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  IRS warns people about an email tax scam

  It's nowhere NEAR tax-time, but the IRS is warning people about a scam going around. The Detroit Free Press reports there's been a large number of reports of people getting unsolicited e-mails, pretending to be from the IRS. The subject line often includes the word 'reminder' and will say something like 'automatic income tax reminder' or 'electronic tax return reminder.' The scammers try to get you to download a file that appears to be your tax information but instead is malware they could use to access information on your computer. The IRS says the agency doesn't send out unsolicited emails. You can read more about the story here.
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  Woman sought in homicide case

  Tulsa police are still looking for the woman suspected of shooting another woman to death in July. Diamanta Tibbs is now on the Tulsa Police Department’s most wanted list. Police say Tibbs shot and killed Soconda Boyd in the throat outside a convenience store on Mohawk Boulevard just after midnight on July 23rd.  Boyd died at the hospital.  If you have information on the shooting, or know where Tibbs may be, call Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS. 
• 
  Trump Administration to allow in hurricane refugees from Bahamas

  After some 'confusion' which prevented some people from leaving behind severe hurricane damage in the Bahamas, and traveling to the United States, the acting head of the Border Patrol told reporters at the White House on Monday that citizens of the Bahamas will need regular paperwork - but not special visas - to come to the U.S. while reconstruction work starts in heavily damaged areas of their country. 'We will accept anyone on humanitarian reason that needs to come here,' said Acting Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan, who promised expeditious processing. Asked by reporters about why people had been told to get off a ferry destined for Miami and other examples of citizens of the Bahamas not being allowed to travel to the U.S., Morgan said that was simply confusion over the situation in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian's devastation. 'There's going to be some confusion,' Morgan said, as he made clear that normal immigration checks will be made. 'That doesn't mean we do it with a blind eye,' Morgan said to reporters in the White House Briefing Room, as he said anyone with a criminal record from the Bahamas would be allowed in - but then would be detained by U.S. immigration authorities, and not simply released into the country. Two Republican Senators from Florida had quickly urged the White House to accept people from the Bahamas, as the scope of the devastation from Hurricane Dorian became more and more apparent over the weekend. “As Bahamians seek refuge or start to rebuild after #Dorian, we cannot have the kind of confusion that occurred last night in Freeport,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), referring to a situation where many people were asked to get off a ferry, because they did not have a special visa to enter the U.S. - something not normally needed. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the issue may have been a lack of coordination with U.S. officials by the shipping company. 'Many Bahamian survivors have already entered the U.S. without a visa on ships that coordinated the process of checking passports & police records in advance,' Rubio said. A few hours later, President Trump struck a much tougher tone on the issue of allowing people from the Bahamas in to the U.S. “I don't want to allow people who weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States,” the President told reporters. “We have to be careful,” Mr. Trump told reporters outside the White House.  “Everybody needs totally proper documentation.”
• 
  Trump’s North Carolina rally to be a test for his clout, GOP

  President Donald Trump’s rally in North Carolina will serve as a measure of his clout in trying to elect a Republican to the House in a closely watched special election that’s seen as a tossup race. It will be his first campaign rally since a tough end of summer that saw slipping poll numbers, warning signs of an economic slowdown and a running battle over hurricane forecasts. Trump will visit the state Monday night on the eve of the House election. He enjoys wide popularity within his own party, but a GOP defeat in a red-leaning state could, when combined with a wave of recent bad headlines, portend trouble for his reelection campaign. The rally may also pose a different sort of test: It will be held just over a 100 miles from the site of a Trump rally in July where “send her back” chants aimed at a Somali-born American congresswoman rattled the Republican Party and seemed to presage an ugly reelection campaign. Trump’s appearance Monday on behalf of Republican Dan Bishop is shaping up as a test of the president’s pull with voters. The special election could offer clues about the mindset of Republicans in the suburbs, whose flight from the party fueled the GOP’s 2018 House election losses. The House district flows eastward from the prosperous Charlotte suburbs into rural areas hugging the South Carolina border. State officials invalidated last November’s election following allegations of voter fraud by a GOP operative. The district has been held by the GOP since 1963. In 2016, Trump won the district by 11 percentage points. Should Bishop defeat Democrat Dan McCready, it could let Trump assert that he pulled Bishop over the top. If McCready prevails or Bishop wins by a whisker, it will suggest GOP erosion and raise questions about Trump’s and his party’s viability for 2020.
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  Congress returns facing guns, investigations, funding battles

