On Links As In Life, D.C. Bipartisan Relations Are Deep In The Rough

i

Hill staffers and PGA professionals mingle Wednesday at this year's National Golf Day event on Capitol Hill, which included an annual Democrats versus Republicans putting challenge. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Jan/NPR

Hill staffers and PGA professionals mingle Wednesday at this year's National Golf Day event on Capitol Hill, which included an annual Democrats versus Republicans putting challenge.

Emily Jan/NPR

Earlier this week, members of Congress and their staffs were greeted by a makeshift golf expo set up on the Rayburn House Office Building.

The event included golf shot simulators, certified golf instructors and a putting challenge between Democrats and Republicans. It was all part of National Golf Day, an annual event organized by the industry that promotes the economic and health benefits of the sport.

American politicians have had an affinity with golf dating back at least as far as William Howard Taft, the first-known president to hit the links. Since then, Democrats and Republicans alike have enjoyed game. But as hyperpartisan politics have become more commonplace in Washington, bipartisan golf outings have disappeared like a shanked tee shot into a water hazard

i

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn talks with PGA professional Bob Dolan Jr. at the National Golf Day event on Capitol Hill. Clyburn is an avid golfer, and the Democrat says that earlier on in his career, he learned a lot about bipartisanship on the golf course. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Jan/NPR

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn talks with PGA professional Bob Dolan Jr. at the National Golf Day event on Capitol Hill. Clyburn is an avid golfer, and the Democrat says that earlier on in his career, he learned a lot about bipartisanship on the golf course.

Emily Jan/NPR

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the third ranking Democrat in House leadership, said that when he first came to Washington in the early 1990s, golf was something political rivals did together regularly.

"I really learned bipartisanship up here on the golf course, and it allowed me to develop relationships across the aisle. And sometimes I'd be the only Democrat there — often the only African-American — but it taught me a lot. And I hope the experience taught some of them a lot," he said.

Clyburn, who took part in the event's putting challenge, admits that as years have passed, golf has stopped being used to chip away at bipartisan divides.

One needs to look no further than the closely watched relationship between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. Shortly after Republicans regained control of the House following the 2010 midterm elections, many wondered if the two would get together for a round of golf to iron out their differences.

It finally happened in June 2011. According to reports at the time, it was a cordial outing — Boehner clapped when the President sank a putt, and Obama put his hand on Boehner's shoulder as they were exiting a green.

i

President Obama points to Vice President Biden's putt as they and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, golf at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., in June 2011. Charles Dharapak/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama points to Vice President Biden's putt as they and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, golf at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., in June 2011.

Charles Dharapak/AP

But a month after that golf outing, the negotiations between the two on raising the nation's debt ceiling collapsed.

Sweetness And Light

Golf May Be Too Polite A Sport For Presidential Politics

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is an avid golfer, and still has a lot of power in his swing for an 81-year-old. Like Clyburn, he believes the decline in across-the-aisle golf outings has led to missed opportunities.

"It's still one of the best ways to communicate with one another and solve a problem — on the golf course," Young said.

Young admits there are still some bipartisan outings, but far fewer than there used to be. He said one reason is that members don't stick around Washington on weekends, when Congress isn't in session.

Former Republican Rep. Michael Oxley, who represented Ohio's 4th Congressional District for a quarter-century, said he played golf with many Democrats before his retirement in 2007, including former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill.

i

A staffer participates in the annual Democrats vs. Republicans putting challenge. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Jan/NPR

A staffer participates in the annual Democrats vs. Republicans putting challenge.

Emily Jan/NPR

"When I ran for Congress, of course, Tip was the boogeyman among Republicans," Oxley said.

Oxley said the two golfed together and hit it off. He even remembers O'Neill's odd device at the handle end of his putter — a suction cup, so O'Neill didn't have to bend down to pick his ball up out of the hole. He admits there wasn't a whole lot of good golf played, but says it wasn't about that — it was about laying the groundwork for a good working relationship.

"I can't remember one time when I've cut a deal specifically on a specific piece of legislation on the golf course, because it's just generally frowned upon," Oxley said. "But the prearranged relationship that you've developed over time on a golf course gives you that avenue to make deals at a later date."

Any chance current members of Congress can learn something from their predecessors?

Rep. Clyburn will golf in Hilton Head, S.C., this weekend, and his trip suggests the lack of links bipartisanship will persist a bit longer: The list of House colleagues who will join him is all Democrats.

i

Eric Werwa, left, Deputy Chief of Staff for Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., gets some tips on his swing from a PGA professional at the National Golf Day event on Capitol Hill. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Jan/NPR

Eric Werwa, left, Deputy Chief of Staff for Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., gets some tips on his swing from a PGA professional at the National Golf Day event on Capitol Hill.

Emily Jan/NPR

A Ticking Clock Threatens Obama's Immigration Plan

A federal appeals court in New Orleans heard oral arguments in a case that could determine the viability of President Obama's plan to temporarily shield more than four million undocumented immigrants from deportation and issue them work permits.

At stake is whether the president will get to implement his plan before his term expires.

In a rare hearing before a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, government lawyers asked the judges to issue an emergency stay of the February ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen. Such requests are usually confined to written briefs. Each side was allotted an hour to argue—twice as much as is generally heard in a Supreme Court case.

