Michelle Obama: George W. Bush is my ‘partner in crime’
Michelle Obama in an interview early Thursday described George W. Bush as her "partner in crime" during every official function, explaining the former president handing her a cough drop at Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) funeral.
"I didn't realize at the time that anybody noticed what we were doing," the former first lady told NBC's "Today" show.
"President Bush and I are forever seat mates because of protocol, that's how we sit at all the official functions," Obama said. "So he is my partner in crime at every major thing where all the formers gather."
"I love him to death," she said of the former president. "He's a wonderful man. He's a funny man."
"And it was a simple gesture," she said, regarding the moment when Bush handed her the cough drop, which went viral.
"He was getting a cough drop from [his wife] Laura and I looked over and said, 'Hand me a cough drop,'" Obama explained. "And he was like, 'Oh, ok.'"
"And I will add that they were old cough drops," she said, noting that they were still in a White House box.
"And I was like, 'How long have you had these?'" Obama said. "They said, 'A long time. We got a lot of these.'"
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/410922-michelle-obama-george-w-bush-is-my-partner-in-crime
(moar sauce)
The Pentagon announced it is grounding its entire fleet of F-35s Thursday just days after the first crash of an F-35B led investigators to suspect there is a common issue with the advanced fighter’s fuel tubes.
“The U.S. Services and international partners have temporarily suspended F-35 flight operations while the enterprise conducts a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft,” the F-35 Joint Program Office announced in a statement Thursday morning.
“If suspect fuel tubes are installed, the part will be removed and replaced. If known good fuel tubes are already installed, then those aircraft will be returned to flight status. Inspections are expected to be completed within the next 24 to 48 hours.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/10/11/dod-announces-global-grounding-of-all-f-35s/
University apologizes for rogue professor who organized a 'course' to take students to DC and protest against Kavanaugh
A taxpayer-subsidized university in Maine has apologized after a professor created a last minute “pop-up course” for college credit that involved traveling to D.C. to lobby Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to vote against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
After the course was publicly advertised using the official University of Southern Maine email system, many citizens expressed their outrage at the partisan nature of the course, and the Maine Republican Party posted a screenshot of the email to their official Facebook page.
According to a statement from university President Glenn Cummings, the actions taken by the professor were done without school approval, and completely unacceptable for a publicly funded university.
"Dr. Feiner is technically retired,” said Cummings. “Dr. Feiner acted in a very rogue manner. Her behavior was inappropriate. It was unacceptable.”
“University policy makes it absolutely clear that our public, taxpayer-funded institutions must be nonpartisan in terms of political activity and institutionally impartial in all political, religious, and social matters that are unrelated to our universities’ core mission of education, research and public service,” stated Cummings.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/red-alert-politics/university-apologizes-for-rogue-professor-who-organized-a-course-to-take-students-to-dc-and-protest-against-kavanaugh