NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Trump boosts NASA budget
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Donald Trump signed
legislation Tuesday adding
human exploration of Mars
to NASA’s mission. Could
sending Congress into space
be next?
Flanked at an Oval Office
bill-signing ceremony by
astronauts and lawmakers,
Trump observed that being
an astronaut is a “pretty tough
job.” He said he wasn’t sure
he’d want it and, among
lawmakers he put the ques-
tion to, Sen. Ted Cruz said he
wouldn’t want to be a space
traveler, either.
But Cruz, R-Texas, offered
up a tantalizing suggestion.
“You could send Congress to
space,” he said to laughter,
including from the president.
Trump, who faces a crucial
House vote later this week on
legislation long promised by
Republicans to overhaul the
Obama-era Affordable Care
Act health law, readily agreed.
The health care bill is facing
resistance from some conser-
vative members of the party.
“What a great idea that
could be,” Trump said, before
turning back to the space
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of
the White House in Washington, Tuesday, after signing
a bill to increase NASA’s budget to $19.5 billion and
directs the agency to focus human exploration of deep
space and Mars.
exploration measure spon-
sored by Cruz and Sen. Bill
Nelson, D-Fla.
The new law authorizes
$19.5 billion in spending for
the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration for the
budget year that began Oct.
1. Cruz said the authorization
bill is the first for the space
agency in seven years, and he
called it a “terrific” achieve-
ment.
Trump last week sent
Congress a budget proposal
that seeks $19.1 billion in
spending authorization for the
agency next year.
“For almost six decades,
NASA’s work has inspired
millions and millions of
Americans to imagine distant
worlds and a better future
right here on earth,” Trump
said. “I’m delighted to sign
this bill. It’s been a long
time since a bill like this has
been signed, reaffirming
our commitment to the core
mission of NASA: human
space exploration, space
science and technology.”
The measure amends
current law to add human
exploration of the red planet
as a goal for the agency. It
supports use of the Interna-
tional Space Station through at
least 2024, along with private
sector companies partnering
with NASA to deliver cargo
and experiments, among other
steps.
After signing the bill,
Trump
invited
several
lawmakers to comment,
starting with Cruz. When
Trump invited Vice President
Mike Pence to speak, he
suggested that Nelson be
allowed to say a few words.
Nelson traveled into space
when he was in the House.
“He’s a Democrat. I wasn’t
going to let him speak,”
Trump quipped, to laughter.
Nelson ultimately got a
chance to briefly praise his
bill.
Pence also announced
that Trump plans to re-launch
the National Space Council,
with Pence as chairman, to
coordinate U.S. space policy.
The council was authorized
by law in 1988, near the end
of the Reagan administration,
but ceased to operate soon
after Bill Clinton took office
in January 1993.
New Trump hotels face political fights, ethics questions
NEW YORK (AP) —
You might have expected
the Trump Organization to
tap the brakes on expansion
plans given all the criticism
over potential conflicts of
interest while its owner sits
in the Oval Office.
It’s hitting the accelerator
instead.
The company owned by
President Donald Trump is
launching a chain of new
hotels with plans to open
in cities large and small
across the country. Called
Scion, they will be the first
Trump-run hotels not to
bear the family’s gilded
name. The hotels will feature
modern, sleek interiors and
communal areas, and offer
rooms at $200 to $300 a
night, about half what it costs
at some hotels in Trump’s
luxury chain.
The company has signed
letters of intent with more
than 20 developers to build
the hotels, said Trump Hotels
CEO Eric Danziger. The last
three were signed in just one
week earlier this month.
“It’s full steam ahead. It’s
in our DNA. It’s in the Trump
boys’ DNA,” said Danziger.
The “boys” are Eric and
Donald Jr., who are running
their father’s company while
he is president.
The bold expansion plan
raises some thorny ethical
questions.
The Trump family won’t
be putting up any money to
build the hotels. Instead, it
plans to get local real estate
developers and their inves-
tors to foot the bill, as do
most major hotel chains.
One of the first going
up could be in Dallas. A
development company there
originally planned to raise
money from unnamed inves-
tors in Kazakhstan, Turkey
and Qatar, but recently told
the Dallas Morning News
that it now will tap only the
company’s U.S. partners.