Hanen, based in Texas, had ruled the president had overstepped his authority and violated the law governing administrative procedures in announcing his executive action on immigration back in November. Judge Hanen also said that the state of Texas would incur costs associated with issuing driver's licenses to immigrants who gained legal status.

Texas is leading a 26 state coalition suing to challenge the president's executive action.

Arguing for the Justice Department, Benjamin Mizer, said Texas had no standing because immigration policy is set by the federal government.

"If Texas is right, it could challenge an individual's right to seek asylum," Mizer said. "The states do not have standing in the downstream effects of a federal immigration policy."

But Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller argued that his state does have a stake in immigration policy. In a statement issued after the more than two hour hearing, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said:

"President Obama's executive amnesty program would grant legal status to individuals who are unlawfully in this country, making them eligible for benefits under federal and state programs. These benefits include work permits, tax credits, Social Security, Medicare, driver's licenses, unemployment insurance and the right to international travel."

Attorneys for both sides were frequently questioned by two of three panelists. Judge Jennifer Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, appeared skeptical of the administration's defense of the President's executive action. Similarly, Obama appointee Judge Stephen Higginson appeared more open to the government's arguments.

A third judge, Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, was mostly silent throughout the hearing, according to MarieElena Hincapie, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center, who attended the hearing. Her group supports Obama's executive action.

The sounds of several hundred immigration activists protesting outside could be heard from inside the courtroom.

Going into this hearing, many court watchers had noted that the administration could face a tough time since the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considered the most conservative appellate court in the country.

The judges did not rule. A decision is not generally expected for another few weeks.

The hearing is only one act in the legal drama over the president's immigration plan. If the panel rules against the president, his administration could request an en banc hearing or take an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Hanen is still scheduled to hold a trial on the constitutionality of Obama's executive action. The administration would certainly appeal an adverse ruling from a judge who has already thrown one roadblock in front of the president's plan.

Ultimately, time may not be on President Obama's side, says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

"All of this legal jousting will probably consume many months and may well run out the clock, as the Obama Administration draws to a close," said Tobias.

President Obama Welcomes Italian Prime Minister Renzi to the White House

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy participate in a press conference in the East Room of the White House, April 17, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Earlier today, President Obama hosted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the White House for a bilateral meeting and a working lunch.

At the press conference between the two events, President Obama praised Prime Minister Renzi's energy and vision as well as his "willingness to challenge the status quo and to look to the future," noting that these qualities have made the Prime Minister a leading voice in Europe.

read more

Police storm Roumieh block to quell riot

BEIRUT: Anti-riot police stormed a block in Lebanon’s largest prison Friday evening in a bid to end a riot by Islamist inmates who took several guards hostage to protest the prison’s strict regulations, a security source told The Daily Star.

After surrounding all entrances to Block D of Roumieh prison and issuing a warning to the prisoners, police units stormed the prison once negotiations hit a dead end. The operation continued till late Friday.

The riots began during the evening meal, after which inmates are usually confined to their cells for the night.

A number of prisoners in the newly rehabilitated Block D set their mattresses on fire, and a blaze spread throughout the second floor, prompting Civil Defense teams to intervene.

The inmates then escalated their riot by blocking all entrances and taking the guards hostage, the source said.

The riots come in response to the stricter regulations that the prison authorities have adopted to prevent the smuggling of drugs and weapons to inmates.

Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk posted on his Twitter account that “the situation is under control and Roumieh prison will not return to its past chaos, whatever the price.”

The security source said the prisoners responsible for the riots were mostly Islamists who had been incarcerated in Roumieh’s notorious Block B building, which was emptied and shut down after a large-scale police operation in January.

Inmates had enjoyed relative autonomy in Block B and prevented security forces from entering.

After the clearing operation took place, television footage showed that prisoners had no cell doors and operated a barber shop and a coffee shop in Block B.

Footage also showed inmates on Block B had a large amount of electronic equipment, including TV sets and mobile phones.

Some of the prisoners are members of Islamist fundamentalist groups and had also been imposing Shariah law inside Block B, reports said.

Roumieh prison has been the scene of repetitive riots in past years, with inmates protesting crowded cells and slow trials.

The largest riot occurred in April 2011, when inmates set their beds on fire and broke down cell doors, in protest over subpar living conditions.

In memory of Basil Fuleihan,10 years on

Ten years after my beloved brother Basil’s passing I can still remember that morning in the U.S., when amid the business of the morning rush to work and school on Feb. 14, 2005, we heard the NPR news mention a big explosion in Beirut. It was already afternoon in Beirut. The report was vague but ominous. The phone call that followed corroborated my worst fears. Basil survived the blast that took the life of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and many others, however, after a valiant struggle and the best efforts of the medical community, my brother succumbed to his injuries on April 18 that year.

Basil and I grew up in Beirut in a small nuclear family surrounded by many cousins, second cousins and friends with whom we still share dear memories of that idyllic childhood and the games we played during our summers in the mountains and at the beach. With time, our friendship grew stronger and continued on, growing across continents in spite of the Civil War that forced us to live in distant places. Basil never waivered to play his role as brother and uncle to my three daughters by keeping in touch and visiting as much as possible. When he and Yasma became parents to two beautiful children, I could feel his deep pride and love for his own family.