  After an extended summer break that was filled with major news events which could well drive the details of future legislative work in Congress, lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this week facing a host of heated political issues, any combination of which could become a partisan flash point for Democrats in Congress and President Donald Trump. 'We have a responsibility to make our schools, shopping centers, houses of worship and other public places safer,' top Democrats wrote to the President in a letter on Monday, urging him to make it clear what he would support in terms of legislation to deal with gun violence. Hanging over all of this is the specter of more investigations by Democrats, and the 2020 campaign - plus the calendar - as the House and Senate will work the next three weeks, and then take a two week break into October. Here are a few items to watch in the days ahead. 1. Democrats return with immediate push on gun legislation. Normally Mondays can be quiet on Capitol Hill, especially as lawmakers trickle back into town following an almost six week summer break. But Democrats are immediately launching a political broadside at the GOP and President Trump by demanding action on gun violence legislation, with news conferences involving Democratic leaders and Mayors, clearly trying to raise the pressure on Republicans - especially in the Senate - to act on gun legislation. It still seems unlikely that there will be votes and compromise on guns, but the Democrats are coming out of the gate fast this week. 2. Democrats want answers from Pentagon on Trump hotels. Already incensed over what Democrats and ethics experts say are clear examples of the President's companies enriching themselves through spending by the federal government, a story broken over the weekend by Politico has further emboldened Democrats to call for answers. In this case, military flight crews have been making stops in Scotland, and staying at President Trump's Turnberry golf resort, which has been in financial trouble. The Air Force is going to get squeezed by Congress for information on this. It's one to watch in the coming weeks. 3. Action needed to avoid funding lapse. While the Congress was able to reach a two year budget and debt deal with President Trump, lawmakers still need to approve the details of the funding bills for Uncle Sam. As usual, Congress will not make the September 30 deadline for that, so a temporary funding plan is needed, what's often referred to as the CR - Continuing Resolution. The House is going to vote on that next week. It's not clear how long that temporary plan will last, whether to Thanksgiving, or into December. But it's an important part of the legislative tableau which will confront lawmakers and the White House this fall. 4. What about the Senate? The Senate is going to keep doing what it's been doing for months, and that is continue to approve nominations from President Trump. If you look at this year, very little time has been taken on actual legislation, as the Senate has morphed into a different type of legislative body from the one I first saw back in 1980. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring any gun-related legislation to the Senate floor unless it already has the approval of President Trump - and right now, the President has not made clear that he's going to accept anything in the wake of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. 5. Democrats ready to take more steps on impeachment. With a majority of Democrats publicly in favor of an impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are expected to vote Thursday on an outline of an investigation into a variety of familiar questions surrounding the President. Republicans have labeled the effort 'ridiculous,' and will certainly keep up their public attacks on the process. It's still not clear how far this will go, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats still have reservations about a full blown effort on impeachment. 6. Trade issues bedevil White House and Congress. After new tariffs started last week against imported goods from China, there still isn't any evidence that the U.S. and China are on the road to cutting a new trade agreement between the two countries. Also, there's no indication that the trade deal involving the U.S., Canada, and Mexico is going to be voted on in the Congress soon. The White House has not submitted the agreement officially, as Democrats continue to demand extra legislation dealing with labor concerns, environmental questions, and more. So, when you see Republicans tweet that it's time for action in Congress on the USMCA trade deal - it's still not officially on Capitol Hill for action.

