White House

Hernandez gets 25 to life in prison

(CNN)The bodega clerk founded guilty for the 1979 murder of New York first-grader Etan Patz was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life in jail.

Pedro Hernandez, 56, was founded guilty of kidnapping and murder in February , almost 40 years after the 6-year-old vanished on May 25, 1979.

Etan left the home of stroll to a school bus stop and was not seen once again. In the early 1980s, his picture appeared on milk containers throughout the nation, the very first time the technique was utilized to aim to find missing kids.

The young boy’s moms and dads believed they would never ever discover exactly what took place to their kid, Stan Patz, Etan’s daddy, stated in a press conference on Tuesday.

“Now I understand exactly what the face of wicked appear like and he’s lastly founded guilty,” Patz stated.

Hernandez was formerly pursued the exact same charges in 2015, however was spared a conviction when an only holdout on the jury led the judge to state a mistrial .

“We, as New Yorkers and as a neighborhood of households all over the United States, were likewise altered permanently. Through this absolutely dreadful and agonizing real-life story, we pertained to recognize how quickly our kids might vanish, ripped far from us right in our own areas” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. stated in a declaration.

Hernandez did not end up being a suspect up until 2012. He admitted to cops after authorities questioned him on an idea they got about the murder.

In a shop basement, district attorneys stated, Hernandez choked the kid to death and put his body in a plastic trash can that he hid inside a cardboard box.

Hernandez, then a teen, ultimately left package with other garbage in a street more than a block from the shop.

His attorneys stated he comprised his account of the criminal offense due to the fact that of serious mental disorder. Hernandez has actually been detected with schizotypal character condition, among a group of conditions informally considered “eccentric conditions.”

Defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein has actually long kept his customer has an “IQ in the borderline-to-mild psychological retardation variety” that made him vulnerable to an incorrect confession.

Etan’s case raised awareness

Etan’s remains have actually never ever been recuperated.

Since their boy’s disappearance, the Patzes have actually worked to keep the case alive and to develop awareness of missing out on kids in the United States.

May 25, the anniversary of Etan’s disappearance, is kept in mind as National Missing Children’s Day.

“The kidnapping … awakened the country to kid kidnapping and assisted alter the method police examines these criminal activities,” stated John F. Clark, CEO and president of The National Center for Missing &&Exploited Children.

“NCMEC is here today– and America’s kids are much safer– due to the fact that of Etan and other kids whose killings and kidnappings introduced a nationwide motion.”

The news market was broadening to cable tv, and sweet pictures of kids appeared in addition to troubled moms and dads asking for their safe return. The worry increasing throughout the country triggered awareness and triggered modification from authorities and political leaders.

In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children’s Assistance Act, which caused the production of the National Center for Missing &&Exploited Children.

President Ronald Reagan opened the center in a White House event in 1984. It quickly started running a 24-hour toll-free hot line through which callers might report details about missing out on ladies and kids.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/us/etan-patz-hernandez-sentenced/index.html

Categories CNN

Trump to order increased scrutiny of H-1B visa program

President Trump will take a trip to Wisconsin Tuesday, where he will sign an order targeted at altering a visa program that generates extremely knowledgeable employees from abroad.

The order, called “Buy American, Hire American,” would direct the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State to propose brand-new guidelines to avoid migration scams and abuse. Those departments would likewise be asked to use modifications so that H-1B visas are granted to the “most-skilled or highest-paid candidates.”

The White House stated the H-1B program is presently damaging American employees by generating more affordable labor and stated some tech business are utilizing it to employ great deals of employees and own down earnings.

Administration authorities stated the order likewise looks for to reinforce requirements that American-made items be utilized in particular federal building jobs, along with in numerous federal transport grant-funded jobs. The authorities stated the commerce secretary will examine ways to close loopholes in implementing the existing guidelines and offer suggestions to the president.

