'Let Obamacare Fail,' Trump Declares As GOP Plan Collapses

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska is surrounded by reporters as she walks toward the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017.



WASHINGTON (AP, WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017) — President Donald Trump declared Tuesday it's time to "let Obamacare fail" after the latest GOP health care plan crashed and burned in the Senate, a stunning failure for the president, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and a party that has vowed for years to abolish the law.

In a head-spinning series of developments, rank-and-file Republican senators turned on McConnell and Trump for the third time in a row, denying the votes to move forward with a plan for a straight-up repeal of "Obamacare." This time, it was three GOP women — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — who delivered the death blow.

All had been shut out of McConnell's initial all-male working group on health care. McConnell, who could afford to lose only two votes in the narrowly divided Senate, had turned to the repeal-only bill after his earlier repeal-and-replace measure was rejected on Monday. That had followed the failure of an earlier version of the bill last month.

The successive defeats made clear that despite seven years of promises to repeal former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, Republicans apparently cannot deliver. Nonetheless, McConnell insisted he would move forward with a vote on his measure to repeal the law, effective in two years, with a promise to work — along with Democrats — to replace it in the meantime.

The vote to move ahead to the bill will take place early next week, McConnell announced late Tuesday. It appears doomed to fail, but GOP leaders want to put lawmakers on record on the issue and move on.

At the White House, Trump appeared to recognize defeat, at least for the moment, while insisting he bore none of the blame. "I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let Obamacare fail," the president said. "We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you that the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us and they're going to say, 'How do we fix it?'"

Despite the current law's problems, most health care experts do not believe it is at immediate risk of outright failure, and Democratic cooperation to adjust the law is far from assured. Nor does it appear likely that Republicans can escape owning the problems with the law and the health care system overall, now that they control the House, Senate and White House, partly on the strength of campaigning against the law.

"They seem to have this notion that they can be a majority party, and have control of the White House, and not be responsible for bringing down the health care system," said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. "It doesn't work that way."

Asked how he would justify the GOP's failure on health care to voters, McConnell responded: "Well, we have a new Supreme Court justice" — suggesting inaction on health care would be forgiven because of that success along with some regulatory roll-backs.

As the day began Tuesday, McConnell was hunting for votes to open debate on a revived version of legislation Congress sent to Obama's desk in 2015 that would have repealed major portions of Obamacare, with a two-year delay built in. He had turned to that approach after getting stunned Monday night by defections by Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas on a repeal-and-replace bill.

Many Republicans support the repeal-only approach, and they questioned how senators who voted for the legislation two years ago could oppose it now. "We're going to find out if there's hypocrisy in the United States Senate in the next few days I'm afraid," said Sen. David Perdue, R-Georgia.

But for others, the implications were too severe now that the bill could actually become law with a Republican president in the White House ready to sign it. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that more than 30 million people would lose insurance over a decade under the legislation.

Collins voted against the legislation in 2015 while Murkowski and Capito both supported it. Murkowski told reporters Tuesday that repealing the Affordable Care Act without the promise of a replacement would cause uncertainty and chaos.

"To just say repeal and 'Trust us, we're going to fix it in a couple of years,' that's not going to provide comfort to the anxiety that a lot of Alaskan families are feeling right now," she said. Said Capito: "I did not come to Washington to hurt people."

What's next? Go back to the committee room and work on a bipartisan basis "in a way that the public feels that we are really working toward their best interests," Murkowski said. "It's where we should have started. ... And yes, this is hard."

Sure enough, later in the day health committee chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee announced he planned hearings on the issue in the next few weeks, a step Senate Republicans have not taken to date.

The GOP's struggles over the latest measures came down to differences between moderates who feared the implications of a full-blown repeal, and conservatives who wanted nothing less. Speaker Paul Ryan managed to bridge those divides in the House in May, barely passing a bill that would have eliminated the coverage mandates and tax hikes in the Affordable Care Act, while unwinding the Medicaid expansion and removing insurance coverage for millions.

But the GOP bills polled poorly, and Trump never tried to sell them to the country. Meanwhile, Obama's law grew steadily more popular in polls, and Republicans learned anew that a benefit, once given, is hard to take away.

Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher, Richard Lardner and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed.

A Key Component To Ending Poverty And Hunger In Developing Countries? Livestock

BY STEVE STAAL

LOS ANGELES TIMES

JULY 13, 2017

A vendor holds a broiler chicken for sale at the Mbare Market in Harare, Zimbabwe. (Jekesai Njikizana / AFP/Getty Images)

The recent emergence of famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen that has left more than 20 million people on the brink of starvation is a reminder of the difficulty of ending hunger around the world.

The problem is complex, and, unfortunately, policymakers have largely ignored an economic sector that could be a key part of the solution: small-scale livestock farming.

But that may be starting to change. At a high-level United Nations meeting currently underway, several events on poverty and hunger will feature the importance of livestock.

The key message of these sessions is that livestock’s potential for bolstering development lies in the sheer number of rural people who already depend on the sector for their livelihoods. These subsistence farmers also supply the bulk of livestock products in low-income countries. In fact, defying general perceptions, poor smallholders vastly outnumber large commercial operations.

At the International Livestock Research Institute, based in Nairobi, Kenya, we know that small-scale livestock farming can be the vehicle that puts families on the pathway out of poverty and out of danger when it comes to economic shocks.

Livestock policies that favor the poor have been shown to be effective in lifting families beyond mere subsistence, generating a ripple effect of benefits for them, their communities and even their countries.

When it comes to simply ensuring people have enough food, small-scale farms in developing countries remain essential, in many cases providing the majority of crops, milk, meat and eggs over larger, more industrialized producers.

In Kenya and India, for example, more than 70% of milk continues to be produced by smallholder farmers.


Moreover, more than 80% of poor Africans, and up to two thirds of poor people in India and Bangladesh, keep livestock. India alone has 70 million small-scale dairy farms, more than North America, South America, Europe and Australia combined.

In many rural settings, livestock farming is the most important part of individual household incomes and livelihoods. Daily surpluses of milk and eggs are sources of regular cash incomes in poor rural environments, and offer key sources of protein and nutrients for families facing malnutrition.

