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Newark mayor backs students occupying superintendent's office

Students holed up since Tuesday in the office of the Newark, N.J., school superintendent in an effort to force her to meet with them or resign gained a powerful ally Thursday -- the city's mayor.
"They're obviously frustrated about not being able to have a voice in what happens around their own education," Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said at a news conference outside of school district headquarters Thursday.
"As the mayor of this state's largest city, I am also frustrated that I do not have a say-so in what is happening in the education of the children that exist and live in these communities," he said.
At least eight students, who call themselves the Newark Student Union, seized Superintendent Cami Anderson's office Tuesday night during a public schools advisory board meeting, and have remained on the floor where Anderson and other administrators have offices. They're protesting Anderson's leadership of the school district, including school building assignments and her support for charter schools.
The students claim the district is trying to "starve out" the Newark Student Union by purposely depriving them of food.
"For anyone tuning in right now, right now we're giving a live stream explaining what's going on. We have a food situation," one student is heard saying in the background of the live stream. "They haven't given it to us yet."
Another student said the protesters are surviving on chips and candy they brought in themselves Wednesday night.
"They are knowingly detaining our food," the student says. "As students, as people, we have a right to food. And we have a right to protest in this office."
In a letter to parents on Wednesday, however, Assistant Superintendent Brad Haggerty said the district "will continue to provide her with water, food, and access to a bathroom until you retake custody of your child."
A phone call placed to the superintendent's office by FoxNews.com on Thursday went unanswered. Spokespeople for the district and state Department of Education didn't immediately return calls Thursday from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday, three female students appeared on a live stream from the superintendent's office, stating their mission in a brief statement. They urged anyone listening in the Newark area to join them in protest.
The district, meanwhile, said it hand-delivered letters Wednesday to parents of six students to ask them to pick their children up. Newark public schools spokeswoman Brittany Chord Parmley said Tuesday night that the district has tried to engage and listen to the students' concerns for the past several months.
"Despite our best efforts to work together, they have repeatedly ignored district requests to meet and engage in a constructive dialogue," she said in a statement. "While we appreciate their passion, this is not the appropriate forum to engage in productive conversation."
Former television talk show host Montel Williams tweeted a copy of one of the letters and claimed the district had Newark police officers deliver them to parents.
"Great job #camianderson - u have cops deliver threatening letters to parents of @NewarkStudents #occupynps ? Wow," Williams tweeted.
"Newark School Superintendent response to MASS student/teacher protest is bizarre. Students this fired up about their education = commendable," Williams wrote.
The students' remarks were met with chants from others in office, yelling, "Cami's got to go!" and, "Tell me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!"  
At least one organizer of the student group is a college student from Rutgers University.
New Jersey has run Newark schools since 1995, and Baraka has said he wants New Jersey to return the district to the city's control. Anderson's administration and the One Newark plan involving the expansion of charter schools have met skepticism from city officials and Baraka.
Anderson, an ally of former Newark Mayor Cory Booker, was appointed by Gov. Chris Christie in 2011. On Thursday, Baraka said her contract was renewed Wednesday, though he didn't support the claim with specific details about his sources, The Star-Ledger reported.

