The five employees of an Illinois manufacturing plant killed when a colleague who had been terminated opened fire included an intern on his first day on the job, a union chairman described as a “gentle giant,” and a grandfather of eight.
Gary Montez Martin, 45, killed the five people after being fired from his job at Henry Pratt in Aurora, and he was later fatally shot by police after apparently waiting for officers to arrive in a back machine shop, authorities said.
“My dad was faithful and said, even when he was sick: ‘Nope, I’ve got to go to work because I’ve got to do my job,'” Diana Juarez, the daughter of slain shipping and warehouse worker Vicente Juarez, told Telemundo on Saturday. He was a father of three and a grandfather of eight, the family said.
Killed in Friday’s rampage were Juarez, who joined the company in 2006; plant manager Josh Pinkard; Russell Beyer, an employee of more than 20 years and union chairman; human resources manager Clayton Parks; and Trevor Wehner, a student at Northern Illinois University who started as an intern in the HR department on Friday, according to police and the company.
Wehner was expected to graduate in May with a degree in human resources management, university president Lisa Freeman said in a statement.
Parks was an alumnus of Northern Illinois University who graduated from its college of business in 2014, she said.
Thomas Wherner, Trevor’s younger brother, said, “He wanted to do some good to the people around him, help them out.”
“I always looked up to him just because he did have so many friends and he was so loved, and I just always wanted to be like him,” Thomas Wherner said in an interview with NBC News.
Beyer was “a gentle giant,” Mindy Hilliard, who is married to Beyer’s brother, said. “He always was laughing and joking and had a smile on his face. He loved his family.”
“He had a daughter and a son and was going to be 48 years old this upcoming Thursday,” she said.
Pinkard, 37, was an Alabama native and “a devoted husband and father to three kids,” a cousin, Zack Howard, said in a statement.
Mueller Water Products, the parent company of Henry Pratt, said Pinkard joined the parent company 13 years ago in Albertville, Alabama, and moved to Aurora last spring to become plant manager.
“He loved God, his family, and Mississippi State sports,” Howard said.
Scott Hall, president and CEO of Mueller Water Products, said Saturday that the company was providing counseling and other assistance.
The company will be reviewing its procedures to determine if anything can be done in the future “to ensure this horrible incident is never repeated,” he said.
“Friday was basically the worst day that our company has ever had,” Hall said. “We are hurting right now.”
Another employee who was shot and wounded was expected to be released from the hospital Saturday, Hall said. Four police officers also were shot and wounded, a fifth was injured by shrapnel and a sixth was injured but not shot, police said.
Martin was armed with a .40-caliber handgun that had a laser on it, and multiple spent magazines were found, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said.
He bought the gun in March of 2014 but legally should not have been in possession of a gun after it was discovered that he had a 1995 felony conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi, authorities said.
A background check was done when Martin was hired 15 years ago, but it did not turn up that conviction, Hall said. Martin was being fired Friday “for a culmination of various workplace rules violations,” Hall said.
Aurora’s police chief said Saturday that Martin opened fire at a meeting in which his employment was terminated, before moving outside the room. Police said Martin was later killed by officers after a short gunfight with police who entered the building looking for him.
Diana Juarez, the daughter of Vicente, said Saturday the family was heartbroken but also frustrated by what they said was a lack of information following the shooting.
“We don’t know anything — besides that he’s gone,” she said.
She also wondered how Martin was able to have a gun when he was being fired.
“He injured a lot of people and he killed my dad,” she said. “And now I’m not going to see my dad — I’m never going to see my dad. He’s never going to come home from work. Never.”
Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/intern-first-day-grandfather-eight-among-victims-shooting-aurora-illinois-n972521
The Vatican has announced the conclusion of the adjudicatory process against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, finding that he transgressed his vows, used his power to abuse both minors and adults and violated his sacred duty as a priest. In accord with University President Rev. John I. Jenkins’ statement of Aug. 2, 2018, the University of Notre Dame is rescinding the honorary degree conferred in 2008.
Source Article from https://news.nd.edu/news/statement-on-theodore-mccarrick/
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said that President Trump has “got to do it on his own” to build a border wall in an interview with “Face the Nation” Sunday. Mr. Trump — dissatisfied with the $1.375 billion Congress provided him for barriers at the southern border — declared a national emergency to free up more funds to construct border barriers on Friday.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to Trump, the Congress is locked down and will not give him what we’ve given past presidents,” Graham said. “So unfortunately, he’s got to do it on his own, and I support his decision to go that route.”
Graham, a staunch ally of Mr. Trump in the Senate, noted that former Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama sent troops to the border. He argued that many in Congress only oppose the wall because Mr. Trump is the person proposing it.
Graham also discussed Mr. Trump’s comment Friday that he “didn’t need to” call the national emergency, but he did so because he would “rather do it much faster.” Graham said that this comment did not open the national emergency to legal challenges.
“I think the president’s been making a persuasive case that those borders [are] broken. Drugs are flowing across the border killing Americans, [there is] human trafficking. We’ve got a dangerous situation along the border,” Graham said. He added that the president has the authority to send troops to the border and build barriers while they are deployed.
“I support his desire to get it done sooner rather than later. And I’m disappointed that my Democratic colleagues would not give the President the money to secure the border that they were willing to give the Bush and Obama,” he said.
However, the president’s decision to declare a national emergency is also facing intense criticism from some Republicans. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander released a lengthy statement calling the declaration “unnecessary, unwise and inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution” — “unnecessary” because Congress had appropriated funds for border security, “unwise” because future presidents could misuse the power, and “inconsistent” with the Constitution because only Congress is bestowed with the power to tax and spend the people’s money.
Democratic attorneys general and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have threatened to file suit against the declaration. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t rule out a legal challenge on Thursday. Mr. Trump predicted he will be sued but will ultimately prevail in the Supreme Court.
Mr. Trump is expecting to use $8 billion to build the wall, including the $1.375 billion approved by Congress, with an additional $600 million expected to come from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture funds, $2.5 billion coming from the Defense Department’s drug interdiction program, and an additional $3.5 billion coming from the Pentagon’s military construction budget.
Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lindsey-graham-says-trump-has-to-do-it-on-his-own-to-build-the-wall/
This week’s White House Report Card has split our graders over President Trump’s actions in classic left-right fashion, just like the nation.
Our graders, conservative analyst Jed Babbin and Democratic pollster John Zogby, gave starkly different reviews of Trump, whose week was highlighted by signing a rare emergency declaration to steer money not OK’d by Congress to his border wall project.
Jed Babbin
Grade A-
It was a very good week for President Trump, including the Senate confirmation of Attorney General William Barr, a compromise on government funding, a national emergency declaration intended to fund partial building of his signature border wall, and a Senate Intelligence Committee statement that their investigation hadn’t found any direct evidence of his campaign colluding with the Russians during the 2016 election.
Trump’s action avoided another government shutdown. The 1,200-page compromise spending bill was, however, not a good deal. Trump got about $1.4 billion in funding for border barriers, but the bill was chock full of poison pills that limited what kind of barrier can be built, where it can be built, and more provisions that are anathema to the president. Among them are a pay raise for federal workers and $415 million in aid payments to border crossers.
On Friday, Trump signed the bill and declared a national emergency on the border crisis. The national emergency is intended to free up other funds — mostly from unspent military construction appropriations — to give the president another $3 billion to work with. But the national emergency declaration, as Trump predicted in his Friday announcement, is subject to challenge in court. The first lawsuit challenging the validity of the national emergency declaration was filed in Washington, D.C. federal court before the day ended.
Barr takes over at the moment of new revelations about the FBI and the Justice Department talking about removing the president under the 25th Amendment. Barr’s toughest job will be to clean out the FBI and the Justice Department of those who abused their powers to Trump’s disadvantage in the election and after it.
Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said its investigation had not found any direct evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign with the Russians. Burr’s committee’s investigation is regarded as the most bipartisan on the Hill.
And overseas, Vice President Mike Pence was in Europe scolding our allies there to get end their efforts to get around U.S sanctions to continue to trade with Iran. His efforts aren’t likely to succeed.
