Senate fails to advance Planned Parenthood defund effort

The Senate failed Monday to advance a Republican-led measure to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, but leaders of the GOP-controlled chamber appear ready to continue the fight, galvanized by a series of unsettling videos about the group.
The vote to bring debate on the bill was 53 against to 46 in favor.
The measure had not been expected to get the 60 votes needed to move it toward a final vote because Republicans needed several “yeas” from Democrats, who largely support Planned Parenthood.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was among the Democrats who voted to defund the group. Manchin, whose state has increasingly become more Republican leaning, was undecided until a few hours before the vote.
“I am very troubled by the callous behavior of Planned Parenthood staff in (the) recently released videos, which casually discuss the sale, possibly for profit, of fetal tissue after an abortion,” he said before voting. “Until these allegations have been answered and resolved, I do not believe that taxpayer money should be used to fund this organization.”
Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly was the only other Democrat to vote yes. The only Republicans to vote no were Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He voted no so he could again bring up the measure.
On the GOP side, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said, "The American taxpayer should not be asked to fund an organization like Planned Parenthood that has shown a sheer disdain for human dignity and complete disregard for women and their babies."
The first of the videos were released late last month and show group officials negotiating the price of aborted fetal tissue for research.
Federal law prohibits the sale of fetal tissue for profit. And whether the officials were indeed negotiating a for-profit price, as critics charge, may never be settled.
Planned Parenthood says it only recovers costs of the procedures and gives the tissue to researchers only with a mother's advance consent.
However, the videos have sparked renewed efforts by pro-life organizations and others to restrict abortions and undermine Planned Parenthood.
The group provides abortions and such health and family-planning services as contraception and sexual-disease treatment to roughly 2.7 million people annually, mostly women.
By law, federal funds are already barred from being used for abortions except for cases of incest, rape or when a woman's life is in danger.
The White House says it would block legislation to defund the group.
Still, Republicans could try to gain leverage for the defund effort when Congress returns from August recess by threating to vote against spending bills to keep the government running after Sept. 30 if they include Planned Parenthood funds.
GOP leaders are reluctant to force a shutdown fight that could haunt them in the 2016 elections.
In 2013, firebrand Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, now a 2016 presidential candidate, led a showdown against Washington Democrats over funding for ObamaCare that resulted in a partial government shutdown that voters largely blamed on Republicans.
Planned Parenthood leader Cecile Richards told Fox News on Monday that a shutdown effort would be “politically unpopular” but that her group would be prepared for such a fight.
The furtively recorded videos released in July -- with close-ups of aborted fetal organs and Planned Parenthood officials describing how "I'm not going to crush that part" -- have forced the group and its Democratic champions into a defensive crouch.
Democrats are sounding a theme they have employed in recent elections, characterizing the GOP drive as an assault on health care for women.
"It's our obligation to protect our wives, our sisters, our daughters, our granddaughters" from the GOP's "absurd policies," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said before the vote. "The Republican Party has lost its moral compass."
The videos were made by anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, which has so far released four videos in which people posing as representatives of a company that purchases fetal tissue converse with Planned Parenthood officials.
In the longer term, GOP leaders are hoping that three congressional committees' investigations, plus probes in several states and the expected release of additional videos, will produce evidence of PlannedParenthood wrongdoing and make it harder for Democrats to defend the organization.
Their measure calls for funneling Planned Parenthood’s federal dollars to other providers of health care to women, including hospitals, state and local agencies and federally financed community health centers.
Republicans say that transfer would enable women to continue receiving the health care they need because PlannedParenthood's nearly 700 clinics are far outnumbered by other providers.
PlannedParenthood and Democrats contest that. They say many of the organization's centers are in areas with few alternatives for reproductive health care or for other services for the low-income women who comprise a majority of its clients.

