DELEITURAS

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham pledged Thursday that he will hold hearings to get to the bottom of whether the FBI misled surveillance court judges by using the Steele dossier to obtain spy warrants against a former Trump campaign adviser.

“I promise, everybody in the country, that in the Senate, we’re going to have hearings about the FISA process,” Graham said at a Heritage Foundation event.

Graham, a Republican, has focused on how the FBI handled the dossier, which was written by Christopher Steele, a former British spy who investigated Donald Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.

The FBI relied heavily on Steele’s dossier to obtain four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.

In the dossier, Steele alleged that Page met with Kremlin insiders during the 2016 campaign. Steele also accused Page of working with Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to conspire with Russians.

Page has vehemently denied the claims, saying that he did not meet with the two Kremlin insiders Steele claims he met.

Graham and other Republicans have argued that the FBI failed to disclose Steele’s political motivations to the FISA judges. The FISA applications noted that Steele was working on behalf of someone who opposed Trump’s candidacy, but they did not identify the Clinton campaign and DNC as the former British spy’s clients.

Steele, a former MI6 official, was hired by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was hired by the Clinton campaign and DNC’s law firm, Perkins Coie.

“Did the court adequately know the source of the document? Without the document, could you have gotten the warrant?” Graham asked rhetorically at Thursday’s event.

“This is a very big deal,” he added.

Republicans have also pointed to congressional testimony from Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official who served as Steele’s back channel to the FBI. Ohr told lawmakers in an Aug. 28, 2018 interview that Steele told him in September 2016, a month before the first FISA was granted, that he was “desperate” that Trump not win the election.

Ohr said that he told FBI and Justice Department officials about Steele’s remarks, but Republicans have noted that those remarks are not included in the Page FISA applications.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of that the best we can. And we’ll do other stuff, too,” said Graham.

Did you know the government deducts money out of every paycheck you get? Do you know where that money goes? Watch this short video on payroll taxes to learn more.

Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death.

Leaving everything she knows behind, Lara goes in search of her dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Lara, who—against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit—must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider.

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, “Tomb Raider” is the story that will set a young and resolute Lara Croft on a path toward becoming a global hero. The film stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina,” “The Danish Girl”) in the lead role, under the direction of Roar Uthaug (“The Wave”), with Oscar-winner Graham King (“The Departed”) producing under his GK Films banner. The executive producers are Patrick McCormick, Denis O’Sullivan and Noah Hughes.

“Tomb Raider” also stars Dominic West (“Money Monster,” “300”), Walton Goggins (“The Hateful Eight,” “Django Unchained”, “Justified”), Daniel Wu (AMC’s “Into the Badlands”) and Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (“The English Patient”).

Uthaug directed from a script by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons. The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography George Richmond (“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”); production designer Gary Freeman (“Maleficent”); Oscar-nominated editor Stuart Baird (“Skyfall,” “Gorillas in the Mist”) and editor Michael Tronick (“Suicide Squad”); Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) and costume designer Timothy A. Wonsik (assistant costume designer, “Free State of Jones,” “Iron Man 3”). The music is by Tom Holkenborg (“Mad Max: Fury Road”).

Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures present, a Square Enix production, a GK Films production, “Tomb Raider.”

Set for release beginning March 16, 2018, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by MGM.

Ecuador said Thursday that it will be granting asylum to WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange. This decision, although good for the supporters of Assange, does little to defuse the growing standoff at the Ecuador Embassy in London, where Assange has been held up for two months claiming political persecution.

Julian Assange has been granted political asylum from Ecuador

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ricardo Patino said he and Ecuador believes that Assange faces real political persecution, including the possibility of extradition to the United States, where Patino said he believed that Assange would not have a fair trial.

“It is not impossible that he would be treated in a cruel manner, condemned to life in prison, or even the death penalty,” Patino told journalists in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. “Ecuador is convinced that his procedural rights have been violated.”