John Zogby
Grade F
President Trump ends the week with an average gain in the polls. This despite polls showing opposition to his southern border wall.
Trump continues to use false premises and outrageously inaccurate statistics to promote the wall, but more people are seeing through the manipulation he is using to fulfill his famous campaign promise. While he compromised with Congress to avert another government shutdown, he issued a controversial order calling the southern border crisis so he can fund the wall.
This is dangerous on several different fronts and challenges the limits of his executive power and the Constitution.
As an elected official, Trump is supposed to act with the majority behind him. His wall move is policy and governance by tantrum.
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/weekly-trump-report-card-emergency-wall-move-divides-the-country
Vice President Pence on Saturday called on European allies to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out in defense of the accord.
“The time has come for our European partners to stand with us and with the Iranian people, our allies and friends in the region,” Pence said at the Munich Security Conference.
“The time has come from our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join us as we bring the economic and diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region and the world the peace, security and freedom they deserve,” he added.
Pence, who had a bilateral meeting with Merkel at the annual conference, spoke out shortly after the German leader praised the Obama-era nuclear deal.
“The only question that stands between us on this issue is, do we help our common cause, our common aim of containing the damaging or difficult development of Iran, by withdrawing from the one remaining agreement? Or do we help it more by keeping the small anchor we have in order maybe to exert pressure in other areas?” Merkel said, according to The Associated Press.
Saturday’s speech was the second time this week that Pence has urged European allies to pull out of the nuclear agreement.
“Sadly, some of our leading European partners have not been nearly as cooperative. In fact, they have led the effort to create mechanisms to break up our sanctions,” Pence said Thursday in Warsaw during a conference on the Middle East organized by the U.S.
European efforts to increase trade with Iran was “an effort to break American sanctions against Iran’s murderous revolutionary regime,” he added. “It is an ill-advised step that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the [European Union] and create still more distance between Europe and the United States.”
President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump nominates ambassador to Turkey Trump heads to Mar-a-Lago after signing bill to avert shutdown CNN, MSNBC to air ad turned down by Fox over Nazi imagery MORE, a longtime critic of the nuclear pact that the U.S. under former President Obama signed with Iran and several other world powers, withdrew the U.S. from the deal last year on the grounds that it did not address other issues such as Tehran’s support for militant groups in the Middle East and its missile program.
The Iran deal is one of several foreign policy platforms that the Trump administration and European allies have disagreed upon, as well as trade and NATO contributions.
Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/430351-pence-calls-for-european-allies-to-dump-iran-deal-after-merkel
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(CNN)State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday she has withdrawn from consideration as UN ambassador.
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/politics/heather-nauert-withdraws-un-ambassador/index.html
(UPDATED with Chicago PD statement) BREAKING: The focus of the Chicago Police department’s probe into the alleged assault of Jussie Smollett almost three weeks ago has shifted – to the Empire star himself.
“The new direction of the investigation is now based on the premise that Mr. Smollett was an active participant in the incident,” a law enforcement source close to the situation told Deadline today.
“We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation,” a Chicago PD statement late Saturday declared. “We’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview.”
Lawyers for Smollett have been contacted by law enforcement in the last several hours with a request that the actor resubmit to questioning by detectives, I also hear. In anticipation of such requests, the Empire star has in recent days retained attorneys Victor P. Henderson and Todd Pugh. The Chicago-based lawyers specialize in criminal defense.
Today’s new “trajectory” statement is the first update on the case from the department’s remarks last night that “due to new evidence as a result of today’s interrogations, the individuals questioned by police in the Empire case have now been released without charging and detectives have additional investigative work to complete.”
This comes as CNN is reporting that sources in the Chicago PD tell them that the actor who plays the openly gay Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox drama “paid two men to orchestrate the assault.”
The two men in question are Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo.
The duo were released by authorities at 9 PM Chicago time on Friday after being arrested and held without charge by the police for 48 hours. Chicago detectives are now following the lead that the brothers purchased the rope that was placed around Smollett’s neck in the early hours of January 29 when he was supposedly attacked by two men screaming racist and homophobic slurs.
At least one of the two has appeared as an extra on the Chicago-filmed Empire and seems to know Smollett socially
Solidly supportive of Smollett in the immediate aftermath and days since January 29. Fox had no comment today on the emerging direction of the investigation when contacted by Deadline. On the day of the attack, 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Entertainment said in a statement they were “deeply saddened and outraged” by the assault.
At the same time and in the following days, Empire co-workers, colleagues, many across the industry and even President Donald Trump expressed support and outrage at the attack that Smollett described. A sold out February 2 West Coast live show at the Troubadour saw Smollett take the stage to cheers and describe how he fought back against his assailants to even stronger cheers.
Facing doubts about the event as police searched for “persons of interest” and Smollett handed over limited phone records to them, the performer went on Good Morning America on February 14 to say he thought the attack occurred because of his ongoing criticism of Trump. “I come really, really hard against 45,” he told Robin Roberts. “I come really, really hard against his administration, and I don’t hold my tongue.”
This week, Fox didn’t hold their tongue at all in refuting any notion that Smollett may have staged the attack because his exit from Empire was being considered by producers. “The idea that Jussie Smollett has been, or would be, written off of Empire is patently ridiculous,” said 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Entertainment on Valentine’s Day. “He remains a core player on this very successful series and we continue to stand behind him.”
Empire co-creator Danny Strong and writers on the hip hop series also refuted the rumor that local Chicago media was running with on the Windy City filmed show
Reps for Smollett did not return request for comment on their client’s perspective or situation.
Anita Bennett contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/02/jussie-smollett-attack-suspect-chicago-police-cnn-empire-1202559032/
AURORA, Ill. (Reuters) – The gunman who killed five co-workers and wounded five policemen at an Illinois factory was a violent felon who nevertheless obtained a state permit to buy a firearm despite being legally barred from owning one, authorities said on Saturday.
Gary Martin, 45, who carried his pistol to work on Friday apparently suspecting he faced dismissal from his job, opened fire after being told of his termination in a meeting at the Henry Pratt Company plant in Aurora, Illinois, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago, police said.
The dead included the plant manager, a human resources supervisor, a human resources intern and two other workers. A sixth employee and five police officers responding to the scene were wounded, and the gunman himself was slain about 90 minutes later in a gunfight with police who stormed the building.
Martin had purchased the murder weapon, a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun with a laser sight, in March 2014 from a local gun dealer, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman told reporters on Saturday.
Despite his criminal history, the weapon was lawfully sold to Martin two months after he was issued a state Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID card, a document used to designate people eligible to own and buy guns.
To apply, Illinois residents need only furnish a valid driver’s license, a recent photo and $10 fee. State police then have 30 days to approve or deny the application.
Ziman said Martin’s 1995 conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi, which reportedly involved the bludgeoning and stabbing of a girlfriend, “would not necessarily have shown up on a criminal background check conducted for the FOID card.”
The conviction came to light only after his gun purchase, when Martin applied for a concealed-carry permit requiring him to undergo fingerprinting in a more extensive screening process, Ziman said.
“The fact remains that some disgruntled person walked in and had access to a firearm that he shouldn’t have had access to,” she said at the news conference. “I don’t want to make it political. This is a human issue.”
Police are seeking to learn why Martin was not forced to surrender his gun once his felony conviction was revealed. Ziman said disclosure of his conviction should have triggered a revocation of his FOID card, generating a letter instructing him to relinquish his weapon and permit to law enforcement.
The chief said records indicate such a letter was sent, and “we’re looking into whether we followed up on that.”
In addition to the 1995 assault conviction, Martin had several prior arrests in Illinois, including for suspicion of domestic violence and criminal damage to property.
90-MINUTE SIEGE
The apparent background check lapse was likely to draw renewed scrutiny to a system that allowed a gun merchant to sell a weapon to a convicted felon who was legally barred from possessing one.
