Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 754
June 9, 2016
Matz men: Mets look local again with 2 more Long Island arms
FILE - In this June 3, 2016, file photo, Boston College pitcher Justin Dunn throws against Tulane in the NCAA college regional baseball tournament game in Oxford, Miss. Dunn is a top prospect in the Major League Baseball draft. (Bruce Newman/The Oxford Eagle via AP, File) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT (Credit: AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — When it comes to young arms, the NL champion Mets are in a New York state of mind.
Perhaps buoyed by Steven Matz’s early success, the Mets stayed close to home again and plucked two more pitchers from Long Island with their first-round selections in the Major League Baseball draft Thursday night.
New York nabbed Justin Dunn at No. 19 overall, a Boston College right-hander who grew up about 25 miles from Citi Field in the town of Freeport. With the 31st pick, the Mets took their second run at lefty Anthony Kay — a Connecticut product drafted by New York in the 29th round three years ago out of the same Long Island high school (Ward Melville) that Matz attended.
“I decided I don’t like flying this year, so I just scouted guys I could drive to from my house in Rhode Island. Boston College was close and UConn was on the way to Citi Field,” amateur scouting director Tommy Tanous joked on a conference call.
“But you know, it was so bizarre, the fact that both kids are local kids, and it’s just how the draft played out. We had no intention of manipulating the draft or anything to get these players. We were thrilled to get ’em, it’s just kind of how the draft worked out. I would say because of our familiarity with them, we may have had them a little higher than some other teams because they are in our backyard.”
John Franco was happy to see the focus on area arms. The former Mets closer, who grew up in Brooklyn and is now a club ambassador, was on hand at MLB Network studios to announce one of the team’s picks — just as he did in 2009 when he called out Matz’s name for New York in the second round
“It’s good to see that they’re drafting hometown kids, giving them an opportunity. The kid from Connecticut supposedly is built a lot like me and from what I hear reminds a lot of people of me,” Franco said. “It’s good that the organization is still keeping pitching first, and they’re both college kids, so they shouldn’t be too far away.”
Slowed by Tommy John surgery early in his professional career, Matz is now a staple in the Mets’ strong rotation. He held his own in the playoffs and World Series last year despite little experience, and the rookie left-hander is 7-2 with a 2.68 ERA this season.
“If that’s any indication, we got a pretty good pitcher,” said Franco, a four-time All-Star with 424 career saves who was drafted in the fifth round by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981.
“In years past, I think a lot of the Northeast kids got overlooked because of the fact that the teams were going for more kids in the warm climate,” he added. “Now I think they’re starting to come more towards the East Coast. Special type of kids, different type of kids on the East Coast than the West Coast. It takes a tougher skin to play in cold weather, that’s for sure.”
Dunn is a late bloomer who transitioned from reliever to starter this season and has pitched the Eagles into the super regionals for the first time. The 20-year-old junior features a mid-90s (mph) fastball and tight slider, according to Baseball America. He is 4-1 with an ACC-best 1.49 ERA in 17 games (seven starts) this season while compiling 66 strikeouts and 16 walks in 60 1/3 innings.
“He was certainly on our radar,” Tanous said. “We really got on him when he became a starter.”
Unlike Matz, Kay turned down his hometown team in 2013 and headed a few hours north to pitch for the Huskies, honing his outstanding changeup and adding velocity to a fastball that now sits at 92-94 mph. The junior went 9-2 with a 2.65 ERA in 17 starts covering 119 innings this season and was selected the American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year. He struck out 111 and walked 35.
New York chose the 21-year-old Kay with the pick it received as compensation for Daniel Murphy signing with the Washington Nationals as a free agent.
“He was an advanced high school pitcher to begin with, so it’s not like Anthony had a long way to go,” Tanous said. “A huge thing with Anthony, even though his velocity spiked, his command actually had gotten better since high school. So he made improvements in all facets of his game.”