From an early age, Basil had strong opinions and the confidence to express and defend them. His sharp mind thrived, encouraged by our parents, who had a profound respect for our thinking and points of view. His devotion to Lebanon was clear from a very early age when, barely 7, he made the case for the necessity of our family returning to Lebanon after my father was offered the opportunity to continue his medical career in the United States. Such was Basil’s love for his country. It brought my father back to Lebanon, where we continued our schooling and later steered Basil toward his career choice.

Throughout his short life, Basil distinguished himself with his strong sense of fairness and justice and an ability to bring people together. He loved life and laughter and never missed an opportunity to tease. He loved his friends and family, who all respected him and loved him back. Mostly he believed in fairness for all regardless of their religion, gender or race. He had a skill to solve problems in order to achieve harmony and happiness among a group of people, be it family, friends or co-workers. His sense of humor and optimism put people at ease and paved the way to surmount obstacles. This undoubtedly helped his career in government where he worked to make a difference in people’s lives and help in the economic recovery of Lebanon.

Even though Basil was my younger brother, I looked up to him, literally, for he always made sure to point out the two extra inches that nature gave him over me and figuratively, as he approached life with optimism, humor, courage, love and passion. His loss has left a huge gap among his family, friends and colleagues. I am comforted seeing his personality and intellect expressed in his beautiful children, Rayna and Rayan.

“Dear Basil, although your life was cut short by a ruthless and criminal act, you demonstrated all the qualities of true leadership and achieved more than many of us can dream of. You have touched and enriched our lives and your example will continue to inspire us and give us strength. We miss you dearly; your smile will not fade from our memory; your light shines brightly in your beautiful children, Rayna and Rayan and in all our hearts.”

Your Loving Brother Ramsay

Dr. Ramsay Fuleihan is a professor in pediatrics-allergy and immunology living in Chicago, United States.

Yasma Fuleihan struggles on without her husband Basil

BEIRUT: Yasma Fuleihan has been interrupted by a phone call from a well-known U.N. official. She greets the voice on the other end of the receiver with a lightheartedness honed over the last 10 years and lists her engagements matter-of-factly – ambassadors, dinner, family, the children. As she listens, Yasma’s eyebrows rise and fall. “You know how Basil is,” she says, using the present tense to describe her deceased husband.

The widow of Basil Fuleihan, the former economy minister who died from wounds sustained in a bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others on Feb. 14, 2005, has maintained a low profile in Geneva since his death. She returns to Lebanon periodically on April 18 to commemorate Basil’s death publicly. Privately, that fateful day remains a vivid fixture in her mind – when she retells it, her body seems to relive it.

After Yasma had dropped the kids, now 15 and 13, to school, Basil called from Beirut to wish her a happy Valentine’s Day. Despite having the option of flying directly to Beirut from Geneva Feb. 15, Basil chose to take the route via Paris two days earlier so he could get to the Lebanese capital in time for the parliamentary session Feb. 14, the day Hariri’s motorcade was attacked. When Basil said goodbye, he said he would call her back once he left Parliament.

Yasma was shopping when her mother called and asked frantically whether Basil was with her. She said he was in Beirut and her mother fell silent. She described the following hours as like “being in a tsunami.” Immediately Yasma called her husband’s mobile and got an out of service signal. Terrified of what awaited her at home, she went to a friend’s house. The calls poured in, the panic of uncertainty set, plane tickets were purchased and two months beside her dying husband’s side in a hospital in Paris went by. Ten years later, Yasma says her sense of reality, as she once knew it, is irretrievable and altered.

“It’s a struggle, because you have to be strong for the children. It’s not easy, sometimes I fall,” she says.

“And then I dream of Basil, like he came back and feel,” she searches for the words, “like a release, and the dream feels so real.

“Then I wake up and realize. But I feel stronger somehow.”

The couple had grown up in houses facing each other in Beirut but didn’t meet until they were young adults in Washington D.C., where Yasma was attending university and Basil was working with the International Monetary Fund. After a six-year engagement, they were married.

“Life is irony,” Yasma says, recalling how months before his death Basil had marveled at how the seating area in Hariri’s new private plane could be converted to an intensive care unit. The plane would eventually transport Basil’s burned body out of Lebanon to France.

The children bear a striking resemblance to their father, and like him have excelled in math and science. Both are adept young musicians, playing piano and violin at a conservatory while completing high school studies in a rigorous Swiss program. The siblings have expressed interest in pursuing engineering as a career, but Yasma is reluctant to carve out a definite path for their futures.

“The children, they know what they want,” she says, adding philosophically, “No matter what we think, we don’t realize that we humans are fragile.”

Her daughter Rayna wants to pursue studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne. Yasma says the precocious young teen already has preferences about which one of her girlfriends she wants to dorm with.

To deal with their father’s passing, Yasma had the children write poems about their feelings. “We talk about everything, I tell them everything,” she says. When they were younger, they drew pictures for him which their mother would dutifully hang on the trees surrounding his grave. They learned the details about his death as they got older. Initially Yasma told her children their father had died because “God had an economic issue,” she says.

“I’ve had to become not just their mother, but their father and also friend,” she says. “But even with that, no one can replace a father.”

Her son Rayan complains that he is “always surrounded by women” in the house. When the kids asked if they could have another sibling, Yasma got them a pet dog. “Each one deals with it differently – my daughter because she is the oldest asks more questions, her brother listens.”

