Month: September 2017

The anticipated public release of thousands of secret government documents related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination has scholars and armchair detectives buzzing. Now, they’re waiting to see whether President Donald Trump will block the release of files that could shed light on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades.

The National Archives has until October 26 to disclose the remaining files related to Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, unless Trump intervenes. The CIA and FBI, whose records make up the bulk of the batch, won’t say whether they’ve appealed to the Republican president to keep them under wraps.

“The American public deserves to know the facts, or at least they deserve to know what the government has kept hidden from them for all these years,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of a book about Kennedy, said in an email to The Associated Press. “It’s long past the time to be forthcoming with this information.”

It’s unlikely the documents contain any big revelations about Kennedy’s killing, said Judge John Tunheim, who was chairman of the independent agency in the 1990s that made public many assassination records and decided how long others could remain secret.

Mexico City trip

Sabato and other JFK scholars believe the trove of files may provide insight into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s trip to Mexico City weeks before the killing, during which he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies. Oswald’s stated reason for going was to get visas that would allow him to enter Cuba and the Soviet Union, according to the Warren Commission, the investigative body established by President Lyndon B. Johnson, but much about the trip remains unknown.

The protected information up for release includes details about the arrangements the U.S. entered into with the Mexican government that allowed it to have close surveillance of those and other embassies, said Tunheim, a federal judge in Minnesota.

Kennedy experts also hope to see the full report on Oswald’s trip to Mexico City from staffers of the House committee that investigated the assassination, said Rex Bradford, president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which publishes assassination records.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The FBI declined to comment on whether it had asked Trump to keep the files hidden. A CIA spokeswoman would say only that it “continues to engage in the process to determine the appropriate next steps with respect to any previously unreleased CIA information.”

Congress mandated in 1992 that all assassination documents be released within 25 years, unless the president asserted that doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations. The still-secret documents include more than 3,000 that have never been seen by the public and more than 30,000 that have been released previously, but with redactions.

The files that were withheld in full were those the Assassination Records Review Board deemed “not believed relevant,” Tunheim said. Its members sought to ensure they weren’t hiding any information directly related to Kennedy’s assassination, but there may be nuggets of information in the files that they didn’t realize were important two decades ago, he said.

“There could be some jewels in there, because in our level of knowledge in the 1990s is maybe different from today,” Tunheim said.

The National Archives would not say whether any agencies had appealed the release of the documents.

Releases in July

The archives in July published online more than 440 never-before-seen assassination documents and thousands of others that had been released previously with redactions.

Among those documents was a 1975 internal CIA memo that questioned whether Oswald became motivated to kill Kennedy after reading an AP article in a newspaper that quoted Fidel Castro as saying “U.S. leaders would be in danger if they helped in any attempt to do away with leaders of Cuba.”

“Oswald might have had a clear motive, one that we have never really understood for killing Kennedy, because he thought that by killing Kennedy he might be saving the life of Fidel Castro,” said Philip Shenon, a former New York Times reporter who has written a book about Kennedy’s assassination.

Some files will most likely remain under wraps, experts say.

It’s unlikely the National Archives will release some Internal Revenue Service records, including the tax returns of Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald, Bradford said.

Sabato said he also suspected that some key records might have been destroyed before the 1992 law ordered that all the files be housed in the National Archives.

Even a full release of the documents isn’t likely to put to rest conspiracy theories that have swirled around the young president’s death for more than five decades.

“People will probably always believe there must have been a conspiracy,” Tunheim said. “I just don’t think that the federal government, in particular, is efficient enough to hide a secret like that for so long.”
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Southern California’s Occidental College, where Barack Obama studied from 1979 to 1981, is offering scholarships in honor of the former president.

The school in Los Angeles says Wednesday that the Barack Obama Scholars Program will launch in the fall of 2018.

It will initially endow two scholarships, and with the support of donors, eventually offer up to 20.

Each Obama Scholar will be awarded loan-free funding for the entire cost of a four-year Occidental education.

In a statement, Obama says his years at the liberal arts college sparked his interest in social and political causes.

The private school in northeast Los Angeles has about 2,000 undergraduates.
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A blueprint of a Republican tax overhaul plan proposes tax cuts to wealthy Americans, businesses and the middle class while protecting deductions such as those for mortgage interest and charitable contributions.

