O'Malley, Sanders, Webb outline potential path over Clinton to win 2016 Democratic White House nomination

Three potential candidates considered among the most likely to challenge Hillary Clinton’s juggernaut campaign to become the Democratic Party’s 2016 nominee for president expressed confidence Sunday about defeating her, each outlining potential paths to victory.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent-Vermont, questioned whether Clinton or any 2016 GOP presidential candidate would challenge Wall Street for the middle class.
“I do have doubts that Hillary Clinton or any Republican out there will take on big-money interests who control so much of our economy,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “CEOs should not be making 300 times more than their workers. … What we are seeing over the last 40 years is the disappearance of America’s middle class.”
Sanders, the longest-serving member of Congress, suggested higher taxes for the wealthy and cutting the “enormous waste” at the Pentagon.
 Sanders said he would decide “pretty soon” about whether he could raise enough money to mount a “credible campaign.”
“I wouldn’t run unless I thought I could win,” he told Fox News.
Former Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb also challenged Clinton, a former first lady and secretary of state, saying voters want new leadership.
"I think we've got a lot of incumbent fatigue in the country,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “People are looking for fresh approaches in terms of how to solve the problems of the country."
Like Sanders, Web highlighted the huge financial backing likely needed to defeat Clinton, considering backers expect to raise $2.5 billion for her campaign.
"But what we do have is long experience on the issues, in and out of government; strong beliefs about where the country needs to go," said Webb, a populist-style politician, Vietnam veteran and Navy secretary under the Bush administration.
Webb, who recently visited the first-in-the-nation caucus state Iowa and who will return in the coming days, said only that he was “looking … hard” at officially declaring a candidacy.
Right now, Clinton is running uncontested for the party nomination. However, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said recently that she’s planning for a series of sanctioned primary debates.
“I expect the voters who believe we should have a Democratic primary will get their wish,” she told C-SPAN.
Also on Sunday, former Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, considered perhaps the mostly likely to challenge Clinton, continued to argue that his two terms running the state would qualified him to run the country, if he gets into the race.
And like Sanders, he suggested that improving the economy, particularly middle class wages, would be a top priority.
“I believe I have the ideas that will help our country move forward to where our economy is working again, instead of our wages declining,” O’Malley said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Clinton made a similar argument when officially announcing her candidacy April 11 via an online video in which she says: "Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.”
O’Malley, a longtime Clinton supporter, argues he can defeat her but has yet to directly challenge Clinton or her campaign or platform.
“I will let others second-guess her strategies,” he told CBS. “The best campaigns are not campaigns that are against but campaigns that are for.”
O’Malley has vowed to decide by late May whether he will make a White House bid. Vice President Biden is among the other top Democrats being mentioned to challenge Clinton.

Federal authorities arrest 6 in Minnesota, California as part of counter-terror probe

Federal authorities said late Sunday that they had arrested six people in Minnesota and California in connection with an investigation into young men who have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to fight alongside ISIS.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota said the arrests were made Sunday in Minneapolis and San Diego but there is no threat to public safety. A spokesman for the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed the number of people arrested. No further details were available about the identities of the suspects or the specific charges they faced.
KMSP reported that at least three of the arrests happened in Minneapolis and at least one took place in San Diego. The station reported that three of the men arrested in Minneapolis were already known to authorities.
According to the report, the three traveled with a fourth man, 19-year-old Hamza Ahmed, to New York by bus last November, intending to go to Syria. All four were prevented from boarding a flight to Istanbul at JFK International Airport. In February, Ahmed was indicted for lying to the FBI during a terrorism investigation, conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, and attempting to provide material support. He has pleaded not guilty.
Little information had been released about Ahmed's traveling companions. An FBI affidavit said they are all between the ages of 19 and 20 and live in the Twin Cities.
The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI planned a news conference at 10:30 a.m. ET Monday to announce details. Monday's news conference was billed as an announcement of a joint terrorism task force operation.
Authorities say a handful of Minnesota residents have traveled to Syria to fight with militants within the last year. At least one Minnesotan has died while fighting for ISIS.
Since 2007, more than 22 young Somali men have also traveled from Minnesota to Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab.
Four Minnesotans have already been charged in connection with supporting terror groups in Syria, including ISIS.

Kim Cartoon

Valdosta State University

Veteran detained after taking American flag from protesters who were walking on it, report says

A military veteran was reportedly detained and charged by Valdosta State University police in Georgia Friday after she took an American flag from a group of protesters who were walking on it.
The Valdosta Daily Times reports Michelle Manhart, an Air Force veteran, said she wanted to take action after hearing about the group’s demonstrations, but did not want to take the flag from them.
“I did not want anything like this, but I got a call from a student who told me that the flag was on the ground, and they were walking on it,” Manhart told the Daily Times. “I was just going over there to pick up the flag off the ground. I don’t know what their cause is, but I went to pick it up because it doesn’t deserve to be on the ground.”
Manhart said she was taken into custody by campus police who then returned the flag to the demonstrators. Manhart did admit to the paper she was resisting arrest.
The group declined to press charges. The officers who detained her did not press charges either for resisting arrest.
However, Valdosta State police gave Manhart a criminal trespassing warning, which bans her from any university activity, including graduation and foot games, the school’s vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications Andy Clark told the paper.
A VSU student told the paper that a demonstrator said putting the flag on the ground and walking on it was “a symbol of our protest. When a slave understands his situation and understands he doesn’t want to be in slavery, he does not respect or revere anything his slavemaster has put in front of him.”
Manhart said if the cause was racism, then she would have agreed with the cause but opposed the method of which the demonstrators were protesting.
Manhart hopes for an apology from the group and to obtain the flag so it could be disposed of properly.

