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Wednesday, August 13, 2014
National
digest
NATION
1
Military sends 130 more troops to Iraq
Obama calls teen’s death ‘heartbreaking’
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — President Barack Obama called
the police shooting of an unarmed teenager in the St. Louis
suburbs “heartbreaking” and urged Americans to mourn
the young, black man “in a way that heals, not in a way that
wounds.”
In a statement issued by the White House on Tuesday,
Obama made his ﬁrst comment on the death of 18-year-old
Michael Brown, who was shot Saturday in working class
Ferguson, Mo., in the St. Louis area. The shooting touched
off clashes between demonstrators and police in the racially
divided city.
Obama noted that the U.S. Justice Department and local
officials have launched investigations into the incident. St.
Louis County police say Brown was shot after an altercation.
Witnesses dispute that account.
Police have not released the name of the officer involved.
The White House issued the statement as the president is
vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
Deadline to resolve health law eligibility near
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of people
who signed up under the new health care law risk losing
their taxpayer-subsidized insurance unless they act quickly
to resolve questions about their citizenship or immigration
status. The government warned Tuesday that they have just
over three weeks to show that they’re eligible.
Of the 8 million people who signed up for private coverage through the law, more than 2 million at one point had
discrepancies of some sort that clouded their eligibility. That
number has been greatly reduced — but the remaining cases
are proving difficult to untangle.
People living in the country illegally are not allowed to get
coverage. Officials at the Health and Human Services Department said letters are being sent to about 310,000 people
with documentation issues involving citizenship or immigration. The letters will notify enrollees with unresolved issues
that they still need to upload their documents to the HealthCare.gov website by Sept. 5, or mail them in. Otherwise, their
coverage will end on Sept. 30.
Additional soldiers sent to
assess situation of trapped
civilians in Sinjar area
Associated Press
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Another 130 U.S. troops arrived in Iraq
on Tuesday on what the Pentagon described as a temporary mission to assess the scope of the humanitarian crisis facing thousands of displaced Iraqi
civilians trapped on Sinjar Mountain
and evaluate options for getting them
out to safety.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the deployment in remarks to
Marines at Camp Pendleton.
“This is not a combat boots on the
ground kind of operation,” Hagel said.
“We’re not going back into Iraq in any
of the same combat mission dimensions that we once were in in Iraq,” he
added, referring to the eight-year war
that cost more than 4,400 U.S. lives
and soured the American public on
military involvement
in Iraq.
Another defense ofﬁcial, speaking on the
condition of anonymity
to provide additional
details on the sensitive
HAGEL
mission, said the extra
troops are Marines and
special operations forces whose mission is to assess the situation in the Sinjar area and to develop additional humanitarian assistance options beyond
current U.S. efforts there. Still another
official said the mission for the 130
troops could last less than one week.
Hagel referred to the 130 as “assessors.”
The additional troops arrived Tuesday in the city of Irbil, well east of Sinjar. They are to work with representatives of the State Department and the
U.S. Agency for International Development to coordinate plans with international partners and non-government organizations to help the trapped
Yazidi civilians on Sinjar Mountain.
The move shows the Obama ad-
Williams hanged
himself with belt,
authorities say
Associated Press
New access system for military installations
WASHINGTON — Military installations have a new
system for checking the credentials of people trying to gain
access.
Department of Defense spokeswoman Lt. Col. Valerie
Henderson said in a statement that the system, called the
Identity Matching Engine for Security and Analysis, became
functional Friday.
The system matches people affiliated with the Department of Defense against an FBI database for active arrest
warrants. It also alerts if a person is using a lost or stolen
credential or one that is no longer valid.
Moving quickly to implement the system was one of four
key recommendations made by the Secretary of Defense
following last year’s shooting at the Washington Navy Yard.
The shooter had a valid credential to gain entry.
Group has betting pool on Sturgis deaths
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Members of a Black Hills family and their friends acknowledge that a betting pool they
run on how many bikers will die during the annual Sturgis
Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota is a bit macabre, but they
say they mean no harm.
This year, 12 people put in $5 each, with the winner
pocketing $60.
Fatalities are a fact of life at the rally that draws hundreds of thousands of bikers to Sturgis each year, said Carol
Landrum, 62, who travels from Arkansas every summer to
her family’s cabin in the Black Hills.
