Pro-Russian rebels lower demands in peace talks

MOSCOW -- Pro-Russian rebels softened their demand for full independence Monday, saying they would respect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for autonomy — a shift that reflects Moscow's desire to strike a deal at a new round of peace talks.

The insurgents' platform, released at the start of Monday's negotiations in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, represented a significant change in their vision for the future of Ukraine's eastern, mainly Russian-speaking region.

It remains unclear, however, whether the talks can reach a compromise amid the brutal fighting that has continued in eastern Ukraine. On Monday, the rebels pushed Ukrainian government forces from an airport near Luhansk, the second-largest rebel-held city, the latest in a series of military gains.

The peace talks in Minsk follow last week's meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko. The negotiations involve former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma; Russia's ambassador to Ukraine; an envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and representatives of the rebels.

Yet similar talks earlier this summer produced no visible results.

Unlike the previous rounds, this time rebels said in a statement carried by Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency that they are willing to discuss "the preservation of the united economic, cultural and political space of Ukraine." In return, they demanded a comprehensive amnesty and broad local powers that would include being able to appoint their own local law enforcement officials.

This deal is only for eastern Ukraine. There are no negotiations on handing back Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in March, a move that cost Ukraine several major ports, half its coastline and untold billions in Black Sea oil and mineral rights.

The talks lasted for several hours Monday and were adjourned until Friday, when the parties are to discuss a cease-fire and an exchange of prisoners, rebel negotiator Andrei Purgin said, according to RIA Novosti.

The rebels' more moderate negotiating platform appeared to reflect Putin's desire to make a deal that would allow Russia to avoid more punitive Western sanctions while preserving a significant degree of leverage over its neighbor.

Over the weekend, the European Union leaders agreed to prepare a new round of sanctions that could be enacted in a week, after NATO accused Russia of sending tanks and troops into southeastern Ukraine. A NATO summit in Wales on Thursday is also expected to approve measures designed to counter Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said participants in Monday's talks needed to push for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire. He rejected claims by the Ukrainian government, NATO and Western nations that Russia has already sent troops, artillery and tanks across Ukraine's southeast border to reinforce the separatists.

"There will be no military intervention," Lavrov told students at Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Monday, the first day of classes for schools and universities across Russia. "We call for an exclusively peaceful settlement of this severe crisis, this tragedy."

Despite the Russian denials, Ukrainian National Security Council spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko said Monday that "not less than four battalions and tactical groups of the Russian armed forces are active in Ukraine." A battalion consists of about 400 soldiers.

In the past week, after losing ground to Ukrainian troops for nearly a month, the rebels opened a new front along Ukraine's southeastern Sea of Azov coast and are pushing back elsewhere. The coastal assault has raised concerns the rebels are aiming to establish a land corridor from Russia all the way to Crimea.

Lysenko said Monday that Ukrainian forces had been ordered to retreat from the airport in Luhansk in the face of an intensifying assault that he blamed on "professional artillery gunmen of the Russian armed forces."

On Sunday, missiles fired from the shore sunk one of two Ukrainian coast guard cutters 3 miles (5 kilometers) out to sea, Lysenko said. He said eight crewmen were rescued, but the Interfax news agency cited a spokesman for the border guards' service as saying two crewmen were missing and seven were rescued.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine between the separatists and the government in Kiev began in mid-April, a month after the annexation of Crimea. The fighting has killed nearly 2,600 people and forced over 340,000 to flee their homes, according to the U.N.

President Barack Obama and the leaders of NATO's other member countries will attend a summit in Wales that is expected to approve the creation of a high-readiness force to help protect member nations against potential Russian aggression.

"(This) ensures that we have the right forces and the right equipment in the right place at the right time," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday. "Not because NATO wants to attack anyone. But because the dangers and the threats are more present and more visible. And we will do what it takes to defend our allies."

The plan envisages creating a force of several thousand troops contributed on a rotating basis by the 28 NATO countries. Equipment and supplies for the force are to be stockpiled in Eastern Europe "so this force can travel light, but strike hard if needed," Rasmussen said.

An influential U.S. senator told reporters in Kiev that he would urge Obama to give Ukraine defensive weapons.

Decrying what he called "an invasion by Russia into Ukraine with thousands of soldiers, columns of tanks, missiles and other artillery," Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said "Ukraine has to be given defensive weapons so that it can defend itself from the aggression it is facing."

He declined to elaborate on what weapons he envisioned Ukraine receiving.

Menendez also characterized the conflict in broader terms.

"This is a Russian fight against Europe being fought on Ukrainian territory. Everything that Putin doesn't like, he sees in the Ukrainian people's desire to turn to the West," he said.