If the world is to support developing countries in feeding themselves, we must start with the farmers. Contributing to the research of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative, we found that more than two in five households escaped poverty over 25 years because they were able to diversify through livestock such as poultry and dairy animals.

The addition of a heifer, for example, provided manure for crops, and milk for home consumption or sale to support income from cash crops. Buying chickens could mean a reliable source of extra money from eggs — crucial insurance if crops fail through drought or floods.

And as we have seen during the recent drought in the Horn of Africa, the loss of livestock in a hunger crisis foreshadows the loss of life.

Livestock provides an economic safety net for those often worst hit by shocks such as climate change or conflict, meaning the “non-market” benefits of keeping livestock can amount to an additional 20% on top of cash profits.

A secondary benefit of investing in smallholder livestock producers is that once family farms become even partly established, they provide employment opportunities for other rural people.

Our study in Kenya found that half of the country’s small family dairy farms, most with fewer than three head of cattle, hired at least one full-time laborer. This often offered a source of income to the landless and others in vulnerable situations, thus allowing them the chance to feed their families.

Beyond the on-farm jobs, there are numerous other economic and employment activities, for women as well as men, along the livestock product supply chain. These include the most basic collection of livestock or livestock products as well as quite sophisticated processing of specialty produce, such as yogurt and candy.

The retail prices of such goods on the informal market are nearly always lower for consumers than in the formal market, which means families’ incomes can go further.

For both livestock-keeping families and the employees along the supply chain, livestock represents a source of sustenance — literally and economically.

Another benefit is the contribution that this small-scale livestock production can make to countries’ economies.

Global demand for livestock products is set to increase by 70% in the next 30 years, and nearly all that growth is occurring in developing countries where livestock enterprises already contribute up to 40% of total agricultural gross domestic product.

Enabling and enhancing the productivity of the livestock sector can mean increasing surplus products, which in turn means countries can capitalize and open up new export markets. This transformation may eventually create new jobs and income opportunities that lead families away from livestock.

Finally, there are also opportunities for livestock to address environmental concerns. While people in the industrialized nations may justifiably be reducing or eliminating their consumption of livestock products to help cut the emission of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — research indicates that continued investment in improving livestock efficiency could actually reduce methane emissions by 8% by 2050.

For all these reasons, livestock production in low-income countries generates economic benefits that are up to 40% higher than the benefits of crop production.

Greater income can lead to improved diets, healthier people and more productive farmers.

So when we look at the progress we have made in ending hunger and poverty, it may seem that the road is never-ending. But when we discuss how to reduce the distance, at least one solution is obvious: Livestock is a proven means out of poverty and hunger in low-income countries.


Steve Staal is an agricultural economist and leader of the Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods Program at the International Livestock Research Institute, an agricultural research institute based in Nairobi, Kenya, that works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

FBI Nominee Rejects Trump Claim: Russia Probe No Witch Hunt

FBI Director nominee Christopher Wray testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 12, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.



WASHINGTON (AP, JULY 13, 2017) — Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI broke with the president in key areas Wednesday, rejecting the idea that an investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump election campaign is a "witch hunt" and promising not to cave to any pressure from a White House that has challenged boundaries with the nation's top law enforcement agency.

Christopher Wray, the former high-ranking Justice Department official whom Trump nominated last month, told senators at his confirmation hearing that he would never let politics get in the way of the bureau's mission. And he said he "sure as heck" would not offer a pledge of loyalty to the president.

Asserting his independence, he said, "My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law. Those have been my guideposts throughout my career, and I will continue to adhere to them no matter the test."

Wray's responses seemed to satisfy both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, many of whom signaled their support for him. Wray, 50, would inherit the FBI at a particularly challenging time given Trump's abrupt dismissal of James Comey, who was admired within the bureau. Yet the hearing, the first public window into Wray's views since his selection, was largely devoid of fireworks in keeping with what friends and supporters have described as the nominee's low-key, disciplined style.

His reserved approach could bode well for the agency at a time when its work has been thrust into the center of a political maelstrom. But, Wray said, "Anybody who thinks that I would be pulling punches as FBI director sure doesn't know me very well."

After Trump dismissed Comey on May 9, the ex-FBI director said that the president had asked him to pledge his loyalty during a dinner at the White House months earlier. He also said Trump had encouraged him to end an investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Wray said he got no demand for personal loyalty, nor would he pledge it.

The back-and-forth with lawmakers focused extensively on the Russia investigation, with Wray repeatedly voicing his respect for Robert Mueller, the former FBI director selected in May as the special counsel to oversee the probe.

Trump has repeatedly derided that investigation and other probes, using such words as "hoax" and "witch hunt." But Wray said he would reject any efforts to interfere with Mueller's work. "I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch hunt," he said under questioning from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

He also said he had no reason to doubt the assessment of intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election through hacking, a conclusion of which Trump has been dismissive. And when asked about emails released a day earlier showing that Donald Trump Jr. was willing to take help from Russia during the campaign, he said any foreign efforts to meddle in an election should be reported to the FBI rather than accepted.

Wray, who most recently has enjoyed a lucrative legal career at an international law firm, also faced questions about his work as a Justice Department official in the Bush administration. He served the government at a time when harsh interrogation techniques were approved within the department for terror suspects captured overseas, though Wray said he was never involved in signing off on those methods.

Although Trump as a candidate professed support for waterboarding, Wray said he considered torture to be wrong and ineffective. "The FBI is going to play no part in the use of any techniques of that sort," he said.

He also was questioned about his relationships with Comey and Mueller. Trump allies have said Mueller's closeness to Comey shows he can't lead an unbiased probe. But Trump nominated Wray despite his having worked with both men.

Wray at times sought to distance himself from Comey, who was widely criticized for publicly announcing that Hillary Clinton shouldn't face criminal charges for her use of a private email server. Pressed on how he would have handled the situation, he said he couldn't imagine holding a news conference about someone who had not been charged, noting Justice Department policies against doing so.