Obama announces power plant regulations, GOP lawmakers vow fight

WASHINGTON –  President Obama on Monday announced new regulations on power-plant carbon emissions that will have a dramatic impact on how Americans make, store and use energy.  
The president, speaking at the White House, touted the plan as a necessary step to combat global warming, even as the coal industry gears up to challenge the controversial regulations in court and Republicans prepare to fight them in Congress.
"There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change," Obama said.
The plan calls for a 32 percent emissions cut by 2030, as compared with 2005 levels. The goals are even steeper than previously expected.
But already, the plan faces tough resistance. The Murray Energy Corporation, a coal mining company, announced Monday it would sue, and more than a dozen states and other companies were expected to take similar action.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, vowed to use legislation to thwart the president.
"President Obama will deliver another blow to the economy and the middle class," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
House Speaker John Boehner, who had previously described the draft plan as "nuts," called the final plan rolled out Monday "an expensive, arrogant insult to Americans who are struggling to make ends meet."
Some of the changes Obama announced go further in cutting the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. Other changes include delaying implementation and eliminating certain options that states could use to show they're cutting emissions.
"Time is not on our side here," the president said.
Republicans in Congress say they will fight the changes, and industry officials have expressed hesitation over the plan's cost and ambitious timetable.  
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., arguably the Senate's most vocal climate change skeptic, called the new rules "unachievable without great economic pain" and said it was a "burden President Obama thinks the American people should bear for the sake of his legacy."
The new regs on greenhouse gases are been the latest blow to the coal industry by the administration. Companies like Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources, one of the nation's largest coal producers, have seen their market value virtually wiped out since Obama became president in 2009.
Alpha, which operates about 60 coal mines in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wyoming and Pennsylvania, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, two weeks after its rival Walter Energy.
Alpha is the fourth large coal producer to file for bankruptcy protection in the past two years.
Obama announced the plan Monday as part of a broader push by his administration to position the United States as a global leader tackling climate change.
The rule would require a 32 percent cut in power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels, an increase from the 30 percent target proposed last year.
It also gives states another two years – until 2022 – to comply with the cuts, conceding to some critics who said the original deadline was too soon. States will also get another year to submit their implementation plans to the government.
In a sign some see as compromise, the final version of the rule keeps the share of natural gas in the nation’s power mix at current levels. In the draft proposal, there was a push to increase it.
"The plan issued by President Obama today appears to be more flexible than was originally proposed, providing states with more time to submit plans and to achieve compliance with the requirements to reduce their carbon pollution from power plants," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in written statement.
Murray Energy Corp., the largest privately held coal mining company in the country, announced Monday it was filing five federal lawsuits to fight the new rule changes. The company plans to file a lawsuit against each of the three individual regulations the EPA revealed Monday. It also plans file a lawsuit against the entire regulatory package. The company will also appeal a lawsuit it lost in June that challenged one of the then-unfinished regulations.
The White House has pushed back on claims by the coal industry that as many as 50,000 jobs will be eliminated. In its fact sheet, the White House argues the new rules will create tens of thousands of jobs while ensuring grid reliability.
According to the White House, if the rule is implemented in all 50 states, the average American family can save $85 on their annual energy bill in 2030, though critics say it will raise energy bills.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, drew from her Boston background and called the rollout “an especially wicked-cool moment.”
A day earlier, she said the rule would result in an estimated annual cost of $8.4 billion by 2030 and have total benefits, including public-health benefits, of $34 billion to $54 billion per year by then.
Though the new EPA rule is key to Obama's legacy and comes despite the Supreme Court recently challenging EPA mercury rules, it will be up to Obama’s successor to implement the plan. That could prove difficult if a Republican candidate is voted into office.
In November, Obama rolled out an aggressive climate deal with China, and has made a climate change a top priority when meeting with world leaders. He's also expected to discuss it next month when Pope Francis visits.