Friday’s bloodshed marked the latest spasm of gun violence in a nation where mass shootings have become almost commonplace, and came a day after the first anniversary of the massacre of 17 people by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The siege in Illinois unfolded over an hour and a half, although the gunman’s victims, including the wounded policemen, were struck by gunfire in the first several minutes, police said.
Officers eventually found Martin in a machine shop at the back of the 30,000-square foot (2,800-square meter) building, and he died after a short gunfight.
The plant, which manufactures water distribution products and operates as a factory and warehouse, employs about 200 workers in a working-class district of Aurora, the second-largest city in Illinois.
Scott Hall, president of Henry Pratt’s corporate parent Mueller Water Products, told a separate news conference on Saturday that Martin was a 15 year veteran of the company.
Hall said Martin had been subject to disciplinary actions and that he was ultimately fired for a “culmination of workplace violations.” He declined to elaborate.
Among the victims were Trevor Wehner, a human resources intern who was spending his first day at the company when he was fatally shot, police and a family friend said.
Authorities identified the other workers killed as Josh Pinkard, the plant manager; Clayton Parks, the human resources manager; Russell Beyer, a mold operator and union chairman; and Vicente Juarez, a stock room attendant and fork lift operator. Their ages were not given.
A sixth employee wounded in the shooting was expected to survive, as were the five policeman struck by gunfire. At least two of them remained hospitalized on Saturday in stable condition, Ziman said.
Neighbors of Martin, who lived in an apartment in Aurora, described him as a quiet man whom they often saw operating a remote control car and a drone.
“He looked very normal,” said neighbor Gildardo Bravo, a 43-year-old cleaning company supervisor.
Reporting by Robert Chiarito; Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Additional reporting and writing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Tom Brown, James Dalgleish and Daniel Wallis
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-shooting/illinois-factory-gunman-killed-five-victims-after-being-fired-idUSKCN1Q50L0
Sgt. Bill Rowley, a spokesman for the Aurora Police Department, said the police had no record of being notified by the state police that Mr. Martin had not volunteered his firearm as required in 2014. It was unclear whether Mr. Martin, who lived in Aurora at the time of his death, also lived there in 2014.
A day after the shooting, police gave a fuller account of the deadly events inside the Henry Pratt Company warehouse on Friday afternoon, and identified the five workers — all apparently co-workers of Mr. Martin — who were killed.
The victims included some of the company’s most experienced workers but also its newest: Josh Pinkard, who was the plant manager of the warehouse, perished in the shooting, as did Trevor Wehner, who was a student at Northern Illinois University and an intern in the company’s human resources department. Mr. Wehner was expected to graduate from college in May. Friday, when the shooting occurred, was the first day of his internship, according to officials from Northern Illinois University.
Also killed, the police said, were Vicente Juarez, a stock room attendant and forklift operator; Clayton Parks, the human resources manager; and Russell Beyer, a mold operator. Officials at Northern Illinois said that Mr. Parks had also graduated from the university, in 2014, and said it was offering counseling help to those in need. (The school, in DeKalb, Ill., was the site of another mass shooting 11 years ago.)
Police first received several 911 calls at 1:24 p.m. on Friday, as frantic callers said there was a shooter at the warehouse. Mr. Martin had been summoned to what police described as a “termination meeting” at the warehouse where he had worked for at least 15 years. At least two victims were shot at the scene of that meeting.
Four minutes later, police arrived and were confronted by the gunman. Two of the first four officers to arrive were shot and transported to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening.
According to the police, Mr. Martin then retreated into the 29,000-square-foot building, hiding from officers in a machine shop near the back of the facility. It took about 90 minutes for officers to find, shoot and kill him.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/aurora-illinois-shooting.html
President Trump and his political team plan to make his years-long quest for a border wall one of the driving themes of his reelection effort — attempting to turn his failure to build such a project into a combative sales pitch that pits him against the political establishment on immigration.
Trump has declared a national emergency to secure the funds Congress has repeatedly denied him despite his own admission that the move is likely to get tied up in court. This move has galvanized many of his supporters even as others on the right remain dubious and disappointed.
His campaign is fundraising off his showdown with congressional Democrats over the border — portraying the opposition party as more interested in political games than the public’s safety.
And faced with the fact that he has yet to build an inch of the concrete or steel wall he promised, Trump and his campaign have started relying on a rhetorical sleight of hand: speaking the wall into existence.
“Now, you really mean, ‘Finish that wall,’ because we’ve built a lot of it,” Trump falsely claimed at a campaign rally Monday in El Paso after supporters broke out in chants of “Build that wall!”
As he spoke, giant placards with the words “Finish the Wall” hung from the rafters, an unmistakable signal Trump’s aides say reflects the campaign’s growing push to convince the president’s supporters that the border barrier they imagined him building is already real.
These endeavors underscore the extent to which Trump and his allies are attempting to make 2020 a repeat of 2016 — centered on a portrayal of the nation as under siege from criminal immigrants and other dark forces, and reliant upon a die-hard base of older whites in rural areas.
The strategy comes with serious risks. It largely assumes that despite Trump’s poor poll numbers and his setback in the midterms, he remains popular enough to rely on the same strategy that delivered him the White House through a thin electoral college victory even as he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes.
“He used immigration pretty effectively in 2018 to motivate voters, but the question is whether it’s going to be enough in the states he needs in 2020,” said Jennifer E. Duffy, a nonpartisan election analyst at the Cook Political Report. “In places like Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona, can it get the job done?”
Duffy added that if Democrats nominate a strong presidential nominee, Trump might find himself fighting “the last war” as the electorate adjusts to new choices and new debates.
Trump’s Republican allies remain confident and said his messaging in recent weeks — however bungled — is nevertheless setting him up for the 2020 presidential election, both in framing the wall as a motivating tool for his core voters and underscoring his commitment to border security.
“You can argue about the details, but strategically, it works,” said former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.
“The president wants Beto O’Rourke out there, in contrast, saying that walls kill people and we shouldn’t have walls. That could be a snapshot of the 2020 election,” Gingrich said of the former Democratic congressman from Texas, a potential presidential contender.
Critics say the president’s exaggerated claims about ongoing wall construction will ultimately backfire, undermining his ability to sell himself as a master negotiator who can work his will in Washington.
“The president has always survived by living inside a reality-distortion field,’’ said Tim O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald” (2005). “When things don’t go his way, he simply creates another narrative.”
Trump’s claims that the wall is well underway have intensified and become more descriptive in recent weeks as he weathered a record-breaking government shutdown over wall money and bipartisan negotiations to stave off a second lapse in federal funding.
“The wall is very, very on its way,” Trump told a conference of law enforcement officials Wednesday. “It’s happening as we speak . . . and it’s a big wall. It’s a strong wall. It’s a wall the people aren’t going through very easy.”
On Friday, Trump signed a bill that included $1.375 billion for fencing and other expenditures, a far cry from the $5.7 billion he previously demanded. That money can also only go toward building the type of barriers already in use, not the concrete wall Trump highlighted during the campaign and early in his presidency.
By declaring a national emergency, the White House is attempting to bypass Congress and repurpose more than $6 billion from the Pentagon and other agencies to fund wall construction, but Democrats said they will attempt to stop the move legislatively and in the courts.
“What you’re seeing is the mother of all pivots,” said veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy, a Trump critic.
He’s trying to turn being outfoxed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “into a win by creating a rally cry for the reelect campaign,” he said. “For his core base, it’ll ameliorate some of the criticism. But it won’t help him with general-election voters. He’s playing survival politics with his own base and using the illusion of success.”
Trump has been building up to this strategy for much of the past year, as conservative angst mounted over the lack of progress on the wall while Republicans had full legislative control. Democrats took back the House in last year’s midterm elections, all but killing Trump’s chances of securing adequate funding to build hundreds of miles of wall on the border.
The president’s original promise, to make Mexico pay for the wall, also remains unfulfilled, succumbing to a political reality that was long obvious despite Trump’s claims to the contrary.
The president has complained repeatedly about news coverage depicting the wall as not being built and has told his campaign and communications officials they have to convince people that more of the wall is being built.
