California's drought-resistant garden | Reuters.com

A home with a garden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjreVlmEbis of drought-tolerant plants is seen in Beverly Hills, April 8, 2015. California's cities and towns would be required to cut their water usage by http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_lawn-garden sprinklers up to 35 percent or face steep fines under proposed new https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjreVlmEbis rules released Tuesday, the...more





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Wednesday, April 08, 2015

A home with a garden of drought-tolerant plants is seen in Beverly Hills, April 8, 2015. California's cities and towns would be required to cut their water usage by up to 35 percent or face steep fines under proposed new rules released Tuesday, the state's first-ever mandatory cutbacks in urban water use amid ongoing drought.



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'Jackson Pollock' found in Arizona garage could fetch $15 million

A mystery painting found in a cluttered Arizona garage -- and believed to be the work of Jackson Pollock -- may fetch $15 million at auction next week, it was reported Tuesday.

The painting belonged to the estate of a Sun City retiree who was related to a New York City art collector, thePhoenix New Timesreports.



It goes up for auction next Tuesday at J. Levine Auction & Appraisal in Scottsdale.

"I'm convinced it's a Jackson Pollock, but nobody will attest that it's by Jackson Pollock," Levine told the news weekly.

The painting could easily fetch millions more if authenticated.

A foundation connected to Pollock's widow no longer authenticates the abstract expressionist's works.

WARREN BUFFETT CHARITY LUNCH SOLD TO HIGHEST BIDDER

What's more, there have b een many high-profile disputes in the past over the authenticity of Pollock paintings, according to thePrescott Daily Courier.

Levine said he hired private investigators and forensic experts to establish that the painting is a Pollock original, the paper reported Monday.

REYNOLDS, FISHER COLLECTIBLES HIT AUCTION BLOCK

"Based on their work and findings, I believe this painting was one of Pollock's missing gouaches in his catalogue raisonn or from the period of 1945 to 1949," he said.



The painting which measures 22 by 32 inches is bein g sold "as is."

Levine told the New Times the painting has visible damage caused by moisture, heat and smoke.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/13/jackson-pollock-found-in-arizona-garage-could-fetch-15-million.html

Ex-U.S. Attorney Bharara tells of 'unusual' calls he received from Trump| Reuters

By Sarah N. Lynch

| WASHINGTON



WASHINGTON Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara revealed on Sunday that he https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5hfLp3Vqc received a handful of "unusual" phone http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs-attorney calls from Donald Trump after the November election that made him feel uncomfortable, and said he was fired after declining to take the third call.

Speaking on ABC News' "This Week" in his first televise d interview since Trump fired him in March as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Bharara said he believed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5hfLp3Vqc Trump's calls to him violated the usual boundaries between the executive branch and independent criminal investigators.

"It's a very weird and peculiar thing for a one-on-one conversation without the attorney general, without warning between the president and me or any United States attorney who has been asked to investigate various things and is in a position hypothetically to investigate business interests and associates of the president," Bharara said.

He added that during President Barack Obama's tenure, Obama never called him directly.

Bharara's comments came just a few days after former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey testified at a congressional panel that Trump had asked him to drop an investigation into former Trump aide M ichael Flynn and his alleged ties to Russia.

Comey also said he believed he was subsequently fired in an effort to undermine the investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia and said he never directed Comey to drop the Flynn probe.

A White House spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.



Bharara said on Sunday that Trump called him twice after the November election "ostensibly just to shoot the breeze."

"It was a little bit uncomfortable, but he was not the president. He was only the president-elect," Bharara said.

The third call, however, came two days after Trump's inauguration. That time, he said, he refused to call back.

"The call came in. I got a message. We delib erated over it, thought it was inappropriate to return the call. And 22 hours later I was asked to resign along with 45 other people," he said.

Bharara stopped short of saying whether he thought Trump had obstructed justice in his conversations and subsequent firing of Comey.

However, he said he thought there was "absolutely evidence to begin a case" into the matter.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Richard Chang)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-bharara-idUSKBN19211S

After Hamas decade, Gaza short on freedom, jobs, electricity

Grim records mark the 10th anniversary of Hamas rule in Gaza -- the longest-ever daily electricity and water cuts, 60 percent youth unemployment, and a rising backlog of thousands waiting for a rare chance to exit the blockaded territory.

Unable to offer a remedy, the Islamic militant group has been doubling down on oppression. It has jailed the few who dare complain publicly, including the young organizers of a street protest against power cuts and an author who wrote on Facebook that "life is only pleasant for Hamas leaders."

