Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Since it first emerged that Michael T. Flynn had repeated phone conversations last December with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, one of the most significant unanswered questions has been what transition team officials and Donald J. Trump, then the president-elect, knew about the calls.

The documents made public on Friday show that the transition team knew that Mr. Flynn was going to be discussing sanctions with the then ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, and raise new questions about what President-elect Trump knew about the conversations.

Here are some key dates around the conversation and the subsequent fallout that offer insight on what the transition team knew at the time:

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/politics/flynn-russia-sanctions.html

Source: The Hill

An attorney for Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said Friday that the embattled congressman would make a decision in the coming days about whether to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment.

"We will discuss in the next day or so what Mr. Conyers plans to do," Arnold Reed, a lawyer for Conyers, said at a news conference in Michigan, where the longest-serving current House member was hospitalized for stress this week.

"As you know, his health is not the best, is not what it should be. He has undergone a second round of examinations. I will meet and confer with doctors and it will be Congressman John Conyers who will be the one to decide what it is he’s going to do," Reed added.

In recent days, Conyers has faced mounting calls from his fellow lawyers to resign.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/362822-conyers-will-decide-in-coming-days-whether-to-resign

By Garrison Keillor November 28 at 8:08 PM
My friend Pastor B.D. Christensen said something so good Sunday morning that I woke up and wrote it down: “[something something] . . . about making peace with the mistakes of the past [blah blah blah] and learning from them. It’s slippery ground, in general, to judge past actions by present standards and with a benefit of hindsight that is, morally, highly questionable.”

And immediately I thought about the Minneapolis Park Board voting to rename Lake Calhoun as Lake Bde Maka Ska because the man for whom it was named back in the early 1820s was a slavery enthusiast from South Carolina and an author of the Indian Removal Act and also, judging from his pictures, ugly as a mud fence.

Renaming is a slippery business. I knew a Cheryl back in 1969 who became Saffron and it didn’t work out and a few years later she resumed her Cherylness. The Triborough Bridge in New York City was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, but if you were to ask directions to that bridge, you might wind up in Pennsylvania, a state named for the common pencil. This will happen with Lake Bde Maka Ska. The name will appear on signage, but when people look at that body of water, they will think “Calhoun.” The effect of this on the slave trade in Minneapolis will be slight.

On the other hand, Jean-Louis Kerouac did well to rename himself Jack. A Jean-Louis would be unlikely to write “On the Road” but a Jack Kerouac — the road was right up his alley. In 1963, Idlewild Airport on Long Island was renamed JFK, which stuck, thanks to the clumsiness of “Idlewild” — no large airport is idle, and airline passengers do not care to think of aviation in terms of wildness — and besides that, “JFK” rhymes. Fine and good. And back in the 18th century, Francois-Marie Arouet did a smart thing by taking the pen name Voltaire.

more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/al-franken-should-resign-thats-absurd/2017/11/28/d33e2d8a-d482-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html?utm_term=.5285680b414c

Source: The Hill

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) on Wednesday became the third Democratic lawmaker to openly call for Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to resign amid sexual misconduct allegations.

In an interview on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," Blumenauer said that while Conyers must be the one to make the decision, he believes that the current longest-serving congressman should step down.

"Obviously that's his decision, but I would think he should," Blumenauer said.

BuzzFeed News first reported earlier this month that Conyers had settled a wrongful dismissal complaint with a former employee who alleged that she was fired because she rebuffed his sexual advances.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/362337-third-house-dem-calls-for-conyers-to-resign

Source: Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE – Florida Democratic Party chairman Stephen Bittel is stepping down after a report detailing the hostile and “creepy” work environment he created for women.

“When my personal situation becomes distracting to our core mission of electing Democrats and making Florida better, it is time for me to step aside,” Bittel wrote in a statement posted on the FDP’s Twitter feed. “I am proud of what we have built as a Party and the wins we have had for Florida families, but I apologize for all who have felt uncomfortable during my tenure at the Democratic Party.”

The effective date of the resignation isn’t set, but Bittel said he would work with the FDP to set a date to elect his successor.

A Politico report published Friday morning detailed claims from six anonymous former staffers and consultants that he made inappropriate comments, ogled them and invited them to his house and on his private jet. He also kept breast-shaped stress balls at his desk, which he said was a gag gift from a female former general counsel.

Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-fdp-chair-bittel-resign-20171117-story.html

The 23-year-old mayor of Mount Carbon was found dead early Thursday and many remembered him as an energetic member of the community.

Details of Brandon M. Wentz’s death were not released Thursday. State police Trooper David Beohm, public information officer for Troop L, Reading, said he had no information to provide.

