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Little Caesars founder quietly paid Rosa Parks' rent for years

Little Caesars founder Mike Ilitch passed away on Friday.

(CNN)Those who knew Mike Ilitch, the Little Caesars founder and Detroit Tigers owner who died last Friday, have spent the past few days fondly remembering his impact on friends, on Detroit residents, and on the sports community.
Ilitch also had an impact on the daily life of one of the most iconic figures from the civil rights movement.
    For more than a decade, Ilitch had quietly paid for Rosa Parks' apartment in downtown Detroit, according to CNN affiliate WXYZ.
    That story came to light thanks to Damon Keith, a Detroit native and federal judge.
    "They don't go around saying it, but I want to, at this point, let them know, how much the Ilitches not only meant to the city, but they meant so much for Rosa Parks, who was the mother of the civil rights movement," Keith told WXYZ.
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    Trump White House cannot keep its story straight on Flynn resignation

    The Trump administration is operating within such a distorted reality of its own making that, after a weeks-long cover-up, they cannot keep their own story straight regarding the Trump team's ties to Russia and Michael Flynn's resignation.

    (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

    The Trump administration has had a rough time executing its communications strategy on the resignation of disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
    In announcing the resignation, Donald Trump did not address the circumstances of Flynn’s resignation at all. And in multiple interviews, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway repeatedly stated that the decision to resign was Flynn’s, while asserting that it would be “inappropriate” to comment on whether Trump had been told of the Department of Justice’s warning, given weeks ago, that Flynn might be vulnerable to blackmail over his lies.
    But not long after, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer opened his daily briefing by directly contradicting Conway, stating that Trump had asked Flynn to resign, and that Trump had been notified immediately of the Justice Department’s warning on January 26:

    The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for General Flynn’s resignation. Immediately after the Department of Justice notified the White House counsel of the situation, the White House counsel briefed the president and a small group of his senior advisers. The White House counsel reviewed and determined that there is not a legal issue, but rather a trust issue.

    So, in the course of a day, Trump went from having “full confidence” in Flynn, to reluctantly accepting his resignation because he had become a “distraction,” to demanding Flynn’s resignation over an “eroding level of trust” that apparently occurred in the space of several hours.
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    Banned From U.S.: ‘You Need to Go Back to Your Country’



    Social media shook with emotion. Headlines shouted the news. Legal scholars debated the order’s scope. But the most immediate effect of President Trump’s executive order barring refugees from entering the United States and halting entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries could be quantified on a human scale: refugees and other immigrants from the seven countries, some on their way to the United States on Friday when Mr. Trump signed the order, who were no longer able to enter the United States.
    Here are some of their stories.
    Hameed Khalid Darweesh, Iraq
    Mr. Darweesh, a husband and father of three who worked for the United States military in Iraq for about a decade, was detained after arriving at Kennedy Airport on Friday night. He was granted a special immigrant visa on Jan. 20. When he filed for it, he said he had been directly targeted because of his work for the U.S. as an interpreter, engineer and contractor.
    Although Mr. Darweesh’s wife and children were allowed into the country, he was initially detained. Mr. Darweesh was released on Saturday after lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court seeking freedom for him, as well as for another Iraqi who was detained at the airport.


    Speaking to reporters and some protesters who gathered outside Kennedy Airport, Mr. Darweesh called America the greatest nation in the world and said he was thankful for the people who had worked on his behalf. “This is the humanity, this is the soul of America,” he said. “This is what pushed me to move, leave my country and come here.”
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    President Donald Trump signs first bill into law

    Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump signed his first bill into law Friday, moments after being sworn in, clearing the way for his defense secretary to be confirmed.
    The 45th President signed a bill passed by Congress earlier this month that would allow retired Gen. James Mattis to serve as defense secretary by waiving the legal requirement that he be out of the military for seven years before doing so, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
    Mattis will still need to be confirmed by the Senate, which is expected Friday afternoon.
      Cameras rolled as Trump signed his first orders as President in the Capitol, surrounded by congressional leaders.
      According to Spicer, the other papers Trump was signing included formal nominations for his Cabinet and a proclamation for a national day of patriotism.
      The ceremony took place moments after Trump left the podium outside the Capitol building where he was sworn in and delivered his inaugural address.
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      Small protests ahead of Trump's inauguration

