Woman: China police ask to ax White House petition

BEIJING (AP) — Upset about plans for a petrochemical plant near her hometown in China, a woman turned to a new method that Chinese are using to air their complaints: she posted a petition on the White House's website. Then, Chinese police asked her to remove it.

Last week's run-in with internal security agents turned into an unexpected lesson for the woman.

"I didn't think (the petition) was a big deal and didn't foresee the ensuing events," said the woman, who asked to be identified only by the initials she used on the petition, B.Y., for fear of further angering the police.

B.Y., who is in her late 20s and works in the finance industry in the central city of Chengdu, said the officers asked her last Friday to delete the petition from the White House open petition site.

Set up in 2011, the "We the People" site allows the public to directly petition the White House. But she said she discovered the site does not allow people to remove petitions so she was unable to comply.

The Chengdu police department declined comment and would not provide the unlisted number for its domestic security protection branch.

B.Y.'s petition problem, which was first reported by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper, shows how prickly Chinese authorities are about Internet dissent, probably particularly when it involves the White House.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, has been on edge over plans to build a petrochemical plant 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the city. The plant is expected to produce 10 million tons of oil and 800,000 tons of ethylene per year. Residents are concerned that the plant, operated by state-owned PetroChina, will aggravate air and water pollution, and question its safety because it is near a seismic fault where two deadly earthquakes have occurred in the past five years.

Authorities thwarted a planned demonstration over the plant on May 4 by filling the streets with police for a supposed earthquake drill, and have censored discussions of protest on the Internet.

Internet sites, particularly social media, are China's most unfettered forums for discussion, and many, especially younger Chinese, chafe at increasingly intrusive censorship.

At about the same time, Chinese discovered that the White House petition site was beyond the censors' reach. Discussions about an unsolved case involving the poisoning of a university student named Zhu Ling in Beijing 18 years ago were being deleted from Chinese sites, so someone turned to the White House site. In a few days, a petition calling for an investigation of a suspect living in the U.S. gathered 100,000 online signatures — the threshold for an official White House response — and kept the discussion alive in China.

B.Y. said she went to the White House site to sign the petition for Zhu Ling. Then, she saw she could start her own petition as well.

"So, I wrote about Chengdu," B.Y. said in an interview conducted by instant message. Her petition, posted in English on May 7, notes public concern about the project and urges the international community to evaluate the plan and monitor its environmental impact.

The next day, she received a call from the domestic security personnel. "I got a shock today," she wrote on her Sina Weibo microblog. Two days later, she met with the officers at a police station near her workplace.

"I will be out to have some tea," she wrote Friday. "If I should not return in two hours, please report me as missing." Having tea usually means someone has been called by the domestic security personnel for a talk.

"It was merely a chat," B.Y. said in the interview. "They wanted to know what the opposing views were and if there were other issues the public are worried about."

Asked whether the White House had provided any information to Chinese authorities to help them identify the petition writer, White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said it does not disclose users' information to any outside person or organization.

Unable to remove the White House petition, B.Y. attempted to comply with the police request by deleting a Sina Weibo post that had called attention to the petition. But she is also continuing to post Chengdu pollution levels on her microblog.

Quoting a well-known Chinese author, Hao Qun, who goes by the pen name Murong Xuecun and whose own microblog was recently censored, B.Y. said, "I am going to stay here until the stone blossoms."

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Under-fire White House releases Benghazi ‘talking points’ emails

President Barack Obama speaks at a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, May 13, …Under heavy political pressure, the White House on Wednesday released 100 pages of internal Obama Administration emails in which senior officials debated what to tell Americans about the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Republicans have charged that the White House played down the role of suspected terrorists in the attack, which left four Americans dead including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. GOP lawmakers have said that President Barack Obama's reelection campaign did not want to undermine its message that al-Qaida was on the run. Obama has flatly denied any attempt to deceive the public, and on Monday he called the allegations a "sideshow" that dishonors the memories of those killed.

Some of the back-and-forth has centered on the email messages among top officials looking to craft "talking points" for members of Congress just a few days after the attack. The White House has accused Republicans of pushing "fabricated" messages to damage the administration.

On Wednesday, senior administration officials briefed reporters on the messages and provided binders of 100 pages of emails. The officials said the communications would show that the CIA led the changes to the talking points, including alterations that Republicans claim show a political motive. The officials went through the emails page by page.

