Cory Booker Goes To Washington A Celebrity And Senator

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WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — When the U.S. Senate passed a bill to ban job discrimination against gay and transgender people, its newest member's first impulse was to yell with joy. Then he remembered where he was.

Instead, Cory Booker reached into his pocket for his phone.

"I got it all out via Twitter," said Booker, who has 1.4 million followers.

Booker, the 44-year-old Democratic former mayor of Newark, N.J., came into Congress as a rare freshman senator with celebrity status. He has been dubbed a rock star mayor by Oprah Winfrey, been called a hero for pulling a neighbor out of her burning home in 2012 and hobnobbed with Matt Damon.

During his first week in Congress, Booker tried to balance immersion in his new job with already standing out from his 99 colleagues on the staid Senate floor. Booker allowed The Associated Press to shadow his comings and goings.

"The model I've encouraged him to follow is Al Franken or Hillary Clinton," said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat and a friend of Booker's. "People who came to the Senate with big national profiles but demonstrated a willingness to do the work, dig in, go visit every corner of their state and really focus on home-state interests."

Coons came into the Senate after a special election in 2010. He is helping Booker, who also won a special election, navigate and knows what it's like to start the job with no orientation and a skeleton staff.

After a swearing-in Oct. 31 filled with media and supporters, Booker has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. He's studying the minutiae of Senate rules and has attended multitudes of meetings. He has worked out at the Senate gym to meet colleagues and attended a bipartisan prayer breakfast.

Known for his soaring oratory and confidence, he is now listening and asking questions, sometimes seeming overwhelmed or confused — and showing glimmers of his cheeky sense of humor amid the business of the day.

In his first committee hearing Wednesday, he joked that "I still have that new senator smell" after telling the leader of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that higher flood insurance rates would devastate parts of New Jersey.

He asked Vice President Joe Biden if he could crash on his couch. And he answered a Twitter question about his thoughts on workplace romances with: "Don't! Especially if u have 99 colleagues in 1 of the world's most august bodies."

He went to the White House twice. He joined a group of Democratic senators Wednesday and, hours after being sworn in, had a private visit with President Barack Obama.

"There was a guy with a football, and I grabbed it, and the president and I had a little catch," said Booker, who played football at Stanford. Obama, he said, complimented his spiral.

Booker was the first to arrive at a Democratic caucus lunch Tuesday, piling his plate with greens and vegetables. He peeled plastic wrap off of a bowl of dressing as Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu arrived. The two headed toward the back of the room and sat down.

"Sen. Menendez came in and said, 'That's my seat.' And of course I panicked," Booker said. "At first I'm like, 'Oh my God, did I really sit in his seat?' And another senator came in and tried to play the same trick on me."

Booker and his mother, Carolyn, met privately with Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Booker's father, Cary, suffered a stroke in August shortly after moving to Las Vegas and days before Booker's Democratic primary. Reid visited his bedside, and when he died Oct. 10, Reid reached out to Booker and his family.

In many ways, Booker is just another guy getting used to a new job — learning the rules and his colleagues, just as they've all had to do at some point.

He took his first vote minutes after being sworn in and thought votes were cast by pushing a button or pulling a lever. Instead, he learned, "you raise your hand." On one vote, Booker missed his name while chatting with colleagues and flagged down the Senate clerk, voting yes with a thumbs-up.

He brought a congressional directory Thursday morning and watched each speaker intently, occasionally flipping through to match a senator with a photo. He is also learning how to navigate the labyrinth that is the Capitol and its office buildings.

"Is this the way home?" he asked his chief of staff as the two traversed the Senate basement.

He said he plans to advocate for New Jersey residents, hoping to ensure they receive unclaimed earned-income credits and helping victims of Superstorm Sandy. He met with an ethics officer to see how he can leverage private-public partnerships for New Jersey, as he did in Newark — most famously with a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to the city schools.

And though he's been minding his manners, he's still the same Cory Booker. A stalwart supporter of gay rights, he finally let out that yell upon walking into his office after the job discrimination vote.

"Call everybody in New Jersey," Booker said to his staff, "and tell them we're one step closer to an equal nation."

___

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Linnie Frank Bailey: Washington Watch: Week 23 - "The Greatest"

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This past week we celebrated the 237th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence.

