Indonesia pop band Seventeen's members dead or missing after tsunami slams stage during performance

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Members of the Indonesian pop band Seventeen are seen in a publicity photo. (Instagram)

An Indonesian pop band lost its bass player and road manager after a tsunami struck the beach where the band was performing Saturday night, according to reports.
In a news release, the band named Seventeen confirmed the deaths of bassist  M. Awal Purbani, also known as Bani, and road manager Oki Wijaya, the Jakarta Post reported.
Four others associated with the band - guitarist Herman Sikumbang, drummer Andi Windu Darmawan, crew member Ujang, and Dylan Sahara, wife of vocalist Riefian Fajarsyah -- remained missing, according to the paper.
Seventeen was performing at an event held by state electric company PLN near the shore of  Tanjung Lesung beach when the tidal wave hit their stage around 9:30 p.m.
Social media footage of the disaster shows the stage lurching forward into the audience along with the band and its equipment.
Fajarsyah posted a video to his Instagram account, confirming that several band members and his wife, Dylan Sahara, had not been found, according to the Post.
The Indonesian government has said the tsunami, which struck without warning around Indonesia's Sunda Strait on Saturday night, has claimed dozens of lives, left hundreds injured and others unaccounted for.
Scientists from Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics agency said it could have been caused by undersea landslides from the eruption of Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island formed over years from the nearby Krakatau volcano.
Hundreds of homes and buildings, including hotels, were swept away.

Gov Shutdown Cartoons

The shutdown is partial, halting only some services

 

The federal government partially shut down at midnight after Congress and President Donald Trump were unable to come together on a stopgap spending measure. It is the third closure in less than a year.

The shutdown isn’t expected to have any immediate, serious impact on most Americans, as long as it lasts only a few days. The Army will not lay down its weapons. Medicare payments will still be sent out. The Social Security Administration will continue to pay benefits and process new benefit applications.
Although essential government functions will continue, some 380,000 federal employees are likely to be placed on furlough; that means they won't work during the shutdown, and won't get paid for that time away unless Congress passes legislation to retroactively pay them. Another 420,000 workers considered essential (technically called "excepted" or "exempt") must work through the shutdown, but will likely not get paid until it ends.
Many won't be able to take the paid vacations they'd planned for, says Max Stier, president and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that publishes a “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” rankings.  "People get hurt when you have that kind of complication," he says.
In addition, some private contractors to the federal government may continue to provide services through the shutdown while others will not.
The shutdown is considered partial because it affects only federal agencies that haven't yet had their appropriations funded by Congress. Those agencies include the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Transportation.
Other agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, already have had their funding approved by Congress.
But the longer the government remains closed, the more problematic the situation could become.
Here’s how the shutdown could affect you.

Travel

Homeland Security's contingency plan (PDF) has deemed that 92 percent of its 60,000-plus employees are essential workers. The Transportation Department will likely keep on about two-thirds of its workforce of about 50,000. So Transportation Security Administration personnel and air-traffic controllers will be on the job—without receiving a paycheck—during the busy holiday travel season.
As workers are furloughed, though, some national parks and monuments may close. That means that if you plan to visit, say, the Everglades National Park in Florida or the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, you may have to delay your trip.
Mindful of the poor public image of national monuments shuttered, however, the Feds may opt to keep some very visible symbols open to the public, says Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service in New York City.
If the shutdown lasts for more than a few days and you need to renew or apply for a passport, you could run into problems. Without workers, the State Department would have to stop processing applications.
Foreign nationals should also expect delays when it comes to processing work and travel documents. Although the State Department will continue to process visas during a shutdown, that function is partially funded through appropriations, so it could suffer disruptions.

Healthcare

Medicare, which provides health insurance for people 65 and older, and Medicaid, which provides coverage for low-income people, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These programs are part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is already funded through September 30, 2019. The Affordable Care Act, which oversees administration of the health insurance exchanges for individual insurance, would also be unaffected.
Unlike the budget showdown in January, funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program is not in jeopardy. This program provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, and funding for the program ran out last fall. As part of the budget deal struck in January, the Children’s Health Insurance Program received funding for 10 years.