With the 64th overall selection, the Mets finally looked elsewhere besides Long Island and picked power-hitting Florida first baseman Peter Alonso.
Debbie can’t save herself: The Democratic National Committee chair has to go for the good of the party
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Credit: AP/Richard Drew)
Return with us now to the saga of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the soul of the Democratic Party.
First, a quick recap: Rep. Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), chair of the Democratic National Committee, also has been an advocate for the payday loan industry. The website Think Progress even described her as the “top Democratic ally” of “predatory payday lenders.” You know — the bottom-feeding bloodsuckers of the working poor. Yes, them.
Low-income workers living from paycheck to paycheck, especially women and minorities, are the payday lenders’ prime targets — easy pickings because they’re often desperate.Twelve million Americans reportedly borrow nearly $50 billion a year through payday loans, at rates that can soar above 300 percent, sometimes even beyond 500 percent. Bethany McLean at The Atlantic recently reported that the government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) studied millions of payday loans and found that “67 percent went to borrowers with seven or more transactions a year and that a majority of those borrowers paid more in fees than the amount of their initial loan.”
Yet when the CFPB was drawing up new rules to make it harder for payday predators to feast on the poor, Rep. Wasserman Schultz co-sponsored a bill to delay those new rules by two years. How, you ask, could the head of the party’s national committee embrace such an appalling exploitation of working people?
Just follow the money. Last year, the payday loan industry spent $3.5 million lobbying; and as we wrote two weeks ago, in Wasserman Schultz’s home state, since 2009, payday lenders have bought protection from Democrats and Republicans alike by contributing $2.5 million or so to candidates from both parties, including her. That’s how “Representative” Wasserman Schultz, among others, wound up representing the predators instead of the poor.
That position became a major issue in her campaign for reelection to the House this year — she has a primary opponent for the first time since she entered Congress — and was even threatening the prospect of her continuing as DNC chair and presiding over the Democratic National Convention next month in Philadelphia. More than 40,000 have signed a petition calling for her removal from that post.
She had become a symbol of the failure of Democratic elites to understand that there is an uprising in the land. Millions of Americans are rebelling against the leadership of both parties. They are fed up with inside-the-Beltway politicians who pay only lip service to the deep needs of everyday people and the country; fed up with incumbents who ask for their votes, are given them in good faith, and then return to Washington to do the bidding of the donor class and its lobbyists.
Donald Trump gets it. He has roiled and humiliated and conquered an out-of-touch Republican establishment in Washington that also ignored the popular uprising against corporate domination and crony capitalism, and now GOP titans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, spear carriers for Big Money, are being hauled around the talk-show circuit in Trump’s tumbrel, eating crow and swearing fealty to the misogynistic, bigoted and pathologically lying brute who bestrides their party.
Democratic insiders like Wasserman Schultz, however, continued to whistle past the graveyard, believing that the well-funded and well-connected Clinton machine — and general fear of a Trump regime — were enough to carry them to victory in November, despite the grass-roots disgust with a party that reeks of rot from the top. Once the champions of people who came home from work with hands dirty from toil and sweat, too many establishment Democrats went over to the dark side, taking up the cause of the well-manicured executives (think: Goldman Sachs) who write the checks and the mercenaries who deliver them (for a substantial cut, of course).
The lust for loot which now defines the Democratic establishment became pronounced in the Bill Clinton years, when the Clinton-friendly Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) abandoned its liberal roots and embraced “market-based solutions” that led to deregulation, tax breaks, and subsidies for the 1 percent. Seeking to fill coffers emptied by the loss of support from a declining labor movement, Democrats rushed into the arms of big business and crony capitalists.
Another case in point (and, alas, there are many): the Democratic governor of Connecticut, Dan Malloy, who seems to treat his state’s corporate residents far better than the 1 in 10 of his citizens who live at or below the poverty line.
