White House Bans CNN Reporter From Press Event – Here’s Why

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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded in a statement Wednesday evening.

“At the conclusion of a press event in the Oval Office a reporter shouted questions and refused to leave despite repeatedly being asked to do so,” Sanders said. “Subsequently, our staff informed her she was not welcome to participate in the next event, but made clear that any other journalist from her network could attend.” . . .

Collins was serving as the pool reporter that day, a role that reporters from major networks take turns doing, during a meeting between Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission. She shouted some questions along with other members of the press following the photo-op.

“Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?” Kaitlan Collins asked, repeated the question, and then asked “Mr. President, are you worried about what Michael Cohen is about to say to the prosecutors? Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, Mr. President?” . . .

[Prior to the next press event:]

“They said ‘You are dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,'” Collins said. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue. And they said I was shouting.” (Read more from “White House Bans CNN Reporter From Press Event – Here’s Why” HERE)

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Here’s the Jail Time Food Service Employees Could Face for Giving out Straws

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On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously passed a bill that bans employees of bars, restaurants and any food service business from giving plastic straws to their customers.

“Plastic stirrers and utensils could still be legally provided, but only if customers request them,” reported Reason. In September of 2017, Seattle became the first major metropolis to pass this kind of legislation. The Seattle straw ban was implemented earlier this month.

Under the Seattle ban, if a customer asks for a straw, the straw must be both compostable and biodegradable. Violators of the Seattle ban will be fined $250.

Reason.com describes the Santa Barbara ban as “likely the most severe straw ban in the country.” Violators of the Santa Barbara ban will face up to six months of jail time or $1000 fine. “Santa Barbara has banned not only plastic straws, but also compostable straws,” reports National Review Online (NRO). Furthermore, each illegal straw is an individual fraction. So for example, if a waitress gives out to two illegal straws, she could face up to a year or jail time or a $2000 fine.

Furthermore, the impact that this legislation will have on the environment is minimal. “Straws on average weigh so little—about one sixty-seventh of an ounce or .42 grams—that all those billions of straws add up to only about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9 million tons of plastic waste that yearly hits the waters,” reports AP. (Read more from “Here’s the Jail Time Food Service Employees Could Face for Giving out Straws” HERE)

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Former Congressman Working to Make Sure Noncitizens Can Never Vote in This State

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By The Blaze. Former congressman Doug Ose believes only United States citizens should be allowed to vote, and he’s working to get a proposal on the 2020 ballot that would prevent any noncitizen from voting, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Ose represented California’s 3rd District in the U.S. House from 1999 to 2005, and now he’s seeking to make a two-sentence adjustment to California’s election code. . .

San Francisco approved a measure to allow any parent or legal guardian of voting age to vote in school board elections, regardless of citizenship status, back in 2016. . .

Former Rep. Newt Gingrich, in a Fox News opinion column, has criticized the measure, saying “the long-range plans Democrats have for a ruling majority depend on continuous law-breaking to get enough non-Americans to vote. The Californians who don’t support the radical views of Democrats can simply be eclipsed by non-citizen voters supporting the Democrats.” . . .

Ose, who served the Sacramento area while in Congress, was a relatively early Trump supporter during the 2016, throwing his support behind the then-candidate after Jeb Bush dropped out. (Read more from “Former Congressman Working to Make Sure Noncitizens Can Never Vote in This State” HERE)

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Non-Citizens, Illegal Aliens Now May Register to Vote in San Francisco School Board Elections

By Fox News. The city of San Francisco this week began allowing non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to register to vote in the November election for the city school board.

The effort follows the city’s passage of a 2016 ballot measure that gave the right to vote in school board elections to non-U.S. citizens over age 18 who live in San Francisco and have children under age 19, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The measure was approved by a majority of San Francisco’s eligible voters, but after the first two attempts failed.

“This is no-brainer legislation,” Hillary Ronen, of the city’s Board of Supervisors, told the publication. “Why would we not want our parents invested in the education of their children?”

