FILE: May 17, 2014: The Department of Veterans Affairs in Phoenix, Ariz.AP
The Obama administration said Saturday it will allow more veterans to get health care outside Veterans Affairs facilities, following recent revelations about long waits for treatment and purported secret lists that hid backlogs.
The statement was issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the plan is to expand capacity at VA facilities to increase care, or when not possible increase care in the community through outside facilities.
Officials said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki put the plan into action following President Obama's national TV address Wednesday on the issue and that it was being implemented by Friday under the direction of the Veterans Health Administration.
"VA has redoubled efforts to provide quality care to veterans and has taken steps at national and local levels to ensure timely access to care," the department said Saturday in a statement.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have pressed for the policy change as the VA confronts the allegations about employees falsifying appointment records to cover up delays in care and about veterans dying while awaiting treatment at VA centers.
A spokesman for Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Florida Republican was pleased by Shinseki's announcement, but wondered why it took so long. Reports that as many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting treatment at the Phoenix hospital surfaced more than a month ago.
Miller said in a statement Friday that Shinseki and President Obama were engaged "in an endless discussion regarding allegations, investigations and unreliable internal VA reviews" while "overlooking VA's very real, very deadly and very well-documented delays in care problem."
Miller has pledged to introduce legislation that would give any veteran who is unable to obtain a VA appointment within 30 days of application the option to receive non-VA care at the department's expense.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has called for the VA to allow more veterans to receive medical care at private hospitals. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said this past week that she was open to the idea of medical care at private hospitals. She said it was unacceptable to have a backlog of patients waiting for permission to go to a federally qualified clinic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronting critics of his foreign policy, President Barack Obama will soon outline a strategy for his final years in office that aims to avoid overreach as the second of the two wars he inherited comes to a close.
The president will make the case for that seemingly more limited approach during a commencement address Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The speech will come amid growing frustration in the White House with Republicans and other critics who contend that Obama has weakened America's standing around the world and faltered on problems across the Middle East and in Russia, China and elsewhere.
That criticism has only mounted over the past year following Obama's decision to pull back a military strike in Syria and his inability to stop Russia from annexing territory from Ukraine. A White House official said Obama would specifically address both situations, as well as the status of ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.
The president is also expected to discuss how he views shifts in the counterterrorism threat from al-Qaida and other groups, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity to preview the president's speech.
Obama came into office vowing to end the lengthy American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and seeking to keep a war-weary nation out of unnecessary conflicts. The war in Iraq ended in the closing days of 2011 and the Afghan conflict will formally conclude later this year, though the White House is seeking to keep a smaller contingent of U.S. troops behind to train Afghan forces and conduct counterterrorism missions.
While Obama has followed through on his pledge to end America's wars, some foreign policy analysts argue that he has over-corrected and his aversion to military action makes it harder for the U.S. to levy credible threats that force international foes to change their behavior.
"He's far too risk adverse a president," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East adviser to Republican and Democratic administrations. "And in a world where no one will lead except America, he has abdicated and surrendered much of the leadership."
The White House official said Obama will argue that the U.S. remains the only nation capable of galvanizing action and will make the case that American power needs to be part of a sustainable international system. He will argue that his foreign policy philosophy is not isolationist, but rather "interventionist and internationalist," according to the official.
The president is expected to expand on remarks he made last month at a news conference in the Philippines, when the extent of his frustration with his critics boiled over. He specifically targeted those who are quick to call for U.S. military action, arguing that they had failed to learn the lessons of the Iraq war.
"Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we've just gone through a decade of war at enormous costs to our troops and to our budget?" he said. "And what is it exactly that these critics think would have been accomplished?"
Yet Obama also cast his approach as one that "avoids errors" by being more limited in scope.
"You hit singles, you hit doubles," he said. "Every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run. "
Ahead of the president's speech, Obama's top advisers have been holding private meetings with congressional lawmakers to address their specific foreign policy concerns. However, the outreach appeared to accomplish little, according to some participants, with a Republican senator calling one meeting "bizarre" and another lawmaker saying the White House refused to provide specific answers to questions.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was among those who participated in the White House meetings. In an interview, he questioned how much Obama's speech can accomplish in shifting the way the White House's foreign policy approach is viewed.
