Jurors sentence Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for Boston Marathon bombing

A federal jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death Friday for his part in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that left three people dead, and for the murder of an MIT police officer as he and his brother attempted their getaway.
Tsarnaev showed no emotion as he learned his fate and stood with his hands clasped in front of him, his head slightly bowed. He faces death by lethal injection.
"My mother and I think think that now he will go away and we will be able to move on," said victtim Sydney Corcoran after the verdict. "Justice. In his own words, 'an eye for an eye.'"
Corcoran nearly bled to death and her mother lost both legs.
The 21-year-old faced the death penalty or life in prison for his role in the April 15, 2013 attack in which two pressure-cooker bombs were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
It remains to be seen how quickly his execution will take place. It took authorities four years to execute Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh after his appeals were exhausted. A jury sentenced McVeigh to death in 1997. He was executed in 2001.
As a crowd gathered in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Boston, the jury went through its lengthy and complicated verdict form.
The jurors agreed with prosecutors on 11 of the 12 aggravating factors they cited and found the former college student's role in the bombing was "heinous, cruel and depraved" on eight counts.
The jury agreed with the prosecution that the bombing constituted an act of terrorism involving substantial planning and premeditation on Tsarnaev's part.
The panel also ruled as an aggravating factor the death of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest victim of the bombing. The boy had gone to the marathon with his family.
As the jury announced Tsarnaev showed no remorse for what he did, he slowly rocked back and forth between his two lawyers.
The defense asked the jury to weigh more than 20 mitigating factors in pleading that he be spared death.
But only three jurors found that Tsarnaev was under the control of his older brother, Tamerlan.
The jury reached a decision in the penalty phase of the death penalty trial after 14 hours of deliberations over three days.
Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, 17 of which carried the possibility of the death penalty.
The 2013 bombing killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Tsarnaev was also convicted of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer days later during a massive police manhunt for him and his brother.
The defense sought to save Tsarnaev's life by pinning most of the blame on his radicalized older brother, who died during their escape attempt.
Prosecutors portrayed Tsarnaev as an equal partner in the attack and so heartless he placed a bomb behind children.
During the trial's first phase, the jurors heard grisly and heartbreaking testimony from numerous bombing survivors who described seeing their legs blown off or watching someone next to them die.
Those killed in the bombing besides Richard were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier was shot to death in his cruiser days later. Seventeen people lost legs in the bombings.
Tsarnaev did not take the stand at his trial, and he slouched in his seat through most of the case, a seemingly bored look on his face. In his only flash of emotion during the months-long case, he cried when his Russian aunt took the stand.
The only evidence of any remorse on his part in the two years since the attack came from the defense's final witness, Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and staunch death penalty opponent made famous by the movie "Dead Man Walking."
She quoted Tsarnaev as saying of the bombing victims: "No one deserves to suffer like they did."

