Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday attempted to distance herself from the controversial 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. During her tenure as U.S. secretary of state, Clinton publicly promoted the pact 45 separate times -- but with her Democratic presidential rivals making opposition to the deal a centerpiece of their campaigns, Clinton now asserts she was never involved in the initiative.

"I did not work on TPP," she said after a meeting with leaders of labor unions who oppose the pact. "I advocated for a multinational trade agreement that would 'be the gold standard.' But that was the responsibility of the United States Trade Representative."

But at a congressional hearing in 2011, Clinton told lawmakers that "with respect to the TPP, although the State Department does not have the lead on this -- it is the United States Trade Representative -- we work closely with the USTR." Additionally, State Department cables reviewed by International Business Times show that her agency -- including her top aides -- were deeply involved in the diplomatic deliberations over the trade deal. The cables from 2009 and 2010, which were among a trove of documents disclosed by the website WikiLeaks, also show that the Clinton-run State Department advised the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on how to negotiate the deal with foreign government officials.

In recent months, labor, environmental, public health and consumer advocacy groups have campaigned against the TPP, saying the pact is a stealth attempt by corporations to tilt the rules of international commerce in their favor. They have specifically criticized provisions in the deal -- which are secret but have periodically leaked -- that they say would empower corporations to use international tribunals to attempt to overturn public interest laws. The groups represent many core Democratic Party constituencies that Clinton has been courting in her White House bid, which explains why in the lead-up to the party's primary she has suddenly depicted herself as a critic of the deal. But the cables show that the Clinton-run State Department was indeed a major player in pushing the initiative.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren publicly challenged presidential candidates two weeks ago to support a bill intended to limit the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street.

The Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act would prohibit government officials from accepting “golden parachutes” from their former employers for entering public service.

Within days, Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley endorsed the legislation, and Sen. Bernie Sanders became a co-sponsor. But presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has not said where she stands.

One possible explanation for Clinton’s lack of interest in banning golden parachutes is that she tolerated them when she ran the State Department — for two of her top aides. Robert Hormats and Thomas Nides previously worked as executives for financial firms Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, respectively. Both received benefits tied to their Wall Street employment contracts for entering public service.
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Does Clinton support or oppose the Keystone XL oil pipeline? Or Arctic offshore drilling? Or tougher restrictions on fracking? Or the oil industry’s push to lift the 1970s ban on exporting U.S. crude oil? Clinton avoided all those questions in the solar-heavy climate plan she outlined Sunday night and in her speech promoting it Monday in Iowa — and she declined yet again Monday to say where she stands on Keystone.
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“Clinton’s climate plan is remarkable for what it doesn’t say, yet,” California-based environmental activist R.L. Miller, who founded the Climate Hawks Vote PAC, said in a statement. Specifically, she added, Clinton offered “no effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground, no price on carbon; no word on Keystone XL, Arctic oil or other carbon bombs; no word on fracking.”
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At the core of the tension is climate activists’ insistence that the next president go beyond defending Obama’s main approach to global warming — a series of EPA regulations that will throttle carbon emissions from major pollution sources such as power plants. Instead, they want Obama’s successor to commit to reining in an oil and gas industry that has turned the U.S. into one of the world’s top fuel exporters.

Anti-fossil fuel campaign group Oil Change International’s campaigns director, David Turnbull, warned that greens are looking for a candidate with a plan to keep oil and gas locked up, not just expand wind and solar projects.

“Any coherent climate policy needs to address not just our urgent need to continue scaling up renewable energy but also the reality that fossil fuel production needs to be swiftly curtailed as well,” he said.
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Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said Tuesday he's seeking the Democratic nomination to keep the question of the Iraq War alive, one which implicitly haunts Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Democrats need to point out that the problems with ISIS and other instability in the Middle East started with the Iraq War and should not be afraid to tag Republicans on the issue, Chafee, who was a senator at that time of the vote in 2002, said during a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast in Washington.

"They were the ones who invaded Iraq and created all the problems," said Chafee, who was a Republican at the time and the only Republican senator to vote against the war. "Just politically speaking, it's important for the Democrat Party to say that's a Republican mistake that we now have to fix."

Clinton voted in favor of the Iraq War in 2002, as did the 2004 Democratic nominee then-Sen. John Kerry. At the time, the war was very popular, but public opinion shifted greatly between then and 2006. Clinton has said since then that the Iraq vote was a mistake
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A Medford police detective has been placed on administrative leave after he was caught on video threatening to “blow a hole through your f---ing head” while pulling over a driver who drove the wrong way at a traffic circle.

Medford Police Chief Leo Sacco confirmed to Boston.com that the man in the video was Medford Police Detective Stephen Lebert.

“He’s a 30-year member of the department and works in our detective division,” Sacco said. “He’s a very effective police officer but last night’s incident that’s on video, at least that portion of the video that I saw, is troubling to say the least.”

Recorded using a dashboard camera, the video was posted by user “basedboston,” who spoke to Boston.com by phone on Monday. Mike, 25, a software developer who lives in Malden, Mass., said he wasn’t comfortable providing his last name. The traffic stop happened on Sunday night when he got lost and accidentally drove the wrong way down an unfamiliar one-way street at a traffic circle in Medford, Mike said.

One dazzling London home is not enough for Michael Bloomberg.



The baroque-style mansion dates back to 1715 and was once home of novelist Mary Ann Evans, better known under her pen name, George Eliot.



It’s not Bloomberg’s first London home — the finance mogul also owns a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in the pricey Cadogan Square area of Knightsbridge.



The billionaire former New York mayor has snagged a $26 million mansion in the British capital, according to reports.



Bloomberg beat out several other bidders and paid more than $1.5 million over the asking price to secure the property, which overlooks the River Thames on posh Cheyne Walk in the Chelsea neighborhood.





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