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This Administration has consistently taken steps to make our criminal justice system fairer and more effective and to address the vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration that traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. Today, in Newark, New Jersey, President Obama will continue to promote these goals by highlighting the reentry process of formerly-incarcerated individuals and announce new actions aimed at helping Americans who’ve paid their debt to society rehabilitate and reintegrate back into their communities.

 Each year, more than 600,000 individuals are released from state and federal prisons. Advancing policies and programs that enable these men and women to put their lives back on track and earn their second chance promotes not only justice and fairness, but also public safety. That is why this Administration has taken a series of concrete actions to reduce the challenges and barriers that the formerly incarcerated confront, including through the work of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, a cabinet-level working group to support the federal government's efforts to promote public safety and economic opportunity through purposeful cross-agency coordination and collaboration.

 The President has also called on Congress to pass meaningful criminal justice reform, including reforms that reduce recidivism for those who have been in prison and are reentering society. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, which recently received a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, would be an important step forward in this effort, by providing new incentives and opportunities for those incarcerated to participate in the type of evidence-based treatment and training and other programs proven to reduce recidivism, promote successful reentry, and help eliminate barriers to economic opportunity following release. By reducing overlong sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, the bill would also free up additional resources for investments in other public safety initiatives, including reentry services, programs for mental illness and addiction, and state and local law enforcement.

 Today, the President is pleased to announce the following measures to help promote rehabilitation and reintegration:

 Adult Reentry Education Grants . The Department of Education will award up to $8 million (over 3 years) to 9 communities for the purpose of supporting educational attainment and reentry success for individuals who have been incarcerated. This grant program seeks to build evidence on effective reentry education programs and demonstrate that high-quality, appropriately designed, integrated, and well-implemented educational and related services in institutional and community settings are critical in supporting educational attainment and reentry success.

 . The Department of Education will award up to $8 million (over 3 years) to 9 communities for the purpose of supporting educational attainment and reentry success for individuals who have been incarcerated. This grant program seeks to build evidence on effective reentry education programs and demonstrate that high-quality, appropriately designed, integrated, and well-implemented educational and related services in institutional and community settings are critical in supporting educational attainment and reentry success. Arrests Guidance for Public and other HUD-Assisted Housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will release guidance today to Public Housing Authorities and owners of HUD-assisted housing regarding the use of arrests in determining who can live in HUD-assisted properties. This Guidance will also clarify the Department’s position on “one strike” policies and will include best practices from Public Housing Authorities.

 The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will release guidance today to Public Housing Authorities and owners of HUD-assisted housing regarding the use of arrests in determining who can live in HUD-assisted properties. This Guidance will also clarify the Department’s position on “one strike” policies and will include best practices from Public Housing Authorities. Banning the Box in Federal Employment. The President has called on Congress to follow a growing number of states, cities, and private companies that have decided to “ban the box” on job applications. We are encouraged that Congress is considering bipartisan legislation that would “ban the box” for federal hiring and hiring by federal contractors. In the meantime, the President is directing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to take action where it can by modifying its rules to delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process. While most agencies already have taken this step, this action will better ensure that applicants from all segments of society, including those with prior criminal histories, receive a fair opportunity to compete for Federal employment.

 The President has called on Congress to follow a growing number of states, cities, and private companies that have decided to “ban the box” on job applications. We are encouraged that Congress is considering bipartisan legislation that would “ban the box” for federal hiring and hiring by federal contractors. In the meantime, the President is directing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to take action where it can by modifying its rules to delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process. While most agencies already have taken this step, this action will better ensure that applicants from all segments of society, including those with prior criminal histories, receive a fair opportunity to compete for Federal employment. TechHire : Expanding tech training and jobs for individuals with criminal records. As a part of President Obama’s TechHire initiative, over 30 communities are taking action – working with each other and national employers – to expand access to tech jobs for more Americans with fast track training like coding boot camps and new recruitment and placement strategies. Today we are announcing the following new commitments: Memphis, TN and New Orleans, LA are expanding TechHire programs to support people with criminal records. Newark, NJ, working with the New Jersey Institute of Technology and employers like Audible, Panasonic, and Prudential, will offer training through the Art of Code program in software development with a focus on training and placement for formerly incarcerated people. New Haven, CT, Justice Education Center, New Haven Works, and others will launch a pilot program to train and place individuals with criminal records, and will start a program to train incarcerated people in tech programming skills. Washington, DC partners will train and place 200 formerly incarcerated people in tech jobs. They will engage IT companies to develop and/or review modifications to hiring processes that can be made for individuals with a criminal record.

 As a part of President Obama’s TechHire initiative, over 30 communities are taking action – working with each other and national employers – to expand access to tech jobs for more Americans with fast track training like coding boot camps and new recruitment and placement strategies. Today we are announcing the following new commitments: Establishing a National Clean Slate Clearinghouse. In the coming weeks, the Department of Labor and Department of Justice will partner to establish a National Clean Slate Clearinghouse to provide technical assistance to local legal aid programs, public defender offices, and reentry service providers to build capacity for legal services needed to help with record-cleaning, expungement, and related civil legal services.

 In the coming weeks, the Department of Labor and Department of Justice will partner to establish a National Clean Slate Clearinghouse to provide technical assistance to local legal aid programs, public defender offices, and reentry service providers to build capacity for legal services needed to help with record-cleaning, expungement, and related civil legal services. Permanent Supportive Housing for the Reentry Population through Pay for Success. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the Department of Justice have launched an $8.7 million demonstration grant to address homelessness and reduce recidivism among the justice-involved population. The Pay for Success (PFS) Permanent Supportive Housing Demonstration will test cost-effective ways to help persons cycling between the criminal justice and homeless service systems, while making new Permanent Supportive Housing available for the reentry population. PFS is an innovative form of performance contracting for the social sector through which government only pays if results are achieved. This grant will support the design and launch of PFS programs to reduce both homelessness and jail days, saving funds to criminal justice and safety net systems.

 The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the Department of Justice have launched an $8.7 million demonstration grant to address homelessness and reduce recidivism among the justice-involved population. The Pay for Success (PFS) Permanent Supportive Housing Demonstration will test cost-effective ways to help persons cycling between the criminal justice and homeless service systems, while making new Permanent Supportive Housing available for the reentry population. PFS is an innovative form of performance contracting for the social sector through which government only pays if results are achieved. This grant will support the design and launch of PFS programs to reduce both homelessness and jail days, saving funds to criminal justice and safety net systems. Juvenile Reentry Assistance Program Awards to Support Public Housing Residents. With funding provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide $1.75 million to aid eligible public housing residents who are under the age of 25 to expunge or seal their records in accordance with their applicable state laws. In addition, the National Bar Association – the nation’s oldest and largest national association of predominantly African-American lawyers and judges – has committed to supplementing this program with 4,000 hours of pro bono legal services. Having a criminal record can result in major barriers to securing a job and other productive opportunities in life, and this program will enable young people whose convictions are expungable to start over.

 Many of the announcements being made today stem from the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, which is charged with addressing persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color and ensuring all young people can reach their full potential. In May of 2014, the Task Force provided the President with a series of evidence-based recommendations focused on the six key milestones on the path to adulthood that are especially predictive of later success, and where interventions can have the greatest impact, including Reducing Violence and Providing a Second Chance. The Task Force, made up of key agencies across the Federal Government, has made considerable progress towards implementing their recommendations, many times creating partnerships across agencies and sectors. Today’s announcements respond to a wide range of recommendations designed to “eliminate unnecessary barriers to giving justice-involved youth a second chance.”

 These announcements mark a continuation of the Obama Administration’s commitment to mitigating unnecessary collateral impacts of incarceration. In particular, the Administration has advanced numerous effective reintegration strategies through the work of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, whose mission is to reduce recidivism and victimization; assist those returning from prison, jail or juvenile facilities to become productive citizens; and save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.

 Through the Reentry Council and other federal agency initiatives, the Administration has improved rehabilitation and reintegration opportunities in meaningful ways, including recent initiatives in the following areas:

 Reducing barriers to employment.

 Last month, the Department of Justice awarded $3 million to provide technology-based career training for incarcerated adults and juveniles. These funds will be used to establish and provide career training programs during the 6-24 month period before release from a prison, jail, or juvenile facility with connections to follow-up career services after release in the community.

 The Department of Justice also announced the selection of its first-ever Second Chance Fellow, Daryl Atkinson. Recognizing that many of those directly impacted by the criminal justice system hold significant insight into reforming the justice system, this position was designed to bring in a person who is both a leader in the criminal justice field and a formerly incarcerated individual to work as a colleague to the Reentry Council and as an advisor to the Bureau of Justice Assistance Second Chance programs.

