In Memphis, Attorney General Holder Talks About Building Trust Between Communities and Law Enforcement

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Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Memphis and held a roundtable discussion on improving the relationship between the city's people of color and local law enforcement.

In the wake of the recent police-involved deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and others, the President has called for an increased effort to help rebuild communities' trust in local law enforcement and the justice system. In that vein, the Attorney General will be holding similar discussions in a number of other cities across the country.

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The U.S. Has A Surgeon General, For The First Time In 17 Months

A job that's been open in President Obama's administration since July of 2013 was finally filled Monday, as the Senate voted to confirm Vivek Murthy as America's new surgeon general.

The tally was 51-43, ending a confirmation process that began after Obama nominated Murthy to the post in November of 2013 — yes, that's one year ago.

"Dr. Vivek Murthy is an MD and an MBA," NPR's Tamara Keith reported in March. "He practices and teaches at Brigham and Women's Hospital and teaches at Harvard Medical School. He co-founded a clinical trials company, an HIV education organization and Doctors for America, formerly known as Doctors for Obama. And he isn't even 40 yet."

But the National Rifle Association was unhappy with the choice of Murthy, citing tweets he had written that said guns present a health-care issue.

"The NRA told lawmakers a vote for Murthy would be scored against them," Keith reported. "It seems the fact that question could even be asked was enough to put Murthy's nomination on ice."

Doubts cast over hostage mediator appointment

BEIRUT: Doubts were cast Monday over the rumored appointment of a new mediator in negotiations to secure the release of 25 Lebanese servicemen held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front. While the Nusra Front’s official Twitter page did not mention the alleged appointment of Tripoli Sheikh Wissam Masri as a mediator, media reports quoted Masri as saying he had been commissioned by the group.

Muslim Scholars Committee member Sheikh Adnan Amama claimed that the Nusra Front officially announced Masri’s appointment, basing his account on a statement purportedly circulated on WhatsApp by the extremist group, he told The Daily Star. The authenticity of the statement, which was attributed to the Nusra Front, could not be verified.

According to the professed statement, which was provided to The Daily Star by Amama, Masri contacted the Nusra Front and expressed his willingness to take the lead on negotiations. “We [Nusra] don’t mind continuing negotiations through him,” it read.

However, the document provided by Amama featured marked differences from previous statements issued publicly by the group. Key markers, such as the group’s logo, appear different. The date of publication, which in previous statements appeared on the bottom of the page, was not included.

The signoff, from “Nusra Front’s Administration in Qalamoun” is the first time such a signature was used.

The statement included conditions for negotiations to resume, including the release of the ex-wife of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Saja al-Dulaimi, as well as Ola al-Oqaili, wife of ISIS commander Anas Sharkas. Another condition called on civilians in and around Arsal to be protected.

Amama said that the Muslim Scholars Committee had decided to “freeze” its initiative to mediate the release of the servicemen after receiving the statement. “The Lebanese government doesn’t want to appoint us and apparently neither does Nusra,” he said.

Masri could not be reached when contacted by The Daily Star.Sheikh Jasem Askar, a mediator who negotiated for the body of executed soldier Mohammad Hammieh and averted, albeit temporarily, the execution of captive policeman Ali Bazzal, told The Daily Star that he had received another statement in which the Nusra Front denied Masri’s appointment.

Askar could not provide the statement to The Daily Star.

“The Nusra Front denied that it had appointed any mediator but said that it welcomed any party approved by the Lebanese government,” Askar said, paraphrasing the document.

Hussein Youssef, father of captive soldier Mohammad Youssef held by ISIS, also could not confirm whether the Nusra Front had indeed appointed Masri as their mediator. “The families of the hostages did not receive any information from the captors concerning the appointment of a new mediator,” he said, adding that to his knowledge the group “didn’t even release a statement announcing it.”

Masri, a member of Lebanon’s Salafist Gathering, owns a pastry shop in Tripoli’s Abu Samra neighborhood. Known for his moderate stances, Masri has served as the imam of several mosques in Tripoli, including the Qibbeh, Sunna and Ihsan Mosques. Currently, he is the imam and preacher of the Abul Anwar Mosque in the Souq al-Dahab neighborhood.

Speaking to MTV television station, Masri said he would only accept to become the new mediator if he was formally commissioned by the Lebanese government to do so within 48 hours.

Earlier Monday, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said that Lebanon actually held several strong cards it could use in the negotiations, but that greater consensus among government parties must be achieved before resorting to these cards. “We hold many strong cards and we need greater consensus over them in order to launch work,” he said in a radio interview.

According to the General Security head, the Lebanese government had resorted to several negotiation channels with the captors, all of which have been indirect, and “unfortunately a lot of those channels have failed.”

Ibrahim invoked a proverb that says “too many cooks spoils the broth,” as an indication to the involvement of several mediators over the hostage dossier, which reflected negatively on the process. “Dealing with such issues does not require emotions, but mind and firmness,” he said.

Meanwhile, relatives of Lebanon’s captive servicemen burned tires outside the Grand Serail in Downtown Beirut Monday after receiving phone calls from militants threatening to kill a hostage within 48 hours unless the government responded to their demands.

The kidnappers issued the threats after receiving reports that the state had told the families that it “would not negotiate and that the captives should be considered martyrs,” Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said after meeting with the families at the nearby Agriculture Ministry.

But Abu Faour denied that a decision had been made by the government to consider the captives martyrs.

