We'll get to the new polling in a moment, but first, some context: I realize that the commentariat has been speculating for many months about the Mueller probe finally "wrapping up," including repeated assertions from the president's team that the investigation was nearly over. At last, it appears as though such conjecture is actually accurate. A few weeks ago, various news sources reported that the report was being prepared, with other bread crumbs seeming to confirm that Mueller and team were in their home stretch. A new detail that emerged last week about one of the Special Counsel's top deputies making arrangements to re-enter the 'normal' workforce:
Special counsel Robert Mueller's top deputy is leaving his post, adding to speculation that Mueller's office is winding down its work. Deputy special counsel Andrew Weissmann, who oversaw Mueller's high-profile case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is expected to leave the office soon, Mueller spokesman Peter Carr confirmed. "Andrew Weissmann will be concluding his detail to the Special Counsel's Office in the near future,” he said in an email, declining to comment further. Weissmann is expected to take a teaching post at New York University this fall...
We're still quite a distance from the fall, but if major aspects of the probe were still active, it's unlikely that a top official would be making plans to teach later this year. On the other hand, it's also conceivable that because the Manafort angle has been exhausted, perhaps Mueller has given Weissmann permission to depart, now that the area of his focus is wrapped up. Conceivable, but unlikely, in my view; Mueller would probably want to keep his core team together so long as any major avenues of exploration were still underway. Meanwhile, amid speculation that the public may not get to see the bulk of Mueller's findings, the House unanimously passed a resolution last week expressing the legislative body's will on that issue:
A Reuters journalist struck a deal to shelve a scoop that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke once belonged to a notorious hacker collective "until after his Senate race against Ted Cruz in November 2018."
On Friday morning, the day after O'Rourke announced his bid for the White House in 2020, Reuters' Joseph Menn finally dropped his scoop revealing that O'Rourke belonged to the "Cult of the Dead Cow" (CDC) hacker group as a teenager, where it was revealed that he went under the handle "Psychedelic Warlord."
In a "backstory" article late Friday, Menn explained that he struck a deal with the CDC to withhold O'Rourke's involvement in the group "until after the November election" in 2018 - after which the group would confirm O'Rourke's involvement, a secret they had kept for decades.
Delaware – The Delaware State Police and the Delaware Office of Highway Safety (OHS) have joined forces to address the issue of distracted driving by conducting a series of statewide enforcement initiatives utilizing unconventional vehicles.
The last of four initiatives was conducted in Sussex County on Saturday, March 16, 2019, during the mid-afternoon time frame. The area targeted during this initiative was secondary roadways in the Lewes area. During this operation, Troopers utilized a stationary unconventional vehicle to spot distracted driving violations as well as seatbelt violations.
Once a violation was observed, the Troopers were provided with a description of the vehicle and operator, along with a detailed description of the violation. The Troopers then conducted a traffic stop. During the four hour initiative, a total of 19 citations were issued for infractions including cell phone usage, seatbelt and child restraint violations and a civil possession of marijuana.
(PIKESVILLE, Md.) – Maryland State Police arrested close to 100 people for driving while impaired and issued close to 1,000 speeding citations over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.
From March 16 to 18, troopers arrested 89 people for driving under the influence, issued 999 speeding citations, 3,039 additional citations and 3,933 warnings and conducted 5,843 traffic stops. State police also investigated 141 crashes, including three that were fatal, and answered 5,189 calls for service over that span.
This effort was due in part to saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints conducted throughout the state police’s 23 barracks. The additional enforcement over the weekend was bolstered by impaired driving saturation patrol funds from the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Office.
The State Police Impaired Driving Reduction Effort Team, otherwise known as the SPIDRE team, also assisted in the effort over the weekend. From March 13 to 17, the SPIDRE team made 10 DUI arrests. Since its inception in May 2013, the SPIDRE team has recorded 2,940 DUI arrests, 137 criminal arrests and 8,955 traffic stops while also issuing 19,808 citations and 4,417 warnings. The goal of the SPIDRE team is to focus on reducing alcohol related crashes in Maryland by targeting areas across the state with high crash rates involving impaired drivers.
According to the Maryland Department of Transportation, 558 people died on Maryland’s roads and roughly one-third of those involved impaired driving in 2017. Impaired drivers injured 3,200 in 2017. All of these deaths and injuries were preventable.
Jack the Ripper has sensationally been revealed as a 23-year-old Polish barber after fresh DNA tests were taken from a blood-stained shawl.