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Under-fire White House releases Benghazi ‘talking points’ emails

President Barack Obama speaks at a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, May 13, …Under heavy political pressure, the White House on Wednesday released 100 pages of internal Obama Administration emails in which senior officials debated what to tell Americans about the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Republicans have charged that the White House played down the role of suspected terrorists in the attack, which left four Americans dead including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. GOP lawmakers have said that President Barack Obama's reelection campaign did not want to undermine its message that al-Qaida was on the run. Obama has flatly denied any attempt to deceive the public, and on Monday he called the allegations a "sideshow" that dishonors the memories of those killed.

Some of the back-and-forth has centered on the email messages among top officials looking to craft "talking points" for members of Congress just a few days after the attack. The White House has accused Republicans of pushing "fabricated" messages to damage the administration.

On Wednesday, senior administration officials briefed reporters on the messages and provided binders of 100 pages of emails. The officials said the communications would show that the CIA led the changes to the talking points, including alterations that Republicans claim show a political motive. The officials went through the emails page by page.

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White House: Obama is no Nixon

President Barack Obama at a May 13 press conference. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)The Department of Justice seizing reporters' phone records? The IRS apologizing for targeting conservatives?

The Richard Nixon comparisons seem to write themselves—much to the joy of Republicans working to cement the association between President Barack Obama and the former scandal-plagued president.

But when asked at Tuesday's press briefing about the White House's reaction to the recent Nixon comparisons, press secretary Jay Carney suggested those who made them were wrong.

"People who make those kinds of comparisons need to check their history," he said.

He then pivoted to the Benghazi "scandal," chalking it up to politics. "What we have here," Carney said, referencing controversy over the administration's handling of the 2012 attack, "is so clearly—as we're learning—more and more a political sideshow, a deliberate effort to politicize a tragedy."

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Glance: Senate and House farm bills

The House and Senate this week are considering legislation that would cut federal farm and food subsidies. A look at the bills:

OVERALL COST: Both five-year bills would cost about $100 billion annually, with almost $80 billion of that annual total going to domestic food aid. The Senate bill would save about $2.4 billion yearly from current spending, and the House bill would save around $3.8 billion, including about $600 million saved in each bill due to across-the-board spending cuts that kicked in earlier this year.

FOOD STAMPS: Food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, have for decades been part of the farm bill in an effort to garner urban lawmakers' votes for rural programs. The Senate farm bill would cut about $400 million from the $80 billion annual total by targeting states that give people who don't have heating bills very small amounts of heating assistance so they can automatically qualify for higher food stamp benefits. The House bill would cut $2 billion yearly by making similar changes and also eliminating what is called "broad-based categorical eligibility," or granting automatic food stamp benefits when people are signed up for certain other programs.

DIRECT PAYMENTS: Direct payments, which cost the government around $5 billion annually, would be phased out in both bills, with the savings split between other subsidy programs and deficit reduction. Those subsidies have been controversial because they are paid out every year regardless of crop prices or crop yield. The Senate bill would eliminate the program immediately while the House bill would phase it out over the next two years for cotton farmers who rely on the program.

CROP INSURANCE: Both bills would increase subsidies for federally-subsidized crop insurance and create a new crop insurance program that covers smaller revenue losses on planted crops before crop insurance kicks in. This revenue protection program favors Midwestern corn and soybean farmers and would be more generous in the Senate bill.

PRICE PROTECTION: Both bills would raise what are called "target prices" for some crops. Certain subsidies kick in if prices drop to those targets, meaning farmers will only receive them if prices are low. While many of these programs haven't been used for the last several years because crop prices have been at unprecedented highs, these subsidies exist as a safety net. Both the House and Senate bills would raise these target prices for rice and peanuts, since farmers of those crops also often depend on direct payments that would be eliminated. The House bill would raise those target prices higher than the Senate bill would, meaning it would be easier for the subsidies to kick in.

FOOD AID: Neither bill includes an Obama administration food aid proposal to shift the way food aid is sent abroad. The United States now donates much of its food aid by shipping homegrown food overseas, but the Obama budget last month proposed shifting the aid money to more flexible accounts that allow for cash purchases abroad or from U.S. farmers, saying such a move would be more efficient. Both House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have sided with farm groups against the proposal.

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House panel to formally question IRS commissioner Friday

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

The House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a formal hearing Friday to probe the Internal Revenue Service for placing heavier scrutiny on conservative groups that applied for nonprofit status between 2010 and 2012.

IRS Commissioner Steve Miller and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George are expected to testify Friday morning during the hearing, which committee leaders said would examine the agency's "practice of targeting applicants for tax-exempt status based on political leanings."

