EPA/KCNA
A photo released by the North Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at right, watching the ground jet test of a high-thrust engine at an undisclosed location in North Korea on March 19.
Continue reading North Korea is Trump’s nuclear Rubik’s Cube
(Credit: AP Photo/Lolita Baldor)
There is a somewhat closer resemblance to the Spanish civil war in the mix of multiple local parties, external powers and ideological militancy.
Yet, what we are witnessing today is quite different in some crucial respects — adding to our confusion in trying to make sense of the plot. Complexity and confusion reinforce each other. That is true for the actors themselves.
One gets the distinct impression that most of the leaders involved in this imbroglio don’t know that they’re doing. The obvious exceptions are the Islamic State and al-Qaeda/al-Nusra.
They gain advantage from the others’ flaws, errors and failures, which is contorted by their general flailing about.
Monday’s intelligence hearing highlighted the ‘big gray cloud’ of suspicion hanging over the White House. Here’s what happened – and what to expect
Watch highlights from Monday’s congressional hearing
Spencer Ackerman in New York
Wednesday 22 March 2017 07.31 GMT
A presidency under open-ended investigation for its ties to Russia. A director of the FBI, himself key in aiding the president’s election, not only confirming that inquiry but refuting the president’s claim of illegal surveillance by his predecessor.
The first open hearing into Donald Trump’s alleged Russia connections on Monday ensured that the US president will operate under a cloud of suspicion until either the various inquiries deliver credible public conclusions or Trump leaves office, whichever comes first.
Testimony from the FBI director, James Comey, indicated that for Trump, the allegations are no weather pattern, lasting for a finite time, but rather the climate for his presidency – what the House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes, a Republican who was also a Trump transition official, angrily called a “big gray cloud”.
Here are critical questions for understanding that climate.
The next big calendar date for the public hearings is 28 March, when two Obama-era intelligence officials, the ex-director of national intelligence James Clapper and the ex-CIA director John Brennan, will appear before the House panel.
By Chris Glover, CBC News
Mar 22, 2017
Best friends Rebecca Rosenberg and Kim Wolfe know it comes with risks, but plan to tackle high home prices by purchasing together.
Rebecca Rosenberg and her best friend Kim Wolfe, whip up a salad in moments in Rosenberg’s tight kitchen. The former roommates, who even share the same arm tattoo, are used to doing pretty much everything together.
But now they are planning to embark on something that will tie their financial futures forever, potentially.
“I feel like it came at the same time, like any time we kind of talked about housing or buying it was like, ‘If we did it together, maybe it would be doable,'” Rosenberg said.
By combining their resources, Rosenberg and Wolfe say they will go from the fringes of home ownership to being able to afford a $1-million property. The pair would also be buying with their partners and know the co-purchase comes with the dramatic risk of a relationship breakdown.
“We would definitely need to take the steps to set up legal steps and protocols based on this situation,” said Rosenberg. “Kind of like a [prenuptial agreement] even though you never think you’re going to get divorced, but just in case.”
As part of the series No Fixed Address, CBC Toronto has been exploring
Jonathan Lemire, The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, March 15, 2017
NEW YORK — The release of two pages of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2005 tax returns has sparked a legal dispute, with the White House and a major television network squaring off over whether a law was broken.
The White House said MSNBC’s publication of the pages Tuesday night violated a federal law that prohibits the unauthorized release of tax returns. But the cable network, which revealed the 1040 form on Rachel Maddow’s show, claimed First Amendment privilege.
Trump refused to release his returns during the campaign, breaking a decades-long tradition.
The document revealed Tuesday showed Trump made more than
Continue reading At a glance: The legal dispute over release of Trump’s taxes
The party’s current pro-life stance boils down to a religious disagreement that conservatives should avoid.
BY RICHARD BEDARDSPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM
COLUMBIA FALLS — What thoughts should an elderly, agnostic Republican share with others in regard to the state of the party of his grandfather, when the party leadership seems comfortable with alternative facts and doublespeak?
Elderly I am; agnostic in all things, religious and political, and I did register as a Republican. So, why all the confusion in recent years, which has only gotten worse in the past several months?
It is impossible to again have a youthful mind with limited knowledge and experience, unless one seriously considers a lobotomy. Therefore, we are destined to become older, and hopefully a teeny bit wiser.
One knows everything at the age of 17, upon graduating from high school with honors and scholarships, then suddenly discovers in, say, five-year increments, that there is so much more to learn.
After many such increments, the awareness grows that one knows so, so little, and that the best state of mind is being agnostic in nearly everything, if one is ever to have peace of mind.
The only other label that one could change is to leave the Republican Party and again become independent, or join another party. Or stay in the party and try to contribute to an image that we could all again be proud of. Silence is not what makes a democracy healthy and strong!