Judge defies Texas law to wed same-sex couple under one-time order

Defying Texas' longstanding ban on gay marriage, a lesbian couple wed in Austin on Thursday immediately after being granted a marriage license under a one-time court order because one of the women has cancer.
The women said their union was the first legal same-sex marriage since voters approved the ban in the fiercely conservative state in 2005, though Texas' attorney general immediately appealed to the state Supreme Court. The court later issued an emergency stay that blocks other gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses but didn't address the Austin marriage.
Thursday's license was issued exclusively for and Suzanne Bryant and Sarah Goodfriend, who has ovarian cancer, in liberal-leaning Travis County. The Austin couple requested the license two days after a local probate judge ruled in an unrelated estate case that Texas' gay-marriage ban was unconstitutional. The couple — together for more than 30 years — cited the estate case, saying it should allow them to get married.
State District Judge David Wahlberg sided with the couple and directed the Travis County clerk to stop relying on "the unconstitutional Texas prohibitions against same-sex marriage as a basis for not issuing a marriage license." County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir said she issued the license, but that any other licenses must be court ordered.
Courts made a similar exception in Indiana for a lesbian couple in April because one of the women was dying of cancer and wanted her partner's name on her death certificate. A federal appeals court overturned Indiana's ban in September.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who took office in January, filed for an emergency stay Thursday morning and took the unusual step of asking Texas Supreme Court justices to rule within the hour. Justices didn't heed the request.
"A stay is necessary to make clear to all county clerks that Texas marriage law remains enforceable until there has been final appellate resolution," Paxton wrote.
Texas' ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in San Antonio last year, but the judge put the ruling on hold amid the ongoing court fight. The state's appeal is currently before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
"We are all waiting for a final decision on marriage equality," Debeauvoir said. "However, this couple may not get the chance to hear the outcome of this issue because one person's health."
Goodfriend, policy director for state Rep. Celia Israel, said during a midday news conference that her last chemotherapy treatment was four and a half months ago. But, she added: "All of us wonder if the cancer grows back along with the hair growing back."
Bryant, an Austin lawyer who works on adoptions for same-sex couples, said the couple's two children were legally adopted by both her and Goodfriend years ago. But she said a legal marriage would affect their finances and property rights, and if one of them dies, the other would inherit the other's property and be able to make medical decisions and funeral arrangements for the other.
"Financially now, we're intertwined, and we will have community property that we will share," she said.
Bryant said she and her wife couldn't control what the attorney general does. "If they want to come in and try to nullify this, they will," she said. "But we have a valid marriage license, and I don't think they can."
Still, the women said they hoped other couples would follow their lead. Their advice: "Have hope and have faith."
The couple was joined by their two teenage daughters when they married Thursday morning in a ceremony presided over by a rabbi. Bryant later released a statement saying they wanted to open the door for all families to have the right to marry in Texas.
Mark Phariss, who along with his partner are among those fighting the ban in federal court, said he was "thrilled" by news of the nuptials even though it's unlikely to impact the federal lawsuit. But he said the marriage could prompt other same-sex couples to seek similar exceptions, saying Bryant and Goodfriend's case "is evidence of the harm the ban is having on the state."
Before the state Supreme Court ruling, two same-sex couples had inquired about getting a marriage license in Travis County, chief deputy clerk Ronald Morgan Jr. said. Morgan said both couples were told that Thursday's order applied only to the one couple, but that the office was "committed to abiding by any future court orders related to this issue."

Giuliani defends Obama criticism, says president doesn't believe in American exceptionalism

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani adamantly defended Thursday his controversial criticism of President Obama, one day after saying he does "not believe that the president loves America."
Giuliani made the remarks Wednesday at a private fundraiser for Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is widely considered to be a prospective candidate for president in 2016. He added: “(Obama) doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country."
The comments drew widespread criticism from Democrats and liberals.
But Thursday night on "The Kelly File," when host Megyn Kelly asked Giuliani if he wished to apologize, the 2008 presidential candidate doubled down on his criticism.
"Not at all. I want to repeat it," Giuliani said. "The reality is, from all that I can see of this president, all that I’ve heard of him, he apologizes for America, he criticizes America. ... This is an American president I’ve never seen before."
Giuliani said he doesn't think Obama believes in American exceptionalism, citing the president's remarks on police tactics in the wake of the Ferguson shooting, western atrocities in the name of religion and Obama's longtime association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a controversial Chicago pastor.
But, Kelly countered, "a lot of liberals don't believe in American exceptionalism, but that doesn't mean they don't love America."
"I don't feel it," Giuliani said. "I don't feel this love of America (from Obama). I believe his initial approach is to criticize this country, and then afterwards to say a few nice things about it."
Giuliani, however, said he wasn't questioning the president's patriotism.
"I know patriotism. Patriots can criticize. They’re allowed to criticize," he said. "But I don’t hear from him what I heard from Harry Truman, what I heard from Bill Clinton, what I heard from Jimmy Carter, which is these wonderful words about what a great country we are, what an exceptional country we are."

