Rewriting ‘No Child Left Behind’ — House passes easily
WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of failed efforts, the House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to sharply scale back the federal role in American education. But the bill would retain the testing requirement in the 2002 No Child Left Behind law that many parents, teachers and school districts abhor.
The legislation, approved 359-64, would return to the states the decision-making power over how to use students’ test performance in assessing teachers and schools. The measure also would end federal efforts to encourage academic standards such as Common Core.
The 1,000-plus page measure was a compromise reached by House and Senate negotiators. The Senate is to vote on it early next week and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it.
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who led the House-Senate conference committee on the legislation, said Washington has been micromanaging the nation’s classrooms for too long.
“Today, we turn the page on the failed status quo and turn over to our nation’s parents and our state and local leaders the authority, flexibility and certainty they need to deliver children an excellent education,” he said.
UK lawmakers vote to launch airstrikes on IS in Syria
LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers voted by a wide margin Wednesday to join the international campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, after Prime Minister David Cameron asserted that bombing the “medieval monsters” in their heartland would make Britain safer.
The 397-223 vote in the House of Commons means Royal Air Force fighter jets — already operating against IS in Iraq from a base in Cyprus — could be flying over Syria within hours. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told Channel 4 news that the strikes would begin “very quickly … probably not tonight but it could be tomorrow night.”
Anti-war protesters outside Parliament booed as they learned the result of the vote. The decision came after an emotional 10 1/2-hour debate in which Cameron said that Britain must strike the militants in their heartland and not “sit back and wait for them to attack us.”
Opponents argued that Britain’s entry into Syria’s crowded airspace would make little difference, and said Cameron’s military plan was based on wishful thinking that overlooked the messy reality of the Syrian civil war.
Cameron has long wanted to target IS in Syria, but had been unsure of getting majority support in the House of Commons until now. He suffered an embarrassing defeat in 2013 when lawmakers rejected a motion backing attacks on the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
India, Brazil resist bid for long-term carbon goals
LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Attempts to inscribe a long-term goal to phase out carbon emissions in an envisioned global climate pact are facing pushback at U.N. talks from big developing countries including India and Brazil.
Negotiators from both countries said Wednesday they favor sticking to the already established goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) above pre-industrial times — a level that scientists say could avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
That goal was formally introduced in the U.N. talks in 2010. But many countries are calling for the Paris deal to include a road map on how to achieve it, such as a joint target for phasing out the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Various options have been proposed. The United States and other members of the Group of Seven wealthy countries earlier this year endorsed a “decarbonization of the global economy over the course of this century.”
“Decarbonization is something that has appeared recently. We don’t even know what that means,” Indian delegate Ajay Mathur told reporters. “Does it mean zero carbon? Does it mean net zero carbon?”
Budget talks hit snag over environmental issues, refugees
WASHINGTON (AP) — Talks on a massive, government-wide spending bill hit a snag Wednesday as Republicans pressed demands to block new power plant rules, weaken financial services regulations and make it more difficult for Syrian and Iraqi refugees to enter the U.S.
Democrats, whose votes will be needed to carry the $1.1 trillion measure through the House, flatly rejected the initial offer from top Republicans. With little more than a week to pass a measure to avert a government shutdown, it’s likely that a short-term funding bill will be needed to keep the government open past the Dec. 11 deadline.
Republican aides characterized Tuesday night’s offer from House Speaker Paul Ryan and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell as an opening move, but the White House weighed in sharply, saying it threatened a government shutdown.
Many lower-tier items in the massive measure have been worked out, leaving numerous policy provisions, known as “riders” as the main unresolved items.
“The effort they’re engaged in now is to lard the bill up with ideological riders,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
Lack of sound in Chicago police videos raises more questions
CHICAGO (AP) — A police dash-cam video that captures a white Chicago officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times has no sound, nor do videos from four other squad cars at the scene. But department protocol indicates all the cruisers should have been recording audio that night.
The silence is almost sure to figure into the ongoing federal investigation of the case, and it raises questions about whether officers were careless with the recording equipment or, worse, attempting a cover-up.
“When you’ve got a standup cop with nothing to hide, the dash-cam is his friend,” said Gregg Stutchman, who has specialized in video forensics in California for 23 years. “But for cops who aren’t quite as standup, it would make sense that they wouldn’t want things recorded.”
Several experts on the type of equipment commonly installed in police vehicles told The Associated Press that it’s plausible for a single squad car to have a glitch preventing sound recording. But they could not imagine how an entire fleet of cars would ever lose audio at the same time and place by mere happenstance.
“I’ve never heard of it before,” Stutchman said. “It raises a red flag.” The more likely explanation is that audio was intentionally switched off, he said.
Delay in bringing charges could cost top prosecutor her job
CHICAGO (AP) — It took more than a year from the night a white Chicago police officer fatally shot a black teenager until the city’s top prosecutor announced murder charges against the patrolman — a long wait that has provoked sharp criticism of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
Next it could cost Alvarez her job.
The first woman and first Hispanic to serve in the job, Alvarez was facing a tough 2016 re-election even before last week’s release of the footage of officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014.
Since then, protesters marching through Chicago streets have accused her of trying to cover up the crime and of only announcing a first-degree murder charge because a judge had ordered the video’s release. A majority of the city council’s Latino members and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez — key political supporters — have said they will no longer back her.
Her opponents in the March primary say the race is suddenly attracting national attention — and campaign donations.
Senate GOP health law repeal delivers wins to party’s wings
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans ignored a White House promise of a veto Wednesday and pushed toward Senate passage of legislation demolishing President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and blocking Planned Parenthood’s federal funds.
After weeks of strategizing, GOP leaders began rolling out a measure they said would attract the votes needed for approval by week’s end. To achieve that, they balanced victories for some of the most conservative GOP senators with concessions for more moderate Republicans facing competitive 2016 re-elections.
The White House accused Republicans of “refighting old political battles,” a reference to unanimous GOP opposition to the measure ever since Obama began pushing it through Congress and dozens of votes lawmakers have staged to undo the statute.
Repeal would “roll back coverage gains and would cost millions of hard-working families the security of affordable health coverage they deserve,” the White House wrote in its letter pledging a veto.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tauntingly suggested that Democrats reconsider their defense of the health care law.
