(cache) WH plans for last-ditch effort to save health care - Axios
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WH plans for last-ditch effort to save health care

Susan Walsh / AP

Hail Mary, or Hindenburg? Either way, the White House recognizes it faces long odds to rescue the health-care bill as senators head home for the Fourth.

Axios' Jonathan Swan ferreted out the intriguing news that the White House has reached out to former Trump campaign officials in hopes of ginning up repeal-and-replace rallies in Maine to pressure Sen. Susan Collins, and Nevada to try to retrieve Sen. Dean Heller.

Both are long shots. Three Republican defections kill the bill, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky also looks firmly opposed.

The White House has engaged its political office — led by former Christie aide Bill Stepien — to put localized pressure on Collins and Heller, including appeals from Republican mayors and legislators, and perhaps the rallies.

Sources inside the administration are deeply skeptical that this will work.

  • Behind the curtain: Stepien and HHS Secretary Tom Price joined a Thursday strategy meeting at the White House, led by congressional liaison Marc Short. The mood was bleak. Swan is told Price was the most optimistic person in the room.
  • The meeting's message: They weren't making much progress. Heller, Collins and Paul are the three biggest problems.
  • The day after: Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are looking at fallback options. Trump tweeted yesterday: "If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!"

Sound smart: Momentum matters — in sports, in love and in politics. Momentum is all against the GOP.

  • Maybe Rs are lucky ... Paul Krugman column in N.Y. Times: "Losing health coverage is a nightmare, especially if you're older, have health problems and/or lack the financial resources to cope if illness strikes. And since Americans with those characteristics are precisely the people this legislation effectively targets, tens of millions would soon find themselves living this nightmare."
  • Steve Brill's "9 ways to really fix Obamacare": "Tort reform should be included."
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Robo-cars with helper drones are joining Dubai's police force

Ostaw Digital / YouTube

Mini robotic cars with companion drones that help patrol the streets will be the newest member of Dubai's police force by the end of the year, WashPost reports. The cars are also equipped with face-recognition technology to help identify suspects.

How it works: The cars are powered via machine-learning algorithms, but police officers can also control them through a computer in their patrol car dashboards. They don't move quickly (WashPost notes not "beyond a stroll's pace"), but the aerial drone, which sits atop the car, can detach and surveil surrounding areas that the car cannot reach.

Why it matters: This robo-car-drone-duo is the first of its kind and it's a clear example of Dubai's efforts to restructure its police force for the future. And there's one stat to consider: Dubai is planning to have robots account for 25% of its police force by 2030, according to WashPost.

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Trump admin now arresting immigrant parents

Gregory Bull / AP

Parents are the latest target in the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. Last week, ICE began arresting parents who paid smugglers to escort their children to the U.S., NYT reports. Previously, ICE focused on arresting the smugglers, but this new immigration strategy penalizes the parents who organized travel so their children could join them in the U.S.

Why it matters: This could make thousands of parents vulnerable to being arrested just as their children arrive. Immigration advocates argue this will separate families — when kids are detained at the border, they are typically sent to stay with parents or another relative, but this new rule would send their parents to jail instead. Therefore, the children would either be paired with another relative living in the states or, if that's not possible, they'll be sent to a juvenile immigration detention center.

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Pentagon delays Obama-era rule on transgender military recruits

Cliff Owen / AP

Just hours before their deadline, the Pentagon delayed an Obama-era rule that would've allowed transgender individuals to join the military, per WashPost. The military will now be able to delay processing these new recruits until January 1, which is the six-month delay the Joint Chiefs of Staff had requested.

What they're saying: "How will the decision affect the ability of America's military to defend the nation?" Defense Secretary Mattis said, according to the Post. "It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services."

Currently, the policy disallowed the military services from separating its members who came out as transgender and it granted them access to medical care as of last October 1. However, it also gave the Pentagon one year to decide how to process new transgender recruits, which they will now figure out over the next six months.

