Information in dozens of Clinton emails was 'born classified', report says

Dozens of emails that passed through Hillary Clinton's server during her time as secretary of state reportedly contained information automatically considered classified by the U.S. government and State Department's own regulations.

According to Reuters, at least 30 e-mail threads dating from as far back as 2009 contained what the State Department describes as "foreign government information." That number represents scores of individual emails that have already been made public, including 17 sent by Clinton herself. At least one of those emails was sent to longtime supporter Sidney Blumenthal, who did not hold a government position at the time.
The report says that the State Department identified the emails as containing "foreign government information" when it retroactively classified them upon their release earlier this year. However, the regulations say that such information, defined as having been provided orally or in writing to U.S. officials by their foreign counterparts in confidence, must be "presumed" classified, regardless of whether it is initially marked that way.
Reuters said the State Department disputed the report's analysis, but declined to say how it was incorrect.
"We do not have the ability to go back and recreate all of the various factors that would have gone into the determinations," State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach wrote in an e-mail,after initially accusing Reuters of making "outlandish accusations" about the emails. Reuters said it could not establish whether the State Department was applying its rules in a different manner from when the emails were first sent.
If true, the regulations would undercut Clinton's defense that she never sent or received information that was marked classified at the time it passed through her server. The Reuters report says that the government's standard nondisclosure form warns employees authorized to handle classified information that it may not be marked as such in writing and that a determination about its secrecy may be made orally.

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"It's born classified," said J. William Leonard, a former director of the U.S. government's Information Security Oversight Office. "If a foreign minister just told the secretary of state something in confidence, by U.S. rules that is classified at the moment it's in U.S. channels and U.S. possession."
The report comes amid an ongoing federal investigation over whether Clinton mishandled classified information that passed through her so-called "homebrew" server during her tenure as America's top diplomat. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the State Department to work with the FBI to try to recover approximately 31,000 emails that Clinton had described as personal. The Democratic presidential frontrunner has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Reuters reports that the unredacted portions of the emails appear to indicate information from one prime minister, one foreign minister and several intelligence chiefs. One e-mail, dated from November 2009, comes from the principal private secretary to then-British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and is addressed to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The British official writes that Miliband "very much wants the Secretary (only) to see this note." Abedin forwarded the e-mail to Clinton's private account.
A spokeswoman for one of the governments whose information appeared in the emails told Reuters that the information was shared confidentially with Clinton and her senior staff, making it classified according to the regulations. The spokeswoman said her government expected all private exchanges with U.S. officials to be treated as confidential.
According to State Department regulations in force in 2009, department employees "must ... safeguard foreign government and NATO RESTRICTED information as U.S. Government Confidential" or higher. Confidential information is considered the lowest level of classification for information that could harm national security if leaked, behind "Secret" and "Top Secret".

South Korea vows response to 'provocations' from North after exchange of fire

South Korea warned that North Korea was likely to launch "provocations" if Seoul did not meet a Saturday deadline to cease propaganda broadcasts as tensions heightened on the divided peninsula Friday.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo issued the warning at a press conference as a South Korean media outlet reported that Pyongyang appeared to be preparing to test-fire short- and mid-range ballistic missiles.
The report by Yonhap News Agency cited a South Korean government source who said that North Korea seemed to be "weighing the timing of the firing under its strategic intention to increase military tension on the Korean Peninsula to the highest level." The source also said that the apparent preparations for the test had been detected by South Korea's joint radar system, which it shares with the United States.
Earlier Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared his country to be in a "quasi-state of war"and be fully ready for any military operations starting Friday evening, according to a report by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.
In response, South Korea raised its military readiness to its highest level. Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu told a televised news conference that South Korea is ready to repel any additional provocation.
The North has also given Seoul a deadline of 5 p.m. Saturday evening (4 a.m. EDT) to remove border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda. Failure, Pyongyang says, will result in further military action. Seoul has vowed to continue the broadcasts.
The North's media report said that "military commanders were urgently dispatched for operations to attack South Korean psychological warfare facilities if the South doesn't stop operating them." South Korea's vice defense minister said Friday this likely meant the North would fire on the 11 sites where South Korea had set up loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda.
The loudspeaker broadcasts began after South Korea accused the North of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month. One of the injured soldiers lost both legs and the other one leg. North Korea denies the South's accusation and demanded video proof.
The North's declaration Friday is similar to its other warlike rhetoric in recent years, including repeated threats to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire," and the huge numbers of soldiers and military equipment already stationed along the border mean the area is always essentially in a "quasi-state of war." Still, the North's apparent willingness to test Seoul with military strikes and its recent warning of further action raise worries because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again.
The North's capital of Pyongyang was mostly business as usual Friday morning, although propaganda vans with loudspeakers broadcast the state media line that the country was in a "quasi-state of war" to people in the streets.
North Korea on Thursday afternoon first fired a single round believed to be from an anti-aircraft gun, which landed near a South Korean border town, Seoul said. About 20 minutes later, three North Korean artillery shells fell on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. South Korea responded with dozens of 155-millimeter artillery rounds, according to South Korean defense officials.
North Korea said the South Korean shells landed near four military posts but caused no injuries. No one was reported injured in the South, either, though hundreds were evacuated from frontline towns.
On Friday, about 60 residents in the South Korean town near where the shell fell, Yeoncheon, were still in underground bunkers, Yeoncheon officials said. Yonhap reported that a total of about 2,000 residents along the border were evacuated Thursday.
Escalation is a risk in any military exchange between the Koreas because after two attacks blamed on Pyongyang killed 50 South Koreans in 2010, South Korea's military warned that any future North Korean attack could trigger strikes by South Korea that are three times as large.
Many in Seoul are accustomed to ignoring or discounting North Korea's repeated threats, but the latest have caused worry because of Pyongyang's warning of strikes if the South doesn't tear down its loudspeakers by Saturday evening. Observers say the North may need some save-facing measure to back down.
This is what happened in December 2010, when North Korea backed off an earlier warning of catastrophic retaliation after South Korea defiantly went ahead with live-fire drills near the country's disputed western sea boundary. A month earlier, when South Korea staged similar drills, the North reacted with an artillery bombardment that killed four people on a South Korean border island. North Korea said it didn't respond to the second drill because South Korea conducted it in a less provocative way, though the South said both drills were the same.
The rivals are currently at odds also over annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls an invasion rehearsal. Seoul and Washington say the drills are defensive in nature.
The Koreas' mine-strewn DMZ is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea.

Army kicking out decorated Green Beret who stood up for Afghan rape victim

EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. Army is kicking out a decorated Green Beret after an 11-year Special Forces career, after he got in trouble for shoving an Afghan police commander accused of raping a boy and beating up his mother when she reported the incident. 

