In Brief: Nation & World: 1-9-17
Questions about hacking swirl as Trump enters critical week
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump and his aides are entering a crucial week in his presidential transition as he and his Cabinet nominees undergo public questioning about their approach to Russia and potential conflicts of interests.
Most pressing during the upcoming days of confirmation hearings and Trump’s first press conference in six months likely will be whether he accepts the conclusion of U.S. intelligence officials that Russia meddled in the U.S. election to help him win the White House.
Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Sunday that Trump indeed has accepted that Russia was responsible for the hacking, which targeted the Democratic National Committee and a top aide to former rival Hillary Clinton.
“He’s not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular campaign,” Priebus said in a Sunday television interview.
That’s more than Trump himself has said. As for potential retaliation, aides said those are decisions that Trump will make after he becomes president on Jan. 20.
———
FBI agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein leads airport case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The FBI agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein alone for months after the former Iraqi leader’s capture is now leading the investigation into the Florida airport shooting rampage blamed on an Iraq war veteran.
George Piro, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, was Saddam’s sole interrogator beginning in January 2004. In previous interviews, Piro has said Saddam did not know his true identity — the Iraqi leader called him “Mr. George” — and that he posed as a high-level envoy who answered directly to then-President George W. Bush.
Now the 49-year-old Piro, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, fluent in Arabic and Assyrian, is in charge of the FBI investigation into the shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that left five people dead and six wounded. Federal prosecutors have charged Esteban Santiago, 26, with airport violence and firearms offenses that could bring the death penalty if he is convicted.
In announcing the charges filed Saturday, Piro said his thoughts are with the victims and their families.
“I want to ensure these families that law enforcement is working tirelessly in order to ensure justice is served,” he said.
———
Trump has taken few steps to disentangle from private empire
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump pledged to step away from his family-owned international real estate development, property management and licensing business before taking office Jan. 20. With less than two weeks until his inauguration, he hasn’t stepped very far.
Trump has canceled a handful of international deals and dissolved a few shell companies created for prospective investments. Still, he continues to own or control some 500 companies that make up the Trump Organization, creating a tangle of potential conflicts of interest without precedent in modern U.S. history.
The president-elect is expected to give an update on his effort to distance himself from his business at a Wednesday news conference. He told The Associated Press on Friday that he would be announcing a “very simple solution.”
Ethics experts have called for Trump to sell off his assets and place his investments in a blind trust, which means something his family would not control. That’s what previous presidents have done.
Trump has given no indication he will go that far. He has said he will not be involved in day-to-day company operations and will leave that duty to his adult sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. The president-elect has not addressed the ethical minefield of whether he would retain a financial interest in his Trump Organization.
———
Florida airport shooting suspect appears in new video
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A day before the suspect in the Fort Lauderdale airport rampage was to appear in court, a website released footage that appears to show him calmly drawing a pistol and opening fire in the baggage claim area.
The video recording posted on TMZ’s websitehttps://www.tmz.com/2017/01/08/ft-lauderdale-shooting-first-shots-video/ appears to show Estaban Santiago walking through baggage claim of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday, pulling a handgun from his waistband and then firing several times before running.
Santiago, 26, is accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others the attack. He was charged Saturday with an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death — which carries a maximum punishment of execution — and weapons charges. His first court hearing is Monday.
The FBI said in an email that it was aware of the video but would not comment on its authenticity. TMZ does not say where it obtained the video, although it appears to be from a surveillance camera.
Santiago told investigators that he planned the attack, buying a one-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don’t know why he chose his target and have not ruled out terrorism.
———
Truck attack kills 4 Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of Israeli soldiers at a popular Jerusalem tourist spot Sunday, killing four people and wounding 17 others in the deadliest single attack of more than a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The attack came at a time of heightened tensions in Jerusalem, where Palestinians have warned of dire consequences if incoming President Donald Trump follows through on his promise to move the U.S. Embassy to the city. The atmosphere among Israelis is also charged following last week’s manslaughter conviction of an Israeli soldier who fatally shot a wounded Palestinian attacker.
Visiting the attack site, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was strong evidence the attacker was a supporter of the Islamic State group and suggested a link to previous vehicle attacks in Europe.
“We know that there is a sequence of terror attacks. There definitely could be a connection between them, from France to Berlin and now Jerusalem,” he said.
