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NAACP lends supports to local leader accused of misrepresenting herself as black

The NAACP issued a statement Friday in support of a local NAACP leader in Washington state who has been accused by her family of misrepresenting herself as black.
The civil rights group rushed to the defense of Rachel Dolezal, the head of the NAACP Spokane chapter, after the woman’s parents told a newspaper Thursday her ancestry was white with some “faint traces” of Native American heritage.
 Dolezal “is enduring a legal issue with her family, and we respect her privacy in this matter,” the NAACP said.
“One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership. The NAACP Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Conference stands behind M. Dolezal’s advocacy record,” the group added.
The statement also alluded to media reports that have raised skepticism over claims Dolezal had received hate mail in late February and March.
“Hate language sent through mail and social media along with credible threats continue to be a serious for uor units in the Pacitive Northwest and across the nation,” the NAACP said. “We take all threats seriously and encourage the FBI and the Department of Justice to fully investigate each occurrence."
 The Spokane Spokesman-Review says that Dolezal described her ethnicity as white, black, and American Indian in an application to be the volunteer chairwoman of the city's Police Ombudsman Commission, a position to which she was duly appointed.
But Dolezal's mother, Ruthanne, told the paper that her family's actual ancestry is Czech, Swedish, and German, along with some "faint traces" of Native American heritage.
"It's very sad that Rachel has not just been herself," Ruthanne Dolezal said. "Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody."
Ruthanne Dolezal said that her daughter began to "disguise herself" in the mid-2000s, after the family had adopted four African-American children.
Rachel Dolezal, who is also a part-time professor in the Africana Studies Program at Eastern Washington University did not immediately respond to her mother's claim when contacted by the Spokesman-Review, first saying "I feel like I owe [the NAACP] executive committee conversation" about what she called a "multi-layered issue."
After being contacted again, Dolezal said, "That question is not as easy as it seems. There's a lot of complexities ... and I don’t know that everyone would understand that." Later, she said, "We're all from the African continent," an apparent reference to scientific studies tracing the origin of human life to east Africa.
According to the Spokesman-Review, members of other organizations that Dolezal has belonged to have raised questions about her ethnicity as well as hate crimes that she has reported.
A former board member of the Kootenai County (Idaho) Task Force on Human Relations, which employed Dolezal for three years as the education director for its Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, told the paper that he was concerned that she had been hired without proper vetting of her background.
Kurt Neumaier also told the paper that he was suspicious of several racially motivated incidents reported by Dolezal while she was in Coeur d'Alene. One specific incident he cited was the discovery of a swastika on the Human Rights Education Institute's door on a day when the organization's security cameras had been "mysteriously turned off".
"None of them passed the smell test," Neumaier said.
The Spokesman-Review also reported that Spokane police records for February and March of this year showed that a hate mail package Dolezal reported receiving at the NAACP's post office box did not bear a date stamp or barcode. Postal workers interviewed by police said it was highly unlikely that they had processed it and said it could only have been put there by someone with key.
Dolezal has denied putting the package in the post office box, and the paper reported that it has received several pieces of mail written in the same style that have been date-stamped and postmarked from Oakland, Calif.

About face: Pentagon rules La. guardsman who died in chopper crash can be buried at Arlington

A Louisiana National Guardsman killed in a helicopter crash in the Gulf of Mexico will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery after all, following a fierce campaign by his family and supporters that prompted an about-face from the Pentagon Friday.
The rare exception announced by Army Secretary John McHugh means Staff Sgt. Thomas Florich, 26, who was among four guardsmen and seven Marines killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed March 10 off of Pensacola, Fla., will rest for eternity in the elite military graveyard. The military had previously said that Florich was not eligible for the distinction because he was not considered to have been on active duty when he died. But Friday's reversal brought joy and pride to Florich's family, including his father, Stephen, a former Army major and Green Beret.

