Obama goes to Colorado to rally support for gun control, amid Republican opposition

• 

  Wednesday, April 4, 2013: President Obama waves after his arrival at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo.AP

President Obama on Wednesday visited Colorado -- the site of a recent mass shooting and home to new firearms regulations -- to rally public support for federal gun control legislation ahead of full Senate votes expected next week and amid Republican opposition.

“I’m going to need your help,” the president said against the backdrop of uniformed police officers. “This is not easy.”

To be sure, Obama and other gun control advocates already mostly have lost hope for bans on semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, instead focusing their energy on getting Congress to pass tougher background checks and protections for school children.

But Obama’s strategy was quickly knocked down by Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn who said the president is touting a state model destined to fail in Washington.

“Colorado Democrats rammed these bills through the state legislature in a highly partisan and contentious manner without gaining the support of a single Republican lawmaker,” Lamborn said. "If President Obama and Democrats want to push their extreme, gun control agenda in Washington, they will face intense opposition.”

The president and others gun control advocates know the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups helped end an assault weapons ban in 2004 and are opposed to much of their reform agenda, including background checks.

“They are very well organized and they are very well financed,” Obama said. “The only way it will be different this time is if the American people demand it be different.”

In an understated, roughly 25-minute speech, Obama vowed hunters would not lose their gun rights and that the background checks would bolster, not replace, existing ones.

He also tried to garner public support for proposed checks on private gun sales.

“If you’re selling a gun, wouldn’t you want to know who you’re selling it to?” he asked the crowd.

Key senators have been unable to reach a bipartisan compromise that would require federal background checks for gun transactions between private individuals. Federal background checks currently apply only to sales handled by licensed gun dealers.

The proposed weapons and ammunitions bans are not expected to be in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s legislation. However, Obama wants Congress to at least vote on them in other legislation.

Colorado expanded background checks and placed restrictions on magazines despite being a state with a deep-rooted hunting tradition, where gun ownership is a cherished right.

Before his speech in Denver, Obama met with law enforcement officials and community leaders at the Denver Police Academy, not far from the Aurora suburb where a gunman last summer killed 12 people in a movie theater. The president's trip is occurring in the same week that prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty for James Holmes, accused of carrying out the Aurora rampage.

Among those participating in the Denver discussion with Obama was Sandy Phillips, the mother of 24-year-old Jessica Redfield Ghawi, who died in the Aurora shooting. She conceded that gun control is a difficult issue, and said she has spoken to numerous lawmakers in Washington who "want to do the right thing without it costing their jobs."

She said she is counting on Obama to press the issue.

"We need to have universal background checks for every sale, that's a minimum," she said in an interview ahead of Obama's appearance. "I hope he keeps pushing for the assault weapons ban and I hope he keeps pushing for magazine restrictions."

With Congress due to return to Washington after a two-week Easter break, Obama has been scheduling high-profile events on gun legislation to push lawmakers and sustain a drive for some kind of action aimed at curbing gun violence more than three months after the massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

Last week, he called for legislation while flanked by 21 mothers who lost children to gun violence. "I haven't forgotten those kids," he declared then.

On Monday, just before the planned start of the Senate's debate on gun legislation, Obama is scheduled to go to Hartford, Conn., where state lawmakers have announced a bipartisan agreement on gun legislation in response to the shootings at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School, which took the lives of 20 first-graders and six adult staff.

In selecting Colorado, Obama showcased a state with a long centrist tradition that prizes its Western frontier heritage. But an influx of young coastal transplants and growing Hispanic voter clout have helped Democrats win a string of victories in the state. Even before the Sandy Hook massacre energized gun control proponents, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said he was open to new gun control measures in the state.

Colorado Republicans fought the new legislation, contending that Democrats overreached and will be punished by the voters in November. Several county sheriffs have vowed not to enforce the new gun restrictions. Democrats contend that the measures are generally popular, especially among the suburban women who decide Colorado elections.