GOP candidates talk illegal immigration, slam Democrats at New Hampshire forum

MANCHESTER, N.H. –  The Republican Party's presidential class demanded aggressive steps to curb illegal immigration, seizing on a delicate political issue while facing off in New Hampshire on Monday night during a crowded and pointed preview of the 2016 primary season's first full-fledged debate.
All but three of the 17 major Republican candidates for president participated in what was essentially a debate lite, which -- unlike Thursday's nationally televised debate in Cleveland -- didn't have a cut-off for participation.
Without exception, the candidates aimed their criticism at Democrats instead of each other in a two-hour meeting where they had more in common than not. Not mentioned was the candidate making the most news headed into Thursday's debate: Donald Trump. The billionaire businessman declined to participate in Monday's gathering, but is poised to take center stage later in the week.
Monday's meeting offered a prime-time practice round for the GOP's most ambitious, appearing on stage one at a time, who addressed several contentious issues, immigration topping a list that also included abortion and climate change.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who may not qualify for the upcoming debate as one of the GOP's top 10 candidates in national polling, called the flow of immigrants crossing the border illegally "a serious wound."
"You want to stanch the flow," he said as his Republican rivals watched from the front row of the crowded St. Anselm College auditorium. On those immigrants who have overstayed visas, Perry charged, "You go find `em, you pick `em up and you send `em back where they're from."
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum went further, calling for a 25 percent reduction of low-skilled immigrants coming into the country legally.
"Everyone else is dancing around it. I'm going to stand for the American worker," Santorum declared.
Just an hour before the forum began, the Senate blocked a GOP-backed bill to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, reviving a debate on social issues that some Republican officials hoped to avoid in 2016.
Three of the four senators participating in Monday's event --Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- did so via satellite from C-SPAN's Washington studio so they wouldn't miss the high-profile vote.
"We had to be here to vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood," Cruz said.
It's a welcome debate for Democrats who see women -- married women, particularly -- as a key constituency in 2016. Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who would be the nation's first female president, lashed out at the attacks on Planned Parenthood in a web video released before the GOP forum.
"If this feels like a full-on assault for women's health, that's because it is," Clinton said in the video, criticizing by name former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Perry.
Democrats are also eager to debate Republicans on immigration.
GOP leaders have acknowledged the need to improve the party's standing among Hispanic voters. Yet while many Democrats favor a more forgiving policy that would allow immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship, most Republicans in the field instead focus on border security.
Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there's any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there's any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Others offered a softer tone. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said "law-abiding, God-fearing" immigrants should be allowed to stay. Those who break the law, he said, "have to be deported or put in prison."
Bush said fixing the nation's immigration system is a key part of his plan to help the economy grow 4 percent each year. He also called for reducing legal immigration, particularly the number of people allowed to enter the country to rejoin family.
President Barack Obama injected another contentious issue Monday when he unveiled new emissions limits on power plants designed to address climate change. He called it a moral obligation and warned anew that climate change will threaten future generations if left unchecked.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called the move "a buzz saw to the nation's economy."
"I want to balance a sustainable environment with a sustainable economy," Walker said.
Several candidates involved Monday night won't make the cut for Thursday's debate. Those on the bubble include South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former technology executive Carly Fiorina, who charged that Clinton has repeatedly lied during investigations into her use of a private email server and an attack on an American embassy in Libya while she was secretary of state.
"These go to the core of her character," Fiorina said.
Monday's participants included seven current or former governors, four senators, a businesswoman, a retired neurosurgeon and one former senator. Trump, who launched his presidential bid by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, was among only three major candidates who didn't participate.
Monday's event was broadcast live on C-SPAN and local television stations in Iowa and South Carolina -- states that, along with New Hampshire, will host the first contests in the presidential primary calendar next February.
After the debate, Kasich was asked about Trump's absence.
"I never thought about him," the Ohio governor said. "It'd have been great if he'd have been here."

VW Cartoon

Is Trump the one-man, 2016 Tea Party wave?

Donald Trump’s run for the Republican presidential nomination is channeling the kind of energy that helped 2010 Tea Party-backed candidates sweep establishment Republicans and Democrats alike out of Congress, Michael Needham, leader of the conservative Heritage Action for America group, suggested Sunday.
“There’s going to be a candidate who says it’s time for us to change,” Needham, the super-PAC’s executive officer, told “Fox News Sunday.” “That candidate is going to be someone who unites traditional Republicans, the Tea Party, all sorts of independents and former Democrats. … It’s not just Tea Partiers. For a lot of Americans right now, they feel disconnected from Washington.”
Needham and his group, the political arm of the long-influential Heritage Foundation, have frequently led the charge against the positions of GOP House and Senate leadership, most recently House Speaker John Boehner’s support of the Export-Import Bank, which critics say perpetuates "crony capitalism" by giving disproportionate government assistance to large corporations that don't need it.
The group also supported Tea Party-backed Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2013 successful attempt to partially shut down the federal government over funding ObamaCare.
The self-funded Trump, a billionaire New York real estate tycoon, now sits at or near the top of numerous polls.
He has eschewed the support of wealth political donors and the Washington establishment, including at times the Republican National Committee.
And he has repeatedly attempted to take down some of the Republican guard’s most established members, including senior Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a member of the Bush family political dynasty who also is at the top of most polls.
The Tea Party movement was a grass-roots effort based on the principals of less taxes and smaller government.
“People are sick of the establishment and hate their party,” said Needham, who is not a Trump supporter. “And that’s what needs to be addressed. The reason Donald Trump is generating a lot of enthusiasm is that he's ticking off the right people."

