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Russian warships are reportedly planning to conduct rocket tests in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast later this month, according to news reports.

As a reaction to such a grave step to be taken by the Russians, the United Sates Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) warned Wednesday aircraft passing through the airspace of such an operation.

According to reports, the Russian navy will conduct the drills anytime from May 24 to 27.

Russia issued a notice to airman (NOTAM) warning of an impending rocket test off the eastern coast of Libya next week.

The area effected runs off the shore of Libya from roughly the Egyptian border to 150 miles west, and out to see about 100 miles, according to news reports.

Russia is a supporter of the eastern government and its forces of Dignity Operation, led by Khalifa Haftar, who visited Moscow and was even given a tour on a Russian aircraft carrier earlier this year, when he allegedly made a deal for arms supply by the Russians.

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Russia to conduct live rocket tests off Libyan coast - The Libya Observer

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Obama Attorney General Wants to 'Channel The Resistance' Against House Republicans on President Trump's ... PEOPLE.com She packs her own lunch, and he still isn't allowed to drive. Subscribe now for all about Michelle and Barack Obama's lives after moving out of the White House only in PEOPLE. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is doing his part with the ...

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Obama Attorney General Wants to 'Channel The Resistance' Against House Republicans on President Trump's ... - PEOPLE.com

With just a week left to campaign before the May 25 election, Rob Quist is counting on college-age voters to provide the sliver of ballots he needs to prevail in a nationally watched election for Montana's open congressional seat.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) In the weeks leading up to Montanas special congressional election, Democrat Rob Quist and his surrogates fanned out across college campuses throughout the state, hoping to tap into a trove of progressive votes in a place where conservative values are as sturdy as the nearby Rocky Mountains.

With just a week left to campaign before the May 25 election, Quist is counting on college-age voters to provide the sliver of ballots he needs to prevail in a nationally watched election for Montanas open congressional seat, vacant since Ryan Zinke resigned to become U.S. interior secretary.

Quist is running against Republican Greg Gianforte, a wealthy technology entrepreneur who ran unsuccessfully for governor last year. The high-stakes election has drawn big money, and big names, to the state.

For any Democrat to win Montana, they have to go after every vote regardless of where they are. And Democrats can usually find lots on college campuses, although the challenge is in getting students to the polls.

This weekend, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will fly in to campaign for Quist in Bozeman and Missoula, home to the states largest college campuses.

Montana Democrats hope Sanders will fire up his huge following of Berners to rally behind Quist, a banjo-playing cowboy poet who is trying to become Montanas first Democrat to serve in the U.S. House in two decades.

Sanders also plans stops in the union town of Butte and the states largest city, Billings. Sanders won Montana in last years Democratic primary, a victory partly fueled by his popularity among millennials.

Despite its image among outsiders as solidly GOP territory, Montana has fiercely independent denizens who regularly elect Democrats to statewide races, although those Democrats usually pledge allegiance to the rural creed of supporting gun rights and a willingness to buck the national party. While Donald Trump won the state by a 20 percent margin, Montana voters also re-elected their Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, who beat Gianforte by 4 percentage points.

Quist is running as a populist and political outsider who supports strengthening President Barack Obamas health care law, not repealing it. He backs abortion rights, same-sex marriage, pay equity for women and lower interest rates for college loans themes that resonate with younger voters.

Earlier this month, Quist enlisted actress Alyssa Milano and a scene-stealing pet goat, both of whom were unleashed upon the grounds of one of the states largest college campuses to help get out the vote. Milano, whose erstwhile TV show Charmed is a cult favorite among some college students, roamed dorm halls to register students for absentee ballots and shuttled some to the county elections office to cast ballots ahead of the special election.

In Gallatin County, home to Montana State University in Bozeman, elections officials reported long lines of mostly young people waiting to cast votes after Milanos visit.

When Bullock chose May 25 to hold the special election the earliest date possible he likely had the college vote in mind, so early absentee voting would overlap with the final weeks of the school year. That gave his fellow Democrat a window, albeit a narrow one, to rally college students before they dispersed into Montanas hinterlands for the summer.

