Obama: I'll act on my own on immigration - Yahoo News

Obama: I'll act on my own on immigration - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Conceding defeat on a top domestic priority, President Barack Obama blamed a Republican "year of
obstruction" for the demise of sweeping immigration legislation on Monday and said he would take new steps without Congress to fix as much of the system as he can on his own.

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"The only thing I can't do is stand by and do nothing," the president said. But he gave few hints about what steps he might take by executive action.

Even as he blamed House Republicans for frustrating him on immigration, Obama asked Congress for more money and additional authority to deal with the unexpected crisis of a surge of unaccompanied Central American youths arriving by the thousands at the Mexico-US border. Obama wants flexibility to speed the youths' deportations and $2 billion in new money to hire more immigration judges and open more detention
facilities, requests that got a cool reception from congressional Republicans and angered advocates.

The twin announcements came as the administration confronted the tricky politics of immigration in an election year with Democratic control of the Senate in jeopardy. The fast-developing humanitarian disaster on the border has provoked calls for a border crackdown at the same moment that immigration advocates are demanding Obama loosen deportation rules in the face of congressional inaction.

Obama's announcement came almost a year to the day after the Senate passed a historic immigration bill that would have spent billions to secure the border and offered a path to citizenship for many of the 11.5 million
people now here illegally. Despite the efforts of an extraordinary coalition of businesses, unions, religious leaders, law enforcement officials and others, the Republican-led House never acted. Obama wanted to make immigration overhaul the central accomplishment of his second term just as the health care law was the signature achievement of his first term.

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President  Barack Obama,  followed by Vice President Joe Biden, leave the Oval Office of the White Hous…

"Our country and our economy would be stronger today if House Republicans had allowed a simple yes-or-no vote on this bill or, for that matter, any bill," Obama said in the Rose Garden. "They'd be following the will of the majority of the American people, who support reform.

And instead they've proven again and again that they're unwilling to stand up to the tea party in order to do what's best for the country." Obama said that House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, informed him last week that the House would not be taking up immigration legislation this year.

A growing number of advocates and congressional Democrats already have declared immigration dead, the victim, in part, of internal Republican politics, with the most conservative lawmakers resisting the calls of

party leaders to back action and revive the party's standing with Latino voters. The Central American migrant surge, along with the surprise defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the hands of an upstart candidate from the right who accused him of backing "amnesty," helped kill whatever chances remain.

Boehner blamed Obama for the outcome.

"I told the president what I have been telling him for months: the American people and their elected officials don't trust him to enforce the law as written. Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue," he said. Boehner called Obama's plan to go it alone "sad and disappointing." Obama directed Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him by the end of the summer with steps he can take without congressional approval.

For now the White House said he'd refocus resources from the interior of the country to the border, a move that would effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country's interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security threat, public safety, or border security threat.

Johnson made his third visit Monday in the last six weeks to the Border Patrol's McCallen station in southernmost Texas, touring the location with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. He said 150 more agents are being sent to the region to help deal with the surge. Johnson has been weighing various additional steps to refocus deportation priorities on people with more serious criminal records, something the

administration has already tried to do with mixed results. But advocates are pushing Obama for much more sweeping changes that would shield millions of immigrants now here illegally from deportation by expanding a
two-year-old program that granted work permits to certain immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.

Racial politics churn Miss. GOP Senate runoff - Yahoo News

Racial politics churn Miss. GOP Senate runoff - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Race is roiling the Republican Senate runoff in Mississippi, a state with a long history of divided politics where the GOP is mostly white and the Democratic Party is mostly black.

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National tea party groups say they are working to "ensure a free and fair election" by sending several dozen observers to precincts to watch who votes during Tuesday's GOP contest, concerned about six-term Sen. Thad Cochran's efforts to persuade Mississippi Democrats to cast ballots. Challenger Chris McDaniel and the tea party portray cross-party voting as dangerous and even illegal, though state law allows it.

"Thad Cochran and his establishment handlers are out trolling, begging for Democrats to cross over and vote in the Republican runoff," Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund chairwoman Jenny Beth Martin said in announcing
that her group and two others have hired an attorney to watch Tuesday's primary.

While Cochran rarely mentions race, he readily acknowledges he's seeking support from black and white voters.

"I think it's important for everybody to participate," he said. "Voting rights has been an issue of great importance in Mississippi. People have really contributed a lot of energy and effort to making sure the
political process is open to everyone."

