Down...

Recent market turbulence, including sharp stock market drop, has been a wakeup call for many investors. Feeling queasy? It isn’t too late to make portfolio changes: The S&P 500 may be down 10% from its all-time high in September, but it’s still up an eye-popping 290% since March 2009.

If this is the start of a bear market—and that’s a big “if”—the decline and subsequent recovery will likely all be over within five years or so. 

Clown...

The semi-nascent presidential campaign of celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti suffered a huge blow this week, with a trio of terrible headlines.

Avenatti, 47, has emerged by virtue of representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump over a 2016 hush money payment. Avenatti has deftly parlayed the publicity surrounding the Daniels case into a dizzying amount of publicity for himself.

The trifecta of damaging news stories cast doubt on Avenatti.  

A California judge ruled that Avenatti must pay a former law partner $4.5 million in back pay. One of several business disputes that have dogged Avenatti in recent years.

Time magazine published a profile of Avanatti that contained this eye-popping quote: Asked who the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee should be, Avenatti replied, "I think it [had] better be a white male. Civil rights activist Shaun King wrote, "This man is a clown...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, formally referred Avenatti and one of his clients, Julie Swetnick, to the FBI for criminal prosecution. In a detailed letter to the FBI, Grassley alleged that Avenatti and Swetnick made "materially false statements" to the committee about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearings.

Meg...

NBC News announced it is cancelling Megyn Kelly's show following her controversial comments on blackface.

"Megyn Kelly Today is not returning."

Kelly's tenure at NBC was rumored to be coming to a close, but took a sharp turn earlier this week after she made comments on blackface as part of a Halloween costume.

Kelly apologized to her colleagues, and her audience. After that show, NBC aired reruns of previous episodes in the 9 o'clock hour.

Kelly reportedly fired her agent who negotiated her three-year deal with NBC News for $23-million-a-year.  Just a thought.

Dishonest...

A picture believed to be of a van seized by authorities in the package bomb investigation shows a sticker with a target around former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's face.

The picture was taken on an earlier date before authorities seized the van. Another sticker read "Dishonest Media CNN sucks" in all capital letters.

Magna...

Police said they've arrested a man in Salisbury, England, accused of trying to steal one of history's most famous documents.

The Magna Carta, an English historical writ that enshrined the principles of the rule of law, was issued by King John of England in 1215.

The document is housed in Salisbury Cathedral. A visitor was seen "smashing the case of the Magna Carta with a hammer and trying to destroy it" on Friday, according to the Salisbury Journal, a local newspaper. 

The clauses in the Magna Carta, a cornerstone of the British constitution, established that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law.

The document was not damaged. The cathedral was evacuated afterward, and other visitors told the Journal they heard alarms while exiting.

Mislead...

Sen. Chuck Grassley referred attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. He cited Swetnick's interview with NBC News as evidence the two were trying to mislead the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Swetnick back-tracked on or contradicted parts of her sworn statement where she alleged she witnessed Brett Kavanaugh "cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be 'gang raped'  by a 'train' of boys."

Another woman whose statement Avenatti provided to the Senate.

The unidentified woman said she witnessed Kavanaugh "spike" the punch at high school parties in order to sexually take advantage of girls. But less than 48 hours, the woman said she never met Swetnick in high school and never saw her at parties. When asked if she ever witnessed Kavanaugh act inappropriately towards girls, the woman replied, "no." 

She did describe a culture of heavy drinking in high school that she took part in, Kavanaugh and his friend were part of that group.

Silent...

A caravan of some 7,000 migrants from Central America is marching north through Mexico, heading for the U.S. border.  

Marching on the U.S. border is misguided and dangerous; those who attempt it should understand that it does not result in automatic admission or asylum. Entry into the U.S. is a privilege, not a right.

President Donald Trump has tweeted his intention to deploy the U.S. military to “close our Southern border.” He’s also threatened to halt U.S. aid to the governments concerned.

Democrats have been ominously silent. This is a mistake  and an abdication of responsibility. Democrats, who are trying to make the case for their ascension in the midterm elections, need to make clear that they agree with Trump on the need for a secure border and that they are prepared to work with him to ensure that it remains so.

 Democrats should call on the marchers to turn back, far and away the best solution. In this, they ought not to shrink from saying they agree with the president. [Bloomberg]

Evidence...

 

A man has been arrested in a rape case that sat unsolved for nearly four decades until the case's DNA evidence was tested last year.

The Orlando Sentinel reports 58-year-old Leslie Lovan Hammock was booked into the county jail. Court records say DNA samples taken from the unnamed woman in the 1983 attack were found to match Hammock. He is accused of raping the woman at knife-point and fleeing.

Hammock was imprisoned on a conviction of a similar crime until 2016. He was sentenced to seven years for kidnapping a woman at gunpoint in 2010, raping her and beating her unconscious. No Statue of limitation here.

XOFLUZA...

The FDA has approved a new flu medication in the form of a single-dose pill. The medication, called XOFLUZA, was designed to make the flu shorter if taken within 48 hours of onset, according to the FDA. 

Researchers believe the medication will prevent patients from spreading the flu, which could help reign in contagion rates following the 2017-2018 flu season, which saw 900,000 hospitalizations and 80,000 deaths -- the deadliest season in four decades, according to the FDA. The medication was approved under a priority review.

The medication is the first in a new class of antiviral medications that blocks an enzyme within the flu virus, which stops viral replication early in the influenza cycle, the FDA announced. 

XOFLUZA is similar to Tamiflu, but "decreases viral shedding faster" and is associated with less side effects.

Freeloading...

President Donald Trump accused the world of "freeloading" off "American genius" when it comes to the development and testing of revolutionary new drugs and promised to limit federal payments for some Medicare drugs based on prices paid in other developed countries. Trump called it an "American patients first" approach.

"We are taking aim at the global freeloading that forces American consumers to subsidize lower prices in foreign countries through higher prices in our country," Trump said during a speech at the Department of Health and Human Services. "I have seen it for years and never understood. Same company, same box, same pill, made in the same location, and you will go to some countries and it will be 20 percent [of the cost of drugs in the United States] because of what we pay and in some cases, much less than that. I say, 'Why is this?'"

A coalition of drug makers warned the approach would ultimately hurt U.S. patients.