The case of Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland now has the attention of Congress, with Rep. Duncan Hunter writing to Defense Secretary Ash Carter challenging the decision.
"I am once again dismayed by the Army's actions in this case," Hunter, R-Calif., wrote in a letter to Carter.
Martland is described by many of his teammates as the finest soldier they have ever served alongside.
But his Army career changed course during his second deployment to Afghanistan in 2011. After learning an Afghan boy was raped and his mother beaten, Martland and his team leader confronted a local police commander they had trained, armed and paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars. When the man laughed off the incident, they physically confronted him.
They were punished by the Army at the time -- but why exactly Martland is now being discharged is a matter of dispute. Army sources cited his accolades, including being named runner-up for 2014 Special Warfare Training Group Instructor of the Year from a pool of 400 senior leaders in Special Forces, in questioning the decision.
As for the incident in 2011, Hunter told Carter: "To intervene was a moral decision, and SFC Martland and his Special Forces team felt they had no choice but to respond."
Casey, a former Green Beret teammate who would only use his first name since he is now a member of a federal counterterrorism team, told Fox News, "If I was a commander, I would have given him an award. They saved that kid's life."
Martland grew up south of Boston, in Milton, Mass. An all-state football player in high school, he set his sights on playing college football after graduating in 2001. Martland went for the Florida State University team, which just finished a season ranked #4 in the nation.
He made the team, impressing legendary head coach Bobby Bowdon and famed defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews. Still, he often remained on the sidelines. When Pat Tillman, a former NFL football player who volunteered for the Army Rangers, was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, he saw Tillman's sacrifice as motivation to apply for another elite program. Martland dropped out of college and graduated in 2006 from Special Forces Qualification Course, one of the U.S. military's toughest training programs. Over the years he became a jumpmaster, combat diver and sniper.
After a deployment to Iraq in 2008, he deployed to Afghanistan in January 2010 as part of a 12-man unit. He and his team found themselves fighting large numbers of Taliban militants in volatile Kunduz Province.
On one mission, one of their vehicles was struck by an IED, setting off a Taliban ambush. Fox News is told Martland rushed to the scene. He jumped in the turret of a damaged Humvee, exposing himself to enemy bullets while returning fire to help his teammates gather sensitive equipment.
"I thought he was gone, then he comes out of nowhere to save us," said an active-duty Green Beret who requested anonymity.
Martland was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor for his actions. According to one evaluation, he also was "praised" by Gen. David Petraeus, then commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.
But very quickly, the Green Berets realized they had a problem with many of the Afghans they were training to become local police officers.
"We had been hearing for months about raping in our province, not just in Afghanistan," said Daniel Quinn, a West Point graduate and the team leader of the detachment sent to Kunduz.
One day in early September 2011 at their remote outpost, a young Afghan boy and his Afghan-Uzbek mother showed up at camp. The 12-year-old showed the Green Berets where his hands had been tied. A medic took him to a back room for an examination with an interpreter, who told them the boy had been raped by another commander by the name of Abdul Rahman.
After learning of the meeting, Rahman allegedly beat the boy's mother for reporting the crime. It was at this point, the Green Berets had had enough. Quinn and Martland went to confront Rahman.
"He confessed to the crime and laughed about it, and said it wasn't a big deal. Even when we patiently explained how serious the charge was, he kept laughing," Quinn said.  
According to reports of the incident, Quinn and Martland shoved Abdul Rahman to the ground. It was the only way to get their point across, according to Quinn. "As a man, as a father of a young boy myself at the time, I felt obliged to step in to prevent further repeat occurrences," Quinn said.
Rahman walked away bruised from getting shoved and thrown to the ground, but otherwise okay, according to teammates. But Rahman quickly reported the incident to another Army unit in a nearby village. The next day a U.S. Army helicopter landed and took Quinn and Martland away, ending their work in Kunduz Province.
For the next few weeks, both soldiers remained in Afghanistan but were not allowed to continue their mission. They were given temporary jobs in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and later in Herat. Pending the outcome of the investigation, both men were relieved from their positions and sent home. Their war was over.
Quinn has since left the Army and started a job on Wall Street.
Martland, though, has been fighting to stay in the Army. In February 2015, the Army conducted a "Qualitative Management Program" review board. His supporters suspect because Martland had a "relief for cause" evaluation in his service record, the U.S. Army ordered Martland to be "involuntary discharged" from the Army by Nov. 1, 2015.
The U.S. Army could not confirm the specifics of Martland's separation from service due to privacy reasons, according to Wayne Hall, an Army spokesman.
Critics point to the Army drawdown as a reason. One former Green Beret said any negative mark on a soldier's record can get them kicked out, given the drawdown.
Martland still has received the highest scores in evaluations since the incident.
"It's sad to think that a child rapist is put above one of our elite military operators. Sergeant Martland was left with no other choice but to intervene in a bad situation. ... The Army should stand up for what's right and should not side with a corrupt Afghan police officer," Hunter told Fox News.
A childhood friend who went on to play in the NFL, Tim Bulman, said of Martland: "You would want him in your corner and protecting our freedom."

Donald Trump: Vladimir Putin Can Be Dealt With

In an interview with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump discussed who he admires most in foreign policy, military and business.

“When you look at business, a guy like Jack Welch. I've always been a fan of Jack… I actually did deals with Jack when he was at General Electric. And you know somebody like Jack Welch was certainly a great example. And there are so many of them. I've met so many corporate leaders, over the years, over the last four or five years in particular and so many that are so good. And people like, as an example, Larry Fink, I invest money, I put money with different people, and Larry Fink -- done a great job, you know, he's done a great job for me. And, you know, with the money that I have given them to invest and others. There are so many people that I have great respect for. Unfortunately there are far more people that don’t do a very good job,” he said.
Trump said he thinks German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a great leader.
“Fantastic leader.  She's -- I was with somebody the other day who thinks she is the greatest leader in the world today ... the smartest and the greatest leader in the world today and this is a person that has great knowledge of her and deals with her,” he said.
He said Vladimir Putin is someone “that can be dealt with.”
“I think his dislike of President Obama is so intense that it really has affected the whole relationship. We've driven them into the arms of China, so that now these two are together, which has always been the great sin. Don't ever let Russia and China get together. We've driven them together. I think he is somebody that I would have a very decent relationship with if I ever win,” he said.

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He also weighed in on China’s leader Xi Jinping.
“Always smart. Chinese leaders are -- they have a different system than ours. They don't do it by television, they do it by a different route to get up there… I think what he did with the recent devaluations, which a lot of people said were market driven, they are not market driven. They did it to keep it going. But the -- the leaders in China always turn out to be smart, and he's certainly one of them,” he said.

Mexico Cartoon

Dems petition Obama to remove Trump's name from DC hotel

Two Democratic congressmen are demanding that Obama Administration officials bar Donald Trump from displaying his last name on the exterior his new Washington, D.C. hotel, citing concerns that the billionaire's surname represents "exclusion" and "intolerance."

