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MEDIA PABLOMARTINEZMONSIVAIS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Reporters line up in hopes of attending a briefing in Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office at the White House in Washington, Friday. White House held an off camera briefing in Spicer's office, where they selected who could attend. By Lynn Elber The Associated Press News organizations in- cluding The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico were blocked from joining an informal, on-the-record White House press briefing Friday. The Associated Press chose not to participate in the briefing after White House press secretary Sean Spicer restricted the num- ber of journalists included. Typically, the daily briefing is televised and open to all news organizations creden- tialed to cover the White House. "The AP believes the pub- lic should have as much ac- cess to the president as pos- sible," Lauren Easton, the AP's director of media rela- tions, said in a statement. On Friday, hours after President Donald Trump delivered a speech blasting the media, Spicer invited only a pool of news orga- nizations that represents and shares reporting with the larger press corps. He also invited several other major news outlets, as well as smaller organizations including the conservative Washington Times, One America News Network and Breitbart News, whose former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is Trump's chief strategist. When the additional news organiza- tions attempted to gain ac- cess, they weren't allowed to enter. The White House said it felt "everyone was rep- resented" by those in the pool and the invited orga- nizations. "We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. When asked by a re- porter attending whether he was playing favorites, Spicer said the White House had "shown an abundance of accessibility," according to an audio recording of the briefing later circulated by the pool. The pool included Re- uters, Bloomberg, CBS, Hearst Newspapers and CBS Radio. Others in the briefing were Fox, NBC and ABC. Bloomberg reported that its reporter was un- aware of the exclusions un- til after the briefing. John Roberts, Fox's chief White House correspon- dent, told anchor Shepard Smith on the air Friday that Fox supports complaints being filed by the White House Correspondents As- sociation and pool TV net- works. "You can speculate, Shep, that there might be some extenuating circumstances as to why those people were not invited, we're going to look into that further...." Roberts said. In a statement, the cor- respondent association's president, Jeff Mason, said the group was "protesting strongly" against how the briefing was handled by the White House. CBS News said in a state- ment that it was the pool's radio and TV outlet Friday. "We recorded audio of this event and quickly shared it out of an obliga- tion to protect the inter- ests of all pool members," the news division said. When Spicer was asked by a reporter at the brief- ing whether he was playing favorites, he said he "dis- agreed with the premise of the question," according to the audio. "We've brought more re- porters into this process. And the idea that every time that every single per- son can't get their question answered or fit in a room that we're excluding people. We've actually gone above and beyond with making ourselves, our team, and our briefing room more ac- cessible than probably any prior administration. And so I think you can take that to the bank. WhiteHousebarsmajornews ou tl et s fr om i nf or ma l br ie fi ng By Jim Suhr The Associated Press OLATHE, KAN. Witnesses saidamanaccusedofopen- ing fire in a crowded bar yelled at two Indian men to "get out of my country" be- fore pulling the trigger in an attack that killed one of the men and wounded the other,aswellasathirdman who tried to help. Hours later, the suspect reportedly told a bartender in another town that he needed a place to hide be- cause he had just killed two Middle Eastern men. InIndia,thefatherofone of the wounded men called the attack a hate crime, but authorities on Friday de- clinedtodiscussamotiveas they investigated the shoot- ing. The attack stoked fears aboutthenation'streatment ofimmigrants,whofeeltar- geted by President Donald Trump's promises to ban certain travelers, build a wall along the Mexico bor- der and put "America first." Adam Purinton, 51, was charged with murder and attempted murder in the Wednesday night shooting in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe. A bartender at Austins Bar and Grill said Purinton used racial slurs before fir- ing. He was taken into cus- tody about five hours later after speaking with a bar- tender at an Applebee's some 70 miles away in Clin- ton, Missouri. The Kansas City Star reported Purinton's com- ments to the bartender. The paper did not cite its sources. The men who were shot were identified as Srinivas Kuchibhotla,32,whodiedat a hospital, and 32-year-old AlokMadasaniand24-year- old Ian Grillot, who were hospitalized, police said. Madasani was released from the hospital Thursday. The LinkedIn accounts for Kuchibhotla and Ma- dasani describe them as engineers for GPS device- maker Garmin, which has its main campus just a mile from the scene of the shoot- ing. The company is one of theregion'sbest-knownem- ployers. The Indian government said its diplomats would monitor the investigation in Kansas. FBI spokesman Bridget Patton said the agency had no new information to re- lease Friday. She said the FBI's role is to work jointly with Olathe police to deter- mine if a civil rights viola- tion occurred. BartenderGarretBohnen told the Kansas City Star that Kuchibhotla and Ma- dasani stopped at Austins for a drink once or twice a week. At the time of the at- tack,patronswerewatching acollegebasketballgameon television. "FromwhatIunderstand, when he was throwing ra- cial slurs at the two gen- tlemen, Ian (Grillot) stood up for them," Bohnen said. "We're all proud of him." Witnesses also told the StaraboutPurinton'syelling about leaving the country. When the gunfire began, Grillot hid under a table until nine shots had been fired. Believing the sus- pect's magazine was empty, hethenchasedthegunman in hopes of subduing him. "I guess I miscounted with everything going on. And I got behind him, and he turned around and fired a round at me," Grillot said Thursday from his hospi- tal bed in a video from the UniversityofKansasHealth System. Grillot said the bul- let went through his right hand and into his chest, just missing a major artery but fracturing a vertebra in his neck. 2 INDIAN MEN Witnesses: Bar gunman shouted 'get out of my country' 6,421fans+57 this week Facebook Page YOU'LL LIKE WHAT YOU SEE ..andgrowing,everyweek! Daily News Facebook fans receive special posts of breaking news, sports, weather and road closures, clicking right to full stories and photos published on redbluffdailynews.com ... Tehama County's most-visited local website ... things that fans want to know about, sooner rather than later! "LIKE" us at www.facebook.com/rbdailynews "Like" a story or item, leave a review, make a post on the site ... and more! ThroughtheNewspapersinEducation program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. 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