Source: The Washington Post

The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman last summer has been charged with murder and manslaughter in the shooting, which caused international outrage and forced out the city’s veteran police chief.

Mohamed Noor is charged with third-degree murder for “perpetrating an eminently dangerous act and evincing depraved mind” and second-degree manslaughter for “culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk,” according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday afternoon.

Noor was booked into jail at 11:16 a.m. on a warrant on those charges, according to charging documents. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Justine Damond, 40, was fatally shot July 15 after summoning police to what she said was a possible rape near her home.

Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/20/officer-charged-with-murder-in-shooting-death-of-unarmed-woman-in-minneapolis-alley/

Source: Politico

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is expected to appoint state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to the Senate seat being vacated next month by GOP Sen. Thad Cochran, according to multiple Republicans with knowledge of the governor's plans.

Bryant has narrowed his shortlist in recent days. He said Monday that he wouldn't appoint Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves to the seat, leaving Hyde-Smith and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann as the two most commonly mentioned names.

A press conference is scheduled for Wednesday at a train depot in Brookhaven, Hyde-Smith's hometown.

Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer, previously served in the state Senate for three terms. She is a former Democrat, having switched parties in 2010. She was first elected as agriculture commissioner in 2011 and won reelection in 2015.

Read more: www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/story/2018/03/20/cindy-hyde-smith-mississippi-senate-seat-846177#ampshare=https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/20/cindy-hyde-smith-mississippi-senate-seat-846177

Source: CNN

Three women who are suing Bill O'Reilly for defamation and breach of contract have asked a federal judge to allow their settlement agreements with the former Fox News star to be entered into the public record.

In a motion filed Tuesday with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorneys Nancy Erika Smith and Neil Mullin argued that O'Reilly's plea for the settlements to be kept under seal "should be denied outright because he has made no effort to bear his burden of proof and cited no law to support his extraordinary request."


Women in Bill O'Reilly defamation suit want settlement agreements made public
By Tom Kludt March 20, 2018: 2:25 PM ET
Three women who are suing Bill O'Reilly for defamation and breach of contract have asked a federal judge to allow their settlement agreements with the former Fox News star to be entered into the public record.

In a motion filed Tuesday with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorneys Nancy Erika Smith and Neil Mullin argued that O'Reilly's plea for the settlements to be kept under seal "should be denied outright because he has made no effort to bear his burden of proof and cited no law to support his extraordinary request."

"Courts generally do not allow the filing of documents under seal absent extraordinary circumstances," Smith and Mullin wrote. "Settlement agreements in which the parties agree to confidentiality do not merit filing under seal unless a compelling need is shown. Important constitutional and common law principles require public access to judicial documents."

In December, Smith and Mullin brought the lawsuit on behalf of Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, who alleged that O'Reilly and Fox News broke a non-disparagement clause that arose from a 2002 settlement agreement.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/media/bill-oreilly-defamation-lawsuit/index.html

Source: NBC News

Former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2013, slammed Cynthia Nixon a day after the “Sex and the City” actress announced her candidacy for New York governor.

“Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York,” Quinn said Tuesday in an interview with the New York Post. “Being an actress and celebrity doesn’t make you qualified for public office.”

Nixon, who is married to a woman and has publicly identified as bisexual, endorsed one of Quinn’s mayoral opponents, Bill DeBlasio, in the 2013 Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. Quinn, an out lesbian, is currently supporting incumbent Andrew Cuomo, who will face off against Nixon in the Democratic primary.

Nixon, according to the New York Post, brushed off Quinn’s remarks, saying, “Her being a lesbian and my being a lesbian” is not the issue. The race, Nixon told the paper, is about “corruption in Albany,” the state’s capital.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/unqualified-lesbian-christine-quinn-slams-cynthia-nixon-over-bid-ny-n858361

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — A pro-Bernie Sanders group has canceled an anti-Hillary Clinton protest, its organizer told NBC News on Monday.

The event, created by the leader of a local chapter of Our Revolution, prompted backlash from Clinton allies, leading Sanders' top adviser to condemn it and disassociate his boss from the group, which grew out of Sanders presidential campaign.

The episode shows that, two years later, Democrats still can’t quite shake the ghost of 2016 and the hard-fought presidential primary between Clinton and Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont. And it's another demonstration of the challenges Sanders faces in leading a movement that acts in his name but is often beyond his control — even as he reportedly prepares for a second presidential bid in 2020.

Ellen Faden said she had no idea her protest would cause such an uproar.

Read more: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/democrats-vs-trump/pro-bernie-sanders-group-cancels-anti-hillary-clinton-protest-n857926&ved=0ahUKEwir2sm5zfnZAhXMV98KHUZdDKcQxfQBCCowAQ&usg=AOvVaw0keYEJjfCYfC_ngrBBHzEx

Source: The Washington Post

A D.C. lawmaker responded to a brief snowfall Friday by publishing a video in which he espoused a conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers control the weather.

D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) posted the video to his official Facebook page at 7:21 a.m. as snow flurries were hitting the nation’s capital. The video, shot through the windshield of a car driving west on Interstate 695 through downtown Washington, shows snowy skies while White narrates.

“Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” he says. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”

The Rothschilds are a famous European business dynasty descended from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an 18th-century Jewish banker who lived in what is today Frankfurt, Germany. The family has repeatedly been subject over the years to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories alleging that they and other Jews clandestinely manipulate world events for their advantage.




Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/dc-politics/dc-lawmaker-says-recent-snowfall-caused-byrothschilds-controlling-the-climate/2018/03/18/daeb0eae-2ae0-11e8-911f-ca7f68bff0fc_story.html