Government
ethics
experts say turning to outside
money, whether foreign or
American, raises the specter
of people trying to use their
investment to gain favor with
the new administration —
like contributing to a political
campaign, but with no dollar
limits or public disclosure.
“This is the new version
of pay-to-play, ‘Get in there
and do business with the
Trump Organization,”’ said
Richard Painter, who was
the chief White House ethics
lawyer to President George
W. Bush.
The Trump family will
have to overcome some
political obstacles, too.
Already, politicians in a few
cities mentioned as possible
sites have vowed to fight
the first family, raising the
prospect of a struggle to get
zoning and other permits to
start building.
The son of German and
Polish refugees from World
War II, CEO Danziger is no
stranger to long odds. He
never went to college, instead
taking a job as a bellman at
a San Francisco hotel at 17.
He worked himself up over
the decades to CEO spots
at several major hospitality
companies.
When Danziger led Star-
wood Hotels and Resorts in
the 1990s, he expanded the
number of hotels from 20 to
nearly 600.
The 62-year-old execu-
tive has similar ambitions
for the Trump family. He
said he hopes to open 50 to
100 Scions in three years,
and is planning to add to
Trump’s existing line of
luxury hotels.
East Oregonian
Page 7A
AP FACT CHECK
Trump tweets vs. FBI
testimony on Russia
WA S H I N G T O N
(AP) — President Donald
Trump produced a running
commentary
on
FBI
Director James Comey’s
testimony to Congress.
Thanks to the length of the
hearing and the immediacy
of Twitter, Comey was able
to comment on the presi-
dent’s commentary without
leaving his seat.
It was a nearly real-time
exchange Monday that
circled back on itself, like a
cat chasing its tail.
TRUMP tweet: “The
NSA and FBI tell Congress
that Russia did not influ-
ence electoral process.”
THE FACTS: No such
assurance was offered
by Comey or his fellow
witness at the hearing,
National Security Agency
Director Mike Rogers.
They did not offer any
conclusions about whether
Russia succeeded in influ-
encing the election.
COMEY, asked about
the tweet while he was
still testifying: “I’m sorry,
I haven’t been following
anybody on Twitter while
I’ve been sitting here.”
He went on: “We’ve
offered no opinion, have no
view, have no information
on potential impact because
it’s never something that
we looked at.”
He confirmed, though,
that the FBI is investigating
whether and how Russia
tried to shape the election,
a probe he says includes
any potential coordination
between Trump campaign
associates and Russia’s
government.
———
TRUMP tweet: “FBI
Director Comey refuses to
deny he briefed President
Obama on calls made by
Michael Flynn to Russia.”
THE FACTS: “Refuses
to deny” is true, but perhaps
misleading.
Throughout the hearing,
Comey declined to deny
any assertion made by his
questioners that mentioned
Flynn or any other indi-
viduals, explaining that the
FBI is not in the business
of correcting or verifying
such reports.
Flynn helped Trump
in the campaign, became
national security adviser
at the start of Trump’s
presidency and was fired
after he was found to have
misled senior members of
the administration about
his contacts with Russia’s
top diplomat to the U.S.
———
TRUMP tweet: “FBI
Director Comey: fmr.
DNI Clapper ‘right’ to say
no evidence of collusion
between Russia and Trump
Campaign.”
THE FACTS: Trump
leaves out an important
nuance in this tweet about
the former director of
national intelligence, James
Clapper.
Comey agreed there was
no evidence of collusion
in a report prepared by the
U.S. intelligence commu-
nity under Clapper, but
that’s different than saying
no such evidence has been
discovered.
The Jan. 6 report does
not take up the question of
contacts between Trump
associates and Russia.
Instead it focuses on
Russia’s actions, via cyber
operations and propaganda,
to try to help Trump’s
election chances and hurt
Hillary Clinton’s.
Clapper indeed said
he had seen no evidence
of collusion at the time
he left government. But
he updated that comment
Monday with a statement
from spokesman Shawn
Turner, saying Clapper
“could not account for
intelligence or evidence
that may have been gath-
ered since the inauguration
on January 20th.”
COMEY, when asked if
he was aware of collusion
between Trump associates
and Russia, beyond the
findings of the report:
“It’s not something I can
comment on.”
ROGERS: “Likewise,
I’m not going to comment
on an ongoing investiga-
tion’s conclusions.”