The order particularly asks the secretary to evaluate waivers of these guidelines that exist in free-trade contracts. The administration stated that if the waivers are not benefiting the United States they will be “renegotiated or withdrawed.”

During his project, Trump stated eventuallies he supported high-skilled visas, then came out versus them. At one dispute, he required completely ending the program, stating: “It’s extremely bad for our employees and it’s unjust for our employees. And we ought to end it.”

The authorities stated the modifications might be legal or administrative and might consist of greater costs for the visas, altering the wage scale for the program or other efforts.

About 85,000 H-1B visas are dispersed yearly by lotto. Lots of go to innovation business, which argue that the United States has a scarcity of competent innovation employees.

But critics state the program has actually been pirated by staffing business that utilize the visas to import immigrants– typically from India– who will work for less than Americans. The staffing business then offer their services to business customers who utilize them to contract out tech work.

Employers from Walt Disney World to the University of California in San Francisco have actually laid off their tech staff members and changed them with H-1B visa holders. Contributing to the indignity: The U.S. employees are often asked to train their replacements to receive severance plans.

On the prepared order by Trump, Ronil Hira, a teacher in public law at Howard University and a critic of the H-1B program, informed the Associated Press, “It’s much better than absolutely nothing.” He included, “It’s not as aggressive as it requires to be.”

The tech market has actually argued that the H-1B program is required due to the fact that it motivates trainees to remain in the United States after getting degrees in modern specializeds– and they cannot constantly discover adequate American employees with the abilities they require.

Congress is thinking about numerous costs to upgrade the visa program. One, presented by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would need business looking for H-1B visas to very first make a good-faith effort to employ Americans, a requirement numerous business can evade under the present system; provide the Labor Department more power to examine and sanction H-1B abuses; and offer “the very best and brightest” foreign trainees studying in the United States top priority in getting H-1B visas.

Trump will sign the order at the Kenosha head office of tool maker Snap-on Inc. His see comes as the president deals with an approval ranking of simply 41 percent in Wisconsin, a state he hardly won in November. The see likewise would take him to the congressional district of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who will not be signing up with the president since he’s on a bipartisan congressional journey checking out NATO nations.

Trump has actually taken a trip to promote his program less than his current predecessors. White House spokesperson Sean Spicer stated Trump wished to check out “a business that develops American-made tools with American employees.”

Trump brought Wisconsin in November by almost 23,000 votes– less than 1 portion point– making him the very first Republican to win the state given that 1984. He campaigned on the guarantee of returning production tasks that have actually been lost in Upper Midwest states.

Founded in Wisconsin in 1920, Snap-on makes hand and power tools, diagnostics software application, info and management systems, and store devices for usage in a range of markets, consisting of farming, the military and air travel. It has 8 producing websites in North America, consisting of one in Milwaukee. The business utilizes about 11,000 individuals worldwide.

The Associated Press added to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/18/trump-to-order-increased-scrutiny-h-1b-visa-program.html

SXSW gets political: All eyes on Trump

Austin, Texas (CNN)President Donald Trump’s name is on everyone’s lips at the 2017 SXSW festival, with performers, experts, advocates and festival-goers weighing in on the 45th president.

While it is not overtly partisan, SXSW has historically drawn a generally progressive group of musicians, artists, writers, experts, filmmakers and activists, including Trump’s latest entertainer foe rapper Snoop Dogg, who performed Wednesday night and is set to join artists to advocate for criminal justice reform in a panel Saturday.
“It’s hard to take your eye off of the Trump train. I think the conference organizers recognize that this year, more than any other year, the conversation will sway toward the political, despite what they would like to happen,” Austin Chronicle reporter Chase Hoffberger, who covered SXSW in the past, told CNN.
    “(SXSW) is not designed to be a liberal thing, but the messaging is often liberal,” Hoffberger added. “Mostly because the industries that are involved are de facto liberal industries.”

