White House reportedly pushing for deal allowing flights to Cuba by year's end

The Obama administration reportedly is working to reach a deal with Cuba that would allow regularly scheduled commercial flights between the two countries by the end of this year.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a possible agreement would allow airlines to establish service between the U.S. and Cuba as soon as this December. Administration officials tell the Journal that one aim of completing an agreement would be to make Obama's thaw toward Cuba so much an extent of U.S. policy that it would be impossible for his successor to reverse.
If agreed to, the deal would constitute the most prominent exception to the five-decade-old congressional ban on Americans traveling to Cuba. Only Congress can fully repeal the travel and trade embargoes levied against Cuba in the 1960s after Fidel Castro took power. However, the president can make exceptions to them. Late last year, for example, President Obama allowed Americans to use credit and debit cards in Cuba, which would have previously violated a rule against unlicensed monetary transactions in Cuba.
Currently, American citizens are only allowed to visit Cuba for specific purposes, such as business trips, family visits, or so-called "people-to-people" cultural exchanges, the last of which requires traveling as part of a tour group. Americans who are authorized to visit the island take charter flights. The Journal reports that Washington and Havana are working toward an arrangement that would allow authorized travelers to book through airline or travel websites.
Obama's move to normalize relations with the communist country has been heavily criticized by the contenders for the Republican nomination, most notably Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba.
"In the eyes of Barack Obama ... the Cuban people are suffering because not enough American tourists visit the country, when the truth is the Cuban people are suffering because they live in a tyrannical dictatorship," Rubio told an audience in New York last week as the U.S. reopened its embassy in Cuba 54 years after diplomatic relations were severed.

Spending Cartoon

California moves to provide interpreters in all court cases

America going down hill.

Going through a divorce has been difficult for Sepideh Saeedi. Not understanding what's happening in court because she isn't proficient in English has made the process even harder.

"When you don't understand what the judge is saying, what the other side's attorney is saying, it's very stressful," Saeedi, 33, who speaks Farsi, said after a recent court hearing in Redwood City, Calif.
Legal advocates say throughout the state, litigants in divorce, child custody, eviction and other civil cases who have difficulty with English are going into court without qualified interpreters. Instead, many are forced to turn to friends or family members -- or worse yet, the opposing party -- for translation.
That's because California only guarantees access to an interpreter in criminal cases, not civil cases.
But the state is looking to change that. Under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, California's Judicial Council this year approved a plan to extend free interpretation services to all cases by 2017.
"You can't have a court hearing without having your client understand it correctly," said Protima Pandey, a staff attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid.
Pandey said she always makes sure an interpreter is available for her clients, but many litigants in family court don't have attorneys to do that for them.
California court officials say extending interpreter services to all cases won't be easy.
California has the nation's largest court system spread out over a vast geographic area with many rural counties. The state has about seven million residents with limited English proficiency who speak over 200 languages.
The courts have also faced funding cuts in recent years that have seen courthouses close and staff cut. There is no estimate yet on how much it would cost to provide interpreters in all cases, but the plan approved by the judicial council said the courts would need more than the $92 million they were spending.
"California's judiciary is committed to language access and eager to work out the best way to get that done," said California State Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who heads the group in charge of implementing the state's language access goals.
Critics say the state has dragged its feet.
"Our input all along has been that they can do it sooner," said Mary Lou Aranguren, legislative chair of the California Federation of Interpreters, a union representing court interpreters. "There's a lot of excuses the courts have used for years."
California was among 10 states that did not have a law, rule or guiding document requiring courts to provide interpreters in all criminal and civil cases, according to a 2014 survey by the National Center for Access to Justice at Cardozo Law School. The other states in the survey: Alaska, Illinois, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont.
A 2013 letter from the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice said state law and court rules placed limits on providing free, qualified interpreters in non-criminal cases, and courts were not using all of the money in a fund used to pay for the services of interpreters.
"It's understandable that people think the court hasn't moved as quickly as it should have," said Ventura County Superior Court Judge Manuel Covarrubias, vice-chair of the language access implementation task force.
He said the courts have been working on the issue but have been sidetracked by financial difficulties.
The state last year passed a law authorizing courts to provide interpreters for free in all civil cases. Where there isn't sufficient funding, the law says courts should prioritize cases, starting with domestic violence, harassment and elder abuse civil cases.
Outside the San Mateo County courtroom where Saeedi appeared, a sign informed people that they had to bring their own interpreters. Saeedi has an attorney who she said is able to explain the proceedings to her afterward. She also relies on an online translator service available through Google to check words and phrases that come up.
San Mateo County court officials say they provide interpreters in all domestic violence family law cases, and in other family law cases, only when they can. They have had trouble finding qualified interpreters, and don't want to hire new interpreters too quickly for fear the state funding used to pay for expanded services may dry up.
"That would be irresponsible to the employees we hire," said John Fitton, the court's executive officer.
Some courts have been extending the provision of interpreters. Los Angeles County, which was part of the Justice Department's probe, has been among the most aggressive in expanding access to interpreters, legal advocates say.
In addition to domestic violence restraining orders, the court now provides interpreters to anyone who needs them in other family cases, as well as eviction, child guardianship, conservatorship, civil harassment and small claims cases.
The rollout has faced challenges. The court has found it difficult to find certified interpreters in some languages with origins in South America, said Carolyn Kuhl, the court's presiding judge. And travel times for interpreters needed in more than one courthouse on the same day can be a challenge.
But so far, the court has been able to meet the needs, and judges are pleased, according to Kuhl.
"Not having to worry about the language skills of someone in the family or whoever else might be there to interpret is a relief to these judges," she said.

Trump details domestic, foreign policies, answers critics, matches fellow challengers

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday released details on his domestic and foreign policy plans, including perhaps using U.S. ground troops to fight Islamic State militants, after weeks of criticism that his campaign has been short on specifics.

