Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/472102
ByNedraPicklerand Eric Tucker The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama said Mon- day the deaths of unarmed black men in Missouri and NewYorkshowthatlawen- forcement needs to change practices to build trust in minority communities, as a White House task force called for independent in- vestigations when police use deadly force. The president said last year's deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mis- souri, and Eric Garner in New York City exposed "deep rooted frustration in many communities of color around the need for fair and just law enforce- ment." He said a polic- ing task force that he ap- pointed found it's impor- tant for law enforcement to improve training, data collection and cooperation with the communities they cover. "The moment is now for us to make these changes," Obama said from the White House during a meeting with members of the task force, who worked for three months to develop the rec- ommendations. "We have a great opportunity com- ing out of some great con- flict and tragedy to really transform how we think about community law en- forcement relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel — rather than being embattled — feel fully supported. We need to seize that opportunity." The task force made 63 recommendations af- ter holding seven public hearings across the coun- try that included testi- mony from more than 100 people. The panel also met with leaders of groups advocating for the rights of blacks, Hispan- ics, Asians, veterans, gays, the disabled and others. Obama said the task force found the need for more police training to reduce bias and help of- ficers deal with stressful situations. He recognized a particularly controver- sial recommendation would be the need for in- dependent investigations in fatal police shootings. "The importance of making sure that there's a sense of accountabil- ity when in fact law en- forcement is involved in a deadly shooting is some- thing that I think com- munities across the board are going to be consider- ing," Obama said. Specifically, the task force recommended ex- ternal independent crimi- nal investigations and re- viewbyoutsideprosecutors when police use force that results in death or anyone dies in police custody, in- stead of the internal inves- tigations that are the pol- icy of some law enforce- ment agencies. The task force suggested either a multi-agency probe involv- ing state and local investi- gators,referringaninvesti- gationtoneighboringjuris- dictions or the next higher level of government. POLICE FORCE Obama: 'Moment is now' for change By Jack Gillum The Associated Press WASHINGTON Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock re- imbursed the U.S. gov- ernment for more than $1,200 in travel expenses for attending a Chicago Bears football game last November, his office said Monday. He previously had charged taxpayers for the trip. The reimbursement comes amid new con- gressional reports detail- ing $14,000 in private air travel incurred by Schock last fall, which included plane travel around Illi- nois and to Washington. Schock used his taxpayer- funded account to pay those bills. His office said it was reviewing whether other charges might have been inappropriate. Schock's recent travel adds to the list of more than a dozen flights worth $40,000 — ex- pensed under his con- gressional account or campaign funds — aboard planes owned by donors. That led to a for- mal ethics complaint. Schock, a 33-year-old, rising Republican star, has been under scrutiny for using congressio- nal funds to redecorate his Capitol Hill office in the style of the TV show "Downton Abbey." Last week, his office said he made good on his prom- ise of personally reim- bursing those costs. Congressional rules updated two years ago generally allow the use of private aircraft as long as trips are fairly compensated. But the latest revelations about Schock's travel expenses raise questions about why taxpayers were billed for a trip to Chi- cago when he represents the Peoria and Spring- field areas at least 150 miles away. A spokesman said Schock wrote a check to the U.S. Treasury on Mon- day for the Chicago trip. Newly released House records showed $10,802 incurred last November for "commercial trans- portation" to Keith Si- ilats, a New York-based pilot who flew Schock to Chicago. Siilats told the AP he flew the congress- man between Washing- ton and Peoria for a se- ries of meetings, and at- tended the Bears game with Schock. That trip was first re- ported Sunday by the Chi- cago Sun-Times. It was not immediately clear how Schock paid for his game tickets. The records also show Schock's office spent about $2,270 with Peo- ria-based Byerly Aviation, as well as $1,590 with Lo- bair LLC. Both were pre- viously paid for Schock's travel on aircraft owned by his financial contribu- tors, records show. CONGRESSMAN La wm ak er reimburses for plane expenses By Philip Marcelo The Associated Press BOSTON Bostonians have another reason to be steamed about this win- ter of epic snow: The city is starting to remove the lawn chairs, milk crates, or- ange cones and other stuff that people set out in the street to reserve the park- ing spaces they've dug out. Garbage haulers and re- cycling crews began col- lecting the "space savers" Monday after Mayor Marty Walsh declared an end to the longstanding practice — at least until the next ma- jor storm. In South Boston, a neigh- borhood where the winter- time battles over parking spots are legendary, some complained the ban is com- ing too soon. The region saw about 3 more inches of snow Sunday night, and more is on the way later this week. Southie residents fear the parking struggles that have pitted neighbor against neighbor will only get worse. "Some people think they own these spots," said Heidi Labes, who keeps her fami- ly's two street parking spots reserved with traffic cones. "There has to be more tol- erance. And more parking." Others said the cleanup was long overdue. "It's time for them to