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RALEIGH -- A software error caused public school students around North Carolina to receive incorrect end-of-term grades this school year, state education officials said. The Department of Public Instruction said it has been advising districts about the problem with PowerSchool software since December, after many schools sent home first-quarter report cards. The error could have affected as many as 109 school districts and 59 charter schools in the state, but it's not clear exactly how many students were impacted. **SNIP** The department initially thought the rounding problem was limited to grades ending in certain decimal points, but Elliot said state...

.. so much worse than previously thought. A scathing internal Navy probe into the 2017 collision that drowned seven sailors on the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald details a far longer list of problems plaguing the vessel, its crew and superior commands than the service has publicly admitted. Obtained by Navy Times, the "dual-purpose investigation" was overseen by Rear Adm. Brian Fort and completed 11 days after the June 17, 2017 tragedy. Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through...

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is pushing for regular reviews of China’s progress on pledged trade reforms as a condition for a trade deal - and could again resort to tariffs if it deems Beijing has violated the agreement, according to sources briefed on negotiations to end the trade war between the two nations. A continuing threat of tariffs hanging over commerce between the world’s two largest economies would mean a deal would not end the risk of investing in businesses or assets that have been impacted by the trade war. “The threat of tariffs is not going away,...

(CNN) Chinese TV personality Jing Boran has something on his ear that authorities don't want you to see. In the latest episode of the popular Chinese reality TV show "I, Actor," the young star's face is digitally altered to blur out his earrings. Jing, who held lead roles in Chinese box office hits "Monster Hunt" and "Time Raiders," is not the only victim of the alleged "earring ban." Images circulating on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, show several other young male stars with blurred circles on their ears. It's unclear if Chinese regulators have issued a specific directive barring men...

The Women’s March, which was hailed as an international rebuke of President Trump in 2017 when throngs of activists took the streets the day after his inauguration, is steadily losing supporters amid an anti-Semitism scandal that won't go away. The march will be held in D.C. again on Saturday at the National Mall, but the controversial ties of organizers have caused the campaign to lose steam. Groups ranging from EMILY’s List to The National Council of Jewish Women as well as high-profile Democratic politicians are keeping their distance, even as other prominent organizations stand by the movement -- and newly announced 2020 candidate...

The House and Senate passed legislation which would provide back pay to federal government workers who were affected by the partial government shutdown. On Friday, the House approved the legislation in a 411-to-7 vote after it was passed by the Senate Thursday. The legislation will now need to be signed by President Donald Trump for final approval. However, the legislation is specifically for workers who are working with unpaid status during the partial shutdown, not for those on furlough. Those who worked during the shutdown and have not been paid will receive back pay when the government is funded, according...

Katelyn Ohashi did three backflips, landed into a split and got back up to end her floor routine as though it was easy. Then the crowd went wild as the University of California, Los Angeles, senior gymnast stood there smiling.

A Buzzfeed News report alleges Mr Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen has already admitted to lying about when the business project ended. Mr Trump has not yet responded directly to the report's allegations - but he has previously denied ever directing his former lawyer to break the law. The intelligence committee of the House of Representatives will investigate the claims, says its new chairman, Adam Schiff. "The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation...

The United States and its southwest tight and shale oil has changed from dependence on world oil to domination. News of the size of oil reserves in the Delaware Basin (New Mexico’s share of the Permian) while OPEC was deciding how many barrels it will cut from the world market to lift prices caused epic confusion — and revelations of how little “authorities” and the media understand petroleum economics. The New Mexico media, which relies mainly on interviews with petroleum industry spokespersons, got it wrong. Recommended Video Government numbers came out as 46 billion barrels (Permian total) with 26 in...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a select group of congressional Democrats were boarded on a military charter bus bound for Andrews Air Force Base to catch a military charter jet to Europe were forced to turn around Thursday when President Donald Trump officially postponed the trip. Trump sent a letter to Pelosi informing her that she would not be allowed to use military aircraft to travel due to the government shutdown and instead suggested Pelosi fly commercial. It reads: Due to the shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan has...

