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ByNedraPickler The Associated Press KNOXVILLE, TENN. Presi- dent Barack Obama on Fri- day proposed to bring the cost of two years of commu- nity college "down to zero" for all Americans, an ambi- tious nationwide plan based on a popular Tennessee pro- gram signed into law by that state's Republican governor. However, the idea and its $60 billion federal price tag over 10 years would have to make the grade with a Republican Congress that is showing little appetite for big new spending pro- grams. Obama, who plans to push the issue in his Jan. 20 State of the Union ad- dress, argued that provid- ing educational opportunity and creating a more skilled U.S. workforce shouldn't be a partisan issue. "Community college should be free for those willing to work for it be- cause, in America, a quality education should not be a privilege that is reserved for a few," he said in a speech at Pellissippi State Commu- nity College. He said a high school diploma is no longer enough for American work- ers to compete in the global economy and that a college degree is "the surest ticket to the middle class." The White House esti- mated that 9 million stu- dents could eventually par- ticipate and save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year if they attend fulltime. Stu- dents would qualify if they attend at least halftime, maintain a 2.5 grade point average and make progress toward completing a degree or certificate program. Par- ticipating schools would have to meet certain aca- demic requirements. At North Lake College, part of the Dallas County Community College system, student Courtney Banks said such a program would help her and also allow oth- ers to enroll in classes. "Other people, other young adults would be will- ing to get into school be- cause it wouldn't be so far out of reach," she said. She added she's still trying to pay back loans from a pre- vious school. "It costs a lot of money," she said. The White House said the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the cost and the final quar- ter would come from states that opt into the program — a cost of $20 billion over 10 years. Spokesman Eric Schultz said Obama will propose new programs to pay for the federal portion in his budget next month. Obama is calling the idea America's College Promise, modeled after Tennessee Promise, which Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law last year to provide free community and technical college tuition for two years. It has drawn 58,000 appli- cants, almost 90 percent of the state's high school se- niors. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former White House chief of staff, has a similar program for students in his city. "If a state with Repub- lican leadership is doing this and a city with Dem- ocratic leadership is doing this, how about we all do it," Obama said. Obama brought Tennes- see's two Republican sen- ators, Bob Corker and La- mar Alexander, with him on Air Force One for the event. But both said they thought states, not the federal gov- ernment, should follow Ten- nessee's lead. "Creating a federal pro- gram to me is not the way to get good things to hap- pen in education," Corker told reporters from his seat in the third row of the speech. "You're always bet- ter off letting states mimic each other." Alexander, a former ed- ucation secretary who is set to take over the Senate committee that oversees ed- ucation, said Washington's role should be to reduce pa- perwork for student aid ap- plications. Obama said he agrees and wants to see that happen this year. Obama also was joined on the trip by Vice Pres- ident Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, who drew applause when she told the audience she's been teach- ing English at community college for 20 years and still does as second lady. "This is the moment for community colleges to shine," she said. The president and vice president also were visit- ing a manufacturing facil- ity, Techmer PM in Clin- ton, Tennessee, to promote a second proposal to cre- ate a fund to help low-wage workers with high potential get training in growing. EDUCATION Obama proposes publicly funded community college MARKHUMPHREY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Barack Obama speaks at Pellissippi State Community College on Friday in Knoxville, Tenn. By Dina Cappiello The Associated Press WASHINGTON In a double blow, the newly empowered Republican-led Congress and the Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday undercut President Barack Obama's opposition to the long Key- stone XL oil pipeline. But the White House, which issued a veto threat earlier in the week, said its "position and posture" re- mained unchanged, and environmentalists said Obama should kill what would amount to "a global warming disaster." The House voted 266-153 to approve a bill authoriz- ing construction of the Can- ada-to-Texas pipeline, with 28 Democrats joining ma- jority Republicans in sup- port. It was one of the first pieces of legislation consid- ered by the new, GOP-con- trolled Congress, which has made approval of the pipe- line a top priority and has long been headed for a con- frontation with Obama on the issue. The Republican cause was emboldened Friday, when Nebraska's highest court tossed out a law- suit challenging the pipe- line's route, an obsta- cle the White House said must be removed before it could decide whether the huge cross-border project was in the national inter- est and the administration could proceed with its own review. "We shouldn't be debat- ing it, we should be build- ing it," said House Major- ity Leader Kevin McCar- thy of California. On the House floor, he read aloud a passage of the adminis- tration's veto threat that objected to authorizing the project "despite uncertainty due to ongoing litigation in Nebraska." