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The 69-year-old Butch Trucks shot himself in the head Jan. 27 at his home in front of his wife.

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Twins study: How one year mission affected astronaut´s health.

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KCK apartment fire damages five units

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Republicans suspend committee rules, advance Mnuchin, Price nominations

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Republican lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee -- the panel that oversees the nominations of Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services -- gathered for the second day in a row with Democrats on the committee refusing to show up.

The dramatic move could foreshadow strategy from Republicans over contentious battles still to come as Democrats try to use a variety of Senate procedures to stall the newly empowered GOP. The most high-profile of upcoming fights is Trump's Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch, a nomination that would require at least 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Under committee rules, it is required that at least one Democrat be present for the panel to vote to send a nominee to the Senate floor. On Tuesday, not a single Democrat showed up, putting the two nominations at a standstill.

Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, pointed to the "extraordinary circumstances" surrounding the gathering and allowed the Republicans in the room vote to suspend the rules of the committee.

With the committee rules suspended, the 14 Republicans in the room voted to move the Mnuchin and Price nominations to the full Senate, even without the presence of a single member of the opposite party.

"They on their own accord refused to participate in the exercise," Hatch said about the Democrats on the committee. "They have nobody to blame but themselves."

Hatch said the Senate Parliamentarian had approved of the procedural maneuver, and insisted to reporters after the exercise was a "just utilization" of the rules. "This is all approved by the Parliamentarian," he said. "I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been."

Democrats on the Finance Committee have raised serious concerns about both Price and Mnuchin, arguing that the two nominees made misrepresentations in their testimonies before the Senate.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Democrats on the panel sent a letter to Hatch requesting that the two nominees provide more information about their past investments and actions.

The committee's call for a 9:30 a.m. gathering was so sudden that even some members of the media scrambled to arrive at the hearing room in the Dirksen building on time.

Hatch chuckled when confronted by questions from reporters about the little notice that the public received about Wednesday s meeting. "You were scrambling? Well, you know, that's neither here nor there," he said.

The chairman also said that he had not yet spoken with the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden, Wednesday morning. "I don't feel a bit sorry for them," Hatch said.

In a statement, Wyden called Wednesday's development "deeply troubling."

"Today, for the first time in history, the Senate Finance Committee broke the rules to push through on a partisan basis two nominees," Wyden said. "Congressman Tom Price, whose stock trades call into question whether he will work in the public interest or his own, and the other, Steven Mnuchin, who appears to have misled the committee on his company's foreclosure practices after the Great Recession."

Democrats asked that Price offer clarify on "inaccurate and misleading answer to questions about privileged and discounted access to stocks," and wanted Mnuchin to address "inaccurate and misleading answer to questions about the potentially illegal process known as robo-signing," among other things.

But with the two nominations already having been sent to the full Senate, Republicans are unlikely to cooperate.

"I don't care what they want at this point," Hatch said.

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Republicans suspend committee rules, advance Mnuchin, Price nominations

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Republican lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee -- the panel that oversees the nominations of Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services -- gathered for the second day in a row with Democrats on the committee refusing to show up.

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Ben Affleck Steps Down as Director of Upcoming Batman Film

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Ben Affleck will no longer direct the new Batman solo film.

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In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Affleck said, "There are certain characters who hold a special place in the hearts of millions. Performing this role demands focus, passion and the very best performance I can give. It has become clear that I cannot do both jobs to the level they require."

Affleck had previously said he and others were still working on the script for the first solo film featuring the Caped Crusader in more than five years. The idea was originally to have him star and direct the project, but in an interview last year with Collider, he said he wasn't yet happy with the script.

Affleck, 44, first appeared as Batman in "Batman v Superman" and will appear again as Bruce Wayne in "Justice League" this November.

The Oscar winner told reporters on more than one occasion that all people ever asked about was Batman, not his other projects. But he did tell friend Jimmy Kimmel earlier this year that he was still on board for the solo Batman project.

"I'm gonna direct the next Batman, we're working on it," he said to an applause from Kimmel's studio audience.

But in Monday's statement, he said, "Together with the studio, I have decided to find a partner in a director who will collaborate with me on this massive film. I am still in this, and we are making it, but we are currently looking for a director."

According to The Associated Press, Warner Bros., the studio producing the solo Batman film and "Justice League," said it "fully supports" Affleck's decision to step down as director.

