Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/194805
4B Daily News – Friday, October 18, 2013 WORLD BRIEFING Analysis: In budget deal, Obama emerges stronger WASHINGTON (AP) — By most measures, President Barack Obama emerged far stronger than his Republican adversaries in Washington's latest fiscal fight. He gave away virtually nothing and his hard-line tactics exposed deep divisions among Republicans and growing public frustration with the GOP. But Obama's victory came with strings attached. Under his watch, big swaths of the federal government were shuttered for 16 days, forcing hundreds of thousands of workers off the job and restricting many services. The nation was brought to the brink of a default for the second time in two years. And Congress' last-minute deal generated yet another round of looming deadlines on the same issues, with no guarantee that Republican opposition to Obama's objectives will be dampened in any way. ''What comes next is very unpredictable,'' said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist. ''The notion that this group of people is going to be chastened by this, while it seems obvious, is uncertain.'' Indeed, there's little consensus among Republicans about how to proceed in the aftermath of the budget crisis. Some conservatives who demanded changes to Obama's health care law in exchange for funding the government have signaled they're ready to dig in for another fight. Among them is Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who said Republicans may have ''lost the battle but we're going to win the war.'' But other GOP lawmakers are demanding that their party make a course correction. Government reopens after 16-day shutdown WASHINGTON (AP) — In withering day-after criticism, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that the 16-day partial government shutdown was a Republicanprovoked spectacle that ''encouraged our enemies'' around the world. Elsewhere in Washington, and around the country, federal employees simply streamed back to their jobs. National parks reopened. The popular panda cam at the National Zoo came back online. But there was no letup in the political fight. Fresh from a defeat, tea party groups and their allies renewed fundraising efforts with a promise of future assaults on Obama's health care overhaul — and a threat of more election primaries against Republican incumbents who don't stand with them. Government spending was still front and center. Inside the Capitol, lawmakers charged with forging a post-shutdown deficit-cutting agreement in the next 60 days met privately. ''We believe there is common ground,'' said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Budget Committee. Across US, parks and memorials reopen From the Liberty Bell to Alcatraz, federal landmarks and offices reopened Thursday. Furloughed employees were relieved to get back to work — even if faced with email backlogs — but many worried about another such disruption in a matter of months. ''We'd hate to have to live through this all over again,'' Richard Marcus, a 29-year employee of the National Archives in Washington, said after the government shutdown finally ended. Nationwide, from bigcity office buildings to wilderness outposts, innumerable federal services and operations shifted back into gear after 16 days. The U.S. Forest Service started lifting a logging ban on national forests. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services restarted the computerized system used to verify the legal status of workers. Boat trips resumed to Alcatraz, the former federal prison in San Francisco Bay, with 1,600 tickets snapped up by tourists in the first hour of business. In Alaska, federal officials rushed to get the red king crab fishing season underway. The opening had been delayed because furloughed workers were not around to issue crabquota permits. US brings indictment in 2007 Blackwater shootings WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday brought fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors, resurrecting an internationally charged case over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad. A new grand jury indictment charges the men in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq and heightened diplomatic sensitivities amid an ongoing war. The men were hired to guard U.S. diplomats. The guards are accused of opening fire in busy Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen Iraqi civilians died, including women and children. Prosecutors say the heavily armed Blackwater convoy used machine guns and grenades in an unprovoked attack. Defense lawyers argue their clients are innocent men who were ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. The guards were charged with manslaughter and weapons violations in 2008, but a federal judge the following year dismissed the case, ruling the Justice Department withheld evidence from a grand jury and violated the guards' constitutional rights. The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed Americans consider themselves above the law. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Baghdad in 2010, expressed his ''personal regret'' for the shootings. A federal appeals court reinstated the case in 2011, saying nowretired Judge Ricardo Urbina had wrongly interpreted the law. Obama to nominate ex-Pentagon lawyer to head Homeland Security WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling back a trusted counterterrorism adviser from his first term by nominating former top Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson as secretary of homeland security. Obama plans to announce Johnson's nomination Friday. He must be confirmed by the Senate before taking over the post most recently held by Janet Napolitano, who stepped down in August to become president of the University of California system. As general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Johnson was an aggressive advocate on a number of complex and contentious legal issues. He oversaw the escalation of the use of unmanned drone strikes, the revamping of military commissions to try terrorism suspects rather than using civilian courts and the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members. He also mapped out the legal defense for the American cross-border raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. A senior Obama administration official on Thursday confirmed Johnson's selection, first reported by The Daily Beast. The official was not authorized to speak about the nomination on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said Obama chose Johnson because of his experience as a national security leader. The official noted that Johnson oversaw the work of more than 10,000 lawyers and was responsible for reviewing every military operation approved by the president and defense secretary. Special prosecutor could give fresh start to sex assault case MARYVILLE, Mo. (AP) — The case of a 14-year-old girl who says she was raped by an older boy from her Missouri high school and left passed out on her porch in freezing temperatures is expected to get a fresh start under a special prosecutor. A special prosecutor will be able to launch his own investigation, interview witnesses and work independently from the local prosecutor who's faced intense scrutiny for dropping felony charges in the case last year, experts said Thursday. ''The idea is really to have a third party who is removed from the process, who can bring the appearance of objectivity and neutrality,'' said Richard Reuben, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. ''At the end of the day they would look like a prosecutor who is truly independent.'' The new prosecutor's final decision carries high stakes: It could settle the debate over whether Rice was right to drop the charges, or validate the accusers' outrage by pushing the case toward a trial. Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice filed a motion Thursday for a judge to appoint a special prosecutor in the case, which has gained new attention after The Kansas City Star published results of a sevenmonth investigation. HELP WANTED AUTO ROUTE DRIVERS WANTED Corning area Must be 21 or older & bondable. Call or apply in person Circulation Dept. Red Bluff Daily News (530) 527-2151 ext 128 DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY