NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
‘Stop whining,’ Obama tells Trump
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — “Stop
whining,” President Barack
Obama rebuked Donald
Trump on Tuesday, speaking
out as seldom before on next
month’s election and chiding
the Republican for sowing
suspicion about the integrity
of America’s presidential
vote.
Obama also accused
Trump of cozying up to
Russia’s Vladimir Putin to
a degree “unprecedented in
American politics.”
The
president
said
Trump’s
intensifying
pre-emptive warnings about
voter fraud are unheard
of in modern politics. The
rhetoric is not based on any
evidence, Obama said, but is
simply aimed at discrediting
the outcome before the irst
votes are counted.
“You start whining before
the game is even over?”
Obama said at a Rose Garden
news conference. “If when-
ever things are going badly
for you and you lose you
start blaming somebody else
— then you don’t have what
it takes to be in this job.”
Campaigning in Colo-
rado, the GOP candidate
repeated his assertions about
“corrupt” elections but did
not respond directly to the
president. Trump vowed
to “drain the swamp” in
Washington, and for the irst
time promised to push for a
constitutional amendment
to impose term limits on all
members of Congress.
The president’s remarks
came as Trump and his
Republican allies look for
ways to regain momentum
after a damaging few weeks
in the campaign. Heading
into the third and inal debate
Wednesday night, Trump
is trailing in the polls and
running out of time for a
comeback before Nov. 8.
Obama waded into the race
to elect a successor, speaking
at the White House where
he was hosting his inal state
visit. Italy’s Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi at his side, the
president initially said he
would pull his punches when
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Barack Obama answer a question during
a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi at the White House Tuesday.
it came to politics, respecting
the oficial setting. But when
he was asked about Trump’s
rhetoric, he hardly held back.
“I would invite Mr. Trump
to stop whining and go try to
make his case to get votes,”
he said.
The GOP candidate has
ramped up warnings about
potential
fraud.
That’s
drawing criticism not only
from Democrats but from
his own party, particularly
the state and county oficials
who run local elections, who
fear the rhetoric will give
losers license to dispute any
results.
“They even want to try
and rig the election at the
polling booth, where so many
cities are corrupt and you see
that and voter fraud is all too
common,” Trump said at a
rally in Colorado Springs.
Independent studies and
election oficials in both
parties say they see no
evidence that voter fraud —
individuals impersonating
others to cast ballots — is a
widespread problem.
Asked about Trump’s
claims on Tuesday, running
mate Mike Pence dodged
and suggested Trump’s point
actually was about the “over-
whelming bias in the national
media.”
Pence spoke after touring
the burned-out ofices of the
Republican Party in Hills-
borough, North Carolina.
The GOP ofice was ire-
bombed over the weekend
in what Pence called an
“act of political terrorism.”
Trump pointed at Clinton
supporters, but Pence did
not assign blame. Police are
investigating.
Clinton held no public
events Tuesday while she
prepared for the debate. She
has her own troubles and is
certain to be asked about the
latest revelations involving
her use of a private email
server during her time as
secretary of state.
New FBI documents
released Monday revived
questions about whether she
received classiied infor-
mation and whether State
Department allies sought to
protect her from criticism
over the email arrangement.
The FBI notes show a
State Department oficial
asked the FBI to lower the
classiication of a sensitive
email found on her server.
The email was related to the
attack on the U.S. compound
in Benghazi, Libya.
The documents revealed
discussion of a “quid pro
quo” in trying to get the
email reclassiied, though
it’s not clear who irst raised
the issue. Both State and FBI
oficials deny any bargaining
took place, and the email was
not declassiied.
Trump called it an
“elaborate and deliberate
cover-up” and called for the
State Department oficial,
Undersecretary for Manage-
ment Patrick F. Kennedy, to
be ired.
The Republican is hoping
to turn the conversation away
from the allegations of sexual
misconduct that partly domi-
nated his last debate against
Clinton.
In an interview with
Fox News aired Tuesday,
Melania Trump vouched
for her husband and blamed
the accusations on political
rivals: “They want to
damage the presidency of
my husband, and it was all
planned, it was all organized
from the opposition.”
Her comments carried
echoes of Clinton’s allega-
tions of a “vast right-wing
conspiracy” organized to
raise similar allegations
against her husband two
decades ago. Trump notably
tried to revive Bill Clinton’s
history by inviting his
accusers to the last debate.
His guest list for Wednes-
day’s faceoff in Las Vegas
includes Pat Smith, whose
son, Sean Smith, was killed
in the attack in Benghazi.
Smith was a featured speaker
at the Republican National
Convention, where she deliv-
ered an emotional speech
blaming Clinton for her son’s
death.
As for Russia, Obama
accused Trump of showering
praise and modeling his
policies on Russian President
Putin to a degree that is
“unprecedented in American
politics.”
He said he has been
“surprised and troubled” by
Republican lawmakers who
he said are echoing their pres-
idential nominee’s positions.
Trump has praised Putin as
a strong leader and criticized
Obama and Clinton for
Washington’s deteriorating
relationship with Moscow.
In an interview Monday,
Trump said Russia “can’t
stand” either Democrat. He
promised a closer relation-
ship with Putin, if elected,
starting with a possible
meeting before Inauguration
Day.
East Oregonian
Page 7A
A surprisingly high
number of irst-timers
now buying homes
WASHINGTON (AP)
— For years, the U.S.
housing market looked
bleak for young couples
hoping to buy their irst
homes but struggling with
high student debt, low pay
and meager down-payment
savings.