Netanyahu offered no evidence to support the claim. While Israel has arrested several Palestinians who allegedly traveled to Syria to join IS, the group is not known to have any serious presence in Israel or the Palestinian areas. Israel has said that two gunmen who carried out a deadly attack in Tel Aviv last June were also inspired by IS.
———
New storm hits West as South, New England slow to thaw
A winter storm that spread ice and snow from Mississippi to Maine is leaving behind cold so bitter that businesses and schools are closing in the South because the region still hasn’t thawed.
Four deaths have blamed on the storm, which dropped more than a foot of snow in southern New England, caused a former governor to fall on his icy driveway in Mississippi and could bring the first below-zero weather to parts of North Carolina in more than 20 years.
Meanwhile, the West Coast is dealing with the next storm, which brought the potential of a crippling ice storm to western Oregon and heavy rain to California mountains used to seeing snow this time of year. Forecasters warned of possible mudslides and the worst flooding in more than a decade.
In the East, the worst, lingering problems were expected in North Carolina where up to 10 inches of snow and sleet fell in places Saturday .The deep freeze followed. Forecasters predict temperatures won’t get above freezing in much of the state before Tuesday afternoon, a big problem in a place where officials depend on usually mild weather to melt away the ice and snow on less traveled routes. One person died in Montgomery County when a car slid off icy Interstate 73/74 into a tree Sunday morning, Gov, Roy Cooper said.
There was one happy ending. Two hikers missing for more than a day in the frigid North Carolina mountains without food and water and only a small fire for warmth were rescued from waist-high snow. A helicopter using a tool that can detect heat found the hikers around 5 p.m. Saturday in the Shining Rock Wilderness area about 25 miles southwest of Asheville. Cooper said rescuers got to the men about two hours later, just in the nick of time.
———
What happens next in Florida airport shooting legal case?
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago, facing federal charges that could potentially result in a death sentence, has his first court hearing Monday.
Santiago, a 26-year-old Iraq war veteran from Anchorage, Alaska, is charged with committing violence against people at an international airport resulting in death and with two firearms offenses. The hearing Monday is only the beginning of what will likely be a lengthy journey through the federal court system following the shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that killed five people and wounded six others.
Here is where things stand and what to expect:
———
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE FIRST HEARING?
———
Obama health care legacy: Coverage, conflict, and questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Although his signature law is in jeopardy, President Barack Obama’s work reshaping health care in America is certain to endure in the broad public support for many of its underlying principles, along with conflicts over how to secure them.
The belief that people with medical problems should be able to get health insurance is no longer challenged. The issue seems to be how to guarantee that. The idea that government should help those who can’t afford their premiums has gained acceptance. The question is how much, and for what kind of coverage.
“The American people have now set new standards for access to health care based on the Affordable Care Act,” former Surgeon General David Satcher says. “I don’t believe it will ever be acceptable again to have 50 million people without access to health care.”
Obama’s influence will continue in other ways, less visible and hardly divisive:
—Medicare is shifting to paying for value, not just volume.
———
“Big Three” power Steelers by Dolphins 30-12
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Injuries forced Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell to wait three seasons for the chance to run onto the field together in the playoffs. The wait for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Big Three” to do it again won’t be nearly as long.
Bell ran for a franchise postseason record 167 yards and two scores, Brown caught five passes for 124 yards and a pair of first-quarter touchdowns from Roethlisberger as the Steelers overwhelmed the beaten-up and mistake-prone Miami Dolphins 30-12 on Sunday.
Pittsburgh (12-5) ran off its eighth straight victory by avenging a whipping by the Dolphins (10-7) in mid-October to set up a visit to AFC West champion Kansas City (12-4) next Sunday. The Steelers rolled by the Chiefs 43-14 on Oct. 2.
Bell missed the playoffs each of the last two seasons with knee injuries, and Brown sat out a divisional-round playoff loss to Denver 12 months ago due to a concussion. They played as if trying to make up for lost time.
The Dolphins tried to hype themselves up by running around in shirt sleeves in the single-digit wind chill during warmups. Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier did them one better, racing around shirtless — as if to send a message that his team is plenty comfortable playing this time of year.
———
Has Saban already surpassed the man in the houndstooth hat?
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nick Saban is one away from the Bear.
At least that’s what the record book shows.
Actually, an argument can be made that Saban already surpassed the man in the houndstooth hat.
Saban has five national titles — four as Alabama’s coach, plus a BCS crown at LSU — going into Monday night’s championship game against Clemson.
Paul “Bear” Bryant is the only coach to win six championships during the poll era, but his mark comes with a very big asterisk.