 Reps. Ruben Gallego, Ariz., and Tony Cárdenas, Calif.

Reps. Ruben Gallego, Ariz., and Tony Cárdenas, Calif., have submitted a formal petition to the Department of the Interior with the goal of blocking Trump from having his name "prominently displayed" on the Old Post Office building currently under renovation to become the latest Trump International Hotel.

According to the lawmakers' petition, Trump's name violates the "federal government's responsibility to ensure that public lands are welcoming places" because of the remarks he's made about women and the Latino community.
"Trump's recent and repeated remarks disparaging women, Mexican-Americans, and other Latinos are hateful, divisive, and completely inaccurate," the men wrote. "As a result of these comments, the Trump name is now inextricably linked to the anti-Immigrant, anti-Latino sentiments that he continues to loudly and publicly espouse."

‘Dangerous farce’: Lawmakers rip Iran deal over report Tehran can use own nuke inspectors

Capitol Hill opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal was stoked Wednesday by a bombshell report that Tehran will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect one of the country's most controversial nuclear sites. 

"Allowing the Iranians to inspect their own nuclear sites, particularly a notorious military site, is like allowing the inmates to run the jail," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a presidential candidate, said in a statement.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that, in an unusual and secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, Iran can use its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence for activities that it has consistently denied -- trying to develop nuclear weapons.
At issue is an investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has refused access to Parchin for years and denied any interest in -- or work on -- nuclear weapons. Based on U.S., Israeli and other intelligence and its own research, the IAEA suspects that the Islamic Republic may have experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms at that military facility and other weapons-related work elsewhere.
The IAEA has repeatedly cited evidence, based on satellite images, of possible attempts to sanitize the site since the alleged work stopped more than a decade ago.
A draft document seen by the AP suggests that instead of carrying out their own probe, IAEA staff will be reduced to monitoring Iranian personnel as they inspect the Parchin site.
That deal is a side agreement worked out between the IAEA and Iran, separate from the nuclear deal now before Congress for approval. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the revelation only "reinforces" concerns about the broader agreement.
"Trusting Iran to inspect its own nuclear site and report to the U.N. in an open and transparent way is remarkably naïve and incredibly reckless," he said in a statement. "It is time for the Obama Administration to come clean with the American people and provide all information about these secret side agreements between Iran and the IAEA."
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., who previously voiced concerns to the State Department over the so-called side deals between Iran and the IAEA, said the inspections need to be done by international inspectors, "Period."
"Congress must now consider whether this unprecedented arrangement will keep Iran from cheating. This is a dangerous farce," he said in a statement.
The Obama administration, though, defended the arrangement without going into detail.
"We are confident in the Agency's technical plans for investigating the possible military dimensions of Iran's former program, issues that in some cases date back more than a decade," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said. "Just as importantly, the IAEA is comfortable with arrangements, which are unique to the Agency's investigation of Iran's historical activities. When it comes to monitoring Iran's behavior going forward, the IAEA has separately developed the most robust inspection regime ever peacefully negotiated to ensure Iran's current program remains exclusively peaceful...
"Beyond that, we are not going to comment on a purported draft IAEA document."
State Department spokesman John Kirby also said they are "confident in the agency's technical plans for investigating the possible military dimensions of Iran's former program" and the IAEA is "comfortable" with the arrangements as well.
Administration officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, previously have stressed the importance of Iran disclosing past nuclear military activity as part of any deal framework.
But the AP reported that Iran will provide agency experts with photos and videos of locations the IAEA says are linked to the alleged weapons work, "taking into account military concerns." That wording suggests that -- beyond being barred from physically visiting the site -- the agency won't even get photo or video information from areas Iran says are off-limits because they have military significance.
IAEA experts would normally take environmental samples for evidence of any weapons development work, but the agreement stipulates that Iranian technicians will do the sampling.
The revelation comes as Republicans try to defeat the nuclear deal in a congressional vote.
If the resolution passed and President Obama vetoed it, opponents would need a two-thirds majority to override it. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has suggested opponents will likely lose, but the developments could fuel the opposition.

Clinton campaign tries to use Fox News report to exonerate candidate in email scandal

Weiner's Wife

The Hillary Clinton campaign, in an unusual late-afternoon conference call, touted an exclusive Fox News report on the origin of the FBI probe into the candidate’s server – in an attempt to claim details in the report prove she did nothing wrong.

The report by Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, for the first time, identified emails that helped kick-start the current investigation. The emails were from top Clinton advisers and had earlier been released to the Benghazi select committee.
On the conference call reacting to the report, top Clinton campaign aides said those emails were not marked classified at the time they were sent. Press Secretary Brian Fallon said the campaign previously did not know which emails originally had been flagged, and called the Fox News report a “watershed” moment in understanding what led to the review. Calling the report “fortuitous” and saying they have no reason to doubt its veracity, the aides also emphasized the emails were not written by Clinton herself.
“We again would like to see the government agencies involved in this process to proceed as quickly as possible in conducting a review of the emails,” Fallon said. “We think it will vindicate all the points we made today on this whole matter.”
However, despite the Clinton campaign’s claims, a spokeswoman for the intelligence community inspector general reiterated to Fox News that the information in the emails was in fact considered classified at the time it was sent.
Fallon acknowledged they have a disagreement on that point with the intelligence community inspector general.Clinton campaign officials said on the call that, at worst, this is a dispute between two agencies, as the State Department also maintains the emails were not classified.
The emails identified by Fox News as helping spur the referral both pertained to Benghazi.
The first was forwarded by Clinton adviser Huma Abedin. The 2011 email forwards a warning about how then-deputy chief of mission Chris Stevens was "considering departure from Benghazi" amid deteriorating conditions in a nearby city.The email was mistakenly released by the State Department in full, and is now considered declassified.
The second was sent by Clinton aide Jake Sullivan. The partly redacted November 2012 email detailed how Libyan police had arrested "several people" with potential connections to the terror attack.
Abedin and Sullivan now work for the Clinton presidential campaign
Fox News understands those two emails were separate from four other emails that the inspector general flagged in July as containing classified information.
A statement from the IG’s office last month, though, referenced one of the two emails, pointing to an “inadvertent release of classified national security information” by the State Department through its FOIA process. That statement also acknowledged the disagreement between the two agencies, saying the department denies the “classified character” of the information “despite a definitive determination from the IC Interagency FOIA Process.”
Aside from that disagreement, the two emails also represent just a fraction of the hundreds of emails‎ that the IG and State Department have since flagged for containing potentially classified material.
The Clinton campaign argued Wednesday that this whole experience speaks to the government’s tendency toward classification.
“We think that this says more about the bent towards secrecy within some corners of the government. It says more about that than it does about Hillary Clinton’s email practices,” Fallon said.

