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Trump breaks protocol _ again _ on press access

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump emerged from his New York skyscraper Tuesday night for the first time in days, moving about the nation’s largest city without a pool of journalists on hand to ensure the public has knowledge of his whereabouts.

The president-elect spent about two hours dining with family at the 21 Club, a restaurant a few blocks from his Trump Tower residence. Journalists were only aware that Trump was leaving home when they spotted a large motorcade pulling away from the building, including an ambulance with lights flashing.

The movement was a surprise given that Trump’s campaign had already called a “lid” — a signal to journalists that he would not be venturing out for the rest of the day. The practice is meant to ensure that journalists are on hand to witness, on behalf of the public, the activities of the president or president-elect, rather than relying on secondhand accounts.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks issued the lid at 6:14 p.m. But just over an hour later, Trump’s motorcade left his residence. His whereabouts became clear only after a fellow diner tweeted a picture of the president-elect arriving at the restaurant.

Hicks said she was unaware that Trump planned to leave his home and had not intended to leave the press in the dark. She said the Trump team was working toward setting up a protective pool in the near future.

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Amid signs of transition trouble, Trump huddles with Pence

NEW YORK (AP) — Hidden from the public in his Manhattan high-rise, Donald Trump huddled Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as he tried to fill out key posts in his Cabinet. But the transition team appeared to be straining under the enormous challenge of setting up a new administration.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a respected Republican voice on national security issues, announced he was quitting the transition effort. An apparent clerical oversight effectively halted the Trump team’s ability to coordinate with President Barack Obama’s White House.

Trump himself broke with protocol Tuesday night by leaving Trump Tower without his press contingent. The transition team had told reporters and photographers there would be no movement by the president-elect for the rest of the day and night, but less than two hours later a presidential-style motorcade rolled out of the building, suggesting that Trump was on the move and leaving reporters scrambling.

Trump turned up at Club 21, a midtown Manhattan restaurant where he was having dinner with his family. Reporters were not allowed inside, and Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks asked that they respect that he was having an evening out with his family.

A short time later a tweet appeared on Trump’s account: “Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”

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House GOP nominates Ryan as speaker, with Trump’s support

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Paul Ryan unanimously won his GOP colleagues’ votes on Tuesday for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had President-elect Donald Trump’s support, and heralded “the dawn of a new, unified Republican government.”

“It feels really good to say that actually,” Ryan told reporters. “This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trump’s victory into real progress for the American people.”

While victory was the GOP unifier, Democrats were verging on disarray. House Democrats abruptly announced Tuesday that they were delaying their own leadership elections set for Thursday until Nov. 30 to give lawmakers more time to process disastrous election results.

It’s not clear whether the election delay might morph into a real challenge to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has led House Democrats for more than 12 years and has consolidated support with strong fundraising and an ability to deliver votes, but there’s long been grumbling from Democrats who say new leadership is needed at the top.

As for Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican still has to win a floor vote for speaker in January, when all members of the House will cast ballots, including Democrats.

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Russia announces major operation in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Russian missiles pounded opposition targets in Syria on Tuesday, the start of a much-anticipated offensive, while activists reported the resumption of bombing in rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo for the first time in nearly a month, apparently by Syrian government warplanes.

The Russian blitz began hours after President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria in a phone call and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy — “international terrorism and extremism.”

Russia said its offensive, using long-range missiles and its carrier-borne jets in combat for the first time on opposition areas in Syria, focused on rebel-held northern Idlib province and parts of the central province of Homs. It didn’t mention the besieged eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo.

The new offensive was a sharp snub to the Obama administration and its policy toward Syria, and augurs a major escalation in the coming days that would put tens of thousands of civilians in serious danger.

Months of negotiations between Moscow and the Obama administration have failed to cement a long-term cease-fire in Aleppo, which has become the focus of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. Al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.

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Life in the White House bubble? Trump’s had practice

WASHINGTON (AP) — For nearly the entire week since he became president-elect, Donald Trump has been holed up in his gilded New York skyscraper. A steady stream of visitors has come to him, flooding through metal detectors and getting whisked up to Trump’s offices and penthouse residence.

The unusual arrangement has left Trump looking like the missing player in his own transition planning. He’s left it to aides to explain the increasingly strained process and given space for allies jockeying for top jobs to set the tone during a crucial phase.

“President-elect Trump is there receiving calls from different people. He has different meetings, interviews,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said earlier this week. “We’ve really just been ensconced in Trump Tower trying to form a government.”

Advisers have provided few specific details of Trump’s schedule, leaving journalists gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower to piece together clues based on who is seen entering and exiting the building. He emerged briefly Tuesday night for a private dinner with family, but his team has given no indication of when he may next appear in public.

