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Bill Clinton 'Rape' Hecklers Interrupt Obama

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President Barack Obama was interrupted during a rally for Hillary Clinton by hecklers alleging that Bill Clinton is a rapist, NBC News reported.

Pro-Donald Trump radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones offered cash rewards to anyone who carried out the stunt, $1000 for wearing a “Bill Clinton is a rapist” t-shirt on television or $5000 for being heard yelling the slogan, while wearing the t-shirt.

Jones, the founder of the Infowars website, has also said on his radio show that Obama and Hillary Clinton are demons who smell like sulfur. A Clinton campaign spokesperson said that the interruptions on Tuesday were organized by Jones and Infowars.

Obama seemed unfazed by the hecklers and joked, “these folks are auditioning for a reality show,” as they were escorted out of the rally.



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Puppies Rescued from North Carolina Floods

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As people continue to evacuate parts of North Carolina hit by flooding from Hurricane Matthew, a pack of puppies is joining them. A team of firefighters rescued more than a dozen dogs from a Lumberton animal shelter in North Carolina. The dogs were pulled from a truck that was stranded by the floodwaters.

Hurricane-Swollen NC Rivers Set to Rise for Days

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Hurricane Matthew-bloated rivers in North Carolina will continue to rise this week, threatening to flood parts of the state, NBC News reported. 

"Record flooding is slowly moving down river on Nuese and Tar rivers," NBC meteorologist Bill Karins said. "Crests will occur in the next two days, but even then it will be well into the weekend before these rivers show significant water level drops."

In Greenville, authorities had ordered evacuations for about one-tenth of its 90,000 people. The Tar was expected crest later in the day and officials warned it would overwhelm every bridge in the county, The Associated Press reported.\

Matthew's death toll in the U.S. has climbed to 39, 20 of them in North Carolina.



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Wrigley Field Server Blessed With $5K Gratuity From 'TipsforJesus'

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The mysterious and very generous person or group leaving a trail of thousands of dollars in gratuity across the country has once again hit Chicago, but this time the apparent Giants fans did something extra special for a Cubs fan.

According to the Instagram account TipforJesus, a server at the Captain Morgan Club at Wrigley Field was blessed Saturday with a $5,000 tip on a $2,280 bill.

“Thanks for everything Kathleen! #CubsGuyLurking#SeeYouThursdayForGame5#WrigleyField #OleGiants #tipsforjesus#godbless” their caption read.

On the receipt, the gracious patron wrote “Go Giants!” and “Game 5 Boom!”

TipsforJesus has left more than hundreds of thousands of dollars in gratuity to servers from Los Angeles’ Hungry Cat to Chicago’s Paris Club and the Boundary Tavern & Grille.

One server at the Paris Club on Hubbard Street received a $5,000 tip and another Chicago server was given a $3,000 tip at Wicker Park’s Boundary Tavern & Grille, according to photos of receipts posted on TipsforJesus' Instagram account.


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New Survey Reveals America's Top Fears

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In the midst of an intense presidential election season, a new survey reveals what Americans fear the most in 2016: corrupt government officials. 

The third annual survey by Chapman University in Orange, California, asked more than 1,500 adults nationwide about their level of fears in 11 major "domains" of fear, including crime, the government and disasters. 

"We have noticed that top fears tend to reflect to key factors: uncertainty and lack of control," Christopher Bader, a professor of sociology at Chapman University who lead the survey, told NBC in a statement. "People tend to fear things the most that have the potential to significantly upend their lives and those fears are even greater if they perceive having little control over that phenomenon." 

The ten major fear “domains” used in the survey in April 2016 were: crime, economics, environment, government, illness and death, immigration, man-made disasters, natural disasters, personal fears, relationships and technology.

The top fear hasn't changed since 2015, but there was an overall shift in other top fears, according to Bader. In 2016, the second greatest fear was a terrorist attack, and the third was financial instability in the future.

In 2015 the second greatest fear was cyber-terrorism, followed by corporate tracking of personal data.

Of the 1,511 people surveyed in 2016, approximately 60.6 percent reported fear of corrupt government officials. Last year, of 1,541 surveyed adults, 58 percent reported this fear. 

The fears this year reflect more concerns with health and finance than last year’s data collection. 

