Law enforcement, activists to meet with Obama at White House ADVERTISING Law enforcement, activists to meet with Obama at White House WASHINGTON (AP) — With emotions running raw, President Barack Obama met privately Wednesday with elected officials, law enforcement leaders
Law enforcement, activists to meet with Obama at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — With emotions running raw, President Barack Obama met privately Wednesday with elected officials, law enforcement leaders and members of the Black Lives Matter movement with the goal of getting them to work together to curb violence and build trust.
Obama has devoted much of the week to the issue of violence by police and against police officers, a few days after a black Army veteran killed five police officers in revenge for police shooting black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the Minneapolis suburbs.
On Tuesday, Obama attended a memorial service for the five slain Dallas officers and called the families of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota to offer condolences.
On Monday, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with police officers at the White House. The session Wednesday, which lasted more than two hours, was expanded to include mayors, academics and civil rights activists, including some from the Black Lives Matter movement, which has focused on police shootings of African-Americans.
“We’ll share solutions from communities that have already found ways to build trust and reduce disparities,” Obama said on Facebook.
Fruit pops on offer at Rome zoo as summer temps soar
ROME (AP) — The macaques snacked on cold melons, the lemurs nibbled frozen fruit pops and the tiger had his red meat on ice.
As temperatures climbed Wednesday to nearly 104 degrees, the animals at Rome’s zoo got some cool relief from a heat wave.
It’s a ritual the keepers at Rome’s Bioparc zoo often employ when the Mediterranean heat settles on the Italian capital in the summer months.
Zoo official Yitzhak Yadid said the icy treats keep the animals cool and occupied with something new.
Trump and family meet with VP finalists
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Donald Trump has entered the final phase of his high-profile search for a running mate, arranging last-minute meetings with his finalists and family members as his staff prepares for a Friday announcement.
Trump, his adult children and key staffers huddled with one of the prospects, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Wednesday morning at the governor’s mansion, a day after the pair campaigned together in the state. They were joined by Trump’s three adult children, along with his son-and-law and campaign chair Paul Manafort, who were seen leaving the residence. Hours later, Newt Gingrich, another finalist, was spotted with Trump’s entourage at a downtown Indianapolis hotel. Sen. Jeff Sessions was spotted arriving at the same hotel not long after Gingrich left.
Trump’s family, including Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, also met privately with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday. The meeting was confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the meeting, but was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The meetings have been designed to let Trump’s family get to know the candidates better before the presumptive nominee formalizes his decision.
Pence, Chris Christie and Gingrich were said to be the final contenders for vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket less than a week before the GOP meets in Cleveland for the formal nomination. That’s according to a person familiar with Trump’s thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the vetting process. Trump said in a Tuesday interview with The Wall Street Journal that Sessions, Trump’s top Senate advocate, is also still in the mix.
Ginsburg’s public Trump critique raises ethical quandaries
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s public criticism of Donald Trump is dividing legal experts over whether the leader of the court’s liberal wing should recuse herself in any future case involving him.
In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Ginsburg presumed Democrat Hillary Clinton will be the next president. Asked her thoughts on the possibility of a Trump win, she said, “I don’t want to think about that possibility,” and amplified her view in two subsequent interviews.
She called Trump a “faker” who “really has an ego,” in a CNN interview. To the New York Times, she said: “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president.”
Trump quickly fired back at Ginsburg, who was appointed to the high court in 1993 by his opponent’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. He tweeted Wednesday that the 83-year-old justice was an embarrassment for making “very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot – resign!”
Other Republicans have chimed in, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who called Ginsburg’s remarks “totally inappropriate.”
ACLU, other groups sue police over Baton Rouge protests
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Civil rights groups and activists sued Baton Rouge law enforcement agencies over their treatment of protesters rallying against the police shooting death of a black man, saying officers used excessive force and physically and verbally abused peaceful demonstrators.
The lawsuit, announced Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, came hours after Cameron Sterling, the 15-year-old son of the slain man spoke publicly for the first time, calling for peaceful protests following the death of his father, 37-year-old Alton Sterling.
Sterling was shot to death July 5 as two white officers pinned him to the pavement outside a convenience store. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the internet, sparking widespread demonstrations across the capitol city.
Authorities arrested about 200 protesters over a three-day period, often taking to the streets in riot gear or riding in military-style vehicles. The arrests came amid heightened tensions in the city following Sterling’s death, a deadly police shooting in Minnesota and the killings of five police officers in Dallas.
The governor and the Baton Rouge police chief have defended the response, with the chief saying Tuesday that authorities discovered an alleged plot against police over the weekend. Authorities said they found out about the plot after they arrested three suspects in the burglary of eight guns from a pawn shop.
