Week #6 (2/29-3/4)- Christie endorses Trump for president (Fox News)

By Edmund DeMarche

 Published February 26, 2016 

 FoxNews.com

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Political impact of Christie's endorsement of Trump

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DEVELOPING STORY: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday endorsed businessman Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president, becoming the New York billionaire’s most noteworthy endorsement to date.

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The endorsement was announced at a news conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

“We don’t need any more of these Washington, D.C. acts," Christie said."We don’t need Washington politicians to come in and fix it."

Christie used the platform to both endorse Trump and attack Marco Rubio for what he sees as the freshman senator's lack of experience.

Christie said no other candidate is better prepared to provide the United States with strong leadership both at home and around the world. He also said that no other Republican candidate is a more formidable challenger to Hillary Clinton.

“I can guarantee you that the one person that Bill and Hillary don’t want to see on that stage in November is Donald Trump,” Christie said.

Christie's endorsement comes the day after a heated Republican debate where both Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz attacked Trump.

Both Rubio and Cruz fought hard to throw Trump off his stride as the field charges into the all-important Super Tuesday contests. Rubio, in particular, was unrelenting in keeping the pressure on Trump Thursday night, going so far as to claim if Trump hadn’t inherited money he’d be “selling watches in Manhattan.”

Christie attacked Rubio at the final Republican debate before the New Hampshire primary, tripping up Rubio in a moment that likely contributed to his poor performance in the state's primary. Christie accused him of parroting the same talking points repeatedly and said a president should be able to think on his feet.

The endorsement from Christie comes the day after Rubio changed tactics in Thursday's GOP debate and began to attack Trump on a variety of fronts, from his business background to his preparedness to lead the nation. Rubio continued on Friday morning, calling Trump "a con artist" during a round of morning television interviews.

Trump Endorsements from Elected Officials | InsideGov

Trump says Rubio is a "desperate guy" and said, "I don't think he's of presidential caliber."

The announcement comes days before the pivotal Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses.

“I will lend my support between now and November in every way possible,” Christie said.

Christie said he was not offered any position by Trump and intends to serve out the remainder of his governorship in New Jersey and eventually work in the private sector with the hopes of one day making more money than his wife, who works as an investment banker.

A senior adviser to Rubio is interpreting Christie's endorsement as a remedy to what he calls the billionaire's inability to articulate his policy plans, explain why he won't release his tax returns and defend his past financial dealings.

Todd Harris told reporters traveling with the Florida senator that, "Donald Trump can't put a coherent noun and verb together to explain any of these things, so he had to bring in someone like Chris Christie to try to do it for him. And Chris Christie has got his work cut out for him."

Clinton, for her part, said she is eager to debate any Republican on economics and health care policy.

Campaigning Friday at Atlanta City Hall, Clinton talked about the job growth that took place during the administrations of her husband and President Obama.

She compared that to "trickle-down economics" of Republican administrations. And she mocked Republicans for voting repeatedly in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

She says "they never really tell you what they're going to put in its place," because "they know we won't like it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Week #6 (2/29-3/4)- Could El Niño turn into a dud for California? (Sacramento Bee)

BY PHILLIP REESE, DALE KASLER AND RYAN SABALOW

preese@sacbee.com

Sacramento is in the peak of its rainy season, but there is no substantial rain in the forecast. The Sierra snowpack has fallen below normal levels for this time of year. The state’s three largest reservoirs remain far below capacity.

Whither El Niño?

A winter season that began with considerable promise toward breaking the drought has given way to a staggeringly dry February. Despite heavy rain in January, the Sacramento area this season has seen just half as much precipitation as it did at the same point in 1983 and 1998, the last two major El Niño winters.

Compounding California’s water woes, residents have lagged recently on water conservation. The State Water Resources Control Board reported Thursday that California’s urban water districts missed their conservation mandates in January for the fourth month in a row. Cumulative savings for California since June, when conservation ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown went into effect, have now slipped below the governor’s 25 percent mandate.