He has sought to meet with contractors about the wall, even giving specifics on how tall the wall should be.
Trump has repeatedly looked to unorthodox places to get wall money. For example, he has discussed using money meant to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria to fund the wall. During a recent presidential trip to the border, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) told Trump that pulling funds from Puerto Rico could jeopardize financial aid to Florida and Texas, which were also hit hard by natural disasters. Still, the option remains on the table for future expenditures toward the wall, two White House officials said.
While Trump has expressed frustration over Republicans not providing funding for his wall during the first two years of his presidency, GOP congressional leaders have been irritated at times by his shifting demands and lack of attention to the specifics of the legislative debate.
The $5 billion he demanded earlier this year was an arbitrary number, aides said, after he grew frustrated that Congress only gave him $1.6 billion — even though his own aides sought that amount. Trump has often talked about the wall, but current and former White House officials say it has not been a top priority among senior aides. There has been no designated point person on the issue, and Trump’s agitation and concern often waxes and wanes.
Several times since taking office, Trump has redefined what he considers a wall. While his administration funded wall prototypes that were to be built of solid concrete or steel, Congress has placed restrictions into funding bills that only allow for previously deployed fencing designs. Trump has since claimed that such fences, including renovations that replace existing barriers, constitute the wall he promised.
During the last government shutdown, Trump told advisers that Democrats would be more inclined to support the wall if it was called a “steel slat barrier” or some other phrase. But eventually he relented, realizing there was no support for the wall no matter what he called it.
Polls show most voters blamed the president for the government shutdown, though Trump has since cast it as a strategic win, despite the fact that it did not produce the wall funding he wanted.
According to a person who spoke with the president Monday, Trump has argued that he will eventually be able to claim that he “shut down the government over this wall” and that his supporters will approve.
Some of the president’s allies have said that politically, Trump’s “finish the wall” rhetoric should be interpreted more metaphorically than literally.
“The point of the wall is to show how the president is committed to border security and painting Democrats into a corner as being against that,” said former White House legislative director Marc Short.
“Finish the wall,’’ he said, “is a good message as long as the wall is a metaphor for border security.”
A White House official said it is even broader than that.
“Finish the wall is really: ‘Finish what we started.’ It’s about the Trump presidency, more than anything,” said the official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s telling the voters to stick with us, finish what we started, as the Democrats pursue the Green New Deal or Medicare-for-all.”
Veteran Democrats acknowledge the power of Trump’s pitch in a deeply divided nation but question whether it can work again in 2020 in the same way it worked with some swing voters in 2016.
“It’s an applause line that has emotional resonance — and it’s completely irrational,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “There is, I think, a broad majority of Americans who are really fed up with the false contention that the wall is somehow the equivalent to border security. It’s a vanity project for the president.”
Many moderate Republicans, such as Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent who represents the Philadelphia suburbs, have noticed Trump’s evolving updates on the wall — and have grown frustrated with his insistence on calling for a wall.
“I never even use the term wall,” Fitzpatrick said. “That conjures up images of a brick-and-mortar structure, from sea to shining sea, when it’s far more complicated.”
Democrats have pledged to file legal challenges to Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, setting up a constitutional clash over the president’s attempt to usurp spending power from Congress.
A court battle could stretch out for months or years, but Trump is already determined to tell his supporters he is moving full speed ahead on building the border wall.
“He fashions his own reality,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. “It’s like John Kennedy going out after the Bay of Pigs and saying, ‘What a great victory.’ But for [Trump’s] base, I’m just not sure that it matters to them.”
Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered at a performing arts high school in the Bronx on Saturday to hear the first inaugural address of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly-elected liberal firebrand and youngest member of Congress.
Ten minutes before she took the stage, a group of young people inside Renaissance High School for Musical Theater and the Arts began chanting her initials — “A-O-C, A-O-C” — and clapping. When she took her seat, the entire audience gave her a standing ovation.
After a New York judge swore her in and local politicians provided her an introduction, Ocasio-Cortez launched into a formal address to establish the agenda that would drive her congressional work for the next two years, an unusual move for a freshman member of Congress.
“Thank you for being here in the community,” she said, “choosing to show up for each other.”
Her speech touched on a number of issues, including the government shutdown, immigration, her Green New Deal and Amazon’s decision to pull out of a deal that would have established one of the company’s headquarters in Queens.
“We don’t have to settle for scraps in the greatest city in the world,” she said, referring to the $3 billion tax incentives provided to Amazon, a company valued at over $1 trillion. “If others don’t want to negotiate with us, that’s not our problem.”
Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most prominent elected officials to receive flak over the company’s decision to pull out of the deal. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the deal would have brought a flood of new jobs to the area and increased property values.
But the congresswoman did not waver in her opposition, calling on her constituents to be brave and unafraid. She encouraged them to speak truth to power, build a community capable of change and establish a relationship with her office, promising to hold a town hall every month.
“I’m still looking forward to our next two years,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez also defended her Green New Deal, which the Republican Party had blasted since her office first introduced it.
“The Green New Deal doesn’t belong to me. The Green New Deal belongs to indigenous communities, it belongs to the residents of Flint it belongs to Puerto Rico, it belongs to the victims of wildfires.”
On Feb. 7, she introduced the resolution on the policy calling for a complete transition to renewable energy by 2030.
Though only a freshman lawmaker, Ocasio-Cortez secured a spot on the House Financial Services Committee last month, also known as the House Oversight Committee, which regulates and oversees the financial services industry.
In the past, she has said that she’s “fighting for a working class agenda,” supporting things like universal healthcare, tuition-free colleges and universities and renewable energy.
“Personally, I’m looking forward to digging into the student loan crisis, examining for-profit prisons/ICE detention, and exploring the development of public & postal banking,” said Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter after joining the committee.
Ocasio-Cortez’s address comes as she has secured a lot of momentum and support on the more liberal side of the party and on social media.
Her speech at the House Financial Services Committee floor slamming campaign finance policies, became the most viewed video of any politician in the history of Twitter, according to a video analytics firm.
Earlier this week, she spoke in front of thousands of people attending a rally in Washington, calling on Congress to enact permanent protections for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status at a time when the Trump administration has tried to end the immigration program multiple times.
But while speaking to her constituents on Saturday, she focused on working together to “continue to create community.”
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n=e.mediaTypes,r=m.getAdUnitSizes(e);if(n&&n.banner){var i=n.banner;i.sizes?(i.sizes=r,e.sizes=r):(m.logError(“Detected a mediaTypes.banner object did not include sizes. 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Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/pope-francis-mccarrick-catholic-sex-abuse-scandal.html
On Friday, all that remained of the formerly bustling migrant quarter around the Barretal shelter was a small camp around the corner, only partially covered by a tin roof. The conditions are far from comfortable, but the occupants said it was better than sleeping on sidewalks.
Most were not yet ready to give up trying to enter the United States, but knew of others who had. Elde Rodriguez, 26, said he had left Honduras hoping to send money back to his wife and daughter. Believing that he would not qualify for asylum, he tried last week to cross the border illegally but he and a friend were unable to find their away across and turned back.
“There’s enough work here in Mexico, and you can live on that if you’re alone. But you can’t make enough to send money home, and that’s the point about all this,” he said. “If I can’t get in, I’ll just keep trying.”
While Tijuana appears to be emptying, large groups of migrants have accumulated in other areas along the border as a result of the new policies. After a riot the day before, authorities in Mexico said on Friday that they would disband a group of 1,400 Central American asylum seekers who had been waiting in the city of Piedras Negras to cross the border into Eagle Pass, Tex., according to news reports.
The Trump administration has said that the latest policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, which it called Migrant Protection Protocols, is a vital response to a crisis at the border. Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has said the policy aims to alleviate a humanitarian crisis on the border and secure the United States. Introduced as a pilot program across the border from San Diego, the administration plans to expand the policy into Texas.
