Source: Euronews
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy Testimony on Agency Operations
Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy testifies at a joint hearing of
two Senate Homeland Security and House Homeland Security subcommittees
on challenges facing his agency, including recent incidents of
misconduct by agents.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
House Republican Leadership Briefing
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and other House Republican leaders
speak to reporters following their weekly conference meeting. They pay
tribute to the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks and call for a
pause in accepting new refugees from Syria.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
House Democrats on Immigration and Refugee Policy
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other members of the House
Democratic leadership spoke to reporters about immigration, including
President Obama’s executive action on the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA)
programs.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
President Francois Hollande to Visit White House
President Obama will host President Francois Hollande of France for a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday, November 24,
in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris of November 13.
This visit will underscore the friendship and solidarity between the
United States and France, our oldest ally. President Obama and
President Hollande will consult and coordinate our efforts to assist
France’s investigation into these attacks, discuss further cooperation
as part of the 65-member counter-ISIL coalition, and reiterate our
shared determination to confront the scourge of terrorism.
Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Politics in Action: H.R. 511 and S.J.Res. 24
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
H.R. 511 – Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act of 2015
(Rep. Rokita, R-IN, and 54 cosponsors)
The
Administration is deeply committed to respecting tribal sovereignty and
maintaining government-to-government relationships with Indian tribes
as well as to protecting American workers and enforcing Federal labor
laws. The Administration cannot support H.R. 511, the Tribal Labor
Sovereignty Act of 2015, as currently drafted, because it does not
include the provisions as explained below.
The
President's commitment to tribal sovereignty has taken many forms—from
establishing the White House Council on Native American Affairs, to
reaffirming tribal authority to prosecute non-Indians under the Violence
Against Women Act, and to promoting tribal self-determination by
signing into law the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal
Homeownership (HEARTH) Act so that tribes may lease their lands without
the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.
At
the same time, the President is firmly dedicated to protecting American
workers. The Administration vigorously enforces Federal labor laws and
has repeatedly emphasized the importance of strengthening workers'
rights to collective bargaining.
The
Administration is encouraged by the efforts of some tribal governments
to balance these important interests and find common ground when
formulating compacts to operate casinos on tribal land under the Federal
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In several of these compacts, tribes
have agreed to establish their own labor relations policies. Though
these compacts differ on minor details, what they have in common is that
they generally protect tribal self-governance while also ensuring that
most casino workers retain important and effective labor rights.
It
is thus possible to protect both tribal sovereignty and workers'
rights, and the Administration can only support approaches that
accomplish that result. Therefore, the Administration can support a
bill which recognizes tribal sovereignty in formulating labor relations
law and exempts tribes from the jurisdiction of the National Labor
Relations Board only if the tribes adopt labor standards and procedures
applicable to tribally-owned and operated commercial enterprises
reasonably equivalent to those in the National Labor Relations Act.
Amended legislation would also need to include an authorization for
funding to support the development and implementation of tribal labor
laws and regulations.
S.J.Res. 24 – Disapproving EPA Rule on Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Electric Utility Generating Units
(Sen. Capito, R-WV, and 48 cosponsors)
The
Administration strongly opposes S.J.Res. 24, which would undermine the
public health protections of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and stop critical
U.S. efforts to reduce dangerous carbon pollution from power plants. In
2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the CAA gives the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG)
pollution. In 2009, EPA determined that GHG pollution threatens
Americans' health and welfare by leading to long-lasting changes to the
climate that can, and are already, having a range of negative effects on
human health and the environment. This finding is consistent with
conclusions of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and numerous other national
and international scientific bodies. Power plants account for roughly
one-third of all domestic GHG emissions. While the United States limits
dangerous emissions of arsenic, mercury, lead, particulate matter, and
ozone precursor pollution from power plants, the Clean Power Plan and
the Carbon Pollution Standards put into place the first national limits
on power plant carbon pollution. The Clean Power Plan empowers States
to cost-effectively reduce emissions from existing sources and provides
States and power plants a great deal of flexibility in meeting the
requirements. EPA expects that under the Clean Power Plan, by 2030,
carbon pollution from power plants will be reduced by 32 percent from
2005 levels.
By
nullifying the Clean Power Plan, S.J.Res. 24 seeks to block progress
towards cleaner energy, eliminating public health and other benefits of
up to $54 billion per year by 2030, including thousands fewer premature
deaths from air pollution and tens of thousands of fewer childhood
asthma attacks each year. Most importantly, the resolution would impede
efforts to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants – the
largest source of carbon pollution in the country – when the need to
act, and to act quickly, to mitigate climate change impacts on American
communities has never been more clear.