 In addition, the Department of Labor awarded a series of grants in June that are aimed at reducing employment barriers, including:

 Face Forward: The Department awarded $30.5 million in grants to provide services to youth, aged 14 to 24, who have been involved in the juvenile justice system. Face Forward gives youth a second chance to succeed in the workforce by removing the stigma of having a juvenile record through diversion and/or expungement strategies.

 The Department awarded $30.5 million in grants to provide services to youth, aged 14 to 24, who have been involved in the juvenile justice system. Face Forward gives youth a second chance to succeed in the workforce by removing the stigma of having a juvenile record through diversion and/or expungement strategies. Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP): The Department awarded $10 million in pilot grants for programs that place One Stop Career Center/American Job Centers services directly in local jails. These specialized services will prepare individuals for employment while they are incarcerated to increase their opportunities for successful reentry.

 The Department awarded $10 million in pilot grants for programs that place One Stop Career Center/American Job Centers services directly in local jails. These specialized services will prepare individuals for employment while they are incarcerated to increase their opportunities for successful reentry. Training to Work: The Department awarded $27.5 million in Training to Work grants to help strengthen communities where formerly incarcerated individuals return. Training to Work provides workforce-related reentry opportunities for returning citizens, aged 18 and older, who are participating in state and/or local work-release programs. The program focuses on training opportunities that lead to industry-recognized credentials and job opportunities along career pathways.

 Increasing access to education and enrichment.

 High-quality correctional education — including postsecondary correctional education — has been shown to measurably reduce re-incarceration rates. In July, the Departments of Education and Justice announced the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program to allow incarcerated Americans to receive Pell Grants to pursue postsecondary education and trainings that can help them turn their lives around and ultimately, get jobs, and support their families. Since this pilot was announced, over 200 postsecondary institutions across the nation have applied for consideration.

 In June, the Small Business Administration published a final rule for the Microloan Program that provides more flexibility to SBA non-profit intermediaries and expands the pool of microloan recipients. The change will make small businesses that have an owner who is currently on probation or parole eligible for microloan programs, aiding individuals who face significant barriers to traditional employment to reenter the workforce.

 Expanding opportunities for justice-involved youth to serve their communities.

 In October, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Department of Justice announced a new round of Youth Opportunity AmeriCorps grants aimed at enrolling at-risk and formerly incarcerated youth in national service projects. These grants, which include $1.2 million in AmeriCorps funding, will enable 211 AmeriCorps members to serve through organizations in Washington, D.C. and four states: Maine, Maryland, New York, and Texas.

 In addition, the Department of Labor partnered with the Department of Defense’s National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program and awarded three $4 million grants in April of this year to provide court-involved youth with work experiences, mentors, and vocational skills training that prepares them for successful entry into the workforce.

 Increasing access to health care and public services.

 In October, the Department of Justice announced $6 million in awards under the Second Chance Act to support reentry programming for adults with co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders. This funding is aimed at increasing the screening and assessment that takes place during incarceration as well as improving the provision of treatment options.

 In September, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at HHS announced the winners of its reintegration toolkit challenge to develop software applications aimed at transforming existing resources into user-friendly tools with the potential to promote successful reentry and reduce recidivism. And in October, HHS issued a “Guide for Incarcerated Parents with Children in the Child Welfare System” in order to help incarcerated parents who have children in the child welfare system, including in out-of-home-care, better understand how the child welfare system works so that they can stay in touch.” The information can be found at: http://youth.gov/youth-topics/children-of-incarcerated-parents.

 The Social Security Administration (SSA) finalized written statewide prerelease agreements in September with the Department of Corrections in Iowa and Kansas. These agreements – now covering the majority of states – ensure continuity of services for returning citizens. SSA also has prisoner SSN replacement card MOUs in place with 39 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A dedicated reentry webpage is accessible at www.socialsecurity.gov/reentry.

 Increasing reentry service access to incarcerated veterans.

 In September, the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service announced the award of $1.5 million in grants to help once incarcerated veterans considered "at risk" of becoming homeless. In all, seven grants will serve more than 650 formerly incarcerated veterans in six states.

 The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also has developed a web-based system – the Veterans Reentry Search Service (VRSS) – that allows prison, jail, and court staff to quickly and accurately identify veterans among their populations. The system also prompts VA field staff – automatically – so that they can efficiently connect veterans with services. As of this summer, more than half of all state prison systems, and a growing number of local jails, are now using VRSS to identify veterans in their populations.

 Improving opportunities for children of incarcerated parents and their families.

 In October, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took action to make it easier for incarcerated individuals to stay in touch with their families by capping all in-state and interstate prison phone rates. The FCC also put an end to most of the fees imposed by inmate calling service providers. Studies have consistently shown that inmates who maintain contact with their families experience better outcomes and are less likely to return to prison after they are released. Reduced phone rates will make calls significantly more affordable for inmates and their families, including children of incarcerated parents, who often live in poverty and were at times charged $14 per minute phone rates.

 In October, the Department of Justice announced new grant awards to fund mentoring services for incarcerated fathers who are returning to their families. These awards will fund mentoring and comprehensive transitional services that emphasize development of parenting skills in incarcerated young fathers.

 Moreover, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Department of Justice has awarded $1 million to promote and expand services to children who have a parent who is incarcerated in a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional facility. This program aims to provide opportunities for positive youth development, and to identify effective strategies and best practices that support children of incarcerated parents, including mentoring and comprehensive services that facilitate healthy and positive relationships. In addition to engaging the parent while he or she is incarcerated, this solicitation also supports the delivery of transitional reentry services upon release.

 Private Sector Commitments to Support Reentry.

 The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), an organization that provides comprehensive employment services to people with recent criminal convictions, has committed to more than double the number of people served from 4,500 to 11,000 across existing geographies and 3-5 new states. This winter, CEO will open in San Jose with support from Google and in the next year, the team will launch in Los Angeles. This growth has been catalyzed by federal investments, including support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Social Innovation Fund, and a Department of Labor Pay for Success Project.

 In addition, Cengage Learning will roll out Smart Horizons Career Online Education in correctional facilities in up to four new states over the next 12 months, providing over 1,000 new students with the opportunity to earn a high-school diploma and/or career certificate online. Smart Horizons Career Online Education is the world’s first accredited online school district, with a focus on reaching underserved populations. The program has been piloted in Florida with 428 students who have received diplomas or certificates. ||||| Washington (CNN) The White House and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took turns lambasting each others' records on criminal justice Monday, as President Barack Obama traveled to Christie's state to promote new initiatives to rehabilitate former prison inmates.

 Speaking on CNN's "New Day," Christie claimed his own policing reforms in the Garden State had led to falling murder rates, adding later Obama "has not supported law enforcement in this country."

 Christie later said Obama was attempting to take credit for reforms he wasn't party to.

 "All of these criminal justice reforms, none of them are his," Christie told reporters outside Camden, New Jersey, suggesting Obama was taking a "victory lap" at Integrity House, a drug rehabilitation center and halfway house in Newark the president stopped at Monday.

 Speaking aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Josh Earnest countered that Christie was simply seeking to elevate his standing in the 2016 GOP primary contest, where he's currently running near the back of a crowded field of candidates.

 "Gov. Christie's comments in this regard have been particularly irresponsible, but not surprising for somebody whose poll numbers are close to an asterisk," Earnest said. "Clearly this is part of his strategy for turning that around. We'll see if it works."

 In Newark, Obama made his latest push for criminal justice reform, which has become a key domestic priority for the White House. The new actions include "banning the box" requiring applicants to disclose their criminal background on job applications at federal agencies.

 At Integrity House, Obama met with a former inmate and staff at the residential facility. Later he participated in a roundtable on prisoner re-entry into society at Rutgers University, where he addressed the hardships former inmates face when applying for jobs.

 "That's bad not only for those individuals, but for our economy," he said. "It's bad for those communities that desperately need more role models who are gainfully employed. We've got to make sure Americans who have paid their debt to society can earn their second chance."

 The White House Monday announced new actions to promote rehabilitation and reintegration, including $8 million in education grants from the Department of Education and tech training and jobs for individuals with a criminal record.

 Obama is also calling on Congress to "ban the box" on federal job applications that requires job applicants to state if they have a criminal record.

 "Each year, more than 600,000 individuals are released from state and federal prisons," the White House said in a statement. "Advancing policies and programs that enable these men and women to put their lives back on track and earn their second chance promotes not only justice and fairness, but also public safety."

 The Federal Bureau of Prisons announced in October that they would grant early release to about 6,000 inmates between October 30 and November 2.

 The prisoners have served an average of nine years and were due to be released in about 18 months, according to a Justice Department official. Many were already in half-way houses.

 This is the latest push for criminal just reform from the Obama administration. In July, Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison and met with six inmates.