BRIEFLY
No promises and
no one above law,
Supreme Court
pick says
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Supreme Court nominee Neil
Gorsuch declared Tuesday
he’s made no promises to
Donald Trump or anyone
else about how he’ll vote on
abortion or other issues and
testified he’ll have no trouble
as a justice holding anyone
accountable, including the
president who picked him.
Gorsuch also called
Trump’s attacks on federal
judges “disheartening” and
“demoralizing.”
During the long
second day of his Senate
confirmation hearings,
Gorsuch made two other
notable statements in
response to questions from
members of the Judiciary
Committee, and both also
related to Trump, who
nominated him.
Republican Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina
asked Gorsuch whether
Trump had asked him to
overturn Roe v. Wade, the
case establishing a right to
abortion, and what he would
have done had Trump asked
him to do so.
“Senator, I would have
walked out the door,”
Gorsuch replied. “That’s not
what judges do.” Later in the
day, Gorsuch acknowledged
that he and Trump discussed
abortion during his Supreme
Court interview, but only how
divisive an issue it is. Their
conversation touched on
abortion, Gorsuch said, after
Trump bemoaned his loss of
Gorsuch’s native Colorado in
November.
No new threat led
to airline laptop
limits, officials say
WASHINGTON (AP) —
U.S. and British officials said
Tuesday the decision to bar
laptops and tablets from the
cabins of some international
flights wasn’t based on
any specific threat but on
longstanding concerns about
terrorists targeting jetliners.
Unimpressed, some
travelers and civil liberties
groups denounced the ban,
raising concerns that included
lost worktime on long flights
and worries that checking
laptops in baggage will make
them more vulnerable to
theft.
Under the new bans,
electronic devices larger than
smartphones, such as laptops,
tablets and gaming devices,
will have to be checked on
some international flights.
American officials announced
the U.S. ban early Tuesday,
and the British followed later
in the day after discussions
between the countries.
The U.S. ban affects
flights from Amman, Jordan;
Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo;
Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia; Casablanca,
Morocco; Doha, Qatar, and
Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the
United Arab Emirates. About
50 flights a day, all on foreign
carriers, will be affected.
Senior Trump administration
officials who briefed
reporters about the ban said
no U.S.-based airlines have
nonstop flights from those
cities to the U.S.
Closer U.S.-Russia
ties uncertain as
Tillerson plans trip
WASHINGTON
(AP) — With Russia-tinged
investigations swirling
around his administration,
President Donald Trump
has yet to fulfill a campaign
pledge of closer cooperation
with Moscow. A planned trip
by Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson to Russia could test
if detente proves anything
more than talk.
In a move alarming U.S.
allies, Tillerson plans to skip
a meeting of NATO foreign
ministers in Belgium next
month, according to U.S.
officials. The top American
diplomat almost always
attends such gatherings,
and Tillerson will follow up
his absence in Brussels by
traveling to Russia’s capital
shortly afterward.
The juxtaposition of the
trips — one taken and one
avoided — has reinforced
concerns about America’s
commitment to NATO, which
Trump has repeatedly fueled
by dressing down allies as
deadbeats who aren’t paying
enough for their own defense
and who take U.S. help for
granted.
Trump will take part in a
meeting of NATO heads of
state in Brussels on May 25,
the White House announced
Tuesday. Spokesman Sean
Spicer said the president
looks forward to discussing
“issues critical to the
alliance, especially allied
responsibility-sharing and
NATO’s role in the fight
against terrorism.”
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Police: Mom let
2-year-old handle
gun before fatal
shooting
PHOENIX (AP) — A
woman arrested after her
2-year-old son picked up
her loaded handgun and
fatally shot his 9-year-old
brother said she previously
allowed the younger boy to
practice pulling the trigger
of the weapon when it was
unloaded, Phoenix police said
Tuesday.
Landen Lavarnia was shot
in the head Monday and has
since died, police said.
Wendy Lavarnia, 28,
“described allowing the
2-year-old to practice pulling
the trigger of this gun
when empty on previous
occasions,” police said court
records.
Police said Monday night
that the 9-year-old had died
as a result of being shot but
corrected that information
Tuesday morning to say he
remained on life support.
Sgt. Vince Lewis, a
Phoenix Police Department
spokesman, said Landen
Lavarnia was pronounced
dead late Tuesday afternoon.
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