NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
East Oregonian
illegally, including 71,000 living in the San
Antonio area.
McManus and the other police chiefs,
including those in Dallas and Houston,
say it will create a chilling effect that will
cause immigrant families to not report
crimes or come forward as witnesses over
fears that talking to local police could lead
to deportation. Critics also fear it will lead
to the racial profiling of Hispanics and put
officers in an untenable position.
Act II for France’s Macron:
getting the majority to govern
PARIS (AP) — Freshly elected to the
French presidency, Emmanuel Macron now
faces an equally difficult Act II: securing the
parliamentary majority he needs to make
good on his campaign promises to lift France
out of economic gloom.
With legislative elections just five weeks
away, the start-up political movement the
39-year-old former investment banker
launched one year ago on his meteoric ride
to become France’s youngest president lost
no time Monday in girding for the crucial
mid-June election battle.
Without a working majority, Macron
could quickly become a lame-duck president,
unable to push through labor reforms and
other measures he promised to the broadly
disgruntled electorate — shown by a record
result for his defeated far-right opponent,
Marine Le Pen, and a record number of blank
and spoiled ballots in Sunday’s runoff vote.
The transfer of power to Macron will
take place Sunday, outgoing President
Francois Hollande announced. Macron is
already looking the part. He shed his breezier
campaign demeanor for a solemn, more
statesman-like look in his first appearances
after his victory and again Monday, at a sober
ceremony with Hollande to commemorate
Germany’s defeat in World War II.
The pomp of the ceremony, at the
imposing Arc de Triomphe at the top of
the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris,
immediately helped lend a presidential air to
the previously untested leader who fought
and won his first election.
Yates: Alarm about blackmail
led to warning on Flynn
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former acting
Attorney General Sally Yates told Congress
Monday she bluntly warned the Trump
White House in January that new National
Security Adviser Michael Flynn “essentially
could be blackmailed” by the Russians
because he apparently had lied to his
bosses about his contacts with Moscow’s
ambassador in Washington.
The testimony from Yates, an Obama
administration holdover fired soon after
for other reasons, marked her first public
comments about the concerns she raised
and filled in basic details about the chain of
events that led to Flynn’s ouster in February.
Her testimony, coupled with the
revelation hours earlier that President
Barack Obama himself had warned Donald
Trump against hiring Flynn shortly after the
November election, made clear that alarms
about Flynn had reached the highest levels
of the U.S. government months before.
Flynn had been an adviser to Trump and
an outspoken supporter of his presidential
candidacy in the 2016 campaign.
Yates, appearing before a Senate panel
Page 7A
Challenge to travel ban
focuses on Trump’s
comments about Muslims
Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP
French President-elect Emmanuel Macron, center behind, watches outgoing Presi-
dent Francois Hollande lighting up the Tomb of the Unknown soldier during a cer-
emony to mark the end of World War II at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Monday.
France’s youngest president faces the daunting task of reuniting a troubled and
divided nation riven by anxieties about terrorism and chronic unemployment and
ravaged by a bitter campaign against defeated populist Marine Le Pen.
investigating Russian interference in the
election, described discussions with Don
McGahn, the Trump White House counsel,
in which she warned that Flynn apparently
had misled the administration about his
communications with Sergey Kislyak, the
Russian ambassador.
White House officials, including Vice
President Mike Pence, had insisted that
Flynn had not discussed U.S.-imposed
sanctions with Kislyak during the
presidential transition period. But they
asked Flynn to resign after news reports
indicated he had lied about the nature of the
calls.
S. Koreans vote for new
president to succeed Park
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South
Koreans voted Tuesday for a new president,
with victory widely predicted for a liberal
candidate who has pledged to improve ties
with North Korea, re-examine a contentious
U.S. missile shield, and push sweeping
economic changes.
Conservatives worry that a victory by
Moon Jae-in might benefit North Korea and
estrange South Korea and its most important
ally, the United States.
Moon was the clear favorite as
conservative forces struggled to regroup
after the huge corruption scandal ended Park
Geun-hye’s presidency.
“I gave all my body and soul (to the
election) to the very end. My party and
I invested all our efforts with a sense of
desperation, but we also felt a great desire by
people to build a country we can be proud of
again,” Moon, 64, told reporters after casting
his ballot.
The final opinion surveys released last
week showed Moon, the Democratic Party
candidate, had about a 20 percentage-point
lead over his two main rivals — a centrist
and a conservative.
Mexico and police chief slam
Texas’ new ‘sanctuary city’ ban
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Mexican
government, San Antonio’s police chief
and others slammed Texas’ new “sanctuary
cities” law on Monday, saying that requiring
local law enforcement to help enforce
U.S. immigration law could lead to racial
profiling and will fan distrust of the police by
the state’s many Hispanics.
The law, which takes effect in September
and which critics say is the most anti-
immigrant since a 2010 Arizona law,
will allow police officers to ask about the
immigration status of anyone they detain,
including during routine traffic stops.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the
law Sunday evening on Facebook Live with
no advanced warning. A few dozen people
protested outside his mansion in Austin on
Monday.