Trump entered the race in mid-June, making him among the last in the 2016 presidential race to say exactly what he would do, if elected, about such issues as illegal immigration, Islamic extremist groups and continued funding for Planned Parenthood.
The billionaire New York real estate tycoon and former reality TV star announced his plans on his website and on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump said he also would demand money from Middle East countries supported by the United States to help pay for the fight against extremist groups.
He said the key is to take away the wealth of Islamic State militants and other extremists by taking back the oil fields under their control in Iraq and that such a move could require ground troops.
Trump said the U.S. defends Saudi Arabia largely because of its vast oil supply.
“We send our ships. We send our planes,” he told NBC. “We get nothing. Why? They're making a billion a day.”
On domestic policy, Trump, who is shown in most polls to be leading the crowded GOP field of 17, said he would consider shutting down the federal government over funding for Planned Parenthood.
He says he isn't sure whether he has donated money to the organization in the past, but adds that he would oppose providing federal funds if it continues providing abortion services.
Some Capitol Hill Republicans have talked recently about de-funding the group since secretly recorded videos exposed the group’s involvement in the legal but controversial selling of aborted fetus tissue for research.
Trump says he would ask nominees to the Supreme Court about their views on abortion and would take their views into consideration as he made a decision on whom to nominate. He says he opposes abortion except in case of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
Fellow 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson on Sunday also tried to define his stance on abortion.
He told “Fox News Sunday” that life begins when conception occurs and argued he doesn’t condone abortions in cases of rape and incest, instead calling for administering a drug that prevents ovulation.
Most all of the other major candidates have also announced at least the frameworks of their domestic and foreign policies.
All three major Democratic candidates -- Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley -- have, for example, issued competing policy statements on more affordable college education.
On Sunday, Trump also calling the nuclear agreement forged between Iran and world powers -- including the U.S. -- "a bad deal."
He argued that Iran will have nuclear weapons and take over parts of the world, saying, “I think it's going to lead to nuclear holocaust.”
Trump also said he wants to end birthright citizenship, rescind President Obama's executive orders on immigration and deport those in the U.S. illegally while providing an expedited return process for "the good ones."
Trump also stuck by the vow he made when announcing his campaign that if elected he would build a wall along the southern U.S. border and have Mexico pay the cost.
“The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices,” Trump said on his website. “Mexico must pay for the wall.”
He vowed several consequences until Mexico pays for the wall, including an increase of fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican chief executives and diplomats and at ports of entry to the U.S. from Mexico.

Holdout Arizona GOP Sen. Flake says he'll vote against Iran nuclear deal

PHOENIX  –  Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, the lone Republican senator who was considering support for the Iran nuclear deal, announced plans on Saturday to vote no, dealing a significant blow to the White House's efforts to garner bipartisan backing for the controversial accord.

Flake, a freshman who had praised President Obama for seeking a diplomatic solution, had been publicly undecided, making him a top target of the White House's concerted lobbying campaign. Senate vote-counters had considered Flake the only truly undecided GOP vote, although his fellow Republicans had expressed confidence he would oppose it.
"I cannot vote in support of this deal," Flake said.
In a statement issued while Congress was on its annual August recess, Flake said he was concerned that the deal severely limits lawmakers' ability to sanction Iran for activities unrelated to its nuclear program. Obama has argued that multilateral sanctions under the United Nations umbrella will be lifted under the deal, but that the U.S. will retain sanctions punishing Iran for other issues like human rights and its support for extremist groups like Hezbollah.
"As written, this agreement gives Iran leverage it currently doesn't have," Flake said.
Flake's opposition to the deal all but guarantees that no Republicans — at least in the Senate — will back the deal, which Obama hopes will form a cornerstone of his foreign policy legacy by preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon for more than a decade. The White House offered no specific reaction to Flake's announcement, but pointed out that in the last week, seven Democrats have announced their support.
All told, 20 Senate Democrats have backed the deal, with one -- New York Sen. Chuck Schumer -- opposing it. Forty-six House Democrats have supported the deal, compared to 10 who are opposed.
Flake, who has bucked Republican leadership on a number of issues in his first Senate term, had commended the administration for seeking alternatives to military action against Iran, inspiring optimism at the White House that he might back the final deal.
Just a day earlier, Flake traveled to Cuba with Secretary of State John Kerry to attend the flag-raising at the reopened the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, another foreign policy move by Obama that most Republicans oppose.
Yet in his home state, Flake had been the target of weeklong barrage of attack ads running in Phoenix featuring a former soldier wounded in Iraq by an Iranian-made bomb. The soldier, whose face is badly scarred, said those who vote for the deal will "be held accountable."
"They will have blood on their hands," the soldier said in the ad.
Congress has until Sept. 17 to vote on a resolution either approving or disapproving the pact. Although Obama doesn't need explicit congressional approval for the deal, the resolution could scuttle the deal by blocking Obama's ability to lift harsh economic sanctions — the key concession that got Iran to agree to the deal.

Gowdy: Clinton to testify in October before Benghazi panel, all questions ‘asked’ and ‘answered’

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said Sunday that Hillary Clinton will indeed testify Oct. 22 about her activities as secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attacks but suggested that her demand for a one-time appearance will result in a long, hard day.

“We have agreed on the date,” Gowdy, a Republican and chairman of House’s Select Committee on Benghazi, told “Fox News Sunday.”
“And the ground rules are simple: You're going to stay there until all of the questions are asked and answered with respect to Benghazi," he continued. "If she's going to insist that she's only coming once, I'm going to insist that once be fully constructed, which means she's going to be there for a while.”
Gowdy said questions about Clinton’s growing email controversy will be part of the hearing only because they're relevant to his task of finding out what Clinton knew prior to the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attacks.
Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Among questions still being pursued are how much did the Obama administration know about the possibility of a terror attack and did the outpost have adequate security.
The email controversy essentially centers on Clinton using a private server and email accounts while serving as the country’s top diplomat.
“Had she not had this email arrangement with herself, you wouldn't be talking to me this morning,” Gowdy told Fox on Sunday. “So, my focus is on the four murdered Americans in Benghazi. But before I can write the final definitive accounting of that, I have to make sure that the public record is complete.”
Clinton, the front running Democratic presidential candidate, has said she had no knowledge of sending or receiving information marked as classified, that she has done nothing wrong and intends to cooperate with investigations.
However, thousands of pages of her emails publicly released in recent months show she received messages later marked classified, including some that contained material regarding the production and dissemination of U.S. intelligence information.
And a recent inspector general probe raised concerns about whether classified information had traversed the email system, resulting in a counterintelligence referral being sent to the Justice Department. However, the referral did not allege criminal wrongdoing.
Intentionally transmitting classified information through an unsecured system would appear to be a violation of federal regulations.
This weekend, Clinton suggested the email controversy is also politically motivated.
“I won't get down in the mud with them,” she said. “I won't play politics with national security or dishonor the memory of those who we lost. I won't pretend that this is anything other than what it is, the same old partisan games we've seen so many times before.”
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has repeatedly declined to comment on whether he thinks Clinton broke federal law with what he calls her “unique email arrangement.”
However, he said Sunday that he has confidence in the FBI’s handling of the server, which Clinton turned over last week, after repeated requests, and that the agency will be the neutral observer for which he has asked.
“I think (the FBI is) the premiere law enforcement agency in the world,” Gowdy said. “I think that they're as apolitical as anything can be in this culture, and I think they're going to go wherever the facts take them.”

Vote Cartoon

Illegal immigrant accused in triple homicide in Florida home

A 19-year-old illegal immigrant was being held without bail Saturday after the discovery of three bodies at a crime scene in a Florida home that veteran cops called “almost unimaginable.”