Yes...our issues are many, and our Congress is in gridlock, and there are those who will never accept the diversity of our country....still, we can fight for our freedoms in ways others around the world cannot.

And, despite all those who disparage him simply for who he is...America ELECTED Barack Hussein Obama, as our President -- TWICE!!

The ideals upon which our country began are to be remembered, celebrated, and always held in esteem as our battle cry. There is still much to be done, and we are often reminded (just last week with the Supreme Court Voting Rights ruling) -- rights can be given and rights can be taken away. We are also reminded that despite the election of a black president, we live in a time when so many of our gains have been washed away by financial turmoil, political upheaval, and benign neglect.

Yet, we hold up the Declaration of Independence as a goal that it will take a lot longer than 237 years to reach. With the document we declared independence from England while chaining so many of our own citizens.

The Document itself serves us well. As described so eloquently by Jefferson, (who penned the first draft)....and subsequently edited by the Congress at the time, led by chosen editors, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin -- the opening of our Declaration of Independence speaks to our goals as a nation:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Surely, some of the founders of our great country understood the hypocrisy of slavery as juxtaposed with the above line...and yes, they had to have known there would one day be judgment.

Indeed, the famous statesman, abolitionist, and former slave Frederick Douglass described it adequately in his speech and essay: "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with patriotism because ALL of our blood has been shed on behalf of these "unalienable rights."

Still -- the document...the words...stand as our goal. Equal rights for ALL remains our ideal. The fight continues...

Another Reason to Celebrate

This past week, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin suggested the formation of a third political party for conservatives such as herself. Said Palin:

"I think there will be a lot of us who start saying, 'GOP, if you abandon us, well, we have nowhere else to go except to become more independent and not enlisted in one or the other of the private majority parties that rule in our nation.'"

Perhaps if today's GOP got rid of the far...far..right and the old dinosaurs who want to take us back to the 1950's...then maybe they could develop a platform of appeal to voters in today's America (who will not be relegated to the second-class citizenry found in the 50's for women, gays, and people of color.)

Celebrate with Red, White, and Blues

The White House has made available videos of "Performances at the White House" where the East Room of the White House has been transformed into a concert stage many times the past few years..

Here's are some performances from "Red, White, and Blues" a salute to the blues,featuring: (each performance is a separate video on the White House site)

B.B. King & Ensemble "Let the Good Times Roll"
Trombone Shorty "St. James Infirmary"
Buddy Guy & Jeff Beck "Let Me Love You"
Mick Jagger & Jeff Beck "Commit a Crime"
Shamika Copeland & Gary Clark Jr. "Beat Up Old Guitar"
Gary Clark Jr. "Catfish Blues"
Keb' Mo' "Henry"
Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, & Warren Haynes "I'd Rather Go Blind"
Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Gary Clark Jr., & Jeff Beck "Five Long Years"
Buddy Guy & Ensemble (Finale) "Sweet Home Chicago" Watch the President sing.

PBS (not just the home of Big Bird) also has the entire show as well as other White House Performances shows celebrating jazz, Motown, country, classical, Latin, Memphis soul, spoken word, etc.)

For more visit: Our-Gov.com

Follow Linnie Frank Bailey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LinnieFB

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Nikolas Kozloff: Snowden Affair Highlights Epic David and Goliath Struggle Between Quito and Washington

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If there was any doubt that Ecuador's pugnacious President Rafael Correa would back down in the rapidly escalating diplomatic spat over NSA leaker Edward Snowden, recent events will certainly put such notions to rest. Thumbing his nose once again at the Obama administration, Correa has just announced that his government will unilaterally give up special U.S. trade preferences under the so-called Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act or ATPA. Originally, the measure was designed to counteract drug-trafficking by providing export opportunities to poor Andean nations. Under the act, Ecuador exports billions in tax free goods every year to the U.S. including tropical fruits, flowers and petroleum.

After Correa audaciously offered to provide diplomatic asylum to Snowden, the mainstream media, legislators from both sides of the aisle as well as conservative think tanks called for Ecuador to be punished for its impudence and cut off from the ATPA. Correa, however, says Ecuador will not submit to such "blackmail" and threats. Hardly intimidated by the Beltway establishment, defiant Correa has announced for good measure that he will send the U.S. millions of dollars for use in human rights training. Taunting Washington, Ecuador's Minister of Communications declared that the money could be used to avoid "espionage, torture, extrajudicial killings and other acts that denigrate humanity."

