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Sanders has no plans to reverse Independent status

Bernie Sanders says he won’t rescind his status as an Independent, even though he’s accepted a position in Democratic Party leadership.
In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, Sanders said that he was “elected as an Independent and I will finish this term as an Independent.”
That means that, for the next year at least, Sanders will serve as the Congressional Democrats’ chairman of outreach, in charge of bringing new and underrepresented demographics into the Democrats’ camp — though he won’t be a Democrat.
The idea, of course, is that Sanders can serve the Democratic Party by expanding its appeal to those people who joined his decidedly anti-Establishment campaign. Unfortunately for Democrats, seeking fresh blood means looking outside party ranks.

Chicago police say charges are expected in death of congressman's grandson

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis

Officials in Chicago said charges could be announced soon in the shooting death of an Illinois congressman's grandson following an argument over a pair of basketball shoes.
Officials say two juveniles are in custody and are being considered suspects in the murder of Javon Wilson, after he was shot in the head in his Chicago home on Friday.
"The detectives are continuing their interrogations and charges are expected," Officer Michelle Tannehill said on Saturday night.
Police announced earlier that the shooting occurred after a dispute over basketball shoes.
Wilson allegedly knew his attackers, but the juveniles in custody have not been identified.
The 15-year-old boy is the grandson of longtime U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.
Davis said he was told that a 15-year-old boy had traded slacks for shoes with Wilson's 14-year-old brother, but thought better of the trade and went to Wilson's house with a 17-year-old girl. He said the pair forced their way in the house and argued with Wilson before the boy pulled a gun and fired.
Davis also said that his grandson was a victim of a world where gun violence has become commonplace.
"It's almost, just the way it is. People think nothing of it," Davis said. "Youngsters invariably say, 'I know a lot of guys who've got guns. I know a lot of girls who've got guns.”
Davis added, "It becomes a part of the culture of an environment that has got to change."
Davis has been a member of the Democratic party for nearly 20 years. He was re-elected this month to his 11th term in the 7th Congressional District.
"The question becomes where does a 15-year-old obtain a gun? Who let the 15-year-old have a gun and under what circumstances?" Davis asked. "There's no answer for that except that the availability of guns is so prevalent in America to the point where you almost can't tell who has a gun" anymore.
Chicago has seen an increase in shooting and homicide numbers in recent months. August was reportedly the deadliest month in the city in nearly two decades.

Trump meets with school reformer, Democrat Michelle Rhee with education secretary post still open

Education reformer Michelle Rhee defends Common Core

President-elect Donald Trump will meet Saturday with Michelle Rhee, a Democrat and former District of Columbia public schools leader who is considered in the running for secretary of education.
Rhee will meet with Trump, a Republican, at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is also meeting with former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, purportedly being considered for secretary of state.
Jason Miller, Trump communications director, confirmed the Rhee meeting Saturday morning with FoxNews.com.
Like Trump, Rhee has been a supporter of school choice, backing some public money for charter schools while the D.C. schools chancellor from 2007 to 2010.
Trump’s School Choice Policy released in September calls for his incoming administration to “immediately” redirect $20 billion in federal funds to school choice -- in the form of block grants for an estimate 11 million school-age children living in poverty.
“We want every disadvantaged child to be able to choose the local public, private, charter or magnet school that is best for them and their family,” the Trump campaign said in announcing the plan. “Each state will develop its own formula, but the dollars should follow the student.”
Rhee was hired to lead D.C. schools under Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty, who gave her essentially unprecedented autonomy to change the costly and under-performing city’s school system.
Known as a visionary education reformer, Rhee shot to national prominence after her picture appeared on the Dec. 2008 cover of Time magazine next to the headline “How to Fix America’s Schools.”
But the picture of Rhee holding a broom enraged teachers, union leaders and others who said the image made clear Rhee’s intentions to improve the school system by trying to sweep out the most experience teachers -- in her effort to pay them based on performance, not tenure.
Trump also supports merit-based pay for teachers, which he and his campaign say rewards “great teachers … instead of the failed tenure system that currently exists, which rewards bad teachers and punishes good ones.”
However, Rhee, the daughter of Korean immigrants, has in the past been a supporter of the Common Core educational standards that Trump has frequently called a “total disaster.”
During Rhee’s tenure in the District of Columbia, graduation rates and standardized test scores in math and reading improved. But she increasingly lost the support of parents and others who complained that she made such decisions as firing teachers and principals and closing schools with little public input.
Rhee unapologetically fired 241 teachers in 2010, the same year Fenty lost his reelection bid to Vince Gray and she resigned, in what many considered the city’s return to ward politics.
Trump is also scheduled to meet Saturday with Betsy Davos, a wealth donor, school choice advocate and the former leader of the Michigan Republican Party. Davos has also been mentioned as a possible education secretary candidate.
Trump met earlier this week with Eva Moskowitz, a charter school leader from New York. However, she reportedly dropped out of the competition to run the Education Department after meeting with Trump earlier this week.
Rhee is married to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a Democrat, and leads the board of St. Hope Public Schools, a Sacramento-based charter school group.

Retired Gen. James Mattis eyed as Trump's possible pick for defense secretary

 

In a sign that Donald Trump was zeroing in on his choice for defense secretary Saturday, a senior transition team official told Fox News the retired Marine Gen. James Mattis was a "very strong candidate" for a Cabinet post.