    Travel ban rocks SXSW

    Controversy over Trump’s new ravel ban rocked the festival even before it began, prompting SXSW organizers to release a statement opposing the executive order, which bans nationals of several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, as well as temporarily restricting refugee entry.
    “With the announcement of President Trump’s latest travel ban, SXSW would like to reaffirm its public opposition to these executive orders and provide ongoing support to the artists traveling from foreign countries to our event,” festival organizers said in a March 7 statement.
    The festival then announced a special March 17 showcase featuring “performances by artists from the diaspora of the nations (affected) by the White House’s travel ban.”
    “When Trump tries 2 ban you but you get invited to @sxsw,” Faarrow, a band made up of two Somali-Canadian sisters, tweeted last week.
    The White House did not respond to several requests for comment on this story.
    Controversy over Trump’s executive order resurfaced again this week after several foreign artists said they were blocked from entering the country by US Customs and Border Protection officials.
    The list includes London drummer Yussef Kamaal, members of the UK’s United Vibrations, the lead singer of Danish band Rainbrother, Italian band Soviet Soviet and three members of Massive Scar Era, an Egyptian-Canadian band, who spoke out in an interview with Billboard about their interaction with border officials. Several of these artists are Muslim.
    “He said that he knows that I’ve done everything legally, and that I’m not lying, but he’s still not going to let me in,” vocalist Cherine Amr said, referring to a border official. “He said that people are using the festival to protest but I told him we are not going there to protest.”
    “Our leadsinger Bjarke has been denied access to the US via the usual tunnel. BUT we’re still playing @sxsw. Trump isn’t gonna win this one,” Rainbrother tweeted over the weekend.
    “We will NOT be playing @sxsw. We got hit by the #ExecutiveOrder If you wanna show solidarity RT … #MuslimBan #BLM” United Vibrations tweeted Monday.
    In the past, bands have entered the country on a B-1 visitor visa, which which is issued for tourists but restricts them from any paid work in the US.
    Messages left with CBP were not returned.
    SXSW does not pay performers, but customs officials released a statement Monday announcing that artists must apply for a P-1 visa instead, which is usually used by athletes entering the US temporarily to perform individually or as a group at an internationally recognized performance.
    Jonathan Ginsberg, an attorney for SXSW, said the festival is working with US organizations “in an effort to ensure that both the State Department and CBP continue to treat (performances) as a valid activity in B or visa waiver status.”
    “Commenting on the Customs and Borders comment! Are we an international recognized group?!?!?!??!?!?! NO!!!!!!!” Egyptian heavy metal band Massive Scar Era tweeted Monday.
    Some SXSW performers are internationally recognized, but one of the purposes of the festival is to support new, lesser-known artists with little-to-no experience in the national or international spotlight.
    Questions over the festival’s stance on the ban came along with controversy over what appeared to be a deportation clause applicable to international artists in the festival’s artist performance agreement.
    New York punk band Told Slant shared the language on Twitter and threatened to boycott the event, along with other bands.
    Organizers eliminated the language, which previously stated that the festival could “notify the appropriate U.S. immigration authorities” if they “or their representatives have acted in ways that adversely affect the viability of their official SXSW showcase.”
    “I’m happy that sxsw agreed to make changes to their contract so that it no longer threatens deportation as a means of controlling artists,” Felix of Told Slant tweeted.
    “We will remove the option of notifying immigration authorities in situations where a foreign artist might ‘adversely affect the viability of Artist’s official showcase,'” organizers said in a statement released on the festival’s website.
    “Safety is a primary concern for SXSW, and we report any safety issues to local authorities. It is not SXSW’s duty or authority to escalate a matter beyond local authorities,” they continued.