“We can’t count on El Niño to save us,” Felicia Marcus, the state’s chief drought regulator, said Thursday. “February has been a bear, with no disrespect to bears … . We’re hoping for a miracle March and an awesome April.”

Sacramento has received just eight-tenths of an inch of rain so far in February. The average for the month is 3 inches. But experts such as Bill Patzert, who tracks the climate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, said the dry spell doesn’t mean El Niño has run its course.

In the 1983 El Niño winter, for example, “the big show really didn’t happen until March and April,” he said. “I’m still holding out hope.”

Jan Null, a private consultant with Golden Gate Weather Services in Saratoga, agreed.

“It’s possible there’s another shoe to drop,” he said. “There is still a lot of warm water out in the Pacific,” Null said. Warmer-than-average waters in the Pacific are the hallmark of El Niño.

During the next seven days, the only rain in the forecast is a mild system arriving Friday night that is expected to bring less than one-tenth of an inch of precipitation to Sacramento, and a pattern next Friday described by the National Weather Service as “not a very strong system.”

Null said this year’s winter is yet another reminder that El Niños are unpredictable and any long-range weather forecast is suspect. The nexus of warm water in the Pacific is farther west than usual this year. That is a factor in determining where the rain will fall. Often, El Niño brings heavy rain to Southern California; this year, it’s been rainier in Northern California, and portions of the Pacific Northwest have gotten record precipitation.

“We don’t know all the answers,” Null said. “This has sort of become the poster child that all El Niños are different.”

Historically, California’s significant multi-year droughts have ended when statewide precipitation totaled about 150 percent of average, according to the Department of Water Resources. The current drought, in its fifth year, is believed to be the worst on record. So far, rain in Northern California is at 105 percent of average, while the snowpack has fallen to a statewide average of 91 percent.

While precipitation this winter is a major improvement over the past four years, “it’s only average now,” said the National Weather Service’s Michelle Mead. “We need it above average to make a dent.”

The state water board has extended the urban conservation mandates, which were due to expire this month, through the end of October. But the extended regulations relax the conservation mandates for many inland communities, where hot weather makes it harder to keep lawns and trees alive. Many of the water agencies in greater Sacramento will see their targets fall by 3 percentage points.

Water board officials defended the modified regulations Thursday, but said they’ll take a fresh look at the standards once they have a better idea of how much precipitation the state receives this winter.

The January conservation numbers showed Californian cities cut water use by about 17 percent compared with the same month in 2013. That was the worst performance since mandated cuts began last June, and it means cumulative water savings from June through January have fallen to 24.8 percent. That’s two-tenths of a point below the 25 percent figure ordered by Brown last spring.

The water board said it isn’t surprising that savings rates have slipped. Sprinklers have largely been shut off and Californians are having to eke out savings by taking quicker showers and flushing toilets less often. The results “are still worthy of considerable respect and praise,” Marcus said. “We’re going to be close enough to 25 percent to declare victory.”

Sacramentans cut water usage by 11 percent in January compared with 2013, the lowest savings rate outside of the Bay Area. It was the first time that Sacramento underperformed the state average since mandatory cutbacks began.

Most water districts in the Sacramento region are under orders to cut water use by at least 28 percent. Nine water districts in the region failed to achieve even a 10 percent savings in January, including the cities of Sacramento and Folsom.

Eleven of the 23 largest water districts in the region have fallen below their cumulative conservation targets. Most are missing the targets by a small amount and are unlikely to face penalties. Furthest off the mark are the customers of Golden State Water Company Cordova, the city of Folsom and the Fruitridge Vista Water Company.

Rob Roscoe, general manager of the Sacramento Suburban Water District, said his agency’s 12 percent reduction for January shouldn’t be surprising.

“You’re forced to get those savings inside,” Roscoe said. “That’s a heavier lift. So inside you’re talking about instead of just resetting your sprinklers, it’s a lifestyle change. It’s a three-minute shower instead of a five -minute shower. It’s not flushing the toilet unless you really have to. It’s only full loads of clothes and dishes.”

It could get worse. With February coming in dry and unusually warm, some residents in the region are turning on their sprinklers, something that normally doesn’t happen during winter.

