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Utah establishes first-of-its-kind white-collar crime registry

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MEGAN THOMPSON: The state government in Utah has become the first in the nation to publish online a list of people convicted of white-collar crimes, complete with their mug shots. Anyone who’s committed a financial crime will be posted for a decade.

Reporter Jean Eaglesham is covering this issue for The Wall Street Journal, and she joins me now to discuss it.

So, can you first just tell me, why did Utah decide to implement this?

JEAN EAGLESHAM, The Wall Street Journal: Well, they say there’s two reasons.

First, they say it will help protect investors, because people can see online people with past convictions. The second reason they’re doing it is to try and encourage people to pay restitution. So, anyone who is convicted of a crime who has paid full restitution online can stay off the registry.

MEGAN THOMPSON: Can you just talk to me about the mechanics of it? I mean, how exactly does it work? Where will this be?

JEAN EAGLESHAM: What they are doing now is, they’re going all the way back to 2006, finding everyone with a relevant conviction.

And they’re putting them onto an Internet Web site. And it shows these individuals, their mug shot, as you say, also their personal details like height and weight, and the details of their conviction. So, anyone with access to the Internet can just search and look at it for their — whether their neighbors or work colleagues or anyone they know has these past convictions.

MEGAN THOMPSON: And what types of crimes are we talking about?

JEAN EAGLESHAM: So, it’s everything from people who have bilked investors of maybe quite large amounts of money.

But there’s also people who have committed, say, credit card fraud, who have stolen from their employer or their friends. There’s tax fraud. There’s insurance scams as well of a pretty small scale. So, it’s a very wide range of financial crimes they’re capturing.

MEGAN THOMPSON: When most people think about these types of registries, they think of a registry for sex offenders, but you have written that there are actually a lot of states with a lot of different types of registries.

JEAN EAGLESHAM: Exactly.

This idea of a registry for sex offenders has now proliferated to a very wide range of different offenses. So, for example, in different states, there are registries for arson, for domestic violence, for drug crimes of different types, even for animal abuse. So, Tennessee now has a registry for animal abuse, but nine other states are considering it.

And one concern is whether this could have unintended consequences. So, for example, creating a public registry that shows people convicted of manufacturing drugs could potentially be used by users who are looking for someone as a supplier.

MEGAN THOMPSON: Is there any evidence that these registries actually deter crime?

JEAN EAGLESHAM: Well, that’s the argument, is, are these effective, particularly when they’re being applied now to these other types of offenses?

So, there’s a big debate over sex offender registries, whether they actually work. But a lot of these other ones, they’re relatively recent, so there’s not much research into whether they actually are effective.

And then there’s a wider argument as well over privacy, because the approach of the states with these white-collar crimes is directly opposite to the approach of the federal agencies. So, they say, because of federal privacy laws, they can’t give out information on whether individuals have paid sanctions or not.

MEGAN THOMPSON: And is there a debate about what could be considered public shaming? I mean, if a person has done their jail time, they have paid their fines, is there a limit to how long this punishment might go on?

JEAN EAGLESHAM: Well, certainly, in the case of Utah, after a certain number of offenses, you are on there for a lifetime.

So, there is exactly this debate. There’s a concern that people have that they have served their punishment, they have maybe done the jail time, they have paid the restitution, but possibly late, and yet they are being punished all over again by the naming and shaming. So, there is a concern that this is unfair, in that sense.

MEGAN THOMPSON: Jean Eaglesham of The Wall Street Journal, thank you so much for being here.

JEAN EAGLESHAM: Pleasure.

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Reports: California reaches tentative deal to raise minimum wage to $15

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Fast-food workers and supporters organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) protest outside of a Burger King Worldwide Inc. restaurant in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013. California lawmakers and unions reached a tentative deal on Saturday that would raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Fast-food workers and supporters organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) protest outside of a Burger King Worldwide Inc. restaurant in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013. California lawmakers and unions reached a tentative deal on Saturday that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

California lawmakers reportedly reached a deal on Saturday to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022.

The agreement, tentatively formed with some of California’s most powerful labor unions, would gradually raise the state’s minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour over the next six years, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to make an official announcement about the proposal on Monday.

Similar proposals are being debated in New York state while the city of Seattle passed a law raising its minimum wage to $15 in 2014. California is currently one of only 11 states already requiring a $10 an hour minimum wage.

California State Sen. Mark Leno told the Associated Press the legislature would view the plan through a bill already under consideration; an initiative supported by unions to raise the minimum wage to $15 has reached approval for the California ballot later this year.

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West Spokesperson Sean Wherley, whose outfit took part in the negotiations with the state, said the union would sustain their efforts on the ballot measure until a deal is officially formed.

“We want to be certain of what all this is,” he told the AP. “We are going ahead with it. If some agreement is signed into law, then our executive board would decide what to do. They would only make that decision after any agreement is signed into law.”

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Tennessee discontinues controversial fetal assault law

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MEGAN THOMPSON: And now an update to a story we first reported in January about the increasing number of pregnant women who are struggling with opioid addiction.

As a result, the number of babies born withdrawing from those drugs taken by their mothers, has also skyrocketed.

Tennessee is among the states hardest hit by this epidemic. It has the second-highest rate of opioid prescribing in the U.S. And the rate of babies born withdrawing from opioids is three times the national average.

In response, two years ago, Tennessee became the only state that explicitly allowed prosecutors to charge a mother with “fetal assault” for using drugs while pregnant.

Sponsors of the law say it was not intended to penalize women but to get them into treatment and protect the welfare of their babies.

But in a hearing this past week, Tennessee representatives voted to discontinue the controversial law which is set to expire in July 2016.

The measure was found not to help those women and to have unintended consequences.

Doctors testified that the threat of arrest kept many addicted pregnant women from seeking treatment and medical care. Other critics say addicts were choosing abortion over being found out and prosecuted.

At the hearing, lawmakers also discussed increasing funding for drug treatment programs.

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White House adds fun run to annual Easter Egg Roll

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First lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama perform a reading of the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" for children gathered for  the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, March 28, 2016.   REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst  TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSCITT

First lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama read “Where the Wild Things Are” for children gathered for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House Monday. Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Calling the moment bittersweet, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed thousands of children to the South Lawn of the White House Monday morning for the annual Easter Egg Roll.

The egg rolling began in 1878. Now the event includes storytelling, musical performances and tips from professional athletes on how to play basketball, tennis and other sports. There are even cooking demonstrations and yoga. This year, the first lady added a fun run to the mix.

“I’m going to be running around the White House with a bunch of kids and any adults who feel like they can hang,” the first lady told the crowd Monday morning as the president jokingly signaled in the background that the run wasn’t for him.

The Obamas spoke from a balcony that overlooks the lawn with dogs Bo and Sunny and the Easter Bunny at their side.

More than 35,000 people received tickets that allow them to walk on the South Lawn of the White House, rain or shine. Fortunately, the sun broke through mid-morning after a night of scattered rain showers.

The theme of this year’s event is “Let’s celebrate.” The first lady said she wanted to celebrate families and the nation in what will be the couple’s last Easter in office.

“It’s our diversity. It’s our values,” the first lady said. “That’s what makes us strong.”

The fun run is intended to highlight the first lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative, which focuses on reducing childhood obesity.

Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking wrote this report.

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High court rejects Blagojevich appeal in corruption case

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Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich makes a statement to reporters outside his Chicago home one day before reporting to federal prison in Colorado to serve a 14-year sentence for corruption as his wife Patti wipes away tears, March 14, 2012. Photo by Jeff Haynes/Reuters

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich outside his Chicago home one day before reporting to federal prison in Colorado to serve a 14-year sentence for corruption, March 14, 2012. Photo by Jeff Haynes/Reuters

WASHINGTON –€” The Supreme Court on Monday rejected former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s appeal of his corruption convictions that included his attempt to sell the vacant Senate seat once occupied by President Barack Obama.

The justices let stand an appeals court ruling that found Blagojevich crossed the line when he sought money in exchange for naming someone to fill the seat. Blagojevich, 59, is serving a 14-year sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.

A federal appeals court last year threw out five of his 18 convictions and Blagojevich was hoping the Supreme Court would consider tossing the rest. His lawyers argued in an 83-page November filing that the line between the legal and illegal trading of political favors has become blurred, potentially leaving politicians everywhere subject to prosecution.

The appeal to the high court was a last slim hope for Blagojevich, who has proclaimed his innocence for years. Since his 2008 arrest and through his two trials, Blagojevich has argued he was participating in legal, run-of-the-mill politicking.

Blagojevich meanwhile is awaiting a resentencing ordered in July by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago when it ruled to toss the five convictions.

The Supreme Court hears only around 80 cases a year out of more than 10,000 requests and typically accepts cases that raise weighty and divisive legal issues.

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Clinton: Americans should put Court nomination at forefront

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PBS NewsHour will live stream Hillary Clinton’s speech in Madison, Wisconsin, scheduled for 4:45 p.m. EDT today.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton wants voters to consider what Republican front-runner Donald Trump might do to shape the Supreme Court.

Clinton planned to use in a speech in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday to argue that Trump could roll back the rights of individuals, further empower corporations and undo some of the nation’s progress.

Clinton was campaigning in Wisconsin ahead of the state’s April 5 primary and speaking Monday at the University of Wisconsin about President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.

