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President Obama’s influence still felt | Letters to the Editor … – Brunswick News

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President Obama's influence still felt | Letters to the Editor ... - Brunswick News

The room where Obama watched the Bin Laden raid was stripped out of the White House will not be rebuilt at his Chicago library – Yahoo News

White House photographer Pete Souza's iconic photo of President Barack Obama and top officials watching the raid that eventually killed Osama Bin Laden.Pete Souza/The White House via AP

Multiple outlets reported small conference room where Obama watched the Bin Laden room has been preserved.

But the reports about sending it in its entirety to Obama's library in Chicago aren't true, according to an Obama spokesperson.

The removal came amid a massive $50 million renovation of the White House Situation Room complex.

Correction: September 8, 2023 After this story's publication, a spokesperson for the Obama Foundation sent a statement refuting PBS's reporting. "There are no plans for the Situation Room to be rebuilt at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago," Courtney D. Williams, the communications director for the Obama Foundation, said in an email. The original story is below.

The small, secured conference room where President Barack Obama watched history unfold as US forces hunted down Osama Bin Laden will be reassembled in Chicago at his presidential center after it was stripped out of the White House earlier this summer, according to multiple reports.

According to PBS, the room was preserved in its entirety and was sent to Chicago. The decision will easily guarantee that the room will join the list of major and weird inclusions at the sites dedicated to immortalizing modern presidents. For example, Reagan's presidential library includes the Air Force One plane that served him and his successors all the way through President George W. Bush.

Obama White House photographer Pete Souza's photo of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watching the May 1, 2011 raid is one of the most famous photos of Obama's presidency. Souza's shot was also a rare public look into the Situation Room complex.

The preservation of the room came amid reports about the future of the Situation Room. First started after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Situation Room is actually a series of secured conference rooms where presidents and their top military advisors and aides can discuss classified national security information. Over the summer, the entire complex was shut down as workers completed a massive $50 million renovation of the entire complex. Reporters from multiple outlets were allowed a rare tour of the classified space.

Obama's presidential library previously made waves by moving to exclude the actual "library" part of the presidential center. Unlike the 13 other presidential libraries operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Obama Library aims to be a fully digital facility, meaning there will not be a reading room to examine records on the complex's grounds. It's unclear what the plans are for former President Donald Trump's library given that he is still seeking a second term in office.

Traditionally, taxpayers are only responsible for the library portion of what have become massive presidential centers. A former president's foundation, in this case, the Obama Foundation, runs and operates the museum portion that is filled with artifacts loaned to it by the National Archives.

Obama himself has said that he does not want his center to be an "ego" trip focused solely on the past.

"When Michelle and I started talking about the Presidential Center, we were really firm that what we want to do was create something for the future," he said during a 2017 interview after plans for his center were unveiled.

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The room where Obama watched the Bin Laden raid was stripped out of the White House will not be rebuilt at his Chicago library - Yahoo News

Whos Who in the Google Antitrust Trial – The New York Times

Follow live updates from Googles antitrust trial

A trial to determine if Google abused its monopoly in online search, which begins on Tuesday, is set to lay bare how the internet search giant cemented its power, featuring testimony from top tech executives, engineers, economists and academics.

The trial will unfold in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where a core group of individuals will command the courtroom and direct the day-to-day legal strategies. Here are the key people to know in U.S. et al. v. Google:

Judge Mehta, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 by President Barack Obama, will referee and decide the case in the nonjury trial.

In more than three years of pretrial hearings, Judge Mehta hasnt tipped his hand on his views of the case. In a proceeding last month, he narrowed the lawsuit by the Justice Department and states while preserving the core argument that Google maintained its monopoly in search through deals with smartphone makers that cut out competitors.

Judge Mehta, 52, was randomly assigned to U.S. et al. v. Google. He may be more familiar with Google than other federal judges, whose average age reached 69 in 2020, according to a study at the time by The Ohio State Law Journal. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1997, a year before Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google.

Judge Mehta previously worked in private practice in San Francisco and Washington, focusing on white-collar criminal defense, complex business disputes and appellate advocacy.