Lebanon, U.N. seek $2.14B for refugees

BEIRUT: Stabilizing Lebanon amid a deluge of 1.2 million Syrian refugees was the focus of a joint response plan launched Monday which highlighted support for host communities and public institutions. The government and the United Nations are asking the international community for a record $2.14 billion in funds to finance next year’s refugee response plan, which uniquely emphasizes investing in Lebanese services, communities and institutions, reaching 2.9 million people in the poorest parts of the country.

On hand to launch the plan alongside Prime Minister Tammam Salam was United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.

“[The plan] is meant to draw the contours of what needs to be done to mitigate the negative effects of the multifaceted and protracted crisis we have been suffering from as a result of the events in Syria,” Salam said, addressing a gathering of government representatives, U.N. officials and civil society at the event, held at the Grand Serail.

“Despite unified expressions of concern over the unavoidable security consequences of this situation and the threats it poses for the stability of the country and beyond, few practical measures have been effectively decided upon by the international community to defuse these threats,” Salam said, exempting Saudi Arabia’s $3 billion grant to support the Lebanese Army.

The prime minister expressed hope that the plan would serve as a road map enabling donors to focus their funding on key government sectors and communities affected by the influx of Syrian refugees. “New concerns with extremist attacks and terrorism are intensifying.”

“There is no doubt that worsening socioeconomic parameters are a catalyst, drawing greater numbers of desperate young people into the illusory and paradoxical realm of finding hope in violence.”

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said the adoption of the plan by the Cabinet was the outcome of lengthy deliberation by the Crisis Cell, headed by Salam.

Eliasson said the “innovative” plan was designed to reinforce stability while directing resources to vulnerable areas and institutions. “The plan promotes priorities for stabilization identified by the government,” he said. “It will put in place arrangements for the government to lead the response. It clearly reflects government priorities, consistent with internationally recognized norms.”

The response will continue to deliver humanitarian assistance to displaced Syrians and other vulnerable groups while expanding plans to invest in Lebanese services and institutions. It incorporates three main strategic objectives, including providing basic assistance and protection, strengthening service delivery capacity and reinforcing public institutions.

Last year’s record appeal of $1.89 billion was only 46 percent funded as of early December, prompting concern among NGOs about diminishing funds in the face of growing needs of both refugees and host communities.

Speaking to The Daily Star, UNHCR country representative Ninette Kelly said this year’s response aimed to broaden the scope and reach out to more donors.

“It’s not just a humanitarian appeal,” she said. “Through this plan we are trying to cast the net wider and to attract more support from the development community and donors that bring support to public institutions in a manner that we haven’t been able to do to the extent necessary before.”“There have been significant investments in institutional support,” she said, citing the over $93 million channeled to host communities last year. “These are important investments but they are simply not enough to help Lebanon withstand the very serious shocks that it continues to take as a result of the Syrian crisis.”

Drafting this year’s plan, Kelly added required partners to identify areas specifically designed for stabilization as opposed to those meant to facilitate humanitarian response such as waste and water management which benefits entire communities.

Chronic underfunding last year prompted the UNHCR to make “heart wrenching” cutbacks in education and health care services. “There are many people who are literally scraping to get by, who send their children out to work because they have no other means of support,” she said. “We simply don’t have enough income support to provide to keep them from having to resort to those very desperate measures.”

“In 2015 Lebanon faces delivering electricity, water, waste collection, education and health care services to a population that has grown by a third in just four years,” U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ross Mountain said. “No country in the world could be expected to manage such a situation on its own – not even the most highly developed.”

Saudi deputy crown prince calls for presidential solution

BEIRUT: After meeting Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea in Riyadh Monday, a high-ranking Saudi official called for the swift election of a new president in Lebanon, according to a statement issued by Geagea’s office.

Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz also pledged continued support to strengthen Lebanon’s stability and sovereignty.

Geagea arrived in Riyadh Sunday on an official visit for talks with senior Saudi officials on regional developments and the 6-month-old presidential stalemate. He is also expected to meet former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to discuss ways to end the vacancy in the country’s top Christian post.

Muqrin and Geagea reviewed “the political conditions in the region, including Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon, where the two sides agreed on the need to hold the Lebanese presidential election as soon as possible,” the statement said.

Muqrin assured the LF chief that “Saudi Arabia will continue its support for Lebanon in all steps that will boost its stability, sovereignty and the security of its people,” it added.

For his part, Geagea, who is on his second visit to the kingdom this year, thanked Saudi Arabia for its grants totaling $4 billion to purchase weapons “to bolster the Lebanese Army and enable it to confront terrorism and all the dangers threatening Lebanon.”

An LF source confirmed that Geagea would meet with Hariri to discuss, among other things, the presidential deadlock. Hariri has called for the election of a consensus president as the only way to break the deadlock.

LF MP Antoine Zahra said Geagea was discussing with Saudi officials the “regional circumstances that can help hold the presidential election.”

“Saudi Arabia does not interfere in the presidential election and we are not dragging it [to do so],” Zahra told MTV station.

Geagea’s visit comes as efforts have been stepped up to arrange a meeting between Geagea, the March 14-backed presidential candidate, and his arch-political foe, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition for the presidency.

It also coincided with attempts to launch a long-awaited dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah with the aim of facilitating the election of a president and defusing sectarian tensions fueled by the war in Syria.

