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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2019)
NATION Friday, January 4, 2019 East Oregonian A7 15 Democrats don’t back Pelosi for speaker By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON — What started as a rebellion with a potentially devastat- ing effect on Nancy Pelosi’s winning drive to reclaim the House speaker’s post offi- cially fizzled Thursday as just 15 Democrats refused to back her bid for the job. Though suspense about the outcome vanished last month, the 15 Democrats who supported other peo- ple or voted “present” was an unusually high num- ber of defectors for speaker elections, which every new Congress holds on its first day. It underscored that there remains a nucleus of Pelosi opponents within her party whom she may need to confront, if she seeks to lead the House again after the 2020 elections and Democrats retain their majority. Ten newly minted Dem- ocratic freshmen and five other critics from her party abandoned Pelosi, D-Calif. Because some lawmakers missed the roll call or voted “present,” she needed 216 votes to win Thursday — a figure she surpassed by just AP Photo/Cliff Owen House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., left, poses during a ceremonial swearing-in with Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., right, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday at the opening session of the 116th Congress. four. The House formally elected her Thursday to lead the new Congress by 220- 192 over Rep. Kevin McCa- rthy, R-Calif., who is now minority leader. A smatter- ing of lawmakers supported alternative candidates. Democrats gained 40 seats in November’s elec- tions, vaulting them to House control with their biggest electoral gains in four decades after eight years in the minority. Dem- ocrats now command a chamber of Congress for the first time since Presi- dent Donald Trump entered the White House in 2017. Even so, Pelosi, 78, encountered internal oppo- sition from Democrats who said during their campaigns that they would not back her for speaker. Led by rebels including Reps. Tim Ryan of Ohio, Kathleen Rice of New York and Seth Moulton of Mas- sachusetts, her foes cited the need for younger, fresh leaders. They also said years of Republican adver- tising painting Pelosi as an out-of-touch radical had hurt Democrats’ chances to win in moderate districts. The dissidents initially predicted they would be able to round up enough votes to head her off. Pelosi began her cam- paign to regain the speaker’s job, which she held from 2007 until 2011, immedi- ately after the election. She used weeks of one-on-one meetings, promised com- mittee assignments and leg- islative priorities and lob- bying by outside prominent Democrats and groups to wear down her opposition. She clinched her victory after promising to serve no more than four additional years as speaker. Veteran Democrats who backed other candidates were Reps. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania and Rice. Rice voted for Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who lost a close race for Geor- gia governor in November. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., voted “present.” Incoming Democratic freshmen who opposed Pelosi were Reps. Anthony Brindisi and Max Rose of New York, Jason Crow of Colorado, Joe Cunning- ham of South Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Ben McAdams of Utah, Mikie Sherrill of New Jer- sey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and New Jer- sey’s Jeff Van Drew voted “present.” In one measure of her effectiveness, eight of 16 Democrats who signed a November letter say- ing they were “committed to voting for new leader- ship” backed Pelosi Thurs- day, including Ryan and Moulton. Ohio GOP Rep. John Boehner was elected speaker in 2015 with 25 Republicans voting for other candidates. That was the high water mark of opposition from a speaker’s own party since World War I and a harbinger of a power play by conservatives that fall that chased him from office. Most speakers have been elected with unanimous support from their party or a smattering of opposition. Stocks take a beating after iPhone sales slip; Dow falls 660 By MARLEY JAY AP Markets Writer NEW YORK — Stocks tumbled on Thursday on Wall Street, with technol- ogy companies suffering their worst loss in seven years, after Apple reported that iPhone sales are slip- ping in China. The rare warning of dis- appointing results from Apple stoked investors’ fears that the world’s sec- ond-biggest economy is losing steam and that trade tensions between Washing- ton and Beijing are making things worse. The sell-off also came after a surpris- ingly weak report on U.S. manufacturing. The Dow Jones Indus- trial Average plunged 660 points, or 2.8 percent, and the broader S&P 500 index fell 2.5 percent. Apple stock plummeted 10 percent, wiping out more than $74 billion of the com- pany’s market value. That’s almost as much as Starbucks is worth and more than Lockheed Martin, Lowe’s, Caterpillar, General Electric or Morgan Stanley. Other major exporters, including heavy-machin- ery manufacturers and tech companies like Intel and Microsoft, also took big losses. “For a while now there’s been an adage in the mar- kets that as long as Apple AP Photo/Richard Drew Specialist Peter Giacchi, right, calls out prices for Bristol- Myers Squib on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. was doing fine, everyone else would be OK,” said Neil Wilson, chief markets analyst at Markets.com. “Therefore, Apple’s rare profit warning is a red flag for market