LA 'black ball' reservoir rollout potential 'disaster' in the making, say experts

LA's scheme to cover a reservoir under 96 million "shade balls" may not be all it is touted to be, experts told FoxNews.com, with some critics going so far as to refer to the plan as a "potential disaster."

The city made national headlines last week when Mayor Eric Garcetti and Department of Water officials dumped $34.5 million worth of the tiny, black plastic balls into the city's 175-acre Van Norman Complex reservoir in the Sylmar section. Garcetti said the balls would create a surface layer that would block 300 million gallons from evaporating amid the state's crippling drought and save taxpayers $250 million.
Experts differed over the best color for the tiny plastic balls, with one telling FoxNews.com they should have been white and another saying a chrome color would be optimal. But all agreed that the worst color for the job is the one LA chose.
"Black spheres resting in the hot sun will form a thermal blanket speeding evaporation as well as providing a huge amount of new surface area for the hot water to breed bacteria," said Matt MacLeod, founder of the California biotech firm Modern Moon Farms. "Disaster. It’s going to be a bacterial nightmare.”

"It’s going to be a bacterial nightmare.”
- Matt MacLeod, Modern Moon Farms

Any color covering will help stop wind-driven evaporation, said Robert Shibatani. principal hydrologist for the Sacramento-based environmental consultant The Shibitani Group. But when it comes to the hot summer sun sucking water out of the reservoir, color is everything, he said.
"Ideally you would want a chrome surface," he said. "The worst would be matte black, which has a reflectivity close to zero."
Biologist Nathan Krekula, a professor of health science at Bryant & Stratton College in Milwaukee, said black balls will absorb heat, transfer it to the water and cause evaporation. And he agreed with MacLeod that the heat will prove hospitable to bacteria.

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Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, Mayor Eric Garcetti (wearing a yellow tie) and LADWP workers deposit the final installment of 96 million shade balls into the Los Angeles Reservoir. (Art Mochizuki, LADWP)

"Bacteria required a few things to grow a dark, warm and moist environment," he said. "The balls will give them the perfect environment to live in.
"What works in backyard fish pond does not always transfer to large scale system such as this, Krekula added. "Keeping the balls clean when covered in bacteria and mold slime will be a monumental task."
Dennis Santiago, a risk analyst for Torrance-based Total Bank Solutions, suspects the real goal for the black-ball cover is to avoid steep Environmental Protection Agency fines. The federal agency's "Long-Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule," announced in 2006, would require public and private water utilities to spend billions to cover open-air reservoirs that hold treated water to prevent contamination. Officials in several districts around the nation have balked at the EPA mandate, notably in New York, where lawmakers are fighting to block a $1.6 billion concrete cover the EPA has ordered built over a Yonkers reservoir.
“This is not about evaporation," Santiago said. "The water savings spin is purely political. What the black balls are really about is that [Los Angeles] needs to stay in-compliance with an EPA requirement to place a physical cover over potable water reservoirs.”
Garcetti's office did note that the ball covering provides a "cost-effective investment that brings the LA Reservoir into compliance with new federal water quality mandates," but its emphasis on blocking evaporation was the clear focus at the event. Los Angeles Department of Water spokesman Albert Rodriguez told FoxNews.com the city has plenty of time to get in compliance with the EPA.
While this latest shade ball initiative continues to generate publicity, it is not the first time Los Angeles utilized the concept. After high levels of bromate, a potentially carcinogenic chemical, were found in the Silver Lake and Ivanhoe reservoirs in 2008, the Department of Water deployed the balls.
Sydney Chase, president of XavierC, one of the shade ball supply companies behind the project, said the color is a result of pure black carbon being added to the high density polyethylene plastic to take in ultra-violet rays and subsequently stop sunlight from penetrating the plastic. Any other color would have required dyes, said Rodriguez, which could have then leached into the water while the carbon black does not.

UN-Iran deal will let Tehran inspect site where it allegedly worked on nukes

You can thank Dumb Ass Obama and the Democrats for this stupid deal getting passed.

VIENNA –  Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.

The revelation is sure to roil American and Israeli critics of the main Iran deal signed by the U.S., Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the deal is built on trust of the Iranians, a claim the U.S. has denied.
The investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency is linked to a broader probe of allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear deal.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks at a press conference in Kuwait City. (AP)

The Parchin deal is a separate, side agreement worked out between the IAEA and Iran. The United States and the five other world powers that signed the Iran nuclear deal were not party to this agreement but were briefed on it by the IAEA and endorsed it as part of the larger package.
Without divulging its contents, the Obama administration has described the document as nothing more than a routine technical arrangement between Iran and the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency on the particulars of inspecting the site.
During a hearing on Capital Hill July 23, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, and Sen. James Risch, R-ID, raised the issue of how Parchin would be inspected. Kerry replied that the Parchin inspection was "a classified component" of the deal and wouldn't go into specifics.
Any IAEA member country must give the agency some insight into its nuclear program. Some countries are required to do no more than give a yearly accounting of the nuclear material they possess. But nations— like Iran — suspected of possible proliferation are under greater scrutiny that can include stringent inspections.
But the agreement diverges from normal inspection procedures between the IAEA and a member country by essentially ceding the agency's investigative authority to Iran. It allows Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence for activities that it has consistently denied — trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Evidence of that concession, as outlined in the document, is sure to increase pressure from U.S. congressional opponents as they review the July 14 Iran nuclear deal and vote on a resolution of disapproval in early September. If the resolution passed and President Barack Obama vetoed it, opponents would need a two-thirds majority to override it. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has suggested opponents will likely lose.
The White House has denied claims by critics that a secret "side deal" favorable to Tehran exists. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said the Parchin document is like other routine arrangements between the agency and individual IAEA member nations, while IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told Republican senators last week that he is obligated to keep the document confidential.
But Republican critics are bound to harshly criticize any document that cedes to Iran the right to look for the very nuclear wrongdoing that it has denied committing. Olli Heinonen, who was in charge of the Iran probe as deputy IAEA director general from 2005 to 2010 ,said he can think of no instance where a country being probed was allowed to do its own investigation.
Iran has refused access to Parchin for years and has denied any interest in — or work on — nuclear weapons. Based on U.S., Israeli and other intelligence and its own research, the IAEA suspects that the Islamic Republic may have experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms at that military facility and other weapons-related work elsewhere.
The IAEA has repeatedly cited evidence, based on satellite images, of possible attempts to sanitize the site since the alleged work stopped more than a decade ago.
The document seen by the AP is a draft that one official familiar with its contents said doesn't differ substantially from the final version. He demanded anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the issue.
It is labeled "separate arrangement II," indicating there is another confidential agreement between Iran and the IAEA governing the agency's probe of the nuclear weapons allegations.
The document suggests that instead of carrying out their own probe, IAEA staff will be reduced to monitoring Iranian personnel as they inspect the Parchin site.
Iran will provide agency experts with photos and videos of locations the IAEA says are linked to the alleged weapons work, "taking into account military concerns."
That wording suggests that — beyond being barred from physically visiting the site — the agency won't even get photo or video information from areas Iran says are off-limits because they have military significance.
IAEA experts would normally take environmental samples for evidence of any weapons development work, but the agreement stipulates that Iranian technicians will do the sampling.
The sampling is also limited to only seven samples inside the building where the experiments allegedly took place. Additional ones will be allowed only outside of the Parchin site, in an area still to be determined.
"Activities will be carried out using Iran's authenticated equipment consistent with technical specifications provided by the agency," the agreement says. While the document says that the IAEA "will ensure the technical authenticity" of Iran's inspection, it does not say how.
The draft is unsigned but the signatory for Iran is listed as Ali Hoseini Tash, deputy secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for Strategic Affairs instead of an official of Iran's nuclear agency. That reflects the significance Tehran attaches to the agreement.
Iranian diplomats in Vienna were unavailable for comment, while IAEA spokesman Serge Gas said the agency had no immediate comment.
The main focus of the July 14 deal between Iran and six world powers is curbing Iran's present nuclear program that could be used to make weapons. But a subsidiary element obligates Tehran to cooperate with the IAEA in its probe of the allegations.
The investigation has been essentially deadlocked for years, with Tehran asserting the allegations are based on false intelligence from the U.S., Israel and other adversaries. But Iran and the U.N. agency agreed last month to wrap up the investigation by December, when the IAEA plans to issue a final assessment on the allegations.
Both Iran and the IAEA were upbeat when announcing the agreement last month. But Western diplomats from IAEA member nations who are familiar with the probe are doubtful that Tehran will diverge from claiming that all its nuclear activities are — and were — peaceful, despite what they say is evidence to the contrary.
They say the agency will be able to report in December. But that assessment is unlikely to be unequivocal because chances are slim that Iran will present all the evidence the agency wants or give it the total freedom of movement it needs to follow up the allegations.
Still, the report is expected to be approved by the IAEA's board, which includes the United States and other powerful nations that negotiated the July 14 agreement. They do not want to upend their July 14 deal, and will see the December report as closing the books on the issue.
Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee chairman Lindsey Graham, a Republican presidential hopeful, last week asked for "any and all copies of side agreements between Iran and the IAEA associated with the Iran nuclear deal." He threatened to cut off U.S. funding for the U.N. agency otherwise.