    Activism is a big theme

    Discussions and debates about Trump and his policies echoed this week in lecture halls, meeting rooms, concert venues and street corners, making the President, who was not invited to speak at the festival, an omnipresent force.
    “This year, the fact that everyone is talking exclusively about world order and Donald Trump, it stands to reason that that’s what the conference will have a bit more of a focus on (that),” Hoffberger said.
    While politics have always had a place at SXSW, this year, the national surge in activism has made its way into panel discussions represented in various festival verticals — technology, film, music and interactives.
    Panels focused on activism in the age of Trump include the following: “Civil Discourse in the Age of a Twitterer-In-Chief,” “From Meme to Protest: What’s Next for Online Activism,” “All the Rage: Female Activism and Altruistic Design,” “For Games to Evolve They Need to Get Political,” “How Elections Change Next Gen Cause Engagement” and “Power & Perils of Digital Activism Meet Up.”
    Tech experts and advocates participated in various Trump-focused panels, including, “Tech Under Trump,” “Tech Advocates and Trump: Best Strategies So Far,” “How Will Trump Steer Car and Transportation Tech?”, “Tech Activism: More Than a Hashtag,” “Trump, China, and Trade Wars: Tech in the Trenches?” and “Head Fakes and Pivots: Trump Punk Sillicon Valley.”
    In the latter, author Baratunde Thurston addressed how the tech industry failed to predict Trump’s win and what lessons could be learned from it.
    The format of the festival also creates room for political discussions and according to Hoffberger, the overlapping of the various verticals on the schedule this year has created more opportunities for politics-based conversations.
    “The festival itself is very kind of do your own thing and put it out there for people to respond to,” the Austin Chronicle’s music editor Raoul Hernandez said. “It’s so big that (organizers) know that they can’t control the party. The genie is out of the bottle.”

    Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/politics/sxsw-gets-political-travel-ban-donald-trump/index.html

    Categories CNN

    Why Trump just can’t (and probably won’t) quit the wiretap story

    Washington (CNN)For nearly two weeks now, President Donald Trump and his aides have floated a conspiracy theory involving President Barack Obama wiretapping then-candidate Trump’s phone lines in his Manhattan office building.

    Even now, as bipartisan agreement has emerged that no such thing happened, Trump has dug in, leaving Trump aides and allies fumbling for excuses and explanations — like that spying microwaves are apparently a thing, according to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
    Standing next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a Friday news conference, Trump showed that he was not ready to quit the wiretapping story, giving it another boost, even if it meant embarrassing a world leader.
      Many people are saying — that Trump drives conspiracies and gossip
      “At least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said, gesturing to Merkel, whose phone was once tapped by the National Security Agency.
      Trump’s embrace of conspiracy theories is, of course, not new.

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      He launched a kind of trial run for the White House in 2011 by embracing birtherism, laying the groundwork for his successful 2016 bid by aligning himself with the far right, talk radio wing of the GOP. Long after most had given up speculating about Obama’s birthplace — and years after Obama released his birth certificate — Trump clung to the racially charged conspiracy theory, insisting that there were still more unanswered questions.
      It took him five years to finally let it go.
      Now, it seems, Trump may have landed on a conspiracy theory that has equal staying power.
      In fact, the contours of his recent Obama fixation have much in common with birtherism. With his wiretapping claims, Trump once again positions himself as the great unmasker of Obama, a fraudulent figure who isn’t who he says he is — or so the theory goes.
      For Trump’s base, Obama is the ready-made villain, now recast as the embodiment of the “deep state.”
      But with Congress, the press, (even Fox News hosts), and intelligence agencies all casting doubts on his claims, Trump is a man on an island, a familiar and comfortable place. As with birtherism, it’s Trump against almost everybody, a vantage point that allows him to constantly be the embattled, populist outsider, even as he sits in the White House.
      Justice Department provides wiretap documents to Congress
      Key to his birtherism claims were constant promises of the big reveal. Investigators had been dispatched to Hawaii, Trump claimed. Once that approach grew thin, Trump’s relationship to birtherism devolved into a constant cliffhanger, which is precisely where things stand now with the wiretapping claims.
      Does Trump believe Obama wiretapped or spied on him more broadly at Trump Tower or anywhere?
      For now, Trump seems happy to tell the country what he said for five years about Obama’s origins: stay tuned. Let the countdown clock ’til the big reveal begin.

      Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/17/politics/donald-trump-wiretap-obama/index.html

      Categories CNN

      Trump warns GOP: Don’t break your health care promises

      Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump, in an attempt to sell the GOP Republican health care plan, warned Republicans about breaking all those promises to repeal Obamacare they’ve made over the years.

      The White House is currently unsure that Republicans have enough votes to pass the GOP health care bill. And for a president who fashions himself a deal-maker, the law has become a potent test of Trump’s ability to make it happen.
      “The American people voted for historic change. They also voted for serious action by delivering the House, the Senate and the White House,” Trump said at a National Republican Campaign Committee dinner Tuesday. “The American people gave us clear instructions. it’s time to get busy, get to work and to get the job done.”
        He added: “That legislative effort begins with Thursday’s crucial vote and it really is a crucial vote for the Republican party and for the people of the country to finally repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare.”
        On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
        “I’m asking for your vote so we can repeal and replace Obamacare and save health care for every family in Iowa and for every family in our great country — so important,” Trump said days before Election Day in Iowa.
        And so did House Republicans, who lambasted Obama during his presidency for the health care law and voted over 50 times since 2010 to repeal it.
        Trump’s margin in the House will likely be razor thin, whether the bill fails or passes. Nineteen Republicans have told CNN they will flat-out vote against the bill, and seven say they are leaning toward voting “no.” Republican leadership and Trump can only lose 21 Republicans and still win passage.
        Trump, after spending weeks largely hands off on the health care bill, has begun to get into the day-to-day sales pitch of the bill.
        The president went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning to urge Republicans to back the bill. During the meeting, according to sources inside the room, Trump warned that Republicans could lose their reelection campaigns if they didn’t vote for the bill.
        “I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done,” Trump said, according to a source.
        White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer backed those comments on Tuesday, telling reporters that Republicans who voted against the health care bill “will probably pay a price at home.” Spicer also didn’t rule out Trump campaigning against those Republicans.
        “I think they will probably pay a price at home,” Spicer said. “This was a major component in the last election and I think there was not a single Republican member who went out and talked about this.”
        Trump called Obamacare a “nightmare” on at the Republican dinner Tuesday night, adding that the Republican bill is merely delivering on promises.
        “These are the conservative solutions we campaigned on and these are the conservative solutions the American people asked us as a group to deliver,” Trump said. “We are keeping our promises.”

        Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/21/politics/trump-warning-health-care-bill/index.html

        Categories CNN

        Why punishing the media will backfire on Trump

        (CNN.com)The stunning conclusion by press-secretary Sean Spicer to bar CNN.com, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Politico as well as the Los Angeles Times from a news briefing Friday signs that, for all its bluster and bravado, the Trump White House is a government under siege.

        In apparent monetary conflicts of interest, the encounter of the President’s several community mis-statements and troubling ties to Russia, the White House has made a decision to start an all out assault on the information businesses that faithfully report on the myths and foibles of the government.
        Be prepared to find out positions close and battle for the people’s right to notice and report on authorities without fear of retaliation. To their credit, the Associated Press and Time walked out of the briefing of Spicer when it became obvious he was attempting to penalize news retailers that were chosen.

          On

          exp

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          Trump falsely asserted that intelligence organizations had no notion who tampered with the November election, in a period when American intelligence already understood that Russia was at fault.
          The White House employees, also cowed to to interrupt their supervisor of the tendency of making up things, is put selecting scoreless, plugging leaks, and cleaning up the President’s misstatements, unwinnable fights with media businesses.
          Itis an occupation that is hopeless and can supply journalists — as well as the late night humor writers, our wise-cracking expert cousins — with never-ending chances to tell a contemporary variant of an early story.
          We are chronicling, yet again, a peculiar story about the emperor’s new clothing, as well as a court of flatterers too much gone to understand that, ultimately, folks will begin to see the reality.

          Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/opinions/reporters-excluded-louis/index.html

          Categories CNN

          Steve Bannon outlines his plan to ‘deconstruct’ Washington

          Washington (CNN)White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon rarely appears in public and rarely speaks to the press, much less on live television. So his appearance alongside White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Thursday was hotly anticipated and closely watched.

          The men performed a buddy schtick of sorts, portraying the yin and yang that bring the White House together and keep it running not in chaos as some media reports have claimed, but like the “fine-tuned” machine President Donald Trump bragged about during a news conference last week. Priebus keeps the trains running, according to Bannon, and Bannon does the big ideas, according to Priebus.
          The fact that Bannon doesn’t talk much in public has created an aura in Washington for him. Critics say he’s the guiding force behind Trump’s policies. “Saturday Night Live” portrayed him as the Grim Reaper who sits behind Trump in the Oval Office.

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            Bannon did not seem like the Grim Reaper on Thursday. He came off as rumpled and overworked, but passionate about his boss, even if he admittedly “runs a little hot.”
            But he did cram a lot of those big ideas Priebus mentioned into what was billed as a short and informal Q&A. One could infer a lot about Trump’s goals for the next four years from what Bannon said. Here are some of the most interesting passages and some of his more interesting word choices:

            Trump is going to do exactly what he said during the campaign

            “This is the main thing that the mainstream media — or the opposition party — never caught, is that if you want to see the Trump agenda it’s very simple. It was all in the speeches. He went around to those rallies and the speeches had an enormous amount of content in them … He’s laid out an agenda with those speeches with the promises he made and our job every day is to just to execute on that … he’s maniacally focused on that.”
            “All of those promises are going to be implemented,” he said.

            There are three pillars of Trump’s plan

            “I kind of break it up into three verticals of three buckets,” Bannon said. “The first is kind of national security and sovereignty and that’s your intelligence, the Defense Department, Homeland Security.
            “The second line of work is what I refer to as ‘economic nationalism’ and that is Wilbur Ross at Commerce, Steven Mnuchin at Treasury, (Robert) Lighthizer at Trade, (National Trade Council head) Peter Navarro, (adviser) Stephen Miller, these people that are rethinking how we’re gonna reconstruct our trade arrangements around the world.
            “The third, broadly, line of work is what is ‘deconstruction’ of the administrative state.”

            ‘Economic nationalism’ is Bannon’s favorite buzz term

            He used variations of the term three times in describing the Trump agenda.

            Multilateral relationships are bad, bilateral relationships are good.

            “I think one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was (Trump’s) immediate withdraw from (Trans-Pacific Partnership). That got us out of a trade deal and let our sovereignty come back to ourselves, the people. The mainstream media don’t get this, but we’re already working in consultation with the Hill. People are starting to think through a whole raft of amazing and innovative, bilateral relationships — bilateral trading relationships with people that will reposition America in the world as a fair trading nation and start to bring jobs. High value added, manufacturing jobs, back to the United States of America.”

            They’re going to ‘deconstruct’ the current regulatory system

            “Every business leader we’ve had in is saying not just taxes, but it is also the regulation. I think the consistent, if you look at these Cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason, and that is the deconstruction. The way the progressive left runs is, if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put in some sort of regulation in an agency. That’s all going to be deconstructed and I think that that’s why this regulatory thing is so important.”

            The media is the ‘opposition party,’ and ‘it’s only going to get worse’

            Bannon used the term “opposition party” several times when describing the media, and he predicted White House confrontations with journalists would get worse.
            “They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has,” he said. “Here’s why it’s going to get worse: Because he’s going to continue to press his agenda. And as economic conditions get better, as more jobs get better, they’re going to continue to fight. If you think they’re going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. Every day, it is going to be a fight. And that is what I’m proudest about Donald Trump.”