Wray was at the department in 2004 when Comey, temporarily serving as acting attorney general in place of the ailing John Ashcroft, was prepared to resign during a dispute with the White House over the reauthorization of a domestic surveillance program. Wray said he, too, was willing to resign along with Comey and other Justice Department officials — not because he knew the substance of the dispute but because of the quality of the officials who were prepared to leave.

"Knowing those people and having worked side-by-side with those people ... there was no hesitation in my mind as to where I stood," he said. He said he would again be prepared to step down if the president asked him to do something he thought was illegal.

"First I would try to talk him out of it," Wray said. "And if that failed, I would resign."

Lynch Distances Herself From Russian Lawyer After Trump Attack

BY JONATHAN EASLEY

THE HILL

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Former attorney general Loretta Lynch on Thursday distanced herself from the Russian lawyer that gained passage into the U.S. before landing a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 campaign.

At a press conference in France earlier Thursday, President Trump blamed the Obama administration and Lynch's Justice Department for allowing Natalia Veselnitskaya into the country.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Lynch said the former attorney general "does not have any personal knowledge of Ms. Veselnitskaya's travel."

In his remarks in France, Trump appeared to cite a report in The Hill that the Justice Department issued Veselnitskaya a special immigration waiver so that she could defend her client, a Russian firm, in an asset forfeiture case in New York.

The U.S. Attorney's office in New York told The Hill that it let Veselnitskaya into the country on a grant of immigration parole from October 2015 to early January 2016 after her initial request for a visa had been denied.

Court records show that when Veselnitskaya sought permission to extend her stay, the U.S. attorney at the hearing told the judge that the special visa the Russian lawyer received was part of a "discretionary act that the statute allows the attorney general to do in extraordinary circumstances."

The U.S. attorney described the grant of parole immigration as extremely rare.

"In October the government bypassed the normal visa process and gave a type of extraordinary permission to enter the country called immigration parole," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni said to the judge during a hearing on Jan. 6, 2016.

"That's a discretionary act that the statute allows the attorney general to do in extraordinary circumstances," Monteleoni said. "In this case, we did that so that Mr. Katsyv could testify. And we made the further accommodation of allowing his Russian lawyer into the country to assist."

Lynch's spokesperson did not address the specifics of that case, but said: "The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports."

Veselnitskaya was granted the special immigration parole for the limited purpose of defending a company owned by a Russian businessman in a Justice Department asset forfeiture case, but later participated in a wide-ranging pro-Russia lobbying campaign.

Over the summer of 2016, Veselnitskaya met with current and former lawmakers from both parties and was spotted in the front row of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Russia.

In June of 2016, Donald Trump Jr., White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort took a meeting with Veselnitskaya. A music promoter told Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya had dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. But Trump Jr. said the Russian lawyer instead pushed for changes to the Magnitsky Act, which punished Russians for human rights violations.

Democrats have seized on the meeting, claiming it as evidence that Trump officials sought to collude with the Russians in the campaign.

"She was here because of Lynch," Trump said at a press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"Nothing happened from the meeting," Trump added. "Zero happened from the meeting, and honestly I think the press made a big deal over something that many people would do."

Peter W. Smith, GOP Operative Who Sought Clinton's Emails From Russian Hackers, Committed Suicide, Records Show

BY KATHERINE SKIBA, DAVID HEINZMANN AND TODD LIGHTY

CHICAGO TRIBUNE JULY 14, 2017

Hillary Clinton Image By Justin Sullivan/Getty

A Republican donor and operative from Chicago's North Shore who said he had tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room days after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his efforts, public records show.

In a room at a Rochester hotel used almost exclusively by Mayo Clinic patients and relatives, Peter W. Smith, 81, left a carefully prepared file of documents, which includes a statement police called a suicide note in which he said he was in ill health and a life insurance policy was expiring.

Days earlier, the financier from suburban Lake Forest gave an interview to the Journal about his quest, and it published stories about his efforts beginning in late June. The Journal also reported it had seen emails written by Smith showing his team considered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then a top adviser to Republican Donald Trump's campaign, as an ally. Flynn briefly was President Trump's national security adviser and resigned after it was determined he had failed to disclose contacts with Russia.

At the time, the newspaper reported Smith's May 14 death came about 10 days after he granted the interview. Mystery shrouded how and where he had died, but the lead reporter on the stories said on a podcast he had no reason to believe the death was the result of foul play and that Smith likely had died of natural causes.

However, the Chicago Tribune obtained a Minnesota state death record filed in Olmsted County that says Smith committed suicide in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic at 1:17 p.m. on Sunday, May 14. He was found with a bag over his head with a source of helium attached. A medical examiner's report gives the same account, without specifying the time, and a report from Rochester police further details his suicide.

In the note recovered by police, Smith apologized to authorities and said that "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" was involved in his death. He wrote that he was taking his own life because of a "RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017" and timing related "TO LIFE INSURANCE OF $5 MILLION EXPIRING."

One of Smith's former employees told the Tribune he thought the elderly man had gone to the famed clinic to be treated for a heart condition. Mayo spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo said Thursday she could not confirm Smith had been a patient, citing medical privacy laws.

The Journal stories said it was on Labor Day weekend in 2016 that Smith had assembled a team to acquire emails the team theorized might have been stolen from the private server Clinton had used while secretary of state. Smith's focus was the more than 30,000 emails Clinton said she deleted because they related to personal matters. A huge cache of other Clinton emails were made public.

Smith told the Journal he believed the missing emails might have had been obtained by Russian hackers. He also said he thought the correspondence related to Clinton's official duties. He told the Journal he worked independently and was not part of the Trump campaign. He also told the Journal he and his team found five groups of hackers - two of them Russian groups - who claimed to have Clinton's missing emails.

Smith had a history of doing opposition research, the formal term for unflattering information that political operatives dig up about rival candidates.

For years, Democratic President Bill Clinton was Smith's target. The wealthy businessman had a hand in exposing the "Troopergate" allegations about Bill Clinton's sex life. And he discussed financing a probe of a 1969 trip Bill Clinton had taken while in college to the Soviet Union, according to Salon magazine.