On the eve of his Saudi visit, Geagea sounded pessimistic about electing a president in the near future.

“I don’t see a quick solution to the presidential crisis as long as Gen. Michel Aoun remains adamant on his stance: either he becomes president or no president,” Geagea said in an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour published Monday. He did not deny his own presidential aspirations.

“I will continue to run for the presidency, even though I am not attached to [the decision], until I see an alternative or a solution for the presidential election,” he said.

Geagea reiterated his willingness to face off with Aoun in a presidential vote in Parliament.

“Lebanon should not be left with a presidential vacuum,” he said. “Either Aoun and I go to Parliament as presidential candidates ... or let us sit together to agree on certain names to take to Parliament.”

The Kataeb Party called for the election of a president without foreign interference.

“The Kataeb Party renewed its firm stance on giving priority to an internal dialogue to find effective solutions to the current crises, at the forefront of which is the presidency, which has been suffering from vacancy for seven months,” the party said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by its leader Amine Gemayel.

It lamented Parliament’s failure for the 16th time last week to elect a president due to a lack of quorum and called for breaking the deadlock by “insisting on making the election a Lebanese affair through working to create a favorable climate for the presidential vote.”

Meanwhile, two Future MPs said the upcoming dialogue with Hezbollah would reduce sectarian tensions.

“Dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah is a national necessity to cool off the situation, reduce tensions and find an opening in the presidency issue,” MP Ammar Houri said.

MP Hadi Hobeish said preparations were still underway to launch the Future-Hezbollah talks.

“The entire public opinion today supports the [Future-Hezbollah] dialogue because it will defuse tensions,” he told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Musawi praised the planned talks with the Future Movement.

“We are open positively to national dialogue, which leads to consolidating national unity and preventing divisions,” he told a memorial ceremony in south Lebanon.

Saudi deputy crown prince calls for presidential solution

BEIRUT: After meeting Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea in Riyadh Monday, a high-ranking Saudi official called for the swift election of a new president in Lebanon, according to a statement issued by Geagea’s office.

Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz also pledged continued support to strengthen Lebanon’s stability and sovereignty.

Geagea arrived in Riyadh Sunday on an official visit for talks with senior Saudi officials on regional developments and the 6-month-old presidential stalemate. He is also expected to meet former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to discuss ways to end the vacancy in the country’s top Christian post.

Muqrin and Geagea reviewed “the political conditions in the region, including Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon, where the two sides agreed on the need to hold the Lebanese presidential election as soon as possible,” the statement said.

Muqrin assured the LF chief that “Saudi Arabia will continue its support for Lebanon in all steps that will boost its stability, sovereignty and the security of its people,” it added.

For his part, Geagea, who is on his second visit to the kingdom this year, thanked Saudi Arabia for its grants totaling $4 billion to purchase weapons “to bolster the Lebanese Army and enable it to confront terrorism and all the dangers threatening Lebanon.”

An LF source confirmed that Geagea would meet with Hariri to discuss, among other things, the presidential deadlock. Hariri has called for the election of a consensus president as the only way to break the deadlock.

LF MP Antoine Zahra said Geagea was discussing with Saudi officials the “regional circumstances that can help hold the presidential election.”

“Saudi Arabia does not interfere in the presidential election and we are not dragging it [to do so],” Zahra told MTV station.

Geagea’s visit comes as efforts have been stepped up to arrange a meeting between Geagea, the March 14-backed presidential candidate, and his arch-political foe, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition for the presidency.

It also coincided with attempts to launch a long-awaited dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah with the aim of facilitating the election of a president and defusing sectarian tensions fueled by the war in Syria.

On the eve of his Saudi visit, Geagea sounded pessimistic about electing a president in the near future.

“I don’t see a quick solution to the presidential crisis as long as Gen. Michel Aoun remains adamant on his stance: either he becomes president or no president,” Geagea said in an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour published Monday. He did not deny his own presidential aspirations.

“I will continue to run for the presidency, even though I am not attached to [the decision], until I see an alternative or a solution for the presidential election,” he said.

Geagea reiterated his willingness to face off with Aoun in a presidential vote in Parliament.

“Lebanon should not be left with a presidential vacuum,” he said. “Either Aoun and I go to Parliament as presidential candidates ... or let us sit together to agree on certain names to take to Parliament.”

The Kataeb Party called for the election of a president without foreign interference.

“The Kataeb Party renewed its firm stance on giving priority to an internal dialogue to find effective solutions to the current crises, at the forefront of which is the presidency, which has been suffering from vacancy for seven months,” the party said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by its leader Amine Gemayel.

It lamented Parliament’s failure for the 16th time last week to elect a president due to a lack of quorum and called for breaking the deadlock by “insisting on making the election a Lebanese affair through working to create a favorable climate for the presidential vote.”

Meanwhile, two Future MPs said the upcoming dialogue with Hezbollah would reduce sectarian tensions.

“Dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah is a national necessity to cool off the situation, reduce tensions and find an opening in the presidency issue,” MP Ammar Houri said.

MP Hadi Hobeish said preparations were still underway to launch the Future-Hezbollah talks.

“The entire public opinion today supports the [Future-Hezbollah] dialogue because it will defuse tensions,” he told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Musawi praised the planned talks with the Future Movement.

“We are open positively to national dialogue, which leads to consolidating national unity and preventing divisions,” he told a memorial ceremony in south Lebanon.

