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Ferguson officer feared for life, report says

WASHINGTON –  The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in a St. Louis suburb last summer has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle and in fear for his life as they struggled over his gun, The New York Times reported.
Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson has told authorities that Michael Brown reached for the gun during a scuffle, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Friday night. The officer's account to authorities did not explain why he fired at Brown multiple times after emerging from his vehicle, according to the newspaper.
The Times reported that the account of Wilson's version of events came from government officials briefed on the federal civil rights investigation into the Aug. 9 shooting that sparked racial unrest and weeks of protests, some of which turned violent. Wilson is white and Brown black.
Wilson confronted Brown and a friend while they were walking back to Brown's home from a convenience store. After the shooting, Brown died at the scene. Some witnesses have told authorities and news media that Brown had his hands raised when Wilson approached with his weapon and fired repeatedly. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family says that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.
The Times reported that Wilson has told investigators that he was trying to leave his SUV when Brown pushed him back in and that once inside the vehicle the two began to fight. Wilson told authorities that Brown punched and scratched him repeatedly, leaving swelling on his face and cuts on his neck, the Times reported.
Wilson, who had been patrolling Ferguson for nearly three years, was placed on leave after the shooting. A state grand jury is considering charges against him.
The Justice Department is investigating the Ferguson Police Department for possible civil rights violations, including whether officers there use excessive force and engage in discriminatory practices. Two-thirds of Ferguson's 21,000 residents are black but only three of its more than 50 police officers are black.

Dems tie Ebola woes to budget cuts, conservatives say ‘nonsense’

Congressional Democrats and allied groups are ramping up claims that the Ebola response is suffering from a budget crunch, even as Republicans and independent fact-checkers question the argument.
The latest call came Thursday from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who demanded that lawmakers return to session to revisit the budget.
“The Appropriations Committee should return to Washington immediately and convene hearings to discuss and debate the issue of funding levels for NIH, CDC and related agencies in light of the public health challenges posed by the Ebola virus,” she said in a statement.
Others have suggested Republicans specifically are to blame for problems with the Ebola response.
On Oct. 12, the Agenda Project Action Fund released a political ad called “Republican Cuts Kill,” which according to the group, has been scheduled to air in Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, and South Dakota – all states with high-stakes Senate elections in November. The ad juxtaposes pictures of dead bodies and body bags in West Africa with Republican lawmakers like Sens. Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul.
“Like rabid dogs in a butcher shop, Republicans have indiscriminately shredded everything in their path, including critical programs that could have dealt with the Ebola crisis before it reached our country,” said ad producerErica Payne, founder of the Agenda Project Action Fund.
The talking points were spurred by statements made by National Institutes of Health head Dr. Francis Collins to The Huffington Post on Oct. 10.
"Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready," Collins said. He added that some therapeutics to fight the virus "were on a slower track than would've been ideal. ... We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference.”
But fact-checkers and number-crunchers say the actual budgets do not bear out claims that Republicans have starved research for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NIH through the Obama administration.
“Claims that CDC and NIH have not had enough funding to do Ebola research are nonsense,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.
At the CDC, funding has remained relatively steady.
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler notes that the CDC budget has “bounced around” $6.5 billion every year of the Obama administration.
In both 2013 and 2014, it was Congress that boosted the funding after the administration had proposed scaled-back budgets.
According to reports, when the 2014 budget was passed in January, the CDC’s budget rose to $6.9 billion, $567 million more than it received in 2013 and more than the agency anticipated, as the president only requested $6.6 billion.
While it appears stagnant from 2009 numbers, it is still double the budget the CDC was getting in 2000 ($3.4 billion), Edwards points out.
With NIH, the numbers have edged up from $28.5 billion in 2006 to $30.14 billion in 2014, Kessler said. That’s technically an increase – but with inflation, it’s more like a cut.
But Kessler also points out that NIH was given an extra $10 billion in stimulus funds in 2009.
While neither agency was getting all the money it wanted, Kessler points out that what happened in the last few budgets was not a “slash and burn” by Republicans, but a tug-of-war between Congress and the president which culminated in the 2013 sequestration cuts. Those cuts, including a $1.5 billion cut to NIH, affected all government agencies indiscriminately.
“There’s no doubt that spending has been cut, or at least failed to keep pace with inflation, but the fingerprints of both parties are on the knives,” Kessler wrote in The Washington Post Fact Checker.
Kessler gave the Democratic allegations that Republican budgets were at fault for the poor Ebola response four “Pinocchios,” and called them “absurd.”
Edwards said a better way to connect the budgets with the Ebola crisis is to look at how the money is being spent. Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal complained in a recent op-ed that “in recent years, the CDC has received significant amounts of funding. Unfortunately, however, many of those funds have been diverted away from programs that can fight infectious diseases, and toward programs far afield from the CDC’s original purpose.”
On that note, Republicans are trotting out various NIH funding projects they say show questionable – even wasteful – spending.
“It’s funny that the Democrats are quick to point fingers when it’s been this administration pushing the CDC to spend time and resources on bike lanes and farmers markets instead of prioritizing national security and the health of Americans,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said.
The Washington Free Beacon rounded up several projects ranging from $53,202 for studying sighs to more than $2.4 million for developing origami condoms.
“The bigger story here is that the president and the Democrats have once again been leading from behind on an issue that Americans are concerned about.”
But where there is money on Capitol Hill, there’s mandated oversight, and if members of Congress are quick to point fingers, they might want to point some of them back at themselves, said Edwards. Their job includes making sure the agencies have what they need, and are spending it on their stated priorities.
“Not enough blame is put on the congressional committees,” he said, “which are supposed to be conducting oversight of these agencies.”

Senior Republicans criticize Ebola 'czar' choice for lack of medical background

Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill Friday criticized Ron Klain, President Obama’s choice to be “Ebola czar,” as a figurehead with no health background.
“Given the mounting failings in the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola outbreak, it is right that the president has sought to task a single individual to coordinate its response, “said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But I have to ask why the president didn’t pick an individual with a noteworthy infectious disease or public health background?”
Klain, a longtime political hand, served as chief of staff to Al Gore and Vice President Joe Biden but has no apparent medical or health care background.
A White House official said Friday that Klain comes to the job with "strong management credentials, extensive federal government experience overseeing complex operations and good working relationships with leading members of Congress, as well as senior Obama administration officials, including the president." 
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called him an "excellent choice."
But criticism came swiftly from the Republicans.
“The United States’ handling of the Ebola virus here at home has left Americans across the country petrified about the preparedness and response efforts, said House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.” The public is desperate to believe that we will be safe from Ebola’s spread. I was glad the president got off the campaign trail to finally focus on Ebola, but with this appointment of a 'czar' with no health background, he just got right back on.”
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, added, “This appointment is both shocking and frankly tone deaf to what the American people are concerned about. Installing yet another political appointee who has no medical background or infectious disease control experience will do little to reassure Americans who are increasingly losing confidence with the administration’s Ebola strategy.”
Both Upton and Murphy called for immediate travel restrictions to halt the spread of the disease.
Said one senior GOP congressional source, who asked not to be identified, “I think it’s a bizarre pick. He may have a good reputation as manager within the Democratic party. But Republicans see him exclusively as a political operative who’s been at the heart of the some of the most partisan events of the past two decades.”
Rep. Tom Price,R-Ga. and a doctor himself, accused Obama of "making an unserious gesture at an incredibly serious moment.”