Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton
A “recanvass” of the Kentucky Democratic primary results shows that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did, indeed, win the state’s contest according to Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.
“The unofficial winner of Kentucky’s Democratic presidential primary remains Hillary Clinton,” Grimes said at a press conference on Thursday. “The recanvass vote totals which were submitted to my office today will become the official vote totals. The Kentucky Board of Elections will certify on May 31st.”
The recanvass was a review of voting machines and absentee ballots in all 120 of the state’s counties.
In a statement, the Vermont senator said he accepted the results.
“We accept the results in Kentucky. We are very pleased that we split the delegates in a state with a closed primary in which independents cannot vote and where Secretary Clinton defeated Barack Obama by 35 points in 2008,” Sanders said in a statement
Bayna-Lekheim El-Amin, 42, was found guilty of attempted assault in the first degree, and assault in the second degree for his participation in a brawl last year at a Dallas BBQ restaurant located in the Chelsea area of Manhattan
Lawyers for El-Amin argued during the one-week trial that he was trying to protect himself from Jonathan Snipes, 33, and his boyfriend Ethan Adams, 26.
“This is a case of self-defense,” Percy Diego Gayanilo said during the Manhattan Supreme Court trial. “We are only here because they arrested the wrong person.”
Snipes started the altercation May 5, 2015 when he slapped El-Amin in the face with his purse after he thought he heard him use a racial slur.
An all-out brawl ensued and Gayanilo claimed that El-Amin tossed the chair at the men after Snipes menacingly reached for a knife from a table. This was not corroborated by surveillance video or witness testimony.
Prosecutor Leah Saxtein argued that Snipes’ loud mouth and purse-slapping histrionics didn’t justify the vicious beatdown. She told jurors that El-Amin attacked the men out of rage, not fear.
“The defendant was angry, he was humiliated, and he wasn’t about to let these girly men get the last word,” she said.
El-Amin was convicted of four counts of assault and attempted assault. He faces up to 15 years on the top charge.
The District Attorney’s office issued a statement that read in part:
“There was no justification for this brutal attack,” said District Attorney Vance. “Bayna-Lekheim El-Amin struck both victims in a public restaurant with a heavy wooden chair, knocking one of them unconscious. I commend the victims for their courage and my Office’s prosecutors for ensuring this defendant is held accountable for this horrific attack.”
During an appearance by Donald Trump on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, the subject of a final Democratic debate came up.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign wants a one more debate with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the June 7th California primary. Clinton has declined.
So, Sanders sent a message via Kimmel to invite the Trumpster to a one-on-one debate before the California primary.
The Donald’s answer? “Yes.”
“If he paid a sum toward charity I would love to do that,” Trump said. “If I debated him, we would have such high ratings and I think I should take that money and give it to some worthy charity.”
Sanders immediately tweeted that he accepted the invitation, and today his campaign peeps are looking into moving ahead with trying to make it happen.
Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.
Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager says “back-channel conversations” are underway with Donald Trump’s staff about setting up a bipartisan debate between the two presidential candidates.
“I think it would benefit voters from across the country and I have to believe it would be one of the most-watched debates in presidential politics,” Jeff Weaver said Thursday on MSNBC.
“Let’s see if he has the courage to go one-on-one with Bernie Sanders,” he added.
The Sanders campaign is seeking to ramp up pressure on Trump to follow through on his Wednesday night remarks to late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel.
“The senator wants to do it,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told The Hill. “We’ll see if Trump meant what he said.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
A Trump official earlier Thursday characterized the mogul’s remarks as “tongue-in-cheek.”
It’s not clear to me if the DNC might have an issue with such a debate between candidates of the two parties when the Democratic candidate hasn’t been officially chosen yet.
Update: Donald Trump told reporters today he would be willing to debate Sanders for $10 million for charity.
Producers The Shubert Organization and The Nederlander Organization announced today that chart-topping British pop star Leona Lewis will play the role of “Grizabella,” the Glamour Cat, in the first-ever Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-breaking musical, Cats.
One of the biggest hits in theatrical history, Cats will return to Broadway this summer at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 W 52nd Street) with preview performances beginning Thursday, July 14, 2016, and an official opening set for Sunday, July 31, 2016.
“Leona has one of the greatest voices of her generation,” said Andrew Lloyd Webber. “We are all hugely excited about working with her.”
“It is an incredible honor to be asked by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber to join the Cats family,” said Lewis. “I will never forget seeing the show as a little girl and how blown away I was by the magical experience of it. I am beyond thrilled for my Broadway debut to be in such an iconic show. To work with a team as legendary as those on Cats is an experience I will cherish every moment of. I cannot wait to see the audiences out in NYC!”
