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Defense Secretary: 'The World is Exploding All Over'

Fresh off a trip to India and Australia, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel addressed a group of Marines in San Diego, California Tuesday, and may have delivered a line that will show up in Republican campaign ads this election cycle. After updating the troops on some issues in the Pacific region and the Middle East, Hagel took questions from some of the Marines and gave a stark assessment of the global security situation: "The world is exploding all over." The remark came in response to a question about the Obama administration's realignment of the military towards the Asia-Pacific theater:

Q: Good afternoon, sir. My question is that, given that the administration's primary focus is on the Pacific theater, how has all of the issues popping up in the world today, Russia, Iraq, Africa, the rest of the theaters pretty much affected that current mission? And how do you foresee that affecting the mission in the future?

SEC. HAGEL: Thank you. That's a -- go ahead, sit down -- that's a question I got often when I was in India and Australia. And the trip I just came from was my sixth trip to the Asia Pacific area in the last year-and-a-half. I've got four planned this calendar year. And so I get that question all the time. It's a legitimate question for the very reasons you asked.

The world is exploding all over. And so is the United States going to continue to have the resources, the capabilities, the leadership, the bandwidth to continue with the rebalance toward the Asia Pacific? And the answer is yes.

Hagel went on say that, despite the rebalancing towards the Pacific, the US will not be "retreating" from any threats elsewhere in the world.

Americans Overwhelmingly Put English First

Thirty-one states have made English their official language, and five more are hoping to join the club this year. The U.S. government has yet to take that step, even though Americans still strongly believe English should be the nation's officially recognized language. Most also agree overwhelmingly that it’s important to know the language to get ahead in today's world.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 83% of American Adults believe English should be the official language of the United States. Only 10% disagree. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on August 9-10, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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United States Map Shows Each State’s Richest Resident

The richest of the rich in America make more money than most of us could ever fathom. This map, which was put together by Movoto, shows the richest people in each of the 50 states (click or tap to expand):

Bill Gates obviously comes in at the top spot with a staggering $80 billion dollars in Washington, while Robert Gillam from Alaska finds himself at the bottom with a mere $700 million – hardly a figure worthy of the ‘caboose’ title.

Since the names on the map are a little hard to read, below is a list of the names of our nation’s richest, by state, in alphabetical order.

Alabama: Marguerite Harbert – $1 Billion
Alaska: Robert Gillam – $700 Million
Arizona: Bruce Halle – $4.8 Billion
Arkansas: Jim Walton – $35.7 Billion
California: Larry Ellison – $49.4 Billion
Colorado: Charles Ergen – $15 Billion
Connecticut: Ray Dalio – $14.4 Billion
Delaware: Robert Gore – $830 Million
Florida: Charles Johnson – $8.1 Billion
Georgia: Anne Cox Chambers – $16.1 Billion
Hawaii: Pierre Omidyar – $7.9 Billion
Idaho: Frank VanderSloot – $1.2 Billion
Illinois: Ken Griffin – $5.5 Billion
Indiana: Gayle Cook – $6 Billion
Iowa: Harry Stine – $3.1 Billion
Kansas: Charles Koch – $41.4 Billion
Kentucky: Bradley Hughes – $2.3 Billion
Louisiana: Tom Benson – $1.5 Billion
Maine: Leon Gorman – $860 Million
Maryland: Ted Lerner – $4.6 Billion
Massachusetts: Abigail Johnson – $18.2 Billion
Michigan: Hank & Doug Meijer – $7.9 Billion
Minnesota: Whitney MacMillan – $5.3 Billion
Mississippi: Leslie Lampton – $2.4 Billion
Missouri: Jack Taylor – $13.5 Billion
Montana: Dennis Washington – $6.1 Billion
Nebraska: Warren Buffett – $63.1 Billion
Nevada: Sheldon Adelson – $35.7 Billion
New Hampshire: Rick Cohen – $11.2 Billion
New Jersey: David Tepper – $10 Billion
New Mexico: Maloof Brothers – $1 Billion
New York: David Koch – $41.4 Billion
North Carolina: James Goodnight – $8.1 Billion
North Dakota: Gary Theraldson – $900 Million
Ohio: Leslie Wexner – $5.7 Billion
Oklahoma: Harold Hamm – $19.7 Billion
Oregon: Phil Knight – $19 Billion
Pennsylvania: Mary Alice Dorace Malone – $3 Billion
Rhode Island: Jonathan Nelson – $1.8 Billion
South Carolina: Anita Zucker – $2.7 Billion
South Dakota: T. Denny Sanford – $1.3 Billion
Tennesse: Thomas Frist – $6.9 Billion
Texas: Alice Walton – $35.3 Billion
Utah: Jon Huntsman, Sr. – $1.2 Billion
Vermont: John Abele – $3.3 Billion
Virginia: Jacqueline Mars – $20 Billion
Washington: Bill Gates – $80 Billion
West Virginia: Jim Justice – $1.6 Billion
Wisconsin: John Menard – $7.7 Billion
Wyoming: Christy Walton – $36.7 Billion