Brian Omar Hyde appeared before a judge Friday on charges he killed his pregnant cousin Starlett Pitts, 17, and her 19-year-old boyfriend in a Lehigh Acres home Tuesday, and then killed his aunt and Pitts’ mother, Dorla Pitts, 37, when she walked in on the scene while on the phone with her husband. Lee County deputies said he heard her scream, “Brian! What happened here? What happened?” before the phone went silent.
 “All homicide scenes are normally violent but even for us this scene was what we considered almost unimaginable,” Lt. Matt Sands said Thursday, according to WBBH-TV.
Hyde was in the country illegally from Belize in Central America and awaiting a court hearing as an illegal immigrant, having crossed the Texas border earlier this year, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.
He fled to the U.S. to live with his aunt to avoid a trial in a Belize courtroom on charges of assaulting a police officer last November, the station said. He was then tried in absentia, found guilty, and given a 6-month jail sentence that remains to be served.
Hyde was also wanted in Belize on charges of robbing a cell phone store, the station said, while also reporting, according to reports, that the teen and two other men were suspects in a double homicide in 2013. Eventually, he was charged with a lesser crime of handling stolen goods.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a statement Friday that said, “ICE has filed a request with the Lee County Sheriff's Office for notification if they intend to release the individual from custody.”
Police said the victims were killed by repeated "sharp force trauma" to the head and neck. Sands said each victim had wounds indicating they tried to defend themselves as they were being attacked.
Dorrien Pitts called a friend to check on his wife when he couldn't get her back on the phone. The friend saw blood stains on the floor and a foot near a couch, ran outside and called 911, the Fort Myers News-Press reported.
As cops collected evidence at the crime scene, Fort Myers cops stopped Hyde in an SUV for a traffic violation and arrested him for driving without a license.
When he was arrested, he had human blood on his bare feet, his shoes and pants, the paper said, citing the arrest report.
A bloody palm print recovered at the crime scene matched the left palm print taken from Hyde after his arrest in Fort Myers, the Lee Sheriff's Office said.
According to the arrest report police found a backpack full of clean clothes in the SUV along with several pairs of shoes making it appear to investigators “as if Hyde was about to flee the area.”
Investigators said they also discovered in the vehicle Hyde’s immigration papers and Dorla Pitts’ employee ID card from Naples Community Hospital where she worked as a nurse.
Hyde faces three count of second degree murder and one count of killing an unborn child by injury to the mother.
Pitts was helping her nephew obtain a high school equivalency diploma, her heart-broken sister Sasha Hyde told the News-Press from Belize.
“He was looking for something better in life,” she said.

Fox News Poll: Majority would reject Iran nuke deal

The Iran nuclear agreement goes to Congress in September.  If it were up to American voters, they would reject it -- with a large majority saying Iran wouldn’t abide by the agreement anyway. 

The White House wants Congressional approval for the agreement that would ease U.S. economic sanctions for 10 years in return for Iran stopping its nuclear program during that time.
The latest Fox News national poll asks voters to imagine being a lawmaker and casting a vote on the deal:  31 percent would approve it, while nearly twice as many, 58 percent, would reject it.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
In an August 5 speech, President Obama said if lawmakers vote down the deal, the agreement will fall apart and war will come “soon.”
Even so, only half of Democrats would approve the deal (50 percent).  More than a third would vote it down (35 percent).
Most Republicans (83 percent) and a majority of independents (60 percent) would reject it.
One reason to oppose any deal is if you think the other side won’t keep the bargain -- and that’s certainly the case here: Three-quarters of voters say Iran cannot be trusted to honor the agreement (75 percent).  That includes almost all Republicans (93 percent), most independents (80 percent) and a majority of Democrats (59 percent).
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the second-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate and a prominent supporter of Israel, recently announced his opposition to the Iran deal.  By a nearly two-to-one margin, voters say Schumer’s opposition makes them feel less favorable toward the agreement (13 percent less favorable, 7 percent more favorable).  Sentiment is almost identical among Democrats.  Still, Schumer’s disapproval wouldn’t sway most voters either way (76 percent).
The poll finds the president’s job rating down a bit this week:  42 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while 51 percent disapprove.  Two weeks ago it was 46-46 percent.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,008 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from August 11-13, 2015. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

Carson critical of Black Lives Matter message, strategy of disrupting campaign events

Black Lives Matter groups are meeting with Democratic presidential campaigns after members disrupted several events to get out their message but apparently have eschewed such a strategy with Republican candidates, which is OK with GOP contender Ben Carson.

Carson told Fox News on Thursday he doesn’t agree with the groups' apparent strategy of forcing a meeting or their agenda upon 2016 candidates, by either disrupting or threatening to disrupt a campaign-related event.
“Of course not,” said Carson, who is black. “I would like them to start paying attention to the carnage rather than making it a political issue. The most common cause of death for young black males in cities is homicide.”
Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon and social conservative, also argued that black males killing each other is as large an issue as Black Lives Matter activists’ major concerns of criminal justice-reform and blacks dying while in contact with police.
The campaigns of 2016 Democratic White House candidates Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders each confirmed earlier this week that their officials met with leaders of the loosely-knit Black Lives Matter movement.
But the specifics of the meetings, including whether the sides have reached any agreement to avoid further disruptions, remain unclear because the group will not allow the details to be made public.

More on this...

• Dr. Ben Carson on 'Black Lives Matter,' Planned Parenthood

Last week, a group of protesters claiming to be affiliated with Black Lives Matter ended a Sanders' event before it even started, snatching the 73-year-old’s microphone so they could talk about criminal justice reform, then pushing him away when he tried to take it back.
On Tuesday, newly-hired Sanders' National Press Secretary Symone Sanders, who is black, confirmed that Black Lives Matter leaders had been in contact with the campaign but said only that Team Sanders was “looking forward to continuing the dialogue with them and getting their input on various issues."
That was not the first time the group had disrupted an event with Sanders, Vermont Independent.
In July, Sanders and O’Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor, were essentially heckled off stage at the annual Netroots Nation convention.
O'Malley said before departing that "Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter," which prompted boos and him later issuing an apology to those who found his remark “insensitive.”
The O’Malley campaign confirmed on Wednesday with FoxNews.com that the sides had met.
A campaign spokeswoman said the discussions focused on criminal justice reform and that group members argued for why such changes “need to be a priority.”
However, the spokeswoman said that the ground-rules of the meeting prevented her from discussing specific and pointed to O’Malley's speech in late July to the Urban League in which he talked about improving and reforming the criminal justice system.
The Black Lives Matter movement purportedly started after the 2012 death of black teen Trayvon Martin and has made the recent deaths of black males in contact with police a rallying point for change.
It also met this week with leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, after announcing on social media that it would disrupt an event Tuesday in New Hampshire.
Group members were reportedly ushered into a side room and accepted an offer after the event to meet with Clinton.
The Clinton campaign declined to comment, and members of the Black Lives Matter group in Boston involved in the meeting would not discuss with reporters the details of the event.
However, Daunasia Yancey, one of the Boston group’s organizers, told Politico afterward that she didn’t hear Clinton talk about her part in “perpetuating white supremacist violence,” only her “reflection on failed policy.”
And the group tweeted: “We've gotten the attention of @HillaryClinton's staff & they are working w us.”
Black Lives Matter did not respond to requests for comment.
The group apparently has not reached out to Republican candidates including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul who has been a leading voice in Washington, even before declaring his candidacy, to ending mandatory minimum federal sentencing.
Critics argue such sentencing, particular with drug possession charges, is unfair and has resulted in the skyrocketing costs of running prisons.
Paul spokesman Sergio Gor declined to comment this week on whether the campaign had been contacted or if the candidate was even interested in talking with Black Lives Matter about the future of his campaign.
The group last week disrupted a campaign event for GOP candidate Jeb Bush in Nevada.
Carson, a first-time candidate, on Thursday also reiterated what he told reporters in New York City on Wednesday including that “We need to be talking about how we solve the problem in the black community of murder.”
He also said the solution is to re-instill such values as “family and faith” that have helped black Americans through slavery, segregation and the Jim Crow era.
“If you abandon those things, this is what we get,” he said, arguing the problems are in large part the result of the police and members of the black community being mutually fearful of each other.

Glenn Beck names 15 cities that 'you don't want to live anywhere around;' San Francisco is number 2

Former Fox News commentator Glenn Beck recently shared his list of Top 15 cities "to avoid like the plague." He says the list is based on the "least religious cities in America."

"I want to give you the top 10 or 15 cities that I think are going to melt down," Beck said on his radio program. "These are the cities that you do not want to live anywhere around as things get worse and worse."

San Francisco was number two behind Portland.

According to Beck, "These are the cities that are already having trouble and we haven't even hit the road bump," Beck said Tuesday on his radio program.

Here's the complete list:

1. Portland

2. San Francisco3. Seattle
4. Denver
5. Phoenix
6. St. Petersburg, Florida
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Detroit
9. Boston
10. Los Angeles
11. Milwaukee
12. Las Vegas
13. Minneapolis- St. Paul
14. Washington D.C.
15. St. Louis

Documents reportedly reveal details behind AT&T-NSA partnership

AT&T in 2003 reportedly led the way on a new collection capability that the National Security Agency said amounted to a “’live’ presence on the global net” and would forward 400 billion Internet metadata records in one of its firth months operation.

The New York Times reported the Fairview program was forwarding more than 1 million emails per day to the agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. Meanwhile, the Stormbrew program, linked to Verizon and the former MCI company, was still gearing up to use the new technology, which appeared to process foreign-to-foreign traffic.
According to an internal agency newsletter cited by the newspaper, AT&T began handing over 1.1 billion domestic cellphone calling records a day to the NSA in 2011, after “a push to get this flow operational prior to the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.” Intelligence officials told reporters in the past that the effort consisted mostly of landline phone records, the Times reported.
The agency spent more than $188 billion on the Fairview program, twice the amount spent on Stormbew, the newspaper reported.
Such details from the decades-long partnership between the government and AT&T emerged from NSA documents provided by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, the Times reported in a story posted Saturday on its website. The Times and ProPublica jointly reviewed the documents, which date from 2003 to 2013.
While its known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the NSA, the documents show that the government’s relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and productive, according to the newspaper. One document described it as "highly collaborative," while another lauded the company's "extreme willingness to help," the newspaper reported.
The documents show the telecom giant’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the Times. AT&T has given the NSA access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they flowed across various domestic networks.
AT&T has also reportedly provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at U.N. headquarters, which is a customer of the phone company. While NSA spying on U.N. diplomats had been previously reported, the newspaper said Saturday that neither the court order nor AT&T's involvement had been disclosed.
The documents also reveal that AT&T installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil, the Times reported, far more than similarly sized competitor Verizon. AT&T engineers were the first to try out new surveillance technologies invented by the NSA, the newspaper reported.
The NSA, AT&T and Verizon declined to discuss the findings from the files, according to the Times. It is not clear if the programs still operate in the same way today, the newspaper reported.
One of the documents provided by Snowden reminds NSA officials to be polite when visiting AT&T facilities, the Times reported, and notes, "This is a partnership, not a contractual relationship."