Since
it was enacted in 1970, and amended in 1977 and 1990, each time with
strong bipartisan support, the CAA has improved the Nation's air quality
and protected public health. Over that same period of time, the
economy has tripled in size while emissions of key pollutants have
decreased by more than 70 percent. Forty-five years of clean air regulation have shown that a strong economy and strong environmental and public health protection go hand-in-hand.
Because S.J.Res. 24
threatens the health and economic welfare of future generations by
blocking important standards to reduce carbon pollution from the power
sector that take a flexible, common sense approach to addressing carbon
pollution, if the President were presented with S.J.Res. 24, he would
veto the bill.
Source: The Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget
Trailblazers in Black History: Shirley Chisholm
Shirley
Chisholm became the first African-American congresswoman in 1968. Four
years later, she became the first major-party Black candidate to make a
bid for the U.S. presidency.
More information on Ms. Chisholm's life is available here.
Source: Biography.com
Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes Honor Spike Lee at the 2015 Governors Awards
Spike Lee Receives an Honorary Award at the 2015 Governors Awards
Spike Lee receives an Honorary Award
at the 2015 Governors Awards in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood &
Highland in Hollywood, CA, Saturday, November 14.
Spike Lee receives an Honorary Award
at the 2015 Governors Awards in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood &
Highland in Hollywood, CA, Saturday, November 14.
Trial Dates Set for Journalist in Possession of Bulletproof Vest, Helmet in Thailand
A Thai court has set trial dates for a Hong Kong-based photojournalist arrested
in August on charges of violating Thai law for possessing a bulletproof
vest and helmet after covering a bombing at a Bangkok shrine.
Hok Chun Anthony Kwan, 30, learned at a Nov. 16
pretrial hearing that he will have to head back to court in Bangkok next
year for four days in April, Kwan's friend Mark Vancleave told NBC
News. Kwan's arrest has drawn sharp criticism from journalist organizations in Hong Kong, as well as from the Asian American Journalists Association, of which Kwan was a member while attending college in Minnesota.
"It's kind of a tough position he's in," said Vancleave, who added that
Kwan has unintentionally become a "model for legal theory" in the Thai
government's prosecution of journalists who carry body armor while
reporting in the field.
Click here for the full article and photos.
Opinion: We Let Cubans In, Despite Fears of Communist Threat
With the debate over the potential terrorist threat posed by Syrian
refugees coming into the United States, it is worth investigating how
the United States has handled refugee situations before. With the
horrific slaughter of innocent civilians in Paris last week, the civil
war in Syria has scarred the cultural heartland of western civilization,
and Republicans across the country have been quick to declare that the
United States could ill-afford the risk of bringing in any more Syrian
refugees.
Republican presidential hopeful and Texas
senator Ted Cruz has stated his opposition to allowing Syrian refugees
in the U.S., saying it's too much of a terrorist risk. Ted Cruz went so
far as to suggest a religious test for Syrian refugees, stating that "There is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror" whereas Muslims fleeing Syria should go to other Muslim countries instead of the U.S.
Click here for the full article.
Social Security Changes: What to Know to Maximize Your Benefits
The federal budget recently signed by President Barack Obama made changes in Social Security that require a few updates to a series of posts we did this summer on how to make the most of your federal retirement benefits.
Boston University's Laurence Kotlikoff,
co-author of the best-selling "Get What's Yours: The Secrets of Maxing
Out Your Social Security Benefits" and creator of the MaxemizemySocialSecurity website, gave us the new lay of the land.
Click here for the full article and video.
Texas Abortion Law Is About Politics, Medical Groups Say
The Supreme Court said last week it would take on the biggest challenge to abortion rights in a quarter century, agreeing to hear a challenge against a Texas law that put strict requirements on abortion providers in the name of protecting women's health.
The 2013 law requires abortion clinics to meet
the same medical standards as standalone surgery centers, and forces
doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby
hospitals.
Conservative groups that approve of the laws say
they'll protect women and prevent abuses like the case of Dr. Kermit
Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion provider sentenced to life in jail for first-degree murder whose clinic was described as a filthy house of horrors.
Click here for the full article.
More Governors Seek to Ban Syrian Refugees After Paris Massacre
After the terror attacks in Paris that killed at
least 129 people, the placement of refugees fleeing Syria has come
under scrutiny as at least two dozen governors — mostly Republicans —
have raised concerns about Syrian refugees relocating to their state.