In addition, eaving the likely still ongoing government shutdown behind for the snow of Utah, new Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be bringing some of her much-analyzed moves to the festival too. A SFF juror last year, Jada Pinkett-Smith is returning to Sundance as well for what is described as a fireside chat by the host of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk at MACRO founder and CEO Charles D. King’ Main Street lodge.

(WOLO) – Contrary to previous reports of long security checkpoint wait times during the government shutdown, the TSA has released its report debunking accounts of travel woes. According to TSA’s “Checkpoint Operations Statement” for Wednesday (1/17), the average wait time for passengers across the country’s 42 most popular airports was less than 30 minutes. The longest wait time was at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport with a security checkpoint wait time of 39 minutes. Wednesday’s report also shows a national rate of 6.1 percent of unscheduled absences compared to five percent the same day last year. Many employees reporting the inability to...

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s testimony about his meetings with FBI officials regarding dossier author Christopher Steele severely undercuts claims made in 2018 by California Rep. Adam Schiff and his fellow Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. Ohr told lawmakers Aug. 28, 2018, he briefed top FBI officials Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page in early August 2016, just days after he met with Steele, a former British spy who was investigating then-candidate Donald Trump. Ohr testified he told McCabe and Page about his interactions with Steele, who was working at the time for Fusion GPS, a Democrat-funded opposition research firm....

A former aide to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee alleges she was raped by a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation staffer in October 2015. The staffer says she was fired once the congresswoman learned she planned to sue the Foundation, which Jackson Lee chairs. The aide is suing Jackson Lee in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A former aide to Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas filed a civil suit against the lawmaker and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), alleging she was fired for threatening legal action against the Foundation relating to a sexual assault. The...

~Favorite Songs with Cut or Open in it.~ Punisher - God's Gonna Cut You Down (remix) *Video* Shinedown - Cut The Cord (Official Video) *Video*

The San Francisco congresswoman has apparently taken to flying in style. And not just any style but military charter style, according to e-mails released this week. Pelosi's staff has allegedly been "berating" military officials to get the best planes possibly for the speaker to fly across country, according to e-mails obtained by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch (you can read all the emails on their site) and first reported by The New York Post. "Taken together, these documents show that Speaker Pelosi treats the Air Force like her personal airline," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a statement....

In December Twitter legal issued TGP’s Associate Editor, Cristina Laila a warning that she violated Pakistan’s blasphemy laws over a tweet wherein she called for burkas to be banned in the United States. The specific Pakistani blasphemy laws Cristina violated are punishable by life imprisonment or death and Twitter happily delivered the threat to her. Twitter, an American company, warned an American citizen who was exercising their First Amendment rights about Pakistan’s Islamic blasphemy laws. In a years-old, since deleted tweet, Cristina called for the burka to be banned; this offended the Pakistani government enough to force Twitter to spring...

Pelosi wrote: The U.S. Secret Service was designated as the lead federal agency responsible for coordinating, planning, exercising, and implementing security for National Special Security Events. However, both the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] have not been funded for 26 days now — with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs. Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress...

Three days before the 2019 Women’s March, organizers announced they had moved to a smaller venue as the third annual march confronts bad weather, a government shutdown and a dramatic drop of support on the left. The Women’s March said Wednesday it had changed its starting point to Freedom Plaza at the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue — instead of the National Mall — with plans to march “past the Trump Hotel.” The Women’s March said it had been required to relocate by the National Park Service due to snow and accused the agency of pressuring the group...

Based on the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI), about 1 in 5 (21%) of all state and federal prisoners reported that they had possessed or carried a frearm when they committed the ofense for which they were serving time in prison (fgure 1) . More than 1 in 8 (13%) of all prisoners had used a frearm by showing, pointing, or discharging it during the ofense for which they were imprisoned. Fewer than 1 in 50 (less than 2%) of all prisoners had obtained a frearm from a retail source and possessed, carried, or used it during the ofense...