 Obama told NBC's Lester Holt in an exclusive interview clip airing Monday that he's proud of the work he's been able to do on behalf of racial injustice, but said it must continue under the next president. ||||| NEWARK -- President Obama, who has embraced the cause of overhauling the nation's criminal justice system, used New Jersey's largest city as the backdrop Monday to call attention to programs designed to successfully return ex-prisoners to society.

 Obama, making his third trip to the Garden State in a year, visited a Newark facility that provides services to 2,400 people each year, including drug treatment and help with housing and jobs. He held a roundtable discussion at Rutgers-Newark's Center for Law and Justice before speaking at the campus.

 "There are people across the board -- folks who work inside the criminal justice system, folks who are affected by the criminal justice system, who are saying, 'There's got to be a better way,'" Obama told a crowd of 226 at the university.

 RELATED: Obama's Newark trip highlights Booker's criminal justice efforts

 The president announced several steps along those lines, including naming Newark one of five new municipalities that will work with local colleges and employers to offer job training and placement for former prisoners.

 He announced programs to help juveniles seal criminal records and to improve the chances of former prisoners to get government jobs, and grants to provide education and other help for ex-convicts returning to society.

 "We need to make sure Americans who paid their debt to society can earn a second chance," Obama said. "We have seen people who are doing just that."

 While Obama, a Democrat, was announcing his initiatives in Newark, Gov. Chris Christie -- a Republican presidential candidate -- was highlighting his own efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system in Camden, which the president visited in May to discuss its progress in improving relations between police and the communities they are sworn to protect. Obama's trip came after several deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.

 Unlike during Obama's December visit to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Christie was not at the airport to welcome the president.

 Obama's first step on his N.J. trip was Integrity House, a non-profit rehabilitation organization that works with drug-and alcohol-addicted criminals. Accompanied by Robin Shorter, director of the Women's Outpatient Programs and director of the Women's Halfway House, he met with three of the residents.

 He then discussed criminal justice issues at Rutgers-Newark around a horseshoe-shaped table with some former prisoners and others involved in helping them return to society.

 Rutgers-Newark's School of Criminal Justice hosts the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons program, which provides courses for prisoners and then helps them continue their education once released. The program works with the state Department of Corrections and State Parole Board.

 In Newark, they are doing "extraordinary work," Obama said, singling out by name some of the people he met on his visit, both those who are trying to become productive members of society and those who are helping them do it.

 Accompanying the president on his trip was Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who has made criminal justice a signature issue since being elected to the Senate. Booker, a former Newark mayor, helped broker a deal with Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and other senators of both parties on a compromise bill that reduces some mandatory sentences and provides certain federal inmates with job training, drug treatment and a chance to be released from prison early.

 Obama endorsed that legislation. "This is an area where we have really seen some strong bipartisan work," he said.

 Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. ||||| NEWARK — President Obama ordered federal agencies on Monday to stop asking most prospective employees about their criminal histories at the beginning of the application process, a change long sought by activists to help reintegrate former inmates into society.

 During a trip to Newark, where he visited a residential drug treatment center, Mr. Obama said that America would be stronger if it found ways to move criminals emerging from prison into paying jobs, but that too many employers dismiss applicants out of hand if they are honest and check the box asking whether they have been convicted of a crime.

 “It’s not too late,” Mr. Obama told an audience at the Newark campus of Rutgers University that included a few ex-offenders who had turned their lives around. “There are people who have gone through tough times, they’ve made mistakes, but with a little bit of help, they can get on the right path. And that’s what we have to invest in. That’s what we have to believe. That’s what we have to promote.”

 Mr. Obama directed the federal Office of Personnel Management to delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process for most competitive federal jobs so applicants are not rejected before having a chance to make a positive impression. Most federal agencies have already taken this step, but officials said new rules would be published in the new year banning requests for criminal backgrounds until the most qualified applicants are sent to a hiring manager. Exceptions will be made for law enforcement, national security and other sensitive positions. |||||Summary:

– President Obama visited New Jersey today to promote his new efforts to help prisoners re-integrate into society, the Star-Ledger reports. Visiting a facility that helps former inmates and joining a roundtable on the topic at Rutgers University, the president made his case. "There are people across the board—folks who work inside the criminal justice system, folks who are affected by the criminal justice system, who are saying, "There's got to be a better way,'" he told 226 people in attendance at Rutgers. Among his plans, which the New York Times calls "relatively modest": Job applicants with the federal government won't have to reveal their criminal history right away—so they can make an impression first. Obama has also called on Congress to "ban the box" that requires applicants to disclose any past criminal conviction. New education grants and tech training programs will be made available to help former prisoners, the White House said today. A new "National Clean Slate Clearinghouse" will allow certain released prisoners to seal or wipe clean their records. Residents of public housing under the age of 25 will be given the same chance. Obama's visit sparked partisan rancor between Gov. Chris Christie and the White House, CNN reports. Christie accused Obama of piggybacking on criminal-justice reforms that aren't his, and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called Christie's remarks "particularly irresponsible, but not surprising for somebody whose poll numbers are close to an asterisk."


The Thick Have Their Needs, Too Michael Bay’s ‘Pain & Gain,’ With Mark Wahlberg

 To describe “Pain & Gain” as a Michael Bay movie on steroids would be accurate but also redundant and a little misleading. Pumped-up, aggressive, muscle-headed entertainment is Mr. Bay’s specialty, after all, and while this grisly true-crime drama is partly about performance-enhancing drugs and the bulky men who love them, it is also, compared with “Armageddon” or the “Transformers” series, a stripped-down, modest enterprise in which no major American city is reduced to rubble.

 This is not to suggest that the film, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and based on a series of articles by Pete Collins (published in Miami New Times), is in any way subtle or restrained. The opening scene, a police chase from which the rest of the story flashes back, sets a tone of hectic excess. Mark Wahlberg, running from the heavily armed forces of law and order, dashes across rooftops and lumbers, sometimes in slow motion, through streets and alleys. The camera swirls around him, freezing as a glob of saliva pops out of his mouth, dropping down to allow us a peek up his nostrils and then tilting and sliding to register the impact of his face on the windshield of a car.

 What follows is two hours of sweat, blood and cheerful, nasty vulgarity, punctuated by voice-over ruminations about Jesus, physical fitness and the American dream, along with a few tactical visits to a strip club. It all leaves you pondering whether you have just seen a monumentally stupid movie or a brilliant movie about the nature and consequences of stupidity.

 Why choose? “Pain & Gain,” though it compresses some events and characters, hews fairly close to the facts as related in Mr. Collins’s deadpan chronicle of idiotic criminality and sloppy police work. Mr. Wahlberg plays Daniel Lugo, a personal trainer and bodybuilding enthusiast who lands a job at a Miami gym after serving time for an investment scam. Swearing that he has learned his lesson — that there is no substitute for hard work — he sets his sights on a South Florida vision of the good life, egged on by a self-help guru (Ken Jeong) who fills his head with slogans and three-point plans for success. “If I deserve it,” Daniel says, “then the universe will serve it.”

 What he feels the universe owes him is more or less what a teenage boy raised on “Entourage,” Grand Theft Auto and the oeuvre of Michael Bay might demand, though, since “Pain & Gain” is set in 1995, not all of those inspirations are available to Daniel. But the world, then as now, is full of hot babes, fast cars and money, tokens of a high-rolling, hedonistic existence just beyond poor Daniel’s reach. He is motivated less by ambition than by a self-pitying sense of entitlement that is both democratic and Nietzschean. He says that he wants to be just like everybody else but also that he wants to set himself apart from the losers and suckers in whose ranks he unfairly languishes.

 One day at the gym, Daniel spots a ticket out of palookaville in the person of Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub), a pigeon-chested blowhard who hires Daniel to help him get into shape and brags endlessly about his offshore bank accounts, his boat, his mansion and the sandwich franchise near the airport that for some reason is his pride and joy. Victor is enough of a jerk that it is hard to feel too bad when Daniel enlists two fellow gym rats — Adrian (Anthony Mackie) and Paul (Dwayne Johnson) — to kidnap him. Rather than demand ransom, they decide to torture him into signing his assets over to them.

