Alabama governor will face impeachment hearings after state Supreme Court ruling

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Saturday to allow lawmakers to move ahead with an effort to oust Gov. Robert Bentley, who is fighting to stay in office amid fallout from an affair with a top aide.
Bentley will face impeachment hearings beginning on Monday.
The state Supreme Court reversed a short-lived victory for Bentley when a judge on Friday blocked impeachment proceedings. After the high court's ruling, the House Judiciary Committee quickly announced plans to proceed with hearings on Monday.
The 74-year-old Republican has been engulfed in a sex scandal since recordings surfaced in 2016 of him making suggestive remarks to a female aide before he and his wife of 50 years got divorced.
Bentley vowed to stay in office despite calls for his resignation. He stood on the state Capitol steps on Friday and acknowledged making personal mistakes but maintained he did nothing to merit his removal from office.
"I do not plan to resign. I have done nothing illegal,” Bentley said. “If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no. I have not.”
The Supreme Court justices asked for briefs on the matter to be filed by Monday.
"It's disappointing to hear the committee will plow forward while the Supreme Court is considering the case. We have no idea what the committee has planned for Monday or who its witnesses will be," Bentley's lawyer, Ross Garber said.
Special Counsel Jack Sharman said the committee's position was that it is free to proceed with the hearings.
"I want to thank the members of the Alabama Supreme Court for quickly acting on our appeal and recognizing, what a circuit court judge didn't understand, that there are three branches of government and the Alabama Legislature is free to conduct its business as prescribed in the state constitution," House Judiciary Chairman Mike Jones said in a statement.
The committee, following a week or so of hearings, will make a recommendation to the full House of Representatives on whether Bentley should be impeached.
The Alabama Ethics Commission on Wednesday found probable cause that Bentley broke ethics and campaign law and referred the matter for possible prosecution.
Sharman wrote that Bentley encouraged an "an atmosphere of intimidation" in his administration to keep his romantic relationship secret and sent two state law enforcement officers to try to track down and retrieve a recording of a sexually-charged phone call he made to a woman presumed to be Mason.
"Gov. Bentley directed law enforcement to advance his personal interests and, in a process characterized by increasing obsession and paranoia, subjected career law enforcement officers to tasks intended to protect his reputation," the report to the House Judiciary Committee which was publicly released on Friday said.
The governor's lawyer called the report an "amalgam of hearsay rumor and innuendo."

Trump congratulates US military in Syria missile strike, including female Navy commander

President Trump on Saturday congratulated U.S. military personnel who executed his ordered missile strike on the Syrian air base connected to a deadly chemical attack on civilians earlier in the week.
“Congratulations to our great military men and women for representing the United States, and the world, so well in the Syria attack,” Trump tweeted.
The airstrike was launched overnight Thursday from U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
The 59 tomahawk cruise missiles targeted the Shayrat air base, near the central Syrian town of Homs, reportedly killing nine people.
The base is the purported takeoff spot for the chemical attack Tuesday in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, a stronghold for forces trying to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a 6-year-long civil war.
Assad purportedly ordered the attack, which killed a reported 87 people, including children.
The commander of one of the two Navy destroyers that launched the cruise missiles -- the USS Porter -- is a female Naval Academy graduate, according to The Capital Gazette newspaper.
The other vessel was the USS Ross.
Cmdr. Andria Slough graduated from the service academy with a bachelor of science degree in ocean engineering. She has previously served as an officer on the USS O'Brien and was a deputy director for the Joint Maritime Ballistic Missile Defense Operations and Training program.
On Saturday, a fatal airstrike occurred in Khan Sheikhoun, according to two international monitoring groups.
Syria's government has denied responsibility for any chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun.
And Russia's Defense Ministry, which has condemned the U.S. response, said the toxic chemical were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the town's eastern outskirts.

Congressional Republicans take heat at home on ObamaCare, say priority is avoiding shutdown

Congressional Republicans returned this weekend to their districts to get another earful about ObamaCare, while giving mixed statements about how close they are to replacing the health care law and suggesting that avoiding a looming government shutdown is now the priority.
California GOP Rep. Tom McClintock again held a town hall event in which residents expressed concerns about the GOP-led Congress repealing and replacing ObamaCare with more expensive and less comprehensive coverage.
“Are you aware that you don’t answer questions?” one town hall attendee asked McClintock at the event outside Sacramento.
Another attendee suggested McClintock was a “crappy” representative and that Republicans could vote with Democrats to replace him.
“That’s what elections are for,” responded McClintock, who in February faced such a rowdy town hall crowd that he exited with a police escort.
An ObamaCare replacement bill from House Republican leaders and backed by President Trump failed last month to even get a vote in the lower chamber, amid strong opposition from its most conservative members.
Trump and the leaders at first appeared ready to move ahead to tax reform and other big-ticket policy initiatives.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday before leaving Washington for a two-week break that members have “come together” on a new amendment that would lower premiums and provide broad access to care.
However, Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Charlie Dent downplayed Ryan’s remarks and said the more immediate concern is passing a budget before the end of the month, when the federal government technically runs out of money and largely shutters.
“I don’t believe we are as close as many would say,” Dent told Fox News, while arguing the House still has nearly a dozen appropriations bills to pass to avoid a politically damaging shutdown.
“We’ll be applying all of our time in April making sure we complete our work,” he said.
In Kentucky, several dozen people -- including doctors and patients -- staged a town-hall style event on a sidewalk outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Louisville office.
Among those who attended was Kentucky Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, who said lawmakers have “no alternative” to ObamaCare, in which consumers can pick from private insurers, except the so-called “single-payer option” in which they pay state governments for health insurance.
“We need to talk to this man right here,” said Yarmuth, pointing to McConnell’s district office.