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Ben Affleck Steps Down as Director of Upcoming Batman Film

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Ben Affleck will no longer direct the new Batman solo film. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Affleck said, "There are certain characters who hold a special place in the hearts of millions. Performing this role demands focus, passion and the very best performance I can give. It has become...

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Green card holder mom dies A day after being prevented from returning Home by Trumps order

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Imam Disputes That Woman Died in Iraq Because of Trump's Immigration Ban

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An American citizen claimed his unwell mother, a green-card holder, died a day after being turned away from the U.S. under Trump's ban

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Pharrell Williams, wife Helen Lasichanh welcome triplets

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Pharrell Williams, wife Helen Lasichanh welcome triplets

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Pharrell Williams and wife Helen Lasichanh are celebrating some happy news.

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One person was killed and another injured in a training accident on a military range in southern New Mexico, Holloman Air Force Base officials said Wednesday.

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About 30 pounds of cocaine was found on an American Airlines flight over the weekend that was bound for Miami from Bogota, Colombia, authorities said

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Airport restaurant was faking farm-to-table fare, state says

Accused of murder, doctor lured father to his home, deputies say

Accused airport gunman ruled competent, clearing way for guilty plea

Meghan Markle's father decides not to go to Royal Wedding, TMZ reports

Newly refurbished Big Easy Casino opens its doors in Hallandale Beach

Thief steals almost $15,000 worth of electronics from parked SUV, police say

Tornado touches down in Palm Beach County

Moldy food, rodent droppings found at South Florida resort, spa

Christopher Columbus High School regrets using caged tiger, live animals at prom

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30 pounds of cocaine found in American Airlines plane headed to Miami from Colombia

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Airport restaurant was faking farm-to-table fare, state says Accused of murder, doctor lured father to his home, deputies say Accused airport gunman ruled competent, clearing way for guilty plea Meghan Markle's father decides not to go to Royal Wedding, TMZ reports Newly refurbished Big Easy Casino opens its doors in Hallandale Beach Thief steals almost $15,000 worth of electronics from parked SUV, police say Tornado touches down in Palm Beach County Moldy food, rodent droppings found at South Florida resort, spa Christopher Columbus High School regrets using caged tiger, live animals at prom

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the new England patriots offense coordinators had all the Atlanta falcons plays. for the game

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atlanta falcons new england patriots - Google Search

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man brings 4 teens to Missouri for proposition

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Cyclist dangles from bridge after crash

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Cyclist dangles from bridge after crash - CNN Video

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Quick reflexes may have saved the life of a cyclist that nearly tumbled off a bridge during a race near Santa Barbara, California.

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Afghan woman's ears cut off by husband. A 23-year-old Afghan woman has described to the BBC how her husband tied her up and cut off both her ears in a domestic violence attack in the northern province of Balkh.

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A 23-year-old Afghan woman has described to the BBC how her husband tied her up and cut off both her ears in a domestic violence attack in the northern province of Balkh.

The woman - Zarina - is now in a stable but traumatised condition in hospital.

"I haven't committed any sin," she said. "I don't know why my husband did this to me."

The woman's husband is on the run in Kashinda district following the attack, police have told local media.

Zarina told Pajhwok news that the unprovoked attack took place after her husband suddenly woke her up.

She was married at the age of 13, and told BBC that "relations with her husband were not good".

Zarina complained that her husband had tried to prevent her from seeing her parents, she said in another interview, with Tolo News. She said she no longer wanted to remain married to him.

"He is a very suspicious man and often accused me of talking to strange men when I went to visit my parents," she said.

She has demanded his arrest and prosecution.

Her account is the latest in a series of high-profile domestic abuse incidents and cases of violence against women in Afghanistan.

In January 2016, a young woman, Reza Gul [pictured, below], had her nose cut off by her husband in the remote Ghormach district of north-western Faryab province

Some months later, a woman was critically ill after being nearly beaten to death by her husband

In November 2015, a young woman was stoned to death in Ghor province after she had been accused of adultery

Earlier that year, a young Kabul woman, Farkhunda, was beaten and burned to death by a mob over false allegations she had set fire to a Koran

In September 2014, a man cut off part of his wife's nose with a kitchen knife, in central Daykundi Province, according to police. It is not clear whether he was ever caught

The case of Aisha featured on the front cover of Time magazine in 2010, after the 18-year-old was mutilated by her husband who cut off her nose and ears as punishment for running away

The Afghan government has repeatedly tried to introduce laws to protect women from domestic abuse.

