White House pushes to address US teacher shortage

Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced it is taking action to tackle a US-wide teacher deficit brought about in part by low salaries, as it coordinates with online organizations and unions to boost recruitment.

First Lady Jill Biden, herself a longtime community college educator, was set to present the initiatives later in the day at the White House.

"Too many schools are struggling to fill vacancies for teachers" and other critical school professionals, the administration said in a statement as it called for increases in teacher pay.

"On average, teachers make about 33 percent less than other college-educated professionals," the White House said, pointing out that after accounting for inflation, the average weekly wage for public school teachers increased just $29 between 1996 and last year.

While the US executive branch does not have direct control over teacher hiring or pay at the federal level – that is the responsibility of state and local governments º it nevertheless hopes to take indirect action.

The White House announced new initiatives by three online companies aimed at showcasing public school job opportunities, steering graduates towards careers in education, and holding nationwide virtual hiring fairs for teachers.

The US departments of education and labor issued a joint letter Wednesday to school districts urging them to boost teacher pay through use of emergency relief funds distributed from late 2021 to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The White House also highlighted an initiative by several labor organizations that are coordinating to expand teacher apprenticeship programs.

And it urged teachers to take advantage of student loan forgiveness mechanisms for which they are eligible.

Agence France-Presse

Clinton says US owes Trump ‘a chance to lead’

WASHINGTON — A day after Donald Trump, against all odds, won election as America’s 45th president, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday (Thursday Philippine time) lamented that the nation proved to be “more divided than we thought” but urged supporters: “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”

Standing before a crowd of crestfallen campaign aides and backers, Clinton said, “This is painful and it will be for a long time.”

Trump’s triumph, declared only after midnight, will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House.

He’ll govern with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and lead a country deeply divided by his rancorous campaign against Clinton.

He faces fractures within his own party, too, given the numerous Republicans who refused to back him or only tepidly supported his nomination.

As he claimed victory early Wednesday, Trump urged Americans to “come together as one united people.”

That sentiment was echoed by the GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had been a reluctant Trump supporter. “This needs to be a time of redemption, not a time of recrimination,” Ryan said in a news conference, saying Trump had earned a “mandate” to enact his agenda.

Clinton, hoping to become the first woman to be elected president, conceded defeat in a telephone call to Trump.

With several million votes still to be counted, she held a narrow lead in the nationwide popular vote. Most of the outstanding votes appeared to be in Democratic-leaning states, with the biggest chunk in California, a state Clinton overwhelmingly won. With almost 125 million votes counted, The Associated Press tally had Clinton with 47.7 percent and Trump with 47.5 percent.

Summoning her most magnanimous tone after a bitter race, Clinton said of the man whose victory she declared would be a danger to America and the world: “I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.”

As her supporters waited for her in a New York ballroom, the scene of despair played out for all on live television. Cameras zoomed in on the exhausted and miserable faces of several of her closest aides, some dressed in hoodies or other casual clothing. The familiar campaign music of Bruce Springsteen in the background added to the sense of disappointment.

“We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought,” Clinton said in a speech she never hoped to deliver. “But I still believe in America and I always will.”

Global stock markets and US stock futures plunged early Wednesday, but later recovered. The Dow Jones industrial average was up almost 1 percent in midday trading in New York.

President Barack Obama congratulated Trump in a phone call and invited him to a meeting at the White House Thursday to discuss transition.

Obama said at the White House Wednesday that he had significant differences with Trump but added that the same had been true when he took office after George W. Bush. He said Clinton had accomplished much as the first woman nominated for president by a major political party.

He noted that despite the painful loss for the Democrats, “the sun came up” as usual Wednesday morning.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Obama and Trump had “a very nice talk” when the president called him.

Trump, who spent much of the campaign urging supporters on as they chanted “lock her up,” said the nation owed Clinton “a major debt of gratitude” for her years of public service.

A New York real estate developer who lives in a sparkling Manhattan high-rise, Trump forged a connection with white, working class Americans who feel left behind in a changing economy and diversifying country.

He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of problems plaguing many Americans and tapped into fears of terrorism emanating at home and abroad.

GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states, including North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin. Republicans also maintained their grip on the House.

Senate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices, which could shift the bench to the right for decades.

Trump has pledged to usher in sweeping changes to US foreign policy, including building a wall along the US-Mexico border and suspending immigration from countries with terrorism ties. He has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoken of building a better relationship with Moscow, worrying some in his own party who fear he’ll go easy on Putin’s provocations.

Putin sent him a telegram of congratulations.

