Construction spending rose sharply in November, reinforcing the idea that the housing market’s recent slump may have reached its nadir.

Construction spending grew 0.8 percent in November, bouncing back from October’s 0.1 percent contraction. Economists had forecast a much more modest 0.1 percent rise.

On a year-over-year basis, spending is up 3.4 percent.

Residential construction had been a source of weakness in recent months, in part because expectations for higher interest rates were expected to depress demand. But this rose 3.5 percent in November.
New home sales, reported Thursday, were also stronger than expected in November.

President Donald Trump’s promise to improve America’s public infrastructure appears to be playing a role. Highway constructions spending is up 5.8 percent for the year.

The construction data’s release was delayed because of the partial shutdown of the federal government.

President Donald Trump continues to lavish attention on the New York Times, in an effort to win more positive coverage from his hometown paper.

The president welcomed New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker to the Oval Office for an interview Thursday as well as publisher A. G. Sulzberger.

A transcript of the lengthy discussion about the media, the news and the freedom of the press was published by the Times.

“I came from Jamaica, Queens, Jamaica Estates, and I became president of the United States,” Trump told them. “I’m sort of entitled to a great story — just one — from my newspaper.”

The president expressed his willingness to speak with either of the two reporters on the record to discuss their stories before they were published.

“If I were a reporter and I called somebody and they didn’t call me back, I’d probably be psychologically, maybe not even on purpose, I would probably be inclined to do bad stories,” he said.

Trump complained about stories written by Baker in recent weeks.

“Peter’s been very tough on us the last couple of months,” he said. “I don’t know why, because I really think I’m doing a great job.”

Sulzberger objected, noting that every president felt that the Times treated them unfairly.

“The centrality of a free press and the First Amendment, demands that a free press asks tough questions and hold the powerful to account,” he said.

Sulzberger said that Trump should feel free to criticize the New York Times for their coverage, but said that his denigration of the entire media was uncomfortable.

“The broad-based attacks on journalism and journalists continue to have seems to be growing,” he warned Trump, pointing to the Saudi’s murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi as an example.

Sulzberger reminded Trump that Hillary Clinton also complained about tough stories they did during the campaign, but said that they would not back down from aggressive coverage of political figures.

Going forward, Trump had some advice for the Times reporters.

“I will tell you, I would love if I was just covered fairly. If I were covered fairly — like this should be a fair story,” Trump said. “I don’t know what the story is, this should be a fair story. I actually think your readers would respect it.”

While Gov. Ralph Northam is the Democrat most closely associated with the controversy regarding the Virginia abortion bill which would allow a child to be killed up until more or less the moment of birth, someone had to come up with the legislation. That someone is Virginia Delegate Kathy Tran, who introduced HB 2491, “Abortion; eliminate certain requirements.”

According to the summary, the bill “eliminates the requirement that an abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy and prior to the third trimester be performed in a hospital. The bill eliminates all the procedures and processes, including the performance of an ultrasound, required to effect a woman’s informed written consent to the performance of an abortion; however, the bill does not change the requirement that a woman’s informed written consent be first obtained.

“The bill eliminates the requirement that two other physicians certify that a third trimester abortion is necessary to prevent the woman’s death or impairment of her mental or physical health, as well as the need to find that any such impairment to the woman’s health would be substantial and irremediable,” it continues.

“The bill also removes language classifying facilities that perform five or more first-trimester abortions per month as hospitals for the purpose of complying with regulations establishing minimum standards for hospitals.”

That’s some extremely anti-life stuff. However, on the same day, it’s worth pointing out she did introduce a pro-life bill. I mean, provided that you’re a caterpillar.

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On Jan. 9 — the same day that the radical abortion bill was introduced — Tran also introduced HB 2495, which “prohibits localities from spraying pesticides intended to suppress an infestation of the fall cankerworm during the period between March 1 and August 1.”

Well, thank God we’re looking out for the cankerworm, a caterpillar which becomes a gypsy moth.

Tran, by the way, has gotten off of social media now that the controversy over her bill has hit; according to The Daily Caller, she deleted her accounts once the abortion bill became a major issue.

The Virginia GOP, meanwhile, had this to say about it:

What do an unborn baby in the third trimester and Delegate Kathy Tran’s Twitter account have in common?

Neither can defend themselves on Twitter.

— Virginia GOP (RPV) (@VA_GOP) January 30, 2019

The great irony of this is that even though this contentious bill may have made Tran decide on radio silence, it didn’t actually receive much play in the media until Gov. Northam decided to go above and beyond what she had proposed.

