Voters in both parties snub fringe candidates as they look toward November

Tuesday's GOP primary results showed both Republicans and Democrats moving toward the center as voters look ahead to this fall's midterm elections.
Republicans are looking to increase the party's Senate majority and maintain control of the House, while Democrats snubbed progressive candidates in favor of moderates -- including one who backed Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia's attorney general, came out the winner of the state's contentious GOP Senate primary, defeating controversial former coal executive Don Blankenship.
In Indiana's GOP Senate primary, businessman Mike Braun, who mostly self-funded his campaign, won against U.S. Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita.
Jim Renacci won the GOP Senate primary in Ohio.
The Ohio results were attributed to the influence of President Trump, who endorsed Renacci over businessman Mike Gibbons.
Trump also made a last-minute appeal to West Virginia voters to reject Blankenship in a bid to avoid the repeat of December's Senate race in Alabama, where Democrat Doug Jones turned the deep-red state blue -- for the first time in decades.
"To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can’t win the General Election in your State...No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey" Trump tweeted Monday.
But Tuesday's results also seemed to vindicate Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the subject of multiple personal attacks during the primaries. Blankenship branded McConnell "Cocaine Mitch" and referring to his Asian-American in-laws as "his China family."
The McConnell team could not hide its glee after the results. They taunted Blankenship with a photo of a smiling McConnell, with the caption reading, "Thanks for playing, Don."
McConnell has long sought to put the Republican house in order before the midterms, admitting that the party faces some tough fights in November.
"This is going to be a challenging election year,” McConnell told Kentucky Today in April. “We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a Category 3, 4 or 5.”
But as Republicans show signs of getting serious and choosing candidates that can appeal beyond the Trump voters, Democrats on Tuesday -- much to the chagrin of the progressive base -- favored blue-collar, middle-of-the-road candidates.
In West Virginia's 3rd District, state Sen. Richard Ojeda clinched the victory in the Democratic primary. The win was a defeat for progressive supporters of the party, as Ojeda famously said he backed Trump over Clinton in 2016, the Washington Post reported.
Democrat Richard Cordray, meanwhile, was declared the party's nominee for Ohio governor after he defeated former congressman and ex-Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich.
Kucinich had criticized Cordray as a "Republican-lite" candidate who was too moderate on key issues concerning most Democrats, and was once backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Kucinich ran on a platform of single-payer health care, gun control and criminal justice reform.
But Cordray, who once ran the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama, fought back and pointed out that Kucinich accepted $20,000 from a group with links to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Kucinich bothered me because of the whole Assad thing,” voter Robert Halpin, 57, told the Post. “I didn’t like Cordray because of the NRA. But in the end, weighing it, I don’t like Assad more [than I don’t like the NRA], so I went with Cordray.”
In Indiana's 2nd District, former Republican and health care executive Mel Hall cruised to victory against candidates advocating for universal health care.
Moderate Democrats also won Tuesday in two North Carolina districts, defeating far-left challengers.

Iran's ballistic-missile spending will continue, official says after Trump's nuke-deal pullout

 John Bolton on Iran deal exit, North Korea

National security adviser weighs in on 'The Ingraham Angle.'

The head of Iran's parliamentary committee on national security said Wednesday that the country is preparing to continue spending on its ballistic missile program, a direct response to President Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of an Obama-era nuclear deal.
"With America's decision, Iran's missile program will not change at all," Alaeddin Boroujerdi said.

"With America's decision, Iran's missile program will not change at all."