For Ecuador, the Snowden affair has all the elements of an epic David and Goliath story pitting the Colossus of the North against a small and impoverished South American nation. While it's unclear how the Snowden imbroglio will play out in Ecuador itself, many will surely rally to Correa's defense. For decades, Ecuador has smarted under Washington's influence and ongoing CIA intervention [for a further accounting of such history, see my earlier article here]. As a result, fiery populism plays well here.

Nationalist Backlash Against the U.S.?

Furthermore, Ecuadorans have little regard for "neo-liberal" style economic austerity which exacted a heavy social toll on the country and contributed to chronic political instability. Indeed, it was precisely such political instability which propelled leftist Correa to power in 2006. Since that time, the maverick politician has challenged Washington in the military, diplomatic and economic spheres, and now seems poised to inherit the South American populist mantle from recently deceased Hugo Chávez.

To be sure, Correa hardly ingratiated himself with Washington when he harbored WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a man who has spent more than a year holed up at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. However, unlike Snowden, Assange is not a U.S. national and has never been formally charged by the Department of Justice. By offering to shelter Snowden, Correa has signaled that he is willing to take an economic hit over ATPA and the President also risks further opposition from his country's powerful export elite. Just how did we get to this point?

U.S. Business Lobby vs. Correa

Correa's recent moves cap an action-packed year of diplomatic friction. Indeed, as early as last August I wrote that U.S. business groups had lobbied the Obama administration to cut off trade benefits to Ecuador. The indignant companies had been spurred to action after Correa tried to hold Chevron responsible for its oil damage in the Ecuadoran Amazon. However, Quito's harboring of Assange probably added ammunition to ongoing lobbying efforts. Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of Americas, a group representing U.S. companies doing business throughout the hemisphere, told Reuters that Correa's harboring of Assange was not "a move destined to win many new friends in Washington." Moreover, the President of the National Foreign Trade Council brazenly remarked that the Assange imbroglio "would provide the excuse (to suspend benefits) if the administration is looking for one to do it."

In Washington, the Ecuadoran Ambassador grew puzzled by the business lobbying. "Ecuador is the only country in the Andean region with zero coca cultivation," he said. While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Business Roundtable alleged that Ecuador had violated investor rights, there was no specific explanation for cutting off trade preferences. Ecuador, the Ambassador argued, had observed proper protocol in regard to all its pending investor disputes.

Back in Quito meanwhile, the Ecuadoran business sector was also growing jittery. A full 350,000 jobs depended on ATPA, including the flower industry, broccoli, tuna and other sectors. Fearful lest Ecuador lose its special trading privileges, businessmen alerted Correa to the risks of harboring Assange. Correa, however, was hardly impressed and remarked that if he were reelected in the upcoming presidential election he would never knuckle under to economic blackmail. "Let them have their ATPA," the feisty President declared, "and we'll give them a few million dollars for a course on ethics and human rights."

Emboldened Correa

In February of this year, Correa got his wish and cruised to electoral victory. Feeling emboldened by his new mandate, the President said that ATPA had turned into a "vulgar foreign policy instrument: if you behave well, we continue the agreement; if you behave badly, we take away the privileges. We can't continue to live like this." Preparing his countrymen for a possible cutoff, Correa remarked that regardless of ATPA Ecuador would continue to export its goods to the U.S.

The economic impact of an ATPA cutoff, Correa has argued, would be minimal and amount to less than $24 million in losses. What is more, Correa adds, the government is prepared to provide economic support to vulnerable industries such as fresh roses, canned tuna and broccoli. Not everyone, however, is reassured by the President's words. Indeed, the President of Ecuador's Agricultural Chamber told the Associated Press that loss of preferential trading provisions would exert a heavy toll. The flower industry, he said, "constitutes an escape valve from social pressure, unemployment and under-employment."