"One of the problems with the White House is that they view speeches as foreign policy," Corker said. "They don't really follow through with much in the way of substance. It's always minimal."
The White House official said Obama will build on his remarks during an early June trip to Europe, where he'll give a speech about the U.S. commitment to the continent while in Poland and meet with Group of Seven leaders in Brussels. Obama's top foreign policy advisers, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and national security adviser Susan Rice, are also expected to follow the president's address with events of their own, according to the official.
Rodger, 22, a student at Santa Barbara City College, grew up amid affluence and privilege as the son of Peter Rodger, an assistant director of "The Hunger Games" and a highly regarded film photographer in Europe, and the stepson of Soumaya Akaaboune, an actress who appeared in "Green Zone" in 2010 with Matt Damon and stars in the French version of the "Real Housewives" television series.
But in the nine videos and in a 106,000-word autobiography/cri-de-coeur written under his name and mailed through the post office to a Santa Barbara TV station, Rodger emerges as a desperately unhappy young man who pined for his birth mother — from whom he was separated by divorce — despised his stepmother and hated the frequent lavish trips to Europe and Morocco (his stepmother's homeland) that his family's wealth afforded.
And most of all, he hated women. They saw him as weak and uninteresting, he believed. They preferred strong, macho types, not a "supreme gentleman" like himself, he says in one of the videos he posted shortly before the rampage Friday. He died a virgin.
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Rodger was born in 1991 in London, where his father was then based. His mother was a Malaysian woman of Chinese descent who worked as a nurse on film sets, according to the 141-page manifesto.
NBC News has not independently verified the authenticity of the document, but Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown referred to it several times Saturday as helping to establish that Rodger was "disturbed" and "a madman."
Rodger lived a happy live with his parents and a younger sister in England until he was 5 years old, when the family moved to western Los Angeles so his father could pursue career opportunities in Hollywood, according to the manuscript.
Within two years, his parents divorced, it says. Almost immediately, his father introduced him to Akaaboune, the woman who would become his stepmother. He did not like her.
Then came school age, the start of what the writer describes as horribly unpleasant interactions with girls and — as he apparently saw them — their bully boyfriends.
MICHAEL NELSON / EPA
A woman kneels in front of a makeshift memorial Saturday for victims of the deadly shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
According to the document written under his name, Rodger had uncomfortable but not dire dealings with girls until he reached sixth grade.
Then, "with puberty, my whole world would change, and my entire life would collapse into utter despair."
By 13, he said, he was known as the "weird kid" at his school. He saw all girls as "mean, cruel, and heartless creatures that took pleasure in my suffering."
At the same time, he was powerfully sexually attracted to them — especially to effervescent blonde girls — which made it all the more "horrible" that other boys teased him for being scared of girls.
Courtesy Weiss family
Veronica Elizabeth Weiss, 19, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was killed in the shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
He was intensely jealous of any boy who had a girlfriend, especially those who boasted that they were having sex. As high school went on, he retreated deeper and deeper into the world of multiplayer online role-playing games, his favorite being World of Warcraft, which he would play for hours upon hours, and which he would dream of when he was forced to leave it behind on family trips overseas, according to the manifesto.
At some point, Rodger was diagnosed as having an ultra-high-achieving form of Asperger syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum, an attorney for his family said Saturday.
It's important to stress that there has never been any scientific link between Asperger and acts of violence, and there is no claim that Rodger's disorder itself had anything to do with Friday's actions.
But the diagnosis does partly explain why he was in Santa Barbara in the first place.
At the urging of his family, who wanted him to become more independent, Rodger left Los Angeles for Santa Barbara in June 2011 at age 19. He enrolled in Santa Barbara City College and was treated by "multiple" medical and psychiatric specialists, the family's lawyer said Saturday.
