In Brief: Nation & World: 5-17-16
Hilary Clinton and the 2-for-1 presidency
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky.— The notion of a 2-for-1 Clinton presidency is back.
Recalling sunnier days of growth, low unemployment and budget surpluses under her husband, Hillary Clinton is telling Americans that Bill Clinton will be “in charge of revitalizing the economy” if she wins the White House.
What his work would be remains unclear: not a cabinet post, she indicated. But, as she has been saying for months, she expects him to play a leading role.
Bill Clinton reigned over a strong economy, especially in the final years of his presidency, yet his economic legacy is mixed.
The late 1990s were the last period to see sustained income gains for the typical American household. Middle-income wages have stagnated since then.
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Trump’s questioning of the value of data worries Republicans
ATLANTA — Donald Trump says he plans to win the White House largely on the strength of his personality, not by leaning heavily on complex voter data operations that have become a behind-the-scenes staple in modern presidential campaigns.
Shortly after Trump explained his approach in an Associated Press interview — data is “overrated,” he said — one of the presumptive Republican nominee’s top advisers tried to clarify the remarks. Rick Wiley told AP the Trump campaign will indeed tap the Republican Party’s massive cache of voter information.
The national Republican Party has spent massive sums of money to develop the database since President Barack Obama’s election set a new standard for using data in national campaigns, from deciding where to send a candidate and how to spend advertising dollars to making sure supporters cast a ballot.
The back-and-forth in the Trump camp leaves Republicans and Democrats alike wondering just how committed the candidate actually is to what has become accepted wisdom among political professionals. Some Republicans worry that Trump risks ceding potential advantages to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton if he’s not willing to invest the money required to keep updating the data, and then use it effectively.
“It’s a big risk,” said Chris Wilson, who ran an expansive data operation for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s stiffest competition in the Republican primaries. Jeremy Bird, who worked for President Barack Obama’s data-rich campaign, said: “Flying blind is nuts.”
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8-justice Supreme Court dodges decision on birth control
WASHINGTON — A short-handed Supreme Court dodged but kept alive a legal challenge Monday from faith-based groups over the Obama administration’s rules for cost-free access to birth control. It was the latest sign of justices struggling to find a majority for cases taken up before Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
The unsigned, unanimous opinion paved a way out of a politically thorny dispute for the eight-member court, which has split twice in 4-4 ties since the conservative jurist’s death in February. Yet it hardly settled the matter, even if President Barack Obama said the “practical effect is right now that women will still continue to be able to get contraception.”
Deciding nothing but perhaps buying time, the justices asked lower courts to take another look at the issue in search of a compromise. The case concerns the administration’s arrangement for sparing faith-based groups from paying the birth control costs of women covered under their health plans.
“The court expresses no view on the merits of the cases,” the justices wrote, ending a major confrontation over Obama’s health care law with a whimper. The matter almost certainly will not return to the Supreme Court before the 2016 presidential election, and perhaps not until a new justice is confirmed to take Scalia’s seat, if at all.
The outcome suggested the court lacked a majority, underscoring the effect of Scalia’s absence. And it pointed to the prospect of other cases ending in a tie among the 31 that remain unresolved.
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Former GOP lawyer: Military acted properly on Benghazi
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military acted properly on the night of the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, according to leaked testimony from a retired, three-star Army general who served as chief lawyer for Republicans on the House committee investigating the attacks.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman “repeatedly commended the military’s actions on the night of the attacks during closed interviews with Defense Department officials,” including a Jan. 8 interview with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Democrats on the committee say.
Chipman, a former judge advocate general for the Army, served as chief counsel for Republicans on the House Benghazi panel from August 2014 until January.
Top Democrats on the committee — Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Adam Smith of Washington — released the testimony Sunday in a letter to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. The letter is the latest volley in an escalating, election-year fight over the House Benghazi investigation, which has lasted more than two years.
Democrats have called for panel to disband and say it is a thinly veiled excuse for Republicans to undermine Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks.
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1st US penis transplant could bring hope to maimed soldiers
BOSTON — A 64-year-old cancer patient has received the nation’s first penis transplant, a groundbreaking operation that may also help accident victims and some of the many U.S. veterans maimed by roadside bombs.
In a case that represents the latest frontier in the growing field of reconstructive transplants, Thomas Manning of Halifax, Massachusetts, is faring well after the 15-hour operation last week, Massachusetts General Hospital said Monday.
His doctors said they are cautiously optimistic that Manning eventually will be able to urinate normally and function sexually again for the first time since aggressive penile cancer led to the amputation of the former bank courier’s genitals in 2012. They said his psychological state will play a big role in his recovery.
“Emotionally he’s doing amazing. I’m really impressed with how he’s handling things. He’s just a positive person,” Dr. Curtis Cetrulo, who was among the lead surgeons on a team of more than 50, said at a news conference. “He wants to be whole again. He does not want to be in the shadows.”
Manning, who is single and has no children, did not appear at the news conference but said in a statement: “Today I begin a new chapter filled with personal hope and hope for others who have suffered genital injuries. In sharing this success with all of you, it is my hope we can usher in a bright future for this type of transplantation.”