The IRS last week apologized for targeting groups that advocate for limited government by requiring them to fulfill onerous requirements before receiving tax-exempt status. A report from the inspector general detailing the agency's practices is expected to be published later this week.

"News that the agency admits it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both astounding and appalling," said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, in a written statement. "The Committee on Ways and Means will get to the bottom of this practice and ensure it never takes place again.”

President Barack Obama addressed the IRS' behavior during a brief press conference Monday, calling it, if true, "outrageous."

"If, in fact, IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outrageous, and there is no place for it," Obama said. "You don't want the IRS ever being perceived to be biased and anything less than neutral in terms of how they operate."

In March 2012, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman twice denied that the IRS had targeted conservative groups when pressed during hearings before the Financial Services and the Ways and Means Oversight subcommittees. Shulman's term ended in November 2012, when the current commissioner, Miller, was appointed. In an interview with the National Review's Robert Costa on Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Miller to resign.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday on Capitol Hill. Miller and George are the panel's only two witnesses.

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White House rebuffs Boehner on Benghazi-related emails

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during his daily news briefing at the White House on Friday, May, 10, 2013. …President Barack Obama's standoff with congressional Republicans over Benghazi escalated Friday as the White House rebuffed House Speaker John Boehner's demand that it turn over unclassified internal emails linked to the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 attack.

Press secretary Jay Carney rejected the request and again accused Republicans of trying to milk the tragedy for political gain.

“They’re asking for emails that they’ve already seen, that they were able to review and take extensive notes on, apparently provide verbatim information to folks,” Carney told reporters.

His comments came hours after ABC News reported that talking points crafted by the Administration to explain the attack to the public underwent extensive revisions at the State Department's request and with copious White House oversight.

"The fact that the very people who’ve reviewed this and probably leaked it – generally speaking, not specifically -- are asking for something they’ve already had access to I think demonstrates that this is what it was from the beginning in terms of Republican handling of it which is a highly political matter," the spokesman said.

Carney noted that key Republicans had been given access to internal emails in which officials discussed the drafting of the talking points. Lawmakers were able "to review them, take notes, spend as much with with them as they liked," Carney said.(But lawmakers were were not allowed to make copies or take the documents out, which is known as an "in camera" review. )

"There is a long precedent here for protecting internal deliberations. This is across administrations of both parties," he said. House Republicans have hinted they may try to subpoena the emails if the Administration does not cooperate.

"From the hours after the attack, beginning with the Republican nominee’s unfortunate press release, and then his statements the day after, there has been an effort to politicize a tragedy here, the deaths of four Americans," Carney said, referring to Mitt Romney's poorly received response to the attack.

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Internet sales tax bill faces tough sell in House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Traditional retailers and cash-strapped states face a tough sell in the House as they lobby Congress to limit tax-free shopping on the Internet.

The Senate voted 69 to 27 Monday to pass a bill that empowers states to collect sales taxes from Internet purchases. Under the bill, states could require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes when they sell products over the Internet, in catalogs, and through radio and TV ads. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Current law says states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the merchant has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don't have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

"This bill is about fairness," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill's main sponsor in the Senate. "It's about leveling the playing field between the brick and mortar and online companies and it's about collecting a tax that's already due. It's not about raising taxes."

The bill got bipartisan support in the Senate but faces opposition in the House, where some lawmakers regard it as a tax increase. Grover Norquist, the anti-tax advocate, and the conservative Heritage Foundation oppose the bill, and many Republicans have been wary of crossing them.

Supporters say the bill is not a tax increase. In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state tax returns. However, states complain that few taxpayers comply.

"Obviously there's a lot of consumers out there that have been accustomed to not having to pay any taxes, believing that they don't have to pay any taxes," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., the bill's main sponsor in the House. "I totally understand that, and I think a lot of our members understand that. There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has not commented publicly about the bill, giving supporters hope that he could be won over. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would have jurisdiction over the bill, has cited problems with the legislation but not rejected it outright.

"While it attempts to make tax collection simpler, it still has a long way to go," Goodlatte said in a statement. Without more uniformity in the bill, he said, "businesses would still be forced to wade through potentially hundreds of tax rates and a host of different tax codes and definitions."

Goodlatte said he's "open to considering legislation concerning this topic but these issues, along with others, would certainly have to be addressed."

Internet giant eBay led the fight against the bill in the Senate, along with lawmakers from states with no sales tax and several prominent anti-tax groups. The bill's opponents say it would put an expensive obligation on small businesses because they are not as equipped as national merchandisers to collect and remit sales taxes at the multitude of state rates.

Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees.

"The contentious debate in the Senate shows that a lot more work needs to be done to get the Internet sales tax issue right, including ensuring that small businesses using the Internet are protected from new burdens that harm their ability to compete and grow," said Brian Bieron, eBay's senior director of global public policy.

Some states have sales taxes as high as 7 percent, plus city and county taxes that can push the combined rate even higher.

Many governors — Republicans and Democrats — have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to government estimates.

States lost a total of $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales, according to a study done for the National Conference of State Legislatures, which has lobbied for the bill. About half of that was lost from Internet sales; half from purchases made through catalogs, mail orders and telephone orders, the study said.

Supporters say the bill makes it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send it to individual counties or cities.

Opponents worry the bill would give states too much power to reach across state lines to enforce their tax laws. States could audit out-of-state businesses, impose liens on their property and, ultimately, sue them in state court.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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Mark Sanford wins election for South Carolina House seat

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. --Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford defeated Democratic businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert Busch in a special House election for South Carolina's first congressional district, despite an expansive effort among Democrats to turn the district blue for the first time in more than 30 years.

The district seat, which was left open when former Republican Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate earlier this year, will remain in Republican hands. Before the results came in Tuesday, the seat appeared closer to going Democratic than at any time in the past thirty years.

Sanford, a candidate plagued by scandal after he admitted using public funds to leave the country to visit an Argentine mistress while governor, defeated 15 Republicans earlier this year to secure the party nomination. Aided by running in a solidly Republican district, Sanford overcame his past by arguing that the race was a referendum on President Barack Obama's policies, and that a vote for Colbert Busch would be synonymous with support for liberal Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Because of Sanford's blemished past, Democrats saw a rare opportunity to take control of the seat and poured significant resources into the effort. Had they been successful, the victory would have been an important symbolic victory that would have provided momentum for Democrats working to rebuild their majority in the House.

By winning the seat, Sanford will be returning to familiar territory: Before his first term as governor, he represented the district in the House from 1995 to 2001.

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Mark Sanford wins election for South Carolina House seat

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. --Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford defeated Democratic businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert Busch in a special House election for South Carolina's first congressional district, despite an expansive effort among Democrats to turn the district blue for the first time in more than 30 years.

The district seat, which was left open when former Republican Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate earlier this year, will remain in Republican hands. Before the results came in Tuesday, the seat appeared closer to going Democratic than at any time in the past thirty years.

Sanford, a candidate plagued by scandal after he admitted using public funds to leave the country to visit an Argentine mistress while governor, defeated 15 Republicans earlier this year to secure the party nomination. Aided by running in a solidly Republican district, Sanford overcame his past by arguing that the race was a referendum on President Barack Obama's policies, and that a vote for Colbert Busch would be synonymous with support for liberal Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Because of Sanford's blemished past, Democrats saw a rare opportunity to take control of the seat and poured significant resources into the effort. Had they been successful, the victory would have been an important symbolic victory that would have provided momentum for Democrats working to rebuild their majority in the House.

By winning the seat, Sanford will be returning to familiar territory: Before his first term as governor, he represented the district in the House from 1995 to 2001.

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Obama to Host Dinner for Top House Democrats

Continuing his Capitol Hill outreach, President Obama is set have dinner with the House Democratic leadership on Wednesday at the Jefferson Hotel, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, according to a White House official.

Most of the legislative focus early in Obama’s second term has been in the Senate. But as the president pursues a comprehensive immigration overhaul and a grand bargain on the budget, it is critical that the Democratic Party’s left flank does not abandon him.

The attendees of the dinner include Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra, Joe Crowley, Chris Van Hollen, Rosa DeLauro, Rob Andrews, Steve Israel, and Mike Thompson, the official said.

Already, many House Democrats have agitated about the president’s willingness to cut entitlement spending in exchange for additional tax revenues. There is also growing concern about the immigration package getting tugged too far right, as Republicans are pushing for tighter border security.

The dinner is the latest in a months-long series of outreach efforts that Obama has made to lawmakers. The meal comes days after the president played golf with three senators, Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado, Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee.

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White House denies Obama ad-libbed Syria ‘red line’ on chemical weapons

President Barack Obama answering a question about Syria during a news conference in Costa Rica on May 3. (Pablo …Did President Barack Obama really shock senior aides in August 2012 when he warned Syria publicly that using chemical weapons would cross a "red line"? No, the White House said Monday, rejecting a New York Times report.

