Month: May 2017

Authorities say a woman who may have been trying to reach Canada was found dead in northwestern Minnesota.

Kittson County Chief Deputy Matt Vig tells WDAZ-TV that the woman, 57-year-old Mavis Otuteye, is believed to be a citizen of Ghana. Her body was found Friday in a field a half-mile from the Canadian border near the tiny town of Noyes.

Otuteye was reported missing a day earlier. Vig says she was headed to Canada on foot to try to reunite with her daughter. Otuteye had been living in Delaware for the past several years.

Autopsy results are pending, but Vig says she apparently died of hypothermia. He says temperatures were in the 40s that night, and part of her body was in a shallow pool of water in a ditch.
…

your ad here

Two U.S. aircraft carriers have started military exercises together in the Sea of Japan, U.S. Navy officials tell VOA.

“The USS Carl Vinson Strike Group and USS Ronald Reagan Strike Group are conducting routine operations in the Western Pacific,” Navy spokesman Lt. Loren Terry said.

Officials said the carriers, along with the ships and aircraft assigned to each, began dual operations in international waters within the sea on Wednesday.

The dual-carrier exercises come days after North Korea launched another missile into the Sea of Japan.

The multi-day, multi-carrier exercises provide “combatant commanders with significant operational flexibility should these forces be called upon in response to regional situations,” Terry told VOA.

“This unique capability is one of many ways the U.S. Navy promotes security, stability and prosperity throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific,” he added.

The dual-carrier operations mark the end of the USS Vinson strike group’s tour in the Western Pacific, according to a Navy official.

The USS Reagan strike group includes cruiser USS Shiloh and destroyers USS Barry and USS McCampbell.

The USS Vinson strike group includes destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy along with cruiser USS Lake Champlain.

American ships and aircraft routinely operate in international waters throughout the Western Pacific, which includes waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. Pacific Command said the short-range ballistic missile North Korea launched on May 28 posed no threat to North America, adding that the U.S. military stands behind its “ironclad commitment to the security of our allies in the Republic of Korea and Japan.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to work with the United States to “take specific action to deter North Korea.”
…

your ad here

U.S. President Donald Trump again assailed the congressional probes into his campaign’s links to Russia on Wednesday, claiming opposition Democrats are blocking the testimony of one of his former aides looking to clear his name.

“Witch Hunt!” Trump declared in one comment on his Twitter account.

Trump said, without citing evidence, Democrats on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee “don’t want” Carter Page, a former campaign adviser whose ties to Moscow officials are under investigation, to testify.  Trump said Democrats “have excoriated Page about Russia,” but that he “blows away their case against him.”

The president said Page wants to rebut the “the false or misleading testimony” of former Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey and ex-Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan about Page’s connections with Russian interests.

The FBI last year obtained a warrant under the country’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor Page’s communications.

Page, an international businessman and energy consultant, on Monday sent a letter to the House Intelligence panel saying he had been told he “might not be immediately afforded the opportunity” to testify and made clear he was eager to do so at a public hearing.

The 45-year-old Page accused Comey, former president Barack Obama, Trump’s defeated challenger former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and the U.S. news media of making up “unrelenting lies about me.”

Trump’s defense of Page came as his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, agreed to hand over documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee in connection with its investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence last year’s U.S. presidential election.

Flynn had previously refused a subpoena from the committee, with his lawyers asserting the request was too broad in what it was seeking.  

The committee filed a narrower subpoena, and Flynn is now expected by next week to provide some personal documents and those related to two businesses.

The House intelligence committee is conducting its own investigation, and Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, turned down a request Tuesday to provide information, calling it “poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered.”

Four concurrent probes

There are currently four congressional investigations of Trump campaign links to Russia and Moscow’s meddling in the election.  In addition, the Justice Department appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to probe whether Trump campaign aides illegally colluded with Russia during the long political campaign.

Trump has rejected allegations of collusion and dismissed the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at disrupting the November election and help Trump win.

“Russian officials must be laughing at the U.S. & how a lame excuse for why the Dems lost the election has taken over the Fake News,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Twitter.  Clinton has said that Russian interference was partly to blame for her defeat.

Later, at a White House briefing for reporters, spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump “is frustrated … to see stories come out that are patently false, to see narratives that are wrong, to see, quote, unquote, fake news, when you see stories get perpetrated that are absolutely false, that are not based in fact.”

Trump’s Russia comment came as news reports continued to focus on Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a White House adviser, and his reported attempt to establish a back-channel communications link to Russian officials in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration in January.