Democrats know they have to swing a lot of those middle or independent voters, so young voters are incredibly important. It should be a pretty coveted group of people because they arent always decided, said Rachel Huff-Doria, executive director of Forward Montana, which helps get out the vote on college campuses across the state.

As he did in his bid for governor, Gianforte has largely ignored college campuses. His campaign has focused on rallying older, established voters to cast ballots.

Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr. have visited Montana on behalf of the Republican candidate, who has campaigned to help the president drain the Washington swamp. Gianforte has embraced the Trump administration, even amid the seemingly unending turmoil that has roiled Washington in recent weeks over the firing of FBI Director James Comey and the presidents alleged ties to Russia.

Libertarian Mark Wicks also is in the race.

Kurt Secrest, who graduated Saturday from the University of Montana in Missoula, cast an absentee ballot for Quist three weeks ago, ahead of hitting the road for a job out of state. He said his decision was influenced by how the countrys direction portends for his future.

At the moment, my hope has been a little diminished, said Secrest, who hails from a tiny town 200 miles east of campus that overwhelmingly voted for Trump. He wants a representative in Congress who shares his world view. He doesnt want a military buildup. He wants wider access to affordable health care and stronger safeguards for the environment, which he believes wont happen under Republican rule.

While liberals dominate some college campuses, there are pockets of conservative resistance. Mariah Schell, a Carroll College student, described herself as a social conservative who would be voting for Gianforte.

Gianforte has more of the kind of experience Im looking for, as opposed to Rob Quist, whos just a musician, she said.

Philosophy major Branan Mull, another Carroll College student, considered his options while waiting for the cafeteria to open. He saw the special election as an opportunity for disruptive politics and plans to vote for Quist to restore the political equilibrium that he said is missing now that Republicans control the national agenda.

The more political power Trump has senators and congressmen the more dangerous he becomes, Mull said. But again, maybe its nothing more than the neo-liberal propaganda Ive bought into.

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Democrat looks to college voters for edge in US House race - The Seattle Times

Janet Sterman was voted out of office following a Democratic party hearing at Newton City Hall.

NEWTON A local Newton Democratic official was ousted from her post Tuesday night, after city party leaders complained that she supported Republican candidates for office and posted racially insensitive social media posts during her tenure.

Janet Sterman, who had served as chairwoman of Newtons Ward 1 Democratic Committee since 2009, was voted out of office and removed as a member of the city committee following a party hearing at City Hall.

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In an interview prior to the vote, Sterman said she is an outspoken bold personality who voices opinions that can differ from the citys local party leadership.

They are telling me that I cant speak out, said Sterman.

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But Shawn Fitzgibbons, chairman of the Newton City Democratic Committee, said some of Stermans social media posts showed her supporting Republicans over Democrats, including 2016 GOP presidential candidates Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson.

Fitzgibbons said other posts were racially insensitive or offensive to minority groups, including comments on Islam and the transgender community.

He contended that Sterman was unable to serve as a representative of the party because of her public positions.

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She can run a meeting okay, Fitzgibbons said, but otherwise, she is doing the opposite of [being] the ward chair in the Democratic party.

The local Democratic party includes a citywide organization, plus groups based in each of the citys eight wards. Members are elected for four-year terms on the citys presidential primary ballot, and work to drum up support for Democratic candidates and causes.

Over the past year, Fitzgibbons said, some committee members have been collecting Stermans social media posts, and created a file of about 50 comments they said violated the organizations rules.

There has been significant extended effort to address this problem with Janet, Fitzgibbons said.

Sterman criticized members of the Newton City Democratic Committee who saved copies of her posts, including from her personal Facebook page.

It is unbelievable the length they will go to go after one person, Sterman said.

Those posts were the focus of much of Tuesday nights hearing, which drew a crowd of about 30 people, including 19 from Stermans ward, to a room at City Hall.

During the hearing, Fitzgibbons pointed to posts he said showed Sterman either didnt support Clinton, backed Trump, or were things youd see on Fox News. In one post taken from the citys Republican party Facebook, Sterman could be seen seated at a table with members of the GOP organization and a Trump campaign sign in the background.