Aaron Kosminski was the notorious serial killer who hunted on the streets of Victorian London, according to scientists.
New evidence finds that two sets of DNA traces on the clothing matches that of both Kosminski and one of his murdered victims Catherine Eddowes.
The Polish immigrant lived with his two brothers and a sister in Greenfield Street, just 200 yards from where his third victim, Elizabeth Stride, was killed.
The identity was confirmed by researchers from Liverpool John Moores University who shared their findings in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. More
Today, a sitting State’s Attorney will go on trial in a case of vital interest to the public: Can the government retaliate against those who have differing political opinions?
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is slated to stand trial in a civil case, Borzilleri v. Mosby, in Baltimore Circuit Court in front of Judge Gregory Sampson. The case stems from a lawsuit by a line prosecutor who was fired for supporting Mosby’s political opponent. The case was initially brought in federal court, and the line prosecutor lost, but it was brought again on new grounds in state court, and a judge said it should proceed.
Maryland law allows for civil proceedings to be recorded/broadcast by the media, under Rule 16-603-607. Only criminal proceedings are expressly barred from broadcast. Appellate court proceedings have been live streamed by the courts for years. The court first denied Baltimore Sun access last week by the judiciary spokespeople in Annapolis, then by Judge Shannon Avery again on Friday afternoon.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), even as its so-called caliphate continues to crumble, disseminated a new propaganda film this week urging the jihadi remnants in the group’s last sliver of land in Syria not to worry about their possible demise because they will end up in “paradise” while their enemies will go to “hell.”
“Tomorrow, God willing, we will be in paradise and they will be burning in hell,” an ISIS militant identified as Abu Abd al-Azeem in the video said, Reuters reported Wednesday as the fighting continued.
Al-Azeem later argued that all ISIS wanted to do is apply God’s law in the form of sharia, a strict set of Islamic rules accused of undermining women’s rights.
When you’re making choices as a parent concerning your children and your family, it’s easy to choose whatever is most comfortable and convenient in the moment. But a friend of mine once gave me a much better criterion for making these decisions — asking yourself: “What pattern do I want to set for my family?”
Let me give you a couple of examples of how we’ve used this advice.
Have you ever been camping with small children? It’s a hassle and a half. There’s the packing and unpacking. The fact that little kids can’t do all that much that makes this form of recreation enjoyable (can’t hike very far, swim, bait their own fishing hook, etc.). And the fact that they roll around in the tent and make what is already an unpleasant night’s sleep more unpleasant. The trip is a blast for them, but for Mom and Dad? It’s more work than fun. But, we’ve nevertheless tried to go camping at least once a year, even when the kids were young, just to set this pattern from the start: “The McKays spend time in the outdoors.”
A DNA breakthrough has led to the arrest of a man in the cold case murders of two Alabama teens 20 years ago.
Coley McCraney, 45, was arrested on Saturday for the murders of Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley.
The two 17-year-old girls were found dead in the trunk of J.B.'s car in 1999, a day after being reported missing by their families. They vanished on their way home from party in Ozark, Alabama.
President Donald Trump this week signed a massive wilderness preservation bill that sets aside 1.3 million acres of federal land in California, Oregon, Utah and New Mexico as wilderness. Land designed as wilderness cannot be used for logging, oil drilling or mining.
“This law will give countless Americans the chance to enjoy the natural wonders of our country as we uphold our responsibility to protect the beauty and glory of God’s creation for generations to come,” Trump said, according to the Victorville Daily Press.
The bill creates 375,000 acres of wilderness in the Mojave Desert, according to San Jose’s The Mercury News.
The bill expands Death Valley National Park by 35,929 acres and Joshua Tree National Park by 4,518 acres.
Students take on college debt with the best of intentions. They’ve been told that a college degree is a ticket to success. That they should pursue their dreams. That student debt is good debt.
But how do smart students wind up with debt they can’t repay? Here are three reasons, plus ways to avoid these financial traps. They’re told it’s ‘good debt’
In high school, students hear that they should earn a college degree to have a well-paying, successful career.
Boulder, CO – The long standing rivalry between police and fire is something that most officers and firefighters view as fun loving jabs at one another, much like giving your brother or sister a hard time. Of course, sometimes it goes too far but in the end, you’re family and have a strong bond that overcomes minor hurt feelings from jokes or pranks.
