Hobby Lobby Stores has agreed to pay a $3 million federal fine and forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi religious artifacts smuggled from the Middle East that the government alleges were intentionally mislabeled for import, federal prosecutors said.
The Oklahoma City-based craft store chain's devout Christian owners have long shown an interest in the biblical Middle East and started to collect artifacts from the region in 2009, according to a civil complaint filed in New York on Wednesday. Hobby Lobby President Steve Green is the owner of one of the largest collections of religious artifacts in the world and is building a Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., due to open in the fall.
Hobby Lobby fined $3M for smuggling Iraq religious artifacts
Forty-one states have refused Kobach's request for voter information
Forty-one states have refused the Trump administration's request for certain voter information, according to a CNN inquiry to all 50 states.
State leaders and voting boards across the country have responded to the letter with varying degrees of cooperation -- from altogether rejecting the request to expressing eagerness to supply information that is public.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which President Donald Trump created by executive order in May, sent a letter to all 50 states last Wednesday requesting a bevy of voter data, which he notes will eventually be made available to the public.
TVNL Comment: The Idiot in the WH, who has no clue how government works, thinks he can give an order and everyone will jump to comply. No, Donald, there are limits to your power. Read the US Constitution. Oh, never mind.
Justice Department's Corporate Crime Watchdog Resigns, Saying Trump Makes It Impossible To Do Job
One of the Justice Department’s top corporate crime watchdogs has resigned, declaring that she cannot enforce ethics laws against companies while, she asserts, her own bosses in the Trump administration have been engaging in conduct that she said she would never tolerate in corporations.
Hui Chen -- a former Pfizer and Microsoft lawyer who also was a federal prosecutor -- had been the department’s compliance counsel. She left the department in June and broke her silence about her move in a recent LinkedIn post that sounded an alarm about the Trump administration’s behavior.
Watergate reporter, Carl Bernstein: We are in a 'malignant presidency'
Legendary Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein called the Trump administration a "malignant presidency" on Saturday, and suggested that the wrongdoings committed by the White House were unprecedented.
Speaking on CNN, Bernstein warned that the Trump administration is "not functioning."
"We are in the midst of a malignant presidency," Bernstein said. "That malignancy is known to the military leaders of the country, it's known to the Republican leadership in Congress who recognize it, and it's known to the intelligence community."
Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Days, Hours’ Away from Breaking Off
The Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica is about to calve, which will create one of the largest icebergs in the world, one the size of Delaware. This will be the climax of around one year of anticipation when a crack was first noticed in the ice shelf.
The "calving" event could occur at any time, according to researchers – although exactly when eludes them. As it was put by the UK-based Project MIDAS (Melt on Ice Shelf Dynamics and Stability) who have led the observation of Larsen C, the event that could occur in "days, hours or weeks."
Contrary to popular belief, an ice shelf breaking apart does not necessarily entail a rise in sea levels. Ice floats on top of water after all – and just like an ice cube in a glass of water, it causes the water to displace. However, the complete collapse of Larsen C might be a different story.
In an instant, molten slag gushed over workers at Tampa Electric power plant
It was the kind of job that workers at the Big Bend power plant do routinely, and one done countless times in the nearly 35 years that senior plant operator Michael McCort had worked at Tampa Electric.
But company executives said something went tragically wrong Thursday as McCort, 60, and at least five employees working for outside contractors tried to unplug a tank containing molten slag that can reach temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees.
Modified U.S. travel ban goes into effect with another court challenge
A modified executive order banning people from certain countries from traveling to the United States has gone into effect as opponents filed an emergency court order.
The limited version of an order temporarily banning travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, all Muslim-majority countries, was implemented at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Senior administration officials expected that the ban would go smoothly and without the chaos and protests that greeted the original travel ban earlier this year, The Washington Post said. Advocates and immigration lawyers were at airports on the U.S. East and West coasts nonetheless to observe the execution of the order and to offer help. There were minimal reports of problems at U.S. airports.
German parliament approves same-sex marriage
Germany's parliament has voted by a wide margin to legalise same-sex marriage after Chancellor Angela Merkel changed her mind and said members of her ruling conservative bloc should follow their personal conscience rather than the party line.
The parliament voted by 393 to 226 on Friday in favour of same-sex marriage.
The reform gives full marital rights for same-sex couples and allows them to adopt children.
TVNL Comment: Great news. Better late than never...
Kushner company received $285M loan from Deutsche Bank shortly before election: report
Jared Kushner’s real estate company received a $285 million loan one month before Election Day from a German bank that has lent millions to President Trump in the past, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
Kushner, who is married to first daughter Ivanka Trump, was acting as both an adviser to the Trump campaign and working at his real estate company when his firm received the loan from Deutsche Bank.
The White House told the Post that Kushner “will recuse from any particular matter involving specific parties in which Deutsche Bank is a party.” Kushner and Deutsche Bank declined to comment to The Post on Sunday.
TVNL Comment: Detusche Bank is deeply involved in the Russia investigation. The web to deceive becomes more and more tangled every day.
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