Beltway Backlash

Fast forward to the Snowden scandal, and it was not long before the Beltway establishment began to threaten Ecuador with retaliation. Take for example hawkish Florida Republican Senator Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who declared that Correa's conduct would not stand. Democrats, however, have proven equally bullish. Sandy Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said that if Correa offered asylum to Snowden there "would be no basis" for renewing trade preferences. Another Democrat, Senator Bob Menéndez of New Jersey, chimed in for good measure, declaring that Washington was ready to punish Ecuador if Correa chose to snub the colossus of the north. Joining in the fray, conservative Heritage foundation has also been leading the charge against Quito.

The Snowden affair has also generated a heated debate in the media, and predictably enough Fox News has weighed in against Correa. The Washington Post, too, has gone on the war path, remarking "when it comes to anti-American chutzpah, there's no beating Rafael Correa, the autocratic leader of tiny, impoverished Ecuador." Mincing no words, the Post adds, "as it happens, the preferences will expire next month unless renewed by Congress. If Mr. Correa welcomes Mr. Snowden, there will be an easy way to demonstrate that Yanqui-baiting has its price." It turns out the Post has long been on Correa's case: a year ago, the paper issued an almost identical threat when Correa was considering its asylum request for Julian Assange. Commenting on the Post's relentless Ecuador bashing, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting muses, "it's good that someone at the Post's editorial page knows how to copy and paste."

Hardly amused by the Post's ongoing campaign, Correa has taken to Twitter no less in an effort to counteract the mainstream media. Tweeting to his million followers, Correa said the media had put up a smokescreen and was doing its utmost to distract the public from Snowden's main disclosures. In Quito, members of Correa's own Aliaza País party have backed up the President while echoing his nationalist rhetoric. The political opposition, meanwhile, argues that Correa is hypocritical for offering asylum to Snowden while simultaneously cracking down on free expression at home.

Correa's Gamble

Having opened a veritable Pandora's box of trouble, can Correa thrive and ride a nationalist wave of indignation, or will he be brought down by domestic and international forces? Perhaps, Correa reasons that Ecuador had little chance of having its ATPA status renewed, and so Ecuador risked little by beating Washington to the punch. Nevertheless, Correa has galvanized the American establishment against him yet further, not to mention Ecuador's export elite.

The Guardian of London suggests that Correa is also putting great strains on his own political coalition, with some leftists embracing Snowden and other centrists fearing economic and diplomatic fallout. "Some in the government," the paper writes, "are believed to be annoyed that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who has sheltered at Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition, has seized the limelight in the Snowden saga." According to the paper, Assange caught Quito by surprise when he recently announced that Ecuador had provided Snowden with a safe-conduct pass to travel from Hong Kong to Moscow.

By offering shelter to first Assange and now Snowden, Correa has embarked on a high stakes game. The pugnacious president is constantly upping the ante, casting Ecuador's plight as a David and Goliath struggle against the odds. So far, playing the nationalist card has suited Correa well, though Ecuador's President may find that playing with fire carries significant risk.

Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left. Follow him on Twitter here.

Follow Nikolas Kozloff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NikolasKozloff

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Douglas Frantz, Editor of the Washington Post national security, licensed to consider work in Government

NEW YORK--Douglas Frantz, the editor of national security for the Washington Post, is considering the possibility of taking a job with the State Department and is currently on leave from the paper, according to sources in the room.

A Post spokesman confirmed that Frantz on leave, but declined to comment more. Frantz did not respond to requests for The Huffington Post's comments in his Office, cell phone and home phone numbers. He did not respond to several e-mail requests.

This would not be the first journalism of Frantz left time for Government work.

After more than three decades as an editor and investigative reporter of high rank in publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, Frantz took a position as a researcher for the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Senate, chaired by then Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.).

In that position, duties of Frantz-- how to work in a public report on the nuclear program of Iran-- not too dissimilar from his job as an investigative journalist. Then he spent nine months consulting firm Kroll.

Frantz returned to journalism last year as editor of national security post.

"I don't think as the other side," Frantz told HuffPost last year about his work in the Government. "I thought of it as two and half years of public service. I was happy and honored to work for the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It was not political. It was an honorable job. I was glad to do that, but I am absolutely passionate about this."

At least an another leading journalist has already taken a job in the Government this year. Editor of the Boston Globe Glen Johnson took a position of senior officials at the State Department following appointment of Kerry as Secretary of State.

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Washington Post Slaps Back White House Over NSA Privacy Quotes

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The Washington Post gave a peek on Thursday night into the ways in which it brushed back the White House during contentious negotiations over its bombshell story about the National Security Agency's repeated privacy violations.

