Light News Dump

Pentagon prepared plan to deploy 120,000 troops in case of Iran escalation
https://www.axios.com/iran-military-troops-john-bolton-1d4a714c-ea52-483f-b392-2ac2af01f423.html

Chinese government calls for a 'people's war' against the US as Trump threatens tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods in all-out trade battle
https://www.businessinsider.com/trade-war-trump-mulls-more-tariffs-300bn-china-peoples-war-2019-5

This Law Has Saved Millions Of American Lives. Republicans Want It Gone. The Clean Air Act shows the power of Congress to change lives.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5cd326aee4b09f321bdb0978

Republicans target Pell Grant money for NASA’s budget boost
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/trump-targets-pell-grant-money-for-nasas-budget-boost/2019/05/13/cbade6e2-75e8-11e9-a7bf-c8a43b84ee31_story.html

Trump campaign paid women employees nearly 20% less than male counterparts
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/13/trump-campaign-paid-women-like-omarosa-less-than-men-filing-says.html

Trump's Republican-Controlled Administration Has Been Working on Sweeping, High Visibility Mass Arrest of Thousands of Immigrant Families
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/trump-plan-arrest-thousands-immigrant-families-nielsen-vitiello-ice-homeland-security.html

Morning Joe joked Trump would take credit for the Red Sox's wins. Then he really did.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/841036/morning-joe-joked-trump-take-credit-red-soxs-wins-really-did

Gov. Newsom pardons refugees facing deportation
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-pardon-immigrant-trump-20190513-story.html

The United States has again decided not to impose tariffs on rare earths and other critical minerals from China, underscoring its reliance on the Asian nation for a group of materials used in everything from consumer electronics to military equipment
https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/14/us-leaves-rare-earths-critical-minerals-off-china-tariff-list

Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches – study - Soft-drink brand’s products make up nearly 12% of litter found, says Surfers Against Sewage
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/14/coca-cola-packaging-pollution-on-uk-beaches-surfers-against-sewage-study

Trump and Barr refuse to defend ban on female genital mutilation
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-news-ice-arrest-deport-migrant-families-mexico-border-us-a8912771.html

Democrats demand Atty. Gen. William Barr hand over documents on Obamacare decision
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-congress-house-democrats-demand-obamacare-documents-20190514-story.html

AT&T promised 7,000 new jobs to get tax break—it cut 23,000 jobs instead
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/05/att-promised-7000-new-jobs-to-get-tax-break-it-cut-23000-jobs-instead/

House Judiciary Committee schedules hearing for Don McGahn, who may not show - The committee's Democratic chairman warned last week that the former White House lawyer could be held in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t appear.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-judiciary-committee-schedules-hearing-don-mcgahn-who-may-not-n1005441

Russians accessed voter records in 2 Florida counties, FBI confirms
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2019/05/14/russians-accessed-voter-records-in-two-florida-counties-fbi-confirms-1015760

It was 84 degrees near the Arctic Ocean this weekend as carbon dioxide hit its highest level in human history
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/05/14/it-was-degrees-near-arctic-ocean-this-weekend-carbon-dioxide-hit-its-highest-level-human-history/?utm_term=.4f96555f564a

Justice Department follows Trump’s order to chase insane conspiracy theory: "Attorney General William P. Barr has tapped John H. Durham, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, to investigate the origins of the special counsel’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election." What’s so absurd about this is that we know exactly what the origins of the investigation were. It began when Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos (one of multiple Trump associates who would later plead guilty to crimes) bragged to an Australian diplomat during a night of drinking that Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton that was being passed to the Trump campaign, and Australian officials then notified the FBI. By all accounts, the investigators proceeded with unusual care, deeply concerned about what Russia was doing, but just as deeply concerned that their investigation might affect the outcome of the election if its existence became public. Which is why they successfully kept it secret until after the election was over, a fact that is utterly incompatible with the Republicans’ theory that there was a sinister conspiracy within the Justice Department that was bent on destroying Donald Trump. What quickly became apparent in that investigation was that not only was Russia mounting a comprehensive effort to help Trump get elected, there was a very strong possibility that the Trump campaign was cooperating with the Russians in some form. During the campaign, there were anywhere between 100 and 250 contacts between Trump campaign figures and people associated with Russia. The Trump officials making those contacts included his son, his son-in-law, his campaign chairman, his personal lawyer, his future national security adviser, and his future attorney general, among others. We can argue about how you might define “collusion” and whether what happened constituted a conspiracy. But from the standpoint of counterintelligence investigators looking for a fire, there was smoke billowing from every window in Trump Tower. Which brings us to something we have to stop and emphasize, because it’s so illogical and even bizarre that your brain might reject it outright — despite the fact that it’s staring you in the face. The Republican position on the Russia scandal is that there should never have been an investigation in the first place. This seems almost too insane to believe, but it’s true. Republicans actually want to claim that when the FBI first got hints of what was going on, their response should have been not “This is something we should check out,” but rather, “Eh, that doesn’t seem like any big deal. No need to look into it.” This is still their position, even given everything we’ve learned since — all the details about the Kremlin’s effort to help Trump; the eagerness of Trump, his family, and his campaign to get help from Russia; and all the convictions and guilty pleas of Trump associates. So now, even after the copious misdeeds documented in the Mueller report, Republicans still cling to the idea that there should never have been any investigation, and the very fact that the investigation began is evidence of malfeasance in the FBI. For the record, I have no reason to believe that Durham is a partisan hack, as is the attorney general who tasked him to lead this new inquiry. But I can offer a prediction about how this is going to go. Durham will find that the investigation was completely justified and carried out in accordance with counterintelligence practice. He may, however, find a few instances of minor sloppiness as you would in any investigation, with some agent somewhere forgetting to fill out his 27B/6 form in triplicate.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/14/justice-department-follows-trumps-order-chase-insane-conspiracy-theory/
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-russia-government-contact-timeline-2018-7
https://themoscowproject.org/explainers/trumps-russia-cover-up-by-the-numbers-70-contacts-with-russia-linked-operatives/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/read-the-mueller-report/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeFT7lPAHU0