Border Patrol apprehensions of families along the southwest border remain near all-time highs, though there was a slight downward turn in January, as is often the case, according the latest government figures. Customs and Border Protection said more than 1,800 Central American parents and children crossed the border illegally on Monday, the largest number of families recorded on a single day. And like other asylum policies of this administration, the “remain in Mexico” policy has already drawn legal scrutiny, leaving its future uncertain.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/border-migrants-asylum-mexico-aclu.html
When President Trump declared a national emergency along the southern border, he predicted his administration would end up defending it all the way to the Supreme Court.
That might have been the only thing Mr. Trump said Friday that produced near-universal agreement.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced its intention to sue less than an hour after the White House released the text of Mr. Trump’s declaration, which said the “current situation at the southern border presents a border security and humanitarian crisis that threatens core national security interests and constitutes a national emergency.”
Nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen later filed suit, urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to “bar Trump and the U.S. Department of Defense from using the declaration and funds appropriated for other purposes to build a border wall.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several Democratic state attorneys general already have said they might go to court. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he is filing a lawsuit to challenge the declaration, CBS News’ Errol Barnett reported.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler also announced that his committee will be investigating Mr. Trump’s reasoning for calling the national emergency.
The coming legal fights seem likely to hinge on two main issues: Can the president declare a national emergency to build a border wall in the face of Congress’ refusal to give him all the money he wanted, and, under the federal law Mr. Trump invoked in his declaration, can the Defense Department take money from some congressionally approved military construction projects to pay for wall construction?
Mr. Trump is expecting to use $8 billion to build the wall, including the $1.375 billion approved by Congress, with an additional $600 million expected to come from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture funds, $2.5 billion coming from the Defense Department’s drug interdiction program, and an additional $3.5 billion coming from the Pentagon’s military construction budget.
Mr. Trump relied on the National Emergencies Act of 1975, which Congress adopted as a way to put some limits on presidential use of national emergencies. The act requires a president to notify Congress publicly of the national emergency and to report every six months. The law also says the president must renew the emergency every year, simply by notifying Congress.
The House and Senate can revoke a declaration by majority vote, but it would take a two-thirds vote by each house to override an expected presidential veto.
Beyond that, the law doesn’t say what constitutes a national emergency or impose any other limits on the president.
The Department of Defense (DOD) released a statement saying the president invoked sections 12302, 284(b)(7), and 2808 of Title X of the U.S. Code.
Section 12302 authorizes “involuntary activation” of reserve troops to perform a “federal mission at the direction of the secretary of defense.” Section 284(b)(7) allows the DOD to support counter-drug activities of other federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “with the construction of roads, fences, and lighting” to disrupt drug trafficking.
Section 2808 of Title X authorizes the Defense secretary to decide whether barriers are necessary to support the actions of the armed services, and to redirect unobligated military construction funds to construct the border barriers.
The broad grant of discretion to the president could make it hard to persuade courts to rule that Mr. Trump exceeded his authority in declaring a border emergency.
“He’s the one who gets to make the call. We can’t second-guess it,” said John Eastman, a professor of constitutional law at the Chapman University School of Law.
Courts often are reluctant to look beyond the justifications the president included in his proclamation, Ohio State University law professor Peter Shane said on a call organized by the liberal American Constitution Society.
But other legal experts said the facts are powerfully arrayed against the president. They include government statistics showing a decades-long decline in illegal border crossings, as well as Mr. Trump’s rejection of a deal last year that would have provided more than the nearly $1.4 billion he got for border security in the budget agreement he signed Thursday.
Opponents of the declaration also are certain to use Mr. Trump’s own words at his Rose Garden news conference Friday to argue that there is no emergency on the border.
“I could do the wall over a longer period of time,” Mr. Trump said. “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”
ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said Mr. Trump’s remarks are an admission that there is no national emergency. “He just grew impatient and frustrated with Congress,” Romero said in a statement.
However, trying to turn the president’s words against him failed in the challenge to Mr. Trump’s ban on travel to the United States by citizens of several mostly Muslim countries. The ban’s opponents argued that Mr. Trump’s comments as a candidate and as president showed the ban was motivated by anti-Muslim bias, not concern about national security. Lower courts struck down the ban, but the Supreme Court upheld it in a 5-4 vote last year.
Mr. Trump said he expected to lose in lower courts that he claims have been unfair to him, particularly if lawsuits are filed in California. “Hopefully, we’ll get a fair shake and we’ll win in the Supreme Court, just like the ban,” he said on Friday.
Beyond the challenge to Mr. Trump’s authority to declare an emergency, lawsuits also are expected to focus on the military construction project law that allows the re-allocation of money in a national emergency.
“It’s hard to know how exactly this is going to unfold politically or judicially,” said Shane, the Ohio State professor.
Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/national-emergency-declaration-already-facing-legal-challenges-trump-2019-02-16/
Police released the names Saturday morning of the five employees killed in Friday’s shooting at the Henry Pratt building in Aurora.
In addition to Wehner, they include:
Clayton Parks of Elgin, the human resources manager
Russell Beyer of Yorkville, a mold operator
Vicente Juarez of Oswego, a stock room attendant and forklift operator
Josh Pinkard also of Oswego, plant manager
Another shooting victim, a male employee, was treated at a local hospital for non-life threatening gunshot wounds.
In the morning hours following the shooting at the historic Henry Pratt Building in Aurora, family members of the victims began identifying loved ones, surviving employees met with grief counselors and a community continued to absorb the shock of this local tragedy.
In addition to Wehner, Parks was an NIU alumnus, according to a statement issued by NIU President Dr. Lisa C. Freeman.
Freeman noted that Parks graduated from from the NIU College of Business in 2014.
“Loss like this is devastating and senseless. I ask our university community to please keep the Wehner and Parks families, friends and communities in your hearts and offer them caring thoughts,” Freeman said.
“It’s important that we also support one another during this time of grief and sadness. Please know that there are a variety of resources available to you. Students seeking support can contact Counseling and Consultation Services 24-hours a day at 815-753-1206. Our Division of Students Affairs staff is also available to provide assistance and support services. For faculty and staff, NIU offers support though our Employee Assistance Program.”
Mueller Water Products, the company that operates the Henry Pratt facility, released this statement on its Twitter account:
“Mueller Water Products is shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy that occurred today at our Henry Pratt facility in Aurora, Illinois.
Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones, the first responders, the Aurora community and the entire Mueller family during this extremely difficult time.
Our entire focus is on the health and well-being of our colleagues and we are committed to providing any and all support to them and their families.
We continue to work closely with law enforcement, with whom we share our deepest gratitude for their support.”
Five employees of the west suburban valve company were killed Friday when their former colleague, Gary Martin of Aurora, apparently despondent following the recent loss of his job, entered the building with a handgun and began firing.
Police responded, and immediately took fire from Martin. Five of the officers were struck by gunfire at the scene before eventually shooting Martin, who died from his wounds.
Officers continued to search the 29,000 sq. ft. warehouse for additional evidence as the investigation continues.
Source Article from https://www.daily-chronicle.com/2019/02/16/update-victims-identified-from-aurora-shooting-include-student-intern/atlsqzf/
Theodore McCarrick, shown in 2011, has been accused of abusing minors and adults over a nearly 50-year clerical career.
Patrick Semansky/AP
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Patrick Semansky/AP
Theodore McCarrick, shown in 2011, has been accused of abusing minors and adults over a nearly 50-year clerical career.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Updated at 10:14 a.m. ET
The Vatican has defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, it said Saturday, making him the highest-ranking church official to date to be expelled from the priesthood for sex abuse.
A church tribunal found McCarrick guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power,” the Vatican said. Pope Francis has approved the ruling and there is no possibility of appeal, the statement said.
McCarrick, 88, resigned his post as cardinal last year after an investigation found evidence he had molested a minor altar boy almost a half-century ago. Another man told The New York Times that he was in his 20s when McCarrick abused him in the 1980s. McCarrick was a bishop in New Jersey at the time. The Times also found that two New Jersey dioceses had secretly paid settlements to two men who had accused McCarrick of abuse.
“Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated,” Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Saturday as he announced McCarrick’s punishment. “A different treatment for bishops who have committed or covered up abuse in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable.”