The sweeping plan was unveiled Wednesday, the beginning of negotiations to revamp the U.S. tax code. It lacks critical details about the many tax breaks the White House and Republican congressional leaders want to eliminate to offset some of the trillions of dollars in revenue that would be lost through tax cuts.

“We’re going to introduce a tax plan that’s the largest tax cut, essentially in the history of our country,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday outside the White House.  “It’s going to be something special.  You already know some of the numbers, we’re going to give you some of the additional numbers.”

Some outside budget experts estimate the blueprint could slash government tax revenue by more than $5 trillion over 10 years. To offset some of the lost revenue, Republicans must agree on the benefits to eliminate.

In order to get the bill enacted, Republican congressional leaders will have to unite their party and possibly garner some Democratic support.

The plan calls for a cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent to 20 percent. It’s a goal that has long had the support of House Republicans — although President Donald Trump has consistently pushed for a 15 percent corporate rate. The plan also proposes a one-time tax on the foreign earnings of U.S. companies.

Fewer income brackets

Individual income tax brackets would be streamlined from seven to three, and a larger number of people would qualify for the Child Tax Credit, which is aimed at helping low-income working families. The credit, currently $1,000 per child, would be expanded to higher-income families.

Other proposals, such as the elimination of the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, would benefit upper-income earners.

The plan would maintain tax breaks for charitable giving and mortgage interest, and it also proposes amendments to the tax code that would benefit education and retirement.

Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress, giving them a rare opportunity to revamp the tax code.

“This is our once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally rethink our tax code. We can unleash the economy, promoting growth, attracting jobs and improving American competitiveness in the global market,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

Many Democrats, however, have said they will oppose changes that will increase debt or benefit the wealthiest citizens.

The Republican plan “would result in a massive windfall for the wealthiest Americans and provide almost no relief to the middle-class taxpayers who need it most,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told colleagues on the Senate floor.
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The United States has imposed sanctions on eight North Korean banks and 26 bank executives amid escalating tensions with Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

“This further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday in a statement.

Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for new economic sanctions against individuals and businesses that finance trade with Pyongyang’s reclusive communist regime and fund its weapons development.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis emphasized Tuesday that the U.S. sought a peaceful resolution to escalating tensions with North Korea, despite the regime’s claim that a tweet Monday by Trump was tantamount to a declaration of war.

In New Delhi for talks with Indian officials about strengthening U.S.-India ties, Mattis said that while the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula was necessary to deter North Korea’s threats, it also supported diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully.

“And that is our goal, to solve this diplomatically, and I believe President Trump has been pretty clear on this issue,” Mattis said, following a meeting with India’s defense minister.

Hope for diplomacy

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday also stressed that the U.S. would “continue to pursue our diplomatic efforts and hope that’s the way we’ll solve this”

On Monday, Trump commented on Twitter that if North Korea carried out its threats, Kim Jong Un’s regime “won’t be around much longer.”

Speaking to reporters near U.N. headquarters in New York, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said, “Given the fact that this comes from someone who is currently holding the seat of the United States presidency, this is clearly a declaration of war.”

The world should clearly remember, he added, that “it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Ri’s characterization of the tweet “absurd.”

“We’ve not declared war on North Korea,” she said.

Although North Korea has declared “war” many times in the past, now “we’ve entered a bona fide crisis,” Van Jackson, senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, told VOA.

“Even if we’re not in a war right now, we seem to be doing everything in our power to make one happen by actions and statements that make deterrence more likely to fail,” said Jackson, a former director for Korea policy and a defense strategy adviser at the U.S. Defense Department.

Threat to bombers

Ri warned that his country might shoot down U.S. strategic bombers, even if they were not in North Korean airspace. According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency Tuesday, Lee Cheol-woo, the chief of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, said Pyongyang was spotted readjusting the position of its warplanes and boosting its defensive capabilities along its east coast.

A fighter jet from North Korea in 1969 shot down an unarmed U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane, outside North Korean territorial airspace in the Sea of Japan, killing 30 sailors and one marine on board.

Speaking at a security conference on Monday, Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said the United States hoped to avoid war with North Korea, “but what we can’t do is discount that possibility.”

The Army lieutenant general added that the U.S. had thought through several different ways the problem with North Korea could be resolved, and “some are uglier than others.”

