Month: September 2018

Comedian Bill Cosby will likely learn his fate this week as the sentencing phase in his sexual assault trial begins Monday near Philadelphia.

Cosby was convicted in April on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against former Temple University administrator Andrea Constand.

Under sentencing guidelines, Cosby could get as much as 30 years in prison, which would be a life sentence for the 81-year-old entertainer.

His attorneys are expected to appeal to the judge to sentence Cosby to house arrest because of his fragile health. Cosby is legally blind.

The judge could also sentence Cosby to a short stay in prison.

Two women who say Cosby sexually assaulted them in the 1980s say he deserves to spend time in prison.

One of the alleged victims, Chelan Lasha, told reporters Sunday she wants Cosby to get the maximum time in prison, saying she still has nightmares about the assault.

After a mistrial during the first case against him in 2017, a jury convicted Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004. Constand came to Cosby’s house seeking career advice because he was a Temple alumnus.

Cosby denied the charge and said any sexual contact he had with Constand was consensual.

About 60 women have alleged Cosby sexually assaulted them dating back to the 1960s, when Cosby became famous. Constand’s case is the only one to come to trial.

Cosby is best known for his 1980s television series The Cosby Show, which solidified his now destroyed image as a wise and genial family man.
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A timeline between the 79th and 80th victories on the PGA Tour for Tiger Woods:

Aug. 4, 2013 — Wins the Bridgestone Invitational for his 18th World Golf Championship title and 79th victory on the PGA Tour.

March 31, 2014 — Has back surgery and announces he will miss the Masters for the first time.

June 26, 2014 — Returns to the PGA Tour and misses the cut at the Quicken Loans National.

Aug. 8, 2014 — Misses the cut in the PGA Championship and says he will take the rest of the year off, including the Ryder Cup, to get healthy.

Dec. 7, 2014 — Returns at the Hero World Challenge and ties for last in an 18-man field at Isleworth, his home course, 26 shots out of the lead.

Feb. 1, 2015 — Looking like an amateur with his short game, shoots 82 in the Phoenix Open to miss the cut. A week later at Torrey Pines, withdraws after 11 holes and says he could never get his glutes activated.

Feb. 11, 2015 — Announces he is taking time off to work on his game, saying that “my play, and scores, are not acceptable for tournament golf.”

April 9, 2015 — Returns at the Masters, his chipping issues gone, and ties for 17th.

June 6, 2015 — Shoots an 85 in the third round of the Memorial, his highest score as a professional.

Aug. 14, 2015 — Misses the cut in his third straight major at the PGA Championship.

Aug. 23, 2015 — After sharing the 36-hole lead, ties for 10th in the Wyndham Championship and fails for the first time to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs when playing at least 10 times on the PGA Tour.

Sept. 16, 2015 — Has a second back surgery.

Oct. 28, 2015 — Has a third procedure on his back.

Dec. 1, 2015 — In a somber press conference at his Hero World Challenge, Woods says of his future, “So where is the light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t know.” He says he wants to play again and anything else he achieves will be “gravy.”

Dec. 4, 2016 — Returns to competition at the Hero World Challenge, makes 24 birdies and finishes 15th in an 18-man field, 14 shots behind.

Jan. 27, 2017 — Makes first PGA Tour start since the Wyndham Championship in 2015 and misses the cut at Torrey Pines.

Feb. 3, 2017 — After opening with a 77 at the Dubai Desert Classic in calm conditions, withdraws before the start of the second round because of back spasms.

April 19, 2017 — Has a fourth surgery, this one to fuse his lower back.

May 30, 2017 — Woods is arrested and briefly jailed in Jupiter, Florida, on suspicion of DUI. Police find him asleep behind the wheel of his car in the early morning with the engine running. He attributes it to a bad combination of pain medication.

Sept. 27, 2017 — A vice captain at the Presidents Cup, Woods says he has no idea what his future holds because he’s only hitting 60-yard shots.

Oct. 7-23, 2017 — Woods posts three videos on Instagram of a smooth iron swing, a driver and his stinger.

Oct. 27, 2017 — Woods pleads guilty to reckless driving and agrees to enter a diversion program. Prosecutors drop the DUI charge under the plea agreement.

Dec. 3, 2017 — Returns to competition at the Hero World Challenge, posts three rounds in the 60s and ties for ninth against an 18-man field, 10 shots behind.

