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The water level continues to rise at New Melones Reservoir as the hefty snowpack begins to melt. Trout are being found in early mornings by ...MORE

Hank Kolpack and Hunter Hanson recorded the two best scores Wednesday to lead the Sonora Wildcat golfers past the Linden Lions 230-239 at Castle Oaks ...MORE

Nick Kristoff drained four birdies Tuesday to lead the Bret Harte Bullfrogs past the Linden Lions 224-260 at Greenhorn Creek Resort in Angels Camp. Kristoff ...MORE

Rita Austin resigned on Monday as the director of the Tuolumne County Behavioral Health Department, citing health issues. Next Tuesday, the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors will consider appointing Steve Boyack as the acting director while a permanent replacement for Austin is recruited. Boyack serves ...MORE

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Chanel Mastropoalo-Mendez spent the better part of a month online looking for jobs in Tuolumne County, often entering her email address to receive updates from employment sites. When the 20-year-old Jamestown resident received a text message offering $450 a week to wrap her 2009 Hyundai ...MORE

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Preps roundup

Hank Kolpack and Hunter Hanson recorded the two best scores Wednesday to lead the Sonora Wildcat golfers past the Linden Lions 230-239 at Castle Oaks Golf Course in Ione. The match was made up from a rain out earlier this season. The Wildcats grabbed sole ...MORE

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Prep basketball

Sonora High School seniors Nate Patterson and Kaden Sparks-Davis will play Saturday in Columbia Colleges Madness in the Mother Lode all-star basketball game. The game features high school seniors that starred on their respective teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Patterson was a two-time All Mother Lode League first team member. He averaged 13 points and about six rebounds, five assists and almost three steals per ...MORE

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Deregulate health care To the Editor: I enjoy reading Paolo Maffels monthly column in Letters to the Editor. This month he suggests a solution to our government run health insurance/health care system. Predictably he calls for a socialistic, single-payer, system run by (you guessed it) ...MORE

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Froma Harrop

It was clearly a bad idea for United Airlines to drag a passenger kicking, screaming and bleeding out of a seat he had paid for. Many of the industry's critics are using this occasion to drive home their complaints of "class systems" whereby passengers in ...MORE

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This months Second Saturday Art Night features new venues hosting art exhibits and live music. Additionally, April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month so some musicians performing Saturday will have a single blue string on their instruments, which is being sponsored through the Center For A ...MORE

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The 36th annual Home and Garden Show presented by The Union Democrat and sponsored by Sonora and Calaveras Lumber will be held this weekend at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in Sonora. We have many new exhibitors this year, bringing the total to over ...MORE

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The Union Democrat - Sonora News

by

April 13, 2017, 4:55 PM EDT

Congressional Democrats are warning they will fight to prevent President Donald Trump from withholding payments used to subsidize insurance costs for poor Americansunder Obamacare, signalling the issue could become part of thedebate to avoid a government shutdown at the end of April.

Top House and Senate Democratic leaders are pushing to guarantee the so-called Cost Sharing Reduction subsidies as part of a spending bill that must be approved by April 28, the last day of government funding under current law, according to threeDemocratic aides.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, also signaled a tough stance Thursday, saying Democrats will not negotiate with hostage takers.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that he might withhold the CSR payments to force Democrats to negotiate changes to the existing health law, the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have been seeking to repeal.

The three Democratic aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi agree that CSR payments must be included in the omnibus spending bill being negotiated as permanent, mandatory spending.

Those payments to lower-income people have been at the center of an almost three-year legal battle between Republicans and Democrats.

The Democratic aides made clear that the payments could become a potential shutdown issue, since Democratic votes will be needed to pass the bill in the Senate, and perhaps in the House.

Negotiations over that bill, which lawmakers will have only five days to pass when Congress reconvenes on April 24, are already increasingly complicated. Some Republicans are prepared to fight for Trumps request for funding to begin building a border wall, which Democrats have made clear they will oppose. Trump also is calling for a provision that blocks federal funding for sanctuary cities.

On the Cost Sharing Reduction payments, Democrats may find some Republican allies.

Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican who chairs a key health committee, said in late March that his preference is to include the money in the spending bill, as well.

On Thursday, two former Senate Majority leaders, Republican Bill Frist of Tennessee and Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota, made a call on behalf of the Washington D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center, to extend the subsidy payments.

It is clear that the withdrawal of cost-sharing subsidies provided through the Affordable Care Act would destabilize this already fragile market, they said in a joint statement.

