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Interesting, very interesting. As noted in the Flynn sentencing memo last night there were some curiously framed explanations of events surrounding his FBI inquisition. Now Judge Emmet Sullivan wants expanded information, and wishes to see the actual notes (FD-302) that were mentioned by Flynn; and Judge Sullivan is directing the special counsel to provide all documents created by the FBI surrounding the Flynn interview:

The Vatican’s third most powerful official has been convicted in Australia on all charges he sexually abused two choir boys there in the late '90s, according to two sources with knowledge of the case. A unanimous jury returned its verdict for Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday (Australian time) after more than three days of deliberations, the sources said, in a trial conducted under a gag order by the judge that prevented any details of the trial being made public.....

Students at a public high school have demonstrated their support for a Christian teacher fired from his position because he refused to refer to a trans-identified student by their preferred pronoun. Less than 24 hours after the West Point, Virginia school board unanimously voted to terminate high school French instructor Peter Vlaming, a large group of students walked out of their classes to protest the decision. “He's an amazing man,” student Wyatt Pedersen told WWBT News. “I think he really was going with what he believed was right and it's really unfair that he’s being punished for that, especially in...

With the chamber set to take up two competing measures denouncing Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday morning urged his colleagues to show restraint and embrace a more modest bill that would condemn Riyadh for the killing of a U.S. journalist but wouldn’t formally cut off all backing for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Speaking on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, told fellow senators they should vote against a bipartisan bill that would end all U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Instead, he said lawmakers should...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday used a terror attack at a famous Christmas market in a small, scenic town in France on Tuesday night to once again argue for more funding for U.S. border security - despite no evidence of links between terror attacks in the U.S. and illegal immigration over the southern border. His call came a day after he threatened to shut down the government if he doesn't get $5 billion for a border wall. "Another very bad terror attack in France," Trump tweeted. "We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give...

The world has found itself in a “mammoth environmental crisis,” and we will all have to dramatically alter our diets to reduce our impact on the Earth, CNN argues in a story advocating replacing beef consumption with bug consumption.Discussing the UK’s new “bleeding” burger that is not made from meat, CNN has laid out a few options for getting away from “greenhouse-gas-intensive foods such as beef and toward healthier and more sustainable diets.” Here are some foods you can eat to reduce your beef intake https://t.co/BNMFUwil3j pic.twitter.com/ddmB4uWXEs— CNN (@CNN) December 9, 2018 Six-legged creatures already supplement the diets of 2...

Vice President Mike Pence had to break a tie in the Senate on Tuesday to confirm Jonathan Kobes as a judge on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 50-50 tie came thanks to Sen. Jeff Flake, who joined every Democrat in voting against the nomination. The retiring Arizona senator has vowed to block all judicial picks until the Senate votes on legislation that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.Kobes is the first judge in U.S. history to be confirmed by the Senate with a tie-breaking vote from the vice president, according to CBS News.  With @VP breaking...

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally asked the Supreme Court to block a nationwide ban on the administration's new asylum policy that was unilaterally instituted by a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge last month. In a November news conference days before the midterm elections, Trump had vowed to turn away all asylum seekers who attempt to cross the border illegally instead of properly presenting themselves at ports of entry. The president, who has long said the asylum process is rife with fraud, said the emergency policy was necessary as the leading Central American migrant caravan approached the U.S. border...

It’s a win for Trump. The defamation lawsuit filed against Donald Trump by Michael Avenatti on behalf of Stormy Daniels has been tossed—and a judge is ordering her to pay nearly the president’s $294,000 legal tab. Daniels recently toldthe Daily Beast that the defamation suit filed by Avenatti was done against her wishes. The suit claimed that Trump has defamed the adult entertainment actress on his Twitter account. Well, regardless of the circumstances, it’s time to pay up, Stormy (via CNBC): OH MAN A federal judge just ordered Stormy Daniels to pay a whopping $293K to Trump for “attorneys’ fees,...

Barack Obama is doing everything in his power to encourage average Americans to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. In fact, he's doing everything he possibly can to keep the legislation that has been deemed his legacy, from dying. On Monday, Obama shared a video, reminding Americans to sign up in case they get "very sick" in 2019. No jump shots. No ferns. No memes. Not this time. I’m going to give it to you straight: If you need health insurance for 2019, the deadline to get covered is December 15. Go to https://t.co/ob1Ynoesod...