Obama's trip comes a day after a study commissioned by the National Rifle Association, which has opposed Obama's gun control measures, recommended that schools have trained, armed staffers to increase security for students. The American Federation of Teachers denounced the proposal

From Colorado, Obama travels to San Francisco to attend fundraisers Wednesday and Thursday for Democratic Party organizations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

View the original article here

US training Syrian opposition forces in Jordan for months, sources say

• 

• • 

    Are events coming to a head in Syria?

  • 

    America's Mideast ally being dragged into war?

  • 

    Was the 'red line' crossed in Syria?

American Special Operations forces and Special Force troops tasked to work with U.S. intelligence agents are training small groups of Syrian opposition forces in Jordan, U.S. military sources told Fox News.

The U.S. trainers are working alongside their Jordanian counterparts to facilitate the training, which has been going on for the past eight to 12 months, the sources say. 

The training program, first reported by the Associated Press, involves classes of about 50 to 60 secular Syrian fighters led by about 100 American trainers, a number that was capped by the Jordanian government. The program is part of a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country's persistently splintered opposition.

But there remain concerns that Al Qaeda figures have infiltrated the Free Syrian Army, making any official support and training to the opposition all the more difficult. At the same time, a senior defense official downplayed the reports, saying the U.S. military is helping to train only Jordanians, not the Syrian opposition.

The Associated Press added that the forces being trained aren't members of the Free Syrian Army. Those in Washington also stressed that the U.S. is providing only nonlethal aid at this point. Others such as Britain and France are involved, the AP's sources said, though it's unclear whether any Western governments are providing materiel or other direct military support after two years of civil war that according to the United Nations already has killed more than 70,000 people.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the program.

Officially, the Obama administration has been vague on the subject of what type of military training it may be providing, while insisting that it is doing all it can -- short of providing weapons to the rebels or engaging in its own military intervention -- to hasten the demise of the Assad family's four-decade dictatorship.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday the U.S. has "provided some logistical nonlethal support that has also come in handy for the Syrian rebels who are, again, fighting a regime that is not hesitating to use the military might of that regime against its own people.

"That is something we're going to continue to work to bring to an end," he told reporters.

It's unclear what effect the training has had in the conflict, which has become a quagmire with Assad's regime unable to snuff out the rebellion and Syria's opposition incapable thus far of delivering any serious blow to the ruling government's grip on Damascus and control over much of the country.

Some of the Syrians the U.S. is involved with are in turn training other Syrians inside the border, officials said.

They declined to provide more information because they said that would go too deep into intelligence matters. Defense Department officials insisted the Pentagon isn't involved with any military training or arms provisions to the Syrian rebels, either directly or indirectly. The CIA declined to comment.

The New York Times reported Monday that the CIA helped Arab governments and Turkey sharply increase their military aid to Syria's opposition in recent months, with secret airlifts or arms and equipment. It cited traffic data, officials in several countries and rebel commanders, and said the airlift began on a small scale a year ago but has expanded steadily to more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari planes landing in Turkish and Jordanian airports.

The training in Jordan, however, suggests the U.S. help is aimed somewhat at enhancing the rebels' capacity in southern Syria, the birthplace of the revolution two years ago when teenagers in the sleepy agricultural outpost of Dara'a scribbled graffiti on a wall and were tossed into jail, spurring Syria's own version of an Arab Spring uprising. Much of the violence since, however, has been in the northern of the country where rebels have scored several military successes after the Assad regime cracked down brutally on peaceful protesters.

Despite months of U.S. and international support to build a cohesive political movement, however, Syria's fractured opposition is still struggling to rally Syrians behind a common post-Assad vision. And the opposition coalition appears as much hampered by its political infighting as its military deficiencies against an Assad regime arsenal of tanks, fighter jets and scud missiles.