The retired general was one of several people who met with Trump in New Jersey during the day on Saturday. Trump wouldn't say whether he was offering Mattis a job, saying "we'll see." But as they posed for cameras before sitting down for their meeting, Trump pointed to Mattis and called him "a great man."
Earlier, an official with the transition team confirmed the retired general was under consideration to lead the Pentagon.
Mattis succeeded David Petraeus as commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees all military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has field commander experience in Afghanistan and both U.S. wars in Iraq, and retired in 2013.
If nominated and approved, Mattis would be the highest-ranking officer to become defense secretary in more than half a century. When asked about a rule prohibiting those who served in active duty within the past seven years, the senior official told Fox News, "There are waivers around that."
Known as "Mad Dog Mattis," the retired general was credited with a string of colorful quotes over the years, including: "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
Also: "You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon."
The president-elect also was considering retired Army Gen. David Petraeus to serve as defense secretary, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump is said to have a strong interest in having a former general run the Pentagon, with the interest in Mattis coming after retired Army General Jack Keane, citing personal reasons, withdrew his name from consideration.
The Trump team is also weighing options for pairing the general with a CEO-like figure as deputy secretary, an individual who could bring needed reform to the Pentagon's spending and management systems.
Trump also met with Mitt Romney and Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts, among others, at the billionaire's golf club in Bedminster, N.J., during the day on Saturday.
Trump signaled a sharp rightward shift in U.S. national security policy Friday with his announcement that he would nominate Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA. Trump also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.
A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a "political ideology" and driver of extremism.
Sessions and Flynn were ardent Trump supporters during the campaign, and their promotions were seen in part as a reward for their loyalty.
In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for "ending our interrogation program" and said intelligence officials "are not torturers, they are patriots."

In busy weekend, Trump goes to NJ to talk with Romney, Christie, others

President-elect Donald Trump this weekend moved his operation to fill top administration posts and talk with Republican party elders to his private New Jersey golf club, meeting with arch-critic Mitt Romney, who purportedly is being considered for secretary of state.
Trump, who has conducted most of the discussion -- and made a couple of Cabinet-level picks -- from Trump Tower in Manhattan, is scheduled to meet Sunday with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, two leading supporters. He’s also scheduled to meet with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
A Kobach spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Saturday that Kobach was on his way to New Jersey but she did not confirm details of the planned meeting Sunday. Kobach served as an adviser to the Trump campaign on immigration issues and has a background in designing laws cracking down people who are here illegally.
Romney, a former GOP presidential nominee, said the 90-minute meeting at Trump’s private club in Bedminster, N.J., was a "far-reaching conversation." He did not respond to questions about whether he would consider joining the administration.
Trump walked Romney out at the end of the meeting and said, "It went great."
The sit-down came after an acrimonious election year. Romney was a harsh critic of Trump, calling him a "con man." Trump called Romney a "choke artist" because of his loss to President Barack Obama. Trump and Romney have been trying to mend fences since then.
Earlier Saturday, Trump met with former D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, possibly about the secretary of education post, and took to Twitter.
On Twitter, Trump rushed to the defense of Mike Pence, after "Hamilton" actor Brandon Victor Dixon challenged the incoming vice president from the Broadway stage after the show Friday night.
"Apologize!" Trump tweeted to the actor. "Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen!"
Dixon tweeted back: "Conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate (at) Mike -- Pence for stopping to listen."
Trump also bragged on Twitter about agreeing to settle a trio of lawsuits against Trump University, claiming: "The ONLY bad thing about winning the presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!"
On Friday, it was announced that Trump had agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, his former school for real estate investors. The lawsuits alleged the school misled students and failed to deliver on its promises in programs that cost up to $35,000.
Trump has denied the allegations and had said repeatedly he would not settle. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who announced the settlement, called it "a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university."
Trump tweeted to his 15 million followers Saturday that he settled only so that he could better focus on leading the U.S.
Trump is still weighing a range of candidates for leading national security posts.
Other contenders for secretary of state are said to be Giuliani, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who met with Trump on Thursday.
Also on Friday, Trump picked Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, signaling a sharp rightward shift in U.S. security policy as he begins to form his Cabinet.
Trump also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a "political ideology" and driver of extremism.
The selections form the first outlines of Trump's Cabinet and national security teams. Given his lack of governing experience and vague policy proposals during the campaign, his selection of advisers is being scrutinized both in the U.S. and abroad.
Trump's initial decisions suggest a more aggressive military involvement in counterterror strategy and a greater emphasis on Islam's role in stoking extremism.
Sessions, who is best known for his hardline immigration views, has questioned whether terrorist suspects should benefit from the rights available in U.S. courts. Pompeo has said Muslim leaders are "potentially complicit" in attacks if they do not denounce violence carried out in the name of Islam.
Pompeo's nomination to lead the CIA also opens the prospect of the U.S. resuming torture of detainees. Trump has backed harsh interrogation techniques that President Barack Obama and Congress have banned, saying the U.S. "should go tougher than waterboarding," which simulates drowning. In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for "ending our interrogation program" and said intelligence officials "are not torturers, they are patriots."
Asked Saturday whether more anymore announcements would be made in the coming hours, Trump said, “We'll see, could happen."
Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation; Flynn would not.
However, potential roadblocks exist, particularly for Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump and one of the chamber's most conservative members.
His last Senate confirmation hearing, in 1986 for a federal judgeship, was derailed over allegations that he made racist comments, including calling a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" in conversation. Sessions denied the accusation, but withdrew from consideration.