October 17, 2017


News and Views


THIS IS NOT REALLY IMPORTANT, BUT IT IS UNACCEPTABLE IN A PRESIDENT. IT SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE IMPEACHMENT LIST. JUST MORE DEPRESSING TRUMP NEWS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-judge-could-soon-decide-whether-sexual-misconduct-case-against-trump-should-proceed/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS October 17, 2017, 12:46 PM
Report: Judge could soon decide whether sexual misconduct case against Trump should proceed

Photograph -- Summer Zervos, a contestant on "The Apprentice," announced the suit Tuesday in Los Angeles with her attorney Gloria Allred. She alleges Trump defamed her in tweets and at rallies when he said her claims were fabricated. CBS LOS ANGELES

A judge could decide as soon as next month whether a lawsuit that accuses President Trump of sexual misconduct should proceed, according to a report by USA Today.

The case involves Summer Zervos, a former contestant on NBC's "The Apprentice," who accused Mr. Trump a year ago of "unwanted sexual touching." She was one of several women at the time who accused him, then the GOP presidential nominee, of sexual misconduct following the surfacing of the Access Hollywood tape. Zervos said that Mr. Trump had kissed and groped her in 2007.

She filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Trump, when he was president-elect, over his denials of her allegations.

Lawyers have until the end of the month, the report said, to file arguments related to the president's request to dismiss the case. If the lawsuit moves forward, however, it could force Mr. Trump to comply with a subpoena for documents, the report said.

Zervos said last October that she had contacted Mr. Trump after she had been on his reality show to meet with him about the Trump Organization and snagged an appointment with him.

"When I arrived, he kissed me on the lips. I was surprised, but felt that perhaps that was just his form of greeting," Zervos said in a statement that she read, sometimes haltingly and and often with tears. Trump praised her intelligence and attractiveness and said "that he would love to have me work for him," according to Zervos. He promised to contact her a few days later, when he was in Los Angeles, then sent her off with another kiss on the lips. "This made me feel very nervous and embarrassed," Zervos said.

After that, Zervos agreed to meet Trump in Los Angeles, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Trump, she said, greeted her with an "open-mouthed" kiss and pulled her towards him, then kissed her again and put his hand on her breast, as she attempted to push him away. She said she rebuffed his advances but was later offered a job at one of his golf courses at a salary that was half of what she sought.



MCCAIN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, AGAIN! TRUMP HAS ALWAYS BEEN HOSTILE TO MCCAIN – MOST DESPICABLY DENYING THAT HE IS A HERO BECAUSE “HE WAS CAPTURED.” I WONDER IF HE ASKED MCCAIN FOR PLEDGE MONEY, OR PERSONAL ALLEGIANCE PERHAPS, AND WAS REFUSED. HE SEEMS TO HAVE A STRONG GRUDGE AGAINST HIM, AND I EXPECT THERE IS A PERSONAL REASON.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-warns-john-mccain-at-some-point-i-fight-back/
CBS NEWS October 17, 2017, 11:30 AM
Trump warns John McCain: "At some point I fight back"

Video on McCain speech at awards ceremony infuriates trump

President Trump threatened Arizona Sen. John McCain, a former POW with a terminal brain cancer diagnosis, over his comments at an awards ceremony Monday night which were critical of U.S. leadership. Mr. Trump was asked whether he had heard McCain's remarks.

"People have to be careful because at some point I fight back," Mr. Trump told WMAL radio talk show host Chris Plante in an interview Tuesday morning. "You know, I'm being very nice. I'm being very, very nice. But at some point I fight back and it won't be pretty."

McCain told CBS News' Alan He that he doesn't comment on what the president says. "I comment on what he does," he said. "And I will say I have faced some pretty tough adversaries in the past. I'm not interested in confronting the president, I'm interested in working with the president."

The Arizona senator, who on Monday received the Liberty Medal for his lifetime of service and sacrifice, delivered a harsh critique of the direction the country has taken, although he did not mention the president's name in his remarks.

"To abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems," he said in accepting the award, "is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history."