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, follow- ing the court's decision, re- newed his call for Obama to reconsider his promise to veto the measure. "Today's ruling provides the perfect opportunity for the president to change his unproductive posture on this jobs project and re- verse his veto threat," Mc- Connell said. "The presi- dent now has every reason to sign it." But a White House spokesman said the court's decision changed nothing. "Regardless of the Ne- braska ruling today, the House bill still conflicts with longstanding execu- tive branch procedures re- garding the authority of the president and prevents the thorough consideration of complex issues that could bear on U.S. national inter- ests, and if presented to the president, he will veto the bill," said deputy press sec- retary Eric Schultz. The House vote marked the 10th time the chamber has voted on legislation to advance the Keystone XL pipeline, an $8 billion proj- ect that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries along a proposed 1,179-mile route through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Strong as the vote was, it fell short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a pres- idential veto. And the Sen- ate, though newly con- trolled by the Republicans, is also likely to fall short of that threshold. The Senate is expected to clear a test vote on an identical bill on Monday. The proposed pipeline is at the center of a major po- litical fight. Environmental groups have waged protests, including arrests, in an ef- fort to halt what they view as an environmentally de- structive project that would unravel the progress the administration has made to combat climate change. They called on the White House to reject TransCan- ada Corp.'s permit request outright on Friday after the Nebraska court decision didn't go their way. The Nebraska Supreme Court let stand a 2012 state law that allows the gover- nor to empower Calgary- based TransCanada to force eastern Nebraska landown- ers to sell their property for the project. If the decision had gone the other way, the State Department, which is in charge of evaluating the pipeline's environmental risks, may have had to do additional analysis. A State Department spokeswoman said Friday it would now move forward with its re- view by seeking comment from eight federal agencies about whether the pipeline is in the national interest. "No matter the route, as long as the pipeline is carrying tar sands oil it is a global warming di- saster and fails the pres- ident's climate test," said May Boeve, executive di- rector of 350.org, an ad- vocacy group that has or- chestrated many of the protests against the proj- ect. "It's time for President Obama to build on his veto threat and reject Keystone XL outright." Republicans argued on Friday that the pipeline was a jobs creator and critical infrastructure that could further wean the U.S. off Middle East oil. Pointing to a State Department re- view that found the pipeline would not exacerbate global warming because the oil would otherwise be trans- ported by other means, they said it was a safer and more environmentally sound way to transport oil. "The president has been hiding behind the Nebraska court case to block this crit- ical jobs project," said Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Energy and Com- merce Committee. "With that contrived roadblock cleared, the White House is now out of excuses and out of time." KEYSTONE Congress and courts test Obama's resistance to pipeline By Ted Bridis, Josh Lederman and Tami Abdollah The Associated Press WASHINGTON The U.S. gov- ernment was not responsi- ble for crippling North Ko- rea's Internet infrastruc- ture after President Barack Obama blamed the country for hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., two se- nior U.S. officials told The Associated Press, as Con- gress announced Friday it will examine North Korea's cyberthreats starting next week. In a new interview, the movie studio's chief ex- ecutive, Michael Lynton, compared the sensational hacking against Sony Pic- tures to burning down the company. He revealed that the studio's network was still down more than six weeks later and was ex- pected to remain that way for weeks longer. "They came in the house, stole everything, then burned down the house," Lynton said. "They de- stroyed servers, computers, wiped them clean of all the data and took all the data." The Obama adminis- tration has steadfastly blamed North Korea for hacking Sony but has been deliberately coy about whether it retaliated and caused North Korea's out- age, which affected all the nation's Internet connec- tions starting the week- end of Dec. 20. The two of- ficials, speaking on condi- tion of anonymity because they were not authorized to openly discuss the is- sue, acknowledged to the AP that it was not a U.S. operation. In a twist, North Korea has denied it hacked Sony but publicly blamed the U.S. government for caus- ing its Internet outages. It was not immediately clear even within the ad- ministration whether rogue hackers or other governments disrupted North Korea's networks. North Korea's service was sporadic starting Satur- day, Dec. 20, then col- lapsed entirely for nearly 10 hours two days later in what has remained an en- during whodunit. Within the U.S. govern- ment, contingents have de- bated privately whether to acknowledge that the U.S. played no role in North Korea's disruptions or re- main silent to avoid de- tailed conversations about U.S. capabilities and pol- icy on offensive cyberop- erations, which are consid- ered highly classified. The disclosure denying U.S. involvement was in- tended to convey how se- riously the administration considers offensive cyberat- tacks, intended to be used only in the most serious cases and consistent with the State Department's ad- monitions for foreign gov- ernments to always pre- serve access to the Internet for all citizens, one of the of- ficials said. Lynton, the studio's chief executive, told the AP that he never knew whether the U.S. government electron- ically attacked North Ko- rea as retaliation for the break-in at his company. In a wide-ranging inter- view, Lynton described the scramble inside Sony in the days after Thanksgiving. Hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace left a grim message on computers and damaged hard-drives, as sensitive company files leaked onto the Internet. CYBERSECURITY So ur ces : US d id n ot ' ha ck b ac k' N Ko re a N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N TY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 PHONE: (530) 527-2151 FAX: (530) 527-5774 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN For more details call Circulation Department (530) 52 7-2151 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015 8 B