Clinton holds a large lead among delegates against Democratic rival Bernie Sanders but is trying to stamp out the Vermont senator’s momentum following his victories in five of the last six states holding contests.

Clinton’s campaign said ahead of the speech that the Democratic presidential candidate would call on Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa to commit to giving Garland a hearing. Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have said that the late Justice Antonin Scalia should not be replaced until the next president picks a nominee.

Clinton has said Senate Republicans have no credible reason not to allow Garland’s nomination to proceed and receive a vote.

In her speech, Clinton also intends to rebuke Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who is among the Republicans blocking the Garland nomination. Johnson is among the most vulnerable Senate Republicans facing re-election later this year.

Clinton often notes that the next president will likely make additional nominations to the Supreme Court during the next four years. In the speech, she will say that Americans should be concerned about the kind of nominee that a President Trump might put forward and voters should put the Supreme Court at the front of their minds in 2016.

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Bernie Sanders’s three-state sweep doesn’t resolve delegate math problem

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GWEN IFILL: But, first, from Bernie Sanders’ Saturday sweep to the continued war of words between the two GOP front-runners, there’s lots to talk about this Politics Monday with Tamara Keith of NPR, and joining us from Phoenix, Arizona tonight, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.

Tam, three states for Bernie Sanders this weekend, does that mean he has momentum?

TAMARA KEITH, NPR: He’s definitely claiming momentum, but he still has something of a math problem.

Going into Saturday, he needed to win 58 percent off all the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination, pledged delegates. After that huge, huge series of wins by larger margins than his campaign expected, he needs 57 percent of all the remaining delegates. And not all of the states that are coming up are as favorable to Sanders.

There aren’t very many caucuses left, and there are several closed primaries coming up, including in New York state, where Sanders is planning to good up a good fight, planning to contest it, but it’s a state where Hillary Clinton was elected senator twice.

GWEN IFILL: So, Hawaii, Alaska and Washington state were fine victories for what they were, but they don’t actually close the gap that much?

TAMARA KEITH: They close the gap a bit. He did cut into Hillary Clinton’s delegate lead, but it doesn’t change the math fundamentally. He still has a lot of work to do.

And his campaign today in a conference call said that they’re going to keep fighting this all the way, and they think that neither candidate will get a majority of the pledged delegates needed to actually clinch it with just pledged delegates, so they’re going for superdelegates, which are the sort of party establishment people.

And Sanders’ campaign today did announce that it has gotten one superdelegate to support him, one member of Congress, Collin Peterson from Minnesota. That’s not a tidal wave.

GWEN IFILL: So, Amy, that is — there is still on the Clinton side an enthusiasm gap which the Sanders people say will make all the difference. Is there anything to that?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Well, I think the real challenge for Hillary Clinton has been the fact that Bernie Sanders, to his credit, has really driven the terms of this campaign and this debate. It has been on the terrain he wants to be playing on.

The talk now is about issues that Bernie Sanders has been talking about really since he first got into politics. The talk about income inequality, the rigged economy, this is where the debate has been, trade, et cetera. And this may or may not have been where Hillary Clinton wanted to have the debate, but it’s where she been forced to go.

At the end of the day, though, completely agree with Tamara, where it becomes a math problem. Not only has she secured more delegates, pledged delegates, the people that you get when you win primaries. She’s won more votes than he has as well, so she has more people who have actually turned out and voted for her.

But I think you’re right, Gwen, that what we’re seeing, though, is an enthusiasm gap with a group of voters that is critical in November, and that’s younger voters. We know that it was critical for President Obama in his victories in 2008 and ’12.

What Hillary Clinton is going to have to do is to prove to those younger voters who keep turning out for Bernie Sanders, even though they probably intellectually know he may not be the nominee, but they keep turning out for him because there is something about him that strikes them, and that, she has not figured out how to crack.

GWEN IFILL: Well, there has been something of a war of words between the Sanders camp and the Hillary camp today, on the Republican side, the war of words has been a little less elevated, shall we say?

Let’s listen to Ted Cruz today.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), Republican Presidential Candidate: When it comes to civility, there have been other candidates who have demonstrated a willingness to go to the gutter, to make personal attacks, to make sleazy attacks. I think the people, the American people are sick of that. That has no place in politics. No candidate should be doing what Donald Trump did last week, which is attacking my wife and attacking my family.

GWEN IFILL: So, it’s been well-documented everywhere how much of these attacks and counterattacks have been going on between Trump and Cruz, and even John Kasich has said, please, let’s leave the family out of it.

But I guess the question in this is, how low can they go, Tam?

TAMARA KEITH: That’s question I ask a lot again and again.

And it’s not clear. There is that old saying — and I don’t know who gets full credit for it — I think John McCain is one of the people who gets credit for it — that when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it.

GWEN IFILL: Right.

TAMARA KEITH: In this analogy, and I’m not calling Donald Trump a pig here, because I would not do that.

GWEN IFILL: Be careful. No.

TAMARA KEITH: However, the past has proven that people who wrestle with Donald Trump end up worser — worser — worse for wear.

GWEN IFILL: Yes.

What do you think about that, Amy?

AMY WALTER: Absolutely, it doesn’t do anybody any good.

And, listen, if you’re the Republican Party right now, you are so — just the architects of the Republican Party, or the establishment of the Republican Party, they are desperate to try to figure out a way to bring this party together.

This party has been now fracturing and there is — the divisiveness is significant, and this is not helping at all. And, in fact, if you want to look at the trajectory for the Republican Party in its approval ratings over the course of this campaign, it’s only gone like this.

This is not helping the overall — whoever the nominee ends up being. This is not helping the image of the Republican Party. This isn’t helping Republicans in Congress. And this is going to be the major challenge for Republicans going forward, which is, how do they unify these disparate parts of themselves, when the candidates can’t even have a civil conversation, nonetheless agree on the direction forward?

GWEN IFILL: Let me ask you both about the story in The New York Times today Nick Confessore wrote about the fact that the Republican establishment finds itself in such a corner, because the big donors, the big people who go to the cocktail parties didn’t see the Trump train coming.

TAMARA KEITH: It’s a challenge.

And there is this thought that the Chamber of Commerce Republican Party is not the Republican Party of people who went through a wrenching recession, who feel like their lives are not back, even if the jobs report says they are. Their wages are stagnant. You know, they don’t know how they feel about trade deals.

And there is Donald Trump, and he is sort of emoting in the very way that people — he’s saying things that people want to hear.

GWEN IFILL: Amy, it also seems that we’re not just talking about blue-collar, underemployed, unemployed people. We’re talking white-collar businesspeople, too.

AMY WALTER: That’s right.

This is what Donald Trump has done very well, which is he has definitely tapped into that anger and that angst with blue-collar, working-class Americans, but he’s also doing well or well enough with the so-called establishment, Chamber of Commerce types, many of whom I speak with and they say, you know, the thing about Donald Trump is, yes, he says things that are outrageous, no, I don’t believe he’s going to follow through on a lot of things that he says he is going to do, but I do believe he’s a good businessman and a good negotiator. And they say, we just simply need to shake things up.

So both — he’s able to win because he has a group of voters who believe he’s a hard-liner who isn’t going to negotiate or compensate in any way, shape and form, and then he’s able to get another group of voters who believe his success is based on the fact that he’s such a good negotiator.

That’s why it’s been a challenge for the never-Trump folks to stop him, because he’s not just pulling off one group of voters.

GWEN IFILL: Well, and the enthusiasm gap on the Republican side seems to work in his favor — I mean, the Democratic side — seems to work on his favor on the Republican side.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, it’s Monday. Thank you both.

TAMARA KEITH: You’re welcome.

AMY WALTER: You’re welcome.

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Why a hardline extremist group targeted Lahore in Easter bombing

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Family members mourn the death of a relative, who was killed in a blast outside a public park on Sunday, during funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza  - RTSCHTM

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JUDY WOODRUFF: In Pakistan, the government and people were reeling from yesterday’s terrorist attack in Lahore. It’s the country’s cultural capital.

The crime scene was strung with police tape and emptied of visitors this morning, while investigators searched for evidence. Sunday’s suicide bomber targeted Christians at an Easter celebration. But most of the dead were Muslims who’d been enjoying the park on a weekend.

MAN (through interpreter): I was standing there near the seesaw when the blast occurred. The explosion was very loud. As we rushed over here, we saw a pool of blood and people lying here and there.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A breakaway Taliban faction claimed responsibility, its fifth attack since December. In a challenge to the government, the militants said in a statement: “We have entered Lahore.”

The eastern city in Punjab province, the country’s richest and most populous, is a power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. His government launched a paramilitary crackdown in Punjab today. And after visiting the wounded, Sharif returned to Islamabad, vowing to defeat what he called the extremist mind-set.

NAWAZ SHARIF, Prime Minister, Pakistan (through interpreter): We will not let them raise their heads again. We will not allow them to play with the lives of the people of Pakistan. This is my resolve. This is my government’s resolve.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But Muslim extremists protested outside Parliament for a second day. They chanted “Death to Nawaz” and demanded authorities impose Islamic Sharia law.

Back in Lahore, funerals played out all day as victims, including some of the children, were laid to rest.

MAN (through interpreter): These people were innocent. They had no idea when they left their homes what was going to happen to them. Terrorists killed these innocent people. We demand strict punishment.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And at the Vatican, Pope Francis called the attacks vile and senseless.

