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White House And Political News
Trump Claims Tthere’s A 10-Foot Wall Around The Obamas’ D. C. Home, He Is Wrong
The Trump Administration Takes Away Thousands Of SNAP Benefits From Georgia Residents
The Trump Administration has ended SNAP benefits for about 8,000 food stamp recip- ients in Georgia from April to October, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. Addition- ally, the state suspended bene- fits for about 356 people per month from October 2017 to March 2018 for reportedly fail- ing to get employment.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) mandates for those who are 18 and over to work for at least 20 hours a week or be enrolled in school in order to qualify for the benefits. Reportedly, Geor- gia authorities have been using a new method of being able to identify whether or not people in the peach state meet these qualifications.
Still, it’s estimated that more than 71 percent of the state’s population who benefit from food stamps have chil- dren and a third of that popu- lation have a relative who is disabled or elderly, The Root reports. There’s also the plight of people being able to
hold down a steady job; either because of proximity to job lo- cations or the lack of employ- ment made available to them.
“People who use SNAP who can work, do work,” Senior Policy Analyst Alex Car- mardelle, at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “If you are not working and you are receiving SNAP it’s because of a serious reason.”
Amid the stringent qualifi- cations for SNAP, and how those mandates have made the program's qualifications harder to meet, Georgia law-
makers still believe in the ben- efit cuts based on how they col- lect their data.
“We are more confident in the system being able to iden- tify ABAWDs [able-bodied adults without dependents] than we were in earlier sys- tems,” said Jon Anderson, who is part of the state’s Divi- sion of Family and Children Services (which handles SNAP). “We have more data el- ements available to us with this system than we have had with any of our other eligibility sys- tems.”
The Obamas' home on Belmont Street in the Kalorama neighbor- hood of Northwest D.C.
In one of his most recent arguments for a southern border wall, President Trump on Sunday falsely claimed that the Washington home of former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama is sur- rounded by a 10-foot wall.
Trump’s tweet comes in the midst of a partial govern- ment shutdown, which was spurred Dec. 22 by Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for a U. S.-Mexico border wall. He alleged that the “wall” around the Oba- mas' mansion was necessary for the former first couple’s “safety and security,” adding that the United States needs a “slightly larger version!”
Trump’s assertion came as a surprise to two of the Obamas' neighbors Mon- day, who told The Washing- ton Post that there is no such wall. The 8,200-square-foot structure, despite several se- curity features, is completely visible from the street.
A neighbor, a longtime res- ident of the area who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve their privacy, said Trump “has a very active imagination.”
“There’s a fence that goes along the front of the house, but it’s the same as the other neighbors have,” the neigh-
bor said. “It’s tastefully done.”
The former president and first lady purchased the nine- bedroom mansion for $8.1 million in 2017, The Post pre- viously reported. It’s located in the affluent D. C. neigh- borhood of Kalorama, which is also home to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kush- ner.
Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, who owns The Post, bought the former Tex- tile Museum in the neighbor- hood for $23 million; it is being converted into a single- family home. Previous resi- dents of the neighborhood have included former presi- dents Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.
TMZ reported on construc- tion to the residence in 2017 before the Obamas moved in, which the website also characterized as “a wall.”
Trump And Russia: What To Expect From Mueller In 2019
One ex-federal prosecutor said he is beginning to believe conspiracy with Russian elec- tion meddling is not the most serious crime Mueller is in- vestigating after Donald Trump became the Republi- can nominee in late July 2016, the FBI warned him that for- eign adversaries, including Russia, would attempt to spy on and infiltrate his campaign. It was a standard briefing, the kind routinely given to presi- dential candidates, capped with an admonition that Trump should call the FBI if he learned of any unusual ap- proaches from foreigners.
But there was something the FBI didn't tell him.
The bureau just recently had opened counterintelligence in- vestigations into four Trump advisers suspected of improper interactions with Russians — a fact, then-secret, that emerged much later in Congressional testimony.
Two of the four, Paul Man- afort and Michael Flynn, were top Trump aides with Russian baggage. A third, George Papadopoulos, had been offered Hillary Clinton emails by a Russian agent. The fourth, Carter Page, had traveled to Russia while advis- ing the Trump campaign.
Those FBI inquiries grew
into what has become special counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling Russia investigation — a legal juggernaut that threatens to overwhelm Trump's presidency.
The Mueller probe has led to criminal charges against 33 people, including three of those original four, and en- gulfed the Trump administra- tion in a legal and political morass unlike anything the country has witnessed since the impeachment of Presi- dent Bill Clinton, and before that, Watergate.
But a central question re-
mains unanswered, and it's one that could hold the key to what happens over the next few months: What did FBI offi- cials know in the summer of 2016 that dissuaded them from telling Trump they were in- vestigating his top aides?
The world may soon know the answer. Government offi- cials and others familiar with the situation tell NBC News that Mueller is nearing the end stages of his investigation, and a report by the special counsel is expected to be sub- mitted to the Justice Depart- ment as early as mid-February.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 7-A