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Fight breaks out at Florida protest against Syria strikes; sponsor International Action Center

A fight broke out Friday in Florida during a protest against President Trump’s decision to authorize an airstrike in Syria.
The fight was caught on video during a live broadcast on Action News Jax, a local station in Jacksonville.
It looked as though a couple of dozen protesters were gathered in downtown Jacksonville and protesters started shouting at each other. Police stepped in and arrested six.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told the station that David Schneider, 27, was the primary organizer of the protest. He was charged with inciting or encouraging a riot. The ages of those arrested ranged from 26 to 74.

After a few days in Mar-a-Lago, Chinese president enjoys layover in Alaska

Chinese President Xi on Friday took in the natural beauty of Alaska Friday after meeting with President Trump at his resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
The two leaders said they made progress, but there were no breakthroughs regarding North Korea or trade. Trump announced that he launched an airstrike into Syria moments after dinning with his Chinese counterpart.
Xi requested time with Alaska’s Gov. Bill Walker as the Chinese delegation's plane made a refueling stop in Anchorage. His wife and the Chinese delegation stepped off the Boeing 747 and were greeted by Walker, his wife and several dignitaries. The Anchorage Daily News reported that the Alaska visit was kept under wraps until earlier this week.
The visitors and their hosts drove off in a line of SUVs, limos and other vehicles in 40-degree weather under blue skies. The sightseeing tour will include a stop at Beluga Point, a pullout on the scenic Seward Highway about 15 miles south of Anchorage.
The pullout offers a stunning view of the snow-capped Chugach Mountains and Turnagain Arm in Alaska's Cook Inlet. The waters are home to the endangered Beluga whale.
Walker said he was eager to tell Xi about the abundance of Alaska's resource development opportunities.
"We have tremendous potential in our oil and gas, tourism, fish, air cargo and mineral resource industries," Walker said in a statement issued before the meeting.
For Walker, even just a few hours of time with the president of the world's largest country can pay dividends.

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(Chugach Mountains bordering the north shores of Turnagain Arm)

China is the state's top export market, buying nearly $1.2 billion worth of goods in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The next top international market was Japan, at nearly $820 million, followed by South Korea, at $730 million.
Chris Hladick, the commissioner of the state's Commerce department, called the visit by the Chinese delegation a "once-in-a lifetime opportunity."
"We're not even shown on the map for the United States," he said, a nod to Alaska and Hawaii often being left off of maps of the U.S. "I think this is an extremely valuable opportunity to meet with our largest trade partner face to face."
The state's top export product to China? Fish, accounting for 58 percent. Frozen cod and flat fish, such as halibut, topped a lengthy list of fisheries products, which also included frozen salmon and pollock.
A distant second on the export list are minerals and ores, accounting for 27 percent. Included in that last year was about $130 million of precious metals, which Hladick said was likely gold from the Fairbanks area.
Lower-tier exports included oil, wood, scrap metal and airplane parts.
Hladick sees China as a potential market for Alaska coal and hoped to raise the issue with Chinese officials during their visit. "It's meetings like this that spark interest and then you follow up," Hladick said.
Having your largest trade partner drop in for a meeting is fortuitous when the state is in tough financial straits because of a prolonged period of low oil prices. Hladick said he'd be happy to get a 45-minute meeting with the Chinese trade minister.
Walker has been courting Asian markets -- particularly Japan and South Korea -- in trying to drum up interest in a liquefied natural gas project the state is pursuing. State officials wouldn't say if Walker would bring up the natural gas pipeline, which is in its early stages, during his visit with Xi, but it seemed unlikely that he wouldn't take time to tout the multi-billion dollar project that would take natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to a plant on the state's coast, where it would be liquefied and shipped.
Xi is the second major world leader to spend time in Alaska's largest city in the last few years. U.S. President Barack Obama used a three-day trip to Anchorage in 2015 to showcase the impact of climate change. King Harald V of Norway also made an official visit to Anchorage a few months before Obama.
Alaska's location provides a natural stopping point for world leaders to make refueling stops, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage has hosted many presidents over the years for these short stints.
President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II met in 1984 during refueling stops at the airport in Fairbanks. Their paths were crossing as one finished and one began trips to Asia.

Expert: Watch to see if Kim Jong-Un goes into hiding after Syria strike

The U.S. bombardment of a Syrian airbase just outside of Homs Friday was likely seen by North Korea as a clear warning that President Trump will use his military if United States interests are at risk.
The immediate focus after the strikes was on Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s reaction. Russia was not happy with the U.S., it spoke in defense of Syria and moved warships. But now the attention is on the next move by another world leader: Kim Jong-Un.
Gordon Chang, a Daily Beast columnist and author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On The World,” said in an emailed statement to Fox News Friday that the U.S. strike on the Syrian airfield “tells North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un that he must now heed American military power, something that he probably dismissed before.”
“Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, disappeared from public view for about six weeks in 2003 at the time of the Iraq war. Kim Jong-Un loves the public spotlight, and it will be telling if he similarly goes into hiding,” the author said.
The airstrikes are “a warning to China’s People’s Liberation Army, which had grown dismissive of the U.S. Navy and Air Force.  Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader visiting Mar-a-Lago, almost certainly interpreted the strike as a sign of disrespect to him,” Chang said.

Now PlayingHow is China perceiving the strikes on Syria?

Retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News on Wednesday that the U.S. is "rapidly and dangerously heading towards the reality that the military option is the only one left when it comes to getting North Korea to denuclearize and not weaponized [intercontinental ballistic missiles]."
Trump made it a point to address the media about the Syria strike at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida just moments after dining with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping.
The strike was a culmination of a rapid, three-day transformation for Trump, who has long opposed deeper U.S. involvement in Syria's civil war. Advisers said he was outraged by heartbreaking images of young children who were among the dozens killed in the chemical attack and ordered his national security team to swiftly prepare military options. The Los Angeles Times reported up to 15 dead in the strikes. A Syrian official said six were killed at the base and nine others in surrounding areas. The death toll could not be independently confirmed.
“This is Trump saying, ‘No, I am a man of my words,’” Reva Goujon, the vice president of Stratfor, told CNBC. “’When I make a threat, I will follow through.’ That’s certainly something the Chinese and North Koreans will be thinking about.”
Trump has said that if China doesn't exert more pressure on North Korea, the U.S. will act alone. The missile strikes on Syria bring more weight to that statement.

After Gorsuch confirmation, Trump likely considering next Supreme Court pick

When President Trump was running for office, one of his favorite selling points to the so-called "Never Trump" Republicans was: You can take me, or you can choose Hillary Clinton and get stuck with her justices.
The strategy proved effective.
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote a column in The Washington Examiner titled, “It’s the Supreme Court, Stupid.”
“If Hillary Clinton wins, the Left gavels in a solid, lasting, almost certainly permanent majority on the Supreme Court," he worte. "Every political issue has a theoretical path to SCOTUS, and only self-imposed judicial restraint has checked the Court's appetite and reach for two centuries."
Supreme Court appointments was a main focal point during the campaign because there was a vacancy. Conservative Antonin Scalia had died. Hours after his death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that his chamber would not consider an Obama nominee and would instead wait until the new president was elected. There were 11 months left in Obama’s term at the time.
McConnell’s gambit worked. Obama's nomination, Judge Merrick Garland never saw the light of day, and Trump defeated Clinton.
Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch who—thanks to the Republican-controlled Senate’s decision to go nuclear—is set to be sworn in on Monday. The tilt of the court has regained its conservative tilt.
As soon as April 13, Gorsuch could take part in his first private conference, where justices decide whether to hear cases — and some of them could involve gun rights, voting rights and a Colorado baker's refusal to design a cake for a same-sex couple's wedding, The Associated Press reported.
But just as Gorsuch begins to get comfortable in his new chambers, Supreme Court observers are considering the real posibility that Trump could name additional justices. The court is collectively older than any other on record. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer are 84, 80 and 78, respectively.
Gorsuch's confirmation process was fought bitterly on both sides. Democrats assailed McConnell for choosing to go nuclear. Sen. Chuck Schumer said afterwards that there's no incentive for nominees to even speak to the minority anymore.
University of California at Irvine Professor Rick Hasen warned Democrats at the height of the Gorsuch fight that they had little to gain in filibustering the nomination.
"Imagine if in a year or so Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, or Kennedy leave the Court,” he wrote on Election Law Blog. “Then things get MUCH worse from the point of view of progressives. Then Roberts becomes the swing voter and there goes affirmative action, abortion rights, etc. If you think things with the Supreme Court are bad for progressive now they can get much, much worse.”
He went on the write that a better move for Democrats was to “save the firepower for that fight. It is possible that Senators like Susan Collins would be squeamish about such a nominee, and they might not vote to go nuclear. At that point, people can take to the streets and exert public pressure.”
In August, then-candidate Trump told The Washington Post that the next president may appoint up to five justices. That would change the direction of the court for decades. Trump’s first nomination is 49 years old.
The Washington Examiner, citing a Trump associates, repeated Trump's campaign number Friday. He “expects to name five to the court.”

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Twitter files lawsuit over US government attempt to identify users behind anti-Trump account

Twitter has filed a lawsuit against the U.S government over an attempt to reveal the identities of the users behind the @ALT_USCIS account, which has been critical of President Trump’s administration.
A “rogue” government account, @ALT_USCIS describes its goal as “immigration resistance” and is now at the center of the row between Twitter and two government agencies - the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Twitter wants to prevent the agencies from “unlawfully abusing a limited-purpose investigatory tool to try to unmask the real identity of one or more persons who have been using Twitter’s social media platform,” according to the lawsuit. The users have harnessed @ALT_USCIS “to express public criticism of the Department and the current Administration,” it adds.
TRUMP SAYS HIS TWITTER POWER IS WHY KAEPERNICK IS A FREE AGENT
@ALT_USCIS is one of a number of so-called “alternative agency” accounts set up on the social media site following Trump’s inauguration, Twitter explains. These accounts provide a platform for purported current or former employees of federal agencies, without revealing their identities.
“Like other accounts of this sort, @ALT_USCIS claims to be run by one or more current government employees—in this case, employees of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services,” Twitter says, in its suit. “And as with other such accounts, the person or persons who established and speak through @ALT_USCIS have identified themselves only by means of this pseudonymous account name.”
On March 14 Twitter received a CBP summons “demanding that Twitter provide them records that would unmask, or likely lead to unmasking, the identity of the person(s) responsible for the @ALT_USCIS account,” according to the suit, which describes the summons as unlawful. “Permitting CBP to pierce the pseudonym of the @ALT_USCIS account would have a grave chilling effect on the speech of that account in particular and on the many other ‘alternative agency’ accounts that have been created to voice dissent to government policies,” it added.
MCDONALD'S TWITTER ACCOUNT HACKED, BLASTS TRUMP
The account has racked up over 35,000 followers since it was set up in January 2017. In its description, @ALT_USCIS says that it does not express the views of DHS or the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The @ALT_USCIS account tweeted part of Twitter’s lawsuit Thursday.
The ACLU’s national Twitter account tweeted its support for the social media site Thursday. “We're glad Twitter is pushing back,” it said.
Twitter declined to comment on its legal action when contacted by Fox News. The DHS and CBP have not yet responded to a request for comment on this story.

