Category: National News

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Little Rock teachers have given few clues on whether they’ll strike because of Arkansas’ decision to no longer recognize their union, but they’re staging other demonstrations aimed at drawing attention to the end of their collective bargaining rights and the state’s ongoing control of the local school district.

Teachers, parents, students and other community members held “walk-ins” around the 23,000-student district on Wednesday, entering school buildings together before classes started to show their support for the union. The move follows other demonstrations that have included a sick-out organized by students last week and some teachers participating in a “work to rule” action where they don’t work extra hours. The Little Rock Education Association’s contract with the district expired on Thursday following the state Board of Education’s decision to no longer recognize the union as the district’s sole bargaining agent.

“We feel that this is a symbolic statement that if we can all walk in together, we can all walk out together,” Teresa Knapp Gordon, president of the 1,800-member association, said. Gordon said the union hasn’t ruled out a strike and has other actions planned.

Tensions have been high since the state Board of Education’s vote against the union last month. Arkansas has run the district since January 2015, when it was taken over because of low test schools at several schools. The state board voted to return the district to a local school board that will be elected in November 2020, but with the state maintaining some control. Aside from a return of collective bargaining rights, the union is also calling for an immediate return to full local control.

“I’m ready for us to have our school district back,” Fran Carter, who was among dozens of parents who gathered in the rain for a walk-in at Little Rock Central High School. “Our whole community has been frustrated for five years. Nobody feels like they have a say.”

Little Rock school officials have been lining up hundreds of substitute teachers and telling parents that schools will remain open even if there’s a strike. Superintendent Michael Poore said he viewed the walk-ins as a positive thing and a way to encourage even more involvement in the schools. Poore praised the teachers and staff, who he said have kept a positive learning environment despite the uncertainty.

“To the best of my knowledge, we have gone on and done the job we’re supposed to do over the last several weeks, and we’ve had good learning environments,” he said.

Before the contract expired, Little Rock was the only district in the state that had a teachers’ union with collective bargaining power. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who appointed eight of the board’s nine members, has said he didn’t think Little Rock should be an exception. Supporters of the board’s decision have said more teachers will be represented by a “personnel policy committee” that will be set up in the district.

Earlier demonstrations prompted the state board to back off an initial plan that would have divided up control of the district — an effort that critics said would split Little Rock schools along racial lines 62 years after Central High’s desegregation. Businesses and homes have been displaying “One LRSD” signs in support of the district regaining local control.

The Little Rock demonstrations follow actions by teachers elsewhere, including in other conservative states such as Oklahoma and West Virginia, that have gained widespread support. One expert said the key to any action in Little Rock is presenting the issue as broader than just union recognition or benefits.

“Only when teacher unions are able to frame their efforts as efforts to promote the common good are they really able to break out of that straight jacket,” said Joseph McCartin, a history professor at Georgetown University who specializes in labor history. “You already see in Little Rock ways of doing that.”

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Follow Andrew DeMillo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a new Trump administration rule that could open the way for more health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions or other procedures on moral or religious grounds.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said the U.S. Health and Human Services Department overstepped its authority and went beyond existing law in issuing the rule. He also said that the measure could be costly, burdensome and damaging to emergency care and that the whole rationale for the rule was based on a lie.

He said the department’s claim that there was a significant increase in complaints about workers being forced to violate their conscience was “flatly untrue.” The HHS rule, he said, is a classic “solution in search of a problem.”

An HHS spokeswoman had no comment.

Nineteen states, the District of Columbia, three local governments, health organizations and others had sued to block the rule from taking effect Nov. 22, arguing that it would be discriminatory and would interfere with people’s access to health care.

“Today, the Trump administration has been blocked from providing legal cover for discrimination,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president of Planned Parenthood. “As the federal district court made clear, the administration acted outside its authority and made false claims to try to justify this rule.”

Rosie Phillips Davis, president of the American Psychological Association, said the HHS rule “could have jeopardized the health of some of our most vulnerable populations, including women, LGBT people and people with HIV or AIDS.”

But Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, called the ruling “absurd mush” and urged the Trump administration to appeal.

Health care institutions have long relied on federal Conscience Provisions first created in 1973 and amended since then that protected health care professionals from carrying out services that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs.

The new HHS rule broadens the list of health care personnel who can refuse to participate, expanding it to those who counsel, refer, train or make arrangements for a medical procedure.

It also restricts the ability of employers to inquire about employees’ objections and broadens the definition of health care entities to include pharmacists and medical laboratories.