"My son was in uniform and doing what he had to do in hazardous conditions when he gave his life, and he deserves to rest in peace there."
- Stephen Florich, father of Staff Sgt. Thomas Florich

"I've walked that ground with my son and we talked about what it meant when he was a teenager and as he grew into a young man," Stephen Florich, of King George, Va., which is about 45 miles south of Arlington Cemetery, told FoxNews.com. "It is sacred ground. My son was in uniform and doing what he had to do in hazardous conditions when he gave his life, and he deserves to rest in peace there."
Florich was a fourth-generation military man, but was technically in the helicopter training when the aircraft went down in bad weather. Everyone else aboard was deemed to have been on active duty, and thus eligible for burial at Arlington.
McHugh announced that he has approved the exception after determining there was "compelling justification for granting this request for an exception to ANC's interment eligibility criteria."
"As the U.S. military evolves, reserve and National Guard service members train alongside their active duty counterparts with increasing frequency," McHugh wrote.  "When these service members tragically lose their lives while training side-by-side for the same mission in defense of our nation, it is fitting to afford them the same burial privileges."
McHugh has since ordered a review of the Code of Federal Regulations - which governs eligibility for interment and inurnment at Arlington - to see if changes may be needed.
The military has become rigid about the requirements for burial at Arlington, given that space at the cemetery is only projected to last for another 40 years.
"As the nation's premiere military cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery holds a unique place in the history and hearts of the United States," said McHugh. "Because of the overwhelming number of requests for burials - and the limited space available - stringent criteria for in-ground burials were enacted to ensure that an otherwise eligible veteran or service member would not be denied their right to be buried at Arlington."
Stephen Florich said his son's widow, Meghan, who is eight months pregnant with a baby girl who will be named Alice, will travel up from her home in Louisiana after she gives birth to mark the somber event.
"Her health and the health of baby Alice is our first priority right now, but they will be here for the ceremony," he said.
Cemetery spokeswoman Jennifer Lynch said Arlington is expected to run out of burial space in about 40 years, meaning "those currently serving on active duty may not have an opportunity to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, if they retire after a life of service."
"This is not including any conflicts that may arise in the next 40 years," Lynch said.

Obama trade push runs aground as House Democrats derail key bill

In a dramatic defeat for the White House, President Obama's trade agenda ran aground in the House on Friday as Democrats banded together in opposition despite a personal plea from the president. 
In a 302-126 vote, the House killed a worker aid bill that was tied to the president's main agenda item -- legislation that would give Obama "fast-track" authority to negotiate trade deals. Without it, the trade push withers for now. The vote marked a stunning blow for the president at the hands of his own party, with Nancy Pelosi and labor unions helping drive the stake into the legislation in the end.
Minutes before the vote, Pelosi took to the floor to appeal for a "better deal" for American workers.
Afterward, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the vote a "procedural snafu," downplaying the drama and voicing hope that a bipartisan majority could eventually be reached. "These kinds of entanglements are endemic to the House of Representatives," Earnest said.
But the margin of defeat Friday was already raising questions about how Obama might be able to persuade more Democrats.
The key vote Friday was on the so-called Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, a program that retrains workers displaced by trade. The bill was originally put on the table as a sweetener to help get Democrats on board and ultimately move the "fast-track" bill. But Democrats are so opposed to that legislation, all but 40 opposed the sweetener.
The biggest defection for Obama came when Pelosi joined the rebellion in opposing TAA. Though she supports the worker aid, she said voting against it was the only way to "slow down the fast track."
She said the main trade bill would be "stuck in the station" without TAA.
Indeed, the president's entire trade plan is in question. The House did hold a symbolic vote and approved the "fast-track" legislation moments after the TAA measure failed. The 219-211 vote showed the trade bill technically had enough support. But under the rules in effect, the overall legislation, previously approved by the Senate, could not advance to the White House unless both halves were agreed to.
House Republican leaders, who have been Obama's biggest supporters on the trade issue, said after the vote they could try again next week.
"We are not done with it," House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. "We need to finish this job."
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., praised the Republicans and "pro-trade Democrats" who "kept their word" and backed the measures Friday. He said Obama still has work to do getting more Democrats on board, but, "This isn't over yet."
But one senior House GOP aide told Fox News the Democrats would need to have a "wholesale change of heart" to bring the legislation back so quickly.
The vote came after Obama paid a rare Capitol Hill visit, meeting with Democrats in a bid to ease their concerns. Obama, though, was unable to calm the rebellion in the ranks on an issue that has created unusual alliances -- with congressional Republican leaders his biggest defenders on trade, and rank-and-file Democrats his biggest foes, worried about the impact the legislation could have on jobs.
The "fast-track" power he seeks, known as Trade Promotion Authority, would give the president the authority to negotiate trade deals that Congress could approve or reject, but not amend. Obama hoped to use the authority to complete a sweeping pact with 11 other Pacific Rim nations which would constitute the economic centerpiece of his second term.
Obama says such a pact with Japan, Mexico, Singapore and other nations constituting 40 percent of the global economy would open up critical new markets for American products.
Republicans continued to stand in Obama's corner on Friday.
"Is America going to shape the global economy, or is it going to shape us?" said Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is head of the House Ways and Means Committee and a GOP pointman on an issue that scrambled the normal party alignment in divided government.
But Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., countered that the legislation included "no meaningful protections whatever against currency manipulation" by some of America's trading partners, whose actions he said have "ruined millions of middle class jobs."