But President Hamid Karzai during his time in power was unable - or unwilling - to sign off legislation even though it had been approved by both houses of parliament.

In 2014, for example, he ordered changes to draft legislation that critics said would severely limit justice for victims.

Mr Karzai's successor, Ashraf Ghani, has also yet to give his assent to legislation passed by Afghan parliament late last year. It was drafted to protect women and children from violence and harassment.

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A 23-year-old Afghan woman has described to the BBC how her husband tied her up and cut off both her ears in a domestic violence attack in the northern province of Balkh. The woman - Zarina - is now in a stable but traumatised condition in hospital.

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Get the latest breaking news across the U.S. on ABCNews.com

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Ellen DeGeneres uses the movie finding dory to dis trump.

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Ellen DeGeneres uses movie to slam Trump - CNN Video

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Ellen DeGeneres mocked President Trump's executive order as she explained the plot of "Finding Dory."

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The beer ad that has everyone talking.

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Budweiser's Super Bowl ad takes on immigration - CNN Video

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'The Hard Way' depicts the hardships the founder faced when he immigrated to America in the 1850s.

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Apple is considering legal options regarding Trump's executive order, which has affected hundreds of its employees.

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Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is being pushed across the universe by a large unseen force, according to new research.

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Day-care tells parents to get off their phones while picking up kids.

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Missouri executes man for killing women and her two children in 1988

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turns out that the packaging your food comes in could also have a negative impact on your health, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
The report found fluorinated chemicals in one-third of the fast food packaging researchers tested.

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But it turns out that the packaging your food comes in could also have a negative impact on your health, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

The report found fluorinated chemicals in one-third of the fast food packaging researchers tested.

These chemicals are favored for their grease-repellent properties.

Along with their use in the fast food industry, fluorinated chemicals -- sometimes called PFASs -- are used "to give water-repellant, stain-resistant, and non-stick properties to consumer products such as furniture, carpets, outdoor gear, clothing, cosmetics (and) cookware," according to a news release that accompanied the report.

"The most studied of these substances (PFOSs and PFOAs) has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, elevated cholesterol, decreased fertility, thyroid problems and changes in hormone functioning, as well as adverse developmental effects and decreased immune response in children."

These are long-chain PFASs that have largely been phased out, in favor of shorter-chain compounds that are thought to have shorter half-lives in the human body, but these shortened forms have not yet been thoroughly studied.

As these chemicals are used in many everyday products, consumers are exposed to them frequently, and the same health effects may not be true for all of them.

Previous studies have shown that PFASs can migrate from food packaging into the food you eat, said Laurel Schaider, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute and one of the authors of the paper.

"These studies have found that the extent of migration depends on the temperature of the food, the type of food and how long the food is in contact with the paper," Schaider said. "And it depends on which specific chemical" is in the packaging.

What constitutes a bad (w)rap?

Scientists at the five institutions that collaborated on the report collected more than 400 samples of fast food packaging from 27 leading US chains.

The types of packaging were split into six categories: food contact paper (sandwich wrappers and pastry bags), food contact paperboard (boxes for fries or pizza), non-contact paper (outer bags), paper cups, other beverage containers (milk and juice containers) and miscellaneous (lids).

Food contact papers were divided into three subcategories: sandwiches, burgers and fried foods; Tex-Mex; and desserts and breads.

Food contact paper fared the worst, with 46% of all samples testing positive for fluorine. Food contact paperboard was next, at 20%, followed by other beverage containers at 16%. Non-contact paper, paper cups and miscellaneous all tested negative for fluorine.

The researchers did not provide any chain-specific data in order to compare fast food restaurants or determine which brands scored better or worse than average.

"For foodservice packaging that requires a barrier coating, 'short chain' fluorochemicals are used today, so it's no surprise that the study would find these chemicals," said Lynn M. Dyer, President of the Foodservice Packaging Institute in the US. "These, like all packaging products, go through rigorous testing to ensure that they meet stringent US Food and Drug Administration regulations, providing the safe delivery of foods and beverages to consumers."