Reporting on Weekend Edition, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli said at the peak of his power, McCarrick was a “globe-trotting power broker” and one of the church’s most powerful figures. He served as archbishop of Washington from 2000 to 2006, and he was elevated to the elite position of cardinal in 2001. His successor as Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, resigned last year after reports suggested he knew of widespread abuse while he was bishop of a Pennsylvania diocese but didn’t act to stop it.
Pope Francis embraces then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick during a 2015 visit to the U.S. McCarrick resigned the cardinalate last year before being defrocked Saturday.
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Pope Francis embraces then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick during a 2015 visit to the U.S. McCarrick resigned the cardinalate last year before being defrocked Saturday.
Jonathan Newton/AP
For years, McCarrick had been rumored to have used the power of his office to coerce seminarians — young men training to be priests — to have sex with him, Sylvia reports. One priest who encountered McCarrick while in seminary said McCarrick had frightened him. “When he would speak to you, he would touch you,” the Rev. Desmond Rossi told NPR’s Renee Montagne last year. “He was very tactile. He would, at one point, put his hand on my knee and kind of just leave it there when I was alone with him in an office.”
“In situations like that, it isn’t only so much as what this person has done in that moment,” Rossi said. “It’s what they can do because they have this power. What are they going to do next? And that’s what can be traumatizing.”
Stripping clerical status is considered one of the most severe forms of punishments for Catholic priests. The announcement of McCarrick’s defrocking comes days before Pope Francis convenes an extraordinary summit on sex abuse in the church. That meeting is already expected to receive intense media coverage. Last month, Philip Pullella, a veteran Reuters Vatican correspondent, told NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli that defrocking McCarrick before the conference would send a “strong signal” that Pope Francis is serious about addressing abuse.
In addition to the allegations against McCarrick, the Catholic Church last year dealt with a number of other reports of widespread sex abuse and abuse of power around the world. A Pennsylvania grand jury found that for decades, 300 “predator priests” had abused at least 1,000 victims in six of the state’s eight dioceses. German church leaders detailed the cases of more than 3,600 children who were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014. In October, Pope Francis defrocked two Chilean bishops for what the Vatican called “manifest abuse of minors.”
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/16/695426603/vatican-defrocks-former-cardinal-mccarrick-finds-him-guilty-of-sex-abuse
Potential 2020 presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said if it were up to him, there would be no border wall in El Paso, Texas.
O’Rourke, a Democratic former Texas congressman and candidate for Senate, responded in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Thursday to a question tweeted by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who asked whether O’Rourke would make the city’s border wall disappear if he could.
“Absolutely,” O’Rourke said without hesitation.
“I’d take the wall down,” O’Rourke said, adding that the barrier has “not in any demonstrable way made us safer.”
O’Rourke said the existing wall “has pushed migrants and asylum seekers and refugees to the most inhospitable, the most hostile stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border ensuring their suffering and death.”
Related: Beto O’Rourke throughout his political career:
O’Rourke, a fierce opponent of President Donald Trump’s fear-mongering on immigration, vehemently opposes Trump’s plan to declare a national emergency to build his promised border wall after failing to gain congressional approval.
“It’s hard to make a rational case for an emergency declaration or troops on the border or any amount of additional border wall or border fencing or steel slats,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke held a Trump counter-rally in El Paso on Monday during the president’s visit to the city.
Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/02/15/beto-orourke-id-take-the-wall-down/23670633/
Updated at 9:45 p.m.
A gunman opened fire at an Aurora manufacturing company Friday afternoon, leaving five employees dead and five police officers injured before cops shot and killed the shooter, police said.
Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman identified the shooter as 45-year-old Gary Martin. She said police “believe he was an employee” of the Henry Pratt Company.
Ziman said Martin had worked at Henry Pratt for 15 years and was going to be terminated on Friday.
Martin’s sister, Tameka Martin, gave a different version of his employment history. She said Martin had worked at Henry Pratt for at least 20 years until he lost his job a couple of weeks ago.
“He shot officers, so if they did shoot him and kill him, they was, I guess, defending themselves.” Martin said.
The names of the five people found dead inside the building have not yet been released, but police said they were all Henry Pratt employees.
Another employee was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
“Today is a sad day in the city of Aurora,” Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin said. “The horrible feeling that we get when we see it on the news, to experience it firsthand is even more painful.”
Ziman said officers responded at 1:24 p.m. to “multiple calls for an active shooter” and were “fired upon immediately.”
Police eventually entered the 29,000-square-foot building, where they found Martin with a Smith & Wesson handgun. Officers killed Martin during an exchange of gunfire, Ziman said.
Five officers were shot — including two of the first four to arrive — during the standoff, the chief said. All five were taken to local hospitals, and two were airlifted to the Chicago area for further treatment. Some of the officers remained in surgery Friday night, but all the officers’ injuries are considered non-life-threatening, police said.
President Donald Trump tweeted, “Great job by law enforcement in Aurora, Illinois. Heartfelt condolences to all of the victims and their families. America is with you!”
“May God bless the brave law enforcement officers who continue to run toward danger,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a Friday evening news conference.
The wounded were taken to:
The Henry Pratt Company, which makes valves for the potable water, wastewater, power generation and industrial markets, is headquartered in Aurora, a city of more than 200,000 people about 40 miles west of Chicago.
It’s about 1.5 miles from Aurora University, which was being used by officials as a unification center where family members can get more information on the victims.
Aurora resident Greg Zanis, who gained national attention for putting up crosses at mass shooting sites across the country, said he never believed a mass shooting would happen in his hometown.
“Now our streets are covered in blood,” Zanis said. “Streets I’ve been driving down for 50, 60 years. And now this happens.”
Zanis said he’d like to make crosses with the victims’ names and put them up near the Henry Pratt Company.
Earlier, all schools in West Aurora School District 129 were on a soft lockdown. Parents were alerted through mass text and phone messages. Schools lifted the lockdown about 3:30 p.m. and began dismissing students in 40-minute intervals.
Aurora parent Carly Zabinski, who is a teacher in a different district, got some of those texts and phone calls.
“Being a teacher myself, I know the training teachers go through to keep students calm and safe,” she said. “I’ve been through that training.”
Zabinski said she knew the school had a plan in place, but she was still scared for her son, who is a second-grader at Goodwin Elementary School, about five miles from the shooting.
“I’m trying to prepare myself with how to approach this with a 7-year-old,” she said as she made her way to pick up her son. “How can I make him understand he’s safe, but at the same time there’s these crazy things that happen.”
At Acorn Woods Condominiums, where Martin lived, a mix of brick apartments and condos are nestled on a quiet street just a mile and a half from the shooting.
Neighbors gathered on sidewalks near Martin’s unit Friday evening and wondered among themselves if they knew him.
Jennifer White, who said she lived in his building, described Martin as a “normal guy” who seemed to live alone and “kept to himself.”
Christy Fonseca said she often worries about some of the gang-related crimes and shootings around her mother’s Aurora neighborhood. But she never expected the type of phone call she got from her mom on Friday, warning her to be careful with an active shooter loose in the town.
“In Aurora, period, we’d never thought anything like this would happen,” Fonseca said.
Susie An, Michael Puente and the Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
Source Article from https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/aurora-shooting-leaves-6-dead-including-gunman/2b0f21be-b524-4061-bdba-c105bf5b5fd7
VATICAN CITY — A joint Catholic-Muslim declaration signed by Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi earlier this month was praised for trying to push back a drift toward a “clash of civilizations” but received criticism for a controversial passage regarding religious diversity that some Church scholars believe deviates from the Catholic faith.
The Holy Father signed the document, entitled “On Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, on Feb. 4.
The Vatican said the document was “an important step forward” in Christian-Muslim relations and a “powerful sign of peace and hope for the future of humanity.”
“The document is courageous and prophetic,” the Vatican said, because it confronts the “most urgent issues of our day,” encouraging believers in God “to question their own conscience” and to “confidently assume their own responsibility so as to give life to a more just and united world.”
