NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Trump choosing white men as Half of U.S. adults have high
judges, highest rate in decades blood pressure in new guidelines
BY CATHERINE LUCEY
and MEGHAN HOYER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
President Donald Trump is
nominating white men to
America’s federal courts at
a rate not seen in nearly 30
years, threatening to reverse
a slow transformation toward
a judiciary that reflects the
nation’s diversity.
So far, 91 percent of
Trump’s nominees are white,
and 81 percent are male, an
Associated Press analysis
has found. Three of every
four are white men, with
few African-Americans and
Hispanics in the mix. The
last president to nominate a
similarly homogenous group
was George H.W. Bush.
The shift could prove
to be one of Trump’s most
enduring legacies. These are
lifetime appointments, and
Trump has inherited both
an unusually high number
of vacancies and an aging
population of judges. That
puts him in position to signifi-
cantly reshape the courts that
decide thousands of civil
rights, environmental, crim-
inal justice and other disputes
across the country. The White
House has been upfront about
its plans to quickly fill the
seats with conservatives, and
has made clear that judicial
philosophy tops any concerns
about shrinking racial or
gender diversity.
Trump is anything but
shy about his plans, calling
his imprint on the courts an
“untold story” of his presi-
dency.
“Nobody wants to talk
about it,” he says. “But
when you think of it ... that
has consequences 40 years
out.” He predicted at a recent
Cabinet meeting, “A big
percentage of the court will
be changed by this admin-
istration over a very short
period of time.”
Advocates for putting
more women and racial
minorities on the bench argue
that courts that more closely
Trump’s judicial picks vs. Obama’s
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has nominated
far more white males to the federal bench than his predeces-
sor, Barack Obama, according to an analysis of demographic
data for the federal judiciary.
Judicial nominations during president’s first 10 months
MALE NOMINEES
43 11 2
Trump
7
Obama
5 2
White
Black
FEMALE NOMINEES
Obama
Hispanic
Other
10 1
Trump
5
31 2
Data is for Jan. 20-Oct. 31, 2017 for Trump and Jan. 20-Oct. 31, 2009 for
Obama. “Other” refers to those who do not identify themselves as white,
black or Hispanic.
SOURCES: AP; Federal Judicial Center
reflect the demographics
of the population ensure a
broader range of viewpoints
and inspire greater confi-
dence in judicial rulings.
One court that has become
a focus in the debate is the
Eastern District of North
Carolina, a region that,
despite its sizeable black
population, has never had
a black judge. A seat on
that court has been open for
more than a decade. George
W. Bush named a white
man, and Barack Obama at
different points nominated
two black women, but none
of those nominees ever came
to a vote in the Senate.
Trump has renominated
Bush’s original choice:
Thomas Farr, a private
attorney
whose
work
defending North Carolina’s
redistricting maps and a voter
identification law has raised
concerns among civil rights
advocates.
Kyle Barry, senior policy
counsel for the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educa-
tional Fund, said that when
diversity is lacking, “there’s
a clear perception where the
courts are not a place people
can go and vindicate their
civil rights.”
AP
In
recent
decades,
Democrats have consistently
named more racial minorities
and women on the courts. But
even compared to his Repub-
lican predecessors, Trump’s
nominees stand out. So far,
he has nominated the highest
percentage of white judges
in his first year since Ronald
Reagan. If he continues on his
trend through his first term,
he will be the first Repub-
lican since Herbert Hoover
to name fewer women and
minorities to the court than
his GOP predecessor.
The AP reviewed 58
nominees to lifetime posi-
tions on appellate and district
courts, as well as the Supreme
Court, by the end of October.
Fifty-three are white, three
are Asian-American, one is
Hispanic and one is Afri-
can-American. There are 47
men and 11 women. Thirteen
have won Senate approval.
The numbers stand in
marked contrast to those
of Obama, who made
diversifying the federal
bench a priority. White men
represented just 37 percent
of judges confirmed during
Obama’s two terms; nearly
42 percent of his judges
were women.
ANAHEIM, Calif. —
New guidelines lower the
threshold for high blood
pressure, adding 30 million
Americans to those who
have the condition, which
now plagues nearly half of
U.S. adults.