Childhood Photo Courtesy Richard Martinez via EPA
A childhood photo of Christopher Ross Michael-Martinez, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was killed in the shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
It didn't work, according to Rodger's videos and the manifesto written under his name. He dropped out and re-enrolled several times and doesn't appear to have declared a major. His isolation grew ever worse as he was rejected by the women at his college and at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"I'm 22 years old, and I'm still a virgin. I've never even kissed a girl," Rodger says in one of the videos, which he shot while sitting at the wheel of what appears to be the same BMW he is believed to have used to stalk the streets of Isla Vista on Friday night.
"I've been through college for 2½ years — more than that actually — and I'm still a virgin. It has been very torturous," he says. "College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. Within those years, I've had to rot in loneliness."
Declaring that life has not been "fair," he complains: "You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me."
And then he promises: "I will punish you all for it."
ROBYN BECK / AFP - Getty Images
Investigators inspect the suspected gunman's car Saturday after the deadly drive-by shootings Friday night in Isla Vista, Calif.
The manifesto picks up the story from there.
In December 2012, it says, he bought a gun — the first step toward what he grandiosely called "the Day of Retribution," which he planned for November 2013 in Isla Vista. It says he knew he would "die in the process."
"I didn't want to die. I fear death, but death is better than living such a miserable, insignificant life," it says.
The second gun — Rodger was found with three in all on Friday night, along with more than 40 magazines of ammunition — was bought in the spring of last year. About the same time, he came across a website devoted to men who hate women and are unable to persuade them to have sex, where he posted screeds against women.
Under treatment from several counselors in Santa Barbara, the document says, Rodger decided to postpone his murderous plans. He would try to win the Mega Millions lottery — hoping to become a multimillionaire in his own right and win the affections of a woman, any woman, who would sleep with him by the time he turned 22.
It didn't happen. As his 22nd birthday approached last July, he kept losing in the lottery and in attracting women. And everywhere he turned, he felt he was being mocked by every man who walked the streets holding hands with a woman, kissing a woman, even talking about a woman, according to the document written under his name.
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The weekend before he turned 22, he was at a party where he "saw lots of guys walking around with hot blonde girls on their arm," it says.
"It fueled me with rage, as it always had," the author writes. He pretended to shoot the women with his finger, sparking a fight with other men during which Rodger fell and broke his ankle.
The sheriff's office confirmed Saturday that authorities were called to a local hospital last July and investigated an altercation during which Rodger was injured — an altercation it said he instigated.
It was the last straw.
"I gave them all one last chance to accept me, to give me a reason not to hate them," the author writes. "I gave the world too many chances. It was time for Retribution" — which he timed for this spring.
"I moved to Isla Vista with the goal of losing my virginity and attaining the life I desire," the document says.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank—Pope Francis threw his weight behind a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during a visit Sunday, pleading for "an end to this situation that has become increasingly unacceptable."
On the second day of his three-day visit to the region, the pope used his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to strongly affirm the Vatican's support for an independent Palestine living in...
The two Israeli tourists killed in a shooting attack at the Brussels Jewish Museum were named on Sunday as Tel Aviv residents Emanuel (54) and Miriam (53) Riba.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday that two of the four fatalities from the shooting were an Israeli couple from Tel Aviv.
A third fatality was a volunteer at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, according to an unconfirmed report Saturday night on the news site HLN.be, the online edition of the Het Laatste Nieuws daily. A fourth victim, whom HLN reported was a 23-year-old employee of the museum, was also killed.
Police have no suspects in custody, the news site also reported. Belgian authorities are yet to release the names of those who died in the museum and the fourth person.
The shooter aimed for the victims throats and heads, witnesses told the daily.
According to HLN.be, police no longer suspect a person whom they detained shortly after the attack. That person is currently regarded as a witness, HLN.be reported.
Authorities are looking for the shooter, who was driven to the museum by a suspected accomplice in an Audi car, and the driver and are analyzing security camera footage.
European Jewish leaders are already comparing the shooting to 2012's massacre at the Ozar HaTorah school in Toulouse, France.
