Do the Koch Brothers support Pres Trump?

Koch officials avoid confrontation at muted donor gathering

By Fredreka Schouten

Updated 9:47 PM ET, Sat January 26, 2019

Charles Koch

Indian Wells, California (CNN)Officials in the influential conservative network affiliated with Charles Koch kicked off their winter summit emphasizing bipartisanship and working to steer clear of fresh confrontation with President Donald Trump.

"Uniting broad coalitions works a lot better than partisan politics," Brian Hooks, a top Koch lieutenant, told reporters Saturday at the start of the three-day retreat. More than 700 people -- including a record 634 donors who contribute at least $100,000 annually to the network -- have descended on a luxury resort here for the gathering.

Leaders in the network, whose size and spending has rivaled the national Republican Party in recent elections, have undergone a significant shift in focus. The network is upping its commitment to work across party lines on top priorities, such as promoting free trade and creating a path to permanent legal status for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as young children.

Koch, the 83-year-old billionaire at the heart of the network, warned that increasing factionalism "is tearing our country apart."

"We're here to unite people to improve their lives," he said as attendees sipped wine in a vast hotel ballroom during the retreat's opening reception.

Koch officials did not put a dollar amount on their financial commitment to their 2020 priorities, but the network has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in previous election cycles.

The gathering marks the first time the donors have come together since a memo to donors leaked in early January indicating that the network would not back Trump's re-election in 2020. Instead, top officials have said they would focus their political muscle on House, Senate and other down-ballot races in 2020.

The libertarian-leaning network pointedly refused to back Trump ahead of the 2016 election and last summer publicly clashed with the Trump administration over the President's governing style and hardline stances on trade.

At the time, Hooks warned that the "divisiveness of this White House is causing long-term damage." The criticism prompted a Twitter rebuke from Trump, who called the network a "total joke."

But as they kicked off their summit Saturday, Koch officials talked less about politics and emphasized their rapidly expanding philanthropic footprint and all the ways they had collaborated with the administration.

Chief among them: Collaborating with the White House and liberal activists, such as CNN host and commentator Van Jones, last December to help pass the First Step Act, an extensive overhaul of prison and sentencing laws.

This week, Koch officials attended a White House meeting on immigration, said James Davis, a network spokesman. And Hooks said he was "optimistic" about achieving accord to legally protect the young undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers.

The donor summit will highlight the network's growing role as a philanthropic clearinghouse for the network's donors, many of them business people who support free-market ideas and donate to community organizations vetted by network officials. A three-year-old arm of the Koch orbit, Stand Together, now supports 118 programs around the country focused on reducing poverty. In January alone, Koch donors helped fund $20 million in grants to such groups, said Evan Feinberg, who runs Stand Together.

The gathering also will feature presentations from individuals helped by the network's activism.

Alice Marie Johnson, who was released from prison in Alabama last year after Trump commuted her life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, was among those slated to address donors over the weekend. She was 63 and had served 21 years in prison when she walked free.

"I'm living proof that second chances work, because I was given a second chance," Johnson told reporters.

Although the group is advancing a message of bipartisanship, all three of the elected officials expected to attend the gathering -- Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and Utah Sen. Mike Lee -- are Republicans.

The Koch network holds two donor retreats each year -- a winter gathering in Southern California and a summer event in Colorado. Officials open portions of meetings to some journalists but impose restrictions, such as prohibiting reporters from identifying donors without their permission.

Above is from:  https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/26/politics/koch-network-priorities/index.html

Who is running Trump policy on Venezuela?

On Venezuela, Rubio Assumes U.S. Role of Ouster in Chief

Petare, a slum in Caracas, Venezuela, where violent protests have erupted challenging the legitimacy of Nicolás Maduro’s presidency.CreditCreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times

By Peter Baker and Edward Wong

• Jan. 26, 2019  WASHINGTON — His hand chopping in the air, his voice stern and stalwart, he declared that it was time for the regional despot to go and warned of the consequences if he did not. With a commander in chief’s resolve, he vowed that the United States would do whatever it took to protect its own diplomats on the ground.

It was not the commander in chief but Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who nearly three years after losing his own bid for the presidency has become a lead policy architect and de facto spokesman in a daring and risky campaign involving the United States in the unrest that is now gripping Venezuela.