 Adrian and Paul have dreams of their own. Adrian’s are to overcome his steroid-related sexual problems and to win the love of Robin (Rebel Wilson), a nurse who specializes in such ailments. Paul, an ex-convict who has found religion, is a bit less clear about what he wants, and he clings to a sense of his own righteousness, even after some dramatic backsliding. Some of this occurs in the company of Sorina (Bar Paly), a Romanian-born stripper who had previously dated Daniel and who believes that he and his partners are government agents on a dangerous, top-secret mission. ||||| At least Wahlberg is matched by guys who can punch his weight. Mackie gets to jack up the nutsiness and still make Adrian the voice of reason. And Johnson perfectly blends the two sides of his screen persona. Always one-part supersized tough guy and two parts endearing family star, Johnson finds the humor in a man roasting severed hands on a grill as much as he does the soul of a guy gripping tight to redemption in the midst of 'roid rage. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Michael Bay's latest movie is a bit of a shift from Transformers—it's a smaller-budget film based on a true story about bodybuilders who get involved in kidnapping. Critics offer mixed reviews: At Salon, Andrew O'Hehir calls Pain & Gain "a thoroughly reprehensible and frequently hilarious satire that depicts American life as a circus of stupidity, artificiality, and self-regard." Bay, he notes, "sends a clear message to those of us who've been making fun of him: He's been in on the joke the whole time." "Compared with Armageddon or the Transformers series," this is "a stripped-down, modest enterprise in which no major American city is reduced to rubble," notes AO Scott in the New York Times. It "leaves you pondering whether you have just seen a monumentally stupid movie or a brilliant movie about the nature and consequences of stupidity." But "why choose?" "The combination of the words 'Michael Bay' and 'steroids' should be enough to give any moviegoer pause," observes Liam Lacey in the Globe and Mail. The film "plays like Goodfellas as performed by the Three Stooges. As a genre-mashing exercise it’s almost interesting, but, really, why bother?" "Pain & Gain is arguably too much of everything—everyone jabbers on incessantly, and the movie is in love with its own outrageousness," writes Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News. "But its biggest lift comes from the pumped-up (Mark) Wahlberg and (Dwayne) Johnson. They manage to find the humanity in all the adrenalized muscle."


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These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| This photo taken taken through a metal fence on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017 in Oswiecim, Poland, shows a guard's tower of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz that the Nazis operated in occupied Poland... (Associated Press)

 This photo taken taken through a metal fence on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017 in Oswiecim, Poland, shows a guard's tower of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz that the Nazis operated in occupied Poland during World War II. Poland's historians have put online what they say is the most complete list... (Associated Press)

 WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Historians in Poland have put online what they say is the most complete list of Nazi SS commanders and guards at the Auschwitz concentration camp in hopes some of them can still be brought to justice.

 The state-run Institute of National Remembrance said Monday that the SS KL Auschwitz Garrison list is based on data from archives in Poland, Germany, Austria, the United States and, to a limited extent, Russia, where archives remain mostly inaccessible.

 The work of historian Aleksander Lasik, the institute and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, it has more than 8,500 entries. It is based on a list that Lasik built during more than 30 years of archival research.

 "The world justice system has failed and I'm doing what a historian should do: expose the responsible individuals as war criminals," Lasik said.

 Up to 200 former guards at the German death camp could still be living, he said.

 Historians estimate that some 12 percent of Auschwitz guards were tried by courts in Poland and elsewhere.

 Lasik's full database includes more than 25,000 names of guards from various German-run camps. The list is not complete and his search continues, Lasik told The Associated Press.

 The online list of Auschwitz guards and commanders is written in Polish, English and German. Most entries include the date and place of birth, nationality, education, military service and party affiliation. Some have a photo attached. Judicial documents are included when the person stood trial in Poland.

 For example, the entry for Rudolf Hoess, the camp's commander from 1940-43, has a photocopy of the death sentence he was handed by a court in Krakow, Poland, in 1947.

 The dates of service at Auschwitz are being verified pending publication.

 Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said the publication of the names is "very important and the right thing to do" and can have "practical implications" if Nazi crime investigators in Germany were unaware of some of the names.

 It is estimated that from 1940-45, Nazi Germans killed some 1.1 million people in the death camp that they operated in occupied Poland.

 Some 1 million of the victims were European Jews, up to 75,000 were Poles, some 21,000 were Roma and approximately 15,000 were Soviet prisoners of war. |||||

– Historians in Poland have put online what they say is the most complete list of Nazi SS commanders and guards at the Auschwitz concentration camp in hopes that some of them can still be brought to justice. The state-run Institute of National Remembrance said Monday that the SS KL Auschwitz Garrison list is based on data from archives in Poland, Germany, Austria, the United States and, to a limited extent, Russia, where archives remain mostly inaccessible. The work of historian Aleksander Lasik, the institute, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, it has more than 8,500 entries. Most include the date and place of birth, nationality, education, military service, and party affiliation. Some have a photo attached. Judicial documents are included when the person stood trial in Poland. It is based on a list that Lasik built during more than 30 years of archival research. "The world justice system has failed and I'm doing what a historian should do: expose the responsible individuals as war criminals," Lasik says. He believes up to 200 former guards at the German death camp could still be living. Historians estimate that some 12% of Auschwitz guards were tried by courts in Poland and elsewhere. Lasik's full database includes more than 25,000 names of guards from various German-run camps. The list is not complete and his search continues, Lasik tells the AP. Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff says the publication of the names is "very important" and can have "practical implications" if Nazi crime investigators in Germany were unaware of some of the names.


Here is a news article: A security officer who worked at two Manhattan hotels was arrested on Saturday and charged with setting eight fires at the hotels over four years, fire officials said.

 According to fire marshals, Mariano Barbosa Jr., the director of security at the Yotel on 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, set the fires in an attempt to make the hotels less popular and his job more manageable.

 Mr. Barbosa, 30, of West New York, N.J., had also worked as a security officer at the SoHo Grand on West Broadway.

 He is accused of starting the fires, the first in 2009 and the last this month, in hallways, in stairwells and in front of exit doors to maximize the potential damage. He was on duty when the fires broke out, the Fire Department said. All of the fires, which were set between 10:11 p.m. and 5:09 a.m., were quickly extinguished.

 Two firefighters sustained minor injuries in a fire in February, Jim Long, the Fire Department’s director of public information, said.

 Mr. Barbosa was arrested, Mr. Long said, after he submitted to voluntary questioning. It became clear during those interviews that Mr. Barbosa was the likely culprit, Mr. Long said.

 It appeared to fire marshals that Mr. Barbosa had grown tired of patrons at the hotels’ bars and parties, said a fire official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. “He desired that the incidents would be blamed on the clientele, and if that was the case maybe they would curtail the parties, and the venues would be more manageable,” the official said.

 Yotel said in a statement that it was cooperating with the Fire Department and the police. A spokeswoman for the SoHo Grand declined to comment.

 “It’s disturbing that an individual charged with the safety of hotel occupants would callously endanger their lives — and the lives of firefighters — for personal gain,” the fire commissioner, Salvatore J. Cassano, said in a statement.

 Before Mr. Barbosa’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday evening, his wife, Leslie Martinez, 27, said Yotel gave him an award last year, which included a four-day trip to Las Vegas.

 She said he worked hard for the company and often slept in complimentary rooms, just so he could be there when he woke up for his next shift.

 “This is a slap in the face,” Ms. Martinez said, fighting back tears. “I don’t understand how all of the sudden he’s the bad guy.”

 She said she met Mr. Barbosa at a church in Brooklyn when she was 14 and he was 18. They have been married 12 years and have three young sons, two of them autistic.

 “For them to turn this around on him is completely unfair,” Ms. Martinez said. ||||| FDNY officials claim Mariano Barbosa set fires in New York City hotels so that they would temporarily shut down and he could go to a free hotel room and drink the afternoon away.

 Conflicting pictures emerged about a hotel security director in New York who allegedly set fires to get out of work, with a co-worker calling him a “normal person” as authorities gave new details about his four-year spree.

 Mariano Barbosa, 26, is being held on arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief charges — and prosecutors revealed how he committed the crimes.

 Frank Franklin II/AP The Yotel Hotel in New York offers a luggage robot. Too bad a security director can't also be replaced by an automaton, or the Yotel could have avoided several fires allegedly set by former security chief Mariano Barbosa.

 Barbosa lit up bedding materials in his first fire in February 2009 while heading security at the Soho Grand Hotel, according to court documents.

 Barry Winiker/Getty Images The Soho Grand Hotel in downtown Manhattan has the dubious distinction of being where former security director Mariano Barbosa allegedly set his first deliberate fire.

 At the Yotel Hotel, Barbosa used a towel in three separate incidents and bed sheets in two others from October 2011 to this month, court documents show.

 Kendall Rodriguez Mariano Barbosa was arraigned Sunday morning in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges that he allegedly set series of arson fires in New York City hotels where he worked.

 A Yotel co-worker was stunned.

 “He was a normal person, I was surprised, just like any one else,” the worker said. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A New York City hotel security director didn't want to have to work so hard—so fire department sources tell the New York Daily News that he set fires to close down the very buildings he was protecting, so he could hang out in a comp room and drink. Mariano Barbosa, 30, has been arrested for alleged arson; court papers say Barbosa set his first fire at the Soho Grand Hotel, using bedding to fuel the fire. That was one of eight fires he allegedly set in four years of work at the Soho Grand and the Yotel, the New York Times reports; the fires were reportedly in halls, stairs, and exits, boosting damage. Fire officials tell the Times that Barbosa wanted to cut business at the hotels, thus making his job easier. "He desired that the incidents would be blamed on the clientele, and if that was the case maybe they would curtail the parties, and the venues would be more manageable," one official says. Interestingly, just last year, he got an award from the Yotel: a four-day trip to Las Vegas, his wife says. She says he would sleep in complimentary rooms in order to be there for the next shift. "This is a slap in the face," she says. "I don’t understand how all of the sudden he’s the bad guy."


