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NH governor rips Mass., says DMV 'deficiencies' led to horrific crash that killed 7

New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu slammed Massachusetts officials Friday, accusing them of being responsible for the shocking crash in his state that killed seven bikers.
The attack follows revelations that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, the Massachusetts truck driver who has been charged with negligent homicide in the June crash, should have had his driving license suspended for previous infractions, but the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles took no action.
“Make no mistake: The deficiencies within the Massachusetts RMV under the leadership of Ms. Deveney resulted in the horrific crash in Randolph,” Sununu spokesman Benjamin Vihstadt told the Boston Globe.

“Make no mistake: The deficiencies within the Massachusetts RMV under the leadership of Ms. Deveney resulted in the horrific crash in Randolph.”
— Sununu spokesman Benjamin Vihstadt

The governor’s office comments also follow remarks by Erin Deveney, the RMV’s former registrar, who blamed both New Hampshire and Massachusetts for failing to transmit notifications about out-of-state drivers whose licenses should be suspended. She later resigned amid the uproar over the failure to suspend the man’s license.

Erin Deveney, shown in 2014, resigned as head of the motor vehicle division in Massachusetts after it was determined that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy's commercial driving license should have been suspended prior to a horrific deadly crash in June. (Associated Press)

But Sununu’s spokesman blasted the suggestion of equal blame, saying, “For Ms. Deveney to try and conflate the severity of their problem with New Hampshire is shameful and reaffirms why she no longer has a job.”

Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, of West Springfield, the driver of a pickup truck in a fiery collision on a highway in rural Randolph, N.H., that killed seven motorcyclists, stands with his attorney Donald Frank during a hearing in Springfield District Court in Springfield, Mass., June 24, 2019. (Associated Press)

Since the crash, it has emerged that Zhukovskyy had multiple run-ins with the law.
In May, Connecticut prosecutors said Zhukovskyy was arrested in a Walmart parking lot after failing a sobriety test. Zhukovskyy's lawyer in that case, John O'Brien, said his client denies being intoxicated and will fight the charge.

This photo provided by Miranda Thompson shows the scene where several motorcycles and a pickup truck collided on a rural, two-lane highway Friday, June 21, 2019 in Randolph, N.H. (Associated Press)

Zhukovskyy's refusal to take a chemical sobriety test should have resulted in an immediate suspension of his commercial drivers license, but no such action was taken by Massachusetts authorities.
Connecticut officials twice alerted Massachusetts about an earlier drunken driving arrest. Massachusetts investigators later determined the Registry of Motor Vehicles hadn't been acting on thousands of out-of-state notifications about serious driving violations.
Westfield Transport, the company for which Zhukovskyy had been driving on the day of the June 21 crash, also has a troubled history.
According to an Associated Press analysis of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data, Westfield Transport Inc. faced more than 60 violations over the last 24 months.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Two planes intercepted over President Trump's NJ golf club for entering no-fly zone

Two planes were intercepted in New Jersey for entering a no-fly zone without the proper clearance while President Trump vacationed at his golf resort Friday, local reports said.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), in charge of airspace surveillance for the continental U.S. and Canada, deployed F-16 fighter jets in two separate instances at 7:30 p.m. and again at 8 p.m.
Two single-engine civilian aircraft stopped communicating with air traffic control and entered a temporary flight restriction zone near the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., where the president is spending the weekend, News 12 New Jersey reported.
In both cases, the pilots reestablished communication with air traffic control and left the restricted airspace without incident, NORAD said.
Trump was scheduled to land in Morristown, N.J., at 4:45 p.m. Friday then take a helicopter to the golf club at 5 p.m., Patch reported. According to protocol, a VIP Movement Notification implementing flight restrictions and road closures in the Bedminster and Morristown areas was issued from Friday 5 p.m. through Sunday at 5:45 p.m.
This is the president’s third visit to the New Jersey golf course this summer. He is scheduled to return to the White House on Sunday.
During his last visit, July 19-21, the U.S. Air Force intercepted a small general aviation aircraft for entering a temporary no-fly zone during Trump’s stay. The intercepted plane landed at an airport in Pittstown, N.J., without incident, where local law enforcement met the pilot, NAADC said.
That weekend, Trump made headlines when he surprised a bride and groom getting married at the Trump National Golf Club. He is scheduled to return to the golf club next Thursday for his annual 10-day vacation.
Since 9/11, the military, under Operation Noble Eagle, has made more than 1,800 intercepts of nonmilitary aircraft.
Fox News’ Frank Miles contributed to this report.