Investigations into any possible links between the Russian government and people associated with Trump's presidential campaign now are underway in Congress and by former FBI chief Robert Mueller. He is acting as a special counsel for the Department of Justice. Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on the Journal's stories on Smith or his death. Washington attorney Robert Kelner, who represents Flynn, had no comment on Thursday.

Smith's death occurred at the Aspen Suites in Rochester, records show. They list the cause of death as "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium."

Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson on Wednesday called his manner of death "unusual," but a funeral home worker said he'd seen it before.

An employee with Rochester Cremation Services, the funeral home that responded to the hotel, said he helped remove Smith's body from his room and recalled seeing a tank.

The employee, who spoke on the condition he not be identified because of the sensitive nature of Smith's death, described the tank as being similar in size to a propane tank on a gas grill. He did not recall seeing a bag that Smith would have placed over his head. He said the coroner and police were there and that he "didn't do a lot of looking around."

"When I got there and saw the tank, I thought, 'I've seen this before,' and was able to put two and two together," the employee said.

An autopsy was conducted, according to the death record. The Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office declined a Tribune request for the autopsy report and released limited information about Smith's death.

The Final Exit Network, a Florida-based nonprofit, provides information and support to people who suffer from a terminal illness and want to kill themselves.

Fran Schindler, a volunteer with the group, noted that the best-selling book Final Exit, written by Derek Humphry in 1991 and revised several times since, explains in detail the helium gas method.

"Many people obtain that information from his book," Schindler said. "It's a method that has been around for many years and is well known."

Smith's remains were cremated in Minnesota, the records said. He was married to Janet L. Smith and had three children and three grandchildren, according to his obituary. Tribune calls to family members were not returned.

His obituary said Smith was involved in public affairs for more than 60 years and it heralded him as a "quietly generous champion of efforts to ensure a more economically and politically secure world." Smith led private equity firms in corporate acquisitions and venture investments for more than 40 years. Earlier, he worked with DigaComm, LLC, from 1997 to 2014 and as the president of Peter W. Smith & Company, Inc. from 1975 to 1997. Prior to that, he was a senior officer of Field Enterprises, Inc., a firm that owned the Chicago Sun-Times then and was held by the Marshall Field family, his obituary said.

A private family memorial was planned, the obituary said. Friends posted online tributes to Smith after his death. One was from his former employee, Jonathan Safron, 26, who lives in Chicago's Loop and worked for Smith for about two years.

Safron, in an interview, said he was working for a tutoring firm when Smith became his client. His job entailed teaching Smith how to use a MacBook, Safron said. At the time Smith was living in a condominium atop the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. Safron said Smith later employed him at Corporate Venture Alliances, a private investment firm that Smith ran, first out of the same condo and later from an office in the Hancock Building.

Safron, who said he had a low-level job with the Illinois Republican Party in 2014, said he had no knowledge of Smith's bid to find hackers who could locate emails missing from Clinton's service as secretary of state. In his online tribute to his former employer, he called Smith the "best boss I could ever ask for ... a mentor, friend and model human being."

Safron said he worked part-time for Smith, putting in about 15 hours a week. But the two grew close, often having lunch together at a favorite Smith spot: the Oak Tree Restaurant & Bakery Chicago on North Michigan Ave. He called Smith a serious man who was "upbeat," "cosmopolitan" and "larger than life." He was aware Smith was in declining health, saying the older man sometimes had difficulty breathing and told work colleagues he had heart problems. Weeks before he took his life, he had become fatigued walking down about four or five flights of stairs during a Hancock Building fire drill and later emailed Safron saying he was "dizzy," he said.

Smith's last will and testament, signed last Feb. 21, is seven pages long and on file in Probate Court in Lake County. The will gives his wife his interest in their residential property and his tangible personal property and says remaining assets should be placed into two trusts.

He was born Feb. 23, 1936, in Portland, Maine, according to the death record.

His late father, Waldo Sterling Smith, was a manufacturer's representative for women's apparel firms, representing them in department stores in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to the father's 2002 obituary. The elder Smith died at age 92 in St. Augustine, Fla., and his obit noted that he had been active in St. Johns County, Fla. Republican affairs and with a local Methodist church

Peter Smith wrote two blog posts dated the day before he was found dead. One challenged U.S. intelligence agency findings that Russia interfered with the 2016 election. Another post predicted: "As attention turns to international affairs, as it will shortly, the Russian interference story will die of its own weight."

Skiba reported from Washington, Heinzmann reported from Rochester and Lighty from Chicago. Lauren Rosenblatt of the Tribune Washington Bureau and Dan Moran of the Lake County News-Sun contributed to this story.

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

dheinzmann@chicagotribune.com

tlighty@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Katherine Skiba

Twitter @DavidHeinzmann

Twitter @TLighty

N’Delta Leaders Meet, Call For Implementation Of 2014 Confab Report

Maintain region not part of Biafra
 Abdulsalami, Kukah caution political elite against divisive statements
Iyobosa Uwugiaren in Abuja and Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

THIS DAY, JULY 12, 2017

YENAGOA, BAYELSA, NIGERIA (THIS DAY) -- Leaders and elders of the Niger Delta under the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) have reiterated their demand for the implementation of the 2014 National Conference report and the relocation of the headquarters of oil multinationals to the region.

The national leader of PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, who presided over a meeting of the group Tuesday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, also called on the federal government to urgently revisit the 16-point agenda of the forum, as the patience of the youths of the region had started running out.

The nonagenarian spoke at the third general assembly of PANDEF with the theme, “Appraisal of the 16-Point Agenda: State of the Nation and the Way Forward for Sustainable Peace and Development in the Niger Delta region.”
The elder statesman, in the course of the meeting attended by several other Niger Delta leaders, including Governor Seriake Dickson and the King of Twon-Brass, Alfred Diette-Spiff, said the over 600 recommendations in the report would tackle the challenges facing the country.

He also asked the federal government to raise a team to commence dialogue with PANDEF to ensure the sustainability of peace in the Niger Delta region, where he maintained that crude oil production had increased significantly.

PANDEF also accused the federal government of failing to prevail on the oil companies to relocate to their operational bases, as well as not being forthright in declaring its position on the setting up of modular refineries in the region.
On the current Biafra agitation, the leaders reaffirmed their position that the six states of the South-south zone were not part of Biafra as claimed by some Biafran agitators.
They equally condemned the quit notice issued by the Arewa youths to the Igbos, describing the action as a flagrant violation of the Nigerian Constitution.

In his comments, Dickson assured the elders and leaders that the South-south governors were committed to working with them to promote and protect the interests of the region.
Dickson maintained that peace and stability were paramount in the development of the Niger Delta, stressing that the leaders in the region would work collectively to change the long perceived notion of insecurity in the region and promote its socio-economic and political viability.

He reminded the federal government that the militarisation of the Niger Delta was not a solution to resolving the issues, noting that the only battle to be fought was lack of economic inclusion and environmental terrorism in the region.
“There are parts of this country that are very happy to promote crises and spread propaganda about insecurity in our region as a deliberate strategy of weakening this region economically.

“So I want to use this opportunity to charge all our people, political, opinion and community leaders, to continue to work for a stable and prosperous Niger Delta because in the end, whether we are able to bring prosperity and development to our people depends on the presence of security and stability.
“I want to also use this opportunity to make the point again that militarisation of any community within any state in our region is not a solution.

“And in this Niger Delta, the battles to be fought are not the ones that tanks and soldiers should be deployed; the battles all of us should unite to confront and defeat in the Niger Delta, are the issues of environmental terrorism as I have always called it and the issue of gross neglect, under-development and lack of economic inclusion,” Dickson said.
He also aligned with the position of PANDEF, pledging to support the forum to ensure that its secretariat in Yenagoa functions optimally.

In a related development, a former military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, and the convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah, have strongly condemned the political elite who they said were promoting hate speeches and calling for the dissolution of the country.
They also commended Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for taking proactive steps to stem the growing divisive rhetoric and separatist sentiments in the country.

The National Peace Committee played a crucial role in the run up to the 2015 general election and used its influence to ensure that the key contestants in the polls and their supporters did not resort to violence during and after the elections.
The two eminent personalities who said this in a statement they jointly signed Tuesday in Abuja, noted that the developments were of serious concern to the peace committee.

They commended Osinbajo for engaging with leaders of influence across the North and South-east, in a bid to stop the rise of mutual hostility and tension that had been stoked by elements from some parts of the country.
Abdulsalami and Kukah called for more voices of leadership from all communities in the country to reinforce the message of the acting president.

“We’ve recently come to the end of the holy month of Ramadan, for millions of Nigerians, a time of spirituality, introspection and the request for God’s forgiveness,” they added.
“Therefore, there could be no better time than now as a nation for us all to be thoughtful, deliberate and make ourselves worthy of divine mercy, especially in the atmosphere of a steep rise in divisive and hateful rhetoric in our country.
“It is indeed, the appropriate time to underscore the imperatives of peaceful co-existence of all communities and all Nigerians,” they said.

They observed that Nigerians could not afford at this time or any other time to stoke the fires of hate and divisiveness in the body politic, especially when ordinary Nigerians are engaged in difficult struggles to secure their livelihood, amidst rising insecurity and increasing fear.
They added that the nation had lost too many of its citizens to random and diverse acts of violence, while many more had been maimed for life or living in displacement.

They further stated: “Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by conflict and millions of our fellow citizens now face threats of starvation in the face of rising food insecurity.”
In many parts of the country, the committee noted that mass killings had gone unpunished and unresolved, inter-communal clashes had become chronic, adding that economic deprivation and growing social exclusion and feelings of alienation, particularly among the youths were being exploited by segments of the elite with potentially dangerous and painful consequences for all Nigerians.

The statement acknowledged that the drums of rising division also reflects the perception by citizens that there is poor governance in Nigeria today, blaming politicians who had failed in delivering on the mandate of the electorate for better livelihoods and neighbourhoods for teaming up with advocates of division and hate.

The group stated that in many parts of the country, young people who had been left without means of livelihood or hope in their future had become converts to radicalisation preached by those it described as demagogues who resorted to various guises including ethnicity and religion.
According to Abubakar and Kukah, “At this time in Nigeria, more than ever before, we need government at all levels, which works for the people, with commitment and respect for the rule of law and for the security and well wellbeing of persons and communities in the country.

“We also need credible institutions, an economy that guarantees a fair deal and outcome for hardworking people, better physical infrastructure and an enabling environment in which citizens can thrive.”
They further urged the state governments to be more committed to developing their people and relying less on Abuja to fund their consumption through monthly allocations.
They encouraged Osinbajo and the federal government to remain steadfast in the steps they had taken to reassure all communities and citizens of an equal stake in the Nigerian project, insisting that Nigerians need an effective state they call their own.

To reinforce the unity of the country, they appealed that on-going efforts to reach out to leaders from various parts of the country should be broadened into honest dialogue with all segments of the Nigerian population to ensure that ordinary citizens get the opportunity to convey their views to government at the highest levels and get carried along in the formulation and implementation of government policies.

The committee further advised the government to hold consultations on the possibility of examining the reports of the Political Reforms Conference of 2005 and other National Conferences as a basis for further and continuing dialogue on the co-existence among communities in Nigeria.
Pledging their support for the government to ensure effective enforcement of laws that prohibit divisive speeches, they called on politicians to deny support to or endorse groups that harbour or express disdain for peaceful coexistence among Nigerians.

Eze Does It: Calvary Big On Rise Year After Brain Cancer Scare

BY DAVID FURONES

SUN SENTINEL, JULY 11, 2017

A little over one year after undergoing brain surgery for a fist-sized cancer tumor, Elochukwu Eze is getting his groove back. The 6-foot-10 center, currently playing summer travel basketball for Florida Elite, will be a key returner this year for defending Florida high school state champion Calvary Christian. Image: Carline Jean/Sun Sentinel


Geoff Still picked up the phone in late May 2016 for what should have been a proud “father”-to-father update on the headway Elochukwu Eze had made in the U.S. as a sophomore at Calvary Christian.

The 6-foot-10 Nigerian teen, who Still and his family hosted as part of the small Fort Lauderdale private school’s international mission, was excelling in his studies and on the basketball court, where he was gaining national notice.

But instead of sharing all of Eze’s good news with Casmir Eze, Still was calling Nigeria with an altogether more tragic report: a plum-sized cancerous tumor – one doctors weren’t sure Eze would survive – had been found in his brain.

In response, instead of the dismay he expected, Still heard only gratitude and hope.

“Thank God he’s in America,” he said. “If he was in Nigeria today, he would be dead.”

For Eze himself, having recently passed the one-year anniversary of the emergency surgery he underwent on May 5, 2016, to remove the tumor, survival is about more than having the sort of advantages many Americans take for granted. As he explains it, his recovery from brain cancer sounds more like testament to personal improvement.

Instead of “lying there, feeling depressed,” he said. “I decided to get better.”

And “get better” is exactly what Eze has done.

The big move

Eze arrived in South Florida as an eighth-grader, even then more mature than his gangly adolescent body suggested.

Attending a sports camp in Nigeria hosted by former Cleveland Cavalier draft pick Ejike Ugboaja, “Big E” made a big impression on Geoff Still. Still, 48, of Coral Springs, an active Christian educator who’d previously taught at Coral Springs Christian, was speaking to the Ejike Foundation campers, giving encouragement and wishing them luck. Among them, only Eze remained engaged throughout the conversation.

Eze later contacted Still on Facebook and the friendship they struck up ultimately led to Still sponsoring the teen’s move to the U.S. as part of Calvary’s International Student Program.

The director of finance at Calvary Christian, Still said his wife, Stacy, and their three children – Geoffrey, who’s 19, Emilie (15) and David (11) – “absolutely adore” Eze.

He thrived in school and, by his sophomore season, started for the basketball team, averaging 10 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks at center under coach Cilk McSweeney.
The big sick

The way Eze remembers it, the trouble started after a day at the pool, when he couldn't seem to get the water out of his ears. Later that night, he struggled to make it through a church service because of the bright lights and loud music, which left him with a terrible headache.

But as his American brother, Geoffrey Still Jr., related in a story for GoodNewsFl.org at the time, Eze for weeks had complained about having headaches and being sensitive to light. One of his teachers, later visiting Eze in the hospital, had said the boy hadn't been his usual "happy and excited" self for several months.

Then along with the increasingly painful headaches, Eze began to have trouble walking and, on May 4, started vomiting.
Eze does it

More than one year has passed since the tumor was removed during three hours of emergency surgery on May 5, 2016. The MRIs he has had every three months since have come back clean. His doctors believe with the cancer fully removed from his brain, Eze need not undergo chemotherapy.

Eze seemingly has no obstacles as he looks forward to his senior year at Calvary Christian.

Still, he expects to make a huge return playing hoops too. After spending last year coming off the bench behind 7-footer and fellow Nigeria native Victor Uyaelunmo, now at Southern Cal, he’ll return to his starting role as Calvary looks to defend its state title.

McSweeney said Eze is working this summer on giving his guards a lane for drop passes and finishing strong at the basket. The fifth-year Eagles coach says Eze has a big part to play on the team and with his teammates.

“I always rely on him to be another coach in the locker room,” said McSweeney, who had him as a captain on the title-winning team last year. “He’s always a spiritual influence on the guys.”

Maintaining a 3.5 grade-point average, Eze already has scholarship offers from North Florida and Stetson and has drawn interest from FAU, FIU, Furman, East Carolina, Navy and USF.

For right now, Eze is more concerned about recovering from a high ankle sprain he sustained earlier this summer. Then it's back to work -- as part of the Florida Elite travel team, he has tournaments in Orlando, Atlanta and Las Vegas this summer before coming back to prepare for his senior season at Calvary.

“I know most people would have quit or suffer from depression,” Eze said about what seemed to him to be a long road back from brain surgery. “I don’t because I know what I came here to do.

“I have to embrace it and get working.”

5 Things To Know About Iraq's Mosul

U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division fire artillery in support of Iraqi forces fighting Islamic State militants from their base east of Mosul. U.S.-led coalition support for Iraqi ground forces in Mosul repeatedly proved to be the critical factor in the Mosul fight. Iraq’s prime minister declared victory over the Islamic State group in Mosul after more than eight months of some of the toughest fighting Iraqi forces have faced in the more than 3-year-old war against the extremists.

MOSUL, IRAQ (AP JULY 10, 2017) — Iraq's prime minister declared victory over the Islamic State group in Mosul after more than eight months of some of the toughest fighting Iraqi forces have faced in the more than 3-year-old war against the extremists.

Iraqi and coalition forces acknowledged from the start that Mosul would be a challenge, but the Iraqi leadership's initial vows that it would be over by the end of 2016 underestimated the capacity and the resolve of the IS fighters left to fight to the death.

Here are five things to know now that the fight for Mosul is officially over. THE IMPORTANCE OF MOSUL Mosul held deep symbolic importance for IS. It was after the Islamic State group overran Mosul in June of 2014 that they declared a caliphate stretching from territory in northern Syria deep into Iraq's north and west. And it was from Mosul's al-Nuri mosque that the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his only public appearance when he gave a Friday sermon calling on all Muslims to follow him as "caliph." He vowed that IS would conquer "Rome," and the entire world.

Mosul was also the bureaucratic and financial backbone of IS. In the early days of IS growth in Iraq and Syria, former Saddam-era military officers from Mosul made up some of the group's highest-ranking members and helped garner supporters in Iraq.

Raiding Mosul's central bank, and taxing and extorting the city's wealthy inhabitants, made IS the richest terrorist organization in the world in the summer of 2014. Mosul's vast industrial zones were converted into factories for weapons and explosives.
HOW U.S.-BACKED IRAQI FORCES WON

Iraq spent more than two years rebuilding its armed forces and preparing for the Mosul offensive. Some 70,000 forces drawn from Iraq's army, special forces, the federal police, and tribal and militia fighters were mobilized for the fight, according to Iraq's joint operations command.