Article:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co.'s new genetically modified potato. But one of the company's oldest business partners — McDonald's — hasn't.

 The fast-food giant says it doesn't use genetically modified potatoes, the Idaho Statesman reported (http://is.gd/VLciDK ).

 "McDonald's USA does not source GMO potatoes, nor do we have current plans to change our sourcing practices," the company said in a statement.

 The USDA this month gave Boise-based Simplot permission to begin commercial planting of its new spud, called the "Innate" potato. The company altered the potato's DNA so it produces less acrylamide, which is suspected to be a human carcinogen. Potatoes naturally produce the chemical when they're cooked at high temperatures.

 The potato is also engineered to resist bruising.

 Simplot is a major supplier of french fries, hash browns and other potato products for restaurant chains like McDonald's.

 This isn't the first time the fast-food industry has resisted GMO potatoes. More than a decade ago, Monsanto brought its bug-resistant "New Leaf" line of genetically modified potato to market. Buyers, led by the fast-food industry, rejected the Monsanto spud, and it was pulled from production due to lack of business.

 Simplot spokesman Doug Cole didn't address the company's plans to sell to the fast-food industry or the dehydrated potato industry, which both have urged growers against planting GMO potatoes. But Cole said the fresh potato market would embrace Innate.

 Consumers will be receptive to the reduced sugars and potential carcinogens, Cole said. Because only 400 test acres of Innate varieties were planted and harvested this fall, production can't ramp up until after the 2015 harvest, he said.

 Rupert potato grower Duane Grant said he's been told by buyers in the dehydrated potato industry not to plant the GMO potatoes. But he hopes to line up willing buyers so that he can plant the biotech potatoes and reap the higher yields that come with their reduced bruising, he said.

 Consumers will be more receptive to Simplot's potato than Monsanto's because it benefits them, not just growers, he said.

 The key for Simplot and for growers, Grant said, will be convincing the food industry, which is worried about consumer backlash, to trust the product.

 "Brand equity is extremely important to quick-serve restaurants," Grant said. "They will avoid conflict whenever possible in order to protect equity of their brand name."

 ___

 Information from: Idaho Statesman, http://www.idahostatesman.com ||||| Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

 Washington, D.C.— “This week McDonald’s, one of the largest fast food chains on the planet, told an agriculture news service that it would not use the J.R. Simplot Company’s Innate GMO potato. This victory for consumers is another indication that the food industry recognizes that consumers do not want to eat GMO foods. Many parents are already limiting the amount of fast food that their children eat, and GMO french fries would give them another reason to pass by the golden arches. Over the past year, Food & Watch submitted over 90,000 petitions urging McDonald’s to reject GMO potatoes.

 “While we cannot speak to the rest of McDonald’s practices, this decision marks a milestone in the movement to protect consumers from the potential dangers of GMO foods. McDonald’s is a global leader in fast food sales and is a major purchaser of potatoes in the United States.

 “Consumers spoke, and McDonald’s listened. We now urge competing fast foods chains such as Burger King to follow its lead.”

 Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, kfried(at)fwwatch(dot)org. |||||
What is a summary?

– A major Idaho potato producer has won some love from the FDA for its genetically modified spud, but don't look for the "Innate" potato in the deep fryers at McDonald's anytime soon. As the Idaho Statesman reports, the fast-food giant—a longtime major buyer of Boise-based JR Simplot Co.—is taking a pass. "McDonald's USA does not source GMO potatoes, nor do we have current plans to change our sourcing practices," it says in a statement. The Innate potato, which got the FDA OK earlier this month to begin planting commercially, contains fewer sugars and asparagine—which can convert to acrylamide, a carcinogen—than normal potatoes; it also bruises less easily, notes the AP. It's not the first time a GMO spud hit the fast-food industry with a thud, notes the Statesman; Monsanto suffered a similar fate a decade ago with a bug-resistant potato it ultimately yanked over lack of demand. Meanwhile, Food & Water Watch calls the move a "major victory for consumers," with director Wenonah Hauter adding that "while we cannot speak to the rest of McDonald's practices, this decision marks a milestone in the movement to protect consumers from the potential dangers of GMO foods." Hauter urges Mickey Dee's competitors to likewise snub the Innate potato.


– Richard Grenell's job as Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman lasted all of about two weeks. Grenell had been a source of controversy on two fronts: He was openly gay, which rankled some conservative commenters, and he had issued a long trail of tweets before taking the job that mocked not only Callista Gingrich but prominent Democratic women, including Rachel Maddow and Hillary Clinton. The Right Turn blog at the Washington Post broke the news and says Grenell was "hounded" from the job "by anti-gay conservatives." (It cites this National Review column as an example.) But Politico says Grenell's "off-color and massively off-message tweets" also played a role, as does CNN. Grenell statement: "... my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign." But he made a point to thank Romney for his "clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team." Romney camp: “We are disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons. We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill.”

Expand this summary.

Richard Grenell, the openly gay spokesman recently hired to sharpen the foreign policy message of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, has resigned in the wake of a full-court press by anti-gay conservatives.

 In a statement obtained by Right Turn, Grenell says:

 I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama’s foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.

 According to sources familiar with the situation, Grenell decided to resign after being kept under wraps during a time when national security issues, including the president’s ad concerning Osama bin Laden, had emerged front and center in the campaign.

 Pieces in two conservative publications, the National Review and Daily Caller, reflected the uproar by some social conservatives over the appointment. [UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: Although Grenell also raised the ire of liberal commentators with now-deleted tweets about certain prominent women, none of the sources I spoke with mentioned the tweets as a factor in his resignation decision.]

 In the National Review, Matthew J. Franck wrote late last week: “Suppose Barack Obama comes out — as Grenell wishes he would — in favor of same-sex marriage in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. How fast and how publicly will Richard Grenell decamp from Romney to Obama?”

 The argument that Grenell could essentially not be openly gay and serve on a GOP presidential campaign was belied by the fact that Grenell has been a loyal Republican for many years, working for esteemed foreign policy figures including former Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.

 The ongoing pressure from social conservatives over his appointment and the reluctance of the Romney campaign to send Grenell out as a spokesman while controversy swirled left Grenell essentially with no job. The Romney camp has not responded to my request for comment.

 UPDATE (3:10 p.m.): The Romney camp has now responded via campaign manager Matt Rhoades: “We are disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons. We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill.”

 That is a perhaps too subtle retort to those calling for Grenell’s head, that he was not hired to advise on gay issues but on foreign policy matters.

 UPDATE (3:50 p.m.): Right Turn has learned from multiple sources that the senior officials from the Romney campaign and respected Republicans not on the campaign contacted Ric Grenell over the weekend in an attempt to persuade him not to leave the campaign. Those were unsuccessful. During the two weeks after Grenell’s hiring was announced the Romney campaign did not put Grenell out to comment on national security matters and did not use him on a press foreign policy conference call. Despite the controversy in new media and in conservative circles, there was no public statement of support for Grenell by the campaign and no supportive social conservatives were enlisted to calm the waters. Beyond his statement, Grenell has declined further comment today. ||||| 5 years ago

 (CNN) - Richard Grenell, who joined Mitt Romney's team as a foreign policy adviser less than two weeks ago, has left the campaign, a spokesman for the likely Republican presidential nominee confirmed Tuesday.

 "We are disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons," campaign manager Matt Rhoades said in a statement. "We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill."

 - Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

 Since joining the campaign in mid-April, Grenell's short tenure has been marked by controversy involving his Twitter account, as well as heavy criticism of Grenell's sexual orientation from some on the conservative right. The longtime Republican strategist is openly gay.

 Most pressing, Grenell faced recent scrutiny over reports that he had deleted hundreds of posts on Twitter shortly after being appointed by the Romney campaign.

 The tweets, written prior to his hiring, criticized the physical appearances of certain high-profile Democratic women, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.

 Archived online, the Twitter posts also included several jabs aimed at Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, during the Republican presidential primary.

 Grenell previously served in the George W. Bush administration as a communications director at the United Nations and an adviser to four U.S. ambassadors to the U.N.

 Also since joining the Romney campaign, Grenell has taken heat from the anti-gay group American Family Association.

 Writing in a blog last week, Bryan Fischer, a director for the conservative group, argued: "The message Gov. Romney appears to be sending to the pro-family community through his Grenell appointment is 'drop dead'."

 Later, during an interview on CNN, Fischer referred to Grenell's hire as a "big gain for the homosexual lobby."

