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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017
WORLD IN BRIEF
final legislation to Trump before Christmas as
the first major legislative accomplishment of his
presidency.
At the White House, Trump was eager to
receive it. “The cynical voices that opposed tax
cuts grow smaller and weaker, and the American
people grow stronger, he said. “This is for people
of middle income, this is for companies that are
going to create jobs. This is for very, very special
people, the great people of America.”
The business tax cuts would be permanent,
but reductions for individuals would expire after
a decade — saving money to comply with Sen-
ate budget rules. In all, the bill would cut taxes by
about $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, adding
billions to the nation’s mounting debt.
Associated Press
Sheriff: Facebook
post led search for
lawmaker found dead
FRANKFORT, Ky. — An ominous Face-
book post from a Kentucky lawmaker facing sex-
ual assault allegations is part of what prompted
his family to report him missing to authorities, a
sheriff said today.
The post from Dan Johnson on Wednesday
night asked people to take care of his wife and
said “heaven is my home.” Sometime after the
post, the Republican apparently killed himself on
a bridge in a secluded area. A day earlier, he had
defiantly denied the sex assault allegations.
The accusations came amid a sexual harass-
ment scandal involving other Republican law-
makers at the state Capitol.
Bullitt County Coroner Dave Billings said
Johnson died of a single gunshot wound, “prob-
ably suicide.” He stopped his car at the end of a
bridge in a secluded area, got out and walked to
the front of the car. An autopsy is scheduled for
today.
Bullitt County Sheriff Donnie Tinnell said
police recovered a 40 mm pistol next to John-
son’s body. Johnson’s family had reported him
missing because they could not reach him after
he posted the Facebook message about 5 p.m.
Johnson was elected to the state legislature in
2016, part of a wave of Republican victories that
gave the GOP control of the Kentucky House of
Representatives for the first time in nearly 100
years. He won his election despite Republican
leaders urging him to drop out of the race after
local media reported on some of his Facebook
posts comparing Barack and Michelle Obama to
monkeys.
The pastor of Heart of Fire church in Louis-
ville, Johnson sponsored a number of bills hav-
ing to do with religious liberty and teaching the
Bible in public schools. But he was mostly out of
the spotlight until Monday, when the Kentucky
Center for Investigative Reporting published an
account from a woman saying Johnson sexually
assaulted her in the basement of his home in 2013.
Farenthold to retire
from House amid
harassment accusations
WASHINGTON — Two Republicans say
Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold won’t seek
re-election next year. The lawmaker is under
pressure from sexual misconduct allegations that
surfaced three years ago but have come under
renewed focus.
Mike Bergsma is Republican county chair-
man in Farenthold’s home county of Nueces. He
tells The Associated Press that Farenthold cam-
paign manager Joseph Walter told him Thursday
that the lawmaker is not seeking re-election.
Another Republican in Washington confirmed
that Farenthold is retiring. The source spoke on
condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that
the congressman had not officially announced.
A former Farenthold aide sued him in 2014,
claiming sexually suggestive comments and
behavior.
Three members of Congress facing sexual
harassment accusations announced their resigna-
tions last week.
Disney buying large
part of 21st Century Fox
in $52.4 billion deal
NEW YORK — Disney is buying the Mur-
doch family’s Fox movie and television studios
and some cable and international TV businesses
for about $52.4 billion, as the home of Mickey
Mouse tries to meet competition from technology
companies in the entertainment business.
Rich Fury/Invision
Tavis Smiley in 2016 at the 33rd annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Los Angeles.
Smiley, suspended by PBS, vows to fight back
NEW YORK — PBS has suspended radio and TV host Tavis Smiley after finding what it
called “troubling allegations” of sexual misconduct, making him the second high-profile star to
be ousted from a network known for its high-brow, genteel programming.
The Public Broadcasting Service said Wednesday an independent investigation uncovered
“multiple, credible allegations of conduct that is inconsistent with the values and standards of
PBS.” His show’s page at PBS was scrubbed today.
Smiley shot back on Facebook, saying PBS “overreacted” and calling it “a rush to judg-
ment.” He said he has never harassed anyone and claimed one relationship the network uncov-
ered was consensual.
“If having a consensual relationship with a colleague years ago is the stuff that leads to this
kind of public humiliation and personal destruction, heaven help us,” he said. “This has gone too
far. And, I, for one, intend to fight back.”
The ouster comes weeks after PBS cut ties with anchor and talk show host Charlie Rose, cit-
ing “extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior” by him toward women at his PBS talk show.
Smiley brought rare diversity to late-night TV and has drawn the ire of conservatives and
liberals alike for some of his views. He has worked for six networks over a 30-year career. His
radio program “The Tavis Smiley Show” was distributed by Public Radio International from
2005 to 2013. He has been with PBS for 14 seasons and some 3,000 episodes.
Disney’s all-stock deal for 21st Century Fox
gives it the studios behind “Avatar,” “The Simp-
sons” and “Modern Family,” though Murdoch
will keep the Fox News Channel, the Fox tele-
vision network and other U.S. television busi-
nesses. The deal also brings Marvel characters
such as X-Men and The Avengers under one roof.
That Rupert Murdoch and his sons were will-
ing to sell off much of the business that has been
built up over decades came as a shock to the
entertainment industry.