Upending years of political convention on his way to the White House, Trump leveled personal insults against his rivals, declared Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, and vowed to suspend Muslim immigration to the US

He never released his tax returns, breaking with decades of campaign tradition, and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two White House terms, relying instead on large, free-wheeling rallies to energize supporters. His campaign was often in chaos.

Clinton faced persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. And her troubles flared anew late in the race, when the FBI Director reviewed new emails from her tenure at the State Department. Just two days before Election Day, Comey said there was nothing in the material to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.

Trump will inherit a nation deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities, race and culture.

Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin, while men significantly backed Trump. More than half of white voters went for the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Michelle Obama stumps with Hillary; Pence in plane scare

WINSTON-SALEM, United States—First Lady Michelle Obama implored voters to troop to the polls as she stumped Thursday for Democrat Hillary Clinton, while the race suffered a scare when Donald Trump’s running mate’s plane skidded off the runway.

No one was reported hurt in the incident, in which the plane carrying Indiana Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence came to rest in grass next to the runway after landing at New York’s rain-soaked LaGuardia airport.

But with the mishap coming in the final throes of a combative campaign that will be decided November 8, several Twitter users described it as a metaphor for the 2016 race.

Trump, speaking in Ohio, said he was grateful that those on the plane avoided “grave, grave danger.”

“I just spoke to Mike Pence. He’s fine,” Trump said.

Clinton also expressed relief that no one was hurt.

The former first lady and secretary of state enlisted the current first lady, who enjoys sky-high support, in hammering Trump and making the case for a third straight Democratic term in the White House.

Obama earned thunderous roars of approval from a crowd of 11,000 as she took the stage with Clinton in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of the swing states in play, where they accused Trump of seeking to depress turnout.

Obama has emerged as a compelling force in the hard-fought campaign, delivering powerful arguments against the Republican billionaire and in support of Clinton’s bid to become the first female US president.



“She is ready to be commander-in-chief on Day 1, and yes, she happens to be a woman,” Obama said of Clinton, whom she called “my girl.”

The 52-year-old wife of President Barack Obama has energized Democrats by criticizing Trump for his strident rhetoric and for what she brands his “frightening” attitude towards women.

Trump’s strategy was “to make this election so dirty and ugly that we don’t want any part of it,” she said.

“When you hear folks talking about a global conspiracy and saying that this election is ‘rigged,’ understand that they are trying to get you to stay home.”

Clinton has basked in the results of new polls showing her with an impressive lead with just 12 days to go.

North Carolina voted for Obama in 2008, then for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.

But Clinton has expanded her narrow lead to 2.4 points in the southeastern state, where Republican leaders worry that Trump’s slow collapse will hurt them in congressional races.

Clinton, whose campaign announced a large fundraising haul on Thursday, struck a tone of unity and optimism.

“As Michelle reminds us, this election is about our kids and, in my case, our grandkids,” Clinton said. “Starting right now, let’s come together. Let’s work together and be hopeful and optimistic and unified.”

Combative Trump

The latest rolling poll average compiled by tracker RealClearPolitics showed Clinton, who turned 69 on Wednesday, with a 5.4 point lead in a national race against Trump and two outsiders — pointing to a likely electoral college victory for the Democrat.

In Toledo, Ohio, Trump quipped that the election should be scrapped.

“I am just thinking to myself right now we should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump,” he told the crowd.


Trump’s standing has been hit hard, particularly among female voters, since the release this month of a 2005 video in which he boasts that his celebrity allows him to grope women with impunity.

But the 70-year-old Manhattan real estate mogul turned serious in an interview with Fox News, saying that NBC — the company that owns the “Access Hollywood” show that recorded Trump’s 2005 comments — broke the law and could be sued.

“It was an illegal act,” he said.

Trump meanwhile took heart from a new survey that shows him with a two-point lead in Florida, a state where presidential races are often won and lost — and a must-win state for him.

“We don’t want to give this away,” the combative candidate promised supporters in Ohio.

‘Fast and loose’

The RealClearPolitics poll average still puts Clinton ahead in Florida by 1.6 percentage points, but she wants to lock it in.

The president, who narrowly won Florida in 2008 and 2012, campaigns for her there Friday, while Clinton is scheduled to join pop star Jennifer Lopez on stage Saturday in Miami.

As Clinton called on voters to rise above the nastiness of the race, new WikiLeaks disclosures threatened her campaign, notably an email in which aide Douglas Band detailed his own money-making efforts both on behalf of Bill Clinton personally and the foundation.

Band wrote of helping the former president “secure and engage in for-profit activities — including speeches, books, and advisory service engagements.”

Trump pounced, calling the activity outright corruption.

