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PHOTOBYCHRISPIZZELLO—INVISION—AP Barry Jenkins, foreground center, and the cast accept the award for best picture for "Moonlight" at the Oscars on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. ByJocelynNoveck The Associated Press Yes, the Great Mistake of Oscars 2017 made his- tory in all the wrong kinds of ways. But a day later, ad- vocacy groups and others overjoyed by the Cinder- ella win of "Moonlight" were saying, let's forget the snafu and move on — because "Moonlight" made history in all the right kinds of ways. The coming-of-age story of a gay black youth in a poor Miami neighbor- hood was made on the tini- est of budgets — $1.5 mil- lion, said director Barry Jenkins backstage. It had a mostly black cast, and was seen as the first LGBT- themed movie to win best picture in the 89-year his- tory of the awards show. And so, there's no point in wondering whether the spectacular mess-up that led to "La La Land" first being announced best pic- ture winner — incorrectly — would overshadow the "Moonlight" win, said Sarah Kate Ellis, presi- dent & CEO of GLAAD, the LGBT advocacy group. "I don't think you CAN over- shadow the 'Moonlight' win," she said in an inter- view, while acknowledging it was "a bit upsetting that it went down that way." What won out, she said, was not only a strong mes- sage of diversity and inclu- sivity, but "hopefully the bigger dream — that Hol- lywood recognizes this and continues to produce films like this, so that they are not the exception but the rule." "So often we've heard from Hollywood that writ- ers aren't writing about these things," Ellis said. "So having a success at this level takes that nar- rative out." The reason for the film's success, she said, was simple: "It reflects the world we live in today. Countless people can re- late to it." Gil Robertson, presi- dent of the African-Amer- ican Film Critics Associa- tion, said he woke up on Monday morning simply "floating" over the "Moon- light" win. "It's definitely a sign that the tide has turned" in Hollywood, Robertson said. The most significant result, he said, is what it would signal to up-and- coming filmmakers. "What's cool for black filmmakers and filmmak- ers in general is that this lets them know that it's possible," he said. "It shows them, 'Wow, I can do this too.' That's probably the biggest thing to come out of this." As for the snafu, he said, "It was a mistake. Let's just move on." That's essentially what Jenkins said backstage, minutes after accept- ing the best picture tro- phy. He noted that he had wanted to thank the stu- dio, A24, for believing in and supporting the project throughout — but didn't have time, given the chaos onstage. "My whole acceptance speech was going to be in thanks to them, because it's amazing to be Barry Jen- kins right now, but it was not a year and a half ago for aguywhomadeamoviefor $13,000 and hadn't made a movie in seven years at that point," he said. "And it's un- fortunate that things hap- pened the way they did. But hot damn, we won best pic- ture." He added that "the folks of 'La La Land' were so gracious. I can't imagine being in their position and having to do that." Oscar tabulators PwC, in their 83rd year provid- ing the service to the acad- emy, later apologized in a statement and were in- vestigating why present- ers Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway had been given the wrong envelope — a duplicate envelope for the best actress category, which was won by Emma Stone for "La La Land." Director Damien Cha- zelle's buoyant musical had been widely consid- ered a shoo-in for best pic- ture after netting a record- tying 14 nominations and a slew of earlier awards this season. The film still won six Oscars, including best director for Chazelle, at 32 became the youngest ever to take the prize, and for score, song ("City of Stars") and actress to Stone. Advocacy groups: Forget Oscars snafu, focus on 'Moonlight' ENTERTAINMENT By Andrew Taylor The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Donald Trump is proposing a huge $54 bil- lion surge in U.S. military spending for new aircraft, ships and fighters in his first federal budget while slashing big chunks from domestic programs and for- eign aid to make the gov- ernment "do more with less." The Trump blueprint, due in more detail next month, would fulfill the Republican president's campaign pledge to boost Pentagon spending while targeting the budgets of other federal agencies. The "topline" figures emerged Monday, one day before Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress, an opportunity to re-em- phasize the economic issues that were a centerpiece of his White House run. Domestic programs and foreign aid would as a whole absorb a 10 per- cent, $54 billion cut from currently projected levels — cuts that would match the military increase. The cuts would be felt far more deeply by programs and agencies targeted by Trump and his fellow Republicans, like the Environmental Pro- tection Agency as well as foreign aid. Veterans' pro- grams would be exempted, as would border security, additional law enforce- ment functions and some other areas. "We're going to start spending on infrastruc- ture big. It's not like we have a choice — our high- ways, our bridges are un- safe, our tunnels," the pres- ident told a group of gover- nors at the White House on Monday. He added, "We're going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people." However, Trump's final version of the budget is sure to leave large deficits intact — or even add to them if he follows through on his cam- paign promise for a huge tax cut. His plan faces strong op- position from Democrats, who possess the power to block it. The immediate re- action from Republicans was mixed, with promi- nent defense hawks like Sen. John McCain of Ar- izona saying it would do too little to help the Pen- tagon and fiscal conserva- tives and supporters of do- mestic agencies expressing caution. The White House indi- cated that the foreign aid cuts would be particularly large. Asked about those plans, top Senate Repub- lican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky would say only, "We'll see how it works