High pressure, which
for decades has been a top
reading of at least 140 or
a bottom one of 90, drops
to 130 over 80 in advice
announced Monday by a
dozen medical groups.
The change means an
additional 14 percent of U.S.
adults have the problem, but
only an additional 2 percent
will need medication right
away; the rest should try
healthier lifestyles, which
get much stronger emphasis
in the new advice. Poor diets,
lack of exercise and other
bad habits cause 90 percent
of high blood pressure.
“I have no doubt there
will be controversy. I’m sure
there will be people saying
‘We have a hard enough
time getting to 140,’” said
Dr. Paul Whelton, a Tulane
University physician who
led the guidelines panel.
But the risk for heart
disease, stroke and other
problems drops as blood
pressure improves, and the
new advice “is more honest”
about how many people
have a problem, he said.
Currently, only half of
Americans with high blood
pressure have it under
control.
The upper threshold for
high blood pressure has been
140 since 1993, but a major
study two years ago found
heart risks were much lower
in people who aimed for
120. Canada and Australia
lowered their cutoff to that;
Europe is still at 140 but is
due to revise its guidance
next year.
The guidelines were
announced Monday at an
American Heart Association
conference in Anaheim.
What the changes mean
The guidelines set new
categories and get rid of
“prehypertension”:
AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File
In this 2013 file photo, a patient has her blood pres-
sure checked by a registered nurse in Plainfield, Vt.
New medical guidelines announced Monday lower
the threshold for high blood pressure, adding 30 mil-
lion Americans to those who have the condition.
• Normal: Under 120
over 80
• Elevated: Top number
120-129 and bottom less
than 80
• Stage 1: Top of 130-139
or bottom of 80-89
• Stage 2: Top at least 140
or bottom at least 90
That means 46 percent
of U.S. adults have high
pressure (stages 1 or 2)
versus 32 percent under the
old levels.
How common it is will
roughly triple in men under
45, to 30 percent, and double
in women of that age, to 19
percent.
For people over 65, the
guidelines undo a contro-
versial tweak made three
years ago to relax standards
and not start medicines
unless the top number was
over 150. Now, everyone
that old should be treated if
the top number is over 130
unless they’re too frail or
have conditions that make it
unwise.
“The evidence with this
is so solid, so convincing,
that it’s hard to argue with
the targets,” said Dr. Jackson
Wright, a guidelines panel
member from University
Hospitals
Cleveland
Medical Center. Older
people “have a 35-to-50-fold
higher risk of dying of a heart
attack or stroke compared
to younger people.”
But the Cleveland Clin-
ic’s Dr. Steven Nissen said
he’s worried.
“Some more vulnerable
patients who get treated
very aggressively may have
trouble with falls” because
too-low pressure can make
them faint, he said.
Who needs treatment
Certain groups, such as
those with diabetes, should
be treated if their top number
is over 130, the guidelines
say. For the rest, whether
to start medication will no
longer be based just on the
blood pressure numbers.
The decision also should
consider the overall risk of
having a heart problem or
stroke in the next 10 years,
including factors such as
age, gender and cholesterol,
using a simple formula to
estimate those odds.
Those without a high risk
will be advised to improve
their lifestyles — lose
weight, eat healthy, exercise
more, limit alcohol, avoid
smoking.
“It’s not just throwing
meds at something,” said
one primary care doctor who
praised the new approach,
the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Robert
Stroebel. If people continue
bad habits, “They can kind
of eat and blow through the
medicines,” he said.
BRIEFLY
Earthquake kills
430 in Iranian
border region
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —
Rescuers dug with their bare
hands Monday through the
debris of buildings felled
by an earthquake that killed
more than 430 people in the
border region of Iran and Iraq,
with nearly all the casualties
occurring in an area rebuilt
after their ruinous 1980s war.
The magnitude-7.3
earthquake struck Sunday at
9:48 p.m. Iran time, just as
people were going to bed.
The worst damage appeared
to be in the Kurdish town
of Sarpol-e-Zahab in the
western Iranian province of
Kermanshah, which sits in the
Zagros Mountains that divide
the two countries.