Russia says Syria airstrike an 'aggression' by US

Miller says US strike signals Russia: 'Control your client'

The U.S. airstrike in Syria early Friday morning was an "aggression against a sovereign state" and in violation of international law, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin believes that the U.S. has dealt the strikes under "far-fetched pretext."
Russia also suspened an agreement with the U.S. to avoid mid-air collisions over Syria in wake of the airstrikes. The deal had been made for safety precautions when engaging military targets.
Russia has argued that the death of civilians in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday resulted from Syrian forces hitting a rebel chemical arsenal there.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that "either Russia has been complicit (in the attacks) or Russia has been simply incompetent."
Peskov said that the U.S. has ignored past incidents of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian rebels. He argued that the Syrian government has destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control.
Russia added that no servicemen dies in the U.S. airstrike.
The U.S. launched nearly five dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield early Friday in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians, the first direct assault on the Damascus government since the beginning of that country's bloody civil war in 2011.
Trump addressed the media shortly after reports on the airstrike began to surface.
"It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons," Trump said. "Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria, and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types."

US missiles target Syria airfield in response to chemical weapons attack

The United States launched nearly five dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield early Friday in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians, the first direct assault on the Damascus government since the beginning of that country's bloody civil war in 2011.
"It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons," President Donald Trump said in a statement. "Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria, and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types."
Fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles targeted an airbase at Shayrat, located outside Homs. The missiles targeted the base's airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas, officials said.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said initial indications were that the strike had "severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment ... reducing the Syrian Government's ability to deliver chemical weapons." There was no immediate word about any casualties.
Trump said the base was used as the staging point for Tuesday's chemical weapons attack on rebel-held territory, which killed as many as 72 civilians, including women and children.
"Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children," Trump said from Mar-a-Lago, Fla. "Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror."
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said the strike should cause a "big shift in Assad's calculus."
"Obviously the regime maintains a certain capability to commit mass murder with chemical weapons beyond this air field," McMaster said. "But it was aimed at this airfield because we could trace that attack back to this facility. It was not a small strike."
The U.S. missiles hit at 8:45 p.m. Eastern time, 3:45 a.m. Friday morning in Syria. Syrian state TV called the attack an "aggression" that lead to "losses."
U.S. military officials said they informed their Russian counterparts of the impending attack in an effort to avoid any accident involving Russian forces. Nevertheless, Russia's Deputy U.N. ambassador Vladimir Safronkov warned that any negative consequences from the strikes would be on the "shoulders of those who initiated such a doubtful and tragic enterprise."
Davis, the Pentagon spokesman, confirmed that "there are Russians at the base," but said they had been warned "multiple times" to leave. He did not know whether Russian aircraft were at the base when the missiles hit.
The U.S. also notified its partner countries in the region prior to launching the strikes.
U.S. defense officials tell Fox News that two warships based in the eastern Mediterranean, the USS Porter and the USS Ross, have been training for the past two days to execute this mission.
“Our forward deployed ships give us the capability to quickly respond to threats," said a Navy official. "These strikes in Syria are a perfect example - this is why we're there."
The original plans called for two targets, the airbase and a chemical weapons storage facility. However, Pentagon planners decided late Thursday to target just the airbase.
As a candidate, Trump warned against against the U.S. getting pulled into the Syrian civil war. But the president earlier in the week appeared moved by the photos of children killed in the chemical attack.
"I think what happened in Syria is one of the truly egregious crimes and shouldn't have happened and it shouldn't be allowed to happen," Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One to Florida earlier , where he was holding a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Late Thursday, a U.S. government official told Fox News that the intelligence community has high confidence that the attack was carried out by Syrian government aircraft. The official said the analysis was consistent with eyewitness reports that fixed-wing aircraft launched the strike.
The official described the use of sarin gas in the attack as a watershed. The Assad government had agreed to disband its chemical weapons capability by 2014 under an agreement coordinated with the Obama administration and Russia. Tuesday's attack was considered a breach of that agreement.
The Turkish ministry of health says the preliminary results show the use of sarin gas. Sarin is a colorless, odorless liquid and is highly volatile while moving from its liquid state to a gas. Unlike chlorine, which the Assad government has used on a regular basis, sarin does not dissipate quickly. The victims in Tuesday’s attack showed all the hallmarks of a sarin attack – including twitching, jerking and foaming at the mouth.
Trump's decision to attack Syria came three-and-a-half years after President Barack Obama threatened Assad with military action after an earlier chemical weapons attack killed hundreds outside of Damascus. Obama had declared the use of such weapons a "red line." At the time, several American ships in the Mediterranean were poised to launch missiles, only for Obama to abruptly pull back after key U.S. ally Britain and the U.S. Congress balked at his plan.
He opted instead for the Russian-backed plan that was supposed to remove and eliminate Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles.
The world learned of the chemical attack earlier in the week in footage that showed people dying in the streets and bodies of children stacked in piles.
The U.S. show of force in Syria raises legal questions. It's unclear what authority Trump is relying on to attack another government. When Obama intervened in Libya in 2011, he used a U.N. Security Council mandate and NATO's overall leadership of the mission to argue that he had legal authority — arguments that many Republicans opposed. Trump can't rely on either justification here.
Unclear also is whether Trump is adopting any broader effort to combat Assad. Under Obama, the United States largely pulled back from its support for so-called "moderate" rebels when Russia's military intervention in September 2015 led them to suffer a series of battlefield defeats. Instead, Obama sought to work with Russia on a negotiated transition.
Trump and his top aides had acknowledged in recent days the "reality" of Assad being in power, saying his ouster was no longer a priority. But the chemical weapons attack seemed to spur a rethink. In Florida on Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said of Assad: "There's no role for him to govern the Syrian people."