EPA Cartoon

Fiorina surging from also-ran to contender after debate

What a difference a week makes in presidential politics. Before the Cleveland debates, Carly Fiorina was little more than a dogged, hard-charging afterthought for most voters. On a good week, her poll numbers reached 2 percent. But after she mopped the floor with her opponents in the second-tier debate – affectionately dubbed #kidstable – the former Hewlett-Packard CEO suddenly finds herself in the top tier of presidential candidates.
“Obviously I am really gratified. I am really encouraged,” Fiorina told Fox News, having just finished a capacity-crowd town hall meeting in Alden, Iowa. A week ago, barely 40 percent of people knew who she was. Now, the left-leaning polling group PPP is blaring the headline “Fiorina On Fire.”
“You can’t get rattled when people don’t really know that you are out there,” Fiorina told Fox News. “On the other hand you can’t get rattled when all of a sudden they say you are on fire as well. This is a long haul. So none of this is going to go to our heads.”
You could forgive Fiorina for having a little more bounce in her step, though. When she walked into the Mason City, Iowa, library for a town hall Friday morning she found a standing-room-only crowd. Her campaign staff was pleasantly stunned by the newfound enthusiasm – a precious commodity for a person seeking the highest office in the land.
In Iowa, a Suffolk University poll this week showed Fiorina with 10 percent, placing her in the top five in the GOP field. A CNN/ORC poll in the state likewise showed her in the top five, with 7 percent.
Voters have found a lot to like about Fiorina, whether it’s her status as a political outsider, or that she has the toughness to stand up against seasoned political pros.
“She was one of my top picks out of the debates,” Brenda Crabb told Fox News. “I liked that she seemed really smart – she’s not a politician.”
Rich Baldwin put it a little more bluntly. “She’s not a career politician. And we have had it up to here with career politicians.”
Fiorina also says she is seeing an uptick in fundraising. Money is the key to whether she will be in it for the long haul, or may wither as quickly as she blossomed.
Never one to shrink from a fight, whether in the boardroom or the campaign trail, Fiorina is doubling down on her recent criticism of Donald Trump, questioning whether Trump is – in fact – a Republican.
“He won’t take a pledge saying he will support the Republican nominee,” Fiorina told Fox News. “He has changed his mind on some pretty important things. I would like to know where he actually stands on amnesty. Where he actually stands on universal health care. Where he actually stands on abortion. Those are things that matter to me and they matter to Republican voters.”
Fiorina’s ascent is a boon to the GOP as – at the moment at least – it gives her a far louder voice with which to go after Hillary Clinton. Fiorina has been relentless in her criticism of Clinton, saying she lied about Benghazi. Now she is going after Clinton for suggesting comments Trump made about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly prove that the Republican candidates are waging a war on women.
“I think Hillary Clinton is equally as guilty,” Fiorina told Fox News. “Anyone who paints with a broad brush in those insulting terms is as guilty as Donald Trump. It is ridiculous for Hillary Clinton to say that the Republican Party is waging a war on women.”
Fiorina also dismisses the notion – floated in a New York Times article -- that she is the GOP’s weapon to fight back against Democratic attacks that the party is waging war on women.
“I am a leader with a proven track record of problem solving.  I happen to be a woman,” she told Fox News.
Fiorina had a target on her back long before she announced her candidacy. Her newfound prominence will only make that target a more attractive one. After she told a voter Thursday night that parents have the choice whether to vaccinate their children, Slate magazine wrote that Fiorina “Comes out in favor of kids getting measles.” Fellow Republican George Pataki whacked Fiorina on Twitter, saying she rejects “accepted science that has eradicated diseases like small pox (sic) and polio.”
Fiorina told Fox News that Pataki is clearly trying to get attention and conveniently ignored the rest of what she said.
“We are talking about contagious diseases and I would certainly encourage parents to vaccinate their children,” Fiorina told Fox News. “I would respect true religious objections to those vaccinations and I support a school’s right to say if you will not vaccinate your child against these contagious diseases, then we have the right to say your child can’t attend public school.”
If Fiorina’s star continues to rise, she can expect more attacks from all corners. Whether she rises is another question. Much of her future hinges on the next debate – particularly if she makes the cut to play in the top 10. Fiorina told Fox News she has to constantly “exceed expectations.”
She raised the bar very high with her performance in the second-tier debate last week in Cleveland. The problem with mopping the floor with your opponents is that viewers will expect you to do it every time.

DoD teams surveying US military sites for potential Gitmo transfers, lawmakers vow fight

The Department of Defense notified lawmakers Friday that teams will visit two military installations in the United States — Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and the Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C. — to conduct “site surveys” looking into transferring a “limited number” of Guantanamo detainees, Pentagon and Capitol Hill sources told Fox News.
The move, coming on the same day Secretary of State John Kerry marked the re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, has already triggered a backlash on Capitol Hill. But, despite existing congressional restrictions on moving the detainees to U.S. soil, the notice itself suggests officials are wasting no time exploring transfer options for those at the controversial Cuba prison camp.
One Capitol Hill source, reading from the notification, said the first Defense Department survey team was due to visit Fort Leavenworth “starting today [Friday].”
The Naval Brig in Charleston will be visited in the “next several weeks,” said another source, reading from the same notification, which went out Friday morning.
Legally, the administration is still barred from transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States, according to laws passed by Congress starting in 2010. Building or modifying facilities to house Gitmo inmates is also prohibited in the United States.
“Perhaps DoD does not think this is part of that ‘build or modify’ section,” one source told Fox News, questioning DoD’s funding of the site survey teams visiting the two military installations.
After learning of the survey teams, lawmakers representing Kansas vowed to fight any proposed transfers to their state. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said in a statement that the move "reflects another egregious overstep by this administration."
"Congress has consistently stopped Obama by law from moving a single detainee to the U.S.," he said. "Not on my watch will any terrorist be placed in Kansas."
"Terrorists should not be living down the road from Ft. Leavenworth – home to thousands of Army soldiers and their families, as well as military personnel from across the globe who study at the Intellectual Center of the Army," Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said in a statement.
"This administration’s last-ditch effort to carry out President Obama’s reckless national security decision before he leaves office is disingenuous and flawed."
Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins also fired off a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter demanding he abandon any such plans.
"At a time when we face relentless threats from the Islamic State, and have yet to hear a strategy to defeat ISIL, it is absurd to hear that the Department of Defense has personnel on the ground at Fort Leavenworth conducting site surveys to advance the President's proposal that could ultimately result in the transfer of these terrorist to Kansas," she said in a statement.
She also said moving detainees stateside would violate federal law. "It is irresponsible, reckless, and to overstep the law to do so is a dangerous precedent," the congresswoman said.
Despite the congressional restrictions, President Obama still wants to fulfill his pledge to shutter the Cuba prison camp. He hasn’t yet provided a plan for achieving this to Congress. A total of 116 detainees remain at Guantanamo, 52 of whom have been approved for transfer.
The Pentagon confirmed to Fox News that DoD personnel will survey the two military sites, “as part of our broader and ongoing effort to identify locations within the United States that can [possibly] facilitate military commissions and can possibly hold detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay.”
Defense Department spokesman Cmdr. Gary Ross said in a statement that security and humane treatment are “primary concerns” but cost is also a factor. He said the costs of providing medical care at Guantanamo, for instance, are rising as the population ages.
He added: “Only those locations that can hold detainees at a maximum security level will be considered. DoD personnel will consider surveying a variety of military and civilian sites to determine their candidacy for holding law of war detainees in a humane and secure manner. There is a broad list of facilities that will be potentially considered. This list is informed by past assessment efforts."
Whether the administration can reach an agreement with Congress to approve transfers to the U.S. remains to be seen.
The notice sent out Friday -- first reported by Voice of America -- said the teams will look at logistical issues: “The assessment team will meet with facility staff to discuss engineering, force protection, troop housing, security, transportation, information security, contracting and other operational issues.”
“No facilities have been selected,” the notification added.