Disaster Help

Federal Emergency Management Administration employees who respond to disasters will continue to work. However, back-office operations will likely cease or slow. FEMA would furlough about 4,400 employees—about a fifth of its staff—according to the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the department.
"When you have someone face-to-face with the public responding to a national disaster, those are likely to be deemed essential," Light says. "It’s the back office people, processing the paperwork for disaster relief, loans, grants who will get pulled."
As a result, those who have applied for FEMA housing assistance may have wait, Light says.
The FEMA-administered National Flood Insurance Program will continue to process and pay claims for its 5 million policyholders, says Cynthia DiVincenti, vice president of government programs for National Flood Services, a private contractor that administers the program's policies.
"However, during a shutdown, the National Flood Insurance Program will not be able to issue new policies, issue increased coverage on existing policies, or issue renewal policies," DiVincenti says.

General Government Assistance

Depending on how long the shutdown lasts, Americans could run into other problems as well, such as getting up-to-date information from government websites. Applications for grants, for example, would also halt as federal agencies stop processing applications.
You'll still get your Social Security benefits and be able to depend on Medicare to cover the medical bills it covers now. According to the Social Security's contingency plan, [PDF] the agency also will continue to process new benefit applications. But if you seek verification of your benefits, want your earnings record updated or corrected, or need to replace your Medicare card, you will have to wait until after the shutdown.
The same goes if you are applying for a mortgage. “By law, any mortgage loan approval is subject to review by the mortgage lender of the borrower’s federal tax returns,” says Tim Ross, CEO of Ross Mortgage, based in Troy, Mich. Because the lender depends on IRS employees to provide and confirm those tax returns, it will have to wait until they are back at work.

Taxes

Tax deadlines remain in place. If the shutdown were to continue into mid-January, seniors and self-employed people would still have to submit their estimated quarterly tax payments by the normal, January 15, 2019 deadline, says IRS spokesperson Eric Smith.
With the exception of victims of federally declared disaster areas, who were granted extensions, "the tax deadlines are unchanged," he says.
The majority of workers at the Internal Revenue Service will likely be sent home, according to the agency's contingency plan [PDF] However, computer experts and other essential personnel are likely to work through a shutdown to ensure the agency's website continues to operate, and that the 2019 tax season begins, as planned, in late January.
If the shutdown were to last into the new tax season, the IRS would postpone paying refunds. But private tax-prep companies could step in the breach with refund advances—in past tax seasons, a popular product for early filers.
"H&R Block will continue to assist the millions of taxpayers who need to submit their 2018 tax returns and who want their tax refund as soon as possible," a company spokesperson told us. 

Government shutdown 2018: What will close and who still needs to work

With Democrats and President Trump seemingly at an impasse over a spending bill – particularly in regards to funding for border security – the government partially shuttered at midnight, just in time for the Christmas break. And Trump has warned that a closure could drag on “for a very long time.”
He had urged Senate Republicans to use the so-called “nuclear option” to pass a spending bill that includes enough funding for a border wall. The House scrambled to put together a package late Friday that included the $5.7 billion the president wants, but was unable to agree on a deal to fund the government by the midnight deadline.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has often rebuffed calls to use the nuclear option, which would change Senate procedure to require only a simple majority to approve the spending bill. The Senate plans to reconvene at noon Saturday to continue talks.
About one-quarter of the government will be affected in a shutdown.
According to a precedent set during the Reagan administration, federal workers can be exempt from furloughs if their jobs are related to national security or if they perform essential activities that “protect life and property.”
Read on for a look at which agencies are closed during a partial shutdown and who still is expected at work.

What departments will close?

Nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments will shutter, along with dozens of agencies. Those departments are: Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury.
Essential personnel would still be required to work but without pay. Nearly 90 percent of the Homeland Security staff is deemed essential.
With the Interior Department shuttering, national parks and forests likely will close. This could impact the traditional Bracebridge Christmas dinner at Yosemite. During the government shutdown in January, the Interior attempted to make parks still accessible, but it’s unclear if it will do that again this time.