The attack is being approached as racially motivated by Belgian authorities, who posited that it was motivated by anti-Semitism.
Belgium's interior minister, Joëlle Milquet, was quoted as saying by the RTBF Belgian television station that anti-Semitic motives could be behind the attack.
"It's a shooting ... at the Jewish Museum," she was quoted saying. "All of this can lead to suspicions of an act of anti-Semitism."
Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur was quoted by the BBC as stating that the shooting was likely a terror attack and that the choice of location "isn't a coincidence."
About half of Belgium's 42,000-strong Jewish community lives in Brussels.
A spokesman for the Brussels fire brigade said the shooter drove up to the museum, went inside and fired shots.
"According to the information we have at the moment, it was a solitary shooter and it seems to have happened inside the museum," Pierre Meys, Brussels fire brigade spokesman, told French channel BFM TV.
Security around all Jewish institutions in the country has been raised to the highest level, and Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo was meeting with police and senior officials to discuss the situation.
According to the European Jewish Congress, a crisis center organized by the Consistoire Central and the Coordinating Committee of Belgian Jewish Organizations (CCOJB) along with other communal leaders has opened and is in contact with local and national authorities.
Speaking with The Jerusalem Post, Consistoire head Baron Julien Klener said that he had met with the Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and other senior officials and that authorities are "trying to find the suspects."
Maurice Sosnowski, president of the CCOJB, compared the incident to the 2012 shooting of four Jews in a school in France by an Qaeda-inspired gunman, Mohamed Merah.
"This really reminds of what you experienced in France with Mr. Merah attacking a Jewish school," he was quoted saying by BFM TV. "This is appalling. I would never have imagined something like that happening in Brussels."
He said no threats have been issued to the Jewish community.
European and international Jewish organizations were quick to compare the two assaults.
"Two years after Toulouse, and on the eve of the European elections, this despicable attack is yet another terrible reminder of the kind of threats Europe's Jews are currently facing," World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said in a statement shortly after the shooting. The attack was "clearly was targeted at Jews."
"Tomorrow, we must all work together to ensure that this doesn't happen again. If that means to improve security at Jewish sites in Europe, we have no choice. It must be done. If not, more people may be able to carry out such terrible crimes," he added.
According to EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor, while details of the attack are still lacking, it is clear that it is indicative of a "permanent threat to Jewish targets in Belgium and across the whole of Europe."
"This is once again, much like the savage murders in Toulouse, a clear example of where hate and anti-Semitism leads. European government must send out a clear message of zero tolerance towards any manifestation of anti-Semitism."
Kantor recently made waves by stating that without a significant reduction in the fear and insecurity plaguing European Jewry, normative Jewish life on the continent is "unsustainable."
"Incidents such as this do not occur in a vacuum, and are the direct result of a systematic culture of hate and anti-Semitism against the Jewish community and the State of Israel in so many parts of Europe, including Belgium," the Israeli Jewish Congress asserted.
A spokesman for the organization pointed out that according to a recent Anti-Defamation League Study, 27 percent of Belgians harbor anti-Semitic sentiments.
According to the ADL, Belgium comes in as the sixty third most anti-Semitic country out of one hundred territories polled around the world.
The shooting comes less than a day before polls open across Europe for elections to the European Union Parliament, with parties on the hard right expected to gain a significant plurality, though far from a majority, of mandates.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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A spokesman for Thailand's coup leaders said Sunday that democracy had caused "losses" for the country, as the junta sought to combat growing international condemnation and hundreds of protesters angrily confronted soldiers in central Bangkok.
Small protests have persisted since the army seized power on Thursday after months of conflict between the elected government and a fierce opposition protest movement, and the junta has been pleading for patience.
Troops fanned out Sunday in one of Bangkok's busiest shopping districts and blocked access to the city's Skytrain in an attempt to prevent a third day of anti-coup protests. They were soon met by a crowd that swelled to about 1,000 people shouting, "Get out, get out, get out!"