The story, which was written by former Post reporter Barton Gellman based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, revealed that the NSA had admitted to breaking privacy rules thousands of times since 2008. Gellman's article detailed internal audits which showed how the vast surveillance capabilities of the NSA had been abused.

The Post went to the NSA and the White House for comment before the article's publication, as it does with almost any sensitive national security story. "The government was made aware of The Post's intention to publish the documents that accompany this article online," the article stated.

But, in a separate post, the paper revealed that, after the Post refused to let the White House edit quotes from an on-the-record conversation Gellman had conducted with John DeLong, the NSA's director of compliance, the administration tried to substitute the quotes with a prepared statement. The Post tersely told readers that it had declined:

An NSA interview, rewritten

The Obama administration referred all questions for this article to John DeLong, the NSA's director of compliance, who answered questions freely in a 90-minute interview. DeLong and members of the NSA communications staff said he could be quoted "by name and title" on some of his answers after an unspecified internal review. The Post said it would not permit the editing of quotes. Two days later, White House and NSA spokesmen said that none of DeLong's comments could be quoted on the record and sent instead a prepared statement in his name. The Post declines to accept the substitute language as quotations from DeLong. The statement is below.

The Post also sent out a tweet about the back-and-forth:

This NSA official told us he could be quoted here, then the White House asked us to edit his quotes. We declined. http://t.co/hIsvbd3R4W

-- Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 16, 2013

Gellman also tweeted about what had happened:

(1/3) NSA guy agreed there could be unspecified on-record quotes but asked to review them first. I seldom do that but.... @ioerror

— Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) August 16, 2013

(2/3) entire subject was classified so I reluctantly agreed. Obviously it was a mistake. I warned his spox I wouldn't let them … @ioerror

— Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) August 16, 2013

(3/3) choose or edit quotes. When they tried to replace the quotes I disclosed the whole sequence here. http://t.co/9GSFZkPcNI @ioerror

— Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) August 16, 2013

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How Booz Allen Hamilton Swallowed Washington

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Because it provides the government with data services rather than fighter jets--and because so much of its work is classified--Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) doesn't have the name recognition of government contractors like Lockheed Martin (LMT) or Boeing (BA).

Read the whole story at Businessweek

At The Top Of The Washington Monument, Interior Secretary And Philanthropist Take In View Of Damage And History (VIDEO)

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Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, center, speaks at the 491-foot level of the scaffolding surrounding the Washington Monument, after climbing a ladder to the top of the monument's pyramidion, Sunday, June 2, 2013 in Washington. The monument has been closed since the 2011 earthquake and half of the needed repairs have been funded by a $7.5 million donation from philanthropist David Rubenstein. The Associated Press had a look at some of the worst damage and the preparations underway to begin

WASHINGTON — The towering marble symbol of the nation's capital is chipped, cracked and closed, though will soon be pieced back together by engineers working delicately across the Washington Monument's surface.

Some gashes in the 555-foot-tall monument are deep with stones cracked all the way through, while others have hairline cracks or had their corners chipped off in a 2011 earthquake that closed it to the public. Mortar is missing between some pieces, shaken loose by the worst vibrations at the top. And at least one massive stone shifted a thumb's length out of line with the piece below it.

The Associated Press had a look at some of the worst damage 500 feet above the ground and the preparations underway to begin making repairs. On the same day, a group of government officials and philanthropists clipped themselves into harnesses and climbed to the tip of the towering obelisk.

Stone by stone, engineers are reviewing cracks, missing pieces and broken mortar now that huge scaffolding has been built around what was once the world's tallest structure. Once each trouble spot is identified, repairs can begin.

Businessman David Rubenstein, who gave $7.5 million to fund half the monument's repairs, climbed to the top recently and said he prayed the ground wouldn't shake. At times, he held on tight to scaffolding rails. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell joined in reviewing the damage and gave Rubenstein a high-five at the top.

Jewell, in her second month as part of President Barack Obama's cabinet after stepping down as CEO of retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., climbed the scaffolding's stairwell while others rode an elevator. After examining the structure, she said the monument has withstood the test of time.