At International Business Times last week, investigative reporter David Sirota analyzed the proposed merger of Cigna and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a deal that would create the biggest health insurance company in the country. Cigna is based in Connecticut and Katharine Wade, the state’s insurance commissioner, appointed by Governor Malloy, is a former Cigna lobbyist with deep family ties to the company.
Sirota reported:
“Malloy’s decision to appoint Wade to such a powerful regulatory post on the eve of the merger was not made in a vacuum,” Sirota reported. “It came after employees of Cigna, its lobbying firm Robinson & Cole and Anthem delivered more than $1.3 million to national and state political groups affiliated with Malloy, including the DemocraticGovernors Association (DGA), the Connecticut Democratic Party, Malloy’s own gubernatorial campaign and a political action committee supporting Connecticut Democrats [our italics].
Since Malloy’s first successful run for governor in the 2010 election cycle, donors from the insurance companies and the lobbying firm have given more than $2 million to Malloy-linked groups, according to the figures compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine and the National Institute on Money In State Politics. Almost half that cash has come in since 2015, the year the merger was announced.
Sirota now reports that since his investigation first was published, the state has “formally denied open records requests for information about their meetings with Cigna and Anthem, and declared that ‘any’ documents about the health insurance companies’ proposed merger that haven’t already been made public will be kept secret.” His FOIA request was turned down “one day after Anthem requested [state insurance commissioner] Wade approve an average 26 percent increase in health insurance premiums for individual plans.” So much for transparency.
And while we’re in Connecticut, let’s also take a look at what Malloy is doing for the world’s biggest hedge fund — Bridgewater Associates, based in his state, with an estimated worth of $150 billion. The founder of the firm, Ray Dalio, is the richest man in Connecticut, by one estimate weighing in at $14.3 billion.
Dalio made $1.4 billion in 2015 alone, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. That same year, his top two executives pulled in $250 million each. Yet as part of Connecticut’s campaign to keep companies from leaving the state, Malloy is taking $22 million of the public’s money and giving it to Dalio to stay put.
You might think a Democratic governor would have thrown down the gauntlet and told Bridgewater’s top three, “Get outta here! You guys made almost $2 billion among yourselves. Shake your piggy bank or look under your sofa cushions for the $22 million; we’re not milking the public for it.”
But no, Malloy and his fellow Democrats buckled. Buckled to the one-tenth of the one-tenth of the one-hundredth percent of the rich. Ordinary taxpayers will now ante up.
So given all of that, guess who’s the chairman of the platform committee for the upcoming Democratic National Convention? Right: Dan Malloy, governor of Connecticut, subsidizer of billionaires. Guess who named him? Right again: Wasserman Schultz, “top Democratic ally” of “predatory payday lenders.” We’re not making this up.
Not only will Malloy be presiding over the priorities of the Democratic platform at the convention next month, he doubtless will be making the rounds with Wasserman Schultz and other party elites as they genuflect before the corporate sponsors and lobbyists she has invited to pay for the lavish fun-and-games that will surround the coronation. Many of those corporate sponsors and lobbyists have actively lobbied against progressive policies like health-care reform and a Wall Street cleanup and even contributed large sums to Republicans. Yes, we know, shocking.
So take the planks in the platform and the platitudes and promises in the speeches with a grain of salt. It’s all about the money.
Except when it’s not. Except for those moments when ordinary people rise up and declare: “Not this time!”
Which brings us back to predatory lenders and their buddy, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Look around: There’s an uprising in the land, remember, and it isn’t going away after Hillary Clinton, now the presumptive nominee, is crowned. This year even Wasserman Schultz couldn’t ignore the decibel level of an aroused public. Unaccustomed to a challenge in the Democratic “wealth primary” where money usually favors incumbents, she now finds herself called to account by an articulate opponent who champions working people, Tim Canova. Across the country tens of thousands of consumer advocates — and tens of thousands of other progressives angry at her perceived favoritism toward Hillary Clinton — have beendemanding that Wasserman Schultz resign as the party’s chair or be dumped before the convention opens Philadelphia.