North Korea threatens strikes over South Korea propaganda broadcasts

North Korea threatened to attack South Korean loudspeakers that are broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda messages across their shared border on Saturday.
The warning follows Pyongyang’s denial that it had planted land mines on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone that maimed two South Korean soldiers last week. Seoul retaliated for those injuries by restarting its loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years and suggested more actions could follow.
The North is extremely sensitive about insults of Kim Jong Un and his regime, and its tries to isolate its people from any criticism or suggestions that Kim is anything other than powerful and revered.
The broadcasts are equivalent to a declaration of war, North Korea’s army said in a statement. The failure to take down the loudspeakers would result in “an all-out military action of justice to blow up all means for ‘anti-north psychological warfare.’”
South Korea’s President Park Greun-hye said that her government will firmly respond to any provocation, and urged the North to “wake up” from the delusion that it could maintain its government with provocation and threats, which park claimed would only result in isolation and destruction.
Park said that if the North opts for dialogue and cooperation, it will find opportunities to improve the lives of its people. She also urged the North to accept the South's proposals for building a "peace park" at the DMZ and for reunions of families separated by the border.
Such bombast from the North isn't unusual and this is not the first time Pyongyang has threatened to attack its enemies. Seoul is often warned that it will be reduced to a "sea of fire" if it doesn't do as the North bids, and Washington and Seoul were both threatened with nuclear annihilation in the months after Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.
Pyongyang’s threats are rarely ever backed up, although the North did launch an artillery attack in 2010 that killed four South Koreans. Earlier that year, a Seoul-led international investigation blamed a North Korean torpedo for a warship sinking that killed 46 South Koreans.
On Friday, responding to the allegations by Seoul and the U.S.-led U.N. Command that North Korean soldiers buried the land mines, Pyongyang's powerful National Defense Commission argued that Seoul fabricated the evidence and demanded video proof to support the argument that Pyongyang was responsible. The explosions resulted in one soldier losing both legs and another soldier one leg.
Officials said the mine planting violates the armistice that stopped fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, which still technically continues because there has never been a formal peace treaty.

Clinton dismisses controversies surrounding Benghazi, emails at event

Hillary Clinton defended her handling of the 2012 Benghazi attacks and her use of a private email server as secretary of state, dismissing the controversies as “partisan games” in a speech in Iowa on Friday.
"They'll try to tell you it's about Benghazi, but it's not," Clinton said, pointing to Republican-led congressional inquiries that she said had "debunked all the conspiracy theories."
"It's not about emails or servers either. It's about politics," she said.
"I won't get down in the mud with them. I won't play politics with national security," Clinton said at the annual Wing Ding, a Democratic fundraiser in northern Iowa that attracted three other presidential candidates.
Clinton sought to take the scandals head on while presenting herself as combative, tough and prepared to fight Republicans in an effort to ultimately succeed President Barack Obama. Her appearance comes days after she agreed to turn over to the FBI the private serve she used a secretary of state. Republican lawmakers have said she was negligent in handling classified information.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders received loud cheers when he pointed to his opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been reviled by environmentalists and his vote against Iraq War in the Senate. Sanders’ campaign has gained steam with the growing Clinton controversy.
Sanders, whose recent appearance at a Seattle event was disrupted by activists with the Black Lives Matter movement, also took steps to emphasize his civil rights record.
"No one will fight harder to end racism in America," he said.
Clinton’s forceful defense started when she noted that the Supreme Court case Citizens United, started with a “hit-job film” about her.
“Now I’m in the crosshairs,” she said of Republicans.
Clinton said she would "do my part to provide transparency to Americans — that's why I'm insisting 55,000 pages of my emails be published as soon as possible" and turned over the server.
"I won't pretend that this is anything other than what it is: the same old partisan games we've seen so many times before," she said. "So I don't care how many super PACs and Republicans pile on. I've been fighting for families and underdogs my entire life and I'm not going to stop now."
Clinton also made light of the email probe on her Snapchat social media account. "I love it," she said. "Those messages disappear all by themselves."
Her speech included critiques of potential Republican rivals Scott Walker, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. But she saved her most pointed barbs for Donald Trump, saying the attention in the GOP race had centered on a "certain flamboyant front-runner." The country, she said, shouldn't be distracted. "Most of the other candidates are just Trump with the pizazz or the hair."
The candidates spoke before about 2,000 Democrats at the Surf Ballroom, the site of the last concert by rock pioneers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper before their fatal 1959 plane crash, later dubbed "The Day the Music Died."
Clinton and Sanders spoke first, prompting some activists to file out of the ballroom before former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and ex-Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee took the stage.
O'Malley pointed to a laundry list of progressive proposals he would pursue if elected president, saying his years as Baltimore mayor and Maryland's two-term governor were about "action, not words."
"In tougher times than these, Franklin Roosevelt told us not to be afraid. In changing times, John Kennedy told us to govern is to choose," O'Malley said. "I say to you, progress is a choice."
Chafee took aim at Bush's recent critique of Obama's handling of Iraq, telling activists, "What kind of neocon Kool-Aid is this man drinking?"
Clinton kicked off a weekend of campaigning in Dubuque on Friday by outlining proposals for more quality child care on college campuses and additional scholarships to help students who are parents. The Democratic front-runner also picked up two endorsements aimed at reinforcing her standing among liberals: former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a party luminary who served three decades in the Senate, and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a union of nearly 600,000 members. Clinton was joining Harkin at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday morning.

Deflation Cartoon

Police chiefs, sheriffs blast ICE over policy they say frees violent illegal immigrants

A California toddler fighting for her life Thursday after a brutal beating at the hands of an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record is the latest case to rile California sheriffs and police against a U.S. immigration policy they say is forcing them to release dangerous criminals out on the street.
Francisco Javier Chavez, the live-in boyfriend of the unidentified two-year-old's mother, is out on bail after being charged in the late July attack, which left the San Luis Obispo County girl with two broken arms, a broken femur, a compressed spine, a urinary tract infection and a fever of 107 degrees. Chavez's criminal record includes assault and drug convictions and arrests for violent acts including kidnapping, car jacking and cruelty to a child.
A disgusted San Luis Obispo Sheriff Ian Parkinson told FoxNews.com Chavez should have been locked away or deported long before he had the chance to inflict "horrific injuries" on the little girl, but said conflicting federal policies leave his department handcuffed. Instead, Chavez is now free, awaiting a court date for which he may not even show up.

"The law actually does not give us the right to place an ICE hold, unless there is a warrant for them. That is why we are united in California and asking that this be fixed and changed, because at end of the day, we are the ones who have to let them out the door.”
- San Luis Obispo Sheriff Ian Parkinson

