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President Calls For Diversity At First Ever ‘Demo Day’ At The White House
V.P. Biden Considered Stepping Down After Son’s Death
V. P. Joe Biden and his family at the funeral of his son Beau Biden.
According to USA Today, the White House on Tuesday became a technology incuba- tor with a goal of increasing diversity and inclusion across the tech industry.
President Obama
hosted more than 30 compa- nies and 90 entrepreneurs as part of the White House's first ‘Demo Day ‘to showcase female- and minority-driven start-ups.
The President also an- nounced a public-private ini- tiative aimed at spurring women and minority entre- preneurship.
Companies such as Box and Xerox have pledged to introduce the Rooney rule interview, instituted by the National Football League and named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, he said. That means that at least one woman and one person of color is interviewed for each executive position "just so someone (else) can get in the door," the president said as he addressed the audience.
The President visited and
President Obama shakes hands with participants.
Joe Biden, distraught and heartbroken over his son Beau Biden’s death, con- sidered stepping down as vice president, according to a New York Times story.
According to the Times, Biden told people he con- sidered stepping down in order to help his grieving family after Beau, 46, died in May from brain cancer. But sources also told the Times that the vice president never became too serious
about resigning.
Biden returned to work
less than two weeks after his son’s death.
Last Sunday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported that Beau urged his father to make a third run for the White House before he died. The vice president was reportedly speaking with family mem- bers and even donors about jumping into the 2016 con- tent.
talked with many of the start-ups, calling them heirs to Lewis & Clark and Jonas Salk.
"There's never been a bet- ter time to launch an idea, but we've got to make sure we're taking full advantage of this moment," he said.
The President also thanked nearly four dozen venture capital firms for pledging to increase diver- sity in their own ranks and in their portfolio companies.
Currently, only about 3% of venture capital-backed start-ups are led by women, and only 1% are led by African Americans, Presi- dent Obama said. He ac- knowledged that it can be tough for all entrepreneurs "to get in front of the right people, but sometimes it's harder if you are a woman or an underrepresented minor- ity. ... The next Steve Jobs might be named Stephanie or Esteban."
Rep. Senator Could Be Key Vote In President Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal
White House Criticizes For Not Filling CIA Watchdog Post
More than six months after the CIA inspector gen- eral resigned, President Obama has yet to nominate a replacement, prompting mounting concerns on Capi- tol Hill that the delay may be affecting sensitive inter- nal investigations — includ- ing a probe into an errant drone strike in Pakistan that killed American hostage Warren Weinstein, sources told Yahoo News.
Sen. Dianne Fein- stein, the ranking Demo- crat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, in June urged President Obama in a letter to nomi- nate a new inspector general “as soon as possible,” so a Senate-confirmed official can oversee what she de- scribed as “highly sensitive investigations of interest to the committee.”
But the White House has yet to even respond to the letter, or float any names of a possible nominee, another indicator of what watchdog groups say is a troubling re- sistance on the administra- tion’s part to aggressive oversight and accountability throughout the government, but especially within the in- telligence community. In- spectors general serve as
President Obama.
Barack
Sen. Jeff Flake (R) Ari- zona.
broken with his party on for- eign policy in the past. Un- like most of his GOP colleagues, Flake is still un- decided on the deal, and he indicated in a Tuesday inter- view there was still a possi- bility he could be a yes.
“An agreement this big, this important, you ought to look at all angles. And I’m trying to,” Flake said as he trudged to yet another For- eign Relations Committee hearing on Iran. “There are certain parts of the agree- ment that are certainly bet- ter than the status quo. You have to look at it in the broader context of our for- eign policy options in the re- gion and not try to judge it against the ideal but against the alternative. It’s not an easy call.”
President Obama and former CIA Inspector General
David Buckley.
internal watchdogs at gov- ernment agencies, charged with investigating reports of malfeasance and misman- agement, including com- plaints filed by whistleblowers.
A senior administration official said that, “as with other inspector general va- cancies,” the White House is “working with” a govern- ment-wide organization, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Ef- ficiency, “to identify and nominate a candidate for the CIA with a demon- strated commitment to in- dependence.” (Michael Horowitz, the Justice De- partment inspector general who chairs the council, tes- tified at a Senate hearing in early June that his group
had already recommended a nominee for the CIA post and that “far too often” the process for appointing in- spectors general “takes too long.”)
Finding a candidate for the CIA post in particular is apparently proving difficult, especially in light of the tu- multuous tenure of the pre- vious inspector general, David Buckley. Last De- cember, he released a blis- tering report taking CIA officials to task for covertly hacking into computers used by Feinstein staffers to investigate the agency’s interrogation practices, which the Intelligence Com- mittee concluded consti- tuted torture that had been largely concealed from Con- gress.
With Senate Democrats locking down more support to prevent the two-thirds majority needed to block a nuclear deal with Iran, President Barack Obama is concentrating on another goal — picking off at least one Republican to sup- port it... Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.
Two weeks ago, Flake was the lone Republican on Air Force Once headed to Africa, having joined Presi- dent Obama for his first trip to the continent while in office. The in-flight enter- tainment was obvious from the moment the trip was an- nounced: a long, laborious discussion of the Iran deal.
The President’s pursuit of Sen. Flake, a rock-ribbed fiscal conservative who’s
Presidential/Government News
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2015