North Carolina fails to repeal LGBT law as culture wars rage

North Carolina fails to repeal LGBT law as culture wars rage

State Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, speaks on the senate floor during a special session of the North Carolina General Assembly called to consider repeal of NC HB2 in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. North Carolina's legislature reconvened to see if enough lawmakers are willing to repeal a 9-month-old law that limited LGBT rights, including which bathrooms transgender people can use in public schools and government buildings.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Repealing North Carolina's law limiting LGBT protections at the close of a bitter election year was supposed to heal blows to the economy and perhaps open a truce in the culture wars in at least one corner of the divided United States.

The failure of state lawmakers to follow through instead shows how much faith each side has lost in the other, as Americans segregate themselves into communities of us and them, defined by legislative districts that make compromise unlikely.

The deal was supposedly reached with input from top politicians and industry leaders: Charlotte agreed to eliminate its anti-discrimination ordinance on the condition that state lawmakers then repeal the legislation known as House Bill 2, which had been a response to Charlotte's action.

But bipartisan efforts to return both the city and state to a more harmonious past fell apart amid mutual distrust, and neither side seemed to worry about retribution in the next election.

With GOP map-drawers drawing most legislative districts to be uncompetitively red or blue, politicians see little downside to avoiding a negotiated middle-ground. And since the day Republicans passed and signed it into law last March, HB2 has reflected these broad divisions in society.

The failed repeal shows the same polarization, said David Lublin, a Southern politics expert in American University's School of Public Affairs.

North Carolina had been "seen as the forefront of the new South," focusing on education and economic development, and wasn't "viewed as crazy-right wing or crazy-left wing," Lublin said. Keeping the law in effect, he said, "reverses that impression."

It was always more than just a "bathroom bill."

Republican lawmakers commanding veto-proof majorities framed HB2 as a rebuke to the values of Charlotte and other urban, white-collar communities where Democrats are clustered and where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people generally find support.

HB2 - which omits these people from state anti-discrimination protections, bars local governments from protecting them with their own ordinances, and orders transgender people to use facilities that match their birth certificates - created a backlash that has cost the state's economy millions.

Corporations, entertainers and high-profile sporting events backed out to avoid being seen as endorsing discrimination. Two-thirds of North Carolina voters surveyed in November's Associated Press exit poll said they oppose the law, and even Trump's supporters narrowly trended against it.

IBM executives worry that the failure to repeal HB2 is an obstacle to attracting the best employees to its largest North American operation, in Research Triangle Park outside Raleigh, home to an outsized number of college graduates from around the world.

"The state of North Carolina has a tremendous amount to do to recover its reputation as a great place to live, work and do business," IBM chief diversity officer Lindsey-Rae McIntyre said in an interview Thursday. "Our position is that we will fight this, that we are deeply committed to hiring the very best, diverse talents and that this law and this mindset does nothing to fuel our commitment to hiring that talent."

Across the divide, supporters of HB2 express anger against what they feel are challenges to their religious freedoms, and fear that women could be endangered by transgender people in public bathrooms and showers.

"As much as North Carolina's 'reputation' may have been harmed in the eyes of some, just as many - if not more - respected us for the stance we took in support of privacy and security protections of our public restrooms and dressing facilities," said GOP state Rep. Chris Millis, whose district covers all or parts of two largely rural, coastal counties where President-elect Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

The divide cuts both ways in the legislature.

Rep. Cecil Brockman represents a heavily Democratic district in urban Guilford County, where voters chose Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in 2012 by nearly a 4-to-1 margin. Brockman, who publicly identifies as bisexual, pleaded with his colleagues to repeal what he called an "offensive, disastrous" law.

Brockman's district is about to change.

After Republicans were accused of unlawfully clustering black voters to diminish their influence, a federal court panel ruled that about a sixth of the state's 170 legislative districts were illegally drawn. The judges ordered North Carolina lawmakers to redraw districts by March 15 and to hold new elections in November.