Jan. 28, 2018 — In his return to the PGA Tour, makes the cut on the number and ties for 23rd at Torrey Pines.

Feb. 20, 2018 — Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk announces Woods as one of his vice captains, says Woods still wants to make the team.

March 11, 2018 — Before enormous crowds at Innisbrook, makes par on the 18th hole to finish one shot out of the lead at the Valspar Championship.

March 18, 2018 — One shot behind in the final round at Bay Hill, yanks tee shot out-of-bounds on the 16th hole and ties for fifth.

July 22, 2018 — Takes the lead in the final round of the British Open, only to make double bogey on the 12th hole and finish in a tie for sixth.

Aug. 12, 2018 — Closes with a 64, his lowest final round ever in a major, and is runner-up to Brooks Koepka in the PGA Championship.

Sept. 4, 2018 — Announced as a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup, his first playing appearance since 2012.

Sept. 23, 2018 — Wins the Tour Championship for his 80th career victory on the PGA Tour.

 
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The United Nations, the World Bank and the International Committee of the Red Cross are partnering with technology powerhouses to launch a global initiative aimed at preventing famines.

“The fact that millions of people — many of them children — still suffer from severe malnutrition and famine  in the 21st century is a global tragedy,” World Bank President Jim Young Kim said announcing the initiative.

The global organization will work with Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services to develop the Famine Action Mechanism (FAM), a system capable of identifying food crisis area that are most likely to turn into a full-blown famine.

“If we can better predict when and where future famines will occur, we can save lives by responding earlier and more effectively,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement.

The tech giants will help develop a set of analytical models that will use the latest technoligies like Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to not only provide early warnings but also trigger pre-arranged financing for crisis management.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning hold huge promise for forecasting and detecting early signs of food shortages, like crop failures, droughts, natural disasters and conflicts,” Smith said.

According to the U.N. and World Bank, there are 124 million people experiencing crisis-level food insecurity in the world today.

FAM will be at first rolled out in five countries that “exhibit some of the most critical and ongoing food security needs,” according to the World Bank, which didn’t identify the nations. It will ultimately be expanded to cover the world.
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Dozens of vehicles slowly approached President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday afternoon, blasting reggaeton and salsa as they drove by. They honked their horns and waved Puerto Rican flags draped from their car windows and trunks. They were on their way to a rally a few miles away to mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria.

Despite the scorching hot sun, hundreds of activists showed up at the Meyer Amphitheater in West Palm Beach. Buses full of protesters came from as far as Miami and Orlando. The crowd was lively. People spread out on the grass and walked around carrying posters that read “Respeta Mi Gente” (Respect My People) and “Justice for Puerto Rico.” To one side of the stage, a giant blowup balloon of Trump depicted as a baby had been inflated. Crowds waited in line to take photographs in which they gave the orange balloon the middle finger.

Message: vote

Event organizers encouraged those in attendance to vote in the midterm elections in November. Anyone with a microphone was constantly telling people to vote, to register to vote, and to spread awareness about voting.

“We’re honoring the lives that were lost,” said Marcos Vilar, the president and executive director of Alianza for Progress, one of the event organizers. “We are recognizing all the people that were displaced and are living here in South Florida, central Florida and throughout the state.”

Vilar believes that although Puerto Ricans are citizens, the current administration’s response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria has proved that Puerto Ricans are not treated equally.

Nearly 3,000 people have died as a result of Hurricane Maria, according to a study conducted by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. The president has repeatedly rebuked the death toll. Last week he tweeted that researchers had inflated the numbers “like magic” saying the amount was “FIFTY TIMES LAST ORIGINAL NUMBER -NO WAY!”

Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago during the event.

​Florida politics

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who was in attendance, called the current situation in Puerto Rico “inexcusable” and characterized Trump’s comments as offensive. “How much more insults do (Puerto Ricans) have to take after being treated like they have?” he asked.

He also criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s relief efforts, saying that their treatment of Puerto Ricans has been “cold-hearted” and that the agency must do more to provide displaced people with temporary housing assistance.

Nelson is locked in a tight re-election race with Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who must leave office because of term limits. The large Puerto Rican vote in Florida is seen as a crucial bloc in the state. Scott has visited Puerto Rico numerous times since the hurricane.

​Devastating storm

Dayavet Velez, 17, said that her home in Adjuntas, a small municipality tucked away in the mountains of central Puerto Rico, had been destroyed by Hurricane Maria. She and her family have been living in central Florida for nearly a year.