The government of the United Arab Emirates has said the document will be taught in the country’s schools.
But a number of theologians and philosophers criticized a passage in the document that stated the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God.” Such a teaching, they said, appeared to contradict the Church’s central belief that the Christian faith is the only valid and the only God-willed religion through which man can be saved and that God, being truth itself, cannot will false religions.
The full passage states:
“Freedom is a right of every person: Each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.”
“How can God, who wants his disciples to go out and preach to the whole world and baptize them, have willed any Christian heresy, let alone religions that deny the faith of which Jesus says to Nicodemus that he who believes in him will be saved and he who does not will be damned (John 3:18)?” Austrian Catholic philosopher Josef Seifert asked.
The passage, he added, contradicts the Great Commission — Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all he commanded — and instead turns God “into a relativist” who neither knows there is only one truth, nor cares whether men “believe in truth or falsity.”
Seifert called on the Holy Father to “revoke” the sentence that “constitutes a total break with logic as well as with biblical and Church teaching.”
Cardinal Burke
Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura, also believes the statement “has to be removed from this accord because it’s not correct.”
In Feb. 12 comments to the Register, he noted that some have tried to justify it by saying that the Pope is referring to the permissive will of God: that other religions are an “an evil that God permits.” But the cardinal argued that the document is not declaring this, but, instead, “that the plurality or diversity of religions is good.”
“That’s a mistaken notion,” Cardinal Burke said. “It’s certainly confusing for the faithful regarding salvation, which comes to us through Christ alone.”
According to Italian Church historian Roberto de Mattei, the statement is made worse when viewed in the context of the “symbolic importance” of the event, during which the Pope proposed that, “in order to safeguard peace,” mankind needed to “enter together as one family” into “the ark of fraternity.”
For de Mattei, not only did the document negate the principle that “there’s no salvation outside the Church, but after denying this principle, Pope Francis says: ‘What is the true salvation?’ And he is replying that the true salvation is an ‘ark of fraternity’ where the supreme value is fraternity and religions.”
A Dominican theologian, speaking on condition of anonymity, also believes that when read in the context of Pope Francis’ other statements on Islam, which have generally been favorable, then “we must take Francis at his word: In his view, both Christianity and Islam were actively willed by God for the good of the world.”
Such a belief, he said, “undermines the Catholic faith in the uniqueness of the Incarnate Son of God and in the salvation that comes only through union with Jesus Christ through grace.”
Positive Perspectives
On the papal plane back from Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis stressed there was nothing in the document that was not in line with the Second Vatican Council — including a phrase which, he said, “surprised even me.”
“From the Catholic point of view, the document does not pull away one millimeter from Vatican II,” he said. He also said “some theologians” had read it, including the theologian of the Pontifical Household, who “approved it.”
Vatican sources said the theologian, Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych, first read a draft of the document in October, but did not see the final draft, and that he did not recall seeing the particular passage of controversy.
Asked if the papal theologian was aware of the passage and whether he judged that it could be interpreted in a theologically acceptable way, papal spokesman Alessandro Gisotti told the Register on Feb. 13 that Father Giertych had seen the document on “Human Fraternity” “at the final moment of its preparation” and that there is “no basis for questioning” the Pope’s words about the matter on the papal plane.
And other observers disagree with the criticism of the document, arguing that the “diversity of religions” passage must be read in context and in the light of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and that God can will different religions in a broad and ambiguous way.
Opus Dei Father Robert Gahl, an associate professor of moral philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, warned against using a “hermeneutic of suspicion” that concludes that the Pope “commits heresy several times each day” and instead urged “a charitable hermeneutic of continuity” by reading Francis “in light of the Tradition.”
He believes critics have tried to “decontextualize the paragraph,” falsely asserting that it places Jesus “on the same level as other religious beliefs.”
Rather, he believes that when read in context, the main point of the paragraph is “clearly to defend religious freedom” at an event which, he said, declared the value of religious liberty as a “great step forward for authentic religious dialogue and to defend the rights of persecuted Christians.”
He also believes it should be read in light of documents such as the 2000 declaration Dominus Iesus and Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Missio, which underlined the importance of seeing “positive elements” and the seeds of divine word in other religions.
Father Petri
Speaking on EWTN’s Church Alive radio program Feb. 9, Dominican Father Thomas Petri, the vice president and academic dean at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., admitted that the sentence “sounds very strange” but that the Second Vatican Council teaches that “everything that is true in other religions” can ultimately lead them to the “truth that is Jesus Christ.”
“So does God will that there be all of these religions?” he asked. “He wills that everybody seek him and eventually find him.”
“That doesn’t mean that Islam is salvific,” he added, but that a Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu can “slowly, through their own religions, know the truth that will ultimately lead them to Jesus Christ.” That happens not because they are Muslims, Buddhists or Hindus, he explained, “but because their religion has something that is true, something that will point them to the truth, and the truth, we believe, is a person, and that is Jesus Christ.”
“St. Thomas Aquinas says that religion is almost like a virtue that everyone should acquire, whether believer or not,” said Father Petri. “And by that, he simply means the desire to worship a higher power, a desire to seek that which is beyond.”
“I suspect that’s what the Holy Father is getting at,” he added, “that just like our skin color, just like our sex, just like our language, God created us with this desire to know the transcendent, to know the divine, and we believe and have always believed that the answer to that desire is Jesus Christ who is incarnate.”
Similarly, Father Gahl believes the document itself should be read more from an “anthropological approach to religions” rather than having been “formulated in the technical vocabulary of Catholic theology.” In other words, the belief that man has a capacity for God and can come to know him by virtue of religion.
An informed Vatican source who acknowledged the controversy surrounding the passage said the beneficial effect of the document on Muslims outweighs these concerns.
He said, “The Pope might have gone too far on that issue, but destroying the document would undermine its purpose, which is to help moderate Muslims, even if it seems to tolerate Islam unreservedly.”
Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.
Source Article from http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/does-the-new-catholic-muslim-declaration-deviate-from-catholic-teaching
House Democrats are vowing an aggressive response to President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump nominates ambassador to Turkey Trump heads to Mar-a-Lago after signing bill to avert shutdown CNN, MSNBC to air ad turned down by Fox over Nazi imagery MORE‘s emergency declaration at the southwest border, mulling ways to block his go-it-alone approach with legislation, legal action, or both.
Yet party leaders are in no immediate rush to show their hand, instead hoping to keep the focus on growing GOP divisions while pressuring more Republicans to oppose the president’s unilateral power play.
Heading into the week-long President’s Day recess, the office of Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy Patricia D’Alesandro PelosiConstitutional conservatives need to oppose the national emergency House Judiciary Dems seek answers over Trump’s national emergency declaration Why don’t we build a wall with Canada? MORE (D-Calif.) is distributing a spreadsheet to members logging a host of wide-ranging local projects potentially threatened by Trump’s effort to shift funds from military construction coffers to the border wall.
The list — nearly 400-projects long — features a number of ventures in GOP districts. It includes maintenance facilities for F-35 stealth fighters at Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks, Alaska; the operation of a middle school at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and funds to replace a training maze at Fort Bragg, N.C.
“We have to smoke out as many Republicans as possible by making the case that projects in their backyard are in jeopardy and will likely be raided to help pay for Trump’s ineffective and politically motivated wall,” said a senior Democratic aide.
Key congressional Republicans, meanwhile, don’t need any nudge from Democrats. They’re already tearing themselves apart over Trump’s declaration.
“Congress has granted the executive branch certain spending authorities. I strongly object to any president acting outside of those explicit authorities to spend money that Congress has not appropriated for specific initiatives,” said Rep. Greg WaldenGregory (Greg) Paul WaldenFormer Ryan aide moves to K street Overnight Health Care — Presented by PCMA — Lawmakers pay tribute to John Dingell’s legacy on health care | White House denies officials are sabotaging ObamaCare | FDA wants meeting with Juul, Altria execs on youth vaping House members hint at bipartisan net neutrality bill MORE, the House GOP’s former top campaigns chief and the only Republican in the Oregon delegation.