In her efforts to keep the memory of their father alive – Rayna’s WhatsApp profile picture is of her with Basil on the last ski trip they took together a week before his death – Yasma cautions them not to harbor hatred for those responsible for his murder. “The criminal, once they kill someone, they kill everyone [who loved that person]. If you fall into that trap, you will want revenge and it becomes a never-ending cycle,” she says. “It would destroy everything.”

Taking over full responsibilities for the household and rearing the children sometimes can almost prove too much for Yasma. “It’s hard when a part of you is missing,” she says. “At every event, when they graduate from school, we think about how Basil isn’t here.”

Week In Politics: Trans-Pacific Partnership, 2016 Presidential Candidates

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

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with political commentators E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times about a busy week in Washington, D.C. with progress on trade. They also take a look at the 2016 presidential candidates so far.

Lawmakers Approve Bill To Help Finalize Asia-Pacific Trade Deal

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

Senate negotiators move forward on legislation that would give President Obama the authority to negotiate a sweeping trade accord. That deal, however, will align Obama with Republicans and pit him against Democrats.

Oklahoma City Bombing A 'Wake-Up Call' For Government Security

i

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was "literally right up against the road so it was extremely vulnerable," said architect Barbara Nadel. One of the government's first responses was to close a two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption AFP/AFP/Getty Images

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was "literally right up against the road so it was extremely vulnerable," said architect Barbara Nadel. One of the government's first responses was to close a two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Twenty years ago this Sunday, a truck bomb exploded next to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. One hundred sixty-eight people were killed in the blast, hundreds were injured.

The bombing prompted heightened security at federal buildings — around the nation, and especially here in Washington.

One of the government's first responses to the bombing was closing a two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.

It had been a major thoroughfare in Washington, dubbed "America's Main Street." It was busy with car and truck traffic from the Capitol, to the White House and west to Washington's original commercial center, Georgetown.

i

The road in front of the White House, seen here in 1941, was a major thoroughfare dubbed "America's Main Street." AP hide caption

itoggle caption AP

The road in front of the White House, seen here in 1941, was a major thoroughfare dubbed "America's Main Street."

AP

But the blast in front of the Murrah building changed all that. The Secret Service feared that someone could park a truck bomb yards from the White House. So in May 1995, President Clinton announced its closing. "Clearly, this closing is necessary because of the changing nature and scope of the threat of terrorist actions. It should be seen as a responsible security step necessary to preserve our freedom, not part of a long-term restriction of our freedom," he said.

The Oklahoma City bombing "was the wake-up call," said Barbara Nadel, a New York-based architect and author of Building Security. "It was almost a precursor to 9/11 and many of the things we've seen around the world since then."

She says the Murrah building in Oklahoma City was an inviting target for an attack. "That building was smack up against the street. It was literally right up against the road so it was extremely vulnerable."

According to Nadel, the government had no standards for security design before Oklahoma City.

i

After the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton announced the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. It remains closed to cars today. Brian Naylor/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Brian Naylor/NPR

After the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton announced the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. It remains closed to cars today.

Brian Naylor/NPR

Les Shepherd disagreed. He's the chief architect for the General Services Administration, the landlord for most federal agencies. He said the GSA has "always addressed security. I think we've gotten more specific about the minimum security requirements so it's always been part of the consideration, but I think we've just looked to ensure that it doesn't happen again."

After Oklahoma City, the GSA determined that federal buildings from now on should be set back from the street, that blast-resistant glass should be used and the buildings themselves engineered to prevent floors collapsing.

But has the government now gone too far in the other direction? After Oklahoma City and the 9/11 attacks six years later, cement flower planters sprouted and, concrete jersey barriers rose up in front of federal buildings. It seemed as though the government was walling itself off from the people.

U.S. Commission of Fine Arts Secretary Thomas Luebke called the debate over security versus openness and aesthetics "the issue of the decade." His agency reviews designs for federal buildings in Washington.

"How can we tame this stuff, how can we make these barriers not seem so intrusive" and "not degrade the public experience?" he asked.

The GSA's Shepherd said it is a balancing act. "If you look at the new buildings that we've done in the last 20 years" there has been "a special emphasis that the buildings do not look like a fortress," he said. "They are public buildings, we recognize that."

Luebke said the government has gotten better at taming what he calls the security beast, using landscaping to disguise barriers, and removing the big cement flower planters.

The Two-Way

Florida Mailman Who Flew Gyrocopter Onto Capitol Lawn Charged

Architect Nadel said the government, architects and engineers need to design buildings "that are welcoming, accessible open and humane, and there is a lot of support for creating wonderful architecture that really is emblematic of the American spirit and democracy."

Still the challenge of protecting government buildings continues to evolve. Now officials have to worry about things like drones landing on the White House grounds and an auto-gyrocopter that landed near the Capitol building earlier this week.

5 Things You Should Know About Mike Huckabee

i

Huckabee greets supporters ahead of his victory in the 2008 Iowa caucus. Eric Thayer/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Huckabee greets supporters ahead of his victory in the 2008 Iowa caucus.

Eric Thayer/Getty Images

When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ran for president in 2008, he surprised many political watchers with a big a victory in the Iowa caucus. "What we have seen is a new day in American politics," he said after he was declared the winner. "This election will start a prairie fire of hope and zeal."

