide, Stephen Miller, to develop policy and write speeches.

When Sessions formally became the first sitting senator to back Trump in early 2016, he earned a spot in the soon-to-be nominee’s inner circle. His standing to ask for and receive the Cabinet job he wanted was likely cemented in the autumn, in the aftermath of a leaked “Access Hollywood” tape that sent many Republicans fleeing from the top of their ticket

Sessions, a former U.S. attorney and Alabama attorney general, in contrast went so far as to opine that what Trump bragged about on the tape – grabbing a woman by the genitals – would not be sexual assault. “I don’t characterize that as sexual assault. I think that’s a stretch,” Sessions said in October.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another early Trump backer, called Trump’s recorded boasts “completely indefensible” and said he would not even try to do so. Like Sessions, Christie coveted the attorney general job. Unlike Sessions, he didn’t get it..