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US MILITARY
ELECTION 2016
Violation of law
Perry mulls presidential try in 2016
GAO: Pentagon didn’t follow law in Bergdahl swap By DONNA CASSATA ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon broke the law when it swapped Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a prisoner in Afghanistan for five years, for five Taliban leaders, congressional investigators said Thursday. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said the Defense Department
failed to notify the relevant congressional committees at least 30 days in advance of the exchange — a BERGDAHL clear violation of the law — and used $988,400 of a wartime account to make the transfer. The GAO also said the Pentagon’s use of funds that hadn’t been expressly
appropriated violated the Antideficiency Act. “In our view, the meaning of the (law) is clear and unambiguous,” the GAO wrote to nine Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and various committees. “Section 8111 prohibits the use of ‘funds appropriated or otherwise made available’ in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014, to
transfer any individual detained at Guantanamo Bay to the custody or control of a foreign entity’ except in accordance” with the law. The GAO said the relevant committees received phone calls from May 31 — the day of the transfer — to June 1, with written notification coming on June 2. Five senior Taliban were
See BERGDAHL PAGE 13A
IMMIGRATION
CALLS ARE THEIR LIFE Deportees work at call centers By ELLIOT SPAGAT AND OMAR MILLAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
TIJUANA, Mexico — Henry Monterroso is a foreigner in his own country. Raised in California from the age of 5, he was deported to Mexico in 2011 and found himself in a land he barely knew. But the 34-year-old Tijuana native feels right at home as soon as gets to work at Call Center Services International, where workers are greeted in English. Monterroso supervises five employees amid rows of small cubicles who spend eight hours a day dialing numbers across the United States to collect on credit card bills and other debts. He is among thousands of deported Mexicans who are finding refuge in call centers in Tijuana and other border cities. In perfect English — some hardly speak Spanish — they converse with American consumers who buy gadgets, have questions about warrantees or complain about overdue deliveries. At Monterroso’s office in one of Tijuana’s tallest buildings, managers bring meals from Taco Bell in nearby San
Photo by Alex Cossio | AP
This is a view of the Firstkontact Center, a call center in Tijuana, Mexico. Many Mexicans deported under President Barack Obama are finding employment in call centers in Tijuana and other border cities. Diego to reward employees because the fast-food chain has no outlets in Mexico. Workers are off for the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving but labor on Mexican holidays. “The end of your shift comes at six and you get hit by reality out there: You’re not in the U.S.,” Monterroso said above the din of buzzing phones. “While you’re here, you still get a sense that you’re back home, which I like very much.” Many workers spent nearly all their lives in the U.S. and still have family there, which
See CALL CENTERS PAGE 13A
Photo by Alex Cossio | AP
Henry Monterroso, 34, works at the Call Center Services International, a call center in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico.
Governor spoke in New Hampshire to business leaders By RIK STEVENS ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Gov. Rick Perry said Friday in a visit to a key early voting state that he was unprepared for and humbled by his first run for president in 2012 and will work harder if there’s a next time around. Perry addressed a group of business leaders in New Hampshire Friday and told them he had not decided yet whether to run again in 2016. His 2012 campaign ended badly when he made several missteps, including a highly-publicized gaffe when he froze up during a televised debate. Perry admitted he underestimated the intensity of a presidential campaign. “Running for president of the United States, I don’t care how good you might think you might be,” he said. “Whether you’ve been elected governor of Texas three times and served for 12 years, it is not good enough from the standpoint of the preparation to run for the presidency of the United States.” If he runs, Perry said, voters can expect a different candidate. “I’ve spent a lot of time in preparation,” he said. “That’s not to say I’ve made a decision I’m going to run. I haven’t. But the reason I don’t choose to run will not be because I’m illprepared.” Perry is scheduled to meet top Republicans and attend at least a half-dozen events Friday and Saturday, including one sponsored by the conservative political group Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Perry was indicted last week by a grand jury in Austin, on charges stemming from his veto last summer of state funds for public corruption prosecutors. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and has said he’s confident the indictments will be exposed as nothing but a politically motivated attempt at retaliation. He didn’t shy away from the indictment on Friday, telling the business leaders he would be exonerated. So far, the indictment — and Perry’s response — appear to only be galvanizing New Hampshire Republicans, according to Steve Duprey, a GOP national committee member and former chairman of the state party. “I think that he is taking the right approach that it’s wrong, unjust and political,” Duprey said. “Indicting the governor for vetoing funds because he thought a convicted drunk shouldn’t be a prosecutor is wrong.” That sentiment was echoed by some in Friday’s pro-business, anti-regulation crowd who gave him a warm reception. Eddie Edwards, a Republican running for state Senate, brushed off the indictment and praised Perry’s veto of the funding. “Governor, I want to tell you I admire your courage in standing up and holding people accountable,” Edwards said. Perry spent much of his 50-minute talk to
See ELECTION PAGE 13A
PUBLIC EDUCATION
5th, 8th graders get a pass on math exams Texas Education Agency has also further delayed a scheduled phase-in of higher passing standards for the STAAR By MORGAN SMITH THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
Texas public school students entering the fifth and eighth grades this fall have received what may amount to a get-out-of-jail-free card on their end-of-year state math exams. Education Commissioner Michael Williams announced on Friday that because it’s the first year of transition to new curriculum standards, the state would suspend a law that requires fifth- and eighthgraders to pass the exams to advance to the next grade
level. While the waiver was officially announced Friday, Williams advised school districts in a letter in May that they should use other “relevant academic information to make promotion or retention decisions” in math for the upcoming year. “There are substantial challenges associated with implementation of the revised mathematics statewide curriculum standards in the STAAR grades 3-8 assessments,” he said at the time. Students will still take the math exam, but they
will not be prevented from graduating if they do not pass. Last year, just under 40 percent of eighth-graders and 45 percent of fifth-graders passed their state math exams on the first attempt. Under the so-called social promotion law, they can retake the exam up to three times before they are ultimately held back. This is the second time in the last three years that Williams has suspended the requirement. The first came in 2012, when it was waived to ease the transition into a new state assessment system. Williams put it back in
place in 2013. The news comes as the Texas Education Agency has also further delayed a scheduled phase-in of higher passing standards for the new state exams, known as STAAR. If the higher standard was in place last year, according to TEA data, just 14 percent of fifth-graders and 9 percent of eighthgraders would have passed the math exams on the first try. “While I firmly believe that our students are capable of reaching the high expectations reflected in the TEKS and the STAAR per-
formance standards, moving to a three-step phase-in plan gives educators additional time to make the significant adjustments in instruction necessary to raise the level of performance of all Texas students,” Williams said in a statement on Thursday announcing the decision. Critics have said both decisions only enable poor academic performance. “The pressure is now off of our students, teachers and administrators to ensure our students pass these tests, despite the fact that the future academic success
of our students depends on them learning this material,” Bill Hammond, the CEO of the Texas Association of Business, said in a statement released after the TEA announcement Friday. “We shouldn’t continue to allow our children to be promoted if they cannot show proficiency at grade level in mathematics. The standard needed to pass these tests is already very low and the commissioner has just lowered that passing standard to zero. This is another example of going back on high standards, even if it is just for this school year.”