Who will have to work without pay?

More than 420,000 people – including law enforcement and Homeland Security workers – will have to work with their pay withheld, according to Senate Democrats.
About 53,000 TSA employees, 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and 42,000 Coast Guard workers would be required to work without pay.
Additionally, about 5,000 Forest Service firefighters would need to work, according to Senate Democrats.

Who will be furloughed?

More than 380,000 people will be furloughed in the shutdown – meaning they will experience a temporary leave from their work.
This will include most of NASA, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Commerce Department and National Park Service workers. Additionally, about 52,000 IRS workers would be furloughed.

Would this affect the mail or holiday travel?

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will remain open as usual during a partial government shutdown because it is “an independent entity that is funded through the sale of our products and services, and not by tax dollars,” a spokesman told Fox News.
TSA agents, air traffic controllers and border security agents also will be required to work through a shutdown – albeit they might not get a paycheck right away.
Amtrak, a government-owned corporation, also will continue with normal operations during a short-term shutdown, a spokeswoman confirmed to Fox News.

Dem's plan to put Obama's name on Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway irks Ryan's descendants

Former President Barack Obama should have his name on Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway, says Bill Daley, a former Obama aide who's running for mayor of Chicago.

Former President Barack Obama may get a famous stretch of highway named for him, if a Chicago mayoral candidate -- who once worked for Obama -- gets his way. But the descendants of the late Dan Ryan, for whom the city expressway is named, are not happy about the idea.
Democratic candidate Bill Daley, who was Obama's White House chief of staff in 2011, proposed Friday that the Dan Ryan Expressway on Chicago's South Side be renamed for America's 44th president, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“Barack Obama is from Chicago. He owns a home here. This is where the Obama library is based,” Daley said in a statement. “I’d like to see the legislature act on this early next year.”
A section of Interstate 55, leading in the direction of Springfield, the Illinois state capital, was already named for Obama last year, the report said. But Daley wants an additional roadway honor for the former president.
“Renaming the highway for President Obama will be a daily reminder for all of us that America’s first African-American president was shaped by Chicago,” Daley said. “We were part of history.”
History may also play a part Daley's decision to run for mayor. Daley's father was former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who served as the 38th mayor of the city for 21 years from 1955 to 1976. Later, the current candidate's brother, Richard M. Daley, served as mayor for 22 years, from 1989 to 2011.
Democratic state Rep. La Shawn Ford of Chicago, who is also running for mayor and led part of the already passed legislation for I-55 to be named after Obama, said Daley's proposal was a "political stunt" and a "ploy to try to cater to black voters," according to the Sun-Times.
The Dan Ryan Expressway opened in 1961, not long after the death of its namesake, a longtime Cook County commissioner who worked to advance road projects in the city. Ryan's descendants, including grandson Dan Ryan III, were upset by Daley's idea, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“It was a very great honor for our family to have that name,” Ryan III told the paper. “And I can’t imagine why anyone would want to change part of his own father’s legacy to begin with, but also take away an honor from one person to honor another person.”

“It was a very great honor for our family to have that name. And I can’t imagine why anyone would want to change part of his own father’s legacy to begin with, but also take away an honor from one person to honor another person.”
— Dan Ryan III, descendant of man for whom Chicago expressway is named