US military maintains strategy is working against ISIS in Iraq

Despite the recent setbacks in Iraq, the U.S. military command leading the fight against ISIS insists that its strategy is working and that the militants’ takeover of a key oil refinery and a government compound are fleeting gains feeding the militants’ propaganda machine.
"We believe across Iraq and Syria that Daesh is losing and remains on the defensive," said Marine Brig. Gen. Thomas D. Weidley, chief of staff for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, the name of the international campaign fighting the Islamic State. “Daesh” is the Arabic acronym for the group that swept into Iraq from Syria last June and quickly overran much of Iraq’s north and west.
As Weidley spoke to reporters Friday from his headquarters in Kuwait, the terror group had captured the main government compound in Ramadi, Iraqi officials said. Other officials said they had gained substantial control over the Beiji oil refinery, a strategically important prize in the battle for Iraq’s future and potential source of millions of dollars in income for the militants.
The battle to push ISIS out of the largest city in northern Iraq, Mosul, now seems more of a distant goal.
The Pentagon has insisted that it knew when it began a bombing campaign in Iraq in August 2014 that it could take years to force the Islamic State out of the country, and while the militants have conceded some ground in recent months, including the city of Tikrit, have proven remarkably resilient.
More than 3,000 U.S. troops are training and advising Iraqi forces providing protection for U.S. forces and facilities. Weidley said there is no move afoot to either expand U.S. presence or ask the White House for authority to put U.S. troops close to the front lines of combat.
The White House said Vice President Joe Biden called Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Friday to reaffirm U.S. support in light of the attacks on Ramadi. It said Biden promised expedited security help, including delivery of shoulder-fired rockets and other heavy weaponry to counter militant car bombs.
The State Department offered a similar assessment Friday. "There will be good days and bad days in Iraq," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said. "ISIL is trying to make today a bad day in Ramadi. We've said all along we see this as a long-term fight."
Weidley said Islamic State fighters had launched a complex attack Friday on Ramadi as part of an effort to "feed their information and propaganda apparatus." He said he could not confirm how much of the city had been lost or what percentage remains in Iraqi control. He said his command had seen social media postings that depict a successful Ramadi offensive.
"This is similar to the (techniques) they've used in the past where they've conducted attacks trying to gain social media gains by taking photos and documenting small-term gains and then using it for propaganda purposes," Weidley said, adding that IS was inflating the importance of its success.
"We've seen similar attacks in Ramadi over the last several months for which the ISF (Iraqi security forces) have been able to repel, and we see this one being similar to those," he said, adding that the U.S. is confident the Iraqi government will be able to take back the terrain it has lost in Ramadi.
Weidley called Ramadi a “critical city,” which appears to stand in contrast to remarks made by Gen. Martin Dempsey last month.
Dempsey said Ramadi was not central to the future of Iraq and said its potential loss “won’t be the end of the campaign” against ISIS. He also said the Beiji oil refinery, the site of fierce battles between militants and Iraqi forces, was a “more strategic” target for the terror group.
In Ramadi, Iraqi troops were forced to withdraw during an attack in which three suicide car bombs killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens more, said Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi. The mayor said the militants raised their black flag over the captured government compound, which houses provincial and municipal government offices.
Anbar provincial councilman Taha Abdul-Ghani said the militants killed dozens more captured security forces in the city as well as their families, without providing an exact figure. He said Iraqi and coalition warplanes were bombing the militants inside the compound.
Weidley's command said Friday in its daily summary of U.S.-led bombing in Iraq that coalition planes conducted 12 airstrikes in Iraq overnight Thursday. These included one airstrike near Ramadi that hit an IS headquarters. Four airstrikes near Beiji hit IS fighting units, destroying two fighting positions and a building, the U.S. military said.

Clintons report making $25M for speeches since Jan. '14

 Poor?

Democrats?

Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton earned more than $25 million combined in speaking fees since January 2014, Fox News confirmed Friday.
Clinton’s presidential campaign reported the income in a personal financial disclosure report filed with the Federal Election Commission. The form also shows that Hillary Clinton earned more than $5 million from her 2014 memoirs, “Hard Choices.” Each White House candidate is required to disclose a financial report.
Clinton has started her campaign for president by painting herself as a champion for the middle class. However, Republicans have scrutinized her about the wealth she and Bill Clinton have amassed since she left the White House. That includes their ability to command six-figure fees for delivering speeches and the finances behind the Clinton Foundation because of its acceptance of donations from foreign governments.
On last year’s book tour, Clinton told an interview that her family was “dead broke” when they left the White House, which Republicans say shows a lack of understanding of the needs of typical families.
The conservative American Rising PAC released a video saying that Clinton made the “dead broke” comments while she was earning millions. However, the committee notes that those comments were made in reference to the immediate aftermath of the Clinton presidency, not 2014 income.
Liberals have also questioned whether Clinton is too closely tied to Wall Street, pointing out her days representing New York in the U.S. Senate. They also feel she might not aggressively seek to regulate the nation’s financial industry and serve as an adequate bulwark against economic inequality.
The FEC filing shows that the couple earned more than $25 million for more than 100 paid speeches between January 2014 and May 2015, which averages out to about a $250,000 fee per speech.
The report also lists assets of between $5 million and $25 million in a mutual fund managed by Vanguard that the Clinton setup in the past year. The couple did not earn any capital gains during the period and paid an effective tax rate of more than 30 percent in the 2014 tax year.
Clinton last filed a financial disclosure report during her final year as Secretary of State in the Obama administration in 2012. She reported that her and her husband’s wealth was estimated between $4 million and $20 million. Much of that income came from the lucrative speeches and appearances made by Bill Clinton around the world.
A recent Associated Press review of the Clintons' disclosures and State Department records found that Bill Clinton had been paid at least $50 million for his appearances between 2009 and 2012, the four years that Hillary Clinton served as the nation's top diplomat.
Federal candidates are required to file personal financial disclosures within 30 days of announcing their candidacy or on May 15. Several Republican candidates in the race filed a request for an extension to those deadlines.