Thus, the judge warned, a hospital or clinic receptionist who schedules appointments, an elevator operator or an ambulance driver could refuse on moral or religious grounds to do their jobs.

He said the rule could force some health care employers to double or triple staff, particularly during emergencies.

“These limits have clear potential to inhibit the employer’s ability to organize workplace arrangements to avoid inefficiencies and dislocations,” Engelmayer said.

Engelmayer, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said HHS lacked authority to create major portions of the rule, including a provision that said a health care institution’s federal funding can be cut off for violating the measure.

He said it should be left to Congress to decide whether to change the laws regarding employers’ duty to accommodate religious objections.

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Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission has sued a company accused of using house-flipping TV celebrities to lure people into spending thousands on expensive training workshops that purported to share lucrative secrets but instead left many in financial ruin.

The agency and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection filed the federal complaint in Salt Lake City Tuesday asking a judge to stop the selling of seminars by Nudge, LLC.

Their ads promised insider tips from stars of shows like Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” and HGTV’s now-defunct “Renovate to Rent,” but the FTC said the seminars that cost up to $40,000 gave only general advice. Most people paid more to the company than they made in real-estate profits, the complaint said.

“These defendants presided over a sales process that started with empty promises of future wealth and ended with many consumers left in financial ruin,” Andrew Smith, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director, said in a statement.

No TV real-estate gurus are accused in the complaint. Bravo didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment, and HGTV said it’s not involved with stars’ business associations.

The company, meanwhile, plans to fight the suit. Nudge didn’t promise any earnings and many people were happy with the information they got, said attorney Jeffrey Knowles.

“At all phases of this, significant valuable information is delivered,” Knowles said. The company provided education on real-estate investing, but couldn’t control how much money people made when they tried their hands at it, he said. The Better Business Bureau doesn’t list any complaints against the company on its website.

“This is their one-sided, negative characterization …. it doesn’t match the reality of what’s actually happening,” he said.

The FTC said in court documents the company made $400 million between 2014 and 2017, initially offering free workshops pitched by TV personalities from a wave of stylish shows about people making a living buying and selling houses.

Nudge’s free seminars were essentially a sales pitch for a three-day workshop that cost about $1,100, which could lead to “advanced training” seminars costing up to $40,000, the FTC said. There, people were offered properties pitched as discounted deals with prices that were actually inflated, the agency said.

The complaint was also filed against executives and two Nudge affiliates, Response Marketing Group, LLC and BuyPD, LLC. They’re accused of violating federal telemarketing sales rules as well as Utah laws.

KILLEEN, Texas (AP) — Family members of the 13 people killed in a mass shooting at a Texas military base have marked the 10th anniversary of the attack.

as held Tuesday at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, to remember the victims of the Nov. 5, 2009, attack. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 others were injured when then-U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire at the base.

Hasan was sentenced to death for the killings. But the Killeen Daily Herald reports that many of the victims’ families expressed frustration that no execution date has been set for Hasan, who is among four soldiers on military death row.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Federal regulators have ordered the Keystone pipeline to remain shut down until its Canadian owner takes corrective action aimed at determining the cause of a breach that leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil in northeastern North Dakota.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued the order Tuesday to Calgary, Alberta-based TC Energy. The action comes one week after the pipeline leak was discovered and affected about 22,500 square feet (2,090 square meters) of land near Edinburg, in Walsh County.

The pipeline has been shut down since Oct. 29. It is designed to carry crude oil across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri on the way to refineries in Patoka, Illinois, and Cushing, Oklahoma.

The order requires the company to send the affected portion of the 30-inch (76-centimeter) steel pipeline to an independent laboratory for testing. The company also must develop a plan to restart the line and for remediation.

TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, said in a statement it expects to have the damaged portion of the pipeline excavated by the end of the week.

The company said it has about 200 people at the site working around the clock who are “focused on clean-up and remediation activities.”

“We’re continuing to monitor air quality around the site and the surrounding area throughout clean-up, with no concerns,” TC Energy said.

Karl Rockeman, North Dakota’s water quality division director, said Wednesday about 252,000 gallons (954,000 liters) of crude oil have been recovered.

Rockeman said some wetlands were affected, but not any sources of drinking water.

The pipeline spill and shutdown come as the company seeks to build the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline has drawn opposition from people who fear it will cause environmental damage.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sheryl Crow and Bruce Springsteen hit the stage together to help raise over $5.7 million at this year’s Stand Up for Heroes fundraiser, which benefits injured veterans and their families.