Mr. Kanter, the top antitrust official at the Justice Department, is overseeing the governments case.

President Biden appointed Mr. Kanter, a longtime tech and media lawyer who received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, to the Justice Department in July 2021. Mr. Kanter is among a group of progressive Big Tech critics whom Mr. Biden has placed in top government positions for antitrust enforcement. He inherited the Google case from the Trump administration.

Mr. Kanter, 50, is also overseeing a separate antitrust lawsuit against Google in the ad tech market. Google has raised concerns that his history of representing its rivals, including Microsoft and News Corp, makes him biased, and the company has protested his involvement in the ad tech case.

Its unclear how often Mr. Kanter will appear in court. Doha Mekki, the Justice Departments principal deputy assistant attorney general, and Hetal Doshi, the deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust, have helped quarterback the lawsuit and will be in the courtroom daily.

Mr. Dintzer, a 30-year veteran of the Justice Department, will give opening statements and is leading the governments case in the courtroom.

A graduate of the University of Michigan law school, Mr. Dintzer, 59, was assigned to the Google case during the Trump administration. He has argued in pretrial hearings before Judge Mehta that Google destroyed instant messages depriving the department of a rich source of candid discussions between Googles executives, including likely trial witnesses.

He has worked on antitrust cases in the past, including the Justice Departments lawsuit to block AT&Ts proposed merger with T-Mobile in 2011. The companies eventually dropped the deal.

Mr. Weiser is overseeing a coalition of 38 state and other attorneys generals that joined the Justice Department in its search lawsuit.

Mr. Weiser, 55, a former deputy assistant attorney general of antitrust at the Justice Department for the Obama administration, has been a vocal critic of big tech companies for stifling competition. After graduating from New York University Law School, he became a counsel to Joel Klein, the Justice Departments head of antitrust during the agencys Microsoft monopoly lawsuit in the 1990s. He didnt work directly on the case but said in an interview that it had influenced him.

Mr. Weiser has picked Jonathan Sallet, a former deputy head of antitrust at the Justice Department, and William Cavanaugh, a lawyer at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and a former Justice Department official, as the lead litigators for the states.

Mr. Pichai, the chief executive of Google, is widely expected to testify during the trial.

He joined Google in 2004 as a product management leader of Chrome and other tools, and was named chief executive in August 2015.

A measured and calm speaker who has at times been called boring, Mr. Pichai, 51, was largely unruffled when testifying in congressional hearings over content moderation and antitrust in recent years. That may serve him well in the trial.

Googles founders, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, arent expected to be called as witnesses. But the Justice Department and Google are likely to call other tech executives to testify, including Eddy Cue, Apples senior vice president of services, to discuss the companys search deals with Google.

Mr. Walker, Googles president of global affairs and chief legal counsel, is overseeing the companys defense.

Mr. Walker, 62, received his law degree from Stanford and joined Google in 2006. He led Googles policy and legal strategy through an antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission that began in 2009. The agency decided not to proceed with a lawsuit after the company agreed to some changes.

Mr. Walker is overseeing a big team of in-house and outside lawyers and will be in and out of the courtroom. Googles daily legal representative in the courtroom, who has supervised strategy on the case, is Lara Kollios, a director in regulatory response and investigations.

Mr. Schmidtlein, a co-chair of antitrust at Williams & Connolly, is Googles lead lawyer in the courtroom.

Google has turned to lawyers like Mr. Schmidtlein, 57, who fought against Microsoft in antitrust cases two decades ago, to defend it in court. In 2002, Mr. Schmidtlein represented states that sued Microsoft for using its dominance in Windows software to block rival media players.

Mr. Schmidtlein, who received his law degree from Georgetown University, also has a long track record working for tech companies. This year, he helped Amazon defeat an antitrust lawsuit that consumers brought against its logistics practices.

Googles litigation team also includes Susan Creighton, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who represented Netscape in the governments 1998 antitrust suit against Microsoft, and Mark Popofsky, a partner at Ropes & Gray who was a senior counsel to the Justice Department in that suit against Microsoft.

