WASHINGTON – Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Saturday during a town hall that after the midterm elections she would consider a bid for the presidency. 

“After Nov. 6, I will take a hard look at running for president,” Warren told the crowd in Holyoke, Mass. as they roared with applause. 

The Democrat touched on the state of the country under the presidency of Donald Trump and the controversy surrounding his pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, due to a series of sexual assault accusations, according to the Boston Globe. 

“I watched powerful men helping a powerful man make it to an even more powerful position,” Warren said, according to the newspaper. “And I thought, ‘Time’s up.’ It’s time for women to go to Washington and fix our broken government and that includes a woman at the top.”

Video of Warren’s appearance shows the crowd giving her a standing ovation after she announced the possibility of a presidential run. 

Warren has been a contender for months. She was also viewed as a possibility in the 2016 presidential election. 

More: Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushes for an end to government by ‘the wealthy and well-connected’

More: Warren says she isn’t running for president, but there’s some wiggle room in comments

Warren previously denied wanting to run, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in March that she would instead focus on keeping her current job. 

“I am in this fight to retain my Senate seat in 2018. That’s where I’m focused. That’s where I’m going to stay focused,” Warren said in the interview. “I’m not running for president.”

But in the interview, Warren refused to “pledge” to serve her full six years in the Senate if reelected despite being pressed several times.

Warren has been a favorite target of Trump, who he nicknamed “Pocahantas” for saying she has Native American ancestry. The two have been trading long-distance barbs for years. She, a former Harvard law professor, calls him a bully. 

The Globe notes Warren has made a series of moves that could set her up for a presidential run, including helping Democrats in key battleground states. According to federal filings, she has $15.6 million and has raised a total of $22.4 million this election cycle, according to the Globe. 

Warren is among a batch of Democrats who are being eyed as possible 2020 contenders, including California Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Others, including Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who represented Stormy Daniels’ in a lawsuit against Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, are also considering a run. 

 

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2NTWmJN

The White House has set a number of limits on the one-week FBI investigation into the sexual-misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, NBC News reported Saturday.

Most notably, the FBI has been barred from investigating claims by Julie Swetnick, the third woman who has come forward publicly with decades-old allegations against Kavanaugh.

The FBI, however, has already begun investigating accusations made by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Ford testified against Kavanaugh in an emotional hearing on Thursday, and Ramirez has alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were students at Yale University.

Swetnick has alleged in a sworn declaration that Kavanaugh was present at a party in the early 1980s where she was gang raped. During his hearing to address the allegations on Thursday, Kavanaugh called Swetnick’s claims a “farce.”

Swetnick is represented by the attorney Michael Avenatti, who tweeted on Saturday that the White House’s restrictions would “undermine the legitimacy” of the entire investigation.

“If true, this is outrageous,” Avenatti tweeted. “Why are Trump and his cronies in the Senate trying to prevent the American people from learning the truth? Why do they insist on muzzling women with information submitted under penalty of perjury? Why Ramirez but not my client?”

Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images

According to NBC News, another restriction the White House has set bars the FBI from investigating Kavanaugh’s account of his drinking habits during high school and at Yale University.

Though Kavanaugh denied during his hearing that he had ever drank to the point of blacking out, several of his old Yale classmates have accused Kavanaugh of lying during the hearing, telling news outlets they recall him drinking heavily.

“He frequently drank to excess,” Lynne Brookes, one of Kavanaugh’s former Yale classmates told The New York Times. “I know because I frequently drank to excess with him.”

Another restriction, according to NBC News, is that FBI investigators cannot ask for employment records from the supermarket that employed Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge, whom Ford alleges was present during the sexual assault.

Ford testified Thursday that she remembers seeing Judge looking “ill” while he was working at a Safeway during the summer of 1982, weeks after the assault. Ford told the senators she believed Judge’s employment records would help her better recall the time frame in which the alleged assault occurred.

The FBI investigation into Ford’s and Ramirez’s claims came after a dramatic showdown in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, in which Sen. Jeff Flake urged his Republican colleagues to allow a one-week FBI investigation into the Kavanaugh allegations.

Though Flake and the majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move Kavanaugh’s nomination to a full Senate vote, he struck a deal with Democrats to delay the vote for a week while an FBI investigation goes ahead.

It’s unclear whether such restrictions on the FBI were what Flake had in mind when he called for the investigation. Flake’s office did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on Saturday.

Today in “that sounds nice,” a group of biologists studying termite colonies in southern Japan have discovered all-female colonies that function perfectly without even a single male termite being involved. 

The lady termites, which reproduce asexually, appear to have been descended from mixed sex colonies but at some point decided that enough was enough and branched out to create new colonies where it’s girls’ night every night. And day. Forever. 

Besides the obvious advantage of everyone remembering to put the toilet seat down and a presumed 100 percent reduction in man termites making decisions about woman termites’ bodies, the scientists noted that the uniform head shape of lady termites is an advantage when it comes to defending the colony from intruders. 

Strong, beautiful lady termites. Getting it done, kicking out men, and forming flawless Spartan phalanxes with their heads. Is it messed up that being a southern Japanese termite sounds awesome right about now?

