President Trump on Wednesday will release the outlines of what Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin called “the biggest tax cut” in US history — a plan expected to include huge cuts for businesses and a modest reduction for the middle class. Trump wants to slash the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent and also allow private and “pass-through businesses” like his own real estate empire to file like corporations. That could reduce his own taxes, as he would only have to pay the 15 percent rate instead of the top 39.6 percent personal rate that now applies. But Mnuchin said the plan won’t allow the wealthy to take advantage of the 15 percent rate for small businesses.

According to media expert and author Michael Levine(), a majority of Americans say they believe Russia tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and about 39 percent even say that Trump’scampaign tried to assist them. Noting the latest polling data, Levine notes that “fifty-six percent of respondents said they were convinced of the Kremlin’s meddling. Those opinions are largely drawn along party lines, with a majority of Democratic participants believing that Trump’s campaign helped the Russians and a majority of Republicans saying they think that former President Obama spied on the GOP candidate before he assumed office.” According to Levine “Overall, only 32 percent of respondents say they think Obama’s administration intentionally spied on Trump or any members of his campaign over the course of the election. Among Hillary Clinton voters, a full 72 percent say Trump’s team helped Russia meddle.”

President Trump vowed on Wednesday to challenge California jurisdictions all the way to the Supreme Court after a federal judge there stopped him from withholding funds to penalize them for shielding illegal immigrants. Mr. Trump, who twice has been blocked by courts from imposing a temporary travel ban on visitors from select Muslim-majority countries, expressed frustration that once again a judge in a single district could thwart him from taking action. The judge who issued the latest ruling hails from California, the same state as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which heard the previous cases. “First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “See you in the Supreme Court!

Turkish officials on Wednesday said they have arrested more than 1,000 people who they claim secretly infiltrated law enforcement throughout the country on behalf of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric who Turkey’s government blames for a failed coup last summer. Gulen is a former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan, but officials have accused him of organizing the attempted coup in July. Interior MinisterSuleyman Soylu told reporters that the crackdown, which happened overnight, targeted Gulen’s alleged network, which “infiltrated our police force.” He added, “One thousand and nine secret imams have been detained so far in 72 provinces, and the operation is ongoing.” Authorities have, since July, arrested more than 40,000 people—including teachers, soldiers, police officers, and public servants—over purported ties to terrorist groups.

Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to President Trump, is building a fund for female entrepreneurs, Axios reported on Wednesday. “The statistics and results prove that when you invest in women and girls, it benefits both developed and developing economies,” Trump told reporter Mike Allen in Berlin. “Women are an enormous untapped resource, critical to the growth of all countries.” Trump says the fund will provide capital to both small and medium enterprises run by women around the globe and that the financing will come from various countries and corporations. According to Axios, Trump’s father is supportive of the idea. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has allegedly consulted with the first daughter about the project.

LBN-INTEL FOR INFLUENCERS:

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER:   ***More than a year into Twitter’s efforts to turn around the company under the leadership ofJack Dorsey, its business is shrinking. And yet, investors seem to have finally been given a glimmer of hope for the future. But first, the bad news. On Wednesday, Twitter reported its first fall in revenue since its initial public offering in 2013, posting sales of $548 million in the first quarter, down 7 percent from a year earlier. But that beat investors’ low expectations for the company; Wall Street analysts had predicted revenue of $509 million.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Dinosaurs had different self-defense mechanisms. Some, like meat eaters, had sharp teeth. Plant eaters had long horns or sharp spikes. Other dinosaurs were covered in bony plates

LBN SPOTLIGHT: Tiananmen West: Why Nixon Ordered the Kent State Massacre is now available on Amazon in both e-book and paperback formats. It is a non-fiction study of the Nixon era.   Author, Jenny Deason Copeland, pitched the screenplay for 20 years only to hear Hollywood execs suggest it be a book first. The heroine and villain parts were written withSarandon and Nicholson in mind. Nixon confesses to ordering the massacre in his autobiography RN. After three decades of research using FOIA procedures, the book uncovers the possible motive behind the massacre. The FOIA results are available free at 

MY REVIEW: “Every day LBN makes me think. It expands my world and mind.”—– Rory L., an LBN reader from Newark, New Jersey.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH:   ***For those who can stomach it, working out before breakfast may be more beneficial for health than eating first, according to a useful new study of meal timing and physical activity. Its results indicate that when we eat affects how much fat we burn during exercise and also alters molecular activity within fat cells, in ways that could have long-term implications for our physical well-being. Athletes and scientists have long known that meal timing affects performance. Most obviously, if you eat first, you have relatively high levels of blood sugar. Working muscles can readily use this sugar as fuel. If, on the other hand, you have fasted before working out, your muscles must rely primarily on the body’s skimpy supply of stored carbohydrates or its larger reservoirs of fat. Accessing this fat, however, requires extra metabolic steps to become available as energy, which makes it a relatively inefficient fuel source during times of strenuous exercise. As a general rule, the body tends to turn to fat as its primary fuel source when exercise is more moderate.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER:   ***James Heidenry, who once called Us Weekly “the biggest culprit of hypocrisy” has been named as the editor-in-chief of Us Weekly. Heidenry, who already edits AMI’s OK! and Star, was introduced as the new editor at an all-staff meeting on Monday.   ***Robert Siegel, who is 69, will step down later this year as the senior co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” after 30 years in the chair. NPR says it will conduct a national search for a new co-anchor to share duties with Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish and (here in Culver City) Kelly McEvers.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Oprah Winfrey dining at TAO Downtown in NYC with Tony Bennett, Spike Lee and Gayle King to celebrate her new HBO movie, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”.    ***John Lydon at Aisling Foley’s Shag party at Soho Grand in NYC.   ***Lena Dunham, Jenni Konner, andEbon Moss-Bachrach having a “Girls” reunion at a Tribeca Film Festival premiere of “Tokyo Project”.   ***Artist Marina Abramovic telling fotogs who asked her to smile on the carpet for “Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World,” “How can I? Trump is president.”