Some foreign affairs experts said the move, while Obama had weeks left in his term, worried them that it could undermine U.S. security, and some opposition Democrats have suggested Kushner’s security clearance should be revoked.  Other experts say exploring the creation of “backchannels” is commonplace, even during presidential transitions.

Spicer deflected several questions about Kushner’s actions, telling one reporter his inquiry “presupposes facts that have not been confirmed.”
…

your ad here

A guest at President Donald Trump’s Washington hotel has been arrested after police found guns and ammunition in his car.

Bryan Moles was detained by Washington police early Wednesday morning at Trump International Hotel. The hotel is just blocks from the White House.

Police say they found a handgun, a rifle and about 90 rounds of ammunition, after they received a tip.

Chief of Police Peter Newsham did tell reporters they learned about Moles from Pennsylvania State Police who contacted the U.S. Secret Service telling them Moles was traveling to Washington with weapons.

Newsham said they still don’t know Moles’ motive, but that law enforcement was “very concerned.”

“We’re going to do a thorough examination if we can get to the motive as to why this guy was coming to the District of Columbia armed with these weapons, Newsham said. “I was very concerned about this … very peculiar circumstance, and I believe that the officers and our federal partners, and in particular the tipster coming forward, averted a potential disaster in our nation’s capital.”

Moles’ car was parked near a valet attendant, and the weapons were reportedly visible from the outside.

Moles reportedly told police he was a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress. He also reportedly told officers he supports Trump.

Officially, the police have not confirmed those details.

According to a local radio station, Moles was “charged with one count of carrying a dangerous weapons, one count of carrying a pistol without a license outside of a home or business, as well as having unregistered ammunition.”

Police say they don’t yet have enough evidence to charge Moles with making threats.

Trump International released a statement on the incident.

“We take the safety and security of guests very seriously,” the hotel said in a statement. “It is our first priority. This morning, the authorities arrested a guest who was behaving suspiciously.”

The hotel would not give further details citing an ongoing investigation.
…

your ad here

With superstar sister Serena away pregnant, it was left to 36-year-old Venus to carry the standard for the Williams family at Roland Garros on Wednesday, with a second-round thumping of Japan’s Kurumi Nara.

Seeded 10th here, Williams ground her Japanese opponent into the red Parisian dust in a contest that at times almost veered into miss-match territory before ending 6-3, 6-1.

Williams never appeared extended on the Philippe Chatrier court, but she nevertheless delivered a display of exquisite shot-making to a crowd denied a real contest.

Punching her black and lime-green racquet through the ball, Williams cleaned the lines with her groundstrokes, sending Nara scampering all round the arena.

“You know, it’s always a joy when you can control the match,” she smiled afterwards. “That always feels good.”

The win makes her the oldest woman to reach the third round at the French Open since Billie-Jean King in 1982.

Next up is either Dutch qualifier Richel Hogenkamp or Belgian Elise Mertens.

“I don’t think I have played either in singles, so it will be interesting to, like, see how that ball is coming at me,” she mused. “I just want to win, so whoever I play, I just would like to win that match. That’s how you have to be is greedy.”

It is Venus’s 20th attempt at winning this title, and time may be running out for her, and for tennis fans to enjoy her languid shot-play.

She came closest in 2002 when she was beaten in the final by her younger sister, as she was at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year.

There is no Serena standing in her way here, but plenty of younger guns are eager for a notable victory.

Serena for one, though, is in her corner.

“Yeah, she said, ‘Good job’. She came in sometime during the match. I don’t know exactly when. She knows exactly what it’s like out there, and she’s had a lot of success here. If she stays here through the end, I would like that.”
…

your ad here

Nikki Haley crouched low in the trailer of an 18-wheeler, taping up a box of lentils and wheat for besieged Syrians, her hands-on diplomacy a world apart from the gleaming new NATO headquarters where President Donald Trump was debuting his “America First” doctrine overseas.

Haley, Trump’s U.N. ambassador, had started the day in Turkey’s capital, opened a refugee school in the south of the country, then traveled hours in an armored vehicle to the Syrian border. Her afternoon stop had to be short. She had a packed schedule, and at a nearby refugee camp she was soon kicking soccer balls with stranded Syrians and noshing on shawarma.

As she hopped a flight to Istanbul, Trump was arriving in Brussels to scold European allies for relying too much on U.S. defense spending. Haley’s mission represented another side of Trump’s “America First,” assuring nations on the border of the world’s worst crisis that the U.S. wasn’t forgetting them.

“I think ‘America First’ is human rights and ‘America First’ is humanitarian issues,” Haley said. “It’s what we’ve always been known for.”