Through sheer force of will and a concerted effort to engage and educate President Trump, Mr. Rubio has made himself, in effect, a virtual secretary of state for Latin America, driving administration strategy and articulating it to the region from the Senate floor, as he did the other day, and every television camera he can find. Perhaps no other individual outside Venezuela has been more critical in challenging President Nicolás Maduro.

“He’s picked a battle he can’t win,” Mr. Rubio, 47, said of Mr. Maduro in an interview on Friday. “It’s just a matter of time. The only thing we don’t know is how long it will take — and whether it will be peaceful or bloody.”

.]

It was Mr. Rubio who has been whispering in Mr. Trump’s ear since the early days of his presidency about the depravity of Mr. Maduro’s government and the need for American leadership. And it was Mr. Rubio along with Vice President Mike Pence and others who urged the president to back an opposition leader seeking to unseat Mr. Maduro.

“He has been relentless since Trump’s election, working hard to earn the president’s trust in this policy area,” said former Representative Carlos Curbelo, a fellow Florida Republican. “He owns it and it has clearly paid dividends for him, and more importantly for the victims of Maduro’s tyranny.”

The senator’s efforts have put the United States in the middle of a roiling confrontation in Caracas that pits Mr. Maduro and Venezuelan military leaders against a popular uprising led by Juan Guaidó, the 35-year-old political activist and industrial engineer who serves as head of the elected National Assembly.

After Mr. Pence called to pledge Mr. Trump’s support, Mr. Guaidó asserted this past week that he is the interim president under Venezuela’s Constitution because the election last year that kept Mr. Maduro in office was illegitimate. As Mr. Pence promised, the United States followed through by recognizing Mr. Guaidó as the rightful leader, as did about 20 other countries, including Canada, Brazil and Argentina.

On Saturday, Germany, France and Spain said they would recognize Mr. Guaidó if new elections are not held quickly. At a United Nations Security Council meeting, Alan Duncan, Britain’s representative, called Mr. Guaidó “the right man to take Venezuela forward.” Mr. Rubio chimed in as well to “urge more nations” to join the effort.

Senator Rubio Press

✔@SenRubioPress

I strongly support @SecPompeo in calling an emergency session on Venezuela at the @UN Security Council to urge more nations to support Venezuela’s return to democratic order and freedom from tyranny.

Senator Marco Rubio, center, Republican of Florida, has become a chief policy architect and de facto spokesman in a campaign to involve the United States in the unrest that is now gripping Venezuela.CreditMandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Still, Mr. Rubio is well aware of the gamble the United States has taken by pushing for new leadership in Caracas.

In the interview on Friday, he outlined four possible outcomes to the upheaval: Mr. Maduro could hold onto power; he could be forced out in a palace coup but replaced by a civilian leader just as bad; or he could be unseated by a military installing itself as the new government. Or a popular revolt like the one Mr. Guaidó is currently leading could force change.

“The U.S. interest is reflected in only one of those outcomes,” Mr. Rubio acknowledged.

Mr. Rubio’s approach has generated unusually bipartisan support, including from leading Democrats like Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey. But some veteran government officials and analysts expressed concern that the administration has been too ad hoc: It failed to line up support in advance from the Venezuelan military, which may be critical to Mr. Maduro’s survival. It has given no indication of a clear plan to protect the United States Embassy and its personnel against possible retaliation.

And while Mr. Rubio insists there are unspecified contingency options that he will not reveal, analysts say the Trump administration does not seem prepared with a Plan B in case Mr. Maduro defies the pressure and holds onto power.

From more liberal members of Congress comes a more philosophical or ideological objection, a concern that the latest intervention in Latin America evokes a sometimes dark history of Washington meddling in the internal affairs of its neighbors.

“The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela,” Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat who is running for president, wrote on Twitter. “Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders — so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”

Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, bemoaned the influence Mr. Rubio has had on the president. “As a candidate, Trump’s call for greater restraint provided a sharp contrast to Rubio’s foreign policy,” he said by email on Saturday. “But on Venezuela, partly given the domestic politics in Florida, he has deferred to Rubio as a point person for nearly two years.”

Like other Cuban-American leaders in Florida, Mr. Rubio has long stood against Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, whose socialist governments have been aligned with Havana. He has also been a leading voice pressing the administration to take tough measures against China and Russia, traditional allies of Cuba, as well as other human rights violators.