An ordained baptist minister, Huckabee drew in one of the party's key constituencies — evangelicals. Of course, John McCain went on to secure the Republican nomination, and Huckabee went on to become a talk-show host.

Huckabee didn't run in 2012, but could make a comeback in 2016 — he says he'll make an announcement Friday "about my 2016 decision."

Here are five things you might not know about the former governor:

1. He's run marathons.

i

Huckabee ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005. Kevin Wolf/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Kevin Wolf/AP

Huckabee ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005.

Kevin Wolf/AP

In 2003, Huckabee took up running after he says a doctor scared him straight about his weight and he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He's run marathons in Arkansas, New York and Washington D.C.

"I didn't want to be one of those obnoxious reformed people. I'm just a beggar telling other beggars how to find bread — whole grain, of course," he told Runner's World in 2005. "I'm someone who did it wrong for 47 years, digging my grave with a knife and fork."

2. He commuted the sentence of a man who later allegedly killed four police officers.

Huckabee's pardon record has been scrutinized, and could very well come up during a 2016 run. As governor, he issued more than 1,000 pardons and commutations, more than his three predecessors combined, per the Washington Post . One man was later suspected of shooting four police officers in Takoma, Wash.

"If I could have known nine years ago this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would never have granted a commutation," Huckabee told Fox News.

3. He has a $3 million beachfront home.

The home was subject of a Reuters investigation last year, which reported that it lay on a severely eroding beach, where state regulations wouldn't have allowed him to build. However, permits were approved after he agreed to move the home site back by five feet. As Reuters wrote, Huckabee and his neighbors have "been able to work around some of the most restrictive beach development laws in the country."

4. He plays bass in a band called "Capitol Offense."

i

Huckabee (right) plays bass guitar with a member of the Boogiewoogers band at a rally in Iowa in 2008. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Jeff Chiu/AP

Huckabee (right) plays bass guitar with a member of the Boogiewoogers band at a rally in Iowa in 2008.

Jeff Chiu/AP

Huckabee has played music since he was 11. The band was formed in 1996 with members of his staff. "In the course of our playing ... we offend just about everybody," he said of how the band got its name.

He took his musical act on the campaign trail in 2007, playing multiple stops in Iowa.

5. He had beef with Beyonce.

Huckabee's book God, Guns, Grits and Gravy criticized a provocative Grammy performance by Beyonce and Jay Z. Huckabee wrote:

Author Interviews

Huckabee Serves Up 'God, Guns' And A Dose Of Controversy

"Beyonce is incredibly talented — gifted, in fact. She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer — without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay-Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?"

He told NPR earlier this year that the comment was not a value judgement, but that he was trying to point out America's cultural divide. "What is completely, maybe, normal and not the least bit distressing to people in the cultural bubbles of New York, D.C. and in Hollywood," Huckabee said, "is appalling to those who live out here and have to pay for this nonsense."

Why A Blockbuster Of A Trade Deal With Asia Matters

i

Freighters wait to unload cargo at the Tanjung Pagar container port in Singapore. Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

Freighters wait to unload cargo at the Tanjung Pagar container port in Singapore.

Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

It has been a decade in the making, but when completed, it will be a free trade agreement to beat all others — representing 40 percent of the world's economy.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, agreement would bring together the economies of the U.S., Japan, Australia, and nine other Pacific Rim nations, allowing the free trade of everything from agriculture to automobiles and textiles to pharmaceuticals.

President Obama said Friday that the deal is critical for the American market.

"Ninety-five percent of the world's markets are outside our borders. The fastest growing markets, the most populous markets, are going to be in Asia," he noted.

Negotiations over the trade agreement are in the final, toughest stages. Analysts say the sticking points are now between the U.S. and Japan, the two largest economies in the TPP. Both side are trying to protect key sectors — for Japan, it's agriculture; for the U.S., it's automobiles.

Those negotiations got a new shot of life Thursday when Congressional leaders agreed to give President Obama the authority to "fast track" the deal through Congress.

The move overcomes a significant hurdle in the talks because President Obama will be able to complete the deal without the details being picked apart by Congress.

Under the agreement reached yesterday, lawmakers would have the opportunity to give the TPP an up-or-down vote, but they cannot not alter terms of the final agreement reached between the U.S., Japan, Australia and other countries around the Pacific Rim.

However, if the final agreement doesn't meet standards laid out by Congress on the environment, human rights or labor issues, a 60-vote majority could shut off the fast track trade rules and open the deal to amendments, according to The New York Times.

Japan and the U.S. are due to have cabinet-level meeting over the trade deal next week, according to The Associated Press. Japan's Economy Minister, Akira Amari, told reporters, "We are pretty sure our talks won't break down."

Agreeing to give President Obama the authority to fast-track the deal marks a shift on the political landscape. Many Republicans are behind the bill to give the president more power. As NPR reported earlier, the trade deal is vigorously supported by the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

But many Democrats oppose giving the president fast-track authority, known formally as the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), saying negotiations over the Asia-Pacific trade deal are held in secret and that there would be no way to amend the details. There are also deep-seated concerns that U.S. corporations would invest in foreign factories and then ship goods back to America.

President Obama on Friday acknowledged the concern about the free trade agreement, particularly among Democrats, because people have memories about outsourcing and job loss.