Haley’s trip last week to Jordan and Turkey showcased the outspoken former South Carolina governor-turned-Trump diplomat’s emergence as Trump’s foreign policy alter ego: still bold, still brash-talking, but with greater attention to America’s traditional global roles and the personable side of diplomacy.

Human rights, democracy

Whereas Trump has emphasized U.S. security and prosperity and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has distinguished between America’s interests and its values, Haley is the national security voice insisting the U.S. still seeks to promote human rights, democracy and the well-being of others. Yet Haley brushes off any suggestion of divergent interests, arguing instead that the members of Trump’s Cabinet simply “see the world through a different scope.”

“We take basically what we work with every day and try to make America first through that lens,” she said at Altinozu Refugee Camp in southern Turkey, in explaining her sharply contrasting style. “For me to make America first, I have to fight for the political solution, have to fight for human rights and I have to fight for humanitarian issues, because I’m surrounded by it every day.”

So far, the White House has cautiously embraced Haley’s higher profile, perhaps as an antidote to Democratic and Republican critiques that Trump doesn’t care about human rights. Her prominent role as a face of Trump’s foreign policy has fueled talk in Washington about her political future, including potentially as a future secretary of state.

And while Haley has sometimes contributed to mixed messages, on everything from Syria to the delicate issue of Jerusalem’s status, the White House has continued sending her out frequently to represent the administration in public and on television. On Tuesday, Haley’s office announced she’ll travel next week to Switzerland to give a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council and then to Israel, where she’ll meet Israelis and Palestinians and observe local U.N. operations.

Haley’s role as boundary-pusher may have roots in her political upbringing in South Carolina, where the daughter of Indian immigrants became the first female governor in a state notorious for its “good ol’ boy” Republican network.

When a self-avowed white supremacist gunned down nine black worshippers in a Charleston church, Haley sat front and center for weeks at every one of the funerals. She grieved publicly throughout her second term after the “1,000-year flood,” Hurricane Matthew and other tragedies in the state.

Confederate flag

Yet it was her role in the roiling controversy over removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds that largely defined her ascent as a national political figure. For many in the state, it was a cherished symbol of Civil War sacrifices. But the rebel flag had been brandished by the Charleston church gunman in a display of hate, and Haley said South Carolinians needed to move forward and “put themselves in other people’s shoes.”

“She’s definitely someone who seemed to rise to the occasion when faced with these controversies,” said Gibbs Knotts, who teaches political science at the College of Charleston. “She hadn’t necessarily had a legislative success, but her ability to handle crises and connect with people and represent the state was when she was at her strongest as governor.”

After being picked by Trump in January for the U.N. ambassadorship, Haley said that “everything I’ve done leading up to this point has always been about diplomacy.”

“It’s been about trying to lift up everyone, getting them to work together for the greater good, and that’s what I’m going to attempt to do going forward,” she said.

As a member of Trump’s administration, though, it’s been more complicated.

While Haley conducted her reassurance tour for Syria’s neighbors last week, Trump unveiled a budget proposing sweeping cuts to U.S. foreign aid. Many of the same U.N. agencies whose programs Haley visited faced sharply reduced U.S. contributions, creating uncertainty about whether she could deliver on her declarations of support.
…

your ad here

Lowering expectations, Iowa’s two Republican senators say the long-promised repeal of “Obamacare” is unlikely, and any final agreement with the Republican-controlled House is uncertain.

The comments Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst come as the Republican-controlled Senate moves forward on its work to dismantle the 2010 health care bill while facing conflicting demands within their own party and lockstep Democratic opposition. Both senators are active players in the health care debate.

“You can’t repeal it in its entirety,” Ernst told reporters after a joint appearance with Grassley in suburban Des Moines.

Frank admission

It was a frank admission from loyal conservatives representing a state Republican Donald Trump carried in November.

The Senate’s filibuster rule means that Republicans — who control the Senate with 52 seats — can’t repeal the entire law.

“You’ve got to have 60 votes and we don’t have 60 votes at this point,” Grassley said.

Grassley, in his seventh term, is a senior member of the Finance Committee, which oversees the law’s tax and Medicaid provisions. Ernst, elected in 2014, says has been part of an informal GOP health care working group’s discussions.

“As much as I’d love to go back and scrap the whole darn thing, we’re simply unable to do that,” Ernst said.

Other Senate rules permit the GOP majority to repeal portions of Obamacare without Democratic support but render other parts of the law off limits.

“That just allows us to tinker around the edges,” Ernst earlier told Eric Borseth, an Altoona, Iowa, businessman who implored her to “get rid of that monstrosity.”

What Grassley and Ernst did not mention are divisions within the Republican caucus in the Senate. Getting every Republican on board is proving arduous.