"You can't help but think, how did they do this?" Jewell said "How did they carve these stones so precisely that many years ago that it's really just sitting on a friction fit one on top of the other all the way to the top? It's extraordinary."

When the obelisk was completed in 1884, some 35 years after construction began, it was the world's tallest structure for five years until the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris. The monument remains the world's tallest freestanding stone structure and stands to honor the nation's first president.

The marble exterior has a distinct line marking the time when builders ran out of money and halted construction for 25 years during the Civil War era, later resuming work in 1876. The monument normally draws about 700,000 visitors a year but has been closed to tourists since the earthquake.

Rubenstein helped jumpstart repairs in a unique arrangement by donating millions early last year to cover half the cost. Congress allocated $7.5 million to cover the other half of the $15 million restoration. Delaying the repairs would have caused the monument to deteriorate and cost more to restore, Rubenstein said.

Jewell said the national parks belong to all Americans and must be maintained with taxpayer support, though private philanthropy makes a difference. Rubenstein said he hopes his gift could be an example for others.

Visiting the top, Rubenstein was amazed by the view and the monument's history.

"You see how beautiful it is, and the majesty of our city is really unrivaled," he said. "The top of the Eiffel Tower is nice, but not quite this beautiful."

The climbing group spent several hours on the monument June 2, walking around and examining the stone at several levels. Engineers explained how repairs will be completed from the top down.

Some stones shaken loose by the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Aug. 23, 2011, along the East Coast were removed to prevent them from falling to the ground. Other damaged pieces have been cut out with clean lines to allow for a new rectangular block of marble to be sealed into place.

The worst of the damage is from about 470 feet upward, where the monument shook most violently, said James Perry, the chief of resource management for the National Mall.

The most difficult part of the repair was gaining access to the exterior. A month after the quake, engineers rappelled from the top to get a first look at the damage. It took nearly 20 more months to plan and build scaffolding, completed May 15, to allow work to begin.

"The assessment is literally stone by stone," Perry said. "Every stone is catalogued and has a condition assessment."

There are 9,040 exterior-facing stones and 10,746 interior stones altogether, according to the National Park Service.

Engineers are looking to verify damage and develop a process for repairs that must be reviewed and approved before the stonework begins. There are essentially three types of repairs to be made: repointing damaged mortar, replacing stone pieces and sealing cracks. Metal tubing used to absorb lightning strikes also is being replaced.

To prevent water leakage, temporary weather stripping now seals some gaps between stones where mortar cracked loose. In one spot near 500 feet, engineers are testing new mortar to determine the right color to match the stone. They're also testing a process to seal a cracked stone by injecting epoxy, or glue, into the crack with plastic tubes.

Scaffolding also was built inside the monument near the top to help repair stones that cracked all the way through.

Some cracks are deeper than first thought and may require more complex repairs. Other missing pieces could have new stones cut and replaced with about a day's work in each spot.

National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis, who has been tracking repair plans since the quake, got his first close look and said the damage was more extensive than he expected, especially the many corners of stone that chipped off.

"There's nothing massive that has happened to it," he said. "But it's piece by piece by piece. All the little pieces have to be put back together in a way that meets the standards of this extraordinary monument."

The Park Service aims to complete the repairs and reopen the monument by spring of 2014. While it's closed to visitors, officials realize it remains an American icon.

Ahead of the July 4th holiday, the monument will be decorated and lit as it was during a restoration project in 1999 and 2000. The scaffolding will have an architectural scrim lit from behind in a stone-like grid.

"It's an icon in this country, so you don't want it just sort of sitting here with a big scaffolding around it for a year," Jarvis said. "Whether you can get into it or not, it is still incredibly important to the city and to the country."

___

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IRS Scandal: Misfired 2010 Cincinnati Email Alerted Washington Officials To Tea Party Targeting

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Lois Lerner, former Director of Exempt Organizations, left, listens to her attorney, right, as Internal Revenue Service officials face the House Oversight Committee on May, 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

By Kim Dixon and Patrick Temple-West

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - A misfired email from a U.S. Internal Revenue Service employee in Cincinnati alerted a number of Washington IRS officials that extra scrutiny was being place on conservative groups in July 2010, a year earlier than previously acknowledged, according to interviews with IRS workers by congressional investigators.