Dryer added, however, that "some fluorochemical-free products have been introduced since this study was conducted in 2014 and 2015," meaning there are now a greater numbers of options available for fast food chains to provide oil, grease and/or water resistance.

What's a consumer to do?

Short of asking that your next burger be served in between two lids, there isn't a whole lot you can do to avoid PFAS exposure once you've chosen to eat at a fast food restaurant.

"Unfortunately, for consumers, there's no easy way to tell -- just by looking at packaging -- whether or not it contains fluorinated chemicals," Schaider said. "For people who wish to reduce their exposure to these chemicals, they may be able to take some steps ... to reduce that migration from packaging into food -- for instance, by taking the food out of the packaging sooner rather than later."

You could also ask that your fries or dessert be served in a paper cup or a noncontact paper bag. This is the outer bag all your items are usually put into when you get your food.

More than anything, Schaider urges consumers to put pressure on their favorite fast food chains to switch to packaging that doesn't contain fluorinated chemicals.

"I think that this study provides yet another reason to support the idea that eating more fresh food and more home-cooked meals is better for our health," she said, "but it's hard to avoid the convenience of fast food, especially in people's busy lives."

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report finds chemicals in one-third of fast food packaging - cnn

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The secret ingredient in fast food packaging

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But it turns out that the packaging your food comes in could also have a negative impact on your health, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The report found fluorinated chemicals in one-third of the fast food packaging researchers tested.

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Dutch satirical news show "Zondag met Lubach" made a video introducing President Donald Trump to the Netherlands.

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How do you translate Donald Trump into Dutch?

A satirist from the Netherlands offers this answer: a video using Trump's own words to "welcome" him to the country.

"Zondag Met Lubach," the country's news satire show, has released a fake tourism video "introducing" Trump to their "tiny country" using the bombastic language the U.S. president loves so much. "It's gonna be a great video," host Arjen Lubach promises.

As bucolic shots of windmills and canals flash on screen, a narrator speaks of the Netherlands' language ("We've got the best words. All the other languages failed."); Ponypark Slagharen ("You can grab them by the pony") and Afsluitdijk, a "wall" built to keep out the "water from Mexico" (a.k.a. the ocean).

Also on offer: A history of William of Orange, who defeated the "scumbag" "loser" Spanish. A note about Madurodam, a miniature village where the "squares are so small, you don't need many people to fill them." And Black Pete, "the most offensive, most racist thing you've ever seen. You'll love it. It's great."

The video ends with a semi-serious plea. As the host notes, "if you screw NATO, you're gonna make our problems great again." So, it asks, if you have to keep America first, could you keep the Netherlands second?

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Dutch TV trolls Donald Trump hard in this new 'welcome' video

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How do you translate Donald Trump into Dutch? A satirist from the Netherlands offers this answer: a video using Trump's own words to "welcome" him to the country. "Zondag Met Lubach," the country's news satire show, has released a fake tourism video "introducing" Trump to their "tiny country" using the bombastic language the U.S.

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Nearly 2,000 people floated in a line in a salty lake in Argentina on Sunday, January 29th, setting a new Guinness world record for the most people floating while holding hands.

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Nearly 2,000 people floated in a line in a salty lake in Argentina on Sunday, January 29th, setting a new Guinness world record for the most people floating while holding hands.

Members of the Guinness Book of Records certified that 1,941 people floated simultaneously for 30 seconds in Lake Epecuen, located to the southeast of the Buenos Aires province.

The previous record was set on June 28, 2014 in Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan, when 634 people floated in line, using flotation devices.

Participants in Argentina floated unaided in Lake Epecuen, due to saltiness of the water. The lake is hypermarine and contains almost 10 times more salt than the sea, helping participants to float naturally, according to local organizers.

The world record was set within the frame of a local thermal tourism festival.

Lake Epecuen is only comparable to the Dead Sea and is beneficial for relaxation, local authorities said.

It is visited by countless tourists annually, who enjoy the sunsets over the lake, the eco-sustainable beach and Villa Epecuen, which was once a popular Argentine spa town and resort on the shore of the lake.

In 1985, the town was flooded when the lake overflowed after heavy rainfall.

Residents and tourists were forced to evacuate as homes and buildings were submerged under almost 33 feet of salt water.

Buildings from the town have now risen above the water and the area has again become a tourist attraction with visitors enjoying its apocalyptic atmosphere.