However, McMaster, told the conference, hosted by the Institute for the Study of War, that “there’s not a precision strike that solves the problem.”

One peaceful solution, according to McMaster, would be for Pyongyang to give access to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. But any diplomatic negotiations, McMaster said, would “have to happen under conditions that are different from previous talks.” He said, however, he was not going to come up with a list of preconditions.

Beijing’s role

Some analysts see the path to talks still running through Beijing, which recently moved to cut banking ties between China and North Korea, shut off the supply of liquefied natural gas to the North Koreans and stop imports of their textiles.

“I think that the Chinese are sending a signal to the North that they are skating on thin ice,” said T.J. Pempel, a political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

The North Korean foreign minister threatened on Saturday that his country could conduct an atmospheric hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean.

Mattis responded Monday that if North Korea carried out its threat, “this would be a shocking display of irresponsibility toward global health, toward stability, toward nonproliferation.”

U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam escorted by F-16 fighter jets from a U.S. base in Japan on Saturday flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea.

The Pentagon said the show of force, meant to display some of the military options available to Trump, was “the farthest north of the demilitarized zone any U.S. fighter or bomber aircraft have flown off North Korea’s coast in the 21st century.”

VOA’s William Gallo contributed to this report from New Delhi.
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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen acknowledged Tuesday that the Fed is puzzled by the persistence of unusually low inflation and that it might have to adjust the timing of its interest rate policies accordingly.

Speaking to a conference of economists, Yellen touched upon key questions the Fed is confronting as it tries to determine why inflation has remained chronically below its inflation target of 2 percent annually. The Fed chair said officials still expect the forces keeping inflation low to fade eventually. But she conceded that the Fed may need to adjust its assumptions.

In noting the persistence of low inflation, Yellen suggested that the Fed will take care not to raise rates too quickly. But she also said the central bank should avoid raising rates too slowly. Moving too gradually, she suggested, might eventually force the Fed to have to accelerate rate hikes and thereby elevate the risk of a recession.

Most analysts expect the central bank to raise rates in December, for a third time this year, in a reflection of economic improvement. But the Fed has said its rate hikes will depend on incoming data.

In her speech in Cleveland to the annual conference of the National Association for Business Economics, Yellen went further than she has before in suggesting that the Fed could be mistaken in the assumptions it is making about inflation.

“My colleagues and I may have misjudged the strength of the labor market, the degree to which longer-run inflation expectations are consistent with our inflation objective or even the fundamental forces driving inflation,” Yellen said.

The Fed seeks to control interest rates to promote maximum employment and stable prices, which it defines as annual price increases of 2 percent. While the Fed has met its goal on employment, with the jobless rate at 4.4 percent, near a 16-year low, it has continued to miss its inflation target.

Chronically low inflation can depress economic growth because consumers typically delay purchases when they think prices will stay the same or even decline.

Inflation, which was nearing the 2 percent goal at the start of the year, has since then fallen further behind and is now rising at an annual rate of just 1.4 percent.

Yellen has previously attributed the miss on inflation this year to temporary factors, including a price war among mobile phone companies. She and other Fed officials have predicted that inflation would soon begin rising toward the Fed’s 2 percent inflation target, helped by tight labor markets that will drive up wage gains.

In her remarks Tuesday, Yellen said this outcome of a rebound in inflation is still likely. But she said the central bank needed to remain alert to the possibility that other forces not clearly understood might continue to keep inflation lower than the Fed’s 2 percent goal.

The Fed chair cautioned that if the central bank moved too slowly in raising rates, it could inadvertently allow the economy to become overheated and thus have to raise rates so quickly in the future that it could push the country into a recession.

“It would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2 percent,” Yellen said.

During a question-and-answer session, Yellen said the Fed would be “looking at inflation very carefully” to determine the timing of upcoming rate hikes. But she said the data is likely to be difficult to assess, in part because of the effects of the recent devastating hurricanes, which have forced up gasoline prices.

Yellen’s remarks came a week after Fed officials left their benchmark rate unchanged but announced that they would start gradually shrinking their huge portfolio of Treasury and mortgage bonds. Those holdings had grown from purchases the Fed made over the past nine years to try to lower long-term borrowing rates and help the U.S. economy recover from the worst downturn since the 1930s.

The Fed did retain a forecast showing that officials expect to boost rates three times this year. So far, they have increased their benchmark lending rate twice, in March and June, leaving it at a still-low range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent.