The coalition's president, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned his position on Sunday because of what he described as restrictions on his work and frustration with the level of international aid. He said Monday he would still represent the opposition this week in Doha, where the Gulf state of Qatar will host a two-day Arab League summit starting Tuesday.

Al-Khatib's resignation comes only days after the opposition chose Ghassan Hitto, a long-time Texas resident, to head its interim government after intense wrangling over posts and influence that U.S. officials say has strained the opposition's unity and caused friction among its primary benefactors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

It's also unclear how al-Khatib's departure will affect the U.S. goal of political negotiations with amenable members of the Assad regime to end the civil war, given the moderate preacher's support for talks. Much of the Syrian opposition rejects such talks.

"He's been a courageous leader," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said of al-Khatib.

"But the bottom line is what we're looking for is unity," Ventrell said. "We continue to support the coalition's vision for a tolerant, inclusive Syria. We want them to continue to work together to implement that vision."

Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Paris on Wednesday to meet French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius for talks expected to focus on arming Syrian rebels. The discussions also are expected to touch on the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria, according to French officials.

U.S. officials say there are strong indications that chemical weapons weren't used in an attack last week in northern Aleppo, over which the regime and the rebels have issued counterclaims.

Washington has said it will support a U.N. investigation.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related Stories

Syrian activists say senior rebel leader wounded in attack

View the original article here

Attorney tasked with fixing Detroit's finances facing vocal opposition on first day

• 

  March 14, 2013: File photo of the skyline of the city of Detroit. Kevyn Orr, Detroits state-appointed emergency manager, has yet to step into his Detroit office, but the acclaimed bankruptcy lawyer knows the clock already is ticking down on the future of the city.AP

A bankruptcy lawyer and turnaround expert tasked with reviving Detroit's beleaguered finances could be greeted by a crowd of protesters as he arrives at work Monday, then plans to spend his first day meeting with some city officials who for months fought against creating his job at all.

Kevyn Orr is under no illusions that he'll be treated as a hero when he begins his duties as the Motor City's emergency manager, an appointment that makes Detroit the largest city in the U.S. ever put under state control. But while there are plenty of sacrifices -- including Orr's resignation from a powerful law firm where he was a partner -- Orr says he is motivated by the opportunity to engineer one of the greatest fiscal turnarounds in U.S. history.

"I'm a worker bee. I'm not a honey bee," Orr, 54, told The Associated Press in an interview. "My set-in-stone plan is to get to the office ... and start meeting folks."

A review team spent two months scrutinizing Detroit's books and reported to Gov. Rick Snyder that the city was in a financial emergency, citing its long-term debt of more than $14 billion and $327 million budget deficit.

Snyder agreed and earlier this month announced Orr, a Washington attorney who represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring, as the man for an even larger fix-it task. State law allows emergency managers to negotiate labor contracts and deals with vendors. He can sell off city assets to raise money and cut the salaries of elected officials to save money.

Opponents, led by a vocal group of Detroit clergy and residents say the law snatches power from elected officials. Detroit is a heavily Democratic city with a predominantly black population Snyder is a Republican. A prominent national civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has called for mass demonstrations and protests outside City Hall.

Orr insists he has no immediate plan of action other than getting a sense of the city's priorities.

"You really want to look into the swimming pool to see if there is water in there before you dive in," said James Spiotto, a municipal bankruptcy expert at the Chicago-based Chapman and Cutler law firm.

But turnaround specialist James McTevia said he finds it hard to believe that Orr enters the job without any idea about what he intends to do. McTevia, who has closely followed the Detroit situation, suggests that one of his first steps should be an immediate freeze on debt spending.

"The first step in resolving a serious financial problem is to stop fueling the fire by spending money you don't have," McTevia said.

Early success could be crucial for Orr to win over citizens who are skeptical about whether an emergency manager really is needed, bankruptcy expert Doug Bernstein said. Such victories can be as simple as getting "street lights on and get police on the street," he said.