Exit thought: Most people got on this list by either being an entrepreneur, an heir/heiress, or a widow.

Leaning Right in Hollywood, Under a Lens

By MICHAEL CIEPLY and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

LOS ANGELES — In a famously left-leaning Hollywood, where Democratic fund-raisers fill the social calendar, Friends of Abe stands out as a conservative group that bucks the prevailing political winds.

A collection of perhaps 1,500 right-leaning players in the entertainment industry, Friends of Abe keeps a low profile and fiercely protects its membership list, to avoid what it presumes would result in a sort of 21st-century blacklist, albeit on the other side of the partisan spectrum.

Now the Internal Revenue Service is reviewing the group’s activities in connection with its application for tax-exempt status. Last week, federal tax authorities presented the group with a 10-point request for detailed information about its meetings with politicians like Paul D. Ryan, Thaddeus McCotter and Herman Cain, among other matters, according to people briefed on the inquiry.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the organization’s confidentiality strictures, and to avoid complicating discussions with the I.R.S.

Those people said that the application had been under review for roughly two years, and had at one point included a demand — which was not met — for enhanced access to the group’s security-protected website, which would have revealed member names. Tax experts said that an organization’s membership list is information that would not typically be required. The I.R.S. already had access to the site’s basic levels, a request it considers routine for applications for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

Friends of Abe — the name refers to Abraham Lincoln — has strongly discouraged the naming of its members. That policy even prohibits the use of cameras at group events, to avoid the unwilling identification of all but a few associates — the actors Gary Sinise, Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammer, or the writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, for instance — who have spoken openly about their conservative political views.

The I.R.S. request comes in the face of a continuing congressional investigation into the agency’s reviews of political nonprofits, most of them conservative-leaning, which provoked outrage on the right and forced the departure last year of several high-ranking I.R.S. officials. But unlike most of those groups, which had sought I.R.S. approval for a mix of election campaigning and nonpartisan issue advocacy, Friends of Abe is seeking a far more restrictive tax status, known as 501(c)(3), that would let donors claim a tax deduction, but strictly prohibits any form of partisan activity.

The group is not currently designated tax-exempt, but it behaves as a nonprofit and has almost no formal structure, people briefed on the matter said. The I.R.S. review will determine whether Friends of Abe receives tax-exempt status that would provide legal footing similar to that of the People for the American Way Foundation, a progressive group fostered by the television producer Norman Lear and others. If not, Friends of Abe could resort to the courts, or it might simply operate as a nonprofit, but it would be unable to receive tax-deductible contributions.

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Jeremy Boreing, executive director of Friends of Abe, declined on Wednesday to discuss details of the tax review, but said the group would continue regardless of outcome.

“Certainly, it’s been a long process,” he said.

“Friends of Abe has absolutely no political agenda,” he added. “It exists to create fellowship among like-minded individuals.”

