Billionaire investor Robert F. Smith's commitment to pay off the student loan debt for graduates of the historically black Morehouse College covers millions of dollars, the school said.

"When you have to service debt, the choices about what you can go do in the world are constrained," Morehouse President David A. Thomas said Sunday. "(Smith's gift) gives them the liberty to follow their dreams, their passions." Thomas told CNN on Monday that the exact amount of student loan debt to be covered was still being calculated.

Smith's gesture, which Thomas called "a liberation gift," will enable graduates to have more capital to do things like start businesses and support their families.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/05/20/us/morehouse-robert-smith-student-loans/index.html

You'd think that criminalising false reports would benefit everyone. But then again, this is Alabama. Is anyone surprised?

>https://www.al.com/politics/2019/05/alabama-bill-would-criminalize-false-rape-accusations.html
>http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/ALISON/SearchableInstruments/2019RS/PrintFiles/HB544-int.pdf

Though, the way it's worded, it sounds like false accusations themselves might be criminalised -- not just false reports submitted to the police. How quaint.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/europe/greece-reporter-car-bomb-attack-intl/

(CNN)A car belonging to a reporter was targeted by a bomb blast in northern Athens, CNN affiliate CNN Greece reported.
The bomb exploded at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday outside Mina Karamitrou's home in the northern Athens suburb of Papagou, according to CNN Greece. No one was injured in the attack, but Karamitrou's car was destroyed.
Karamitrou is a police reporter for CNN Greece, a news organization that is editorially independent of CNN. CNN Greece Editor-in-Chief Adamos Zachariadis said Karamitrou was at home at the time of the attack. Police have opened an investigation into what happened, he said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Greek authorities to ensure the safety of Karamitrou, to thoroughly investigate the bombing and to "hold those responsible to account."

Free press 'non-negotiable'
Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos condemned the attack. "The freedom of the press, which Mina Karamitrou serves, is non-negotiable," Tzanakopoulos said Tuesday.
The attack was "unacceptable and reprehensible and the perpetrators will be held accountable," he added.

In a tweet, Greek Minister of Civil Protection Olga Gerovasili said such attacks are "unequivocally reprehensible."
CNN Greece, in a statement posted online, said the bombing was "an attack on the entire journalistic world."

Another win for America and the rule of law.

>The judge, Amit Mehta, ruled that Congress can investigate the president without beginning formal impeachment proceedings.

A federal judge on Monday upheld a congressional subpoena seeking President Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm, arguing that Congress is well within its rights to investigate potential illegal behavior by a president — even without launching a formal impeachment inquiry.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling delivers a striking blow to the president’s efforts to resist Democratic investigations, and is certain to give Democrats further legal basis to investigate Trump, his finances, and his presidential campaign.

In addition to upholding the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s subpoena to accounting firm Mazars USA for eight years of Trump’s financial records, Mehta took the extra step of denying the president’s request for a stay pending appeal.

Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s personal attorneys, said: “We will be filing a timely notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Speaking with reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump called Mehta’s ruling “ridiculous” and “totally wrong.” He also noted that Mehta was appointed by President Barack Obama.

Mehta's decision is a sweeping repudiation of Trump's claim to be largely immune from congressional scrutiny, particularly in matters of potential legal violations. Mehta's opinion emphasizes that lawmakers have the authority to investigate Trump’s conduct from both before and after he took office.

The ruling represents the first time the federal judiciary has weighed in on the ongoing oversight battle between Trump and House Democrats. Mehta’s ruling is likely to provide a blueprint for other judges who are set to make their own rulings on Trump’s vow to defy all congressional subpoenas.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/20/judge-upholds-dem-subpoena-for-trump-financial-records-1335370

Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of Walmart's biggest critics, is crashing the retail giant's annual shareholder meeting this year.

Sanders' office didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. And Walmart declined to comment about the specifics of Davis' proposal.

"The company will respond to specific shareholder proposals once they are formally presented at our June 5 shareholders meeting," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider.

Walmart has asserted that it offers its employees plenty of room to grow and rise within the company.

"Since the beginning, a cornerstone of Walmart's culture has been engaging frontline associates in the management of the company, and we're proud of the fact that 75% of our U.S. management associates began their career as frontline hourly associates," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider.

By attending Walmart's storied shareholders meeting, Sanders will be taking his criticisms to the next level, upbraiding the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer in its own backyard.

"If Senator Sanders attends, we hope he will approach his visit not as a campaign stop, but as a constructive opportunity to learn about the many ways we're working to provide increased economic opportunity, mobility and benefits to our associates — as well as our widely recognized leadership on environmental sustainability," a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-to-crash-walmart-shareholders-meeting-2019-5

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/12/google-top-stories-dominated-left-leaning-sources-/
Their data showed that 86% of Google’s Top Stories came from only 20 news sources. Just three dominated the coverage, with 23% of all impressions counted — CNN with 10.9%, The New York Times with 6.5% and The Washington Post with 5.6%.

Fox News, which was ranked fourth, only had 3%.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html
Newly obtained tax information reveals that from 1985 to 1994, Donald J. Trump’s businesses were in far bleaker condition than was previously known.

By RUSS BUETTNER and SUSANNE CRAIG
May 7, 2019

By the time his master-of-the-universe memoir “Trump: The Art of the Deal” hit bookstores in 1987, Donald J. Trump was already in deep financial distress, losing tens of millions of dollars on troubled business deals, according to previously unrevealed figures from his federal income tax returns.

Mr. Trump was propelled to the presidency, in part, by a self-spun narrative of business success and of setbacks triumphantly overcome. He has attributed his first run of reversals and bankruptcies to the recession that took hold in 1990. But 10 years of tax information obtained by The New York Times paints a different, and far bleaker, picture of his deal-making abilities and financial condition.

The data — printouts from Mr. Trump’s official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, for the years 1985 to 1994 — represents the fullest and most detailed look to date at the president’s taxes, information he has kept from public view. Though the information does not cover the tax years at the center of an escalating battle between the Trump administration and Congress, it traces the most tumultuous chapter in a long business career — an era of fevered acquisition and spectacular collapse.

The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.

House voted today to hold Barr in contempt for complying with law by not releasing portions of the report which under title III Rule 6(e)(2)(B)(vi) (the following persons must not disclose a matter occurring before the grand jury -- an attorney for the government;)

But instead democrats decide to hold Barr in contempt for not following their order to break the law
https://www.apnews.com/d64338bc6606456d978c33f11d2cf2b4

Truly a dark day for our democracy

https://nypost.com/2019/05/16/woman-charged-in-fatal-bus-push-of-elderly-man-released-on-bail/

The old man died. This was yet another Hate Crime against white people. And it seems to be happening more than usual.

Remember hearing about "Sucker Punching." That too was hate crimes. Yet the media and law enforcement covered that up and said it was some sort of stupid thug trend. When in fact, most of the victims were white and the punchers were........black.