For the first time since the 2018-midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with President Trump at the White House Tuesday. Their meeting was originally supposed to be closed press, but that all changed when the White House press pool was invited into the Oval Office to broadcast their remarks. President Trump started the meeting by thanking Pelosi and Schumer for showing up and made his case for additional border security. "I am proud to shut down the government over border security," Trump said. "I will take the mantle." "They're pouring into our...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Tuesday in front of the White House that there will be a government shutdown if President Donald Trump refuses to budge from his demand for $5 billion of wall funding. He spoke after the tense meeting with President Trump.The bottom line is simple. The President made clear that he wants a shutdown. His position, if he sticks to his position for a $5 billion wall, he will get no wall and he will get a shutdown. The bottom line is very, very simple. That is, we want border security. We offered him border security....

President Trump threatened Tuesday to have the military “build the remaining sections” of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, appearing to revive a call to use Pentagon money to finish the project ahead of a meeting with congressional Democratic leaders opposed to the president’s funding request. For their part, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer put out a joint statement Monday arguing Trump and his party will own a government shutdown if they can’t strike a deal. “People do not yet realize how much of the Wall, including really effective renovation, has already been built. If the...

An Oval Office meeting with President Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and presumptive incoming speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Tuesday spiraled out of control — in Pelosi's words — over funding the border. With a potential government shutdown looming less than two weeks away, Pelosi told Mr. Trump, "you will not win" on the border wall. The president demanded border wall funding — and said he's not afraid the shut down the government over it.

President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to pressure Democratic congressional leaders into supporting his demand for billions of dollars to build his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, threatening to have the military build it “if Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country.” Trump tweeted the threat hours before Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi were to meet with Trump at the White House in an effort to avert a partial government shutdown on Dec. 21, when funding for some agencies is scheduled to expire. In a series of tweets Tuesday, Trump...

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - A former Canadian diplomat has been detained in China, two sources said on Tuesday, and his current employer, the International Crisis Group, said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Michael Kovrig’s detention comes after police in Canada arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities, a move that infuriated Beijing. It was not immediately clear if the cases were related, but the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver has stoked fears of reprisals against the foreign business community in China.

Democratic leaders plan to offer President Trump $1.3 billion in funding for a border fence when they meet Tuesday at the White House, a bid that falls far short of the $5 billion Trump is demanding to fund a border wall. Democrats, Republicans and the White House have until Dec. 21 to reach a budget deal if they are to avert a partial government shutdown, but talks are deadlocked over funding for the wall. As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) prepare for the Tuesday morning, Democrats and Trump are, if anything,...

A teacher at West Point High School in Virginia was fired recently over his religious objections to using male pronouns when referring to a student who is biologically female but identifies as male.The West Point School Board unanimously voted 5-0 Thursday to dismiss 47-year-old French teacher Peter Vlaming following a four-hour hearing. They argued that he was in “willful violation of school board policy.”“We do not and cannot tolerate discrimination in any form, or actions that create a hostile environment for any member of our school family,” they said in a statement. “Mr. Vlaming was asked repeatedly, over several weeks...

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the presumed incoming chairman for the House Armed Services Committee, voiced his extreme displeasure after the Department of Defense extended the deployment of active-duty service members on the U.S.-Mexico border. They will stay at the border until January 31.The Department of Homeland Security requested the extension due to the “ongoing threat” of large, and sometimes violent, migrant caravans.“I continue to strongly question the deployment of U.S. military service members at our southern border. Furthermore, the decision to extend this deployment to the end of January 2019 is not a responsible use of Department of Defense resources...

When it comes to alarming projections of global warming-induced sea level rise, veteran climate scientist Judith Curry says people need to cool it. “Projections of extreme, alarming impacts are very weakly justified to borderline impossible,” Curry told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Curry’s latest research, put together for clients of her consulting company near the end of November, looks in detail at projections of sea level rise. Curry’s ultimate conclusion: “Some of the worst-case scenarios strain credulity.” “With regards to 21st century climate projections, we are dealing with deep uncertainty, and we should not be basing our policies based on...