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Good Morning. The developments regarding Robert Mueller's investigation will be noted later in this Newsdump summary. But first, the shakeup at a group hostile to supporters of President Trump and a broad range of conservative, religious and libertarian people and organizations continued Friday. The President of the Montgomery, Alabama based Southern Poverty Law Center, Richard Cohen, announced in an email that he's leaving taking responsibility for unspecified "problems"...... The French government's crackdown policies in force this Saturday for Week 19 of the Yellow Vests protests.... British Prime Minister Theresa May releasing a letter to MP's Friday evening specifying her plans...

In 2011, Jerry Brown was told that the Orville Dam had problems. In 2014, he got a major water bond passed, which included money to fix the dam. He refused to fix the dam. Then we had major rains, the dam broke and he wanted Federal funds. President Trump cut out over $300 million—because the damage was due to unrepaired portions of the dam, known since the official report in 2011. Jerry Brown was trying to steal money from the Federal taxpayers, to finance his fraud in passing a bond and not spending the money as advertised. “The Trump administration...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The federal government has rejected $306 million in reimbursements for California's repair of damaged spillways on the nation's tallest dam, a state agency said Friday. California has so far requested about $639 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Oroville Dam repairs, said Lisa Lien-Mager of the state's Natural Resources Agency. FEMA has agreed to cover $333 million. That's less than about a third of the $1.1 billion the state's Department of Water Resources said it took to repair the dam. Spillways on the Oroville Dam crumbled and fell away during heavy rains in February...

Washington — Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied Puerto Rico's request to dispatch forensic units to Puerto Rico to help process a mounting backlog of bodies, the island's government has received a much-need reprieve. The fiscal board which controls spending in the U.S. territory will allow Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to use $1.5 million in funding to curtail the backlog in the island's morgue. …(snip) ...he FEMA official said these issues could be not be "attributed" to the natural disasters that struck the island, which triggered the first DMORT deployment. "These and the other courses of action ... address systemic...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he has ordered a halt to federal emergency funds for California to fight wildfires and manage its forests unless officials in the western U.S. state can "get their act together." "Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forrest fires that, with proper Forrest (sic) Management, would never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!" Trump wrote on Twitter. Insurance claims from the recent spate of California wildfires, including one...

It’s hard to imagine the real destruction of the California wildfires. Scores of people dead, hundreds missing, thousands of structures destroyed, and hundreds of acres burned to the ground. It’s a tragedy the likes of which our nation has never seen before.In times like these, those affected by the wildfires need urgent assistance, and that’s exactly what they’re getting from the Trump administration.The scale of the disaster is hard to overstate. This year marks the state’s worst fire season ever, punctuated by the “Camp” and “Woolsey” fires. The Camp fire alone has claimed at least 77 lives, out of a total...

Thursday on The View, the liberal hosts grilled their guest, FNC's Geraldo Rivera, for comments he made about the pipe bomb suspect, and the media’s attacks on President Trump. Rivera, who's not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination, still took heat because he defended President Trump and called out CNN for being partisan and biased. The interview started with Rivera disagreeing with the president about immigration and the caravan but he quickly got into a heated argument with the liberal hosts once they started talking about the mail bombs and the media. Co-host Joy Behar asked about Rivera’s...

Friday, October 20, 2017 The Puerto Rican Genocide That Wasn't Posted by Daniel Greenfield The Mayor of San Juan recently took a break from her tour of every cable news network on the planet to text an accusation of genocide aimed at President Trump. "WE WILL NOT BE LEFT TO DIE,” Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz texted. “I ask the United Nations, UNICEF and the world to stand with the people of Puerto Rico and stop the genocide.” The death toll in Puerto Rico currently stands at 48. Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20. As we approach...

It’s been a month since Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico. While supplies and aid are flowing, reports on the ground have noted the chronic issue with delivering water to the residents. Also, contrary to popular belief, the Trump administration did take anticipatory actions, as noted by Bloomberg. Moreover, even Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, a Democrat, said that he’s been in contact with the Trump administration, and that resources have been made available to the island.Bloomberg’s Tobin Harshaw interviewed retired Navy Captain Jerry Hendrix, who mentioned that the light amphibious carriers and ships were put to sea ahead of...

Last week, leading Puerto Rico senators introduced a major energy policy reform bill for the island, and a hearing on the bill is scheduled for Friday. The bill makes some noteworthy commitments to renewable energy, but unfortunately would do little to shut down the rush for natural gas development in Puerto Rico that threatens to crowd out actual investment in renewables. On the one hand, the bill significantly strengthens Puerto Rico’s renewable portfolio standard to 50 percent by 2040 and 100 percent by 2050. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló backs the move — and took credit for the measure in a tweet...