“I joke about tearing out my landscaping and putting in cactus and, you know, another couple of years of this, it might not be a joke any more,” said Neil O’Hara, an environmental consultant who lives in East Sacramento.

Phillip Reese: 916-321-1137, @PhillipHReese

SACRAMENTO REGION CONSERVATION

Water agencies in the Sacramento region face varied conservation mandates. This chart shows the targets, as well as the cumulative savings achieved from June through January.

Water agency	Target	% saved
Golden State Cordova	36%	31%
Folsom	32%	27%
Fruitridge Vista	36%	31%
Georgetown Divide	32%	28%
Rio Linda - Elverta	36%	33%
Carmichael	36%	34%
Davis	28%	26%
Placer County	32%	30%
Sacramento Suburban	32%	31%
Fair Oaks	36%	35%
San Juan	36%	36%
Lincoln	32%	32%
Galt	32%	33%
Sacramento	28%	29%
Orange Vale	36%	38%
El Dorado	28%	30%
Citrus Heights	32%	35%
Sacramento County	32%	35%
West Sacramento	28%	32%
Woodland	24%	30%
Roseville	28%	35%
Elk Grove	28%	35%
California-American	20%	35%

Source: State Water Resources Control Board

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article62463397.html#storylink=cpy

Week #6 (2/29-3/4)- Everything you need to know about Super Tuesday (Politico)

What is Super Tuesday?

“Super Tuesday,” which is scheduled for March 1, refers to the day when a dozen states (and one territory) will hold their nominating contests this year. Generally, “Super Tuesday” is the unofficial name for a Tuesday during the presidential primary election when the largest number of states hold their nominating contests.

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Which states are voting on Super Tuesday?

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia will hold contests for both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in Alaska will hold caucuses. Democrats in Colorado will hold their caucuses as well. Finally, Democrats in American Samoa are also holding their nominating contest.

When do polls close on Super Tuesday?

Voting occurs throughout the day, but polls will close at different times. Polls in Alabama, Georgia, Vermont and Virginia close at 7 p.m. (all times eastern). Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee close their polls at 8 p.m. Most Texas polls close at 8, but a few in the state’s western region will close an hour later. Arkansas' polls close at 8:30 p.m. Minnesota’s caucuses begin at 8. Alaska’s caucuses close around midnight.

What is the “SEC Primary”?

The “SEC Primary” is a nickname for Super Tuesday and is an ode to the Southeastern conference, which includes universities in many of the southern states holding their contests on Tuesday. The heavy concentration of Southern states in Tuesday’s primaries—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas—gives a regional flavor to the voting, hence the alternate name.

How many delegates are at stake on Super Tuesday?

661 Republican delegates will be allocated, based on Super Tuesday, and 865 delegates for Democrats.

How are Super Tuesday delegates distributed?

Under party rules, no state holding its primary before March 15 can do a winner-take-all allocation of delegates, meaning that all Super Tuesday states will divide up their delegates in some way. In some states, that’s close to directly proportional to voter results, whereas others have a “winner-take-most” allocation structure or minimum vote thresholds for scoring delegates.

Why does Super Tuesday exist?

The concept originated in 1988 for two main reasons: the consolidation of voters and organization of campaigns. Southern Democrats wanted to highlight the electoral significance of their region by grouping states on a single day of voting. The arrangement also helps make the party primaries less parochial by forcing candidates to campaign nationwide.

Has Super Tuesday mattered in recent elections?

In 2012, Mitt Romney took a commanding lead in delegates and tried to declare the race over; in 2008, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton each declared victory after a close and chaotic finish.

How is Super Tuesday different from other primary days?

No other primary day has as many delegates grouped at once, and thus no other day gives a single candidate as much of a chance to declare a sense of certainty about his or her position. The less local the race becomes, the more serious the contenders are as national candidates. Seven states will vote the following weekend, but starting on March 7, votes and delegates trickle in. Super Tuesday will therefore give the race clarity in a way no other single day can.

Will any candidates drop out afterward?

