Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is urging the North Korean government to comply with the United Nations after tough new sanctions were introduced. North Korea has received global pressure, condemning their threats of nuclear war against the US, and it appears that their biggest ally, China, is finally joining in. The continued nuclear tests and threats from Pyongyang were the major topics for discussion this week during Southeast Asia’s annual meeting in the Philippines. Diplomats from all represented countries were quite vocal about North Korea’s provocations. The U-S president says that he is still willing to sit down and negotiate with North Korean leadership; but not until North Korea abandons its nuclear strategy.
The current U-S president has increasingly turned to military officers to help run his administration. The White House now has four former generals running his administration and coordinating policies. They include: John Kelly, a former US Marine Corp general, who was recently named White House chief of staff. H-R McMaster, the current National Security Advisor, is a former Lieutenant General in the US Army. James Mattis, a former Marine Corps general, is now the U-S Secretary of Defense. And Joseph Dunford, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a former Marine General. All are known to be belligerent internationally and proponents of using military force to accomplish political goals. Not since the Eisenhower Administration have military officers had such a strong influence on a Presidential Administration.
Last Thursday, the Oregon legislation passed hundreds of bills under a 21 billion dollar budget, with the most notable winners being a 5.3 billion dollar transportation plan that will secure funding for road, bridge and transit projects for the next decade. Lawmakers also passed mandates that women receive equal pay in comparison to men’s pay and also require insurers to cover reproductive services including abortion at no cost and defer prison for some pregnant women. The Legislature also passed Senate Bill 828, known as the Fair Work Week Act, which was shepherded through the Senate by a bipartisan team led by Senator Kathleen Taylor, a democrat from Portland, and Sen Tim Knopp a republican from Bend. For blue collar workers, new rules ensure that employees get proper overtime pay and a first- in- the-nation law requires that low-wage workers receive schedules two weeks in advance and don’t have to work back-to-back opening and closing shifts. The fair work week act also ensures that employees rest between shifts and receive extra pay if they’re scheduled to work two shifts with less than a 10 hour break in between.
- KBOO