Heintz reported from Kiev, Ukraine. Lynn Berry in Moscow and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels this report.

David Muir takes over at ABC's 'World News'

NEW YORK -- Among the stories David Muir will introduce during his first week as ABC's "World News" anchor is one he reported about a generation of Syrian refugees missing out on an education.

Besides detailing a hidden aspect of the civil war, the story serves a dual purpose: to signal viewers — and his bosses — that Muir wants to get out of the office for work as much as he can.

"A huge part of this for me was a promise that I was not going to be tethered to the anchor desk," said Muir, who officially replaces Diane Sawyer on Monday night.

Muir, 40, joins NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams and Scott Pelley of the "CBS Evening News" at one of the three jobs generally considered the pinnacle of American broadcast news. Muir is also a generation younger than the 55-year-old Williams and 57-year-old Pelley.

Muir is already known well to "World News" viewers as Sawyer's chief sub, and, since the start of the year, he has anchored half as many weeknights (46) as Sawyer (92), according to news consultant Andrew Tyndall. Muir has groomed himself for the job since he was a child.

As a latchkey child of divorced parents growing up near Syracuse, Muir took comfort from the news "family" that appeared on his television each evening. He watched ABC's Peter Jennings, trying to guess who would be named "person of the week." At 12, he wrote to Syracuse anchorman Ron Curtis for advice on how to get into the business and had an internship at WTVH-TV by the next summer.

Muir became so familiar that the newsroom had a spot on the wall to mark how much he'd grown each year. When he was still at nearby Ithaca College, WTVH hired Muir to anchor the weekend news.

After five years at WTVH, he moved on to Boston and, in 2003, came to ABC News. Hurricane Katrina was one of the first places his work attracted attention.

"All of the elements of being a news anchor he does superbly," said David Westin, the ABC News president who hired Muir. He shows versatility in reporting, interviewing and working in the studio, he said.

Network anchors traveling to stories used to be more commonplace, and when Westin appointed Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas to replace Jennings a decade ago, it was on the theory that at least one would be on the road regularly. It has become less frequent, in part because of costs. Muir considers the reporting an important part of his identity and, he believes, what viewers expect of him.

"The evening news is evolving rapidly, and I think we have to be extraordinarily nimble," he said.

The dinnertime newscasts have been shadowed by predictions of their demise for about as long as Muir has been working. But each has seen its viewership increase over the past year. Muir, who frequently tweets during commercial breaks, said the programs' abilities to sum up the day's most important stories is valuable at a time people are bombarded with information.

Tyndall, whose website monitors the content of evening newscasts, said "World News" tends to be faster-paced with a higher story count when Muir is anchor. More than half of Muir's newscasts have nine or more reports with correspondents or interviews, compared to 29 percent for Sawyer. Muir resists the notion that he packs the broadcast with more material, but he said he wants to keep some things short so more important stories have room to breathe.

Muir will start "World News" with a new executive producer, Almin Karamehmedovic, who he said shares "a thirst to travel the world."

It's difficult to judge at the start where a new anchor will take a broadcast. Westin likened it to a president appointing a new Supreme Court justice — the person may not turn out as liberal or conservative as was initially thought.

Tyndall's name is mud at ABC because of a report last winter criticizing the "Disneyfication" of "World News," specifically a greater emphasis on consumer and entertainment news at the expense of global concerns.

"When I see reports like that or words like that, I think of the moment when I'm standing in Tahrir Square with a producer and photographer and Mubarak's men come charging in on their horses with their whips," Muir said. "Or when we were in Mogadishu and were fired upon by forces linked to al-Qaida."

He added, "I'd be very hard-pressed to tell them that what we're doing out there is 'soft.'"

Muir's role will be slightly different than that of his predecessor; ABC said. George Stephanopoulos will be the network's main anchor on breaking news reports. Muir said that's fine, and it ties into his desire not to always be deskbound.

He recently unearthed the letter that the Syracuse anchorman sent back to the advice-seeking 12-year-old, which today sounds prescient.

"Competition in television news is keen," Curtis wrote. "There's always room for the right person. It could be you."

David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter@dbauder. His work can be found at http://bit.ly/1jn2ReL.

Saudi crown prince in Paris for talks on Lebanon arms deal

PARIS: Saudi Arabia's crown prince arrived in Paris Monday for talks with President Francois Hollande likely to touch on a Saudi-financed French package of arms for Lebanon and the wider jihadist threat in the region.

Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, who is also deputy prime minister and defense minister, will meet Hollande Monday and will be treated to an official dinner at the Elysee presidential palace.