She is a mouthpiece of Republican causes and a supporter of Republican candidates, Fitzgibbons said during the hearing.

He also criticized posts that threaten peoples civil rights and were insensitive toward Muslims, blacks, and Hispanics.

Sterman didnt attend Tuesdays hearing, but her attorney, Guive Mirfendereski, criticized the venue and said voters should make the decision on whether Sterman serves as a committee member. He said Stermans public comments do not contradict the requirements of her office.

He said Sterman should be able to socialize with others, regardless of their party affiliation, and criticized efforts to remove her.

What is going on here tonight is the Democratic party eating its young, he said during the hearing.

Following a nearly two-hour hearing, Ward 1 committee members who were present voted 15-4 to remove Sterman from her ward chairwoman post. The same vote also removed her as a member of the city Democratic committee.

The hearings moderator, Margaret Mardee Xifaras, a New Bedford attorney who has been active in Democratic party circles, said Sterman has 30 days to appeal the vote to the states party committee.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Sterman said she will change her party affiliation from Democrat to unenrolled, but has not decided if she will appeal.

She said the proper rules werent followed in calling the hearing or conducting the vote, and called the partys decision stupid. She said she will be difficult to replace because she worked diligently to build up interest in political issues within Ward 1.

The Democrats in the city are not nice to me. They are nasty people, Sterman said.

Sterman first got involved with Newton politics in 2007, when she ran unsuccessfully for Ward 1 alderman-at-large as an independent. The run led to her recruitment into the city Democratic party two years later, she said.

Sterman described herself as a moderate Democrat who staked out her own positions, including support of Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, although she voted for Clinton over Donald Trump in November. She also opposed Newtons sanctuary pledge for immigrants, which had the backing of the citys Democratic committee.

On her personal Facebook and other social media sites, Sterman posts and makes comments on news stories, including a range of issues, including Israel, Muslims, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the transgender community.

Sterman said her posts are made as a private individual, and not a representative of the ward or city Democrats. She said she posts about issues she thinks are important and deserve broader discussion.

Barbara John, the Ward 6 chairwoman, said in an interview that Stermans comments, including those about Islam, made her unsuited to serve the interests of the citys Democrats.

She cant represent my beliefs as a fair-minded person, John said of Sterman.

But Sterman argues she has been a loyal Democrat. In an email she sent Monday night, Sterman wrote she actively supported Democrats, including gubernatorial runs by Steve Grossman and Martha Coakley, state representative campaigns for Kay Khan and John Lawn, along with candidates for local offices.

She said she has grown the Ward 1 committee from 18 elected members in 2009 to 30 this year, plus organized the wards Democratic Caucus for the party state convention from 2010 through 2016, and again for the upcoming party convention in June.

A fellow ward chairwoman, Larissa Hordynsky, who leads the Democrats Ward 3 committee, said shes worked with Sterman on public forums on health care, housing, and other issues.

Hordynsky said she doesnt share Stermans views, but credited Sterman with increasing the visibility of Ward 1s committee.

She has been a very good and very active chair, Hordynsky said.

Continued here:
'Outspoken' Democratic official ousted from Newton party committee - The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi welcomed the appointment of a special counsel in the Russia probe involving President Donald Trump but said on Thursday an independent commission was still needed to guard against political pressure from the White House.

She said the counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, would still be subject to supervision by Trump's Justice Department. "A special prosecutor cannot take the place of a truly independent outside commission," Pelosi told reporters.

"If the president has nothing to hide, then he and Republicans in Congress should welcome independent investigations to remove all doubt of a coverup," she said.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

WASHINGTON Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trumps campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON More than a dozen Democratic attorneys general on Thursday sought to intervene to defend a key part of the Obamacare healthcare law - subsidy payments to insurance companies - which is under threat in a court case.

The head of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee introduced legislation on Thursday to cut cost overruns at the Pentagon by overhauling the way it buys everything from common off-the-shelf goods to services and intellectual property.

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Top House Democrat Pelosi says independent Russia probe still needed - Reuters