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Flake booed at festival after joking, 'Feel free to join me in an elevator anytime'

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) was booed Saturday after he appeared to poke fun at his confrontation with an alleged victim of sexual assault the day before as he tried to enter an elevator.

Flake joined Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) onstage at the Global Citizens Festival to support bipartisan leadership on foreign aid, according to MSNBC.

While delivering remarks at the festival, Flake discussed how their personal relationship helped make the “politics of compromise that prevailed” on Friday.

The Arizona Republican was referring to the deal he secured with the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay a floor vote on the nomination for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court for the FBI to investigate the sexual assault allegations against him.




https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/409108-flake-booed-at-festival-after-joking-feel-free-to-join-me-in-an

TX-32: Pete Sessions begins TV air war to fend off Colin Allred

Incumbent Republican Pete Sessions on Saturday dropped his first television ad in the hotly contested race against Democrat Colin Allred in North Texas' 32nd Congressional District.

Titled "Arrows," the 30-second ad contends that Sessions is under attack in the mostly Dallas County district because Democrats want "revenge" for the 2010 Republican takeover of the House that Sessions led as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

"They want revenge cause I ran the campaign that removed Nancy Pelosi as speaker," Sessions says in the ad.

Throughout the campaign, Sessions has been trying to link Allred to House Minority Leader Pelosi, who is expected to be the leading candidate for House speaker if Democrats win the majority in November.

Allred, 35, has not said whom he would support for speaker if he indeed beats Sessions in the general election.
Allred, the Dallas lawyer and former NFL player, started his television ad campaign earlier this month.


https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2018-elections/2018/09/29/incumbent-pete-sessions-begins-tv-air-war-democrat-colin-allred-32nd-congressional-district?utm_content=bufferbe638&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer


COLLIN ALRED





https://www.colinallred.com

NH-GOV: Democrat Molly Kelly closing in on Scott Sununu

Kavanugh lied under oath about Yale connections.

In a rare move, the ACLU official opposes Kavanaugh

NEW YORK — In the wake of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s sworn testimony of sexual abuse at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh, the American Civil Liberties Union has announced its opposition to his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As a matter of organizational policy, the ACLU does not support or oppose candidates for political or judicial office. In this instance, the national board held an extraordinary meeting, and has chosen to make an exception to that policy.

“The ACLU’s board of directors, deeply concerned by the allegations raised in recent weeks, has made a rare exception to its longstanding policy and voted to oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” said Susan Herman, president of the ACLU.

The ACLU’s national board of directors passed a resolution stating:

The FBI cannot ask the supermarket that employed Judge for records.

NV-GOV: Records show Adam Laxalt was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer as a teen

Republican governor nominee Adam Laxalt was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer in June 1996, according to police report summaries obtained by the Reno Gazette Journal.

Records show Nevada’s attorney general, then a 17-year-old living in Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested along with a woman charged with underage possession of alcohol.

The GOP governor hopeful, who was born in Reno but raised in Alexandria, told the RGJ he was drinking underage at the woman's house when police were called to the home.

"When I was 17, I was at a friend’s house, when police suddenly started to enter and I reacted the wrong way—trying to keep them from coming in and asking for a warrant," Laxalt said. "Today, as a law enforcement officer, I understand they were just doing their jobs.

"If I could go back and knock some sense into that drunk teenager I would. As a result of this and other incidents with alcohol, I got sober at 18, found God, and put my life back on track."


https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/28/records-show-adam-laxalt-arrested-assault-charge-teenager/1433833002/



Steve Sisolak






https://stevesisolak.com

West Virginia poverty gets worse under Trump economy, not better

West Virginia has a growing poverty problem, and experts there who study the issue say Americans in every state should pay attention.

The Appalachian state is, along with Delaware, just one of two states where poverty rose last year, bucking the national trend of growing incomes and declining hardship, according to U.S. Census data released earlier this month. West Virginia's poverty rate climbed to 19.1 percent last year from 17.9 percent, making it just one of four states with a poverty rate above 18 percent.

President Donald Trump plans to visit West Virginia on Saturday, when he's expected to tout his economic accomplishments. The president has said he's "very proud" of the state and claimed that he "turned West Virginia around." His administration has focused on reviving jobs in the coal industry, which has added about 2,000 jobs across the U.S. since Mr. Trump's inauguration.

Mr. Trump has boasted about the state's GDP growth, but its economy grew by 1.3 percent in the first quarter, or 37th in the nation and lagging the national rate of 1.8 percent, according to government data. It had fared better in 2017: up 2.6 percent for the year, tenth among the 50 states, compared with 2.1 percent for the nation.

Coal "is a potent message," but it overlooks the reality of West Virginia's economy, said Sean O'Leary, senior policy analyst of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. "The growth we've had is in low-wage industries. Folks who find jobs haven't found jobs that keep them out of poverty."

Jobs in low-wage industries have grown 14.5 percent since 2001 in West Virginia, compared with a decline of 2.8 percent in jobs that pay higher wages during the same time, according to the WVCBP's figures. The state has about 22,000 people employed in mining and logging, compared with 131,000 education and health care workers and 155,000 government workers, two of the biggest industries in the state, according to government data.

West Virginia's dismal trends point to an economic issue that's impacting states across the country: Workers at the bottom of the pay scale aren't benefiting from the growing economy. Their issues range from low pay to unstable and scanty work hours, which makes it difficult to earn a living wage. Almost one in four West Virginians is employed in a low-wage job, the WVCBP found.



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/west-virginia-poverty-gets-worse-under-trump-economy-not-better/

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