Feds' crackdown on Baltimore drug trade nets 90 indicted, 51 guns, $1M cash

Federal authorities charged 90 suspects related to separate drug conspiracies in Baltimore in the month of July alone as part of an ongoing partnership between federal, state and local agencies to crack down on violent crime in Maryland’s largest city.
Baltimore’s U.S. District Attorney announced midnight Saturday morning that authorities also seized 51 guns, more than $1 million in cash and large volumes of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and marijuana as a part of the operation.
“Reducing violent crime in Baltimore is job one.  It’s what we in law enforcement think about morning, noon, and night,” U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur said in a statement. “We will continue to do everything we can to prosecute the violent criminals who wreak havoc in and terrorize Baltimore’s neighborhoods.”
Baltimore has been in the national spotlight since President Trump first called the city a “rat and rodent infested mess” in response to criticism from House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md. on conditions in border detention centers.
Trump has been called a “racist” by Speaker Pelosi and other Dems for his remarks against Baltimore, given the majority of Baltimore’s constituents are African-American. The president pushed back, affirming Democrats play the “race card” instead of confronting the “facts.” Several high-profile Dems and civil rights activists have visited the city amid the controversy.
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a violent-crime reduction strategy, partners ATF, DEA, FBI, HSI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Baltimore Police Department, and the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City in a join-effort to take down violent crime.
All of those defendants indicted in July are members of violent drug trafficking organizations that have been operating in those Baltimore neighborhoods hardest hit by gun violence, Baltimore’s U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The attorney’s office is expected to ramp up efforts to surpass last year’s stats. In 2019, the office indicted 215 defendants in 2019 in Baltimore under Project Safe Neighborhoods just past the year’s halfway mark. In 2018, the attorney’s office indicted 246 Baltimore PSN defendants throughout the whole year.
The latest development in the Trump-Cummings feud came Friday when the president tweeted that it was “too bad” Cummings’ own Baltimore home had been robbed earlier that morning. Cummings clarified that an attempted burglar triggered his security system Friday morning but left without entering the home. He also thanked the Baltimore Police Department for their help.

AOC says she finds 'common ground' with some in GOP -- then slams Liz Cheney

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday that she finds “common ground” with some members of the Republican Party -- but criticized the GOP for becoming a “political mob.”
The New York Democrat made the comments during one of her now-signature Instagram live streams where she answered questions from viewers as she cooked food.
“There are quite a few Republican viewpoints that I actually share and I think there are a lot of places where I have common ground. I actually think I have a lot of common ground with many libertarian viewpoints in their party,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“There are quite a few Republican viewpoints that I actually share and I think there are a lot of places where I have common ground. I actually think I have a lot of common ground with many libertarian viewpoints in their party.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

She then began listing some of the libertarian viewpoints with which she agrees.
“True libertarians, which many happen to be in the Republican Party, true libertarian viewpoints are pro-immigration. So that's one,” she said.
“Another is that I'm quite anti-interventionist. ... I'm anti-war and so from the perspective of small government, there are Republicans who are very consistently anti-war and anti-military spending. So I do tend to find a lot of common ground with them on that.”
The comment came just before Ocasio-Cortez fired off a tweet at Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who criticized Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. The New Yorker dismissed Cheney's views based on the foreign policies of her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
"MFW *Liz Cheney* of all people tries to offer foreign policy takes, as if an entire generation hasn’t lived through the Cheneys sending us into war since we were kids," she tweeted.
She added during the live stream that she finds a common cause with libertarian Republicans when it comes to opposing government surveillance and other measures that violate privacy rights and other civil liberties.
She later reiterated her sympathy to certain Republican viewpoints on Twitter, saying she finds common ground on issues such as “Ending needless war & curbing exploding military spending,” “Protecting civil liberties & privacy rights” and “Holding bad contractors accountable.”
But despite her comments, Ocasio-Cortez also slammed the party, criticizing it for shifting away from an ideological purity.
“The Republican Party in Congress is no longer ideological conservative, they are kind of this political mob,” she said.
“You can't count on them to reliably hold certain views anymore because they will advance certain views if it helps the president but then abandon those same principles if it doesn't help the president.”
Earlier this year, both Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, found common ground on the issue allowing the sale of birth control over the counter and banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists.