Mr. Rubio’s staunch opposition to Mr. Maduro has so gotten under the skin of the hard-liners in Venezuela that a senior official in Caracas reportedly ordered an assassination attempt against the senator in 2017.

Mr. Maduro at the Miraflores presidential palace this month. Mr. Rubio has long stood against Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, whose leftist governments have been aligned with Cuba.Creditvia Reuters

Image

Mr. Rubio responded with bravado. After Secretary of State Mike Pompeo imposed sanctions last year on Diosdado Cabello Rondón, the vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party who was said to have ordered the hit, the senator taunted the Venezuelan on Twitter by posting a photograph of prisoners in orange jumpsuits, suggesting he could wind up behind bars.

“What size uniform do you wear these days extra large or XX-large?” Mr. Rubio wrote. “Just want to make sure your stay is as comfortable as possible.”

Mr. Rubio understands that after years of misadventures overseas, many Americans are reluctant to take on yet another foreign dictatorship. “Why should it matter to us?” he asked on the Senate floor on Thursday. “Why should America even be involved in this?”

He went on to describe the “sheer repression” and corruption of Mr. Maduro’s government that has driven his oil-rich country into the depths of economic despair, prompting three million Venezuelans to flee.

Mr. Rubio’s real target, though, has been an audience of one, a man who in the throes of their battle for the Republican nomination in 2016 derided him as “Little Marco.”

He waited less than a month after Mr. Trump took office to begin a persistent effort to draw the president’s attention to Venezuela. In February 2017, Mr. Rubio along with Mr. Pence helped usher Lilian Tintori, a Venezuelan political activist and television star, into the Oval Office to meet Mr. Trump. She told the president about her husband, Leopoldo López, an opposition leader under house arrest.

Mr. Trump later tweeted a photo of himself giving a thumbs up next to Ms. Tintori, with Mr. Rubio and Mr. Pence on her other side. In the tweet, the president called on Venezuela to release her husband immediately.

View image on Twitter

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner & husband of @liliantintori (just met w/ @marcorubio) out of prison immediately.

“The president really responds to the human side of issues,” Mr. Rubio said on Friday. “If you can humanize it or personalize it, that’s important. When he met her and was able to hear her, it made an impression on him.”

Since then, Mr. Rubio said he has spoken with Mr. Trump about Venezuela at least once a month. Mr. Pence has long seen the issue similarly and the two gained allies with the arrival of Mr. Pompeo and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser.

Juan Guaidó, 35, a political activist, speaking on Friday. Mr. Guaidó has asserted that he is the interim president under Venezuela’s Constitution.CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times

Image

Juan Guaidó, 35, a political activist, speaking on Friday. Mr. Guaidó has asserted that he is the interim president under Venezuela’s Constitution.CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times

Mr. Rubio also helped place another Cuban-American political figure from Florida, Mauricio Claver-Carone, as senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council. “Once Mauricio went in, the policy went on hyperdrive,” Mr. Rubio said. “He’s aware of these issues.”

Still, some involved in the issue said Mr. Rubio’s sway has been overstated and that, as important as he has been, Mr. Trump needed little persuasion. When Mr. Guaidó was briefly arrested and then released this month after first broaching the idea of taking over as interim president, Mr. Pence called the opposition leader to convey the president’s support.

Last Tuesday, the day before mass protests against Mr. Maduro, Mr. Trump met with Mr. Pence and Mr. Bolton. The vice president presented a memo with options and encouraged Mr. Trump to formally recognize Mr. Guaidó as the country’s leader if he did claim power, according to a White House official. The president agreed.

Later that day, Mr. Trump and his team met with Mr. Rubio at the White House along with three other Florida Republicans: Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senator Rick Scott and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart. Mr. Rubio likewise embraced the idea of recognizing Mr. Guaidó.

Mr. Pence called Mr. Guaidó afterward and told him that the United States would support him if he claimed the presidency. The vice president uploaded a video addressing the Venezuelan people and encouraged protesters. The next day, Mr. Guaidó asserted his leadership and Mr. Trump backed him.