watchers. The question is to what extent this is more Apple-specific.” Over the past year, the U.S. and China slapped new tariffs on hundreds of bil- lions of dollars’ worth of imports in a trade war that threatens to snarl multina- tional companies’ supply lines and reduce demand for their products. Companies such as General Motors, Caterpillar and Daimler have all said recently that trade tensions and slower growth in China are damag- ing their businesses. “When the largest and second-largest economies in the world get into a trade dis- pute, the rest of the world’s going to feel the effects. That’s what we’re see- ing now,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Cresset Wealth Advisors. In a letter to sharehold- ers on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that iPhone demand is waning in China and that the company expects revenue of $84 bil- lion for the quarter that just ended. That’s $7 billion less than analysts expected. Cook’s comments echoed the concerns that have pushed investors to flee stocks over the past three months. The U.S. stock market in 2018 posted its worst year in a decade. The S&P 500 lost 62.14 points Thursday, closing at 2,447.89. The Dow fell Zinke denies report that he lied to Interior investigators By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — Newly departed U.S. Inte- rior Secretary Ryan Zinke told The Associ- ated Press on Thurs- day that he’s been truth- ful with i n v e s t i ga- Zinke tors look- ing into numerous eth- ics complaints against him and rejected as inaccurate a report that he’s under inves- tigation for lying. Zinke’s comments came in response to a Washing- ton Post story alleging that the Justice Department’s public integrity section was examining whether the for- mer Montana congressman lied to investigators from Interior Department’s office of inspector general, which provides independent over- sight of the agency. In his first interview since he stepped down on Wednesday, Zinke says the allegations are false and appeared to have been leaked to undermine his accomplishments as head of a department responsible for managing about 500 million acres of U.S. lands, primar- ily in the West. He resigned last month after Demo- crats critical of Zinke’s ten- ure regained control of the House of Representatives in the November election. The shift in power was expected to lead to a wave of oversight hearings amid numerous ethics investiga- tions involving both Zinke’s work as secretary and deal- ings outside office. They include his decisions to block two tribes from open- ing a Connecticut casino and a land deal that he pur- sued with the chairman of energy services company Halliburton. As Interior secretary, Zinke pushed to develop oil, natural gas and coal beneath public lands in line with the administration’s busi- ness-friendly goals. But he has been dogged by the eth- ics investigations, which he characterized as “politi- cal attacks” against him by conservation groups and Democrats. The Associated Press reported in November that the inspector general’s office referred an investiga- tion of Zinke to the Justice Department. The Post story, citing anonymous sources, says Interior investigators came to believe Zinke lied to them and referred the mat- ter to the Justice Depart- ment for potential criminal violations. The report did not detail which of the inspector gen- eral investigations was sent to the Justice Department. Agency spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined to comment. “It’s an unauthorized leak from an anonymous source over false allega- tions,” Zinke told AP. to 22,868.22. The Nasdaq, which has a high concentra- tion of tech stocks, retreated 202.43 points, or 3 percent, to 6,463.50. U.S. government bond prices surged, sending yields to their lowest level in almost a year, and gold and high-dividend stocks like utilities also rose as investors looked for safer places to put their money. The Institute for Sup- ply Management said its index of U.S. manufactur- ing fell to its lowest level in two years, and new orders have fallen sharply since 8 November. Manufactur- ing is still growing, but at a slower pace than it has recently. Apple’s stock has slumped 39 percent since early October. The company also recently announced that it would stop disclosing how many iPhones it sold each quarter, a move many investors suspected was an attempt to hide bad news. Apple took its biggest loss in six years and ended at $142.19. Microsoft fell 3.7, Intel 5.5 percent. The S&P 500 technology com- panies had their worst day since August 2011. Among big industrial companies that could suffer from a drop in demand from China, Caterpillar declined 3.9 percent, Deere 2.7 per- cent and Boeing 4 percent. “This situation is yet another example of how politics — in this case, the trade war — has exacerbated real but manageable eco- nomic concerns and turned them into something worse than they have to be,” Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network, wrote in a note to clients. HOUR ONE DAY AD SALE MEGA SALE HOW IT WORKS: From 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 4th ONLY, our advertising representative will take your calls to reserve ads for one or more issues in January and/or February. The sale will last 8 hours and end at 5:01 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4th Only! 60 % OFF Regular newspaper on full, half page and 1/4 page ads AD SIZES AVAILABLE 1/4 page 3 col. (5.167”) x 10.5” Half page horizontal 6 col. (10.5”) x 10.5” Half page vertical 3 col. (5167”) x 21” Full page 6 col. 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