“When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of physicians, more than one physician by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus which is non-viable,” Northam said.

“So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if this is what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.”

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So  Gov. Northam appears to be [roposing infanticide. (Northam’s people insisted the governor wasn’t talking about termination as an option, something that the context doesn’t support.) Tran believes that killing a baby a few minutes before birth is all right but a few minutes after birth would be murderous.

And she believes caterpillars ought to be protected, too. Don’t forget that.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

The Jussie Smollett investigation hasn’t necessarily produced a whole lot of results thus far. There isn’t video of the alleged incident, where two white individuals allegedly assaulted the gay, black “Empire” actor, putting a rope around his neck and telling him, “This is MAGA country.” Chicago Police are still looking for two persons of interest, neither of whom has been located.

As of Thursday afternoon, Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said there were no scheduled briefings in the case, which is odd considering it’s one of the highest-profile hate crimes in recent history. Part of that, one could speculate, has to do with the problems in Smollett’s story — in particular, the actor’s refusal to turn over a key piece of evidence.

Several sources confirmed that Smollett and his manager have refused to turn over their phones or phone records to Chicago Police; both would be considered key pieces of evidence because the actor says he was on the phone with the manager, Brandon Z. Moore, when the attack occurred.

Moore has said he heard the homophobic slurs and MAGA-related epithets hurled at Smollett. However, neither one has provided the department with access to evidence proving that the call even happened.

Confirmed with two Chicago PD sources that Jussie Smollett and his manager refused a request to turn over phone records to show Smollett’s manager was on the phone with Jussie when the attack took place. Its not clear if Chicago PD will move to obtain records independently

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 31, 2019

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However, detectives are unable to “independently verify” the call occurred because Smollett refused to turn over his phone.

— Rob Elgas (@RobElgasABC7) January 31, 2019

In a statement Thursday, Chicago Police confirmed they didn’t have the records and that Smollett and Moore were stonewalling them on that account.

“Both the victim and the manager made independent statements to detectives that they were on the phone with one another during the alleged attack,” the statement said, according to The Wrap.

“CPD has no reason to doubt these claims. Detectives however were not able to independently verify the statements as cell phone records were not provided to investigators when asked. Therefore we are not able to confirm this.”

And again, it’s not like this was an airtight story before. Controversy regarding Smollett’s version of the events began when news came out that he hadn’t mentioned the “MAGA country” part during his initial interview with police.

Guglielmi confirmed that while Smollett hadn’t provided that information at first, he relayed it “to detectives during their initial follow-up investigation. They were not made initially to responding officers but detectives completed a supplemental report with the updated information.”

CNN also reported that a letter containing a white, powdery substance was sent to the “Empire” set in Chicago a week before the alleged Jan. 29 attack; the substance was determined to be aspirin, although the HAZMAT unit was called out to the scene.

RELATED: Same Day Democrat Pushed Late-Term Abortion Bill, She Also Pushed Bill To Save Caterpillars

According to TMZ, the letter was directed to Smollett, reading “You will die, black f—.” It also included “MAGA” as the return address. In the aftermath of the incident, however, Smollett declined extra security.

What can glean about the case from what we know? Smollett was threatened via a hoax anthrax letter just seven days before he claims to have been assaulted, a letter which brought out the HAZMAT team. In wake of this, not only did he refuse additional security, he decided to go out to get a sandwich at 2 a.m. and talk on the phone with his manager — at which point, he says, he was attacked.

Smollett claims he was assaulted in one of the most heavily surveilled parts of Chicago, yet no camera seems to have caught the incident as it happened. During his first interview with cops, he declined or forgot to give the Chicago Police a key piece of evidence — namely, the part about “MAGA country.” The fact that Smollett neglected to mention that his attackers were self-identified Trump supporters seems odd, given that it would have tied the assault back to the threatening letter he received just seven days prior.

Now, both he and his manager refuse to turn over their phones or records that would prove they were on the phone with each other, another key piece of evidence given Smollett’s statement to police.

Yet, it seems as if half of the Democrat field for 2020, however, have cosigned this putrefying story as if it were fact, as has every liberal for whom the phrase “MAGA country” is irresistible bait to them. The lesson from Covington Catholic, one can extrapolate from this, remains unlearned: If an incident backs up your preconceived notions about an issue almost too conveniently — as if the cultural issues it presented were custom-designed for your personal use — it may help to wait to see just how true it is.

As for Smollett, the fact that he refuses to turn over his phone or the records to Chicago Police isn’t exactly a wonderful portent for the veracity of his claims. There’s nothing in Smollett’s phone records that should justify not turning them over to police, particularly when they would prove his story; the refusal is basically blowing a hole in everything he’s said.