Initial reports indicate Syrian airbase 'almost completely destroyed' after US strike

The Syrian airfield targeted by United States airstrikes early Friday was “almost completely destroyed,” a human rights group in the country said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missile attack damaged over a dozen hangars, a fuel depot and an air defense base. About 60 U.S. Tomahawk missiles hit the Shayrat air base, southeast of Homs, a small installation with two runways.
At least seven Syrian soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the airstrike, the country's military said. The governor of Homs province said he did not believe the strikes caused a large number of “human casualties.” A Syrian official the attack caused deaths and a fire, but did not elaborate.
The U.S. missiles hit at 3:45 a.m. local time in Syria. Syrian state TV called the attack an "aggression" that lead to "losses."
"Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat Airfield, reducing the Syrian government's ability to deliver chemical weapons," Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said, according to Reuters.
Davis said the U.S. was still assessing the result of the 59 Tomahawks it fired, expressing hope that Assad's government learned a lesson. He said it was ultimately "the regime's choice" if more U.S. military action would be needed.
The U.S. launched nearly five dozen cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians, the first direct assault on the Damascus government since the beginning of that country's bloody civil war in 2011.
U.S. officials called the airstrike a “one-off” and said there are no plans for escalation.
The U.S. airstrike in Syria was an "aggression against a sovereign state" and in violation of international law, the Kremlin said in a statement. Shortly before the strikes, the head of information policy commission in the upper house of Russian parliament, Alexei Pushkov, said on Twitter said that if Trump launches a military action in Syria it would put him in "the same league with Bush and Obama."
President Trump on Thursday called for all “civilized nations” to join the U.S. “in seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.”
A survivor of the chemical attack in a northern Syrian town says he hopes the U.S. missile attack could help put an end to Syrian government airstrikes, creating a safe area for civilians.
Alaa Alyousef, a 27-year old resident of Khan Sheikhoun, said Friday the U.S. missile attack "alleviates a small part of our sufferings," but he worries it will be like "anesthetics," to save face. AlYousef said the U.S. is capable of "paralyzing" Syrian warplanes.
"What good is a strike on Shayart air base alone while we have more than 15 other air bases," he said.

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Trump administration revokes Obama-era directive blocking controversial water project

The Trump administration issued a memo late last week revoking two federal directives implemented under President Obama that had blocked a controversial water project in California’s Mojave Desert.
An acting assistant director at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rescinded two legal guidances that reinforced the agency’s 2015 decision that Cadiz Inc. could not use an existing federal railroad right-of-way in its long-standing project to pump groundwater from the project’s planned well field in the Mojave Desert and sell it to urban areas throughout Southern California that rely on the Colorado River Aqueduct.
While the BLM’s one-page order didn’t specifically mention the Cadiz project, it eases the way for the company to argue for the reversal of the findings of the agency’s California field office, which said the company needed federal approval to construct its 43-mile water pipeline. The memo also noted that any future right-of-way decisions will be determined by the BLM’s office in Washington, D.C.

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Cadiz CEO Scott Slater told the Los Angeles Times that he was “cautiously optimistic” that the BLM’s reversal will allow the pipeline to be greenlit. Under the Obama administration’s order, Cadiz would have had to go through a lengthy and pricey federal environmental review process if it wanted to construct its pipeline on government-owned land.
The resource company hopes to pump groundwater stored in its privately-owned Mojave holdings to supply 100,000 households. If successful, Cadiz stands to make between $1 billion and $2 billion in revenue over the project's 50-year lifespan.
The pipeline has the support of many local lawmakers, including the San Bernardino County Board of Commissioners, which approved the project back in 2012. The board argued that the project would be a boon to the local economy by creating thousands of jobs and also bring water reliability to an area of the country that has suffered through a devastating drought over the past few years.
Cadiz also overcame a number of environmental lawsuits under state law. As part of its decision the San Bernardino County supervisors established an independent enforcement role over the project’s operations and authorized groundwater withdrawals that will avoid harm to desert resources.
Environmentalists and desert advocates, however, have decried the project, arguing that the project could deplete water needed to support the local wildlife and cause dust storms that would affect regional air quality.
Federal hydrologists have challenged Cadiz’s assertions about the rate of natural recharge of the desert aquifer. Public land advocates say that any pumping will dry up the natural springs on surrounding federal land.
“Many of the springs and seeps are going to dry up because of groundwater extraction,” Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Press Enterprise.

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington July 31. (AP)

Sen. Diane Feinstein, who authored the California Desert Protection Act and was instrumental in creating the nearby Mojave Trails National Preserve, has been one of the biggest opponents of Cadiz. The California Democrat has for years attached riders to congressional appropriations bills preventing the BLM from spending money that would benefit the Cadiz project.
“The Trump administration wants to open the door for a private company to exploit a natural desert aquifer and destroy pristine public land purely for profit,” Feinstein said in a statement. “The administration is completely undermining federal oversight of railroad rights-of-way.”
Despite the pushback from Feinstein, the project enjoys a good deal of support in Congress. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah – the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee – was one of 18 members of Congress to urge Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to revoke the BLM directives.