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Argentines set world record for most people floating at one time

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Nearly 2,000 people floated in a line in a salty lake in Argentina on Sunday, January 29th, setting a new Guinness world record for the most people floating while holding hands. Members of the Guinness Book of Records certified that 1,941 people floated simultaneously for 30 seconds in Lake Epecuen, located to the southeast of the Buenos Aires province.

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Russel Simmons says he is no longer friends with Donald Trump.

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The Cleveland Browns own the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL Draft, a selection many assume the team could use on a quarterback. But it appears the Browns might try to look for a long-term solution before the draft.

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Dad dies after tooth infection spreads to his lungs.

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Mr. Kohl- President Trump tapped federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court.

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Mr. Kohl- President Trump tapped federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court.

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Within minutes of President Trump's nomination of federal judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, several hundred demonstrators had converged on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. to protest his selection.

Waving signs proclaiming, "Gorsuch: Extreme and Dangerous" and "#NoWall #NoBan," the protesters and a stream of speakers linked the conservative nominee to the administration's unconstitutional ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and pledged to defy both.
"This is the most egregious insult in the history of Supreme Court nominations," declared Terry O'Neil, president of the National Organization of Women, triggering a chant of "Stolen seat, stolen seat!"

"Until this administration begins to respect the U.S. Constitution, it would be unconscionable to consider an extremist nominee to the court," said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org.

"Leave it to Trump to distract the country from a constitutional crisis by appointing a right-wing litmus test judge to the court," said Nancy Schoolmacher of College Park, Maryland. "We just had to come down and do something," added her friend, Barb Considine, standing in the throng of people and TV cameras.

The night began when Trump, in a short White House speech, nominated Judge Gorsuch from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to the court. Calling his nomination process the "most transparent" ever, President Trump picked an ultraconservative who is expected to follow in the footsteps of the justice he is replacing, Antonin Scalia, the court's most ideological right-winger, who died last February.

Gorsuch's nomination sets the stage for one of the biggest domestic political fights in years, after Senate Republicans spent nearly a year willfully ignoring their constitutional responsibility to consider President Obama's nominee to the court, Merrick Garland. Gorsuch, despite a reportedly mild-mannered temperament, is known for his anti-choice and anti-LGBT stances, pro-employer rulings in labor disputes, anti-regulatory attitudes, dismissal of scientific expertise, and pro-police bias in brutality cases, according to statements from public interest groups issued after the announcement.

The nomination comes amid unprecedented political and popular resistance to Trump's presidency. In recent days, there have been escalating protests over Trump's anti-Muslim executive orders, his firing of the acting attorney general late Monday night after she said that Trump's decrees were unconstitutional and violated the Justice Department's historic civil rights mission, and after Democratic senators refused to attend confirmation hearings Tuesday for two Trump cabinet nominees they said had lied to them.

"During his over 10 years on the federal bench, Judge Gorsuch has proven to be a conservative ideologue who has consistently ruled against civil rights, women's rights and workers' rights. And he has expounded a judicial philosophy that would prevent the federal government from properly enforcing countless acts of Congress," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "The president could have nominated an independent or consensus candidate for this seat, someone like Merrick Garland, whose record has proven to be unimpeachable. Instead, he chose Neil Gorsuch to be a rubber stamp and another 'yes man' for this administration."

Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, was also quick to criticize Gorsuch as an extreme right-winger. "Over the course of his career, he's turned his back on fundamental American rights, from shutting down claims of gender discrimination in the workplace, to trying to limit Americans' ability to join class-action lawsuits to challenge corporate wrong-doing, to ruling in the original Hobby Lobby [Obamacare] decision that corporations are people and can refuse to offer their employees birth control, to claiming that a police officer could not be sued for using excessive force when his stun gun killed a young man running from police simply because he was growing marijuana plants," he said. "That's appalling."

"Over the past 10 years... Gorsuch has written at least 15 labor and employment rulings," said National Nurses United's statement. "Gorsuch's opinions aligned with employers in eight of the 12 cases. Additionally, Gorsuch wrote three opinions upholding National Labor Relations Board rulings against both employers and unions."

"With Judge Neil Gorsuch, the stakes couldn't be higher when it comes to women and our lives," said NARAL Pro-Choice America's president Ilyse Hogue. "Gorsuch represents an existential threat to legal abortion in the United States and must never wear the robes of a Supreme Court justice."

