In Brief: Nation & World: 3-7-17

As president, Trump seeks answers on his own wiretap mystery

WASHINGTON (AP) — If Donald Trump wants to know whether he was the subject of any surveillance by the U.S. government, he may be uniquely positioned to get an answer.

A series of weekend tweets by the president focused public attention on an intelligence collection process long shrouded in secrecy. He accused former President Barack Obama of ordering wiretaps on his phones, but offered no proof to back the claim, and the White House then called on Congress to investigate the allegations.

But former government lawyers say Trump doesn’t need Congress to answer this question.

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French conservatives in crisis as candidate Fillon flounders

PARIS (AP) — For France’s conservatives, this year’s presidential election should have been effortless.

Instead, the Republicans party — once all but certain to take back the Elysee Palace in 2017 — is in disarray over the corruption-tainted campaign of its candidate Francois Fillon. Riven by dissent as Fillon tenaciously clings to his bid, the conservatives are watching their presidential hopes sink by the day.

Far-right nationalists, meanwhile, are gearing up for what they hope is their Donald Trump moment, in which National Front leader Marine Le Pen proves the pollsters wrong and harnesses the anti-immigration, anti-establishment sentiment percolating around Europe to capture a presidential victory.

In this prediction-defying French presidential campaign, anything could still happen between now and April 23, when the voting begins.

One thing is clear: The conservatives are in trouble. And no one is eager to take Fillon’s place with less than seven weeks left to campaign.

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Supreme Court won’t say if trans teen can pick bathroom

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving the issue of transgender rights in schools to lower courts for now after backing out of a high-profile case Monday of a Virginia high school student who sued to be able to use the boys’ bathroom.

The court’s order in the case of teenager Gavin Grimm means that attention now will turn to lower courts around the country that are grappling with rights of transgender students to use school bathrooms that correspond to their chosen gender, not the one assigned at birth.

The appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, and other appellate panels handling similar cases around the country will have the first chance to decide whether federal anti-discrimination law or the Constitution protects transgender students’ rights.

Monday’s action by a court that has been short-handed for more than a year comes after the Trump administration pulled back federal guidance advising schools to let students use the bathroom of their chosen gender, not the one assigned at birth.

The justices rejected a call from both sides to decide the issue in a case that was dramatically altered by the election of President Donald Trump.

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What if there’s no affordable insurance to buy?

Leslie Kurtz needed three plates, eight screws and a big assist from her insurer after breaking every bone in her ankle while white water rafting.

Coverage she purchased through a public insurance exchange established by the federal health care law paid $65,000 toward surgery and the care she needed after the 2015 accident. But that protection may not exist next year because insurers have abandoned the Knoxville, Tennessee resident’s exchange. As of now, Kurtz has no future coverage options, and she is worried.

“I can’t afford to have everything I’ve worked for taken away because I fell down the steps,” Kurtz said.

Her county is one of 16 in Tennessee that lack even a single insurance company committed to offering coverage for 2018 on the exchange, after Humana announced last month plans to exit.

Exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act were designed to give customers a chance to shop for coverage and then buy a plan, most with help from tax credits. The idea was that such a marketplace would push insurers to offer affordable plans to compete for customers.

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Ex-sect members tell AP: Prosecutors obstructed abuse cases

SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — At least a half-dozen times over two decades, authorities investigated reports that members of a secretive evangelical church were being beaten. And every time, according to former congregants, the orders came down from church leaders: They must lie to protect the sect.

Among the members of the Word of Faith Fellowship who coached congregants and their children on what to say to investigators were two assistant district attorneys and a veteran social worker, the ex-followers told The Associated Press.

Frank Webster and Chris Back — church ministers who handle criminal cases as assistant DAs for three nearby counties — provided legal advice, helped at strategy sessions and participated in a mock trial for four congregants charged with harassing a former member, according to former congregants interviewed as part of an AP investigation of Word of Faith.

Back and Webster, who is sect leader Jane Whaley’s son-in-law and lives in her house, also helped derail a social services investigation into child abuse in 2015 and attended meetings where Whaley warned congregants to lie to investigators about abuse incidents, according to nine former members.

Under North Carolina law, prosecutors cannot provide legal advice or be involved in outside cases in any manner. Violation of those rules can lead to ethics charges, dismissal and disbarment.