McCain also urged the U.S. toward engagement with the world, rather than withdrawal and isolationism.

"We have done great good in the world. That leadership has had its costs, but we have become incomparably powerful and wealthy as we did. We have a moral obligation to continue in our just cause, and we would bring more than shame on ourselves if we don't," he argued. "We will not thrive in a world where our leadership and ideals are absent. We wouldn't deserve to."

CBS News' Arden Farhi contributed to this report.



UNSPEAKABLE! HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY JUSTIFY THIS ACTION? I SUPPOSE THEY ARE TRYING TO AVOID DOING A VERY EXPENSIVE OPERATION IN A SITUATION WHICH MIGHT PRECLUDE THEIR RECEIVING PAYMENT. THE WORDING OF THE SECOND LETTER, APPARENTLY SENT ON THE VERY HEELS OF ONE OFFERING TO SET A PHYSICAL SCREENING APPOINTMENT, SAYS THAT HIS PAROLE OFFICER MUST CERTIFY THAT HE HAS HAD NO MORE PAROLE VIOLATIONS FOR THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE OPERATION.

THAT, SAID THE LETTER, COULD NOT TAKE PLACE BEFORE THE FATHER’S PAROLE STATUS HAS BEEN REEVALUATED IN JANUARY 2018. THE ONLY WAY THAT SUCH A MATTER COULD BE RELEVANT, THAT I CAN SEE, IS IF THE FATHER HAS A DRUG USE PROBLEM WHICH MIGHT MEDICALLY INVALIDATE HIS KIDNEY FOR USE IN THE TRANSPLANT. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT WHAT THEY NEED IS ANOTHER DONOR, IF THAT IS THE PROBLEM.

IF IT’S ABOUT MONEY, WHY IS IT THAT SUDDENLY THEY FIND THE FAMILY INELIGIBLE, WHEN A FEW MONTHS BEFORE THAT THE SURGERY WAS BEING SCHEDULED WITH NO PROBLEM. EMORY SPOKESWOMAN JANET CHRISTENBURY SAID THE CHOICE OF AN ACCEPTABLE DONOR IS “BASED ON MANY MEDICAL, SOCIAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS,” AND REFUSED TO SAY HOW HIS CRIMINAL HISTORY COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

ACCORDING TO THIS CBS ARTICLE, THE HOSPITAL GAVE NO EXPLANATION OF THEIR REASONING. I MIGHT HAVE JUMPED TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE FACT THAT THEY WERE A BLACK FAMILY MIGHT HAVE BEEN INVOLVED, BUT THE ONLY THING WHICH CHANGED IS THE FACT THAT THE FATHER VIOLATED HIS PAROLE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-j-burgess-anthony-dickerson-speaks-out-hospital-denies-kidney-transplant/
CBS/AP October 17, 2017, 10:22 AM
Dad speaks out after hospital denies 2-year-old's kidney transplant

ATLANTA -- A father is speaking out against an Atlanta hospital who won't perform an organ transplant on his 2-year-old son.

CBS affiliate WGCL-TV reports A.J. Burgess was born prematurely without a working kidney and needs a transplant. His father, Anthony Dickerson, is a perfect match for the organ donation.

Dickerson says he'd like to give his son the lifesaving gift, but surgeons at Emory Hospital won't perform the transplant operation because Dickerson recently served time in prison for violating probation.

"That's all I ever wanted was a son," Dickerson said. "And I finally got him, and he's in this situation."

The surgery had been planned for Oct. 3, but a hospital official sent the boy's mother, Carmellia Burgess, a letter saying it would be delayed until Dickerson could show that he has complied with the conditions of his parole for three months.

Burgess says the hospital is unfairly endangering her son because of his father's mistakes.

"They're making this about Dad," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's not about Dad. It's about our son."

Dickerson has repeatedly been in trouble with the law and was arrested last month for violating his probation.

That didn't initially seem to be an obstacle. A letter to the Gwinnett County jail from Emory's Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program requested he be brought in for an appointment so the procedure could go forward.

