Trump AG pick says he’s discussed Mueller probe with Pence
By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, William Barr, says Vice President Mike Pence is among the officials with whom he has discussed the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
Barr said in written responses to Senate questions made available Monday that he and Pence have had occasional conversations since the spring of 2017 on matters including policy and personnel. Some of those conversations included “general discussion of the Special Counsel’s investigation in which I gave my views on such matters as Bob Mueller’s high integrity and various media reports.”
“In these conversations, I did not provide legal advice, nor, to the best of my recollection, did he provide confidential information,” Barr told Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat.
In his role as special counsel, Mueller is investigating potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election. If confirmed by the Senate, Barr would inherit oversight of Mueller’s investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee is prepared to vote on Barr’s nomination to be attorney general this week or next.
Barr described the Pence conversations in response to a question from Whitehouse about whether he had ever discussed Mueller’s investigation with anyone at the White House. He has also acknowledged that he discussed Mueller with Trump himself when he turned down an opportunity to represent the president in the special counsel’s investigation.
“During the meeting, the President reiterated his public statements denying collusion and describing the allegations as politically motivated. I did not respond to those comments,” Barr said.
He also reiterated how he shared with lawyers for the White House and for Trump a June 2018 memo he had written in which he disputed the idea that the president could have obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.
Barr’s responses to the senators’ written questions largely matched his testimony from earlier this month. He repeated his intention to release as much of Mueller’s findings as possible, though he said he did not know what form a report from the special counsel would take.
Barr also said he would resign if Trump claimed executive privilege to cover up evidence of a crime, and if he were asked to fire Mueller without good reason.
“I would resign rather than follow an order to terminate the Special Counsel without good cause,” Barr wrote in response to a question from New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker.

Insurance claims from deadly California wildfires top $11.4B
By KATHLEEN RONAYNE, Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Insurance claims from California’s deadly November 2018 wildfires have topped $11.4 billion, making the series of fires one of the most expensive in state history, officials said Monday.
More than $8 billion of those losses are from the fire that leveled the town of Paradise, killing 86 people and destroying roughly 15,000 homes, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. Roughly $3 billion worth of damage is related to two Southern California wildfires that ignited during the same week.
“We have a long way to go before we can feel whole again,” Lara said after announcing the numbers.
The $11.4 billion total is slightly below the losses claimed from 2017 wildfires that ripped through Northern California wine country in October and Southern California in December.
While far more houses were destroyed in last year’s wildfires, home values are much lower in rural California communities, officials said last year.
The losses could keep rising. In all, wildfire insurance claims in California last year neared $12.4 billion, Lara said.
The new numbers come as Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., the nation’s largest utility, prepares to file for bankruptcy as early as Tuesday. State officials have not yet determined the cause of last year’s wildfires, but PG&E equipment is suspected in the Paradise blaze.
California law makes utilities entirely liable for damage from wildfires sparked by their equipment, even if the utility isn’t found negligent. PG&E has said it faces billions in possible damages from fires.
Regardless of what happens with the utility, California’s insurers are prepared to pay out all the claims, most of which were filed by residential property owners, Lara said.
“We are confident that the insurers have the money to make sure that we make people whole,” Lara said.

President Donald Trump says he doubts he’d be willing to accept less than the $5.7 billion he has demanded from Congress to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump tells The Wall Street Journal that he doesn’t think congressional negotiators will strike a deal he’d accept to end the border wall standoff and pledges to build a wall anyway using his executive powers to declare a national emergency if necessary. Democrats oppose a wall and say it would be ineffective and wasteful.

Lawmakers have returned to the Pennsylvania Capitol, but they have yet to revisit a response to child sexual abuse scandals since the debate’s late-night collapse on last year’s final voting day. The Legislature’s new two-year session began in earnest today, with little mention of legislation reflecting the state attorney general’s sweeping grand jury report on child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses.

Hillary Clinton is not ruling out a presidential rematch against President Donald Trump, according to CNN’s White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny. Zeleny told a panel on CNN’s ‘Inside Politics’ on Sunday that Clinton is telling people that, given all this news from the indictments, particularly the Roger Stone indictment, she is not closing the doors to the idea of running in 2020. Zeleny’s report did acknowledge there are no official announcements or campaign plans in the works.

THE 2018 OVERDOSE DEATH DATA FOR BEAVER COUNTY WAS JUST RELEASED THIS MORNING. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS MORE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report….

A drug treatment facility opens in Ohioville. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano has details…