What Cartoon

Trump, the outsider, turning to insiders for campaign help

Donald Trump has defied and mocked the Washington establishment on his ride to the top of the 2016 GOP presidential field. But his emerging domestic and foreign policies show that, behind the scenes, he is starting to rely on some established Republican voices.

On immigration, Trump, a billionaire businessman who has never held public office, turned to Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions to help draft his recently unveiled campaign platform. Sessions, one of Washington’s leading foes of illegal immigration, in turn touted Trump's proposal.
“It’s just a mainstream plan that politicians have been promising to do for 30 years,” Sessions told Fox News on Monday. “These are things that are bread-and-butter basics.”
Trump’s proclamation on day one of his campaign that he would build a wall along the country’s southern border and “have Mexico pay” was clearly directed at the party’s conservative base, and was included in the immigration platform. But his plan, and commentary on it, also had the markings of Sessions' well-honed argument that allowing illegal immigrants into the U.S. depresses wages and takes jobs from Americans -- and that granting them a path to citizenship is tantamount to amnesty.
“They have to go,” Trump proclaimed Sunday on NBC about illegal immigrants and children born to them in the United States.
That Trump and his attention-grabbing, roughly eight-week-old campaign would eventually have to focus more on policy appears inevitable. Likewise, it was only a matter of time before the Republican front-runner -- who does not keep a battalion of campaign advisers on hand -- would have to turn to some established voices for help.

More on this...

• Sen. Jeff Sessions on helping Trump craft immigration plan

But whether he continues to reach out to them, and whether that may hurt Trump among voters drawn to his renegade-style campaign, remains to be seen.
“Trump's supporters don't like him because of his consistency or his deep understanding of the issues,” Republican strategist Joe Desilets, managing partner at the D.C.-based political consulting firm 21st & Main, said.
“They like him because he is a flame-thrower who speaks his mind regardless of the consequences. With that said, I find it difficult to see Trump's supporters abandoning him over who his policy advisers are.”
Trump has indeed attacked the Washington establishment -- including so-called “career politicians” and the Republican National Committee. Most polls show him with a double-digit lead over his closest GOP rivals. He has also threatened to launch an independent bid if mistreated by Washington Republicans, which could severely hurt the party’s chances of winning the 2016 White House race.
In Washington circles, Sessions is still a standard-bearer for the immigration policy right. But he's not the only GOP voice Trump is consulting.
On foreign policy, Trump told NBC that he picks up military advice from analysts on TV including retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs and John Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador and a Fox News contributor.
Whether Trump has personally spoken to either for policy advice is unclear. Bolton does not discuss details of private policy discussions. Jacobs, who now describes himself as a journalist, did not respond to an attempt to contact him.
But Bolton has been seen talking privately with Trump and other GOP candidates including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on the sidelines of at least two recent gatherings -- the New Hampshire Republican Party’s “First in the Nation” Leadership Summit and the Iowa Freedom Summit.
Trump's campaign operation itself may also be evolving. For ground-game strategy, Trump has hired long-time Republican operative Chuck Lauder to run his Iowa campaign.
Lauder is well known for helping GOP presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum pull off a surprise win in the 2012 Iowa caucuses.
Trump’s immigration plan, meanwhile, also calls for overhauling the federal government’s H-1B work visa program to keep U.S. companies from what he calls importing “cheaper workers from overseas” to fill vacancies for skilled jobs.
It is an issue on which Sessions’ office has increasingly focused since helping defeat the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill in 2013.
“One thing I like about (Trump’s) plan is that he emphasizes how this unlawful, huge flow of immigration is hammering poor people -- African Americans, Hispanics who are here struggling to get a higher wage,” Sessions also told Fox News on Monday.
In Trump’s policy papers released Sunday, the campaign also cited Chris Crane, president of a union that represents ICE agents and who is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s immigration policy -- often aligned with other Washington conservatives critical of that immigration policy.
The document quotes Crane arguing that ICE agents are being forced to apply Obama’s 2012 executive order on illegal immigrant children to adult inmates in jail including “serious criminals who have committed felonies, who have assaulted officers and who prey on children.”

Grassley questions whether Clinton attorney had clearance for thumb drives

A top Republican senator is questioning whether Hillary Clinton's personal attorney had the security clearance to keep thumb drives containing thousands of her emails, after it was revealed some of her messages contained highly sensitive -- even "top secret" -- information. 