New food safety law expected to be ready by New Year

BEIRUT: The bad taste left over from last month’s food scandal is just starting to fade, but in the bowels of Lebanon’s Parliament, the subcommittee tasked with addressing the revelations of moldy labneh and tainted meat is busy at work.

Led by MP Atef Majdalani, who also heads up Parliament’s Health Committee, the group convened Monday in order to continue its discussion of the newly revived food safety draft law.

“The subcommittee met in order to follow up and discuss the articles of the law,” said Majdalani after the meeting, adding that the bill should be finalized before the New Year.

“We were able to achieve [enough] progress so that we are almost done with all the articles except for those dealing with the committee and its formation,” he said, referring to the National Committee for Food Safety that would be formed as part of the draft law’s implementation.

The committee will be responsible for monitoring the various stages of the food industry in the hope of improving the quality of products provided to citizens, and will also act as an umbrella authority to bring together the relevant administrations and ministries.

But although the practicalities of the new body have yet to be worked out, the officials were able to discuss and agree on its jurisdictions.

“What’s most important is that we agreed to create a mechanism for collaboration between the committee and the concerned ministries,” Majdalani said.

One of the biggest flaws highlighted by the food scandal last month, which saw Health Minister Wael Abu Faour name and shame restaurants and food and water suppliers selling contaminated or spoiled goods, was the lack of coordination between the numerous ministries and administrations involved in the industry.

Among those hardest hit by the crackdown were factories producing dairy products such as labneh, normally some of the country’s biggest milk consumers. The closure of over half a dozen such facilities that violated food safety standards has led to a drop in the price of milk as a result of the decrease in demand.

The health, agriculture, economy and industry ministers met Monday in order to resolve the issue after local farmers in eastern Lebanon began staging protests over the falling prices.

Milk went from LL1,100 per liter to around LL700, while the farmers said that it still cost them LL900/liter to produce.

In response, a meeting between the ministers, milk producers, cow breeders and some factory owners led to a decision to fix the price of milk back at LL1,100.

“The Agriculture Ministry is the one responsible for setting the price for each liter of milk that is sold to the factories,” said Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb after the meeting, adding that they wanted to protect the sector, not destroy it.

However, he pointed to a number of irregularities found at the factories that have been temporarily shuttered.

Some are mixing labneh with preservatives and vegetable oils and selling the strained yoghurt product on as freshly made, he said, which is against the food safety rules.

“It’s also forbidden to use powder milk as if it’s liquid milk, and it’s forbidden to import cheese and sell it as a Lebanese product,” he added. “The ministry is monitoring and following up, there are punishments, but at the same time there are incentives.

But Abu Faour revealed that some institutions had been taking advantage of the drop in milk prices to blackmail their peers into clearing their name.

“I will name one: Taanayel Les Fermes, which hasn’t been examined yet so we don’t have results for it,” he said, referring to health safety inspections that have been conducted in dairy factories throughout the Bekaa Valley.

Abu Faour explained that Taanayel had attempted to bribe struggling dairy farmers by saying it would buy milk from them if they pressured the Health Ministry into publicly announcing that Taanayel met national safety standards.

“This blackmailing of the government will prompt me to take legal action,” the minister warned.

Continuing his backing of Abu Faour’s controversial campaign, Prime Minister Tammam Salam Monday reiterated that all efforts should be exerted to protect citizens.

“I know that the most notable dimension of agricultural matters is that which concerns food,” Salam said. “We are today in the midst of the ‘Abu Faourian’ revolution for food safety.”

Salam also praised Chehayeb for the work he has done, and expressed his hope that the new, more vigorous food safety standards become a long-term thing.

But not everyone is on board with Abu Faour’s public blacklisting of eateries and businesses, with some ministers pointing to the potentially negative effect on the economy.

“When fabricated and illogical information is released, this incurs great damage on the owners of businesses, to the extent that they are destroyed economically,” Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan warned.

He pointed out that the food production industry employed approximately 50,000 workers and constituted 4 percent of Lebanon’s gross domestic product, and said he believed credit should be given to institutions that have worked to resolve the ministry’s complaints.

Salam walks fine line to preserve Cabinet unity

Premier Tammam Salam appears to be walking on a tightrope in his attempts to maintain unity within his divided Cabinet, which leaves important issues unresolved.

Since he formed a 24-member Cabinet last February following an 11-month deadlock, Salam has called for a consensus among ministers on any decision, while stressing that divisive issues should be brushed aside.

After the Cabinet began exercising the president’s prerogatives following Parliament’s failure to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year term ended on May 25, Salam has adopted the collective vote formula, which requires the approval of the 23 ministers on important decisions.

However, obtaining the approval of the 23 ministers on any decision has proved difficult, if not impossible, in many cases prompting Salam to postpone discussion of contentious issues.

Salam has never said that he heads a parliamentary bloc that allows him to impose a solution, or to enter into an alliance with a specific party inside the Cabinet to break the ice in any of the outstanding issues, especially those related to the citizens’ daily life such as electricity, phones and garbage collection.

Instead, he has always repeated that political forces represented in the Cabinet should be aware of their responsibilities.

Without a consensus among these forces on small and big issues inside the Cabinet, Salam said, “nothing can be decided and the solution in this case is the postponement [of outstanding issues] and formation of ministerial committees.”