If lawmakers don't resolve it somehow, HB2 is likely to be a hot-button issue in those elections, although even the most one-sided districts are unlikely to change enough to unseat Republican majorities in the evenly divided state.

Polls show Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's support for the law played into his loss - by about 10,000 votes out of 4.7 million cast - to Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper, who ran in part on repealing HB2.

Republican legislative leaders and Cooper, who appears to have had a significant role in brokering the deal that ultimately collapsed, are still hopeful that a solution can be reached in 2017. The General Assembly, with newcomers elected last month, begins in less than three weeks.

"I certainly believe that negotiations will resume, and frankly we all know that we have to work through this," House Speaker Tim Moore told the AP in a phone interview Thursday, but "an issue with strong social overtones is always a problematic vote for members."

Yahoo says hackers stole information from over 1B accounts

Yahoo says hackers stole information from over 1B accounts 

FILE - This Tuesday, July 19, 2016 photo shows a Yahoo sign at the company's headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. On Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016, Yahoo said it believes hackers stole data from more than one billion user accounts in August 2013.

  

NEW YORK (AP) -- Yahoo says it believes hackers stole data from more than one billion user accounts in August 2013, in what is thought to be the largest data breach at an email provider.

The Sunnyvale, California, company was also home to what's now most likely the second largest hack in history, one that exposed 500 million Yahoo accounts . The company disclosed that breach in September. Yahoo said it hasn't identified the intrusion associated with this theft.

Yahoo says the information stolen may include names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and security questions and answers. The company says it believes bank-account information and payment-card data were not affected.

But the company said hackers may have also stolen passwords from the affected accounts. Technically, those passwords should be secure; Yahoo said they were scrambled twice - once by encryption and once by another technique called hashing. But hackers have become adept at cracking secured passwords by assembling huge dictionaries of similarly scrambled phrases and matching them against stolen password databases.

That could mean trouble for any users who reused their Yahoo password for other online accounts.

QUESTIONS FOR VERIZON

The new hack revelation raises fresh questions about Verizon's $4.8 billion proposed acquisition of Yahoo, and whether the big mobile carrier will seek to modify or abandon its bid. If the hacks cause a user backlash against Yahoo, the company's services wouldn't be as valuable to Verizon. The telecom giant wants Yahoo and its many users to help it build a digital ad business.

In a statement, Verizon said that it will evaluate the situation as Yahoo investigates and will review the "new development before reaching any final conclusions." Spokesman Bob Varettoni declined to answer further questions.

Yahoo said Wednesday that it is requiring users to change their passwords and invalidating security questions so they can't be used to hack into accounts.

John Glenn, astronaut and senator, to lie in state in Ohio

John Glenn, astronaut and senator, to lie in state in Ohio

A Sept. 1966 edition of LIFE Magazine bearing the likeness of John Glenn rests in a showcase at the John & Annie Glenn Museum, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, in New Concord, Ohio. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth, piloting Friendship 7 around the planet three times in 1962. Glenn, as a U.S. senator at age 77, also became the oldest person in space by orbiting Earth with six astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- John Glenn will lie in state in Ohio's capitol building before a celebration of his life of military and government service and two history-making voyages into space.

The public viewing at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Ohio State University's Mershon Auditorium are planned for late next week. The dates and times were being worked out Friday, said Hank Wilson, of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. Statehouse officials meet Monday to authorize the public viewing.

Glenn, who died Thursday at age 95, was the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1962, and was the oldest man in space, at age 77 in 1998. A U.S. Marine and combat pilot, he also served as a Democratic U.S. senator, representing Ohio, for more than two decades.

Democratic President Barack Obama on Friday ordered flags at federal buildings and on ships around the world flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of Glenn's internment. Glenn is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Tributes from the nation's leaders and others continued Friday.

"Throughout his life, Senator John Glenn embodied the right stuff," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. "Our military in particular benefited from his courage and dedication. ... But just as important as what John Glenn accomplished is how he accomplished it: with a combination of fierce determination and profound humility, and always with integrity."

Glenn was a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea and served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, among other Washington service.