Well that all may be changing in one Colorado town now that the Fire Department Union has officially filed a civil suit against the Police Labor Union citing a “gross manipulation of valuable time.” The court filings show that the Fire Department alleges that on 1/17/19 they were dispatched to a local residence for a “disorderly child” off of his meds, age 11. Police, often used as surrogate parents in such situations, were of course dispatched to the scene as well.
Officers say that they passed a fire truck parked three streets over while they were enroute. Officers handled the situation at the home and cleared without incident, as is common in these cases. There was only one problem: the 911 tapes clearly documented the voice of a dispatcher informing the officers that “fire was staging until scene was safe.” The three officers cleared but neglected to remember to tell the Fire Department it was ok to drive up to the scene and obtain the child’s name to put in their toughbook before allowing the police to finish their jobs.
An old friend of mine, who taught political science for 25 years at the University of Colorado, was known to tell his students that the real reason they were there was to marry people from the right social class.
While perhaps a little overly cynical, this assessment certainly wasn't totally wrong. Few parents have ever been overly concerned with the supposed education their children receive at a University like CU. The real concern has primarily been the receipt of a degree from a respectable - although not "elite" in the case of CU - university. And, whether they are consciously aware of it or not, an additional benefit has been to ensure that little Susie and little Johnny also become accustomed to the social mores and habits of a certain socio-economic class.
Even if Susie doesn't meet a doctor at college, it's still best to send Susie to a place where she learns to socialize and interact with the sorts of people who will eventually become doctors and engineers and successful business people. When one is finished with his or her "education," one has a nice degree to show for it, plus a social circle comprised of presumably soon-to-be-successful people.
So, it shouldn't surprise anyone that it turns out rich Hollywood actors with intellectually and academically mediocre children have become obsessed with getting their children into high-status colleges. They employ bribes and fake test scores to purchase what they've always been able to purchase otherwise: a stylish consumer product, which is essentially all a college degree is for most people.
The Department of Homeland Security released 84,500 foreign family members into the United States since December after they crossed through the U.S.-Mexico border, Breitbart News has confirmed.
In newly confirmed federal data from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, Breitbart News has learned the massive scale and scope of DHS’s ramped up Catch and Release policy.
For months, DHS officials have said privately that the Catch and Release program has been taken to new heights, while ICE union officials declared this week that the program was in “overdrive” under the direction of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Ambitious proposals to end climate change and provide healthcare for everyone, seen as socialist by Republicans, have failed to win the support of even half of the House Democratic caucus, effectively dooming any chance of floor consideration.
Support appears to have plateaued for both the Green New Deal resolution as well as the Medicare for All national health insurance proposal.
The Green New Deal, introduced Feb. 7 by rising freshman star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., calls for a complete overhaul of the nation’s housing, transportation, businesses, and agriculture to end carbon emissions and to stave off climate change.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown has more than $517,000 in the bank heading into the next campaign cycle, according to year-end reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, and a spokesman said he is confident the Maryland congressman will seek re-election in 2020.
Brown was “extremely humbled and grateful” to have been re-elected with 78 percent of the vote – increasing his margins in Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties, said Matthew Verghese, Brown’s communications director, in a written statement.
Brown will continue serving in the 4th Congressional District “as part of a new Democratic majority that will open doors of opportunity for our kids, restore accountability to our government and ensure the United States remains safe and respected around the world,” Verghese said.
Newly unsealed court filings show how the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and an associate shared with the FBI and a host of media outlets the unverified dossier that alleged the Russians had compromising information on now-President Trump.
McCain had denied being the source for BuzzFeed after it published the dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but had acknowledged giving it to the FBI.
In a newly unsealed declaration from September, former senior counterintelligence FBI agent Bill Priestap confirmed that the FBI received a copy of the first 33 pages of the dossier in December 2016 from McCain.
In another filing, David Kramer -- a former State Department official and McCain associate -- said in a Dec. 13, 2017, deposition that the dossier was given to him by author and former British spy Christopher Steele, which he then provided to multiple journalists at outlets including CNN, BuzzFeed and The Washington Post. The details were first reported by The Daily Caller.
An 84-year-old widow of a World War II veteran has been told by the state of California to either cease hosting Bible studies or face eviction from her home.
For the past nine years Artis Breau has been living at the California Veterans Home in Yountville. For many of those years she had volunteered in the chaplaincy program and hosted voluntary Bible studies.
The key word here, folks, is voluntary.
Last September a resident took issue with Mrs. Breau’s beliefs about heaven and hell. The resident reportedly accused her of elder abuse and emotional abuse.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for two cases on congressional district gerrymandering on March 26, including one from Maryland, which could have far-reaching implications on how future electoral maps are drawn.