The federal response to Hurricane Maria is under scrutiny again after photos show what appear to be millions of water bottles meant for victims of the storm still sitting on a runway in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The photos began circulating on social media Tuesday, the same day President Trump again praised the government's response to Maria during a meeting with top DHS and FEMA officials. Marty Bahmonde, a senior official at FEMA, confirmed to CBS News' David Begnaud that the agency delivered the water to the island. From there, the details are unclear. Bahmonde said they don't track specific shipments...

CBS News’ David Begnaud has confirmed with a senior official at FEMA that these viral images shared to Facebook earlier in the week do indeed show “what may be millions of water bottles” that were sent to Puerto Rico by the U.S. federal government and then never delivered to those in need by local authorities

Thousands of pounds of relief supplies for Puerto Rico, sent after Hurrican Maria decimated the island, have been found rotting in a state elections warehouse, according to the New York Times. The supplies were supposed to have been distributed by the national guard. The Hill: The Times noted that local radio station, Radio Isla, published a video showing cases of items such as beans, Tylenol and water covered in rat and lizard droppings. According to the Times, the Puerto Rico elections commission offices were used as a collection center for donations from private entities and nonprofit groups after the island...

Several trailers filled with donations for Hurricane Maria victims were found rotting at a state elections office in Puerto Rico this week. The New York Times reported Friday that at least 10 trailers full of food, water and baby supplies were broken open and overrun with rats. The Times noted that local radio station, Radio Isla, published a video showing cases of items such as beans, Tylenol and water covered in rat and lizard droppings. According to the Times, the Puerto Rico elections commission offices were used as a collection center for donations from private entities and nonprofit groups after...

An ‘irregular’ house not built according to Puerto Rico codes in Villa Esperanza. It was damaged by Hurricane Maria. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Gladys Peña built a home the way many thousands of people in Puerto Rico, maybe most, did for decades: in makeshift fashion. Every week for years, Peña, a cafeteria cook, set money aside until she had enough to buy a vacant wooden shack in a densely packed working-class barrio, a one-time squatters’ community a short stroll from the towers of San Juan’s Golden Mile financial district. She knocked down most of the flimsy...

It has been nearly three months since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, and the island’s recovery has been slow. The U.S. territory is struggling with shortages of food and medical supplies, and a full 45% of residents still don’t have power.San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz blames Washington for failing to devote adequate resources to Puerto Rico’s recovery — she recently dubbed President Trump the “disaster-in-chief”. But a journalist for El Nuevo Día, the newspaper with the largest circulation in Puerto Rico, has found a different culprit: “the Jew.”Columnist Wilda Rodríguez wrote a piece on Monday, titled “What Does ‘The...

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Thursday he will seek to mobilize Latino voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, citing the GOP's tax overhaul passed this week. Rosselló, a Democrat and member of the island's New Progressive Party, argued on MSNBC that the Republican tax plan hurts Puerto Rico's economy. Asked which lawmakers he would target ahead of the midterms next year, Rosselló told host Katy Tur, "we're going to be working on that." "Right now, we're going to do an evaluation of all the congressmen and congresswomen that have pledged support toward the people of Puerto Rico, and...

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello Nevares last month asked federal taxpayers to shell out $94 billion to pay for the territory’s recovery from Hurricane Maria — then turned around and paid out about $100 million in Christmas bonuses to island government employees. The governor’s aides say the bonuses are a longstanding tradition and part of the law, and were planned for in the budget approved last summer. But that budget came well before Hurricanes Irma and Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, leaving much of the territory in ruin and leaving the government begging for federal assistance. The island’s financial oversight...

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello last month asked federal taxpayers to shell out $94 billion to pay for the territory’s recovery from Hurricane Maria — then turned around and paid out about $100 million in Christmas bonuses to government employees on the island. The governor’s aides say the bonuses were part of a long-standing tradition and were included in the budget approved over the summer. But that budget came well before Hurricanes Irma and Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, leaving much of the territory in ruin and the government begging for federal assistance. The island’s financial oversight board, created by...

Gov. Cuomo urged the feds to approve a new $94.4 billion aid package for Puerto Rico as he headed to the storm-ravaged island Saturday to survey the damage from the September hurricane and assess recovery efforts. “The federal government should not only be ashamed of itself for the way it has handled this crisis, but for treating Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens,” Cuomo said from a press conference at JFK Airport before boarding a plane to the island.