70,000 California wildfire victims may miss out on payments

By DAISY NGUYEN an hour ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As many as 100,000 Californians are eligible to receive payments for the damages they suffered from a series of devastating wildfires over the last several years. But tens of thousands of them have not sought compensation.

They face a Monday deadline to file claims against Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility blamed for many of the fires and required to cover a wide range of wildfire-related losses as part of its bankruptcy plan.

Concerned that as many as 70,000 victims may miss out on payments, attorneys filed court papers Friday to alert the bankruptcy judge that wildfire survivors — many still traumatized and struggling to get back on their feet — aren’t aware of their rights to file a claim.

“People really are overwhelmed and don’t understand what they need to do,” said Cecily Dumas, an attorney for the Official Committee of Tort Claimants, a group appointed by the court to represent all wildfire victims in the bankruptcy.

https://www.apnews.com/fe26f8947275451683f0487a95597af0

Democratic voters concentrate on candidates, not impeachment

By THOMAS BEAUMONT and ALEXANDRA JAFFE today

AMES, Iowa (AP) — In the liberal strongholds of Des Moines’ west side and the Iowa State University campus in Ames, not once was South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg asked by voters recently about the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

It’s not that the investigation into the president’s request for foreign help in his reelection effort is an afterthought for Democrats whose votes in Iowa will start the nominating process. Quite the opposite.

Instead, it’s that the impeachment inquiry is so ingrained in the 2020 campaign that there’s little point in bringing it up.

Democratic voters say they don’t expect that the president will be removed from office, so they are concentrating instead of selecting the strongest opponent to unseat him.

https://www.apnews.com/7c11c02ea09d4c7ea7a39a63a70b127c

Artist uses 'historic' markers to raise climate awareness

By MICHAEL CASEY 36 minutes ago

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) — New England is awash in historic markers, but a handful of plaques popping up in a New Hampshire town are different.

Rather than commemorating important people or places in history, many of these dinner plate-size signs detail events like rising sea levels and an explosion of ticks that have yet to happen — part of an effort to draw attention to the potential effects of climate change.

The signs are based on possibilities laid out in the scientific research that the towns have used to develop their climate plans and written from the perspective of someone in the 22nd century looking back.

“The concept is to just really take that information that is on the websites and package it in a way to insert it into the landscape where people will bump into it,” said Northeastern University’s Thomas Starr, who came up with the project known as ”Remembrance of Climate Futures.” He has placed 11 plaques in Durham, New Hampshire, six in Essex, Massachusetts, and is planning to install some in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well.

https://www.apnews.com/273bc827d08a4f98b6f546733cc3485c

WATCH: EPISODE 5 - OWL VS. OWL WHAT CAN BE SAVED?

In New Orleans, waiting for blasts to take down cranes

Source: Associated Press

By REBECCA SANTANA 41 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officials in New Orleans say that plans to safely topple two giant cranes leaning precariously over the crumbled remains of a partially collapsed hotel must be delayed by a day.

Officials said at a press conference that the demotion, scheduled for Saturday, will take place on Sunday, no earlier than noon.

The towers — one around 270 feet (82 meters) high, the other about 300 feet (91 meters) — weigh tons and have loomed over the wreckage for a week. The Hard Rock Hotel under construction at the corner of Canal and Rampart Streets partially collapsed Oct. 12, killing three workers. Two bodies remain in the unstable wreckage and Mayor LaToya Cantrell said recovering the remains would be a top priority once the area was rendered safe.

If the plans succeed, the towers will drop vertically, sparing neighboring structures that include the Saenger Theatre and the New Orleans Athletic Club, both built in the 1920s. Officials said shelter would be provided for anyone needing it as a result of an evacuation around the site.

Read more: https://www.apnews.com/37b935181c504f21a4530d1220357962

GOP congressman claims Democrats are like 'leaders of a military coup'

By
Josh Israel -
October 18, 2019

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) is very angry that House Democrats are not letting him dictate how the impeachment inquiry should be run.

A day after the acting White House chief of staff admitted that the Trump administration withheld security aid to Ukraine in an effort to pressure its governor to investigate political opponents, a Republican congressman authored an op-ed on Friday comparing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff to a "military coup." His reasoning: He doesn't like the way they are conducting the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.

