February 12, 2020

Victories, defeats in New Hampshire set stage for Nevada's first in the West caucus

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders again emerged victorious from New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary on Tuesday evening, after sweeping the state during his first presidential run four years ago.

But former South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg was close on Sanders’ heels in the Granite State, emerging from the primary with about 24.4 percent support to the Vermont senator’s 25.8 percent as of early Wednesday morning. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, in an upset, clinched third place, with 19.8 percent of the vote — beating out both Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who came in at 9.3 percent, and former Vice President Joe Biden, with 8.4 percent.

Sanders, in a primary night speech at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, declared victory a second time. Though the results out of Iowa’s first in the nation caucus last week are still in limbo, Sanders appears to have won the popular vote in that contest even as Buttigieg edged him in securing more delegates to the national convention.

“The reason that we won tonight in New Hampshire, we won last week in Iowa, is because of the hard work of so many volunteers,” Sanders told the crowd of about 1,200 that had packed into the university’s field house. “Let me tell you that this victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.”

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/victories-defeats-in-new-hampshire-set-the-stage-for-nevadas-first-in-the-west-caucus

February 12, 2020

Proposed buyer for SC-owned Santee Cooper would cut 700 jobs, acquire debt

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina lawmakers now have three options for deciding the fate of Santee Cooper, the state-owned utility that racked up $4 billion in debt associated with a failed nuclear construction project in Fairfield County.

The most far-reaching of the three proposals unveiled Tuesday would sell Santee Cooper to NextEra, a Florida-based electric utility giant, for a complex multi-billion dollar package of cash, acquisition of present and future debt and a pledge for a four-year freeze in electric rates to Santee Cooper’s 2 million ratepayers. Santee Cooper generates about $1.9 billion in revenue each year.

NextEra’s proposal would also result in reducing Santee Cooper’s current workforce of 1,675 employees to 970 by 2025 — a laying off of 705 employees.

The second proposal was from Dominion Energy, another energy giant, which proposes to keep Santee Cooper largely intact but managed by Dominion.

Read more: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article239948898.html

February 12, 2020

Tom Steyer tries to convert intrigue into votes ahead of SC's 2020 Democratic primary

ROCK HILL — Like many Democratic voters in South Carolina, Tabitha Strother has seen the many campaign ads for businessman Tom Steyer that have inundated televisions across the Palmetto State in recent months and they have caught her attention.

But as she considers whom to vote for in the “First in the South” primary, an unconvinced Strother wanted Steyer to tell her why she should ditch her first choice of former Vice President Joe Biden.

Steyer responded during a lunchtime stop Monday in Chester that he didn’t want to say anything disrespectful about Biden. But, the billionaire former hedge fund manager added, if Democrats want to defeat President Donald Trump, it may require a nominee from outside of the Washington political establishment.

“Trump has had great success against conventional politicians,” Steyer said, pointing to Trump’s 2016 victories over Democrat Hillary Clinton and several well-known Republican primary challengers. “So, aren’t we going to have to come up with something unconventional to beat him?”

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/tom-steyer-tries-to-convert-intrigue-into-votes-ahead-of/article_50cae830-4c52-11ea-9de4-d3625f0451c0.html

February 12, 2020

Biden rallies SC backers after NH setback: 'It ain't over man. We're just getting started'

COLUMBIA — As votes were tallied up Tuesday night in New Hampshire showing Joe Biden far behind some of his Democratic primary rivals, the former vice president stood more than 900 miles away, rallying his South Carolina supporters to keep the faith.

Biden told a jubilant crowd in Columbia to look ahead to the next two states --the Nevada caucus and South Carolina primary -- which offer the first tests for candidates among Hispanic and African American voters, respectively.

“We just heard from the first two of the 50 states,” he said. “Where I come from that’s the opening bell, not the closing bell.”

Biden’s last-minute decision to skip his New Hampshire election night party in favor of a trip to Columbia produced a stark split-screen, contrasting his deflating night in the Granite State with a still buoyant mood in South Carolina, where he remains the front-runner ahead of the Feb. 29 primary.

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/biden-rallies-sc-backers-after-nh-setback-it-ain-t/article_f3547df6-4d14-11ea-9621-b7788708731c.html

February 12, 2020

I needed that $1,000 a month

Disappointed again.

February 12, 2020

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Harrison Ford Jokingly Calls President Donald Trump a 'Son of a B----'

February 12, 2020

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Donald Trump Wins Best Picture

February 11, 2020

Beto O'Rourke's flock remains loyal while his party debates whether to move on

by Alex Samuels, Texas Tribune


In 2018, Jacqueline Westman fell in love with her first political candidate.

It was Beto O’Rourke, then a no-name congressman mounting a long-shot bid for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz. Westman, who lives in California, was so inspired by his message — “He’s the type of person who could not only help Texas, but our country,” she said — that she hosted long-distance phone banks for him and traveled to El Paso the weekend before the election to knock on doors for his campaign.

O’Rourke lost, but Westman stuck around. When the 47-year-old ex-congressman launched a presidential bid, Westman joined a 50-plus person team of loyalists known as Beto Road Warriors, who paid out of pocket to follow him across the country to campaign on his behalf. Westman visited seven states.

“It’s like Willie Nelson said, ‘Anything he wants to do, I’m with Beto,’” said Westman, a 32-year-old fashion designer.

No Texas politician has a fiercely loyal following quite like O’Rourke’s. His fans often compare him to Barack Obama circa 2008: a handsome, hopeful young Democrat with a precocious political rise and an optimistic message. In O’Rourke, who got within 3 percentage points of beating Cruz in 2018, they see something of a messiah who could usher in a new, blue era for Texas.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/11/beto-orourke-supporters-texas-democrats/

February 11, 2020

Texas asks U.S. Supreme Court to end California law banning state-funded travel

by Emma Platoff, Texas Tribune


Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to strike down a 2016 California law that bans state-funded travel to states with discriminatory laws — a list Texas landed on nearly three years ago after the Legislature approved a religious-refusal law for adoptions in the state.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose office maintains a list of qualifying discriminatory laws, said in June 2017 that the Texas law "allows foster care agencies to discriminate against children in foster care and potentially disqualify LGBT families from the state’s foster and adoption system." The ban prevents California agencies, public universities and boards from funding work-related trips to Texas.

Paxton, who has made religious liberty a top priority of his office, criticized the California statute as an unconstitutional and misguided attempt to police other states.

“California is attempting to punish Texans for respecting the right of conscience for foster care and adoption providers,” he said.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/10/texas-asks-scotus-strike-down-california-law-banning-state-travel/

February 11, 2020

Florida man threatens to destroy everyone with army of turtles, police say

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A man yelling obscenities, calling himself a saint and threatening to send his turtle army to destroy everyone has been arrested, according to an affidavit from the Indialantic Police Department.

Officers responded to at least seven calls about disturbances at Starbucks Coffee, Surfanista Café and Sassy Granny’s Smoothies along N. Miramar Avenue.

Thomas Devaney Lane, 61, went with an officer to the police department, where he yelled at the dispatcher in the lobby while pounding on the walls and glass, police said.

Lane then left the department but was later located at a 7-Eleven on Fifth Avenue.

As an officer stood by, Lane called 911 and told the operator, “I need to leave now or you will all be sorry you (expletive) with the saint,” according to the affidavit.

Read more: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2019/04/12/florida-man-threatens-to-destroy-everyone-with-army-of-turtles-police-say/