ABC: Ross will no longer cover stories involving Trump

ABC: Ross will no longer cover stories involving Trump

NEW YORK

Suspended ABC News reporter Brian Ross will no longer cover stories involving President Donald Trump following his erroneous report last Friday on former national-security adviser Michael Flynn.

The network on Tuesday confirmed the order by ABC News President James Goldston, who expressed his anger over the error on an internal phone call that was leaked to CNN. ABC declined to make Goldston available for an interview Tuesday.

Ross was suspended for four weeks without pay over the weekend.

Lawyer: No subpoena for records relating to Trump finances

FRANKFURT, Germany

A lawyer for President Donald Trump is denying that special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank relating to the president.

“We have confirmed that the news reports that the special counsel had subpoenaed financial records relating to the President are false,” one of Trump’s personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement. “No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources.”

The statement was in response to a report from German newspaper Handelsblatt that Mueller had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank as part of his investigation into possible Russian involvement in the U.S. presidential election campaign. The report in Handelsblatt cites only “informed circles.” Several other media outlets had similar reports, also citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation.

Kennedy seems conflicted in high court cake case

WASHINGTON

On a sharply divided Supreme Court, the justice in the middle seemed conflicted Tuesday in the court’s high-stakes consideration of a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in 2012.

The court’s fault lines were laid bare in a riveting argument that focused equally on baker Jack Phillips’ right to refuse to put his artistic talents to use in support of something in which he disagrees and the Colorado couple’s right to be treated like any other two people who wanted a cake to celebrate their marriage.

Both views were reflected in the questions and comments of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of all the court’s major gay-rights decisions and a fierce defender of free speech. The outcome of the case seemed to rest with the 81-year-old justice, who often finds himself with the decisive vote in cases that otherwise divide the court’s conservatives and liberals.

Calif. suburbs again under siege from wind-driven fires

VENTURA, Calif.

For the second time in two months, wind-driven fires tore through California communities in the middle of the night, leaving rows of homes and a psychiatric hospital in ruins Tuesday and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing for their lives.

There were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries in the blazes burning in Southern California’s Ventura County, on the edge of Los Angeles and in inland San Bernardino County.

The Ventura wildfire broke out Monday and grew wildly to nearly 80 square miles. It was fanned by dry Santa Ana winds clocked at well over 60 mph that grounded firefighting helicopters and planes.

Associated Press