 In a statement obtained by the Washington Post, Grenell pointed to the public discussion over his sexual orientation as a reason for leaving the campaign.

 "While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama's foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign," Grenell said in the statement.

 He added: "I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team."

 - CNN National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

 Also see:

 Romney might convince me, Christie says

 Obama calls out 'previous statements' about bin Laden

 McDonnell's Va. ads are about his state, not himself, spokesman says ||||| In a statement fed through the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman -- last seen furiously deleting tweets about Callista Gingrich and other subjects -- announces he won't be joining the campaign after all:

 I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama’s foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.

 Rubin's headline ("Richard Grenell hounded from Romney campaign by anti-gay conservatives") pins the blame on a handful of Christian conservatives who criticized the appointment because of Grenell's sexual orientation. But Grenell's off-color and massively off-message tweets, along with his reputation for imperiousness at the United Nations, drew scrunity almost immediately after his selection was announced.

 As the back-and-forth over Osama bin Laden in the last week has shown, foreign policy and national security are not the areas for a campaign to be taking risks with its choice of messenger.

 Read more about: Mitt Romney, 2012 Elections, Richard Grenell |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

Trump picks Perry to lead Energy Department he once vowed to kill Conservatives view Perry as someone with management experience who would be willing to question the agency’s status quo.

 On a presidential debate stage five years ago, Rick Perry blanked on the Energy Department's name when trying to include it in a list of agencies he promised to abolish — memorably concluding with "oops."

 Now Donald Trump has chosen the former Texas governor to lead the sprawling department, which oversees the security of the nation's nuclear weapons and has played major roles in President Barack Obama's climate agenda and nuclear deal with Iran. Three sources close to the transition confirmed the choice Tuesday.

 Story Continued Below

 Conservatives had favored the former Texas governor for the job, viewing him as someone with management experience who would be willing to question the agency’s status quo. They believe Perry might bring serious reform to the agency because he isn't wedded to energy programs, such as DOE's fossil and efficiency offices, that conservatives have criticized as unnecessary, market-distorting schemes.

 Trump's choice of his fellow climate skeptic and former 2016 presidential primary rival comes just a year and a half after Perry described the brash New Yorker as a “cancer on conservatism.” It also arrives at a time of heightened political pressure for DOE, which has a $29.6 billion budget and more than 100,000 federal employees and contractors sprawled around the country.

 The conservative Heritage Foundation last month urged the next president to eliminate vast swaths of the department, including all the research, development, regulatory and loan programs that the Obama administration has used to drive advances in green energy, as well as its 700-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And last week, Trump's transition team asked DOE to supply the names of all agency employees who had worked on Obama's climate initiatives, a request that Democrats and former staffers denounced as a "witch hunt."

 A Trump spokesman, when asked Tuesday whether the incoming president planned to dismantle the agency in its current form, declined to rule it out.

 "We haven't made any comments or plans as far as specific agencies. The one thing we've seen from the president-elect so far is he won't be shy calling out -- whether it's taxpayer fraud or abuse or certain deals put together that aren't doing right by the taxpayers," Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters.

 Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, also had the Energy Department in his sights during the 2012 presidential campaign, when he called for eliminating it as part of his program to shrink the federal government.

 That was the origin of Perry’s “oops” moment in November 2011, when he said during a Republican debate that “it’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education and the, uh, uh, what’s the third one there, let’s see?” Pressed on whether he could name the third agency, he confessed: “I can’t. Sorry.”

 Perry later said the third agency would have been the Energy Department.

 That memory hiccup seemed to be the least of his worries in appealing to Trump, whom he had scorched during his short-lived second bid for the GOP presidential nomination last year. Besides likening Trump to cancer in July 2015, Perry called the New Yorker's campaign “a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued” — a rhetorical assault arguably harsher than the later salt-the-earth attacks that Mitt Romney launched on the GOP nominee.

 By May, however, Perry endorsed Trump saying, "He wasn't my first choice, wasn't my second choice, but he is the people's choice."

 Perry, a former Air Force captain, made at least two visits to Trump Tower in recent weeks, which kicked off speculation that he was angling for a national security-related post, such as secretary of Defense. He also met with Trump at the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore on Saturday and visited the Tower on Monday.

 He also went to bat for Trump when the real estate mogul drew criticism for going after Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen U.S. soldier, who had delivered a scathing rebuke at the Democratic National Convention this summer. The elder Khan then continued to assail the Republican nominee on television.

 “Mr. Khan is the one that went out and struck the first blow,” said Perry in August. “And in a campaign, if you're going to go out and think you can take a shot at someone and not have incoming coming back at you, shame on you.”

 Perry was once a Democrat and even served as Al Gore's state chairman during the 1988 presidential campaign — a fact Perry found himself defending during his first White House run. “This was Al Gore before he invented the internet and got to be Mr. Global Warming,” Perry told an Iowa radio station in August 2011. (Gore’s later rejoinder: "I don't know what has happened to him since then.")

 After leaving the governor's office in 2015, Perry landed a job as chief strategy officer at MCNA Dental, a dental insurance company that had been a major donor to his presidential campaign. Early this year he ran afoul of a Florida ethics law by failing to register as a lobbyist before meeting with Gov. Rick Scott to discuss MCNA's role in the state’s Medicaid program, as POLITICO reported at the time.

 Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Perry's expected nomination "defies all logic," citing the former governor's previous interest in dismantling the agency.

 The New Jersey lawmaker, who won't get to vote on Perry's nomination, also zinged the incoming DOE chief for his reality show adventure earlier this year: "It is also deeply unsettling that our current Secretary of Energy, a renowned nuclear physicist, could be succeeded by a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Governor Perry is simply not qualified for this position and should be rejected.”

 "Dancing with the Stars" began trending on Twitter Tuesday morning.

 By taking charge of the Energy Department, Perry would be leading an agency often slighted by presidents — for many presidents-elect, including Trump, it's among the last Cabinet posts to be filled — despite its significant national security footprint. While the agency writes efficiency regulations, runs energy research programs and funds basic science, it’s also the overlooked guardian and caretaker of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.

 DOE and its network of national labs also played an integral part in the Obama administration’s formulation and defense of last year’s Iran nuclear deal. It has also issued billions of dollars in loans and loan guarantees for green-energy projects backed by companies like Tesla and Google, helping foster a boom in projects such as large wind farms and utility-scale solar power installations — although Republicans have preferred to focus on its $535 million loan guarantee to the failed solar manufacturer Solyndra. The much-maligned program, overall, is now a net profit for the federal government, although many conservatives believe such projects should be left to the private sector on principle.

 Nuclear weapons maintenance and Cold War nuclear waste cleanup projects consume about two-thirds of DOE’s budget every year, and Perry is likely to be paired with a deputy energy secretary with a greater expertise in those areas. In addition, lawmakers are expected to restart the long-stalled nuclear waste project underneath Yucca Mountain, Nev. — long bottled up by opposition from retiring Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid — putting the issue back on DOE’s agenda.

 During Perry’s White House campaigns he repeatedly called for “energy independence,” along with a rollback of regulations coming out the Interior Department and the EPA.

 The oil business is a home state industry for Perry, and he's on the board of directors for Energy Transfer Partners, the developers of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which would ship as much as 570,000 barrels a day of oil from the shale fields of North Dakota across four states. That $3.7 billion project — the target of months of heated protests — experienced a setback earlier this month when the Army Corp of Engineers announced that it would study alternative routes for the pipeline.

 According to disclosures with the SEC, Perry received nearly $237,000 in cash and shares from the company last year. While DOE doesn't have a direct responsibility for pipeline projects, Perry likely will have to step down from the board and sell any stock he might have in the company should be get confirmed.

 Almost anyone Trump selected for DOE was expected to shift away from the Obama administration’s emphasis on addressing climate change, and Perry fits the bill. Where Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” Perry has gone even further by alleging a profit motive, asserting that “a substantial number of scientists ... have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”

 While the levers of energy regulation are limited at DOE when compared to agencies like EPA, Perry could slow-walk the department’s appliance efficiency mandates and de-emphasize its research on climate science. Those efficiency regulations account for half of the greenhouse gas reduction targets that Obama made part of his Climate Action Plan in 2013. And there's no undoing them in one fell swoop: Dozens of rulemakings are involved and would require a massive, years-long effort to go after them one by one.

 Renewable energy research at DOE may also take a hit under Perry, even though he presided over a massive boom in Texas’ wind power production fueled by federal incentives — enough that the state’s been looking to sell its excess power across the border into Mexico.

 The Heritage Foundation has urged the incoming Trump administration to go even further, saying the next secretary should take an ax to much of the department to “end the destructive role played by the federal government in the energy sector.”