The anti-sanctuary city: Arizona county bucks national trend

Casa Grande, Ariz. –  While an increasing number of cities declare themselves safe zones for illegal immigrants, a sheriff in Arizona is bucking the trend by openly working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.
“I’m not for sanctuary cities,” said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Lamb. “That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.”
Pinal County, south of Phoenix, is the size of Connecticut. Its 450,000 residents are an ethnic mix – black, white, Hispanic and Native Americans.
SESSIONS TAKES AIM AT 'DANGEROUS' SANCTUARY CITIES, WARNS ON FUNDING
Lamb took office in January and instituted a cooperative program so his jail deputies are cross trained as ICE agents, allowing them to question and immediately determine an inmate’s immigration status. In practice, it allows for a seamless transition of criminal aliens from the Pima County courthouse or jail to ICE custody for deportation.
“Ultimately their goal is the same as ours – public safety,” said David Marin, an ICE director in Los Angeles. “Those sheriffs and law enforcement agencies realize that by turning over these criminal aliens to us they’re not going to be able to go out and commit additional crimes.”
Currently Pinal County has four jail deputies trained in the ICE 287g program, which allows local police to enforce immigration laws. The Trump administration hopes to expand the program to as many cities as possible.
“My job is to keep the people of Pinal County safe,” said Lamb. “The 287g program allows me to make sure I’m not putting criminals back in the community.”
MAYORS OF SANCTUARY CITIES SHOULD BE THROWN IN JAIL
As trained ICE agents, the deputies are able to tap into Department of Homeland Security computers and determine an inmates’ legal status. And unlike sanctuary jurisdictions, the county honors ICE warrants and detainers and will give ICE a call when an inmate is preparing to leave.
“This county cares about illegal immigration and it’s my job to make sure that we work with our federal partners to uphold the law,” Lamb said.
That includes the Border Patrol, which works closely with the county’s anti-smuggling unit.
“They back us up and we help them,” said Deputy Eddie Joseph.
Behind the wheel of an unmarked, black Dodge pickup, Joseph patrols Interstate 8 and 10, both of which cross east-west across Pinal County.
He watches a battered blue SUV suspiciously go up and down a desert road twice in 30 minutes. The behavior mirrors that of smugglers who are looking to pick up illegals hiding in the bushes along the road.
It’s a seven-day walk from the U.S. Mexican border about 80 miles away. Yet, piles of discarded clothes, water bottles and burlap sacks used to carry marijuana litter the desert in popular spots near the highways.
“We see a lot of drug and human smuggling” Joseph said. “You can see here the foot tracks in the sand. They’re probably a few days old.”
The Trump Administration sees local law enforcement as a front line in its battle against illegal immigration, at the border and in the interior. They do not expect to turn local cops into immigration agents. But once an immigrant is booked into jail, for any offense, they become fair game.
The administration argues it is the federal government’s prerogative – not a local mayor or city council – to decide who gets deported and who does not.
“It’s a slippery slope, when you get into that,” Lamb argued. “You can’t start determining this person meets a criteria and this one doesn’t. The bottom line is, it’s illegal (to be here). If someone is illegal, it’s against the law and my job to uphold the law.”
Marin wished more local law enforcement shared his attitude.
“It’s troubling for us because here’s a criminal alien, somebody that we can use our unique authorities to not only remove them from the community,” he said, “but ultimately remove them from the country and again there’s law enforcement  agencies that are just letting them go.”

Michael Goodwin: Susan Rice's lousy track record makes it tough to believe her now

Before we get to Susan Rice, first things first. Every scandal needs a catchy nickname so we can avoid repeating drawn-out descriptions. One-word nicknames are best, especially for those who traffic in tabloids and television.
Absent a better choice, this one shall be known as SpyGate. Spy because there is mounting evidence the Obama administration spied on Team Trump. And Gate because ever since Watergate, big scandals and wannabe big scandals must be Gate. It’s a rule.
We also need a memorable question or two that points toward the endgame. When Richard Nixon’s fate hung in the balance, the case turned on these: What did the president know and when did he know it?
In SpyGate, the crucial question is this: How do we know that the Obama spying on Team Trump was incidental?
What if it was intentional? What if spying was part of a plot to destroy Trump’s candidacy and, when that failed, sabotage his presidency?
We don’t have verifiable answers yet, despite being assured repeatedly that Trump and his associates merely were picked up in conversations with Russian and other foreign officials who were being spied on. Those doing the assuring said that since the Trumpsters were not the targets, it was incidental and thus no harm, no foul.
But there were lots of harms and fouls. For months, stories about possible collusion between Trump and Russia turned exclusively on leaks about members of Trump’s inner circle being caught talking to Russians.
Gen. Mike Flynn was the first example, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was second and others include Jared Kushner. Those leaks, always from anonymous officials, serve to undermine the new president and encourage Democrats to obstruct the administration in the hope that impeachment is coming.
By my count, at least six people — including Trump himself — have been identified as having their communications intercepted by American law enforcement or intelligence. Always, it was “incidental.”
Which gets us to Susan Rice and the importance of her role in seeking the unmasking of those Trump officials. Weeks after she denied any knowledge of unmasking, Obama’s national security adviser flip-flopped Tuesday and admitted she had “sometimes” asked intelligence agencies to identify American citizens whose names had been withheld, as required, in initial ­reports.
“And sometimes, in that context, in order to understand the importance of the report and assess its significance, it was necessary to find out, or request the information as to find out who that US official was,” she told MSNBC.
Count that as one mystery solved. But Rice made two other denials. One, that she didn’t leak any names to the media. And two, that the unmasking was never done for political purposes.
Her track record doesn’t help her credibility. Rice infamously went on five Sunday television shows in 2012 to assure the nation that the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans was in response to an Internet video. That was a flat-out lie — it was a planned terror attack and she had to know as much.
She also brazenly insisted in 2014 that Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant held by the Taliban for five years, had “served with honor and distinction” to justify the trade of five terrorists from Gitmo for his release. Her claim was false, and even the Army disagreed with Rice, charging Bergdahl with desertion.
So when Rice and her defenders insist that SpyGate is much ado about very little, that’s not even close to good enough. She has to prove it — by testifying under oath to Congress.
To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.
Michael Goodwin is a Fox News contributor and New York Post columnist.