Initially, Iraqi forces planned to attack the city simultaneously from multiple fronts — north, east and south. But forces without urban combat experience and limited training quickly proved incapable of leading pushes and instead were moved to act largely as holding forces. Iraq's special forces and the federal police led most combat operations to retake Mosul, first clearing the city's east and then the west.

U.S.-led coalition support for Iraqi ground forces in Mosul repeatedly proved to be the critical factor. Iraqi forces repeatedly called in airstrikes to kill just one or two IS fighters armed with light weapons. Iraqi commanders said this approach was adopted to keep military casualties to a minimum.

The final battles for Mosul played out in the Old City, dense terrain measuring just a few square kilometers (miles) where the United Nations estimated IS held more than 100,000 people as human shields.
THE COST OF VICTORY

The extent of the cost in civilian life is not yet known as many bodies are still believed to be trapped under rubble and Iraq lacks a centralized system for documenting civilian casualties.

But at a minimum hundreds of people are believed to have been killed and thousands more wounded, according to interviews conducted with doctors at field clinics and humanitarian organizations.

Iraq's military has also suffered high casualty rates. The government does not disclose official death tolls, but many of the units leading assaults in Mosul faced attrition rates of upward of 25 percent when engaged in urban combat. The high casualty rates will likely undermine the forces' ability to continue the fight against IS in the pockets of territory they still hold in Iraq.
DESTRUCTION

The levels of destruction are dramatically different between Mosul's east and west. Complexes in the east used by IS fighters, like the city's university, were heavily bombed. But many of the east's residential neighborhoods suffered relatively little damage.

In the west, however, entire city blocks are damaged or destroyed by months of airstrikes and artillery. It was also in western Mosul that a single U.S. airstrike killed more than a hundred civilians sheltering in basement of a single home.

Human rights and aid groups warn that such widespread destruction could undermine the military victory and make it more difficult for the hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled the west to return to their homes.
THE FIGHT CONTINUES

The operation in Syria to retake the IS group's de-facto capital, Raqqa, is in full swing, with U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces having retaken a handful of neighborhoods. But the battle for Raqqa is expected to be extended and bloody, and IS still controls a number of other towns in eastern Syria.

IS also continues to carry out insurgent attacks in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Iraqi and coalition officials have said the fight against IS as an insurgent force will likely be more difficult than the fight against the group as a conventional one and that the extremists will continue to pose a threat for years to come.

Iraqi Declares 'Total Victory' Over Islamic State In Mosul

Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi addresses forces from a small base on the edge of Mosul's Old City, where heavy clashes have been underway for days, Monday, July 10, 2017. Al-Abadi returned to Mosul Monday and declared victory against the Islamic State group in the northern city following nine months of grueling urban combat. (Iraqi Prime Minister's Media Office via AP)

MOSUL, IRAQ (AP JULY 10, 2017) — Iraq on Monday declared "total victory" over the Islamic State in Mosul, retaking full control of the country's second-largest city three years after it was seized by extremists bent on building a global caliphate.

"This great feast day crowned the victories of the fighters and the Iraqis for the past three years," said Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, flanked by his senior military leadership at a small base in western Mosul on the edge of the Old City. Iraqi forces had backed the last pockets of Islamic State militants against the banks of the Tigris River.

Al-Abadi alluded to the brutality of the battle for Mosul — Iraq's longest yet in the fight against IS — saying the triumph had been achieved "by the blood of our martyrs." The nearly nine-month campaign, which was backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, left thousands dead, entire neighborhoods in ruins and nearly 900,000 displaced from their homes.

Shortly after al-Abadi's speech, the coalition congratulated him on the victory but noted that parts of the Old City still "must be back-cleared of explosive devices and possible ISIS fighters in hiding." ISIS, ISIL and Daesh are alternative acronyms for the Islamic State group.

Earlier in the day, airstrikes pounded the last IS-held territory on the western edge of the Tigris, Humvees rushed the wounded to field hospitals and soldiers hurriedly filled bags with hand grenades to ferry to the front.

Iraqi troops had slowly pushed through the narrow alleyways of the Old City during the past week, punching holes through walls and demolishing houses to carve supply routes and fighting positions in a district where many of the buildings date back centuries.

For days, the remaining few hundred militants held area measuring less than a square kilometer (less than a mile), and Iraqi commanders described victory as imminent. Al-Abadi also visited Mosul on Sunday, congratulating the troops on recent gains but stopping short of declaring an outright victory as clashes continued.

The drawn-out endgame in Iraq's fight for Mosul highlighted the resilience of the extremists and the continued reliance of Iraqi forces on air support to retake territory. Iraqi commanders said gains slowed to a crawl in recent days as IS fighters used their families — including women and children — as human shields. As the battle space constricted, the coalition began approving airstrikes, dropping bombs of 200 pounds or more on IS targets within 50 meters (yards) of friendly forces.

Plumes of smoke Monday grew larger than the strip of territory under IS control. Over the campaign, the Iraqi special forces who largely led the assault have faced casualty rates of 40 percent, according to a report in May from the office of the U.S. secretary of defense. Iraq's army, federal police and mostly Shiite government-sanctioned militia forces also suffered significant losses.

As the Iraqi army celebrated imminent victory on Sunday, Muhammad Abdul Abbas, a 20-year-old solider, said he lost 15 close friends fighting for Mosul. "Honestly, all this death and all this destruction, I don't believe it was worth it," he said.

Reports of civilian casualties also rose as Iraqi forces punched into Mosul's western half in February. Residents fleeing the fighting reported that entire families sheltering in the basements of their homes were killed by airstrikes targeting small teams of IS fighters.

Thousands of civilians were estimated to have been killed in the fight for Mosul, according to Nineveh's provincial council. That did not include those still believed buried under collapsed buildings.

More than 897,000 people were displaced, and the U.N. said there was no end in sight to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq despite the conclusion of the fighting. The U.N. said thousands of Mosul residents will probably not be able to return to the city because of "extensive damage caused during the conflict."