The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Britain said they are disappointed with the decision, but they are going to continue to try and perform their legal obligation of extraditing Assange to Sweden where he faces sexual assault charges.

Assange rose to ‘fame’ after his site, WikiLeaks, released huge amounts of top-secret U.S documents. This led to outraged Americans and calls to politicians to have Assange hunted down like a terrorist, so he can stand trial in America for his crimes.

Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning on allegations of sexual assault, but fears that Sweden and the United States are working together so he could ultimately stand trial in the U.S.

Ecuador Minister of Foreign Affairs Ricardo Patino

Sweden officials have claimed that two women have come forward and accused Assange of sexual misconduct, and they have denied that their actions of extradition are politically motivated. Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny declined to comment on the asylum decision by Ecuador.

When the decision was made that Assange was granted political asylum, there were cheers outside of the Ecuador Embassy from Assange supporters.

Assange remains in the Ecuador Embassy where he has been staying since June 19^th, just days before he faced extradition to Sweden. British authorities pledge to arrest Assange if he leaves the Embassy. The investigation in Sweden and Britain is still ongoing.

 

Follow me on Twitter: @chrisenloe

 

by Chris White

Democrats are working to rescue Tesla as the company struggles to cope with the possibility of losing a lucrative tax credit many analysts argue is the only thing keeping the electric vehicle industry afloat.

Democrats are pushing to extend the breaks, while Republicans paint the subsidy and attempts to solidify it as unnecessary. Electric vehicle companies are only allowed to offer a federal tax break on their first 200,000 vehicles sold under a 2009 law.

“It’s crazy that we might allow the electric vehicle tax credit to run out just as the American electric vehicle market is starting to gain a foothold,” Sen. Jeff Merkley told The Hill Thursday. The Oregon Democrat is leading a group of senators who introduced a bill on Sept. 17 lifting the cap.

Merkley’s bill is receiving support from many big-name Senate Democrats. Democratic Sens. Corey Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, for instance, are tossing their weight behind the Electric Cars Act of 2018. Republicans are taking a different tack.

“I wouldn’t be supportive of any legislation to extend the credits,” Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania told reporters. “The government shouldn’t be interfering in people’s choices of vehicles based on the merits.”

He added: “It shouldn’t be subsidizing one category of products at the expense of others.”

The bill could be a significant boon for Tesla, which has already delivered 200,000 vehicles, meaning the automaker will likely begin running out of the tax credits necessary to keep the electric vehicle market alive.

Tax credits for Tesla’s major vehicles will now be reduced 50 percent every six months until it is completely phased out. The change gives rivals such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW AG and Audi AG the upper hand, as they bring electric models to the market with a full tax credit in place. The $7,500 tax credit will drop starting on Jan. 1, 2019 to $3,750 around mid-year, according to Tesla’s website. GM is entering a similar stage — it is expected to hit the 200,000 vehicle point with sales of its Chevrolet Bolt EV, among other vehicles.

Data show the elimination of the subsidy could be a possible death knell for Tesla, especially considering the company’s inability to mass produce vehicles at the scale of its larger competitors.

A data analysis conducted by The Wall Street Journal in July 2017 shows there were no new Tesla Model S sedans and Model X SUVs registered in Hong Kong in April 2017 after that region revoked the tax credit. There were 2,939 Tesla vehicles registered in March of that year before the April 1 redaction of the credit, and nearly 3,700 entering the Transportation Department’s books for the first quarter of 2017.

The popularity of hair extensions has exploded in recent years, and hair extensions are one of the most requested services in big city hair salons today. Sometimes hair extensions are glued into a person’s natural hair. Other times hair extensions are actually sewn into the person’s scalp. Despite the popularity of hair extensions, there are some pros and cons you should know about before taking the hair extension plunge yourself.