Last week, the Fed said the reductions in its bond holdings would begin in October by initially allowing a modest $10 billion in maturing bonds to roll off the $4.5 trillion balance sheet each month.

Asked about how long-term loan rates might respond to reductions in the Fed’s bond portfolio, Yellen cited a study that estimated that the increase in its bond holdings had lowered such rates by about 1 percentage point.

But she said the reduction in the holdings wouldn’t likely raise rates by as much as a percentage point given that the Fed intended to keep the size of its balance sheet significantly higher than it was before the financial crisis. She said any upward pressure on rates would likely be gradual and take place over several years.

Crutsinger reported from Washington, Kang from Cleveland.
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President Donald Trump’s clash with scores of professional football players who knelt during “The Star-spangled Banner” last weekend has set off a heated debate over proper etiquette during the national anthem. But the U.S. is far from alone.

Throughout the world, flags, anthems and other national symbols can often divide as much as they unify, especially in countries with large religious or ethnic divisions.

Here is a look at some of the controversies:

Israel

Israel’s Arab minority has long felt disconnected from the national symbols of the Jewish state.

Israel’s national anthem “The Tikva,” or “the hope,” expresses the yearning of Jews to return to their ancient homeland. The Star of David is emblazoned on the flag and the national emblem is a menorah, a candelabra used in the biblical Temple in Jerusalem.      

Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s citizens. But they often face discrimination, and many feel alienated or identify with their Palestinian brethren.

Some Arab players on Israel’s national soccer team have expressed discomfort when the anthem is played before matches. An Arab lawmaker, Hanin Zoabi, boycotted the national anthem when she was sworn into Israel’s parliament.

Arabs are not the only minority in Israel to reject its national symbols. Some ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects are anti-Zionist, and members refuse to join the army or participate in national moments of silence on two separate days of remembrance – for fallen soldiers and Holocaust victims.   

China

China’s national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” has occasionally been a political flashpoint in the semiautonomous region of Hong Kong.

Soccer fans in Hong Kong, where tension is rising over mainland China’s growing influence, have been known to boo the anthem when it’s played at games between the home team and teams from China or other countries. FIFA, the sport’s governing body, has responded by fining the local soccer association.

The Beijing government passed a new law this month that makes improper use of the anthem punishable by up to 15 days in prison. Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers fear it could be used to undermine freedom of speech in Hong Kong.

It’s unclear how the law will be implemented in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from the mainland.

Russia

One of Vladimir Putin’s most resounding steps in his first year as president in 2000 was to re-introduce the Soviet anthem to replace “The Patriotic Song” by the 19th century composer Mikhail Glinka, which was Russia’s anthem between 1991 and 2000.

Putin floated the idea in the fall 2000 after some Russian athletes publicly complained that the Patriotic Song has no lyrics and they could not sing along as athletes in other countries do. Soviet poet Sergei Mikhalkov, who authored the original lyrics for the Soviet anthem, was commissioned to write the new ones.

Liberal politicians and media criticized the return of the Soviet anthem as an ominous harbinger of a rollback on reforms and freedoms brought about after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Japan

Japan’s anthem “Kimigayo,” or “your reign,” was taken from an ancient poem and widely known as a song dedicated to the emperor.

The song has long been controversial and is still politically sensitive because it was once used to glorify the emperor and to drum up support for Japan’s wartime militarism, prompting some pacifist teachers and students to refuse to stand up and sing at graduation ceremonies or other commemorative events.

“Kimigayo” was officially stipulated as the national anthem in 1999 following years of pressure by Japan’s conservative ruling party, and singing it has been mostly enforced at most public schools, in part due to fear of punishment for failing to do so.

Singing “Kimigayo” and hoisting the national flag is often considered a rightwing statement, though it is less so now, while ultra-rightists typically use the Rising Sun flag in their social media cover photos.

Germany

Germany bans any display of the Nazi red, black and white flag with the swastika, as well as any other symbols from the period.

Violating the ban can lead to charges of incitement. It also bans the use of any Nazi anthems and even things like the stiff-armed so-called “Hitler salute.”

That led to difficulties for several tourists this summer – one American and two Chinese – who were investigated by police after giving the salute in public.

India

India has long been touchy about perceived slights to its national symbols.