The two are likely to touch on a $3-billion package of French military equipment and arms for Lebanon's army that Riyadh has agreed to finance, as Beirut faces the threat of jihadists on its border with Syria.

Salman is also due to meet Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Wednesday for talks over the situation in Iraq and Syria, where jihadists have seized swath of territory and are terrorizing Christians and other minorities.

On Thursday, Hollande rejected any cooperation with Bashar Assad whom he accused of being a "de-facto ally" of ISIS militants, after the Syrian leader's regime said it was willing to work with the international community to tackle the jihadists.

And in comments carried on national TV Saturday, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned the West would be the next target of the jihadists sweeping through Syria and Iraq, unless there is "rapid" action.

"If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month," he said in remarks quoted Saturday by Asharq al-Awsat daily and Saudi-backed Al-Arabiya television station.

The visit comes just over two weeks after Saudi Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Fahd fell victim to a brazen heist on the Paris ring road when a gang of heavily armed bandits hijacked the lead vehicle of his 10-car convoy and stole at least 250,000 euros and documents.

151 Years Later, Pickett's Charge Hero Gets Medal of Honor

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First Lt. Alonzo Cushing, shown in an undated photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society, is expected to get the nation's highest military decoration this summer — the Medal of Honor — nearly 150 years after he died at the battle of Gettysburg. Wisconsin Historical Society/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Wisconsin Historical Society/AP

First Lt. Alonzo Cushing, shown in an undated photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society, is expected to get the nation's highest military decoration this summer — the Medal of Honor — nearly 150 years after he died at the battle of Gettysburg.

Wisconsin Historical Society/AP

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Confederate soldiers are shown during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, as Gen. George E. Pickett orders his 15,000 men to charge. AP hide caption

itoggle caption AP

Confederate soldiers are shown during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, as Gen. George E. Pickett orders his 15,000 men to charge.

AP

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Gen. George Pickett Brady-Handy Photograph Collection/Library of Congress hide caption

itoggle caption Brady-Handy Photograph Collection/Library of Congress

Gen. George Pickett

Brady-Handy Photograph Collection/Library of Congress

A century and a half after Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, a 22-year-old Union officer whose heroics helped stop the rebels and turn the tide of the Civil War will finally receive the Medal of Honor.

The White House announced this week that Lt. Alonzo Cushing will receive the award, ending a near three-decade campaign begun by a Wisconsin woman, now in her 90s, who lives on what had been the family farm where Cushing was born.

"When he dies, he dies repelling one of the most fabled charges, attacks, ever in American military history," said Kent Masterson Brown, a Kentucky lawyer and historian who wrote a biography of Cushing after learning of him from an exhibit at Gettysburg during a childhood visit.

Cushing was only two years out of West Point on that third day of the battle, in charge of an artillery battery in the Army of the Potomac. According to the White House announcement, Cushing was manning the only artillery piece in his unit that still worked.

"During the advance, he was wounded in the stomach as well as in the right shoulder. Refusing to evacuate to the rear despite his severe wounds, he directed the operation of his lone field piece, continuing to fire in the face of the enemy," the White House statement said. "With the rebels within 100 yards of his position, Cushing was shot and killed during this heroic stand."

Brown said it was Cushing's pivotal role that has caught so many people's attention. "What caused them to latch onto Cushing was how he died, what he was doing when he died, who he was defending that position against when he died," Brown said.

It was in the course of researching his book that he learned of Margaret Zerwekh, who in 1987 started a letter-writing campaign to honor Cushing, including one to the late William Proxmire, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin.

"It's been a long time in coming, but I think it falls under the category of 'it's never too late to do the right thing,'" said Ron Kind, who started as an intern in Proxmire's office, and is now the Democratic congressman who inserted language into the 2014 Defense authorization bill that allows the award.

But why 27 years from Zerwekh's first letter to Proxmire to President Obama's announcement?

Congressional action was necessary because Medal of Honor referrals are supposed to take place no later than two years after the event. For years, members of Congress from the South were uneasy about re-opening the Civil War, particularly a battle that has become the focus of lost-cause lore for generations.

"I think there may have been some concerns about a Union soldier receiving recognition at Gettysburg, and I think there are still some people who are sensitive about the Civil War and how it's depicted," Kind said.

In recent years, the vocal congressional opposition boiled down to Jim Webb, the former Democratic senator from Confederate Gen. George Pickett's home state, Virginia. Webb blocked attempts to honor Cushing, Kind said, because so much time had passed since the war that it would be nearly impossible to determine the facts of what Cushing did in the battle.