For example: Why am I left with the feeling that the abortion issue seems to almost boil down to a religious issue, one that our party should stay out of – no matter what religion is currently involved? The soft-speaking, elderly lady on the other end of the phone conversation asked if I was “pro-life.” My response was: “I most certainly am, and I have never met anyone during my lifetime who was not pro-life.”
I followed by saying, “If this call is for the purpose of raising money to increase education for women so that they may be better informed to help them prevent an unwanted pregnancy, then count me in.” After a long silence, she again spoke in a kind, soft voice and said, “Thank you,” before hanging up the phone.
Enlarge(Credit: Getty/Brendan Smialowski/Bryan R. Smith/ Chip Somodevilla/Salon/Mireia Triguero Roura)
Last weekend, Kellyanne Conway sat down with “CBS This Morning” for an in-depth one-on-one interview designed to make the political operative described by Samantha Bee as President Donald Trump’s “omnipresent spokes-cobra” seem less of a sentient Two Truths and a Lie drinking game and more like an actual human. In this interview, Conway appeared to be testing the waters for a new Kellyanne Katchphrase™ when she claimed that she and other conservative women are subject to “a triple standard” by the media, specifically “traditional feminist outlets.”
“We are constantly going back to where I sat, the presumptive negativity of what I wore, or what I said, and I do think it’s a triple standard,” Conway told correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “People talk about a double standard of what a woman wore or said, but the triple standard is that conservative women are cast aside many times by traditional feminist outlets and individuals who control most of the media.”
Republican proposal would upend a healthcare system in Indiana that covers many low-income people – in a program that Mike Pence put in place
Pam Martin flips through a binder of healthcare papers for the disabled brother she takes care of. Photograph: Justin Gilliland for the Guardian
Janice Phelps, a 60-year-old disabled factory worker in Evansville,Indiana, knows how expensive healthcare is.
Each month, shots for her severe asthma cost $3,000. Quarterly injections for knee pain cost $3,200. Medication for depression costs $900. She has had seven back surgeries, two shoulder surgeries, and two knee surgeries since 1985. The largest public health programs in America – Medicaid and Medicare, which aid the poor and the elderly – paid for nearly all of it.
Yet, those programs are now threatened by the men she voted for: Donald Trump and former Indiana governor Mike Pence.
I write about weather and climate related topics (and study them too)
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
At some point during my slumber tonight I am going to “lose an hour” of sleep. My scout leader wife was diligently emailing parents of Girl Scout Troop 1343 reminding them to set their clocks forward tonight so that they do not miss the meeting tomorrow. Here in Georgia, Daylight Saving Time(hereafter referred to as DST) starts Sunday, March 12th at 2:00 am and ends at 2:00 am on Sunday, November 5th. If you are interested in where it starts around the world, this website is useful. Professor Josh Durkee of Western Kentucky University suggested DST would be an interesting topic to write about, but I always want to increase science literacy with my discussion. Here are four scientific (and not so scientific) things you need to know about DST.
In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo, Dan LaMoore sizes hands for an 8-foot diameter silhouette clock at Electric Time Co., in Medfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
There is no “s”: There is no “s” at the end of Saving though you will certainly hear people refer to it as “savings.” It has been suggested that the misuse of the term may evolve from the common usage of the term “savings” in daily vernacular.
The day is not actually longer: You will often hear statements like “the day will be an hour longer tomorrow.” The duration of a day is roughly 24 hours. The 24-hour solar day is how long it takes for a location on the earth to rotate under the sun from one point to the exact point. There is also a lunar day that is related to the tidal cycle (two low and high tides every 24 hours and 50 minutes). According to the NOAA ocean services website,
Lunar day is the time it takes for a specific site on the Earth to rotate from an exact point under the moon to the same point under the moon….The lunar day is 50 minutes longer than a solar day because the moon revolves around the Earth in the same direction that the Earth rotates around its axis. So, it takes the Earth an extra 50 minutes to “catch up” to the moon
The length of the day is the same, however, the number of actual “daylight hours” is adjusted. No daylight is actually saved in a physical sense. According to timeanddate.com
Less than 40% of the countries in the world use DST. Some countries use it to make better use of the natural daylight in the evenings. The difference in light is most noticeable in the areas at a certain distance from Earth’s equator.
There are scholarly studies of the “Pros and Cons”: A study in the
(File photo)
The Canadian Press – Published Wednesday, March 8, 2017
OTTAWA — The federal housing agency says the pace of new home construction picked up last month, with a lot of the push coming from Ontario.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says February’s seasonally adjusted rate for housing starts was 210,207 units, up from 208,934 in January.
CMHC says activity in the multi-unit sector actually fell but there was a big jump in single, detached homes in urban areas.
There were 71,871 single detached houses started in February in urban areas — up 12.1 per cent from the prior month — mostly because of Ontario, where there has been a shortage in the Toronto area.
Multiple-unit projects such as condos and apartments in urban areas fell by 4.7 per cent to 121,164 units in February.
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