Category: Latest News

Republican control of Legislature fuels anxiety among nonprofits

The following article by Shannon Prather was posted on the StarTribune website January 6, 2017:

A Republican leader told organizations: “Be ready to deliver accountability.”

DFL Rep. Rena Moran urged a bold presence at the Capitol.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michelle Benson delivered a blunt message Friday to nonprofit leaders seeking state funding: Be prepared to prove your worth.

“When it comes to accessing public dollars, you will want to work really hard to prove what you’ve already done with the dollars you’ve already been given, whether it’s public dollars or private dollars,” said Benson, R-Ham Lake. “Be ready to deliver accountability.”

Benson was one of several state politicians on both sides of the aisle to address more than 200 nonprofit leaders Friday morning at the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits’ annual legislative session preview in St. Paul. Continue reading “Republican control of Legislature fuels anxiety among nonprofits”

Joe Biden Tells Donald Trump To ‘Grow Up’

The following article by Lucy Clare-Billings was posted on the Newsweek site January 6, 2017:

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has told President-elect Donald Trump to “grow up” and “be an adult” during a television interview Thursday.

Biden, who has previously criticized the incoming president, told PBS NewsHour host Judy Woodruff that Trump’s attacks on the U.S. intelligence community were “absolutely mindless.”

“Grow up, Donald. Grow up. Time to be an adult. You’re president,” Biden said. “You got to do something. Show us what you have.”

He added: “It’s going to be much clearer what he’s for and against and what we’re for and against now that it’s going to get down to actually discussing in detail these issues that affect people’s lives.”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they..

Trump is due to be briefed on allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Friday. He has questioned how intelligence agencies were even confident of such a hack:

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?

 “Not to be prepared to listen to the myriad of intelligence agencies… is mindless,” Biden said. “The idea of saying that you know more than the intelligence community knows, is a little like saying you know more about physics than your professor, and you haven’t read the book. It’s worse.”
You can read the original post here.

U.S. intelligence agencies: Putin ordered intervention in presidential election

The following article by Greg Miller was posted on the Washington Post website January 6, 2017:

President-elect Donald Trump talks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 28 in Palm Beach, Fla. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Russia carried out a comprehensive cybercampaign to upend the U.S. presidential election, an operation that was ordered by Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and “aspired to help” elect Donald Trump by discrediting his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report released Friday.

The report depicts Russian interference as unprecedented in scale, saying that Moscow’s assault represented “a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort” beyond previous election-related espionage. Continue reading “U.S. intelligence agencies: Putin ordered intervention in presidential election”

What Trump got wrong on Twitter this week

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website January 6, 2017:

President-elect Donald Trump speaks in Hershey, Pa., during his “thank you” tour. (Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

As we enter the administration of a president who is both prolific on Twitter and prone to tweeting factual inaccuracies, the Fact Checker faced a conundrum: How much effort should we devote to fact-checking President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets?

Tweets are ephemeral — in theory, at least. By the time we start on one fact check of Trump’s tweet, he may have tweeted many others that are fact-checkable. Many of Trump’s tweets are easy to debunk and do not rise to the level of a Pinocchio rating. In fact, Twitter users often correct Trump within minutes, in fewer than 140 characters.

So, we are launching an occasional feature looking at what Trump got wrong on Twitter in a given week. We will continue to devote full fact checks of claims Trump makes on Twitter when the fact check allows for discussion of a substantive policy issue. But as for the rest, we will include them in a roundup on Fridays. We will keep the analysis of each tweet as short as possible, with links to additional information for readers who want to know more. As always, we welcome reader suggestions. Continue reading “What Trump got wrong on Twitter this week”

Americans don’t want to scrap Obamacare without something to replace it, new poll shows

The following article by Noam N. Levey was posted on the L.A. Times website January 6, 2017:

The vast majority of Americans do not support Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without enacting a replacement, a new nationwide poll finds.

Nearly half the country does not want the law, commonly called Obamacare, to be repealed at all.

Even among those who want to see the law rolled back, most say Congress should wait to vote on repeal until the details of a replacement plan have been announced.

Just two in 10 Americans support the GOP strategy to quickly vote for repeal and work out details of a replacement later, according to the poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

President-elect Donald Trump and senior GOP lawmakers indicated this week that they plan to move quickly to sweep away major pillars of Obamacare, insisting they have a mandate from voters to scrap the 2010 healthcare law.

But Republicans haven’t detailed how they will replace the law’s coverage program, which has helped extend health insurance to more than 20 million previously uninsured Americans. Continue reading “Americans don’t want to scrap Obamacare without something to replace it, new poll shows”

Poll: Voters in Trump states want Democrats to keep him in check

The following article by David Weigel was posted on the Washington Post website January 4, 2017:

Donald Trump walks off his plane to speak during a campaign event at an Atlantic Aviation hanger in Moon Township, Pa., on Nov. 6, 2016. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

A poll of voters in red or purple states, conducted for the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund, has found a sizable majority willing to back Democrats if they oppose President-elect Donald Trump.

The poll, which surveyed 1,206 voters in 14 states Dec. 19-23 — all with Senate races next year — found 49 percent approving of Trump’s conduct as president-elect. That’s higher than the number in national polls, which have included samples from bluer states. Depending on how the question was asked, anywhere from 56 percent to 61 percent of voters said that Democratic lawmakers should act as a “check and balance” on the incoming president. (The number was lower if voters were asked specifically if the senator should “block” Trump.)

“Even in states that Trump won handily, Democrats are in a good position,” said Neera Tanden, CAP’s president. “Eight years ago, if you asked this question, people were much more inclined to say that everyone should get along. Here, you’ve got people who voted for Trump but want Democrats to block or oppose his agenda. That seems to be a new thing for American politics.” Continue reading “Poll: Voters in Trump states want Democrats to keep him in check”

President-Elect Trump Is Historically Unpopular; His Press Coverage Should Reflect That

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the Media Matters website January 3, 2017:

There are lots of ways the political press continues to normalize President-elect Donald Trump’s often radical behavior. From regurgitating his vague tweets as news while he refuses to grant press conferences, to shying away from calling the serial prevaricator a liar, journalists continue to play nice.

Here’s another way Trump’s getting the benefit of the doubt: He’s a wildly unpopular political figure, yet the press continues to gloss over that fact while granting him soft coverage.

In terms of polling data, there’s virtually no good news for Trump. The results generally point in the same direction: He’s widely disliked and inspires little confidence in his presidential abilities. Continue reading “President-Elect Trump Is Historically Unpopular; His Press Coverage Should Reflect That”

Trump alleges delay in his briefing on ‘so-called’ Russian hacking; U.S. official says there wasn’t one

Arriving at an annual New Year’s Eve celebration at his Mar-a-lago, Fla.,
estate, President-elect Donald Trump left open the possibility
of a meeting with Taiwan’s president if she visits
after he is sworn in on Jan. 20. Trump also pushed back on
intelligence claims about Russian hacking. (Reuters)

President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday night to say that a planned intelligence briefing for him on “so-called ‘Russian-hacking’ ” had been delayed until Friday, a development he called ‘very strange!” — but one that a U.S. official said wasn’t a delay at all.

The tweet was the latest sign of Trump’s skepticism about a case pressed by the Obama administration, based on the work of U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, that Russia tried to influence the U.S. presidential election by hacking several Democratic email accounts, among other actions. Several leading Republicans have also endorsed that view.  Continue reading “Trump alleges delay in his briefing on ‘so-called’ Russian hacking; U.S. official says there wasn’t one”