“As a parent myself and a former member of the SF Board of Education it is critical that the voices of all parents are at the table, particularly those that have historically been denied a voice in the process,” Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer said. (Read more from “Non-Citizens, Illegal Aliens Now May Register to Vote in San Francisco School Board Elections” HERE)

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Twitter Has Been Shadow Banning Conservatives, but Not Liberals — Here’s What That Means

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By The Blaze. Some conservatives have had their reach and accessibility limited on Twitter, whereas their liberal Democrat counterparts have not been impacted on the platform, a Vice News investigation has revealed.

Type the names of certain conservative figures in the search bar, such as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), for example, and the profile doesn’t automatically appear in the drop down results like most public figures do.

“The notion that social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American,” Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel told VICE News. “Twitter owes the public answers to what’s really going on.” . . .

Vice News, in order to test this problem for potential political bias, searched the names of numerous Democrats — Democratic Party chair Tom Perez, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the entire 78-member Progressive caucus — and none of them appeared to be limited like the Republicans Vice tested.

The relationship between conservatives and social media has been fraught with accusations of bias recently. Conservatives in Congress have repeatedly demanded transparency from Facebook and Twitter about how the sites filter news and user accounts, but the processes are still somewhat unclear. (Read more from “Twitter Has Been Shadow Banning Conservatives, but Not Liberals — Here’s What That Means” HERE)

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72 Percent of Americans Say Facebook and Twitter Actively Censor Political Views

By Fortune. Fake news, Russian trolls, and other daily hazards of social media are not only affecting how many Americans have come to view the world, they seem to be affecting how they view social media itself.

A Pew Research survey released Thursday found that 72% of Americans believe that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter actively censor political views that they find objectionable. Fully 85% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents thought that the platforms intentionally censored political viewpoints, while 62% of Democrat and Democrat-leaning independents believed so.

Republicans were also more likely to say that major technology companies as a whole support the views of liberals over conservatives, with 64% agreeing with that statement. Only 16% of Democrats felt that tech companies supported conservative views more, while 53% of them said that both liberal and conservative views are supported equally. (Read more from “72 Percent of Americans Say Facebook and Twitter Actively Censor Political Views” HERE)

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Republicans File Impeachment Articles Against Rosenstein – Here’s Why They Did It

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Several Republicans in the House of Representatives filed articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Wednesday. . .

Republicans claimed in the resolution that Rosenstein had improperly refused to hand over documents requested by Republican members of Congress investigating claims of bias and corruption at the Department of Justice and the FBI.

“We can’t get answers for the American people if we can’t get information from the DOJ,” tweeted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “It’s time to impeach Rod Rosenstein.”

“I just filed a resolution with [Jim Jordan] and several colleagues to impeach Rod Rosenstein,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) Wednesday in a tweet.

“The DOJ has continued to hide information from Congress and repeatedly obstructed oversight–even defying multiple Congressional subpoenas,” he added. “We have had enough.”

(Read more from “Republicans File Impeachment Articles Against Rosenstein – Here’s Why They Did It” HERE)

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First Lady Melania Has a Defiant Response to Bizarre Report About President Trump

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By The Blaze. A spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump responded with a defiant statement to a report that President Trump had acted bizarrely to seeing her television screen set to a hostile news channel. . .

According to a New York Times report, the president allegedly grew angry at seeing that the first lady’s television on Air Force One was tuned into CNN. . .

The first lady did not address the truth or falsity of the report, but a statement from her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, slammed reporters for focusing on such trivial issues.

“Did you know that every 15 minutes a baby is born with NAS?” Grisham said, referring to neonatal abstinence syndrome. “Maybe you’d like to talk about the 160,000 kids who skip school every day for fear of being bullied, or that 280,000 students are physically attacked in schools every month.”

“Seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV (any channel she wants btw) or if she heard some recording on the news,” she added. (Read more from “First Lady Melania Has a Defiant Response to Bizarre Report About President Trump” HERE)

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Melania Trump Responds to Cohen Tape ‘by Focusing on Role as Mother and First Lady’, Says Spokeswoman

By The Independent. Melania Trump is focused on her roles as mother and first lady, a spokeswoman said after being asked about her reaction to the Cohen tape – in which Donald Trump apparently discusses making payments to a Playboy model he is alleged to have had an affair with.