Cochran's campaign staff believes he would get a boost if Mississippi voters who traditionally go for Democrats — black voters and union members — participate in the GOP runoff. The Republican nominee will be a heavy favorite in November, and several prominent black Democrats are supporting the incumbent as far preferable to his primary challenger.

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FILE - This June 19, 2014 file photo shows Mississippi Republican Senate candidate, State Sen. Chris … At a Tea Party Express

rally Sunday in Biloxi, McDaniel, a state senator, never mentioned race.
But he received loud applause when he said: "Why is a 42-year incumbent pandering to liberal Democrats to get re-elected?"

A man in the crowd shouted: "Reparations!" McDaniel did not respond.

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund and two other independent groups that are supporting McDaniel, FreedomWorks and Senate Conservatives Fund, say they have hired a former Justice Department attorney, J. Christian Adams, "to ensure a free and fair election in Mississippi on June 24."

Adams was the Justice Department attorney who handled a 2007 case in which Ike Brown, a black elections official, was found to have violated the rights of white voters in majority-black Noxubee County. It was the first time the Justice Department had used the 1965 Voting Rights Act to allege racial discrimination against whites.

"Election integrity is essential, and Mississippi has a long, documented and tragic history of lawlessness in elections," Adams said. "The outcome of the runoff should be determined by who gets the most votes, not by who manipulates the system the best."

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Mississippi Republican candidate, Sen. Thad Cochran speaks at a reelection rally on his behalf at th … FreedomWorks spokesman

Adam Brandon said Monday that the groups will send several dozen
volunteers to precincts Tuesday, but he would not say where.

Asked if the Justice Department is watching this year's runoff, Justice
Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in an email: "The department is aware of concerns about voter intimidation and is monitoring the situation." Voters who experience problems are encouraged to report them, she said.

Mississippi voters do not register by party, and state law says the only people prohibited from voting in the Republican runoff Tuesday are those who voted in the Democratic primary June 3.

But there's potential for confusion as the tea party groups cite another Mississippi law that says a voter can participate in a party primary only if he intends to support that party's nominee in the general election. A federal appeals court ruled in 2008 that the law is unenforceable. The ruling came in a case in which Democrats sought to block Republicans from crossing over in primaries. A McDaniel supporter filed a lawsuit Monday in McDaniel's home county citing that law, but it was not clear if a judge would consider the suit before polls open Tuesday.

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U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., center, and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., right, join Republican  … Mississippi's attorney

general, a Democrat, and secretary of state, a Republican, issued a
joint statement Monday saying: "A person lawfully in the polling place
may challenge a voter based on party loyalty only if the voter openly
declares he does not intend to support the nominees of the party whose
primary the voter is participating in."

About 9 out of 10 white voters in Mississippi said they supported Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, and more than 9 of 10 black voters said they supported Democratic President Barack Obama, according to an exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and other news organizations. Still, Cochran is supported by some black Democrats, including Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs and state Sen. Willie Simmons.

Simmons told the AP on Monday that he voted in the Democratic primary June 3 and can't vote in the GOP runoff Tuesday, but he has campaigned for Cochran by making phone calls and sending letters to black churches citing the former Appropriations Committee chairman's support of Head Start and historically black universities.

"Sen. Cochran himself did not even ask me to support him," Simmons said. "I volunteered to support him because of the things he has done in the Senate."

Simmons said that while some black Mississippians quietly vote for Republicans in general elections, they might be reluctant to publicly declare their intentions by going to a Republican table to request a ballot on primary day.

"This election is going to put them in a position where they have to do two things that is unusual for them," Simmons said. "First, they have to pull out an ID and show it. And, second, they have to vote in a Republican runoff."

Simmons said if a poll watcher cites the unenforceable law about not voting in a primary unless intending to support the nominee in the general election, "that could lead to intimidation."

Hillary Talks Guns In CNN Town Hall, Says Minority ‘Terrorizes’ Majority [VIDEO] - Yahoo News

Hillary Talks Guns In CNN Town Hall, Says Minority ‘Terrorizes’ Majority [VIDEO] - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
During a televised town hall, Hillary Clinton was asked about guns, and said that the viewpoint held

by gun-rights advocates “terrorizes” the majority of Americans.

The town hall, broadcast live on CNN on Tuesday, closely resembled a commercial for Clinton’s new memoir, “Hard Choices.”

“I was disappointed that the Congress did not pass universal background checks after the horrors of the shootings at Sandy Hook and now we’ve had more,” said Clinton in response to a question from a Maryland teacher named Gloria Santa Maria.