Transcripts of the interviews, reviewed by Reuters on Thursday, provided new details about Washington managers' awareness of the heightened scrutiny applied by front-line IRS agents in Cincinnati to applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups with words like "Tea Party" in their names.

A political furor over the practice has engulfed the tax agency for nearly a month since a senior IRS official publicly apologized for it at a conference. Since then, the IRS' chief has been fired by President Barack Obama, the FBI has mounted an investigation and Congress has held numerous hearings.

The transcripts show that in July 2010, Elizabeth Hofacre, an IRS official in Cincinnati who was coordinating "emerging issues" for the agency's tax-exempt unit, was corresponding with Washington-based IRS tax attorney Carter Hull.

In April 2010 Hofacre had been put in charge of handling tax-exempt status applications from conservative groups by her Cincinnati supervisor.

She was asked to summarize her initial findings in a spreadsheet and notify a small group of colleagues, including some staff in the Washington tax-exempt unit. However, she sent her email to a larger number of people in Washington by accident.

"Everybody in DC got it by mistake," Hofacre said in the transcripts. She later clarified that she did not mean all officials but those in the IRS Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements unit.

The Cincinnati office, where IRS reviews of applications for tax-exempt status were centralized, used a "be-on-the-lookout" (BOLO) list that included the words "Tea Party" and "Patriot" for flagging applications for extra review.

This practice has drawn criticism. However, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which closely studied the matter, has said no evidence exists that the list was created by high-level IRS officials, or political officials in the U.S Treasury or the White House.

Lois Lerner, the IRS official who set off the controversy, has said that she first learned of the BOLO list in June 2011, and that she ordered the partisan criteria to be removed immediately. The Treasury inspector general backed up that statement.

Neither Hofacre, nor a second IRS worker in Cincinnati, Gary Muthert, knew who asked for the partisan names to be added to the BOLO list in the first place, the transcripts showed.

Still, Muthert said that when his supervisor in Cincinnati initially asked him to look for "Tea Party" applications, "he told me Washington, D.C. wanted some cases," according to his interview with congressional investigators.

Hofacre, however, indicated that a Cincinnati official told her to use the criteria. That official "told me what I needed to put on this particular BOLO list," Hofacre said, referring to the list for Tea Party cases only.

Hofacre lashed out at Washington officials for attributing the extra scrutiny to the staffers in Cincinnati. "It was a nuclear strike on us," she told congressional investigators. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)

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Megan Graham, Washington Woman, Calls 911 After Cop Allegedly Punches Her (AUDIO)

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Megan Graham called the cops after she said she was attacked -- by the cops.

Graham, who says she is diagnosed with "cognitive and mental disabilities," was leaving her car on May 27 when she was allegedly attacked by police officers in Federal Way, Wash., KIRO reports.

"I understood that he saw me using a cell phone," Graham said of the officer who pulled up behind her car. "I told the [him] I was going to carry my dog thirty feet to a friend's apartment. I told him, hey, you can walk with me."

Graham said the officer's car was running so she couldn't hear him ask her to get back in the car. She called 911 when he "lunged and grabbed her wrist," according to KIRO.

In the audio below, Graham can be heard telling the officer, "You attacked me before you said anything. There is no point whatsoever for you to touch me like that, especially with my condition, so how dare you even touch me."

See a photo of Graham after she was released from jail below, story continues after the picture ...

The authorities tell a different story.

In an arrest report obtained by the Federal Way Mirror, officer Justin Antholt said Graham "bladed her feet and balled her fists in a fighter’s stance." The report also said Graham "attempted to strike Officer Ashley Crispin, who had arrived for backup," according to the Mirror.

"Crispin then responded with closed fist strikes to Graham's face, which brought her to the ground where she was handcuffed," the report said.

Daily Kos writer JP Massar suspects there was a better way to handle the situation:

If Graham did assume a fighter's stance -- something she denies and an odd thing to do, but I suppose is possible -- is a police officer's immediate reaction supposed to be to "respond with closed fist strikes to Graham's face" ?? (That was a rhetorical question). Far be it for me to suggest a more sensible approach might be to back off and try to calm everything down.

Graham was treated for "soft tissue injuries" and arrested on charges of third-degree assault of a police officer, obstruction and resisting arrest, according to the Mirror. The use of force during the incident is under investigation by the department.

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