Tensions ran high, and at one point a group of soldiers was chased away by the crowds at the Ratchaprasong shopping district. By midafternoon, soldiers were blocking off elevated walkways linking the upscale malls, and Skytrain stops to the area were suspended. Soldiers also barricaded the road to the U.S. Embassy about 2 kilometers (1 mile) away on reports that a rally was planned there.
The junta's leader, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, had warned people earlier Sunday not to join anti-coup street protests, saying normal democratic principles cannot be applied.
At a press briefing, spokesmen for the junta sought to deflect international criticism. The United States has cut off foreign aid and canceled military exercises with Thailand since the coup. Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the U.S. also was reconsidering its long military relationship with the Southeast Asian country.
The U.S. State Department on Saturday urged "the immediate restoration of civilian rule and release of detained political leaders, a return to democracy through early elections, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."
Asked about the U.S. relationship, the junta spokesmen expressed hope that Washington might consider what they termed special circumstances, referring to several years of disruptive demonstrations by two bitterly divided factions that have several times paralyzed the country and led to violent clashes.
"For international issues, another difference is that democracy in Thailand has resulted in losses, which is definitely different from other countries and which is another detail we will clarify," said army spokesman Col. Winthai Suvaree.
"For Thailand, its circumstances are different from others," he said. "There is the use of weapons of war. Signs of violence against residents are everywhere. This is out of the ordinary."
The junta has defended the detentions of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, most of the deposed government's Cabinet and dozens of politicians and activists. It also has ordered dozens of outspoken activists, academics and journalists, including a prominent Thai reporter, to surrender themselves to military authorities.
Pravit Rojanaphruk, an outspoken columnist for the English-language daily The Nation, tweeted that he was reporting to the junta after being summoned. "On my way to see the new dictator of Thailand. Hopefully the last," he wrote.
Gen. Prayuth has justified the coup by saying the army had to act to avert violence and end half a year of political turmoil triggered by anti-government protests that killed 28 people and injured more than 800.
Chas Sisk, The Tennessean11:36 p.m. EDT May 23, 2014
This is an undated file photo of the electric chair at the Tennessee State prison in Nashville.(Photo: AP)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A law signed by Gov. Bill Haslam to remove roadblocks to executions in Tennessee by expanding use of the electric chair could instead create new legal hurdles, experts on the death penalty said Friday.
The measure that would allow electrocutions if lethal injection is found unconstitutional or the drugs are not available is essentially a backup plan for the state. But it's likely to spur new court challenges on behalf of the condemned.
Those cases mean it could be months or even years before Tennessee starts using the electric chair again — if it ever does at all.
"Of course death penalty opponents will challenge it," said Michael Rushford, president and chief executive of the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Fund, which supports the death penalty.
MORE: Tennessee may go back to the electric chair
The law, which Haslam signed Thursday and which goes into effect July 1, comes amid a national debate over the procedures, effectiveness and humaneness of lethal injection. Many suppliers of lethal injection drugs, particularly those based in Europe, have refused to sell states the chemicals most often used in executions.
Tennessee officials have struggled to procure the drugs, and the state has not executed an inmate since 2009.
Other states have responded by turning to untested drug combinations or less reliable makers, an approach that has created problems of its own. In January, the Ohio execution of Dennis McGuire by lethal injection took 25 minutes. Then last month, Oklahoma officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett because injections had not been administered correctly. He died less than an hour later of heart failure.
Oklahoma immediately delayed a second execution so it could review its lethal injection protocols. On Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito halted an execution in Missouri after attorneys questioned whether the inmate would suffer similarly on the gurney.
Only eight states permit electrocution, and the method has been used sparingly. But it appears to be on firmer legal footing, at least for the time being. The U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly has upheld the constitutionality of the electric chair, experts said.
But there may be some room for legal debate. The Supreme Court also has endorsed the notion that the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" can evolve with social norms.
That rationale played into a 2008 decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which also bans cruel and unusual punishment, to strike down electrocution. Tennessee has a similar clause in its constitution.