"The first and foremost responsibility of
government is to keep its people safe," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said
Monday. "We are working on measures to ensure ... that Texans will be
kept safe from those refugees."
Click here for the full article and related videos.
Is ISIS Video About an Attack on Washington a Real Threat or Propaganda?
Today, a new ISIS video threatened an attack on America next, but
President Obama is holding firm and refusing to change course on his
ISIS strategy.
Protesters Block Part of Interstate 94 in Minneapolis
Protesters shut down part of I-94 in Minneapolis for more than two hours in response to an officer involved shooting.
First Gay Marriages Take Place in Ireland After Landmark Vote
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Richard Dowling and
Cormac Gollogly have been together for 12 years, engaged for five, and
on Tuesday were finally able to marry when they became the first gay
couple to wed in Ireland following a landmark referendum.
Ireland in May became the first country to adopt gay
marriage via a popular vote. The backing of the measure by 62 percent of
voters signalled a major change in what was once a strongly Catholic
and socially conservative society.
After an unsuccessful legal challenge delayed the first
weddings, Ireland officially recognised same-sex marriages starting this
week, and the couple tied the knot in the southern town of Clonmel
early on Tuesday morning.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
Iran Arrests Cartoonist as Crackdown on Free Expression Goes On
Hadi Heidari
Reuters, 17/11 14:39 CET
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian authorities have
arrested a cartoonist and sent him to prison to complete a suspended
jail sentence, his lawyer said on Tuesday, joining a growing list of
journalists, artists and activists detained on security charges.
Hadi Heidari, a cartoonist at the Shahrvand newspaper,
was arrested on Monday and sent to Tehran’s Evin prison, his lawyer told
Reuters in a telephone interview from Tehran.
“He was convicted two years ago for his cartoons and was
sentenced to one year in jail. The authorities had a different
interpretation of his cartoons than he had,” the lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht,
said. Heidari had served about a month of the original sentence,
Nikbakht said.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
For Egypt’s Nubians, Years of Patience Wear Thin and Anger Rises
Reuters, 17/11 13:58 CET
By Mahmoud Mourad
NASR AL-NUBA,
Egypt (Reuters) – For half a century, Egypt’s Nubians have patiently
lobbied the government in Cairo for a return to their homelands on the
banks of the upper Nile, desperate to reclaim territory their ancestors
first cultivated 3,000 years ago.
Yet all their efforts to gain political influence have
brought them next to nothing. In Egypt’s incoming parliament, which will
be finalised after a second round of voting starts on Sunday, the
Nubians will hold just one of 568 elected seats.
Many harbour a sense of grievance that dates at least to
1964, when then President Gamal Abdel Nasser forcefully removed the
residents of 44 Nubian villages to make way for the Aswan High Dam,
moving them to recreations of their villages.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
Monday, November 16, 2015
Secretary of State John Kerry on Paris Terrorist Attacks
Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a statement of solidarity as
the U.S. Embassy in Paris is lit in red, white, and blue. He condemns
the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) for the terrorist attacks in Paris and
says, "Tonight we are all Parisians." This is courtesy of France 24.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
French President Francois Hollande on Paris Terror Attacks
French President Francois Hollande addressed a joint session of the
French legislature on the terror attacks in Paris, in which 129 people
died. He said France is at war, and called for several measures to fight
that war, including a three-month state of emergency and changes to the
French constitution.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
Attorney General Loretta Lynch News Conference
Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced a $95.5 million civil
settlement with for-profit education company Education Management
Corporation. She also gave a statement on the Paris terror attacks.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
State Department Briefing
Mark Toner briefed briefed reporters and is expected to responded to
questions on a variety of topics, including the terror attacks in Paris.
Click here for video.
Source: C-Span
Politics in Action: H.R. 1737
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
H.R. 1737 — Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act
(Rep. Guinta, R-NH, and 166 cosponsors)
The
Administration strongly opposes passage of H.R. 1737 because it would
revoke important guidance designed to prevent discriminatory pricing of
auto loans.
H.R.
1737 would revoke guidance issued in 2013 by the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) that helps ensure customers are not charged
disproportionately higher prices for auto loans because of their race,
color, religion or other characteristics that should have no bearing on
loan decisions. The bill also would require CFPB to undertake extensive
study and consultation, as well as provide a notice and public comment
period, before issuing any further auto loan guidance. The bill would
create confusion about the existing protections in place to prevent
discriminatory auto loan pricing, and effectively block CFPB from
issuing related guidance in the near-term.
The
Administration is committed to ensuring that all Americans receive fair
terms and pricing on auto loans, and are not discriminated against.
Source: The Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget
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