QB QUESTIONS
WEDNESDAYMAY 17, 2017
FREE
TEXAS A&M’S THREE-WAY QUARTERBACK COMPETITION, A7
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
COLLEGE WORK-STUDY
‘Dreamers’ to be excluded Immigrants in public school will not be eligible for certain college programs By Meredith Hoffman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas legislators are seeking to deny workstudy aid to immigrants attending public college under a temporary residency permit, a move that starkly contrasts
with a policy enacted 16 years ago that positioned the state as the nation’s most welcoming place for foreign-born students. Under the proposal, which is on the verge of clearing the Texas Legislature, only individuals eligible for federal fi-
nancial aid would qualify for the state’s off-campus, work-study program. That group includes U.S. citizens, permanent residents and refugees. It doesn’t include students who came into the country illegally as children and have a work visa
WHITE HOUSE
allowing them to stay longer, or immigrants granted permission to stay in the country because they were crime victims. It wasn’t immediately clear how many Texas college students would be denied services if the
Meredith Hoffman / AP
Dreamers continues on A11
Immigrant rights protesters chanting during a sit-in in Austin, Texas on May 1, 2017.
NATIONAL SECURITY
WHITE HOUSE: TRUMP'S DISCLOSURES TO RUSSIANS WAS ‘WHOLLY APPROPRIATE’ Susan Walsh / AP
In this May 8 file photo, then-FBI Director James Comey speaks to the Anti-Defamation League National Leadership Summit in Washington.
Trump allegedly asked Comey to shut down Flynn investigation Russian Foreign Ministry / AP A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — The White House disputed a report Tuesday that President Donald Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to shut down an investigation into ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn. The New York Times reported that Trump made the request during a February Oval Office meeting. The newspaper cited a memo Comey wrote shortly after the conversation. Flynn resigned the day before the Feb. 14 meeting, after it was revealed he apparently had lied to his about the nature of his contacts with Russia's ambassador. The Times said Trump told Comey, "I hope you can let this go." The White House denied the report. "While the President has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the President has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn," the White House said in a statement. Trump abruptly fired Comey last week, saying he did so based on his very public handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe. The Justice Department declined to comment. According to the Times, Comey wrote in the memo that Trump told him Flynn had done nothing wrong. But Comey did not say anything to Trump about limiting the investigation, replying, "I agree he is a good guy."
This photo shows President Donald Trump meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 10, 2017.
McMaster: President shared publicly available information By Julie Pace, Vivian Salama and Julie Pace ASSOCIATED PRE SS
WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump's disclosure of classified information to senior Russian officials as "wholly appropriate," as Trump tried to beat back criticism from fellow Republicans and calm international allies increasingly wary about sharing their secrets with the new president. The highly classified information about an Islamic State plot was collected by Israel, a crucial source of intelligence and close partner in the fight against some of the America's fiercest threats in the Middle East. Trump's
disclosure of the information threatened to fray that partnership and piled pressure on the White House to explain the apparently on-the-spot decision to reveal the information to Russian diplomats in a meeting last week. In a series of morning tweets, Trump declared he has "an absolute right" as president to share "facts pertaining to terrorism" and airline safety with Russia. Although top aides on Monday had declared reports about Trump's discussions false, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Tuesday sought instead to downplay the significance of the information Trump revealed. The president had been engaging in "routine sharing" with foreign leaders, he said, arguing that
some of the information was publicly available. Still, the revelations sent a White House accustomed to chaos reeling anew. It is extraordinary for a president to share such information without consent of the country that collected it, apparently violating the confidentiality of an intelligence-sharing agreement with Israel. It was, perhaps, even more remarkable that Trump chose to confide in representatives of an adversary, who could use the information to find its source. A U.S. official who confirmed the disclosure to The Associated Press said the revelation potentially put the source at risk. The U.S. official told AP that Trump shared details about an Islamic State terror threat related to the
use of laptop computers on aircraft with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. The official said the disclosure came as Trump boasted about his access to classified intelligence. An excerpt from an official transcript of the meeting reveals that Trump told them, "I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day." The extraordinary leak of Trump's private conversations in the Oval Office appeared to be a direct consequence of the president's combative relationship with the U.S. spy agencies. The White House vowed to track down those who disclosed the information. The president's action Security continues on A11