“The truth is, if we had any legal right to hold him, we would, because of the concern that, not being a U.S. citizen, he will bail out and flee the country and flee prosecution,” said Parkinson, who suspects Chavez may have already fled the county.
The issue, says Parkinson and dozens of other sheriffs and police chiefs across California and Arizona, is that, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement routinely asks departments to hold prisoners like Chavez until they can take custody of them for deportation, the local law enforcement officials believe doing so will expose them to lawsuits. They cite court cases including the March, 2014, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruling in Galrza v. Szalczyk that held states and localities are not required to imprison people based on ICE "detainer" requests, and that states and localities may be held liable if they participate in wrongful immigration detentions.
“I am not aware of any County in California that is honoring detainers, simply because we can’t,” Parkinson said. “We have to follow the law or the threat of violating the law ourselves,” Parkinson said, citing a Court decision issued approximately one year ago. “The law actually does not give us the right to place an ICE hold, unless there is a warrant for them. That is why we (local law enforcement) are united in California and asking that this be fixed and changed, because at end of the day, we are the ones who have to let them out the door.”
The Arizona Sheriffs’ Association agrees, noting every day ICE asks local sheriffs to ‘detain’ an inmate, yet don’t provide “rational, legal authority to do so,” putting sheriffs at enormous risk for legal liability. When the local authorities let an illegal immigrant criminal free on bail, they do so reluctantly - and they blame ICE.
ICE maintains there is no requirement that it obtain a judicial warrant to compel law enforcement agencies to hold suspects and that a detainer is sufficient. A spokesperson for ICE said the agency continues to work “cooperatively” with local law enforcement partners and is implementing a new plan, the Priority Enforcement Program – PEP, to place the focus on criminals and individuals who threaten the public safety and ensure they are not released from prisons or jails before they can be taken into ICE custody.
Martin Mayer, legal counsel to sheriffs and chiefs of police in 70 law enforcement agencies throughout California for the last 25 years, and general counsel to the California State Sheriffs’ Association, told FoxNews.com the U.S. Department of Justice, the California Office of the Attorney General, and ICE all take the position that the detainer is only a request and the law does not give sheriffs authorization to hold illegal immigrant suspects ordered released by a judge.
If ICE agents are present when suspects are ordered released, and if they have the legal basis to take custody of them, they can, but local law enforcement does not have the authority to hold them in the absence of ICE, the California Sheriffs Association recently said in letter to Congress.
The American Civil Liberties Union's California chapter has been vocal in pressuring city police chiefs to honor the court rulings that said ICE detainers are mere requests, not mandates, and that honoring them would violate suspects' Constitutional rights.
“This (ACLU) letter to the cities states that ‘Your police department should immediately cease complying with immigration detainers, or else risk legal liability for detaining individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment,’” Mayer said.
The ACLU did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
A string of murders across the country by criminal aliens has spotlighted the conflict between ICE and local law enforcement, and in recent days, caught the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. After one of the cases, the July 24 murder of Marilyn Pharis, a 64-year-old Air Force veteran, Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin blamed the state and federal governments for a convoluted policy that leaves local law enforcement holding the bag.
“I am not remiss to say that from Washington D.C. to Sacramento, there is a blood trail to Marilyn Pharis’ bedroom,” Martin said.

Lerner, in newly released emails, calls GOP critics 'evil and dishonest'

Newly released emails from Lois Lerner show the former IRS official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal calling Republican critics “evil and dishonest,” and even “hateful.”
The emails -- part of a report released Aug. 6 by the Senate Finance Committee -- offer a revealing look at Lerner, who used to head the division that processes applications for tax-exempt status and was at the center of the scandal over the alleged targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
The bipartisan report found evidence that both the Obama administration’s political agenda, and the personal politics of IRS employees, including Lerner, impacted how the IRS did its job, according to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Finance Committee.
A deeper look at the communications, first reported by Politico, shows Lerner taking aim at lawmakers for their tough questioning, particularly following a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in 2014.
“Yesterday was a doozy. They called me back to testify on the IRS ‘scandal,’ and I tool (sic) the 5th again because they had been so evil and dishonest in my lawyer’s dealings with them,” Lerner told a friend in a March 6, 2014 email, adding “this is very bad behavior from our elected officials.”
She had tough words for the press as well, complaining in a June 26, 2014 email about pictures taken of her during an appearance in front of Congress: “I looked like crap. I don’t look like that anymore, but it serves their purposes of hate mongering to continue to use those images.”
OPINION: Gross mismanagement at the IRS: Time for a special counsel
Most of her complaints, however, are reserved for Republicans, whom in the same email she accuses of being motivated only by political gain and having a “hateful” message.
"I was never a political person—this whole fiasco has only made me lose all respect (sic) politics and politicians. I am merely a pawn in their game to take over the Senate,” Lerner wrote.
“Every time they get some email they see as incriminating, they roil up their base and get lots of contributions and spread their hateful message about how the government is out to get people,” she wrote.
On the subject of her lost emails, Lerner wrote that she begged IRS IT staff to retrieve the emails wiped from her server, and didn't know why they couldn't.
“As to the lost emails—there is a whole trail of emails from me begging IRS IT folks to try and recover the emails -- I’m guessing you haven’t seen those,” Lerner wrote. “Why the IRS was unable to retrieve them when my computer crashed, I have no clue -- I’m not an IT person.”
In the emails, Lerner also took a swipe at Texas, which she said “is just pathetic as far as political attitudes are concerned,” and faulted Abraham Lincoln for not letting the South secede.
"Look my view is that Lincoln is our worst president not out (sic) best. He should‘be (sic) let the south go.”

Veterans fight for Conn. city to replace tattered American flags

They fought for their flag and now they’re fighting City Hall.
Veterans in Derby, Conn. have convinced officials to replace tattered American flags on display in the town.
Robert L. Federico, a Vietnam veteran, was among the group that contacted City Hall earlier this week after someone found a ripped flag lying on a street and brought it to the local senior center.
Federico said the sight of the torn flag literally made him cry.
And the problem isn’t just one flag. It turns out many of the two-dozen flags that line Derby’s Main Street are shredded and filthy. Many of the poles from which they hang are held together with tape.
Federico called City Hall. The initial response was to pass the buck: Mayor Anita Dugatto’s secretary told Federico to call Derby’s department of public works.
“Why should I be doing their job when that should come from the mayor’s office?” Federico told the New Haven Register.
A city crew began to fix the problem Wednesday, taking down the damaged flags, but local station WFSB reports that it could be weeks before any new flags are installed along Main Street.

'Top secret' emails on Clinton server discussed drone program, may reference classified info

WASHINGTON –  The two emails on Hillary Rodham Clinton's private server that an auditor deemed "top secret" include a discussion of a news article detailing a U.S. drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, U.S. officials who have reviewed the correspondence told The Associated Press.
The sourcing of the information could have significant political implications as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, agreed this week to turn over to the FBI the private server she used as secretary of state, and Republicans in Congress have seized on the involvement of federal law enforcement as a sign that she was either negligent with the nation's secrets or worse.
On Monday, the inspector general for the 17 spy agencies that make up what is known as the intelligence community told Congress that two of 40 emails in a random sample of the 30,000 emails Clinton gave the State Department for review contained information deemed "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information," one of the government's highest levels of classification.
The two emails were marked classified after consultations with the CIA, which is where the material originated, officials said.
The officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity work in intelligence and other agencies. They wouldn't detail the contents of the emails because of ongoing questions about classification level. Clinton did not transmit the sensitive information herself, they said, and nothing in the emails she received makes clear reference to communications intercepts, confidential intelligence methods or any other form of sensitive sourcing.
The drone exchange, the officials said, begins with a copy of a news article that discusses the CIA drone program that targets terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere. While a secret program, it is well-known and often reported on. The copy makes reference to classified information, and a Clinton adviser follows up by dancing around a top secret in a way that could possibly be inferred as confirmation, they said. Several officials, however, described this claim as tenuous.