"Public safety is paramount," said Bernstein, managing partner of the Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Practice Group for the Michigan-based Plunkett Cooney law firm. "This is such a hot area where people are passionate about whether there should or not be an emergency manager. It would likely go a long way to convince those who are against, or otherwise opposed to the concept, that this can lead to something good or rehabilitation for the city."

Beyond public safety, a host of other problems await Orr -- including health care costs, pension concessions, privatizing services if necessary and, finally, weighing whether the only real solution is municipal bankruptcy.

"Maybe he means he doesn't have the details of it yet, but I hope he has some idea what the major issues are," Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said of Orr. "Mr. Orr has to deal with the threat of bankruptcy. This is a more immediate issue and he has to make a decision fairly quickly whether to put the city into bankruptcy or not."

Then he has to match revenue and spending.

"This is the idea of downsizing the city so that the costs more closely match the amount Detroit brings in," Henning said. "On the revenue side, something has to be done to stabilize the tax base. That's all easier said than done and will take years, probably well beyond Mr. Orr's term."

Pamela Amato, a former emergency financial manager for tiny Three Oaks in southwestern Michigan, said when she took the job in 2009, she did not jump straight into the finances. Three Oaks had a $600,000 deficit and was nearly devoid of cash. It took less than a year to turn the village around. Amato says listening to officials and residents was the key.

"I wanted to get a sense from the people who lived there and who were in governance as to what was going on and used that information to chart my own course," she said. "I let them know that we either succeeded together or we failed together."

Orr has met with people in Detroit's business and foundation communities, attending some dinners and receptions. He plans to commute between Detroit and his home in the Washington, D.C., area during the time it takes to fix Detroit.

"I was very comfortably placed in my private law practice at my firm that I adored," Orr said, pointing out that he had been picked to go to open a Miami office before the offer to become Detroit's emergency manager came from "out of the blue."

Jevonsha Johnson, 28, said she wants Orr to keep in place efforts under Mayor Dave Bing to level as many of the city's 30,000 or more vacant houses as funds allow. There are two adjacent to Johnson's newer wood-framed bungalow in the city's north end and another across the street.

"It don't make you feel safe," Johnson said. "The other new houses over here have been broken into several times. My neighbor next door told me a couple times that they broke in while his wife and daughter were there."

Although Orr said he likes what he has seen in parts of the city -- downtown, resurgent Midtown, the strong cultural and central business districts -- he acknowledges other neighborhoods are "in need of some TLC (tender loving care)."

Amid all these problems, he acknowledges there's a risk of being unable to solve them, though he insists he will within the 18 months dictated under Michigan's emergency manager law.

"Failure is not an option," Orr said. "It's just a question of designing the architecture around what can be creating a future -- and a sustainable future -- for the city."

View the original article here

Attorney tasked with fixing Detroit's finances facing vocal opposition on first day

A bankruptcy lawyer and turnaround expert tasked with reviving Detroit's beleaguered finances could be greeted by a crowd of protesters as he arrives at work Monday, then plans to spend his first day meeting with some city officials who for months fought against creating his job at all. 

Kevyn Orr is under no illusions that he'll be treated as a hero when he begins his duties as the Motor City's emergency manager, an appointment that makes Detroit the nation's largest city ever put under state control. But while there are plenty of sacrifices -- including Orr's resignation from a powerful law firm where he was a partner -- Orr says he is motivated by the opportunity to engineer one of the greatest fiscal turnarounds in U.S. history. 

"I'm a worker bee. I'm not a honey bee," Orr, 54, told The Associated Press in an interview. "My set-in-stone plan is to get to the office ... and start meeting folks." 

A review team spent two months scrutinizing Detroit's books and reported to Gov. Rick Snyder that the city was in a financial emergency, citing its long-term debt of more than $14 billion and $327 million budget deficit. 