Still, Obama said, "If we do not help to shape the rules so that our businesses and our workers can compete in those markets, then China will set up rules that advantage Chinese workers and Chinese businesses."

China is not part of the TPP.

The agreement giving the president fast-track authority comes less than a month after Beijing humiliated the U.S. and Japan by persuading dozens of countries, including key American allies, to join a regional infrastructure bank over objections by Washington, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It also gives new significance to an upcoming visit to Washington by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Hariri blasts Nasrallah speech as ‘wailing and crying’

BEIRUT: Future Movement leader Saad Hariri attacked Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah over his speech Friday, calling it ‘wailing and crying’ that would not impact Yemeni-Saudi ties.

“Saudi Arabia and Yemen's shared history and destiny is deeper and greater than the speeches of Iranian wailing and crying that we hear from Tehran to Beirut’s southern suburbs,” Hariri said on his twitter account shortly after the end of Nasrallah’s speech.

Beirut's southern suburbs, an area where Hezbollah enjoys wide-spread popularity, was the location for a ceremony held by the party Friday called “In Solidarity with Yemen.”

In his speech, Nasrallah waged another fierce attack on Saudi policies, blaming the country’s Wahhabi ideology for the rise of fundamentalism in the region and for funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

“What we heard was a systematic ceremony of historical slander and an act of digging up the graves of hatred,” Hariri said of the speech. “It revealed what’s in [Nasrallah’s] heart, which is grudges against Saudi Arabia, its institutions and its leadership.”

Nasrallah said the only threat to the sacred Muslim sites in Saudi Arabia did not come from Yemen, but from inside Saudi Arabia itself, referring to when the Saud family was responsible of destroying most holy sites in 1926.

“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is following in the footsteps of [Iranian Supreme Leader] Sayyed Khamenei: creativity in manipulation, delusion, show-off and sectarian incitement,” Hariri said.

He also said Hezbollah offered a model that was “imported from Iran and is far from Lebanon’s interests as Satan is far from heaven.”

Hariri added that Nasrallah does not miss an opportunity to reiterate that he can “put a whole sect in the Iranian basket.”

“But Arab Shiites are not Iranian expats in their countries. They are from the core of the nation and their countries’ life,” he said. “The Iranian project, which wants them to be mere tools, is meant to fall.”

From Work to Home: A Week of Conversations with Working Americans

From the size of your paychecks to the duration of your paid leave to the amount you pay in taxes, this was a week of conversation about key issues facing American families. President Obama traveled to Charlotte to hold a town hall with working women, honored leading advocates as Champions of Change at the White House, spoke about the importance of making sure a woman receives the same pay as a man for working the same job, and highlighted how his tax plan supports 44 million middle-class families.

In case you missed it, here are a couple highlights from the week.

The President Holds a Town Hall with Working Women:

President Obama traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday for a special conversation with working women, co-hosted with leading women's sites BlogHer and SheKnows. He took questions both from those in the audience -- as well as from people asking questions online using the hashtag #ObamaTownHall.

#POTUS has landed in #CLT. will be here soon to talk #EqualPay #ObamaInCLT #ObamaTownHall http://bit.ly/1OOR35c

— Chrissie (@chrissie_beth) April 15, 2015

read more

West Wing Week: 04/17/15 or, "The Quintessential Sounds"

This week, the President wrapped up a trip to Panama, held a historic meeting with President Raul Castro of Cuba, grooved with Gospel artists, held a town hall about working families, and kicked off a Wounded Warrior Soldier Ride. That's April 10th to April 16th or, "The Quintessential Sounds."

read more

Hezbollah will support the Yemeni people regardless of repercussions: Nasrallah

BEIRUT: Hezbollah Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah has declared Hezbollah's unwavering support for the Yemeni people in a broadcasted speech Friday in Beirut's southern suburbs.

“Hezbollah will maintain its support for the Yemeni people regardless of the repercussions,” Nasrallah said. “It is our moral, humanitarian, jihadi and religious duty to take this stand.”

Nasrallah dismissed labels of the Yemeni intervention as an “Arab War,” saying that critics of the intervention, like Hezbollah, were Arab as well. The people being targeted by the intervention are Arab also, he added.

“Those who agress on the Yemeni people must seek certificates on Islamism and Arabism,” he said, in clear allusion to Saudi Arabia.

He also dismissed claims that Yemeni war falls in the context of a Sunni-Shiite conflict.

Advertisement

Dog rescues Lebanese shepherd from Israeli abduction attempt

Israel coalition talks run against the clock

Netanyahu is holding talks Friday with potential partners to form a coalition government, less than three weeks from a...

Lebanon shuts down warehouses in Mount Lebanon over food safety violations

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities Friday shut down two warehouses in Mount Lebanon over food safety violations, the Agriculture Ministry announced in a statement.

After a report by the ministry’s inspectors found food safety violations in Yehya Abou Diab’s kidney beans warehouse in the Shouf village of Jahilieh, police raided and shut down the establishment.

The ministry’s statement said the inspectors had found fertilizers stored near the beans and 18 containers in unsanitary conditions, three of which were being used to dye the beans green in order to make them look fresh, the statement added.

Asked about the illicit practices, Abou Diab denied that dye was meant to deceive consumers and said that no one had complained about any ailments after eating his products.