“Seventy-four more,” Santa Maria interjected, seemingly referencing a now-debunked claim made last week
by the pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

Everytown published a graphical map, which CNN aired, purporting to show 74 school shootings that have
occurred since the December 14, 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

The network later corrected the claim saying that only 15 of the 74 shootings that occurred at schools
had factors similar to the shooting at Sandy Hook, in which Adam Lanza killed 26 people, mostly children.

Many of the 74 shootings involved interpersonal disputes and other criminal activity, though
neither Clinton nor Amanpour corrected Santa Maria’s statistic. (RELATED: CNN Slashes School Shooting Stats Claim By 80 Percent)

“We cannot let a minority of people – and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people – hold a viewpoint that terrorizes the majority of people,” said Clinton.

The former secretary of state and likely 2016 presidential candidate also made imprecise references to “automatic” weapons.

“I don’t think any parent, any person should have to fear about their child going to school or going to
college because someone…could possibly enter that school property with an automatic weapon and murder innocent children, students, teachers,” she said.

“We’re going to have to do a better job protecting the vast majority of our citizens, including our children, from that very, very, very small group that is unfortunately prone to violence and now with automatic weapons can wreak so much more violence than they ever could have before.”

Automatic weapons are tightly regulated in the United States and were not used in the Sandy Hook shooting.

allAfrica.com: Libya: Joint U.S. Department of Defense Statements On the Capture of Ahmed Abu Khatallah

allAfrica.com: Libya: Joint U.S. Department of Defense Statements On the Capture of Ahmed Abu Khatallah
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Statement from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on the Capture of Ahmed Abu Khatallah
"I want to commend all the service members who were involved in the
planning and execution of the operation to capture Ahmed Abu Khatallah.
Their tireless efforts may only be known to a few but are felt by all
Americans who are proud of what they do every day to defend this
nation.  This successful counter terrorism operation is another example
of the extraordinary capabilities of the United States military and our
unrelenting commitment to hold accountable those who harm American
citizens."

Statement by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey
"Over the weekend, U.S. military forces in support of the U.S. 
Department of Justice, captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah. Abu Khatallah faces
criminal charges for his role in killing Americans in the attack on the
U.S. temporary mission facility in Benghazi in 2012. This team of
professionals acted with extraordinary skill, courage and precision,
successfully carrying out a dangerous and complex capture operation
resulting in no casualties. I'm proud of those who tirelessly defend our
nation, our freedoms and our way of life."

Judge rules revocation of teacher tenure, 25% contracts unconstitutional

Judge rules revocation of teacher tenure, 25% contracts unconstitutional
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Judge Robert H. Hobgood issued a written order in Wake County Superior
Court today declaring the 2013 General Assembly’s actions unconstitutional
in eliminating due process rights, or career status, for teachers who
already had obtained it. Hobgood made the ruling three weeks ago and issued
his written order today. The trial court also permanently halted the 25 ... more »

US soldier freed from captivity in Afghanistan - Yahoo News

US soldier freed from captivity in Afghanistan - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The only American solider held prisoner in Afghanistan has been freed from Taliban captivity in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Obama administration officials said Saturday.

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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday evening, local time, in an area of eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. Officials said the exchange was not violent and the

28-year-old Bergdahl was in good condition and able to walk.

In a statement, President Barack Obama said Bergdahl's recovery "is a reminder of America's unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield."

The handover followed secret and indirect negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban, with the government of Qatar serving as the go-between.
Qatar is taking custody of the five Afghan detainees that had been held at Guantanamo Bay.

According to a senior defense official traveling with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Singapore, once Bergdahl climbed onto the noisy helicopter he took a pen and wrote on a paper plate, the "SF?" — asking the troops if they were special operations forces.

They shouted back at him over the roar of the rotors: "Yes, we've been looking for you for a long time."

Then, according to the official, Bergdahl broke down.

Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, is believed to have been held by the Haqqani network since June 30, 2009. Haqqani operates in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and has been one of the deadliest threats to U.S. troops in the war. The network, which the State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2012, claims allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, yet operates with some degree of autonomy.
Officials said
Bergdahl was expected to be transferred to Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, for medical evaluations, then on to the United States.

TALIBAN PRISONER SWAP

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Several dozen U.S. special operations forces flew into Afghanistan by helicopter and made the transfer with the approximately 18 Taliban members. The official said
the commandos were on the ground for a short time before lifting off with Bergdahl.