Political observers disagree in assessing the performance of Salam who is heading “a government of national interest” representing the country’s rival factions. This government was born in a Caesarean operation following an 11-month wait and as a result of a Saudi-Iranian understanding sponsored by France.

There is one faction that sees Salam adopting the “sponge policy” which sucks up all differences and contradictions inside the Cabinet in order to avert its collapse. Salam realizes that any major blow can lead to the toppling of his Cabinet, which was formed on the basis of inharmonious balances, which make it vulnerable.

So every time differences emerge among the ministers over any issue, the prime minister postpones discussion or at best he forms a ministerial committee to deal with the situation.

This faction holds Salam responsible for the presence of too many “heads” inside the Cabinet when he decided to adopt the collective vote formula which requires the approval of the 23 ministers, overriding the Constitution which stipulates voting with a majority on normal issues, or a two-third majority on key issues.

There is another faction that sees Salam as unlikely to disagree with anyone because he considers that his Cabinet is not exercising executive power only, but also the president’s prerogatives.

Yet, some “wily” observers say that Salam is adopting a policy to disassociate himself from ministerial differences so that he can stay in a neutral position that qualifies him to return to the Grand Serail, the prime minister’s office, if Lebanon’s next president was the result of a political compromise.

Overall, political observers say that Salam’s performance has presented a unique case in the traditions of exercising power by prime ministers, particularly in the post-1989 Taif Accord period.

This period saw some prime ministers, like former premier Rafik Hariri, upholding their prerogatives and role, and others, like former premier Fouad Siniora, running the Cabinet sessions in a professional manner but with shrewdness.

However, Salam, with his political performance, has introduced a new political phenomenon that has its negative and positive aspects.

This phenomenon is worthy of following up as long as Salam has been able to protect his government from collapse.

Clearly, Salam has managed to overcome political and security “traps” set in the way of his government since it was formed 10 months ago.

The NYPD Definitely Missed the Point of A Few Good Men

This morning, the NYPD tweeted a picture of Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men along with his infamous "You can't handle the truth!" speech. "Motivation Monday- courtesy of Jack Nicholson in 'A Few Good Men'" was the text the NYPD used to accompany the image. In case you haven't seen A Few Good Men, Nicholson's character, Colonel Nathan Jessup, is defending the unlawful murder of a U.S. Marine. After delivering the impassioned speech, he is arrested. Here's the NYPD tweet, which has since been deleted:

Now, what probably happened here was the poor municipal employee tasked with running the NYPD Midtown South's Twitter account came across a meme of Jack Effing Nicholson yelling about the truth, thought "hell yeah," and promptly tweeted the badass image.

Of course, the timing of the gaffe couldn't look worse. The NYPD hitting "send" on a tweet advocating unlawful murder in the midst of nationwide protests of the police brutality resulting in the deaths of unarmed civilians is almost comically tone-deaf. One could easily read the tweet as a brazen defense of the murder of Eric Garner, if it wasn't so much easier to read it as simple ignorance.

Senate Set To Vote On Surgeon General Nominee

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

After months of delay, the Senate is poised to approve President Obama's choice to be the next surgeon general, Vivek Murthy. NPR's Mara Liasson tells us about Murthy and the controversy.

Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Tennessee Governor Moves To Expand Medicaid Coverage

i i

Gov. Bill Haslam announces his proposal to expand Medicaid in Tennessee at the state Capitol in Nashville Monday. Erik Schelzig/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Erik Schelzig/AP

Gov. Bill Haslam announces his proposal to expand Medicaid in Tennessee at the state Capitol in Nashville Monday.

Erik Schelzig/AP

Following the lead of other Republican governors, Tennessee's Gov. Bill Haslam is moving to expand Medicaid in his state, using federal funds from the Affordable Care Act. Haslam announced the plan Monday morning; it'll be debated by the legislature next month.

From Nashville, Bobby Allyn of member station WPLN reports:

"Gov. Bill Haslam said expanding Medicaid under the president's terms didn't make sense for Tennessee, a deeply red state. Instead, he sought a waiver from the president's program —- going after the same goals but giving it a different name.

"Haslam said he's no fan of furthering a system he described as 'broken.' At the same time, he defended the Tennessee plan much the same way Democrats have pushed for expanding coverage, saying, 'A plan that would leverage those federal dollars to really begin the work of fixing what is wrong with our healthcare system to better align incentives for providers and consumers.'

"Tennessee's expansion plan is expected to cover an additional 200,000 low-income residents."

With the move, Haslam becomes the third Republican governor to push for a Medicaid expansion since last month's midterm elections, The Washington Post reports.

The roots of those decisions dates to 2012, when the Supreme Court declared two things: that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional – and that states were free to choose whether or not to expand their Medicaid programs.

Many conservative governors opted against expansion, complicating the health care law's goal of having Medicaid cover more people with lower incomes – according to this year's guidelines, it would apply to single people making up to around $16,000 a year and families of four with an income around $32,000.

This morning, WPLN reported on a push by volunteers to help Tennessee residents enroll in "Obamacare," saying that more than 2,870 people had signed up in just one zip code. The initiative focused on "areas with high numbers of uninsured people," the station says.

In North Carolina, the push to expand Medicaid led a town's mayor to walk to Washington, D.C., this summer, seeking support for the only hospital that serves his rural town of Belhaven and neighboring counties.

