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“The New York office of Sberbank CIB indeed hired Podesta Group. Engagement of external consultants is part of standard business practices for us,” Sberbank told TASS on Thursday. The Podesta Group charged Sberbank 20,000 dollars per month, plus expenses, from March through Sept. 2016 in their bid to end U.S. sanctions. The efforts were allegedly just part of a larger under-the-radar effort to remove sanctions on both Sberbank and Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB Capital.

A bill introduced into the Arkansas state House of Representatives would restore the traditional definition as the law in the Natural State. State Representative Stephen Meeks is the author of House Bill 2098, which reads, “Marriage shall be only between a man and a woman. A marriage between persons of the same sex is void.“ Moreover, “It is the public policy of the State of Arkansas to recognize the marital union only of man and woman.” Meeks’s measure enjoys the support of at least 19 co-sponsors (including one state senator) and, should it be enacted, the bill would block recognition...

The IMF employee received hand and face injuries, and staff were evacuated. IMF director Christine Lagarde condemned the "cowardly act of violence" against IMF staff.

A gunman has entered a military school in France leading to a number of injuries , it is being reported. Gunshots have been heard at the Alexis de Tocqueville school in Grasse, France. Unconfirmed reports say a man armed with several weapons shot the school's headmaster.

A federal district judge in Hawaii has just issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) blocking the key provisions of the President’s revised Executive order that pauses the refugee program and admittance of foreign nationals from 6 terrorist hotbeds (Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen) until thorough vetting can be put in place. The court disturbingly ruled that these two provisions – pausing refugees and foreign national entry from 6 nations – target Muslims and violate the Establishment Clause. The court created a constitutional crisis where none existed. The court’s Establishment Clause analysis is fundamentally flawed and ignores the separation...

Known as the "first in time" rule, the mandate forces landlords to rent to the first qualified applicant, rather than choosing the best fit from among prospective tenants.

http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2017/03/live-stream-president-donald-trump-holds-rally-in-nashville-tn-31517/ http://wate.com/live/

U.S. stocks traded higher Wednesday, helped by a bounce in oil prices, after the Fed raised interest rates, as expected. Shorter-end Treasury yields came off session highs. The 2-year yield (U.S.:US2Y) fell to 1.33 percent after earlier hitting a high of 1.401 percent, its highest since June 11, 2009. The 10-year yield (U.S.:US10Y) traded around 2.58 percent as of 2:01 p.m.

DETROIT - President Donald Trump is set to visit the Detroit area on Wednesday. The White House said the President will be making remarks at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti. READ: President Trump expected to discuss fuel economy during Michigan visit Air Force One is scheduled to arrive at Detroit Metro Airport about 12:15 p.m. Wednesday. Trump is expected to make remarks at the American Center for Mobility about 2:20 p.m. LIVE STREAM (12:15 p.m.): President Trump arrives in Michigan -- watch here LIVE STREAM (2:20 p.m.): President Trump speaks in Ypsilanti, Michigan

Every time I see an interview discussing 2016 surveillance of the Trump Campaign and candidate Donald Trump I keep going back to that November 17th, 2016, Trump Tower visit by NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers. No-one in the Obama chain-of-command knew Director Rogers was going to meet with President-Elect Trump; Rogers did it entirely on his own impetus, and James Clapper was furious in the aftermath.Additionally, Admiral Mike Rogers is still running the NSA. President Trump has made no effort to replace him. “Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He...

A U.S. visa program designed to temporarily admit religious workers from other countries may be letting jihadists into the country, security experts and religious leaders warn. The R visa program is for non-immigrant clerics and religious workers and allows successful applicants to stay in the U.S. for up to five years. They are then allowed to apply for a permanent residency under their R-1 status. But some critics say the visa raises red flags and has long been abused by leaders with extreme views.

While Rachel Maddow drones on with the coherence of Janet Yellen, losing thousands of viewers by the minute, the MSNBC anchor was promptly scooped not only by the White House which revealed her "secret" one hour in advance, but also by the Daily Beast which reported that its contributor David Cay Johnston had obtained the first two pages of TrumpÂ’s 2005 federal income tax return, allegedly receiving them in the mail, and posted his "analysts" on his website, DCReport.org. According to the documents, Trump and his wife Melania paid $38 million in total income tax, consisting of $5.3 million...

UPDATE (8:33 p.m.): The Associated Press is reporting that Maddow has one of President Donald Trump's income tax return from 2005. BREAKING: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow says the network has obtained Donald Trump tax documents from 2005.— The Associated Press (@AP) March 15, 2017 UPDATE (8:35 p.m.): The White House has responded that Trump paid $38 million in taxes on his income of $150 million, which was what was legally required of him. 14-Mar-2017 08:29:23 PM - WHITE HOUSE SAYS IN RESPONSE TO MSNBC THAT TRUMP PAID $38 MILLION IN TAXES ON INCOME OF $150 MILLION— Jennifer Ablan (@jennablan) March 15,...

3:07 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. I’m proud to welcome everyone to our first official Cabinet meeting. I want to begin by updating the public on the severe weather situation. I’ve been receiving the latest information on the blizzard forecast, and I think we're in very good shape. We're prepared -- everybody in government is fully prepared and ready. And the entire Northeast, it seems, is under a very severe winter storm warning. So let’s hope it’s not going to be as bad as some people are predicting. Usually it isn’t. Chancellor Merkel and I have just spoken, and...

Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday that it's vital for Republicans to get legislation repealing Obamacare right on the first try because he doesn't believe there are going to be three steps to the process, as proponents have outlined. "There is no three-step plan. That is just political talk," Mr. Cotton, Arkansas Republican, told radio host Hugh Hewitt. Republicans say there's only so much legislation they can get through the first time around under agreed-to budget rules. Step two would then involve regulatory changes, followed by more legislation. Mr. Cotton said step two could be subject to court challenges and that...

Well, it would appear our hunch was correct. If Trump was going to pull off a “reverse Castellano’s“, Caesar needed Brutus to feel comfortable enough to come close… The problem for Speaker Ryan was a lack of muti-dimensional situational awareness, and the abject inability to escape President Trump’s political gravity. Breitbart Media, with transparent coordination between Matthew Boyle, Steve Bannon and President Trump delivers the shiv right on cue.

While Congress gears up for an investigation into Donald Trump’s allegations that the Obama administration had tapped lines at Trump Tower before the election, one former member of the House warns not to be too skeptical of the claim. Retired Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) told Bill O’Reilly last night that he discovered that a phone call with one of Moammar Qaddafi’s sons and himself got tapped and recorded, even though that violated the separation-of-powers doctrine. Kucinich even holds up redacted transcripts of the call as evidence that the intelligence community had gone beyond its boundaries on at least this...

The Trump administration on Monday lashed out at the Congressional Budget Office’s report that estimated that about 24 million more Americans in a few years would be uninsured under the new legislation. The bill, called the American Health Care Act, would be “less generous” with new tax credits for those receiving subsidies under the current law and the plan would likely increase average premiums in the nongroup market until 2020. Tom Price, the Health and Human Services secretary, downplayed the report and said, “we disagree strenuously with the report that was put out. It’s just not believable is what we...

Republicans in the House and Senate wanted to see a score from the Congressional Budget Office on the American Health Care Act before casting a vote either way. The CBO obliged today, giving AHCA backers good news for budget hawks, but potentially bad news on the political front. Despite assurances that the effort would not leave Americans behind, CBO estimates that fourteen million Americans would be added to the rolls of the uninsured, while the AHCA saves the federal government $337 billion in deficit spending over the next decade: CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the legislation would reduce...