Though Trump has not yet been impeached — the process by which the House of Representatives brings charges against a president who has committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" — Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) claimed that the House Democrats investigating his likely illegal behavior "have more in common with the leaders of a military coup than they think." With a two-thirds vote required in the GOP-controlled Senate for Trump to be removed from office, this process is nothing like a military coup.

https://shareblue.com/andy-biggs-impeachment-donald-trump-military-coup-ukraine-arizona-republican-gop/

Yep this is the same "guy" that won the $10 million American Family Publishers sweepstakes in 1993..............................and thinks that if you are sick you don't need health care........................

https://ballotpedia.org/Andy_Biggs

183 Republicans vote against requiring companies to disclose jobs moved overseas

By
Josh Israel -
October 18, 2019

Republicans in Congress voted against a bill that would disincentive companies' shipping jobs overseas and lying about it.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday to require public companies to disclose how many people they employ in the United States and abroad, a transparency measure aimed at showing who outsources jobs to foreign countries. The vote was 226-184, but 183 of the 185 Republican members of Congress present voted against the measure.

The Outsourcing Accountability Act, proposed by Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA), simply changes existing disclosure laws for publicly traded companies to require them to publish annually the number of employees they have in each state and country. Axne noted that many of her constituents have been told they are being "laid off due to 'technological advances,' only to then be asked to train their replacement overseas."

"By holding companies accountable for outsourcing, this bill will help disincentivize the practice and give employees, consumers, and investors the information they need to make informed decisions about supporting companies that support American jobs," she explained.

But most Republicans opposed the bill, objecting to it as a mandate on companies aimed at making them look bad.

https://shareblue.com/house-republicans-vote-companies-jobs-overseas-outsourcing-accountability-act-cindy-axne-gop-congress/

And in another News from Yesterday......................

Virginia Republican linked to tax-filing companies that scammed poor Virginians
By
Dan Desai Martin -
October 18, 2019

Del. Tim Hugo is linked to Intuit and H&R Block, two companies that allegedly steered low-income Virginians away from free tax-filing options to increase their profits.

Virginia Republican Del. Tim Hugo is linked to two companies that steered low-income Americans — including Virginians — away from free tax-filing programs even though they were eligible to use them. Instead, the companies used "deceptive design and misleading advertising to trick lower-income Americans into paying to file their taxes," according to an April ProPublica investigation.

Hugo is the executive director of the Free File Alliance, a nonprofit organization representing 12 tax software companies. The Free File Alliance entered into an agreement with the IRS to provide free tax-filing services to millions of low-income Americans. In return, the IRS would not provide free tax software for Americans.

But two of the Free File Alliance's biggest members, Intuit, which owns Turbo Tax, and H&R Block, intentionally made it harder for Americans to find and use the free versions, even if they qualified for it. Through using computer code on their website, "TurboTax Free File is effectively hidden from Google," ProPublica reported. Further, "Intuit's smaller competitor in the market, H&R Block, also hid its H&R Block Free File product from Google using the same sort of code."

https://shareblue.com/virginia-republican-tim-hugo-tax-filing-companies-scam-intuit-h-r-block-gop/

Trump advertised he would be a corrupt president in the first hour after he was sworn in -- here is h

Published 1 min ago
on October 19, 2019

By Tom Boggioni

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-advertised-he-would-be-a-corrupt-president-in-the-first-hour-after-he-was-sworn-in-here-is-how/

In other news from yesterday.........................

GOP advances ultra-conservative Trump judicial pick who has almost no legal experience
By
Lisa Needham -
October 18, 2019

Justin Walker, Trump's latest judicial nominee, has no real experience practicing law, but that won't matter to the GOP.

Another unqualified Donald Trump judicial pick, Justin Walker, is making his way through the Senate.

Given the makeup of the Senate and the GOP's unyielding commitment to agreeing to any of Trump's nominees, no matter how unfit, there's every reason to believe he'll be confirmed. His nomination just cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee with unanimous support from the GOP in spite of his lack of qualifications.

Walker, who Trump nominated to the federal bench for the Western District of Kentucky, is only 37 years old, which means he could be on the federal bench for 40 years or more. He doesn't bring any real experience to the court, but he does bring modern conservative credentials: He was instrumental in discrediting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during the confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. During those hearings, Walker did over 70 media hits to defend Kavanaugh and attack Ford.

His defense of Kavanaugh isn't surprising. Walker clerked for Kavanaugh when he was still on the D.C. Circuit and then went on to clerk at the Supreme Court for Justice Anthony Kennedy. That might sound impressive on its face, but Walker didn't really ever practice law after his clerkships.

https://shareblue.com/justin-walker-judicial-nominee-donald-trump-legal-experience-senate-judiciary-committee-republicans-gop/

This jerk has no experience and has not "served as sole or chief counsel in any case tried to verdict or judgment."

But, But, ................... he sat in a seat and said nothing while being associate counsel at only "one federal criminal jury trial".