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Talk of tech: women reveal Silicon Valley's sexism

Jeff Chiu / AP

N.Y. Times' Katie Benner has a worthwhile report today on a major Silicon Valley issue: "Women in Tech Reveal Culture Of Harassment: 2 Dozen Break Silence on Men's Behavior." The women came forward after news of the sexual harassment allegations against Binary Capital's Justin Caldbeck.

One grim stat: "Most venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are men, with female entrepreneurs receiving $1.5 billion in funding last year versus $58.2 billion for men, according to the data firm PitchBook."

One woman told NYT the founder of a San Francisco-based startup sent her a Facebook message after her interview saying: "I was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you."

Why it matters: "Now their speaking out suggests a cultural shift in Silicon Valley, where such predatory behavior had often been murmured about but rarely exposed."

Bottom line: "Many of the investors hold outsize power...people have kept silent about investors who cross the lines with entrepreneurs."

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Trump: Morning Joe hosts are "not bad people"

After attacking the hosts of "Morning Joe" on Twitter last Thursday, everyone has been watching how the Trump-Joe Scarborough-Mika Brzezinski drama is unfolding. The hosts responded yesterday during their "Morning Joe" show and Trump just couldn't let it go, tweeting this morning:

Read more about the complicated history between Trump and Scarborough here, and how GOP Senators scolded Trump for his tweet here.

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How a 50,000-year-old forest reflects today's climate change

Natacha Pisarenko / AP

Researchers have discovered a preserved section of 50,000-year-old forest 10 miles off the coast of Alabama in 60 feet of water that might provide hints about how climate change could affect ecology, per The Washington Post.

How it formed: In its day, the forest was miles inland from the shoreline due to significantly lower sea levels, and it may have been quickly buried in a flood or some other disaster to preserve it in an oxygen-free environment.

How it was uncovered: A hurricane — perhaps 2004's Hurricane Ivan — removed as much as 10 feet of sand and sediment to uncover the forest, whose wood is still fresh enough to leak sap when cut.

What it means: The geology of the area around the forest gives scientists an insight into how rapid climate change can affect coastlines, especially due to quickly rising sea levels — one of the biggest areas of concern for today's shifting climate.

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Driver lawsuit against GrubHub gets green light to move forward

Courtesy of GrubHub

The gig economy's question of whether workers should be classified as employees has a new chance at getting an answer. On Thursday, a San Francisco magistrate judge ruled to let a former driver's lawsuit against food ordering company GrubHub to move forward, as Ars Technica reported. It's now scheduled for a trial in the fall.

Why this matters: Companies that provide on-demand services have long been criticized for classifying their workers as independent contractors instead of employees as a way to avoid providing them with benefits, which are costly, despite many of them working full-time hours. But as more workers shift to freelance work and new business models (and mobile apps) make it possible for industries to rethink labor, we'll need to figure out how companies should interact with their workers.

Unlike other food delivery companies like DoorDash and Postmates, GrubHub's core business doesn't employee drivers — restaurants are responsible for the deliveries themselves. GrubHub's foray into providing delivery for orders from eateries without drivers is a relatively new development to help the company service more merchants.

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25 House Dems back bill to remove Trump

Patrick Semansky and Evan Vucci / AP

A group of 25 House Democrats, including former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, have been quietly working since April on a bill to remove Trump from office, Yahoo News' Michael Isikoff reports.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland is the main sponsor of the bill, which takes a radical and unprecedented approach to removing President Trump using the 25th Amendment. The bill goes after a specific part of the amendment (section 4) by proposing the creation of an "Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity."

What it means: Some overlooked language in section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows for a separate body to remove the president based on mental or physical capacity. It was created in 1967 after JFK's assassination, but these House Dems. are citing Trump's erratic tweets as evidence he's mentally incapacitated to serve.

The Trump effect: After his tweets about Mika Brzezinski, four more House Democrats signed on to the bill.