Mr. Rubio speaks in vague terms about his ties with Mr. Guaidó. He cannot recall how many times the two men have met; unlike Ms. Tintori, Mr. Guaidó has not been a prominent opposition figure who traveled abroad often. “A year and a half ago, he wouldn’t have been a name you would have heard of,” Mr. Rubio said. “I don’t think this was an ambition of his.”

Nor was his name high on the list at the State Department. As recently as this month, when aides to Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, spoke with department officials about the agency supporting Mr. Guaidó if he claimed the title of interim president, they were met with resistance.

“We were cautioned by State not to inflame a volatile situation,” Mr. Himes said in an interview.

Mr. Rubio has also pressed the administration to increase aid to Venezuelans, who have suffered for years from an imploding economy. Mr. Pompeo on Thursday announced $20 million in food and medical aid for Venezuelans.

But the real worry in Washington is if the situation in Caracas takes a violent turn. Mr. Rubio has talked with administration officials about options if it does — and speaks with authority as if he were the decider.

“If Maduro turns violent, whether it’s against Guaidó or the assembly or the people or, God forbid, our embassy, the consequences will be swift and severe,” he said. “I can tell you for a fact that it won’t be a letter of condemnation.”

At least not if he has anything to say about it.

Adam Goldman contributed reporting from Washington, and Megan Specia from New York.

Follow Peter Baker and Edward Wong on Twitter: @peterbakernyt and @ewong.

Above is from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/world/americas/marco-rubio-venezuela.html

Sheriff needs more money?

Boone County Sheriff faces staff cuts, revenue shortage

• 6:18 pm
• January 23, 2019

• NEWS, TOP STORIES

BOONE COUNTY (WREX) – The Boone County Sheriff’s Office is facing a crisis. It says its running on bare bones and losing around half a million dollars in revenue this year.

“Quite frankly, I have to draw a line in the sand,” Sheriff Dave Ernest said. “We cannot go below our staffing levels right now. This is a bare minimum. We have cut to the max.”

For the past several years, the Boone County jail helped house DeKalb County inmates for annual fees of around $300,000 to $500,000. But now the DeKalb County jail is open and that revenue stream is gone. That means Boone County has to make up the difference.

“We lost another deputy this budget period, we lost another corrections officer this budget period which obviously doesn’t help our staffing levels,” Ernest said.

But board members say even those cuts might not be enough.

“It’s kind of a waiting game to understand what that new economic situation is for us,” Boone County Board Chairman Karl Johnson said.

For Johnson that means keeping a close eye on opportunities for new revenue — or *possibly making more cuts.

If we’re going to make reductions, we’d prefer to make those reductions at the corrections facility rather than deputies on the street,” Johnson said. “I think deputies on the street correlates directly to the potential safety of our citizens and keeping crime out of the area.”

Although with staff-levels low at both the sheriff’s office and the jail, the county is also juggling rising overtime costs.

“We had close to $350,000 dollars in overtime last year, which is ridiculous for a jail our size,” Ernest said.

With costs piling up and cash running out, Boone County needs a solution to this problem that only threatens to get worse.

The public safety budget makes up more than half of Boone County’s $17 million budget.

Above is from: https://wrex.com/category/2019/01/23/boone-county-sheriff-faces-staff-cuts-revenue-shortage/

Women’s march in Rockford hosts diverse group of speakers but smaller crowd

Women’s march in Rockford hosts diverse group of speakers but smaller crowd

By Kristen Zambo
Staff writer

Posted Jan 19, 2019 at 5:25 PMUpdated Jan 19, 2019 at 5:28 PM

ROCKFORD — Subzero wind chills and the hefty snowfall in the Rockford region resulted in a fraction of the turnout for Saturday’s Women’s March Rockford compared with the attendees the event has drawn during the two previous years, organizers said.

Chanting “women’s rights are human rights,” fewer than 300 people braved frigid temperatures to attend the noon march after a winter storm swept through the region Friday and into Saturday morning. An estimated 1,500 people attended last year’s Rockford march, up slightly from the more than 1,000 people who attended the inaugural march in 2017.

Monitors with the National Weather Service reported that 6.5 to 7.6 inches of snow fell on different portions of Rockford by 7 a.m. Saturday. Gusty winds throughout the day and plummeting temperatures created hazardous weather conditions, according to the weather service. Saturday’s high in Rockford was forecast for 16 degrees, but with the wind chill, it is felt like minus -9 degrees.

