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Trump Is a Predator Who Feeds on Lackeys

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

Walt Nauta, aid to former President Donald Trump, follows Trump carrying clothing as they board his airplane at Palm Beach International Airport on March 13, 2023.Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesIn every Trump scandal, there is a Trump lackey. Every one of them has served as a proxy for the biggest lackey of them all: the Republican Party.The newest lackey is Walt Nauta, Donald Trump’s “body man,” who was indicted last week, along with his boss, in the classified documents criminal case.But he is just the latest in a long line of lackeys who have faced ruin, thanks to their close ties to Trump. Some are low-level employees like Nauta, while others are well-paid professionals, like attorney Michael Cohen or former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, both of whom ended up in prison as a result of their loyalty.The Republican Party today is dominated by weak personalities, easily swayed by Trump’s demagoguery and eager to be told wha...

Door open for Real Madrid to try signing Mbappé after he decides not to extend PSG contract

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The door is open for Real Madrid to try signing Kylian Mbappé because the France superstar decided not to extend his Paris Saint-Germain contract into 2025.Karim Benzema’s sudden departure from Madrid leaves the Spanish giant short of a star striker, and Mbappé perfectly fits the bill.It could be third time lucky for Madrid, after Paris Saint-Germain rejected an offer of 180 million euros ($190 million) for Mbappé in 2021. Madrid missed out again last year when Mbappé — amid frenzied speculation that Madrid would get him to join — signed a new deal with PSG.It included an option for an extra year. Now he’s told the club he will not trigger the 12-month extension on his contract, which expires at the end of next season.The France superstar confirmed his decision in a letter to PSG, a person with knowledge of the correspondence told The Associated Press on Monday. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also said PSG would not allow Mbappé to leave as a...

Justice Department settles with Kentucky school district over racial harassment

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky school district has agreed to make “institutional changes” to settle a federal investigation into complaints of widespread harassment of Black and multiracial students, the U.S. Justice Department announced.The investigation of the Madison County school district, launched in October 2021, uncovered numerous cases of race-based harassment in which Black and multiracial students were subjected to derogatory racial comments by their peers, the Justice Department said in a news release Monday. It found that the district failed to “consistently or reasonably” address the problems, including racial taunts and intimidation, at times reinforced by displays of the Confederate flag, the department said.When the district did respond, it often failed to follow its own anti-racial harassment policies and ineffectively addressed the “broader hostile environment,” the department said. The situation deprived Black and multiracial students of equal access to educatio...

Panic, yelling as tour boat capsizes inside Erie Canal water tunnel in western New York

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — A passenger thrown from a boat that flipped over with 29 people aboard during a tour of a dimly lit cavern system said he fought to breathe in the chilly water under the capsized craft.The flat-bottomed boat carrying local hospitality workers capsized Monday during a tour of an historic underground water tunnel off the Erie Canal in the western New York city of Lockport, killing one person.“By the time I realized what happened, the boat was on top of me and I couldn’t find any air pockets or anything. And I’m just trying to, like, breathe because I’m underwater,” survivor Daniel Morrissette told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview aired Tuesday.The unidentified person who died also was trapped after the boat operated by Lockport Cave Tours capsized. Eleven people were brought to hospitals, mostly with minor injuries, according to officials.Elizabeth Morrissette told GMA people were panicking and yelling loudly as they were thrown into the water, ...

Outside of Miami court where Trump will appear, media so far outnumber protesters

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Hundreds of journalists from around the world were gathered Tuesday outside the courthouse in downtown Miami where former President Donald Trump is scheduled to make his first appearance on criminal charges he improperly held on to classified documents.Protests were scheduled for later in the day by Trump backers who have criticized the felony charges, though the number of Trump supporters and those opposing him were a fraction of the crowd compared with the media in attendance Tuesday morning. Journalists from China, the UK, Australia, France, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland were among the hundreds of journalists who have converged on the courthouse. Some of them have spent several days camped out in the muggy heat.Security was tight. A yellow-tape police line and about a half-dozen federal police vehicles formed a barricade, keeping people from a palm tree-lined breezeway and the public entrance to the modern, largely glass Wilkie D. Ferguson federal ...