More on this...

• Clinton campaign: Hillary not facing criminal investigation

• Christie: Clinton hasn't told truth, hasn't been transparent

• Sen. Grassley discusses contents of Hillary Clinton's server

• Napolitano: Clinton's emails on home server against the law

But a second email reviewed by Charles McCullough, the intelligence community inspector general, appears more suspect. Nothing in the message is "lifted" from classified documents, the officials said, though they differed on where the information in it was sourced. Some said it improperly points back to highly classified material, while others countered that it was a classic case of what the government calls "parallel reporting" -- different people knowing the same thing through different means.
The emails came to light Tuesday after Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reported that McCullough found four "highly classified" emails on the unusual homebrew server that Clinton used while she was secretary of State. Two were sent back to the State Department for review, but Grassley said the other two were, in fact, classified at the closely guarded "Top Secret/SCI level."
In a four-page fact sheet that accompanied a letter to Clinton supporters, Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri stressed that Clinton was permitted to use her own email account as a government employee and that the same process concerning classification reviews would still be taking place had she used the standard "state.gov" email account used by most department employees. The State Department, meanwhile, stressed that it wasn't clear if the material at issue ought to be considered classified at all.
Still, the developments suggested that the security of Clinton's email setup and how she guarded the nation's secrets will remain relevant campaign topics. Even if the emails highlighted by the intelligence community prove innocuous, she will still face questions about whether she set up the private server with the aim of avoiding scrutiny, whether emails she deleted because she said they were personal were actually work-related, and whether she appropriately shielded such emails from possible foreign spies and hackers.
Clinton says she exchanged about 60,000 emails in her four years as secretary of state. She turned over all but what she said were personal emails late last year. The department has been making those public as they are reviewed and scrubbed of any sensitive data.
The State Department advised employees not to use personal email accounts for work, but it wasn't prohibited. But Clinton's senior advisers at the State Department would have been briefed upon basic protocol for handling classified information and retaining government records. In Clinton's time, most officials saved their emails onto a separate file or printed them out when leaving office. Only recently has the department begun automatically archiving the records of dozens of senior officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry.
In the emails, Clinton's advisers appear cognizant of secrecy protections.
In a series of August 2009 emails, Clinton aide Huma Abedin told Clinton that the U.S. point-man for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, and another official wanted "to do a secure" conversation to discuss Afghan elections. Clinton said she could talk after she received a fax of a classified Holbrooke memo, also on a secure line. Later, Abedin wrote: "He can talk now. We can send secure fax now. And then connect call."
But other times, the line was blurred. Among Clinton's exchanges now censored as classified by the State Department was a brief exchange in October 2009 with Jeffrey Feltman, then the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East. Both Clinton and Feltman's emails about an "Egyptian proposal" for a reconciliation ceremony with Hamas are marked B-1.4, classified for national security reasons, and completely blacked out from the email release.
A longer email the same day from Clinton to former Sen. George Mitchell, then Mideast peace envoy, is also censored. Mitchell responds tersely and carefully that "the Egyptian document has been received and is being translated. We'll review it tonight and tomorrow morning, will consult with the Pals (Palestinians) through our Consul General, and then I'll talk with Gen. S again. We'll keep you advised."

Teflon Don Cartoon

Biden reportedly using South Carolina vacation to size up possible White House run

Vice President Joe Biden is expected announce next month whether he will make a dramatic late entrance into the Democratic presidential race, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Biden was using part of his vacation in South Carolina this week to discuss the possibility of running for president with his family and friends. The paper reported that Biden is also sounding out political allies for advice and considering the strength of frontrunner Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"He’s taking input from a lot of people he cares about and respects," James Smith, a South Carolina legislator who says he has urged Biden to run, told the Journal. "He knows where I stand. It’s just got to be his decision."
Those who, like Smith, want Biden to run will have been encouraged by this week's poll of likely New Hampshire primary voters that showed upstart Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leading Clinton by seven points in the Granite State. Biden came in a distant third in a hypothetical primary match-up, but only 11 percent of respondents said they thought Sanders would win the Democratic nomination. In a worrying sign for the Clinton campaign, only 35 percent of likely voters said they were "excited" about her campaign and 36 percent said they had a "very" favorable opinion of the former secretary of state.
In addition to Clinton's tepid support, the Journal reports some Democratic activists are becoming concerned about her electability amid an ongoing controversy over her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state. On Tuesday, Clinton announced that she had directed aides to turn over the server to the Justice Department, which is conducting an ongoing investigation into whether classified information was improperly sent to or stored on the server.
"[The GOP] has an opportunity to drag this thing out until November 2016," a Democratic county auditor in South Carolina told the Journal about the investigation. "It’s not going to end."
The key question facing a possible Biden campaign is whether a possible September entry is already too late. Clinton, who declared her candidacy in April, already has a huge advantage in funding and organization. With less than six months to go before the Iowa caucuses, time may have already run out.
"Even people who like the idea of Joe Biden running would have to sit there and think, 'Can he build an operation that would be able to defeat Hillary in four to six months?' Charleston County (S.C.) Democratic Party chairman Brady Quirk-Garvan told the Journal. "That’s much harder to do in this day and age than you would think."
Biden has previously run for president twice. His candidacy for the 1988 Democratic nomination lasted just over three months and was dogged by a series of controversies over plagiarism in his speeches and during his time at law school. Biden ran for the nomination again in 2008, but withdrew after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucuses.

Calif. governor signs bill removing 'alien' from law

Idiot

SACRAMENTO, Calif. –  Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he signed a bill to remove the term "alien" from the California labor code to describe foreign-born workers.
Brown signed SB432 by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia. The new law takes effect next year. Mendoza said removing the term "alien" was an important step toward modernizing California law because it is now commonly considered a derogatory term with very negative connotations.
The state began using the term "alien" in 1937 to describe people who are not born or naturalized citizens in the United States.
In 1970, the Legislature repealed labor code that discriminated against immigrant workers by requiring that citizens be given preferential treatment for employment. However, the term can still be found in other portions of the labor code.
Brown, a Democrat, also approved AB554 by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, to allow high school students who are legal permanent residents to serve as poll workers in California elections. The state already allows adult legal residents to work precincts.
He signed AB560 by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, prohibiting the consideration of a child's immigration status in civil liability cases. The bill came after more than 80 elementary students sued the Los Angeles Unified School District over sexual misconduct by a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School.