Stephanie Grisham made the brief reply when asked for the president’s wife’s response to the recording which was leaked earlier this week.

She said there would be no further comment. (Read more from “Melania Trump Responds to Cohen Tape ‘by Focusing on Role as Mother and First Lady’, Says Spokeswoman” HERE)

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AUDIO: Secret Recording of Trump and His Lawyer Discussing Payment Over ‘Mistress’ Released

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By The Blaze. CNN’s Chris Cuomo aired Tuesday the much debated recording secretly made of President Donald Trump and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen from before the 2016 election. . .

The conversation was recorded by Cohen in September 2016 just head of the election, and it details the effort to set up a company to buy the story of Karen McDougal, a former Playboy playmate who claims she and Trump had an extramarital affair.

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” says Cohen on the recording, apparently referring to David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer.

“What financing?” says Trump, interrupting Cohen.

“We’ll have to pay,” responds Cohen.

Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis says the tape shows Trump saying that they should pay in cash, to which Cohen responds, “no no.”

(Read more from “Secret Recording of Trump and His Lawyer Discussing Payment Over Mistress Released” HERE)

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CNN Airs Trump/Cohen Tape — but Then Trump Makes One Additional Request

By The Daily Caller. CNN aired part of a recorded conversation between President Trump and his former attorney, Michael Cohen, on Tuesday evening’s “Cuomo Prime Time.”

On the September 2016 recording, both Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing how to purchase the rights to Karen McDougal’s story about the alleged affair she had with the then-reality TV star in 2006 from American Media. . .

Trump can be heard asking Cohen “what financing?” and also “pay with cash,” although it was unclear whether that was a question or a statement to Cohen. The tape cuts off before a final decision is made, but not before Trump poses one additional request.

(Read more from “CNN Airs Trump/Cohen Tape — but Then Trump Makes One Additional Request” HERE)

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Man Claims This Planet Fitness Rule Encouraged Him to Work out Naked

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By The Chicago Tribune. A man who stripped naked before working out at a New Hampshire gym told police officers that he thought he was in a “Judgement Free Zone,” before being arrested.

NECN reports 34-year-old Eric Stagno, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, was charged with indecent exposure, lewdness and disorderly conduct on Sunday for taking off his clothes and exercising at a Plaistow Planet Fitness.

Police say he walked back and forth and started doing poses on a yoga mat. He allegedly referenced Planet Fitness’ slogan that it is a “Judgement Free Zone.” (Read more from “Man Claims This Planet Fitness Rule Encouraged Him to Work out Naked” HERE)

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Man Who Stripped Nude at a Planet Fitness Thought It Was ‘Judgement Free Zone,’ Police Say

By USA Today. . ,Eric M. Stagno, 34, of Haverhill, Mass., was charged with indecent exposure, lewdness and disorderly conduct after police responded to the gym in nearby Plaistow, N.H., according to local media reports.

“The story we got from witnesses was that the guy walked in, stripped down right there in front, left the clothes and belongings at the front desk, walked back and forth across the gym a couple of times and then settled in over at the yoga mats,” Plaistow police Capt. Brett Morgan told the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper. . .

The gym was fairly crowded at the time, Morgan told The Boston Globe, adding that Stagno checked himself out in the mirror before heading to the yoga mats.

“Some of the comments some witnesses gave were that they felt uncomfortable, disgusted, sick, and unsafe,” Morgan told the paper. “There were more witnesses coming forward than we could take names.” (Read more from “Man Who Stripped Nude at a Planet Fitness Thought It Was ‘Judgement Free Zone,’ Police Say” HERE)

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Trump Is Very Concerned About This Possible Russia Decision

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President Donald Trump appeared to want to flip the script on Tuesday tweeting that he is “very concerned” that Russia will be “pushing very hard for Democrats” this fall in the midterm elections.

Trump tweeted, “I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats.”

“They definitely don’t want Trump!” he added.

Trump received a torrent of criticism from members of the media, as well as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, for seeming to be as ready to accept Putin’s denial of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential race as the U.S. intelligence community’s findings that it did.

The president, following the meeting, clarified that he has “full faith” in America’s intelligence agencies, including their findings concerning Russian attempts to influence the election.