"The president's use of the term 'red line' was deliberate and was based on U.S. policy," press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.

Carney also dismissed claims from a U.N. investigator that Syria's rebels, not President Bashar Assad's forces, used chemical weapons. "We find it incredible, not credible, that the opposition has used chemical weapons," he said. "We think that any use of chemical weapons in Syria is almost certain to have been done by the Assad regime."

His comments came after The New York Times, citing anonymous Obama advisers, had reported Saturday that the president's warning was "unscripted," and "went further than many aides realized he would." It also noted that advisers felt "surprise" and "wondered where the 'red line' came from." The daily cited one aide as saying that "Mr. Obama was thinking of a chemical attack that would cause mass fatalities, not relatively small-scale episodes like those now being investigated, except the 'nuance got completely dropped.'"

The Times report came with Obama under heavy fire for drawing a "red line"—Syrian strongman Assad's use of chemical weapons against rebels fighting to oust him—but seemingly not responding now that the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the regime has likely done so.

"What the president made clear is that it was a red line, and that it was unacceptable, and that it would change his calculus," Carney said. "What he never did—and it is simplistic to do so—is to say that 'if X happens, Y will happen.' He has never said what reaction he would take."

Some Republicans have charged that that's precisely the problem, that drawing a "red line" without specific consequences dents America's credibility.

Obama is "looking at a range of options, and he is not removing any option from the table" if it is conclusively proven that Assad's regime used chemical weapons, Carney said.

The press secretary also defended Israel's weekend air strikes in Syrian territory, saying, "It is certainly within their right to take action to protect themselves." Israel reportedly struck arms depots amid concerns that Syria would try to ship some high-tech weapons to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon who might use them to strike that U.S. ally.

Asked whether the violence in Syria, estimated to have claimed the lives at at least 70,000 people, amounted to genocide, Carney declined to use the term, saying that would be up to the United Nations and relevant courts.

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House Passes H.R. 588, Clearing a Path for Proper Recognition of Major Donors within the Education Center at The Wall

Senate will consider bill to eliminate "huge hurdle" to Education Center fundraising efforts

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This evening, with a 398-2 floor vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 588, the Vietnam Veterans Donor Acknowledgement Act of 2013. The bipartisan bill, authored by Congressman Don Young (R-AK) and co-sponsored by 38 other members of Congress, now moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration and action. When enacted, the bill will correct a problem with the original legislation that authorized the construction of the Education Center at The Wall, making it possible for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) to acknowledge donor contributions by displaying, inside the facility, an appropriate statement or credit acknowledging the contribution.

Read the full text of the bill here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:h.r.588:

VVMF's president and founder, Jan C. Scruggs says, "We are grateful for the work already done by Congressman Young and the bill's co-sponsors in the House. We are eager to get working in the Senate, and to work with Majority Leader Harry Reid, Chairman Ron Wyden and Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski to see this through."

The Education Center was authorized in 2003 by the 108^th Congress. Enabling legislation mandates that it be privately funded. While vigorous fundraising continues, the enabling legislation includes a restriction on donor recognition that inhibits a more successful effort among some of the potentially most generous donors. Recognizing donors in meaningful ways is an effective means of cultivating stronger relationships that may lead to additional, larger gifts, and stronger personal engagement.  Some potential donors over the years have delayed giving donations because of this issue.  H.R. 588 removes that restriction while respecting the inviolability of the National Mall.

The bill allows only short, discrete, and unobtrusive acknowledgments or credits; does not permit any advertising slogans or company logos; and complies with National Park Service (NPS) guidelines for indoor donor recognition. Final design approval will be granted by the NPS and will look similar to that on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial and other sites on the Mall.  The donor recognition envisioned for the Education Center will be inside this 43,000 sq. feet underground facility and will not be visible from the National Mall.  

Scruggs continues, "The Education Center has long since passed the design approval process and is now ready to move forward. Time is of the essence, and H.R. 588 is a clear, concise, and straightforward fix to a problem that has severely inhibited our fundraising efforts among substantial donors."

About VVMF and the Education Center at The Wall

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., promoting healing and educating about the impact of the Vietnam War.

