Coastal Elite
@cmkinmia
A little som’som’ about the Director of Communications of #NOAA who sent out the statement backing up President Bonkers’ hurricane forecast.

A company owned by Liberty University has a contract with the Pentagon to provide jet fuel.

The contract was scrutinized on Thursday after The Daily Beast reported that it was signed shortly after President Trump's inauguration. Trump has close ties to the university's president and delivered a commencement speech there in 2017.

The Defense Department signed a contract to buy jet fuel from Freedom Aviation, which is wholly owned by the university, in May 2017, according to the publication, and has since bought more than $400,000 worth of fuel from the company.

In a statement, Freedom Aviation President Andrew Wallace told The Hill that the Daily Beast's story was "misleading."

PapaPear
@Scr0dman
@realDonaldTrump got a new dog. It’s a ... #sharpie !!#sharpiegate #SharpiePresident

Bob Hein
@the_sailor_dog
Kentucky Man With a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, an 18-inch machete, and a bottle of Jim Beam Vanilla bourbon Arrested Outside Pentagon https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Police-Man-With-Gun-Bourbon-Arrested-Outside-Pentagon-540421481.html

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel delivered a major blow against Republican gerrymandering when it struck down North Carolina's state Senate and state House districts for violating the rights of Democratic voters.

The state court ruled that these maps, designed to entrench Republican rule, ran afoul of the state constitution’s guarantee of free and fair elections. These illegal districts were so extreme that they helped Republicans to maintain their legislative majorities in 2018's elections even though Democratic candidates won more votes statewide. If fairer districts are implemented for 2020, they could put Democrats in striking distance of a majority in one or both chambers.

Importantly, because this case was litigated solely under North Carolina’s state constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year that the U.S. Constitution prohibits challenges to partisan gerrymandering did not present an obstacle to the plaintiffs. And for the same reason, this decision should be insulated from federal review, much like a ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year that replaced a Republican congressional gerrymander with a much fairer map.

If this ruling stands up on appeal, North Carolina will soon have new legislative maps. The question now is who will get to draw them. Ordinarily, lawmakers would be given the opportunity to come up with remedial districts, but ever since they gained full control of state government in 2013, Republicans have demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the rule of law that should weigh heavily as the courts decide whether to grant the GOP another shot.