TAMPA — Military exchanges like the one at MacDill Air Force Base have long offered big savings to active-duty troops, military retirees and their families.

Starting Saturday, Veterans Day, deals like 25 percent off on watches, 30 percent off smokers and $70 off an HP laptop will be available to a whole lot more people worldwide — anyone, in fact, who has ever been honorably discharged from the military.

In the Tampa Bay area, the expansion is projected to boost the customer base from about 140,000 now to some 380,000 — and increase the exchange’s local economic impact from about $35 million annually to $100 million over the next five years.

"This includes salaries and businesses that support the exchanges," said Tom Shull, director and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based Army and Air Force Exchange Service. "We are looking at almost tripling the overall economic impact over a five-year period."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/macdill/Online-expansion-opens-military-exchange-to-another-240-000-shoppers-in-Tampa-Bay-area_162374110

https://twitter.com/Pappiness/status/928706416348663808

WASHINGTON — After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to "send five women" to Donald Trump's hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview.

Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, "We don't do that type of stuff."

The two sources said Schiller's comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the Trump dossier, written by a former British intelligence operative, which describes Trump having an encounter with prostitutes at the hotel during the pageant. Schiller he described his reaction to that story as being, "Oh my God, that's bull----," two sources said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-bodyguard-testifies-russian-offered-trump-women-was-turned-down-n819386

Former Trump advisers are getting buried in legal fees — and some want help from Trump's re-election campaign

Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone blasted out a 1,600-word statement this week asking for help paying the nearly $460,000 worth of legal fees he has incurred since landing in the crosshairs of the federal and congressional Russia investigations.

In the emailed statement, Stone attacked special counsel Robert Mueller as a "deep state vigilante" and "deep state executioner" who "is busy casting about for anything he can latch onto."

Stone, whose contact with Russia-linked hacker Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the election have come under scrutiny has part of the Russia probes, said it cost him $400,000 in legal fees to prepare for his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last month.

http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-legal-fees-trump-russia-2017-11

Waiting in the airport can be a real drag, especially if your flight is delayed. Killing time in them can also be pretty expensive, whether you're burning through mobile data on your phone or crushing drinks at the airport bar. It might be tempting to pay for an hour of internet access while you're waiting, but you might want to check out this map first.

Travel blogger, computer security engineer, and internet Robin Hood Anil Polat has put together an amazingly helpful map that provides the Wi-Fi passwords of most airports. Simply click on the corresponding blue airplane icon, and you can get the password and sometimes some tips about where the strongest connection can be found. The map is continuously updating, so you don't have to worry about the airports getting wise. Now you can get on Twitter to complain about your delayed flight without breaking the bank.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/87149/interactive-map-gives-wi-fi-codes-airports-around-world

The Foreign Affairs Minister is making it clear he's not happy with Japan's continued hunting of whales in the Southern Ocean.

Winston Peters is at the APEC meeting in Vietnam, alongside world leaders and representatives including Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He's today released a statement condemning the killing of whales by Japan for research.

Peters said the world's calling for greater protection of the ocean's ecosystems, while Japan's whaling vessels head to the Antarctic to hunt over three hundred minke whales.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/peters-picking-a-fight-with-japan-over-whaling/

(CNN)A Miami private school is offering parents an unusual item for sale: bulletproof panels for their kids' backpacks.

The Florida Christian School website has a list of items available for purchase. These include winter wear, red school logo T-shirts and ballistic panels.

George Gulla, dean of students and head of school security at Florida Christian School, told CNN the bulletproof panels would add "another level of protection" to students of the pre-K through grade 12 school "in the event of an active shooter."
The school has never had a shooting incident.

"The teachers are trained to instruct the students to use their backpacks as a shield to protect themselves," Gulla told CNN in an email.

The cost of the panels is $120.

Gulla also said showing teachers how to use the panels is just a part of the overall safety training he gives them.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/health/bulletproof-panels-backpacks-trnd/index.html?sr=twCNN110717bulletproof-panels-backpacks-trnd0459PMStory

Of all the asinine crap, @FoxNews has hired genuine Nazi and #FakeTerrorismExpert @sebgorka. Not even pretending to be news anymore.

https://twitter.com/Montel_Williams/status/928435985297354752

WASHINGTON
The Tuesday night rout of Republican candidates up and down the ballot has triggered alarm bells in Republican circles that a deteriorating political environment could set in motion a Democratic wave in the 2018 midterm elections.

The most dramatic results unfolded in Virginia, where Democrats swept up victories in the governor’s race and delegate contests across the state, fueled by suburban voters who once favored Republicans. But it wasn’t just Virginia: Democrats won the New Jersey governor’s mansion and in several suburban Philadelphia counties, where they nabbed local offices that have long been controlled by the GOP.

“I had an expectation that it would be tight, I did not expect it to break as dramatically as it did,” said Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican who represents suburban Philadelphia’s Chester County, where Democrats notched unprecedented local wins. “It is largely driven by mainstream Republicans and independents being displeased by the tone and style of the administration, coupled with an historic off-year intensity by Democratic voters who wanted to make a statement. This is their first opportunity to do that.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article183451431.html

So a woman ran against him and won

Ashley Bennett, 32, a psychiatric emergency screener from Egg Harbor Township who showed up at an Atlantic County Freeholder’s meeting to protest comments made by Freeholder John Carman mocking the Women’s March, and then decided to run for his seat, knocked Carman off the board Tuesday.

Carman’s sharing of a facebook meme – “Will the women’s march end in time for them to cook dinner?” – brought scores of women to protest at the obscure county board, one bearing a box of mac and cheese and instructions for Carman to cook his own dinner. And it brought him national attention, including most recently being ridiculed on an episode of the podcast Lovett or Leave It featuring U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand reading sexist quotes.

Carman said he was just joking around, but it was Bennett, a Democratic challenger in a Republican stronghold district, who had the last laugh, defeating him Tuesday by nearly 1,000 votes out of about 14,000 cast for the seat on the New Jersey legislative body known as the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Bennett’s decision to run was embraced by progressive national groups like “Run for Something” which has been recruiting millennials to run for down ballot offices. She was the toast of twitter early Wednesday.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/shore/run-for-something-ashley-bennett-womens-march-dinner-john-carmam-atlantic-county-freeholder-20171108.html