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Justice Department Could Launch Challenge of AT&T-Time Warner Merger Amid Renewed Interest in Trust Busting

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Federal regulators are considering taking action to stop the acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T. The Justice Department and AT&T aren’t close to an agreement on conditions for the merger, according to a report Thursday morning in The Wall Street Journal. Antitrust Division lawyers are subsequently weighing a lawsuit to block the deal. The telecoms giant wants to purchase Time Warner as a content source for its mobile phone customers. Time Warner–owner of CNN, HBO, and TBS–wants to maximize viewership, as Bloomberg noted. Announced in…

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In Wake of NYC Attack, Trump Moves to Shut Down Immigration, Reboot Gitmo

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President Trump seized on Tuesday’s truck attack in New York City to propose sweeping immigration reforms, and floated the idea of putting new inmates in Guantanamo Bay. Ahead of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump spoke briefly to reporters about the assault in lower Manhattan, which left 8 people dead and injured more than a dozen. The President described the suspect in custody, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, as an “animal,” and hit out at the program Saipov reportedly used in 2010 to come to the US, from Uzbekistan. Trump stated…

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Afghanistan Inspector General Ready to Criticize War “The First Day I’m out of this Job”

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As the most prominent official overseeing the War in Afghanistan, John Sopko has made some enemies among hawks on Capitol Hill. At a House Oversight Committee panel on Wednesday, Sopko had a warning for them. “The first day I’m out of this job–because it’s not by job to talk policy–I’m happy to publicly tell you what I really think about our mission in Afghanistan,” he said. The Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) was responding to a question from Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.). A…

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US Military Now Classifying Key Data About Afghan Army Strength

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An oversight office charged with keeping tabs on reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan reported this week that the Pentagon is withholding from the public critical information about the US mission in the war-torn country. In a quarterly report released on Monday, The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said that certain data about the Afghan army and police was, for the first time, shielded from public view. “The newly classified or restricted data include important measures of Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) performance…

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Appellate Circuit pick, a one-time advocate of electroshock punishment, to soon receive Senate confirmation vote

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The Senate will soon consider an appellate court nominee who once praised electric shock punishment as a law professor. Stephanos Bibas–picked by President Trump to preside over the Third Circuit–wrote a paper in 2009, claiming that mild electrocution would be an acceptable alternative to imprisonment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is planning on holding a confirmation vote on Bibas later this week. Bibas is among four federal appellate circuit judges set to be considered in the next few days by the upper chamber. Sen.…

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Trump’s Transgender Troop Ban Halted in Court

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A federal judge ruled that President Trump’s executive order barring military service by openly transgender individuals likely violates the constitution. The order came down on Monday from a District Court in Washington. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked implementation of the President’s directive, which was first issued via a series of tweets in July. Plaintiffs against the administration included transgender individuals currently serving in the military who argued their career, family, and in some cases, medical care were put in jeopardy by the ban. They had argued…

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Mueller Trump-Russia Probe Leads to Guilty Plea, as Manafort Proclaims Innocence

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Someone who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign has pleaded guilty to deceiving investigators probing alleged Russian interference in last year’s election. George Papadopoulos admitted to having made “material false statements and material omissions” during a January interview with FBI agents. The confession, which was revealed on Monday, was the first guilty plea to come out of special prosecutor Bob Mueller’s probe into allegations of Russian meddling and Trump campaign collusion. Papadopoulous’ plea also came on the same day…

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F.C.C. Dem Calls for Investigation into Agency ties with Sinclair

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A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission called for an investigation into the agency’s ties with a broadcasting giant. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency appears to be heavily influenced by Sinclair Broadcast Group, claiming: “all of our media policy decisions seem to be custom built for this one company.” “If you look at the series of media policy decisions that has been made by this commission, they all seem to serve Sinclair Broadcasting’s business plans,” Rosenworcel said on Wednesday. She cited a number…

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Insurance Lobbyists Broke News about A.I.G. Deregulation Before Trump Administration

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Late last month, without much fanfare, financial regulators voted to relax rules on AIG, the insurance giant synonymous with last decade’s global financial meltdown. The process was done in such hushed tones, according to Democratic Senators, that the decision was first revealed not by the inter-agency body that made it–the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)–but by an industry trade association. “The timing…indicates that insurance industry representatives and others individuals learned of the decision to de-designate AIG before it was announced publicly,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)…

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Climate Change Poised to Kill People, Break Industries, and Budgets, GAO Warns

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The US government has incurred hundreds of billions of dollars in costs associated with climate change, and damages will increase significantly in the future, according to a new watchdog report. In a study published Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) attempted to measure, for the first time, the economic and budgeting consequences of rising temperatures and extreme weather phenomenon. It found staggering cost increases over the next century in several economic sectors, including healthcare, which could take a half trillion-dollar hit due to more heat-related…

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Treasury Department Slimes Obama Era Holdout Agency

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A hallmark of the Obama administration has been blasted by the Treasury Department—for issuing regulations that guarantee Americans’ right to sue misbehaving Wall Street firms. Treasury on Monday released a report criticizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for its forced arbitration rule. The paper accused the CFPB of cherry-picking research during its rule-making process, and of effectively seeking to line the pockets of class action lawyers—despite readily admitting that 69 percent of such sums go to plaintiffs. In July, the CFPB finalized its rule, preventing…

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