He noted that he has stated multiple times over the past year that he believes Russia sought to meddle, but he does not believe it changed the outcome.

In an interview with CNBC last Thursday, Trump said, “Getting along with President Putin, getting along with Russia, is positive, not a negative.”

He added, “That being said, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll be the worst enemy he’s ever had.”

Trump emphasized the actions he has taken against Putin’s interests.

“Look at the sanctions I threw on. Look at the diplomats I threw out. Look at all of the things that I’ve done,” he said.

The president continued, “Nobody else did what I’ve done. Obama didn’t do it. Obama was a patsy for Russia. He was a total patsy.

“I have been far tougher on Russia than any president in many, many years.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded to the president’s assertion that the Russians may help the Democrats this fall by tweeting video footage from the Helsinki summit of Putin saying he wanted Trump to win in 2016. “Let’s go to the video tape (again),” Schumer wrote.

Following the Democrat’s harsh rhetoric toward Trump’s meeting with Putin last week, a 2003 Associated Press photo of Schumer accompanying the Russian president on a visit to New York City circulated widely.

Garrett Graff, writing for Politico, argued that Trump just might be right about the Russians seeking to help the Democrats regain power this November.

“There’s solid geopolitical evidence that boosting the Democrats would be a smart strategy for a foreign actor this fall,” he wrote.

Graff continued, “Vladimir Putin’s goal isn’t—and never was—to help the Republican Party, at least in the long run.”

“Boosting Trump’s presidential campaign was a means to Putin’s end: Weakening the West, and exploiting the seams and divisions of the West’s open democracies to undermine our legitimacy and moral standing.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., agreed with Trump that Putin’s plan is not wedded to a person or a party, but meant to sow chaos.

He wrote, “Putin is pro-Chaos and is an Equal Opportunity Disruptor of the American electoral system.” (For more from the author of “Trump Is Very Concerned About This Possible Russia Decision” please click HERE)

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Teens Arrested After Car Chase Leaves Officer Dead

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Three teenage suspects are now in custody in connection with a police chase that led to a suburban Seattle officer being struck and killed by a pursuing officer in a patrol car.

Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said at a news conference Monday that a passenger in the suspect vehicle was arrested with the help of a police dog after the incident early Sunday that killed Officer Diego Moreno.

Two other suspects, including the 16-year-old driver, have since been arrested, he said.

The chase began around 2 a.m. Sunday after a red truck was seen leaving a restaurant parking lot where gunshots were fired, according to Padilla.

Moreno had deployed spike strips at an intersection Sunday to slow the suspect vehicle, police said. He was on foot when he was struck by the patrol car that had been pursuing the suspects.

Authorities haven’t said what specifically led to that collision. Washington State Patrol District Commander Ron Mead on Sunday blamed the suspect for Moreno’s death.

The fleeing suspect’s truck landed on a spike but continued on for another mile before striking a barrier and coming to rest on its hood.

The patrol car also ran into an SUV that spun into two other vehicles. Padilla said three bystanders were provided medical care and that they were all doing OK.

The officer driving the patrol car was hospitalized in critical condition but had improved by Sunday night. He remained in a Seattle hospital Monday with serious injuries, Padilla said.

That officer has been with the department for 18 years and is one of their best, Padilla said. Police said they would release his name at a later time.

Padilla said Moreno made significant contributions during his eight years on the force, and described him as an “incredible human being.”

The Venezuela native was honored last year by the city with a Lifesaving Medal for saving someone from an opioid overdose. In 2016, he was praised for rescuing an elderly woman from a fire.

Kent Mayor Dana Ralph said Moreno’s efforts went above and beyond in the department’s Shop with a Cop holiday event. Ralph said last year Moreno pulled out his own wallet to cover extra costs for the things a child wanted.

“That was the type of person he was, the public servant he was,” Ralph said. “He leaves a huge hole in our hearts.”

Moreno is survived by a wife and two young children.

Community members added Monday to a memorial of flowers, candles, drawings and other items outside the Kent Police Station.

A vigil will take place Wednesday evening at Kent Town Square. (For more from the author of “Teens Arrested After Car Chase Leaves Officer Dead” please click HERE)

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