Polls show almost half the people would leave altogether if they could, but that support for the group, despite three short, devastating wars with Israel, is steady at around a third. With potential opponents crushed, there is no obvious path to regime change.

Meanwhile, for most of Gaza's 2 million people, life is bound to get worse.

The international isolation of Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, will likely continue -- an d with it the border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the group seized Gaza in June 2007.

A new political program that Hamas hoped would mollify the West and Arab nations instead underscored its ideological rigidity; while softer in tone, the manifesto reaffirms a call to armed struggle and the creation of an Islamic state in historic Palestine, including what is now Israel.

There are also signs that one of Hamas' remaining foreign backers, Qatar, is in trouble. On Monday, four Arab countries cut ties with the Gulf nation, in part over Best Electrician Service in College Station its support of Islamist groups, such as Hamas. Qatar reportedly asked several Hamas leaders-in-exile to leave.

Hamas also faces financial pressure by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces it drove from Gaza a decade ago. Fed up with failed reconciliation efforts, the West Bank-based Abbas has warned he would cut more Gaza subsidies, such as electricity Best Electrician Service in College Station payments.

Hamas spokesman Salah Bardaweel dismissed suggestions Hamas should step aside, but acknowledged a deal to improve Gaza's lot is unlikely as long as the 82-year-old Abbas, who runs autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, remains in power.

He said Hamas was never given a chance to govern. "How do you hold someone accountable for a failure he did not create?" he said, referring to the blockade.

Bardaweel was recently skewered on social media after asserting Gaza will remain "steadfast."

Local writer Abdullah Abu Sharekh landed in jail after writing on Facebook that "people are not steadfast."

"They cannot do anything because you (Hamas) rule Gaza with iron and fire ... you brought Gaza back to the Middle Ages," he wrote.

After his release Saturday, he wrote that he was depriv ed of sleep for five days and forced to stand for long periods or sit on small chairs.

Stirrings of unrest are quashed.

A trio of unemployed friends in their 20s from the town of Beit Lahiya said Hamas has harassed them since they mobilized thousands in a rare street protest against chronic power cuts in January. They said they've been detained, beaten and repeatedly summoned to security compounds.

Activist Mohammed al-Taluli, 25, said pressure built again several weeks ago as daily rolling power cuts worsened, with four hours of electricity followed by outages of 14 to 18 hours. Al-Taluli said he and his friends received death threats to deter them from protesting, and that it was effective because no one can protect them from Hamas.

"People are asking us every day if we are planning a new demonstration," al-Taluli said, speaking in a room decorated with photos of revolutionary idols like Che Guevara. "But ... we are afraid."

Palestinian rights gr oups say Hamas practices mirror those of its West Bank rivals. Both governments have carried out arbitrary arrests and mistreated detainees, and both monitor social media and civil society to silence dissent.

Hamas leaders often tolerate criticism by well-known figures, but strike back when they detect a threat to their rule, said Samir Zakout of the Gaza rights group al-Mezan.



Over the past decade, Hamas has also executed 28 people, most of them alleged informers, after trials widely condemned as a sham. This includes three men executed last month, after a field tribunal tried them in less than a week.

The three had been accused of involvement in killing a Hamas leader, Mazen Faqha, near his apartment building in March. Hamas violently interrogated dozens of people and claimed this netted dozens of informers.

Relatives of one of the t hree who were killed, 38-year-old Abdullah al-Nashar, said they believe he had indeed collaborated with Israel, lured by an Israeli exit permit from Gaza. But Al-Nashar's father, Ahmed, said his son had nothing to do with the Faqha killing and didn't deserve to die.

Hamas' rise to power was fueled by frustration with corruption during the rule of Abbas' Fatah movement. Hamas also rejected Fatah's attempt to negotiate Palestinian statehood on lands Israel captured in 1967, including Gaza.

In 2006, months after Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections. Subsequent failed attempts to negotiate a power-sharing deal and Hamas-Fatah street fighting culminated in the June 2007 http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs-electrician Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Ahmed al-Nashar, 63, said he had voted for Hamas hoping "they would do something good in the name of religion," but has concluded "there is no future here with these people."

Hamas said it was sabotaged from the start.

Israel and Egypt, citing security concerns, enforced a crushing border blockade, banning most movement and exports. Three Israel-Hamas wars, in part triggered by a Hamas arms buildup, further devastated the territory and its economy.

Meanwhile, the international community stuck to its initial conditions for dealing with Hamas, including renouncing violence, even as it called for lifting the blockade.

This leaves Gazans in a miserable limbo.