"The transmission of classified material to an individual unauthorized to possess it is a serious national security risk," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote in a letter to Clinton lawyer David Kendall.
The FBI recently took possession of not only Clinton's personal server but three thumb drives kept by Kendall. The State Department previously has said that Clinton's attorney was approved to handle the documents -- telling Politico, before the files were turned over, that her counsel had "clearance." Further, the Clinton campaign said at the time "the thumb drive is secure."
Grassley for weeks has questioned whether that information was in fact being properly stored, asking FBI Director James Comey in late July what steps were being taken to secure the materials and whether Kendall had the "requisite security clearance."
But he upped the pressure in his letter to Kendall. He said recent revelations -- namely, inspector general findings that at least two emails on the server were classified at the "top secret" level -- and the FBI's takeover of the devices suggest Kendall was not authorized to have them.
"In light of that particular classification, which generally requires advanced protocols ... to possess and view, it appears the FBI has determined that your clearance is not sufficient to allow you to maintain custody of the emails," Grassley told Kendall in the letter, asking him a string of questions about his clearance levels.

More on this...

• Is the Democratic Party beginning to panic?

Fox News is told the thumb drives are not a complete back-up copy of the server's contents but, rather, a copy of the emails Clinton did not purge.
The Clinton campaign has maintained she never exchanged emails marked as classified at the time, though the emails flagged by the IG were said to be classified from the start. The State Department has so far found dozens of classified emails in the Clinton trove, and recently referred more than 300 messages to various agencies for review to see whether they, too, have classified contents.
Grassley raised several concerns in his letter, including that Kendall reportedly did not get a safe from the State Department to store the thumb drives until July of this year.  
For a period of months, Grassley wrote, "it appears that in addition to not having an adequate security clearance, you did not have the appropriate tools in place to secure the thumb drives. Even with the safe, there are questions as to whether it was an adequate mechanism to secure" the material.
He added, "it is imperative to confirm when, how, and why you, and any of your associates, received a security clearance in connection with your representation of Ms. Clinton and whether it was active while you had custody of Secretary Clinton's emails ... Moreover, if a person unauthorized to maintain custody of the classified materials does in fact maintain custody, it raises legitimate questions as to whether the information was properly secured from foreign governments and other entities."
An intelligence source told Fox News that the FBI has begun its review of the Clinton server and also "looked inside" the three thumb drives from Kendall.
As for Grassley's request to Kendall, the source said there apparently was a gap in the security clearance, saying it "stopped and started."
Kendall could not be reached for comment on the Grassley letter.

EPA hits oil and gas industry with new methane emissions regs

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled plans Tuesday to slash methane emissions from oil and gas production almost in half, the latest in a series of administration regulations aimed at curbing global warming. 

The proposal, though, looked set to face stiff opposition from energy groups and Republicans lawmakers, who accused the administration of pandering to “the fantasies of the environmental Left.”
The target to cut methane by 40 to 45 percent by 2025 (compared against 2012 levels) was accompanied by proposed regulations cutting emissions from new natural gas wells, along with standards for drilling to reduce leakage on public lands.
The regulations would require energy producers to find and repair leaks at oil and gas wells and capture gas that escapes from wells that use fracking. The administration said the rules would apply only to emissions from new or modified natural gas wells, meaning thousands of existing wells would not have to comply.
"Today, through our cost-effective proposed standards, we are underscoring our commitment to reducing the pollution fueling climate change and protecting public health while supporting responsible energy development, transparency and accountability," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.
EPA officials estimated the regulations would cost industry between $320 million and $420 million in 2025, with reduced health care costs and other benefits totaling about $460 million to $550 million.
In a conference call Tuesday, EPA Acting Assistant Administrator Janet McCabe said the new regulations would result in methane reductions of 20-30 percent by 2025. However, McCabe repeatedly refused to be specific about where the remaining reductions would come from, despite being pressed on the matter multiple times by reporters.
“What I am saying is that as we move forward, additional opportunities will be identified in order to get to the goal,” McCabe said. “It doesn’t mean we have every last one of them identified at this moment.”
Republican lawmakers and energy groups were swift in their condemnation of the new proposals, with many arguing methane emissions have been falling in recent years.
“The EPA’s plan to limit emissions flies in the face of technological reality. The truth is that while the oil and natural gas industry has greatly increased production on state and private lands, methane emissions have actually fallen,” House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said in a statement. “The Obama Administration continues to prioritize the fantasies of the environmental Left over American energy security and economic growth.”
“The oil and gas industry is leading the charge in reducing methane,” American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard said. “The last thing we need is more duplicative and costly regulation that could increase the cost of energy for Americans.”
Others expressed doubt about handing the EPA more power in the light of the recent toxic Colorado river spill, caused by EPA workers.
“If recent events are any indicator, giving more power to EPA doesn't necessarily yield positive results. Just ask the citizens who live near and depend on the Animas River,” Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said in a statement.
The Obama administration is expected to finalize the rules next year after a public consultation period.
The latest regulations come just weeks after the Obama administration announced more regulations on carbon emissions from power plants, calling for a 32 percent emissions cut by 2030, as compared with 2005 levels. Republicans vowed to fight the changes and a number of states and power companies immediately filed legal challenges.
The administration has also proposed regulations targeting carbon pollution from planes, and has set new standards to reduce pollution from trucks and vans.
Environmentalists praised the new rules, but noted that the ambitious goals announced under the proposals would be difficult to meet without targeting existing wells.
David Doniger, climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council called the new regulations "a good start,” adding that the EPA “needs to follow up by setting methane leakage standards for existing oil and gas operations nationwide."

Obama administration objects as Russia moves ahead with Iran missile sale

Thank you Obama.

Despite a ban on arms shipments to Iran under international sanctions, Russia appears willing to proceed with the sale of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the country -- in a development triggering objections from the Obama administration.  