And, as for those who view Smollett’s claims uncritically, if you can still believe this narrative without reservations, I admire your effort but question your motives.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

On his Fox News show Wednesday night, Tucker Carlson invited on pro-choice advocate Monica Klein to discuss the much-critiqued comments by “moderate” Virgnia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who defended a bill allowing abortion up until a baby’s birth. But the conversation between Carlson and Klein instantly went south, with both saying they think “less” of each other after the exchange.

On Wednesday, Gov. Northam defended the idea of killing a baby in the third-trimester, which a Democrat-proposed Virgnia bill would have allowed. “When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of physicians, more than one physician by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus which is non-viable,” Gov. Northam said in an interview with WTOP’s “Ask The Governor.” “So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if this is what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.”

The comments caused a national stir, so Carlson invited on Klein, a pro-choice advocate and founding partner of Seneca Strategies, to discuss the issue. It didn’t go in the productive direction Carlson clearly hoped.

“I wonder what you think of what Dr. Northam, the governor of Virginia, just said: That when a child — he described the child as an infant — is born, there’s a point where the mother and the physician can decide whether to kill the infant or not,” Carlson said (video below). “What do you think of that?”

Klein responded by immediately accusing Carlson of wanting “to go back to a time where Roe v. Wade was illegal, where women were having back-alley abortions and they were using coat hangers to have abortions, which is actually what’s barbaric.”

“Don’t give me that,” said Carlson, disappointed. “I’m giving you time to make a real argument. I’m not arguing for the repeal of Roe v. Wade — and please don’t be tiresome. The governor of Virginia, who is a rising star of Democratic Party, just said this. There’s pending legislation that mirrors it, and I’m asking you what you think of it. That’s it.”

“I think that right now, reproductive healthcare is under attack by the Republican Party,” Klein charged. “Seventy-two percent of Americans support right to choose.”

She then got specific about who is supposedly waging this war on “reproductive healthcare”: “We have Trump and sexual predator Kavanaugh trying to repeal Roe v. Wade and trying to take away control over our bodies,” she said, repeating unfounded accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — accusations the Senate Judiciary Committee did not find “any evidence to substantiate or corroborate” after an extensive investigation.

“This isn’t about babies,” Klein alleged. “This is about you attempting to control women’s bodies.”

“Please don’t be a robot, Monica,” said Carlson. “You’re smarter than that.”

When he asked if it “bothers” her to simply ask her a reasonable question about the extreme bill, she again attacked him with the cliched Democrat talking point that ignores the existence of another life in the women: “It bothers me that you are trying to control women’s bodies,” she said.

“I wonder if you think you’re convincing anybody, or if your unwillingness to address what just happened today on tape, that we just played, is a sign that you can’t defend this,” said Carlson. After giving her another chance, she again turned the discussion to “trying to repeal Roe v. Wade.”

“This is about a woman’s right to choose, and you as a man should not have a single say in that,” she said.

“Wow. Do you think that you’re making a case that most people agree with — that it’s okay to abort a child in the third trimester?” said Carlson. Carlson eventually told her, “I think less of you” for her response, a sentiment she reciprocated.

The failed bill Northam was defending would have allowed women to abort their babies through the end of the third trimester, in other words, until birth, if it was deemed by a single doctor that it could harm the woman’s health, including “mental health.”

Video below via Fox News:

With all the municipal governments banning the use of plastic straws, somebody has to be the guy that enforces it. In our nation’s capital, that man is Zach Rybarczyk, an inspector for the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, who goes from restaurant to restaurant issuing notices to any violators, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

Rybarczyk described his recent patrol of D.C.’s Union Station food court, where one violator, the Chinese restaurant Lotus Express, was issued a warning: Should the restaurant fail to eliminate their stash of plastic straws, they would be fined up to $800.

“At Lotus Express, the inspector, one of three dispatched by the city to check cafeterias, bars and restaurants, scribbled the restaurant’s name on the paper sleeve of the plastic straw and tucked it into his back pocket, along with two others from scofflaw restaurants,” reports the Anchorage Daily News. “He planned to later check whether they floated in water, another telltale sign of prohibited plastic.”

Julie Lawson, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s Office of the Clean City, told the Anchorage Daily News that plastic straws will soon become as socially unacceptable as tobacco.

“It’s pretty absurd the amount of resources we put into creating plastic materials that we are using for five minutes to an hour, and then never again,” said Lawson. “Single-use plastics are taking the same cultural place as tobacco, where it’s socially unacceptable.”