An assistant to Webb pointed to a letter he wrote to Senate colleagues in 2012 about his concerns.

"As a point of observation, the Confederate Army lost more than 250,000 dead — one third of its soldiers — and received no Medals of Honor," Webb wrote in a letter to other senators in 2012. "While one would never wish to demean any act of courage, I believe that the retroactive determination in one case would open up an endless series of claims. The better wisdom for this body would be to leave history alone."

Webb retired from the Senate in 2012, and Kind said Webb's successor, Democrat Tim Kaine, did not share Webb's concerns. What's more, a Pentagon review Webb had wanted was completed, which further supported Cushing's case.

"If there were objections being raised, we obviously talked to those individuals to make sure that there weren't any problems in moving forward," Kind said.

Whether most members of Congress knew they were wading into the Civil War when they passed that bill is unclear. Kind's amendment authorizing Cushing's medal was contained in a package of 14 proposed changes offered on the House floor last summer by Texas Republican Mac Thornberry — everything from permission for the defense secretary to evaluate suicide prevention to a prohibition against collaborating with China on cyber-security.

They were passed without any mention about Cushing on a voice vote — on a Thursday evening following seven hours of debate, when most House members had already gone for the night.

Six months later, negotiators for the House and Senate hammered out a compromise defense bill. This passed both chambers without much discussion, as Congress worked to wrap up for the year quickly.

"There were no surprises in any of this," Kind said.

Cushing will become the 1,523rd Union soldier to receive the Medal of Honor, and only the second since 1915, said Laura Jowdy, the archivist at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. "The Confederate side would not qualify for a medal," she said. "Although some might argue they should."

A roundup of recent Michigan newspaper editorials

Daily Press (Escanaba). Aug. 25.

Let inspectors do their jobs

Perhaps the best friends Americans have in government are the inspectors general who act as watchdogs to root out waste and sometimes, crime by politicians and bureaucrats. There can be no reasonable doubt that without them, mismanagement and crime in government would be even more rampant than is the case.

Inspectors general from dozens of federal agencies now say President Barack Obama's administration is trying to keep them from doing their jobs.

During a presidency saturated with questionable and often outrageous behavior, this may well be the most unsettling. In effect it amounts to Obama and his cronies trying to give a green light to abuse of taxpayers.

The inspectors general have appealed to Congress in a letter outlining some of the obstructionism they face. Among the abuses:

— The Peace Corps withheld some records sought in an investigation of volunteers who were sexually assaulted.

— The Justice Department attempted to withhold documents sought in three separate cases.

— The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board resisted turning over some records sought by an inspector general.

— Obama's administration has been called one of the most secretive in history, routinely blocking public and press requests for information. Now, it blocks even the government's own inspectors general.

This is unacceptable. Congress should stop it.

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The Detroit News. Aug. 25.

Late school start doesn't help kids

If you have out-of-state friends with children or pay attention to national media, you've probably caught on that "back to school" has already happened in most states. But not for another week for most Michigan public schools.

The 2005 law, signed by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, prohibits public schools from starting the school year until after Labor Day.

It's all about preserving a week or two of summer before classrooms consume the daily lives of families. The powerful state tourism lobby was behind this provision, and attempts to change course in the past few years have failed. In fact, the discussion rarely takes place in Lansing anymore, as most lawmakers consider it to be a futile effort.

But it's a change that needs to happen for the sake of student achievement. Michigan lags behind its neighboring states when it comes to national standardized test scores, not to mention it clearly falls behind the curve nationally.

Add to that Michigan has one of the shortest school years and is one of only four states specifically to place tourism ahead of schooling. According to the Education Commission of the States, which surveyed laws around the country related to school year length and start times, Michigan requires 170 days and 1,098 hours, while the majority of states require 180 days.

Tourism is a major industry in the state, and its success is beneficial to the state's coffers. The Pure Michigan campaign has drawn thousands of new out-of-state visitors to Michigan's pristine lakes and dunes.

Nonetheless, that doesn't justify tying the hands of educators. In 40 states, districts have the option to set their own start time and many begin in August, some as early as the first or second week. They should have that choice in Michigan, too.

Kyle Guerrant, deputy superintendent for administrative and support services for the Michigan Department of Education, agrees that Michigan students are at a disadvantage.

"We need increased opportunity for kids," Guerrant says. He also points out that as Michigan children will have to compete both nationally and globally, this will continue to be an issue of importance. Top-performing schools outside the U.S. often have even stricter and longer school years than the best states in this country.

Under current law, individual districts can seek a waiver to start earlier or move to a year-round school. Not many do, although Guerrant says he's seen an uptick in waiver applications.

