NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
A8
BRIEFLY
Trump ignores AG
Barr’s request to
stop tweeting
WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Donald Trump on Friday
ignored his attorney general’s
public request to stop tweeting
about the Justice Department,
saying he had the legal right to
ask the agency to intervene in
a criminal case, but he’s so far
“chosen not to.”
Trump’s Friday morning
tweet came just hours after
Attorney General William
Barr said in a striking inter-
view with ABC News that the
president’s tweets were mak-
ing it “impossible” to do his
job, especially following the
department’s bungled han-
dling of the sentencing recom-
mendation for Trump ally and
confi dant Roger Stone.
Trump, in his tweet, also
left open the possibility that
he would ask Barr for some-
thing in a criminal matter in
the future.
While technically as the
president, Trump has the
right to compel the Justice
Department to investigate as
an executive branch agency.
But historically, the Justice
Department has functioned
as an independent agency,
unmoved and unbound by
political sway. And that repu-
tation is important to Barr, as
he made clear in the interview.
Virus cases rise as
experts question
China’s numbers
BEIJING — Infections and
deaths from the new virus in
China ballooned for a second
straight day Friday, on paper at
least, as offi cials near the epi-
center of the outbreak strug-
gled to keep up with a backlog
of patients’ lab work.
The acceleration in cases
was not necessarily an indi-
cator of a surge in the ill-
ness, known as COVID-19,
because the hardest-hit prov-
ince of Hubei and its capital
of Wuhan changed the way
it counted cases. But public
health experts wrestled with
what exactly could be deduced
from the numbers given the
shift in approach.
“If you change the way
you count cases, that obvi-
ously confounds our capac-
ity to draw fi rm conclusions
about the effectiveness of the
quarantine,” said Dr. William
Schaffner, an infectious dis-
ease expert at Vanderbilt Uni-
versity in the United States.
“We have to interpret the num-
bers with great caution.”
Confi rmed cases of the
virus rose to 63,851 in main-
land China, an increase of
5,090 from a day earlier,
according to the National
Health Commission. The death
toll stood at 1,380, up 121.
‘Red fl ag’ gun law
used 3,500 times
since Parkland
FORT LAUDERDALE,
Fla. — A 23-year-old man
who posted on Facebook, “I
don’t know why I don’t go on
a killing spree.” A West Palm
Beach couple who shot up their
home while high on cocaine.
A 31-year-old Gulf Coast man
who pointed a semiautomatic
rifl e at a motorcyclist.
All four Florida residents
had their guns taken away by
judges under a “red fl ag” law
the state passed three weeks
after authorities say a men-
tally disturbed man killed 17
people in a shooting at Mar-
jory Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland two years
ago Friday.
The law, supported by
legislators of both parties,
has been applied more than
3,500 times since, with the
pace accelerating during the
last half of 2019. Even so,
an Associated Press analy-
sis of the law showed its use
is inconsistent, with some
counties and cities using it
rarely and others not at all.
Advocates of Florida’s
red fl ag measure say before
it existed, it was often diffi -
cult to remove fi rearms from
those making threats or suf-
fering severe mental break-
downs. Investigators did not
act on reports that the Park-
land shooter was threatening
to carry out a school massacre.
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Offi cial says U.S., Taliban reach truce agreement
By MATTHEW LEE
AND KATHY GANNON
Associated Press
MUNICH — A senior
U.S. offi cial said Friday
the United States and the
Taliban have reached a
truce agreement that will
take effect “very soon”
and could lead to with-
drawals of American
troops from Afghanistan.
The offi cial said the
agreement for a seven-day
“reduction in violence” to
be followed by the start
of all-Afghan peace talks
within 10 days is “very
specifi c” and covers the
entire country, includ-
ing Afghan government
forces. There were indica-
tions a formal announce-
ment could come as early
as the weekend.
The offi cial, who was
not authorized to publicly
discuss the matter and
spoke on the condition of
anonymity, said the Tal-
iban had committed to a
halt in roadside and sui-
cide bombings as well as
AP Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, shakes hands
with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during the 56th Mu-
nich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Ger-
many, on Friday.
rocket attacks. The offi cial
said the U.S. would mon-
itor the truce and deter-
mine if there were any
violations.
