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California Democrats trying to raise cigarette tax

California Democrats are trying again this year to pass a tax increase on cigarette sales, one of several bills that attempt to curb tobacco use.
The bill if passed would increase the tax from 87 cents to $2.87 a pack, after roughly 17 years without an increase.
State Democrats have also proposed bills to limit the public use of chewing tobacco and electronic cigarettes and to increase the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 that if passed would make California the only state to increase the minimum age.
Tobacco interest groups such as the Cigar Association of America told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that they will be looking into different tactics to fight the tax but no decisions have been made yet.
The bill to increase the smoking age passed unanimously in the Senate Health Committee with bipartisan support and is now headed to the chamber’s appropriations committee.
However, the legislation to increase the cigarette tax, now being considered by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, will likely face a more difficult path toward passage.
The bill needs to pass with a two-thirds majority, which means it would need support from Republicans, who have previously opposed such measures.
And similar efforts have failed 17 straight times in California, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Those efforts have been defeated largely by the strong opposition and lobbying efforts from the tobacco industry.
In 2012, for example, a ballot initiative to increase the tax by $1 was narrowly defeated after the tobacco interests spent $47.7 million in opposition, the newspaper also reported.
The other measures this year would ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public places where tobacco smoking is already prohibited, prohibit the use of chewing tobacco in professional baseball stadiums and try to reduce litter by banning single-use filters, which are on the vast majority of cigarettes.
Supporters of the age-increase legislation say it will stop minors from smoking and perhaps even keep them from starting.
The Cigar Association of America told FoxNews.com that 18 year olds can vote and serve in the military so they also should be allowed to legally smoke cigarettes at that age. However, nobody testified directly against the legislation, according to The Times.
Stefan Didak, a spokesman for the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association in California, told the newspaper that the bill “attacks a safer alternative to smoking -- one that is helping some smokers quit.”

Addresses of senior FBI officials, other high-ranking federal officials published online

U.S. officials are investigating the online posting of the names and addresses of high-ranking FBI and other federal officials.
Investigators suspect a “right-wing extremist group” may be behind the incident, according to CBS News, which first reported the incident.
The addresses and names of officials and former officials from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies also were posted.
The FBI did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. The White House referred questions to DHS, which did not immediately respond to a similar request.
The incident comes about a month after a group claiming allegiance to the Islamic State posted the names and other personal information of roughly 100 U.S. military members.

Questions swirl over how small aircraft able to land on Capitol lawn without being shot down

WASHINGTON –  Questions are swirling about how a postal worker from Florida managed to land a small gyrocopter Wednesday on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol without being shot out of the sky by authorities.
Mailman Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.
“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violence inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his website, the democracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat -- it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There's no need to worry -- I'm just delivering the mail."
House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the pilot landed on his own, but that had he made it much closer to the Capitol authorities were prepared to shoot him down.
"Had it gotten any closer to the speaker's balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn't. It landed right in front," McCaul said.

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• Gyrocopter lands near US Capitol

Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said Wednesday night that media reports earlier in the day claiming the Secret Service Tampa Field Office had been alerted to the flight in advance were not true.
"The subject involved in today's incident had come to the attention of the USSS approximately one and a half years ago," Leary said. "On October 4, 2013, the Secret Service obtained information from a concerned citizen about an individual purporting their desire to land a single manned aircraft on the grounds of the United States Capitol or the White House." He added a complete investigation was conducted at the time.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot had not been in contact with air traffic controllers and the FAA didn't authorize him to enter restricted airspace.
Airspace security rules that cover the Capitol and the District of Columbia prohibit private aircraft flights without prior coordination and permission. Violators can face civil and criminal penalties.
A law enforcement official told Fox News Wednesday night that the pilot has not yet been formally charged. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is currently reviewing the incident for possible charges.
The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the situation.
Witnesses said the craft approached the Capitol from the west, flying low over the National Mall and the Capitol reflecting pool across the street from the building. It barely cleared a row of trees and a statue of Gen. Ulysses Grant. The gyrocopter landed hard and bounced and the pilot was quickly arrested.
The open-air aircraft sported a U.S. Postal Service logo.
One witness told The Associated Press that when the aircraft landed, police with rifles yelled at the pilot not to move, and told bystanders to run, with their heads down.
About two hours after the landing, police said a bomb squad had cleared the aircraft, and that authorities would be moving it to a secure location.
The incident once again thrusts Washington’s airspace into the spotlight. In January,a quadcopter drone crashed onto the White House grounds, sparking calls for tighter security.
A gyrocopter resembles a small helicopter. However, unlike a helicopter, a gyrocopter’s blades are not powered, with the aircraft relying instead on an engine-powered propeller to provide thrust. Often used as recreational aircraft, gyrocopters have also been deployed in law enforcement.