Separately, a warehouse for spices and thyme production was also closed due to food safety violations in the Aley district town of Dohat Aramoun.

The warehouse, owned by Mustafa Rannan, was located in the basement of a building currently under construction, the ministry said.

The warehouse's walls and ceiling lacked basic insulation, while spices and thyme were stored in open containers.

The warehouse’s owner was contacted by the inspectors but said the number was wrong and hung up. After attempting to call the owner, a man driving a truck carrying 12 large bags of thyme arrived at the location and confirmed that the warehouse is owned by Rannan.

However, when called from the driver’s phone, Rannan denied again that he owns a warehouse and ended the call, the ministry’s statement told.

Police were then called to the scene and shut down the warehouse.

The truck’s cargo was also confiscated due to lack the of production and expiration dates.

Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb also announced that the state would file chrages against both owners and referred the file to the State Prosecution office, the statement said.

The raids are the latest in a series of measures that the ministries of agriculture and health have been carrying out since Health Minister Wael Abu Faour announced last November a nation-wide crackdown on food safety violations.

Checkpoints erected to raise awareness of new traffic law

BEIRUT: Traffic police set up nationwide checkpoints to educate motorists on road safety ahead of a new traffic law that will go into effect next week.

Over the past week traffic police have erected checkpoints in Dora, Jounieh, and Jbeil, while checkpoints were erected Friday on the Airport Road and the northern town of Amioun.

Many Lebanese drivers are hopeful that the new traffic law, set to go into effect April 22, will reduce congestion and bring down the number of deadly accidents. Others are less optimistic.

Security officials have said they would initially target major offenses, and will gradually crack down on other infractions dictated by the law.

During the first phase, from April 22 until April 30, violations such as speeding, driving under the influence and reckless endangerment will be penalized.

The fines stated by the new law were set significantly higher than their predecessors, sparking wide-spread discontent among motorists and drawing the mockery of social media users.

In the new law, violations were classified under five categories with the penalties ranging from a LL50-100,000 fine for Category 1, to a LL1-3,000,000 fine with 1-24 months in jail for Category 5.

A 'points system' was also added to the traffic system, whereby points are deducted from the motorist's account with every violation committed.

Every motorist with a driving license initially possesses 12 points. When all points are lost, their driving license is confiscated for 6 months, during which the motorist is required to attend new mandatory driving lessons.

Hostage negotiations on the 'right track': Abbas Ibrahim

Man accused of plot to attack US military base, prison

A Somalia-born man living in the U.S. traveled to Syria and trained alongside terrorists, then returned with plans to...

Senator's 'Let It Go' Ringtone Disrupts Committee Hearing

During the panel's hearing on Thursday, Sen. Pat Roberts cellphone rang. And what ringtone does the Kansas Republican have on his phone? It was the theme from the Disney movie Frozen, "Let It Go."

Frangieh would support Kahwagi term extension

BEIRUT: Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh said he would support the extension of the term of Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi in order to avoid a vacuum in the military leadership.

“I support the appointment of Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz to the Army leadership,” Frangieh said in remarks published Friday by local daily As-Safir.

“But if this is not possible, and if I had to choose between Gen. Jean Kahwagi and vacuum, I would choose to extend Kahwagi’s term,” he said.

The current military council has already lost half of its members. Only three members of the council remain: Kahwagi, Army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Walid Salman, and Secretary-General of the Higher Defense Council Maj. Gen. Mohammad Khair.

As Khair’s term was extended for the last allowable time in February, the most senior general eligible to fill a spot on the council is Imad al-Qaaqour, whose is scheduled for mandatory retirement on Sept. 19, three days before Kahwagi.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has stood alone in his rejection of an extension for Kahwagi.

According to sources, Aoun has made a number of remarks on Kahwagi’s performance and the situation of the Army, and is hoping his son-in-law Gen. Shamel Roukoz will become Army commander.

Sources had told The Daily Star that Hezbollah is concerned that the top military post could be left vacant if political leaders do not agree on a successor. Hezbollah does not want to destabilize the Army while it is fighting jihadi militants along the Syrian border.

Aoun has reportedly threatened to pull out of the government if the terms of senior security officers were extended.

Frangieh, an ally of Aoun, said he does not want to see the collapse of Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s government. “However, the issue would be subject for discussions with all our allies, including Hezbollah.”

"If together they decided to withdraw from the government then I will not stay alone there,” he said.

Frangieh also predicted that the presidential crisis would continue until a “strong president” is elected.

Lebanon ahead of region in terms of school enrollment

BEIRUT: The enrollment rate of Lebanese children is among the highest in the region, thanks in large part to the country’s intensive efforts to reduce the number of children who are not in school, a UNICIF official has said.

At this week’s launch of a U.N. regional report on children out of school, UNICEF and UNESCO representatives reported that across the MENA region, 21 million children are either not enrolled, or at risk of dropping out of school.

“This represents one in four children,” UNICEF Regional Director Maria Calivis said.

While the study did not capture in-depth statistics in Lebanon, Calivis said that Lebanese school children are in a relatively positive position compared to other countries in the region.

“The good news in Lebanon is that it has one of the lowest number of [Lebanese] children out of school,” she said, adding that out of all countries in the region, Lebanon has made one of the biggest efforts to reduce the number of children not attending school.