The infrastructure in western Mosul, where the fighting was fiercest, has been decimated. Iraq's civil defense rescue teams — a branch of the Interior Ministry — said about 65 percent of the buildings in the Old City were severely damaged or destroyed. In western neighborhoods like Zanjili, destruction was estimated to be 70 percent of all houses, buildings and infrastructure.

Mosul fell to IS militants within a matter of days in June 2014, starting a political and security crisis not seen in the country since the 2003 toppling of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The territorial gains by the extremists led to the ouster of Iraq's top leaders, dramatically shifted the balance of power among its security forces, empowered Iranian-backed fighters who are now sanctioned by the central government, and brought U.S. ground troops back onto Iraqi soil for the first time since 2011.

The road to retake Mosul has taken the government, its security forces and the coalition more than three years of training troops to replace the tens of thousands of Iraqi forces who dissolved in the face of the 2014 IS advance.

That summer, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared at Mosul's al-Nuri Mosque and declared a caliphate on territory it seized in Iraq and Syria. Last month, as Iraqi troops closed in on the Old City, the militants destroyed the al-Nuri Mosque and its famous leaning minaret to deny the forces a symbolic triumph.

Senior Advocate Of Nigeria Reveals New Meaning Of Biafra

BY CHIJIOKE JANNAH

DAILY POST NIGERIA

JULY 10, 2017

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ahamba, yesterday, said the issue of Biafra has acquired a new meaning which no longer represents only South-easterners who want an independent state.

According to him, the new meaning of Biafra reflects, “protest against imbalance in Nigeria.”

Ahamba made this statement in Owerri, while reacting to the current agitations in the country, especially from the South-East zone.

He said: “the word Biafra is no longer for secessionists or those who want to secede, it is now a word for protest against the imbalance in Nigeria.

“Because we have Biafra in the Middle Belt, South-South, South-West, North-East, among others, they all have their own name. They are those who think that they are not well accommodated in this country. To that extent, I agree with Biafra.”

But he was of the view that the Igbo cannot leave Nigeria for anybody, saying: “To the extent of making me leave Nigeria, I do not agree, I am not leaving this country for anybody because I have invested in it.

“There is nobody who can force me out of this country because I have invested so much. Whatsoever the problem, we shall discuss it, all of us as Nigerians.

“Let me tell you why the sit-at-home order was successful, they put one emotional point in it, honouring the dead, and many stayed at home to honour the dead in the Biafra/Nigeria civil war.


“Let me also say this, it was the Federal Government that created the present impulse by arresting and detaining Kanu against the law. They created sympathy for him.”

Illinois Has Bills To Pay After 2 years Without Budget Plan

BY JOHN O'CONNOR

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JULY 09, 2017

Rep. David Harris, R-Mount Prospect, left, explains why he would vote to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a package of budget bills at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Ten Republicans voted with Democrats to overturn the governor's veto approving the first state budget in more than two years. Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza's staff estimates she will be able to cover expenses in August. The law allows for borrowing or taking $1.5 billion from other state funds in the interim. (Rich Saal/The State Journal-Register via AP File)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois finally has a budget plan after two years. Now, to start paying bills. The Democratic-controlled Legislature's vote last week to create a $36 billion framework over Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's vetoes ended the nation's longest fiscal stalemate since at least the Great Depression. At the core of the budget was a $5 billion income tax increase.

The tax hike is retroactive to July 1, and the state could start seeing some additional money within weeks. But after unchecked "autopilot" spending that outstripped incoming revenue by $600 million a month, Illinois has a $14.7 billion jumble of overdue bills.

The tax increase also does nothing to directly address the haunting, $130 billion shortfall in pension obligations to retired and current state workers. The debt-reduction plan also includes more debt, although slightly less costly. It allows Rauner to sell up to $6 billion in bonds, on top of the tens of billions of dollars Illinois owes from past loans. The idea is the interest owed on bonded indebtedness would be less than what is owed on overdue bills. The state must pay 1 percent per month on any bill unpaid for 90 days.

But while less, the state can expect to pay double what a more financially sound state would pay on bond-sale interest — as low as 2 percent. That's because the state's creditworthiness has been downgraded amid the budget crisis. On a $480 million sale last fall, the state is paying 4.2 percent, and that was before major credit-rating agencies knocked down the rating further. One, Moody's Investors Service, said a downgrade to "junk" status could come regardless of a budget deal.

More immediately, Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza predicts there will be enough money to cover basic services in August; she had warned that without a deal, she would fall $185 million short. If added income tax revenue isn't sufficient, the law allows for borrowing or otherwise taking $1.5 billion from money accumulated in state funds created for other purposes.

Mendoza said in a YouTube video that she would begin by paying bills that draw matching dollars from the federal government, such as those covered by the Medicaid health care program. Bills with high late payment interest also get priority.

"Our state's schools and universities will receive critical funds, giving them the chance to open on time in the fall," Mendoza said. "State vendors will still have to wait longer than they'd like to be caught up on payments. But there is finally a path forward."

The individual income tax rate is now 4.95 percent, up from 3.75 percent. Corporations will pay 7 percent instead of 5.25 percent. The Illinois Department of Revenue updated its payroll withholding guide to reflect the new tax rate, spokesman Terry Horstman said. Larger employers must make semi-weekly withholding payments, so those should begin this month. Smaller employers and taxpayers not on a payroll are required to file estimated payments by mid-September, at which point money will start coming in at the higher rate.

In the budget year that ended last month, Illinois collected $17.8 billion in personal and corporate income taxes, an increase of just 1 percent from the previous year, according to the Legislature's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability . Legislative sponsors of the tax hike estimated it would bring in $350 million more per month, though that likely depends on economic growth in the state.

Legislative Democrats boast that the $36 billion budget they approved is not only $1 billion less than Rauner himself proposed, but $3 billion less than the "autopilot" government spent annually. But Rauner's administration complains the budget still is $1 billion or more out of balance.

The legislation also provides some relief for nonprofits that have provided services without payment and college students who have had to make do this past school year without access to the state's needs-based Monetary Award Program. They will receive money from the more than $800 million in tax revenue that accumulated in special funds but went unspent because lawmakers hadn't appropriated the money.

Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/john%20o'connor