As nuke deal deadline draws near, US and Iran hold 'intense' talks

As a deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran nears, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Saturday in what officials described as "at times intense" talks as part of the effort to flesh out a framework agreed in April.
The talks between the two countries focused on how to narrow differences over how to ease economic penalties on Iran and to what extent Tehran must open up military facilities to inspections.
The talks between Kerry and Zarif lasted six hours, in what officials described as the most substantive negotiating round since world powers and Iran clinched a framework pact in April. It was unclear what progress, if any, was made by Kerry and Zarif before the Iranian delegation began leaving for Iran.
People involved in the talks told The Wall Street Journal that political pressures could still delay or derail a deal as the two sides scramble to flesh out the agreement. While much of the focus has been on the Obama administration's struggles to prevent Congress from blocking a deal, diplomats told The Journal that growing political pressure in Iran now poses the more significant risk.
Last month's agreement left big questions unanswered, which weeks of subsequent technical discussions have done little to resolve.
Asked about completing the full accord by June 30, Zarif said, "We will try."
His deputy, Abbas Aragchi, said lower-level officials would meet again in Vienna next week.
U.S. officials provided hints of what must have been a difficult dialogue, but told The Associated Press that the encounter ultimately proved fruitful.
World powers believe they have secured Iran's acquiescence to a combination of nuclear restrictions that would fulfill their biggest goal: keeping Iran at least a year away from bomb-making capability for at least a decade. But they are less clear about how they will ensure Iran fully adheres to any agreement.
Various Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, have pledged to limit access to or even block monitors from sensitive military sites and nuclear scientists suspected of previous involvement in covert nuclear weapons efforts.
“This permission will not be granted in any way. Both our enemies and those who are waiting for the decision of the Islamic Republic should know this,” Khamenei said in a recent speech.
“I think there are a number of challenges right now,” Robert Einhorn, a senior member of the U.S. negotiating team until 2013, told The Wall Street Journal. “I think especially in the light of what the [supreme] leader has been saying, there will be a temptation by the Iranians to revisit things which they have already agreed.”
The U.S. says access to military sites must be guaranteed or there will be no final deal. A report Friday by the U.N. nuclear agency declared work essentially stalled on its multiyear probe of Iran's past activities.
The Iranians are not fully satisfied, either.
The unresolved issues include the pace at which the United States and other countries will provide Iran relief from international sanctions -- Tehran's biggest demand --  and how to "snap back" punitive measures into place if the Iranians are caught cheating.
President Barack Obama has used the "snapback" mechanism as a main defense of the proposed pact from sharp criticism from Congress and some American allies.
Exactly how rapidly the sanctions on Iran's financial, oil and commercial sectors would come off in the first place lingers as a sore point between Washington and Tehran.
Speaking ahead of Kerry's talks with Zarif, senior State Department officials described Iranian transparency and access, and questions about sanctions, as the toughest matters remaining, and cited "difficult weeks" since the April 2 framework reached in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Iran insists it is solely interested in peaceful energy, medical and research purposes, though many governments around the world suspect it of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions. The U.S. estimates the Iranians are currently less than three months away from assembling enough nuclear material for a bomb if they chose to covertly develop one.

Kerry breaks leg in Geneva bike crash, flying back to US

IDIOT

Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a bike crash outside Geneva Sunday, where he had been holding nuclear talks with Iran’s foreign minister.
Kerry called off the rest of his four-nation trip and will fly back to Boston.
State Department Spokesman John  Kirby said Kerry is stable and never lost consciousness.
Kerry should make a full recovery and is in good spirits, he said.
The accident occurred near Scionzier, France, outside the Swiss border. Paramedics and a physician were on the scene with his motorcade at the time.
Kerry was transported to Geneva’s main hospital HUG, where he was being evaluated, Kirby said. A paramedic traveling with his motorcade immediately examined Kerry after his bike apparently his a curb, causing the fall, Kirby said.
X-rays at the Swiss hospital confirmed that Kerry fractured his right femur.
Ending the trip means Kerry is skipping meetings with Spanish leaders and a conference in Paris on fighting the Islamic State group.
Kerry's cycling rides have become a theme of his diplomatic journeys, often taking his bike with him on the plane. 
During discussions in late March and early April between world powers and Iran, he took several bike trips during breaks in the negotiations. Those talks were held in Lausanne, Switzerland, and led to a framework agreement. 
Kerry met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for six hours in a Geneva hotel Saturday as the sides now work to seal a comprehensive accord by June 30.