So last week the previously tone-deaf Wasserman Schultz perked up, did an about-face and announced she will go along with the proposed new rules on payday lending after all. At first blush, that’s good; the rules are a step in the right direction. But all that lobbying cash must have had some effect, because the new rules only go so far. A New York Times editorialcalls them “a lame response” to predatory loans and says the final version of the new regulations “will need stronger, more explicit consumer protections for the new regulatory system to be effective.”
Nick Bourke, director of small-dollar loans for the Pew Charitable Trusts, is a man who closely follows these things and got to the heart of the matter: Not only do the proposed new rules “fall short,” they will allow payday lenders to lock out attempts at lower-cost bank loans. His judgment is stark:
As drafted, the CFPB rule would allow lenders to continue to make high-cost loans, such as a line of credit with a 15-percent transaction fee and 299-percent interest rate, or a $1,250 loan on which the borrower would repay a total of $3,700 in fees, interest and principal,” Bourke wrote. “These and many other high-cost payday installment loans are already on the market in most states, and they will thrive if the regulation takes effect without change.
Nonetheless, the new rules were improvement enough for Allied Progress, an organization that has taken on Wasserman Schultz in Florida’s late August primary, to declare victory. And they were enough for Wasserman Schultz to do a 180-degree turn which she clearly hopes will not too dramatically reveal her hypocrisy. “It is clear to me,” she said, “that the CFPB strikes the right balance and I look forward to working with my constituents and consumer groups as the CFPB works toward a final rule.”
All well and good, but if she survives her primary to return to Washington, be sure to keep the lights on in those rooms where the final version of the rules are negotiated. A powerful member of Congress with support from a Democrat in the White House could seriously weaken a law or a rule when the outcome is decided behind closed doors and money whispers in the ear of a politician supplicant: “I’m still here. Remember. Or else.”
But the times, they really may be a-changing, as the saga of Wasserman Schultz reveals. You can be deaf to the public’s shouts for only so long. The insurgency of popular discontent that has upended politics this year will continue no matter the results in November. For much too long now it’s been clear that money doesn’t just rule democracy, it is democracy.
Until we prove it isn’t.
June 8, 2016
A look at House bill to help Puerto Rico with $70B debt
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is slated to vote Thursday on legislation that would help rescue Puerto Rico from its $70 billion debt. Some of the provisions in the bill:
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CONTROL BOARD: A seven-member board appointed by Congress and the president would help Puerto Rico get its finances in order, similar to a board that helped guide the District of Columbia through a fiscal crisis two decades ago. The territory’s government would have to create a fiscal plan and submit budgets to the board. In some cases, the board could override the territorial government.
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FISCAL PLANS: The board and the territorial government would develop detailed fiscal plans intended to achieve fiscal responsibility and eventual access to markets. The plan would direct the territory to fund public services and improve accountability. Through the fiscal plans, the board would have to figure out how to maintain the legal rights of creditors and also shore up pension shortfalls. The island has underfunded public pension obligations by more than $40 billion.
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DEBT RESTRUCTURING: Like all U.S. states and territories, Puerto Rico cannot declare bankruptcy under federal law. But mainland municipalities and their utilities can, while municipalities and utilities in Puerto Rico cannot. The bill does not allow the island full bankruptcy authority, but gives the control board oversight authority over negotiations with creditors and the courts over reducing some debt.
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MINIMUM WAGE: Puerto Rico would be allowed to temporarily lower federal minimum wage requirements for some younger workers, but that authority would expire with the termination of the oversight board.