We explore the situation in Pakistan now with Husain Haqqani, who was Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington from 2008 to 2011. He’s now director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute. He’s also the author of “Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military.” And Pamela Constable, who has covered Pakistan for The Washington Post, and is the author of “Playing With Fire: Pakistan at War With Itself.”

And we welcome both of you back to the program.

Mr. Ambassador, let me start with you.

This group Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, who are they? Where do they come from?

HUSAIN HAQQANI, Former Ambassador, Pakistan: It’s a group that was part of the Pakistani Taliban, the TTP. It has an affiliation with al-Qaida.

They are an offshoot of the TTP, and they have flirted with supporting — support ISIS recently. And they have been responsible for other actions, including kidnappings for ransom and terrorist acts in the past.
JUDY WOODRUFF: When you say they have flirted with ISIS, what do you mean?

HUSAIN HAQQANI: They issued a statement saying that “We agree with ISIS objectives,” but they didn’t go so far as to disassociate with al-Qaida and affiliate themselves with ISIS.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Pam Constable, what would you add to that? Help us figure out where — how they fit into what we already know about the Taliban and ISIS in this part of the world.

PAMELA CONSTABLE, The Washington Post: Well, it’s interesting because, of course, the Pakistani Taliban has always been ferocious and very anti-Western and very anti-state, but this group seems to have been even more hard-line.

They split off from the Pakistan Taliban because it wasn’t hard-line enough on issues such as Sharia law and real fundamentalist values. And the leader of this group is from the border tribal area up in the northwest. But the fact that they’re focusing on Punjab is extremely interesting. And it’s a major challenge for this government, unlike anything they have faced before.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Why is that significant that they went after Punjab and specifically the city of Lahore?

PAMELA CONSTABLE: Well, partly because, as you — as the tape mentioned, this is the power base of the government, but it’s also because Punjab has always been a little bit off-limits in terms of the anti-terror fight.

There are some groups based in Punjab that have government support, whether it’s acknowledged or not. They have gone very lightly on them. They have tried to appease them. And now it really is coming back to haunt them, because you have much more radical groups coming in and building on that foundation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, why is Punjab, why is Lahore such a target?

HUSAIN HAQQANI: Well, Lahore is only a target yesterday, but the fact remains that the rest of the country has been a target for much longer.

The real problem lies in that attitude of the government of trying to protect the parties in Punjab, while going after the terrorists in other parts of the country, but not in the Punjab. And that’s what has come back to bite them.

The fact of the matter is that the Pakistani military and the Pakistani civilian leadership easily gets distracted by delusions of fighting India and influence in Afghanistan and allowing certain jihadi groups to pursue those objectives, not realizing that they can end up having offshoots, just like the Pakistani Taliban came out of the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani component of the Afghan Taliban ended up becoming a separate group.

And now Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has broken away from the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan has to make a decision to go after all terrorist groups, as well as the mind-set that breeds these terrorists. And Pakistan has not been able to make that decision.

Every few years — in fact, I can recall at least — being in this studio for at least six times saying, whether Pakistan is saying or somebody is staying in the studio Pakistan is going after these people now, it hasn’t, and 16 years have gone by.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you explain, Pam Constable, how much the government appears to have taken its eye off the ball? And what is it that this group wants? Is it just to destroy anything that doesn’t agree with them? Why specifically children? This was a playground. There were children, women, and they ended up mostly killing Muslims.

PAMELA CONSTABLE: Well, they want power. They want religious power. They want their vision of the religion to prevail in what has been historically, at least in theory, a multireligious democracy, in which obviously Muslim dominates, but — Islam dominates, but the country has always been very not open to Christianity only, but benefited enormously.

Some of the best schools and colleges in Pakistan have been Christian. So it’s always been a popular group, a group that’s fit in and benefited greatly the society. I think it’s important to point out that these extremists don’t only go after Christians. They go after Shiite Muslims and they go after Ahmadi Muslims, which is a very ostracized Muslim minority. They have been very badly attacked by groups like this.

So, this really is sort of the sword arm of extreme Sunni Islam acting viciously, without regard for any human life, simply to make a point, Easter, a park, children, mothers, playground. Notably, very little guards, few guards were there.

HUSAIN HAQQANI: And they justify killing the Muslims as well on grounds that this is necessary for advancing their cause.

Two things are at play here. One, Pakistan’s involvement with jihadi groups initially was primarily as a strategic investment, which was supposed to bring them benefits through influence in Afghanistan and…

JUDY WOODRUFF: At the highest levels.

HUSAIN HAQQANI: And the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from India.

That has backfired. Now, even though it has backfired, Pakistan has been very selective in going after these jihadi groups. And that is the reason why the jihadi groups pick up specific targets like Shias or Ahmadis or Christians, as a means of improving their recruitment, playing on various kinds of polarization, and taking advantage of that to advance in society further.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Pam Constable, how much should we look at this as an extension of what ISIS is doing in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, and how much of this is internal to Pakistan?

PAMELA CONSTABLE: I think it’s mostly internal, but I think this group — and I think they even said so — groups like this are taking a leaf, taking an inspiration, if you will, from ISIS and saying, we can go farther, we can do more. You know, let’s get up to the plate here.

But it’s been going on a very long time within Pakistan, sort of creeping up bomb by bomb and attack by attack. It’s not new news. It’s the pace and the ferocity that has increased. And I think that that is because they feel emboldened by ISIS.

HUSAIN HAQQANI: And the state has not taken the measures that are necessary to isolate them all.

So, there are groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed which attack India. And they are spared. Once they are spared, it’s very possible that some of their members will actually join splinter groups which will attack Pakistan.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And just very quickly, in less than a minute, to both of you, when Prime Minister Sharif says, “We’re going after the people responsible, we’re going to something about this,” how realistic is that?

HUSAIN HAQQANI: Well, people like me at that time say, I hope you can, but Pakistan has had eight prime ministers since 9/11, each one of whom has said the same thing. It hasn’t happened.

We need to examine why it hasn’t happened and try to change that.

PAMELA CONSTABLE: The government says, unofficially, that it’s going to be sending in paramilitary rangers in Punjab, which has been somewhat successful in Karachi, a very violent city.

Let’s see if they can do it. I have serious doubts, but let’s see if they can do it. Maybe it will be a turning point. One can always hope.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Pam Constable, Ambassador Husain Haqqani, we thank you both.

PAMELA CONSTABLE: You’re welcome.

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Long-awaited battle to take back Mosul from ISIS will be toughest yet

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An Iraqi soldier takes part during a military operation on the outskirt of the Makhmour south of Mosul, Iraq, March 25, 2016.  REUTERS/Azad Lashkari - RTSC878

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GWEN IFILL: The Iraqi government last week announced the beginning of what it said is the campaign to free Iraq’s second largest city from ISIS control.

Mosul was overrun nearly two years ago and has become a vital hub for the group’s operations in Iraq. But whether Iraq’s military is up to the challenge is an open question, even as the potential grows for deeper American involvement.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from the front lines near Makhmour, Iraq.

JANE FERGUSON: In an effort to soften ISIS positions, Iraqi forces bombard them repeatedly. They are trying to push forward from this sandbank up the hill to a village Islamic State fighters are dug into.

Last week, the Iraqi army suddenly announced the launch of the long-awaited battle for Mosul city. In reality, so far, just several villages have been retaken in the Makhmour area, well south of Mosul.

This is as far as the front line comes for these Iraqi troops. They are mortaring the village in that direction that is just on that hill. It’s about half-a-kilometer from here. And that’s where ISIS positions are. That village is called al-Nasr. They plan to then move in and try to occupy the village, but they have been trying to do that for three days.

Far beyond that village is the city of Mosul, and bit by bit, inch by inch, they plan to retake it. So far, progress is slow. Iraqi forces swiftly abandoned their positions here in 2014, when ISIS swept across the country.

Morale in the military has yet to fully recover. So, when Iraq’s commander of ground forces, Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, showed up near the front lines in an unexpected visit, there was great fanfare. But he didn’t wish to talk about past mistakes.

When ISIS took Mosul Iraqi forces quickly withdrew from the city when ISIS were moving quickly. How do you feel like you can prevent that happening again?

MAJOR GEN. RIYADH JALAL TAWFIQ, Iraqi Army (through interpreter): These issues depend on the time frames and plans designed for them. After that, for every incident, there will be a response. If God wills it, we will retake Mosul.

JANE FERGUSON: The battle lines in Iraq are as complex as the country’s woven identities. Iraqi forces are holding this ground alongside Kurdish fighters called Peshmerga. They are a skilled fighting force, protecting the semiautonomous Kurdish region, which borders Mosul. They are holding the line on both ends of the Iraqi army.

Peshmerga fighters are supported by U.S. airstrikes when they confront ISIS, but are not given the extensive military equipment the official Iraqi army receives from America. This Peshmerga commander, Colonel Naji Bedaroni, wandered over to inspect their progress.

He wasn’t impressed.

COL. NAJI BEDARONI, Peshmerga (through interpreter): The operation is very weak. It’s not strong enough. I believe that if the Peshmerga had the equipment they have, we could liberate this village in three to four hours, not three to four days.

JANE FERGUSON: Kurdish forces have pushed ISIS out of most of their areas. An agreement for them to take part in the battle for Mosul, a mostly Arab city, has yet to be reached. But without the Peshmerga, the Iraqi army will struggle to retake the city alone.

Are the Peshmerga taking part in this fight?

