Cheered by Congress, Netanyahu denounces nuclear deal with Tehran; Obama sternly retorts

WASHINGTON — In a direct challenge to the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before Congress on Tuesday and bluntly warned the U.S. that an emerging nuclear agreement with Iran “paves Iran’s path to the bomb.” President Barack Obama pushed back sternly, saying the U.S. would never sign such a deal and Netanyahu was offering no useful alternative.

In the U.S. spotlight for a day, the Israeli leader showed no uncertainty. “This is a bad deal. It is a very bad deal. We are better off without it,” he declared in an emotionally charged speech that was arranged by Republicans, aggravated his already-strained relations with Obama and gambled with the longstanding bipartisan congressional support for Israel.

Two weeks ahead of voting in his own re-election back home, Netanyahu took the podium of the U.S. House where presidents often make major addresses, contending that any nuclear deal with Iran could threaten his nation’s survival.

In a tone of disbelief, he said that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, “tweets that Israel must be annihilated — he tweets.”

Republicans loudly cheered Netanyahu in the packed chamber, repeatedly standing. Democrats were more restrained, frustrated with the effort to undercut Obama’s negotiations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did little to hide her unease and later issued a blistering statement criticizing what she called Netanyahu’s condescension.

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FACT CHECK: Netanyahu gets much right in speech but Iran still faces nuke limits in a decade

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overstated Iran’s domination of the Middle East and understated the timespan of the nuclear deal taking shape with Tehran, while neglecting the role of Congress in lifting Iranian sanctions, in his speech to U.S. lawmakers Tuesday.

On the whole, Netanyahu largely adhered to what is known about the nuclear negotiations between world powers and Iran, even if he predicted far direr consequences for the Middle East and the world if a deal is reached this month. His calculations on how close that might leave Iran to nuclear weapons capacity rested on solid footing.

Still, Netanyahu exaggerated at times for dramatic effect. On the length of an agreement, he wrongly asserted that restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity would come to a sudden end after a decade. Some constraints will be phased out while others will remain. And the Obama administration immediately disputed his account of an accord paving Iran’s “path to the bomb” and noted how short his address was on viable alternatives for dealing with Iran’s program.

A look at how some of Netanyahu’s arguments adhere to the facts as known, or the best public information detailing the confidential nuclear negotiations with Iran:

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Officials: Justice Dept. finds patterns of racial bias in Ferguson police, court and jail

WASHINGTON — A Justice Department investigation found sweeping patterns of racial bias within the Ferguson, Missouri, police department, with officers routinely discriminating against blacks by using excessive force, issuing petty citations and making baseless traffic stops, according to law enforcement officials familiar with its findings.

The report, to be released as soon as Wednesday, marks the culmination of a months-long investigation into a police department that federal officials have described as troubled and that commanded national attention after one of its officers shot and killed an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown, last summer.

It chronicles discriminatory practices across the city’s criminal justice system, detailing problems from initial encounters with patrol officers to treatment in the municipal court and jail. Federal law enforcement officials described its contents on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly before the report is released.

The full report could serve as a roadmap for significant changes by the department, if city officials accept its findings. Past federal investigations of local police departments have encouraged overhauls of fundamental police procedures such as traffic stops and the use of service weapons.

The investigation, which began weeks after Brown’s killing last August, is being released as Attorney General Eric Holder prepares to leave his job following a six-year tenure that focused largely on civil rights. The findings are based on interviews with police leaders and residents, a review of more than 35,000 pages of police records and analysis of data on stops, searches and arrests.

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AP ANALYSIS: US on sidelines of key battle against Islamic State in Iraq as Iranians step up

BAGHDAD — Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Sunni tribes have joined Iraq’s military in a major operation to retake Saddam Hussein’s hometown from the Islamic State group, while the U.S.-led coalition has remained on the sidelines.

The campaign for Tikrit is a dress rehearsal for the real contest: The fight to recapture Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the extremists’ biggest stronghold. But can a large-scale ground offensive alone succeed, without U.S.-led air support?

The Tikrit operation is aimed at stopping Islamic State fighters from closing in on Samarra, a Shiite holy city just to the south that tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen rushed to defend during the extremists’ blitz across northern Iraq last June.

One of the biggest campaigns in the heart of militant-controlled Iraq, the battle for Tikrit involves a complex mix of several Iraqi military brigades and thousands of Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribal fighters. Directing the offensive with the aid of dozens of Iranian military advisers is a powerful Iranian general, Ghasem Soleimani, commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.

Glaringly absent are the U.S.-led coalition forces whose air campaign since last summer has nearly halted the Islamic State rampage across Iraq. Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said this week that the U.S. is not providing air power in the Tikrit operation “simply because the Iraqis haven’t requested us to.”

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GOP-controlled Congress sends Homeland bill to Obama without immigration restrictions

WASHINGTON — Bitterly admitting defeat, the Republican-controlled Congress sent legislation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without any of the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months.

“Sanity is prevailing,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, before the House voted 257-167 in favor of the $40 billion spending bill, which Obama was expected to sign promptly. All 182 Democrats present voted for the bill, while it received only 75 Republican “yes” votes.

“I am glad that House Republicans finally came to their senses,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, a top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee.