With debt payment looming, House weighs Puerto Rico bill
FILE - In this May 25, 2016 file photo, Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, D-Puerto Rico, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, during a House Natural Resources Committee markup hearing on H.R. 5278, Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act. House Republican leaders and President Barack Obama pressured lawmakers in both parties to back legislation to help ease Puerto Ricos financial crisis as the U.S. territory faces a $2 billion debt payment in just over three weeks. The House is scheduled to begin debate Thursday, June 9, 2016, on a bill that would create a financial control board and restructure some of Puerto Ricos $70 billion debt. Pierluisi, is supporting the bill despite opposition from other lawmakers on the island. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (Credit: AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders and President Barack Obama pressured lawmakers in both parties to back legislation to help ease Puerto Rico’s financial crisis as the U.S. territory faces a $2 billion debt payment in just over three weeks.
The House is scheduled to begin debate Thursday on a bill that would create a financial control board and restructure some of Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt. Republican and Democratic leaders support it, as does the Obama administration, but it faces opposition from both sides, as well, as some bondholders, unions and island officials who have lobbied against the bill.
Speaker Paul Ryan will need significant support from his own caucus as well as most Democrats to get the bill passed. He has argued the legislation is the only way to avoid an eventual taxpayer bailout for the island.
Obama summoned House Democrats with ties to Puerto Rico to a meeting in the Oval Office Wednesday. One of those, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, is an outspoken opponent of the legislation, saying he doesn’t believe it will do enough for ordinary Puerto Ricans.
Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, is supporting the bill despite opposition from other lawmakers on the island.
“He made absolutely clear that there is no ‘Plan B’ here,” Pierluisi said of Obama.
Puerto Rico, which has struggled to overcome a lengthy recession, has missed several payments to creditors and faces the $2 billion installment on July 1. The economic crisis has forced businesses to close, driven up the employment rate and sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of people to the U.S. mainland. Schools lack electricity and some hospitals have said they can’t provide adequate drugs or care. The island’s only active air ambulance company announced Tuesday that it has suspended its services.
Ahead of the vote, Republicans said they had enough support from both parties for passage. Supporters were bolstered by a 29-10 vote in the House Natural Resources Committee on May 25.
But some bondholder groups continued to try and pick off conservatives with the argument that the bill is unfair to creditors and tantamount to a bailout for the territory.
The control board would “cast aside bondholder contracts and retroactively subvert them to Puerto Rico’s government pension system at its sole discretion,” a group called Main Street Bondholders said in a release this week.
Some conservatives said they would vote against the bill.
“People in my district are very unhappy with it,” said Rep. John Fleming, R-La. “They see it as just another bailout of a government that was run in a liberal progressive way.”
Others are supporting it, however. Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, a Republican born in Puerto Rico who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, helped negotiate the legislation and has worked to sell it to colleagues.
Unions have also lobbied against the legislation because of a provision that would allow the Puerto Rican government to temporarily lower the minimum wage for some younger workers. Democrats are offering an amendment to delete that provision from the bill.
The Senate has not yet acted, but senators said this week that they are watching the House vote. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Tuesday that it’s likely that the Senate will take up the House version of the bill if it passes the House this week.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where there is a huge meltdown and then the next cry is for a taxpayer bailout,” Cornyn said.
Like U.S. states, Puerto Rico cannot declare bankruptcy. The legislation would allow the control board to oversee negotiations with creditors and the courts over reducing some debt. It does not provide any taxpayer funds to reduce that debt.
It would also require the territory to create a fiscal plan. Among other requirements, the plan would have to provide “adequate” funds for public pensions, which the government has underfunded by more than $40 billion.
During negotiations, the administration pushed to ensure that pensions are protected in the bill, while creditors worried they would take a back seat to the pension obligations. Supporters say the bill is designed so that all can be paid.
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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/
Trial to begin for wagon driver in police custody death case
BALTIMORE (AP) — The trial for a police officer charged with murder in the death of a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken in the back of a transport wagon is slated to begin.
Officer Caesar Goodson faces second-degree murder, manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges stemming from the death of Freddie Gray.
Prosecutors say Goodson was ultimately responsible for Gray’s well-being and was so negligent in failing to call a medic for Gray or buckle the man into a seat belt that his inaction amounts to a crime.