      Washington (CNN)Several demonstrations broke out Friday morning hours before Donald Trump's swearing in after protesters and Washington police scuffled Thursday night outside a meeting of conservatives.
      At one check point, about 50 protesters sat down in the street Friday in an attempt to block Trump supporters from entering a secure area to watch the swearing in. Not far away, a group of immigration backers staged a "pop up" protest near another check point.
        On Thursday night, protesters gathered on 14th Street outside the National Press Club to demonstrate against "DeploraBall," an event organized by some of Trump's most fervent supporters. The name riffs off the campaign description of some Trump backers by his defeated opponent, Hillary Clinton, as a "basket of deplorables."


        As attendees -- some of whom were clad in suits and red hats, others dressed in gowns -- entered the event, demonstrators chanted "Shame" and "Nazis go home" behind a phalanx of police. Some held signs that read "No Alt Reich" and "No Nazi USA."
        Other protesters chanted against the "alt-right," "fascists" and "Nazi scum," though it could not be immediately determined who was attending the event.

        The chants were screamed when attendees entered or left the event, but died down when there was no one coming or going. Some demonstrators threw eggs at the National Press Club building and at revelers, though not at police.
        A protester has her eyes flushed with water.
        Elsewhere in the demonstration, some protesters could be seen setting small fires in the streets, though it was unclear what was set ablaze. A motorcycle was damaged on the street, and police could be seen pepper-spraying some protesters.
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        Eugene Cernan, last man on the moon, dies

        (CNN)Eugene A. Cernan, the last astronaut to leave his footprints on the surface of the moon, has died, NASA said Monday.
        He was 82.
        "We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon," the US space agency said on Twitter.


        For more, click here »

        These 8 men are richer than 3.6 billion people combined

        Eight men now control as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.6 billion people, according to a new report from Oxfam International.


        The men -- Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega, Larry Ellison and Michael Bloomberg -- are collectively worth $426 billion, the anti-poverty group said on Sunday.
        "Such dramatic inequality is trapping millions in poverty, fracturing our societies, and poisoning our politics," said Paul O'Brien, Oxfam America's Vice President for Policy and Campaigns.
        The release of the group's annual inequality report coincides with the World Economic Forum in Davos. The annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort brings together political and financial leaders and some of the wealthiest people in the world.
        Eight men now control as much wealth as half of the world's population.
        For more, click here »

        Former Trump advisor reportedly sends letter to McCain threatening the U.S. and our military


        After spending the weekend trashing Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted this morning: "Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and all of the many wonderful things that he stood for. Honor him for being the great man that he was!" Trump, who has routinely trafficked in and empowered white supremacy, either does not know the first thing about the Rev. King's advocacy and activism, or does not care.
        (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        Donald Trump spent the weekend preceding Martin Luther King, Jr. Day attacking Rep. John Lewis, a lifetime Civil Rights activist, because Lewis criticized Trump and questioned the legitimacy of his presidency.
        This morning, without a shred of irony or self-awareness, Trump tweeted:




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        NPR just offered a shocking and disgusting example of ‘balanced reporting’

        Carl Paladino (Wikimedia Commons)

         Trump campaign official Carl Paladino recently made headlines for being a disgustingly racist pig of a human being. The former GOP gubernatorial candidate, who managed to get himself elected to the Buffalo, New York, school board, responded to a survey about his New Year’s wishes by attacking the Obamas in the most baldly ugly and racist way imaginable, including wishing for Michelle Obama to be “let loose” in Africa so she could live with apes. He also repeated the racist alt-right meme of her being a man, and said he hoped President Obama “catches mad cow disease” and then “dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.”
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        Britain, edging towards Trump, scolds Kerry over Israel

        U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks on Middle East peace at the Department of State in Washington December 28, 2016. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