While education department officials support a longer school year, in addition to an earlier start, Guerrant says they haven't brought this argument to the Legislature in recent years. The last time the state board formally called for doing away with the post-Labor Day start was 2009.

Gov. Rick Snyder advocated for additional money for schools that chose to extend their school years. While the Legislature agreed to include that funding in next year's budget, lawmakers didn't extend it to future budgets.

That's unfortunate, as studies have shown the long Michigan summer breaks lead to summer learning loss, especially among children who can least afford it, such as those from low-income families. Year-round schools don't necessarily have many more classroom days throughout the year, but they are spaced out more beneficially for children.

Lawmakers should make improving the education of Michigan's children their top priority. That includes allowing schools more flexibility to set school start times.

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Grand Haven Tribune. Aug. 25.

Aramark jail service too 'private'

Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced that his office would soon be monitoring the $145 million contract with Aramark Correctional Services that, up until that point, was under the watchful eye of the Michigan Department of Corrections — sort of.

This shift was brought on by reports of food shortages, contraband smuggling, food-related prisoner unrest and Aramark employees getting a little too fresh with inmates.

In July, four Aramark employees in Ionia were dismissed for having inappropriate sexual contact with inmates inside a walk-in cooler.

More than 80 Aramark employees have been banned from prison property for various infractions since the company took over last December. The move to privately contracted food service eliminated 370 state jobs. The three-year contract was expected to save the state $14 million a year.

So, now that the duties of monitoring the Aramark contract have been shifted to the governor's office, what will be done differently? Will it stop this unacceptable behavior and service? Union officials are skeptical and believe the governor seeks to shield the contract from public scrutiny because his office is exempt from the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

As taxpayers who pay for the contract with Aramark, we have the right to know how that contract is being serviced, and that only those services within the contract are being rendered. Obviously, that hasn't been the case.

The state has fined Aramark nearly $300,000, or 0.002 percent of the $145 million the contract is worth, but there are no plans to cancel the pact. Most would agree that fine isn't very impactful.

Snyder has asked Aramark to improve its staffing and training in addition to establishing mutually agreed-upon training metrics. All of that should be obvious.

State officials need to closely monitor this system — with full public transparency — and hold Aramark accountable for the actions of their employees. But we don't hold out much hope that will actually happen.

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Midland Daily News. Aug. 25.

Tax refunds might take a health care hit

It might be a little early to be throwing up red flags about income tax returns, but if you are one of the millions of people getting tax credits to help pay for your health insurance premiums, you might want to look into the matter soon.

According to an Associated Press story today, any tax credit overpayment might be deducted from your income tax refund if you made more money this year than you initially estimated when you applied for that tax credit.

This is especially important for people who count on that refund for paying, say, winter heating bills. This particular point about how the health care changes and the tax act interface has not really been explained. Those who will be affected by this part of the law are usually the ones who can least afford it.

"More than a third of tax credit recipients will owe some money back, and (that) can lead to some pretty hefty repayment liabilities," George Brandes, vice president for health care programs at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, told the AP.

H&R Block, the tax counseling company, said consumers whose incomes have grown this year should act now and contact HealthCare.gov or their state insurance exchange to update their accounts while there is still time to affect the refund.

"As time goes on, the ability to make adjustments diminishes," warned Mark Ciaramitaro, H&R Block's vice president of health care services. "Clients count on that refund as their biggest financial transaction of the year. When that refund goes down, it really has reverberations."

While the administration of President Barack Obama told the AP that it is constantly urging newly insured consumers to report changes that could affect their coverage, we haven't seen those messages, and we doubt the people who are getting the credits have heard that message either

This repercussion is just another in a laundry list of unfortunate side effects of a law that was hastily put together, ill-advised and overly bureaucratic and complex.

That those who can least afford it could be getting a January surprise is a shame, and the fact that many people who previously used the 1040EZ form might have to hire a professional could be a double hit next year.

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Finnish nuclear plant further delayed until 2018

HELSINKI -- Finnish utility TVO says construction of the country's fifth nuclear reactor has been delayed again, with the plant not expected to go online until 2018 — nine years later than initially forecast.

French-German engineering conglomerate Areva-Siemens is building the reactor, which has been plagued by delays over faulty materials and planning problems since construction began in 2005.

The 1,600-megawatt European Pressurized Reactor — one of the first of its kind — was meant to begin providing electricity in 2009.

TVO says "it is hard for us to accept such a late startup forecast" and is seeking ways to speed up the work.

Monday's announcement represented at least the eighth delay at the Olkiluoto 3 site, where two other reactors have been operating for more than 30 years.