Goodson waived his right to a jury trial and instead will leave his fate up to Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams.
Gray died April 19 of last year, a week after he suffered a critical spinal injury in Goodson’s wagon.
Officials: Pentagon to unveil plan to adjust promotion rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military troops may be able to sidestep the Pentagon’s entrenched “up or out” promotion system under sweeping new proposals being unveiled Thursday, aimed at keeping high-tech experts or other specialists on the job, according to defense officials.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to roll out the plans Thursday, marking the third — and most groundbreaking — installment in his campaign to modernize the military’s antiquated bureaucracy. The proposals are largely aimed at giving the military services a greater ability to attract or hold on to quality service members and keep them in jobs where they excel.
Carter’s plan, hammered out by staff and senior military leaders over recent months, won’t abolish the traditional system that forces service members to leave if they don’t get promoted within a certain period of time. Instead, the officials said it will give the services the flexibility to bypass those rules for individuals when they feel it’s needed.
Several defense officials spoke about the details of the plans on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly ahead of the announcement. Military leaders have expressed varying degrees of support for the promotion changes, noting that in some fields — such as fighter pilots or certain combat command positions — the strict advancement system may make more sense.
Many of the proposals will require congressional approval, but there is some general support for giving the military greater flexibility, as long as the historical systems aren’t eliminated.
One idea likely to hit opposition on Capitol Hill is Carter’s proposal that the Pentagon give department civilians six weeks of paid paternal leave for the birth or adoption of a child. There are currently rules for family leave that apply to the entire federal workforce, and it would be difficult to carve out that type of more generous exception for the Defense Department, and likely even harder to get it approved for federal workers across the board.
Carter also wants to allow civilians to work part-time during the first year after a birth or adoption, and allow them to have more flexible work hours when possible. That plan may not require legislation.
The promotion proposal, which also requires a law change, would allow a major or captain to remain at their rank for years or even their entire career, if they are highly skilled in a critical field such as cyberwarfare or another technical job.
The new plans would also allow troops to ask to have their promotion review postponed if they haven’t completed all the requirements for the next rank, and want to pursue another opportunity, such as an internship or higher education.
The current promotion system has been in existence for decades, and gives senior leaders little flexibility. Service members must complete a number of specific requirements — including certain command responsibilities and schooling — before getting promoted to the next rank. And they must do it within certain timelines.
Carter has complained that such systems tie leaders’ hands and make it harder for them to compete for talent, particularly as he works to beef up innovation and technology within the department.
Another suggested change would allow the services to bring in new people with critical abilities and start them at a higher rank, rather than at the bottom of the officer pool. That is done now with some specialties, such as doctors, lawyers and chaplains. But Pentagon officials want to be able to do it for many high-tech jobs.
Other proposals would allow the military services to schedule promotions based on merit, rather than seniority, and make it easier for troops who leave the service for medical reasons to get civilian defense jobs.
And there are plans to upgrade recruiting efforts to make them more computerized and targeted, and also allow the department to hire more quickly when needed to get quality personnel.
The latest proposals come in the wake of changes Carter announced over the past seven months. In January, he doubled the length of fully paid maternity leave for female service members and expanded the hours that military child care facilities are open and the number of children that can be accommodated.
Last November, he rolled out plans to change the retirement system to allow investments in a 401(k)-type retirement plan and increase internships.
He has argued that the Pentagon needs to get in line more with the corporate world, and strengthen ties with high-tech companies to bring the best and brightest into the department.
Honda recalls 784,000 vehicles in Japan over Takata air bags
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Honda is recalling 784,000 vehicles in Japan due to faulty Takata Corp. air bag inflators for front passenger seats.
The recall, announced by Honda Motor Co. on Thursday, is the latest of many such recalls over inflators that may explode with too much force.
This recall covers the Odyssey minivan, Accord sedan, Clarity fuel cell and other models.