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A.J. with father Anthony Dickerson and mother Carmellia Burgess. WGCL-TV

"If Mr. Dickerson could be escorted to Emory for blood work and a pre-operative appointment tomorrow, Sept. 29, we will be able to continue with the scheduled surgery," the letter states.

But then Burgess received a letter from the hospital saying the surgery would be delayed until Dickerson could provide documentation from his parole officer showing compliance for the next three months.

"We will re-evaluate Mr. Dickerson in January 2018 after receipt of this completed documentation," the letter said.

Burgess was extremely upset by the hospital's decision, saying the delay is endangering her son and that January 2018 may be too late. She told WGCL-TV that A.J.'s body is starting to fail and he needs bladder surgery.

"He's only 2," she said. "He don't deserve this. We've been waiting so long for this."

Emory spokeswoman Janet Christenbury said privacy regulations bar her from providing specific information about the hospital's patients. She also declined to speak more generally about how criminal history could affect an organ donor's eligibility.

"Guidelines for organ transplantation are designed to maximize the chance of success for organ recipients and minimize risk for living donors," she said in an emailed statement. "Transplant decisions regarding donors are made based on many medical, social, and psychological factors."

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO BE EXTENDED IF TRUMP HADN’T MESSED IT UP. THE REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN CONSISTENTLY “DECONSTRUCTING” THE LAW, SO THEY CAN THEN CLAIM THAT IS “A DISASTER.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bipartisan-deal-reached-on-obamacare-payments-says-gop-senator/
CBS/AP October 17, 2017, 2:29 PM
Bipartisan deal reached on Obamacare payments, says GOP senator

WASHINGTON -- A leading Republican senator says he and a top Democrat have reached an agreement on a plan to extend federal payments to health insurers that President Trump has blocked.

GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the next step will be for him and his negotiating partner - Democrat Patty Murray - to win enough support from colleagues to push it through Congress.

Earlier, Alexander said in an interview that he was nearing agreement with Murray to continue federal payments to insurers for two more years. In exchange, Republicans want Congress to give states flexibility to avoid some coverage requirements under President Barack Obama's health care law.

"We are ironing out a few of the last details right now," Murray told reporters at a press conference, adding that she was able to find "common ground to stabilize the markets" with Alexander.

Both senators will need to present the plan to their colleagues to see if they can win enough support for the plan to pass the Senate.

The president acknowledged at a White House press conference Tuesday that the senators have been working on a deal to stabilize health care markets.

"This is a short-term deal," said Mr. Trump, who halted the insurers' payments last week, but has said he wants a bipartisan deal to continue them temporarily.

President Trump pushes to unravel Obamacare
Play VIDEO
President Trump pushes to unravel Obamacare

The cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments are subsidies that help lower-income Americans afford health insurance. They're paid by the administration directly to insurers. The Trump administration concluded that the government could no longer legally make the CSR payments -- even though it had been paying them since the president's inauguration in January -- because Congress didn't approve the appropriation for them. According to estimates, they cost the government $7 billion in fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30 and $10 billion in the current fiscal year.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned that if the president ended the subsidies, premiums would increase by 20 percent for silver plans next year and some people would have no insurers in the nongroup market.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



I WONDER IF THIS WAS ONE OF THE LAWS THAT THE LEGISLATURE VOTED ON BEFORE THEY HAD READ IT.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-marino-out-trump-drug-czar-nominee-60-minutes-report-live-updates/
CBS NEWS October 17, 2017, 8:49 AM
Tom Marino out as Trump's drug czar nominee after "60 Minutes" report - live updates

President Trump announced Tuesday that his nominee for drug czar, Rep. Tom Marino, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position.

"Rep. Tom Marino has informed me that he is withdrawing his name from consideration as drug czar," Mr. Trump said on Twitter. "Tom is a fine man and a great Congressman!"

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Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Rep.Tom Marino has informed me that he is withdrawing his name from consideration as drug czar. Tom is a fine man and a great Congressman!
8:39 AM - Oct 17, 2017
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The announcement came following a joint investigation by CBS' "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post on the opioid crisis.