Texas set to approve open carry of handguns, seen as win for gun-rights activists

Texas is poised to become the largest state in the U.S. to allow citizens to openly carry handguns, a change long sought by gun-rights activists.
The Texas House of Representatives on Friday voted 96-35 to allow residents with concealed-handgun licenses to openly carry their guns in public in holsters. A similar open-carry measure passed the Texas Senate last month; the two open-carry bills must be squared before being sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has indicated support for the idea.
In contrast to its reputation for being permissive on firearms, Texas is one of six states, including California, New York and Florida, that currently bars citizens from openly carrying handguns. People who want to carry handguns in public on their person must obtain concealed-weapons permits and keep the weapons hidden.

“We are seeing historic progress in Texas”- Terry Holcomb Sr., executive director of Texas Carry, a gun-rights group

Texas currently allows citizens to openly carry long guns in public, however. That has spurred gun-rights groups to carry assault rifles into restaurants and stores and along the sidewalks adjoining the Texas Capitol, to highlight what they see as a senseless legal distinction.
The push by gun enthusiasts, a powerful constituency within the Texas Republican Party, has helped legislation move through the GOP-controlled Legislature this year after several years of stalled efforts.
Gun-rights groups are also calling for legislation to allow some students and university employees to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. The Texas Senate last month approved a campus-carry measure, as it is known. The Texas House is expected to pass a companion measure, and the idea is also supported in principle by Mr. Abbott.
It would make Texas one of only eight states with laws permitting concealed guns on college campuses, and the largest state to do so.
“We are seeing historic progress in Texas,” said Terry Holcomb Sr., executive director of Texas Carry, a gun-rights group. He noted that open-carry legislation had never even made it out of a Texas legislative committee before this year.

At NH summit, GOP 2016 hopefuls take turns attacking Clinton ahead of her arrival

GOP presidential hopefuls turned up their attacks Saturday on Hillary Clinton -- taking turns piling on the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner during a party summit in New Hampshire.
The first five 2016 GOP presidential candidates or potential candidates used at least some of their stage time at the Republican Leadership Summit, in Nashua, N.H., to criticize Clinton, who is scheduled to be in the state Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m starting to worry that when Clinton travels she'll need two planes -- one for her and her entourage and one for her baggage,” said Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, particularly critical of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state in which four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, and she used a private server and email address for official business.
“When I think of scandals, the one that bothers me the most is Benghazi,” he continued. “What I fault Hillary most for is for nine months (Americans in Benghazi) pleaded for help.”
Nearly 20 Republican White House prospects were on the program for the weekend conference that ended Saturday afternoon.
Paul was followed by former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, the only high-profile, potential 2016 GOP White House female candidate so far this year.
“Hillary Clinton must not be president of the United States,” said Fiorina, who repeated her criticism that Clinton’s extensive travelogue as the country’s top diplomat is not a marker of success.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal began his remarks by pretending to have mistakenly read a Clinton stump speech, saying he wanted to talk about President Obama’s “great success” in the Middle East.
“I’m sorry, this is Hillary Clinton’s speech, not my speech,” Jindal said to laughter and applause.
He later said: “We can win, we must win, we will win. It is critical we beat Hillary Clinton.”
N.Y. real estate mogul Donald Trump was perhaps the easiest on Clinton, suggesting she was not invincible.
“I know Hillary very well,” he said. “I can beat her. And I think most people cannot.”
South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham was critical of Clinton’s now 8-day-old campaign in which her interactions with people in Iowa, and those she met along the way in her van, appear to be carefully managed.
“Hillary Clinton couldn't be here today because we didn't ask her,” said Graham, also critical of Clinton before, during and after the Benghazi attacks.
“And the reason she isn't (here) is because you can ask questions. This listening tour is like North Korea. Is there anything you'd like to ask the dear leader? How does she get away with this? I don't know. If you want to meet her you better be able to run 35mph” to catch her van.

GIVING IN? Obama suggests possible compromise on Iran sanctions

President Obama suggested on Friday that Iran could receive significant economic relief immediately after concluding a deal to curb its nuclear program, a gesture towards one of Tehran’s key demands.

Obama said such a move would depend on the final accord allowing international sanctions to be quickly re-imposed if Tehran violated the agreement it is now negotiating with global powers. The administration has said the U.S. prefers sanctions would be lifted in phases as Iran meets certain requirements.
“Our main concern here is making sure that if Iran doesn’t abide by its agreement that we don’t have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops in order to reinstate sanctions,” the president said at a news conference. “It will require some creative negotiations,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “I’m confident it will be successful.”
Such solutions could potentially include a faster timetable for lifting sanctions and also freeing up tens of billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue that has been frozen, though Obama made no reference to that money.
Later, seeking to clarify the president’s comments, a White House official said Obama “will not accept a deal without phased sanctions” relief.
How sanctions would be lifted under is becoming a flashpoint as Iran and the West try to move from a preliminary agreement made earlier this month to a final deal by a June 30 deadline.
Obama, at the news conference, which came after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, said the level and timing of sanctions relief are less important to the U.S. than the measures that will determine how quickly sanctions can be re-enacted if Iran breaks any final agreement.
On both the lifting of sanctions and the “snap back” provisions that put them back in place if Iran is in violation, Obama said U.S. negotiators will be seeking “formulas that get to our main concerns while allowing the other side to make a presentation to their body politic that is more acceptable.”