riversedge
riversedge's JournalHillary Clinton warns Trump's budget would be a "grave mistake" for the U.S.
Source: cbs
By Rebecca Shabad CBS News March 31, 2017, 12:09 PM
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton reacts after being introduced to speak at an awards ceremony honoring women and their role in international politics and peace building efforts hosted by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in Washington, U.S., March 31, 2017.
REUTERSREUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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“We are seeing signals of a shift that should alarm us all. This administration’s proposed cuts to international health, development and diplomacy would be a blow to women and children and a grave mistake for our country,” the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said at an event in Washington, D.C. hosted by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security.
Clinton cited a letter signed by more than 120 retired generals and admirals that urged Congress and the Trump administration to not retreat from certain programs. She said they recognize that “turning our back on diplomacy won’t make our country safer. It will undermine our security and our standing in the world.”
The president unveiled his 2018 budget blueprint earlier this month that proposed dramatically slashing funding to the State Department with a 28 percent cut.
During the event, she presented the Hillary Rodham Clinton award to four Colombian women whose efforts helped secure a peace agreement in their country. Their work illustrated a point Clinton stressed -- that women are critical to peace negotiations.
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Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-warns-trumps-budget-would-be-a-grave-mistake-for-the-u-s/
https://twitter.com/politico/status/847881965986619392
after @MajorCBS asks about Flynn, Trump leaves signing ceremony without signing executive orders. Pe
Anyone know anything about this?????
Justin Sink?Verified account @justinsink
after @MajorCBS asks about Flynn, Trump leaves signing ceremony without signing executive orders. Pence went and picked it up from desk
https://twitter.com/justinsink/status/847899898724986880
Trump University $25 million settlement approved
Source: CNNMoney
by Drew Griffin and Curt Devine @CNNMoney March 31, 2017: 12:58 PM ET
Trump University lawsuits settled for $25 million
Thousands of former Trump University students will get most of their money back, with a judge on Friday approving a $25 million settlement.
"The settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable," Judge Gonzalo Curiel said in his decision.
Nearly 4,000 former students submitted claims and those who are eligible could get back about 90% of their money.
The settlement was agreed to last November, just 10 days after Donald Trump won the presidential election, but still needed court approval.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/31/news/trump-university-settlement/index.html
Justice for this group.
Proposed Bill Aims To Make Prescription Drugs More Affordable
Source: kdal610
Friday, March 31, 2017 5:13 a.m. CDT by Dave Strandberg
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KDAL) - The cost of prescription drugs has continued to skyrocket over the last three years and a group of Senate Democrats are looking to address that problem by proposing a bill called The Improving Access to Affordable Prescription Drugs Act.
Among the sponsors are Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar and Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin. Franken, on the KDAL morning show, says one feature of the bill would stop what is called "pay for delay" tactics where drug companies pay other companies who develop the same generic drugs to stay out of the market.
The proposed bill would also require that drug companies be more transparent about development and production costs, it would close the gap on Medicare Part D, require drug makers to provide rebates for low income prescription drug users, and allow Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies.
The legislative package, that was introduced this week, is supported by a wide range of legislators, organizations and patient advocacy groups............................
33 minutes ago
Replying to @SenatorBaldwin
Tammy, we are all proud of you in Wisconsin. Keep up the pressure, it all helps.
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Read more: http://kdal610.com/news/articles/2017/mar/31/proposed-bill-aims-to-make-prescription-drugs-more-affordable/
https://twitter.com/SenatorBaldwin/status/847838165616533506
"Broken Windows"the cover of next week's @NewYorker
I noticed trumps big butt before the
WH broken windows.
Kyle Griffin?Verified account @kylegriffin1 17m17 minutes ago
"Broken Windows"—the cover of next week's @NewYorker
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/847785768127012864
Here Are the Republicans Who Sold Out Your Online Privacy to the Broadband Industry
https://twitter.com/SafetyPinDaily/status/847713846328344576
Here Are the Republicans Who Sold Out Your Online Privacy to the Broadband Industry
Sam Gustin
Mar 29 2017, 11:04am
A public service message from Motherboard.
House Republicans voted on Tuesday to allow internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T to sell your private data to the highest bidder for tracking and marketing purposes.
The House action follows a similar vote in the Senate last week. President Trump is expected to sign the measure, which will kill FCC rules requiring ISPs to obtain "opt-in" consent from consumers before using or selling sensitive user data, including online browsing activity, mobile app data, and the contents of emails and online chats.
As a public service, Motherboard is publishing the names of the GOP lawmakers who voted for the privacy rollback, which consumer advocates called a shameful corporate give-away to the nation's largest broadband companies.
Advertisement........................