In at least 20 states, the question of Medicaid expansion is either up for debate or the state's leaders have decided against it. You can see a map showing where states stand on the issue at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

President Obama: "Nashville Shows How Immigrants Benefit All"

Earlier today, The Tennessean published the following op-ed from President Obama. In it, he discusses his executive actions to help make America's immigration system smarter and fairer, and why we still need Congress to pass a common-sense law to fix the system.

Learn more about the actions the President is taking on immigration.

Many Americans think of Nashville as the home of country music, barbecue, and a hit TV show. What they may not realize is that, in recent years, Music City also has had one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the country.

"New Nashvillians" are from Somalia and Nepal and Laos. They're from Mexico and Bangladesh. Nashville even boasts the largest Kurdish community in the United States. They work as teachers in our schools, doctors in our hospitals, and cops in our neighborhoods. They start small businesses and create jobs making this city a more prosperous, more innovative place. "They" are "us."

When done right, immigration benefits everyone. But our immigration system has been broken for a long time. Families who try to come here the right way can get stuck in line for years. Business owners who treat their workers right see the competition exploit undocumented immigrants. None of us likes the idea that someone could reap the rewards of living in America without its responsibilities. And folks who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities have no way to come out of the shadows and get right with the law.

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Lebanon holds 'strong cards' in hostage crisis: General Security chief

BEIRUT: Lebanon holds several strong cards it could use in negotiations with the captors of 25 Lebanese servicemen, but greater consensus must be achieved before these cards are used, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Monday.

“We hold many strong cards and we need greater consensus over them [before] launching work,” Ibrahim said in a radio interview.

The Iraqi ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Saja al-Dulaimi, is currently under formal arrest, while Ola al-Oqaily, the wife of ISIS commander Anas Sharkas, is in the custody of General Security.

Lebanon is seeking to use the two women as strong cards with the captors in order to secure the release of the Lebanese hostages.

According to the General Security head, the Lebanese government had resorted to several negotiation channels with the captors, all of which have been indirect, and “unfortunately a lot of those channels have failed,” he said.

He noted that indirect channels between the government and the captors have not been closed, clarifying that several mediation paths remain open.

Ibrahim invoked a proverb that says “too many cooks spoils the broth,” as an indication to the involvement of several mediators over the hostage dossier.

These actors volunteered their involvement out of love for the country, he said, but mediators should not act out of emotion. The should work objectively and factually, he added.

Ibrahim also announced that a General Security post would be opened in the northeastern town of Arsal in the coming days and another in the border town of Shebaa in two weeks.

Is Ted Cruz Running For President...In 2008?

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday, as the Senate considered a spending bill. Lauren Victoria Burke/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Lauren Victoria Burke/AP

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday, as the Senate considered a spending bill.

Lauren Victoria Burke/AP

Yes, we know the 2008 presidential election is years in the past and will not come around again. The question is, does Sen. Ted Cruz know this?

The question arises because the junior senator from Texas, in hot pursuit of the presidency, has chosen a trail blazed by Barack Obama six years ago. Obama was in the midst of his first Senate term when he barged into a field that featured Hillary Clinton, then a second-term senator from New York, and several other seasoned veterans of national politics. The word was audacity, and it was right there in the title of Obama's book.

When the upstart from Illinois emerged the Democratic nominee that summer and the winner in November, many foresaw a wave of emulation. We now have Cruz, the constitutional crusader, generating White House buzz in just his second year in office, just as Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts does ditto on the left. And that's not to mention old-timers like Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, running hard for national notice as they finish their fourth year in the Senate.

Few now recall the days when senators and governors felt they needed the credential of at least one re-election before launching themselves at the White House. That notion now seems as ancient as the 19^th century bromide about how "the office seeks the man."

Even in this age of galloping ambition, the 43-year-old Cruz rides ahead of the pack. While Obama liked to quote Martin Luther King's line about "the fierce urgency of now," Cruz seeks to embody it at every turn. He speaks for those conservatives most fiercely urgent about battling the current president at every available moment. He has made their cause his own. He did it in October 2013, when he engineered a brief and partial shutdown of the federal government over Obamacare. This past weekend, he tried to do it again.

This time, the immediate target was Obama's recent executive action deferring deportation for more than 4 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Calling it "executive amnesty," Cruz insisted on resisting the bipartisan budget deal that would fund immigration operations through February (and the rest of the federal government through September). Never mind that Republican leaders of the House and Senate had negotiated the deal with their Democratic counterparts and the president, and never mind that a bipartisan majority in the Senate planned to proceed with it.

Like every senator, Cruz is entitled to vote any way he wishes on the budget deal. Warren, among others, joined him in opposing it. But Cruz wanted also to force a point of order on the constitutionality of a budget that pays for a policy Cruz regards as unconstitutional. And he wanted the Senate to stay in session all weekend to deal with both issues, regardless of long-laid plans for this pre-holiday weekend.

Cruz, in just two years as the Hotspur of the Senate floor and committee rooms, may have already set a record for rapid alienation of colleagues – on both sides of the aisle. But his latest foray produced a new low in his intramural relations. His confreres did not appreciate either his freelancing or the self-righteous disdain he showed for their distress.

But beyond that, Cruz proved heedless in another way with real consequences. By forcing a Saturday session, he created extra innings of Senate floor time not anticipated by McConnell. And that opened a window of procedural opportunity for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who used it to advance two dozen controversial presidential appointments. These nominations might have languished when Republicans took over as the Senate majority in January. Now, they are poised to win approval by the Democrats in the waning hours of their majority status. They include a new surgeon general, a new head of the immigration agency and a batch of federal judges who may be on the bench for decades.