 Although many in Congress, including Republicans, would resist overhauling too much of the agency, a Heritage “blueprint” released last month said DOE should eliminate all spending on research, development and commercialization of energy technologies, and put the private sector in charge of managing nuclear waste. It went on to call for getting rid of its programs on green energy, efficiency and energy reliability, and revoking Obama’s mandates that federal agencies get more of their electricity from renewable sources.

 The conservative group also said the department should draw down and sell all the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the stockpile that the government has held for decades to guard against foreign-driven shocks to the global oil markets. “Eliminating the government-controlled stockpile will reveal that private inventories and reserves are sufficient to meet U.S. needs, and private markets will respond more efficiently to supply shocks,” the group said. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Rick Perry at Trump Tower

 Donald Trump has picked ex-Texas Governor Rick Perry as his energy secretary, a department whose name he famously forgot in a TV debate.

 The nomination puts Mr Perry in charge of an agency he proposed abolishing in a failed 2012 White House bid.

 Environmental groups called the oil-drilling advocate's selection "an insult to our functioning democracy".

 In the role, the recent Dancing with the Stars contestant would oversee America's nuclear arsenal.

 Trump appoints another military veteran

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'Oops': Rick Perry's debate disaster

 Mr Trump said in a statement: "As the governor of Texas, Rick Perry created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as secretary of energy."

 If confirmed by the Senate, green activists fear Mr Perry will shift the department away from renewable energy and towards fossil fuels.

 During 14 years as governor, he called for lighter regulation of the oil industry, and referred to the science around climate change as "unsettled".

 Mr Perry is on the board of directors at Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.

 Accepting the nomination, Mr Perry said: "I look forward to engaging in a conversation about the development, stewardship and regulation of our energy resources, safeguarding our nuclear arsenal, and promoting an American energy policy that creates jobs and puts America first."

 Image copyright ABC Image caption Mr Perry was the second contestant eliminated on this season's Dancing with the Stars

 He was briefly frontrunner in a previous Republican White House race until a disastrous brain freeze on live television.

 During the November 2011 forum, Mr Perry vowed to ditch three cabinet-level departments if elected.

 After mentioning the departments of Commerce and Education, he said: "I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops."

 It was, he later recalled, the Department of Energy.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'Just friends' - Trump hosts Kanye West

 Mr Perry, 66, left office in January 2015 and briefly ran again - again unsuccessfully - for this year's presidential election.

 He was a fierce critic of Mr Trump, calling him "a barking carnival act" and "a cancer on conservatism".

 Mr Trump had belittled Mr Perry, saying: "He put on glasses so people will think he's smart."

 Mr Perry was the second contestant eliminated on this season's Dancing with the Stars. ||||| Donald Trump is expected to choose a man to lead the Department of Energy who infamously forgot its name.

 Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to be announced as Trump's pick for secretary of energy — a surprise to some, since Perry previously said he would eliminate the agency if he had his way.

 During a presidential primary debate on CNBC in 2011, when then-candidate Perry was listing "three agencies of government, when I get there, that are gone," he was able to name Commerce and Education but blanked on the third, saying, "What's the third one there?"

 When moderators asked him, after a pause, if he could recall the last one, he said, "I can't. The third one I can't. Sorry. Oops."

 Paul Sancya/AP Photo

 The day after the debate fumble, Perry appeared on the "Late Show With David Letterman" to announce his "Top 10 excuses." The bit included reasons like "I thought the debate was tonight" and "I had a five-hour energy drink six hours before the debate."

 While Perry's biggest gaffe during the 2012 race may have come from what he didn't say, it's something he did say during this election cycle that he may regret now.

 In July 2015, Perry, at the time making a second bid for president, called Trump's candidacy "a cancer on conservatism" and hurled several other insults at his then-rival.

 "He is without substance, when one scratches below the surface," Perry said during a speech at the Opportunity and Freedom PAC forum in Washington, D.C. "He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism, a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued."

 Despite these kerfuffles, Perry is expected to be named as Trump's choice for secretary of energy, senior transition officials told ABC News. Perry met with Trump at least twice in recent days.

 If Perry is selected, his ties to energy companies will be in question as potential conflicts of interest. One of the clearest possible conflicts: his place on the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners, which owns a subsidiary planning to build the Dakota Access Pipeline.

 ABC News' Arlette Saenz contributed to this report. ||||| Donald Trump Taps Rick Perry To Head Agency He Once Forgot

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

 Updated 7:51 a.m. ET Dec. 14 with official announcement of Perry's nomination.

 It's a good thing former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once forgot he wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy, because President-elect Donald Trump is nominating him to lead the agency.

 Perry, who served 14 years as governor of energy-rich Texas, blanked on the Department of Energy's name during a televised gaffe in a 2011 debate that was probably the most high-profile moment of his troubled 2012 presidential run. It's become known as the "Oops" moment:

 YouTube

 Perry ran again in 2016. But in an early sign of the electorate's anti-establishment mood, he and several other multiple-term governors dropped out of the race in its early stages, while Trump, a man with no prior political experience, rushed to the head of the Republican primary pack.

 Perry was critical of Trump, warning that he was a "cancer on conservatism," but he eventually endorsed him.

 In a statement, Trump said Perry would carry out his goal to "take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation."

 In one of the many only-in-2016 twists, the former Texas governor appeared on Dancing With The Stars this fall as the onetime-Apprentice star contended for, and ultimately won, the White House:

 If confirmed, Perry would oversee a broad-reaching department with ties in everything from funding energy research and providing loans for alternative energy efforts, to tracking and analyzing American energy production and consumption, to securing the safety of America's nuclear weapons.

 (Despite the popularity of Netflix's summer hit Stranger Things, the Department of Energy does not explore parallel universes. It actually put out a statement about this during the show's cultural peak.)

 The current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist, played a major role in negotiating and crafting the Obama administration's controversial nuclear deal with Iran. Under Obama, the department has been a big booster of alternative energy like wind and solar power.

 A questionnaire the Trump transition team sent to Department of Energy employees is raising a lot of questions about how the incoming administration would change the department's priorities. As NPR reported:

 "It wants to know who at the Department of Energy attended domestic and international climate talks. It wants emails about those conferences. It also asks about money spent on loan-guarantee programs for renewable energy. ... The Trump team questionnaire also asks about the Energy Department's role in the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has called 'stupid.' And it asks for the 20 highest paid employees at the department's national laboratories."

 The questionnaire alarmed Democrats, like Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who sent a letter to Trump raising concerns that "this request suggests that your administration may intend to retaliate against career employees who faithfully executed their responsibilities."

 Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about wind power's cost and effectiveness. But under Perry, Texas heavily promoted wind. Massive wind farms dot the Texas landscape, and wind energy now produces more than 10 percent of the energy the state consumes. ||||| The Senate confirmed Former Texas governor Rick Perry to head the Energy Department. Here's what you need to know about him. (Bastien Inzaurralde,Julio Negron,Osman Malik/The Washington Post)

 President-elect Donald Trump picked Rick Perry to head the Energy Department on Wednesday, seeking to put the former Texas governor in control of an agency whose name he forgot during a presidential debate even as he vowed to abolish it.

 Perry, who ran for president in the past two election cycles, is likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward fossil fuels, whose production he championed while serving as governor for 14 years.

 His nomination — announced officially by Trump’s transition team a day after sources leaked the decision — stirred further alarm from environmental groups and others worried that the Trump administration will roll back efforts to expand renewable energy and give a powerful platform for officials questioning the scientific consensus on climate change.

 The Energy Department was central to the 2011 gaffe that helped end his first presidential bid. Declaring that he wanted to eliminate three federal agencies during a primary debate in Michigan, Perry then froze after mentioning the Commerce and Education departments. “The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”

 [Trump taps Montana congressman Ryan Zinke, who frequently votes against environmentalists, as Interior secretary]

 Later during the debate, Perry offered: “By the way, that was the Department of Energy I was reaching for a while ago.”

 Speaking to reporters once the event was over, he said, “The bottom line is I may have forgotten energy, but I haven’t forgotten my conservative principles, and that’s what this campaign is really going to be about.”

 Despite its name, most of the Energy Department’s budget is devoted to maintaining the nation’s stockpile of nuclear warheads and to cleaning up nuclear waste at sites left by military weapons programs. The department runs the nation’s national laboratories, sets appliance standards and hands out grants and loan guarantees for basic research, solar cells, capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion and more.

 Four years after his first Oval Office bid, the former governor sought it once again in the big Republican field that included Trump. Perry touted the high rate of job growth and the low tax rate his state enjoyed under his leadership. At one point, he dismissed Trump’s campaign as a “barking carnival act.”

 [What Rick Perry’s wink says about his own art of the deal]

 The child of a cotton farmer and county commissioner from west Texas, Perry immersed himself in politics from a young age. He was elected as a Democrat to the state legislature but switched to the GOP when he ran for Texas agriculture commissioner.