Should the Taliban
comply, the “reduction
in violence” agreement
would be followed by the
signing of an agreement
that would initiate peace
negotiations that include
all Afghan sides.
A Taliban offi cial
familiar with the deal said
that the second agreement
would be signed on Feb.
29 and that the inter-Af-
ghan dialogue would
begin on March 10. The
offi cials said Germany
and Norway have offered
to host the talks, but there
has been no decision on
the venue.
That Taliban offi cial
added that the withdrawal
of foreign troops would
start gradually and would
be phased over 18 months.
President
Donald
Trump previously called
off the peace talks because
of an attack that killed two
Americans.
U.S. offi cials have
not publicly spelled out
their timetable for an ini-
tial drawdown of U.S.
troops in Afghanistan, but
the expectation is that a
reduction from the current
total of about 12,000 to
approximately 8,600 will
begin after the signing of
a U.S.-Taliban deal. That
initial reduction is likely
to stretch out over a period
of weeks or months.
The new developments
came as U.S. Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo
and Defense Secretary
Mark Esper met Friday
in Munich with Afghan-
istan’s President Ashraf
Ghani. They spoke on the
sidelines of an interna-
tional security forum in
Munich.
Amid coronavirus fears, a second wave of fl u hits U.S. kids
By MIKE STOBBE
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A sec-
ond wave of fl u is hitting
the U.S., turning this into
one of the nastiest seasons
for children in a decade.
The number of child
deaths and the hospital-
ization rate for youngsters
are the highest seen at this
point in any season since
the severe fl u outbreak of
2009-10, health offi cials
said Friday. And the wave
is expected to keep going
for weeks.
Experts say it is poten-
tially a bad time for an
extended fl u season, given
concerns about the new
coronavirus out of China,
which can cause symp-
toms that can be diffi cult
to distinguish from fl u
without testing.
AP Photo/Jim Weber
Wendy Kerley gives Ethan Getman, 15, a shot of the fl u vac-
cine at the Cordova Shot Nurse clinic in Memphis, Tenn.
If coronavirus were
to begin spreading in the
U.S., there could be con-
fusion about whether peo-
ple are getting sick with
it or the fl u, said Dr. Wil-
liam Schaffner, an infec-
tious-diseases expert at
Vanderbilt University.
This fl u season got off
to its earliest start in 15
years, with surges of fl u-
like illnesses seen in parts
of the South as early as
October 2019. Most cases
were caused by a type of
fl u that usually causes sub-
stantial infections only in
the spring, at the tail end
of the fl u season.
That wave peaked
in late December and
dropped steadily for weeks
afterward.
But a second surge
began in late January. Last
week saw another rise in
the percentage of doctor’s
offi ce visits that were due
to fl u-like illness, accord-
ing to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention.
“We have not yet
peaked for infl uenza. We
are still on our way up,”
Dr. David Weber, a Uni-
versity of North Carolina
infectious-diseases spe-
cialist, said of the patient
traffi c in Chapel Hill.
First-Class Team.
World-Class Treatment You Deserve.
Flood
Relief
Fundraiser!
Spaghetti Feed
$ 10 PER ADULT
$ 25 PER FAMILY
Food Graciously Provided by
Sysco Food Services
Beverages Provided by
Swire Coca-Cola
PURCHASE TICKETS IN ADVANCE AT:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pendleton Chamber of Commerce
OMG Burgers
Sisters Restaurant
Virgil’s at Cimmiyotti’s
Rivers Edge Salon
Great Pacific
Tickets also available at the door
For more information call
541-310-4897 or 541-240-0202
100% of the
Proceeds of
This Event
Will Go to
Flood Relief
Tuesday
February 18 4-7 PM
PENDLETON CONVENTION CENTER
Integrative Oncology Services:
Radiation Oncology • Patient Navigation
Education & Support Services
Naturopathic Clinic
Survivorship Clinic • Chaplain
Nutrition & Fitness Support
For more details on all of these services,
please visit us online at tccancer.org
Two convenient locations:
600 Northwest 11th Street, Suite E-23
Good Shepherd Medical Center
Hermiston, OR - (509) 783-9894
7350 W. Deschutes Ave.
Kennewick, WA - (509) 783-9894