ISIS operating base few miles from Texas border, group warns

Islamic State fighters are operating training bases near the U.S. southern border and are being aided by violent drug cartels to smuggle terrorists into states like Texas, a report published Tuesday by a watchdog group claims.
The Judicial Watch report, which cited an unnamed Mexican Army officer and a Mexican police inspector, raises new fears that the fight with ISIS is closer to the U.S. than previously thought.
The report identified the locations of the two bases, and said one is as close as 8 miles from Texas in a town west of Juarez. Mexican authorities found possible evidence -- plans written in Arabic and Urdu -- last week in the town of "Anapra," the sources said. These sources told the watchdog that "coyotes" who work for drug cartels assist in smuggling terrorists between Fort Hancock, Texas, and other undisclosed locations.
The U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an inquiry from FoxNews.com to confirm the report. But the Mexican border has long been seen as a potential vulnerability.
FoxNews.com reported last summer that social media chatter shows ISIS is aware of the porous border, and are “expressing an increased interest” in crossing over to carry out a terrorist attack.

Clinton Foundation to keep accepting donations from foreign governments

The Clinton Foundation said late Wednesday that it will continue to accept donations from foreign governments during Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, despite concerns that such gifts will create a conflict of interest for the Democratic front-runner.
The foundation's board said that donations directly to the foundation would only be allowed from six governments — Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. However, other governments could continue to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a subsidiary program that encourages donors to match contributions from others to tackle international problems without direct donations to the charity.
The foundation also said it would stop holding CGI meetings abroad after a final session planned for Morocco in May. According to the Wall Street Journal, ministers from any government would be allowed to attend and appear on panels at CGI meetings and those governments would be permitted to pay attendance fees of $20,000.
Ethics experts had called on the foundation to stop accepting all foreign donations for the duration of Clinton's presidential campaign.
The Journal also reported that the Morocco conference had been funded by a $1 million gift from a Moroccan state-owned phosphate export company. The paper also reported that a second planned CGI meeting scheduled for June in Athens had been canceled.
Clinton, who resigned from the foundation's board last week, has faced mounting criticism over the charity's ties to foreign governments. Her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination referred questions from the Associated Press about the board's decision to the foundation.
The foundation also will begin disclosing its donors every quarter instead of annually — an answer to long-standing criticism that the foundation's once-a-year lists made it difficult to view shifts and trends in the charity's funding. Former President Bill Clinton and other foundation officials have long defended the charity's transparency, but the new move signaled sensitivity to those concerns, particularly as his wife begins her race for the White House.
Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian said that under the new disclosure policy, "the Clinton Foundation is reinforcing its commitment to accountability while protecting programs that are improving the lives of millions of people around the world." But he also insisted that the old annual disclosure policy went "above and beyond what's required by voluntarily disclosing our more than 300,000 donors on our website for anyone to see."
An Associated Press analysis of Clinton Foundation donations between 2001 and 2015 showed governments and agencies from 16 nations previously gave direct grants of between $55 million and $130 million. Those governments include the six nations that will be allowed to continue donating. The remaining 10 are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Kuwait, Italy, Brunei, Taiwan and the Dominican Republic.
Hillary Clinton had previously agreed with the Obama administration to limit new foreign donations to the foundation while she served as secretary of state, but at least six nations that previously contributed still donated to the charity during her four-year stint. In one case, the foundation failed to notify the State Department about a donation from the government of Algeria.
Critics targeted the foundation's reliance on funding from several Middle Eastern governments that suppress dissent and women's rights — concerns that Clinton focused on during her stint as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.
The revised list of direct donors is not without controversy. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, which has already given the foundation between $250,000 and $500,000, has also pushed for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which environmental critics say could spread carbon emissions. President Barack Obama has yet to decide on the project, which would span several U.S. states, but he has already vetoed one bill aimed at swiftly approving the plan.
Foundation officials said the charity is not involved in that issue at all and has a "strong program" aimed at curbing reducing carbon emissions.