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The Obama Foundation, the not-for-profit developing the first African-American president's library and museum in Jackson Park, was criticized by a local alderman Monday for not sharing enough information on how South Side residents will benefit from the high-profile project.

"My primary concern is how the Obama Foundation plans to engage the community in the transformation of these neighborhoods," Ald. Leslie Hairston, whose 5th Ward includes the library site and portions of neighboring communities, said in an open letter to the foundation. "Residents would like to know what is the plan for community outreach."

The letter also called for integrating the planning for the presidential library with a proposal to convert the Jackson Park and South Shore golf courses into a PGA-caliber destination.

"Residents would like to have a comprehensive picture of how transportation, park use and recreation will be addressed," she wrote.

In issuing the letter, Hairston becomes one of the most prominent community members to call for greater transparency in the development plans for historic Jackson Park plans that are led by private interests. Others include Friends of the Park and Jackson Park Watch, an ad hoc community group.

Hairston noted that a number of community groups are already meeting and planning to make community benefits demands of the Obama Foundation.

"Without communication from the foundation, this can be detrimental to the Obama Presidential Center and the city of Chicago," she said in the letter. "This is not what anybody wants or what the foundation needs."

Michael Strautmanis, the foundation's vice president of civic engagement, said the organization welcomes Hairston's ideas and call for community involvement.

"While our work has only just begun, we are committed to gathering robust community input at every step of the process," he said in a statement. "The Obama Presidential Center will be transformative for our community, creating jobs and spurring economic development across the area."

Hairston said residents are seeking jobs in planning, architecture, construction, operations and professional services; job training programs for positions in construction, customer service, event planning and independent contracting; concession and retail opportunities; and early childhood education in science, technology and math.

A number of community groups are pushing for a written benefits agreement, something the Obama Foundation has not embraced.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Byron Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God in neighboring Woodlawn, is taking a less confrontational approach, soliciting community ideas for an economic development plan to foster revitalization of the surrounding communities.

kbergen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kathy_bergen

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Alderman calls for more transparency on Obama library planning - Chicago Tribune

It was less than a year ago that Michelle Obama referred to it as her baby.

She wasnt talking about her youngest daughter, Sasha, or the Obamas pet dog Bo, but something undoubtedly dear to her during her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: the White House vegetable garden.

Her comments were made during her eighth and final spring planting, but hopefully, she added, this will not be the last one ever.

First lady Melania Trump confirmed that although the gardens founder may have vacated the premises, her beloved garden lives on. A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As a mother and as the First Lady of this country, Mrs. Trump is committed to the preservation and continuation of the White House Gardens, specifically the First Ladys Kitchen Garden and the Rose Garden, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, senior adviser to the first lady, said in a statement to CNN.

[This is my baby: Michelle Obamas last spring planting at the White House garden]

The White House vegetable garden was supposedly the first of its kind since Eleanor Roosevelts in 1943, The Washington Posts Dan Zak reported in April.

The garden in the past has offered a varied menu that included Churchill brussels sprouts and Kentucky colonel spearmint, as well as garlic and fennel and shallots and endive. Thegarden was, at last count, 1,700 square feet in size, but for the past eight years it has occupied a much larger space symbolically, as Michelle Obama used her platform tofight childhood obesity and improve Americas eating habits.

Throughout that fight, health advocates said, the garden was a physical reminder of Obamas message.

The vegetables wind up in dinners for the first family, Zak noted. Almost 500 pounds of them have been shipped to homeless shelters. In 2010, they ripened into Obamas Lets Move! campaign, for which the first lady danced with Elmo and Jimmy Fallon in order to get kids off the couch and to the crisper. She has also nudged corporations to trim salt, sugar and fat from food products.

The garden located on the corner of the South Lawn more than doubled in area during the Obama presidency. The garden also includes an apiary and a pollinator garden for bees and other insects. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton told The Post that she intended to keep the garden if she were elected president, but Trump had not signaled whether the garden would survive until last week.

CNN reported that Trump toured the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Fla., with Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The visit gave the first lady striking a Michelle Obama-esque tone a chance to tout the health benefits and physical beauty that can be derived from a well-kept garden.

[Whether White House garden keeps growing, Michelle Obama has planted seed of healthy eating]

Both our countries histories and cultures are steeped in the nurture and nature of gardening, Trump said in a statement, according to CNN. Having knowledge of different cultures and customs is a wonderful way to learn and to explore. Gardening teaches us the fundamentals in care and the evolution of living things, all while inspiring us to nurture our minds and to relax and strengthen our bodies.

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One part of the Obama White House that will endure under Trump: Michelle's vegetable garden - Washington Post

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Trump has often said that Barack Obamas nuclear weapons deal with Iran was a terrible deal. Hes right. But whatever he decides to do about it, the opposition is apparent and will only grow both here and abroad.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, said he would set the agreement on fire if Mr. Trump tried to change it. Iranian President Rouhani said his nation wont let Mr. Trump change the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Obama deal is formally known.

Any proposal to renegotiate or cancel the deal wont receive warmer receptions from Russia, China, England, France and Germany, which signed it with the United States and Iran.