COL. NAJI BEDARONI (through interpreter): For this, we need a political decision. That area that is being targeted for this operation is not a Kurdish area. We are just guarding our bunkers. If we get orders, for sure we can do that, but, until now, we have not gotten any orders.

JANE FERGUSON: How is the relationship between the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and the Iraqi army?

COL. NAJI BEDARONI (through interpreter): We are coordinating with them. We are helping them. But they are weak. They don’t believe strongly in the cause.

JANE FERGUSON: Soon, we are on the move, to another part of the battlefield. Unseen on this front line, but still playing a major role, are U.S. forces, providing advise and assist and support for Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

An American Marine was killed earlier this month, not long after arriving at a base in here in Makhmour. Only after his death did the U.S. military announce the presence of the Marines.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dunford admitted last week there will be more U.S. boots on the ground soon.

GEN. JOSEPH DUNFORD, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: We have a series of recommendations that we will be discussing with the president in the coming weeks to further enable our support for the Iraqi security forces.

So, again, the secretary and I both believe that there will be an increase to the U.S. forces in Iraq in the coming weeks, but that decision hasn’t been made.

JANE FERGUSON: The U.S. military in Makhmour declined requests from “PBS NewsHour” for an interview.

Fighting between ISIS and the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces has flattened village after village here. The scenes are of complete devastation. Civilians are running from their homes where the fresh fighting has broken out. These people came from the villages recently retaken from is, seizing the chance to escape the fighting.

We have just come upon this scene here of civilians fleeing the frontline. Further back there, as far as the eye can see, where cars are coming from, there are several villages where ISIS have either retreated or have been pushed out by Iraqi forces. Civilians are fleeing while they can, anticipating perhaps more maneuvers.

Not everyone is jubilant. Traumatized and exhausted, these women and children arrived at another front-line position while we were filming. They ran from their village as ISIS retreated. A girl was killed. We are told ISIS shot her as she ran away. This elderly woman said they were being held as human shields.

“The ISIS were wearing explosive belts and we couldn’t leave because of them,” she cries.

Where are the men?

WOMAN (through intepreter): They wouldn’t let them leave because they were police and army. They slaughter. They took seven from my family.

JANE FERGUSON: This outpost is manned by another group involved in this offensive, Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Fores. They are militia, and quickly descend into fighting with the official army commanders accompanying us.

In other areas retaken from ISIS like Ramadi and Tikrit, such forces are predominantly Shia, but, here, we are told these men are Sunni tribesmen. We are told to leave.

On this battlefield, it’s not always clear who’s in charge. The fight to retake Mosul from ISIS will be the toughest yet. Losing the city could be a deadly blow for the terror group. Given the chaos of this battle’s earliest stages, a quick victory seems out of reach.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jane Ferguson in Makhmour, Iraq.

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News Wrap: Capitol Police wound man who pulled gun

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Police block the area around U.S. Capitol building after a shooting at the Capitol Visitor Center complex in Washington, March 28, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas  - RTSCK2V

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GWEN IFILL: Good evening. I’m Gwen Ifill.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And I’m Judy Woodruff.

GWEN IFILL: On the “NewsHour” tonight: The Pakistani government announces a crackdown after an Easter massacre targeting Christians leaves 70 dead and hundreds wounded.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Also ahead: Bernie Sanders sweeps the weekend’s primaries by huge margins in Alaska, Washington, and Hawaii. We get analysis on that and other campaign news from our Politics Monday duo.

GWEN IFILL: Plus, a report from the front lines against ISIS, where Iraqi troops are beginning an offensive to take back the city of Mosul.

JANE FERGUSON: Civilians are running from their homes where the fresh fighting has broken out. These people came from the villages recently retaken from ISIS, seizing the chance to escape the fighting.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight’s “PBS NewsHour.”

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Shooting erupted inside the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center this afternoon. Police say a man was going through security screening when he pulled a gun and pointed it at officers. They shot and wounded him and took him into custody. A female bystander was injured, but not seriously.

The Capitol police chief said it appears to be an isolated incident.

MATTHEW VERDEROSA, Police Chief, U.S. Capitol: I want to stress that, while this is preliminary, based on the initial investigation, we believe that this is an act of a single person who has frequented the Capitol grounds before, and there is no reason to believe that this is anything more than a criminal act.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The shooting prompted the entire U.S. Capitol complex and nearby White House to go on lockdown for a time. Congress is currently in recess, so most lawmakers were traveling or back home in their districts.

GWEN IFILL: The governor of Georgia today vetoed a bill to let religious groups deny services to homosexual, bisexual and transgender people. Republican Nathan Deal said there’s no need to discriminate in order to protect religious liberties.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, gay and transgender groups filed suit against a new state ban on local laws providing for transgender bathrooms and other protections.

WOMAN: This is not about a bathroom, this is not about a cake, and this is not about flowers at a wedding. This is about discrimination. This is about being afraid of where this world has gone and where we will continue to go.

GWEN IFILL: Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed the ban into law last week. It overturned a Charlotte ordinance allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their identity.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In Belgium, the death toll rose to 35 in last week’s terror attacks in Brussels. And police called for the public to help identify a key suspect.

Emma Murphy of Independent Television News reports from Brussels.

EMMA MURPHY: The man in the hat, believed to be the surviving bomber from the Brussels Airport attack, who he is and where he is still unknown.

Today, Belgian authorities released this video of him walking through the airport with the other two attackers. Moments later, they blew themselves up. But when his bomb failed to detonate, he fled. Police are now appealing for those who may know the most wanted man to get in touch.

As that footage was released, prosecutors confirmed that more people had died in the attacks than first thought.

WOMAN: Well, we know now that four people have died in a hospital after the attack and that 31 died in the crime scene; 28 of these 31 people were identified formally. And we are still trying to give the three families of the three victims news about their relatives.

EMMA MURPHY: People have today charged three more people following days of raids, Yassine A., Mohamed B. and Aboubaker O. all accused of participating in terrorist activities.

Meanwhile, a man arrested at this apartment and named as Faycal C. when he was charged with terrorist offenses has been released, police saying they didn’t have enough evidence to hold him.

Almost a week after Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui attacked airport, the memorial to those they killed remained outside. There is a wish to get this place open again soon, but with additional security. Tomorrow, 800 airport staff will be asked to check in as if they were passengers in order to test the efficiency of the new systems.

JUDY WOODRUFF: This evening, an all-faith service was held at the Brussels Cathedral in tribute to the victims of the attacks.

GWEN IFILL: And in Syria, government forces began combing Palmyra for mines and bombs left by Islamic State militants. The army captured the ancient city yesterday, clearing the way to advance toward militant strongholds in the east.

But during their 10-month occupation, ISIS fighters destroyed some of its most revered treasures. they include temples dating back more than 1,800 years.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro spoke out today on President Obama’s historic visit, and rejected his appeal for warmer ties. In a long letter to state media, Castro catalogued U.S. actions against his regime, and he dismissed Mr. Obama’s call to — quote — “leave the past behind.”

But, in Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest brushed aside the Castro criticism.

JOSH EARNEST, White House Press Secretary: The fact that the former president felt compelled to respond so forcefully to the president’s visit, I think, is an indication of the significant impact of President Obama’s visit to Cuba.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Mr. Obama didn’t meet with Fidel Castro last week. He did have several meetings with his younger brother, Raul Castro, who is Cuba’s current president.

GWEN IFILL: Chicago’s police got a new interim boss today, in the face of a federal investigation over the use of deadly force. Veteran Officer Eddie Johnson was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Johnson’s predecessor was forced out last fall over the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a white officer.

JUDY WOODRUFF: California Governor Jerry Brown has formally unveiled a plan to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Brown says it’s a landmark deal to increase the current minimum from $10 an hour, in stages, by 2022. If approved by the state legislature, it will be the highest statewide rate in the country.

GWEN IFILL: There is word the Justice Department will end its encryption fight with Apple. It’s widely reported the department is dropping the legal effort to make the company unlock an iPhone. It was used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. The Associated Press says the FBI used another method to decrypt the phone’s data.

Wall Street had a quiet Easter Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 19 points to close at 17535. The Nasdaq dropped six points. The S&P 500 added one.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And the President and Mrs. Obama hosted their final White House Easter egg roll today. Thousands of children turned out to take part in a tradition that goes back to 1878. The president also read the children’s classic “Where the Wild Things Are.” And there was basketball, tennis and a run hosted by the first lady.

GWEN IFILL: Still to come on the “NewsHour”: the group and the motives behind the deadly Easter Sunday bombing in Pakistan; a fight to push back ISIS in Northern Iraq; our Politics Monday team on the week ahead on the campaign trail; and much more.

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Trump, Ryan increasingly at odds over future of the GOP

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump wants to win the White House in the fall. Paul Ryan wants to save his vision of the Republican Party for years to come.

Those goals put Trump and Ryan increasingly at odds over both tone and substance as the businessman barrels toward the GOP presidential nomination. While Ryan is appealing for political civility and a party rooted in traditional conservative principles, Trump is bucking campaign decorum and embracing policy positions that are sharply at odds with years of GOP orthodoxy.

Their starkly different visions for the Republican Party are a microcosm of the broader fissures roiling the GOP. And if Trump does become the Republican nominee, he and the House speaker’s ability to work together could be the first test of whether a party in this much turmoil can stay together.

“Trump’s obviously running on issues that are contrary to conservatives and at odds with what a lot of what Paul Ryan believes,” said Peter Wehner, a former adviser to President George W. Bush.