What's next: The bill would have to pass for the "oversight" commission to be created. That body would include members of both sides of the aisle (three political people like former presidents, VPS, or senior government officials), as well as four psychiatrists and four physicians. Congress would then have to approve the body and they would be able "to determine whether the president is incapacitated, either mentally or physically" via an examination.

Although this bill has been gaining steady support since April, it would be a difficult thing to achieve for a number of reasons. First, no Republicans currently support the bill, though Raskin told Isikoff a number of them have privately expressed interest. Additionally, if Trump rejected the body's claim of incapacity, it would then require two-thirds of both chambers to block his rejection and subsequent request to resume office. And perhaps the hardest part: Vice President Mike Pence would have to sign off on the body's decision to invoke the 25th Amendment, as well as their assessment that Trump is incapacitated to serve.

(Story and headline corrected to say bill would remove Trump from office, but not through impeachment, and that Nancy Pelosi hasn't joined the effort.)

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Trumpworld's white collar lawyer hiring spree

Trumpworld has set out on a hiring spree of defense lawyers to protect them from future scandal as over a dozen people with ties to the administration face questioning related to Russia probes.

Diagram: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

Why it matters: The number of outside counsel hired in relation to the Russia probes reflects the size of the investigations and how seriously White House officials are taking them.

President Donald Trump

  • Mark Kasowitz: He has represented Trump for more than 15 years and is Trump's go-to guy and the lead lawyer on the president's outside legal team for the Russia investigation.
  • Jay Sekulow: Chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, he has grown famous for his work with the religious-right. Now he's Trump's TV lawyer.
  • John Dowd: The former Marine Corps captain is a well-known name in DC. He is perhaps best known for helping clear Sen. John McCain of any wrongdoing in a congressional ethics banking case, known as the "Keating Five."
  • Michael Bowe: A partner at Kasowitz's firm, he's described by the NY team as the "consummate on-your-feet courtroom lawyer."

Vice President Mike Pence

  • Richard Cullen: A former U.S. attorney, specializes in criminal defense and was a member of George W. Bush's legal team for the 2000 election recount in Florida. He's also had his fair share of high-profile clients, including former Texas Rep. Tom Delay and Tiger Woods' ex-wife.

Jared Kushner

  • Abbe Lowell: Lowell is most famously known for serving as the Democrats' Chief Minority Counsel during the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions

  • Charles Cooper: Cooper, a longtime Sessions friend, used to work as an assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal counsel in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department.

Trump's longtime business lawyer, Michael Cohen

  • Stephen Ryan: Ryan, a former federal prosecutor and a current partner at Washington firm McDermott, Will & Emery, and specializes in "the combined legal, political and press related challenges stemming from congressional oversight and investigation."

Ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn

  • Robert Kelner: Kelner chairs the Election and Political Law Practice at D.C.'s Covington & Burling law firm, and specializes in politically-related criminal defense.

Trump's foreign campaign manager, Paul Manafort

  • Reginald Brown: Brown, an attorney at WilmerHale, oversees the firm's congressional investigations practice. He previously worked in the GW Bush administration's Office of WH Counsel and was deputy general counsel to Jeb Bush.

The Trump campaign's communications adviser, Michael Caputo

  • Dennis Vacco: Vacco, partner at Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman specializing in government investigations, was New York state attorney general under Clinton and a U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York under Reagan.

Roger Stone

  • Robert Buschel: Buschel, attorney at Buschel Gibbons, focuses on criminal and civil litigation.

Former Trump advisors Carter Page and Boris Epshteyn have also have lawyers.

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These are the world's most emotional countries

The Gallup 2017 Emotions Report measured peoples' daily emotions across 140 countries to determine a positivity and negativity experience index. To create the final indexes, respondents were presented with five questions concerning daily positivity and five for negativity. The indexes are the averages of the responses.

Scroll over each emoji to see how each country is feeling.