FBI suspects Russians hacked 'at least one' Florida county, Mueller report says

The FBI believes that Russian hackers were able to breach “at least one” Florida county government through a spearphishing campaign targeting local election officials, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

Mueller’s team “did not independent verify that belief,” the report said, because DHS and the FBI were already investigating the attempted intrusions into election offices and voting technology companies.

Last August, then-Florida Sen. Bill Nelson faced criticism for saying cryptically that the Russians had accessed his state’s voter data.

The Russian hackers sent spearphishing emails to more than 120 email accounts operated by Florida county election officials, according to the redacted report.

The report offers specific figures for several previously revealed elements of the hacking campaign. For example, the Russian hackers compromised 29 different computers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and stole more than 70 gigabytes of files from the group’s shared file server.



https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/18/fbi-russians-hacked-florida-vote-mueller-report-1281159

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San Francisco treasure 'Beach Blanket Babylon' to close after 45 years

For 45 years, the team at “Beach Blanket Babylon” has donned enormous hats and skewered politics and pop culture in a campy musical revue in a snug North Beach theater. The beloved show has become so ingrained in San Francisco culture that many rank it alongside the Golden Gate Bridge and cable cars.

Though seemingly tireless, the decades-long production will finally come to an end this year, taking its last two curtain calls on New Year’s Eve.

Timeline: ‘Beach Blanket Babylon’ from street theater to Queen Elizabeth to the Oscars

Producer Jo Schuman Silver announced the news to her staff of 85 before curtain on Wednesday, April 17. The show’s ending not for financial reasons, but because Schuman Silver felt that it was time and didn’t feel comfortable handing it off to a successor. She’s run “Beach Blanket” since the 1995 death of Steve Silver, the show’s creator and her husband.

“There was no reason — I just started thinking, ‘Wow, how much longer do we go?’ ” she said. She’s fond of saying that Steve Silver thought the show would last just six weeks. The show’s first review in The Chronicle, from 1974, notes that it was “scheduled for two more weekends.” Now it’s the longest-running musical revue on the planet.



https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/sf-treasure-beach-blanket-babylon-to-close-after-45-years

Atlanta meteorologist got death threats after station cut to tornado warnings from the Masters

A meteorologist in Atlanta said she received death threats after her local CBS affiliate station cut from coverage of the Masters on Sunday to broadcast updates about a tornado warning.

"To everyone sending me death threats right now: you wouldn’t be saying a damn thing if a tornado was ravaging your home this afternoon," the meteorologist, Ella Dorsey, wrote Sunday on Twitter.

"Lives are more important than 5 minutes of golf. I will continue to repeat that if and when we cut into programming to keep people safe," Dorsey added.

Dorsey also told weather.com that the reactions the station received were "disgusting."

"The feedback that we got — the backlash that we got — the hatred that we got from that — from that 10 minutes of being on air to keep people safe was unreal," Dorsey said. "It was disgusting."

Dorsey added that she "would do it a hundred times over" if it meant possibly saving a life.

"If I could save one life or help one family get out of danger, I would do it a hundred times over and get that hate a hundred times over because that's the pinnacle of our job ... to keep people safe," she said.


https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/439259-atlanta-meteorologist-got-death-threats-after-station-cut-to?__twitter_impression=true

Madonna - Take A Bow

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Beto O'Rourke releases 10 years of tax returns

ormer congressman Beto O’Rourke released 10 years’ worth of tax returns Monday night, becoming the latest 2020 presidential contender to reveal information about his personal finances.

The Democratic candidate’s disclosure came shortly after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is also running for president, released his tax returns dating back to 2009.

The returns show that O’Rourke and his wife, Amy, made more than $370,000 in 2017, the most recent year for which they released returns. That amount includes O’Rourke’s $162,211 salary as a member of Congress representing Texas and more than $11,000 from Stanton Street Technology, an El Paso-based Internet company O’Rourke co-founded in 1999.

It also includes about $53,000 in income from the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, or CREEED. Amy O’Rourke has worked as a consultant for the philanthropic organization, which aims to improve the academic performance of students in the El Paso area.

Earlier in the day, O’Rourke told reporters that he would release his tax returns in an effort to be transparent with voters — and he criticized President Trump for not doing the same.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/beto-orourke-releases-10-years-of-tax-returns/2019/04/15/02775ee6-5fd3-11e9-bfad-36a7eb36cb60_story.html?utm_term=.07f6fe95cdbd

GoT Prediction: Arya Stark will sit on the Iron Throne come season's end

Arya has been the ultimate survivor, using her enemies to her greatest advantage, taking their lessons and dispatching them along the way. What do you think?

Trump's 2020 Campaign Raises Over $30 Million in First Quarter

President Trump raised more than $30 million for his re-election in the first three months of 2019 and now sits atop more than $40 million, his campaign said on Sunday.

Mr. Trump’s campaign — which has set an ambitious $1 billion goal for the 2020 race — launched an aggressive fund-raising push earlier than his predecessors. The campaign has already installed a headquarters in Northern Virginia and is combining a push for both big donations and small contributions online.

Nearly 99 percent of the donations in the first quarter were for $200 or less, according to the campaign, with an average contribution of just over $34.

Some Democrats are concerned that Mr. Trump will spend the next year amassing a war chest as Democrats fight among themselves in a primary now featuring nearly 20 candidates. Mr. Trump’s $30 million haul is about the size of what Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris — the top two Democratic fund-raisers so far in the 2020 field — raised combined in the first quarter.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/us/politics/trump-2020-fundraising.html

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