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Hank Phillippi Ryan part of Cold War history in ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

Of the many stories of the CIA’s Cold War efforts against Russia, “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” stands out for its larger-than-life-sized James Bond  flavor.In 1968 a nuclear-powered Russian sub sank with its 98-man crew in the Pacific.  In ‘69 the CIA hatched a seemingly impossible idea: They would build a ship with a hollow interior, equip it with a “grabber” that could go to the ocean bottom and carry the sub back into the ship and uncover many Russian secrets.The ship was finished in 1973 with a cover story that it was owned by the notoriously eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. He was deep-sea oil drilling.Unfortunately, by 1975 with the ocean retrieval in progress, major upheavals shook the secretive agency: In the fallout from Watergate, CIA secrets were no longer secret.CIA black ops crimes were being exposed by legendary newsmen Jack Anderson and Seymour Hersch.  When the newsmen got hints on the CIA and the Russian sub, the Agency pleaded they not reveal anything.“Neither Co...

Editorial: Biden downshifts on UAW strike; Trump steps up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

Joe Biden has long made a meal out of his blue-collar credentials – his working class family in Scranton, hard times when his father struggled to find work. He’s also waved the union flag high, telling an audience in June that “I meant what I said when I said I’m going to be…the most pro-union president in American history. And I make no apologies for it. “So why is former President Donald Trump planning to visit striking UAW workers in Michigan next week, and not Biden?“Trump scooped us. Now if we announce we’re going, it looks like we’re just going because of Trump,” a national Democratic strategist told Politico. “We waited too long. That’s the challenge.”As they say, you snooze, you lose.It’s not just that Biden has so far stayed away from Michigan (East Palestine, Ohio knows how they feel), but the White House is dithering over sending any top tier officials there.On Tuesday, the administration scrapped its plan to have two Biden aides head to Detroit this wee...

Enyart: VA ambulance funding cut would hurt veterans

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

Unless stopped, the Department of Veterans Affairs is set to knock over a domino that may drastically harm veterans’ health care and then spread to the general community.In a cost-cutting measure on track to take effect early next year, the VA plans to sever a critical link between veterans and medical facilities by significantly slashing reimbursements for the ambulances that transport them. Today, many veterans rely on ambulances for transportation because they are staffed by emergency medical technicians trained to monitor their medical condition.Too many veterans simply do not have the financial resources or the support network necessary to arrange and pay for transportation to a medical facility where treatment is provided. Confronted with costs that run into thousands of dollars, many or our neediest veterans may simply forgo receiving care.Veterans in rural areas will be most affected because a disproportionate number of our service people come from rural places where a trip ...

Franks: America feels fallout of Biden’s border fiasco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to – I don’t see an ending to this. This issue (i.e. the influx of migrants crossing the Mexican border into the U.S.) will destroy New York City,” said Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, let out a similar cry for federal assistance.More than 110,000 illegal immigrants have entered Adams’ city in the last several months. They came from the Mexican border in a surge due to America being unable to secure its own borders. Adams projects that as many as 10,000 per month will be entering the city.Over 1.5 million estimated illegal immigrants have skirted around border security on President Joe Biden’s watch. Their whereabouts are unknown.About 5.8 million have been caught and relocated throughout America as so-called “asylum seekers.” Deportation numbers have not been disclosed, however.One of the causes of the Roman Emp...

‘Fremont’ an offbeat, multilayered gem

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

Named after the San Francisco-adjacent city, “Fremont” is a bit of a wonder. Shot in black-and-white and featuring dialogue delivered in a PTSD-and-displacement-trauma monotone, the film tells the story of a young woman named Donya (outstanding newcomer Anaita Wali Zada), who served as a translator in Afghanistan for the U.S. Army (a rare profession for an Afghan woman) and has been separated from her family and ended up alone in a strange U.S. city, in this case Fremont.During the day, Donya goes to nearby San Francisco, in part to get away from Fremont’s Afghans, where she works in a small factory producing fortune cookies for area Chinese restaurants. Her coworkers include Joanna (a noteworthy Hilda Schmelling), an American singleton with piercings and a cowboy boot earring on the lookout for blind dates. Also on hand is the silent Fan (Avis See-tho), who writes the fortunes on a laptop and wields a paper cutter to get the printed versions ready to be baked into the cookies...