        Britain scolded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history, a move that aligns Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with President-elect Donald Trump.
        After U.S. President Barack Obama enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by refusing to veto a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Kerry's public rebuke of Israel has unsettled some allies such as Britain.
        Amid one of the United States' sharpest confrontations with Israel since the 1956 Suez crisis, Kerry said in a speech that Israel jeopardizeds hopes of peace in the Middle East by building settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
        While Britain voted for the UN resolution that so angered Netanyahu and says that settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, a spokesman for May said that it was clear that the settlements were far from the only problem in the conflict.
        In an unusually sharp public rebuke of Obama's top diplomat, May's spokesman said that Israel had coped for too long with the threat of terrorism and that focusing only on the settlements was not the best way to achieve peace between Jew and Arab.
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        How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail


        Why worldview threats undermine evidence

        Credit: Izhar Cohen


        Have you ever noticed that when you present people with facts that are contrary to their deepest held beliefs they always change their minds? Me neither. In fact, people seem to double down on their beliefs in the teeth of overwhelming evidence against them. The reason is related to the worldview perceived to be under threat by the conflicting data.
        For more, click here »

        Only the hardiest remain at Dakota protest camp

        A couple of the remaining activists that are left grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions there more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici

        Two weeks after a victory in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, most protesters have cleared out of the main protest camp in North Dakota - but about 1,000 are still there, and plan to remain through the winter.
        These folks say they are dug in at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, despite the cold, for a few reasons. Most are Native Americans, and want to support the tribal sovereignty effort forcefully argued by the Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is adjacent to the pipeline being built.
        Others say they worry that Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP.N), the company building the $3.8 billion project, will resume construction without people on the ground, even though the tribes and the company are currently locked in a court battle.
        Future decisions on the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline are likely to come through discussions with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, or in courtrooms.
        “I’ve seen some of my friends leave but I will be here until the end and will stand up to Trump if he decides to approve the permit,” said Victor Herrald, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, who has been at the camp since August.
        For more, click here »

        E-Cigarette Use Falls Among Teens

        Vaping and marijuana use more popular among teens than regular cigarettes, according to NIH


        A Betamorph E-Cigs employee exhaling vapor from an electric cigarette at the company's store in Albuquerque, N.M. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS

        E-cigarette use among teens dropped in 2016, reversing an upward trend that had prompted the U.S. Surgeon General to recommend increased regulation and taxation.
        Among high-school seniors, 12% this year said they had used e-cigarettes in the past month compared with 16% in 2015, according to the National Institutes of Health’s annual Monitoring the Future survey.
        E-cigarettes and marijuana are both more popular among teens than regular cigarettes, whose use among teens has been declining for more than two decades, according to the survey. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat nicotine-laced liquid into a vapor.
        Among high-school seniors, 23% said they had used marijuana in the past month, and 11% said they had smoked conventional cigarettes. Some 13% of high-school seniors said they had used tobacco with a hookah in the past year, down from 23% in 2014, the peak since the survey began measuring hookah use in 2010.
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        Terminally ill boy dies in Santa's arms



        (CNN) - Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Sam Venable knew he'd found a sad story, but he didn't know just how many hearts it would break.
        Venable's column about a terminally ill 5-year-old boy dying in Santa's arms has spread everywhere since its publication Sunday in the Tennessee newspaper. Among other things, it nails the emotional richness of the holiday season.
        "I've gotten a big response to this," Venable told CNN. "People have told me that they were crying when they read it, and I tell them that I was crying when I wrote it."
        It all started several weeks ago when Eric Schmitt-Matzen, the Santa in Venable's column, got a call after work.
        For more, click here »

