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Groton Daily Independent
Monday, June 26, 2017 ~ Vol. 24 - No. 347 ~ 26 of 39
In Minneapolis, organizers of Sunday’s Twin Cities Pride Parade initially asked the police department to limit its participation, with the chairwoman saying the sight of uniformed of cers could foster “angst and tension and the feeling of unrest” after a suburban of cer’s acquittal this month in the deadly shooting of Philando Castile, a black man, during a traf c stop.
The city’s openly gay police chief called the decision divisive and hurtful to LGBT of cers. On Friday, organizers apologized and said the of cers were welcome to march.
But anti-police protesters disrupted the parade with chants of: “No justice, no peace, no pride in police” and carried signs reading “Justice for Philando” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Meanwhile, pride march organizers have taken steps to address the criticisms about diversity. Protesters for “Black Lives Matter” also delayed the start of the Seattle parade, parade-goers said. “The pride celebration is a platform for that dialogue to happen,” San Francisco Pride board president
Michelle Meow said this week. The large “resistance contingent” leading San Francisco’s parade includes groups that represent women, immigrants, African-Americans and others along with LGBT people.
New York parade-goers Zhane Smith-Garris, 20, Olivia Rengifo, 19 and Sierra Dias, 20, all black women from New Jersey, said they did not feel there was inequality in the movement.
“Pride is for gay people in general,” Dias said.
There were scattered counter protests and a few disruptions, including a small group in New York urging parade-goers to “repent for their sins.” But most attending were uni ed in celebration and in standing up against a presidential administration they nd unsupportive.
“This year, especially, it’s a bit of a different atmosphere,” said Grace Cook, a 17-year-old from suburban Chicago who noted the more political tone in this year’s parade, including at least one anti-Trump oat.
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Associated Press writers Rebecca Gibian and Colleen Long in New York and Martha Irvine, an AP national writer in Chicago, contributed to this report.
Trump: Not ‘that far off’ from passing health overhaul By HOPE YEN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Making a nal push, President Donald Trump said he doesn’t think congressional Republicans are “that far off” on a health overhaul to replace “the dead carcass of Obamacare.” Express- ing frustration, he complained about “the level of hostility” in government and wondered why both parties can’t work together on the Senate bill as GOP critics expressed doubt over a successful vote this week.
It was the latest signs of high-stakes maneuvering over a key campaign promise, and the president signaled a willingness to deal.
“We have a very good plan,” Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Referring to Republican senators opposed to the bill, he added: “They want to get some points, I think they’ll get some points.”
Trump’s comments come amid the public opposition of ve Republican senators so far to the Senate GOP plan that would scuttle much of former President Barack Obama’s health law.
Unless those holdouts can be swayed, their numbers are more than enough to torpedo the measure developed in private by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and deliver a bitter defeat for the president. That’s because unanimous opposition is expected from Democrats in a chamber in which Republicans hold a narrow 52-48 majority.
Trump bemoaned the lack of bipartisanship in Washington, having belittled prominent Democrats himself.
“It would be so great if the Democrats and Republicans could get together, wrap their arms around it and come up with something that everybody’s happy with,” the president said. “And I’m open arms; but, I don’t see that happening. They ght each other. The level of hostility.”
Trump has denigrated Democrats on numerous occasions, including a jab at Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the same interview: “She’s a hopeless case. I call her Pocahontas and that’s an insult to Poca- hontas.”
Warren, a leading liberal and defender of the Affordable Care Act, has opposed efforts to pass a bill to