The Tokyo-based manufacturer said the recall was in response to a recent decision by the Japanese government, which followed one last month by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in which Takata agreed to add up to 40 million air bag inflators to an already massive recall.
Takata has not been able to produce enough replacement parts to keep up with the recalls, which may balloon to more than 100 million globally.
The expanded recall mainly covers inflators in front passenger air bags that do not have a chemical drying agent known as a desiccant.
The inflators are responsible for at least 11 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries.
Authorities in Malaysia have begun an investigation into two more recent deaths in cars with Takata air bags that ruptured.
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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama
Car bombing in Iraqi capital kills at least 15 civilians
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a car bombing in a commercial area of a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad has killed at least 15 civilians.
A police officer says Thursday’s explosion in the district of New Baghdad in the Iraqi capital also wounded up to 35 civilians. He says that the explosives-laded car was parked in a crowded area and that the casualty figures could be higher.
A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the press.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group, often targets Iraq’s Shiite majority. The Iraqi capital has seen near-daily attacks in recent weeks.
Winner of award honoring AP photographer accustomed to risk
WASHINGTON (AP) — This year’s recipient of an award named for an Associated Press photographer who was killed in Afghanistan is a photojournalist who’s accustomed to working in isolated and dangerous conditions.
Kenya-based freelance photographer Adriane Ohanesian will accept the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award on Thursday in Washington. The annual award, first given in 2015, goes to a female photographer whose life and work honor Niedringhaus’ legacy. It was established by the International Women’s Media Foundation and includes a $20,000 prize, funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
Niedringhaus was part of an AP team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of Iraq. A native of Germany, she was killed on assignment when an Afghan police commander walked up to the car she was in and opened fire.
Ohanesian’s trip to Washington followed what she called a frustrating three-week journey to a rebel-controlled region of Sudan, the country where she’s been documenting conflict for the past five years. She spoke to the AP about her life and work in a telephone interview Wednesday.
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DOCUMENTING DARFUR
The package Ohanesian submitted for the prize included five photographs taken during a trip to Sudan’s western region of Darfur in early 2015. The conflict between the Sudanese government and rebel forces in Darfur has been ongoing since 2003, leading to the deaths of 300,000 people and allegations of crimes against humanity.
While violence and deaths have decreased in the past few years as 2.5 million Darfuris have been relocated to camps for internally displaced people, clashes still take place, and Ohanesian felt it was important to show the toll of that conflict.
Working with a Dutch journalist, Ohanesian visited the last rebel-held territory in central Darfur. Her images include a photograph of a 7-year-old boy who was badly burned when a government plane dropped a bomb next to his family home.
The government has since reclaimed the territory Ohanesian visited, which means she can’t return.
“I would love to go back. At this point, it’s not possible to reach the areas where I was a year ago,” she said. “There’s no way to access those areas of Darfur. The government will not allow access to these areas for journalists, for the U.N., international organizations. It seems we were the first journalists in this area for, I don’t know, five or 10 years. Because the government makes it nearly impossible to access.”
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NO GUARANTEES
Ohanesian spends a large portion of her time arranging the logistics of her arduous trips into conflict zones. She does her best to minimize risk, but she can’t escape it entirely.
“Part of working in these places is just trying to ensure that you are safe. I try not to do anything that actually feels incredibly risky at the time. I try to plan things out so that I can do my work and not feel like I’m taking too much risk,” Ohanesian said. “But also, there are people who are living in these places, and they’re enduring these things every day. I think sometimes we forget that people are living their everyday lives in war zones. I have the privilege of just flying in, documenting, and I get to leave at the end of the day. The people are incredibly strong, stronger than we give them credit for.”
She’s also grown accustomed to the grind of the freelancing life. While she’s received several awards over the past few years, she says yes to almost every assignment that comes her way, and she had to self-fund her trips to Darfur and other dangerous regions.