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Baby found safe after car with her inside stolen in Detroit
DETROIT — Police say a 3-month-old girl has been found safe after her father’s car, with her inside, was stolen from outside a Detroit liquor store.
Police say the father told investigators he left the car running with Dakota Grimes sleeping in the back around 1 a.m. Monday while he ran into the store on the city’s east side. He returned to discover the white 2006 Chevrolet Impala — and his daughter — missing.
Shortly after an Amber Alert was broadcast, the child was found on the porch of a nearby home, still strapped in her car seat. She was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Police Chief James Craig says officers are looking for three suspects in the theft of the car, which was recovered Monday afternoon in nearby Harper Woods.
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US, other powers want to arm Libyan government
VIENNA — In a move fraught with risk, the United States and other world powers said Monday they would supply Libya’s internationally recognized government with weapons to counter the Islamic State and other militant groups gaining footholds in the chaos-wracked country’s lawless regions.
Aiming at once to shore up the fragile government, and prevent Islamic State fighters and rival militias from further gains, the U.S., the four other permanent U.N. Security Council members and more than 15 other nations said they would approve exemptions to a United Nations arms embargo to allow military sales and aid to Libya’s so-called “Government of National Accord.”
In a joint communique, the nations said that while the broader embargo will remain in place, they are “ready to respond to the Libyan government’s requests for training and equipping” government forces.
“We will fully support these efforts while continuing to reinforce the UN arms embargo,” the communique said.
With support from all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the plan is unlikely to face significant opposition from any quarter.
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Granting Medal of Valor, Obama says US must listen to police
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called on the nation Monday to support and listen to its law enforcement officers as he bestowed the Medal of Valor on 13 officers who risked their lives to save others.
In a ceremony in the East Room, Obama draped the purple-and-gold ribbons around the necks of officers who intervened in shooting rampages, hostage situations and an armed robbery. He pledged to keep working toward a bipartisan overhaul to make the criminal justice system fairer, smarter and more effective so that officers are well-equipped to enforce the country’s laws.
“We can show our respect by listening to you, learning from you, giving you the resources that you need to do your jobs,” Obama said. “Our country needs that right now.”
Three Santa Monica, California, officers — Jason Salas, Robert Sparks and Capt. Raymond Bottenfield — were honored for their response to a 2013 rampage on a community college campus that left five people dead. Confronting 23-year-old gunman John Zawahri in the campus library, the officers shot and killed him when he pointed his assault weapon at them.
Obama also honored Gregory Stevens of suburban Dallas, who exchanged gunfire with two armed men outside an exhibit hall holding a provocative contest for caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Both gunmen were killed, heading off what investigators suspected was a planned mass shooting.
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Illinois police shooting suspect killed after weeklong hunt
ST. LOUIS — A suspect in a police officer’s shooting who was shot and killed in southern Illinois after a search of more than a week managed to evade capture by hiding in a sparsely populated national forest where he had once lived, a county sheriff said Monday.
Dracy “Clint” Pendleton, 34, of Bellflower, Illinois, died in a shootout early Sunday at an abandoned house 250 miles away in the Shawnee National Forest, according to the Illinois State Police. An FBI agent was wounded but the agency said Monday he was expected to survive.
Pope County Sheriff Jerry Suits said that it took his deputies 11 days to locate Pendleton when he was charged in a 2012 domestic dispute. Online court records indicate that Pendleton was wanted on an arrest warrant for felony stalking and aggravated assault while discharging a firearm but pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault on a handicapped person or a victim over 60. He served 30 days in jail.
“It was a frightening situation,” Suits said, describing precautions during the recent manhunt that included rerouting school bus routes to avoid areas where Pendleton was believed to be hiding. “We’re glad it’s over.”
Authorities had closed off the Lusk Creek Wilderness Area in the national forest since May 9 when a stolen pickup truck that they believed Pendleton was using was found. The 6,293-acre area will remain closed through Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service said.
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Police say Sinead O’Connor found safe, no details released
CHICAGO — Police in suburban Chicago say Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor was found safe Monday after officers received a report that she never returned from a Sunday bike ride in the area.
Wilmette police spokesman Eric Peterson said O’Connor had been located, “is safe and no longer considered a missing or endangered person,” though he wouldn’t say where she was found or release details about her condition.
Local police issued a well-being check for O’Connor earlier Monday, saying someone called to report that she hadn’t been seen since leaving for a bicycle ride early Sunday morning. It’s unclear why O’Connor was in Wilmette, an upper-class suburb about 15 miles north of Chicago along Lake Michigan.
Police said no other information was immediately available about O’Connor, who scored an international hit in 1990 with her rendition of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.” The gifted but troubled singer-songwriter is known as much for her fierce and expressive voice as her shaved head and blunt criticism of the Catholic Church and other institutions.
O’Connor has performed at least twice in Chicago this year, with blues legend Buddy Guy in January and at a cancer charity fundraiser at the Metro Chicago theater in March.