Lawmakers say intel agencies stonewalling on surveillance probe

Lawmakers probing the surveillance of key officials in the Trump campaign and administration say the intelligence agencies now nominally under the president’s control are stonewalling efforts to get to the bottom of who revealed names and leaked protected information to the press.
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are currently investigating allegations the Obama administration spied on Trump associates – and possibly Trump himself – for as long as the year preceding his inauguration. And while former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice has been implicated as at least one of the officials who sought redacted names from surveillance transcripts, multiple lawmakers and investigators for the panel told Fox News the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency - all agencies in position to aid the probe – are not cooperating.
“Our requests are simply not being answered,” said one House Intelligence committee source about the lack of responsiveness. "The agencies are not really helping at all and there is truly a massive web for us to try and wade through.”
A Senate Intelligence Committee source said the upper chamber had the same experience.

“Our requests are simply not being answered.”
- House Intelligence Committee source

“Any information that will help find the wide extent on the unmasking and surveillance is purposely not being provided,” said the Senate source.
An FBI spokesperson said the bureau is working in good faith.
“The FBI will continue to work with the congressional oversight committees on their requests,” the spokesperson said.
A CIA spokesperson told Fox News the NSA was the lead agency on the matter and referred questions to it.
In a statement to Fox News, the NSA called the allegations "categorically untrue."
"Allegations that the National Security Agency is 'withholding information' from congressional intelligence committees investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election are categorically untrue," the statement said. "NSA fully supports the committees' work. We have already made available significant information in response to their requests, and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the execution of their important responsibilities."
Sources within the NSA said they are watching the investigation closely, with one telling Fox News, “A number of people saw a lot of very questionable stuff. [The Obama administration was] using national assets and intelligence for politics.”
It was not clear if the alleged lack of cooperation was from top brass or agency holdovers resisting the new administration.
The CIA is now headed by former Rep. Mike Pompeo, who himself served on the House Intelligence Committee prior to his nomination. The FBI and NSA are run by James Comey and Mike Rogers, respectively. Both are holdovers from the Obama administration. Last month, both men declined to appear at a private closed door House Intelligence Committee briefing and have not met with the committee members since.
The meeting was supposed to be a follow-up to public testimony by Comey and Rogers to the committee in late March on the topic of Russian meddling in the presidential election and the alleged mishandling of intelligence related to the Trump transition team.
During the public hearing, the pair had declined to answer more than 100 questions, and Comey has been completely unavailable since.
House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News he had hoped that behind closed doors, Comey and Rogers would be more forthcoming.
Nunes also wanted to ask them about intelligence reports he’d viewed that showed incidental electronic intercepts of Trump team communications. The intelligence reports, which included surveillance of foreign targets, revealed that the names of Trump's team had been "unmasked" or revealed, and their identities widely disseminated throughout the government and to the media.
Nunes said during a March 22 press conference that he was “troubled” because the reports he’d seen were not connected to Russia or any foreign intelligence.
U.S. intelligence sources have told Fox News that Rice, President Obama's national security adviser, is responsible for unmasking at least some of Trump team named in surveillance reports.
Rice said Tuesday on MSNBC, “It was not uncommon, it was necessary at times to make those requests…..” to understand the information. But Rice maintained she is not the leaker, didn’t send the information to the press and did not use the information for political purposes.
And while U.S. intelligence sources told Fox News that unmasking requests escalated after Trump was elected, Rice claimed she didn’t remember. “I don’t have a particular recollection of doing that more frequently after the election.”
President Trump on Wednesday claimed that he believes Rice may have committed a crime by requesting the identities of Trump associates who were mentioned in U.S. surveillance, though he did not provide proof.
Asked by the New York Times if Rice committed a crime, Trump said, “Do I think? Yes, I think.”
Rice isn’t the only Obama official implicated in the Trump team surveillance scandal. Multiple sources insist she was part of a group involved at the highest levels and was not calling the shots.
“A lot of us are upset. We believe this group of people were using national assets for politics and misappropriating them,” said one NSA source. “Don’t forget as the national security advisor, Susan Rice is supposed to ingest and digest. Despite what you are hearing, it is not normal to investigate especially in the broad manner that was being done. She [was] a White House staffer, not a member of an intelligence agency."

Democrat Crying Cartoons

Mitch McConnell: GOP evening the score by using 'nuclear option' for Gorsuch

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has told Fox News' "The First 100 Days" Tuesday that the GOP's use of the so-called "nuclear option" to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch is their response to the Democrats' "breaking the rules of the Senate" in 2013.
"For 230 years, up or down, simple majority [required] for Supreme Court, Cabinet, everything until [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer invented this, so it’s a fairly recent thing to filibuster executive branch appointments," McConnell told host Dana Perino. "All we’ll do faced with this filibuster is even that up so the Supreme Court confirmation process is dealt with just like it was throughout the history of the country."
McConnell also told Perino that that Senate was "going to confirm Judge Gorsuch on Friday. Exactly how that occurs, I guess, will depend upon our Democratic friends."
Earlier Tuesday, McConnell filed for cloture to end debate on the Gorsuch nomination. He is expected Thursday to enact a rules change eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees and lowering the vote threshold for confirmation from 60 to 51.
McConnell told Perino Tuesday night that Senate Democrats appear to be "pretty locked in" on their promise to filibuster Gorsuch.
"I think they’re responding to their base, which says ‘Resist everything.’ It’s particularly ridiculous to watch it on Gorsuch because there are no good arguments to vote against Gorsuch. None whatsoever."
McConnell also said Tuesday that he had asked the Senate intelligence committee to investigate reports that former national security adviser Susan Rice ordered the unmasking of Trump transition officials under surveillance.
"Anything related to Susan Rice or any of these other suggestions will be handled by the intelligence committee," McConnell said, "and we look forward to receiving their report."