Iranian lawmakers in parliament on Wednesday set fire to a paper American flag after Trump's announcement that the U.S. was pulling out of the 2015 nuclear accord, which the president said was “defective at its core.”
Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, called Trump’s move a “diplomatic show.” He said it is “obvious that Trump only understands the language of force.”
The state-run IRNA news agency referred to Trump as “the troublemaker.” The hard-line daily Kayhan wrote: “Trump tears apart the nuclear deal; It is time to set it afire!”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought to calm nerves inside his country, smiling as he appeared at a petroleum expo. He didn't name Trump directly, but emphasized that Iran continued to seek "engagement with the world."
He called Trump’s decision “unacceptable” and said Iran could restart enriching uranium “without any limitations” within weeks.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran's parliamentary committee on national security.  (Reuters)

Iran's economy and unemployment sparked nationwide protests in December and January that saw at least 25 people killed and, reportedly, nearly 5,000 arrested.
"I have ordered the foreign ministry to negotiate with the European countries, China and Russia in coming weeks. If at the end of this short period we conclude that we can fully benefit from the JCPOA with the cooperation of all countries, the deal would remain," he said.
Shortly after the Trump announcement, Syrian state media accused Israel of launching missiles at a target near Damascus, which put Israel on high alert, Reuters reported. Israel did not comment on the report.
The Iran nuclear deal, signed under President Barack Obama, came with time limits and did not address Iran's ballistic missile program or its regional policies in Syria and elsewhere.
Obama issued a rare public criticism, saying trump's withdrawal would leave the world less safe.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to the accord's omissions in referring to the accord as the "worst deal ever."
Proponents of the deal have said the time limits were meant to encourage more discussion with Iran in the future that could eventually address other concerns.

Senator Kamala Harris Cartoons

Sen. Kamala Harris backs out of commencement speech at UC Berkeley

APRIL 5: Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., holds a town hall meeting in Sacramento.

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is heeding a boycott call by striking University of California employees and announced Monday that she will not be commencement speaker at UC Berkeley ceremonies.

Harris said she "regretfully" won't attend Saturday's spring commencement due to the labor dispute and the call for a university-wide speaker boycott. Instead, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address.

Harris says she wishes the estimated 5,800 students "success for the future."
Thousands of UC custodians, security guards, gardeners and other service workers began a three-day walkout on Monday to address gender pay inequalities and demand higher wages.
The Associated Press reported that officials at UC Davis Medical Center were forced to reschedule more than 100 cancer exams and 150 radiology exams.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 called for the strike, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The union includes 25,000 service workers.

Senator Kamala Harris to miss UC Berkeley’s spring commencement due to ongoing labor dispute: https://t.co/V2zEmTybDT @SenKamalaHarris @KamalaHarris

— UC Berkeley (@UCBerkeley) May 7, 2018

The report said medical workers sympathetic to the strikers are set to join walkouts set for the next few days. Essential patient care will be provided, the report said. Hundreds of surgeries, however, were rescheduled.
Claire Doan, a spokesman from the UC system, said the service workers are already paid at or above the market rate and now demanding an almost 20 percent pay increase over three years.
"A disruptive demonstration will change neither UC's economic situation nor the university's position on AFSCME's unreasonable demands," Doan said.

Newt Gingrich: The ‘experts’ were wrong in 2016; they could be wrong in 2018 too

As you watch the 2018 campaign being analyzed by pundits on TV, in newspapers, and in blogs, just remember how wrong they all were in 2016.
They were wrong about candidate Donald J. Trump all through the primaries.
They were wrong about the impact of the Republican and Democratic conventions.
They were wrong throughout the fall campaign – and they kept telling us why each new headline signified the end of Trump’s candidacy.
Finally, they were wrong on Election Day, up until the actual results gave them no alternative but to accept the reality that Trump had won as a total outsider and defeated the ultimate insider – a former first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state.
Since then, the national media have remained ignorant of political realities. Their thinking is clouded by their hostility to the Trump presidency, their incestuous and incessant gossip about what they define as important, and their isolation from the Americans who voted for and continue to support President Trump.
At the end of last year, the elites told us there was going to be a blue wave in 2018 and that the GOP could lose the House and might lose the Senate.

Democrats unanimously voted against the tax bill. As the economy improves, they look more and more like the party of food stamps, welfare, and higher taxes.