Though Indian law doesn’t require people to stand when the country’s national anthem is played, a Supreme Court ruling last year demanded it from all citizens. The court also ruled that movie theaters must resume a tradition of playing the anthem before any film, and said all those present “must stand up in respect.”

Citizens caught burning or otherwise desecrating India’s tri-color flag can also be punished by up to three years in prison. But nothing irks the country’s leadership more than maps that question the country’s borders.

The issue has most often flared over the borders drawn around the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims, as well as the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, contested by China.

India routinely criticizes its neighbors as well as companies like Google or Twitter when they publish maps ascribing Indian-controlled territories to either Pakistan or China. Last year, lawmakers drafted legislation threatening up to $15 million and seven years in prison for drawing and publishing an incorrect map.

Egypt

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a former general, has emphasized patriotism as a cornerstone of his political discourse since taking office in 2014. His public displays of patriotism, like ending speeches with “long live Egypt!” three times, has fueled nationalism, even jingoism, in media loyal to him.

For the first time in living memory, on the first day of classes in state universities this month, students saluted the red, black and white flag as they chanted the national anthem.

The new practice, which is not obligatory, was celebrated by the pro-government media as a welcome demonstration of patriotism, but also provided rich material for satire on social media.

Former Yugoslavia

In 1995 at the European basketball championship in Athens, there was controversy during the medal ceremony right before the winning Yugoslav team, made up mostly of Serbs, were about to receive their gold medals.

The third-placed Croatian team, in an unprecedented move, stepped down from the medal podium and walked off the court minutes before the old Yugoslav anthem was to be played. The two former Yugoslav republics were at war in the 1990s. Even today, when they meet in sports events, the anthems are loudly booed by the fans.

Indonesia

Malaysia apologized to its much bigger neighbor Indonesia last month for an “unintentional” mistake in printing the Indonesian flag upside down in a souvenir guidebook for the 11-nation Southeast Asian Games it was hosting.

The error made the red-and-white Indonesian flag resemble Poland’s and caused anger in Indonesia, where “shameonyoumalaysia” became the most popular hashtag on Twitter.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo demanded an apology but also cautioned against exaggerating the incident.

France

France hasn’t seen take-a-knee protests, but there has been a long-running debate over whether French soccer players should sing the national anthem at international matches. Many French players don’t, but it’s generally out of indifference instead of political protest. The issue resurfaces at the World Cup and other soccer tournaments, often raised by the far right.

France has seen taunts from fans during the national anthem at soccer matches in the past, notably from Corsican separatists and French fans of North African descent. As interior minister in 2003, Nicolas Sarkozy backed a law that made it a misdemeanor to insult the national flag and anthem.

More broadly, French national symbols were long associated with the nationalist far-right, and it was seen as OK in many quarters to snub them. Attitudes have shifted as France has faced terrorist attacks in recent years, and it’s becoming more and more common to see people of varying political views flying a French flag and singing the anthem.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has canceled arguments on President Donald Trump’s travel ban in light of a new order that was signed Sunday.

The announcement comes a day after Trump signed a revised travel ban order, implementing new restrictions for travelers to the United States from eight countries.

In an unsigned order, the court has asked both sides to weigh in by October 5th to decide what to do with the case. The court has been prepared to hear arguments about the legality of Trump’s executive order, but the new revised version may call for a new case against it.

“What is going to happen in the Supreme Court now that the travel ban has changed?” asked Jeanne M. Atkinson, executive director of Catholic Legal Immigration at an immigration law and policy conference at Georgetown University Monday.

“I think if you stick around and listen today you are going to hear opinions going all different directions. It is a complex issue because of the changes in the travel ban … It’s a new ban; it’s going to have to be looked at on its own.

The new travel rules, which take effect on Oct. 18, affect citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

Refusal to share information

U.S. officials said these countries have refused to share information about terrorism and other issues with the United States.

The announcement late Sunday came as Trump’s previous temporary ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries was expiring, 90 days after it went into effect. The earlier order had barred citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. unless they had a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”’

Reaction to the president’s order from human-rights organizations and other groups that work with immigrants was swift, and largely negative.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said the latest version of the “Muslim ban” that Trump tried to introduce on taking office earlier this year was part of the administration’s “ugly white supremacist agenda.”