Organizers initially thought Rockford’s march would attract a larger crowd because Chicago’s march was canceled because of budget restrictions. That came on the heels of backlash against the national Women’s March organization amid allegations of anti-Semitism. During an event last year in Chicago, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan made comments about “powerful Jews” being his enemies and four of the national Women’s March organization’s co-chairs have ties to Farrakhan.

Organizers of the Rockford march took steps to distance themselves from the national organization and “made it clear we were including everybody,” said Ronit Golan, past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rockford. “I think we have to be welcoming to those diverse populations and I think this is a great start.”

With a little more than 270 people in attendance, the crowd still largely was comprised of white faces.

“To me it’s not a brown or black issue. It’s Woman’s Day,” said Leslie West, 42, of Rockford, who is black. “It’s important for everybody to come out. We have to exercise our voices.”

Above is from:  https://www.rrstar.com/news/20190119/womens-march-in-rockford-hosts-diverse-group-of-speakers-but-smaller-crowd

RRS: Kudos to Belvidere, Rockford on OK’ing land bank authority

Our View: Kudos to Belvidere, Rockford on OK’ing land bank authority

By The Editorial Board of Rockford Register Star

Posted at 8:00 AM

One of the biggest problems cities and counties have is what to do about dilapidated buildings. Big box stores close and slowly turn into rotting hulks like the former Circuit City and Magna stores, both on East State Street, Rockford’s premier shopping strip.

Residential and industrial areas, too, are vulnerable to deterioriation, and it takes only one rundown property on a block to signal to neighbors that it’s time to move. That starts a cycle of declining property values and declining equalized assessed valuation.

Now there’s a tool that local governments can use to speed the process of obtaining clear title to deteriorated properties with multiple legal strings attached to their ownership. It’s called a land bank. Land banks are relatively new to Illinois but quite common elsewhere.

According to the Region 1 Planning Council, which received a $225,000 land bank grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, “the most useful tool a land bank offers against blight is the ability to provide a clear title to new purchasers. Subject properties are typically those with large debts tied to the property and cannot be sold on the private market due to value-diminishing back taxes, or other liens and liabilities. Through a judicial deed process, the land bank may acquire abandoned property, then leverage its legal ability to clear the title, then find a new buyer for the property.”

Each year, Winnebago County has more than 1,000 properties that qualify as abandoned under state law. A land bank can acquire these properties and put them back on the market, ending the cycle of declining assessed valuations.

Not all the properties at the annual county tax sale are vacant and abandoned, says the Region 1 Planning Council. However, the 2017 tax sale featured 4,323 properties in Winnebago County, compared with 1,998 in Peoria County, 805 in Champaign County and 1,560 in Sangamon County. Clearly, Winnebago County has a major problem.

Here in northern Illinois, the city of Belvidere has taken the lead in approving the Northern Illinois Land Bank Authority. Mayor Mike Chamberlain and the Belvidere City Council are to be commended for their forward-thinking passage of this measure.

The city of Rockford followed in joining the land bank authority, and the Boone County Board has voted to join, although board Chairman Karl Johnson has not yet signed the measure.

The Rockord Area Association of Realtors has endorsed creation of the land bank, as has the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.

We urge the Winnebago County Board to join the land bank and thereby create a truly regionwide effort to address blight and improve property values throughout Winnebago and Boone counties.

We note that the land bank authority will begin operating regardless of whether Winnebago County’s government joins or not. However, the county shares a jagged border with the city of Rockford, with neighborhoods that are partly in the city and partly out. To be as effective as possible, it’s better for the city and county to both be part of the land bank.

The land bank’s few opponents say the land bank is a back door attempt to bring home rule to Rockford. No, it isn’t. Home rule was defeated in a 2018 referendum, which echoed a 1983 referendum that ended home rule in the city.

Says the Region 1 Planning Council: “The city of Belvidere, as party to the intergovernmental agreement instituting the land bank, has home rule powers. The only home rule power that the land bank can utilize is related to the disposition of property. If not for home rule power, the land bank would be required to have a sealed bid process and commission an appraisal on the property to determine its value in relation to the sales price.”

The land bank can’t raise taxes and has no eminent domain authority.

Other communities have expressed interest in joining the land bank, and we can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to join.