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Whos Who in the Google Antitrust Trial - The New York Times

Senate committee recommends firing Wisconsin’s top elections official in process Democrats dispute – Yahoo News

MADISON, Wis. (AP) A Republican-controlled committee on Monday recommended firing Wisconsin's top elections official rather than reappointing her, clearing the way for a vote by the full GOP-led state Senate as soon as Thursday.

The Senate elections committee voted 3-1 along party lines, with one Democrat abstaining, against confirming nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe for a second term. Democrats have accused GOP leaders of improperly pushing through Wolfe's confirmation after the elections commission's three Republicans and three Democrats deadlocked along party lines in a reappointment vote in June.

Monday's vote comes despite objections from the state's Democratic attorney general and the Legislature's own nonpartisan attorneys who have said that without a majority vote by the commission to reappoint Wolfe, the Senate doesn't have the authority to go forward with deciding whether to confirm or fire her.

In the absence of a majority vote by the commission, a recent Supreme Court ruling appears to allow Wolfe to stay in office indefinitely as a holdover. Conservatives have used that ruling to maintain control of key policy boards. If Wolfe's confirmation is rejected by the full Senate a result that would normally carry the effect of firing her the matter is likely to be resolved through a lawsuit.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not immediately respond to an email sent Monday asking about his plans for scheduling a floor vote on Wolfes future. The Senate's next floor period is set for Thursday.

As I said when the Committee first met to discuss Administrator Wolfes continued service to the people of Wisconsin, this nomination is not before us and Senate Republicans are on a path that will waste taxpayer money and create unnecessary controversy around our elections while attacking qualified, hard-working election officials," Democratic Sen. Mark Spreitzer, who cast the sole vote to confirm Wolfe's appointment, said in a statement on Monday.

Spreitzer promised to submit a minority report saying the Senate was moving ahead illegitimately.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers commented on Monday's vote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Republicans are hell-bent on doing everything they can to interfere with our elections, including trying to abuse their power by improperly firing the states elections commissioner, he said.

Wolfe did not attend a public hearing the Senate elections committee held last month on her reappointment. That hearing attracted dozens of election skeptics who repeated widely debunked claims about the 2020 election and called for Wolfe to be fired or even arrested.

She didn't bother to show up to her own public hearing, Republican Sen. Dan Feyen, who voted against reappointing Wolfe, said in a statement. What I heard instead were numerous concerns from Wisconsinites around the state who have lost faith in the job she was doing as administrator.

Conspiracy theorists falsely claim Wolfe was part of a plot to rig the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden, and some Senate Republicans have vowed to oust her before the 2024 presidential election. Biden defeated former President Donald Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome that has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firms review and numerous state and federal lawsuits.

Elections observers have raised concerns that firing Wolfe or disputing her position through the 2024 election could encourage election skeptics who have already harassed and threatened election officials over the 2020 election.

___

Harm Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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Senate committee recommends firing Wisconsin's top elections official in process Democrats dispute - Yahoo News

The Sunday Read: ‘Wikipedia’s Moment of Truth’ – The New York Times

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In early 2021, a Wikipedia editor peered into the future and saw what looked like a funnel cloud on the horizon: the rise of GPT-3, a precursor to the new chatbots from OpenAI. When this editor a prolific Wikipedian who goes by the handle Barkeep49 on the site gave the new technology a try, he could see that it was untrustworthy. The bot would readily mix fictional elements (a false name, a false academic citation) into otherwise factual and coherent answers. But he had no doubts about its potential. I think A.I.s day of writing a high-quality encyclopedia is coming sooner rather than later, he wrote in Death of Wikipedia, an essay that he posted under his handle on Wikipedia itself. He speculated that a computerized model could, in time, displace his beloved website and its human editors, just as Wikipedia had supplanted the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which in 2012 announced it was discontinuing its print publication.

Recently, when I asked this editor if he still worried about his encyclopedias fate, he told me that the newer versions made him more convinced that ChatGPT was a threat. It wouldnt surprise me if things are fine for the next three years, he said of Wikipedia, and then, all of a sudden, in Year 4 or 5, things drop off a cliff.

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The Sunday Read: 'Wikipedia's Moment of Truth' - The New York Times