Indeed, virtually every issue and concern that is in the public interest is threatened by the Supreme Court nomination. After Scalia died in early 2016, the court was left with a four-four conservative-liberal split on most contentious social and economic issues. The GOP, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, refused even to hold hearings for Obama's nominee, a federal appeals court chief judge who sailed through nomination hearings for that post several years before.

Supreme Court justices typically serve for a quarter century or more, meaning that the court's ideological center was poised to move to the left. The Republicans essentially stole Obama's final appointment, hoping that a Republican president would be elected in 2016 and keep the court as a right-wing majority.
Day of Growing Rage On the Hill
Trump's announcement comes against a backdrop of mounting opposition by Democrats in Congress and large swaths of the public in both blue and red states. Even before he fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates late Monday, Senate Democrats had flocked to airports and attended rallies to protest Trump's decree that the U.S. would take no more war refugees from Syria and would block travelers from seven Muslim counties for 90 days. (He also issued orders to ramp up the domestic deportation machinery and to penalize sanctuary cities that would not cooperate with immigration police.)

On the Supreme Court steps Monday night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY; Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD; Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA; Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT; Sen. Al Franken, D-MN; and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CN all held forth against the executive order banning travelers from Muslim countries, including, initially, legal residents who hold green cards.

What was notable in their statements was their determination to resist Trump's right-wing policies.

"We now must be determined to fight for the long haul," Booker said.

"We stand with our fellow human beings who flee terrorism," Warren said. "We will band together to fight Donald Trump as he tries to put himself above the law of the United States."

"We do not hate the Muslim people and we want them to know that," Sanders said. "So we say to President Trump, rescind that ban."

Those protests were a prelude to Tuesday's boycott by Democrats of the Senate Finance Committee's proceedings to vote on Steve Mnuchin's nomination for Treasury Secretary and Rep. Tom Price's nomination for Health and Human Services Secretary, denying the a quorum needed to vote on their nominations and bring them before the full Senate. The Democrats cited Mnuchin's and Price's false statements, with Mnuchin denying that the mortgage lending giant he oversaw had not abused borrowers, and Price denying that he cashed in on stocks in healthcare companies under his congressional jurisdiction.

The Democrats' absence forced the GOP to postpone voting on those nominees. At the same time in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats railed against Trump's firing of Sally Yates and said that Trump's pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL, helped design the Muslim travel ban that Yates called unconstitutional and refused to implement.

"Yesterday, early in the evening, we saw what a truly independent attorney general does," the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, said. "That is what an attorney general must be willing and able to do. I have no confidence that Sen. Sessions will do that. Instead, he has been the fiercest, most dedicated and most loyal promoter in Congress of the Trump agenda, and has played a critical role in the clearinghouse for policy and philosophy to undergird the implementation of that agenda."

The Democrats managed to postpone the Judiciary Committee's vote on Sessions on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, ran into new opposition when Democrats discovered that some of her answers to their questionnaire had apparently been plagiarized, according to the Washington Post.

Elsewhere, however, Senate committees confirmed Elaine Chao-Mitch McConnell's wife-to beTrump's transportation secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to be energy secretary and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-MT, for interior secretary.

At the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-UT, told a half-empty room that the Democrats do not have the votes to stop any of Trump's cabinet appointments. That is because the GOP needs only a simply majority to confirm them.

"I'm really disappointed that my friends on the other side, Democrats on the other side, are deliberately boycotting," he said. "Why that's an important thing for them, I'll never understand, because these two nominees are going to go through regardless."

"I think this is a completely unprecedented level of obstruction... We did not inflict this kind of obstructionism on President Obama," Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, R-PA, chimed in. "This is not what the American people expect of the United States Senate."

Both of those statements-and others like them from Republican senators-are utterly disingenuous, especially in light of the Senate GOP's obstruction and theft of Obama's Supreme Court nomination. Under the Senate's current rules-which the Republicans may yet jettison-Trump's nominee needs 60 votes to be confirmed. This is Trump's only appointment that Senate Democrats have the power to block, and the stakes could not be more consequential.

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Neil Gorsuch: President Trump's anti-choice pick for the Supreme Court

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Within minutes of President Trump's nomination of federal judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, several hundred demonstrators had converged on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. to protest his selection.