Centrist Rep. Tom ReedThomas (Tom) W. ReedDems hit GOP on pre-existing conditions at panel’s first policy hearing A rare display of real political courage Overnight Health Care: Dems hit GOP with ObamaCare lawsuit vote | GOP seeks health care reboot after 2018 losses | House Dems aim for early victories on drug pricing | CDC declares lettuce e-coli outbreak over MORE (R-N.Y.), a leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, also is urging Trump to abandon his unilateral action.
“We recognize the president has the authority to declare a national emergency but believe this sets a bad precedent and lets Congress off the hook from doing its job,” Reed said. “We encourage the president to use other means to move around unused money to build off of the down payment on border security Congress is delivering with this funding bill.”
Across the Capitol, GOP criticism of Trump’s executive move was even more scathing.
Sen. Lamar AlexanderAndrew (Lamar) Lamar AlexanderCongress must move forward on measure dealing with fentanyl GOP advances rules change to speed up confirmation of Trump nominees Key doctors group faces political risks on guns MORE (R-Tenn.), a former member of leadership and senior appropriator, lambasted Trump’s emergency declaration as “unnecessary, unwise and inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution.”
Sen. Thom TillisThomas (Thom) Roland TillisBusiness, conservative groups slam Trump’s national emergency declaration GOP senator dedicates heart photo to wife from Senate floor for Valentine’s Day A year since Parkland: we have a solution MORE (R-N.C.), a member of the Judiciary and Armed Services committees, warned that Trump was setting a horrible precedent that the next Democratic president could use to ram through “left-wing” policies.
A President Bernie SandersBernard (Bernie) SandersNewsom endorses Kamala Harris for president Business, conservative groups slam Trump’s national emergency declaration Poll: Sanders, Biden seen as most popular second choices in Dem primary MORE, Tillis said, would declare a national emergency to implement the “radical Green New Deal,” while a President Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerNewsom endorses Kamala Harris for president Trump tweets video mocking Dems not cheering during State of the Union Former Virginia Gov McAuliffe writes book about confronting white nationalism MORE would declare an emergency on gun violence and end Second Amendment rights.
Sen. Booker (D-N.J.) is running for president, while Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.) is expected by many to enter the race.
“It doesn’t matter who the President is or what party they belong to: I strongly believe in the separation of powers and curbing the kind of executive overreach that Congress has allowed to fester for the better part of the last century, including during the Obama Administration,” Tillis said in a statement.
Those GOP concerns aren’t necessarily unfounded. On Friday, Rep. Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarBusiness, conservative groups slam Trump’s national emergency declaration Trump tweets video mocking Dems not cheering during State of the Union Omar: Next president should declare national emergency on climate change ‘on day 1’ MORE (D-Minn.), a progressive freshman rabble rouser, tweeted that the next president “should declare a #NationalEmergency on day 1 to address the existential threat to all life on the planet posed by Climate Change.”
Rep. Earl BlumenauerEarl BlumenauerBusinesses need bank accounts — marijuana shops included Dem senator introduces S. 420 bill that would legalize marijuana Dems downplay divisions over Green New Deal MORE (D-Ore.) went a step further, announcing Friday that he’ll soon introduce a congressional emergency declaration on climate change. And Pelosi on Thursday warned Republicans that backing Trump’s unilateral action would haunt them, potentially liberating the next Democratic president to launch a similar gambit to restrict guns.
“I’m not advocating for any president doing an end-run around Congress,” she said. “I’m just saying that the Republicans should have some dismay about the door that they are opening.”
The bipartisan pushback arrived within hours after Trump, speaking from the White House Rose Garden, declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. The president argued that waves of migrants streaming north from Central America pose a direct threat to national security, leaving him no choice but to sidestep Congress and direct $8 billion from other projects to build the wall he’d promised during his 2016 campaign.
“It’s a great thing to do because we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people,” Trump said.
A day earlier, Congress had passed a sweeping federal spending bill, providing funds to roughly a quarter of the government — including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — and preventing another partial shutdown.
Trump agreed to sign the package, but only reluctantly, since Democrats had successfully blocked the $5.7 billion in border wall funds he’d requested within it. The emergency declaration, endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellGreen New Deal Resolution invites big picture governing ‘Contingency’ spending in 3B budget deal comes under fire Coulter defends Paul Ryan: This is 100 percent Trump’s fault MORE (R-Ky.), was the president’s way to claim victory in defeat. With it, Trump is asserting the power to fund the wall by transferring funds from other projects, under DHS and beyond, including some Congress had approved for the Defense Department.
Pelosi, along with Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerCharles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerHouse Judiciary Dems seek answers over Trump’s national emergency declaration Mandatory E-Verify: The other border wall Trump says he ‘didn’t need to’ declare emergency but wanted ‘faster’ action MORE (D-N.Y.), quickly issued a statement vowing to fight the maneuver using “every remedy available” — without naming specifics.
Democrats, however, won’t sit idle long in launching their formal response. Reps. Joaquin CastroJoaquin CastroOcasio-Cortez, Castro plan to introduce bill to block national emergency O’Rourke, Schumer huddle on possible 2020 bid: report Political world mourns Dingell, longest-serving member of Congress MORE (D-Texas), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-CortezDem lawmaker rips opposition to Amazon going into New York: ‘Now we’re protesting jobs’ Reporter says majority appears to favor progressive tax plans Trump tweets video mocking Dems not cheering during State of the Union MORE (D-N.Y.) are already drafting a resolution to block the declaration from taking effect. That proposal could arrive as early as next week, according to a second Democratic aide.
“We’ve got people flooding in to support this, which is great,” the aide said.
Among the early supporters is Rep. Steve CohenStephen (Steve) Ira CohenDemocrat vows to move forward with impeachment, dividing his party Five takeaways from acting AG’s fiery House hearing Whitaker takes grilling from House lawmakers MORE (D-Tenn.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s subpanel on the Constitution. It’s unclear, however, if Democrats will rally around the Castro resolution or another proposal, or if they’ll move it through committees or bring it straight to the floor.
Passage by the House would create an enormous headache for McConnell. Although the Kentucky Republican said he supports Trump’s declaration, the National Emergencies Act requires that such a resolution is deemed privileged, guaranteeing a vote on the Senate floor, and highlighting GOP divisions with Trump.
Democrats are also eyeing a legal challenge to Trump’s declaration, with House Majority Leader Steny HoyerSteny Hamilton HoyerWinners and losers in the border security deal Overnight Defense: Trump to sign funding deal, declare national emergency | Shanahan says allies will be consulted on Afghanistan | Dem demands Khashoggi documents On The Money: Trump to sign border deal, declare emergency to build wall | Senate passes funding bill, House to follow | Dems promise challenge to emergency declaration MORE (D-Md.) predicting this week that Democrats “would test it in the courts.”
Democrats could file such a suit themselves, or piggyback onto other legal challenges sure to come from states, landowners and other stakeholders affected by new wall construction. California, for instance, announced Friday that it will file such a suit. And others are eager to join.
“This affects everyone in Congress, affects governors,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan GrishamMichelle Lynn Lujan GrishamDems ready aggressive response to Trump emergency order, as GOP splinters New Mexico House speaker rejects impeachment push against governor over border troop decision California governor to pull back troops from border: report MORE (D) said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC. “And we will join whatever legal action and related efforts to make sure that we keep the executive branch in check.”
Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/430292-dems-ready-aggressive-response-to-trump-emergency-order-as-gop-splinters
MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ crew talks about Amazon’s decision not to build a new headquarters in Long Island City, New York and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrating that she had “defeated Amazon’s corporate greed.”
Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world. https://t.co/nyvm5vtH9k
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 14, 2019
“We are in a dangerous place,” panelist Donny Deutsch warned. “If people in the party don’t start to speak up against people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is young and dynamic but does not know what she’s talking about, they’re going to hand the presidency back to Donald Trump.”
Source Article from https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/02/15/morning_joe_panel_warns_ocasio-cortez_is_going_to_get_trump_re-elected.html