Now, we are seeing the blue wave may be shrinking to a blue ripple. The generic congressional ballot has tightened, and the leads Democrats averaged in the December polls have been cut nearly in half. One national expert told me last week that if the election were held now, the GOP would keep control. His research indicated the GOP was leading the generic ballot in seven of the 12 Senate races.
As the benefits of the Republican tax cuts, deregulation, and growing business and consumer confidence have taken effect, approval of President Trump and support for Republicans has grown. When combined with the president’s successes in both foreign policy and trade, Americans have significantly increased their support for his presidency and agenda.
With African American unemployment at a historic low, Trump’s approval among black men jumped from 11 percent to 22 percent in the last week of April. While 22 percent is still a minority, it is a huge improvement over traditional Republican support in the black community. As the facts and the conversation continue, do not be shocked if President Trump’s reputation as the “jobs President” drives his support among African Americans significantly higher.
A lot has been made of Republican House retirements (43 at this time) but ironically, as a percentage, the Senate has a higher retirement rate among Republicans this election. Three out of eight (or 37.5 percent of) Republican senators in seats up for re-election are retiring. In fact, 88 of the 235 current GOP House members would have to retire to meet the Senate GOP percentage. At the same time, the huge number of vulnerable Senate Democrats (10) means they are also in worse shape than House Democrats (who have three leaders with a combined age of 233 years –-78-78-77).
The developing patterns reflect Democratic weaknesses as well as Republican strengths.
Democrats unanimously voted against the tax bill. As the economy improves, they look more and more like the party of food stamps, welfare, and higher taxes. Furthermore, as Hillary Clinton describes a substantial part of her party’s base as socialist, it is important to remember the Venezuelan nightmare of deprivation, the Cuban economic decay, and the deterioration of the British government-run health system are all creating a burden for advocates of socialism.
The Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair, Keith Ellison, has been associated with the openly anti-Semitic activist, Louis Farrakhan.
Other Democratic House members have launched what is essentially an atheist caucus, which will further marginalize their party. As Democrats become increasingly anti-gun, anti-male, anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-work, it gets increasingly harder for them to build a majority.
The current, obvious Democratic Senate strategy of putting partisanship above patriotism and blocking a substantial number of Trump appointments ultimately makes most Americans very uneasy.
The hostility of the left is so extreme that it pushes people away. After the vicious attack on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, a friend of mine commented “they are becoming the movement of hate and the party of hate.”
In California, the Democrats have passed a $0.12 gas tax increase even though they have a budget surplus. They also declared the entire state a “sanctuary state,” starting an open rebellion by a number of counties and cities. The California Democrats may be on the edge of rebuilding the state GOP through their extremism.
There are also signs of unique local Republican strengths.
The most popular governor in the country is Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker. In fact, all of the top ten most popular governors are Republicans.
Barry Casselman, a shrewd observer of midwestern politics, has been writing for months that Minnesota is becoming competitive and former Governor Tim Pawlenty’s decision to run for his old office may create a Republican wave in the state. You can follow Casselman’s analysis here.
Under President Obama, the Democrats lost over 1,000 state and federal posts, which included congressional and state legislative seats, in addition to governorships, and of course, the presidency. That has dramatically weakened the Democratic base at the state and district levels and given Republican incumbents advantages for re-election.
This may be an amazingly volatile year.
No one knows how North Korea, Iran, or Syria will work out.
No one knows if the economy will continue to set records.
No one knows if the deep state legal assault on President Trump will end with a bang or a whimper.
Just remember this: None of the confident “experts” know either.
My sense is that Republicans will gain four to six seats in the Senate, keep control of the House, and continue to pick up governorships. This is only a guess, but one that could very much turn into a reality.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."

Idaho State University loses weapons-grade plutonium capable of making a dirty bomb

FILE 2015: Nuclear waste is stored in underground containers at the Idaho Nation. A small amount of radioactive, weapons-grade plutonium about the size of a U.S. quarter is missing from an Idaho university that was using it for research, leading federal officials on Friday to propose an $8,500 fine. 

Idaho State University was fined last week for losing a small amount of radioactive, weapons-grade plutonium that is too small to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, according to a regulatory commission.

Dr. Cornelis Van der Schyf, vice president for research at the university, blamed partially completed paperwork from 15 years ago as the school tried to dispose of the plutonium.