The Whistleblower
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The Whistleblower

The report found that Congress helped disarm the Drug Enforcement Administration during the height of the crisis. Marino, R-Pennsylvania, was the chief advocate for the 2016 bill at the center of the investigation.

The bill weakened the DEA's control over opioid drug distributors.

Later Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump told Fox News Radio that Marino wanted to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest with drug and insurance companies.

"There was a couple of articles having to do with him and drug companies," Mr. Trump said. "And I will tell you he felt compelled. He feels strong about the opioid problem and the drug problem, which is a worldwide problem, it's a problem that we have. And Tom Marino said, 'I'll take a pass, I have no choice, I'll really take a pass, I want to do it.' He was very gracious, I have to say that."

Trump's drug czar nominee drops out
Play VIDEO
Trump's drug czar nominee drops out

Minutes after Mr. Trump sent his tweet Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence spoke about Marino's withdrawal in a radio interview.

"We think very highly of Congressman Marino and respect his decision to withdraw," Pence told WMAL radio.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who led Democrats on Monday in voicing opposition against Marino's nomination, hailed Tuesday's announcement.

"Thanks for recognizing we need a drug czar who has seen the devastating effects of the problem," Manchin said in a tweet to the president.

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Senator Joe Manchin ✔@Sen_JoeManchin
.@realDonaldTrump - thanks for recognizing we need a drug czar who has seen the devastating effects of the problem. https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/919950046279471105 …
8:46 AM - Oct 17, 2017
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On Monday, Mr. Trump said during an impromptu press conference in the White House Rose Garden that he would "make a change" if he decided the bill Marino sponsored was "negative."

"If I think it's 1 percent negative to doing what we want to do, I will make a change," Mr. Trump told CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett.

Trump reacts to "60 Minutes" report on opioid crisis
Play VIDEO
Trump reacts to "60 Minutes" report on opioid crisis

The president said Monday that he hadn't spoken to Marino about Sunday's report.

"He's a good man," Mr. Trump said. "I have not spoken to him, but I will speak to him, and I'll make that determination."

Marino's nomination was pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but no confirmation hearing for him had been scheduled, CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steven Portnoy reports. Mr. Trump sent up the nomination in early September.

A staffer for Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and the committee's chairman, told Portnoy on Monday that Marino had yet to submit the questionnaire given to him by the committee, and as a result a hearing hadn't been scheduled.

Lawmakers were struggling Monday to figure out how they unwittingly passed a bill weakening the DEA, CBS News chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.

"60 Minutes" report reverberates from White House to Capitol Hill
Play VIDEO
"60 Minutes" report reverberates from White House to Capitol Hill

The one-and-a-half-year-old law makes it harder for drug enforcement officers to block suspicious shipments of opiates that can flood the black market and fuel addiction.

"There should have been a giant flashing red light," Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill told Cordes.

She introduced a bill Monday to repeal the law.

"I think it was fairly clear some of them were trying to work with the drug companies," McCaskill said.

But Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch defended the law and his role in writing it.

"Anyone who claims that I or anyone else steamrolled DEA and DOJ on this bill is either ignorant or woefully misinformed," Hatch said on the Senate floor.

And other sponsors said they got mixed messages from law enforcement.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-California, said when she met with the acting head of the DEA he "insisted that the bill would not negatively impact their work."

CBS News' Gabrielle Ake and Jillian Hughes contributed to this story.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



IS ANYONE IN THE US GOVERNMENT BESIDES FEMA WORKING ON THIS, I WONDER. JUST BECAUSE TRUMP HAS PICKED A FIGHT WITH THE MAYOR, DOESN’T MEAN THAT CONGRESS AND THE SENATE SHOULDN’T STEP IN. I TRULY HOPE THAT THE HISPANIC HERITAGE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FOOT DRAGGING. ALL TRUMP HAS TO DO TO HELP WOULD BE TO REMOVE THE RULING THAT FOREIGN AID SHIPS MAY NOT ENTER PUERTO RICO UNDER THEIR OWN FLAG. SEE ALSO THIS NYT PIECE ON THE JONES ACT, BELOW, AND HOW IT APPLIES TO PUERTO RICO: HTTPS://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2017/09/28/US/JONES-ACT-WAIVED.HTML?_R=0.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raw-sewage-contaminating-water-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria/
AP October 17, 2017, 1:01 PM
Raw sewage contaminating water in Puerto Rico after Maria

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico — Raw sewage is pouring into the rivers and reservoirs of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. People without running water bathe and wash their clothes in contaminated streams, and some islanders have been drinking water from condemned wells.