Trump said in the new proclamation: “As president, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people. The restrictions announced are tough and tailored, and they send a message to foreign governments that they must work with us to enhance security.”

Sudan dropped from list

The new ban drops Sudan from the list but adds Chad, Venezuela and North Korea to the original six Muslim-majority countries.

“North Korea does not cooperate with the United States government in any respect and fails to satisfy all information-sharing requirements,” the presidential declaration said.

Venezuela was cited for failing to cooperate “in verifying whether its citizens pose national security or public-safety threats.” U.S. officials also said the Caracas government does not willingly receive Venezuelans deported by the United States.

Chad, a “valuable and important” counter-terrorism partner, failed to share terrorism-related and other public safety information, the proclamation said.

Reaction to new ban

Amnesty International lashed out at the new ban.

Since the last ban was “implemented 10 months ago, we have seen families torn apart and whole nations of people demonized for the crimes of a few,” the human-rights group said in a statement Sunday. “The order was a catastrophe not just for those seeking safety but for those who simply want to travel, work or study in the United States. Today’s action neither relieves this tension nor keeps anyone safe.”

Trump last week called for a “tougher”’ travel ban after a bomb partially exploded on a London subway.

“The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific — but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Aline Barros contributed to this report.
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The Trump administration announced Monday that it would offer at least $200 million in grant funding annually for programs that offer science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), and particularly computer science education.

With 6 million job openings in the United States, administration officials said it was making the pledge to extend computer science education because of a skills gap.

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump and an adviser to the administration, said less than half of kindergarten through 12th grade schools in the U.S. offer a single computer course. She plans to head to Detroit on Tuesday with tech leaders from Microsoft, Code.org and others.

“As a country we want to embrace innovation, but we need to plan for it,” she said.

The grant program is not new. President Trump was expected to sign a presidential memorandum on the program Monday at the White House, directing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to prioritize STEM education, with a focus on computer science, in existing competitive grant programs.  STEM education involves specific disciplines taught together in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.

The announcement is expected to be followed Tuesday with pledges from businesses, such as Google and Facebook.

Ivanka Trump noted that women make up 22 percent of the technology work force, down from 35 percent in 1990. While designing their programs, grant seekers should keep “gender and racial diversity in mind,” she said.

The program’s goal is to offer every student in the country access to technology education, said a senior administration official.

“We want it to reach across the country,” said the official. “Certainly that includes areas that are under-represented…We can’t allow our students to be left behind.”
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Attorneys for a young woman accused of leaking a classified U.S. report want a judge to free her from jail pending trial, arguing prosecutors have added no new charges months after they warned the woman may have stolen additional secrets.

Reality Winner, a former Air Force linguist with a top-secret security clearance, worked as a government contractor in Augusta until June, when she was charged with copying a classified report and mailing it to an online news organization.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian K. Epps has scheduled a hearing Friday to reconsider releasing 25-year-old Winner on bond. He ordered her jailed in June after prosecutors said Winner may have taken more than a single classified report. They said Winner had inserted a portable hard drive into a top-secret Air Force computer before she left the military last year.

Winner’s defense lawyers argued in a court filing Saturday that prosecutors have not accused Winner of any additional crimes more than three months later. They noted several other cases in which defendants accused of leaking multiple secret documents were freed on pre-trial bonds.

“Ms. Winner is accused of leaking a single document a single time to a single source,” Winner’s attorneys wrote. “… Detention should not be presumed. It is not the norm. It is not appropriate here.”

Prosecutors had not yet filed a response Monday afternoon.

Jennifer Solari, an assistant U.S. attorney, warned the judge in June that investigators had not found the portable hard drive Winner plugged into an Air Force computer and didn’t know what might be on it.

Winner’s lawyers included an email from Solari in their latest court filing in which the prosecutor noted she was mistaken when she previously told the judge that Winner was recorded in a jailhouse phone conversation saying, “Mom, those documents. I screwed up.”

Solari wrote that the recording shows Winner actually told her mother: “I leaked a document.”

Authorities haven’t described the classified report Winner is accused of leaking or named the news outlet that received it. But the Justice Department announced Winner’s arrest on the same day The Intercept reported it had obtained a classified National Security Agency report suggesting Russian hackers attacked a U.S. voting software supplier before last year’s presidential election. The NSA report was dated May 5, the same as the document Winner is charged with leaking.
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