“We came here because we lost everything there,” she said.

Velez said that when Trump visited Puerto Rico, he didn’t see the full devastation that Maria had caused, he saw only a distorted reality. He didn’t visit the areas that were most affected by the storm.

Despite the hardships she and her family have faced, the high school senior remains hopeful.

“We’re not going to be torn down,” she said. “We’re going to stand up for ourselves … we’re going to be strong … we’re going to progress here.”
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Six siblings of U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar have urged voters to cast their ballots against the Arizona Republican in November in an unusual political ad sponsored by the rival candidate.

The television ad from Democrat David Brill combines video interviews with Gosar-family siblings who ask voters to usher Paul Gosar out of office because he has broken with the family’s values. They do not elaborate.

They previously condemned the congressman’s false accusation in 2017 that wealthy Democratic donor George Soros was a Nazi collaborator in World War II.

“It’s intervention time,” Tim Gosar says in the ad, endorsing Brill. “And intervention time means that you go to vote, and you go to vote Paul out.”

Gosar is a fourth-term congressman for a sprawling district in northwestern and central Arizona. 

Congressman: ‘Stalin would be proud’

He fired back at his brothers and sisters in a series of twitter posts, calling them disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton from out of state who put ideology before family.

“My siblings who chose to film ads against me are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump,” Gosar said. “Stalin would be proud.”

In a separate video segment, the siblings urge voters to hold the congressman accountable on health care, employment and environmental issues.

Paul Gosar’s comments about Soros came in a television interview with Vice News in which he also suggested a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, might have been a liberal conspiracy.

Why siblings are speaking out

In the new ad, the congressman’s siblings describe their decision to speak out as saddening, horrible and ultimately a matter of pride for the family from Wyoming.

“I think my brother has traded a lot of the values we had at our kitchen table,” says Joan Gosar, an engineer.

Pete Gosar, another sibling who ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for governor of Wyoming in 2014, doesn’t appear in the ad, though he has publicly criticized his brother’s views in the past.

Wisconsin feud

The rift in the Gosar clan is not the only sibling feud to wend its way into campaigning this year for Congress, as Democrats seek to retake majority control of the House and Senate from Republicans.

In the race to replace House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Democratic congressional candidate Randy Bryce is confronting an ad in which his brother endorses the Republican candidate.

That upset Nancy Bryce, their mother, who has denounced the campaign ad in a letter recently made public.
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Tensions between China and the United States escalated Saturday as China’s Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to issue a harsh protest against U.S. sanctions set for the purchase of Russian fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles.

The move came hours after China canceled trade talks with the U.S. following Washington’s imposition of new tariffs on Chinese goods.

The statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website called the imposition of sanctions “a serious violation of the basic principles of international law” and a “hegemonic act.” The ministry also wrote, “Sino-Russian military cooperation is the normal cooperation of the two sovereign states, and the U.S. has no right to interfere.” The U.S. actions, it said, “have seriously damaged the relations” with China. 

China had earlier called on the U.S. to withdraw the sanctions, and speaking to reporters Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing had lodged an official protest with the United States.

China’s purchase of the weapons from Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport violated a 2017 U.S. law intended to punish the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin for interfering in U.S. elections and other activities. The U.S. action set in motion a visa ban on China’s Equipment Development Department and director Li Shangfu, forbids transactions with the U.S. financial system, and blocks all property and interests in property involving the country within U.S. jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that China had planned to send Vice Premier Liu He to Washington next week for trade talks, but canceled his trip, along with that of a midlevel delegation that was to precede him.

Earlier Friday, a senior White House official had said the U.S. was optimistic about finding a way forward in trade talks with China.

The official told reporters at the White House that China “must come to the table in a meaningful way” for there to be progress on the trade dispute. 

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while there was no confirmed meeting between the United States and China, the two countries “remain in touch.”

“The president’s team is all on the same page as to what’s required from China,” according to the official.

The Trump administration has argued that tariffs on Chinese goods would force China to trade on more favorable terms with the United States. 

It has demanded that China better protect American intellectual property, including ending the practice of cybertheft. The Trump administration has also called on China to allow U.S. companies greater access to Chinese markets and to cut its U.S. trade surplus.

Earlier this week, the United States ordered duties on another $200 billion of Chinese goods to go into effect on Sept. 24. China responded by adding $60 billion of U.S. products to its import tariff list.

