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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2017
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Moving company: South Dakota,
Vermont top destinations in US
Top US intelligence officials to
testify on Russian hacking
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. intelligence officials face
questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intel-
ligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the pres-
idential election to help Donald Trump win.
The Armed Services Committee’s cyberthreats hearing today
comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the
CIA and FBI directors — along with the director of national
intelligence — on the investigation into Russia’s alleged hack-
ing efforts. Trump has been deeply critical of their findings,
even appearing to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange’s contention that Russia did not provide him with
hacked Democratic emails.
The committee’s session is the first in a series aimed at inves-
tigating purported Russian cyberattacks against U.S. interests and
developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions.
“We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the
main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity,” the commit-
tee’s Republican chairman, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said
ahead of the hearing. “Right now we have no policy, no strategy
to counter cyberattacks.”
Slated to appear before the Armed Services Committee are
James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre,
the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael
Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the
U.S. Cyber Command.
Analysis: Health care battle
could decide balance of power
WASHINGTON — The messaging battle is over on repealing
and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law, and the
balance of power in Washington may be at stake.
Democrats believe they already lost the public opinion fight
over the law once, when they pushed through the Affordable Care
Act in the first place, and Republicans grabbed hold of the issue
to drive Democrats into the minority. Democrats are determined
that this time, they’ll come out on top.
For their part, Republicans are painfully aware that they’re
embarking upon the task of repealing and replacing the complex
law at their peril. If Democrats get their way, the GOP will own
every problem and complication that results from the re-work,
and there are certain to be many.
For both sides, the repeal-and-replace fight represents a risky
and unexpected do-over nearly seven years after Democratic
majorities in the House and Senate passed the law on a party-line
vote. A voter backlash helped send Democrats into the minority
in the House in the 2010 midterms, and Republicans have been
using the issue to political benefit ever since. In November’s elec-
tions, Donald Trump and GOP House and Senate candidates ran
on promises to repeal the law and replace it with something better.
Now, Democrats have a chance to fight the messaging war
anew, even as they continue to champion the health care law as
good policy that’s helped the country. And Republicans, who’ve
had political success attacking the law without offering a uni-
fied solution of their own, have a chance to present their ideas
and make policy, but risk giving away their political advantage
if they become the ones voters blame for problems in the health
system.
ST. LOUIS — One of the nation’s largest moving companies
says South Dakota is first on its list of top moving destinations.
United Van Lines has tracked customer state-to-state migra-
tion for the past 40 years. For 2016, South Dakota was the state
with the highest percentage of inbound moves, which the subur-
ban St. Louis-based company says is part of a trend of retirees
moving to states in the Northwest.
Oregon had been No. 1 the previous three years and dropped to
third. Vermont was second, Idaho fourth and South Carolina fifth.
Many Southern and Western states had more people moving
in than moving out, while several Northeastern states saw high
rates of outbound moves.
States with the highest percentage of outbound moves were, in
order, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Connecticut and Kansas.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Sears is selling its well-known Craftsman brand to Stanley
Black & Decker Inc., which plans to grow the tool brand by
selling its products at more stores. Shares of Hoffman Es-
tates, Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corp shares rose 7.5
percent to $11.14 before the stock market opened today.
Sears to sell Craftsman tool
brand to Stanley Black & Decker
NEW YORK — After controlling the Craftsman
name for 90 years, troubled department store operator Sears
said it will sell the famous tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker
Inc.
Stanley, which makes and sells tools under the DeWalt and
Black & Decker names, wants to grow the Craftsman brand by
selling its products in more stores outside of Sears. Today, only
10 percent of Craftsman products are sold in other stores. Sears
said it will continue to sell Craftsman, including at its Kmart and
Sears Hometown stores. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based
company first took control of Craftsman in 1927 when it bought
the trademark for $500.
Sears has struggled, losing money for years as its revenue fell.
The company also announced plans Thursday to close 150 stores,
about 10 percent of its total 1,500 locations. And last week, the
company said it received a credit facility for up to $500 million
to provide it with cash as it sells assets.
Shares of Sears Holdings Corp., which are down 45 percent
in the last 12 months, rose 6 percent to $10.94 in midday trad-
ing Thursday.
Stanley will pay Sears about $900 million
for Craftsman, which includes $525 million when the deal
closes this year, $250 million after three years and a percent-
age of sales for 15 years. After 15 years, Sears will start paying
Stanley 3 percent of the Craftsman sales it makes. Shares of
Stanley, based in New Britain, Connecticut, rose 1.4 percent to
$117.90.
Stanley said it plans to hire more workers and open a new
U.S. plant to make more Craftsman products, but didn’t provide
details.
Trump’s deportation vow spurs
California farmers into action
FRESNO, Calif. — Days after Donald Trump won the White
House vowing to deport millions of people in the country ille-
gally and fortify the Mexican border, California farmer Kevin
Herman ordered nearly $600,000 in new equipment, cutting the
number of workers he’ll need starting with the next harvest.
Herman, who grows figs, persimmons and almonds in the
nation’s most productive farming state, said Trump’s comments
pushed him to make the purchase, larger than he would have
otherwise.
“No doubt about it,” Herman said. “I probably wouldn’t have
spent as much or bought as much machinery as I did.”
Others in California’s farming industry say Trump’s tough
campaign talk targeting immigrants in the country illegally —
including a vast number of farmworkers — spurred them into
action, too.
They’re calling on congressional representatives to educate
the incoming president on the workforce it takes to feed the coun-
try, and they’re assuring workers they’ll protect them.
Uprooted by war, fearing troops,
Myanmar girls learn karate
JE YANG, Myanmar — Every afternoon, dozens of teenage
girls at the school for displaced children line up on the grounds,
dressed in white uniforms with belts of various colors: yellow,
blue, white. They kick high and jump with glee before settling
into their exercises, shouting in Japanese as they punch into the
air.
The reason many of these girls are in this class is sobering:
They want protection from their own country’s military.
Mostly between 13 and 16, they have lost their homes, and
in some cases their families, to the long-running civil war in
Myanmar’s Kachin state — a war in which soldiers have been
repeatedly accused of raping girls and women, but rarely prose-
cuted. This karate class offers some small sense of power to the
vulnerable.
“For all the girls, we teach them how to protect themselves
when someone tries to sexually assault them and how to fight
back,” instructor Hkun Naw said. “Basically teaching the girls to
make themselves safe.
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