            The US will experience a new political order

            “I’ve said that there’s a new political order that’s being formed out of this,” Bannon said. “And it’s still being formed. But if you look at the wide degree of opinions in this room — whether you’re a populist; whether you’re a limited-government conservative; whether you’re libertarian; whether you’re an economic nationalist — we have wide and sometimes divergent opinions. But I think we (agree on) the center core of what we believe, that we’re a nation with an economy. Not an economy just in some global marketplace with open borders, but we are a nation with a culture and a reason for being. And I think that is what unites us and I think that is what is going to unite this movement going forward.”

            Bannon is not afraid to use words like ‘nationalism’ and ‘culture’

            “Nationalism, and especially “white nationalism,” are terms fraught with historical tensions and can elicit fear from minorities affected by racist or prejudiced mindsets.
            And Bannon has been accused of being a friend to white nationalists, although he has rejected it in the past. But that hasn’t stopped him from keeping the term “economic nationalism” in his rhetorical quiver. He also said “we are a nation with culture and a reason for being.” He didn’t elaborate, but that’s an idea sure to cause debate and turmoil in a nation where for many years the overriding language from politicians was one of inclusion of new cultures and pride in a nation of immigrants.

            Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/politics/steve-bannon-world-view/index.html

            Categories CNN

            State Department defends press access

            District of Columbia (CNN.com)The State Department maintained its report on openness to the press Wednesday, declaring that it could restart daily press briefings and maybe give newsmen beyond Washington accessibility to the the headlines conferences via remote movie abilities.

            The bureau issued a declaration after a CNN report Tuesday reporting the section’s day-to-day televised briefing had not occurred since January 1 9 and that advice generally available about officers’ trips, telephone calls and assemblies has slowed since the inauguration of the Trump management.
            “The Department of State continues to provide members of the media a full suite of services,” performing spokesman Mark Toner mentioned in a declaration. “The Department has answered 174 questions from reporters in the United States and around the globe in the past 24 hours alone.”
              The State Department is the sole bureau outside the White House that usually discusses openly every day by way of a televised news conference, and is in charge of describing US foreign policy to the nation as well as the globe.
              Beyond conveying to US citizens how their interests are being represented by the government abroad, public outreach and that day-to-day briefing by the section functions to set the international community — both friends and foes — on notice about American priorities and passions.
              There continues to be little in the manner of communicating about the priorities, programs or policies of Foggy Bottom, February 2, since Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the helm. Former State Department staffers and present and observers have stated that may be a function of Tillerson becoming settled right into an occupation that was new and extremely difficult.
              In addition they point to the chance the White House might be seeking to take the lead on international coverage. And they flag a nuts and bolts issue: Many leadership positions at State stay unfilled, leaving employees without path.
              Tillerson, as a former exxon mobil CEO himself comes from a company lifestyle that’s not especially open to the press.
              And a silence that is cautious might appear safer for now, one former State Department official indicated, given the government’s foreign-policy h-AS contained many messages that are combined, with President Donald Trump freely creating positions which other Cabinet members have openly rejected.
              While Trump has questioned NATO and floated the notion of aone-state remedy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Vice President Mike Pence as well as other best officers have reaffirmed the US dedication to NATO, while US Ambassador to the U N Nikki Haley h AS mentioned the United States remains committed to your two-state answer.
              The State Department on Wednesday mentioned that routine press briefings conducted by means of a representative will restart but didn’t supply information on when which may occur. It added that “the department is also exploring the possibility of opening the briefing to reporters outside of Washington, DC via remote video capabilities.”
              That practice h-AS lately started in the White House and a few media watchers have explained it as a means for the spokesman in order to avoid answering questions from routine White House press the government has criticized.

              Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/22/politics/state-department-defends-press-access/index.html

              Categories CNN