The Education Center at The Wall will be a place on our National Mall where our military heroes' stories and sacrifice will never be forgotten. With plans to begin construction in 2015, the Center is a technologically-innovative learning facility to be built on the grounds of the Vietnam Veterans and Lincoln Memorials. Visitors will better understand the profound impact that the Vietnam War and other wars had on their friends and family members, their hometowns and the nation. The Center will feature the faces and stories of the more than 58,000 men and women on The Wall, honoring those who fell in Vietnam, those who fought and returned, as well as the friends and families of all who served. The Center will also celebrate the legacy of service that links the heroes of America's past to those still serving today. It will provide an opportunity for visitors from around the world to more fully understand and appreciate the extraordinary sacrifice of those who have given their lives in the nation's defense.  Visitors will not simply read their names.  They will see these patriots and get to know them in ways not envisioned in any other facility on the National Mall. The Education Center will truly be a place of learning and reflection about the values exemplified by the lives of those who have served and died for our country.

Learn more about the Education Center at The Wall by visiting www.vvmf.org or by calling 866-990-WALL.

Contact: Lee Allen
Phone: (202) 393-0090, ext. 109
lallen@vvmf.org

SOURCE Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

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Dog helps alert owner to house fire

File photo of Cocker Spaniel (Thinkstock)

Oz the dog helped save his owner's life when a fire broke out in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

WNEP reports that Randy Merlo was fast asleep in his home when Oz sensed something was wrong. Merlo told WNEP that the 12-year-old cocker spaniel woke him up on purpose.

"He was nudging me or whatever, what I can remember, he was nudging me, and I smelled smoke and we left. Saved my life, he probably did, most likely he did,” Merlo told WNEP. "He's a good dog."

Merlo and Oz escaped the blaze, but the house–a duplex–suffered extensive fire, smoke, and water damage. The fire reportedly originated in the basement of the vacant side of the building.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. "We determined the origin in the basement of the home. We’re saying incendiary, suspicious but still under investigation," Police Chief Brian Hollenbush told WNEP.

Cocker spaniels are known for their loyalty. PetWave, a site that focuses on the well-being of pets, writes that they are "loyal, endearing companions that crave–and thrive on–human attention." The Cozy Pet blog ranks cocker spaniels seventh in terms of breed loyalty. Number one? The German shepard. We think Oz might take issue with that.

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Internet sales tax bill to hit roadblock in House

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to require Internet shoppers to pay sales taxes for online purchases may be cruising through the Senate but it will soon hit a roadblock in the House.

"There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., one of the main sponsors of the bill in the House.

The bill would empower states to reach outside their borders and compel online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

Womack says the bill is not a tax increase. Instead, he says, it simply gives states a mechanism to enforce current taxes.

In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they file state tax returns. But governors complain that few people comply.

The Senate voted 63-30 Thursday to end debate on the bill, though senators delayed a final vote on passage until May 6, when they return from a weeklong vacation. Opponents hope senators hear from angry constituents over the next week, but they acknowledged they have a steep hill to climb to defeat the bill in the Senate.

President Barack Obama supports the bill.

Senate Democratic leaders wanted to finish work on the bill this week, before leaving town for the recess. But they were blocked by a handful of senators from states without sales taxes.

Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire and Delaware have no sales taxes, though the two senators from Delaware support the bill.

"I think it's going to be interesting for senators to get a response from constituents over this upcoming week," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "I'm not sure that the country knows that something like this coerces businesses all around America to collect other people's sales taxes."

The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail Federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.

Retailers who have lobbied in favor of the bill celebrated Thursday's vote.

"The special treatment of big online businesses at the expense of retailers on Main Street will soon be a thing of the past," said Bill Hughes of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. "The overwhelmingly bipartisan support for leveling the playing field is rare in today's political environment and paves the way for a level playing field once and for all."

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for local businesses that already collect sales taxes and for states that lose revenue. Opponents say the bill would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.

Many of the nation's governors — Republicans and Democrats — have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department estimates.

The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states lost $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales.

Anti-tax groups have labeled the bill a tax increase. But it gets support from many Senate Republicans who have pledged not to increase taxes. The bill's main sponsor is Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative Republican from Wyoming. He has worked closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a liberal Democrat from Illinois.

Under the bill, states that want to collect online sales taxes must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate the taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send them to individual counties or cities.

"Obviously, there's a lot of consumers out there that have been accustomed to not having to pay any taxes, believing that they don't have to pay any taxes," Womack said. "I totally understand that."

But, he added, "It's not a tax increase and states can easily employ the proper software for the people to pay. At the end of the day it becomes more or less a political decision, and I'm not real sure where the House is going to be on it."

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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House Republican offers few assurances on immigration bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two key authors of a bipartisan bill to revamp U.S. immigration laws said on Thursday that they are hopeful most Senate Democrats and Republicans will end up supporting their White House-backed measure.