The official added that the U.S. still believes that Bergdahl was being held for the bulk of the time in Pakistan, but it was not clear when he was transported to eastern Afghanistan.

Officials said Obama spoke with Bergdahl's parents Saturday, shortly after their son had been taken into U.S. custody. Bergdahl's family was in Washington on a previously scheduled visit when they received the news.

All the officials insisted on anonymity in order to discuss details of Bergdahl's transfer. Officials said Obama spoke with Bergdahl's parents Saturday, shortly after their son had been taken into U.S. custody. Bergdahl's family was in Washington on a previously scheduled visit when they received the news.

The parents of the freed soldier, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, said in a statement that they were "joyful and relieved."

"We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son," they said.

The five Afghan detainees from Guantanamo were still at the base as of Saturday morning, but were being transferred into the custody of Qatari officials. Under the conditions of their release, the detainees will be
banned from traveling outside of Qatar for at least one year.

The detainees are believed to be the most senior Afghans still held at the prison. They are believed to be:

—Abdul Haq Wasiq, who served as the Taliban deputy minister of intelligence

—Mullah Norullah Nori, a senior Taliban commander in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when the Taliban fought U.S. forces in late 2001 —Khairullah Khairkhwa, who served in various Taliban positions including interior minister and had direct ties to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden

 —Mohammed Nabi, who served as chief of security for the Taliban in Qalat, Afghanistan, and later worked as a radio operator for the Taliban's communications office in Kabul

—Mohammad Fazl, whom Human Rights Watch says could be prosecuted for war crimes for presiding over the mass killing of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 as the Taliban sought to consolidate their control over the country.

The circumstances surrounding Bergdahl's capture remain something of a mystery. There has been some speculation that he willingly walked away from his unit, raising the question of whether he could be charged with being absent without leave (AWOL) or desertion.

Miss. Judge Slaps Black Man, Tells Him ‘Run N—er Run’ | News One

Miss. Judge Slaps Black Man, Tells Him ‘Run N—er Run’ | News One
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
A Madison County Justice Court judge faces accusations that he struck a mentally disabled man and used racial slurs while working as a security guard at an event in Canton.

The family of the 20-year-old African-American man, Eric Rivers, has filed a police complaint against Judge Bill Weisenberger in connection with the May 8 incident at a flea market. WLBT-TV reports that the Madison District attorney said the case will go to a grand jury.

Witnesses told The Clarion-Ledger (http://on.thec-l.com/1p4Klxm ) that Weisenberger, who is white, struck the young man and yelled racial slurs.

William Truly of a Mississippi NAACP chapter said Weisenberger should stop hearing cases or resign pending an investigation.

Weisenberger has not commented and did not immediately return a phone call seeking a response Sunday afternoon.

Cathy Hendrix of Tuscaloosa, a vendor at the Canton Flea Market, told The Clarion-Ledger that she and other vendors rely on local people to help load and unload their vehicles, paying for the help.

On May 8, she saw Rivers standing on the sidewalk, asking if they needed help, she said. “That young man was wanting to work to earn money to buy a bike.”

Her sister, Tammy Westbrook, also of Tuscaloosa, told the newspaper she saw Weisenberger “rear back and slap” Rivers twice and use a racial epithet as the Rivers ran.

“No citizen should have to face justice before a judge who holds such a high degree of racial animus and hatred,” Truly said in a news conference Friday.

Russian bombers, fighter jets 'seen over Crimea' - Yahoo News

Russian bombers, fighter jets 'seen over Crimea' - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Several dozen Russian planes including what appeared to be strategic bombers and fighter jets have
been spotted in the sky above the Moscow-controlled peninsula of Crimea, witnesses and experts said.

According to Russian media, President Vladimir Putin is poised to visit Crimea on Friday after overseeing the main military parade on Red Square when Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

A local aviation expert told AFP on Sunday that he had sighted a number of planes over the peninsula's main city of Simferopol on Saturday, including supersonic heavy strategic bombers and heavy military transport aircraft. The expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had also seen refuelling tankers and MiG-29 jets.

Another expert, Alexei Savich, who was shown footage of the aircraft, said a Sukhoi Su-34 fighter jet could be seen among the planes. He also identified the tankers and military transport planes.

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 A Russian Il-78 aerial refueling tanker (right) and Tu-160 supersonic strategic bomber (left) fly ov …

Many local residents have also seen the aircraft rumble over the peninsula including in Simferopol and the neighbouring town of Bakhchisarai.