In his eastern Ohio hometown of New Concord, the John and Annie Glenn Museum, usually available this time of year only for special tours and events, opened Friday with free admission.

Char Lyn Grujoski, of Connersville, Indiana, stopped in after spotting a roadside sign for the museum while driving home from Pittsburgh and listening to a radio report on Glenn. The museum is in the astronaut's converted boyhood home. Grujoski and her daughter left impressed.

"He was a true American hero, someone who loved his country and served it," she said.

Glenn was known for his humility, said Hal Burlingame, who grew up in New Concord and was friends with Glenn for half a century.

"John Glenn that you see is the real John Glenn," Burlingame said. "He would be the same John Glenn if he happened to be sitting here today talking with us. He never took himself too seriously."

Glenn was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge and grew up in nearby New Concord. He wed his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor, in 1943. The couple spent their later years between Washington and Columbus.

He and his wife served as trustees at their alma mater, Muskingum College, and he promoted his namesake School of Public Affairs at Ohio State, which houses his private papers and photographs.

His long political career, which included a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, enabled him to return to space in the shuttle Discovery in 1998, 36 years after going into orbit in Friendship 7 as part of Mercury, the first U.S. manned spaceflight program. He turned his Discovery mission into an educational moment about aging.

Schools, a space center and the Columbus airport are named after him.

"For generations, Americans cheered John Glenn as he soared into the heavens," former House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican and fellow Ohioan, said in a statement. "Now he has taken his place there for eternity, a well-earned reward for an American life well and heroically lived."

Trump speaks with Taiwan's president, risking China tensions

Trump speaks with Taiwan's president, risking China tensions
  

NEW YORK (AP) -- President-elect Donald Trump spoke Friday with the president of Taiwan, a move that will be sure to anger China.

It is highly unusual, probably unprecedented, for a U.S. president or president-elect to speak directly with a leader of Taiwan, a self-governing island the U.S. broke diplomatic ties with in 1979.

Washington has pursued a so-called "one China" policy since 1979, when it shifted diplomatic recognition of China from the government in Taiwan to the communist government on the mainland. Under that policy, the U.S. recognizes Beijing as representing China but retains unofficial ties with Taiwan.

A statement from Trump's transition team said he spoke with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who offered her congratulations. It was not clear who initiated the call.

"During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties ... between Taiwan and the United States. President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year," the statement said.

A Taiwanese source with direct knowledge of the call confirmed it had taken place. The source requested anonymity to speak about it before an official statement was issued on it from Taipei.

The White House learned of the conversation after it had taken place, said a senior Obama administration official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive diplomatic relations involved.

China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Friday's call is the most stark example yet of how Trump has flouted diplomatic conventions since he won the Nov. 8 election. He has apparently undertaken calls with foreign leaders without guidance customarily lent by the State Department, which oversees U.S. diplomacy.

Over the decades, the status of Taiwan has been one of the most sensitive issues in U.S.-China relations. 

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory to be retaken by force, if necessary, if it seeks independence. It would regard any recognition of a Taiwanese leader as a head of state as unacceptable.

Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland amid civil war in 1949. The U.S. policy acknowledges the Chinese view over sovereignty, but considers Taiwan's status as unsettled.

Although the U.S. does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it has close unofficial ties. Taiwan's government has a representative office in Washington and other U.S. cities. The U.S. also has legal commitments to help Taiwan maintain the ability to defend itself.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Trump's conversation does not signal any change to long-standing U.S. policy on "cross-strait" issues.

"We remain firmly committed to our 'one China' policy," Price said. "Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-strait relations."

Tsai was democratically elected in January and took office in May. The traditional independence-leaning policies of her party have strained relations with Beijing.

Diplomatic protocol dictates that Taiwanese presidents can transit through the U.S. but not visit Washington.

Douglas Paal, who served as head of the American Institute in Taiwan during the George W. Bush administration, said that to his knowledge the call was unprecedented. He said he expected Beijing to issue a verbal warning that there's no space to change the rules over Taiwan relations.