But a new survey by
the real estate irm Zillow
suggests that irst-time
buyers may be entering the
market in greater numbers
than industry watchers had
assumed.
Over the past year, the
survey found, nearly half
of home sales have gone to
irst-timers. That’s a much
higher proportion than
some other industry esti-
mates had indicated. And it
comes as a surprise in part
because ownership rates
for adults under 34 are at
their lowest levels since the
government began tracking
the igure in 1994.
Zillow’s survey results
suggest that the trend is
shifting, and that some of
this year’s growth in home
sales has come from a
wave of college-educated
couples in their 30s, who
are the most common irst-
time buyers.
In suburban Minneap-
olis, few irst-time buyers
have enough savings for a
down payment, and many
rely on gifts or loans from
relatives, said Marcus
Johannes, an agent with
Edina Realty.
If the pattern in Zillow’s
survey holds, it could raise
hopes that today’s vast
generation of 18-to-34-
year-old millennials will
help support the housing
market as more of them
move into their 30s.
The 168-page report
that Seattle-based Zillow
released Tuesday also
found that home ownership
is increasingly the domain
of the college-educated.
And it reported that older
Americans who are looking
to downsize are paying
premiums for smaller
houses.
Here’s a breakdown of
Zillow’s key indings:
— Forty-seven percent
of purchases in the past year
went to irst-time buyers.
Their median age was 33.
By contrast, surveys from
the National Association
of Realtors have indicated
that irst-timers account for
only about 32 percent of
buyers.
The difference between
the two surveys may stem
from their methodologies.
The NAR has used a mail-
based survey for its annual
igures. Zillow used an
online survey that might
have generated a greater
response rate from younger
buyers.
Zillow’s indings might
help explain a persistent
shortage of homes for sale:
Unlike move-up buyers,
irst-time purchasers don’t
have a home to list for
sale, thereby depriving the
market of supply.
Adam DeSanctis, an
NAR spokesman, noted
that his organization’s own
survey, due out later this
month, will show a rising
share of irst-time buyers,
though it will remain below
the historical average of
39 percent that’s prevailed
since the organization
began tracking this igure
in 1982.
— No college? Dwin-
dling chance of homeown-
ership.
It’s become harder
to realize the dream of
home ownership without a
college degree. Sixty-two
percent of buyers have at
least a four-year college
degree. Census igures
show that just 33 percent of
the U.S. adults graduated
from college. The gap
indicates that workers with
only a high school degree
are becoming less likely to
own a home.
IS increasingly driven underground
BADANA, Iraq (AP) —
This farming village east
of Mosul was turned into
a bunker during more than
two years of Islamic State
rule: A network of tunnels
and cramped living quarters
betrays an extremist group
increasingly
forced
to
operate underground by a
punishing air campaign and
mounting territorial losses.
Wrested from IS control
on the irst day of the
offensive to retake Iraq’s
second-largest city, Badana
offers a glimpse of the battle
ahead.
Above ground, walls
were shredded by airstrikes
and artillery, homes were
stained black with soot and
the buildings still standing
had been looted.
Below ground, bags of
fresh vegetables lay on the
loor of a cooking area and
a bowl of eggs sat beside a
crude stove, suggesting the
ighters managed to maintain
supply lines up until days
before their defeat.
“They spent their lives
in these tunnels,” said
Tahseen Muhammed Sharif,
a 35-year-old Kurdish ighter
who said the Kurdish forces
who drove the militants out
of the village also found
ammunition inside the tunnel
network, which they seized.
“I can’t imagine living
like this,” he added, sifting
through kitchen refuse
beside a pot of chickpeas still
sitting on the stove. “There
is a deinite difference
between us and them — their
behavior, it’s outside human
behavior.”
A small unit of Iraqi
Kurdish ighters tasked with
holding the territory in and
around the city of Badana
were camped Tuesday in
a ield behind a row of
armored vehicles on the
village’s edge.
While free of IS ighters,
the area remains littered with
dozens of booby-trapped
explosives. Kurdish ighters
moving along the narrow
village roads stuck to paths
STUDENT
they had already used and
walked in single ile.
When Iraqi forces reach
Mosul, Patrick Martin of
the Institute for the Study
of War in Washington said
they should expect to see
similar complex defenses
like the tunnel networks and
booby-trapped explosives
in Badana, but on a much
greater scale.
“They’re making sure
that whenever the operation
to retake the city commences
it will be extremely dificult
for the security forces to
do so,” Martin said, adding
that while there are reports
of some IS ighters leeing
Mosul, the group has also
displayed a willingness to
defend the city by mobilizing
car bombs, suicide bombers
and building trenches.
Route work
pays for my
children’s
activities.
OF THE
P ILOT R OCK H IGH S CHOOL
Become an
East Oregonian
Carrier.
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Pendleton
Susan Simpson
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Hermiston
Dawn Hendricks
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DELIVERING FOR OREGON
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and Deserve
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Our Forests and Access
to Our Public Lands
Braydon Postma
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Greg Walden:
Growing Jobs and Solving Problems
in Our Rural Communities
WEEK
Pilot Rock High School student of the
week is Braydon Postma. Braydon is an
outstanding student, carrying a 4.0 GPA
in to his senior year. He is a member of
National Honor Society, FFA and a three
sport athlete throughout high school. He
actively participates in classes and always
encourages other students. He a friend
to all and meets everyone with a smile.
PRHS is a better place because of
Braydon. Congratulations on this honor.
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