out." House Foreign Affairs Com- mittee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., declined to com- ment when approached in a Capitol hallway. A congressional show- down is inevitable later this year, and a government shutdown a real possibility. White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the spike in Penta- gon spending would bring the total defense budget to a record $603 billion — and that's before including tens of billions of dollars for overseas military oper- ations. The United States al- ready spends more on de- fense than the next seven countries combined, but military leaders have com- plained repeatedly that air- craft are aging. Congress was told recently that the average age of Air Force air- craft is 27 years, and more than half of the service's inventory would qualify for antique vehicle license plates in Virginia. "It is a true America first budget. It will show the president is keeping his promises and will do ex- actly what he said he was going to do," Mulvaney said. "It prioritizes rebuild- ing our military, including restoring our nuclear capa- bilities, protecting the na- tion and securing the bor- der, enforcing the laws cur- rently on the books, taking care of vets and increasing school choice." Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York said, "It is clear from this budget blueprint that President Trump fully intends to break his prom- ises to working families by taking a meat ax to pro- grams that benefit the mid- dle class." He declared, "A cut this steep almost cer- tainly means cuts to agen- cies that protect consum- ers from Wall Street excess and protect clean air and water." Mulvaney said the plan wouldn't add to the bud- get deficit — currently pro- jected to hit about $500 billion next year — but it wouldn't reduce it, either. The administration again made clear that the govern- ment's largest benefit pro- grams, Social Security and Medicare, would be exempt from cuts when Trump's full budget submission is released in May. McCain said Trump's Pentagon plans would fall short by almost $40 billion and represent just a small increase over former Presi- dent Barack Obama's recent Pentagon wish list. $54 BILLION Big surge for military in Trump budget, big cuts elsewhere MANUEL BALCE CENETA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Budget Director Mick Mulvaney speaks to reporters during a daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on Monday. By Alan Fram and Ricardo Alonso- Zaldivar The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Donald Trump declared Monday that "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated." Yet the oppo- site has long been painfully obvious for top congressio- nal Republicans, who face mounting pressure to scrap the law even as problems grow longer and knottier. With the GOP-controlled Congress starting its third month of work on one of its marquee priorities, unre- solved difficulties include how their substitute would handle Medicaid, whether millions of voters might lose coverage, if their pro- posed tax credits would be adequate and how to pay for the costly exercise. The nonpartisan Con- gressional Budget Office made their job even dic- ier recently, giving House Republicans an informal analysis that their emerg- ing plan would be more ex- pensive than they hoped and cover fewer people than former President Barack Obama's statute. The anal- ysis was described by lob- byists speaking on condi- tion of anonymity to dis- cuss private conversations with congressional aides. For many in the party, those problems, while ma- jor, are outweighed by pledges they've made for years to repeal Obama's 2010 law and substitute a GOP alternative. Conser- vatives favoring full repeal are pitted against more cau- tious moderates and gover- nors looking to curb Medic- aid's costs also worry about constituents losing cover- age. But Republicans see in- action as the worst alterna- tive and leaders may plunge ahead as soon as next week with initial House commit- tee votes on legislation. "I believe they have left themselves no choice. Po- litically they must do some- thing," Douglas Holtz-Ea- kin, a Republican econo- mist and health analyst, said Monday. Trump spoke about health care's complexities on a day he held White House talks with dozens of governors worried Repub- licans could shift a huge financial burden to the states by curbing Medic- aid, the federal-state pro- gram that helps low-income people and those in nursing homes pay bills. Republi- can governors told report- ers later that Trump would describe some specifics of his own plan in an address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress. Trump also met with in- surance company execu- tives concerned that uncer- tainty about possible GOP changes could roil the mar- ketplace. Insurers said they remain committed to work- ing with the administration and the GOP-led Congress. Trump said the current health insurance market is "going to absolutely im- plode"— a contention he and other Republicans have made repeatedly. With pre- miums, deductibles and other out-of-pockets costs increasing in many indi- vidual markets, Democrats concede that changes are needed. But they contest that dire description and have no interest in helping Republicans kill Obama's statute. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that Republicans have yet to win any Demo- cratic support for their ef- fort and said "the odds are very high" Obama's law won't be repealed. Congress returned Mon- day from a recess that spot- lighted hurdles the GOP faces. Many Republicans en- dured rough receptions at town hall meetings from activist backers of Obama's overhaul. Governors meet- ing in Washington received a consultants' report warn- ing that planned Republi- can cuts in Medicaid and federal subsidies for con- sumers buying private in- surance would risk cover- age for many people and serious funding gaps for states. CONGRESS Pressure on GOP to revamp health care law grows WildWilly's Smokehouse 8570Hwy99E, Los Molinos Come see our mascot(WildWillie) SHOWROOMHOURS: WEDNESDAY THRU SUNDAY NOON TO 6PM! and new smoker/grills from Traeger & Camp Chef! 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