"Challenges will be made, and there will be judges that say it's going to be cruel and unusual," Rushford said. "But it would have to go all the way to the Supreme Court to overturn it (electrocution), which is a long process."
Attorney General Robert Cooper predicted those challenges in an opinion released in March. He said the state should be able to defend electrocution successfully.
But David Raybin, a defense attorney who helped write the state's death penalty law in 1977, said Tennessee's electric chair measure presents a second legal problem. Inmates who already have been condemned can argue they should not be put to death with a method that was not in use when they committed their crimes.
Tennessee lawmakers tried to head off that same attack on the state's death penalty in 1998, when they amended the law to add lethal injection. They gave inmates who committed crimes before Jan. 1, 1999, the option of the electric chair or lethal injection.
"It would have been unconstitutional to change the method," Raybin said.
Rushford said the state has a good defense this time around, in that it never completely discontinued use of the electric chair. Attorneys will almost certainly get the chance to argue the question in the coming months.
Obama is tapping Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio to run Housing and Urban Development and HUD Secretary Donovan as budget director. The choices show the president's goals of diversity and management skill for top administrators.
President Obama unveils his newest Cabinet nominees Friday: San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan as budget director.
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President Barack Obama tapped San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro on Friday to be the nation's next housing secretary, giving a prominent national platform to one of the Democratic Party's most celebrated up-and-comers. (May 23)
Musical chairs in the Cabinet is standard operating procedure in a president's second term. If approved by the Senate, these shifts would leave only a handful of Mr. Obama's original Cabinet secretaries in place. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current budget director, is expected to be confirmed soon as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she will take over for Kathleen Sebelius.
These choices are significant not just for those involved, but also for what they say about Obama.
• He's mindful of maintaining a diverse Cabinet. Obama's choice of Mayor Castro, a rising star in Democratic politics, signals Obama's interest in promoting young, Latino talent in his party. Before Obama's announcement Friday, a senior White House official praised Castro's five years as mayor of San Antonio, and said in a statement that the president is "excited about the mayor bringing his practical, on-the-ground success to scale at the federal level."
Obama has had his eye on Castro for a while. The president tapped him as keynote speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Castro is also seen as having potential for higher office someday. A Cabinet post would ad national heft to his résumé. His identical twin brother, Joaquin Castro, is a Democratic member of Congress from Texas. Both Castros represent what Democrats hope is an increasingly blue tinge to a red state with a growing Hispanic population.
The addition of Castro would make three Hispanics in Obama's Cabinet. The other two are Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator the Small Business Administration, an agency with Cabinet status. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who is of Portuguese descent, also could be considered Hispanic.
• Obama seems to be making safe Cabinet choices. The president's relationship with Republicans on Capitol Hill is strained, and with the Veterans Affairs Department embroiled in scandal, the last thing he needs is tough confirmations for key positions. Ms. Burwell sailed through the Senate Finance Committee on a vote of 21-3 Wednesday, despite the fact that she will be running a troubled agency, HHS, and the most controversial initiative of Obama's presidency, the Affordable Care Act.
Like Burwell, Secretary Donovan has already been through a Senate confirmation. Observers don't expect him to have trouble being confirmed for the Office of Management and Budget.
"Like outgoing Director Burwell, Secretary Donovan has a track record of using data to make good decisions and drive results," the White House official said.
Castro has never been through a Senate confirmation before, but Republicans are probably loath to target him for defeat without good reason, given the party's problems with Latino voters.
• Obama needs strong administrators. Given the troubles at Veterans Affairs, where a scandal is unfolding over secret waiting lists for patient care, and HHS, which botched the rollout of Obamacare, the president needs appointees capable of managing large, complicated bureaucracies.
At HUD, Donovan has managed a $47 billion budget that helps families buy homes and avoid foreclosure, helps communities revitalize, and addresses homelessness. He also chaired the task force that disbursed hurricane Sandy relief aid. Before running HUD, Donovan was commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
"He's run a complex budget as a regulator during a very stressful time, and his work on hurricane Sandy proves he can work on complex inter-regulatory initiatives," David Stevens, who ran the Federal Housing Administration under Donovan, told the Washington Post.