US military official outlines plan to retake Iraqi city of Mosul

A U.S. military official on Thursday outlined plans to retake the key Iraq city of Mosul from Islamic State terrorists as early as April -- an unusual move that immediately drew criticism from two U.S. intelligence officers.
A senior U.S. Central Command official said that the "shaping" for the battle is currently underway. The Iraqi military hopes to begin operations in the "April, May timeframe" and retake the city before Ramadan begins on June 17.
The official, who was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly and spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity, said five Iraqi Army brigades will be used in the fight, as well as several smaller brigades, adding up to a total force of up to 25,000 Iraqi troops.
Three brigades of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters will participate as well.
But two military intelligence officers told Fox News that the decision to publicly announce the plan was counterintuitive because it "telegraphs" the timing and number of units involved. The officers said it would allow Islamic State, also known as ISIS, or ISIL, to prepare for the battle by laying improvised explosive devices.
Both officers questioned whether political considerations on the part of the Obama administration factored into the decision to announce the offensive.
ISIS militants overtook Mosul last June, as the group marched across large sections of Iraq and Syria, sending Iraqi forces fleeing. At this point, officials estimate there are between 1,000 to 2,000 ISIS insurgents in the city of Mosul. Military leaders have been talking about retaking the city for some time, but they have said they won't launch the operation until the Iraqi troops are ready.
Included in the force would be a brigade of Iraqi counterterrorism forces who have been trained by U.S. special operations forces. The brigades include roughly 2,000 troops each.
The CENTCOM official said the U.S. will provide military support for the operation, including training, air support, intelligence and surveillance. The official said there has been no decision made yet on whether to send in some U.S. ground troops to help call in airstrikes.
"But by the same token, if they're not ready, if the conditions are not set, if all the equipment they need is not physically there and they (aren't) trained to a degree in which they will be successful, we have not closed the door on continuing to slide that to the right," he said.
The official also revealed for the first time that Qatar has agreed to host a training site for coalition forces to train moderate Syrian rebels who would return to Syria to fight the Islamic State forces there. Other sites are in Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Hillary Clinton's ties to corporate donors, lobbyists while Secretary of State scrutinized

Hillary Clinton's ties to large corporations have come under more scrutiny after it was revealed that dozens of companies that have donated millions to her family's foundation also lobbied the State Department during her tenure as Secretary of State. 
The Wall Street Journal reports that the 60 companies who lobbied Clinton's State Department between 2009 and 2013 donated over $26 million to the Clinton Foundation in that period. The donors include instantly recognizable names like General Electric, Exxon Mobil, and Boeing.
The Journal also reports that at least 44 of the 60 companies participated in philanthropy projects valued at $3.2 billion set up by the Clinton Global Initiative, which is a wing of the foundation. At least 25 of the companies also contributed to 15 public-private partnerships created by Clinton and coordinated by the State Department. 
While there is no evidence that any laws were broken, the connections do raise potentially thorny ethical questions as Clinton prepares for a likely 2016 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. 
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told the Journal that she "did the job that every secretary of state is supposed to do and what the American people expect of them—especially during difficult economic times. She proudly and loudly advocated on behalf of American business and took every opportunity she could to promote U.S. commercial interests abroad." 
The latest report comes on the heels of the disclosure that donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation have increased considerably following the removal of a self-imposed ban on such contributions during Hillary's time as Secretary of State. Experts have said that the donation ban should be immediately re-imposed until Clinton formally decides one way or another whether she will seek the White House. On Thursday, the foundation said it would consider whether to accept such contributions should Clinton decide to run, but would not commit to rejecting such donations in the future. 
The Journal report cites several examples of Clinton promoting eventual donors to the Foundation and its various activities. For example, in October 2012, she lobbied the Algerian government to contract General Electric to build power plants in that country. The following month, the Foundation approached the company about expanding a health-access initiative. An eventual partnership was formed, to which the company contributed between $500,000 and $1 million. The Algerian government awarded GE the power plant contract in September 2013. 
Other efforts were less successful. In 2010, Clinton announced cooperation between the U.S. and Poland on a scheme to develop shale gas deposits in eastern Europe. After several years of false starts, Exxon Mobil and Chevron gave up their Polish plans. 
In 2012, Clinton persuaded Bulgaria's government to issue a five-year license to Chevron allowing conventional gas exploration. That, too went nowhere. The following year, the Journal reports, Chevron donated $250,000 to the foundation. Exxon Mobil, for its part, has donated at least $18.8 million to various initiatives, including a nonprofit women's group called vital voices. 
In at least one case, a sizable corporate monetary promise was made before a Clinton overseas trip. In 2012, Wal-Mart, a company with whom the Clintons have ties going back to their days in Arkansas, pledged $12 million to various causes supporting woman in Latin America. $1.5 million of that money went toward a Clinton Foundation public-private partnership and another $500,000 went to Vital Voices.
A month later, Clinton lobbied the Indian government to reverse a ban on multibrand retailers, opening up a potentially lucrative market for several U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart. The effort was unsuccessful.