Maryland removes parallel parking from driving test, sparking safety concerns

Maryland has become the most recent state to drop the parallel-parking requirement from its road test, sparking debate about whether the next generation of motorists will be adequately prepared to safely navigate streets.
Buel Young, a Maryland Motor Vehicles Administration spokesman, said the requirement was officially removed May 19 after state officials had determined the maneuvers and skills required to parallel park -- which include backing up, using mirrors and depth perception -- were already being evaluated in other parts of the test.
However, the decision, which follows similar ones reportedly in California, Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, is raising concerns among such groups as AAA Mid-Atlantic.
“If you’re driving in a major city, you have to know how to parallel park,” group spokesman John Townsend said Saturday, pointing out that the District has 17,000 metered, curb-side parking spots. “We don’t all go to the shopping mall.”
Townsend also said the parking part of the tryout most "terrified” him and countless other teens, which made everybody practice intensely. And it was a great test of eye-hand coordination, he argued.
Private driving coaches and others have speculated that Maryland ended the parking requirement because too many teens were flunking that part, which resulted in long waits to take the test because so many applicants were reapplying.
The MVA has been trying to shorten the wait. However, Young told The Baltimore Sun that he was unaware of a connection between that effort and ending the parking requirement. And he declined to speculate on whether the change will reduce the time required to take the test.
"We don't have any data right now because we just instituted” the change, he told the newspaper.
USA Today reports at least a dozen other states -- including Illinois, North Carolina and Oregon -- don't test parallel parking.
Officials say the parking requirement in D.C. test has not been permanently removed, despite a failure to test the skill set for several years.
Young says parallel parking will continue to be a teaching requirement in state-controlled driver's education courses in Maryland.

Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, dies of brain cancer

Beau Biden – son of Vice President Joe Biden – died of brain cancer at 46, the White House confirmed in a statement Saturday.
"It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life," the statement from Vice President Biden's office said.
"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us-especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter," the statement said.
President Obama said he and the first lady were grieving alongside the Biden family.
"Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth," Obama said in a statement released late Saturday.
Beau Biden was a lawyer and member of the Delaware National Guard and former Delaware attorney general. However, he never would follow in his father’s footsteps as a U.S. senator and perhaps even become governor.
Biden, although was planning to run for governor of Delaware in 2016, was plagued with health troubles throughout his political career.
In 2010, Biden suffered a mild stroke at only 41 years old. Three years later, he found himself in a Texas hospital for cancer treatment.
In August 2013, he would undergo surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston to remove a lesion. That was followed by radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Three months after the procedure, doctors gave him a clean bill of health.
However, Biden suffered a recurrence and was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital in May, officials said. At that time though, it was unaware why he was being treated.
Support for the Biden family poured in from both sides of the aisle Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley both expressed their sympathies to the Bidens.
“My heart is broken for the family of Beau Biden—a wonderful man who served his country with devotion and lived his life with courage,” Hillary tweeted.
“Katie and I are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Beau Biden. He served his country and the people of Delaware with great honor,” O’Malley said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Biden family in this moment of great loss.”
Senator James Langford (R-OK) also released a statement expressing his remorse.
"I'm incredibly saddened to hear of the death of Vice President Joe Biden's son, Beau Biden,” the statement said. “Our entire nation mourns with the Biden family and the White House during this difficult time. Vice President Biden has endured incredible tragedies during his lifetime. Cindy and I pray for the Biden family, Beau's widow, Natalie, and their two children."
The news of Beau Biden’s death also caught the Delaware political establishment off guard and also renewed questions about his health. Beau Biden kept a low profile and declined any interviews abou his health.
"I think he would have run. I think he would have won," said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a fellow Democrat. Markell said he last spoke to Biden in February, when he invited him to a meeting of Democratic governors in Washington, D.C.
"He was serious" about running for governor, added New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon, a longtime friend and political ally of Joe Biden who described Beau Biden as the most popular politician in Delaware. "He thought he was going to win this battle."
Gordon said he last spoke to Beau several weeks ago, when Biden participated in a conference call on crime issues in Wilmington.
"He was a rock star," Gordon said. "He had a great image, great character."
Beau Biden left office earlier this year and joined a Delaware law firm run by Stuart Grant, a prominent Democratic campaign donor and plaintiffs lawyer specializing in corporate litigation. The first announced in late April that Biden was expanding his work on behalf of whistleblower clients, but was not available to clients.
Biden, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, earned a law degree from Syracuse University in 1994. He served as a law clerk for a federal judge in New Hampshire before working for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1995 until 2002, including five years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia. In 2001, he volunteered for an interim assignment helping to train judges and prosecutors in postwar Kosovo.
With his father, then Delaware's senior U.S. senator, at his side in 2006, Biden launched his campaign for attorney general. He promised to reorganize the state Department of Justice to better combat identity theft, Internet stalking by pedophiles, street crime and abuse of the elderly.
Biden won with 52.6 percent of the vote.
"He's supped at this table since he's been 3 years old," a beaming Joe Biden said after the victory. Beau Biden was a toddler when his father was first elected to the Senate.
"I'm just proud of him," the elder Biden added. "I think he will make the state proud."
The young Biden sidestepped questions about his own political ambitions during the campaign.
"Sometimes, it's not good to look too far down the road," said Biden, who remained similarly cautious about discussing his long-range plans in an interview with The Associated Press after suffering the stroke in 2010.
"Having long-term dreams is a good thing ... but having a plan has never worked for me, because life always intervenes," Biden told the AP at the time. For Biden, his initial health scare was also a reminder to balance his job with family time — advice he encouraged others to follow.
"It's kind of reinforced how I've operated my life," he said.
As attorney general, Biden established a child predator unit, joined other attorneys general in taking on mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses, proposed tougher bail restrictions for criminal defendants, putting him at odds with some fellow Dems.
But a spate of shootings in Biden's hometown of Wilmington went largely unabated during his tenure, and his office stumbled in some high-profile murder prosecutions, including two cases in which murder charges were dropped. Biden also faced scrutiny over how his office handled the case of Earl Bradley, a pediatrician who sexually assaulted scores of young patients over more than a decade before being arrested in December 2009.
Biden cited his focus on the Bradley case in announcing in January 2010 that he would not run for the Senate seat that his father vacated in 2008 when he was elected vice president.
The younger Biden's decision stunned political observers, including many fellow Democrats who thought Joe Biden's former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, had been appointed to the Senate on an interim basis to keep the seat warm for the son. A fellow Democrat, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, won the seat after Castle, who had been considered the odds-on favorite, was upset by tea party-backed Christine O'Donnell in the GOP primary.
"I have no regrets," Biden said after O'Donnell's stunning primary victory scrambled the political calculus surrounding the Senate seat.
Biden coasted to re-election as attorney general in 2010 after Republicans declined to field a candidate against him.
In addition to his work as a lawyer and attorney general, Biden was a major in an Army National Guard unit that deployed to Iraq in 2008.
He was married and the father of two children.
Markell ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in Delaware in honor of Biden.
Funeral arrangements are pending.