Cruz can maintain that none of the fallout from his disruption really matters when compared to the principles at stake. And surely there are those who agree and honor him for his stand. But if he is also counting on being a martyr and a hero in the eyes of party activists – the people who will choose the party's next leader — he may find his timing is off.

The Obama example is a powerful goad to the young and the driven in both parties, just as John F. Kennedy's was to another generation of politicians half a century ago. But will voters in 2016 be looking for another gifted orator from Harvard Law to rise from the Senate's back benches?

After eight years of a president who reached the pinnacle of power almost overnight, the country may be looking for something different. As a candidate, Obama was inspiring — an avatar of youth and idealism. As president, he has often seemed less than fully up to the task, lacking the savvy and personal political skills that might have helped him succeed.

In 2016, some may be looking for another telegenic sensation who has just burst on the scene — too big for the confines of one statehouse, or too dynamic to stew in the Senate. But as a rule, in choosing presidents, American voters have alternated between older faces and younger, between the fresh and the familiar, and between the rousing and the reassuring.

It will not take much study to decide which kind of candidate is on offer in Mr. Cruz.

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"Warning Shot": Sen. Elizabeth Warren On Fighting The Banks, And Her Political Future

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (right), a member of the Senate banking committee, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House financial services committee, express their outrage to reporters that a $1.1 trillion spending bill that was passed in Congress contains changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that regulates complex financial instruments known as derivatives. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (right), a member of the Senate banking committee, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House financial services committee, express their outrage to reporters that a $1.1 trillion spending bill that was passed in Congress contains changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that regulates complex financial instruments known as derivatives.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Updated at 9:30 a.m. ET

Sen. Elizabeth Warren failed to stop a change in bank regulations last weekend, but raised her profile yet again.

The Massachusetts Democrat tells NPR that her fight over a provision in a spending bill was a "warning shot." She intends to continue her fight against what she describes as the power of Wall Street, even though that fight brought her to oppose leaders of her own party.

In recent weeks, Warren challenged one of President Obama's nominees to a senior post at the Treasury Department, arguing that he was too close to powerful banks. Then, last week, she denounced a $1.1 trillion spending bill that had been passed by the House and approved by Senate leaders as well as President Obama.

Warren, a hero to many among her party's liberals, objected to a provision that would undo a new financial regulation.

"Republicans slipped in a provision at the last minute that would let derivatives traders on Wall Street gamble with taxpayer money and then get bailed out by the government when their risky bets threaten to blow up our financial system," she told NPR.

The measure involves complex financial trades called derivatives that can be hugely profitable but also hugely risky.

A provision of the Dodd-Frank law required banks to create subsidiary companies to do their trading — with their own money. The idea was to create a firewall between the banks' trading and customers' deposits, which are federally insured.

The spending bill that the Senate passed over the weekend eliminates the new rules, and keeps financial trading within the banks.

NPR's Steve Inskeep spoke with Warren about the financial provisions in the spending bill, challenging her party's leadership and calls for her to run for president in 2016.

Interview Highlights

INSKEEP: You said they slipped it in, which is true — it did get tacked on to this much larger legislation about something else. But isn't this a provision that did go through the regular legislative process in the House of Representatives? There were committee hearings. There were Democrats as well as Republicans who voted for it.

WARREN: You know, it was literally never introduced in the Senate. It had no hearings. There was no discussion about this. And let's keep in mind about this provision, this is a provision that Citigroup lobbyists literally wrote. And then, just to make sure that everybody got the point, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, personally made phone calls to House members to push for this change. I think that tells you what was really going on here. They want to be able to juice their profits. A half-dozen of the largest financial institutions in this country want to be able to take riskier bets, and, hey, if it doesn't work out, they want the U.S. taxpayer to bail 'em out. I think that's a bad idea.

You mentioned that current bank executives wanted this change. But they were able to point out that over the years — there have been years of debates about this very rule — over the years that people who have thought this change would be OK have included Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who's widely respected. He is on record as long ago as 2010 saying that other parts of banking regulation take care of this issue and this seems to be needlessly complicating things.

I think that it's fair to say that this is a very complicated provision and that it was a compromise when it was put in. My view on it, however, is that we should have something stronger here, not that we should just knock it down and get rid of a provision that's designed to prevent government bailouts.

Isn't it true that whether the government directly insures the transaction or not, the government sort of is? Because these are institutions regarded as too big to fail. We're going to bail them out if they fail anyway.

Well, you know, that is the risk we run right now, is that we have a handful of giant banks in this country that were too big to fail in 2008, got bailed out by the taxpayer and are now bigger than they were then, and are again loading up on risks. But, you know, whichever way you think is the right answer here, I know for sure that this shouldn't be slipped into an omnibus spending bill — a bill that must pass in order to keep the government open. And what it means, if this works, is they can just kinda keep slipping grenades and attach them to, you know, must-pass spending bills, and pretty soon we have no financial regulations at all.

Sen. Warren, some people will know that you challenged your party's leadership on this shortly after your party added you to the Democratic Senate leadership. How did it work in this very early case in which you disagreed with the leadership?

Look, these are issues I've worked on for most of my career. I am glad to be in leadership, I am grateful to have a, a place at the table, but my priorities haven't changed. I'm gonna stand up and fight for what I believe in.