“We have long expressed our concerns over reports of the possible sale of this missile system to the Iranians,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told Fox News.
Russia, along with the U.S. and others, was a party to the recently struck Iran nuclear agreement, which keeps the arms embargo in place for five more years. A State Department official told Fox News this specific S-300 missile system is not technically prohibited under United Nations sanctions or the nuclear deal. But the department does not want the sale to proceed.
“We certainly object to it,” department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Reuters first reported that Iran plans to sign the contract for four of the S-300 Russian missiles as soon as next week.
"The text of the contract is ready and our friends will go to Russia next week to sign the contract," Iran Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan reportedly said.
When asked to characterize the capability of Russia’s S-300 air defense system, a U.S. defense official with knowledge of Russia’s weapons systems told Fox News, “This is a very capable weapons system that can bring down U.S. or Israeli jet aircraft.”
The Obama administration has made its objections known before. When Russia first announced its plans to proceed with the sale in April, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, “The United States has previously made known our objections to that sale, and I understand that Secretary Kerry had an opportunity to raise these concerns once again in a recent conversation with his Russian counterpart.”
The announcement comes at a time when Russia and Iran appear to have grown their diplomatic and military ties in the weeks following the comprehensive nuclear accord struck July 14 in Vienna.
Fox News first reported a clandestine visit by Iran’s shadowy Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani on July 24, just 10 days following the nuclear agreement. Senior military officers and U.S. lawmakers hold Soleimani and his proxy forces responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq.
The Quds Force is the special operations wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for supporting terrorist groups and proxy forces in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. Like Russia, it supports the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. According to local reports, Russia also delivered six MiG 31 fighter jets to Syria on Sunday.
Soleimani’s visit to Russia involved meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his defense minister and appears to have kicked off a series of other bilateral engagements between Iran and Russia.
Last week, Russia and Iran held joint naval exercises in the Caspian Sea, which separates the two countries.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted his Iranian counterpart Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who was Iran’s point man in the nuclear negotiations.
“We are confident that the Vienna agreement will have an enormous impact on developing ties between our two countries,” Zarif said at a Moscow presser Monday, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
A last-minute provision added to the comprehensive nuclear agreement in Vienna prohibits the sale of arms for five more years with Iran.
Page 7 of the White House fact sheet explaining the comprehensive July 14 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers reads:
“While some of our P5 partners wanted these restrictions lifted immediately, we pushed back and were successful in keeping them for 5 and 8 more years or until the IAEA reaches its broader conclusion.”
Russia is among the “P5” partners.

Trump puts Americans first, not illegals

What I'm about to tell you is politically incorrect, but it needs to be said.

There's a reason why Donald Trump is smoking his Republican competition: He wants to put Americans first -- not the illegals.

Trump understands a fundamental truth: The United States of America has been invaded by millions of illegals from Mexico and parts due south.

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The illegals are pillaging and plundering our economy. Some are raping and murdering our fellow countrymen. They have been given accommodation at the expense of the American taxpayer.

And yet our elected leaders in Congress and the White House have chosen to stand down as the sovereignty of our great nation has been violated.

So while the politicians and pundits have scampered away from the issue – Trump stepped up to the plate and offered a concise plan that would secure our border and restore our sovereignty.

The plan, which you can read here, calls for defunding sanctuary cities, building a border wall, ending the catch and release program, and the mandatory deportation of all criminal aliens.

Trump’s plan was heralded by none other than Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the lone voice crying out in the political wilderness on this issue of national importance.

“This is exactly the plan America needs,” Sessions said. “Polling shows this plan will appeal broadly to all segments of the electorate; prioritizing the just demands of loyal, everyday Americans who have been shunned by a governing elite.”

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina raised doubts about Mr. Trump's political affiliation.

"It's not clear to me that Donald Trump is a Republican, first of all, based upon his willingness to run a third-party bid, and some of the positions that he's taken," Fiorina told ABC's This Week.

With all due respect to Ms. Fiorina, the fact that Trump may not be beholden to a political party very well may be the point.

Voters are disgusted with the political incompetence of both Republicans and Democrats.

And should Donald Trump pull off a historic upset and win the White House, I suspect illegals won't be the only folks running back across the border.

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

Trump Cartoon

Iowa fairgrounds become deep-fried 2016 battlefield

Six months out from the 2016 horserace getting serious in the frozen tundra of Iowa, the Republican presidential race is as hot as corn-on-the-cob and deep-fried Twinkies -- with virtually the entire field passing and clashing through the Iowa State Fair. 

After a weekend dominated at the fairgrounds by the two parties' respective front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, other key candidates -- with much on the line -- were rolling through Monday.
One, Scott Walker, is fighting to stay in the top tier after watching his numbers slip following the recent primary debate. Another, Carly Fiorina, wants to keep the momentum going after getting a boost from her standout performance on the same stage.
Standing on the Iowa stump in short sleeves, jeans and an unbuttoned periwinkle shirt, Walker on Monday sought to remind the first-in-the-nation caucus audience why he stands out in the crowded field.
"There's only one candidate that's ran who has fought and won and gotten results ... and did it without compromising on common-sense conservative principles," Walker said, referring to his successful election, recall election and re-election. "If you want someone who can win ... I'm the candidate."
His remarks were punctuated with applause and boos from the rowdy crowd. Some wore 'cheesehead' hats in solidarity with the Wisconsin governor; others shouted things like "you failed your state."

More on this...

• Gov. Scott Walker rates his presidential campaign

Walker said he was "unintimidated" by those opposing him.
Walker has seen his numbers dip, in both Iowa and nationally. In the most recent national Fox News Poll, released Sunday, Walker slipped to 6 percent, down 3 points and the lowest support he's received for more than a year. In the same post-debate poll, Trump held almost steady at the front of the field.
But Fiorina, who by most accounts won the "undercard" debate earlier this month on the Fox News/Facebook stage in Cleveland, more than doubled her support, clocking in at 5 percent.
Instead of delivering a speech on the Des Moines stage on Monday, the former HP exec just took questions from the audience. Asked about the minimum wage, she said it should be a "state decision and not a federal decision." Asked about oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, she said America must be the "global energy powerhouse of the 21st Century." On the Department of Veterans Affairs, she called their treatment of veterans a "stain on our nation's honor."
With 17 candidates in the Republican field, the Iowa State Fair is playing an even bigger role than in past elections in vetting the contenders -- in an offbeat forum where candidates are judged as much on their willingness to eat foodstuffs on a stick as they are on policy proposals.
Over the weekend, Trump made a grand entrance, landing his helicopter in athletic fields about a mile away and offering rides to children before he came onto the grounds. Almost immediately Trump was crushed by massive crowds seeking photos, handshakes and yelling encouragement. The pandemonium followed him around for roughly an hour -- and during a stop for a pork chop on a stick.
"This is beyond what I expected. This is amazing," Trump said. "It's been a day of love."
Both Trump and Clinton avoided getting up on The Des Moines Register's "soapbox," a place where candidates like Walker deliver remarks and take questions from fairgoers. A candidate can be cheered or jeered, depending on the mood of the crowd and whether supporters or opponents are on hand. In 2011 Republican candidate Mitt Romney declared from the soapbox that "corporations are people, my friend," a line that dogged the former private equity executive.
The state fair typically draws around 90,000 people daily during its 11-day run every summer, giving presidential candidates the perfect opportunity to meet potential supporters for Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is set to speak later Monday on the "soapbox." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are scheduled for Tuesday.

Ex-officials prosecuted for mishandling gov’t info see ‘double standard’ in Clinton case

Ex-officials who were prosecuted and had their lives upended for allegedly mishandling sensitive records are accusing the Obama administration of a "double-standard" in its approach to the Hillary Clinton email scandal. 