The two musicians were joined at the Monday night event at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden by Ronny Chieng, Hasan Minhaj, John Oliver and Jon Stewart. Crow and Springsteen made a duet of “Redemption Day.”

Stand Up for Heroes was first held in 2007 and is produced by the New York Comedy Festival and the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Woodruff was nearly killed during a 2006 attack in Iraq while embedded with U.S. troops for ABC News.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Drug cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road, slaughtering six children and three women — all U.S. citizens living in northern Mexico — in a grisly attack that left one vehicle a burned-out, bullet-riddled hulk, authorities said Tuesday.

The dead included 8-month-old twins. Eight youngsters were found alive after escaping from the vehicles and hiding in the brush, but at least five had gunshot wounds or other injuries and were taken to the U.S. for treatment, officials said.

One woman was killed after she apparently jumped out of her vehicle and waved her hands to show she wasn’t a threat, according to family members and prosecutors.

Mexican Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the gunmen may have mistaken the group’s large SUVs for those of rival gangs.

The bloodshed took place Monday in a remote, mountainous area in northern Mexico where the Sinaloa cartel has been engaged in a turf war. The victims had set out to visit relatives in Mexico; one woman was headed to the airport in Phoenix to meet her husband.

While a drug-related violence has been raging for years in Mexico, the attack underscored the way cartel gunmen have become increasingly unconcerned about killing children as collateral damage. Around the ambush scene, which stretched for miles, investigators found over 200 shell casings, mostly from assault rifles.

“Lately it’s getting worse. This is a whole new level,” said Taylor Langford, a relative of the dead who splits his time between the Mexican community and his home in the Salt Lake City suburb of Herriman, Utah.

In a tweet, President Donald Trump offered to help Mexico “wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth.” But Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected that approach, saying his predecessors waged war, “and it didn’t work.”

The victims lived in Sonora state, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Douglas, Arizona, in the hamlet of La Mora, which was founded decades ago by an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many La Mora residents call themselves Mormons but are not affiliated with the church.

A number of such American farming communities are clustered around the Chihuahua-Sonora state border. Many members were born in Mexico and have dual citizenship. While some of the splinter groups were once polygamous, many no longer are.

All of the victims were apparently related to the extended LeBaron family in Chihuahua, whose members have run afoul of the drug traffickers over the years. Benjamin LeBaron, an anti-crime activist who founded neighborhood patrols against cartels, was killed in 2009.

Prosecutors said the woman who waved her arms, Christina Langford Johnson, was found 15 yards (meters) away from her Suburban van, shot to death. Her 7-month-old daughter, Faith Marie Johnson, was discovered uninjured in her car seat.

Kendra Miller, a relative, wrote that the baby’s car seat “seemed to be put on the floor by her mother to try and protect her. … She gave her life to try and save the rest.”

A short distance away, Dawna Ray Langford, 43, lay dead in the front seat of another Suburban, along with the bullet-riddled bodies of her sons, ages 11 and 2.

Of the children who escaped, one had been shot in the face, another in the foot. One girl suffered gunshot wounds to her back and foot.

Cowering in the brush, one boy hid the other children and then walked back to La Mora to get help. Another girl, who was initially listed as missing, walked off in another direction, despite her gunshot wounds, to get help.

A group of male relatives set out to try to rescue the youngsters but turned back when they heard gunfire ahead.

A relative of the dead who did not want his name used for fear of retaliation said in an interview that when they finally made it to the scene where the ambush started — about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from where the two other mothers were killed — they found a burned-out Chevy Tahoe.

Inside, they saw the charred remains of Rhonita Miller, 30, her 10-year-old daughter, a son, 12, and her 8-month-old twins. They were “burnt to a crisp,” the relative said.

The gunmen had riddled the vehicle with dozens of bullets and apparently hit the gas tank, causing it to explode.

“When we were there, the cartels from Sonora, there were probably 50 or 60 of them, armed to the teeth, about a mile on this side,” said the relative.

Trump tweeted that a “wonderful family” got “caught between two vicious drug cartels.”

He said the U.S. “stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” adding, “The cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!”

But Mexico’s president said: “The worst thing you can have is war.”

Later, the two leaders spoke by telephone, and Trump offered U.S. assistance “to ensure the perpetrators face justice,” the White House said without giving details.

It was the second failure in recent weeks for López Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” anti-crime strategy. Two weeks ago, Mexican forces seized a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman but had to release him after cartel henchmen launched a furious counterattack in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said a suspect was detained near Agua Prieta, but it was unclear whether the person had taken part in the ambush. The suspect had assault rifles and a .50-caliber sniper rifle and was holding two bound kidnap victims, authorities said.

