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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2017)
Page 8A East Oregonian BRIEFLY Trump asks for $7.9 billion down payment for Harvey relief WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has sent lawmakers an initial request for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts. The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add $7.4 billion to rapidly dwindling Federal Emer- gency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses. Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal borrowing limit. A senior House Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private, disclosed the approach. It ignores objections from House conservatives who are insisting that disaster money for Harvey should not be paired with the debt limit increase. Other senior GOP aides cautioned that no final decision had been made, and Democrats, whose votes would be needed in the Senate, have not signed off on the approach. For GOP lawmakers who support a straightforward increase in the debt limit, pairing it with Harvey money makes the unpopular vote easier to cast. Congress must act by Sept. 29 to increase the United States’ $19.9 trillion debt limit, in order to permit the government to continue borrowing money to pay bills like Social Security and interest. Failing to raise the debt limit would risk a market-shattering first-ever U.S. default. ‘Dreamers’ decision weighs on Trump as announcement nears WASHINGTON (AP) — Midday protests. Urgent pleas. Furious campaigning. A president torn. President Donald Trump stood at the center of a frantic lobbying campaign Friday as he neared a decision on the fate of hundreds of thousands of young people brought into the country illegally as children. After months of dragging his feet, the president on Tuesday will announce his plans for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants the ability to work legally in the country and a reprieve from deportation. Despite his fiery pledges during the presidential campaign to end the program, Trump has spent the last week mulling his choices, going over his options again and again, according to several people with knowledge of the deliberations. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss private conversations. “I think that this isn’t a decision that the president takes lightly and he’s taking time and diligent effort to make sure that he goes through every bit of the process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday. “I think the decision itself is weighing on him, certainly.” California braces for severe heatwave through Labor day SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Dozens of cooling centers opened throughout California, schools let students out early and outdoor events were canceled as temperatures soared from a heat wave expected to last through the Labor Day weekend. In normally cool and foggy San Francisco, temperatures reached an all-time high of 106 degrees Friday afternoon, well above the city’s 90-degree record set for this day in 1950 and the all-time record high of 103 degrees set in 2000. Across the bay, Livermore will expected to reach 115 degrees, a temperature last seen in 1950, forecasters said. The extreme heat sent project manager Michelle Ogburn to a cooling center set up in Santa Clara’s North Branch Library, where ice water stations were set up and dozens of people, many of them homeless, were taking shelter Friday afternoon. “I work from home and I live in an old mobile home with no air conditioning and not very good insulation. Today it was very hot and I just couldn’t work,” said Ogburn, who lives in Sunnyvale, California. NATION/WORLD Saturday, September 2, 2017 North Korea missile fear sets pre-emptive strike debate in Japan By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO — Japan is debating whether to develop a limited pre-emptive strike capability and buy cruise missiles — ideas that were anathema in the pacifist country before the North Korea missile threat. With revisions to Japan’s defense plans underway, ruling party hawks are accelerating the moves, and some defense experts say Japan should at least consider them. After being on the back- burner in the ruling party for decades, a possibility of pre-emptive strike was formally proposed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by his party’s missile defense panel in March, prompting parliamentary debate, though somewhat lost steam as Abe apparently avoided the divi- sive topic after seeing support ratings for his scandal-laden government plunge. North Korea’s test-firing Tuesday of a missile, which flew over Japan and landed in the northern Pacific Ocean, has intensified fear and reignited the debate. “Should we possess pre-emptive strike capa- bility?” liberal-leaning Mainichi newspaper asked the following day. “But isn’t it too reckless to jump to discuss a ‘get them before they get you’ approach?” Japan has a two-step missile defense system. First, Standard Missile-3 intercep- tors on Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan would shoot down projectiles mid-flight and if that fails, surface-to-air PAC-3s would intercept them from within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) range. Technically, the setup can handle falling debris or missiles heading to Japan, but it’s not good enough for missiles on a high-lofted trajectory, those with multiple warheads or simultaneous multiple attacks, experts say. A pre-emptive strike, by Japanese definition, is a step preceding the two-tier defense. Cruise missiles, AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File In this Oct. 2016 file photo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center standing, reviews members of Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) during the Self-Defense Forces Day at Asaka Base, north of Tokyo. Japan is debating whether to develop limited pre-emptive strike capability and buy cruise missiles - ideas that were anathema in the pacifist country before the North Korea missile threat. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File In this Aug. 29 photo, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) demonstrates the training to utilize the PAC-3 surface to air interceptors at the U.S. Yoko- ta Air Base in Fussa, on the outskirts of Tokyo. such as Tomahawk, fired from Aegis destroyers or fighter jets would get the enemy missile clearly waiting to be fired, or just after blastoff from a North Korean launch site, before it approaches Japan. Japan’s self-defense-only principle under the country’s war-renouncing constitution prohibits its military from making a first strike, and officials discussing a limited pre-emptive strike are calling it a “strike-back” instead. Whichever the language, it further loosens postwar Japan’s pacifist principle and could strain its relations with China, which is suspicious of Tokyo’s intentions. There are gray areas as to how far Japan can go and still justify minimum self-defense. Some experts are skeptical about how it would work. North Korea’s secretive, diversified and mobile launch system makes it extremely difficult to track down and incapacitate the weapons with Japan’s limited cruise missile attacks, security expert Ken Jimbo at Keio University said in a recent article. A pre-emptive strike capability would also require trillions of dollars to set up spy satellites, recon- naissance aircraft, cruise missiles, as well as training of special units, experts say. North Korea flight-tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July and has threatened to send missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam, home to key military bases. The North already has short-range missiles that cover Japan and possibly has achieved miniaturized nuclear warheads, the Defense Ministry’s annual report says. “North Korea has demon- strated its capability to hit targets anywhere in Japan,” said Narushige Michishita, a defense expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. “It has become even more important for Japan to improve its missile and civil defense capabilities, and seri- ously think about acquiring limited but meaningful strike capabilities.” AP source: Mueller team has draft letter on Comey firing WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Muel- ler’s team of investigators is in possession of a letter drafted by President Donald Trump and an aide, but never sent, that lays out a rationale for firing FBI Director James Comey, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The letter was written in the days before the May 9 firing of Comey, but was held after objections from the president’s lawyer and others, according to two other people familiar with the process who were not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. On that day, the White House released a different letter announcing Comey’s firing, one signed by Deputy Attorney General Attorney Rod Rosenstein that cited the handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as a basis for Comey’s dismissal. Trump had been fuming about Comey for weeks, upset that he would not say publicly that the president was not under investigation, which Trump said Comey had assured him privately. ENERGY SAVINGS ARE IN YOUR FUTURE THREE WAYS YOU CAN COMMAND YOUR HOME ENERGY DESTINY 2-Upcoming Real Estate Auctions Auction #1 91.78 +- Acres Mountain Property 12.6 miles Southeast of Walla Walla Selling to the Highest Bidder Regardless of Price Proceeds Benefi t the YMCA Learning Center 2:00 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 Macon Brothers Airport Facility, 301 E. Aeronca. Walla Walla Airport LIGHTING ELECTRONICS HEATING Install ENERGY STAR® LED bulbs to cut your energy use by as much as 85 percent. LEDs are available in many styles to fit all the rooms in your home and you’ll save even more in the long run because they’ll last up to 20 times longer than standard bulbs. Unplug battery chargers for mobile phones, tablets, laptops and other devices when not in use—they use energy even when they’re not actively charging anything. Group your electronics together on power strips so you can switch them off when you’re done using everything. Save on heating costs by lowering the thermostat to 65-68 degrees when you’re home, and to 58-60 degrees at night or when you’re away. Upgrade to a smart thermostat to make these kinds of energy-saving changes automatically. Auction #2 3-Commercial Properties, 105 S. Main, adjacent lot & 165 W. Coe Stanfi eld, Oregon 2 Selling to the Highest Bidder Regardless of Price Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017, 2:00 p.m. Preview Sunday, Sept. 17, Noon – 2:30 p.m. 105 S. Main Street, Stanfi eld, Oregon For complete Information www.stuartrealtygroup.com (503) 680-4959 In cooperation with Macon Brothers Auctioneers + Get more from your energy. Call us at 1.866.368.7878 or visit www.energytrust.org/homes. Serving customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural, Cascade Natural Gas and Avista.