The United States already has imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, and China has retaliated on an equal amount of U.S. goods.
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The nation’s immigration court judges are anxious and stressed by a quota system implemented by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that pushes them to close 700 cases per year as a way to get rid of an immense backlog, the head of the judges’ union said Friday.

It means judges would have an average of about 2½ hours to complete cases — an impossible ask for complicated asylum matters that can include hundreds of pages of documents and hours of testimony, Judge Ashley Tabaddor said.

“This is an unprecedented act, which compromises the integrity of the court and undermines the decisional independence of immigration judges,” she said in a speech at the National Press Club, in her capacity as head of the union. Tabaddor said the backlog of 750,000 cases was created in part by government bureaucracy and a neglected immigration court system.

“Now, the same backlog is being used as a political tool to advance the current law enforcement policies,” she said. 

Signature issue

Curbing immigration is a signature issue for the Trump administration, and the jobs of the nation’s more than 300 immigration judges are in the spotlight.

They decide whether someone has a legal basis to remain in the country while the government tries to deport them, including those seeking asylum. Tabaddor presides in Los Angeles, where she oversees 2,000 cases, including many involving juveniles.

The judges are employees of the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which is overseen by the attorney general — unlike the criminal and civil justice systems where judges operate independently.

Immigration court judges have repeatedly asked for independence, and Tabaddor brought it up again Friday, calling the current structure a serious design flaw.

A Justice Department spokesman said the union has repeatedly tried to block common-sense reforms that would make the judges’ jobs better, and that the proper home for the courts is where they are right now, under DOJ.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department sent a memo to immigration judges telling them they would need to clear at least 700 cases a year in order to receive a “satisfactory” rating on their performance evaluations. Sessions has pushed for faster rulings and issued a directive that prevents judges from administratively closing cases in an effort to decrease the backlog by 50 percent by 2020.

This month, he appointed 44 new judges, the largest class of immigration judges in U.S. history, and has pledged to hire more. He said in a speech to the judges that he wouldn’t apologize for asking them to perform “at a high level, efficiently and effectively.”

Tabaddor wouldn’t say whether the quotas were also putting pressure on judges to deport more people — not just decide cases faster.

“There’s certainly no question they’re under pressure to complete more cases faster,” she said. “I think I would just say listen to the attorney general’s remarks and you can decide what messaging is going to be sent.”

Asylum qualifications

Earlier this summer, Sessions tightened the restrictions on the types of cases that can qualify someone for asylum, making it harder for Central Americans who say they’re fleeing the threat of gangs, drug smugglers or domestic violence to pass even the first hurdle for securing U.S. protection.

Immigration lawyers say that’s meant more asylum seekers failing interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to establish credible fear of harm in their home countries. They also say that immigration judges are overwhelmingly signing off on those recommendations during appeals, effectively ending what could have been a yearslong asylum process almost before it’s begun.

President Donald Trump hasn’t been behind the move to bolster the roster of judges. “We shouldn’t be hiring judges by the thousands, as our ridiculous immigration laws demand, we should be changing our laws, building the Wall, hire Border Agents and Ice,” he said in a tweet in June, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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U.S. officials recommended approval on Friday of a plan to block new mining claims for 20 years on the forested public lands that make up Yellowstone National Park’s mountainous northern boundary.

Regional Forester Leanne Marten submitted a letter to the Bureau of Land Management endorsing the plan to withdraw 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) in Montana’s Paradise Valley and the Gardiner Basin from new claims for gold, silver, platinum and other minerals, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Marna Daley said.

A final decision is up to the office of U.S. Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, who favors the withdrawal. Zinke said in a statement that it could be finalized in coming weeks.

The Trump administration’s support is notable given the president’s outspoken advocacy for the mining industry and his criticism of government regulations said to stifle economic development. The proposal has received bipartisan backing in Montana, with Democrats and Republicans alike eager to cast themselves as protectors of the natural beauty of the Yellowstone region.

The rocky peaks and forested stream valleys covered by the withdrawal attract skiers, hikers and other recreational users. It’s an area where grizzly bears, wolves and other wildlife roam back and forth across the Yellowstone border — and where the scars of historical mining still are visible on some hillsides.

The Forest Service recommendation follows concerns among business owners, residents and local officials that two proposed mining projects north of Yellowstone could damage waterways and hurt tourism, a mainstay of the local economy. 