"It is very doable," Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said of the prospects of attracting such backing. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York agreed.

Speaking at a breakfast roundtable with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, they said their aim is to muster strong support in the Democratic-led Senate to help the measure's chances in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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Boehner Uncommitted to Gun Votes in House

After the U.S. Senate voted down a slate of proposals to toughen the country's gun laws Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner today was non-committal on the prospect of considering similar measures in the House of Representatives. Still, the speaker maintained that the Republican-controlled committees of jurisdiction in the House will continue examining mental health and gun violence.

RELATED: Newtown Families: Gun Push Isn't Over

"Our committees continue to work at this," Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "No decision has been made beyond that."

When he was asked whether he will expedite consideration of a bill or follow regular order, in which a bill starts at the committee level, and, separately, whether he believes there should be a political price to pay for lawmakers who oppose stronger gun legislation, the speaker's tone carried a lack of urgency.

RELATED: 'Round One' Or A Knockout To Obama's Gun Agenda?

"Our committees are going to continue to look at the violence in our society and look at these tragedies and determine whether there are common-sense steps that we can take to reduce the chances of this," Boehner said. "The relevant committees are working on this issue. I'm going to continue to work with them, and when we have a decision to announce, we'll announce it."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are "so disappointed" by the Senate's failed efforts, but she said she will continue fighting for stronger gun measures.

"Something must be done, because that's what the American people expect and what they deserve," Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "What we want also is a vote. The American people can say to the leadership in the Congress, to the speaker of the House, give us a vote. Give us a vote in the House."

RELATED: Mark Kelly on Gun Vote: 'Gabby Is Angry Today'

Boehner has long maintained that he would wait until the Senate actually passes legislation - not simply takes votes on gun measures - before he considers any gun-related legislation on the House floor.

Today, despite the actuality of the Senate's failed votes, Pelosi urged Boehner to take up legislation without delay.

"If he was waiting for the Senate to act and now he feels he's - doesn't have any work to do, well, then that just says we're not the legislative branch," Pelosi said. "We're the first branch of government, the legislative branch. It is our responsibility to legislate, and we have our responsibility in the House to do that."

Rep. Mike Thompson, the chairman of the Democratic Task Force to Prevent Gun Violence, said that the failed vote in the Senate was "unexplainable," but is "not going to slow us or deter our work in regard to gun violence prevention."

"Every time I get in the car, the Garmin says, 'recalculating, recalculating,'" Thompson, D-Calif., joked. "We'll recalculate and get our bearing, and we're going to go forward on this. The American people want their Congress to take action to make their communities, their neighborhoods, their workplace and their schools safer, and we can do that while protecting the Second Amendment."

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White House celebrates the sounds of Memphis soul

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is celebrating the history and sound of Memphis soul music.

Legendary artist and younger acts, ranging from Sam Moore and Mavis Staples to Ben Harper and Justin Timberlake, were rehearsing at the White House on Tuesday to help President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama highlight that style of music at an evening concert.

Students from around the country participated in a workshop with some of the artists.

The event is the 10th installment in the "In Performance at the White House" series. It is scheduled for broadcast April 16 on PBS stations.

Starting in February 2009, the series has celebrated the music of Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Hispanic music, music from the civil-rights era, Motown and the blues, Broadway and country music.

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Eyeing Syria, White House woos regional rulers

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Barack Obama meets over the next month with leaders from Mideast and other regional nations, he will have a timely opportunity to try to rally the Syrian opposition's main backers around a unified strategy to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — whose Sunni Muslim leaders will meet separately with Obama starting April 16— are all believed to be arming or training rebel forces seeking to overthrow Assad's regime. But disparate political, geographic and religious considerations have led to conflicting approaches to which rebel factions to back and what kind of support to provide.

Infighting among mostly Sunni opposition groups and their failure to agree on a power structure to take over if Assad falls has been an important factor aiding the Alawite president as he clings to power two years into a civil war that has left at least 70,000 dead. Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and the civil war has largely broken down along sectarian lines.

As resolute as Obama and most U.S. allies are that Assad must go, officials are increasingly worried about what Syria will look like if the regime falls before opposition groups can agree on a governing structure. That has resulted in extra U.S. pressure on regional allies to convince the opposition to unite.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the high-level visits by leaders from the four nations reflect Obama's "deep personal interest" in the region and his commitment to the policies the U.S. is advocating.

"He will use these opportunities to discuss the complex developments in the broader Middle East," Carney said. "Not just Syria, but including Syria."