Pro – Instant Gratification

One key advantage of hair extensions is not having to wait several months for your hair to grow. You can go from having the shortest hair in the office on Monday to having the longest hair in the office on Tuesday, and back again to short hair on Friday with ease.

Con – Damage To Hair and Scalp

The human scalp is tough enough to handle a lot of hair. However, the scalp usually has time to make adjustments to increases in hair length over several months because that’s how long it takes hair to grow. When you get hair extensions, your scalp hasn’t had a chance to make these adjustments and can suffer from damage and irritation as a result of the additional weight of the hair extensions.

Damage to the hair can also occur. You can suffer from scalp burns from the glue used to attach the extensions, and your hair can suffer from breakage along your hair roots when tight braids are used. Dandruff and other irritations of the scalp often occur as a result of natural hair oils and soap getting trapped underneath the hair braids.

Pro – Versatility

When it comes to hair extensions, you have a variety of options available to you in regards to colors, textures and hair length – Airyhair has some good options. If you’ve had straight here all your life, you can try curly hair for a change. If you are tired of having short hair, you can extend the length of your hair without having to wait months for it to grow. All sorts of color and texture combinations are available and can be tried without having to change or process your actual hair. Further, any changes can be undone just as easily if you aren’t happy with them.

Con – Cost

Unfortunately, high-quality hair extensions are expensive. If you want your hair extensions done right with the least amount of damage, you’ll have to use a professional hairstylist who has access to high-quality hair. Depending on where you live and how you plan to have your extensions attached, it could cost thousands of dollars for hair extensions.

Pro – Low Maintenance

High-quality hair extensions should last as long as three months and can be styled just as if they were your real hair. Depending on the type of hair texture your natural hair has, your extensions may even be easier to style.

Con – Time

Getting hair extensions applied can take several hours. The amount of time will vary depending on the method of application and how many extensions you’re having applied. Some customers have spent as much as eight hours in the salon getting their extensions applied. Sure, it’s a lot faster than having to wait months for your hair to grow in, but eight hours in a salon chair can be an unpleasant experience to deal with, so keep that in mind.

At this point over 700 people are reported to be dead as a result of a late season storm that hit off the Filipino island of Mindanao. The  tropical storm battered coastal cities of Cagayan de Oro and nearby Iligan turning them into muddy wastelands of overturned cars and broken trees. In just 12 hours, Washi dumped over a month’s worth of average rain on Mindanao. At last report, survivors were still being rescued at sea.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross said “People were already asleep, the storm hit pineapple plantations that don’t absorb water, it was high tide and waterways were heavily silted. It’s unprecedented and overwhelming,” and “Our fear is that there may have been whole families that perished so there’s nobody to report what happened.”

Brigadier General Roland Amarille, head of an army task force in Iligan, said on Sunday soldiers had been mobilized to recover bodies and build coffins. “We need body bags and lime to deal with too many cadavers,” Amarille said, fearing an outbreak of disease. “Local mortuaries are no longer accepting cadavers and they are even asking people to bury the dead at once because there are too many bodies even in hallways.”

Because of the sheer number of bodies, mass graves are being recommend in order to combat sickness and disease.

Top technology talent may be in high demand, but that doesn’t mean IT job seekers can skate through the application process. In a survey conducted by staffing firm Robert Half Technology, CIOs shared what they consider to be deal breakers when evaluating candidates for open roles.

Technology executives said the biggest resume red flags are frequent job hopping (21 percent); poor formatting, sloppiness or typos (17 percent); and too much unnecessary information (17 percent). Making it to the interview stage comes with its own set of potential pitfalls. According to CIOs, the biggest blunder is speaking negatively about past employers or managers (20 percent), followed by poor body language (19 percent) and being unprepared for technical questions (16 percent).

CIOs were asked, “When reviewing resumes, which of the following would most likely cause you to remove a candidate from consideration?”