Hanging on by a thread, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson could face serious losses across the country and be pressured by party officials to give up hope and help Rubio and Cruz take it to Trump. The longer the two long shots stay in the race, the harder it is to make up the gap between Trump’s delegate total and everyone else’s.

When are the next primaries after Super Tuesday?

On Saturday, March 5, Democrats and Republicans vote in the Kansas caucuses and Louisiana primaries. Republicans will also vote in Kentucky and Maine, while Democrats will vote in Nebraska. On Sunday, Democrats go to the polls in Maine.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/super-tuesday-2016-everything-you-need-to-know-219849#ixzz41JEKp466

Week #6 (2/29-3/4)- Zuckerberg Tells Facebook Staff To Stop Crossing Out 'Black Lives Matter' (NPR)

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Employees and visitors can leave messages on walls like this on the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, Calif.

Jeff Chiu/AP

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scolding employees for what he calls "several recent instances" of people crossing out "black lives matter" on signature walls at the company's headquarters and writing "all lives matter" instead.

In a note posted to employees on a company announcement page, published by Gizmodo, Zuckerberg says he and several other leaders at the company have previously warned employees against doing this. "I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before, but after my communication, I now consider this malicious as well," Zuckerberg writes.

" 'Black lives matter' doesn't mean other lives don't. It's simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve.

"We've never had rules around what people can write on our walls — we expect everybody to treat each other with respect. Regardless of the content or location, crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one person's speech is more important than another's."

The phrase "black lives matter" actually traces its origin to a conversation onFacebook. It came in reaction to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Since then, the phrase has come to signify theracial justice movement that has grown in response to a series of police shootings of unarmed black men.

As the footprint of the "black lives matter" slogan has grown, the phrase "all lives matter" arose as a reply — and, to many, a reproach — to the original phrase. NPR's Tamara Keith has reported from the campaign trail, where Democratic candidates used the "all lives matter" refrain:

"For those at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement, these words hit the wrong note. 'All lives matter' is a phrase adopted by those who seek to minimize or criticize the movement."

Zuckerberg's note says that the company is investigating the incidents, because they have been "deeply hurtful and tiresome" for the Facebook community. Facebook has confirmed the authenticity of the internal note to NPR but has not provided further details of the investigation.

Of course, it's important to point out that Facebook — like much of Silicon Valley — has been struggling to diversify its work force and remains a company that's heavily white and male.

Here's a chart NPR built earlier this month when Intel, in unlike other tech companies including Facebook, released a highly detailed report on its progress and goals in hiring women and underrepresented minorities.

Like others, Facebook has been working to improve the ratio and, according to Zuckerberg's memo, plans to hold a town hall next week where staff can "educate themselves about what the Black Lives Matter movement is about."

Leslie Miley, a Silicon Valley diversity advocate and former Twitter engineer, told the Huffington Post the issue had a lot to do with the tech industry's reliance on recruiting from referrals and recruiting:

"Companies like Facebook pull talent from top schools, many of which are also verywhite. Then, employees refer people who look like them.

" 'If you want to change the ratio, stop referrals,' Miley told HuffPost."

Week #5 (2/22-2/26)- An about-face on Supreme Court appointments: Republicans are taking cues from Democratic obstructionists (Washington Times)

Vice President Joe Biden visits St. Paul’s Union Depot train station Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, to mark the seventh anniversary of the economic stimulus package in St. Paul, Minn. Biden says projects like the restoration of an abandoned train hub ... more >

By Donald Lambro - - Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Senate Democrats are attacking the Republican leadership for having the gall to suggest that any action to fill the Supreme Court’s vacancy should be put off until next year.

Republicans argue the nation is embroiled in a politically divisive presidential election and that it would be an unfair end run around the will of the people to allow a lame-duck president to fill the vacancy with a lifetime position that would likely turn the high court in a sharply leftist direction, perhaps for many years to come.

 

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With our nation preparing to vote in a little more than eight months on the future political direction of our country, and the high court locked in a likely 4-4 tie in the face of monumental decisions, GOP leaders think the people should have a direct say in the electoral outcome that will determine the court’s judicial composition.