"We began this study in 2014 in the hopes of developing a greater understanding of the role of fear in American life over time," Bader said. "What is lacking is an ongoing, systematic, scientific study of American fears and what predicts those fears and the outcomes of those fears." 

The Top 10 Fears of Americans in 2016:

Corrupt government officials 

Terrorist attack

Not having enough money for the future 

Terrorism 

Government restrictions on firearms and ammunition 

People I love dying 

Economic/financial collapse 

Identity theft 

People I love becoming seriously ill 

The Affordable Care Act/Obamacare



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Tebow Prays for Fan Suffering Seizure in Fall Baseball Debut

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Former Heisman-winning quarterback Tim Tebow's most memorable play from his Arizona Fall League debut came off the field.

The former New York Jet and current Mets minor prospect was seen on video posted to Twitter Tuesday evening consoling a fan who spectators and players aid appeared to have suffered a seizure in the stands. 

The video shows Tebow, in his Mets jersey and a Scottsdale Scorpions cap, leaning over the side of a dugout while paramedics tend to the man. Another photo shows him leaning over and touching the man's leg as others rush around to help.

The Arizona Republic reports that Tebow was signing autographs for fans when someone yelled "Seizure!" 

Tebow rushed to help the man, who had a brain tumor, according to the newspaper. The man said when he came to, Tebow and others were praying over him. 

The Republic reports that Tebow stayed with the man until paramedics arrived. He reportedly signed the man's wristbands and a baseball before turning to a shared interest: college football. 

The man told Tebow that he was a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs — a chief rival of Tebow's Florida Gators.  

"You're a Bulldog?" Tebow reportedly said. "I don't even know what to say."

Tebow was signed by the Mets earlier this year and was tabbed to continue onto the Arizona Fall League for elite prospects after a good showing in the Florida Instructional League. 

His on field performance Tuesday wasn't nearly as memorable — the Republic reports that the former QB went hitless in three at-bats and crashed into an outfield wall while chasing down a foul ball.



Photo Credit: @danielkellybook / Twitter
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Putin Denies Russia's Involvement With US Email Hacks

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President Vladimir Putin denied Russia’s involvement with the recent hacks and leaks of U.S. emails Wednesday at an economic forum in Moscow, NBC News reports.

Putin said that the perpetrator of the leaks is less relevant than the content of the leaked information and suggested that the allegations against Russia are merely to distract the American public from looking deeper into the content of the leaked emails.

“Everyone's talking about who's done it. Does it really matter that much? What matters is what's inside this information,” he said.

This denial comes in response to the U.S. pinning responsibility on Russia for hacking government emails as a way of interfering with the U.S. election process.



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911 Operator Accused of Hanging Up on Callers

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A former 911 operator from Houston is facing criminal charges after hanging up on callers because she "did not want to talk to anyone," NBC News reported.

The woman, Crenshanda Williams, 43, is facing two misdemeanor charges of Interference with an Emergency Telephone Call after two incidents in March.

According to investigators, Williams hung up on a man calling to report a robbery in progress on March 12. In another case, police said Williams hung up on a security guard who called to report reckless driving. She reportedly said just after the reckless driving call, "Ain't nobody got time for this."

The Houston Emergency Center determined that she was involved in thousands of "short calls," or emergency calls lasting less than 20 seconds, charge documents said.



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Military College Welcomes Hijabs

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A policy change pertaining to uniforms at a Vermont military college has enabled a Muslim student to feel welcome on campus. Sana Hamze, 18, recently started her first year at Norwich University in Northfield. Hamze is of Lebanese heritage, from Florida. She said she was born in the United States to parents who were, too.

Photo Credit: NECN

Tom Brady Dodges Trump 'Locker Room Talk' Question

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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is done talking about his "good friend" Donald Trump.

Brady, who has said he considers Trump a close friend, generated headlines last year when he said it would be "great" if Trump became president. Reporters have even spotted a red Trump "Make America Great Again" hat in Brady's locker.

"He gave me a hat, I thought that was a nice thing," Brady said on Boston's Dennis & Callahan radio show in December 2015.

After fielding questions from the media at Wednesday's press conference at Gillette Stadium, Brady was faced with one last query from necn reporter Jonathan Choe who pressed the quarterback on how he would respond if his kids heard Trump's version of "locker room talk."

Brady smiled, and said "Thank you guys. Have a good day," before walking away from the podium.