The good news: This will happen whether Winnebago County joins or not. It would be better for the county to join. Ending blighted neighborhoods, finding new uses for shopping districts with empty stores made redunant in the e-commerce era, and creatively reconfiguring old abandoned industrial buildings is in everyone’s interest.

The land bank is an exciting tool to do these things and return hundreds if not thousands of properties to the tax rolls, something that will lessen the individual tax burden of property owners who do take care of their properties.

Above is from:  https://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20190119/our-view-kudos-to-belvidere-rockford-on-oking--land-bank-authority

Congressmen kicked off Air Force plane at last minute

Insult?  This secret trip is no longer secret.

Travel ban: Trump postpones Pelosi trip abroad after she suggests he delay his State of the Union address

Jan. 17, 2019, 11:11 AM CST / Updated 5:34 PM CST

By Jonathan Allen, Allan Smith and Dartunorro Clark

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was canceling Speaker Nancy Pelosi's previously undisclosed trip to war-torn Afghanistan, telling the woman second in line to the presidency that she can't use a military jet but is welcome to fly commercially if she wants.

A U.S. Air Force bus loaded with lawmakers, including Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., Elaine Luria, D-Va., and Mark Takano, D-Calif., held in place near the Capitol and returned to the building to let passengers off about 3 p.m. Thursday.

Trump’s letter, which cited the ongoing partial government shutdown as the reason for his decision, comes a day after Pelosi told the president he should postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address or submit it in writing because the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t been funded for the current year.

Lawmakers react to Trump canceling Pelosi's Afghanistan trip

JAN. 17, 201901:38

“Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan has been postponed,” Trump wrote. “In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”

Trump said in his letter that Pelosi could reschedule the trip after the government has re-opened.

"It would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement,“ he wrote, but “if you would like to make your journey flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.”

Pelosi's spokesman Drew Hammill pointed out in a multi-part response on Twitter that Trump visited U.S. troops in Iraq shortly after the partial government shutdown went into effect last month.

The purpose of Pelosi's planned trip "was to express appreciation & thanks to our men & women in uniform for their service & dedication, & to obtain critical national security & intelligence briefings from those on the front lines," Hammill wrote.

The itinerary included a required stop in Brussels to allow the pilot to rest, the statement said, adding that the delegation planned to meet NATO commanders, U.S. military leaders and key allies "to affirm the United States’ ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance." The trip did not include a stop in Egypt, Hammill said.

A White House official told NBC News that Trump had decided to ground all congressional delegation trips abroad during the shutdown.

Several hours later, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that “[o]ut of consideration for the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay and to ensure his team can assist as needed, President Trump has canceled his Delegation’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.”

The announcement came two days after the White House released an updated list of Trump officials slated to attend the gathering, including secretary of state Mike Pompeo and secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross.

Last year, Lynch wrote an amendment to the annual bill authorizing Pentagon operations that would have required the Defense Department to assist members of Congress trying to visit Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Kuwait. The amendment was designed to counter restrictions that Democrats said were being placed on their travel to those regions. It was killed in the House Rules Committee, which was then controlled by Republicans, and never got a vote on the House floor.

Trump's letter only dealt with Pelosi's travel, and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the president should not have interfered with the speaker's effort to visit with troops.

"In a presidency full of new lows, this is yet another one," said Connolly, who was not planning to go on the trip.

But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters he thought it was the "appropriate" move for the president to make.

"Why would she want to go overseas with government shut down, with people missing their paychecks?” McCarthy said.

Trump's campaign sent out a fundraising email shortly after his letter to Pelosi asking supporters to donate a total of $1 million over nine hours in response to her request that he not deliver the State of the Union address later this month.

"Nancy Pelosi asked me to reschedule the State of the Union Address given the “security concerns” regarding the government shutdown," Trump wrote. "What about the REAL security concerns at our Southern Border? What about the REAL security concerns of American Citizens and their loved ones?"

Trump's move earned a quick rebuke from one of his closest allies in Congress, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.

Pelosi: State of the Union date 'isn't sacred for any reason'

JAN. 17, 201901:59

"One sophomoric response does not deserve another. Speaker Pelosi’s threat to cancel the State of the Union is very irresponsible and blatantly political," Graham said in a statement released to the media. "President Trump denying Speaker Pelosi military travel to visit our troops in Afghanistan, our allies in Egypt and NATO is also inappropriate."