Frequent job hopping for a non-consultant candidate	21%
Bad formatting, sloppiness or typos	17%
Too long or too much unnecessary information	17%
Not highlighting strategic thinking and business knowledge	13%
Overuse of technical jargon	12%
Overly complicated	11%
No context around prior experience	9%
	101%*

* Responses do not total 100 percent due to rounding.

CIOs were also asked, “When conducting an in-person interview, which of the following would most likely cause you to remove a candidate from consideration?”

Speaking negatively about past employers or managers	20%
Poor body language, such as no eye contact or a weak handshake	19%
Unprepared for technical questions	16%
No clear understanding of the business	15%
Ineffective explanation of career history	15%
Unprofessional dress	13%
No “thank you” or follow-up after the interview	1%
	99%*

*Responses do not total 100 percent due to rounding.

“It’s a candidate’s market in technology right now, but that doesn’t mean applicants can sit back and wait for offers to roll in,” said Jeff Weber, executive director of Robert Half Technology. “Job seekers should tailor resumes that highlight specific skills and experience related to the open position and be prepared to answer technical questions during interviews in order to make an impression with potential employers.”

Weber added that while frequent job changes may be more common in today’s technology workforce, some employers are wary of hiring applicants with a long list of short stints. “Hiring and onboarding a new employee takes significant time and resources, and organizations want to avoid investing in someone who may jump ship if another opportunity comes along.”

As part of the editorial team here at CDN, I pay way too much attention to the stuff people post to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and all sorts of other social media sites. The good stuff is inserted into articles, suggested as starter material to contributors or given their own showpiece posts. The rest of it .. well, I’ll just leave these here for you. You can thank me later.

First, we get to watch “Hero” – a dog with ser door issues.

Then to India, where a traffic cop has redefined “Traffic Jam”

Here’s what happens when you give Grandma a lightsaber

uhh, Vietnam’s first and only robot … waiter???

Annnd, what collection of internet videos is complete without one featuring cute pets?

Please feel free to tweet, post, email, or whatever this to your favorite people. You know, kinda like when your friend tells you to try something they clearly thought tasted horrible.

Protests and riots across France are taking a toll on the country’s economy as demonstrators leave work, damage and loot stores and discourage tourism.

“I’m not in a situation to make a clear assessment of the level of impact but I can tell you it will be an important one on the attractiveness of France,” French finance minister Bruno Le Maire told Euronews Sunday. Le Maire made the comment while touring the damage done to businesses in Paris.

Le Maire expects the French economy to lose at least 0.1 percent of economic growth on the year. The Bank of France has redone an estimate of fourth quarter growth, revising the projected 0.4 percent growth down to 0.2 percent, Reuters reported.

An economic slowdown is a “reality for our businessmen, entrepreneurs, it’s the reality for those whose shops were vandalized, looted, in the most violent way,” Le Maire said, according to Reuters. “And it’s a reality too for our foreign investors.”

The protests have hit during what otherwise would have been the busiest shopping season of the year. Now, retailers have lost over $1 billion in sales since the start of the anti-carbon tax protests in mid-November, the French retail federation (FCD) told Reuters Friday.

“It’s a period when commerce is usually brisk, just before Christmas — but this, this is a catastrophe,” Le Maire said.

The protests continued through a fourth weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Renewed clashes between protesters and police resulted in over 1,300 arrests in Paris Saturday. 135 were injured, including 17 police officers, according to NBC News.

Nearly a month ago, hundreds of thousands of middle-class French citizens began protesting a Macron administration proposal to hike the tax on gas and diesel. The increased carbon tax was part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda to lower emissions and combat climate change.

Macron scrapped the proposed tax on Dec. 5, but protests and riots have continued unabated as the “yellow vest” protesters, named after the neon traffic vests they wear, demand lower taxes and a cheaper cost of living. Many are calling for Macron’s resignation.

Armored vehicles patrolled the streets of Paris for the first time since World War II Saturday. The riots are the worst to sweep the country since 1968.