For now, Trump and Ryan are engaged largely in a cold war, with the politicians only occasionally mentioning each other by name. Ryan has picked key moments to draw implicit contrasts with Trump, including condemning the billionaire’s refusal to take responsibility for violence at his rallies. Trump will launch the next volley Tuesday when he campaigns in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, ahead of the state’s April 5 primary.

Trump, in his trademark contradictory style, has both praised Ryan and ominously warned the speaker against crossing him.

“Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along with him, and if I don’t, he’s going to have to pay a big price, OK?” Trump said after his victories on Super Tuesday. A week later, after speaking with Ryan by phone, Trump said of the speaker: “I like him a lot. I respect him a lot.”

People close to Ryan say the Wisconsin lawmaker is in disbelief about Trump’s staying power. While he’s publicly vowed to support whomever his party nominates, Ryan has privately said he’s focused on trying to keep the GOP’s House majority this fall and on fundraising for the party — leaving some friends with the impression that he would be a less-than-enthusiastic Trump backer in a general election.

Video by PBS NewsHour

Looming large are Ryan’s own political ambitions. He passed on running for the White House in 2016, but some Republicans still harbor hopes that he could emerge as the nominee in a convention fight this summer if neither Trump nor Ted Cruz clinch the nomination by then.

“I would be less than honest with you if I said people are not mentioning a Ryan candidacy from time to time,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican who meets regularly with Ryan. “Clearly there are many in Congress who see Paul Ryan as a consensus candidate.”

Ryan has vigorously denied that he’s interested, though he was similarly definitive last year when he rebuffed calls to run for the speaker’s job. He’s also insists that his role as chairman of the July convention requires him to remain officially neutral despite his obvious displeasure with Trump.

Yet Ryan’s refusal to fully disavow Trump has left him open to criticism that he either cares too much about keeping the real estate mogul’s enthusiastic supporters in the Republican fold or that he doesn’t fully understand the threat.

“The barbarian is at the gate, and Paul Ryan wants to talk sense to him?” wrote David D. Haynes, the editorial page editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the largest newspaper in Ryan’s home state.

Trump, in private at least, has tried to soften such dire talk. A few weeks ago, he sent Ryan a copy of a Washington Post article that he’d marked up to show his disagreement with the piece’s assertion that he was a threat to GOP orthodoxy. A Ryan aide confirmed that Trump sent the article, speaking on condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to speak publicly by name.

Ryan has been working behind the scenes to produce congressional plans on issues including health care, the economy and national security. Though not the original intent of Ryan’s “agenda project,” the effort could give Republicans something to run on if they can’t or don’t want to hitch themselves to their presidential nominee.

Trump’s own policy proposals, though often vague, have sometimes sharply conflicted with where Ryan is trying to position the party, particularly on economic issues.

Ryan rose to prominence among Republicans for spending proposals that eventually would privatize government entitlement programs, gradually reducing those operations’ share of federal spending. While Trump has joined Republicans in bemoaning alleged abuses of entitlement programs, he’s long blasted proposals like Ryan’s.

“As Republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen,” Trump said during a 2013 appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Trump has also spent decades criticizing U.S. trade policy and advocating steep tariffs on Chinese imports. It’s a protectionist argument that puts him at odds with decades of Republican support for international trade, though he’s in line with a growing contingent of House Republicans who see sweeping foreign trade deals as detrimental to American workers.

Before becoming speaker, Ryan was among the most vocal House Republicans in backing trade agreements, including President Barack Obama’s Asia-Pacific pact. As speaker, Ryan has yet to schedule a vote on the Pacific Rim deal, saying he and other members are carefully vetting the details.

Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Erica Werner and Bill Barrow wrote this report.

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WATCH LIVE: Obama to address nation’s growing opioid problem at 2:30 p.m. EDT

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President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama will will participate in a panel at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit today, where he will address the nation’s growing addiction to opioids. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will issue a proposed rule Tuesday that aims to increase medication-based treatment for tens of thousands of people addicted to opioids.

The proposed rule, along with a commitment from 60 medical schools to heighten training for prescribing opioids, will coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to Atlanta where he will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit.

Opioids are highly addictive drugs that include both prescription painkillers like codeine and morphine, as well as illegal narcotics, primarily heroin. Deaths linked to opioids soared to more than 29,000 in 2014, the highest number on record.

Congress is attempting to allocate more resources to confront the problem — one of few areas where lawmakers from both parties might reach agreement during the election year. Obama is seeking $1.1 billion in new federal funds to expand treatment for opioid addiction, which is about triple current levels.

Michael Botticelli, director of the National Drug Control Policy at the White House, told reporters in advance of the president’s trip that the extra money being sought is an acknowledgement from Obama that “there is still a significant treatment gap for people who need it.” Most of the money would fund agreements with states to expand medication-assisted treatment.

Along those lines, the Department of Health and Human Services will issue a proposed rule allowing physicians who prescribe Buprenorphine to give it to more patients. The proposed rule would expand the limit from 100 patients to 200.

The department also will issue guidance to programs that allow intravenous drug addicts to trade dirty syringes for clean ones in hopes of preventing disease. Congress recently allowed federal money to be used for certain expenses, such as staff and equipment, but not for the syringes themselves.

Officials also are focused on better educating prescribers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued new guidelines stating that physical therapy, exercise and over-the-counter pain medication should be used before turning to painkillers like morphine and oxycodone. Sixty universities will announce that their students will have to learn prescriber information in line with the new guidelines in order to graduate.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking wrote this report.

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Capitol returning to normal day after intruder is shot

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Police direct tourists away from the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol, after a shooting at the Capitol Visitors Center, in Washington on Monday. Photo by Mike Theiler/Reuters

Police direct tourists away from the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol, after a shooting at the Capitol Visitors Center, in Washington on Monday. Photo by Mike Theiler/Reuters

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol complex was set to return to normal Tuesday, a day after police say officers shot and wounded a man who pulled a weapon at a security checkpoint as he entered the underground Capitol Visitor Center.

Capitol Police identified the man as 66-year-old Larry R. Dawson of Tennessee. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed. Dawson was taken to a local hospital and underwent surgery. Late Monday, police said he was in stable but critical condition.

Dawson disrupted a House session last October by yelling he was a “Prophet of God.” He was issued a “stay away order” by the District of Columbia Superior Court that same month that required him to avoid the Capitol grounds, court documents show.

Monday’s incident, in which a bystander was slightly wounded, occurred at the tourists’ entry point to a building that had heightened security even before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has had periodic scares ever since.

With last week’s suicide attacks in Brussels, Belgium, that killed 35 people fresh on people’s minds, Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa held a brief news conference at which he preliminarily ruled out terrorism.

“We do believe this is an act of a single person who has frequented the Capitol grounds before and there is no reason to believe that this is anything more than a criminal act,” Verderosa, who became chief this month after about three decades on the force, told reporters.

The chief said he did not know how many officers had fired at the suspect. He also said no officers were injured, after initial erroneous reports that one had been hurt.

Verderosa said a weapon he did not describe had been recovered at the scene and the suspect’s vehicle had been found on the Capitol grounds and would be seized.

He also said a female bystander suffered minor injuries. Later Monday, spokeswoman Susan Griffiths of George Washington University Hospital said that hospital was about to release a patient it had treated for minor injuries and whom it did not identify.

Bill Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, said that after Dawson’s October arrest, he did not appear in court as scheduled the following month. Miller said a bench warrant was issued for his arrest and in January. Dawson wrote the court a letter in which he claimed to be exempt from laws because he is a prophet of God.

“No longer will I let myself be governed by flesh and blood, but only by the Divine Love of God,” he wrote, adding four exclamation points.

Other court paperwork said Dawson said he was previously in the Army and was honorably discharged in 1971.

An attorney listed as representing him in the case from October, John Copacino, did not immediately return a telephone message and an e-mail requesting comment Monday afternoon.

Records show Dawson was previously licensed in Tennessee to work as a funeral director. After his license expired in 2004, the state’s Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers voted three times to deny requests from Dawson to reinstate his license, citing the “applicant’s lack of good moral character.”

Kevin Walters, a spokesman for the state funeral board, said the denial resulted from an incident that occurred while Dawson was working as a school bus driver in a Nashville suburb. Dawson had written a letter to a young girl saying that God had told him to have sex with her, Walters said.

In 1998, before the Visitor Center was built, two Capitol police officers were fatally shot by a gunman who stormed a security checkpoint inside the Capitol itself. That shooter, Russell Eugene Weston Jr., was wounded and is custody at a federal mental facility.

Monday’s incident, which Verderosa said began at 2:39 p.m. EDT, unfolded with Congress on recess and the capital swarming with springtime tourists, and with nearly all lawmakers away on recess.

Hours earlier, Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland held two separate meetings with senators in a Senate office building across the street from the visitor center.

The Capitol was on lockdown for about an hour Monday and the White House also was briefly locked down. Police officers, some with drawn automatic weapons, sealed off streets around the Capitol, emergency vehicles were lined up outside and staff members and visitors were rushed into offices and told to shelter in place.

Cathryn Leff, of Temecula, California, in town for discussions with the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, said she was going through security at the main entrance to the Capitol Visitors Center when police told people to leave immediately.