Each disclosure form lists candidates' assets and liabilities, and provides a snapshot of their annual income. But federal rules allow those figures to be reported in wide ranges instead of specific amounts — allowing candidates, for example, to report a large asset as worth between $1 million and $5 million.
Any income exceeding $200 has to be reported and most assets worth more than $1,000 at the end of a calendar year must be disclosed.
Assets can include bank accounts, real estate, insurance plans, stock and securities holdings. Liabilities can include loans, mortgages and other debts.
Annual income includes not only salaries, but also stock, securities and real estate profits, interest, book profits and speeches and other honoraria.

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Senate panel probes ObamaCare aid confusion, as customers learn they owe IRS

The Senate's top investigative committee has launched an inquiry into the system that's supposed to ensure ObamaCare tax credits go to the right customers for the right amounts -- amid concerns that many Americans are getting inflated or improper subsidies. 
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is leading the investigation, says because of the confusion with the system, millions of Americans are learning after the fact they inadvertently got too much money and now owe the IRS hundreds. 
"I'm concerned that the subsidy eligibility process is so complicated that many consumers believed they were receiving cheaper insurance coverage than they ultimately got," Portman said in a statement. 
Portman, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, announced his panel's investigation in a letter sent Thursday to HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell. "I have repeatedly raised questions regarding efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services to prevent improper payments through the exchanges," he wrote, saying his prior inquiries were insufficiently answered. 
"We take seriously our responsibility to make sure people who are eligible stay covered while protecting taxpayer dollars," said Meaghan Smith, the director of communications for the Department of Health and Human Services. 
Portman also cited two investigations into the government's income-verification systems. The Government Accountability Office said in 2014 its investigators secured subsidies using false identities in 11 out of 12 undercover attempts. Also last year, an HHS inspector general report found the department "did not have procedures or did not follow procedures to ensure" against government overpayments. 

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• Has ObamaCare promise to relieve stress on ERs failed?

Committee investigators also point to an analysis by H&R Block that found almost two-thirds of its filers receiving an ObamaCare tax credit owed the government at the end of the year. On average, those filers were required to repay more than $700 of their ObamaCare subsidies. The study found most customers claiming the credits were confused about the requirements. 
"The Administration assured Congress that the eligibility verification process for the exchanges was working, but millions of Americans are now learning that they received overpayments that they have to repay," Portman said. 
Others might have received credits in error because of poor system safeguards, and Portman noted the risks "wasting billions in hard-earned tax dollars." 
ObamaCare offers eligible consumers government-funded tax credits to buy insurance on exchanges. The federal government sets the amount based on a recipient's stated income, family size and whether an applicant's job offers health coverage. Generally, the health care law offers larger subsidies to those earning less, and with larger families. If a customer finishes the year earning more than they stated on their ObamaCare insurance application, the law requires them to repay a portion of the credit. 
To ensure applicants are receiving the correct amount, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it compares the tax credit applicants' stated income with data from the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. 
"The Marketplace has instituted several layers of protections to ensure that a consumer's identity is verified and is receiving an accurate determination based on trusted data sources or from supplemental information supplied by the consumer," said an HHS official. Of the GAO investigation, the HHS official claimed that those undercover investigators failed to ultimately secure health coverage from healthcare.gov. The official added that the online exchange has "significantly progressed, both from a tech side and a consumer-education side, including strengthening our verification processes." 
Critics say there is still too little known about the effectiveness of the administration's income-verification system. 
"We don't know how much they got that was too much or too little," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "This is all guesswork at the moment, and it'll remain guesswork as the years go by." 
Over the next decade, the CBO projects the federal government will spend nearly $870 billion dollars on ObamaCare insurance subsidies. Those projections, however, fluctuate significantly with unpredictable increases in health care costs, changes in the law and population dynamics. 
Committee staff is also investigating the state-based exchanges. Portman is requesting HHS name any state running an exchange that has "stopped attempting to verify applicants' eligibility to enroll in ACA [Affordable Care Act] health care plans or to receive ACA subsidies." ObamaCare shoppers select insurance plans from state-run exchanges in 13 states and the District of Columbia. 
In June 2014, the HHS inspector general found problems with the way the federal, California and Connecticut insurance exchanges were checking eligibility. "The deficiencies in internal controls that we identified may have limited the marketplaces' ability to prevent the use of inaccurate or fraudulent information when determining eligibility of applicants for enrollment," the report said. 
Portman's letter to Burwell also references a 2013 federal regulation that allowed, until this year, the administration to rely more on applicants' submitted information than independent verification. That reliance, however, is the foundation of much of the U.S. tax system, noted one ObamaCare supporter and law professor. 
"Although the system is not perfect, it likely results in a very small percentage of the total leakage in our tax system," said Timothy Jost, a professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. "Congress would do better by giving the IRS the resources to dramatically increase audits and enforcement generally." 
Other experts said there might be little the administration can do to address federal overpayments because of the design of the federal tax system and ObamaCare's reliance on it. 
"The law itself asks the bureaucracies to do something that's basically impossible," said Holtz-Eakin. "Find every American, determine their income.  Given their income, determine the subsidy for which they're eligible, send that subsidy in advance every month to the exchange in the state of their residence, and to the insurance plan of their choice." 
Portman's letter to Burwell requests responses to more than two dozen questions on the income-verification systems, how they performed during the law's first year and whether any failings were resolved. Only the committee's Republican majority staff is involved in the inquiry, according to Portman. The chairman's letter asked HHS staff to respond by May 29.

