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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a recent interview that he believes officials from the Obama administration are opposing the declassification of documents relating to the origin of the Russia probe because they are afraid of being “exposed for taking the law in their own hands.” During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with host Chris Wallace on May 26, Graham expressed his support for President Donald Trump’s decision to declassify the documents that related to the conduct of intelligence agencies like the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI in 2016.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a top member of the minority party in the upper chamber, met recently with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a time of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. The two had dinner around the end of last month when Zarif was visiting the U.S., sources told Politico. Feinstein's team said the dinner was designed to update the senator on the situation between the U.S. and Iran and was "arranged in consultation with the State Department." A State Department official said the agency did not ask the California Democrat to meet with Zarif, but did not...

MP Materials, which runs the sole operating rare earths mine in the United States, is an unusual victim in the year-long tit-for-tat trade war between the two largest economies on the planet, as the conflict looks set to open up a new battlefront over technology. The operator of the Mountain Pass mine in California said it will kick-start its own processing operation by the end of 2020, after China last week more than doubled an import duty on concentrates to 25 per cent effective June 1. MP exports pellets – ground-up ores that contain oxides of rare earth elements –...

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the state plans to charge a $10,000 application fee and an additional $100,000 annual licensing fee for those chosen, according to draft rules for Utah's new medical marijuana program published last week. State officials say the license fees are meant to offset the expense of adding personnel and equipment to inspect the growing facilities. If all 10 grower licenses are granted, revenues to the agriculture department could top $1.1 million the first year and hover around $1 million over the following years as cultivators pay the renewal fee. The state's agricultural department expects to spend...

Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for president in 2020, but he did not appear for any Memorial Day events on Monday. There were no events on Biden’s public schedule the entire Memorial Day weekend, at a time when presidential candidates typically march in Memorial Day parades, meet with the troops, or visit a cemetery to honor the fallen. The former vice president has not held a campaign rally since last Saturday in Philadelphia. “I promise you this – no one – no one – is going to work longer and campaign harder to win your trust and support...

Embattled attorney Michael Avenatti will have a busy day in Manhattan federal court Tuesday -- but as a defendant, not as counsel. Avenatti, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned on charges that he tried to extort up to $25 million from athletic apparel giant Nike by threatening to expose claims that the shoemaker paid off high school basketball players to steer them to Nike-sponsored colleges. He also is scheduled to be arraigned on charges that he stole nearly $300,000 from adult film actress Stormy Daniels, the client who rocketed him to national prominence. In the Nike case, Avenatti is charged...

When House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that the United States had been plunged into a “constitutional crisis,” a large swath of the media took to plying this fantasy for them. “Ever wonder what a constitutional crisis looks like? Well, open your eyes,” CNN’s Don Lemon explained to his viewers. “The president of the United States is just blowing right through our system of checks and balances, the very thing that is supposed to keep our Congress, the judiciary, and the executive branch working, which means our country working.” None of this is remotely true. Our...

FULL TITLE: Shocking moment woman has her leg crushed by a car door after getting in a road-rage argument with another driver in front of crowds of onlookers A brutal street fight which ended with a woman's leg being repeatedly crushed by a slamming door has been caught on camera. The fight began with the woman goading the driver of the other car in front of a neighborhood of people. It is unclear when or where the video was taken but it surfaced online on Monday. The woman stamped on the car's hood twice, with its driver inside, as others...

Steven Rattner, "car czar" and counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, cites three different modelers in his N.Y. Times commentary, "Trump’s Formidable 2020 Tailwind." The big picture: Trump wins all three modelers. Economists predict that the tailwind is large. Ray Fair, a professor at Yale, "found that the growth rates of gross domestic product and inflation have been the two most important economic predictors — but he also found that incumbency was also an important determinant of presidential election outcomes." "Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, has looked at 12 models, and Mr. Trump wins...

Edmund Morris, who wrote an acclaimed biography of Theodore Roosevelt but is best known for his life of Ronald Reagan, in which the author inserted himself as a fictional narrator, a device that baffled and angered some historians, died on Friday in Danbury, Conn. He was 78. His death, at a hospital following a stroke on Thursday, was confirmed on Monday by his wife, the author Sylvia Jukes Morris. He lived in Kent, Conn. Mr. Morris’s “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award in 1980. He followed that with two other well-received books...