Hillary Clinton campaign launches first TV ads Tuesday in Iowa, New Hampshire

The first television advertisements in support of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign will air Tuesday in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire in a move to shore up support for the Democratic front-runner.
People close to the Clinton campaign told Fox News late Sunday that they felt it was time to enter the next phase of the 2016 campaign amid a strengthening challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and increased speculation that Vice President Joe Biden will make a late entry into the race.
The ads will focus on Clinton's legal work on behalf of families and her relationship with her late mother Dorothy, central themes of her early campaign.
"After law school she could have gone to a big firm but instead went to work for the Children's Defense Fund. In Arkansas, she fought for school reform to change lives forever. Then as first lady she helped get health care for eight million kids," says a narrator in one of the ads. " You probably know the rest."
Though Clinton remains the heavy favorite for the 2016 Democratic nomination, recent surveys have show declines in her favorability and trustworthiness ratings amid ongoing controversy over her use of a private e-mail address to handle correspondence while secretary of state.
On Thursday, Fox News reported that Clinton aides were growing increasingly nervous about the possibility of a Biden run after the vice president’s White House chief of staff was spotted having breakfast recently with major Democratic donor Louis Susman, a Clinton friend who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Obama. The New York Times reported Sunday that Biden had discussed entering the race with friends, family, and Democratic donors.
Meanwhile, Sanders has drawn large crowds in early voting states with his left-wing populist economic message. However, the self-described socialist has resisted attacking Clinton, focusing instead on contrasting his more liberal views with hers on issues like Wall Street regulations and the Keystone pipeline.
"I have a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton," he ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday. But, he added: "She and I disagree on many issues."
Clinton aides, meanwhile, have been trying to lower expectations for her primary performance by arguing that both Iowa, where the state's caucuses bring out the most passionate party voters, and New Hampshire, next door to Sanders home state of Vermont, favor their competition.
The emphasis on family issues is a change in course from Clinton's failed White House bid in 2008, when her campaign focused on her experience and toughness. Though Clinton has spent decades on the American political stage, her team insists that voters don't really know much about her background. They've focused on reintroducing the former Secretary of State, presidential candidate, and New York senator as a grandmother-in-chief, highlighting her family relationships and embracing her role in history as the first potential female president.
A number of Republican candidates have already begun airing ads, attempting to distinguish themselves in a crowded primary field. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign has invested more than $12 million in ads that start airing at the end of the year in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has spent $1 million and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's presidential campaign nearly $500,000 on spots in New Hampshire.

Authorities identify suspect wanted in fatal shooting of Memphis police officer during traffic stop

A suspect has been identified in the search for a gunman who shot and killed a Memphis police officer during a traffic stop, the city's police director said Sunday night.
A warrant for first-degree murder has been issued for 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, who is believed to be the shooter, Police Director Toney Armstrong said at a Sunday evening press conference.
Wilbourn is currently on supervised release for a 121 month sentence for robbery of a banking institution, Armstrong said.
Officer Sean Bolton, 33, may have interrupted an illicit drug transaction when he encountered a Mercedes-Benz illegally parked on a Memphis street Saturday night, according to Armstrong.
After Bolton illuminated the Mercedes with his spotlight, he approached the vehicle and was confronted by its passenger, who allegedly shot Bolton multiple times after a struggle, the director said.
Armstrong told reporters that 1.7 grams of marijuana was found inside the vehicle.
 "He's a coward," Armstrong said of the suspect, Wilbourn, "you gunned down, you murdered a police officer, for less than 2 grams of marijuana. You literally destroyed a family."
“Last night we lost an officer and a great man, a dedicated servant and family member,” Armstrong said.
The police director said that the White House has contacted the department and is aware of the incident.
The United States Marshals Service has offered a $10,000 reward for Wilbourn’s capture.
The driver of the vehicle turned himself in to authorities Sunday morning, and has since been released without charge, Armstrong said at the press conference.
Police were initially alerted about 9:18 p.m. Saturday that an officer had been shot multiple times. Armstrong said the officer was transported in critical condition to a hospital, where he died.
In a statement Sunday morning, Memphis Police said that a civilian had used Bolton's radio to notify police about the shooting.
Armstrong said police are using all available resources to find the shooter and that officers are grieving, adding that "this is just a reminder of how dangerous" the job is.
"Sadly to say, we've been here before," he said.
Bolton is the third Memphis officer to be fatally shot in slightly more than four years. Officer Tim Warren was killed while responding to a shooting at a downtown Memphis hotel in July 2011. In December 2012, Officer Martoiya Lang was killed while serving a warrant.
Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said Bolton's death "speaks volumes about the inherent danger of police work" and asked others to "pray for the family and pray for our city."
"The men and women in blue have certain rules of engagement that they have to follow, but at any given minute in a 24-hour day they're dealing with folks who have no rules of engagement

