Light News Dump

Judge Rules Against Trump in Financial Records Fight With Congress. Trump's accounting firm must turn over his financial records to Congress, a Federal District Court judge ruled on Monday, rejecting his legal team's argument that lawmakers had no legitimate power to subpoena the files. “We will be filing a timely notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s personal attorneys. Jay Sekulow should be arrested and disbarred for telling Michael Cohen to knowingly lie to Congress which impeded their ability to hold the President accountable.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-20/ap-newsalert-judge-rules-against-president-donald-trump-in-financial-records-fight-with-congress
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cohen-told-lawmakers-trump-attorney-jay-sekulow-instructed-him-to-falsely-claim-moscow-project-ended-in-january-2016/2019/05/20/e98c6a5e-7b0f-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html

Judge's Brief: It is simply not fathomable that a Constitution that grants Congress the power to remove a President for reasons including criminal behavior would deny Congress the power to investigate him for unlawful conduct—past or present—even without formally opening an impeachment inquiry.
    ...
 The court is well aware that this case involves records concerning the private and business affairs of the President of the United States. But on the question of whether to grant a say pending appeal, the President is subject to the same legal standard as any other litigant that does not prevail. Plaintiffs have not raised a “serious legal question[] going to the merits.” Population Inst., 797 F.2d at 1078. And, the balance of equities and the public interest weigh heavily in favor of denying relief. The risk of irreparable harm does not outweigh these other factors. Powerful, emphatic precedent.
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6019021/Mehta-Order-20190520.pdf


Cohen told lawmakers Trump attorney Jay Sekulow instructed him to falsely claim Moscow project ended in January 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cohen-told-lawmakers-trump-attorney-jay-sekulow-instructed-him-to-falsely-claim-moscow-project-ended-in-january-2016/2019/05/20/e98c6a5e-7b0f-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html

Greenpeace activists have blockaded all entrances to the BP headquarters in London, demanding an end to all new oil and gas exploration. The campaigners arrived at 3am on Monday and encased themselves in heavy containers before the oil company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/20/bp-headquarters-in-london-blockaded-by-greenpeace

Prosecutors are examining tens of thousands of Trump inauguration documents. Authorities are investigating whether any of the record $107 million in donations for the inaugural came from foreign donors in violation of campaign finance laws.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/trump-inaugural-prosecutors-new-york/index.html

The U.S. put nuclear waste under a dome on a Pacific island. Now it’s cracking open.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/20/us-put-nuclear-waste-under-dome-pacific-island-now-its-cracking-open/

Bill to Ban Circus Animal Suffering Set for Introduction in US Congress
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/20/bill-ban-circus-animal-suffering-set-introduction-us-congress

Don’t worry guys, this isn’t obstruction of justice or anything. Totally legal and totally cool! White House expected to block former counsel Don McGahn's testimony to House committee
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/white-house-blocks-don-mcgahn-congress/index.html

Pro-Russian Comedian Inaugurated as Ukraine’s New President Immediately Disbands Parliament http://time.com/5591944/ukraine-volodymyr-zelenskiy-disband-parliament/

Tens of thousands of North Korean women and girls are trafficked and sold into the sex trade in China where they are forced to endure systemic rape, sexual slavery and cybersex trafficking, according to a new report. (and dumb ignorant racist antisemitic scumbag terrorist American Democrats want to legalize and unionize sex trafficking.....)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-china-sex-trade-rape-slavery-abuse-trafficking-a8921481.html

A study published last year by the University of Oxford found that plant-based diets could reduce food’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 73 percent.
https://orbitpost.com/members_post/how-a-fake-meat-based-diet-may-impact-climate-ARTe6c57317a890/

Google pulls Huawei’s Android license
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/19/18631558/google-huawei-android-suspension

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the future health risks of air pollution, a shift that would predict thousands of fewer deaths and would help justify the planned rollback of a key climate change measure, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans. The proposed change would dramatically reduce the 1,400 additional premature deaths per year that the E.P.A. had initially forecast as a result of eliminating the old climate change regulation — the Clean Power Plan, which was President Barack Obama’s signature climate change measure. It would also make it easier for the administration to defend its replacement, known as the Affordable Clean Energy rule.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/climate/epa-air-pollution-deaths.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/climate/epa-coal-pollution-deaths.html?module=inline

Ford To lay off 7,000 American workers
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/business/ford-layoffs/index.html

There’s No Boom in Youngstown, but Blue-Collar Workers Are Sticking With Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/us/politics/trump-voters-job-layoffs.amp.html

Trump Denies Report That Deutsche Bank Ignored Suspicious Transactions: “I Don’t Need Banks”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/trump-deutsche-bank-transactions/

Cocaine use in Britain has more than doubled in five years and purity of the drug has reached a record high, an analysis of waste water has shown
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cocaine-doubled-five-years-britain-purity-levels-record-high-a8920786.html

Border patrol agent accused of hitting migrant with government vehicle said migrants are ‘unworthy of being kindling for a fire’: prosecutors
https://www.newsweek.com/border-patrol-agent-accused-hitting-migrant-government-vehicle-said-migrants-1430164

Starting today, Bangladesh will ban fishing off its coast for 65 days every year, to try and boost depleted fish stocks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48335509

3 million senior citizens in the US are still paying off their student loans
https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-over-60-paying-student-loans-2019-5

DeVos used personal emails for work in 'limited' cases, say Feds
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/devos-used-personal-emails-for-work-in-limited-cases-say-feds.html

As Suicides Rise, Insurers Find Ways to Deny Mental Health Coverage
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-05-16/insurance-covers-mental-health-but-good-luck-using-it

Teen dies in Border Patrol custody, marking 5th death of migrant child since December
https://thehill.com/latino/444584-guatemalan-teen-dies-in-border-patrol-custody

The conservative “dark money” organization that spearheaded controversial Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation received $22 million in anonymous donations in the year before the 2018 court fight, newly released tax records show.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/05/dark-money-group-funded-by-17million-mystery-donor-before-kavanaugh/

Trump threatens to cut millions from fire departments in California after deadly wildfires
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/article230474629.html

Trump: E-Verify Would Make It Too Hard to Hire Undocumented Workers
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/trump-e-verify-fox-news-makes-it-too-hard-to-hire-the-undocumented.html