House measure

House Republicans passed a measure May 4 axing major parts of the 2010 law, including hundreds of billions in extra Medicaid money that 31 states now receive for expanding to cover more lower-income Americans under the federal insurance program.

Such provisions, as well as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that 23 million Americans would lose health insurance, make the House bill a non-starter with several Republican senators.

Erasing Obama’s health care law was a top promise of Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, and by congressional GOP candidates since its 2010 enactment.

But writing legislation that can pass with only Republican votes has proven agonizing.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin canceled a March vote after opposition from party conservatives and moderates would have sealed its defeat, and the two wings of the GOP spent weeks blaming each other for the bill’s demise.

Ernst says the Senate will be able to make individual changes to Obama’s law where only a simple majority vote is required.

For instance, she mentioned changing mandatory health care benefits required by insurers as ripe for Senate action.

Ernst stopped short of saying whether any legislation passed in the Senate would be accepted by the House.

“We will be working with the House,” she said.
…

your ad here

Unease about white supremacist activity in Portland deepened after the fatal stabbings of two men who tried to shield young women from an anti-Muslim tirade, and some people worry that the famously tolerant community could see a resurgence of the hostilities that once earned it the nickname “Skinhead City.”

The attack aboard a light-rail train happened Friday, the first day of Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims. Authorities say Jeremy Joseph Christian started verbally abusing two young women, including one wearing a hijab. When three men on the train intervened, police say, Christian attacked them, killing two and wounding one.

Christian, 35, was defiant during his brief initial court appearance Tuesday, shouting: “You call it terrorism I call it patriotism!”

He made repeated outbursts saying “you’ve got no safe place!” and “death to the enemies of America!”

Aggravated murder, other charges

Christian, who faces aggravated murder and other charges, didn’t enter a plea. His next court date is June 7. He has been appointed public defenders. In a statement, Lane Borg, the head of the local public defender agency, said the office was “saddened by this tragedy” but urged people to let the justice system take its course.

The deaths stunned the city, but also underscored nervousness about recent events, including a series of apparent hate crimes in the region and contentious public rallies that have drawn national attention.

The Pacific Northwest has a long and violent history of white supremacist and other racist activities, despite its more recent reputation for being one of the nation’s most socially liberal regions.

“The idea that Portland is so liberal supersedes this dark, hidden secret about racism,” said Karen Gibson, a professor of urban studies at Portland State University.

The lone man to survive Friday’s stabbings says he’s having a difficult time processing what happened. Micah Fletcher told KGW-TV (https://goo.gl/HJjwpI) that he’s focusing on trying to get better.

“I’m healing. That’s what I’m doing. As much as I can, in whatever way I can,” Fletcher told the station. He was released from the hospital Monday.

Many of the early settlers to Oregon were from Southern states and brought with them negative attitudes about blacks, Gibson said. Only about 6 percent of the Portland population is black, while more than 70 percent is non-Hispanic white, statistics show.

Place blame

Some residents said President Donald Trump has caused those racist demons to stir again with his administration’s travel ban, his promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico and his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Since Trump’s election, Portland has led all major metropolitan areas in reported hate crimes, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office said.

“I don’t have that feeling like it can’t happen here — the way people talk about Portland — because we’ve got racism. We’ve got all kinds of things,” said Murr Brewster, who came to see a memorial at the city’s transit center. “It’s everywhere and the trouble is, it’s getting more and more prevalent.”

On Tuesday, Wheeler reiterated his call to organizers of a June 4 protest to cancel, saying he fears they could further enflame tensions. The event organized by the group Patriot Prayer is billed on its Facebook page as a Trump Free Speech Rally in “one of the most liberal areas of the West Coast.” Several counter-protests are planned.

Christian attended a similar rally in late April wearing an American flag around his neck and carrying a baseball bat. Police confiscated the bat, and he was then caught on camera clashing with counter-protesters.

Mayor speaks out

Wheeler has also asked the federal government to cancel a June 10 rally that targets Sharia law out of fears it could create unrest.

“These kinds of rallies … are typically people who come from elsewhere and hold rallies here because we are a deep blue city. They are intending to be provocative,” Wheeler said Tuesday in a phone interview with the Associated Press. “There is a growing sense of anger and it is focused at the far right, so I’m going to do my best to keep the peace here.”

In a video posted on Facebook, Joey Gibson of the group Patriot Prayer, condemned Christian and acknowledged that some rallies have attracted “legitimate Nazis.” He described Christian as “all crazy” and “not a good guy” during the April 29 event. He hurled insults at rally organizers as well as counter-protesters and was not a Trump supporter, Gibson said.