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UK lawmakers to companies: End sexist high-heel dress codes

LONDON (AP) — In a debate that has gone from office corridors to Britain’s Parliament, lawmakers put their foot down Monday and told employers to stop making women wear high heels as part of corporate dress codes.

Members of Parliament debated a ban on mandatory workplace high heels, in response to a petition started by a receptionist who was sent home without pay for wearing flat shoes. The debate was non-binding, but the government promised to act against heel-height rules, makeup guidelines and other corporate codes that apply to women but not to men.

Labour lawmaker Helen Jones, who helped lead a parliamentary investigation into dress codes, said she and her colleagues were shocked by what they found.

“We found attitudes that belonged more — I was going to say in the 1950s, but probably the 1850s would be more accurate, than in the 21st century,” she told lawmakers at Parliament’s Westminster Hall.

Monday’s debate was triggered by the experience of Nicola Thorp, who was told in December 2015 that her smart flat shoes were unacceptable for a temporary assignment in London with finance firm PwC.

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Revised US travel ban leaves Syrians confused, yet hopeful

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — It’s been an emotional roller coaster for Mahmoud Mansour and his family, Syrian refugees tapped for possible resettlement to the United States, since President Donald Trump issued his first travel ban six weeks ago.

The original ban, which barred Syrian refugees from the U.S. until further notice, devastated Mansour’s family of six, which has been undergoing security vetting ahead of resettlement for the past year.

The revised ban, signed Monday, no longer singles out displaced Syrians, but suspends the entire refugee program for four months to allow for a security review. Trump also reduced the maximum global number of refugees the U.S. is willing to absorb in 2017 from 110,000 to 50,000.

Mansour, an artisan who embroiders traditional dresses, said he is confused about what Trump’s revised executive order means for his family’s prospects in the U.S. “We hope that this new order will carry a glimmer of hope,” he said in his small apartment in Jordan’s capital, Amman, which also doubles as his workshop.

Others in the family have been luckier.

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Trump signs new anti-terror travel ban —without new fanfare

WASHINGTON (AP) — Without fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a scaled-back version of his controversial ban on many foreign travelers Monday, hoping to avoid a new round of lawsuits and outrage while fulfilling a central campaign promise. His order still bars new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shuts down America’s refugee program.

The revised order, signed with none of the flourish of his first version, eliminates some of the most contentious aspects in an effort to surmount the court challenges that are sure to come. Trump’s first order, issued just a week after his inauguration, was halted by federal courts.

The new one leaves Iraq off the list of banned countries — at the urging of U.S. military and diplomatic leaders — but still affects would-be visitors and immigrants from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya. It also makes clear that current visa holders will not be impacted, and it removes language that would give priority to religious minorities — a provision some interpreted as a way to help Christians get into the U.S. while excluding Muslims.

The order won’t take effect until March 16 despite earlier warnings from Trump and his aides that any delay would put national security at risk by allowing the entry of “bad ‘dudes’” who want to harm the country.

The changes underscore the very different position the president finds himself in.

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New travel ban eases some legal questions, ignores others

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban eases some of the legal questions surrounding the previous order, but critics said it does not answer all of them, including accusations that the measure is a thinly veiled attempt to discriminate against Muslims.

Opponents promised to challenge the president again in court.

The new, narrower ban announced Monday temporarily bars new visas for citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries — one fewer than the original ban, with Iraq removed from the list. It also suspends the entire U.S. refugee program.

The measure applies only to refugees who are not already on their way to the United States and people seeking new visas. It also removes language that gave priority to religious minorities. Critics said the language was designed to help Christians get into the U.S. and exclude Muslims.

The changes will make the new order tougher to fight in court, but they “will not quell litigation or concerns,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell University Law School, said in a written statement.

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White House aides defend Trump’s wiretapping claim

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials on Monday defended President Donald Trump’s explosive claim that Barack Obama tapped Trump’s telephones during last year’s election, although they won’t say exactly where that information came from and left open the possibility that it isn’t true.

The comments came even as FBI Director James Comey privately asked the Justice Department to dispute the claim because he believed the allegations were false.

When asked whether Trump accepted Comey’s view, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “Good Morning America”: “I don’t think he does.”

Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, another top adviser, said the president still firmly believes the allegations he made on Twitter over the weekend. The aides said any ambiguity surrounding the issue is all the more reason for Congress to investigate the matter.

“We’d like to know for sure,” Sanders told NBC’s “Today” show.