People for the American Way, Mr. Lear’s group, stands as something of a liberal counterpart to Friends of Abe, though the organization is far larger, with an affiliate that spends millions of dollars a year on issue advocacy in Washington and beyond. But the entertainment industry has been crisscrossed by progressive groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, which maintains a tax-exempt educational adjunct under the 501(c)(3) provision, and includes the producer Laurie David and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio among its trustees. Another, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, is a nonprofit that supports marriage rights for gay people and counts the producer Bruce Cohen and the writer Dustin Lance Black among its founders.

In the request last week, tax officials combined broad questions about membership criteria and social events, according to the people briefed on the matter, with pointed queries about meetings with a Los Angeles mayoral candidate, Kevin James, and Republican politicians like Mr. Ryan, Mr. Cain and Rick Santorum.

Officials particularly wanted to know why a speech introducing Mr. Cain at a Friends of Abe event in November 2011 — when he was a presidential candidate — should not be regarded as potentially prohibited political campaign support.

While tax-exempt groups are permitted to invite candidates to speak at events, it is not uncommon for the I.R.S. to scrutinize such activities to determine whether they cross the line into partisan election activity. One issue is whether the organization invites all the qualified candidates.

“The I.R.S. would say that if you are inviting only conservative candidates, that’s a problem,” said Marcus S. Owens, a former director of the I.R.S.’s exempt organizations division. “But it’s never really been litigated.”

Friends of Abe began about nine years ago as little more than an email chain linking conservative stars, filmmakers and other Hollywood figures who were generally reluctant to openly discuss their views. The name is a take on Friends of Bill, the circle of loyalists who have adhered to Bill Clinton over the years.

Mr. Sinise was a leading voice among those who in early 2005 gathered at Morton’s Steakhouse here for an informal dinner that members have since identified as the group’s closest approach to an actual founding moment.

As Friends of Abe grew, however, Mr. Sinise withdrew from active leadership, and Mr. Boreing, a film producer and director, took charge.

Membership has been defined mostly by access to a private website (there are no dues, but enhanced online access requires a small fee), and attendance at a growing number of events that have included meetings with political operatives like Karl Rove and Frank Luntz; politicians like Michele Bachmann and John Boehner; and media figures like Ann Coulter, Dennis Miller and Mark Levin.

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The recent I.R.S. query did not mention the earlier request for access to the names of members, people briefed on the query said.

But a remaining question is whether at least some of the group’s politically oriented encounters will be interpreted as campaign activity, and weigh against its bid for tax exemption as a 501(c)(3) organization, devoted to educational or charitable work.

A spokesman for the I.R.S. on Wednesday said it was prohibited from commenting on specific taxpayer activity.

Tax officials and congressional overseers have been embroiled in a debate over the enforcement of rules that restrict campaign activity by tax-exempt groups since last year, when an I.R.S. official acknowledged that officers had improperly targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. But most of those groups were seeking recognition as so-called 501(c)(4) groups, whose ability to conduct a limited amount of campaign activity is governed by a vague patchwork of rules and standards. In November, in an effort to make the process both more transparent and more rigorous, the I.R.S. announced that it would begin formulating new rules.

Michael Cieply reported from Los Angeles and Nicholas Confessore from New York.

Southwest Fresno leaders criticize hiring of white teacher for Gaston school's cultural studies

BY HANNAH FURFARO

With just weeks before the new Rutherford B. Gaston Middle School opens in southwest Fresno, community and church leaders are calling on Fresno Unified School District to reconsider its hiring of a white teacher to instruct African-American, Latino and Southeast Asian studies there.

At an early morning news conference Monday, a small group of concerned citizens led by Rev. Karen Crozier met in front of the school on Church Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

People at the gathering said the new school, which is the first southwest Fresno middle school in decades, needs teachers who reflect the ethnic and racial background of its students.

Crozier and others were dismayed to learn the person hired to teach the school's three cultural studies classes is white. District officials initially considered hiring a teacher of color, she said, but ultimately hired Peter Beck, a former teacher at Hoover High School.

"We're just saying what the community wants. We didn't fight for a white male or female teacher to educate our babies," Crozier said. "We still are at these racial fault lines, and we want someone who will be able to think critically about those racial fault lines and how do we help heal, to restore the problems that have existed."