Senate to vote Monday to defund Planned Parenthood, first step in renewed battle

The Republican-controlled Senate is set to vote Monday to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, a fast response to the series of unsettling videos exposing the group's little-noticed practice of providing fetal tissue to researchers.
The measure is not expected to pass because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the other 53 Republican senators will need support from several Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold, with some moderates on both sides still apparently undecided.
However, the effort appears to be another step in the effort by pro-life groups and others to ban abortions and put an end to Planned Parenthood, which provides health services, family planning and abortions in clinics across the country.
"I think most Americans don't want their tax dollars going to this,” 2016 presidential candidate and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So I think when something is so morally repugnant to so many people, why should tax dollars go to this?”
Paul and other Republicans want the millions that go to Planned Parenthood given instead to community health centers across the country that provide similar services with the exception of abortions.  
"So it would be much less emotional for everyone if we just funded community health centers and didn't fund Planned Parenthood,” Paul said.
Democrats largely supported the group and argue the videos and the congressional Republican response is politically motivated and another attack on women.
"They're attacking women's health,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
The White House says it would block legislation to defund the pro-choice group.
Still, the furtively recorded videos -- with close-ups of aborted fetal organs and Planned Parenthood officials dispassionately describing how "I'm not going to crush that part" -- have forced the group and its Democratic champions into a defensive crouch.
The Center for Medical Progress, which recorded the videos and started releasing them late last month, accuses Planned Parenthood of profiting from selling fetal organs, which violates a federal criminal statute that lets providers recover only their expenses.
They also say Planned Parenthood is altering abortion procedures to better recover usable tissue.
Conservatives view the videos as a huge political opportunity to galvanize support for banning abortions and, some hope, prohibiting fetal tissue research. But the issue is cutting both ways, with both sides using it for fundraising solicitations.
Planned Parenthood has apologized for comments in the video but says it has broken no laws.
There are roughly 1 million U.S. abortions yearly. In its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it performed 328,000 of them.
The group and its supporters have sought to shift the focus, saying abortions represent just 3 percent of the 10.9 million services the organization provides annually in nearly 700 clinics.
Group officials also says the yearly workload includes 4.5 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases; 3.6 million contraception procedures and devices; 1.1 million pregnancy tests and 900,000 cancer tests and treatments.
Of Planned Parenthood's 2.7 million annual clients, mostly women, it says 4 in 5 earn 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less. Democrats say an attack on Planned Parenthood is an effort to keep women, many of them poor, from needed health services.
Planned Parenthood says of $1.3 billion in revenue last year, $528 million came from taxpayers, including state funds that help finance Medicaid.
Supporters of Planned Parenthood say cutting federal aid wouldn't affect the abortions it provides because federal money cannot be used for abortions except for cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in peril.
Opponents say squeezing money from Planned Parenthood makes it choose between spending its remaining funds on abortions or other services.
Republicans say the nearly 9,100 federally funded community health centers, more than 10 times the number of Planned Parenthood locations, could pick up the slack.
Planned Parenthood disagrees, saying their sites serve disproportionate numbers of low-income women and are often where no other alternatives exist.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is sponsor of the Senate bill, a female face Republicans hope will blunt repeated Democratic accusations that the GOP is waging war on women.
Underscoring the sensitivity, some of the moderates will likely cross party lines Monday. Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are among several saying little about how they will vote.
Some Republicans, include the more socially conservative members, say they won't vote for spending bills keeping the government open starting Oct. 1 with any Planned Parenthood funds.
 But GOP leaders are reluctant to force a shutdown fight that could haunt them in the 2016 elections, as are some of the party's presidential candidates.