The Boston Globe - 08.08.2019

A2 The Boston Globe THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019

The Nation

WASHINGTON — Chelsea

Manning will not get a hearing

to challenge steep daily penal-

ties imposed for her refusal to

testify before a grand jury in-

vestigating WikiLeaks.

In an order issued Monday,

Judge Anthony Trenga in sub-

urban Alexandria, Va., federal

court said there were no ‘‘rea-

sonable grounds’’ to reconsid-

er his decision to impose the

fines, which started at $

daily and have now risen to

$1,000 a day. She could be in-

carcerated for a total of 18

months; her attorneys esti-

mate that the total cost will be

close to half a million dollars.

Manning had argued that

she did not have the financial

ability to pay the fines and

asked for a hearing to make

that clear. Trenga found that

she ‘‘has the ability to comply

... or will have the ability after

her release from confinement.’’

In a statement Wednesday,

she said: ‘‘I am disappointed

but not at all surprised. The

government and the judge

must know by now that this

doesn’t change my position

one bit.’’

Prosecutors wanted Man-

ning to testify about her inter-

actions with WikiLeaks found-

er Julian Assange, to whom

she leaked thousands of classi-

fied government cables in

2010. Manning spent seven
      years in a military prison for
      her disclosures before being
      released by President Barack
      Obama.
      Since Manning first went to
      jail in March, Assange has
      been arrested and charged
      with violating the Espionage
      Act. She argues that her testi-
      mony is no longer necessary.
      WASHINGTON POST

Manning is rebuffed on fines

MANHATTAN BEACH,

Calif. — A Southern California

seaside community is in an up-

roar after a home was given a

new paint job featuring two

huge emojis on a bright pink

background.

Manhattan Beach residents

railed against the makeover

during a City Council meeting

Tuesday night, citing problems

with spectators.

One speaker called the

paint job graffiti and another

said it was an attack on neigh-

bors.

Both bright yellow emojis

are cross-eyed and have dis-

tinctly big eyelashes.

One has a goofy expression

with its tongue hanging out.

The other has its mouth zip-

pered shut.

The new paint job ap-

peared after neighbors report-

ed the home was being used

for short-term rentals and the

homeowner was fined $4,000.

Owner Kathryn Kidd told

KABC-TV she didn’t realize

short-term rentals weren’t al-

lowed and she denied the re-

decoration is retaliation.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A message in the eye of the beholder

A Montana man allegedly

slammed a boy’s head to the

ground at a county fair be-

cause the 13-year-old kept his

hat on during the national an-

them, a witness told local

news outlets.

Mineral County Sheriff

Mike Boone said witnesses

identified the suspect as 39-

year-old Curt James Brockway.

Brockway was arrested at the

fairgrounds, located in the

western Montana town of Su-

perior, and charged with as-

sault on a minor — a felony.

Taylor Henneck, who at-

tended the event, told local

news outlets she overheard the

attack near the fairground en-

trance, just as the national an-

them began to play.

The woman said she heard

a ‘‘pop,’’ and turned to see the

boy writhing on the ground.

‘‘He was bleeding out of his

ears, seizing on the ground,

just not coherent,’’ Henneck

told The Missoulian. She said

Brockway offered a simple de-

fense for his actions.

‘‘He said [the boy] was dis-

respecting the national an-

them so he had every right to

do that,’’ she added.

KPAX, a CBS-affiliated

news station, reported that the

boy suffered temporal skull

fractures in the incident. His

mother told the station her

son’s ears bled for six hours.

WASHINGTON POST

Boy wearing hat during anthem attacked

The Puerto Rico Supreme

Court threw the leadership of

the island into new turmoil on

Wednesday, ruling that the

governor who took over last

week, Pedro Pierluisi, was

sworn in on unconstitutional

grounds.

The unanimous ruling

ousted Pierluisi and paved the

way for Wanda Vázquez, the

secretary of justice, to take the

oath of office as Puerto Rico’s

third governor in five days.

With her husband and

daughter by her side, Vázquez

raised her right hand and was

sworn in by Chief Justice

Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez at

the Supreme Court in San

Juan, the capital.

“Puerto Rico needs certain-

ty and stability,” Vázquez, who

had previously said she did not

want the job, said in a state-

ment before her swearing-in.

She became the second female

governor in Puerto Rican his-

tory.

The 29-page ruling said

Pierluisi could not remain as

governor, and called for “an or-

derly succession.”