In a media environment that thrives on leaks, tech companies do their best to keep the very latest and greatest iterations of their products away from prying eyes until the right moment. When they finally release them, it’s with press conferences and fanfare, ad campaigns and endorsements.

Or, you know, they just show up a month early at some completely random Best Buy. 

Google’s new Chromecast, which was presumably not to be announced until the coming Oct. 9 reveal event, was accidentally sold to a Reddit user with the handle GroveStreetHomie. So of course, the buyer posted an image of his new hardware on r/google.

In a post titled “I think I got the 3rd gen Chromecast too early,” GroveStreetHomie told the story of how he walked into a Best Buy and saw the new box sitting on the shelves. It initially didn’t scan, but the register employee used a barcode for an older Chromecast to allow him to purchase the updated version. 

GroveStreetHomie said that the new Chromecast is slightly thicker and noted a few aesthetic and design updates in his post. Google hasn’t yet responded to Mashable’s request for comment.

Best Buy has also not said anything about this yet, and if the retailer wants to avoid the wrath of Google… it’s probably for the best. Buy. 

Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher grabbed linebacker Tyrel Dodson by the facemask and pushed the player during a lecturing in the Aggies’ 24-17 win over Arkansas on Saturday. 

Prior to the interaction with Fisher, Dodson was pushing an Arkansas player in a dispute. That didn’t sit well with Fisher one bit. 

Asked by reporters after the game what came of the altercation with Dodson, Fisher said: “I was just trying to make the point — I don’t want you out there fighting.”

“I don’t need that guy pushing and shoving out there and getting thrown out of the game,” he said. “(I told him) ‘I need you, partner.’ If I’m gonna win this game, I need Dodson.”

Texas A&M’s win improved the team to 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in SEC play. Last week, Dodson had a blocked field goal return for a touchdown. 

MORE: Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray does not start against Baylor after being late to practice

MORE: Georgia scores wild touchdown after its own quarterback fumbles on sack

 

 

 

 

Tesla’s Elon Musk has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in an agreement that will require Musk to resign as chairman of the company for at least three years and pay a $20 million fine, the SEC announced Saturday.

Musk, who as part of the agreement will neither admit nor deny the allegations, is expected to remain CEO.

The US regulators had sued to remove Musk from the electric carmaker’s leadership, alleging that Musk had made “false and misleading” statements after he tweeted about taking the automaker private.

“Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,” Musk said on Twitter in August.

The SEC had alleged that Musk knew at the time the potential transaction was “uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies.” The tweets caused Tesla’s stock price to jump by more than six percent shortly afterward, leading to “significant market disruption.”

Musk has been directly involved in almost every detail of Tesla’s product development and technology strategy, and is credited as the driving force behind the loss-making company’s ability to raise capital.

The cost of insuring Tesla debt against default rose to its highest price ever on Thursday and the plummeting share price attracted new short sellers, who bet against the stock. Short sellers notched $1.27 billion Thursday alone in paper profits, according to S3 Partners, which said Tesla recently regained the title of most-shorted US stock.

The billionaire entrepreneur said he had done nothing wrong and the company’s board said it supported him.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Musk believed he had a verbal deal for financing from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to take Tesla private.

Musk last month in a blog said he left a July 31 meeting with the fund’s managing director “with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed.”

The SEC in its suit said the meeting between Musk and the fund “lacked discussion of even the most fundamental terms of a proposed going private transaction.”

Musk, 47, walked away at the last minute from a settlement with the SEC that would have required him to give up key leadership roles at the company for two years and pay a nominal fine, according to reports on Friday.

But sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, told Reuters that while Musk was ready to go to trial he could still settle. They did not discuss possible terms.

CNBC reported that Musk had turned down an SEC deal to give up his role as chairman, while Fox Business Network reported that Musk had been offered a temporary ban as CEO.

Aeisha Mastagni, a portfolio manager for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, a Tesla investor, said she was concerned about the board’s ability to oversee Musk and the company and that she would welcome changes to Tesla’s board.

“I think this board is insular, ripe with conflicts; it’s the poster child for bad corporate governance,” she said.

The board also lacks a director who could take over for Musk, said investment adviser Cornerstone Capital’s research chief, John Wilson. “The problem for investors is that an investment in Tesla is an investment in Elon Musk,” he said.

Musk has hired Stephen Best at Brown Rudnick, who successfully defended internet billionaire Mark Cuban in an insider trading case, according to people familiar with the plans who also asked not to be identified. He also hired former Assistant US Attorney Chris Clark of Latham & Watkins to defend him in the case, the people said.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The SEC declined to comment on the settlement reports.

One person with knowledge of the SEC’s thinking said on Friday that the SEC civil lawsuit or a potential settlement did not preclude further action by the Justice Department, which has a higher standard of proof to make a criminal case.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

In a previous fraud case over blood-testing firm Theranos, the Justice Department brought criminal charges three months after the SEC announced its settlement with the company’s founder Elizabeth Holmes.

“The SEC wouldn’t delay its case for the DOJ,” said Teresa Goody, CEO of law firm Goody Counsel and a former SEC attorney.