Muslim who murdered Jewish pensioner Sarah Halimi will not face a criminal trial The claim seems to be, “the marijuana did it”, ignoring his previous anti-Semitic taunts, his screams of “Allahu Akhbar” during the actual killing, being pictured smiling with a mein kampf. Now considered unfit to stand trial. Clearly Kobili Traore had been practicing Islam to the letter: Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, “The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me; kill him!’ ” Sahih...

How not to teach Islam in a Maryland high school (Part I) In Maryland, several years ago, a high school teacher taught her students about Islam. Not all agreed with what, or how, she taught. One student’s family sued. The case is wending its way to the Supreme Court, where it will undoubtedly be heard. According to CBN News: Four years ago, a Christian high school junior was compelled by her teacher at La Plata High School in La Plata, Md., to recall the Islamic conversion creed – the Shahada – as part of a written assignment. She was required...

Iran: youth taught to shun fun; ‘enjoy’ economic war, jihad against kaffirs Emotional hostage-taking and indoctrination has enabled mullahs to control the minds of their populations from as young as they can remember…. Ultraconservatives dominating the Islamic Republic are calling on Iranian youth to find joy and fun in the “economic war” their country is engaged in. “Cheerfulness among youth will not materialize through illegitimate music and dancing of a handful of vagrant girls,” said Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, leader Friday prayers in Mashad, Iran’s second city. The key phrase is “to find joy and fun in the economic war” that...

Historians have known for many years that civil rights icon Martin Luther King had been unfaithful to his wife. But now, David Garrow, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for his biography of King, has unearthed previously classified FBI documents showing that King was genuinely sexually depraved. From the Times of London (behind subscriber paywall): A huge archive of documents recently released from Federal Bureau of Investigation files exposes in detail King’s sexual activities with dozens of women as he travelled the country campaigning against racial inequality...

Wales’ remain-supporting parties outstripped their Brexit-backing counterparts in Sunday’s (26 May) election results, prompting the leader of the principality’s nationalist party to declare it a “Remain nation”. In 2016, Wales voted alongside England to leave the EU. Although Nigel Farage’s newborn Brexit Party won 32.5% of the vote in Wales, advocates for a second referendum on EU membership (Liberal Democrats, Greens, Change UK and Plaid Cymru) mustered 42.4%. That led Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price to say that “Wales, which voted Leave three years ago, is now a Remain nation again, if you tally up the votes for the avowedly...

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Vt., campaign manager Faiz Shakir slammed Democratic primary front runner Joe Biden for the high-dollar fundraisers the former vice president has held since joining the race, using the criticism as a way to raise funds for Sanders' campaign, The Washington Free Beacon reported over the weekend. Shakir wrote in a fundraising email to supporters that Biden "is raising huge sums of money at large fundraising events all across the country," describing them as "high-dollar functions hosted and attended by corporate lobbyists, healthcare executives, a Republican casino-CEO, and a union-busting lawyer." He then said the only...

Church leaders say they face uphill battle against Europe’s anti-migrant sentiment ROME - As Europe continues to see a decline in Mass attendance and a rise in populist leaders with harsh anti-migrant policies, including in some majority Catholic countries, Church leaders have said they face an uphill battle, especially when it comes to Pope Francis’s push to welcome and assist migrants and refugees.“We are no longer the majority in Europe as Christians and Catholics. Not cultural Catholics, but truly those who believe in the Gospel,” Jesuit Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg and president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences...

There are thousands of people who have made the world a better place to live. Many died before they were old and some would might be great to have around for a lot longer. Which three historic people do you wish could have lived another 30 years? Thomas Edison? Rod Sterling? Shakespeare? John Paul II? You get the point.

<p>A glimpse of student athletes in peak physical condition vaping just moments after competing in a football game led Stamford High School Principal Raymond Manka to reconsider his approach to the epidemic.</p> <p>His Connecticut school traditionally has emphasized discipline for those caught with e-cigarettes. Punishments become increasingly severe with each offense, from in-school suspensions to out-of-school suspensions and, eventually, notification of law enforcement.</p>

She was attacked while swimming at Key Lake Wilderness Park in Cocoa. Though officials labeled the injuries “significant,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) added they were “non-life threatening.” Alligator attacks, at least in the area, are relatively rare, according to Uzel, “As far as alligator bites, I think this was the second in 35 years.” Male gators might be more aggressive and territorial during this time of year, given that it’s alligator mating season until about mid-June. The season can also bring the reptiles out of the water and onto land, according to Brett Chism, of Gatorland....