USA news on Youtube Dec 30 2017

Pence neighbors in Aspen hang 'Make America Gay Again' banner

It's been said that good fences make good neighbors.

But in Aspen, Colo., this week, Vice President Mike Pence has something different posted

between his vacation lodging and that of the people next door.

Specifically, it's a rainbow banner reading �Make America Gay Again.� It appeared

on a stone pillar in front of the house where Pence and his wife are staying this week.

The daughters of the couple across the street and one of their girlfriends reportedly draped

the rainbow banner on the pillar while a Pitkin County deputy and Secret Service members stood

nearby, the Aspen Times reported.

The stone pillar is situated at the end of the driveway between the two homes.

According to the Times, the Secret Service agents were unfazed when the women draped

the banner over the pillar, telling them, �We�re not here to control your free speech

rights.� The women reportedly became less timid afterward,

and later brought out chili and corn muffins for the county deputies and Secret Service

agents who were stationed at the foot of the driveway.

While governor of Indiana, Pence signed legislation that critics said encouraged discrimination

against gay people, has previously opposed repealing the U.S. military's former �Don�t

Ask, Don�t Tell� policy and once likened marriage equality to �societal collapse�

-- positions that have placed him at odds with the LGBTQ community.

Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said he is in favor of free speech and that Aspen

has a long history of irreverence when it came to powerful people visiting the area.

The Pence family arrived to Aspen on Tuesday and were expected to leave next week.

For more infomation >> Pence neighbors in Aspen hang 'Make America Gay Again' banner - Duration: 1:51.

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Trump administration aims to trim rules on offshore drilling - Duration: 2:00.

Trump administration aims to trim rules on offshore drilling

The Trump administration on Friday proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and

gas drilling that were imposed after a deadly 2010 rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf

of Mexico.

The administration said the rules are an unnecessary burden on industry and rolling them back would

encourage more energy production.

An offshore-drilling group welcomed the proposed rollback, while environmentalists said President

Donald Trump would raise the risk of more deadly oil spills.

The Obama administration imposed tougher rules in response to the April 2010 explosion on

a drilling rig used by BP called the Deepwater Horizon.

The accident killed 11 workers and triggered a massive oil spill.

The Obama rules required more frequent inspections to prevent oil spills and dictated that experts

onshore monitor drilling of highly complex wells in real time.

Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said in a statement

that the Trump administration's rollback was a step toward regulatory reform.

He said safety experts in the offshore energy industry would now have the chance to comment

on the regulations and "assure the nation's offshore energy resources are developed safely

and expeditiously."

But Miyoko Sakashita, ocean-program director for an environmental group, the Center for

Biological Diversity, said rolling back drilling-safety standards was a recipe for disaster.

"By tossing aside the lessons from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Trump is putting our coasts

and wildlife at risk of more deadly oil spills," Sakashita said in a statement.

"Reversing offshore safety rules isn't just deregulation, it's willful ignorance."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For more infomation >> Trump administration aims to trim rules on offshore drilling - Duration: 2:00.

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Ivanka Trump Cuts Asking Rent for Manhattan Condo to $13,000 - Duration: 2:25.

Ivanka Trump Cuts Asking Rent for Manhattan Condo to $13,000

President�s daughter has failed to find a buyer or tenant for one of her two Upper

East Side condos Ivanka Trump has just cut the asking rent

for one of her Manhattan apartments after struggling to find a buyer or tenant.

Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who serves as senior adviser to President

Donald Trump, first put the condo at Trump Park Avenue on Manhattan�s Upper East Side

on the market in December for $4.1 million.

MORE: Ivanka Trump Lists Park Avenue Condo for $4.1 Million

At the same time they relisted it for rent, asking $15,000 per month.

But while the sales price is unchanged, on Tuesday they reduced the rent to $13,000,

according to the listing.

City property records show that Ms. Trump paid $1.52 million for the condo in 2004 and

transferred ownership to an LLC that reportedly belongs to her in 2015.

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home features solid oak floors, beamed ceilings, a large

corner living room/dining room area with oversized windows and a spacious master bedroom with

an en-suite marble bath, according to the listing.

That home, however, isn�t believed to be the family�s main Manhattan residence.

Ms. Trump, her husband and their three children lived in a four-bedroom penthouse in the same

building before relocating to Washington, D.C., according to numerous media reports.

That unit is not up for sale.

The Trump-branded building, located at 502 Park Ave., was purchased by President Trump,

in 2001 for $115 million, according to the Real Deal.

It has 24-hour hotel and valet services, daily maid/laundry service, a fitness center and

a live-in resident manager.

MORE: Your Chance to Live on the Same Floor as Donald Trump Jr.