“If the Clintons were willing to play this fast and loose with their enterprise when they weren’t in the White House, just imagine what they’d do given the chance to once again control the Oval Office,” he said./rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Hillary, in Miami, gets Adele on her team

MIAMI—Hillary Clinton took time off from storming the campaign trail in the key state of Florida Tuesday to take in a pre-birthday concert by pop icon Adele.

Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said the award-winning British singer, who can’t vote in the United States, is “100 percent for Hillary Clinton,” adding: “I love her. She’s amazing.”


Merrill says Adele told the audience that while she is British, “what happens in America affects me too.”

Clinton turns 69 on Wednesday.

Reporters were not allowed to join Clinton for her concert treat — so we don’t yet know whether the White House hopeful belted out a few of her Adele favorites in the dark.

On a possibly wackier note, the former top US diplomat and ex-senator hours earlier appeared on a Spanish-language entertainment show, where she shared her favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Hosts of the Univision show “El gordo y la flaca,” gave Clinton a bottle of tequila to celebrate the last year of her sixties.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Clinton looks to consolidate lead over Trump

CHARLOTTE, United States—With just over two weeks to go before Americans vote for a new president, Hillary Clinton—who has widened her lead over Donald Trump—is stepping up her efforts in key battleground states to consolidate her lead.

The Democratic former secretary of state, who is vying to be America’s first female president, leads the Republican real estate mogul among likely voters by 50 percent to 38 percent, according to a national ABC News poll.

That is her highest score since the start of the race to succeed Barack Obama in the White House.

“We are behind,” Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway admitted Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” nevertheless insisting that the race was not over.

At an evening rally in Naples, Florida, the 70-year-old Trump called on his supporters to turn out en masse to “get rid of Crooked Hillary once and for all,” using one of his favorite nicknames for his 68-year-old rival.

“Numbers are looking phenomenal in Florida. Don’t believe the media,” he insisted.

The Sunshine State is a key prize in the presidential race, one of several battleground states that are key for both candidates if they want to win on November 8. Most polls put Trump a few points behind Clinton there.

‘Systemic racism’

Conscious that winning the minority vote will help lead her to victory, the 68-year-old Clinton started her day Sunday at a mainly black church in Durham, North Carolina—another of the swing states up for grabs.

Obama won the southern state by a razor-thin margin in 2008, but lost it to Mitt Romney four years later. Team Clinton is pulling out all the stops to put it back in the Democratic win column.

Before a congregation that included Sybrina Fulton—the mother of slain unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, whose death shocked America in 2012—Clinton called for awareness of the “systemic racism” seen across the country.

“If we are honest with each other, we know we face the continuing discrimination against African-Americans and in particular young African-Americans,” she said.

“These conversations can be painful for everybody, but we have got to have them.”

She accused her Republican opponent of painting “a bleak picture of our inner cities” and ignoring the successes of black leaders “in every field and every walk of life.”

Hillary and Michelle

Clinton will return to North Carolina on Thursday with the woman who has emerged as one of her best campaign weapons—Michelle Obama. It will be their first joint rally for the former and current first ladies.

“Part of the great joy of being an American is to know that you can contribute to making things better for yourselves and for young people and for people who have been left out and left behind,” Clinton told a rally in Charlotte.

“Everybody has a role to play and the choice in this election really is about what you want, what you believe for yourself and your future,” she added, notably mentioning the need to respect women—an allusion to Trump’s woes over allegations of sexual misconduct.

The new ABC News poll said 69 percent of likely voters disapprove of Trump’s response to questions about his treatment of women, after a series of women alleged he either groped or forcibly kissed them in years past.

Trump has strongly denied those allegations, and on Saturday threatened to sue the “liars” who came forward with claims about his past behavior.

Clinton is leading nationally in both two-way and four-way contests by an average of about six points, according to RealClearPolitics. She is also ahead in most of the crucial battleground states.

The 70-year-old Trump is clinging to an edge—but only a slight one—in traditionally Republican strongholds like Texas, where he has a three-point lead.

‘Not over yet’

Team Clinton is gunning for a landslide win, using its momentum to push ahead in the battle for control of Congress. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are now in Republican hands, and the Democrats would like to change that.

Clinton unleashed a pair of powerful surrogates on the campaign trail Sunday—her husband, former president Bill, in Florida, and the current president in Nevada.

“We’re not taking anything for granted at all,” campaign manager Robby Mook told Fox News Sunday. “You know, this is not over yet.”