Those two projects would not be directly affected because the companies behind them have already made their mining claims, the companies have said. But others have said the new move could discourage investment into those project.

About 1.7 million people drove through the area last year, and withdrawing the land from new mining development would help protect the areas for wildlife and recreation, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.

The withdrawal includes only public lands, not existing mining claims or exploration on private lands. It’s been in the works since 2016 under Zinke’s predecessor, former Interior Sec. Sally Jewell.

“I’ve always said there are places where it is appropriate to mine and places where it isn’t. The Paradise Valley is one of those unique places,” Zinke said.

Montana Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines said the areas covered by the withdrawal were “truly special places that deserve protection.” 

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, called on Daines to support legislation sponsored by Tester that would make the withdrawal permanent. Tester’s bill was introduced last year and is currently before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, of which Daines is a member.

An identical bill sponsored by Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte is pending in the House.

The mining industry opposes putting the public land off limits. Backers of the withdrawal want it made permanent. 

Under the proposal, government officials have estimated that 81 acres (33 hectares) would still be disturbed by mining and 4.5 miles (7 kilometers) of new roads would be built, according to a Forest Service analysis completed in March. That compares to an estimated 130 acres (53 hectares) of land disturbed by mining and 7 miles (11 kilometers) of roads over 20 years if the withdrawal were not enacted.
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The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee says it will hold a vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Monday if no deal is reached by Friday at 10 p.m. on how Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexual assault, will testify.

Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told the lawyers for Ford that the panel “has been extremely accommodating to your client” and wants to hear Ford’s testimony

“I’m extending the deadline for response yet again to 10 o’clock this evening,” he said in the statement to Ford’s lawyers.

Lawyers for Ford have said she wants to testify before a Senate panel next week, but only if her safety is guaranteed. According to U.S. media reports, attorney Debra Katz said in an email to the Judiciary Committee that Ford wishes to testify “provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety.”

Katz said her client has received death threats, and that Ford and her family had been forced out of their California home.

Grassley had scheduled the hearing for Monday for both Ford and Kavanaugh to appear to tell their stories. But Katz wrote that “Monday’s date is not possible and the committee’s insistence that it occur then is arbitrary in any event.”

Katz said Ford’s “strong preference” is that “a full investigation” be completed before she testifies. She had earlier called for the FBI to probe the charges against Kavanaugh.

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump questioned the integrity of Ford, posting on Twitter that “if the attack … was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed” with police.

Trump also accused “radical left wing politicians” of attacking Kavanaugh, who Ford said sexually assaulted her at a house party 36 years ago.

​Late Thursday, the White House released a letter from Kavanaugh to Grassley in which he said he wanted to tell his side in the Monday hearing. 

“I will be there. I continue to want a hearing as soon as possible so that I can clear my name,” he wrote.

Media reports said Kavanaugh had also received what law enforcement officials said were credible death threats.

Trump chose Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

His approval by the Judiciary Committee and the Republican-majority Senate appeared to be a near certainty until The Washington Post published its interview with Ford, who is now a California psychology professor. 

She alleged a “stumbling drunk” 17-year-old Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a Maryland house party in 1982 when both were in high school. She said Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her, putting his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream, before she managed to escape. 

Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the charges, saying he has never done any such thing to Ford or any other woman. 

Women who say they have known and worked with Kavanaugh throughout his legal career say he has been respectful and fair in dealing with them. Dozens of women who support Kavanaugh held a Washington news conference Friday.

Sara Fagen, who described herself as a friend and former colleague of Kavanaugh, said she and the other women at the news conference believe the allegation is untrue.

“The reason that we know that this allegation is false is because we know Brett Kavanaugh,” Fagen said.

Women who attended Holton-Arms High School in Bethesda, Maryland, with Ford signed a letter in support of her that was personally delivered Thursday to West Virginia Republican Senator and Holton-Arms alumna Shelley Moore Capito. Organizers said it was signed by more than 1,000 former students.

“We believe Dr. Blasey Ford and are grateful that she came forward to tell her story,” the letter said. “Dr. Blasey Ford’s experience is all too consistent with stories we heard and lived while attending Holton. Many of us are survivors ourselves.”

Republican lawmakers are trying to win Senate confirmation for Kavanaugh ahead of the court’s start of a new term on Oct. 1 or, if not by then, ahead of the Nov. 6 nationwide congressional elections, to show Republican voters they have made good on campaign promises to place conservative judges like Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
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