Read more from the original source:
Democrats Want Guarantee for Health Subsidies After Trump Threat - Bloomberg

The State (blog)

Democrat accuses GOP candidate of 'promoting hate' with ... The State (blog) A Democrat running in South Carolina's 5th District special election is accusing a Republican vying for the same seat with promoting hate in an ad that attacks ... and more »

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Democrat accuses GOP candidate of 'promoting hate' with ... - The State (blog)

President Trump's willingness to anger Russian President Vladimir Putin by striking Syria shouldn't ease doubts about his ties to Moscow, a top Democrat said on Thursday.

"Regardless of what the administration claims about its relationship with Russia, the only way to understand the true scope and ties between the Trump White House and the Kremlin is an independent, 9/11-style commission," said New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Engel attempted to block Trump from "making decisions that played into Putin's hands" by helping introduce a resolution last week opposing policy changes pertaining to Russia, just in advance of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's trip to Moscow. Within days, Trump ordered an attack on Assad, one of Russia's top allies in the Middle East. Republican lawmakers, in addition to supporting the Assad strike as a policy move, argued that Democrats such as Engel should feel reassured.

"For a lot of people, it will probably put to rest all this discussion about, oh, he and Putin are holding hands together," said Senate Intelligence Committee member James Risch, R-Idaho. "If that was the case on Wednesday, it wasn't the case by midnight on Thursday."

The cruise missile strike on the Syrian airfield that launched a chemical attack on civilians drew measured praise from Engel, who also acknowledged that it "increased tensions with Moscow," but he emphasized that it shouldn't drive away the specter of Trump colluding with Russia. "If the president and his administration have nothing to hide, then they should drop their opposition to such an inquiry, release his tax returns, and stop trying to use the recent military action as a defense," Engel said.

The New York Democrat has a reputation as one of the more bipartisan foreign policy leaders in the House, notably having broken with then-President Obama over the Iran nuclear agreement. He revived and tweaked George W. Bush's famous phrase recently to dub Russia and Iran "the axis of evil today."

Given Trump's stated interest in rapprochement with Russia, Tillerson's scheduled trip to Moscow suggested to Democrats that policy concessions would be in the offing, prompting Engel to make a preemptive attack on the Trump team's plans. "American policy needs to advance American interests, period," Engel said last week. "With this dark cloud hanging over the administration, we cannot know for sure what's motivating the president's decisions. Frankly, I think the president is far too cozy with Putin. I want to know why."

Trump's ensuing decision to attack Assad over the use of chemical weapons caused a round of sharp diplomatic clashes just as Tillerson arrived in Moscow, as the Russians suggested western forces staged the chemical weapons attack. "[Maybe] it was a staged provocation, a deliberate incident designed to create a pretext for increasing pressure on the legitimate Syrian authorities," Putin said. "That is all. But it must be investigated."

Trump praised Tillerson's performance in Russia, but remained agnostic about whether ties could be improved with Putin. "It'd be a fantastic thing if we got along with Putin and if we got along with Russia and that could happen and it may not happen," Trump said Wednesday. "It may be just the opposite. I can only tell you what I would like to do. I would love to get along with everybody."

Also from the Washington Examiner

"You heard of the #MOAB by now," the network tweeted.

04/14/17 11:09 AM

See the rest here:
Top Democrat: Syria strike doesn't prove Trump is independent of Russia - Washington Examiner

On Tuesday, April 18, there will be a Town Hall meeting for all residents of Rowan County at 6 p.m. at the Carl Perkins Center.

The purpose of the event is to connect community members and leaders to discuss moving Morehead forward.

The Town Hall style meeting will discuss local and state issues including tourism, job security, a cooperative extension tax, recreation, zoning, education, healthcare, and employment.

The group wants to hear what residents concerns are, prioritize those concerns, begin discussing solutions to those concerns, and plan together how to move forward.

The format of the Town Hall will be a small group forum.

After an initial address, small groups will break off to discuss matters impacting Rowan County. Once the small groups have had time to discuss, everyone will regather for general discussion.

While the Town Hall is being hosted by the Democratic Party, all people are welcome, regardless of party affiliation.

It is the Rowan County Democratic Partys hope that people of all backgrounds, races, religions, and ages will join together for opportunity.

Committee members of the Rowan County Democratic Executive Committee decided to engage in a Town Hall style meeting after recent elections. Committee members felt it was essential that people in the community have a forum to be heard and a way to connect with one another.

See original here:
Democrat Town Hall set for Tuesday - Morehead News