“I’m not sure, in this industry, if there’s such a thing as success. You’ll never be able to sit back and see your work from a fancy couch. You have to wake up each day and do the work,” Ohanesian said. “I’ve been very lucky in what I’ve been able to accomplish, but I think … it’ll all suddenly come to a screeching halt unless you continue to do the work.”
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COMFORTS OF HOME
Ohanesian, a 29-year-old native of Saratoga Springs, New York, has been living and working in Africa for the past five years. She tries to get back to the United States at least once a year, and she can only do so much to reassure her worried parents.
“They always ask me when I’m coming back from my extended African vacation,” she said. “My mother often doesn’t find out exactly what I’m doing until the photos come out, and then I think that’s when she really gets worried, when she sees the images. There’s not a way to hide what you’ve been doing when there’s photographic evidence.”
Ohanesian said she would likely use the $20,000 prize to fund new projects in Sudan. While she’s in the U.S., she’ll place few demands on her friends and family.
“Hot showers, good food,” she said. “I’m easy to please.”
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Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/ben-nuckols .
Awkward: Dems dance around the word ‘quit’ on Sanders
WASHINGTON (AP) — What to do when one presidential candidate clinches her party’s presidential nod but her effectively vanquished rival refuses to leave the race?
First, avoid saying the words “quit” or “exit” and “Bernie Sanders” in the same discussion, according to interviews with Democrats the day after Hillary Clinton claimed her place in history.
“Unify,” ”come (or pull) together,” ”do the right thing” and even “it” seemed to be the euphemisms of choice for Democrats pressed Wednesday to say what they want Sanders to do now. This week, the Vermont senator has meetings with President Barack Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, thought to be discussions that touch on what’s widely believed to be inevitable: Sanders’ exit from the race. But Sanders has said he’ll press through until the last Democratic primary, in the District of Columbia on Tuesday.
For many, the recalcitrance reflects genuine affection for the gruff, 25-year congressional veteran who says he’s a democratic socialist and has battled Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination for a solid year.
For Democrats broadly, it’s about not ticking him off and alienating the 45 percent of Democratic delegates pledged to vote for him or the legions of supporters who have flocked to his campaign in the primaries. Clinton will need them in her general election fight against Republican Donald Trump.
Leading Democrats that Sanders accuses of rigging the nomination process do not want to “feel the Bern” of division more than they are feeling it now.
Here’s a selection of words they used in the first, delicate day after Clinton’s big night:
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HINT, HINT
“It’s time that we move forward and unite the party.”— Clinton, in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.
NOT THE WRONG THING
“I think Bernie’s going to do the right thing.” — Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.
IT’S A PROCESS
“The sooner the better in terms of at least beginning the process.” — Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.
IT
“I want him to be himself. Be himself! Be free to make his choices. He’s got to be free. However he wants to do it. But I have a deep love for him. Whatever choice he makes, I got a profound love for Brother Sanders.” — DNC platform committee member Cornel West.
A PLAN FOR…SOMETHING
“He needs to take the time he needs to come up with his own strategy, but we fully expect he will do that.” — Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
SHHH
“I’ll talk to Bernie tomorrow and I’ll talk to you guys after I do that. Until then I think I’m better off just keeping quiet about it.” — Reid.
HOPE AND CHANGE
“I would hope that Sen. Sanders is going to do everything he can to support the Democratic ticket and make sure that Donald Trump is not the next president.” Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H.
DNC: YOU FIRST
“I expect that there will be an overture, a genuine overture, to integrate (Sanders’) message and the 45 percent of the delegates that are going to be pledged to Bernie, and the convention (will include) an opportunity to validate that. Those discussions have to happen.”— Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.
ULTIMATELY, IT’S ON SANDERS
“His decision really is his to make.” — Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
THE MESSAGE MATTERS
“I think the focus is on what he says and not exactly when he says it.” — Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
INCENTIVE
“I think Sen. Sanders has been and will continue to be a very constructive influence.” — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
BERNIE, COME HOME
“Bernie is a good senator and he will continue to be a good senator.” — Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
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Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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