Washington Insider

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  Trump Administration to allow in hurricane refugees from Bahamas

  After some 'confusion' which prevented some people from leaving behind severe hurricane damage in the Bahamas, and traveling to the United States, the acting head of the Border Patrol told reporters at the White House on Monday that citizens of the Bahamas will need regular paperwork - but not special visas - to come to the U.S. while reconstruction work starts in heavily damaged areas of their country. 'We will accept anyone on humanitarian reason that needs to come here,' said Acting Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan, who promised expeditious processing. Asked by reporters about why people had been told to get off a ferry destined for Miami and other examples of citizens of the Bahamas not being allowed to travel to the U.S., Morgan said that was simply confusion over the situation in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian's devastation. 'There's going to be some confusion,' Morgan said, as he made clear that normal immigration checks will be made. 'That doesn't mean we do it with a blind eye,' Morgan said to reporters in the White House Briefing Room, as he said anyone with a criminal record from the Bahamas would be allowed in - but then would be detained by U.S. immigration authorities, and not simply released into the country. Two Republican Senators from Florida had quickly urged the White House to accept people from the Bahamas, as the scope of the devastation from Hurricane Dorian became more and more apparent over the weekend. “As Bahamians seek refuge or start to rebuild after #Dorian, we cannot have the kind of confusion that occurred last night in Freeport,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), referring to a situation where many people were asked to get off a ferry, because they did not have a special visa to enter the U.S. - something not normally needed. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the issue may have been a lack of coordination with U.S. officials by the shipping company. 'Many Bahamian survivors have already entered the U.S. without a visa on ships that coordinated the process of checking passports & police records in advance,' Rubio said. A few hours later, President Trump struck a much tougher tone on the issue of allowing people from the Bahamas in to the U.S. “I don't want to allow people who weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States,” the President told reporters. “We have to be careful,” Mr. Trump told reporters outside the White House.  “Everybody needs totally proper documentation.”
• 
  Congress returns facing guns, investigations, funding battles

  After an extended summer break that was filled with major news events which could well drive the details of future legislative work in Congress, lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this week facing a host of heated political issues, any combination of which could become a partisan flash point for Democrats in Congress and President Donald Trump. 'We have a responsibility to make our schools, shopping centers, houses of worship and other public places safer,' top Democrats wrote to the President in a letter on Monday, urging him to make it clear what he would support in terms of legislation to deal with gun violence. Hanging over all of this is the specter of more investigations by Democrats, and the 2020 campaign - plus the calendar - as the House and Senate will work the next three weeks, and then take a two week break into October. Here are a few items to watch in the days ahead. 1. Democrats return with immediate push on gun legislation. Normally Mondays can be quiet on Capitol Hill, especially as lawmakers trickle back into town following an almost six week summer break. But Democrats are immediately launching a political broadside at the GOP and President Trump by demanding action on gun violence legislation, with news conferences involving Democratic leaders and Mayors, clearly trying to raise the pressure on Republicans - especially in the Senate - to act on gun legislation. It still seems unlikely that there will be votes and compromise on guns, but the Democrats are coming out of the gate fast this week. 2. Democrats want answers from Pentagon on Trump hotels. Already incensed over what Democrats and ethics experts say are clear examples of the President's companies enriching themselves through spending by the federal government, a story broken over the weekend by Politico has further emboldened Democrats to call for answers. In this case, military flight crews have been making stops in Scotland, and staying at President Trump's Turnberry golf resort, which has been in financial trouble. The Air Force is going to get squeezed by Congress for information on this. It's one to watch in the coming weeks. 3. Action needed to avoid funding lapse. While the Congress was able to reach a two year budget and debt deal with President Trump, lawmakers still need to approve the details of the funding bills for Uncle Sam. As usual, Congress will not make the September 30 deadline for that, so a temporary funding plan is needed, what's often referred to as the CR - Continuing Resolution. The House is going to vote on that next week. It's not clear how long that temporary plan will last, whether to Thanksgiving, or into December. But it's an important part of the legislative tableau which will confront lawmakers and the White House this fall. 4. What about the Senate? The Senate is going to keep doing what it's been doing for months, and that is continue to approve nominations from President Trump. If you look at this year, very little time has been taken on actual legislation, as the Senate has morphed into a different type of legislative body from the one I first saw back in 1980. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring any gun-related legislation to the Senate floor unless it already has the approval of President Trump - and right now, the President has not made clear that he's going to accept anything in the wake of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. 5. Democrats ready to take more steps on impeachment. With a majority of Democrats publicly in favor of an impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are expected to vote Thursday on an outline of an investigation into a variety of familiar questions surrounding the President. Republicans have labeled the effort 'ridiculous,' and will certainly keep up their public attacks on the process. It's still not clear how far this will go, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats still have reservations about a full blown effort on impeachment. 6. Trade issues bedevil White House and Congress. After new tariffs started last week against imported goods from China, there still isn't any evidence that the U.S. and China are on the road to cutting a new trade agreement between the two countries. Also, there's no indication that the trade deal involving the U.S., Canada, and Mexico is going to be voted on in the Congress soon. The White House has not submitted the agreement officially, as Democrats continue to demand extra legislation dealing with labor concerns, environmental questions, and more. So, when you see Republicans tweet that it's time for action in Congress on the USMCA trade deal - it's still not officially on Capitol Hill for action.
• 
  Trump and Pence try to save U.S. House seat for GOP in North Carolina