The justices could, for the first time, issue a standard for determining unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.
At the heart of both the Maryland and North Carolina cases are accusations of redrawing district boundaries in order for one party to gain an advantage over the other in the states.
The Maryland case
At issue in the Maryland case, Benisek v. Lamone, is whether the state’s 6th Congressional District was gerrymandered by the Democratic-led state legislature in 2011 in order to flip that district blue.
WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats have proposed legislation to establish a tax on Wall Street transactions that would generate billions of dollars in revenue.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, said their Wall Street Tax Act of 2019 would impose a .01 percent tax on all transactions. The bill also would aim to limit “speculative trading.”
The tax would net the government an estimated $776.7 billion over the next 10 years, according to Democrats on the Joint Committee on Taxation.
“This tiny high-roller fee will help curb this risky behavior,” Van Hollen said in a statement, “while generating revenue that we can invest in growing our real economy and helping hardworking families.”
In 2019, the legislation would generate a short-term loss.
Affectionately known as "The King of the Surf Guitar," Dale is credited as the originator of surf-style music
Surf rock pioneer Dick Dale has died at the age of 81 years old, according to reports.
Affectionally known by many as “The King of the Surf Guitar,” Dale is credited as the originator of surf-style music. The son of a Lebanese immigrant, Dale’s guitar playing incorporated Middle Eastern music scales and a rapid alternate picking technique derived from tarabaki drumming. He also played a left-handed guitar, but did so without restringing the instrument, which made for a more high-end bite on bass strings and warmer treble tones. He was also one of the first guitarists to use reverb.
President Trump and the first lady attended Sunday morning worship service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
The president arrived to the church, also known as “Church of the Presidents,” by motorcade. The building is two blocks from the White House and has been visited by presidents in the past. Trump, who is not known to regularly attend church services, most recently attended a Christmas Eve service at the National Cathedral.
According to the White House press pool, Sunday’s worship incorporated themes of St. Patrick’s Day into the service, including the singing of "Irish Blessing." The church was decorated in greens “given to the glory of God and in thanksgiving for Saint Patrick,” according to Sunday’s program.
Baltimore County police were called to a convenience store after a man dressed in a unicorn costume reportedly drew a crowbar and robbed the place on Saturday morning.
Officers were called to the High’s store located in the 13500 block of Long Green Pike after the strongarm robbery occurred just before 5 a.m. Store workers said the unicorn-garbed suspect drove off in a silver passenger car, WJZ reported.
“The details on the call noted that the suspect was dressed as a unicorn and had a crowbar as a weapon in the crime,” Lt. Andrea Bylen said in a statement to the media.
A man was arrested Saturday in the cold case killings of two 17-year-old Alabama girls 20 years ago — one of Alabama’s highest-profile cold cases, according to reports.
Cops investigating the deaths of high school seniors Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley in Ozark, Ala., got a break when DNA and a search of a public genealogy website linked Coley McCraney, 45, to the crime, local media reported.
Investigators found their bodies in the trunk of J.B.’s car on Aug. 1, 1999, a day after their families reported them missing. The girls were going to a birthday party for J.B. when they disappeared, the Dothan Eagle reported.
A 36-year-old Harvard university graduate implicated in the college admissions scandal is being described as a "test taking whiz who could get any score on demand" according to federal prosecutors. He has been revealed to be the "secret weapon" in the college admissions cheating scandal, according to a new Wall Street Journal article.
U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, said: “He did not have inside information about the correct answers. He was just smart enough to get a near-perfect score.” Prosecutors claim that Mark Riddell was central to the cheating scheme and he has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and money laundering, according to court documents.
He issued a statement after the charges, stating: “I understand how my actions contributed to a loss of trust in the college admissions process.”
For Christians, we are currently in Lent, the holiest of our seasons which culminates in the solemnness turned celebration of Easter Weekend. It is convention during this period for Christians to commit to some deliberate act of denial in order to focus on their faith and bring them nearer their God. This is paraphrased into the common giving something up for Lent.
This year, when people ask me, Charlie, what are you giving up for Lent? My answer has to be that I’m giving up the hope that any elected government leaders other than President Trump, are willing to stand up for the beliefs and intentions of a majority of Americans.
This past week, 12 Republican Senators (does that number sound at all familiar in the context of Lent?) joined all of their Democratic colleagues in voting 59-41 in support of a Bill that declared as unconstitutional the President’s National Emergency Declaration to fund a border wall.