He pointed to other developments related to the Arab Spring and Obama's visit in March to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories as other topics the president would likely discuss with the Arab leaders. Secretary of State John Kerry also is returning to the Middle East on Saturday for meetings on Syria and Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Additionally, senior Obama administration leaders at the White House, State Department and Pentagon held a high-level meeting Friday that focused on Syria among its top national security priorities, according to two officials familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the talks to the media. Senior U.S. officials have been meeting regularly to discuss a range of options on U.S. involvement in Syria, including whether to arm the rebels.

The global community's response to Syria will also be high on the agenda next Thursday, when Obama meets with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the Oval Office. Washington has resisted arming the rebels, in part for fear that some weapons could fall into the hands of jihadi groups that are designated as terrorist fronts linked to al-Qaida.

But the U.S. has helped train some of the opposition fighters — mostly former Syrian regime soldiers who have defected — in Jordan and tacitly endorsed shipments of arms to the opposition from Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, Kerry said last month that the U.S. will not stop Western nations seeking to open the possibility of arming the rebels, including Great Britain and France.

But the bulk of the aid to rebels has come from Sunni-led governments in Turkey and the Mideast — as several Shiite leaders in the regions have spirited weapons, fighters and aid to Assad's forces.

Turkey and Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, are widely believed to have been providing rebels with tanks and surface-to-air missiles to fight regime soldiers. Salman Shaikh, a Mideast expert who specializes in Gulf politics, said those countries have strongly backed the opposition Syrian National Council and its allied fighters — which include elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists, as well as secular groups.

The United Arab Emirates, by contrast, has been unenthusiastic about aiding Islamist elements of the opposition. Shaikh said the Emirates is believed to be sending limited weapons, like small firearms and ammunition, to secular fighters but mostly have focused on supplying the opposition with humanitarian aid.

Syria's protracted civil war has been particularly taxing for Jordan, a close U.S. ally that shared its northern border with Syria and has absorbed more than 460,000 refugees fleeing the conflict — the equivalent of 10 percent of Jordan's population. It's been just a few weeks since a meeting between Obama and Jordan's ruler, King Abdullah II, in which Syria topped the agenda.

"We are extremely concerned of the risk of prolonged sectarian conflict that, if it continues as we're seeing, leads to the fragmentation of Syria," Abdullah said then, standing alongside Obama in Amman.

Jordan mostly has been helping train and arm rebel fighters who defected from Assad's forces and has done so with U.S. help. It also has served as a way station for rebels' weapons flow into Syria, and this week drew a harsh warning from Assad about "playing with fire" amid Jordanian fears that its larger neighbor might try to retaliate.

The two leaders will meet in Washington on April 26 in what one U.S. diplomat predicted will be Abdullah's attempt to ensure that he has full U.S. backing as Jordan's campaign to help the rebels continues. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks more candidly.

"Regional players will find it difficult to always be singing off the same sheet," said Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center think tank in Doha. "The U.S. hanging back and outsourcing a regional role is never going to achieve the goal of a unified opposition (to the regime) or even the military on the ground."

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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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Students help Michelle Obama plant White House vegetable garden

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First Lady Michelle Obama shared what has become a rite of spring in Washington with a small group of fifth-grade students on Thursday, planting vegetables in the White House garden.

On a day that began with record-cold temperatures that have pushed back the blooming season for the city's famous cherry trees, Obama welcomed about 30 students to help her plant the garden, a project she has championed as a model for children and their parents to emulate as a way to reduce childhood obesity.

"Where are your jackets? I'm going to be the mother," Obama joked with the group of earnest, polite kids, most wearing t-shirts bearing the names of their schools in Florida, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Vermont.

Obama has helped push for changes in school lunch rules to require more vegetables and fruit. The schools were chosen because they have implemented the new rules in creative ways and started their own gardens.

Harvard-educated Obama, who was more popular in polls during the 2012 election campaign than any of the candidates, started the garden on the White House south lawn in 2009, the first time vegetables had been grown there since Eleanor Roosevelt's "victory garden" during World War Two.

Obama, sporting sneakers without socks, put aside a pair of lime green gardening gloves as she crouched between two raised garden boxes, carefully placing tiny wheat kernels into freshly turned soil.

From Somerville, Massachusetts, 11-year-old Ariana Docanto chatted with Obama as she helped plant the wheat, which the White House hopes to harvest and use for bread and risotto.

Docanto described the experience in a single word: "Amazing!"

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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