Outside, on the plaza just to the east of the Capitol, other officers told people assembled there to “get down behind this wall,” she said. “I heard what sounded like two shots off to my left.” After a while, police told her and others to keep running. “I felt like I was in a movie. It didn’t feel real at all,” she said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., issued a statement thanking Capitol Police, as did other congressional leaders. “This evening our thoughts and prayers are with all those who faced danger today,” Ryan said.

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Michael Biesecker, Mary Clare Jalonick, Jessica Gresko and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

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Egyptian hijacker in custody after hours-long standoff

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A man climbs out of the cockpit window of  the hijacked EgyptAir Airbus A320 at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus on March 29. Photo by Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters

A man climbs out of the cockpit window of the hijacked EgyptAir Airbus A320 at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus on March 29. Photo by Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters

An Egyptian man who hijacked a passenger airplane and forced it to land in Cyprus gave himself up to authorities Tuesday after holding seven people on board for several hours.

He surrendered at the Larnaca airport in southern Cyprus after earlier freeing most passengers. He kept three of the passengers and four crew members for five hours before letting them go as well.

“All passengers and crew are safe,” said Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi, reported the Associated Press.

The man’s motives were unclear, but Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said the hijacking was not terrorism-related.

EgyptAir flight MS181 took off Tuesday morning from the coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt, bound for Cairo with 55 passengers and seven crew members. The man apparently diverted the plane to Larnaca airport, and most passengers were seen walking down the stairs from the airplane with their luggage. They boarded a bus that was waiting beside the aircraft.

An unnamed Cyprus police official told the AP the man who apparently hijacked the plane was wearing a suicide belt but no explosives were on it. The official said the man had asked to speak with his former wife and also demanded the release of women from Egyptian jails.

His ex-wife visited the airport and helped convince him to surrender, according to state media, the New York Times reported.

The hijacker was later identified as Seifedeen Mustafa, an Egyptian living in Cyprus, which was confirmed by Cypriot officials. He was seen walking off the airplane with his hands raised.

Among the passengers were 26 foreigners including Americans, Britons, Dutch, Belgians, French, Italian, Greeks and a Syrian. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Another Egyptian airplane would fly to Larnaca to retrieve the passengers, authorities said.

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Melvin Edwards’ steel sculptures reveal a history of racial violence

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What can one material say about the history of race in the U.S.?

Melvin Edwards gives dozens of answers to that question in a new exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. His works, made primarily of welded steel, address social issues and civil rights in abstract pieces that call on the viewer to interrogate racial violence and oppression.

Edwards was born in 1937 in Texas and spent five years in Dayton, Ohio, during his childhood. At the time, “Ohio wasn’t segregated legally as Texas was,” he said. “It had its discriminatory realities, but it was a more open place and experience than Texas was.”

He is best known for a series of works called the Lynch Fragments, of which he has constructed 200 since 1963. Roughly the size of a human head and made from twisted steel parts, each piece directly engages with the viewer, according to Tyler Cann, curator of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art.

“You are caught between this sense of empathy with it, of feeling like it is another person, but then a sense that this is a violated body,” he said.

Cann said he hopes that the exhibition will force the viewers to come to grips with the objects’ combination of beautiful craftsmanship and the pain they represent.

The exhibit is on view at the Columbus Museum of Art through May 8.

Video produced by Jackie Shafer. This report originally appeared on PBS member station WOSU. Local Beat is an ongoing series on Art Beat that features arts and culture stories from PBS member stations around the nation.

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Tied 4-4 after Scalia’s death, Supreme Court upholds win for labor unions

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The Supreme Court deadlocked on a public employees union case Tuesday, handing a win to organized labor. Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters

The Supreme Court deadlocked on a public employees union case Tuesday, handing a win to organized labor. Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters

WASHINGTON — In the clearest sign yet of the impact of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, labor unions on Tuesday won a high-profile Supreme Court dispute they once seemed all but certain to lose.

The justices announced they were divided 4-4 in a case that considered whether unions representing government employees can collect fees from workers who choose not to join. The split vote leaves in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the practice.

The result is an unlikely victory for organized labor after it seemed almost certain the high court would rule 5-4 to overturn a system that’s been in place nearly 40 years. The court is operating with only eight justices after the death of Scalia, who had been expected to rule against the unions.

The one-sentence opinion does not identify how each justice voted. It simply upholds a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But it’s a major blow to conservative groups that have spent years pushing the court to overrule a 1977 precedent that allows unions to collect “fair share” fees from members and non-members alike that cover the costs of collective bargaining.

The decision came as Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland was to meet with Republican Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, his first meeting with a GOP senator. President Barack Obama nominated Garland to fill the vacant seat, but Republican leaders in the Senate say they won’t hold confirmation hearings or vote on the pick until a new president is elected.

The union case is among a handful of key disputes in which Scalia’s vote was expected to tip the balance toward a result that favored conservatives. During arguments in the case in January, Scalia and the court’s four other conservatives made it clear they were ready to deal a blow to the unions.

Since Supreme Court decisions are not final until they are handed down, nothing Scalia did or said in connection with the case before his death mattered in the outcome.

In the case, California teachers backed by a conservative group said being forced to pay union fees violated the free speech rights of nonmembers who disagree with the unions’ positions. The high court had raised doubts about the viability of the 1977 precedent, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, but it stopped short of overturning it in two recent cases. In Abood, the court said public workers who choose not to join a union can be required to pay for bargaining costs if the fees don’t go toward political purposes.

The lead plaintiff was Rebecca Friedrichs, a public school teacher from Orange County, California, who said she resigned from the California Teachers Association over differences but was still required to pay about $650 a year to cover bargaining costs.

The case affects more than 5 million workers in 23 states and Washington, D.C., who are represented at the bargaining table by public sector unions. Labor officials worried the potential loss of tens of millions of dollars in fees would reduce their power to bargain for higher wages and benefits for government employees.

Labor leaders called the lawsuit part of a coordinated effort by conservative groups to weaken labor rights. Union officials say the fees are necessary because the organization has a legal duty to represent all teachers, even those who are not members of the union.

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federal of State, Local and Municipal Employees, called the case a “political attack” on unions.

“AFSCME members are more resolved than ever to band together and stand up to future attempts to silence the voices of working families,” he said.

The post Tied 4-4 after Scalia’s death, Supreme Court upholds win for labor unions appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Wisconsin’s Walker backs Cruz as Trump heads to state

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Former presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker waves as he is announced during the Heritage Action for America forum in Greenville, South Carolina. Photo by Chris Keane/Reuters

Former presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker waves as he is announced during the Heritage Action for America forum in Greenville, South Carolina. Photo by Chris Keane/Reuters

BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz won the endorsement of Wisconsin governor — and former GOP rival — Scott Walker Tuesday as all five candidates converged on his state ahead of its key primary.

Walker said on Milwaukee conservative talk radio that he was backing Cruz over Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich because he believes the Texas senator is best positioned to win the GOP nomination and defeat presumed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The endorsement comes as Trump planned his first Wisconsin campaign stop in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s hometown. After the Janesville, Wisconsin, rally Trump was scheduled to join Kasich and Cruz for a CNN town hall in Milwaukee. In the increasingly contentious Democratic race, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Clinton were campaigning around the state.

Wisconsin will hold its presidential primary on April 5.

Walker, a two-term Republican who became the first governor in U.S. history to win a recall election in 2012, had telegraphed his support for Cruz after saying last week he was the only candidate who had a chance to knock off Trump. When Walker ended his short-lived presidential campaign in September, he called for other candidates to join him to make it easier to take out Trump.

When Walker was running for president, he argued a governor should be the nominee. But he passed over Kasich to support Cruz, who until recently, had failed to garner the same level of support from the GOP establishment.

“It was an easy call for me to support Ted Cruz,” Walker said, highlighting Cruz’s fights with both Republicans and Democrats. “This is a guy who has been consistent in his positions and when push comes to shove will stand up for the people he represents over the interests in Washington.”

Cruz supporters erupted in cheers as Walker’s radio interview was played live at a rally outside of Milwaukee.

Trump made clear in a message he posted Monday night on Twitter that he wasn’t expecting to land Walker’s endorsement.

There should be an embedded item here. Please visit the original post to view it.

“After the way I beat Gov. Scott Walker (and Jeb, Rand, Marco and all others) in the Presidential Primaries, no way he would ever endorse me!” Trump wrote, referring specifically to former contenders Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.

It’s unclear how much Walker’s endorsement will help Cruz, who has also won the backing of influential conservative talk radio hosts in the Milwaukee market that reach into heavily Republican suburban counties. Walker’s approval rating hasn’t cracked 40 percent in more than a year.

Wisconsin has 42 delegates, with 18 going to the statewide winner and 24 divided up to the winner in each of the state’s eight congressional districts. Kasich has said he hopes to win in a couple congressional districts, as Cruz and Trump battle it out to win the state.

Kasich was campaigning for votes in suburban Milwaukee, as was Cruz who appeared with Carly Fiorina at a morning rally. On the Democratic side, Clinton was to appear at a gun violence forum in Milwaukee and then head north to Green Bay and west to La Crosse, which is on the Minnesota border. Sanders was stopping in the Milwaukee area and Appleton.

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The post Wisconsin’s Walker backs Cruz as Trump heads to state appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

These young poets show there’s more to Flint than a water crisis

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From left: Destiny Shannon, Razjea Bridges and Danielle Horton. Photo by Derico A. Cooper

From left: Destiny Shannon, Razjea Bridges and Danielle Horton. Photo by Derico A. Cooper

At a low point in the summer of 2013, Flint student Razjea Bridges turned to poetry.