From the political upheaval in reaction to his temporary immigration ban, the president will have learned to prepare the political battlefield before taking such major actions.

Regarding the Iran deal, perhaps the most effective way to do that is for Mr. Trump to reveal what Mr. Obamas agreement actually provides.

Most international agreements are accompanied by confidential side agreements that are classified or concealed from the public for diplomatic reasons.

We dont even know how many of them Mr. Obamas deal with Iran has. Under the Corker Amendment, which enabled Mr. Obama to claim the Senate had approved the deal, although it had not, all side agreements were required to be submitted to the Senate. That was never done, as a senior Republican senator told me months ago

Many of the most puzzling aspects of Mr. Obamas deal could be explained by Mr. Trumps publication of the side deals.

For example, Iran is permitted to limit how and when international inspectors can inspect some of its nuclear weapons sites. What side deal enables Iran to evade the supposedly intrusive inspection plan?

Bizarrely, Iran is permitted to self-inspect some of its nuclear weapons sites. One example is the Parchin site at which Iran is permitted to collect its own forensic samples and turn them over to the U.N.s purblind nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Parchin may be the heart of Irans nuclear weapons development. Unsurprisingly, the IAEA on the basis of the samples provided by Iran says that everything at Parchin is just peachy. How does Mr. Obamas deal permit this ridiculous self-inspection? What other sites are exempted from real inspection?

At one point during the negotiations of the deal, Iranian opposition to inspection of military sites was to be decided by a panel of arbitrators comprised of representatives of Iran and each of the P5+1 nations. They were to have about three weeks to decide whether the inspection could proceed. Of course, those three weeks were more than enough time for the Iranians to conceal what was going on. Is there a side deal that effectuates the arbitration idea?

These are only two of the known problems that arose from the side deals. We dont know how many more there are.

Our P5+1 allies will be embarrassed by publication of the side deals because it may show how badly they were duped. The Iranians whose opposition Mr. Trump can comfortably ignore understand that publishing the advantages theyve gained in secret will result in a backlash supporting Mr. Trumps demands to renegotiate or cancel the deal.

Mr. Trump will be told that we cant risk undoing the nuclear weapons deal because of Irans strengths in Syria and Iraq. Iran is Russias principal partner in Syria and will, with Russia, control the outcome of the Syrian war. Both could prove to be obstacles to Mr. Trumps plan to destroy ISIS, but publication of the side deals is immaterial to their action on ISIS.

None of those facts outweigh Americas national security interest in preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons. Revealing the side deals can only benefit Mr. Trump. By doing so, he will be able to show Americans how bad the deal really is. He can build political support for the action he intends to take and may, with relative ease, be able to overcome the foreign and congressional opposition thats sure to erupt in Congress and the media.

It will be harder for him to overcome what former President Obama says in defense of what he and the media believe was his greatest diplomatic achievement. What Mr. Obama says will be published and republished hourly by Mr. Trumps media opponents, so Mr. Trump needs to be doubly prepared.

Mr. Trumps team should remember that Mr. Obama made an arms limitation agreement with Russia, the New START Treaty, which became effective in 2011. Like the 2015 nuclear weapons deal with Iran, Mr. Obamas treaty with Russia has unpublished side deals.

Whatever those side deals say, one gave rise to a Russian claim that the our anti-missile missiles (and the warheads on them) must be counted among our offensive missiles, warheads and bombs. Before Mr. Obamas treaty, we had never agreed to count purely defensive weapons as offensive ones. What does that side agreement say and what others did Mr. Obama sign, needlessly giving away American advantages?

Mr. Obamas deals with Iran and Russia are contrary to our national security and those of our allies. Mr. Trump can, and should, make that perfectly clear by publishing the side agreements.

Jed Babbin served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration. He is a senior fellow of the London Center for Policy Research and the author of five books including In the Words of Our Enemies.

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Revealing Obama's deals - Washington Times

The Senate on Monday easily confirmed physician David Shulkin to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, charged with delivering on President Donald Trump's campaign promises to fix long-standing problems at the department.

Senators voted 100-0 to approve the former Obama administration official, who was the VA's top health official since 2015, in a rare show of bipartisanship amid partisan rancor over Trump's other nominees. Shulkin secured the backing of Senate Democrats after pledging at his confirmation hearing to always protect veterans' interests, even if it meant disagreeing at times with Trump.

The 57-year old physician has ruled out fully privatizing the agency and says wide-scale firings of VA employees are unnecessary, describing the VA workforce as "the best in health care." Trump had made accountability and rooting out wrongdoing a cornerstone of VA reforms, having called the department "the most corrupt."

Shulkin is the first nonveteran to head the government's second-largest agency, which has nearly 370,000 employees and an annual budget of nearly $167 billion.

He'll have plenty to do once sworn in. Shulkin has acknowledged that Congress should hold him to a higher standard of faster results as a former VA official who has laid initial groundwork for changes. He says he should be fired from his job if, like some VA secretaries before him, he isn't able to significantly fix problems and regain veterans' trust.