Calivis told The Daily Star that as of 2012, 2 percent of children in Lebanon had never been enrolled in school, based on Education Ministry statistics. Furthermore, 70,000 out of 1,000,000 children are currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary school.

She said that in lower secondary school, ages 12-15, Lebanon’s dropout rate has reached 50,000 students. At this age, boys are at heightened risk of dropping out, often out of the need to supplement family income, she explained.

The situation is more dismal for the 270,000 school-aged Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Calivis explained that the Lebanese public school system isn’t able to absorb all of the Syrian children in need.

As the protracted conflict in Syria reaches its fifth year, U.N. agencies are supporting the education needs of over 100,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon with additional morning and afternoon shifts in public schools, particularly in vulnerable areas such as the Bekaa Valley and North Lebanon.

The regional report gathered in-depth information on the numbers and determinants of school dropout risk and non-enrollmentin nine Arab countries: Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.

“In the last decade, impressive progress has been made in the region to reduce the number of out of school children, leading to a 40 percent decline in the number in the MENA region in the past decade,” Calivis said. She cautioned that armed conflict, particularly in Syria and Iraq, has caused a reversal of this progress, as 3,000,000 children from those countries are not enrolled in school due to forced migration and destroyed infrastructure.

Across the MENA region, children living in poor, rural areas, whose parents have low education levels, are the most vulnerable to dropping out and non-enrollment in school.

The report found that the children most at risk of non-enrollmentschool were girls from poor, rural areas.

Females encounter gender-specific dropout risk factors, including social pressures and the threat of early marriage.

Calivis described in-depth country reporting on out-of-school children as “an ongoing project” and said that the U.N. is interested in carrying out a similar study on Lebanon, pending the Education Ministry’s request.

Building on information from Calivis, the UNESCO program specialist, Yayoi Segi-Vitchek, stressed the importance of addressing the underlying causes of dropping out in Lebanon, particularly when discussing policy.

“There are issues in the education system that need to be addressed apart from the [Syrian refugee] crisis itself,” including teacher qualifications and the use of government data to shape education policy, she said.

According to Segi-Vitchek, access to education is tightly linked to health outcomes, especially in early childhood.

“We are talking about very young children, on the way to developing their bodies and cognitive health, that’s why you can’t just talk about academic learning, you need to also talk about nutrition and health,” she said, adding that worldwide, teachers serve as one of the first facilitators of health in children’s lives by promoting immunization and detecting malnutrition.

“Teachers should be trained to address these issues in the school setting,” she said.

Ministers gear up for battle over budget

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s 2015 deficit is projected to reach $5 billion as the economy grows by 2.5 percent, the government was told Thursday during a session to discuss the draft budget, with ministers set to decide next week whether to approve the budget along with a public sector salary scale.

Addressing the Cabinet, Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil said that the budget deficit would reach $5 billion, compared to a deficit of $3.94 billion in 2014.

Around 30.6 percent of the draft budget would be allocated to public debt service, 17.2 percent for public sector salaries, 13.2 percent for electricity, 10.2 percent for retirement salaries, 6.3 percent for budget reserves and 8 percent for investment allocations such as infrastructure projects, according to the draft.

Khalil also said the budget would see Lebanon achieve a primary surplus of around $1.3 billion at the end of 2014, compared to a primary deficit reached in 2012 and 2013.

The minister added that there was a significant rise in revenues, attributing it mainly to reforms and improving the collection of taxes, along with an increase in revenues from income tax.

Khalil explained his ministry was exerting efforts to improve revenues through controlling waste in the Real Estate and Customs Department, saying that results would appear in the coming years.

Revenues from income tax have increased by 12 percent with the collection of arrears despite the modest economic growth in 2014, Khalil said.

Next Tuesday, the government will decide on whether to combine the draft budget and the salary scale in one bill in light of the outcome of talks which Khalil will hold with various political groups.

Michel Aoun’s bloc and some other parties oppose integrating the salary scale with the original draft budget. Lebanon has not had an official budget since 2005 due to political standoffs, repeated security incidents and failure to convene Parliament to discuss these bills.

Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan said that the investment allocations were very low, but stressed the finance minister was not to blame for this.

He said that the deficit had become huge, comprising 10.2 percent of the GDP, and could increase.

Hajj Hasan said that public debt would increase from $66.6 billion to $71 billion at the end of the year.

The minister added that taxes and other forms of revenues could not be increased and that the state had exhausted all possible revenues.

Hajj Hasan said the current draft budget figures indicated that the government was neither able to increase revenues nor reduce expenses, adding that economic policies should be adjusted and oil and gas exploration launched as quickly as possible.

Speaking after the session, Khalil said none of the ministers objected to the figures he presented, adding that the government discussed combining the draft budget with the salary scale.

Ministerial sources told The Daily Star it was important that the government approved the budget and refer it to Parliament for endorsement despite all loopholes so that public finance issues are back on the right track.

The Cabinet also tasked Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb with following up on the case of around 318 truck drivers who have been stranded with their vehicles in Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia since earlier this month due to the closure of the Nassib border crossing between Syria and the Hashemite kingdom.

Emerging from the meeting, Chehayeb said that returning the trucks and drivers would cost around $1 million, adding that the government preferred that transit companies worked on getting back their trucks, while Lebanese authorities would exert effort to bring back the drivers.