But in a rank display of political hypocrisy, President Obama and Democratic leaders reject that notion, saying that the Constitution demands the Senate give Mr. Obama’s nominee due consideration and put him or her to a vote.

Speaking for the Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada wrote in The Washington Post last week that “the Senate’s constitutional duty to give a fair and timely hearing and a floor vote to the president’s Supreme Court nominees has remained inviolable.”

But Mr. Reid and the Democrats were not saying that when a Republican president was in the White House, and George W. Bush’s Supreme Courtnominee was Samuel Alito, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley in a stinging Washington Post op-ed column last week.

Speaking about the Alito nomination from the Senate floor, Mr. Reid said, “The duties of the United States Senate are set forth in the Constitution of the United States.”

“Nowhere in that document does it say the Senate has a duty to give presidential nominees a vote,” Mr. Reid said. “It says appointments shall be made with the advice and consent of the Senate. That’s very different than saying every nominee receives a vote.”

And if the White House and the Republicans didn’t get his point, Mr. Reid underscored it by saying, “The Senate is not a rubber stamp for the executive branch.”

That was when a gaggle of some two-dozen former and present SenateDemocrats, who now demand a vote this year on Mr. Obama’s eventual nominee, lined up in an attempt to deny Mr. Bush an up-or-down vote on Justice Alito’s nomination.

The anti-vote senators then were Mr. Reid, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and then-Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois, Joe Biden of Delaware, John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Hillary Clinton of New York.

Now, Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Biden and their accomplices are singing a very different tune.

And Mr. Schumer, who is now in line to become the next SenateDemocratic leader, back then delivered an address to the leftist American Constitution Society, saying that the Senate “should reverse the presumption of confirmation” and “not confirm a Supreme Courtnominee except in extraordinary circumstances.”

Mind you, this was 18 months before the end of Mr. Bush’s second term.

Perhaps no single Democrat has been more hypocritical in past legal battles than Vice President Joe Biden.

He delivered a 90-minute speech in June 1992, when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the court was approaching the end of its term, calling for a halt to any action on high court nominees.

George H.W. Bush, at the time, was in hard-fought political battle for a second term in the midst of an economic slowdown and declining approval ratings.

In the speech, Mr. Biden maintained the president should “not name a nominee until after the November election is completed.”

And in the event Mr. Bush were to name someone, “the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over,” Mr. Biden said.

“Senate consideration of a nominee under these circumstances is not fair to the president, to the nominee, or to the Senate itself,” he said.

“Where the nation should be treated to a consideration of constitutional philosophy, all it will get in such circumstances is partisan bickering and political posturing from both parties and from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Mr. Biden said.

Now, flash forward today to Vice President Biden, urging the Senate to take up the president’s expected nomination to fill the vacancy in a pivotal election year.

“To leave the seat vacant at this critical moment in American history is a little bit like saying, ‘God forbid something happen to the president and the vice president, we’re not going to fill the presidency for another year and a half,’ ” he said in an interview on Minnesota Public Radio last week.

On Monday, Mr. Biden issued a statement saying the earlier remarks he made in his long-forgotten 1992 speech had dealt only with “a hypothetical vacancy,” and were “not an accurate description of my views on the subject.”In the speech “critics are pointing to today, I urged theSenate and White House to work together to overcome partisan differences to ensure the Court functions as the Founding Fathers intended. That remains my position today,” he said.

But Mr. Grassley focused on Mr. Biden’s 1992 remarks when he went to the Senate floor on Monday, fulsomely praising them as “Biden’s Rules” that he interpreted this way: There should be no presidential nominations to the highest court in the land in an election year, and if there was one, the Senate, as Mr. Biden said, should “seriously consider” not conducting hearings on the nominee.

However this dispute turns out, the Constitution’s language in Article II, Section 2 is clear, says Mr. McConnell and Mr. Grassley. It “grants theSenate the power to provide, or as the case may be, withhold its consent.”

• Donald Lambro is a syndicated columnist and contributor to The Washington Times.