http://www.npr.org/2017/08/25/545282459/president-trump-pardons-former-sheriff-joe-arpaio
President Trump has pardoned controversial former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for a misdemeanor criminal contempt conviction.
A statement issued by the White House Friday night said, “Today, President Donald J. Trump granted a Presidential pardon to Joe Arpaio, former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.”
Known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio gained a reputation for his harsh — his critics would say cruel — treatment of immigrants in the country illegally.
Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt earlier this summer for defying a judge’s order that his deputies stop detaining immigrants because they lacked legal status. His deputies carried on the practice for 18 months.
Trump hinted at the pardon last week and again at a Phoenix rally Tuesday night.
Last week, he told Fox News he was “seriously considering” a pardon and that Arpaio is a “a great American patriot” who has done “a lot in the fight against illegal immigration.” Tuesday night, he asked the crowd of supporters: “Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe?”
“You know what, I’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine,” he said. “OK? But I won’t do it tonight, because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”
The statement issued by the White House said:
"Arpaio’s life and career, which began at the age of 18 when he enlisted in the military after the outbreak of the Korean War, exemplify selfless public service. After serving in the Army, Arpaio became a police officer in Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas, NV and later served as a Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), formerly the Bureau of Narcotics. After 25 years of admirable service, Arpaio went on to lead the DEA’s branch in Arizona.
“In 1992, the problems facing his community pulled Arpaio out of retirement to return to law enforcement. He ran and won a campaign to become Sheriff of Maricopa County. Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-is-reported-to-have-launched-another-missile-heightening-tensions/2017/08/25/4569a10c-89e5-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html?utm_term=.80e7ab5fda7e
TOKYO — North Korea launched three missiles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Saturday morning, reigniting tensions after a month of heated rhetoric between Pyongyang and Washington.
The launches coincide with joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, exercises that North Korea always strongly protests because it considers them preparation for an invasion.
The first and third missiles failed in flight, while the second appears to have blown up almost immediately, said the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, which monitors North Korean missiles.
Even though the launches failed, they still constitute violations of the United Nations Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korea from launching missiles or conducting nuclear tests, and will spark another round of condemnation from the international community — condemnation that will, again, fall on deaf ears in Pyongyang.
All three appeared to be short-range missiles, rather than the long-range types designed to be able to strike the United States, and were launched from Kittaeryong on North Korea’s east coast.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/politics/trump-transgender-military/index.html
President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions announced a month earlier to ban transgender people from serving.
The presidential memorandum also bans the Department of Defense from using its resources to provide medical treatment regimens for transgender individuals currently serving in the military.
Trump also directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security “to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant,” the White House official said.
The White House official who briefed reporters on the memo on Friday evening declined to say whether current transgender troops would be allowed to remain in the military under those policy guidelines.
The official signaled that the administration was returning to the military’s pre-2016 policy under which no transgender individuals were allowed to serve openly in the armed forces, but said Trump was giving the secretaries of defense and homeland security leeway to determine the policy on currently serving transgender troops.
The official rejected any notion that Trump’s directive amounted to discrimination against transgender individuals, and insisted that Trump was not walking back his rhetoric from the 2016 campaign when he vowed to fight for LGBT Americans.
“The President is the President for all Americans, and during last year’s campaign he was the first GOP nominee to talk about LGBTQ issues at the GOP convention, but he also was critical of the Obama administration’s change in that longstanding DOD policy,” the official said.
“He’s going to continue to ensure that the rights of the LGBTQ community, as well as all Americans, is protected,” the official added. “This policy is based on a series of national security considerations.”
The guidance comes a month after Trump said on Twitter that he would reinstate a ban on transgender troops, an announcement that took many in the military’s leadership – including the joint chiefs of staff – by surprise.
What a disgrace.