‘Expend4ables’ back in (lots of) action

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

Barney Ross might not ring the same bells as Rocky Balboa or John Rambo. But one has to give Sylvester Stallone credit for embodying (and creating) yet another character for him to bring to life on screen for his fans to enjoy in his impressive dotage (we can also now count Stallone’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi of “Tulsa King,” an invention of the tireless Taylor Sheridan).Ross is the de facto leader of the elite mercenary group known semi-jokingly as the Expendables. They are often former SAS or Special Forces fighters-turned-guns-for-hire. In this, the fourth installment in the less-than-acclaimed series, Stallone returns along with series regulars Jason Statham as Brit Lee Christmas, Dolph Lundgren as reformed drunk Gunner Jensen and wrestler Randy Couture as Toll Road. Among the newcomers are Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Easy Day, Megan Fox as Christmas’ romantic partner and fighter Gina, the amazing Thai action star Tony Jaa (“Ong Bak”) as Decha and Andy Garcia as...

Dear Abby: Family support AWOL for expectant wife

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband and I are expecting our first child this year. I moved to the United States a few years ago to be with him. His family is mostly absent from our lives. I have tried to make an effort with my in-laws, but it’s always met with failure. They make excuses, so we have come to accept that we see them only during holidays. It has put a strain on our marriage.Now that I’m pregnant, and this is her first grandchild, I thought my MIL might like to spend more time together. Unfortunately, the joke is on me because she’s now criticizing me for taking time off work because morning sickness was tough on me. She has made hurtful comments to my husband that have now caused him to treat me with little respect or compassion. I am depressed and wonder if I made a mistake by marrying him and getting pregnant. It takes a village to raise children, and we do not have a village behind us. It sometimes feels like my husband isn’t behind me, either. What do I do...

New Chuck E. Cheese opens in East County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

SANTEE, Calif. -- Attention parents: a new Chuck E. Cheese has opened in Santee.Kids will be able to be kids at 265 Town Center Parkway, Chuck. E Cheese said on its website. The Santee location opened Monday, but it will have its grand opening on Oct. 12 from 5-7 p.m., according to city officials. 2 San Diego spots rank among top pan dulce places in US: Yelp Chuck E. Cheese is a children’s family entertainment center that is well-known for hosting group events for kids. It features diverse menu options, skill-level arcade games and in-store performances for all ages. Daily hours will be from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. except on Saturdays, when it opens from 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. The San Diego area is now home to eight Chuck E. Cheese locations with the new Santee opening.

Black teens learn to fly and aim for careers in aviation in the footsteps of Tuskegee Airmen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Marie Ronny and Kyan Bovee expect their futures to take off. Literally.The Black teens from Detroit are part of a free program teaching young people how to fly, while exposing them to careers in aviation, an industry in which people of color are traditionally underrepresented. Their classrooms are the skies above Detroit’s Coleman A. Young municipal airport and inside a large hangar there serving as home to the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum.“I want to be a mechanical engineer with a pilot’s license so I can fly my own creations. I want to build planes!” said Ronny, a 16-year-old high school student who earned her pilot’s license this summer.Ronny and Bovee are among nearly 30 high school students in the Tuskegee Airmen Flight Academy this year, where a majority of the class is Black. The program began three decades ago and is designed for youths ages 14 to 19 who want to become professional pilots. It offers flight instruction and ground school classes leading...

Want a place on the UN stage? Leaders of divided nations must first get past this gatekeeper

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:54 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — It’s one of the United Nations’ more obscure bodies, with no space to call its own within the riverside headquarters. And there is scant insight into how it decides a question of far-reaching impact: Who gets let through the door?With an anodyne name, the U.N. Credentials Committee has long gone unnoticed; it doesn’t even appear on the U.N.’s own organizational chart of its many agencies, councils, committees and departments. But when it comes to countries riven by political divisions or coups, the nine-member body is the gatekeeper to the world’s stage at the U.N. General Assembly’s annual meeting.Credentialing is a mere formality for universally recognized governments. But leaders of factions within divided nations know that the committee’s decision stands to withhold or bestow some much-desired legitimacy — especially when their claims aren’t necessarily the strongest. So how does the committee decide who speaks for member state...