The pool started seven years ago based on an idea from
a friend of Landrum’s husband. That friend later died in a
motorcycle accident, she said.
The state Highway Patrol said four fatalities were
recorded at this year’s rally, which ended last weekend, down
from six last year.
— From Gazette news services
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Associated Press
Humphrey Bogart and his wife, Lauren Bacall, appear at the premiere of Bogart’s
“The Desperate Hours” in Los Angeles in 1955.
Sultry-voiced movie star
Lauren Bacall dies at 89
Actress had storied
marriage to Bogart and
long stage, screen career
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Lauren Bacall, the
slinky, sultry-voiced actress who
created on-screen magic with Humphrey Bogart in “To Have and Have
Not” and “The Big Sleep” and offscreen magic in one of Hollywood’s
most storied marriages, died Tuesday at age 89.
Bacall, whose long career brought
two Tonys and a special Oscar, died
in New York. The managing partner
of the Humphrey Bogart Estate, Robbert J.F. de Klerk, said that Bacall died
at home, but declined to give further
details. Bacall’s son Stephen Bogart
conﬁrmed his mother’s death to de
Klerk.
She was among the last of the oldfashioned Hollywood stars and her
legend, and the legend of “Bogie and
Bacall” — the hard-boiled couple who
could ﬁght and make up with the best
of them — started almost from the
moment she appeared on screen. A
fashion model and bit-part New York
actress before moving to Hollywood
at 19, Bacall achieved immediate
fame in 1944 with one scene in her
ﬁrst ﬁlm, “To Have and Have Not.”
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C 94
Leaving Bogart’s hotel room, she
murmured:
“You don’t have to say anything,
and you don’t have to do anything.
Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle.
You know how to whistle, don’t you,
Steve? You just put your lips together
and blow.”
She was less than half Bogart’s
age, yet as wise and as jaded as him.
Her sly glance, with chin down and
eyes raised, added to her fame; she
was nicknamed “The Look.” Bogart
and Bacall married amid headlines
in 1945, and they co-starred in three
more ﬁlms, “The Big Sleep” (1946),
“Dark Passage” (1947) and “Key Largo” (1948). Their marriage lasted until his death from cancer in 1957.
She appeared in movies for more
than a half-century, but not until 1996
did she receive an Academy Award
nomination — as supporting actress
for her role as Barbra Streisand’s mother in “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” Although a sentimental favorite, she lost
to Juliette Binoche for her performance
in “The English Patient.”
Bacall ﬁnally got a statuette in
November 2009 when she was presented with a special Oscar at the
movie academy’s new Governors
Awards gala.
“The thought when I get home
that I’m going to have a two-legged
man in my room is so exciting,” she
quipped.
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ministration is weighing the impact
and implications of several days of
targeted airstrikes on the Islamic State
ﬁghters and how that has affected
U.S.-backed Kurdish forces opposing
them in northern Iraq.
President Barack Obama has said
repeatedly he will not send ground
combat forces back into Iraq.
One immediate dilemma is the fate
of thousands of displaced Yazidis in
the Sinjar area who have been provided
with food and water delivered by U.S.
cargo planes in recent days. Washington also is considering how to increase
its military assistance to the Kurds,
whose militia is outgunned by the militants.
The 130 are in addition to 90 U.S.
military advisers already in Baghdad
and 160 in a pair of operations centers — one in Irbil and one in Baghdad
— working with Iraqi security forces.
They are in addition to about 455 U.S.
security forces and 100 military personnel working in the Office of Security Cooperation in the U.S. Embassy
in Baghdad.
SWIFT
 SWIFT READ
BOOK: Not all the actors
at a star-packed news
conference in New York
on Tuesday for the new
ﬁlm “The Giver” had
been familiar with Lois
Lowry’s acclaimed 1994
book before they made
the ﬁlm. But Taylor Swift
sure had been.
The 24-year-old singer read it in
school, and says it had a huge inﬂuence on
her outlook on life.
“It celebrates all the things I hold really
dear and are important to me,” Swift said,
“like our history, our music, our art, our
intellect and our memories.”
Swift, who has a small role in the ﬁlm
that opens Friday, waxed philosophical
about the idea that people should be protected from the darker side of life.
 APOLOGY FOR COMMENT: Fox
News’ Shepard Smith says he regrets
using the word coward while speculating
on air what Robin Williams may have been
feeling before his suicide.