While Clinton has received several major newspaper endorsements, Trump got his first major thumbs-up, from The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Mr Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave,” the paper wrote, adding he would instead shake up the US capital’s “political elites.”/rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Victory in sight, Clinton still grapples with negative views

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in three debates. She leads in many preference polls of the most competitive states. Barring a significant shift in the next two weeks, she is in a strong position to become the first woman elected U.S. president.

But Clinton will end the campaign still struggling to change the minds of millions of voters who don’t think well of her, a glaring liability should the Democratic nominee move on to the White House.

While many see her as better prepared to be commander in chief than Trump, she is consistently viewed unfavorably by more than half of the country. Most voters also consider her dishonest.

Clinton’s advisers have spent months trying to erase that perception. They’ve set up small events where she had more intimate conversations with voters. They’ve tested a seemingly endless stream of messages aimed at assuring the public that the former secretary of state was in the race to do more than fulfill her own political ambitions.

As Clinton starts making her closing argument to voters, her team appears to have come to terms that the mission remains unfulfilled.

“Honest and trustworthy has become our most talked about metric because it’s not great,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director. “But we’ve never thought it’s the metric people make a decision on.”

If Clinton wins, that theory may be proven true.

Just 36 percent of voters believe Clinton is honest and trustworthy, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll. That’s compared with about 60 percent who believe she has the qualifications and temperament to be commander in chief.

The public’s perception of Clinton has bounced up and down throughout her time in public life. Her favorability rating fell below 50 percent at times during her years as first lady, but rose to its high water mark then and while she was as secretary of state under President Barack Obama.

Democrats blame some of the current negative personal perceptions of Clinton on the hard-charging tactics she’s used to try to discredit Trump, though they believe her sustained assault on Trump’s character and temperament has been crucial.

Party operatives also say Trump’s personal attacks on Clinton have made it all but impossible for more positive messages to break through. He’s called her a “liar,” a “nasty woman” and pledged to put her in jail.

“When you’re under relentless assault from a reality TV star, it’s hard to come out of that with anybody feeling good about anyone,” said Bill Burton, a former Obama aide.

Still, Clinton’s advisers acknowledge that some of her troubles have been of her own making, including her penchant for privacy.

She’s spent nearly the entire campaign struggling to explain why she used a private email server in the basement of her home while she led the State Department. She hid a pneumonia diagnosis this fall from nearly all of her senior staff, then left the public unaware of her condition and whereabouts for 90 minutes after the illness caused her to rush out of a public event in New York.

“She is a politician that does not seek to be the center of attention and is inherently more private than most politicians, certainly presidential candidates,” Palmieri said. “That doesn’t always serve you great in a campaign for president.”

Clinton frequently shoots down questions about the public’s negative perceptions by saying she’s viewed more positively when she’s doing a job rather than running for one. There’s some evidence to back that up.

When she ran for re-election to the Senate from New York in 2006, she won with 67 percent of the vote, a big jump from the 55 percent share from her first race in 2000. Her approval rating when she left the State Department, where her job kept her out of day-to-day politics, sat at an enviable 65 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

But if Clinton is elected president, she won’t have the luxury she had as secretary of state to stay away from the political fray — with Republicans in Washington in the opposition, and possibly Trump, too.

The businessman keeps flirting with the idea he could contest the election results if he loses. There are also persistent rumors that, if he is loses, he might try to harness the enthusiasm of his millions of supporters into some type of media venture.

“The notion that Trump is going to go quietly into the night and wish her Godspeed is highly unlikely,” said David Axelrod, another former Obama adviser. “She’s going to have to contend with that and whatever it is he chooses to make his vehicle.”

Clinton has begun acknowledging the challenge that could await her in the White House, if she wins, centering her closing argument to voters on a call for unity after a bitter campaign.

“My name may be on the ballot, but the question really is who are we as a country, what are our values, what kind of a future do we want to create together,” she said Friday at a rally in Ohio.

Some Democrats see the transition — the two month-plus stretch between the Nov. 8 election and the Jan. 20 inauguration — as a crucial opportunity for her to signal, if she wins, that a Clinton White House would be different from a Clinton campaign.

In a nod to bipartisanship, she could nominate a Republican for her Cabinet. Clinton could start moving on some of her more broadly popular policy proposals as a way of boosting her appeal, assuming no crisis demands immediate action.

Still, Axelrod said changing the public’s view of Clinton will be a “long-term project.”

“There’s no silver bullet to turn around years of wear and tear on her image,” he said./rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Obama voices anger over Oregon shooting, urges gun control

WASHINGTON, United States—US President Barack Obama on Thursday voiced his anger and sadness after the country’s latest deadly shooting, this time at an Oregon community college, and made another impassioned plea for gun control legislation.