Shortly before 5 p.m., Pier-

luisi said he would step aside.

He had earlier left La Fortale-

za, the governor’s official resi-

dence, in a black SUV with

tinted windows.

“I want to be clear that the

only motivation I have had

during this time, as always,

has been the well-being of

Puerto Rico,” he said in a state-

ment, in which he wished

Vázquez well in her new role.

The court ruled in favor of

the Puerto Rico Senate, which

sued late Sunday asking the

court to issue a preliminary in-

junction against Pierluisi tak-

ing over the office of chief ex-

ecutive. He became governor

Friday, even though he had not

been confirmed as secretary of

state by both chambers of the

Legislative Assembly.

NEW YORK TIMES

Another governor in Puerto Rico

NATALIE RICE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The owner of the home denied the new paint job was

intended as retaliation against neighbors.

Cyntoia Brown, who served

15 years of a life sentence for

killing a man who had picked

her up when she was a teenage

trafficking victim, was re-

leased from a Tennessee pris-

on Wednesday, the Depart-

ment of Corrections said.

Brown’s story made nation-

al headlines, raised awareness

of the plight of trafficked

young people, and

inspired a push for

criminal justice re-

form in Tennessee.

In January, the

state’s governor at

the time, Bill

Haslam, granted

her clemency.

Brown, now 31,

ran away from her

adoptive family at

16 and lived in a

motel with a pimp

who raped her and

forced her into

prostitution, ac-

cording to court documents.

In 2004, Johnny Allen, 43,

a real estate broker, picked up

Brown at a Nashville restau-

rant and drove her to his home

after she agreed to engage in

sexual activity for $150, the

documents say.

Brown testified that, at one

point when they were in his

bedroom, she thought he was

reaching for a gun to kill her.

She shot him in his sleep with

a handgun that had been in

her purse, took money and

two guns, and fled.

She was arrested and tried

as an adult on charges of first-

degree murder and aggravated

robbery. In 2006, Brown was

convicted by a Davidson Coun-

ty jury of those charges and

sentenced to life in prison. She

would not have been eligible

for parole until 2055.

WhenHaslamgrantedher

clemency, he set her release for

Aug. 7, which com-

muted her sen-

tence to 15 years

from the date she

was arrested.

Brown was de-

scribed by support-

ers as a model pris-

oner. She earned

her high school

equivalency diplo-

ma and an associ-

ate degree through

Lipscomb Univer-

sity, and she start-

ed working on a

bachelor’s degree.

Her case attracted increas-

ing attention, propelled by

support from celebrities in-

cluding Rihanna and Kim Kar-

dashian West. Lawmakers in

Tennessee urged Haslam to

grant clemency before his

term ended, pointing out that

since her conviction, the laws

about trying teenagers as

adults had changed.

But a detective who had

worked on the murder case

urged the governor to oppose

clemency.

NEW YORK TIMES

Trafficking victim freed after 15 years

Reporting corrections

The Globe welcomes information about errors that call for
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left in a message at 617-929-8230.

Daily Briefing

By Jeff Stein
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Demo-
crats are divided over Presi-
dent Trump’s increasingly con-
frontational approach to trade
with China, a surprising lack
of unity for a party that has
stood starkly against most of
Trump’s positions.
Several of the party’s lead-
ing presidential hopefuls have
railed against Trump’s trade
war, accusing the president of
confronting China erratically
while causing needless eco-
nomic pain. But they are also
arguing they would prove
tougher on China than Trump,
a message that may be hard to
reconcile with their vows to
ease or reverse the damage
caused by the widening trade
war.
And some top Democratic
lawmakers have only egged
him on, as Trump took an ac-
tion this week — deeming Chi-
na a ‘‘currency manipulator’’
— they have long advocated.
‘‘They’re stuck. They want
to say the dramatic steps tak-
en by the Trump administra-
tion haven’t been effective, but
they also say we need to rene-
gotiate with China,’’ said Ernie
Tedeschi, who served as a
TreasuryDepartmentecono-
mist in the Obama adminis-
tration. ‘‘With trade wars,
there’s a tension between
helping domestic manufactur-
ers and keeping pain away
from consumers. That’s their
dilemma.’’
On other issues, such as im-
migration, tax cuts, or sustain-
ing the Affordable Care Act,
Democrats have been able to
demonstrate a broad consen-
sus against Trump’s policies,
even if they have differences
among themselves about the
best way forward. But as trade
becomes a bigger and poten-
tially more calamitous issue
going into the election year,
with the stock market seesaw-
ing and the economy slowing,
Democrats could face louder
calls to better define their
plans and how they differ with
Trump.
The tension in part reflects
the disparate impact of
Trump’s trade war on key vot-
ing blocs, analysts and experts
say. Union steelworkers, for
instance, want the next Demo-
cratic president to maintain
Trump’s tariffs on imported
Chinese steel, which have
made the steel business more
profitable.
But in other parts of the
Midwest, farmers are pushing
for what amounts to the oppo-
site, demanding the next
Democratic presidential can-
didate resolve the trade con-
flict so they can resume ex-
porting their products to Chi-
na.
‘‘The problem is that, if
you’re not listening carefully,
Trump correctly identifies the
symptom of the trade prob-
lem, and the data is the data,’’
said a trade adviser to Demo-
cratic presidential campaigns
who spoke on the condition of
anonymity and was not autho-
rized to speak publicly. ‘‘The
challenge is making people
understand his solution is not
the real one.’’
The economic battle be-
tween the United States and
China flared again last week
when the Trump administra-
tion vowed to this September
slap 10 percent tariffs on $
billion in Chinese imports af-
ter negotiations faltered.

