Manafort Notes From Russian Meet Contain Cryptic Reference to Donations

Source: NBC NEWS

WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort's notes from a controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign included the word "donations," near a reference to the Republican National Committee, two sources briefed on the evidence told NBC News.

The references, which have not been previously disclosed, elevated the significance of the June 2016 meeting for congressional investigators, who are focused on determining whether it included any discussion of donations from Russian sources to either the Trump campaign or the Republican Party.

It is illegal for foreigners to donate to American elections. The meeting happened just as Trump had secured the Republican nomination for president, and he was considered a longshot to win. Manafort was the campaign chairman at the time.

Manafort's notes, typed on a smart phone and described by one briefed source as cryptic, were turned over to the House and Senate intelligence committees and to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They contained the words "donations," and "RNC" in close proximity, the sources said.



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/manafort-notes-russian-meet-contain-cryptic-reference-donations-n797816?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

Why Energy-Harvesting Clothes Will Be Such a Huge Deal

Newfangled fabrics can mop up energy that otherwise would be wasted.

Clothing today is mostly about covering up. In the future, it might also be about powering up — literally.

Researchers across the country are working to develop fabrics that harvest energy from your body movements and use it to provide a bit of extra juice for your cellphone or a fitness tracker — or maybe to change the color or pattern of the fabric itself. “Something that’s kind of snazzy,” says Dr. Cary Pint, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and a leading researcher in the field.

One group of researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas has developed an energy-harvesting yarn made of carbon nanotubes, hollow cylinders 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. The tubes are bound into larger yarns and twisted so much that they coil. Experiments show that when these tightly coiled “twistron” yarns are placed side by side and then stretched, they generate a tiny electrical current. – Why Energy-Harvesting Clothes Will Be Such a Huge Deal – Aug.30.2017 https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/why-energy-harvesting-clothes-will-be-such-huge-deal-ncna797501?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_mc_170831 via NBC News

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/why-energy-harvesting-clothes-will-be-such-huge-deal-ncna797501?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

(FL) Duke Energy strikes deal to lower customer bills

TALLAHASSEE — Duke Energy Florida customers will finally stop paying for a nuclear power plant that's not being built.

Under a proposed settlement filed with regulators Tuesday, Duke's 1.8 million customers will not have to pay off the remaining $150 million for the Levy County nuclear project. That could trim $2.50 off the average monthly bill.

But there will be no reimbursement for the roughly $800 million that ratepayers have already paid toward the project that was abandoned four years ago — before it even got off the ground.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/duke-energy-files-for-settlement-to-reduce-customer-rates/2335512

UT fires teacher whose tweet blamed Harvey on Texas GOP vote

TAMPA — A tweet suggesting that the devastation of Hurricane Harvey was "instant karma" for the red state of Texas has cost a University of Tampa professor his job — making him just the latest academic fired for off-duty speech.

The University first distanced itself from sociology professor Kenneth L. Storey on Monday. But a tide of online outrage continued. A #FireKenStorey hashtag spread far beyond the university. Angry Facebook comments piled up.

"Don't think this is a school we will be looking at for my daughter anymore," one commenter said. An alumnus wrote, "Good thing I already paid you, because I'll never send the school another dime again."

On Tuesday morning, the university fired him.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/ut-condemns-teacher-whose-tweet-blames-harvey-on-texas-gop-vote/2335504

How fire ants form giant rafts to survive Houston floods

Drop a clump of 100,000 fire ants in a pond of water -- or flood a huge area of Texas that's infested with fire ants and drive them out of their nests in large groups. In minutes the clump will flatten and spread into a circular pancake that can float for weeks without drowning the ants.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-floods-fire-ants-form-giant-rafts-to-survive-harvey/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=41582106

LOL, Twitter bots: Obama was golfing during Katrina!

Sky to stop broadcasting rightwing US channel Fox News in UK

Rupert Murdoch is to stop broadcasting the rightwing US channel Fox News in the UK after 15 years.

His US media group 21st Century Fox announced it would withdraw Fox News from Sky in the UK on Tuesday saying that it no longer sees the service as commercially viable.

The decision comes as Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, is set to return her verdict on whether to ask the competition regulator to launch an investigation into the Murdochs’ adherence to broadcasting standards in the UK as part of a probe into Fox’s £11.7bn takeover bid of Sky.

Sources say the decision to stop broadcasting Fox News, which goes off air from Tuesday at 4pm, is not connected to the takeover bid, arguing that the channel attracts very few viewers in the UK, about 2,000 a day.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/29/sky-to-stop-broadcasting-rightwing-us-channel-fox-news-in-uk?CMP=twt_gu

Trump's Business Record in Russia Is Humiliating

He never had what it takes to negotiate with Moscow

The latest Trump-Russia revelations -- this time concerning a Moscow real estate project scuttled in early 2016 -- fit in well with the comical history of Trump attempts to do business in Russia. They are the latest proof that, unlike many craftier U.S. entrepreneurs and executives, the current U.S. president never figured out how to deal with Russians.

The story began in 1987, when Trump first visited Moscow, then the Soviet capital, and negotiated with bureaucrats from the State Foreign Tourism Committee who offered him an opportunity to build a luxury hotel in Moscow. In a Playboy interview in 1990, Trump recalled that he told the officials it was impossible to get financing for a development project in which the land was "owned by the goddamn motherland." They offered a lease; he wanted ownership. The Soviets also offered to set up a dispute resolution committee consisting of seven Russians and three Trump representatives, a deal Trump didn't like. He came away thinking, correctly, that the Soviet system was a "disaster." The Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, according to Trump, didn't have "a firm enough hand" -- which didn't prevent the flustered developer from crowing how honored he was when Gorbachev impersonator Ron Knapp paid him a surprise visit in Manhattan a year later.

In the Soviet Union's last years, Communist officials had been eager for deals with Western capitalists; as with Trump, they always tried to impose their ridiculous terms. That didn't stop companies such as McDonald's from doing business in Moscow. The fast food giant set up a 50-50 joint venture with the Moscow city government to open its first restaurant on city-owned premises in 1990. It was a brilliant move that led to fast expansion: There are 614 McDonald's restaurants in Russia today. Coca-Cola supplied its concentrate to the Soviet Union in exchange for Lada cars it struggled to sell in the West -- but it has never regretted the arrangement because it immediately knew what to do when Russia opened up to private business. Trump wasn't into that kind of long-term thinking, though, and he missed his chance.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-29/trump-s-business-record-in-russia-just-got-more-humiliating

NASA Announces Cassini End-of-Mission Media Activities

US Expands its Money Laundering Probe into the Real Estate Market

US authorities are ramping up their money laundering investigations and will be looking into luxury real estate after they found that potentially illicit activity is behind more than 30% of cash purchases, media reported Thursday.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) - a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury – is extending and expanding a temporary initiative, the Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs), that requires title insurance companies todetermine and reportthe actual owners of shell companies buying high-end real estate in several metropolitan areas.
Launched in January 2016, the program was designed to increase scrutiny in a field that is particularly vulnerable to money laundering.

It initially targeted the purchase of real estate for cash in Manhattan and Miami but was then extended to cover also New York City, two more counties in the Miami area, five counties in California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, as well as Bexar county in Texas that includes San Antonio.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6911-us-expands-its-money-laundering-probe-into-the-real-estate-market