Democrat Big Labor Cartoons

Rep. McCarthy blasts support for impeachment inquiry into President Trump

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., speaks to reporters at his weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted congressional Democrats after a majority of left-leaning lawmakers said they support an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
In an interview Wednesday, the representative said “Democrats are trying to push impeachment without saying the word.” This comes after more lawmakers switched sides to support an inquiry, bringing the total number of lawmakers who support it to 114 with only four more needed to push an inquiry forward.
Impeachment has been a hot button issue since special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony on Capitol Hill last week, where McCarthy criticized Democrats for pushing it.
He had this to say during his weekly news conference following Mueller’s testimony:

“Why would you ever even bring up impeachment after yesterday’s hearing? …That should be put to bed. That is over. We watched it. We heard it. We’ve read it. What more can they make up? The only people that want impeachment are the ones sitting inside this chamber on the democratic side. The American public have made their decision. Poll after poll you see it.”

McCarthy says even if House Democrats get support for an impeachment inquiry in their chamber, the Republican-controlled Senate will reject it right away.

Sen. Graham pushes through asylum bill after waiving committee rules

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham pushed through his asylum bill by waiving committee rules. The legislation narrowly moved out of committee Thursday in a 12-to-10 vote, which means it can now be taken up by the full Senate for consideration.
Graham’s decision allowed Republicans to act alone in making the bill eligible for Thursday’s vote after Democrats skipped last week’s business meeting on the bill. The South Carolina lawmaker defended his actions by saying “the Judiciary Committee can’t be a place where nothing happens.”

“We have a right to vote. You don’t want the committee to be ignored by the majority leader of either party, and just take a bill out of our committee and bring it to the floor because we can’t do our business. I’m not changing the rules. I’m making a motion in response to what you did last week.” — Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.)

His asylum proposal would increase the number of days migrant children can be held in custody, and it would require asylum seekers to file their claims from outside the U.S.

I will no longer allow our asylum laws to be exploited by human traffickers and cartels.

Unless we change our laws we are aiding and abetting the horrific practices we now see taking place at the southern border.
My bill fixes these problems.
WATCH:https://t.co/5eiMegJEKU
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 1, 2019

Big Labor warns 2020 Dems: Don't take union workers' support for granted

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, addresses members during the union's quadrennial convention in Los Angeles, Sept. 9, 2013. (Associated Press)

Big Labor warned Democratic presidential contenders Wednesday against taking union support for granted, adding that Dems would need to be more honest about the party’s record on workers’ rights, reports said.
The president of the AFL-CIO labor union, which represents 12.5 million union workers, addressed a closed-door meeting with representatives from each campaign in attendance before the second round of debates Wednesday in Detroit.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka argued that “both parties” needed to take responsibility for U.S. labor laws that benefit corporations to the detriment of the middle class.
IN LETTER TO AOC, BIG LABOR SAYS GREEN NEW DEAL COULD CAUSE 'IMMEDIATE HARM' TO UNION WORKERS
“More often than not, the Republican Party is bad for workers. This president is bad for workers. But let’s be honest about the Democratic Party’s record,” Trumka said.
“We are caught in a web of century-old labor laws that prioritize unchecked corporate greed over all else,” Trumka said, according to the Huffington Post. “We can blame this White House all we want. But this isn’t new.”

“We are caught in a web of century-old labor laws that prioritize unchecked corporate greed over all else. We can blame this White House all we want. But this isn’t new.”
— AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, addresses members during the union's quadrennial convention in Los Angeles, Sept. 9, 2013. (Associated Press)

It wasn't the first time the AFL-CIO has criticized Democrats this year.
In March, the union implored Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other lawmakers to not go through with the Green New Deal, claiming the plan to combat the effects of climate change would cause “immediate harm” to millions of union employees and threaten their livelihoods.
As the Democratic Party shifts toward a more progressive identity, Trumka reminded 2020 candidates that unions would no longer support candidates simply because of their party affiliation. Unions historically played influential roles in getting Democrats elected through get-out-the-vote efforts, canvassing and other campaigning methods.
“It’s time to do better,” Trumka said. “I believe you can. I believe you will. And working people are hungry for it. But you can’t offer campaign rhetoric or count on workers’ votes simply because you have a ‘D’ next to your name.”