 As governor, he recruited out-of-state firms to Texas. In 2013, he starred in an ad that aired in California in which he declared that companies should visit his home state “and see why our low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving. To Texas.”

 Salo Zelermyer, who served as a senior counsel at the Energy Department’s general counsel’s office under President George W. Bush and is now a partner at the Bracewell law firm, said Perry has proven “it is indeed possible to successfully balance appropriate environmental regulations with domestic energy production and use.”

 “During his time in office, Perry embodied the type of ‘all of the above’ approach to U.S. energy production that many have advocated on both sides of the aisle,” Zelermyer said. “Rick Perry’s Texas was not only a world leader in oil and gas production; it was also a global leader in wind power and renewable energy investment. This approach is a big reason Texas experienced such enormous job growth during Perry’s tenure.”

 [Trump says ‘nobody really knows’ if climate change is real]

 But environmentalists take a dim view of Perry. The former governor has repeatedly questioned scientific findings that human activity is helping drive climate change. In 2011 during a presidential debate, he compared the minority of scientists who challenged this assumption to 17th-century astronomer Galileo, who was persecuted by the Catholic Church after suggesting that the Earth revolved around the Sun, rather than the reverse.

 “The science is not settled on this. The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just nonsense,” Perry said at the time. “Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the fact. Galileo got outvoted for a spell.”

 In his 2010 book, “Fed Up!” Perry described the science showing that climate change was underway and caused by humans as a “contrived phony mess,” writing that those who embraced this idea “know that we have been experiencing a cooling trend, that the complexities of the global atmosphere have often eluded the most sophisticated scientists, and that draconian policies with dire economic effects based on so-called science may not stand the test of time.”

 [Yes, Trump met with Al Gore. But his transition tells a very different climate story]

 “Al Gore is a prophet all right, a false prophet of a secular carbon cult, and now even moderate Democrats aren’t buying it,” he added, referring to the former vice president and environmentalist. Gore met with Trump recently to discuss climate change.

 Later, during the 2012 presidential campaign, Perry said, “There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”

 In fact, the top 10 hottest years on record have all been since 1998, and 2016 is expected to be the hottest year since formal record-keeping began in 1880. The 2014 summary report for policymakers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was endorsed by officials from nearly 200 countries, stated, “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic [human caused] emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history.”

 [Trump has picked the most conservative EPA leader since 1981. This one will face much less resistance.]

 “There is no doubt that Rick Perry is completely unfit to run an agency he sought to eliminate — and couldn’t even name. Perry is a climate change denier, opposes renewable energy even as it has boomed in Texas, and doesn’t even believe CO2 is a pollutant,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said in a statement. “Not only that, he is deep in the pocket of Big Polluters, who have contributed over $2.5 million to his presidential campaigns, a disturbing sign that they expected him to protect their profits in office, not do what’s best for the American people.”

 Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary under President Clinton, said that Perry was a deal maker, political presence and good manager, and therefore a “sensible choice.” But he said that “my big concern is that he’s too tied to the fossil fuel industry and because of Donald Trump’s positions he will try to dismantle the very valuable renewable energy and climate change programs and policies that are a huge part of the DOE.”

 Wind power did expand under Perry during his tenure in Texas — from 200 megawatts in 2000 to 14,098 megawatts in 2014, according to the American Wind Energy Association — and he supported the construction of transmission lines nearly a decade ago that helped bring wind-generated electricity to market.

 “He created an environment conducive to economic investment through robust infrastructure and competitive power markets that allowed new technologies to enter,” said Tom Kiernan, the chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association, in a statement. “The Texas model under Gov. Perry’s leadership enabled the growth of low-cost wind energy that made the grid more diverse and reliable while saving consumers money.”

 [Energy Dept. rejects Trump’s request to name climate change workers, who remain worried]

 “The fact that Gov. Perry refuses to accept the broad scientific consensus on climate change calls into question his fitness to head up a science-based agency like DOE,” said Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. But, he added, as governor Perry “increased the ambition of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, directed state funds to innovative wind energy R&D initiatives, and created a ‘Competitive Renewable Energy Zone’ that helped expand transmission of renewables, bringing clean wind energy from rural communities to new state markets.”

 However during a 2015 Iowa Agriculture Summit in Des Moines, the former governor said he opposed extending the federal tax credit for wind power. “I do if a state wants to do it,” he said. “I don’t at the federal level. I think all of these need to be looked at, whether it’s oil and gas, whether it’s the wind side, whether it’s the [Renewable Fuel Standard program] — I think all of them need to be put on the table, prove whether or not these are in fact in the best interest of this country.”

 Referring to renewable sources, Jennifer Layke, the World Resources Institute energy program director, said: “The Department of Energy leads essential programs that drive innovation and fill important gaps to get new technologies off the ground. These are vital to keep the U.S. at the frontier of energy technology. In recent years, the Department of Energy has given U.S. businesses a significant boost to accelerate the development of battery storage, solar panels and electric vehicles. These programs must continue.”

 Perry sits on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, the firm that is trying to complete work on the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Great Plains. Under President Obama, the Army Corps of Engineers recently decided to withhold a key permit from the company that is needed to finish the oil pipeline. The pipeline has drawn protests from activists who say that segment of the pipeline would disturb American Indian burial grounds and pollute the drinking water of the nearby Indian reservation. The Energy Department has not played a role in that decision-making process, however, and Trump has indicated he would allow the project to move forward once he takes office.

 [DOE leaders refuse to identify specific climate change employees for Trump transition team]

 The Energy Department Perry would take over has changed substantially since its creation in 1977 under President Carter on the heels of the oil crisis that struck after the Arab countries of OPEC imposed an embargo on the United States. In the 1970s, the agency focused on weapons maintenance and regulations. In the 1980s, nuclear weapons research took center stage. In the 1990s, arms control and anti-proliferation took priority.

 But the last two secretaries, physicists Steven Chu and Ernest Moniz, have moved laboratories and other energy programs toward finding ways to slow climate change. The much derided loan and loan guarantee program — which stumbled with a half billion loss linked to solar panel maker Solyndra — has as of September had issued $31.98 billion in loans and loan guarantees for 30 projects, which have leveraged $50 billion in total project investment and created or saved 56,000 jobs. More than $1.65 billion in interest payments have already been paid.

 Moniz also used his knowledge of physics and nuclear weapons, and the department’s national laboratories to play a key role in talks aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear program. Perry brings lacks that knowledge.

 If confirmed, Perry would walk into an agency where many career civil servants are likely to be wary of him, not only because of his past pledge to abolish the department. Employees there are already on edge, given the fact that Trump’s transition team gave a questionnaire to DOE officials asking that they identify which employees have worked on either international climate negotiations or domestic initiatives to cut carbon.

 Current DOE leaders have declined to provide any individual names of employees to Trump transition team members.

 Speaking to reporters Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration needed to resist “what certainly could have been an attempt to target civil servants, career federal government employees … who are critical to success of the federal government’s ability to make policy, and their work transcends the term of any one president. That’s by design.”

 “Our principle — this is principle that presidents of both parties have long abided by — is that we should observe the protections that are in place, that ensure that career civil servants are evaluated based on merit, and not on politics,” Earnest added, before tweaking Trump for his latest Cabinet pick. “And I’m sure the president-elect used the same kind of criteria when choosing his new Department of Energy Secretary as well. Don’t you think?”

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 Dan Balz contributed to this report.

 Read more at Energy & Environment:

 Trump names Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general suing EPA on climate change, to head the EPA

 Atmospheric levels of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, are spiking, scientists report

 Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings

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– News that Donald Trump has settled on Rick Perry to run the Energy Department prompted a slew of stories Tuesday with one common refrain, and the former Texas governor must be thrilled with it. Here's a sampling: NBC News: "President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Texas Gov. Rick Perry—who famously once forgot that he wanted to abolish the Energy Department—to be secretary of energy ..." New York Times: "Trump plans to name former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas to lead the Energy Department, elevating a man who once could not remember the name of the agency he wanted to eliminate to the cabinet post, secretary of energy, that will run it." Washington Post: "Trump has picked Rick Perry to head the Energy Department, said two people familiar with the decision, seeking to put the former Texas governor in control of an agency whose name he forgot during a presidential debate even as he vowed to abolish it." Politico: "On a presidential debate stage five years ago, Rick Perry blanked on the Energy Department's name when trying to include it in a list of agencies he promised to abolish—memorably concluding with 'oops.' Now Trump has chosen the former Texas governor ..." ABC News: "Trump is expected to choose a man to lead the Department of Energy who infamously forgot its name." BBC: "Trump is expected to pick ex-Texas Governor Rick Perry as his energy secretary, a department whose name he famously forgot in a TV debate." NPR: "It's a good thing former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once forgot he wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy, because President-elect Donald Trump is nominating him to lead the agency. That's according to reports by multiple news outlets." And so on, even here.