Explosives found after gunmen open fire on Dallas police outside headquarters

DEVELOPING –  Multiple gunmen armed with automatic weapons fired on police officers outside Dallas Police headquarters early Saturday morning before fleeing in an armored van, leading police on a chase that ended in an ongoing standoff in a parking lot where a gun battle with officers ensued.
Police also reported finding two explosive devices near police headquarters. The pipe bombs detonated as they were being handled by an Explosive Ordinance Robot. Police said other suspicious packages have been cleared. Nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution.
“Thankful no officers were injured, “ Dallas Poliice Maj. Max Geron tweeted shortly before 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown said the shootout began about 12:30 a.m. local time when the suspects pulled up to the building and began shooting at officers, striking several squad cars. He said officers returned fire at which time the suspects fled the scene in a van that rammed a police cruiser.
Officers chased the suspects 11 miles to the parking lot of a Jack in the Box in Hutchins. There police exchanged gunfire with the suspects. Brown said the suspects refused to surrender. He said SWAT team negotiators were talking to the suspect. One of the suspects told police that he is injured, but authorities cannot confirm any injuries, Fox4News.com reported.
#breaking As the Explosive Ordinance Robot attempted to move one of the bags @DallasPD HQ, the bag exploded on its own #DallasPDShooting
— Maj. Max Geron (@MaxDPD) June 13, 2015
The suspect gave a name to police, identifying himself as James Boulware. “This the name given, however it has not been confirmed that this is the person we are talking to,” Brown said.
Police said conflicting witness accounts made it difficult to immediately determine how many shooters were involved and authorities were trying to determine a motive.
Brown said the suspect driving the van has told officers that he blames police for losing custody of his son and “accusing him of being a terrorist.” The gunman also said he had explosives in the van, which appeared to be outfitted with gun ports in the sides.
Brown said, based on witness accounts, as many as four suspects may have been involved in the original shooting, including some who may have been positioned at elevated positions. Police couldn’t confirm how many shooters were involved and where any additional suspects may be located.
Police later found two more suspicious packages. One was found in a dumpster and another underneath a police truck in the parking lot.
#BREAKING We are also investigating a suspicious package in a dumpster at the Northeast Substation #DallasPDShooting
— Dallas Police Depart (@DallasPD) June 13, 2015
Ladarrick Alexander and his fiancée, Laquita Davis, were driving back toward the police station to their nearby apartment when they heard 15 to 20 gunshots in quick succession.
Seconds later, police could be seen swarming an unmarked van that appeared to have crashed into a police car, they said.
They turned around and were parked outside the police perimeter about two blocks away, where they heard the sound of one detonation at about 4:30 am and smoke coming up in the air.
Police headquarters is in a former warehouse district where a boutique hotel and several new apartment buildings have been opened.
"We don't see too much going around here at all," Alexander said.