Officers announce ‘all-clear’ after investigating suspicious device outside federal courthouse in Miami

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

The City of Miami Police officers investigated a suspicious device outside the federal courthouse where former President Donald Trump is set to arrive, Tuesday. Less than an hour later officers gave the all-clear.https://twitter.com/nlinsalataon7/status/1668645339308466177?s=20Officers were on the scene as they searched a flat-screen television outside of the building that had suspicious wires poking out of the back. https://twitter.com/nlinsalataon7/status/1668631739596681216Officials said the TV was tied to a pole before they began their inspection.The City of Miami Police assisted Homeland Security in the investigation.https://twitter.com/MiamiPD/status/1668642303131492366?s=20The City of Miami Police Department gave the all-clear just before noon.

CIA warned Ukraine not to blow up Nord Stream, reports say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

The CIA warned Ukraine not to destroy Nord Stream months before an attack on the gas pipelines, after receiving a tip from Dutch military intelligence, according to media reports.The Netherlands’ military intelligence agency, MIVD, received information about an “imminent attack” on Nord Stream from an unnamed source in Ukraine in June, three months before a series of underwater explosions hit the pipes last September, a joint investigation by Dutch and German news outlets published Tuesday shows.According to the plan received by MIVD, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, was in charge of the operation against Nord Stream, which involved a small team of divers traveling on a sailing boat and was supposed to take place mid-June 2022.The Dutch intelligence services then informed the U.S., who made contact with Ukraine via the CIA to warn them off, the reports say.The Dutch government and MIVD declined to comment to NOS, Die Ze...

Mass. Hospitals Report “Major Distress” In Clogged Care System

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

Patients who no longer need expensive, acute care in hospitals are nonetheless occupying 15 percent of medical-surgical beds in Massachusetts as they wait for discharge plans, causing a chain reaction in the system that requires other patients to get stuck in emergency rooms, according to a new report. The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association report said nearly one of every seven medical-surgical beds in the state are occupied by patients who are ready to be discharged but are waiting for spots to open in a post-acute care facility, a community-based setting, or a psychiatric unit. “Hospital case managers are spending endless hours and dozens of phone calls trying to get patients to the next level of care they need,” said Amanda Ford of Lowell General Hospital. “But the obstacles have become so numerous and so intense that it sometimes feels like an impossible task. We want to share a glimpse into this crisis and the solutions that have been identified f...

Charges dismissed against man shot by New Hampshire state troopers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

OSSIPEE, N.H. (AP) — A judge has dismissed multiple charges against a man who was wounded during a confrontation with three state troopers in 2019.The charges, including criminal threatening and reckless conduct, were dismissed against John Swanson, 57, following a competency hearing, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said in a news release Monday.He had been charged by the Carroll County Attorney’s office after police said he had threatened them and that they heard gunshots from his house when they tried to arrest him.Police showed up to Swanson’s home in Ossipee in November 2019 to arrest him after he allegedly phoned in threats to police, according to a report from the attorney general’s office. But he refused to come out and they heard gunshots coming from the house. The report said Swanson came out with a loaded rifle, and that’s when the three troopers fired, wounding him in the shoulder, forearm, and buttocks. He survived. No one els...

Grocery prices are rising in America again. Here’s what got more expensive

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:38:36 GMT

New York (CNN) — US grocery prices ticked up in May after dipping in March and April. Inflation in America continued to fall significantly, but rising prices at the supermarket is unwelcome news to those struggling to pay for food.From April to May, adjusted for seasonal swings, grocery prices got 0.1% more expensive, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation. Menu items got 0.5% in that time.Overall, grocery prices were 5.8% more expensive in May than they were a year ago. Menu prices have risen 8.3% over the past year. Together, food prices jumped 6.7% throughout the year, once again outpacing overall annual inflation, which came in at 4%.Certain food items got quite a bit more expensive over the course of the year.Margarine spiked 22.5%, flour jumped 17.1%, bread spiked 12.5% and sugar rose 11.1%. Meanwhile, juice and other nonalcoholic drinks popped 9.9%, lettuce went up 9.4%, ham grew 8....