Turkish broadcaster won’t air NBA’s Western Conference finals over Enes Kanter’s involvement
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/basketball/article-turkish-broadcaster-wont-air-nbas-western-conference-finals-over/

Joel "Fuck The Process" Embiid's Lucky Day: The US Patent & Trademark office has made @JoelEmbiid the registered owner of one trademark for “The Process.”
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1128293345426591745

Brett Brown will return as the Philadelphia 76ers coach next season, managing partner Josh Harris told ESPN on Monday night. Harris, Brown and GM Elton Brand met today to discuss offseason priorities, including draft and free agency. (twitter.com)
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1128132569466327040

Researchers find Iranian-linked online campaign to spread anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and anti-American content
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/443557-researchers-find-iranian-linked-online-campaign-to-spread-anti-saudi-anti

Germany sees 20% rise in anti-Semitic crime in 2018
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-seehofer/germany-sees-20-rise-in-anti-semitic-crime-in-2018-blames-far-right-idUSKCN1SK1QX

Trump Tower Is Now One of NYC's Least-Desirable Luxury Buildings. Most condo owners who sold since 2016 have recorded a loss, "No one wants in That Building," says one former owner
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-14/trump-tower-is-now-one-of-nyc-s-least-desirable-luxury-buildings

'You can’t really win': 4m Britons in poverty despite having jobs - Unemployment is at its lowest since the 70s but some workers struggle to make ends meet
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/may/14/you-cant-really-win-4m-britons-in-poverty-despite-having-jobs

Oklahoma legislators joke about sexual misconduct
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/443630-oklahoma-lawmakers-appear-to-be-caught-on-hot-mic-joking-about-sexual

Lindsey Graham Is Introducing A Bill To Increase Detention Of Migrant Children From 20 Days To 100 Days
https://www.newsweek.com/senator-lindsey-graham-roll-out-new-bill-allowing-detention-migrant-children-1425086

Romney rejects Trump judicial pick who smeared Obama
https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2019/05/14/which-florida-counties-had-election-hacks-russians-fbi-and-now-gov-ron-desantis-all-know-but-we-dont/

Children sleeping on the ground at Border Patrol station
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/politics/border-patrol-mcallen-texas-pictures/index.html

Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck indicted in federal fraud case
https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-georgia-insurance-commissioner-indicted-fraud-case/wIXf1cBgke1qD95KkpAYcM/

Biden says Republicans will work toward consensus after Trump; critics ask if he's forgotten Obama presidency when Republicans voted against everything Obama did and investigated Hillary endlessly and obstructed everything non-legislative Obama Administration tried to do (rules, programs, policies, judicial appointments, etc)
https://www.newsweek.com/biden-republicans-consensus-trump-1425253

A Chain of Species Destruction at Yellowstone: The havoc caused by stocking the park’s lake for sport fishing ravaged ospreys, pelicans, bald eagles, grizzly bears and the lake’s own native cutthroat trout.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/opinion/fishing-species-extinction-yellowstone.html

Researchers say they have uncovered a vast fake news network impersonating genuine news organizations and using fake social media profiles to spread disinformation. The research group, which is part of the University of Toronto, claimed that Iran is behind the program
https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-news-network-of-sites-with-names-like-bloomberq-linked-to-iran-2019-5

Ten per cent of the oxygen we breathe comes from just one kind of bacteria in the ocean. Now laboratory tests have shown that these bacteria are susceptible to plastic pollution.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/mu-inj051219.php

Exxon predicted in 1982 exactly how high global carbon emissions would be today | The company expected that, by 2020, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would reach roughly 400-420 ppm. This month’s measurement of 415 ppm is right within the expected curve Exxon projected
https://thinkprogress.org/exxon-predicted-high-carbon-emissions-954e514b0aa9/

Sri Lanka Bomber Was Radicalised By British-Pakistani Preacher In UK
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sri-lanka-bomb-blasts-abdul-latheef-mohamed-jameel-was-radicalised-by-anjem-choudary-in-uk-2037522

Ancient woolly mammoth cells woken up by scientists
https://www.newsweek.com/woolly-mammoth-cells-woken-1359416

Third-largest coal producer in the US files for bankruptcy (
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/third-largest-coal-producer-in-the-us-files-for-bankruptcy/

YEP: Column: Hey, ESPN, 'Sunday Night Baseball' viewers actually want to watch the game — so focus on that
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-brewers-espn-sunday-night-baseball-criticism-20190513-story.html