The Dan Ryan Expressway is a freeway in Chicago that runs from the Circle Interchange with Interstate 290 (I-290) near Downtown Chicago through the South Side of the city. It is designated as both I-90 and I-94 south to 66th Street, a distance of 7.44 miles (11.97 km). South of 66th Street, the freeway meets the Chicago Skyway, which travels southeast; the I-90 designation transfers over to the Skyway, while the Dan Ryan Expressway retains the I-94 designation and continues south for 4.03 miles (6.49 km), ending at an interchange with I-57. This is a total distance of 11.47 miles (18.5 km).^[1] The freeway was named for Dan Ryan, Jr., a former president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) expressed concern about potentially having a second stretch of road named for Obama.
“As a general policy, IDOT discourages naming two roads near one another for the same person because it causes confusion for motorists,” IDOT spokeswoman Jessie Decker told the Sun-Times. “We are not aware of any existing resolutions or dedications being rescinded in order to rename a road.”
The Dan Ryan Expressway was chosen for the proposed Obama honor because of its association with racial segregation in the 1960s. It was also the location for a large anti-violence protest over the summer.
Thousands of protesters shut down lanes on the highway as part of a movement to increase pressure on public officials to address the gun violence that has claimed hundreds of lives in the city.

The wall fight should go into January. This is the GOP's last best chance to push for border security

President  Trump correctly opposed the continuing resolution that slithered out of the Senate on Thursday night. Instead, he should tell members of the 115th Congress to keep voting until they send him a budget that funds a southern border wall.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must have fallen into a barrel. Only that could explain the Kentucky Republican’s belief that kicking the budget can into next February would simplify matters for President Trump and the GOP. Alas, McConnell would have kicked that can right into hell.
If things are tough in Washington with a unified Republican government, just wait until San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi controls the House on January 3. She will lead a far-left caucus interested in resisting President Trump’s every move, at best, and jailing him, at worst. Such über-liberals as California’s Maxine Waters and New York’s Jerrold Nadler — and such full-on socialists as New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — will salivate over President Trump’s impeachment, not funds for his signature border wall.
“Punting to Feb. 8 on a CR not only gives Democrats a Christmas present, it offers them a Valentine’s Day gift,” House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) said via Twitter. “No more excuses. No more games. Stand up and fight.”
President Trump should sign a measure to fund the government through December 31. He then should keep Congress in town, voting around the clock except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Postmen deliver the mail throughout the Yuletide. Members of Congress should labor at least as hard. If a solution is not reached by New Year’s Eve, another continuing resolution should fund the government through January 3, giving the Republican Congress three more days to fix this mess, before Pelosi and the Resistance take over.
If this seems unfair to Republican lawmakers, remember that Senate Democrats voted for ObamaCare on Christmas Eve 2009. While Democrats and the left have horrible, destructive policies, Republicans and the right should admire and emulate their focus, dedication, and discipline. While Republicans scatter like chickens in a barnyard struck by lightning, Democrats march in lockstep, like parading North Korean soldiers.
The House should pass an array of spending plans, with wall money, and give the Senate ample options to concur.
The first vote should be the Freedom Caucus’ amendment for $5 billion in border wall funds. On Thursday morning, Freedom Caucus members begged House speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for such a vote. This is mind-blowing. Why on earth was this vote not held — a week ago? A month ago?
If the Senate defeats a House bill with $5 billion in wall money, the House should transmit a separate bill with $4.5 billion, and then another $4 billion, etc. At some point, public pressure, fatigue, and homesickness should trigger Senate consent.
The House also should pass a bill co-sponsored by Representative Mo Brooks, R., Ala. and Senator Ted Cruz, R., Texas. The three-page EL CHAPO Act — or Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order — would finance the border wall with any money recovered from jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and other narco-traffickers. The U.S. government seeks some $14 billion in Guzman’s illicit cash. Republicans should dare House and Senate Democrats to oppose such common-sense and, essentially, no-cost wall funds.
Another relevant idea — President Trump should offer Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer of New York this simple deal: In exchange for Democrat support of the House’s $5.7 billion in wall funds, President Trump will back the Gateway Tunnel to augment today’s dilapidated, leaky trans-Hudson River passage between New York and New Jersey.  This federal expenditure can be justified on the basis of interstate commerce. If the old tunnel were to close (or collapse catastrophically, drowning thousands), this would be a devastating blow to rail service up and down the Eastern Seaboard. A wall-tunnel swap would be a perfect compromise that could satisfy both sides of the aisle.