DHS won't rule out arresting illegal immigrant crime victims, witnesses

Homeland Security cannot promise that illegal immigrants will not be arrested if they come forward to report they have been a victim of a crime or a witness to one, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Some victims and witnesses themselves are potentially criminal immigrants who may pose a threat to the country, David Lapan, a spokesman from DHS said at a news briefing.
Lapan added that immigration arrest in courthouses are necessary because some jurisdictions will not cooperate with requests to alert federal agencies.
Los Angeles officials, for example, are already attributing a drop in reported crimes to President Trump's illegal immigration crackdown. These officials fear the threat of arrests can deter victims from reporting crimes or witnesses from cooperating in investigations.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said last month that his city has seen a 25 percent decrease in the number of sexual assaults reported by Latinos living in the city and a drop of about 10 percent in the number of reported domestic violence cases since Trump took office.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Attorney General Jeff Sessions also defended the practice of arresting these immigrants at courthouses in a letter last month to the chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
"Because courthouse visitors are typically screened upon entry to search for weapons and other contraband, the safety risks for arresting officers and persons being arrested are substantially decreased," Kelly and Sessions wrote.

US coal companies reportedly ask White House to remain in Paris climate pact

Two of the top U.S. coal companies reportedly asked the White House to back down on President Trump’s vow to pull out of the landmark Paris climate pact, arguing that the deal could protect its global interests.
Cloud Peak Energy and Peabody Energy executives told White House officials over the last few weeks that staying in the climate deal may give U.S. negotiators a change to advocate for coal in the future, Reuters reported Tuesday.
"The future is foreign markets, so the last thing you want to do if you are a coal company is to give up a U.S. seat in the international climate discussions and let the Europeans control the agenda," a U.S. official familiar with the talks told Reuters. "They can’t afford for the most powerful advocate for fossil fuels to be away from the table.”
Richard Reavey, Cloud Peak’s vice president of government affairs, said staying in the accord and trying to create a “reasonable path forward” on fossil fuel technologies is a reasonable stance.
Officials said the coal industry wants to ensure the Paris deal provides a financial role for storage technology as well as role for low-emission coal-powered plants. The industry also hopes the agreement would protect multilateral funding for global coal projects through international bodies like the World Bank, Reuters reported.
Sources told Reuters in March that Trump’s administration had contacted U.S. energy companies to seek their input about their views on the accord. The sources said many companies would prefer the U.S. remained in the deal, but would also support reducing the country’s commitments in the deal.
Press Secretary Sean Spier said last week that a decision on whether to remain in the deal would be made during the G7 meeting in May.
Trump promised during his presidential campaign to pull the U.S. out of the pact. Trump signed an executive order last week that initiated the unravelling of the Obama administration’s sweeping plan to curb global warming.

Merkley takes to Senate floor 'as long as I'm able' against Gorsuch

Just before 7 p.m. ET Tuesday, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley went to the floor to talk for "as long as I'm able" to protest Republicans' 2016 blockade of President Barack Obama's nominee for the seat, Merrick Garland.
Merkley’s staff streamed the video of him on the Senate floor. So far, the senator has spoken for over 10 hours.
"Make no mistake: this is a stolen seat — & if this theft is completed, it will undermine the integrity of the court for decades," Merkley tweeted as he began.
His endurance was praised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who tweeted, "Go, @SenJeffMerkley, Go! #StopGorsuch #HoldTheFloor."
Merkley's speech wasn't expected to delay Wednesday's debate on President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch or Thursday's votes.
Senators of both parties bemoaned the further erosion of their traditions of bipartisanship and consensus. Some were already predicting that they would end up eliminating the 60-vote requirement for legislation, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell McConnell committed Tuesday that would not happen under his watch.
He drew a distinction between legislation being filibustered and the filibuster being used against nominees, something that is a more recent development.
Gorsuch now counts 55 supporters in the Senate: the 52 Republicans, along with three moderate Democrats from states Trump won last November — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
SEN. MIKE LEE VOWS TO CONFIRM GORSUCH
A fourth Senate Democrat, Michael Bennet from Gorsuch's home state of Colorado, has said he will not join in the filibuster against Gorsuch but has not said how he will vote on final passage.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News' "The First 100 Days" Tuesday that the GOP's use of the so-called "nuclear option" to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch is their response to the Democrats' "breaking the rules of the Senate" in 2013.
"For 230 years, up or down, simple majority [required] for Supreme Court, Cabinet, everything until [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer invented this, so it’s a fairly recent thing to filibuster executive branch appointments," McConnell told host Dana Perino. "All we’ll do faced with this filibuster is even that up so the Supreme Court confirmation process is dealt with just like it was throughout the history of the country."
Gorsuch, 49, is a 10-year veteran of a federal appeals court in Denver, where he's compiled a highly conservative record that's led Democrats to complain he sides with corporations without regards to the humanity of the plaintiffs before him.
Merkley also took issue with the Republican claim that Supreme Court justices should not be confirmed during an election year, and listed several judges in the past that were appointed during those timeframes, OregonLive.com reported.
"Until the FBI and Congress complete #Russia investigation, confirming @realDonaldTrump lifetime appointment to #SCOTUS is premature," Merkley tweeted.