Well, what does it say about your party that the party leadership in the Senate and apparently elsewhere, including the White House, was not with you on this?

You know, actually, I want to say that differently. You know, the president said he was very much opposed to this provision. There were a lot of Democrats who were opposed to this provision. You know, once the House passed an omnibus bill with this in it and threw it over to the Senate — and then the House left town — at that point, there was very little choice but either to pass the omnibus, even with this thing in it, or shut down the government. And we didn't want to shut down the government.

Sen. Warren, as you must know, that even as you were fighting over this in the Senate, there was a group called Ready for Warren that wants you to run for president, that released a letter signed by more than 300 people who describe themselves as former Obama campaign workers and staffers and aides. They want you to run. What do you say to them?

I'm, I'm not running for president. That's not what we're doing. We had a really important fight in the United States Congress just this past week. And I'm putting all my energy into that fight and to what happens after this.

Would you tell these independent groups, "Give it up!" You're just never going to run.

I told them, "I'm not running for president."

You're putting that in the present tense, though. Are you never going to run?

I am not running for president.

You're not putting a "never" on that.

I am not running for president. You want me to put an exclamation point at the end?

(Laughs) OK, that's fine. Can you tell me, Senator, how you see your role over the next couple of years presuming that you don't run? You've raised your profile in a way that few Democrats have been able to do recently.

You know, I'm just here to stand up for hardworking families who just want a fighting chance. That's what I'm in this fight for, and I'm in this fight all the way.

Lebanon food safety campaign damages the economy: Industry Minister

BEIRUT: Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan criticized Monday the health ministry's food safety campaign for what he said was a negative impact it has had on the economy and food exports.

“The impact on [business revenues], when fabricated and illogical information is released, incurs great damage to the owners of institutions, to the extent that they are destroyed economically,” he said in a news conference.

The campaign has mostly delivered accurate information with regards to the violators but “not all cases” are true, he added.

Hajj Hasan also noted that once a company is blacklisted, it is very difficult for it to bounce back even after they clear their violations because news that a food establishment has addressed its violation does not generate media attention.

Hajj Hasan said that the food safety campaign has conveyed a “distorted image” of Lebanese production. Giving an example, the industry minister said that if 10 dairy producers violated health safety standards, then that does not mean that the 250 dairy producers in Lebanon all fail to meet health regulations.

“We should not generalize in this case. Some export orders have been cancelled because of what has been discussed recently,” he added.

The industry minister noted that the food production industry employs approximately 50,000 workers and constitutes 4 percent of Lebanon’s GDP.

According to Hajj Hasan, the food industry’s pivotal role in the Lebanese economy urges caution with regards to measures taken against food violators, especially the decision to close down a factory.

The comments came after Hajj Hasan met with the ministers of agriculture and health to agree on the prerogatives of each amid the food safety campaign.

They agreed that food safety violations within factories would fall under the prerogatives of the industry ministry.

Any ministerial inspector that reveals any violation inside a factory must first notify the industry ministry who would then decide on what measures to take.

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Lebanon PM urges long-term fix to food safety crisis

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam praised the health ministry's "revolutionary" food safety campaign Monday, but called for a long-term solution to ensure that the efforts do not fizzle out over time.

“I know that the most notable dimension of agricultural matters is what concerns food and its safety,” Salam said.

“We are today in the midst of the 'Abu Faourian' revolution for food safety," and we have to make sure that all its health standards remain in place to protect the health of citizens, Salam added, referring to Health Minister Wael Abu Faour.

Salam also hailed Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb’s performance in the food safety campaign.

Though spearheaded by the health ministry last month, Abu Faour's campaign has also relied on partnerships with other ministries, most notably the agricultural and economy ministries.

Salam's comments came during a news conference at the agricultural ministry.

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Jumblatt slams historic Beirut building demolition

BEIRUT: MP Walid Jumblatt Monday blamed the culture minister and the governor of Beirut for the demolition of the historic Art Deco building in Gemmayzeh.

“With the destruction of an old building in Gemmayzeh that dates back to the 20s during the French mandate period and knocking down a new archaeological site in Gemmayzeh to build a tower to earn hefty profits, one would wonder about the role of the Ministry of Culture in this issue and the role of the governor of Beirut who allowed this to happen,” Jumblatt wrote in his weekly column for Al-Anbaa newspaper.

"Perhaps no one has drawn the ministry’s or the governorate’s attention to the importance of this historical building or the presence of Roman remains in that region that could be exposed to theft or destruction resulting from the establishment of a residential building even though the property is very small and does not accommodate large and luxurious projects,” he added.

Jumblatt slammed this “destructive policy” and called for immediate action to stop these projects before “drowning Beirut in more systematic distortion.”

Gemmayzeh residents woke up Friday to the sound the historic building being torn down.

The pinkish corner building, which has been empty for several years, boasts a number of distinctive features, including stylized wrought iron balcony railings and bay windows.

Culture Minister Raymond Areiji had said that he tried to save it by freezing the demolition request, but was overruled by the Shura Council, a body that checks the legality of administrative decisions and whose decision is final.

The only option available to the ministry was to compensate the owner, engineer Mohammad Rashid Atweh, which it was not able to do.

Although he could not recall the specific file for Atweh’s property, Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib, who gives final approval to all such requests, said the law was clear: “If the owners or builders have a license, their work’s status is legal.”