Greta: Be outraged! You just got rolled by the DOJ

Back Home Cartoon

Unions seek exemption from LA minimum wage law they helped pass

Union leaders in Los Angeles are being accused of hypocrisy after being caught trying to exempt themselves from a new minimum wage law they tried to impose on others. 
For months, organized labor went after companies like McDonalds and Walmart, shaming any business that paid the old minimum wage. Carrying signs saying, "We see greed" and "We are worth more," union members marched outside businesses and appeared at City Council meetings demanding Los Angeles raise the minimum wage from $9 to $15 by 2020.
"We say, 'Don't leave anybody out, don't cut anybody out, a wage raise for all workers!'" Mary Elena Durazo, the longtime leader of the 600,000-strong Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, told a cheering crowd of supporters at a recent council meeting.
Yet after pushing through the new wage law, union officials are asking for a waiver that would allow any company that unionizes to avoid paying the minimum wage.
"It was a real surprise that in the 11th hour that labor was saying, 'well, we basically support a sub-minimum wage if a company decides to enter into collective bargaining,'" Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell said. "And that really is a complete contradiction to what they've been saying the last couple of months."
Councilmen Mike Bonin and O'Farrell are opposing the move.
"It is not acceptable to expect the L.A. City Council to become a vehicle for union organizing," said O'Farrell. "That is not what we were elected to do and that is not what I will engage in."
Bonin agreed, telling the Los Angeles Times, "For me, the point of the minimum wage in Los Angeles was to raise wages and lift [everyone] out of poverty."
What especially angered opponents was unions' attitude toward others who asked for waivers. Restaurants, nonprofits and businesses with fewer than 25 employees asked for a one-year delay. Unions opposed it, calling the 'loophole' unfair to the working poor.
Rusty Hicks -- current president of the L.A. Federation of Labor, who replaced Durazo after she left to head a casino-and-hotel worker union -- argued, "it is critical that no Angeleno, whether they're workers or owners of small businesses and nonprofits, is left behind."
But Wednesday night, Hicks changed his position, telling the council that workers who collectively bargain for wages below the minimum shouldn't be penalized. He and labor attorney Margo Feinberg say federal law protects workers who choose collective bargaining.
"This is a standard clause to protect basic worker rights," Hicks said in a statement.
He's right. Minimum wage ordinances in Chicago, Milwaukee, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose contain provisions similar to the one labor sought in Los Angeles. The municipal code in San Jose says, "all or any portion of the (ordinance) may be waived in a bona fide collective bargaining agreement."
Business groups, however, claim it's a blatant double standard.
"When unions do something like this, it demonstrates that their rhetoric about low wages is hollow," said the National Federation of Independent Business' Andrew Wimer. "They seem perfectly willing to see workers paid less if it means getting more power for themselves."
"The unions are being too cute by half," added Jot Condie of the California Restaurant Association. "They spent the last few months table-pounding against any exemptions or mitigations to the minimum wage increase -- suggesting no one should get special treatment. Now it is clear they recognize the need for those mitigations and have asked for special treatment for themselves."
O'Farrell said the law is likely to go through without any exemptions, though unions are expected to try again. The local AFL-CIO declined to answer questions submitted by Fox News.

The day President Bush's tears spilled onto a Marine's face at Walter Reed

Editor's note: The following column is excerpted from Fox News anchor and political analyst Dana Perino's new book, "And the Good News Is... Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side" (Twelve, April 21, 2015).
News of America’s military men and women [who] were wounded and killed in Iraq and Afghanistan almost overwhelmed me on some days. I may have sounded strong when I was talking to the press, but sometimes I had to push my feelings way down in order to get any words out of my mouth to make statements and answer questions.
The hardest days were when President Bush went to visit the wounded or families of the fallen. If it was tough for me, you can only imagine what it was like for the families and for a president who knew that his decisions led his troops into battles where they fought valiantly but were severely injured or lost their lives.
He regularly visited patients at Walter Reed military hospital near the White House. These stops were unannounced because of security concerns and hassles for the hospital staff that come with a full blown presidential visit.
One morning in 2005, Scott McClellan sent me in his place to visit the wounded warriors. It was my first time for that particular assignment, and I was nervous about how the visits would go.