“I kind of shut out everybody all throughout that year. Poetry was kind of the one thing that I relied on to make me feel better,” she said.

It was her second year with Raise It Up!, a youth arts organization based in Flint, where she performed on a slam team with other young poets from the city. Going to their weekly practice, and talking to Raise It Up! co-founder Natasha Thomas-Jackson, helped her pull through what she said was one of the most difficult seasons of her life. “Being with the poets on the team, being with Natasha and having that encouraging, positive spirit really did save my life,” she said.

Bridges, who now attends Eastern Michigan University, joined four other young poets with Raise It Up! to perform on Feb. 28 at #JusticeForFlint, an event that showcased a range of voices from a city known chiefly, at the moment, for its water crisis. These poets say the water is merely the latest in a string of events that have brought negative press to Flint, overshadowing the innovative artists and activists that live and work there every day.

I asked them how poetry — and in particular, poetry by young people — could help provide a more nuanced portrait of Flint. Here’s what they said.

Danielle Horton, age 19

Poetry is a positive outlet. The arts in general [are] a positive outlet, and it is important to have that escape. It is important for anyone to have that kind of escape but especially in Flint. There is so much talent here. All across the borders, from sports to the arts, to the academics, there is so much power here in the city of Flint.

“Poetry is an amazing art form. It is able to tell the ugliest stories so beautifully. And I love it. It’s what heals me and I know that it can help heal my city.” — Danielle Horton, 19But that’s not what the news says. That’s not what you hear when you go out of town. No, when you go out of town people pity you. They have all of these negative connotations of Flint and they don’t even know us. Or maybe they’ve had one bad experience and they’re just holding on to that bad experience. And if society is looking down on us, we look down on ourselves. When we don’t have something we start to believe that we don’t deserve it, but the arts … by having an outlet like poetry, you are able to reclaim everything and say “Yes, I do deserve this.” It gives hope. And even hope the size of a mustard seed is powerful. We are a resilient city. This water crisis is not going to get us down. Poetry is an amazing art form. It is able to tell the ugliest stories so beautifully. And I love it. It’s what heals me and I know that it can help heal my city.

Razjea Bridges, 19

Flint has been known for very few things. For GM, the auto industry that failed a few years ago, [for] being a murder capital* a few years ago, and now it’s known for this water crisis. All of those things are really negative things, and the poets, the artists, the community activists and the teachers of the city, they don’t want to promote that negativity anymore.

My grandmother moved to Flint from the South for work. Flint was a place people wanted to be in. Poetry and art is that thing that will change that negative mindset that people have about the city. That’s another thing a lot of people don’t know about Flint right now, is [that] a lot of people in Flint are extremely talented. That’s how I got to learn more about my own city, through poetry. [Art] is how Flint is going to get through all the crappy stuff it’s been through in the past few years. Poetry is just a way to put together words that make people feel better. It’s been a therapy for me. I’d like to view poetry as being the same way for other people, when I perform it and when I write it.

Natasha Thomas-Jackson, co-founder and executive director of Raise it Up!, and Nate Marshall. Photo by Derico A. Cooper

Natasha Thomas-Jackson, co-founder and executive director of Raise it Up!, and Nate Marshall. Photo by Derico A. Cooper

Harvey, age 21

It’s so beautiful, the way youth get a voice with Raise it Up! It’s an opportunity to have a voice about what’s going on, what’s happening with them. So often, young people are looked over, their experiences are looked over, because it’s like you’re a kid, you don’t know anything about this world. But really if you take time to stop and listen, kids have so much wisdom. Young people really do. It’s not bogged down by the harsh experiences of this world. As you get older you learn more things, but kids have a truth to them that I think with Raise it Up! and working with the poetry team, that really gets brought out.

Poetry helps us talk about what’s going on in Flint because a lot of news is coming from outside of Flint, looking at it from outside perspective, even though people are coming to Flint to say things, they haven’t lived here before the water crisis. They haven’t experienced Flint before the attention. And so poetry coming from Flint poets, it comes pre-wrapped in the Flint experience and what it means to be from Flint.

Destiny Monet, age 18

Poetry matters everywhere. Specifically, spoken word matters everywhere, and especially in places like Flint where people are being looked over and ignored. We need poetry here because it is a platform for our pain and the injustices we witness every day, whether it’s here in Flint or all over the world. Poetry is a way to let the world know that we are here and we aren’t going anywhere. [It’s] a way to provide knowledge to the unknowing in hopes that the more we educate ourselves on the issues, the more we can collectively come up with some solutions.

Isan Francis, age 16

I think we’ve been able to build something because of shared experiences and shared beliefs and shared art forms and the ability to put our minds together. Art is really important right now for getting to the bottom of the situation and getting to people feel about it and elevating it to a national level. I think #JusticeForFlint was really important, it was a really important stage for us to do that.

You can watch, listen to or read two performances by the group below.

Flint

Pay for your poison
the girls and the boys and
the city can’t drink
lead altering the way we think
futures gone in a blink…

A mother who has children dying in her arms. Her name is Flint. She has lived a long and tiring life.

Her children, sucking all of the nutrients out of her, she is wearing thin.

But the streets got her back. They are what define her. What makes her whole.

She was young once.

Lively, ambitious, booming… she was beautiful. Everyone loved her. Clung to her like flock. She had everything.

Money, resources, people who worked for her. And then, she lost it all.

A good-bye kiss.

Policy always tried to pimp her out.

Misuse and abuse her. But she just cracks a smile at ‘em.

Cause she’s raising warriors.

We’ve got her streets running through our veins.

When you’re shaped from concrete and tar you learn to bury your feet.
The dirt you stand in becomes your only friend when the city doesn’t love you.

Living in Flint is being surrounded by shackles and ignoring the restriction.

Just to carry on.

Where I come from, politicians fill their pockets.

Work from the lens of dollar signs.
See currency before human life.
Blinded by green faces.

Racist.

Where I come from the stretch of Saginaw Street is 60% black.

60% tar.

60% stuck.

Somebody show me the blueprint for uprooting this city’s corroded bloodline.

I wonder how Snyder is spending his Sunday? While we stand in solidarity against the poisoning of my people, he relaxes in his Ann Arbor home passing bills for the exact crime he committed in Flint.

I heard her holler as HOMEBOY hung her out to dry, A drained cry. Never dialyzed the river that is her blood line…got mucked up

I know all good things must come to an end but must the fall from glory be into an abyss?

Everything used to revolve around her. There was nothing she couldn’t provide. Now, the only thing she’s good for is a daily reminder of what a city should fear becoming.

Her streets are deserted, her buildings stand still in time trying to hold on…as someone’s idea of yesteryear,

The feeble attempts made to cover up her damaged frame seep into a path of cobblestone that was laid to take us straight to the promised land.

The best way to screw a city:
From behind, blinded.
Manipulate their money and violate their water.

Forcing us to drink the Kool-Aid they’ve made and they never really could make Kool-Aid right.

Never enough sugar,

Always too much lead.

Pay for your poison
the girls and the boys and
the city can’t drink
lead altering the way we think
futures gone in a blink…

The light that is a promise for change gets dimmer with every breaking news report. What happens when all the celebrities have driven through , donated money, bottled water and passed out filters to her people!?

SCREW A FILTER,
IT’S A RUSE,
AIN’T IT 1 HOW THEY ALWAYS SEEM TO FILTER OUT THE TRUTH?

We shine best in dark places
in tight spaces,
we make our home.
Flintstones
Where I’m from….
Yabadabadoo is a negro spiritual.

We are angrily asking questions, improperly being poisoned, strategically murdered off as lead muffles our voices.

When today becomes yesterday and there is no more Janelle Monae, Jasmine Sullivan…

Where will our water be?

Pay for your poison
the girls and the boys and
the city can’t drink
lead altering the way we think
futures gone in a blink…

More blocks than kindergarten,
More corners than hexagons,
A city where tired is a lifestyle,
Where rest is a blunt meeting lips between work shifts.

Flint.

If I ain’t got it today…
Trust I’mma have it tomorrow,
Hard work,
Tough skin,
1 church,
2 liquor stores
1 school book,
2 jails cells,
Living here is tossed body overboard,
Sacrificing,
It is being Jonah and knowing the whale’s belly,
Flourishing in the dark.

We’ve trained our eyes to still embrace light.
Remember light.

We are that light.

He gave us 4 pens and 4 notebooks and said feed a hundred thousand,
So, we write.

Reacting to what we know as our essence,
Putting our passion on paper and showcasing our expression,
You ain’t from the Fli?
You ain’t familiar with famine,
The 810 in my pulse is all I need to keep standing.

The Fli-raq blues finally got to you, eh?
You just living life surprised they ain’t shot at you, eh?
Or shot it your way?
You’re living cause the shot misplaced,
Condom bust or trigger bang,
They’re both honest mistakes.

Bringing a cold front to where passion and goals meet,
My city engaged to hustle,
Don’t come here with cold feet,
I represent the belly of the beast…

Forget what you heard about it,

Just know Flint made me.

She Said Yes

She said yes,
Lucas wants to play with Mariana’s toy car,
She said yes,
Ashlynn wants to talk about her recent family issues with Tiara at 4AM,
She said yes,
Tasha’s boyfriend asked for her last $20 last week,
She said yes,
She forgot what the word “no” tastes like, His piercing eyes nail her to the cross every time she even looks like she’s thinking about leaving him,
May 8th:
He beats the crap out of her,
May 9:
He takes her out to dinner at a nice restaurant,
May 10:
She cries on the phone to her sister
May 11:
He proposes to her in front of the world,
She said yes.