The Republican presidential nominee has dismissed an 11-year-old "Access Hollywood" video, in which he makes controversial statements about women, as "locker room talk."

Almost immediately, Brady's curt response to the Trump question generated conversation on Boston sports talk radio stations and social media.

The All-Pro quarterback has known the reality TV star-turned-presidential candidate since 2002, when Brady served as a judge for one of Trump's beauty pageants.

Trump has also been supportive of Brady, defending him during "Deflategate" and praising the quarterback repeatedly during the campaign trail.



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Top News Photos of the Week

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View daily updates on the best photos in domestic and foreign news.

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Top Sports Photos

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Click to see dramatic game action photos from professional football, hockey, basketball, baseball and more.

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Feds Plan to Fight Zika With Drones

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The latest plans to help fight the Zika virus include unmanned aerial vehicles — drones — that can drop Zika-fighting mosquitoes or transport lab samples to and from remote regions, according to an NBC News report. WeRobotics and Vayu, the two companies who received federal funding for the project, will develop the drones.

Flooding mosquito populations with sterile mosquitos has been shown to greatly reduce their rates of reproduction and thus, population size. Delivering such Zika-fighting mosquitos to hard-to-reach areas, like Brazil's favelas, has proven an obstacle for those battling the virus. Drones could navigate to areas that ground vehicles can't reach.

Funding comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), borrowed from Ebola-fighting efforts after Congress failed to approve $1.9 billion in new funding earlier this year.



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Trump Says Clinton 'Has to Go to Jail'

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His campaign struggling a month from Election Day, Donald Trump sharpened his rhetoric Wednesday from calling for Hillary Clinton's defeat to declaring "she has to go to jail" for using a homebrew email server and other charges of corruption while she was secretary of state.

Trump told supporters at a rally in battleground Florida that the Justice Department's handling of the probe into Clinton's email server let her off the hook and suggested that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress went along with it. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Clinton, but FBI Director James Comey criticized her and her aides for being "extremely careless" with classified information.

"Did they make a deal where everybody protects each other in Washington?" Trump asked Wednesday. The Republican nominee went on to call it "one of the great miscarriages of justice" in United States history and declared that Clinton "would be the most dishonest and the most corrupt person ever elected to high office and I don't think it would be close."

"This corruption and collusion is just one more reason why I will ask my attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor," to investigate Clinton and the fact that she apparently deleted thousands of emails that were never recovered, Trump said.

He later made clear: "She deleted the emails. She has to go to jail."

It was a dramatic escalation of rhetoric by the Republican presidential nominee whose campaign was hobbled on Friday with the release of a recording on which Trump brags about groping women without their consent because he is famous. Trump has apologized. But widespread condemnation followed, including from dozens of Republican officeholders who called on Trump to quit the presidential race and let his running mate, Mike Pence, complete it as the GOP nominee. Trump has refused and amped up his attacks on Clinton by bringing up Bill Clinton's sexual past and saying the former first lady attacked his alleged partners.

The difference from just a few months ago was stark. Just after the Republican National Convention, Trump responded to his supporters' chants of "lock her up" by suggesting "Let's just beat her in November."

At Sunday's debate in St. Louis, the nominee himself made that very threat — an unprecedented break with U.S. political decorum. It came after Clinton had said it is "awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country."

Trump blasted back, "Because you'd be in jail."

That call was denounced by some Republicans and Democrats alike but Trump has not been deterred.

His new attacks came during a two-day swing through Florida, including a stop Wednesday in Lakeland on the crucial I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando.

But Trump didn't solely train his fire on his Democratic opponent.

Trump has complained bitterly in recent days about House Speaker Paul Ryan, who told Republican House members on Monday that he would focus on maintaining a majority in Congress and would no longer campaign for Trump. He noted that Ryan didn't call and say "good going" after his performance in Sunday's debate.

Trump claimed that there is a "whole sinister deal going on" that has prevented Ryan and other Republican leaders from fully backing his campaign but he didn't elaborate. 



Photo Credit: AP

CA Weed Farmers Brace for Market

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The morning sun was playing catch-up with Casey O’Neill, who had already spent hours tromping around his hillside farm in Mendocino County near Laytonville. Alongside rows of tomatoes and green beans, O’Neill gingerly tugged at a six-foot marijuana plant bearing buds thicker and longer than his wrist.