Castro is in his third two-year term as mayor of San Antonio. Ahead of Friday's announcement, the White House praised him as "a leader among mayors in terms of implementing housing and economic development programs."
• Obama needs Cabinet secretaries who play well with Congress. Burwell's easy committee approval bodes well for her ability to deal with Capitol Hill as HHS secretary.
At HUD, Donovan didn't have any blowups with the Hill, but as budget director, he'd have a bigger portfolio. Issues on his plate would include the budget, taxes, and the future of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – an issue with which he is already intimately familiar.
Castro is a novice at dealing with Congress, but he would bring his skills as a politician to the table, and perhaps a little brotherly advice.
Of course, all of Obama's nominees would face risks in their new jobs – perhaps Castro most of all. He will now be in the Washington spotlight, tagged as a "rising star." And if he wants to get back into elective office, he will need to succeed at HUD.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) served as HUD secretary in ex-President Bill Clinton's second term. Critics say his promotion of home ownership for lower-income people helped lead to the subprime mortgage crisis – an issue he would have to address if he ever runs for president.
Then there's soon-to-be-former Secretary Sebelius. She came to HHS with a reputation for managerial and political skill, having been elected governor twice as a Democrat in Republican Kansas. But after the problems with Obamacare implementation, she leaves Washington a bit tarnished.
Pope Francis waves as he delivers first "Urbi et Orbi". Photo: REUTERS
VATICAN CITY – In the nearly 15 months since he was anointed as pontiff, Pope Francis has become one of the most influential and recognizable people on the planet by saying and doing things that would have been unimaginable from his predecessors.
Now, on his trip to Israel, he will travel in the footsteps of recent predecessors.
The Argentinean, who became the first non-European pope of the modern era when he was elected last March, broke with tradition from his first appearance, when he did not bless the throngs gathered in St. Peter's Square but rather asked them to bless him.
Since then, he turned heads with comments on homosexuality – "Who am I to judge?" he famously asked – blasting capitalism and what he called the "idolatry of money," and brushing aside adulation from admirers, saying, "The pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps well and has friends; a normal person." He has mounted a dramatic reform of the Vatican bureaucracy and said that the church bears responsibility for the sex scandals that have plagued it, all while turning his back on the pomp and circumstance that traditionally come with being the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
"Pope Francis has broken new ground at every turn, but this time around he will do something new: build on progress made by his predecessors," said Father Alistair Sear, a retired London-based church historian.
Relations between Israel and the Holy See have come a long way since Paul VI became the first pontiff to visit Jerusalem little more than 50 years ago.
Paul's visit lasted half a day, and it came at a time when the Vatican had yet to recognize Israel as a sovereign state. Since the, every pontiff – with the exception of John Paul I, who was pope for just 33 days – has visited the country, and ties between Israel and the Vatican have grown stronger with each pontificate.
It will be the task of Francis to build on that.
"It's an unusual role for him to follow a path set by previous popes, but he will obviously do it his own way," said Paolo Rodari, Vatican correspondent for the Italian daily La Repubblica.
"He hasn't taken a wrong step so far [in his papacy] and it's going to be interesting to see what he does on this trip."
Francis says he is making the trip as a pilgrim, not as a head of state or a religious leader. He will leave the bullet proof "pope mobile" behind and will eschew many security measures other leaders implement when traveling abroad. For the first time ever, the papal entourage will include leaders from other faiths: Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Muslim Sheikh Omar Abboud – both old friends of the pontiff, from his home city of Buenos Aires – something that is being cast as a powerful signal of interfaith outreach and respect.
"A pope, a rabbi and a sheikh… it sounds like the start of a bad joke," said Sear. "But the funny part to me is that he is isn't really raising any eyebrows. People have learned to expect the unexpected with this pope."