Snyder agreed and earlier this month announced Orr, a Washington attorney who represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring, as the man for an even larger fix-it task. State law allows emergency managers to negotiate labor contracts and deals with vendors. He can sell off city assets to raise money and cut the salaries of elected officials to save bucks. 

Opponents, led by a vocal group of Detroit clergy and residents say the law snatches power from elected officials. National civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson has called for mass demonstrations and protests outside City Hall. 

Orr insists he has no immediate plan of action other than getting a sense of the city's priorities. 

"You really want to look into the swimming pool to see if there is water in there before you dive in," said James Spiotto, a municipal bankruptcy expert at the Chicago-based Chapman and Cutler law firm. 

But turnaround specialist James McTevia said he finds it hard to believe that Orr enters the job without any idea about what he intends to do. McTevia, who has closely followed the Detroit situation, suggests that one of his first steps should be an immediate freeze on debt spending. 

"The first step in resolving a serious financial problem is to stop fueling the fire by spending money you don't have," McTevia said. 

Early success could be crucial for Orr to win over citizens who are skeptical about whether an emergency manager really is needed, bankruptcy expert Doug Bernstein said. Such victories can be as simple as getting "street lights on and get police on the street," he said. 

"Public safety is paramount," said Bernstein, managing partner of the Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Practice Group for Michigan-based Plunkett Cooney law firm. "This is such a hot area where people are passionate about whether there should or not be an emergency manager. It would likely go a long way to convince those who are against, or otherwise opposed to the concept, that this can lead to something good or rehabilitation for the city." 

Beyond public safety, a host of other problems await Orr -- including health care costs, pension concessions, privatizing services if necessary and, finally, weighing whether the only real solution is municipal bankruptcy. 

"Maybe he means he doesn't have the details of it yet, but I hope he has some idea what the major issues are," Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said of Orr. "Mr. Orr has to deal with the threat of bankruptcy. This is a more immediate issue and he has to make a decision fairly quickly whether to put the city into bankruptcy or not." 

Then he has to match revenue and spending. 

"This is the idea of downsizing the city so that the costs more closely match the amount Detroit brings in," Henning said. "On the revenue side, something has to be done to stabilize the tax base. That's all easier said than done and will take years, probably well beyond Mr. Orr's term." 

Pamela Amato, a former emergency financial manager for tiny Three Oaks in southwestern Michigan, said when she took the job in 2009, she did not jump straight into the finances. Three Oaks had a $600,000 deficit and was nearly devoid of cash. It took less than a year to turn the village around. Amato says listening to officials and residents was the key. 

"I wanted to get a sense from the people who lived there and who were in governance as to what was going on and used that information to chart my own course," she said. "I let them know that we either succeeded together or we failed together." 

Orr has met with people in Detroit's business and foundation communities, attending some dinners and receptions. He plans to commute between Detroit and his home in the Washington, D.C., area during the time it takes to fix Detroit. 

"I was very comfortably placed in my private law practice at my firm that I adored," Orr said, pointing out that he had been picked to go to open a Miami office before the offer to become Detroit's emergency manager came from "out of the blue." 

Jevonsha Johnson, 28, said she wants Orr to keep in place efforts under Mayor Dave Bing to level as many of the city's 30,000 or more vacant houses as funds allow. There are two adjacent to Johnson's newer wood-framed bungalow in the city's north end and another across the street. 

"It don't make you feel safe," Johnson said. "The other new houses over here have been broken into several times. My neighbor next door told me a couple times that they broke in while his wife and daughter were there." 

Although Orr said he likes what he has seen in parts of the city -- downtown, resurgent Midtown, the strong cultural and central business districts -- he acknowledges other neighborhoods are "in need of some TLC." 

Amid all these problems, he acknowledges there's a risk of being unable to solve them, though he insists he will within the 18 months dictated under Michigan's emergency manager law. 

"Failure is not an option," Orr said. "It's just a question of designing the architecture around what can be creating a future -- and a sustainable future -- for the city."

View the original article here