“To us cannabis is a powerful special, unique thing,” O’Neill said snipping off a bud and tossing it in a plastic tub.

It’s been a transformational year for farmers like O’Neill who grow and sell weed permitted under California’s medical marijuana regulations. Recently, new laws signed by Governor Jerry Brown kicked-in creating a new state agency with new rules and licensing for medicinal weed growers.

And now this November, state voters will weigh-in on Prop 64 which would legalize recreational marijuana for the first time in the state and create a new tax system for it.

“It feels good to start to move out of the closet, out of prohibition,” O’Neill said in a voice that sounded like a gravel road. “At the same time it’s scary.”

With the prospect of a legal recreational marijuana industry in the state, O’Neill and other small-time farmers fear a storm of large commercial interests will move-in and kick them to the curb. O’Neill said he is already seeing signs of the industrial stampede.

“We’re seeing a huge rush of venture capitol, of investors coming in,” O’Neill said leaning into a large plant. “The bigger the business the harder it’s going to be for the small farmer to survive.”

With the writing on the wall, O’Neill and other farmers in the three-county farm belt of Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt Counties — known as the Emerald Triangle — have begun forming agricultural marijuana co-ops to take-on any weed-growing Goliaths.

“It’s incumbent upon us to work together,” O’Neill said, “and try to band together and participate in the marketplace that helps us survive.”

Michael Steinmetz, who owns the Flow Kana medical marijuana company and buys from several farms including O’Neill’s, is helping Mendocino County pot farmers organize themselves into a cooperative. The farms plan to band together to create a single interest, which could operate on a similar scale as a large company.

“As a cooperative they can act like a big grower,” Steinmetz said. “They can act like a really big player.”

But for all the coming together, Steinmetz said the state’s pot growing industry is split over Prop 64. O’Neill is tepid in his support of the proposition which will create a new set of regulations for the industry and allow people to grow up to six plants at home. Steinmetz sees it as a positive progression with plenty of possibility.

“We have to find the way within this framework to exist and to survive,” Steinmetz said, “and to embrace this new future and new era of cannabis.”

Further South near the town of Willits, Micah Flause and Johanna Mortz covered the hillside of their home with a forest of weed plants — some topping out at eight feet. The couple is also helping to organize the local cannabis co-op, attending regular meetings and writing up plans for a coalesced attack.

“I think that the cooperative is really a very good model for small farms,” Flause said, “to protect themselves from the onslaught of capital that is coming into the cannabis industry.”

Both Flause and Mortz share misgivings about the potential for voters to create a recreational market in the state. The couple, who also supply medicinal marijuana, fear the state isn’t ready to handle a recreational market — especially on the heels of the new medical pot regulations.

“I do lean toward hoping that it doesn’t pass quite yet,” Mortz said. “I think that we could use a little more work.”

Steinmetz said he understands the trepidation among farmers even though Colorado, Washington and Oregon have already passed laws legalizing some forms of recreational marijuana.

“There is a diversity of opinion,” Steinmetz said. “I think it stems from people trying to be more protective and want change slower.”

O’Neill hoisted his plastic bin of freshly picked buds and let his gaze sweep across the hills where he was born and continues to farm. He said whichever way the Prop 64 vote goes, he believes the public’s acceptance for cannabis has lifted it from the shadows.

“Last two years there’s been such a transition in the conversation,” O’Neill said, “everybody can actually talk about it now.



Photo Credit: Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area

Trump's Campaign Is 'Pulling Out of Virginia'

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Donald Trump's campaign is "pulling out of Virginia," a move that stunned staff in the battleground state, three sources with knowledge of the move told NBC News.

The decision came from Trump's headquarters in New York and was announced on a conference call late Wednesday that left some Republican Party operatives in the state blindsided. Two staffers directly involved in the GOP's efforts in Virginia confirmed the decision.

The move to pull out of Virginia shows Trump is "running essentially a four state campaign," with the focus now shifting to battlegrounds critical to his chances in November: Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, a source with knowledge of the decision told NBC News.



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Major GOP Donors Asking Trump for Their Money Back

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Two generous donors to Donald Trump's campaign are having buyer's remorse and want their money back after a video recording of Trump describing unwanted sexual advances on women, according to emails obtained by NBC News from a bundler raising money for Trump.