"You can’t ... count on workers’ votes simply because you have a ‘D’ next to your name.”
— AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

“You need to prove that this party is the one and only party for working people,” he said. “And recognize that unions and collective bargaining are the single best way to make this economy work for everyone.” “Convince our members, and you’ll have the country’s largest and most effective movement for working people on your side,” Trumka added.
Trumka argued that Democrat-backed trade deals, including NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), hurt the middle class, the Huffington Post reported.
The TPP, an Obama-era global trade deal that was never submitted to the Senate for approval, was signed by 11 nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. President Trump pulled support from the deal soon after his inauguration in January 2017, arguing it gave up American power. Supporters argued the agreement would benefit the American middle class by making it easier for small business owners to sell American-made goods abroad, Politico reported.
The AFL-CIO has yet to endorse a candidate ahead of the 2020 election.
Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

US pulls out of Reagan-era arms treaty, saying Russia 'made no efforts' to comply

A historic arms-control treaty signed three decades ago by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was scrapped after President Trump decided to withdraw Friday.
The move to scrap the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty comes amid the administration’s assessment that Russia was in “material breach of the treaty” and made no effort to “come back into compliance” with the agreement, a senior White House official said.

This undated file photo provided Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, by Russian Defense Ministry official web site shows a Russian Iskander-K missile launched during a military exercise at a training ground at the Luzhsky Range, near St. Petersburg, Russia. (Associated Press)

Russia was given a six-month period, in accordance with the treaty, as a “final opportunity to come back into compliance” with the agreement, but the government headed by President Vladimir Putin “has made no efforts to do that,” the official added.
The end of the treaty sparks of a new global arms race between the two countries, which possess the world's largest nuclear arsenals.
The Trump administration stressed it was Russia’s fault the treaty came to an end, pointing out that Moscow has been developing and fielding weapons that violate the treaty and threaten the U.S. and its allies, particularly in Europe.
“Russia alone is to blame for this situation,” the senior official said. “We have taken every opportunity -- dozens and dozens of opportunities across two administrations – to bring Russia back into compliance.”

“Russia alone is to blame for this situation. We have taken every opportunity -- dozens and dozens of opportunities across two administrations – to bring Russia back into compliance.”
— A senior administration official

“It is clear that they are in material breach of the INF Treaty, which is, of course, not its only arms control violation. They are a serial violator of arms control agreements,” the official added, noting that “This violation, however, represents a direct security threat to the United States and our allies.”
The U.S. has long complained that the treaty was no longer fair and actually doesn’t stop the arms race as intended as Russia was openly violating it, while China, which is a non-signatory, is free develop weapons that would otherwise be prohibited.

President Ronald Reagan, right, shakes hands with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev after the two leaders signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty to eliminate intermediate-range missiles during a ceremony in the White House East Room in Washington, Dec. 8, 1987. (Associated Press)

The Trump administration said, for example, Russia has produced and fielded multiple battalions of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile throughout Russia, which is a violation of the treaty. Some of the missiles have “the ability to strike critical European targets.”
“This violation, which has been underway for many years, is a critical threat to American and Allied security now. That is why this action has become unavoidable,” a senior official said.
Another White House official pointed out that Russia has been deceptive about its military buildup, particularly denying the development of a ground-launched cruise missile in 2014 that is now fielded and poses a security risk to Europe.
“Throughout the process, they lied about the existence of the missiles at both the expert level and, finally when confronted with the evidence, came clean for this in the past several months,” the official said.
European powers came out to criticize Russia for not complying with the INF treaty amid the U.S. announcement of withdrawing from the agreement.
“We regret the fact that Russia has not done what was necessary to save the INF treaty,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
“Now we call all the more on Russia and the U.S. to preserve the New START treaty as a cornerstone of worldwide arms control,” he added. “Nuclear powers such as China must also face up to their responsibility on arms control — they have more weight in the world than at the time of the Cold War.”

“We regret the fact that Russia has not done what was necessary to save the INF treaty.”
— German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

Both the U.S. and Russia will have to decide whether to extend or replace the larger New START treaty when it expires in early 2021, a treaty that imposed limits starting in 2018 on the number of U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads and launchers.
Trump hasn’t committed to extending the treaty and even once calling it as “just another bad deal” concocted by the predecessor, the Obama administration.
The 1987 INF treaty was responsible for the elimination of 2,692 U.S. and Soviet Union nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles. The treaty also banned land-based missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,410 miles).
Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.