Lawmaker says House goodbyes
WASHINGTON -- California freshman congresswoman Katie Hill bid a defiant farewell to the House on Thursday, suggesting a double standard forced her resignation during a messy divorce, "gutter" politics and nude photos made public.
Ahead of her last floor speech, Hill, 32, cast her final House vote in favor of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
In her speech, Hill apologized to supporters, especially young girls and those who are different, for letting them down after toppling a Republican incumbent and rocketing toward the top of Democratic politics. Then she turned her fury on a system that she said allows Trump and other men accused of misconduct to remain in some of the country's highest offices.
Hill announced her resignation Sunday during an ethics investigation into whether she had engaged in an affair with a male congressional staff member, which she denied. Hill, who identifies as bisexual, acknowledged having a consensual affair with a female campaign aide.
Separately, a conservative outlet published nude photos of Hill with another woman, a development she blamed on what she called an abusive husband and ruthless political operatives.
"I'm leaving, but we have men who have been credibly accused of intentional acts of sexual violence and remain in boardrooms, on the Supreme Court, in this very body and, worst of all, in the Oval Office," Hill said from the well of the mostly empty House.
Trump, who can be heard on an Access Hollywood recording bragging about grabbing and kissing women without their consent, denies accusations of sexual misconduct from more than a dozen women. Two Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, have also denied accusations of sexual impropriety.
Text grab blamed on China hackers
WASHINGTON -- A cybersecurity firm said in a new report that Chinese hackers with a history of state-sponsored espionage intercepted the text messages of thousands of foreigners in a targeted operation.
FireEye said Thursday that hackers penetrated a telecommunications provider and planted eavesdropping software. It hasn't said where the provider is located. It said that while some of the known targets were high value, none was a U.S. official.
FireEye said the hackers belong to a group known as APT41, and the spyware captured messages that mentioned politicians and military organizations at odds with the Chinese government.
The malware could not read messages sent with end-to-end encrypted applications such as WhatsApp and iMessage.
A spokesman at China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Judge drops suit linked to brothels
LAS VEGAS -- A federal judge in Nevada has dismissed a lawsuit that invoked sex-trafficking laws in a bid to close the nation's only legal brothels.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno cited jurisdictional grounds, after saying in her Tuesday ruling that she empathizes with the three Texas women who claim they were sexual-violence victims in Nevada and other states.
The judge also said she's not convinced that the profound harm the women said they suffered was because of Nevada's prostitution laws.
Prostitution is legal in rural Nevada, where state officials oversee 21 legal bordellos in seven counties.
The lawsuit was filed in February by Rebekah Charleston, who said she was forced into prostitution at a legal Nevada brothel.
A Section on 11/01/2019