City officials claim that plastic straws pose a problem to the local Anacostia and Potomac rivers because they are too small for common recycling machinery. The city allegedly cleaned 10,000 plastic straws out last April during the 30th annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup.

Laura Cattell Noll of the Alice Ferguson Foundation, a local environmental group, told the D.C. Council that plastic straws in the street end up in the water system during the rain seasons.

“Plastic pollution that ends up on the street is carried by rain water into storm drains and eventually into streams and rivers,” said Cattell Noll. “In many cases, this stormwater is untreated, leaving local waterways choked with plastic bags, Styrofoam, plastic bottles and plastic straws.”

Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, told the Anchorage Daily News that a complete ban on plastic straws goes too far, noting that one material will just be substituted for another.

“We don’t think the ban is the right approach because it ends up substituting one material for another,” said Keith Christman. “What we need to do here is reduce waste and not take a straw when you don’t need one.”

While some restaurants in D.C. have complied with the ban by switching out plastic straws for compostable material, the city’s straw cop Rybarczyk says that other establishments are completely dumbfounded about the new law when he confronts them.

“Obviously there will be some holdouts until July, when we start issuing fines. But it’s most fair to give businesses a heads up,” said Rybarczyk.

Rybarczyk uses only metal straws when he goes out and keeps one for personal use in his backpack.

On Friday, Young Americans For Freedom reported that administrators at Grand Canyon University, which has been referred to as the largest Christian university in the United States, are blocking Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro from speaking on their campus.

YAF stated that the administrators said the university, which is located in Phoenix, Arizona, would not “provide a venue” for Shapiro, whose speech is part of YAF’s Fred Allen Lecture Series.

As Spencer Brown, spokesman for YAF, noted, “If this pathetic response sounds familiar, it should—that’s exactly what UC Berkeley administrators initially told students when Cal administrators tried to prevent Shapiro from speaking.”

As The Daily Wire reported in July 2017, one month before Shapiro’s scheduled speech at UC Berkeley:

On Wednesday, Young America’s Foundation and the Berkeley College Republicans were told by the University of California, Berkeley administration that Berkeley would not facilitate an event by Daily Wire Editor-In-Chief Ben Shapiro on September 14 on campus. Instead, administrators have informed YAF and BCR that they are “unable to identify an available campus venue.” They have not provided a list of other events taking place on campus on that time and date that would prevent Shapiro from speaking.

Brown wrote that the university administrators met with students on Thursday and listed three reasons for denying Shapiro access: permitting Shapiro on GCU’s campus would not be good for the school long-term; Shapiro’s approach triggers a divisive atmosphere, and GCU wants to maintain its culture of unity, love, respect and having all student voices on campus heard.

Brown said that at that meeting, administrators termed Shapiro’s style too “cutthroat” and that merely by him being present at the university, divisiveness would be precipitated. The GCU YAF chapter said administrators specifically cited DACA students and what possible remarks Shapiro might make about immigration. They also said that GCU’s president Brian Mueller agreed with the decision to deny Shapiro a venue. Mueller has stated that that GCU has a “significant number” of undocumented students who benefit from DACA, and that the university is “about immigration reform.” He also said, “We really believe that we’re so divided as a country right now, extreme positions on the left and extreme positions on the right aren’t helping.”

Brown continued, “Seemingly unaware of the reaction to schools that block Ben Shapiro, administrators reasoned that in refusing to give Shapiro a venue, GCU would avoid negative media attention. They fear, according to the students in the meeting, that the outside world is watching GCU and waiting to jump on the school for making a mistake.”

Brown notes that Grand Canyon University’s mission statement states that the university offers “opportunities in which the public can engage in events that involve critical thinking around the community and academic discourse” including “lecture series, competitions, and town halls” to encourage “asking questions and pursuing knowledge to avoid delusion and blind acceptance of ideas.”

Brown commented, “By caving to an unseen mob and ignoring the popularity of Shapiro among its student body, Grand Canyon University just played itself and deserves whatever negative response this brings. GCU has abandoned the sentiment of its own proclaimed values, deluded itself into acting like the liberal campuses it claims to differ from, and blindly accepted the Left’s ludicrous argument that Shapiro’s presence somehow damages students, campuses, or debate.”

GCU YAF echoed, “It is deeply disappointing that Grand Canyon University has disallowed Ben Shapiro from appearing on our campus—We cannot understand why our school would refuse to host someone who is a tireless advocate for traditional Judeo-Christian values.”