“Somehow this has become routine,” Obama said at the White House in reaction to the shooting by a 20-year-old gunman at Umpqua Community College in rural Roseburg, which left up to 10 dead.

“We can actually do something about it, but we’re going to have to change our laws,” Obama said. “It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

US proposes new rules regulating drone use

Washington–US aviation regulators unveiled sweeping new guidelines Sunday governing the use of small unmanned drones, proposing that the devices can only fly in daylight, must remain within users’ sightlines and cannot fly near manned aircraft.

The guidelines from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also recommend that drone operators obtain a special certificate to be renewed every two years and limits the speed of the drone to 100 miles (161 kilometers per hour). Users would have to be 17 years or older.

The devices would also be required to fly below 500 feet (150 meters) in altitude and would not be permitted near airports or other airspace without special permission.

The new guidelines would apply to drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, that are under 55 pounds (25 kilograms.)

The recreational use of drones has soared in popularity recently, but their use in the United States has remained largely unregulated.

President Barack Obama has called for more stringent rules on drone use after a “quadcopter” device crashed on White House grounds last month, prompting a security alert.

The FAA said the new rules sought to balance innovation with safety, and the agency’s administrator Michael Huerta called the proposed guidelines a milestone.

“We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,” he said.

“We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.”

The public now has 60 days to make comments on the rules, which the FAA said it will consider before drafting a final proposal.

Privacy concerns 

Also Sunday, the White House released a drones directive that sought to protect the privacy of citizens, prohibiting the illegal collection and dissemination of data by the devices.

A central pillar of the presidential memorandum is to ensure “the responsible use of this technology, strengthening privacy safeguards and ensuring full protection of civil liberties,” according to a White House statement.

Sharing or collecting information that would “discriminate against persons based upon their ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, in violation of law” would also be prohibited.

The White House said any new laws around drone use should ensure “protections and policies keep pace with developments.”

The US Center for Democracy and Technology welcomed the White House move, but warned drones “pose new and intrusive privacy problems” and urged lawmakers to do more to protect civil liberties.

“Congress still has a role to play in setting strong privacy and transparency standards for drone use,” the agency’s senior counsel Harley Geiger said.

Commercial use

The latest proposal from the FAA does not include the use of drones by delivery companies, such as Amazon, which has said it wants to use drones to deliver goods to customers.

Huerta said the agency was conducting separate research regarding drone use for those purposes.

“We have ongoing activities to address the questions of beyond visual line-of-site and we do want to receive comments from people with respect to how we should structure this going forward,” he said in a conference call Sunday.

“We also don’t consider and don’t contemplate in this a rule carrying packages outside of the aircraft itself,” he said, regarding using drones for delivery purposes.

The FAA said unmanned aircraft could be used for a variety of activities, including inspecting utility towers, antennas, bridges, power lines and pipelines; conducting academic research; supporting wildlife conservation; monitoring crops; and in search and rescue operations.

Several media organizations have also expressed interest in using drones to film and photograph aerial images.

Huerta said while drone use in these areas was valuable, the devices could also pose security risks if unregulated.

“We envision that this aircraft could be used for a wide variety of activities particularly those that might be considered dangerous,” Huerta said.

The FAA has been testing drone use at six sites across the country since late 2013.

Various US federal agencies regularly use drones, including to monitor wildfires, conduct scientific research, monitor borders and in military training.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Obama offers condolences to Abe over slain hostage

NEW DELHI — President Barack Obama has offered condolences to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the murder of a Japanese national by the Islamic State group.

The White House says Obama telephoned Abe from India. Obama arrived there Sunday morning for a three-day visit.

In an earlier statement, Obama condemned the “brutal murder” of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa. Obama’s statement didn’t say how the U.S. knew Yukawa was dead. The Japanese government is reviewing an online video that purports to show his death.

Obama says in the statement that the United States will stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Japan. The White House says he also conveyed that message to Abe during their conversation.

Obama also called for the immediate release of a second Japanese hostage being held by the militants.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Obama offers federal help to NY with Ebola case

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is offering federal support to New York as it responds to its first Ebola case.

Obama spoke Thursday night to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The White House says some officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were already on the ground, with another team expected to have arrived late Thursday.

Obama is asking Cuomo and de Blasio to stay in close touch with Ron Klain, Obama’s “Ebola czar,” and public health officials in Washington. He’s pledging more help if needed to ensure proper care for the patient and safety for health workers and the public.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Where were you when JFK was shot?

US TV specials this month are all about dramatizations and recollections of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a full 50 years ago in Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Old, controversial questions are being asked again, like did Oswald act alone, or were there other conspirators involved? For the nth time, audio recordings of the actual shots fired will be timed anew to determine if it was humanly possible for the sniper to fire so many shots in such rapid-fire succession.