California Governor Cartoons

Conservative media challenge Trump on border wall, Syria pullout

In the space of 48 hours, President Trump has got some of his conservative supporters pretty riled up.
His tentative decision to punt for now on funding for the border wall — the Senate passed a kick-the-can stopgap measure on Wednesday — triggered a backlash on the right that threatened to blow up the deal yesterday.
"It's what the drive-by media calls compromise," Rush Limbaugh declared. "Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything, including control of the House in a few short weeks."
Ann Coulter, a fierce supporter of a tougher approach to immigration, told The Daily Caller that without the wall Trump's tenure was a "joke presidency who scammed the American people." She said she wouldn't be voting for Trump again because the only reason was for Jared and Ivanka to make more money.
In breaking Twitter news, @realDonaldTrump promptly unfollowed her.
Then the president stunned many of his own aides, congressional supporters and overseas allies by announcing that the U.S. is pulling its troops out of Syria.
On his favorite show, "Fox & Friends," co-host Brian Kilmeade called the decision "stunning and irresponsible ... Nobody thinks that ISIS is defeated. Nobody who understands who was born after 2000 who sees what's happened after 9/11, understands."
On the Hill, Lindsey Graham, usually Trump's closest ally, denounced the decision, calling it a "stain" on America's honor, and saying Republicans would be going "nuts" if Barack Obama had done this.
Some were going nuts anyway.
And in a coda to the day, the president announced that Jim Mattis, who opposed the Syria pullout, is retiring. While several outlets say the Pentagon chief quit in protest, my own reporting is that Trump forced him out.
Both episodes marked a rare revolt by Trump's base, underscoring how the president is sometimes squeezed between his conservative campaign promises and the realities of governing. We saw similar tensions in the failed attempts to repeal ObamaCare.
But it also underscores the zig-zag nature of Trump's decision-making. He is the one who threatened a government shutdown in that televised session with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, only to quietly agree to a stopgap funding measure after Democrats dug in on the wall funding.
After an uproar by Mark Meadows and the House Freedom Caucus group, Trump hastily called a meeting with House Republicans, tweeting: "When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries - but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!"
The problem is that Trump has little leverage on this one because even a shutdown at midnight tonight would stretch into the Democrats taking over the House in a couple of weeks. Still, Congress is famous for declaring victory with papered-over compromises, such as one that might allow Trump to draw wall funding from the military construction budget.
On Syria, the president overruled Mattis (prompting stories about the Pentagon chief's declining influence), blindsided some White House aides and stunned the western alliance. Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, applauded the move.
But it was, as Trump says, no surprise. He had long argued against endless military entanglements in the Middle East. As he tweeted:
"I've been campaigning on it for years, and six months ago, when I very publicly wanted to do it, I agreed to stay longer. Russia, Iran, Syria & others are the local enemy of ISIS. We were doing there work. Time to come home & rebuild…Do we want to be there forever?"
Where the president got major pushback, especially from conservative foreign policy types, is in declaring ISIS to be defeated. While the caliphate no longer controls large swaths of land, experts say it remains a force for terror. Another point of criticism, from Graham and others, is that this amounts to an abandonment of the Kurds, our allies, who were not given a heads-up.
David Sanger, in an even-handed analysis in The New York Times, said "even Mr. Trump’s biggest critics, the Democrats, will have a hard time going after him on this decision.
"Mr. Trump’s view that American forces cannot alter the strategic balance in the Middle East, and should not be there, was fundamentally shared by his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama. It was Mr. Obama who, at almost the exact same moment in his presidency, announced the removal of America’s last troops in Iraq — fulfilling a campaign promise."
The right spent years ripping Obama for pulling the remaining U.S. troops out of Iraq, which didn't want us there. And Obama had run against George W. Bush's war.
It's now an established fact that Trump delights in doing what the elites say is imprudent, and surprising even his own staff with abrupt decisions. But I suspect that many Trump supporters, whose kids may be more likely to fight these wars, will shed no tears over the Syrian pullout.
Still, this is the first time in his presidency that Trump is facing serious blowback from the conservative media on two highly significant issues. Maybe the airing of these differences is healthy for both sides.