Someone asks a favor,
I don’t have time,
The word “No” sits in a chain-rusted box at the bottom of the Pacific,
I can’t swim.
So I find myself drowning in sharing more than I care to give.

This society raises “only speak when spoken to” women,
And silence is now a feminine trait with a chastity belt,
Silence locks women to respectability the same way “yes” does,

So I said nothing,
And his hands became rusted crowbar prying open the legs of my 1997 antique BMW.

I said nothing and his words became razor blade to my medulla oblongata.

I said nothing and watched the hands that once held me, transform into iron fists.

If we don’t say “no” they will attempt to ruin us and say that we wanted it,

We are allowed to say “no”,
Even if it’s once a day,
We must practice.

Women feel an unwarranted obligation to constantly give,
Running ourselves dry of favors,
Agreements,
Of energy.

There are no more yeses to share,
We are bitter,
Selfish,
Prude,
Crabby,
We’ve taught our daughters to leave themselves on the shelf when approaching a culture sealed in patriarchy,

Morgan wants to use Kate’s blue crayon,
She doesn’t know that the blue one is Kate’s favorite,
She said “no.”

Lauren asks Meeka for a piece of gum,
She said “no.”

Caitlyn Jenner was given the name Bruce.
She said “no.”

This is not another poem to load women with all the responsibility,
But we all know that being woman is double standard is being held accountable,
being taken advantage of and remaining lady-like,

Ladies…

We have a divine right to affirm no without explanation.

No
You can’t have my teddy grams, No
You can’t have my secrets, No
You can’t have my body, No
You can’t have my time, No
You can’t have my home, No
You can’t have have my value, No

Too long it took me to understand my self-worth,
So I won’t apologize for thinking of self first.

I called my four year old sister Kyra into the room to assure her that she doesn’t always have to share,
That yes isn’t something people are entitled to,
I told her that saying “no” is okay sometimes, The bass in her chuckle sent chills down my spine as I tried to beat it into her head that saying “no” as a girl is not a joke.

I said, “Baby girl, do you understand that you don’t always have to say yes?”

She said “yes.”

*Editor’s note: Flint has been named the most dangerous city in America due to its violent crime rate.

The post These young poets show there’s more to Flint than a water crisis appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

U.S. orders diplomatic, military families out of south Turkey

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A U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft lands at Incirlik air base in Adana, Turkey. Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters

A U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft lands at Incirlik air base in Adana, Turkey. Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters

WASHINGTON — The State Department and Pentagon ordered the families of U.S. diplomats and military personnel Tuesday to leave posts in southern Turkey due to “increased threats from terrorist groups” in the country.

The two agencies said dependents of American staffers at the U.S. consulate in Adana, the Incirlik air base and two other locations must leave. The so-called “ordered departure” notice means the relocation costs will be covered by the government.

In a statement, the military’s European Command said the step “allows for the deliberate, safe return of family members from these areas due to continued security concerns in the region.”

The orders cover the Adana consulate, U.S. military dependents in Incirlik, Ismir and Mugla as well as family of U.S. government civilians at Ismir and Mugla. The State Department also restricted official travel to that which it considers “mission critical.”

The move comes amid heightened security concerns throughout Turkey due to the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants in neighboring Syria and Iraq and was accompanied by an updated travel warning advising U.S. citizens of an increased threat of attacks. It also comes as Turkey’s president is set to arrive in Washington to attend President Barack Obama’s nuclear security summit.

“We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism,” the European Command statement said.

Incirlik is a critical base in the fight by the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group, and includes strike aircraft, drones and refueling planes.

Turkey’s decision last year to allow the coalition to conduct airstrikes with aircraft based at Incirlik shortened the time and distance required to conduct airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, compared with strikes flown from bases in the Persian Gulf area. And it increased the number of U.S. personnel at the base.

NATO’s Allied Land Command is based at Ismir and there is a Turkish base at Mugla where some U.S. military personnel go for training and other missions.

It was not immediately clear how many family members would be affected in total. The Pentagon said the order would affect about 680 military family members and roughly 270 pets. The State Department and Pentagon had begun a voluntary drawdown of staff at the two posts last September after Turkey announced it would take a greater role in the fight against Islamic State militants.

At the time, military officials said they had recommended the voluntary departure from Incirlik because of specific calls by militants for lone wolf attacks against the air base.

On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Turkish Foreign Mevlut Cavusoglu. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the two discussed measures to secure the Turkey-Syria border and disrupt extremist networks.

According to a U.S. official, the decision to order families to leave stemmed from the ongoing assessment of security threats in Turkey. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The decision comes a day after Israel issued a new travel advisory for Turkey, warning its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible and avoid any traveling there.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor wrote this report.

The post U.S. orders diplomatic, military families out of south Turkey appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Ask the Headhunter: I lied about my salary to get a job. What if my employer finds out?

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Instead of risking the job offer by negotiating over a higher salary, accept the offer first (if you'd take it regardless), then ask for a raise. Photo by Image Source/Getty Images.

Don’t lie about your salary, but better yet, don’t tell an employer your salary in the first place, says headhunter Nick Corcodilos. Photo by Image Source/Getty Images.

Nick Corcodilos started headhunting in Silicon Valley in 1979 and has answered over 30,000 questions from the Ask The Headhunter community over the past decade.

In this special Making Sen$e edition of Ask The Headhunter, Nick shares insider advice and contrarian methods about winning and keeping the right job, on one condition: that you, dear Making Sense reader, send Nick your questions about your personal challenges with job hunting, interviewing, networking, resumes, job boards or salary negotiations. No guarantees — just a promise to do his best to offer useful advice.


Question: What happens if you apply for a job, the employer asks for your current salary in the interview, and you give them a number that isn’t true? Then they make you an offer without bothering to check the number on an old pay stub or on your W-2. Then the employer sends you a job application to fill out, and it asks for your salary. Now what are you supposed to do? Go with your true salary or the number you told them in the interviews? It would be great if you can give me an answer quickly!

Unfortunately, some people think that if they give salary information in a job interview — and it’s “not in writing” — they’re somehow not liable for telling a lie.

Nick Corcodilos: It’s not uncommon for an employer to conduct interviews, make a job offer and then ask you to fill out the job application form. Unfortunately, some people think that if they give salary information in a job interview — and it’s “not in writing” — they’re somehow not liable for telling a lie. This is a lesson about how the paperwork will catch up with you.

What do you think will happen if you lie on the application form to support your first lie and they catch you?

READ MORE: Ask the Headhunter: I’m waiting for a job offer… Now what?

If you get caught lying about your salary history, an employer is likely to drop you from consideration or fire you if they already hired you. You have caused yourself a real problem. My advice is to come clean. Tell the truth, and deal with the consequences.

Don’t do this again.

The only way to avoid this situation is to politely but firmly decline to tell your salary during the interview process. (See “Should I disclose my salary history?”)

I wish you the best. I’d love to know how this turns out. Sorry to hear you’re in so deep.

The Reader Follows Up: I didn’t lie. My current employer did offer me the salary I quoted to the new employer. It was for a promotion, but I didn’t take it, because I want to leave. I didn’t put anything in writing as of yet, but they are asking me to send over the paperwork now. The HR lady explained to me that they do not reach out to current employers. I’m thinking maybe I should put how much I make and say I was offered the other salary? What do you think?

Nick Corcodilos: Some people play another version of this “fudging my salary” game. They will quote their salary as salary plus the value of their benefits and bonuses and anything else they can throw into the figure. But that’s not their salary.

Your salary history is private and confidential. It’s not an employer’s business, and you should not disclose it.

Likewise, it doesn’t matter what your current employer offered you if that’s not the number on your pay stub. Just because they don’t “reach out to current employers” doesn’t mean they won’t find out you lied. If they hire you and do an orientation, they will likely ask you for a pay stub at that point for their HR files. (This is very common.) In other words, you may have to turn it over as a condition of employment. I don’t think you want them to see a stub that’s different from the number you put on the application form or the number you stated in your interviews. That would probably be grounds for termination on your first day.

Just tell the whole truth.

Having said all that, I think your salary history is private and confidential. It’s not an employer’s business, and you should not disclose it. But that means do not disclose it during interviews, on forms or anywhere else. That’s different from lying about it. If you don’t disclose it, they hire you and then ask for your old pay stub, you’re covered because there’s no misrepresentation.

READ MORE: Ask the Headhunter: The huge mistake almost everyone makes when they ask for a higher job offer

Dear Readers: Have you ever lied about your salary and gotten caught? What happened? How would you advise this reader?


Nick Corcodilos invites Making Sense readers to subscribe to his free weekly Ask The Headhunter© Newsletter. His in-depth “how to” PDF books are available on his website: “How to Work With Headhunters…and how to make headhunters work for you,” “Keep Your Salary Under Wraps,” “How Can I Change Careers?” and “Fearless Job Hunting.”

Send your questions to Nick, and join him for discussion every week here on Making Sense. Thanks for participating!

Copyright © 2016 Nick Corcodilos. All rights reserved in all media. Ask the Headhunter® is a registered trademark.

The post Ask the Headhunter: I lied about my salary to get a job. What if my employer finds out? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

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