Smith made the comment Monday
night during coverage of the Academy
Award-winning actor’s death.
“I have no way of knowing the depths
of Mr. Williams’ suffering but I never
meant to suggest that he acted in any
such manner,” Smith said in a statement.
Smith was speaking about how Williams’ death might impact his three adult
children.
Critics took to social media after Smith
said Williams’ children were giving him so
much joy, “and yet something inside you
is so horrible or you’re such a coward or
whatever the reason that you decide you
have to end it.”
 MARVEL ARENA SHOW: Marvel
Entertainment, which muscled into pop
culture with comic books, TV cartoons
and movies, is gambling on attracting new
fans as it tackles 3-D — but forget the
silly glasses.
A new live arena show called “Marvel
Universe Live!” — a ﬁrst for the comic
franchise — has begun an 85-city tour
over the next two years, ﬂooding stages
with a dizzying array of actors and upping the technological ante for theatrical
events.
Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black
Widow, Wolverine, Nick Fury, Spider-Man,
Storm, Green Goblin and Red Skull are
among the heroes and villains that constantly battle during the two-hour show.
 VIDEO GAME
SONGS: Pharrell is teaming up with the world’s
best-selling basketball
video game franchise as
a music curator.
2K Sports announced
Tuesday that the GramPHARRELL
my-winning performer
chose 27 tracks for the
soundtrack of the upcoming “NBA 2K15.”
Pharrell said in a statement that he
wanted to create an “eclectic mix” of
songs. Three of his songs are featured on
the soundtrack including “Hunter,” ‘’Can I
Have It Like That” and “How Does It Feel?”
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Robin
Williams’ personal assistant found
the actor who was struggling with
depression dead in a bedroom of his
San Francisco Bay Area home, officials said Tuesday.
Williams’ wife likely was home
at the time he killed himself but was
unaware, Marin County Sheriff’s
Lt. Keith Boyd said.
Williams was last seen alive by
his wife Sunday night when she
went to bed, Boyd said. She woke up
the next morning and left, thinking
he was still asleep elsewhere in the
house.
Shortly after that, Williams’
personal assistant
came to the Tiburon
home and became
concerned
when
Williams failed to
respond to knocks
at a door. The assistant found the
WILLIAMS
63-year-old actor
clothed and dead in
a bedroom.
Boyd said all evidence indicates
Williams, star of “Good Will Hunting,” “Mrs. Doubtﬁre,” ‘’Good
Morning, Vietnam” and dozens of
other ﬁlms, committed suicide by
hanging himself with a belt. But
Boyd said a ﬁnal ruling will be made
once toxicology reports and interviews with witnesses are complete.
The condition of the body indicated Williams had been dead for
at least a few hours, Boyd said. Williams also had superﬁcial cuts on his
wrist, and a pocketknife was found
nearby.
Williams had been seeking treatment for depression,
Boyd said. He would not say
whether the actor left a suicide note.
“We still have people we want to
speak with, so there is some information we’re going to withhold,”
Boyd said. “We’re not discussing
the note or a note at this point as the
investigation is ongoing.”
The Oscar-winning actor for
years dealt with bouts of substance
abuse and depression and referenced his struggles in his comedy
routines.
Just last month, Williams announced he was returning to a 12step treatment program.
THIS DAY
IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, August 13, the
225th day of 2014. There are 140 days
left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On August 13, 1934, the satirical comic
strip “Li’l Abner,” created by Al Capp,
made its debut.
On this date:
 In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the
founder of modern nursing, died in London
at age 90.
 In 1961, East Germany sealed off
the border between Berlin’s eastern and
western sectors and began building a wall
that would stand for the next 28 years.
 In 1981, in a ceremony at his
California ranch, President Ronald Reagan
signed a historic package of tax and budget reductions.
 In 1989, searchers in Ethiopia found
the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14
other people — there were no survivors.
Ten years ago: Hutu marauders raided
a U.N. refugee camp in western Burundi,
shooting and hacking at least 150 Congolese Tutsis to death.
Today’s birthdays: Former Cuban
President Fidel Castro is 88. Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is 68. Hockey
Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 65. Actor
Danny Bonaduce is 55. TV weatherman
Sam Champion is 53. Actor John Slattery
is 52. Country musician Mike Melancon
(Emerson Drive) is 36.
— Associated Press