Upstate One
Upstate One's JournalRussian Nikolai Glushkov's Death In London Was A Murder, Police Say
Source: NPR
The death of Nikolai Glushkov, the 68-year-old Russian businessman whose body was found in his London home on Monday, is being investigated as a murder. The cause of death was "compression to the neck," police say.
Glushkov was a former close associate of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a flamboyant tycoon who had backed Russia's President Vladimir Putin early in the president's political career — but who had become a vocal critic before living in self-imposed exile. Berezovsky, who was also close to the poisoned former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, died in 2013, in what has been described as a hanging. All three men died in London.
The murder investigation into Glushkov's death is being announced days after Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of "attempted murder" in another case involving a high-profile Russian native living in the U.K.: former spy Sergei Skripal.
Skripal was poisoned by an exotic and lethal Novichok nerve agent that is seen as Russia's sole property. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury, England. They remain in the hospital; a police officer who came to the scene is also receiving care.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/16/594330084/russian-nikolai-glushkovs-death-in-london-was-a-murder-police-say
Looks like the nerve-agent attack wasn't an isolated incident.
Single Payer plan dies in California
Due to inability to figure out how to pay for the high costs and other complexities, Democrats are now looking for other ways to implement universal health care and reduce costs.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article203729964.html
California Democratic lawmakers are quietly working on a package of up to 20 health care bills that would soften the political blow from the all-but-certain death of a single-payer universal care bill this year.
Senate Bill 562 cleared the Senate last year but stalled in the Assembly when Speaker Anthony Rendon blasted it as "woefully incomplete." The legislation still lacks a plan to cover its $400 billion price tag, a way to control rising health care costs and a strategy to secure federal waivers needed from the Trump administration.
Rendon has not formally killed the bill, but he told The Sacramento Bee earlier this month that a fresh health care package is in the works – the clearest sign yet that Senate Bill 562 is dead.
Trump Organization Tied to Deal to Keep Ex-Porn Star Quiet
Source: Wall Street Journal
Documents marked “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL PROCEEDING” for the first time tie President Donald Trump’s flagship holding company to the continuing effort to silence a former adult-film actress who says she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
A Trump Organization lawyer, Jill A. Martin, is listed as counsel in an arbitration demand for Essential Consultants LLC, a Delaware company formed by Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and used to pay $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford in exchange for her silence, according to Feb. 22 arbitration documents filed in Orange County, Calif.
At issue is a high-profile battle between Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and Ms. Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, has obtained a temporary restraining order against Ms. Clifford in the arbitration to stop her from talking about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Mr. Trump. Ms. Clifford has asked a judge to declare the nondisclosure agreement invalid.
The White House and Mr. Cohen repeatedly have sought to distance the president from the porn-star pact and payment. Mr. Cohen, who was employed by the Trump Organization when he brokered the deal with Ms. Clifford shortly before the 2016 presidential election, has maintained he was acting on his own and has called it a “private transaction.” Soon after Mr. Trump’s electoral victory, Mr. Cohen left the company to establish his own legal practice.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-trump-company-lawyer-worked-to-silence-stormy-daniels-1521072252
Democrats should investigate if they win the House.
Unlikely Trump-loving GOP in Congress will do anything about it.
Breaking Monmouth poll of PA18: Lamb by 6
Democrat Conor Lamb has a 6% lead over Republican Rick Saccone
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/973242440101527552
DNC rules committee member: end the caucus System
Elaine kamarck,who has been member of the committee since 1997, reportedly called for the abolition of the caucus system.
https://twitter.com/tmservo433/status/972524102094393346?s=19
2nd Steele Memo: Russia Blocked Mitt Romney as Sec of State
Source: The Daily Beast
A new New Yorker profile of Trump-Russia dossier author Christopher Steele reports on a lesser-known memo the former MI-6 spy allegedly discussed with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators. According to the report, in late November 2016, Steele relayed information from his Russian sources that senior Kremlin officials had intervened to block Mitt Romney as President-elect Trump’s choice for secretary of State. Reporter Jane Mayer writes that Moscow had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be willing to lift sanctions related to Ukraine and cooperate with Russia’s involvement in Syria. Romney, long a vocal hawk on Russia, declined to comment for the report. The White House said the former GOP presidential nominee was never a first choice for the job, and declined to comment on “any communications that the Trump team may have had with Russia on the subject.”
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/2nd-steele-memo-russia-blocked-mitt-romney-as-sec-of-state
It makes total sense. Trump does as Putin says.
Heitkamp, Donnelly and Tester deny that donations from banks influenced bank deregulation support
As Senate republicans and "more than a dozen" Democrats in Congress get ready to roll bank bank regulations, the Washington Post reports:
That a Wall Street regulatory rollback is possible is a testament to the financial sector’s improved standing on Capitol Hill — as well as to the lobbying muscle of local banks and credit unions present in every state.
Financial firms upped their campaign contributions to key Senate Democrats over the last year, with Heitkamp, Donnelly and Tester becoming the top three Senate recipients of donations from commercial banks so far in the 2018 campaign cycle , according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The senators disputed any connection between the donations and their support for the Dodd-Frank rewrite legislation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/10-years-after-financial-crisis-senate-prepares-to-roll-back-banking-rules/2018/03/04/e6115438-1e37-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.cda81cc4c3d4
White House accuses Russia of slaughtering civilians in Syria
Source: Axios
The Trump administration on Sunday lambasted Russia's involvement in a deadly ongoing military operation in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, saying the country has dropped bombs — at "least 20 daily" between February 24 and 28 — on innocent civilians.
After repeatedly delaying the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2401, which demanded a 30-day cessation of hostilities across Syria, Russia has gone on to ignore its terms and to kill innocent civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations. This is the same combination of lies and indiscriminate force that Russia and the Syrian regime used to isolate and destroy Aleppo in 2016, where thousands of civilians were killed.
— White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
The backdrop: The AP reports that thousands of Syrians have been fleeing from the rebel-held Damascus suburb as the Assad regime, with support from allied militias, attempts to take control. More than 600 civilians have been killed since the operation started two weeks ago, per the AP.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/white-house-accuses-russia-of-killing-civilians-syria-eastern-ghouta-19be3745-5a4a-4c32-a6c9-90610a321b71.html
Nina Turner's PAC endorses Kucinich for Governor of Ohio, by tweeting photo of him at the CPAC
https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/969561894917935104?s=19This one went viral and backfired on Turner.
CPAC = Conservative Political Action Conference).
Kucinich is also A Fox News contributor.
Dianne Feinstein is the second most tweeted topic by Russian trolls in the past 48 hours
No wonder her name was trending for so long yesterday.
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