On a more personal level, the tragic story of America’s short-lived, modern-day Camelot will be sadly and regretfully told again, with Jack and his Jackie torn from each other so abruptly at the height of their youth and power.

And, what about their little children? First child Caroline, so poised in her grief and pain—and little John-John, practically still a toddler, breaking everyone’s heart when he “manfully” saluted the caisson bearing his father’s coffin.

Adding further to the sense of recurring tragedy is the fact that heir apparent John himself is gone, expiring in a plane crash and ending his own ascent to power, which some people saw leading all the way back to the White House!

Aside from Jack and his son, tragedy has also hounded the lives of his siblings, Robert and Teddy, not to mention any number of nieces and nephews with their individual travails, run-ins with the law, etc.

Finally, some people in the States are asking each other again, “Where were you and what were you doing when you first heard that JFK had been assassinated?”

Shared experience

That’s how seminal and unforgettable that shared experience was—a collective national tragedy that forced many people to quickly mature and forget the myth of America’s own Camelot, in favor of a more realistic and perhaps jaded view of life’s sometimes cautionary and even harsh ironies.

Where were you when JFK died? For our part, we were studying in the States on a Rotary International fellowship, and we had just come out of our classroom at Northwestern University’s Graduate School. We hadn’t heard the news yet, so we were surprised to see our designated foster father, a Rotarian in Evanston, Illinois, waiting for us at the library entrance.

How were we, he wanted to know with grave concern? Had we heard about Kennedy being shot? How were we taking it? He hoped that we didn’t think that this sort of tragedy happened in the States all that frequently! The news had yet to fully sink in, but we assured our obviously shaken and worried “Dad” that we were OK.

Maybe he didn’t really believe us, because he got permission for us to skip our next class, and insisted that we spend the rest of the day with him and his wife. Fact is, we stayed overnight with them, and they didn’t let us go until they were fully reassured that we were indeed “OK.”

Throughout the rest of our year as a Rotary scholar in the States, we saw how JFK’s assassination had a profound effect on many people’s view of life and the world, with some Americans admitting that it forced them to “grow up” and see the world as it really was.

For our part, it would take more years to do that, but it did leave us with a profound sense of loss—and a disquieting premonition of even more tragic global denouements to come—!

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

U.S. weighs end to spying on allied leaders, source says

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering ending spying on allied heads of state, a senior administration official said, as the White House grappled with the fallout from revelations that the U.S. has eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.


The official said late Monday that a final decision had not been made and an internal review was still underway.

The revelations about National Security Agency monitoring of Merkel were the latest in a months-long spying scandal that has strained longstanding alliances with some of America's closest partners. Earlier Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for a "total review of all intelligence programs."

Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that the White House had informed her that "collection on our allies will not continue." The administration official said that statement was not accurate, but added that some unspecified changes already had been made and more were being considered, including terminating the collection of communications from friendly heads of state.

The official was not authorized to discuss the review by name and insisted on anonymity.

As a result of the spying allegations, German officials said Monday that the U.S. could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows. As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's nonbinding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money.

A top German official said she believed the Americans were using the information obtained from Merkel to gather economic intelligence apart from terrorism and that the agreement known as SWIFT should be suspended.

Feinstein said while the intelligence community has kept her apprised of other issues, like the court orders on telephone record collection, intelligence officials failed to brief her on how they followed foreign leaders.

Her statement follows reports based on new leaks from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden indicating that the NSA listened to Merkel and 34 other foreign leaders.

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein said. She added that the U.S. should not be "collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers" unless in an emergency with approval of the president.

European Union officials who are in Washington to meet with lawmakers ahead of White House talks said U.S. surveillance of their people could affect negotiations over a U.S.-Europe trade agreement. They said European privacy must be better protected.

Many officials in Germany and other European governments have made clear, however, that they don't favor suspending the U.S.-EU trade talks which began last summer because both sides stand to gain so much through the proposed deal, especially against competition from China and other emerging markets.

As tensions with European allies escalate, the top U.S. intelligence official declassified dozens of pages of top secret documents in an apparent bid to show the NSA was acting legally when it gathered millions of Americans' phone records.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said he was following the president's direction to make public as much information as possible about how U.S. intelligence agencies spy under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Monday's release of documents focused on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the bulk collection of U.S. phone records.

The document release is part of an administration-wide effort to preserve the NSA's ability to collect bulk data, which it says is key to tracking key terror suspects, but which privacy activists say is a breach of the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure of evidence from innocent Americans.