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Nearly 6 out of 10 Angelenos think another riot is likely in the next five years, increasing for the first time after two decades of steady decline. That’s higher than in any year except for 1997, the first year the survey was conducted, and more than a 10-point jump compared with the 2012 survey. Young adults ages 18 to 29, who didn’t directly experience the riots, were more likely than older residents to feel another riot was a possibility, with nearly 7 out of 10 saying one was likely, compared with about half of those 45 or older. Those who were unemployed or worked part-time were also more pessimistic, as were black and Latino residents, compared with whites and Asians, the poll found.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER:  ***Miramax has named veteran film executive Bill Block to be its new CEO. Block, the founder/CEO of production company QED, most recently produced the comedy hit Bad Moms, which earned a surprise $184 million worldwide and is spawning a sequel. Block’s move to Miramax signals that Miramax is looking to expand significantly beyond its more recent incarnation as a lucrative library and return to its roots as a busy producer and distributor of high-end indie fare.

LBN-SPOTLIGHT: Coming soon – Episode #2 of “Without Notes” —- 

LBN-SITE OF THE DAY:

“With more than 1,000,000 human-edited definitions, Acronym Finder is the world’s largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms. Combined with the Acronym Attic, Acronym Finder contains more than 5 million acronyms and abbreviations. You can also search for more than 850,000 US and Canadian postal codes.”

LBN-R.I.P.:   ***Acclaimed director Jonathan Demme died on Wednesday morning in New York after suffering from esophageal cancer. He was 73. In a career that spanned more than four decades, Demme directed The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won an Academy Award in 1992, as well as dramas like Something Wild, Philadelphia and Beloved. In later years, he directed Anne Hathaway to an Oscar nomination for 2008’s Rachel Getting Married and just two years ago helmed Ricki and the Flash starring Meryl Streep. Demme was also well-known for his dynamic music documentaries, most famously 1984’s Stop Making Sense starring The Talking Heads, but also Neil Young: Heart of Gold in 2006 and most recently Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids.

LBN-COMMENTARY by Thomas L. Friedman: So a Hindu, a Muslim and a Jew are playing golf together in Dubai …Sounds like the first line of a joke, right? Actually, it’s the first line of one of those serendipitous stories that often happen when you play golf abroad. In my case, I was invited to play at the Emirates Club with a U.A.E. education expert and the famed Indian mystic, poet and yogi Jaggi Vasudev, who goes by his reverential name, Sadhguru. When I got to the first tee, I realized this was not going to be a normal round. Sadhguru is the founder of Isha, an Indian-based humanitarian and environmental movement with millions of followers (and some critics, too) — several of whom I could tell were at the course, because caddies and staff members kept coming over for selfies with Sadhguru and offering the traditional Hindu greeting, “I bow to the divine in you.”

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Johnny Depp isn’t just in the red—he’s seeing red. Depp sued The Management Group in January for $25 million, alleging fraud and negligence. He also accused the L.A.-based firm, run by brothers Joel Mandel and Rob Mandel, of failing to file his taxes on time and taking out high-interest loans on his behalf. Depp claimed that TMG led him to be more than $40 million in debt. In a countersuit, the actor’s ex-managers cited Depp’s lavish lifestyle as the cause of his financial downfall. “Depp lived an ultra-extravagant lifestyle that often knowingly cost Depp in excess of $2 million per month to maintain, which he simply could not afford,” the Mandel brothers’ attorney, Michael Kump, wrote in the cross-complaint. “Depp, and Depp alone, is fully responsible for any financial turmoil he finds himself in today.”   ***Al Pacino made the most of his 77th birthday celebrations with his stunning girlfriend Lucila Sola. The loved-up couple marked his birthday by soaking up the sun in Mexico. Pacino grinned as he walked into the waves with his 37-year-old partner. “The Godfather” star covered up in a dark colored t-shirt and stone shorts.   ***Gabourey Sidibe worked as a phone-sex operator to help make ends meet. The actress, now 33, opens up about the experience in her upcoming memoir, “This Is Just My Face,” writing, “I was 21, couldn’t afford to go to school, and couldn’t get a job.”