The listing agent, Nitza Shafrir Zinbarg from Trump International Realty, and a spokesperson

for the Trump Organization did not respond immediately to requests for comment

For more infomation >> Ivanka Trump Cuts Asking Rent for Manhattan Condo to $13,000 - Duration: 2:25.

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Trump's most explosive tweets of 2017 - Duration: 2:35.

Trump's most explosive tweets of 2017

Donald Trump is the first president to govern by Twitter.

And during his first year in office, he's used the social media platform to announce

new policies, pressure wavering lawmakers, battle the media, rally support for his agenda

and otherwise steer the national conversation.

Despite lacking the official gravitas of a formal speech, these messages are taken seriously.

Earlier this year, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump�s tweets

�are considered official statements by the president of the United States.�

The forum, though, has come with pitfalls for the quick-to-type president who's seemingly

feuding with the media and Democrats on a daily basis.

Here is a list of the most explosive Trump tweets of 2017:

Wire-tapped in Trump Tower?

Trump caused an uproar in March over a tweet suggesting former President Barack Obama wire-tapped

Trump Tower during the election.

�Terrible!

Just found out that Obama had my �wires tapped� in Trump Tower just before the victory.

Nothing found.

This is McCarthyism!� Trump tweeted March 4.

Later that day, he added: �Is it legal for a sitting President to be �wire tapping�

a race for president prior to an election?

Turned down by court earlier.

A NEW LOW!� �How low has President Obama gone to tapp

my phones during the very sacred election process.

This is Nixon/ Watergate.

Bad (or sick) guy!� Trump tweeted that same morning.

Trump never produced evidence to support his claims, and a spokesman for Obama denied its

accuracy -- though CNN reported that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was wiretapped

before and after the election.

In September, the Justice Department also made a statement in a Freedom of Information

Act lawsuit that they had no evidence to support Trump�s claim.

�Enemy of the American people�

President Trump has been battling the media all year, regularly calling them the �FAKE

NEWS� as he seeks to undermine their credibility.

Some journalists claim Trump's rhetoric has gone too far.

This one, in particular, struck a nerve with the media:

�The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy,

it is the enemy of the American People!� Trump tweeted on Feb. 17.

For more infomation >> Trump's most explosive tweets of 2017 - Duration: 2:35.

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State Department releases Huma Abedin emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop - Duration: 3:38.

State Department releases Huma Abedin emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop

The State Department on Friday released a batch of work-related emails from the account

of top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were discovered by the FBI on a laptop belonging

to Abedin's estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.

At least four of the documents released Friday are marked "classified."

One November 2010 document that was released shows Abedin forwarding an email to an address

titled �Anthony Campaign.� Former FBI Director James Comey said during

a congressional hearing earlier this year that he believed Abedin regularly forwarded

emails to Weiner for him to print out so she could give them to Clinton.

Comey famously said in July 2016 that Clinton was �extremely careless� in her handling

of classified emails on a private server.

That 2010 email was a �callsheet� to Clinton about her upcoming call to Saudi Foreign Minister

Prince Saud al-Faisal to warn about an imminent leak of U.S. diplomatic cables -- so-called

Cablegate -- from WikiLeaks.

The rest of the document is redacted and marked classified as of August 2015.

Abedin is a longtime aide to Clinton who worked at the State Department and on Clinton�s

campaign.

The emails indicate that Clinton was still invested in party politics despite her cabinet

position.

In one April 2011 email, Abedin informs her that Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

had been selected as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

�Is she leaving the Congress?� Clinton replied.

It also shows Abedin in her role as Clinton�s gatekeeper.

�Love when people send her schedule stuff direct,� Abedin sarcastically wrote in an

email to a colleague in December 2011, after someone emailed Clinton directly to ask her

to speak at a conference.

At the time of the emails, Abedin was married to Weiner, a onetime Democratic congressman

who began a 21-month prison sentence last month after being convicted of sexting a 15-year-old

girl.

Abedin has since filed for divorce.

The Abedin emails jolted the 2016 presidential race after Comey told Congress just days before

the election that FBI agents had found more of Clinton�s messages.

The emails were found on Weiner�s laptop, as the FBI investigated its sexting case against

him.

The discovery of the records reopened the case against Clinton several months after

Comey said he wasn�t recommending any charges be filed in the case.

HUMA ABEDIN'S COUSIN CONVICTED IN FRAUD CASE INVOLVING FAKE EMAILS

The conservative group Judicial Watch filed suit against the State Department for all

official department emails sent or received by Abedin on a non-state.gov email address.

�This is a major victory,� the group�s president, Tom Fitton, said in a Friday statement.

�After years of hard work in federal court, Judicial Watch has forced the State Department

to finally allow Americans to see these public documents.�

Fitton added, �That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner�s laptop dramatically

illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary

Clinton�s and Huma Abedin�s obvious violations of law.