Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly from Indiana awkwardly touted minority staff members during a debate Tuesday night, seeming to suggest they succeeded despite their race or ethnicity.

"Our state director is Indian-American, but he does an amazing job," he said. "Our director of all constituent services, she's African-American, but she does an even more incredible job than you can ever imagine."

Donnelly is one of the Senate's most endangered incumbents. He is facing Republican challenger Mike Braun in next week's midterm election.

His comment Tuesday night came in the context of a question about diversity.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/joe-donnelly-but-awkward-moment-diversity/index.html

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) — Michael Avenatti said the Democratic Party's choice to take on President Donald Trump in 2020 should be a white man, according to an interview with Time magazine published Thursday.

"I think it better be a white male," Avenatti, a 2020 potential candidate himself, said.

Avenatti said in the piece that he wished it was not the case that white men, as he and Trump are, are listened to more than people of other races and genders, but that he believed his identity was part of why he had been able to defend adult film star Stormy Daniels and immigrant mothers.

"When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight," Avenatti said. "Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes."

Read more: https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/10/25/politics/michael-avenatti-time/index.html?utm_source=fbCNN&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2018-10-25T18%3A29%3A06&utm_term=link&r=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F

Source: Tampa Bay Times

The Hillsborough County Republican Party's dinner with former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon is now free.

Party vice chairman Jeff Lukens sent an email to members of the local party Monday saying, "The Trump Anniversary Dinner with Steve Bannon this Friday will be COMPLEMENTARY TO ALL. We have a donor who will cover our expenses."

The party had previously advertised the dinner, to be held Friday night, as a fundraiser with prices up to $20,000 for 10 seats of premier seating at a table with Bannon, VIP tickets at $1,000 each, and general admission at $125.

Last week it cut the prices to $5,000 for the 10 "chairman's table" seats with Bannon, $300 for VIP seats, and general admission at $50. Announcing the price cuts, the party said in a Facebook posting, "We want to pack the house!!!"

Read more: The Hillsborough County Republican Party's dinner with former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon is now free. Party vice chairman Jeff Lukens sent an email to members of the local party Monday saying, "The Trump Anniversary Dinner with Steve Bannon this Friday will be COMPLEMENTARY TO ALL. We have a donor who will cover our expenses." The party had previously advertised the dinner, to be held Friday night, as a fundraiser with prices up to $20,000 for 10 seats of premier seating at a table with Bannon, VIP tickets at $1,000 each, and general admission at $125. Last week it cut the prices to $5,000 for the 10 "chairman's table" seats with Bannon, $300 for VIP seats, and general admission at $50. Announcing the price cuts, the party said in a Facebook posting, "We want to pack the house!!!"

Source: CBS News

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — An Ecuadorian pizza deliveryman who was held up as an example of zealous U.S. immigration enforcement has been arrested in a domestic violence case. A criminal complaint alleges that Pablo Villavicencio pushed his wife against a wall, slapped her and grabbed her phone to keep her from calling police last Thursday at the couple's Hempstead, Long Island home.

He was arraigned Saturday on a misdemeanor charge and remained jailed Monday afternoon.

Villavicencio's lawyer, Bruce Barket, said the case against him is weak and that factual allegations didn't match the crime charged.

"The criminal case is the kind of thing that really wouldn't make it two weeks in criminal court if it weren't for the attention," Barket said. "Let's see what happens."

Read more: Link to source

Source: The Hill

The Cherokee Nation on Monday afternoon called out Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for attempting to claim Native American heritage by releasing the results of a DNA test.

The test, conducted by a Stanford University professor Carlos Bustamante, showed that Warren has a Native American ancestor going back six to 10 generations ago, making her somewhere between 1/32nd and 1/1,024th American Indian.

The Cherokee Nation in a statement said using a DNA test to claim connection with a tribal nation is "inappropriate" and "wrong."

"Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong," said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. "It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven."

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/senate/411521-cherokee-nation-warrens-use-of-dna-test-inappropriate-wrong%3famp

Source: Florida Politics

A father of a child killed at Sandy Hook just sued the city of Delray Beach, accusing an employee of illegally accessing his driver’s license records.

Lenny Pozner, whose son Noah was among 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city and employee Rhea-Lyn Gerstenkorn.

The complaint says Gerstenkorn on at least three occasions illegally accessed Pozner’s personal information through Florida’s Driver and Information Database through her position at the police department.

Considering Pozner for years battled conspiracy theorists intent on proving his son never existed, he labeled such searches “unwelcome.”

Read more: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/277383-sandy-hook-father-lenny-pozner-sues-delray-beach

Source: Politico

Senate Democrats accepted an offer from Senate Republicans to confirm 15 lifetime federal judges on Thursday in exchange for the ability to go into recess through the midterms so endangered Democrats can campaign.

The calculation by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his caucus was simple: That Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be able to confirm roughly 15 judges if he kept the Senate in session for the next few weeks anyway. So Democrats OK’d an offer to confirm three Circuit Court judges and 12 Circuit Court judges as the price to pay to go home for election season.

Under Senate rules, even if Democrats fought the nominees tooth and nail and forced the Senate to burn 30 hours of debate between each one, McConnell would have gotten them all confirmed by Nov. 1. Democrats could have conceivably left a skeleton crew of senators in Washington to force the GOP to take roll call votes on the judges over the next few weeks, although that tactic is not typically employed by the minority.

Some liberal activists are urging Democrats to show more fight after Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court; Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos even said that Democrats “need a new Senate leader” after the agreement was struck. But actual senators had to weigh that dynamic along with the approaching midterms and the brutal Senate map. And with a half-dozen Democrats facing serious challenges in Senate races, it made more sense to make what Democrats said was a reasonable deal with McConnell so that they could make a serious run at saving endangered senators.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/11/senate-democrats-judges-895168?cid=apn

Source: Politico

The U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday arrested a 27-year-old man for posting addresses and private information of senators, according to the police department.

The department reported that it arrested Jackson A. Cosko for allegedly posting "private, identifying information (doxing) about one or more United States senators to the Internet." Cosko has been working as an intern in the office of Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and has been fired, according to her chief of staff Glenn Rushing.

“We're just cooperating with law enforcement right now,” Rushing said in an interview.

Cosko graduated from George Washington University in 2014 and previously worked for Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and California’s Barbara Boxer, who has since retired. Cosko most recently worked for Hassan as a "legislative correspondent/systems administrator," according to Legistorm.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/story/2018/10/03/gop-senators-doxxing-arrest-868122

Source: The Washington Post

The American Civil Liberties Union said it has spent a little more than $1 million on television advertisements to oppose President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.

The campaign, announced Monday, is another sign that the ACLU, which describes itself as a nonpartisan organization, has energized its advocacy efforts in the Trump era. Two days earlier, the group’s national board voted to oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination — something it has done only three other times in the past century.

“ACLU’s political growth and advocacy has increased since Donald Trump was elected president. We’ve had a massive growth in volunteer base and massive growth in financial resources,” said Faiz Shakir, ACLU’s national political director. “People have funded us, and I think they expect a return.”

Since Trump’s election, the ACLU said its membership has jumped from 400,000 to 1.84 million

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/2018/10/01/aclu-is-spending-more-than-million-tv-ads-comparing-kavanaugh-bill-clinton-cosby/?__twitter_impression=true