Improving interfaith dialogue is the centerpiece of the trip – not only with Jews and Muslims, but most important from the Vatican's point of view, with Orthodox Christians. According to veteran Vatican reporter and commentator Robert Mickens, the joint prayer with Francis and Orthodox Archbishop Bartholomew I in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday will be the main event.
"The wheels went into motion for this visit when Bartholomew invited Francis to commemorate the 1964 meeting between Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras," Mickens said. "The rest fell into place after that."
Is there a possibility the image of the pope could be hurt if progress is not made toward healing the nearly 1,000-year-old schism between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, or if the visit fails to build on previous ties between Jews and Catholics? Experts say the risks are minimal.
"There's always a chance something could be said that would make people look at Francis in a more negative light, but I would have to say it's unlikely," Mickens said. "He's become a beloved figure around the world, and I doubt anything's going to change that."
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Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks during a news conference in New York.AP
DALLAS – Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization but said he opposes any further attempts to address the policy now.
Gates took over an organization this week that serves about 2.5 million youth but faces continued membership declines and fights over its inclusion of openly gay boys, but not adults. Gates, the former secretary of defense who oversaw the end of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, addressed those issues Friday, a day after Scouting's national leadership elected him president.
"I was prepared to go further than the decision that was made," Gates told The Associated Press in an interview in advance of a speech before the group's national leaders at its annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. "I would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country."
The BSA's National Council voted at last year's annual meeting to accept openly gay youth, after a monthslong process with protests on both sides. Gates planned to tell Scouting's leaders Friday that a continued fight over the issue threatens BSA's future.
"Given the strong feelings — the passion — involved on both sides of this matter, I believe strongly that to re-open the membership issue or try to take last year's decision to the next step would irreparably fracture and perhaps even provoke a formal, permanent split in this movement — with the high likelihood neither side would subsequently survive on its own," Gates said in prepared remarks.
Gates, 70, who also served as director of the CIA, is a visible advocate for Scouting as it faces a storm of bad publicity.
The Scouts reached out to Gates as he was retiring from the Defense Department and asked him to join their leadership, said Wayne Perry, the departing BSA president. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who was expected to become president this year, agreed to wait another two years to allow Gates to serve now, Perry said.
"We need America to know what the Boy Scouts can do for the youth of America," Perry said, adding that Gates "immediately can reach an audience that we wouldn't otherwise reach."
Gates earned his Eagle Scout award as a 15-year-old growing up in Wichita, Kansas. He has long credited that achievement for giving him the confidence to excel in nearly five decades of public service, and he stayed involved in Scouting during his career. He has recalled skeet-shooting with young Scouts while he was director of the CIA.
Along the way, Gates became known as someone willing to speak frankly about problems in the institutions he led, often at the risk of offending others. Gates warned BSA's leaders Friday that "maybe it's time for blunt talk."
Over the last decade, the Scouts have faced small, but consistent declines in membership. Also, high-profile sponsors and corporate donors, including Disney and Lockheed Martin, have cut funding over the exclusion of openly gay adults. Meanwhile, a handful of conservatives who opposed the inclusion of openly gay boys started their own organization, Trail Life USA.
Gates told the AP that he wanted to move the Scouts past that debate and focus on what unites the membership. He said he would push for a heavier focus on local marketing and sharing positive stories about Scouting efforts that are sometimes drowned out by debates over gay rights or child abuse lawsuits filed against the Scouts in several states.
He said he would emphasize to sponsors that "welcoming gay youth is an important step forward."
Gates led the Defense Department when it phased out the ban on openly gay soldiers known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," something gay-rights groups have cited as a hopeful sign for them. But Gates said Friday that the Scouts were different from the CIA or the military, where "I could give an order and people would follow it, at least most of the time." In an organization driven almost entirely by volunteers, officials have to respect differences in opinion, he said.
"The key at this point is to keep focus, again, on the top priority, which is, how do we develop the best possible program for kids, and how do we keep their interests at the forefront?" Gates said.
MICHAEL NELSON / EPA 
Courtesy Weiss family 
Childhood Photo Courtesy Richard Martinez via EPA 
ROBYN BECK / AFP - Getty Images 