British Singing Sensation, Leona Lewis has sold over 20 million records worldwide, reached #1 in over 35 countries, and is a 3-time GRAMMY nominee, a 7-time BRIT Award nominee also has also been nominated for MTV VMAs, EMAs, Billboard and most recently in 2016 a CMT award for her performance of ‘Girl Crush’ with Adam Lambert. Leona became the first British female solo artist to top the US Billboard 200 album chart in more than 20 years. Leona is a vocal powerhouse who is renowned for her massive four octave mezzo-soprano vocal range and power.
A new poll by Bloomberg/Purple Slice shows Donald Trump is trailing Hillary Clinton 46%-39% in the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Political pundits have previously posited that these states would be crucial to a Trump triumph come November.
I’m getting all up in the alliteration here, aren’t I?
Watch the Morning Joe folks discuss the new data below.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton played a vice-presidential game of “Who’d You Rather?” with Ellen DeGeneres yesterday, and the choices got really tough.
“We’ll keep switching until you narrow it down,” DeGeneres said.
“This is very helpful,” Clinton said. “Don’t tell anybody because we want it to be a big surprise.”
Early match-ups were easy for Clinton (Joe Biden easily beat billionaire Mark Cuban), but then things got tougher as the choices ramped up to George Clooney, Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio and First Lady Michelle Obama.
It was a fun segment. Nice to see the lighter side of Hillary here.
Eleven states led by Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton have filed suit against the Obama administration regarding federal guidance that says transgender students are protected under Title IX – the federal law that bans discrimination in public education.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, against the Justice Department, the Education Department, the Labor Department, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, reports The Washington Post.
The states joining Texas include Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, Georgia. The Arizona Department of Education, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, and school districts in Texas and Arizona are also plaintiffs in the suit.
The guidance issued by the Department of Education and Department of Justice detailed guidelines explaining the obligations that schools receiving public funding have to their transgender students.
These obligations include respecting the gender identity of transgender students by using the student’s preferred name and pronouns, and ensuring them access to sports teams, educational opportunities, and sex-segregated facilities that correspond with their gender identity, according to a letter sent Friday to public K-12 schools nationwide, as well as to colleges and universities that receive federal funding.
The letter from the Obama administration plainly defines a school’s responsibilities to its trans students under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive any public funding.
“This prohibition encompasses discrimination based on a student’s gender identity, including discrimination based on a student’s transgender status,” reads the letter. It goes on to explain that the federal agencies consider a student’s gender identity to be the sole determinant of that student’s sex, for the purposes of Title IX protections.
“This means that a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity,” explains the letter, indicating that everyone has a gender identity, regardless of whether they identify as transgender or cisgender (nontrans).
The Human Rights Campaign issued a statement which read in part:
Today, HRC blasted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton regarding media reports that he will launch a shameful attack on transgender youth across the state and the nation. Paxton, who currently faces three felony fraud indictments for violating state securities laws, civil fraud charges, and a separate investigation from the Texas State Bar for encouraging clerks to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling on nationwide marriage equality, has repeatedly attacked LGBT people in an effort to score political points.
“Ken Paxton has already disgraced himself and his office by undermining the rule of law and shamefully encouraging state officials to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision last June. Now, he’s gone so far as to attack transgender youth, whom he has a responsibility to protect as Attorney General,” said HRC Communications Director Jay Brown. “Countless schools all across the country have policies in place that ensure transgender students are safe, protected from discrimination and can live authentic lives. Ken Paxton’s use of taxpayer resources to dismantle such protections is a reckless and expensive abdication of his responsibilities, and he should be held accountable.”
Today, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed Senate Bill 132 into law, making Vermont the eighth jurisdiction—behind California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, New York, Washington D.C., and Cincinnati—to protect LGBTQ youth from the dangers of “conversion therapy.”
Senate Bill 132, which protects LGBTQ youth from mental health providers attempting to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through practices that are linked to substance abuse, extreme depression, and suicide, was approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives in April. The law will go into effect July 1, 2016.
“We are thrilled that Vermont has joined the rapidly growing number of states leading the way to protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy,” said the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Youth Policy Counsel Carolyn Reyes. “Vermont families can now have confidence that the mental health professional they turn to in times of uncertainty may not use their state license to profit from their children’s pain. Most importantly, Vermont children can now rest easy in the knowledge that they cannot be forced or coerced to undergo dangerous and discredited treatments to try to change who they are. Today brings us one step closer to the day when all LGBTQ youth know they were born perfect.”
Said HRC President Chad Griffin: “No young person should be subjected to this extremely harmful and discredited practice, which medical professionals agree not only doesn’t work, but can also have life-threatening consequences. It is nothing short of child abuse. We thank Governor Shumlin and the Vermont State Legislature for prioritizing the well-being and safety of our nation’s youth, and remain committed to working with our partners to ensure that this quackery is banned from coast to coast.”
Check these two adorably hunky gymnasts – Mykola Shcherbak & Sergii Popov – who couldn’t be more charming in this hand-to-hand balancing act at the Cirque Phénix in Paris (2011).