"Unfortunately, because there was a lack of sufficient historical records to demonstrate the disposal pathway employed in 2003, the source in question had to be listed as missing," he said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The radioactive source in question poses no direct health issue or risk to public safety."
The school, which reported the material missing on Oct. 13, was hit with an $8,500 fine and has 30 days to dispute the measure.
Victor Dricks, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman, said the agency “has very rigorous controls for the use and storage of radioactive materials as evidenced by this enforcement action," he said of the proposed fine for failing to keep track of the material.
The agency said a school employee doing a routine inventory discovered the university could only account for 13 of its 14 plutonium sources, each weighing about the same small amount.
Idaho State University has a nuclear engineering program and works with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation's primary nuclear research lab and located about 65 miles northwest of the school.
The plutonium was being used to develop ways to ensure nuclear waste containers weren't leaking and to find ways to detect radioactive material being illegally brought into the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the school said in an email to the AP.
The school searched documents and found records from 2003 and 2004 saying the material was on campus and awaiting disposal. However, there were no documents saying the plutonium had been properly disposed.
The last document mentioning the plutonium is dated Nov. 23, 2003. It said the Idaho National Laboratory didn't want the plutonium and the school's technical safety office had it "pending disposal of the next waste shipment."
The school also reviewed documents on waste barrels there and others transferred off campus since 2003, and opened and examined some of them. Finally, officials searched the campus but didn't find the plutonium.
The nuclear commission said senior university officials planned to return the school's remaining plutonium to the Energy Department. It's not clear if that has happened.
Energy Department officials didn't return calls seeking comment Friday.
Dricks, the commission spokesman, said returning the plutonium was part of the school's plan to reduce its inventory of radioactive material.
He said overall it has "a good record with the NRC."

Eric Schneiderman, powerful NY Democrat accused of violence against women and drug abuse, resigns as state attorney general