Trump has long lived in a bubble of his own creation, a situation that could prepare him for the insular, security-shrouded cocoon that awaits him at the White House.

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Bring your own weed: Denver allows pot in bars, eateries

DENVER (AP) — Denver has approved a first-in-the-nation law allowing people to use marijuana at bars, restaurants and other public spaces such as art galleries or yoga studios.

The catch: Patrons could use pot as long as it isn’t smoked and the locations would have to seek the approval of neighbors.

Denver voters approved Proposition 300 as eight other states legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes last week. The Denver vote was so close that it took an entire week for supporters to claim victory and opponents to concede.

“It’s the sensible thing to do,” said Emmett Reistroffer, a Denver marijuana consultant and campaign manager for the pot-in-bars measure. “This is about personal responsibility and respecting adults who want to have a place to enjoy cannabis.”

The city measure takes effect immediately, but it has a lot of caveats.

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Police: Shooting of Southwest Airlines employee was planned

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A gunman lay in wait outside Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport on Tuesday before shooting and killing a Southwest Airlines employee in a premeditated attack that occurred while hundreds of people waited for flights nearby, police said.

Michael Winchester, 52, was shot while walking between a crowded terminal and the airport employee parking area. The unidentified suspect was later found dead in a pickup truck in public parking garage overlooking the scene. Police said the suspect appeared to die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Paco Balderrama said the shooter apparently knew the victim’s schedule and routine.

“This individual went there and waited for the employee to either be coming or going to take this opportunity,” Balderrama said. He wouldn’t say conclusively that it was a “sniper-type” attack.

The 1 p.m. shooting set off a scramble at the airport, with police immediately closing the sprawling complex and asking passengers inside to seek cover.

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Pipeline company seeks court permission to proceed with plan

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — The company building a $3.8 billion oil pipeline sought a federal judge’s permission Tuesday to circumvent President Barack Obama’s administration and move ahead with a disputed section of the project in North Dakota, as opponents held protests across the country urging it to be rejected.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and a subsidiary asked the court to let them lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, a plan the Standing Rock Sioux says threatens its drinking water and cultural sites. The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it needs more time to study the impact of the plan.

While President-elect Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, likely would greenlight the project when he takes office in January, the company is trying to win federal approval — or a court order — to allow it to go forward now. The delay has already cost nearly $100 million, the company said in court documents, “and further delay in the consideration of this case would add millions of dollars more each month in costs which cannot be recovered.”

In a statement Tuesday, the company blamed the Obama administration for “political interference” in the pipeline review process.

The Army Corps referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which declined comment.

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AP EXPLAINS: Election brings white nationalism to forefront

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Donald Trump’s choice of far-right publishing executive Steve Bannon as a top White House adviser is bringing new scrutiny to a troubling, decades-old ideology: white nationalism.

The movement generally advocates formation of a nation set aside for whites. Some adherents openly supported Trump for president, and white nationalists have praised Trump’s appointment of Bannon as a senior adviser. Bannon previously headed the Breitbart website that appealed to the so-called “alt-right” — a movement often associated with far right efforts to preserve “white identity,” oppose multiculturalism and defend “Western values.”

White nationalists often support the idea that white people are under attack in the U.S., and need protection from the growth of minority and immigrant groups. Adherents sometimes use the hashtag #whitegenocide on social media to promote their belief that the future of the white race is in peril. They see diversity as a threat to fight, not a goal to embrace.

Here are some questions and answers about white nationalism in the United States:

HOW DID THIS GET STARTED?

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Kelly says it’s important people learn of Trump’s actions

NEW YORK (AP) — Megyn Kelly said Tuesday she didn’t want to reveal much about President-elect Donald Trump’s treatment of her the past year so as to not be accused of trying to tip the election, but now believes it’s important for people to know the story in case the new administration is hostile to the press.

In her new biography, “Settle For More,” the Fox News Channel personality lays out the private stories behind what happened after her debate question on Trump’s treatment of women caused the Republican candidate to bitterly go after her on social media and in interviews.

One low point, Kelly writes, was when one of her children asked her to define “bimbo” — part of the name-calling against her — and also said she was afraid Trump would hurt her.

Even before that summer 2015 debate, Kelly writes that Trump threatened her with a Twitter storm because he’d heard she was going to ask him a particularly tough question. It raises the question of whether Kelly was sabotaged from within, but Kelly said in an interview that it may have been a bluff because Trump was concerned she would ask him about his treatment of an ex-wife.

Throughout the siege, Kelly said she was convinced Trump was trying to bait her into saying something that would disqualify her from covering the campaign, and she didn’t want to be accused of favoring Hillary Clinton.