Mueller's team interviewed Maria Butina: Report

Maria Butina was reportedly one of the roughly 500 witnesses interviewed throughout the course of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Butina, who pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to act as an illegal foreign agent for Russia, was briefly interviewed by Mueller during his 22-month investigation into potential collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russia, according to a Wednesday CNN report. Butina, 30, was interviewed for about an hour on one occasion by Mueller’s team, although she did not appear to be a central figure in the investigation.

The special counsel was interested in Butina’s ties to one of the Trump campaign’s national security aides, J.D. Gordon, who was ultimately not accused of any criminal activity by the probe. Investigators also questioned her about the Trump campaign’s 2016 push to change language in the Republican National Committee platform relating to Russia and Ukraine.

Butina pleaded guilty in December, although a sentencing date has not yet been set. Her boyfriend, Republican operative Paul Erickson, 56, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was indicted on federal wire fraud and money laundering charges in February. Mueller’s investigation came to a close last week and Attorney General William Barr on Sunday said Mueller cleared Trump of colluding with Russia in a four-page summary of the investigation.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/muellers-team-interviewed-maria-butina-report

Bayer Loses Second Roundup Glyphosate Trial; Ordered To Pay $80 Million

Bayer AG has lost a second trial over claims that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer - and has been ordered by a San Fancisco jury to pay compensatory damages of $5.3 million and punitive damages of $75 million to a 70-year-old California man, Edwin Hardeman, who was diagnosed with cancer after spraying the herbicide on his property for decades. The plaintiff's attorneys said he developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after 26 years of regularly using Roundup to tackle weeds and poison oak, according to the Wall Street Journal. The active ingredient in Roundup and Ranger Pro is glyphosate, a herbicide. Wednesday's verdict follows a similar decision last August in which a former school groundskeeper was awarded $289 million after claiming that Roundup gave him non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. German Bayer AG acquired the Roundup brand of glyphosate weed killers in its $66 billion purchase of Monsanto in June of last year.

Responding to the verdict, Bayer said in a statement "We are disappointed with the jury's decision, but this verdict does not change the weight of over four decades of extensive science and the conclusions of regulators worldwide that support the safety of our glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not carcinogenic." "You can’t keep trying case after case after case and keep losing and say, ‘We’re not going to settle," said Thomas G. Rohback, a trial lawyer at Axinn in New York quoted by Bloomberg, who adds that if Bayer continues to lose at trial, it "has to put the possibility of a settlement of these cases into the mix."

Wednesday's case is considered a “bellwether” trial for hundreds of other plaintiffs in the US with similar claims, which means the verdict could affect future litigation and other cancer patients and families. Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, is facing more than 9,000 similar lawsuits across the US.

In September, 2017 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that glyphosates were not likely carcinogenic to humans, based on a decades-long assessment. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s cancer arm issued an opposite statement - warning that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans."

As the New York Times noted in 2017, internal emails, among other things, reveal ethical objections from former employees to "ghost writing" research studies that were pawned off as 'independent' analyses. Unsurprisingly, Monsanto's lawyers argued in last year's trial that the comments above have simply been taken out of context… Glyphosate - Roundup's main ingredient, was first approved for use in weed killers in 1974, and has grown to become the world's most popular and widely used herbicide.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-27/bayer-ordered-pay-80-million-after-losing-second-roundup-glyphosate-trial

Man Arrested In Plot To Assassinate Trump, Blow Up Pentagon

West Virginia State Police closed Interstate 68 near the Maryland border for several hours after a man made threats to kill President Trump and blow up the Pentagon. A 42-year-old man was arrested after he was pulled over for speeding at around 10:30 Wednesday morning, according to WDTV. During the stop, authorities found a firearm and explosive powder.

“As a result of the investigation based on a traffic stop that occurred earlier this morning, it had been discovered that threats were made to kill the President of the United States and to blow up the Pentagon. A search of the vehicle revealed a firearm and an explosive powder. A 42-year-old male has been detained for questioning. -West Virginia State Police

The FBI, Secret Service and State police are investigating the plot. "Man, this is crazy," said Truck driver Adam Heiser of Oklahoma, who was caught in the unexpected shutdown. "I’m just trying to get down the road here to the Love’s truck stop. I don’t know what’s going on that’s got this whole thing shut down like this, but I’d say somebody is in some trouble." The interstate was reopened at around 2:30 p.m

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-27/man-detained-plot-assassinate-trump-blow-pentagon

U.S. judge blocks Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky, Arkansas

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday overturned the Trump administration’s approval of plans by the states of Kentucky and Arkansas to impose work requirements on people seeking to obtain benefits from the Medicaid health insurance program. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington ruled that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had failed to adequately consider the extent to which the Republican-led states’ plans would cause significant numbers of people to lose coverage.

The decisions came in separate lawsuits by Kentucky and Arkansas residents enrolled in Medicaid. It marked a setback for efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to scale back the joint federal-and-state healthcare program for the poor and disabled. “The court reaffirmed the rights of financially insecure individuals to access health care,” said Sam Brooke, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, said in a statement he was disappointed by the ruling. Representatives for HHS and Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin did not respond to requests for comment. Kentucky and Arkansas are among eight states that have received approval by HHS to impose requirements that people seeking coverage under Medicaid engage in work or work-related activities, like job training. HHS approved those projects as part of a push to put a conservative stamp on Medicaid, which expanded in 36 states following the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

In Arkansas’ case, the state had already implemented its work requirements, causing about 16,000 Arkansans to lose Medicaid coverage after HHS failed to consider whether the state’s plan would help its citizens, Boasberg wrote. His ruling in Kentucky’s case marked the second time Boasberg had vacated the approval of an HHS waiver needed by the state to move forward with its work requirements. In his June 2018 ruling, Boasberg said HHS had failed to grapple with the fact that an estimated 100,000 people would lose Medicaid coverage under Kentucky’s requirements. HHS, in reapproving Kentucky’s program, sought to address that issue by arguing that figure was dwarfed by the 450,000 who would lose coverage if Kentucky moved forward with repealing its expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. But Boasberg said adopting that position would allow the department to justify approving any proposed plan by a state “as long as it is accompanied by a threat that the state will de-expand” Medicaid.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-medicaid-kentucky/u-s-judge-blocks-medicaid-work-requirements-in-kentucky-arkansas-idUSKCN1R82G6