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his resignation Monday night, hours after The New Yorker magazine published allegations of physical abuse and controlling behavior by four women who had romantic relationships or encounters with him.
"It’s been my great honor and privilege to serve as Attorney General for the people of the State of New York," Schneiderman said in a statement. "In the last several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made against me. While these allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office’s work at this critical time. I therefore resign my office, effective at the close of business on [Tuesday]."
It was not immediately clear who would succeed Schneiderman, a Democrat who was seeking a third term as attorney general this November and had been tipped as a possible successor to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Schneiderman was accused in the wide-ranging report -- co-written by Ronan Farrow -- of hitting and choking women without their consent, asking to use "about half" of a woman's prescription of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and mocking anti-gun demonstrators including parents from Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of the 2012 shooting massacre, as "losers."
Schneiderman, long a pillar of New York's Democratic establishment and a critic of President Trump, has cast himself as a supporter of the #MeToo movement after Farrow uncovered a long list of rape and sexual harassment accusations against the now-disgraced Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein.
WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS BELOW
Two of Schneiderman's accusers, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, spoke to The New Yorker on the record to document claims that Schneiderman nonconsensually hit and choked them. A third woman who also was involved with Schneiderman told her story to the other two women, but said she was too frightened to come forward. A fourth woman said Schneiderman slapped her when she rebuffed him, but also asked to remain unidentified. The New Yorker said it vetted the third woman's allegations, and saw a photo of what the fourth woman said was her injury.
Manning Barish told the magazine that she dated Schneiderman, now 63, between the summer of 2013 and New Year's Day 2015. According to her account, Schneiderman started abusing her weeks after their relationship became physical. Though she reconciled with him after an initial incident, Manning Barish said that Schneiderman often would slap her during sex without her consent and made critical comments about her appearance.
He "would almost always drink two bottles of wine in a night, then bring a bottle of Scotch into the bedroom. He would get absolutely plastered five nights out of seven," Manning Barish said.
In one instance, she said Schneiderman told her to get a small tattoo removed from her wrist. According to her, he said the body art was inappropriate for her if she was to be a politician's wife.
According to the article, Manning Barish said Schneiderman "would be 'shaking me and grabbing my face' while demanding that she repeat such things as 'I'm a little wh---.'" On another occasion, Manning Barish says that Schneiderman told her "If you ever left me, I'd kill you."
Manning Barish said Schneiderman often asked to to refill her Xanax prescription so that he could take "about half" the pills for himself. She also said he frequently mocked her activism on behalf of progressive causes, in once instance referring to anti-gun demonstrators as "losers."
"Taking a strong woman and tearing her to pieces is [Schneiderman's] jam," she told the magazine.
The acclaimed author Salman Rushdie, who reportedly dated Manning Barish before Schneiderman did, said she told the novelist about the alleged abuse. "She called me and told me he had hit her... She was obviously very upset. I was horrified."
Selvaratnam told the New Yorker she was involved with Schneiderman between the summer of 2016 and the fall of 2017. She said that he started physically abusing her in bed and asking her to find another woman for a threesome. Schneiderman also asked her to "call him Master, and he’d slap me until I did."
"[H]e started calling me his 'brown slave' and demanding that I repeat that I was 'his property,'" Selvaratnam told the magazine.
Selvaratnam also told The New Yorker that she met with another former girlfriend of Schneiderman in February of this year. The unidentified woman told Selvaratnam that Schneiderman had slapped, choked and spat at her and also belittled her appearance.
The woman told Selvaratnam that she had told "several friends" about Schneiderman's behavior. According to The New Yorker: "A number of them advised her to keep the story to herself, arguing that Schneiderman was too valuable a politician for the Democrats to lose."
Schneiderman, a former New York state senator who was elected state attorney general in 2010, issued a statement to the magazine saying: "In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross."
After the story was published, Schneiderman posted the same statement on his official Twitter account and a representative emailed the same statement when contacted for comment by Fox News.
Schneiderman's ex-wife, Jennifer Cunningham, said in a statement that "I've known Eric for nearly 35 years as a husband, father and friend. These allegations are completely inconsistent with the man I know, who has always been someone of the highest character, outstanding values and a loving father. I find it impossible to believe these allegations are true."
New York politicians from both parties, led by Cuomo, had called on Schneiderman to resign.
"No one is above the law, including New York's top legal officer," said Cuomo, who added that he would ask for an "immediate investigation" and would "proceed as the facts merit."
Actress Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo in the Democratic primary, tweeted that Schneiderman had made "the right decision" to resign.
"The women who came forward so courageously to tell their stories and spared others from suffering are heroines," Nixon wrote. "The investigation should continue. We need to get to the bottom of the enormous culture of silence that protects those in power. We must continue to work to end this national epidemic."
Manny Alicandro, a Republican candidate for attorney general who had entered the race hours earlier, told the Associated Press that Schneiderman was "a disgrace and wholly unfit for the role of New York State's chief legal officer. I believe the accusers. He needs to resign his office effective immediately and the New York City Police Department needs to get to work."
An NYPD spokesman said the department had "no complaints on file" related to Schneiderman.
"If the NYPD receives complaints of a crime, it will investigate them thoroughly," the spokesman said.
After the story was published Monday night, Manning Barish tweeted: "After the most difficult month of my life-I spoke up. For my daughter and for all women. I could not remain silent and encourage other women to be brave for me."
In February, Schneiderman filed a civil rights lawsuit against the board of The Weinstein Company and brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Schneiderman alleged that top executives at the film company were aware of Harvey Weinstein’s years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse, but did nothing.
Last month, Schneiderman praised the reporting of the New Yorker and The New York Times in the Weinstein matter, which gave rise to a worldwide conversation about sexual misconduct and accusations against powerful men in media and entertainment.
"Without the reporting of the @nytimes and the @newyorker—and the brave women and men who spoke up about the sexual harassment they endured at the hands of powerful men—there would not be the critical national reckoning underway," Schneiderman tweeted on April 16. "A well-deserved honor."
Schneiderman also has been part of several efforts to push back against some of Trump's actions in the White House, like the rescinding of protection for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Last month, he urged state lawmakers to close a loophole that he said could be used to fight state charges by anyone who has received a federal pardon for similar federal charges.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren Cartoons