China responded by allow-

ing its tightly controlled cur-

rency to depreciate in value,

which could hurt US produc-

ers by raising the cost of the

dollar. The Trump administra-

tion retaliated on Monday af-

ternoon by labeling China a

‘‘currency manipulator,’’ alleg-

ing the country had improper-

ly manipulated its currency.

An international trade war

raising costs for US consumers

and imperiling economic

growth may appear to be per-

fect fodder for an opposition

party heading into a presiden-

tial election cycle.

Part of Democrats’ chal-

lenge is that Trump has taken

some actions long demanded

by labor unions and the par-

ty’s liberals, who have for

years called for the govern-

ment to take stricter action to

curb Chinese trade practices.

ManyoftheDemocraticcan-

didates have offered few con-

crete pledges to undo specific

trade enforcement actions tak-

en by the president, and some

of their policy prescriptions

would be difficult to enact.

As a result, the party’s pres-

idential hopefuls have some-

times appeared unable to ex-

ploit what has consistently

proven to be one of Trump’s

most risky gambits in the

White House.

‘‘They are conflicted. On

the one hand, they oppose the

harm from Trump’s trade war

and how he has waged it,’’ said

Steven Kyle, a Cornell eco-

nomics professor. ‘‘On the oth-

er hand, they used to be on his

side of this and, in some cases,

have long supported using tar-

iffs to confront China. It is a

tension.’’

The Democratic campaigns

argue they will try to draw a

difference with Trump on

trade.

On Friday, former vice

president Joe Biden slammed

Trump’s ‘‘irresponsible tariff

war’’ for hurting farmers,

workers, and consumers.

Biden has argued the United

States should instead work

with Europe and other Asian

countries to form a coalition

that would exert stronger

pressure on China, an ap-

proach similar in theory to the

Trans-Pacific Partnership pro-

posed under President Obama

but later scuttled amid Demo-

cratic opposition. Biden has

said he would renegotiate the

TPP if elected.

Senator Kamala Harris, a

California Democrat, has simi-

larly repeatedly assailed

Trump’s tariffs as a ‘‘trade tax,’’

arguing that the ‘‘so-called

trade policy’’ has led to bil-

lions in additional spending

by American families on nec-

essary household items.

Democratic Senators Ber-

nie Sanders of Vermont and

Elizabeth Warren of Massa-

chusetts have spoken favor-

ably about Trump applying

tariffs to China, as many labor

unions have been supportive

of the president’s efforts. But

they have also argued they

would do more for American

workers in negotiations with

China, in particular vowing to

promote union rights and

curb environmental damage.

Democrats split

over Trump’s

China trade war

Advocating

atoughstance

createsdilemma

‘Theyare

conflicted....

Theyusedtobe

onhissideofthis

...Itisatension.’

STEVEN KYLE,a Cornell

economics professor

BARRETT STINSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEBRASKA STORM —A strong thunderstorm with high winds moved through Grand Island, Neb., on

Wednesday, causing damage and flooding. Irene Klein (above) swept debris from her driveway with a large

downed tree behind her. The wind knocked down several trees throughout the city, blocking many roadways.

Cyntoia Brown was

tried as an adult

for killing a man

who picked her up.