The 2009 killing of Benjamin LeBaron marked a watershed in Mexico’s 2006-12 drug war. Gunmen tortured him in front of his family, then killed him and his brother-in-law.

But those killings — which sparked a further crackdown on cartels — also showed how much worse things have become: No children were killed back then.

In August in Chihuahua, cartel gunmen fired 123 bullets at a man and also killed three girls, ages 4, 13 and 14.

Taylor Langford said after Monday’s bloodshed: “I would like to see the government actually step in and do something about the cartels rather than back down every time they wave their guns at us.”

Gubernatorial and legislative elections in four states Tuesday will test voter enthusiasm and party organization amid impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump and a fevered Democratic presidential primary scramble.

Results in Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia won’t necessarily predict whether Trump will be reelected or which party will control Congress after the general election next fall. But partisans of all stripes invariably will use these odd-year elections for clues about how voters are reacting to the impeachment saga and whether the Republican president is losing ground among suburban voters who rewarded Democrats in the 2018 midterms and will prove critical again next November.

Trump is eager to nationalize whatever happens, campaigning Monday evening in Kentucky for embattled Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a first-term Trump ally, as he tries to withstand Democrat Andy Beshear, the attorney general whose father was the state’s last Democratic governor. The president campaigned Friday in Mississippi, trying to boost Republican Tate Reeves in a tight governor’s race against Democrat Jim Hood. Reeves is lieutenant governor; Hood is attorney general.

Legislative seats are on the ballots in New Jersey and in Virginia, with the latter presidential battleground state offering perhaps the best 2020 bellwether. Democrats had a big 2017 in the state, sweeping statewide offices by wide margins and gaining seats in the legislature largely on the strength of a strong suburban vote that previewed how Democrats would go on to flip the U.S. House a year later. This time, Virginia Democrats are looking to add to their momentum by flipping enough Republican seats to gain trifecta control of the statehouse: meaning the governor’s office and both legislative chambers.

Democrats are looking to maintain their legislative supermajorities in New Jersey and ward off any concerns that Trump and Republicans could widen their reach into Democratic-controlled areas.

Some voters Tuesday tied their decisions to the national atmosphere, particularly the president.

In Kentucky, 73-year-old Vietnam veteran Michael Jennings voted straight Democratic.

Jennings, retired after a career in journalism and state government, said he believes Trump is unfit for office and threatens to undermine the foundation of American democracy.

“If Kentucky can send a small flare up that we’re making the necessary turn, that’s a hopeful sign that would have reverberations far beyond our state,” he said.

Richard Simmons, 63, a butcher from Glen Allen, Virginia, said he voted for GayDonna Vandergriff in the House race because she’s a Republican “which means everything to me, especially now.”

Simmons said he’s a staunch Trump supporter and thinks the impeachment investigation is unfounded.

“It’s one diversion after another to keep Trump from doing anything,” he said. “He’s helped the economy, like, bigtime. And I trust the guy. ”

The Kentucky and Mississippi races are expected to be closer than the states’ usual partisan leanings would suggest, though that has as much to do with local dynamics as with national trends.

Bevin’s first term as Kentucky governor has been marked by pitched battles against state lawmakers — including Republicans — and teachers. Beshear, meanwhile, is well-known as state attorney general and the son of Steve Beshear, who won two terms as governor even as the state trended more solidly Republican in federal elections.

Given Bevin’s weakness, Trump would claim a big victory if the governor manages a second term. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who easily defeated Bevin in a 2014 Senate primary, also has a vested interest in the outcome. McConnell is favored to win reelection next year in Kentucky, even as national Democrats harbor hopes of defeating him. And the powerful senator would quell some of those hopes with a Bevin victory.

In Mississippi, Republicans have controlled the governor’s office for two decades. But Phil Bryant is term-limited, leaving two other statewide officials to battle for a promotion. Reeves and Republicans have sought to capitalize on the state’s GOP leanings with the Democrat Hood acknowledging that he voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. Hood would need a high turnout of the state’s African American voters and a better-than-usual share of the white vote to pull off the upset.

Virginia is where national Democrats are putting much of their attention.

For this cycle, the DNC has steered $200,000 to the state party for its statewide coordinated campaign effort that now has 108 field organizers and 16 other field staffers in what the party describes as its largest-ever legislative campaign effort. At the DNC, Perez and his aides bill it as a preview of what they’re trying to build to combat the fundraising and organizing juggernaut that the Republican National Committee and Trump’s reelection campaign are building in battleground states.

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AP National Political Writer Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.