President Trump isn't just skipping this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner; he's making sure the entire administration does the same.
No one from the Trump administration will be going to the yearly gathering of journalists on Saturday, as Trump has personally ordered an administration-wide boycott, Politico reports.
The president had previously said he would not personally be going to the 2019 White House Correspondents' Dinner, which he also skipped in 2017 and 2018. But even in those years, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders still went, CNN notes. The White House last year criticized comedian Michelle Wolf for her jokes about Sanders, though, including when she said she "burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye."
This year, the White House Correspondents' Dinner isn't having a comedian at all, and Trump once suggested this might inspire him to turn out. But he later announced he wouldn't do so and would hold a rally instead, calling the dinner "so boring" and "so negative."
White House Correspondents' Association President Olivier Knox responded to reports of Trump's boycott by saying that "we're looking forward to an enjoyable evening of celebrating the First Amendment and great journalists past, present, and future." Brendan Morrow
Most permits to hunt bears, caribou, moose, and other animals in Alaska require a lucky draw in a state lottery, but it apparently takes a special kind of person to trophy-hunt grizzly bears in Alaska's remote Seward Peninsula. Among the three people who bid for and won those permits on Friday was Donald Trump Jr., avid trophy hunter and son of the president. Twenty-four of the Nome-era grizzly tags went unclaimed, according to Eddie Grasser, the wildlife conservation director for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Trump has taken several hunting trips to Alaska, and along with his expedition to kill a grizzly bear, he plans to return later this year to shoot deer and ducks, Reuters reports. Trump was also the $150,000 prize at a Safari Club raffle this month; one lucky winner is going on a seven-day "dream hunt" expedition with Don Jr. on a yacht up along the Tongass National Forest in November.
President Trump's first interior minister appointed several Safari Club members friendly with Don Jr. to a government board that then advised relaxing restrictions on bear hunting in Alaska. Peter Weber
On former President Jimmy Carter's farmland, where nut and soybean crops once stretched as far as the eye could see, there are now 3,852 solar panels providing clean energy for much of Plains, Georgia.
Carter has long championed clean energy — he was the first president to use solar panels at the White House, explaining in 1979: "A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."
In 2017, the SolAmerica company worked with Carter to install solar panels on 10 acres of his farm, with the goal of powering most of Plains. Plains is home to 727 residents, and today, those solar panels provide more than half the town's power. One megawatt produces enough energy to keep the lights on in 400 to 900 homes, and the Carter farm's solar panels can provide 1.3 megawatts a day under the right conditions, People reports. SolAmerica Energy President George Mori told the magazine that by 2042, the panels are expected to have provided more than 55 million kilowatt hours of power.
The solar panels at the White House were dismantled by former President Ronald Reagan, and are on display at museums around the world, including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. Catherine Garcia
The FBI is investigating threats made against 18 Jewish Community Centers in New York on Sunday.
Jewish Community Centers offers social, educational, and athletic programs for adults and kids. The anonymous threats were not specific, but did mention bombs. New York State Director of Emergency Management Michael Kopy would not reveal which centers were targeted, but did say the threats were sent to people with Jewish Community Center email addresses. Similar threats were also sent to Jewish Community Centers in other parts of the country, The Associated Press reports.
On Sunday morning, about 100 people were evacuated from the Albany Jewish Community Center, which was searched by police officers and dogs. "These types of situations are so ugly and so unfortunate," Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said. "What's worse is we're seeing more and more of them. We've had about 42 incidents of anti-Semitism in this state this past couple of months, so it's not getting better. It's only getting worse." Catherine Garcia
President Trump arrives in India on Monday for a highly choreographed visit that includes stops in three cities, a rally for him in the world's largest cricket stadium organized by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a special visit to the Taj Mahal, trade talks, and several meals, including a lavish banquet at India's presidential palace. "The president, whose diet is often a rotation of steaks, burgers, and meatloaf, faces a potential shock" as his itinerary keeps him in majority-Hindu cities where "cows are revered as sacred" and "in some neighborhoods, meat eating is so taboo that it's not done in public," CNN reports.
Typically, when Trump travels abroad, "his hosts usually try make him feel at home with his favorite meal: steak with miniature bottles of ketchup on the side," CNN reports, "but Modi is a devoted vegetarian and plans to serve vegetarian food to the president." The menus won't be finalized until the last moment, and Trump's aides could try to intervene, as this president is not a willing traveler and aides place a premium on keeping him in his comfort zone, people familiar with the trip tell CNN. Vegetarian food, or anything spicy or mildly exotic, doesn't fit in that category.
One person who has dined with Trump on several occasions told CNN that other than the occasional salad, "I have never seen him eat a vegetable." A former official involved in some of Trump's earlier trips added: "I don't know what he's going to do in this case. They don't serve cheeseburgers." In India, even McDonald's doesn't serve beef.
Luckily, CNN repots, Trump will have food waiting for him on Air Force One, and Modi has gone out of his way to please Trump in other aspects of the visit. In Ahmedabad, the Modi government is building a 6-foot wall to hide a slum along a road Trump may travel — the government insists the timing is coincidental. Peter Weber
Conservative activists are reportedly sending Trump lists of 'disloyal' government officials to fire
Since 2018, people close to President Trump, including "a well-connected network of conservative activists," have been putting together lists of government officials deemed "disloyal" as well as pro-Trump people who should replace them, more than a dozen people with knowledge of the matter told Axios' Jonathan Swan.
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, leads Groundswell, the conservative network at the center of the lists. Thomas has passed along memos to Trump listing people who need to be replaced and suggestions as to who should fill their posts. Some recommendations have shaped Trump's opinion, Swan reports, and others have caused internal strife between Trump's outside advisers and White House officials in charge of personnel.
Trump has become convinced that every department in the government is filled with "snakes" who need to be fired, Swan writes. One person who became a victim of these memos is former U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, a person familiar with the matter told Swan. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had chosen Liu to become the department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, but after reading a lengthy memo listing allegations against her, Trump withdrew the nomination.
That memo was written by a member of Groundswell, a GOP Senate staffer named Barbara Ledeen, Swan reports. The memo claimed that there were more than a dozen reasons why Liu was unfit for the job, including because she dismissed charges against "violent inauguration protesters who plotted to disrupt the inauguration," belongs to a networking group that is "pro-choice," and signed the sentencing filing asking that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn serve jail time. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and Ledeen are friends.
You can read more about the lists and the suggested replacements, which include Fox News regulars and a controversial ex-sheriff, at Axios. Catherine Garcia
Barbara "B." Smith, a trailblazing model, television host, and restaurateur, died on Saturday evening at her home on Long Island. She was 70.
Smith spent years battling early-onset Alzheimer's disease. In a Facebook post, her husband, Dan Gasby, said "Heaven is shining even brighter now that it is graced with B.'s dazzling and unforgettable smile."
The Pennsylvania native started as a fashion model, and in 1976, she was just the second black woman to appear on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine. Smith was a spokeswoman for Verizon, Colgate, McCormick's Lawry seasonings, and Palmolive Oxy, and owned three restaurants. Her B. Smith's Restaurant in Manhattan opened in 1986, with Essence writing it was "where the who's who of black Manhattan meet, greet, and eat regularly."
Smith was also a cookbook author and host of B. Smith with Style, which aired on NBC stations. She launched a home products brand that debuted at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2001, making her the first black woman to have such a line sold at a nationwide retailer, The Associated Press reports. Smith is survived by Gasby and her stepdaughter, Dana Gasby. Catherine Garcia