This administration has charged more people under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law once used to go after major breaches, than any other in history. While the FBI is looking into Clinton's server amid revelations of state secrets potentially passing through it, some critics -- including those charged under that act -- doubt the Democratic presidential candidate will get the same treatment.
"It's a double standard," said John Kiriakou, a former CIA counter-terrorism operative who spent two years in federal prison and three additional months under house arrest this year for leaking the name of a covert CIA official involved in "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Clinton is not accused of leaking. But the common thread in these cases is the handling of classified material. And the slow-moving arc of the email scandal -- marked by a trickle of revelations along with a web of evolving explanations -- stands in stark contrast to past cases where leakers and whistleblowers were punished aggressively.
Kiriakou, one of those defendants, sees different treatment for the Democratic powerhouse who led the State Department.
"The FBI is going to investigate [Hillary Clinton], but it is not up to them," he told FoxNews.com.
"If they [the FBI] want to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime, they can certainly find a crime with which to charge her," he added. "But there is no way the Obama administration is going to prosecute her. No way."
Thomas Drake, a former NSA official who after 9/11 went to Congress to sound the alarms about what he called unconstitutional surveillance, also says there is a double standard when it comes to applying classification law.
"I got hammered good," Drake told FoxNews.com.
Though the government's Espionage Act case against him fell apart in 2011, Drake practically lost everything and faced a mountain of legal bills. He pleaded to a single misdemeanor for "exceeding authorized use of a government computer," a violation he compares to "spitting on the NSA sidewalk."
"I think [Clinton] is vulnerable, but whether she enjoys what I call 'elite immunity,' we don't know," he said. "For much lesser violations people have lost their jobs. But when you get to the higher ranks, it's like another set of rules."
Since Obama took office in 2009, seven people have been charged under the Espionage Act -- all for leaking classified or sensitive information. Five -- Kiriakou, Shamai Leibowitz, Chelsea (previously Bradley) Manning, Jeffrey Sterling, and former State Department official Stephen Kim -- got jail time.
Kim pleaded guilty in 2014 to disclosing a classified report on North Korea to Fox News reporter James Rosen. His lawyer said the information at issue "was less sensitive or surprising than much of what we read in the newspaper every day." He did 13 months in prison. Sterling was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in May for revealing classified information about the CIA's effort to disrupt Iran's nuclear program to journalist James Risen. Edward Snowden, who leaked hundreds of thousands of documents on government surveillance, has been charged in absentia but has asylum in Russia.
Whether Clinton will get "hammered" is another question. According to reports, the FBI took possession of Clinton's private server last week. The IG for the intelligence community told members of Congress that at least two emails that traversed the device while she was secretary of state contained information that warranted a "top secret" label.
Clinton and her staff have been adamant that no email marked classified at the time was ever circulated through her email address or server. "She viewed classified materials in hard copy in her office or via other secure means while traveling, not on email," campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri said in an email to supporters.
In his case, Kiriakou was charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, two counts of espionage, and making false statements to the CIA Publications Review Board when writing his book, "The Reluctant Spy." All but the first charge were dropped. He pleaded guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence. But his wife, a top CIA officer, was pushed out of her job. With three children at home, the family went on welfare while Kiriakou was in prison, and fundraisers helped pay the mortgage on their Arlington, Va., home.
To this day, his lawyer, Jesselyn Radack, insists the name of the agent was already well known among the media and human rights community and was never published. Radack told FoxNews.com the Clinton case is "certainly indicative of the hypocritical double standard in Espionage Act prosecutions brought against low-level employee versus politically-connected people." She also lamented "over-classification" and called the Espionage Act an "ill-fitting tool" in these cases.
According to The Washington Post, the Clinton investigation is now being overseen by at least one prosecutor in the case of former Gen. David Petraeus. Petraeus was charged with keeping classified information at home in the form of secret "black books." He was given a two-year probation and a $100,000 fine, and today, reportedly is consulting with the White House on ISIS and Iraq and is the chairman of the KKR Global Institute.
Drake, on the other hand, now works at an Apple Store.
"They aren't going to treat [Clinton] the same way I was treated for sure," he said.

Trump benched for a day, reports for jury duty in Manhattan

NEW YORK CITY –  There are very few who can order Donald Trump to stay put. But on Monday it took a Manhattan court to do just that, putting the billionaire Republican presidential candidate's campaign on ice for a day so he could do his civic duty.

Trump, like dozens of other everyday New Yorkers, reported for jury duty at the New York Supreme Court building in downtown Manhattan. Of course, the similarities ended there. His mere presence turned the building into a media scrum for much of the day as Trump moved in and out of court, surrounded by a police escort.
And it was a court date to remember for Trump's fellow jury prospects.
“I thought, ‘wow is that really him?’" one prospective female juror told FoxNews.com during the lunch break. "But he’s a nice-looking guy.”
Trump seemed mostly unfazed by the circus. While he was caught dozing off at the beginning of the day, the candidate seemed to be enjoying himself later on as he kissed babies, signed autographs and took selfies with fans after returning from the lunch break -- during which he tweeted that he had been listening to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
In the end, Trump was not chosen for a jury and was released. He cannot be called back for six years.
The Republican frontrunner told FoxNews.com he enjoyed the experience, though.
“I’ve found it very professionally done, I’ve met some fantastic people and it’s been a really good experience,” Trump said after taking a selfie with an admirer.
“It’s been interesting, but I really have met some very talented people … like him,” Trump said with a smile, pointing toward one of the court police officers accompanying him who laughed and nodded his head.
In the jury room, Trump sat and talked freely to media surrounding him about everything from Jeb Bush’s fluctuating poll numbers to New England quarterback Tom Brady (“a nice guy”).
Jury assembly supervisor Irene Laracuenta told the possible jurors that their commitment would be either one day or one civil trial, depending on whether they were selected.
"No one — no one — gets special treatment," Laracuenta said in an apparent reference to Trump.
RELATED VIDEO: Could Trump's immigration plan work?
Other prospective jurors found the experience brightened up an otherwise dull day.
“Living in New York you always expect to see a celebrity, but I was pretty surprised when he walked in,” Kate Swed, a prospective juror from Harlem, told FoxNews.com.
“It’s something to text – ‘Donald Trump is in the room with us,’” Swed said, adding that she wasn’t a fan of him politically, but was a big fan of "The Apprentice."
One Trump supporter even made the journey through bustling Manhattan in 90-degree heat to try and get a glimpse of the candidate.
“I think he’s doing things a lot different from a number of other politicians,” said Daniel Fry, chairman of a local Young Republican Club in Kansas City. “I would say what he’s doing hasn’t been done before and it’s kinda needed in this whole politically correct society – which I think is one of the things that is really dampening and ruining our country from the inside.”
Fry managed to get more than a glimpse, landing a selfie and a quick chat with the obliging Trump, and could barely hide his delight afterwards.
“It was great, it was really really good,” Fry said, his hands shaking as he admired his souvenir from the day.
After being released from jury duty, Trump joked that he was going to go home and sleep.
Asked if he believes in luck after being dismissed, Trump said, "oh I do," before heading out again into the media throng.