"You're not going to hear me asking for a learning curve," Shulkin said at his hearing. "I don't have a lot of patience and I am going to be serious about making these changes and regaining that trust."

The immediate challenge includes revamping scheduling and access for VA medical appointments following a 2014 wait-time scandal. Shulkin is urging a more integrated VA network where veterans could seek outside private care only in coordination with the VA. He has not sketched out full details.

"We've yet to hear from him how he'll pursue President Trump's vision for a public-private partnership at the VA," said Dan Caldwell, policy director for the conservative group Concerned Veterans for America.

Shulkin also will have to address long backlogs for veterans who apply for disability payments he calls its appeals system "broken and grapple with the White House's order of a 90-day federal hiring freeze. According to Shulkin, the White House agreed to exempt 37,000 out of 45,000 VA vacancies, but major veterans organizations say much more hiring is needed to eliminate red tape.

More:
Senate unanimously confirms Obama holdover David Shulkin as VA secretary - Chicago Tribune

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Like anything else that involves communication, your presidents recent interview with fellow belligerent white man Bill OReilly was a clusterfuck. Most of the fallout from it, though, focused on Bankruptcy Batista taking issue with OReillys categorization of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a killer.

There are a lot of killers, 45 shot back. Weve got a lot of killers. What do you think, our countrys so innocent?

When your new boyfriend is an authoritarian who may or may not have video of you being pissed on in a hotel, its unsurprising to see that you continue to serve as the Bonnie to his Clyde, the Bell Biv to his DeVoe and the eager bottom to his aggressive top. Thats what love is. Well, thats also blackmail, but same difference, in this instance. As frustrating as it was to hear him say that, youre not going to get my black self to rally too hard for the country that just allowed Attorney General Segregation Now, Segregation Forever to happen.

So while critics were correct in assailing a false equivalence slow cooking in a Crock-Pot of asininity and outlandishness, there was another declaration made by 45 that still slips and slides up and down my last nerve. It is a sentiment that 45 has hinted at before but never flat out said until now.

As he and OReilly discussed American Horror Story: The 2016 Presidential Election, 45 had the honeysuckle-colored gall to assert that former President Obama actually likes his bigoted ass. Of Obama, 45 explained to OReilly, Its a very strange phenomena. We get along. I dont know if hell admit this, but he likes me, I like him.

Any sensible soul has long been aware that 45 is too many fallen fries from a full order, too much ice for a satisfying full cup of strawberry soda and one nugget short of a worthwhile late-night drive-thru run. Still, how much is this man out of his rabbit-ass mind to think that Barry fucks with him? How could he possibly believe that the man against whom he lodged a dehumanizing, racist-conspiracy-theory-riddled campaign finds him anything other than a village idiot whos lucky that bigotry and white mediocrity can always take you far in America?

When asked what convinced him that Obama genuinely liked him, 45 responded, I can feel it.

Bankruptcy Batista says he can feel it, yall. Total, help me sing. Total, help me sing.

He continued:

We had a rough campaign. He was fighting better for Hillary then she did. He was vicious during the campaign towards me and I was vicious towards him. We said horrible things about each other. And then we hop into the car and we drive down Pennsylvania Avenue together and we dont even talk about it. Politics is amazing.

See, 45 is acting like those co-workers who dont understand that when their colleaguesnamely, the black ones who dont really fool with them like thatare being cordial, theyre simply being professional. In the case of Obama treating his successor with the dignity he doesnt deserve, that speaks to Obamas sense of duty. That is not the same thing as sincere affinity for a basket case who ought to be relegated to social media and reality television.

During the campaign trail, Obama repeatedly laid into that man over his bad business dealings, divisive rhetoric and terrible character. Those feelings didnt suddenly dissipate after Obama was compelled by duty to engage him. Of course, 45 doesnt know much of anything, much less about matters related to basic social skills.

In the article For Donald Trump, Friends in Few Places, Alan Feuer explored 45s lack of friendship in the failing New York Times. He doesnt really have a lot of friends, Billy Procida, a financier from New Jersey who served for years as one of Trumps top lieutenants, was quoted as saying. Pretty much all he does is work and play golf.

And, you know, bash people who dont align with his warped view about a given topic or affect his frail ego.

I dont know what will happen with this country. Im not sure if a global war wont start over tweet beef. Its not for certain that 45 will ever be impeached despite mounting evidence practically begging for it.

Right now, nothing is certain. That is, minus one thing: Barack Hussein Obama does not like this punk-ass man. Obama may love civility, but there is no reason this clownish president deserves to walk around this earth thinking that Obama likes him. Can everyone come together and let this man know that if he were drowning, Obama would probably go ask someone to whip up some grits for this fat fish thats about to fry?

If there is some White House employee reading this, sobbing under his or her desk about the decision he or she made, do the world a favor: Remind 45 of this clip. Let him know that Obama does not like him deep down; he doesnt like him at all. Then remind him that former first lady Michelle Obama likely still wants to knock his wig off.

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President Bankruptcy Batista Thinks Obama Likes Him; Someone Remove This Lie From His Mind, Stat - The Root