Schuylkill County Deputy Coroner Albert Barnes said he pronounced Wentz dead at 7:58 a.m. Thursday. Barnes declined to provide additional information.

“I was asked by state police not to comment,” Barnes said. “Next of kin has been notified.”

more: http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-mount-carbon-mayor-brandon-wentz-dies-20171110-story.html

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The New York premiere of Louis C.K.'s upcoming film, I Love You, Daddy, set for Thursday, has been canceled. Reps for the premiere, due to take place at the Paris Theatre, cited "unexpected circumstances."

A source tells The Hollywood Reporter that a New York Times story on the comedian is about to break, and the premiere was canceled in case it is damaging. Additionally, Louis C.K.'s planned appearance on CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was also canceled, with William H. Macy taking his place.

Louis C.K. wrote, directed and stars in I Love You, Daddy. The comedy-drama tells the story of a successful TV writer-producer who attempts to stop his 17-year-old daughter's (Chloe Grace Moretz) growing admiration and relationship with a 68-year-old filmmaker (John Malkovich). The film also stars Pamela Adlon, Rose Byrne, Charlie Day, Edie Falco and Helen Hunt.

C.K. shot the film entirely in secret last June. He also financed the project and edited it as well. Dave Becky of 3 Arts produced the film alongside C.K., Vernon Chatman, Ryan Cunningham and John Skidmore. Tony Hernandez executive produced.

Read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/louis-cks-movie-premiere-canceled-advance-ny-times-story-1056585

Source: The Hill

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on Sunday that he would vote against the Republican tax-reform plan if it increases the debt too much.

"I am a no. I want to make sure we have reasonable assumptions in the process for growth estimates," Lankford told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press."

"I’m actually not comfortable with increasing the debt. This is something that’s been a behind-the-scenes conversation for a long time. It’s one thing to be able to cut taxes, it’s another thing to be able to say, ‘how are we going to deal with our debt and deficit?’" he continued.

Lankford's comments come after House Republicans introduced their tax-reform plan last week. It is expected to pass through the lower chamber, but face more opposition in the upper chamber.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/358845-gop-senator-i-am-a-no-if-tax-plan-increases-debt-too-much

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I'm waiting for Trump once again call for the end of the filibuster after one of these bills can't even get 50 votes in the Senate.

Source: Politico

TALLAHASSEE — Six women who work in Florida’s Capitol say the state Senate’s powerful budget chairman, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Latvala, has inappropriately touched them without their consent or uttered demeaning remarks about their bodies.

The women, who include Senate staff and lobbyists affiliated with both major parties, told POLITICO Florida they did not want to be identified for fear of losing their jobs, getting a bad reputation in the male-dominated Capitol or running afoul of an influential politician who can kill their clients’ issues. The incidents, they said, occurred over a period of several years, happening in the privacy of Latvala’s Senate office or in public places like the Capitol rotunda, a bar or an elevator.

Latvala has denied ever sexually harassing anyone and, when asked a general question by a reporter on Thursday about whether sexual harassment is a problem in the Florida Senate, said he’s never even been formally accused of it. After Latvala made his remarks, five of the six women decided to speak with POLITICO Florida to say they were harassed. Five say the harassment was physical. One woman, a Republican Senate staffer, who spoke to POLITICO Florida earlier this week, cried in recounting her story.

Latvala, in an interview on Friday with POLITICO Florida, pointed to the fact that in 16 years in the Senate he has never had a complaint filed against him.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2017/11/03/six-women-accuse-florida-senate-budget-chair-of-groping-sexual-harassment-115479

Source: Huffington Post

A major national progressive group on Thursday denounced Ralph Northam, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, as “gutless” and “racist” for his remarks on immigration ― plunging Democrats into a bitter internecine squabble ahead of statewide elections on Tuesday.

In a Wednesday interview with Norfolk, Virginia, TV news channel WAVY, Northam said he would sign a bill banning so-called “sanctuary cities,” or municipalities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities, should any Virginia locality pursue that status in the future.

Northam’s opponent, Republican Ed Gillespie, has run a series of misleading ads attacking Northam for a vote as lieutenant governor blocking a bill that would have preemptively banned municipalities from adopting these limits ― though Gillespie himself has acknowledged that no sanctuary cities exist in Virginia as of yet.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday night after an event with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, Northam claimed that he simply opposed preemptively banning sanctuary cities, and that his comments to WAVY were “what I’ve been saying all along.”

Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dfa-ralph-northam-virginia-governors-race_us_59fc9562e4b0415a420b7623