ABC’s Stephanopoulos gave $75G to Clinton Foundation without disclosing it, apologizes

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos got deeper in hot water Thursday with his network, which revised upward to $75,000 the amount of money he contributed to the Clinton Foundation without full disclosure to the network or viewers -- while he was covering Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and foundation controversies.  
Stephanopoulos apologized Thursday and said he should have revealed the contributions, which were initially reported at $50,000. 
But an ABC official told Fox News on Thursday afternoon the anchor has changed that number, to $75,000. He is also pledging not to moderate any presidential debates, Fox News has learned. 
The anchor is a former Bill Clinton spokesman and aide, and his ties to the former first family are well-known. However, as first reported by Politico, he made multiple $25,000 donations to the foundation in recent years -- and while the donations can be found in the organization's records, Stephanopoulos did not disclose them to viewers as he covered the Clintons. 
Even when he interviewed the author of "Clinton Cash" -- the high-profile book examining potential conflicts of interest behind Clinton Foundation funding -- on ABC's "This Week," Stephanopoulos did not disclose his own contributions. 
Stephanopoulos said in a statement on Thursday: "I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work they're doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply. I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize." 
The Washington Free Beacon said Thursday that Stephanopoulos confirmed the donations to Politico only after the Free Beacon asked ABC News for comment. 
Meanwhile, ABC News said they stand behind their star anchor. 
A statement from the network said: "As George has said, he made charitable donations to the Foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record. He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation. He's admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him." 
As of noon ET on Thursday, however, the ABC News website included no acknowledgement of the apology or the network's statement on the ethics issue. 
Rich Noyes, research director for the conservative Media Research Center, said the contributions also weren't discussed when Stephanopoulos interviewed former President Bill Clinton in recent years -- but at least should have been disclosed when he interviewed "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer. 
"It's especially egregious that he did not talk about this [then] ... That was the time he needed to come clean," he said.   
In that interview, the host of "This Week" posed tough questions to Schweizer, pressing him on whether he really had any "smoking gun" showing wrongdoing by the Clintons in their dealings with foundation donors and in Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state. 
Noyes said such tough questions would be expected, but viewers might see them differently had the host disclosed his donations. Noyes said he hopes ABC News addresses the issue on air.