San Antonio police chief William
McManus ripped into the Republicans
who pushed the law through despite the
objections of every big-city police chief
in the state. The Migration Policy Institute
estimates that Texas is home to more than
1.4 million people who are in the country
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A challenge
to President Donald Trump’s revised travel
ban appears to hinge on whether a federal
appeals court agrees that the Republican’s
past anti-Muslim statements can be used
against him.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
wrestled Monday with whether the court
should look beyond the text of the executive
order to comments made by Trump and his
aides on the campaign trail and after his
election in order to determine whether the
policy illegally targets Muslims.
“That’s the most important issue in the
whole case,” said Judge Robert King, who
was appointed to the court by President Bill
Clinton.
The panel of 13 judges peppered both
sides with tough questions but gave few
clues as to how they might rule. The judges
did not immediately issue a decision on
Monday.
A federal judge in Maryland who blocked
the travel ban in March cited Trump’s
comments as evidence that the executive
order is a realization of his repeated promise
to bar Muslims from entering the country.
Trump in-laws promote thorny
visa-for-sale program in China
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kushner
Companies has apologized for including
the name of President Donald Trump’s
son-in-law in materials promoting a New
Jersey development to foreign investors
seeking potential U.S. residency.
Jared Kushner himself is not involved in
his family’s development project. But his
family ties have drawn new scrutiny to the
EB-5 program, which offers foreign citizens
who invest at least $500,000 in the United
States a fast track to a green card. Critics
of the investor visas have faulted them for
failing to bring investment into downtrodden
communities, and federal agencies have
faulted the visa program for attracting money
launderers and potential spies.
On Monday, Trump administration
spokesman Sean Spicer said the president
would look at the foreign investor visa
program as part of a broader review of
immigration policy.
Trump administration hollows out science integrity board for EPA
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Trump administration
will not reappoint half the
expert members of a board
that advises the Environ-
mental Protection Agency
on the integrity of its science,
the latest in a series of moves
that could benefit industries
whose pollution the govern-
ment regulates.
Deborah L. Swackhamer,
chairwoman of the Board
of Scientific Counselors,
confirmed Monday that nine
of the 18 outside experts on
her panel will not serve a
second three-year term. The
affected board members’
terms expired April 30.
Experts are limited to
serving two terms on the
board, and Swackhamer
said that in the past those
completing their first term
would typically have been
reappointed. Four other board
members just completed their
second terms, meaning 13 of
the 18 seats on the panel are
now vacant.
EPA spokesman J.P.
Freire said the agency’s new
leadership wants to consider
a wider array of applicants,
potentially including those
who may work for chemical
and fossil fuel companies. He
said former board members
may also be considered.
“We are going to look at
all applicants that come in,
because this is an open and
competitive process,” Freire
said. “EPA received hundreds
of nominations to serve on
the board, and we want to
ensure fair consideration of
all the nominees.”
Swackhamer said she was
not aware of how or when
the “hundreds” of nomina-
tions Freire mentioned were
collected. To her knowledge,
there has not yet been any
public call for applicants to fill
the newly vacated positions.
“There’s a hiring freeze,
so we can’t actually replace
them until EPA says it’s
OK,” said Swackhamer, who
taught environmental health
sciences at the University of
Minnesota. “We’re kind of
hobbled, to say the least. ...
They have essentially said
they will look to industry
scientists for much of their
advice.”
Members of the Board
of Scientific Counselors
are typically top academic
experts tasked with helping
ensure the agency’s scientists
follow well-established best
practices. The positions are
paid, and would be subject to
the same ethics and conflict-
of-interest screening as other
federal appointees.
In a separate development,
the Interior Department says
it has launched a wide ranging
review of more than 200
boards and advisory commit-
tees. Spokeswoman Megan
Bloomgren said that some
of the boards being looked
at had not met in years, and
that no current members were
being dismissed.
EPA Administrator Scott
Pruitt has long been a fierce
critic of the agency he now
leads, saying its scientists
often fail to weigh the cost
of implementing new regula-
tions on businesses.
Pruitt, a lawyer who previ-
ously served as Oklahoma’s
elected attorney general, has
moved in recent weeks to
roll back Obama-era limits
on toxic pollution from
coal-fired power plants and
countermand a push to ban a
pesticide that peer-reviewed
studies indicate may harm the
developing brains of young
children.
Pruitt also disagrees with
the consensus of climate
scientists that man-made
carbon emissions are the
primary cause of climate
change, saying that limits on
burning coal costs jobs.
Robert Richardson, one of
the scientific counselors not
reappointed to a second term,
said Pruitt’s public comments
reflect a misunderstanding of
the role of scientists, which
is to impartially collect data
and report what the evidence
shows.
“The science will show
the impact of a particular
chemical or toxic substance,
but we would never say it
L i t t le
D a r l i n gs !
This special section will be fi lled with photos of and
messages for adorable little darlings from Umatilla County.
Families will want to keep this special keepsake for
their child and family for years to come.
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should be banned or regu-
lated in a particular way,” said
Richardson, an ecological
economist at Michigan State
University. It is up to policy
makers, Richardson said, to
recommend new regulations
and consider whether the
benefits outweigh the costs.
“The EPA’s mission is to
protect human health and
the environment,” he said.
“It is not to minimize cost to
industry.
Olivia,
t.
I loved you from the very star
heart.
my
ed
rac
emb
,
You stole my breath
un.
beg
just
has
er
Our life togeth
.
You’re part of me, my little one
Love, Mom
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