"It was a bit scary," local resident Arzy Khaibulaeva told AFP. "Children were frightened."

She said the planes were flying low and some were seen re-fuelling in mid-air. The Russian defence ministry declined to comment on Sunday.

Savich suggested that Moscow might be moving "some serious military aircraft" to the peninsula.
"Russia is most likely ramping up its military presence on the peninsula," he told AFP.

In March, Putin sent troops to Ukraine's Russian-speaking peninsula claiming he had to protect the local population after a popular uprising ousted Ukraine's Moscow-backed president.

Al Qaeda chief urges Westerner kidnappings - Yahoo News

Al Qaeda chief urges Westerner kidnappings - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to kidnap Westerners, particularly Americans, who could then be exchanged for jailed jihadists including a blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack the United Nations and other New York landmarks.

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• Woman killed in clash between Egypt's Brotherhood, security forces - sources Reuters

In a wide ranging audio interview, the al Qaeda leader expressed solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood which is facing a violent crackdown by the army-backed government in Egypt and urged unity among rebels in their fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the Zawahiri tape, but the voice resembled that of the al Qaeda leader.

"I ask Allah the Glorious to help us set free Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman and the rest of the captive Muslims, and I ask Allah to help us capture from among the Americans and the Westerners to enable us to exchange
them for our captives," said Zawahiri, according to the SITE website monitoring service.

Abdel-Rahman is serving a life term in the United States for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.
Zawahiri also urged "jihad and overthrowing the criminal al-Assad regime" in Syria and renewed his call to end infighting among jihadists that increased this year, pitting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against rival rebels including other hardline Islamists. "The Ummah (Muslim world) must support this jihad with all that it can, and the mujahideen (Islamist militants) must unite around the word of Tawhid (unity)," said Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born doctor. "So everyone should prioritize the interest of Islam and the Ummah over

his organizational or partisans interest, even if he gives up for his brothers what he sees as right."

The infighting between the different rebel factions has hindered the battle against Assad and pushed rival rebel groups to consolidate power in their respective areas of control. Al Qaeda said it was breaking with ISIL in February after disputes over the group's refusal to limit itself to fighting in Iraq rather than in Syria, where the Nusra Front is al Qaeda's affiliate. Asked about the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Zawahiri answered: "the duty on every Muslims is to deter the aggressor by any means, and especially the oppressed Muslims." Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and arrested thousands, including most of its leaders, since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on July 3 following mass protests against his rule. Egypt designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization last year.

Group of deputies wants Gorbachev investigated over Soviet break-up - Yahoo News

Group of deputies wants Gorbachev investigated over Soviet break-up - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
A small group of lawmakers have asked Russia's top prosecutor to investigate whether the last Soviet
leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, should face treason charges over his role in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev dismissed the request as an act of publicity-seeking and said there were no grounds to charge him. It follows a surge of patriotism since Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last month, which has revived nostalgia among some Russians for the Soviet Union and boosted President Vladimir Putin's popularity ratings.

The seven-page request for an investigation says Gorbachev and other senior Soviet officials violated the law and the will of the people by letting the republics that made up the Soviet Union declare independence and break away.

"As a result of these criminal actions, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a global superpower, was destroyed and ceased existing as a geopolitical reality," says the letter.

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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev addresses students as he visits the International Universi … Signed by five lawmakers including two members of the United Russia party loyal to Putin, it was sent to Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika on Wednesday.

The Prosecutor General's office declined comment but said it generally
takes up to 10 days to decide whether to start an investigation.

Gorbachev is celebrated in the West for his policies of "perestroika" (restructuring) and glasnost" (openness) and not resorting to widespread use of force to hold the Soviet Union together.

But many Russians blame him for the superpower's collapse and some hanker for what they see as the relative stability of Soviet times.

"The catastrophic consequences have manifested themselves throughout the years since the collapse of the USSR, in Russia as well as on the territory of the (other) former Soviet republics," the lawmakers wrote,
describing the crisis in Ukraine as among the consequences.

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U.S. President George Bush checks his watch during the joint news conference with Soviet President M … The 83-year-old Nobel Peace

Prize laureate said: "Such calls only reflect how certain lawmakers
seek their own PR and like being talked about, but the request is
completely ill-considered and absolutely unjustified from the point of
view of historic facts."

Gorbachev has repeatedly criticized Putin and his treatment of political dissent, saying Russia needs a new system of governance. He also co-publishes an independent newspaper that is critical of the Kremlin.