Nearly a month after the hurricane made landfall, Puerto Rico is only beginning to come to grips with a massive environmental emergency that has no clear end in sight.

"I think this will be the most challenging environmental response after a hurricane that our country has ever seen," said Judith Enck, who served as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency region that includes Puerto Rico under President Barack Obama.

With hundreds of thousands of people still without running water, and 20 of the island's 51 sewage treatment plants out of service, there are growing concerns about contamination and disease.

"People in the U.S. can't comprehend the scale and scope of what's needed," said Drew Koslow, an ecologist with the nonprofit Ridge to Reefs who recently spent a week in Puerto Rico working with a portable water purification system.

EPA officials said that of last week they still had not been unable to inspect five of the island's 18 Superfund sites — highly contaminated toxic sites targeted for cleanup because of risks to human health and the environment — including the former U.S. Navy bombing range on the island of Vieques.

"I just wish we had more resources to deal with it," said Catherine McCabe, the EPA deputy regional administrator.

Contamination threat grows in Puerto Rico
Play VIDEO
Contamination threat grows in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico has a long history of industrial pollution, and environmental problems have worsened due to neglect during a decade-long economic crisis. A dozen over-packed landfills remain open despite EPA orders to close them because local governments say they don't have the money.

With homes damaged or destroyed, power lines obliterated and traffic chaotic, many of the EPA's own island-based personnel were unable to report for work immediately after the hurricane tore across the island on Sept. 20.

Twelve days after Maria made landfall, the EPA said it had 45 people in Puerto Rico. By Sunday that number stood at 85 — a force that Enck said was still insufficient.

Less than 20 percent of the island's power grid was back online, and while hundreds of large generators have been brought in, the U.S. territory's out-of-service sewage treatments plants include several that sit upstream of drinking water supplies.

One of Puerto Rico's biggest treatment plants discharges into a river that feeds Lake Carraizo, a reservoir that provides drinking water for half of the metropolitan San Juan area. Several of the plant's pumping stations remain out of service due to lack of diesel for generators, leaving sewage running into the lake.

"We're not going anywhere near it," resident Edwin Felix, 46, said, nodding toward the greenish brown river coursing past his hillside home.

That puts an extra strain on the filtration plants that give a final treatment to the water reaching the capital.

Puerto Rico facing "unparalleled" health crisis, doctor says
Play VIDEO
Puerto Rico facing "unparalleled" health crisis, doctor says

Officials say running water has been restored to 72 percent of the island's people. The water authority says it's safe to drink, though the health department still recommends boiling or disinfecting it.

In the town of Juncos on Thursday, EPA personnel warned people who were swimming in a river by an overflowing manhole that it was contaminated by sewage because a pumping station had failed, said Jaime Geliga, chief of the agency's local municipal water program branch.

"That's the only water they get," he said. "That's the difficult part."

Even the island's own water authority has distributed water from some wells at the Dorado Superfund site, according to Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who said that water has been tested and complies with all federal health standards.

But the EPA said Sunday that some people have ignored fences and warning signs and have taken water for drinking from wells on other, more dangerous parts of Dorado, which was brought into the Superfund program due to dangerous levels of industrial chemicals in groundwater.

The agency put up new fences over the weekend and said it had taken samples from those wells, though the results of tests were not yet available.

Islanders also have been urged to avoid drinking or touching surface waters such as lakes or rivers, particularly after a deadly outbreak of suspected leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread by animals' urine.

The EPA said it plans to dedicate more staff this week to inspect the roughly 250 small water utilities that serve remote, isolated communities and are typically in poor repair.

Many Puerto Ricans fear other existing threats could have grown worse.