The release of the documents comes ahead of a House Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday on FISA reform.

The documents support administration testimony that the NSA worked to operate within the law and fix errors when they or their systems overreached. One of the documents shows the NSA admitting to the House Intelligence Committee that one of its automated systems picked up too much telephone metadata. The February 2009 document indicates the problem was fixed.

Another set of documents shows the judges of the FISA court seemed satisfied with the NSA's cooperation. It says that in September 2009, the NSA advised the Senate Intelligence Committee about its continuing collection of Americans' phone records and described a series of demonstrations and briefings it conducted for three judges on the secretive U.S. spy court. The memorandum said the judges were "engaged throughout and asked questions, which were answered by the briefers and other subject matter experts," and said the judges appreciated the amount and quality of information the NSA provided.

It said that two days later, one of the judges, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, renewed the court's permission to resume collecting phone records.

The documents also included previously classified testimony from 2009 for the House Intelligence Committee by Michael Leiter, then head of the National Counterterrorism Center. He and other officials said collecting Americans' phone records helped indict Najibullah Zazi, who was accused in a previously disclosed 2009 terror plot to bomb the New York City subways.

The documents also show the NSA considered tracking targets using cellphone location data, and according to an April 2011 memo consulted the Justice Department first, which said such collection was legal. Only later did the NSA inform the FISA court of the testing.

NSA commander Gen. Keith Alexander revealed the testing earlier this month to Congress but said the agency did not use the capability to track Americans' cellphone locations nor deem it necessary right now.

Asked Monday if the NSA intelligence gathering had been used not only to protect national security but American economic interests as well, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "We do not use our intelligence capabilities for that purpose. We use it for security purposes."

But National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden later clarified that: "We do not use our intelligence capabilities to give U.S. companies an advantage, not ruling out that we are interested in economic information."

Carney acknowledged the tensions with allies over the eavesdropping disclosures and said the White House was "working to allay those concerns," though he refused to discuss any specific reports or provide details of internal White House discussions.

source: lasvegassun.com

US plans for 3 days of attacks on Syria—report

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is readying more intense and longer attacks on Syria than originally planned, set to last three days, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

War planners now aim to unleash a heavy barrage of missile strikes to be followed swiftly by additional attacks on targets that may have been missed or remain standing after the initial launch, the Times cited officials as saying.

Two US officers told the newspaper that the White House has asked for an expanded target list to include “many more” than the initial list of around 50 targets.

The move is part of an effort to obtain additional firepower to damage Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s dispersed forces.

Pentagon planners are now considering using Air Force bombers, as well as five US missile destroyers currently patrolling the eastern Mediterranean Sea, to launch cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles from far out of range of Syrian air defenses, according to the report.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group with one cruiser and three destroyers positioned in the Read Sea can also fire cruise missiles at Syria.

“There will be several volleys and an assessment after each volley, but all within 72 hours and a clear indication when we are done,” an officer familiar with the planning told the Times.

The intensified military planning comes as President Barack Obama prepares to personally make his case to the American people and further press reluctant lawmakers on the need for action after Assad allegedly used chemical weapons on his own people last month.

Obama is scheduled to tape interviews Monday with anchors of the three major broadcast networks, as well as with PBS, CNN and Fox News.

The interviews, to air that night, will precede Obama’s address to the nation Tuesday ahead of an expected full Senate vote.

The president favors a limited attack with only a reduced number of warplanes to drop bombs over Syria, according to the Times.

Amid doubts that a limited US offensive would sufficiently hamper Assad’s military capabilities, one officer told the newspaper that the planned operation would amount to a “show of force” over several days that would not fundamentally change the situation on the ground.

The planned US strike “will not strategically impact the current situation in the war, which the Syrians have well in hand, though fighting could go on for another two years,” another US officer said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Justin Timberlake serenades the Obamas at White House gig

Justin Timberlake performed for Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House last night (9 April).

The set was part of the White House's In Performance series, and is the tenth concert in the series to take place since Obama's election to office in 2009. The concert was celebrating soul music from Memphis Tennessee, and other artists who performed included Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper and Booker T Jones.

Timberlake serenaded the couple, along with a private audience, in the East Room of the White House with a cover of the Otis Redding hit '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay'. Steve Cropper, who wrote the track along with Redding, looked on and apparently seemed to approve of Timberlake's version.

According to the Washington Post, Obama was bobbing his head, tapping his feet and mouthing along to the lyrics as Timberlake performed. Timberlake's wife, actress Jessica Biel, also attended the event.