Related Image

Expand / Contract

The president was scheduled to see 25 patients at Walter Reed. Many of them had traumatic brain injuries and were in very serious, sometimes critical, condition. Despite getting the best treatment available in the world, we knew that some would not survive.
We started in the intensive care unit. The chief of naval operations (CNO) briefed the president on our way into the hospital about the first patient we’d see. He was a young Marine who had been injured when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. After his rescue, he was flown to Landstuhl U.S. Air Force Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany. At his bedside were his parents, wife, and five-year-old son.
“What’s his prognosis?” the president asked.
“Well, we don’t know sir, because he’s not opened his eyes since he arrived, so we haven’t been able to communicate with him. But no matter what, Mr. President, he has a long road ahead of him,” said the CNO.

The Marine’s young child tugged on the president’s jacket and asked, “What’s a Purple Heart?” The president got down on one knee and pulled the little boy closer to him. He said, “It’s an award for your dad, because he is very brave and courageous, and because he loves his country so much. And I hope you know how much he loves you and your mom, too.”

We had to wear masks because of the risk of infection to the patient. I watched carefully to see how the family would react to President Bush, and I was worried that they might be mad at him and blame him for their loved one’s situation. But I was wrong.
The family was so excited the president had come. They gave him big hugs and thanked him over and over. Then they wanted to get a photo. So he gathered them all in front of Eric Draper, the White House photographer.
President Bush asked, “Is everybody smiling?” But they all had ICU masks on. A light chuckle ran through the room as everyone got the joke.
The Marine was intubated. The president talked quietly with the family at the foot of the patient’s bed. I looked up at the ceiling so that I could hold back tears.
After he visited with them for a bit, the president turned to the military aide and said, “Okay, let’s do the presentation.” The wounded warrior was being awarded the Purple Heart, given to troops that suffer wounds in combat.
Everyone stood silently while the military aide in a low and steady voice presented the award. At the end of it, the Marine’s young child tugged on the president’s jacket and asked, “What’s a Purple Heart?”
The president got down on one knee and pulled the little boy closer to him. He said, “It’s an award for your dad, because he is very brave and courageous, and because he loves his country so much. And I hope you know how much he loves you and your mom, too.”
As they hugged, there was a commotion from the medical staff as they moved toward the bed.
The Marine had just opened his eyes. I could see him from where I stood.
The CNO held the medical team back and said, “Hold on, guys. I think he wants the president.”
The president jumped up and rushed over to the side of the bed. He cupped the Marine’s face in his hands. They locked eyes, and after a couple of moments the president, without breaking eye contact, said to the military aide, “Read it again.”
So we stood silently as the military aide presented the Marine with the award for a second time. The president had tears dripping from his eyes onto the Marine’s face. As the presentation ended, the president rested his forehead on the wounded warrior's for a moment.
Now everyone was crying, and for so many reasons: the sacrifice; the pain and suffering; the love of country; the belief in the mission; and the witnessing of a relationship between a soldier and his Commander in Chief that the rest of us could never fully grasp. (In writing this book, I contacted several military aides who helped me track down the name of the Marine. I hoped for news that he had survived. He did not. He died during surgery six days after the president’s visit. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery and is survived by his wife and their three children.)
And that was just the first patient we saw. For the rest of the visit to the hospital that day, almost every family had the same reaction of joy when they saw the president.
But there were exceptions. One mom and dad of a dying soldier from the Caribbean were devastated, the mom beside herself with grief. She yelled at the president, wanting to know why it was her child and not his who lay in that hospital bed.
Her husband tried to calm her and I noticed the president wasn’t in a hurry to leave—he tried offering comfort but then just stood and took it, like he expected and needed to hear the anguish, to try to soak up some of her suffering if he could.
Later as we rode back on Marine One to the White House, no one spoke.
But as the helicopter took off, the president looked at me and said, “That mama sure was mad at me.” Then he turned to look out the window of the helicopter. “And I don’t blame her a bit.”
 One tear slipped out the side of his eye and down his face. He didn’t wipe it away, and we flew back to the White House.