Murdoch, who built a global media and enter-
tainment empire out of an inheritance from his
father in Australia, says selling much of the 21st
Century Fox entertainment businesses to Dis-
ney allows what remains of his family’s business
to focus on American news and sports. During
a call with investors today, Murdoch describes
the move as a return to the company’s lean and
aggressive roots.
The deal comes as the entertainment busi-
ness goes through big changes. TV doesn’t have
a monopoly on home entertainment anymore.
There’s Netflix, which is spending up to $8 bil-
lion on programming next year. Amazon is build-
ing its own library, having splashed out on global
TV rights to “Lord of the Rings.” Facebook,
Google and Apple are also investing in video.
FCC votes down ‘net
neutrality’ rules, opponents
brace for long fight
NEW YORK — The Federal Communica-
tions Commission has voted on party lines to
undo sweeping Obama-era “net neutrality” rules
that guaranteed equal access to the internet.
The agency’s Democratic commissioners dis-
sented in the 3-2 vote today.
The vote could usher in big changes in how
Americans use the internet, a radical departure
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6 PM
Ample tax cuts for
business, wealthy in
new GOP tax accord
WASHINGTON — Generous tax cuts for
corporations and the wealthiest Americans would
be delivered in a sweeping overhaul of the tax
laws, under a new agreement crafted by Republi-
cans in Congress.
Middle- and low-income families would
receive smaller tax cuts, though President Don-
ald Trump and Republican leaders have billed the
package as a huge benefit for the middle class.
The agreement reached Wednesday by House
and Senate GOP leaders also calls for scrapping
a major tax requirement of the “Obamacare”
health law, a step toward the ultimate GOP goal
of unraveling the law.
The agreement combines key elements of
separate tax bills recently passed by the House
and Senate, striking compromises on some of
them. The Republicans are pushing to deliver
CHICAGO — The question of whether fed-
eral agents display racial bias by staging phony
drug stash-house stings overwhelmingly in black
neighborhoods is the focus of hearings begin-
ning today in Chicago and could determine
whether agencies curtail or even abandon their
use nationwide.
A first-of-its-kind panel of federal trial judges
holds two days of hearings on the stings, which
are overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and typically
involve agents posing as cartel couriers who talk
suspects into agreeing to rob drugs that don’t
exist from what they are told are guarded stash
houses that are also fictitious.
The nine panelists — each of whom presides
over 12 separate stash-house cases with 43 defen-
dants in all — chose to hear evidence simultane-
ously on the question after defense teams in the
dozen cases all moved for the indictments to be
tossed on grounds of racial bias.
How the judges rule in coming weeks — and
they could submit a single ruling — is expected
to influence how courts around the country deal
with similar claims about the stings, which have
been a favorite tool of federal law enforcement
dating back to the 1990s. Rulings in Chicago
could also encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to
take up issue.
Among the panelists is Ruben Castillo, whose
ruling in 2013 that there’s a “strong showing of
potential bias” in the stings generated years of
legal motions and dueling expert reports — cul-
minating in this week’s hearings. He ruled just
weeks after he was sworn in as the federal court’s
first Hispanic chief judge.
South Korean President
Moon in China on visit
to repair ties
BEIJING — South Korean President Moon
Jae-in met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping
today during a visit to Beijing aimed at repairing
ties frayed by a dispute over the deployment of an
American anti-missile system.
The two leaders were to preside over a doc-
ument signing ceremony following their talks,
although there was no indication they would be
issuing statements. While the visit is a sign of
progress toward resolving the more than one-
year-old dispute, China continues to demand the
removal of the U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area
Defense system, known as THAAD, saying it
allows South Korea and its U.S. ally to spy on
military activity in northeastern China.
South Korean businesses in China have suf-
fered as a result of the dispute. China suspended
group tours to South Korea that are a mainstay of
the local tourism industry, pulled South Korean
soap operas off television and banned the coun-
try’s popular K-Pop stars from visiting.
South Korea’s Lotte business group, which
provided the land for the missile-defense sys-
tem, had to suspend business amid the anti-South
Korea sentiments.
SCHEDULE
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
from more than a decade of federal oversight.
The proposal would not only roll back restrictions
that keep broadband providers like Comcast, Ver-
izon and AT&T from blocking or collecting tolls
from services they don’t like, it would bar states
from imposing their own rules.
The broadband industry promises that the
internet experience isn’t going to change, but its
companies have lobbied hard to overturn these
rules. Protests have erupted online and in the
streets as everyday Americans worry that cable
and phone companies will be able to control what
they see and do online.
That growing public movement suggests
that the FCC vote won’t be the end of the issue.
Opponents of the move plan legal challenges, and
some net-neutrality supporters hope to ride that
wave of public opinion into the 2018 elections.
Judges to examine
if drug stash-house
stings racially biased
Evening listings
THURSDAY
D ECEMBER 14
A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach
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Ernest Saves Christmas (‘88, Comedy) Douglas Seale, Billie Bird, Jim Varney.
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(5:30) Thor (‘11, Act) Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth.
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Lucy (2014, Action) Morgan Freeman, Analeigh Tipton, Scarlett Johansson.
White House Down (2013, Action) Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Channing Tatum.
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