Residents fled without
time to grab their possessions
as apartment complexes
collapsed into rubble. Outside
walls of some buildings
were sheared off, power and
water lines were severed,
and telephone service was
disrupted. Residents dug
frantically through wrecked
buildings for survivors as
they wailed. Firefighters from
Tehran joined other rescuers
in the desperate search, using
dogs to inspect the rubble.
The hospital in Sarpol-e-
Zahab was heavily damaged,
and the army set up field
hospitals, although many of
the injured were moved to
other cities, including Tehran.
Trump Jr. messaged
with WikiLeaks
during campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump’s
oldest son on Monday
released a series of private
Twitter exchanges between
himself and WikiLeaks during
and after the 2016 election,
including pleas from the
website to publicize its leaks.
Donald Trump Jr.’s
release of the messages on
Twitter cames hours after The
Atlantic first reported them.
In the exchanges — some
of them around the time that
the website was releasing the
stolen emails from Democrat
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People sit on the rubble of a destroyed house after an
earthquake in the city of Darbandikhan, northern Iraq,
Monday. Authorities reported that a powerful 7.3 mag-
nitude earthquake struck the Iraq-Iran border region
on Monday and killed more than three hundred people
in both countries.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign
chairman — WikiLeaks
praises his father’s positive
comments about WikiLeaks
and asks Trump Jr. to release
his father’s tax returns to the
site.
The revelations are sure
to increase calls in Congress
to have Trump Jr. testify
publicly as part of several
committee probes into
Russian interference in the
2016 election. And they
add a new element to the
investigations that have been
probing for months whether
Trump’s campaign colluded
in any way with the Russian
government.
In an intelligence
assessment released last
January, the NSA, CIA and
FBI concluded that Russian
military intelligence provided
hacked information from the
DNC and “senior Democratic
officials” to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks has denied that
Russia was the source of
emails it released, including
those from Clinton’s
campaign chairman, John
Podesta.
The private messages
released by Trump Jr. show
him responding to the
WikiLeaks account three
times, at one point agreeing to
“ask around” about a political
action committee WikiLeaks
had mentioned. He also
asked the site about a rumor
about an upcoming leak. The
messages began in September
2016 and ran through July.
Sessions open to
idea of Clinton
Foundation special
counsel
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Attorney General
Jeff Sessions is leaving open
the possibility that a special
counsel could be appointed to
look into Clinton Foundation
dealings and an Obama-era
uranium deal, the Justice
Department said Monday in
responding to concerns from
Republican lawmakers.
In a letter to the House
Judiciary Committee, which
is holding an oversight
hearing Tuesday, the Justice
Department said Sessions
had directed senior federal
prosecutors to “evaluate
certain issues” raised by
Republican lawmakers.
President Donald Trump has
also repeatedly called for
investigations of Democrats.
The prosecutors will
report to Sessions and
Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein and
recommend whether any
new investigations should be
opened, whether any matters
currently under investigation
require additional resources
and whether it might be
necessary to appoint a special
counsel to oversee a probe,
according to a letter sent
to Rep. Robert Goodlatte
of Virginia, the Judiciary
Committee’s Republican
chairman.
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1545 N . First St., Herm iston, OR
541-571-6079
U.S. Silver Dollars 1904 & before $15.00 ea. & up
U.S. Silver Dollars 1921-1935 $13.00 ea. & up
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• BUYIN G U.S. SILVER COIN S 1964 & BEFORE •
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Half Dollars $5.00 & up
Quarters
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Dimes
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Clad Half Dollars (1965-1970) $1.00 & up
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5 TIM ES FACE VALUE
Dimes-$.50, Quarters-$1.25 & Half Dollars-$2.50
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Old coins - complete or partial sets,
paper money (1934 & older), proof sets .
No amount too large or small.
Examples:
Liberty Head
Lincoln Pennies:
Indian Head Pennies:
1909-S
$30
1856
$1000 & Up
Nickel:
1877
$200 & Up
1908-S $10 & Up
1909-S $180 & Up
All Others 50¢ & Up
1909-S VDB
$300
1910-S-1915-S $3
1931-S
$20
1885
1886
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