“To say that any of my speakers are racist, that’s ridiculous,” Gibson said in his video. “I haven’t seen the evidence. I haven’t seen the proof.”

No one immediately replied to a message sent to Patriot Prayer through Facebook. Gibson’s Twitter account appeared to have been deactivated, and a phone listing for him was disconnected.

The tumult caps a series of unsettling events in recent months in and around Portland.

Earlier this year, organizers of a small community parade affiliated with the city’s famous Rose Festival canceled the celebration over fears of violence after protesters said the local Republican Party had plans to allow a “neo-Nazi hate group” to march with them. Local GOP leaders denied the charges, but the tension spilled over into smaller protests in the days that followed.

Racist crimes

In the suburb of Troutdale, an Iranian refugee found his home painted with racist graffiti and death threats. And in Gresham, another eastern suburb, prosecutors charged a man with a hate crime after police said he chased down a black teenager with his car after a fight and struck him, killing him.

For years, Portland was the home base for Volksfront, a now-defunct white separatist organization founded in 1994, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

“There have been skinheads in that region forever,” said Heidi Beirich, spokeswoman for the law center. “Portland police have a robust unit against white supremacists.”

One of the most infamous attacks in Portland’s racial history occurred in November 1988, when an Ethiopian immigrant was beaten to death by three white supremacists in front of his apartment.

Mulugeta Seraw was a student who came to the United States to attend college. The members of the California-based White Aryan Resistance killed him with a baseball bat.

Civil case

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League won a multimillion-dollar civil case in 1990 against the White Aryan Resistance on behalf of his family, and the damages crippled the organization.

At least one local Muslim leader invoked Seraw’s memory and the vandalism of the Iranian refugee’s home when discussing the recent stabbings. A chalk message at the memorial at the transit center also urged Portland to remember his death.

Gratitude for the victims’ heroic actions is also tinged with fear, said Wajdi A. Said, president and co-founder of the Muslim Educational Trust.

“We hope,” he said, “that we will always respond with love and encouragement.”
…

your ad here

Three past winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee say losing was the secret to their success.

Early defeats spurred an inner competitive streak that they used to eventually seize the title, said champions from 1985, 1999 and 2010. The 2017 national spelling bee winner will be crowned on Thursday.

“Those were tough losses but they also made me dig deeper and work harder,” said Balu Natarajan, 45, who flamed out on the national stage in 1983 and 1984. He won the next year at age 13 and is now a sports medicine doctor in Chicago.

Nupur Lala, 32, still remembers the word that tripped her up in 1998: commination, which ironically means the act of threatening divine vengeance. She took the title in 1999 at 14.

“It was one of the really healthy moments in my life. Any hubris that I had was eliminated at that point,” said Lala, headed for a 2018 medical school degree with a focus in neurology after conducting research at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Lesson about challenges

For 2010 winner Anamika Veeramani, losing in front of a worldwide audience on live television in 2009 was a seminal lesson in handling life’s challenges.

“In the spelling bee, you really learn how to deal with failure. And dealing with those things gracefully is really important to living a good life,” said Veeramani, 21.

She graduated last week with a biology degree after just three years at Yale University and is applying to medical school. She envisions treating patients as well as launching a broadcast career covering medical stories.

Defeat has fanned the competitive fires within, all three past winners said in separate interviews.

“The competition is not with other spellers but with yourself,” Lala told Reuters. “I don’t think that besting other people is quite as motivating for me.”

Natarajan, who is chief medical officer at Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care, the nation’s largest privately owned hospice provider, agreed he has been his own fiercest rival.

“Some people love to win. Some people want to keep pushing to be their best. I am the latter,” he said.

Natarajan won the title for correctly spelling milieu, Lala for logorrhea and Veeramani for stromuhr, after their opponents had stumbled.

Others’ errors

And how do the world’s best spellers handle errors in emails, classroom lessons or even romantic love letters? Do they point out corrections or suffer in silence?

“I don’t hesitate,” Natarajan said. “It drives me crazy.”

But Lala and Veeramani hold their tongues.

“I don’t want to be obnoxious. Nobody wants to be that kid,” Veeramani said.

This week, 291 whizzes ages 6 to 15 will descend on a resort in the Washington area to compete in the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

They have made the cut from more than 11 million contenders who faced off in spelling bees in all 50 U.S. states, U.S. territories from Puerto Rico to Guam, and several nations from Jamaica to Japan.

The victor on Thursday takes home a $40,000 cash prize. But second place also has its rewards: a $30,000 prize.

Natarajan, a married father of boys 8 and 11, said his elder child just missed competing in the national bee this year, coming in second in a countywide spelling competition. If losing really is the key to winning, that may be great news.
…

your ad here