In the southern coastal city of Guayama, residents long have protested the dumping of a several-story-high mountain of coal ash on the grounds of nearby power plant. The pile looks intact after the hurricane, but many fear the winds and flooding could have sent coal ash laced with heavy metals into adjacent neighborhoods.

Benjamin Planes Lugo, 70, lost the roof of the house he built with savings from running a gas station in New York, but he said he's more concerned about the ash, which he already blamed for his respiratory problems. The EPA said Sunday that it had visited the site and was awaiting test results.

"We're real worried about it," Planes Lugo said.

Enck, the former EPA administrator who also oversaw the cleanup after Superstorm Sandy in New York and New Jersey, said her successors should pull in staff from all over the country to address Puerto Rico's problems.

"They have to inspect every single landfill," she said. "EPA needs to go and look at how much material has moved offsite because, inevitably, it did."



THERE SEEMS TO ME TO BE A DESIRE TO SEE THAT NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS HERE – BUT NOT OVERT REBELLION. IT’S MORE LIKE THE BEHAVIOR OF A PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PERSON WHEN HIS PEER/WIFE/CHILD WON’T DO AS HE WISHES. HE QUIETLY RESISTS AND OFTEN WITH QUIRKY, ODD LITTLE TRICKS. I HAD AN EX-HUSBAND WHO ANONYMOUSLY SIGNED ME UP FOR A MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION, BUT DIDN’T PAY FOR IT SO THAT THEY WOULD ASK ME TO PAY. I CALLED THEM AND ASKED FOR THE SIGNATURE ON THE SUBSCRIPTION APPLICATION, AND OF COURSE, I RECOGNIZED HIS HANDWRITING IMMEDIATELY. I CONFRONTED HIM ABOUT IT AND HE MADE THE LAME EXCUSE THAT IT SEEMED TO HIM TO BE “LIKE A LITTLE GIFT.” PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PEOPLE ARE AT THEIR CORE, COWARDLY AND DISHONEST.

THIS BOTHERS ME SO MUCH BECAUSE THERE IS AN EPIDEMIC OF SENSELESS KILLINGS, AND TIME AFTER TIME NOTHING GETS DONE. EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY IS AN INTERESTING ORGANIZATION. SEE THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nevada-law-background-checks-gun-purchases-not-enforced/
By JULIANNA GOLDMAN CBS NEWS October 16, 2017, 7:57 PM
Nevada law on background checks for gun purchases not enforced

WASHINGTON -- Gun control advocates acknowledge that the expanded background checks they want would not have prevented the Las Vegas massacre. But last week, they went to court to try to make Nevada enforce the background checks that are already on the books.

Last year, the NRA spent more on a Nevada ballot initiative than in any congressional race, fighting a proposal to expand background checks, including at gun shows. Gun control advocates spent twice as much and won a narrow victory.

Nearly a year later, however, the law is not being enforced. State and federal officials are in a standoff over who does the background checks on private gun transfers.

Gun control on the ballot
Play VIDEO
Gun control on the ballot

So at a Reno, Nevada, gun show just days after the country's deadliest mass shooting in Las Vegas, video released by Everytown for Gun Safety shows a private investigator licensed in Nevada easily and legally buy four semi-automatic rifles and a 100-round capacity magazine without any background checks.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who campaigned against the measure for the NRA, initially argued it isn't enforceable because the law explicitly says the FBI has to conduct the background checks, not the state. He cited a letter from the FBI that says Nevada law "cannot dictate how federal resources are applied."

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John Feinblatt CBS NEWS

But John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, says Laxalt and Nevada's Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval should negotiate a solution that uses federal and state background check systems.

"If they need to get on the phone with the FBI and work it out, they should do that today," he said. "The governor and the attorney general are turning this into a political football."

Three days after the Las Vegas shooting, Sandoval asked Laxalt to reexamine this question. Laxalt returned with an opinion last week saying Sandoval has the authority to go back to the FBI with a "proposed policy solution," furthering what appears to be a game of hot potato when it comes to the state's gun laws that is now going to be fought in the courts.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.