"I cannot express my disappointment enough regarding the recent events surrounding Mr. Trump," one donor wrote to a Trump fundraiser in an email with the subject line "Trump support withdrawal."

A second donor also requested his money be returned because he is "mortified" over the leaked videotape, according to another email obtained by NBC News.

Senior Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the campaign is "unaware of any donors making such a request."



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Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Retires Amid Scandal

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Wells Fargo's embattled CEO John Stumpf is stepping down as the nation's second-largest bank is roiled by a scandal over its sales practices.

The San Francisco bank said Wednesday that Stumpf is retiring effective immediately and also relinquishing his title as chairman. He won't be receiving severance pay and the bank announced earlier that he will forfeit $41 million in stock awards.

Wells Fargo's chief operating officer, Tim Sloan, will succeed Stumpf as CEO and join the company's board. Sloan has been with Wells Fargo for 29 years. Stephen Sanger, the bank's lead director, will serve as the board's non-executive chairman.

Stumpf's end at Wells Fargo comes a little over a month after the bank was fined by California and federal regulators $185 million over its sales practices.

The regulators alleged employees trying to meet aggressive sales targets opened bank and credit card accounts, moved money between those accounts and even created fake email addresses to sign customers up for online banking — all without customer authorization. Debit cards were issued and activated, as well as PINs created, without customers' knowledge.

"I wish I could snap my fingers and make everything all right again, but it's going to take time," said Sloan said in an interview. "We are going to make it right by our customers and we are going to work to win that trust back."

Stumpf, a 34-year veteran of the bank who took over as CEO in 2007, had previously gained acclaim for navigating Wells Fargo through the financial crisis and keeping it free of scandal. But he came under withering pressure over the alleged misconduct, believed to have gone on at the bank for years. Some 5,300 lower-level employees were fired.

"While I have been deeply committed and focused on managing the company through this period, I have decided it is best for the company that I step aside," he said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

Among Stumpf's critics, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told him at a Senate Banking Committee hearing last month that he should resign and "give back the money you took while the scam was going on."

News of Stumpf's departure, however, did little to quell some lawmakers' anger over the affair or their demands for information from the company on how harmed customers and employees will be made whole.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and the panel's senior Democrat, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, said Wednesday that Stumpf's retirement doesn't answer important questions.

"We are still waiting for answers as to how Wells Fargo plans to right its wrongs against customers and the low-paid employees who weren't given the benefit of a retirement package when they were fired for refusing to cheat," Brown said in a statement.

Stumpf earned $19.3 million last year. But he and Carrie Tolstedt, the executive who ran the retail banking division, will forfeit millions.

Tolstedt announced in July that she would retire from the bank this year and had been expected to leave with as much as $125 million in salary, stock options and other compensation. She was stripped of $19 million of her stock awards, and her departure was made immediate.

The revelations have sparked investigations by federal agencies. The bank's independent directors have also launched their own investigation.

Wells Fargo is scheduled to report its quarterly results Friday morning. In after-hours trading, its stock rose 76 cents, or nearly 1.7 percent, to $46.08.



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US Launches Strikes in Yemen After Missiles Aimed at American Ships

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The U.S. military launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against coastal radar sites in Yemen early Thursday, following two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at a U.S. Navy ship from a rebel-controlled area of the country, NBC News reported.

The missiles were launched from the destroyer USS Nitze at around 4 a.m. Thursday local time (9 p.m. Wednesday ET), and initial assessments were that all three sites in rebel Houthi-controlled areas were destroyed, the official said.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement that President Barack Obama authorized the strikes on the recommendation of Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford.



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4 Women Accuse Trump of Inappropriately Touching Them

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Four women accused Donald Trump in articles published Wednesday of having touched them in an inappropriate manner, adding to the growing list of women who say Trump has insensitively treated them as objects over several decades.

The New York Times quoted two women, Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks, as describing public encounters during which Trump grabbed or kissed them inappropriately.

Separately, the Palm Beach Post quoted Mindy McGillivray of Palm Springs, Fla., as saying Trump groped her 13 years ago at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach.

Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Guardian quoted a Miss USA 2001 contestant as saying Trump deliberately walked in to a dressing room during a rehearsal at the pageant while she and another contestant were naked. Unlike the women quoted in the other articles, she did not accuse Trump of having touched anyone.



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