  In a last minute show of support, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will both go to the Tar Heel State on Monday, trying to rally Republicans to victory in a special election for a U.S. House seat, where an initial GOP victory in 2018 was overturned after investigators found evidence of absentee ballot election fraud by Republicans. It's the second time in the last three months that President Trump has held a campaign rally in North Carolina, as GOP leaders try to push Republican Dan Bishop over the finish line against Democrat Dan McCready. 'I'm going to stand with President Donald Trump,' Bishop said at a July rally with the President in Greenville, North Carolina, an appearance which was overshadowed by the chant of 'Send her back!' aimed at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). 'Dan McCready took money for Ilhan Omar,' Bishop told the audience, drawing an avalanche of boos from the Greenville crowd. McCready did take a campaign contribution from Omar - who has been vilified by Bishop, President Trump and other Republicans - but returned the election money several months later. 'We’re tied in the polls with three days to go,' McCready said in a late fundraising appeal. 'But President Trump is raising six figures for my opponent and now he’s coming down for a rally.' Bishop has been using the standard Republican campaign staple of late, using a sound bite from President Trump accusing McCready of being a socialist. McCready has tried to capitalize on some of the questions being raised about President Trump - in a district which the GOP should have no business losing. On Monday, Vice President Pence will join Bishop for a 'Get out the vote' event, and then join President Trump for a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This race for North Carolina's 9th District seat in the House is really the final election from the 2018 campaign for Congress, as the initial win by Republican Mark Harris was tossed out by the state elections board after mounting evidence of GOP election fraud. During this summer's campaign between Bishop and McCready, there has been a steady diet of stories about the GOP fraud, with charges being leveled against a Republican political operative for obstruction of justice, illegal possession of absentee ballots, and more. But it's not clear if that will make a big difference for McCready, who lost the initial election by less than 1,000 votes. A win by Republicans would certainly calm GOP nerves about 2020, as 14 GOP lawmakers in the U.S. House have already decided not to run for re-election, to only 4 Democrats. A win for McCready on Tuesday would be a direct rebuke to President Trump, raising more questions about election momentum for Democrats in 2020.
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  Highway named for Confederate President is no more in DC suburb