Graham said that he is "glad the Speaker wants to meet our troops," even though he is "disappointed she's playing politics with the State of the Union."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also slammed the decision. "It's petty. It's small. It’s vindictive. It is unbecoming of the President of the United States, and it is an unfortunately daily occurrence," he told reporters.

Earlier Thursday, Pelosi told reporters that her rationale for seeking to reschedule the annual State of the Union address came down to her and other Democrats not wanting to have security officials work the event without being paid.

"Maybe he thinks it's OK not to pay people who work," she said, an apparent jab at the president over allegations that his businesses have stiffed contractors in the past. "I don't. And my caucus doesn't either."

Trump has said in the past that if his companies didn't pay contractors or workers fully, it was because of dissatisfaction with their work, according to news reports.

Pelosi said Thursday that she had "no doubt" that federal security officials were properly trained for the event and could perform their duties regardless of whether the government was shut down, but she said those workers "should be paid for this."

"This is why I said to the president that ... if you don't open up the government, let's discuss a mutually acceptable date," the California Democrat said, adding that the previously agreed upon date of Jan. 29 "isn't sacred for any reason."

On Wednesday, Pelosi wrote Trump a letter saying he should either delay the address or submit it in writing, citing the security burdens that a speech before a joint session of Congress would place on the government during the partial shutdown.

"Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th," Pelosi wrote in the letter to Trump.

Parts of the federal government, including some operations of the Department of Homeland Security, have been closed down since Dec. 22, when funding for several federal agencies lapsed amid an an impasse between Trump and Congress over his request for billions of dollars in funding for a border wall.

In separate remarks Thursday, Trump blamed Pelosi and her party's lawmakers for the partial government shutdown.

“The federal government remains shut down because congressional Democrats refuse to approve border security," Trump said, speaking at the Pentagon about the country’s missile defense system. "We’re going to have border security; it’s going to be tight, it’s going to be strong.”

“While many Democrats in the House and Senate would like to make a deal, Speaker Pelosi will not let them negotiate," Trump continued. "The party has been hijacked by the open-borders fringe within the party, the radical left becoming the radical Democrats.”

“Hopefully Democratic lawmakers will step forward to do what is right for our country, and what is right for our country is border security at the strongest level,” he added.

Trump’s comments come as the shutdown is in its 27th day. National polls show that a majority of Americans and voters blame Trump more for the partial government shutdown. They also place his approval rating below where it was on the eve of the 2018 midterms. A recent Gallup poll, for example, has Trump’s approval rating at 37 percent, down from 39 percent last month.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted on Wednesday that her department is ready and prepared to provide security for Trump's State of the Union speech.

Above is from:  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/pelosi-jabs-trump-maybe-he-thinks-it-s-ok-not-n959841

County t0 use “special action” on the Plote Case

Based upon legal advise from a consulting attorney, Ancel Glick,LLP, Boone County will rework the Plote case and attempt to special “text amendment” the current gravel pit into legal operations.  The consultant’s complete memorandum is available at:  https://www.boarddocs.com/il/boone/Board.nsf/files/B8GPEV5814ED/$file/Plote%20Text%20Amendment%20Boone%20County%20Code.pdf

The following is from page 5 of that memorandum: 

Conclusion

In sum (summary) although the County appeared to follow the procedural requirement in granting a special use permit to Plote to operate the quarry use on the Property, that use was not an authorized use in the A1 district at the time the special use was approved. The parties could not agree to “authorize” that use through the Settlement Agreement or Consent Order because Illinois case law requires the procedural requirements for zoning approvals be followed even in settling land use litigation or disputes. One option to address this issue is to amend the CZO to expressly authorize this use in the A1 district as a special use. Should the County want to avoid opening the special use up to all properties in the A-1 district, it could add certain limiting language to the clarifying conditions in the Table of Permitted Uses.

The quarry use of the property never was authorized because the use was not an authorized use for a A-1(agricultural) district. So one option is for the county to amend the text and now allow such operation by special use in an A1 district.  But limit the provision so that only Plote will qualify.  This appears to be what the county is doing as the case is being sent back for hearings etc. as a text amendment to the A-1.