        Security News This Week: Russian Hackers Are Targeting Germany Now, Too

        GETTY IMAGES/EYEEM

        GERMANY’S INTELLIGENCE AGENCY accused Russia of deploying cyberattacks against the country, including the spread of propaganda and attempts to destabilize the government. And why not? As we’ve noted before, if the US election taught Putin anything it’s that hacking really can make an impact.
        That’s all the more reason to fully investigate Russia’s disruptive role in our election, which this week President Obama, two members of Congress, and prominent GOP Senator Lindsey Graham all did. Of course, as with Obama’s comprehensive cybersecurity plan, anything actionable will likely fall to the Trump administration. And elsewhere in potentially hostile foreign powers, we took a look at incredibly detailed 3-D renders of North Korea’s secretive space command center.
        Also this week, secure chat app Wickr introduced an encrypted, self-destructive Slack alternative, while IBM Watson for Cybersecurity took off the training wheels, and is now fighting cybercrime for actual companies. And if we have to leave you with just one piece of advice, let it be this: Don’t trust third-party stores for Android apps. Ever. Just don’t.
        And there’s more. Each Saturday we round up the news stories that we didn’t break or cover in depth but that still deserve your attention. As always, click on the headlines to read the full story in each link posted. And stay safe out there.
        For more, click here »

        French police defy government in growing protest movement over lawlessness


        Hundreds of police officers have been protesting in Paris and other cities to denounce what they say are insufficient resources to fight mounting lawlessness, defying government demands that they stop the unauthorised demonstrations.

        Six months from an election, the protest, now in its third day, has put President François Hollande’s Socialist government on the defensive at a time when security forces are struggling to combat the threat of further terrorist attacks.

        Political opponents have seized on the discontent to accuse the government of letting violent crime and everyday lawlessness proliferate despite a large police recruitment drive.

        “I understand the anger of the police,” conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy said. “I’ve never seen such an erosion of authority in this country,” Sarkozy, who is campaigning to become president again, told Europe 1 radio.
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        Carrier to ultimately cut some of jobs Trump saved


        It sounded like great news when Carrier said last week that it would invest millions in the Indiana plant it decided to keep in the U.S.

        Watch this: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2016/12/08/carrier-union-boss-jobs-trump-feud.cnnmoney/ -- Title: Union boss on Trump feud: I called him out

        The company's deal with President-elect Donald Trump to keep a furnace plant from moving to Mexico also calls for a $16 million investment in the facility.
        But that has a big down side for some of the workers in Indianapolis.
        Most of that money will be invested in automation said to Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier's corporate parent. And that automation will replace some of the jobs that were just saved.
        For more, click here »

        Obama Orders Intelligence Report on Russian Election Hacking

        President Obama giving a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday. Credit
        Doug Mills/The New York Times
        Washington — President Obama has ordered American intelligence agencies to produce a full report on Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, his homeland security adviser said on Friday. He also directed them to develop a list of “lessons learned” from the broad campaign the United States has accused Russia of carrying out to steal emails, publish their contents and probe the vote-counting system.
        “We may have crossed a new threshold here,” Lisa Monaco, one of Mr. Obama’s closest aides and the former head of the national security division of the Justice Department, told reporters Friday. “He expects to receive this report before he leaves office.”
        The report, according to senior administration officials, will trace the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and on prominent individuals like John D. Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
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        Millennials don't think Trump will affect their wallets. But they should


        Why Trump's tax plan could raise taxes for 8.7 million households

        Millennials don't think a Trump presidency will matter for their wallets.


        At least, that's the conclusion reached by a recent survey. Young Americans are among those most likely to think the outcome of the election won't make a difference for their financial security, according to Bankrate.com's December Financial Security Index.
        About 45% of respondents aged 18-35 said they think the results of the election won't affect their personal finances either way.
        For more, click here »

        Yemen: US-Made Bombs Used in Unlawful Airstrikes

        Dozens of Civilian Deaths Underscore Need for Saudi Arms Embargo


        (Beirut) – The Saudi Arabia-led coalition killed several dozen civilians in three apparently unlawful airstrikes in September and October 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The coalition’s use of United States-supplied weapons in two of the strikes, including a bomb delivered to Saudi Arabia well into the conflict, puts the US at risk of complicity in unlawful attacks.
        The attacks underscore the urgent need for foreign governments to suspend all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and for the United Nations human rights office to send additional investigators to Yemen to carry out credible investigations of alleged abuses by the coalition, the Houthis and their allies, and all other parties to the conflict, Human Rights Watch said.
        “Saudi-led forces are bombing civilians in Yemen with newly supplied US weapons,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Obama administration is running out of time to completely suspend US arms sales to Saudi Arabia or be forever linked to Yemen wartime atrocities.”
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