Trump Strips LGBT People of Workplace Protections, Then Erases Them from Census
Trump Strips LGBT People of Workplace Protections, Then Erases Them from Census
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/trump-strips-lgbt-people-of-workplace-protections-then-erases-them-from-census
Amanda Arnold
Mar 29 2017 4:30 PM
Trump Strips LGBT People of Workplace Protections, Then Erases Them from Census
This week, President Trump quietly nullified an order that required companies receiving large federal contracts to show that they have complied with various federal laws, many of which relate to discrimination in the workplace.
Below is what happened on Trump's 47th day in office. You can find out what damage was done every other day so far on the Saddest Calendar on the Internet.
Not even two weeks after the US Department of Health and Human Services eliminated questions about LGBT people on two crucial national surveys on the elderly and the disabled, the Trump administration extended their erasure of LGBT Americans yesterday when they announced they would not include the option to declare sexual orientation and gender identity on the 2020 US Census. Earlier in the morning, LGBT advocates thought they had a triumph, as the Census Bureau released a list of proposed subjects for 2020 that included questions relating to the above, which were new additions that LGBT rights advocates have been pushing for. But then the Census Bureau made a follow-up announcement.
"The Subjects Planned for the 2020 Census and American Community Survey report released today inadvertently listed sexual orientation and gender identity as a proposed topic in the appendix," the Census Bureau said in a statement. "This topic is not being proposed to Congress for the 2020 Census or American Community Survey."
For their next rollback of an Obama-era rule, the GOP wants to tighten up on a new kind of retireme
https://twitter.com/TomPerez/status/847615838739873792
Republicans learn to love a regulation
For their next rollback of an Obama-era rule, the GOP wants to tighten up on a new kind of retirement savings plan.
By Danny Vinik
03/27/17 01:37 PM EDT
The GOP Congress hasn't had much luck getting big policies passed under President Donald Trump, but it's been very efficient at repealing them—quietly using its powers under the 1996 Congressional Review Act to roll back Obama-era regulations on oil companies, coal companies, and workplace injury tracking, among others. It's all part of the Republican campaign promise to roll back nuisance rules that impose burdens on states and private companies.
But in a twist, the next two rules to get the axe might do just the opposite. As soon as this week, the Senate is poised to overturn two Department of Labor rules that concern retirement savings. But instead of tying firms in red tape, the rules actually reduce the burden of regulations on states and businesses trying to help people save for retirement. So repealing them would put the obstructive regulations right back in place.
The disagreement stems from laws passed in five states—California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Oregon—that require employers without 401(k)-style retirement plans to automatically enroll their workers in state-run retirement accounts. The idea is to create a new, automatic retirement-saving option for the millions of workers who don't have access to any kind of retirement plan that deducts from their paycheck. (Though auto-enrolled, workers could opt out.)
Those laws might not seem like they'd involve the federal government at all, except that a 1974 law, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), ties employers up in a number of rules if they establish or maintain a worker's retirement account. ERISA is intended to protect workers, but it also makes retirement plans more costly to run, and is a big part of why many smaller employers don't offer 401(k) plans. When the five states passed the new savings law, firms started to worry they'd be held liable to ERISA standards, making the new laws just as expensive as running their own 401(k)s, even though they only function as middlemen.
So last fall, the Department of Labor issued two rules—one for states and one for municipalities—providing a “safe harbor” so that auto-IRA plans will not fall under burdensome ERISA requirements. These "safe harbor" rules are the ones the GOP wants to roll back.
Three White House officials tied to files shared with House intelligence chairman
Source: washington post
By Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung March 30 at 7:30 PM
At least three senior White House officials, including the top lawyer for the National Security Council, were involved in the handling of intelligence files that were shared with the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and showed that Trump campaign officials were swept up in U.S. surveillance of foreign nationals, according to U.S. officials.
The White House role in the matter contradicts assertions by the committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and adds to mounting concerns that the Trump administration is collaborating with the leader of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Though White House officials have refused to answer questions about the documents shared with Nunes, a White House letter to the House committee on Thursday said it had “discovered documents” that might show whether information collection on U.S. persons was mishandled and was prepared to show them to lawmakers.
[Chairman and partisan: The dual roles of Devin Nunes]
One of those involved in procuring the documents cited by Nunes has close ties to former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The official, Ezra Cohen, survived a recent attempt to oust him from his White House job by appealing to Trump advisers Jared Kushner and Stephen K. Bannon, the officials said...........................................
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/three-white-house-officials-tied-to-files-shared-with-house-intelligence-chairman/2017/03/30/de4b8c30-1589-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.0ed4ee6fbe61
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/847606326670774273
https://twitter.com/NatalieGBorden/status/847607083335688194
https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC/status/847590026926055424
Adam Schiff: Received WH invite to review docs. I've accepted, heres my reply. If same docs provid
Caroline O. and 6 others liked
Adam Schiff ?Verified account @RepAdamSchiff 4h4 hours ago
Received WH invite to review docs. I've accepted, here’s my reply. If same docs provided to Chair last wk, WH has a lot of explaining to do.
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/847546367035813890
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