Obama agrees to boost military ties with Arab partners, tries to ease Iran fears

President Obama announced expanded military ties with Persian Gulf nations on Thursday, as he sought to assure the anxious Arab allies that the U.S. would help protect their security in the face of mounting regional unrest and concerns about Iran's growing influence. 
At the close of a Camp David summit, Obama vowed a "new era of cooperation." He pledged a fast-track for transfers of arms and missile defense systems, as well as expanded joint military training and other programs. 
And though he did not declare a new formal security pact with the partners, he reiterated that current agreements allow the U.S. to use military force in aid of its allies if necessary. And he offered assurances that an international nuclear agreement with Iran would not leave the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council more vulnerable. 
Obama spoke in a press conference following talks with members of the Gulf State Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. He was seeking to placate those countries' concerns over whether the U.S. is committed to helping protect their security, in a time of "extraordinary changes and some great challenges." 
"I was very explicit ... that the United States will stand by our GCC partners against external attack," Obama told reporters. 
In a joint statement with the GCC issued right after the talks, the White House said current security agreements would hold no matter the outcome of an Iranian nuclear deal. The remarks spoke directly to fears that Iran might pursue an offensive policy against its regional rivals if economic sanctions are eventually lifted, freeing up resources for a more aggressive military posture.
"In the event of such aggression or the threat of such aggression, the United States stands ready to work with our GCC partners to determine urgently what action may be appropriate, using the means at our collective disposal, including the potential use of military force, for the defense of our GCC partners," the statement said.
"The United States is prepared to work jointly with the GCC states to deter and confront an external threat to any GCC state's territorial integrity that is inconsistent with the UN Charter."  
He said he updated the partners on current negotiations with Iran, and they all agreed that a comprehensive resolution is in everyone's security interests, "including the GCC partners'." 
But uncertainty about the U.S. commitment to their interests in light of the Iran deal has fueled some tension among these nations. Just two other heads of state -- the emirs of Qatar and Kuwait -- joined Obama at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin mountains. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain all sent lower-level but still influential representatives. The most notable absence was that of Saudi King Salman. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia announced that the king was skipping the summit, two days after the White House said he was coming. 
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were representing Saudi Arabia instead. The White House and Saudi officials insisted the king was not snubbing the U.S. president. 
In Obama's remarks and the joint statement, the tone was conciliatory and positive, expressing commitments that they would work together on shared interests in the region, including efforts to combat Islamic State terrorism and continuing instability in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Details of how they would do that, and which of the several conflicts raging across the Middle East, however, were few.
"We are still going to face a range of threats across the region," declared Obama. "We are going to work together to address these threats." He noted  they agreed Syrian President Bashar Assad had no future in Syria. Despite differences over how they would support Assad's opponents at the outset, the two sides agreed that they could cooperate to "ultimately destroy ISIL/DAESH in Syria," and warned "against the influence of other extremist groups, such as Al-Nusrah, that represent a danger to the Syrian people, to the region and to the international community."
The White House also welcomed the five-day cease fire in Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which along with the militants, has killed some 800 Yemeni civilians, according to the U.N. They also "strongly affirmed," with the partners, "the necessity of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a just, lasting, comprehensive peace agreement that results in an independent and contiguous Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel."
With what seemed a nod to critics who say Obama has not pressured the Gulf leaders enough on human rights issues -- Saudi Arabia, for example, has been accused of numerous abuses, including the flogging of a political blogger, who still remains in prison -- earlier this year, Obama told reporters, that "true and lasting cooperation" includes a strong civil society, representative institutions and minority rights. He pledged the U.S. will help to expand economic and educational opportunities for young people, too.
For his part, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called Thursday a productive day. He said the Arab leaders were "assured that the objective is to deny Iran the ability to obtain a nuclear weapon," and that all pathways to such a weapon would be cut off. He added that it was too early to know if a final nuclear agreement would be acceptable, saying, "We don't know if the Iranians will accept the terms they need to accept."  
As the leaders gathered, an Iranian naval patrol boat fired on a Singapore-flagged commercial ship in the Persian Gulf. A U.S. official said it was an apparent attempt to disable the ship over a financial dispute involving damage to an Iranian oil platform.  
The incident took place a bit south of the island of Abu Musa just inside the Gulf, according to the U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss details by name. The White House said no Americans were involved in the incident.

Nepal says wreckage of missing US Marine helicopter found

Nepalese officials said Friday that the wreckage of a U.S. Marine helicopter that disappeared earlier this week had been found, along with at least three bodies.
Chief of army operations Maj. Gen. Binoj Basnyat told the Associated Press that wreckage of the missing chopper was spotted in the mountains northeast of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu. Basnyat said no signs of life could be seen from the air. 
Later Friday, Nepal's Defense Secretary Iswori Poudyal announced that the bodies had been found near the wreckage, but gave no details about the nationalities of the victims. The U.S. Marines said they were sending their own rescue team to assess the wreckage and determine if it was the missing helicopter, the UH-1 "Huey."
The suspected wreckage was found about 15 miles from the town of Charikot, near where the aircraft had vanished on Tuesday while delivering humanitarian aid to villages hit by two deadly earthquakes, according to the U.S. military joint task force in Okinawa, Japan. 
The discovery of the wreckage followed days of intense search involving U.S. and Nepalese aircraft and even U.S. satellites.
The U.S. relief mission was deployed soon after a magnitude-7.8 quake hit April 25, killing more than 8,200 people. It was followed by another magnitude-7.3 quake on Tuesday that killed 117 people and injured 2,800.
The helicopter had been delivering rice and tarps in Charikot, the area worst hit by Tuesday's quake. It had dropped off supplies in one location and was en route to a second site when contact was lost.
U.S. military officials said earlier this week that an Indian helicopter in the air nearby had heard radio chatter from the Huey aircraft about a possible fuel problem.