District spokeswoman Micheline Golden did not confirm any details about who the district interviewed for the position.

But she said Beck was the best pick for the job and one of only four teachers in Fresno Unified with experience teaching the three cultural studies classes he'll be responsible for at Gaston.

He has a decade of experience teaching Latino Studies courses and two years of experience teaching African-American courses, Golden said. Beck also has led Hoover's Men's Alliance for four years, a leadership class for at-risk teens. Golden did not know how many years Beck has taught Southeast Asian studies classes.

"We are always looking at the best, most experienced, most qualified who can provide the best education for our young people," she said.

Golden didn't directly answer questions about whether the district made any efforts to hire teachers from ethnic or racial minority backgrounds, but said job candidates are evaluated based on their experience, certifications and education.

District Trustee Cal Johnson, who represents the southwest Fresno community and was not involved in the hiring process, said he supports Beck for the position.

"I do not believe colorism trumps qualifications," he said. "I don't care whether it's white, whether it's black, brown or yellow."

One of Beck's former students, Sabrina Fink, said it was "heart-wrenching" to hear he was the subject of the dispute.

Fink, a 2002 Hoover High graduate who is Hispanic, said she remembers Beck's enthusiasm and inspiring teaching style from taking his Chicano studies and Mexican history class. He'd frequently bring in speakers, write quotes and statistics on the whiteboard about Hispanic youth and organize culturally sensitive projects on traditional Mexican holidays.

"He inspired all of us," she said.

Changing neighborhood

The controversy swirls just as Gaston prepares to open its doors to students for the first time next month. The school is set on a site that was once home to Carver Academy, 40 residential homes, a flood basin and a church. Part of the area was once known as "The U," a spot notorious for gang activity, crime and drug deals.

Now a sleek silver and yellow schoolhouse -- designed in a similar fashion to nearby Edison High School -- stands on the 26-acre plot.

The new school brings a sense of renewal to the area, which is home to the city's largest black community and includes residents from several other minority backgrounds. Until this year, southwest Fresno children have been bused across town to Fort Miller, Scandinavian, Tioga and Wawona middle schools. The last time southwest Fresno had its own middle school was in 1979, when Irwin Junior High shuttered its doors.

After waiting so long for a place to call home, the concerned citizens say school officials should honor their wishes to bring more diversity into the classroom.

'Not about him'

Rev. Paul McCoy of New Light for New Life Church of God said he met Beck this month at a meeting with one of Gaston's principals and found him "highly intelligent." He's qualified for the job, McCoy added, but said, "we told him it's not about him."

Late Monday night, Beck confirmed through email that he met with McCoy and said he's made an effort to meet with other members of the southwest Fresno community since late June. He said he has not met with Karen Crozier but plans to do so soon.

He deferred other comments to district officials.

The concerns are far from personal, McCoy said. Hiring teachers who look like the students they teach simply helps ensure sensitivity about topics related to race, he said.

The district's latest report to the state shows 122 teachers -- or 3% of the teaching force in Fresno Unified -- are African-American. Just more than 22% of teachers are Hispanic, 64% are Caucasian and 8% are Asian. About 9% of children who attend Fresno Unified schools are African-American, 65% are Hispanic, 11% are Caucasian and 11% are Asian.

Cultural studies classes also help students better understand their own history, McCoy added.

"We're all faced today with so much dysfunction and violence from young people, and that violence is simply because they don't know who they are, they don't know where they come from," he said at the news event. "They don't know the responsibility and accountability it takes to become a vital citizen in this country."

A former Fresno Unified student who attended the news event said she wishes she would have had more teachers of color throughout her schooling.

Nicole Morgan, 25, is now a graduate student at Howard University -- a historically black university in Washington, D.C. -- and said youngsters shouldn't have to wait until their college years to take classes from teachers with their same cultural or racial experiences.

"Although I was taught from an early age about my history, I unfortunately did not receive the same education going through the school system," she said. She added that students need to know their history "so they can know the potential for their future."

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/07/28/4044162/southwest-fresno-leaders-criticize.html#storylink=cpy