  After years of debate, officials in Arlington County, Virginia - located just across the river from Washington, D.C. - this week began removing street signs bearing the name of the leader of the Confederacy, as Jefferson Davis Highway is being renamed Richmond Highway. 'Jefferson Davis had no connection to this area,' said Christian Dorsey, head of the Arlington County Board in Virginia, as he said the use of the name of Davis was nothing more than an effort to promote white supremacy in a state which led the defense of slavery and the Confederacy. 'It's about time,' said Libby Garvey, another member of the Arlington County Board. The name change comes as some cities and counties in Virginia have been dealing in recent years with multiple requests to change the name of schools or streets bearing the names of Confederate military leaders. Also in Arlington, Virginia, officials got rid of the moniker Washington-Lee High School - named in part for the famous Confederate General - and instead named the school Washington-Liberty High School. In Richmond, an elementary school once named for J.E.B. Stuart was renamed for President Barack Obama. In 2018, J.E.B. Stuart High School in the Washington suburb of Fairfax County, Virginia, was renamed Justice High School. That school was originally named in 1959 - during a time of heightened controversy in the U.S. over race relations. Change is also coming on Confederate statues on display in the U.S. Capitol, where each state is allowed to honor two people. The state of Florida plans to replace the statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith with one of Mary McLoed Bethune - a civil rights activist and educator. “Florida is proud to submit this request,” wrote Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) earlier this year.
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  Weather Service office rebuked over Trump, Dorian tweet

  In a highly unusual public reprimand of a local weather forecast office, the parent agency of the National Weather Service on Friday said forecasters in Birmingham, Alabama wrongly issued a tweet disputing President Donald Trump's Sunday warning that the state of Alabama could be directly impacted by Hurricane Dorian. 'The Birmingham National Weather Service's Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products at the time,' the statement read from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “I have never been so embarrassed by NOAA,' said Dan Sobien, the head of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. 'What they did is just disgusting.' The unattributed statement was quickly denounced by weather experts, including the dean of Alabama TV meteorologists, James Spann. 'The tweet from NWS Birmingham was spot on and accurate,' Spann tweeted, expressing his indignation that the White House had seemingly spurred NOAA to criticize government weather forecasters. The Birmingham National Weather Service office issued that tweet on Sunday morning, soon after President Trump had said to TV cameras - and on Twitter - that Alabama 'will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated' - even though the National Hurricane Center had the storm going nowhere near Alabama. 'Alabama could even be in for at least some very strong winds and something more than that, it could be.' the President told reporters on Sunday.  'This just came up, unfortunately,' he added. 'So, for Alabama, just please be careful also.'  But the National Hurricane Center forecast was not focused at all on Alabama, instead focused on threats to the Atlantic seaboard from Florida through the Carolinas - and the National Weather Service office in Birmingham quickly said residents of Alabama were not in any weather danger. 'There is nothing wrong with this Tweet from NWS Birmingham issued on Sept 1 after the President's erroneous information,' tweeted meteorologist Ryan Maue. 'Nothing like throwing your 'Alabama' NWS office under the bus,' Maue added on Twitter. The President's mention of Alabama on Sunday had basically been ignored as the news focus was on Hurricane Dorian destroying islands in the Bahamas, and then threatening the eastern coasts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. But that changed on Wednesday, when an out-of-date National Hurricane Center forecast map was used as part of a briefing in the Oval Office, as the map was altered with a black pen - evidently to demonstrate a weather threat to Alabama - and support the President's mention of the Yellowhammer State. 'They actually gave that a 95 percent chance probability,' the President said of Dorian's threat to Alabama on Wednesday. 'It turned out that that was not what happened; it made the right turn up the coast,' Mr. Trump told reporters. 'But Alabama was hit very hard, and was going to be hit very hard, along with Georgia.'  The President was absolutely correct that earlier last week, there were concerns that Dorian could go across the Florida Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening Alabama and the Gulf Coast. But by Sunday when President Trump warned residents in Alabama about Dorian, that state was not in the sights of the hurricane at all. The reaction in the weather community to the Friday statement by NOAA was one of shock. 'The most embarrassing thing I’ve seen @NOAA do in my 35 years in the field,' said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Kevin Kloesel. 'Omg @NOAA really,' said Marshall Shepherd, a former NASA scientist and weather professor.