The outcome averted a partial agency shutdown which would have begun Friday at midnight. It was a major victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a wholesale retreat for Republicans, who have spent months railing against an “unconstitutional overreach” by Obama in extending deportation stays and work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

In the end Republicans who’d tried to use the DHS spending bill to undo Obama’s actions had little to show but weeks of gridlock and chaotic spectacle on Capitol Hill in the wake of assuming full control of Congress in the November midterm elections. The turmoil brought the Homeland Security Department to within hours of a partial shutdown last Friday before Congress passed a one-week extension, and raised questions about Republicans’ ability to govern responsibly.

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Official: Homeless man killed by LA police served time for robbery, was French national

LOS ANGELES — A homeless man killed on Skid Row by Los Angeles police had been released last May from a federal prison after serving roughly 14 years for bank robbery, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The man was identified as Charley Saturmin Robinet by the official who had been briefed but was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Robinet was a French national who was convicted in 2000 of three federal charges for holding up a Wells Fargo branch and pistol-whipping an employee to pay for acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

Federal prison records show he was released on May 12.

Robinet acknowledged 15 years ago that he was in the U.S. illegally but his immigration status at the time of his death is unknown.

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Landmark bridge at center of Obama visit to Selma named for reputed Ku Klux Klan leader

SELMA, Ala. — When the nation’s first black president steps onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor the marchers beaten there 50 years ago, he’ll be standing on a structure that’s at once synonymous with the civil rights struggle and a tribute to a reputed Ku Klux Klan leader.

The latter fact had all but faded from local memory until recently, when a Selma student group launched an online petition to rename the landmark bridge.

During his 50th anniversary address Saturday, President Barack Obama will be flanked on one side by a new historic marker commemorating “Bloody Sunday,” when white police beat demonstrators marching for black voting rights on March 7, 1965. The sign, erected earlier this year by the state tourism department, notes Obama’s 2007 appearance there just before his election and the accolades for “Selma,” the recent film about the march.

It offers no details about Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate general and U.S. senator who lived in Selma after the Civil War. The Encyclopedia of Alabama, an online database sponsored by the University of Alabama, Auburn University and the Alabama Department of Education, says Pettus held the title of grand dragon of the Alabama Klan in 1877 — an assertion that’s questioned by some historians.

Just beyond the other end of the bridge, a billboard erected recently bears a heroic image of another Confederate general, Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. The ad, sponsored by a group dedicated to honoring Forrest, invites visitors to see Selma’s “War Between the States” historic sites; next month is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Selma, in which Forrest fought.

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Do the Clintons play by the rules? Email issue gives GOP new fuel for old criticism

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton is facing a new set of questions about ethics and transparency — the sort that have dogged her and husband Bill for decades.

The latest disclosure, that Clinton used a personal email account while serving as secretary of state, comes on the cusp of her likely second bid for president. Combined with recent news about her family foundation raising money from foreign governments while she was at the State Department, it added fresh fuel Tuesday to the longstanding charge the Clintons play by their own rules.

“Does she believe that leadership means acting outside the law?” said Carly Fiorina, the former technology executive who is weighing a 2016 GOP presidential bid. “Does she believe that leadership can exist without transparency?”

Clinton’s aides were quick to dispute the notion that there was anything illegal or improper about her use of a personal email account for government work, noting that she was hardly the first secretary of state to do so. Meanwhile, her allies praise the work of the Clinton Foundation — and note that it isn’t required to disclose its donors but does so anyway.

Still, for the Clintons, it’s difficult for complicated explanations about allegations to compete with the simplicity of political perception.

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Ex-CIA chief Petraeus to plead guilty to mishandling classified materials shared with mistress

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose career was destroyed by an affair with his biographer, has agreed to plead guilty to charges he gave her classified material — including war strategy and the names of covert operatives — while she was working on the book.

The plea agreement carries a possible sentence of up to a year in prison and represents another blow to the reputation of the retired four-star Army general who led U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and was perhaps the most admired military leader of his generation.

Petraeus, 62, will plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. The agreement was filed in federal court Tuesday in Charlotte, where Paula Broadwell, the general’s biographer and former mistress, lives with her husband and children.

In court papers, prosecutors recommended two years of probation and a $40,000 fine. But the judge who hears the plea is not bound by that and could still impose a prison sentence. No immediate date was set for Petraeus to enter the plea.

As part of the deal, Petraeus agreed not to contest the set of facts laid out by the government.

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Batter Up … to speed: Spring baseball opens with changes designed to quicken games

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — With large, glowing red numbers, the timer on the center-field wall at Goodyear Ballpark ticked down Tuesday, counting off seconds and ushering in change.

Baseball, the timeless game of endless summers, went on the clock.

Major League Baseball introduced its new pace of play initiatives during five exhibition games in Arizona and Florida. As expected, there were a few minor glitches as players, managers, umpires and fans adjusted to the “rules” designed to make games shorter, more appealing to TV viewers and perhaps lure the next generation of fans to a sport fighting for attention.

On this opening day, baseball had a slightly different look.

“I’ve never worked a game in the history of baseball that has a countdown clock,” said umpire Dan Iassogna, who kept an eye on second base as the Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays played in Dunedin, Florida. “That was a little different.”

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