go," said Mark Nadolny. "I guess the mayor could have waited another week or two, but you've got to do it at some point." In tightly packed Boston neighborhoods — and, for that matter, in other snowy cities where parking on the street is a problem even in the best of circumstances — homeowners use space sav- ers to enforce the unwrit- ten rule of the urban jun- gle: If you shoveled it out, it's yours. Drivers who violate space-saver etiquette risk returning to find hostile notes on their windshields, fresh snow piled on their cars, or, in some of the worst instances, smashed windows, keyed doors and flattened tires. In general, space sav- ers are allowed on Boston streets up to 48 hours af- ter a storm. But many of the objects have been out at the curb for more than a month, because city offi- cials largely turned a blind eye to the practice as storm after storm unloaded more than 8 feet of snow. InPhiladelphia,whereres- idents have used milk crates, shopping carts — even a toi- let — to save shoveled-out parking spaces, the police department regularly tweets humorous warnings against the illegal practice under the hashtag "NoSavesies." One, featuring a picture of Elsa from the Disney movie "Frozen" holding an orange traffic cone, urged residents upset about peo- ple parking in their spots to "Let it go." "We have a long winter ahead of us, and we're pre- pared to put out as many ridiculously bad memes as necessary to get folks to shovel and share," the de- partment said in a Face- book post. Somerville, a Boston sub- urb, doesn't allow space savers either, and resi- dents have been putting up signs this winter to remind neighbors that they don't tolerate the bare-knuckle tactics parts of Boston are notorious for. "How should we be be- having? LIKE RATIO- NAL, LEVEL-HEADED ADULTS," the bright green signs read. "So should we be slashing tires? NO. And should we be bashing in windshields? NO." WINTER BLAST Boston starts removing parking-space savers ELISEAMENDOLA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A car remains buried in snow along a residential street in South Boston. By Hannah Dreier and Joshua Goodman The Associated Press CARACAS, VENEZUELA Venezuela has given the U.S. two weeks to slash its diplomatic mission here to less than 20 percent of its current size as tensions be- tween the two nations rise. Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez made the an- nouncement Monday after a rare meeting with the top American diplomat in Caracas. She said the U.S. mission must be cut to 17 diplomats to strike a bal- ance with the 17 Venezue- lan diplomats that serve in the U.S. It is up to the U.S. to decide which of an esti- mated 100 diplomats sta- tioned here it wishes to send home. Over the weekend, Pres- ident Nicolas Maduro said his socialist government had detained several Amer- icans spies, and would be taking a series of retalia- tory measures, including imposing a visa require- ment for American tourists, banning the entry of con- servative Republicans like former Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Marco Ru- bio, and imposing rules to curtail the movement of the U.S. diplomats he accuses of plotting with the opposition to oust him. State Depar tment spokeswoman Marie Harf, who spoke before the meet- ing in Caracas ended, said the U.S. was "clearly con- cerned" about Venezuela's new policies toward diplo- mats and tourists. "There has been a lot of anti-American rhetoric coming out of the Venezue- lan government, with a lot of baseless allegations," she said. Harf declined to say how many diplomats work in the U.S. Embassy, an imposing compound that sits above Caracas in a secluded, tree- lined neighborhood. The U.S. has not ex- changed ambassadors with the South American coun- try since 2010. Lee Mc- Clenny represents the mis- sion as chargé d'affaires. Reflecting the distant state of relations between the two nations, McClenny's name was twice misspelled as "Clenny" in government statements before Monday's meeting, which Rodriguez described as cordial. Maduro regularly rails against the U.S. for med- dling in his country's af- fairs. He accuses the U.S. of staging an "endless coup" which he blames for Vene- zuela's chronic shortages and worsening economy. He has taken to leading weekly chants of "Gringo, go home," and last month accused the U.S. of plotting with opposition leaders to bomb the presidential pal- ace. The U.S. did endorse a brief coup led by opposition leaders that toppled Madu- ro's mentor, the late Presi- dent Hugo Chavez, for two days in 2002. Michael Shifter, presi- dent of Inter-American Di- alogue, said he doesn't ex- pect the U.S. to respond with a dramatic change in its own policies toward Ven- ezuela. "It's clear Maduro is flailing about, not know- ing what to do, so he's fall- ing back on the tried and true by blaming the U.S.," said Shifter, adding that the government has so far failed to present convinc- ing evidence of U.S. involve- ment in destabilizing acts. "The problem is it's no lon- ger credible." The new restrictions un- derscore Venezuela's role as the most stridently anti- American country in the hemisphere. Cuba, Venezu- ela's closest ally, is in talks with the U.S to expand staffing in the two coun- tries' diplomatic missions and let diplomats travel out- side their respective capi- tals without having to ask permission. Maduro is expected to see U.S. President Barack Obama in five weeks at the Summit of the Americas in Panama. SOURING RELATIONS Venezuela sets deadline to US to slash embassy staff ARIANA CUBILLOS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A woman using an umbrella during a drizzle walks by a mural representing the eyes of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez that reads in Spanish "Gringo, respect!" in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday. WeDo Alignments, Brakes, Shocks, Struts, Oil Changes, Suspension, Trailer Repairs, Batteries & Wipers 1375MontgomeryRd. Red Bluff, CA 530 529-0797 20815 Dalby Ln. 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