Obama later announced that two of the staff members at the White House were engaged, and suggested that they ask Biel and Timberlake for advice. According to USA Today, he also joked, "Justin, they are looking for a wedding singer, just sayin'."

Billboard said that the President also praised Timberlake's work ethic, saying, "[When] Justin first started touring, he would immediately go to the bus to watch a tape of his performance, taking notes so that the next night he would be even better."

article source: gigwise.com

Facebook Goes Lukewarm Toward CISPA

Facebook has not completely dropped its support for the controversial and recently reintroduced Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), but the company is approaching the bill cautiously this time as CISPA once again navigates the legislative process.




Facebook, which backed CISPA when it was first introduced last year, does not appear in an updated list of companies and organizations which strongly support the bill (also missing from the updated list is Microsoft and a few other firms).

A Facebook spokesperson indicated to Mashable the company hasn't completely given up hope on CISPA's potential to improve cybersecurity while preserving users' privacy, but the company's statement does not read as strongly in favor of the legislation as it stands.

“Protecting the private information people share on Facebook is the foundation of our service, and we support efforts to improve our ability to protect that information from cyber attack," said the spokesperson in an e-mail to Mashable.

"We are encouraged by the continued attention of Chairman Mike Rogers and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger to this important issue and we look forward to working with both the House and the Senate to find a legislative balance that promotes government sharing of cyber threat information with the private sector while also ensuring the privacy of our users," continued the statement.

Facebook's half-hearted language is a flip for the company — Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy Joel Kaplan called CISPA a "thoughtful, bipartisan approach" that "addresses critical needs in cyber security" when it was first introduced in early 2012. Additionally, CISPA's authors, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), touted Facebook's strong support in prior press releases — something they're no longer able to do.

Why the change? Many of the Internet and Facebook users who rallied against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in late 2011 and early 2012 also oppose CISPA over fears it would violate their online privacy. Some of those users felt betrayed by Facebook's prior support of CISPA, as the company was an ally in the campaign against SOPA. The blowback against Facebook's CISPA support was intense to the point that Kaplan felt compelled to write a blog post in April of last year arguing CISPA would not put Facebook users' privacy at risk.

"Importantly, [CISPA] would impose no new obligations on us to share data with anyone –- and ensures that if we do share data about specific cyber threats, we are able to continue to safeguard our users’ private information, just as we do today," wrote Kaplan.

CISPA would provide a legal mechanism for the government and private businesses to share information about cybersecurity threats with one another. Supporters argue it's a much-needed method of bolstering American cybersecurity defenses, while detractors fear the government will use private businesses' data to snoop on citizens. It passed the House of Representatives last year despite a veto threat from the White House over privacy concerns. It failed to get picked up by the Senate, which continues to debate several alternative approaches to cybersecurity.

CISPA's authors re-introduced the bill in the House earlier this year following negotiations with the White House to address the administration's privacy concerns. About the same time as those meetings were taking place, President Barack Obama signed an executive order in January which in part commands part of the federal government to share cybersecurity intelligence with the private sector — the half of CISPA's information flow which privacy advocates find less objectionable.

The bill has not yet passed out of committee, a required step before going up for a full vote in the House.

source: mashable.com

Obama’s Led Zeppelin tribute

US President Barack Obama hailed Led Zeppelin for “making us all feel young” as Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones received Kennedy Center Honors at the White House on Sunday.

The official video below shows Obama joking with the band about their rock’n'roll past, while acknowledging their contribution to popular culture.

The president said: “I’ve worked with the speechwriters – there’s no smooth transition from ballet to Led Zeppelin.

“When the Brits initially kept their distance Led Zeppelin grabbed the US. It’s been said a generation of young people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album.

“They redefined the rock’n'roll lifestyle. We do not have video of this, but there were some hotel rooms trashed. So it’s fitting we’re doing this in a room with windows three inches thick – and secret service all around. So, guys, just settle down. These paintings are valuable. They look very calm though, don’t they?

“Tonight we honour Led Zeppelin for making us all feel young.”

Meanwhile, Jason Bonham has revealed how he surprised his bandmates by appearing at the concert in their honour.

The drummer, who replaced his father John at the band’s 2007 reunion, performed with Heart as part of a tribute show that also featured Dave Grohl, Kid Rock and Lenny Kravitz.

Bonham said: “It was so incredible to see their faces, sat there next to the president, and I walked on stage and played Stairway with an all-star band.

“The guys knew who was playing – but they didn’t know I would be on drums. Their faces lit up, and the smiles and tears… Well, you can see it on December 26. It was fantastic. What a way to close the show!”

The performance will be broadcast on US network CBS.

source: classicrockmagazine.com