Insider Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Sign-Language Expert: Trump 'Easy to Interpret'
2. Ford Foundation Pulls Funding From Israeli Groups
3. JFK Sought UFO Files 10 Days Before His Death
4. States Weigh 'Mileage Tax' on Vehicles
5. We Heard: Tea Party License, Andrew Young, Victoria Kennedy
1. Sign-Language Expert: Trump 'Easy to Interpret'
A veteran sign-language interpreter has high praise for one public speaker with an eye on the White House — Donald Trump.
"He's very easy to interpret for because he's very straightforward," said Amy Hair after standing by Trump's side and translating his remarks for the deaf and hearing-impaired at a tea party rally in Boca Raton, Fla., on April 16.
"Trump is good because he's very understandable. Most politicians speak very vaguely, and he speaks matter-of-factly. He speaks in very simple terms."
Hair has interpreted for three former presidents — both Bushes and Bill Clinton — and countless other politicians at speeches and debates, The Palm Beach Post reported.
She said her job is difficult when a politician tries to dance around an issue.
"They talk in so many circles that I have to contextualize. That means you have to kind of explain what they mean, but it's hard to do," she said, adding that she had no such trouble with Trump.
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2. Ford Foundation Pulls Funding From Israeli Groups
The Ford Foundation has announced that it will cease funding progressive nongovernmental organizations in Israel after its current grant ends in two years.
The progressive NGOs have been targets of attacks from the Israeli right, but the foundation insists the decision to discontinue funding is not related to politics but to "changing priorities," according to the Jewish publication Forward.
The Ford Foundation, the second largest philanthropic foundation in the United States with assets of more than $10 billion, has provided $40 million to Israeli NGOs since 2003, when it partnered with the New Israel Fund (NIF) to administer the grants.
The partnership focused the grants in three areas: helping Arab citizens in Israel, advancing civil and human rights, and promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Its largest single benefactor in the past two years is Adalah — The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which received $400,000.
The foundation's partnership with the NIF has been criticized for its choice of grantees, which were mostly liberal, according to Forward.
The criticism peaked after the 2001 Durban conference, where NGOs funded by the Ford Foundation backed resolutions equating Israeli policies with those of the South African apartheid regime.
Forward reported that Aaron Back, director of the Ford Israel Fund, said the decision to cease funding came after "an across-the-board review of all programs" and "significant changes in its priorities."
The Ford Foundation claims that since 1948, it has donated more than $70 million to programs in Israel.
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3. JFK Sought UFO Files 10 Days Before His Death
A newly released letter shows that 10 days before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy wrote to the head of the CIA demanding to be shown highly confidential documents about UFOs.
Author William Lester, who is researching a new book about Kennedy, says the CIA released the letter to him under the Freedom of Information Act.
Kennedy's letter, dated Nov. 12, 1963, has the subject line "Classification review of all UFO intelligence files affecting National Security," and asks for access to those files.
A second Kennedy letter released to Lester, written on the same date, was sent to the administrator of NASA and expressed a desire for cooperation with the Soviet Union on mutual outer space activities, according to Britain's Daily Mail.
Lester told AOL News: "One of his concerns was that a lot of these UFOs were being seen over the Soviet Union, and he was very concerned that the Soviets might misinterpret these UFOs as U.S. aggression, believing it was some of our technology.
"I think this is one of the reasons why he wanted to get his hands on this information and get it away from the jurisdiction of NASA so he could say to the Soviets, 'Look, that's not us, we're not doing it.'"
The Daily Mail pushes the envelope in its coverage of the story, headlining it, "Was JFK killed because of his interest in aliens?" But AOL News acknowledges that the president's interest in UFOs shortly before his death "is likely to fuel conspiracy theories about his assassination."
The story has already sparked renewed interest in the so-called "burned memo" that a UFO investigator claimed he received from an unidentified CIA leaker in the 1990s.
According to the investigator, the leaker said he worked for the CIA between 1960 and 1974 and pulled the document, marked Top Secret, from a fire when the agency was burning some sensitive files, according to the Daily Mail.
The memo from the CIA director refers to a group of military officials and scientists allegedly appointed by President Harry Truman to investigate the possible presence of aliens on earth. It also refers to "Lancer," which was Kennedy's Secret Service code name, and states, "As you must know, Lancer has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow."
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4. States Weigh 'Mileage Tax' on Vehicles
The Minnesota Department of Transportation believes that down the road, the increased use of fuel-efficient and hybrid cars will significantly lower gasoline consumption. That's good. But the lower consumption will lead to a reduction in gasoline taxes paid by motorists at the pump. That's bad.
So the DOT is testing technology that could someday be used to collect mileage-based fees from drivers. That's either good or bad, depending on the fuel mileage of a vehicle — drivers of hybrids will lose the savings they would otherwise see in gasoline taxes, while guzzlers would pay the same mileage fees as hybrids.
"We are researching alternative financing methods today that could be used 10 or 20 years from now when the number of fuel-efficient and hybrid cars increase and no longer produce enough revenue from a gas tax to build and repair roads," said Cory Johnson, the DOT's project manager.
Drivers in the research project will be given smartphones with a GPS application that has been programmed to monitor miles driven.
The DOT said, "If a mileage-based user fee were implemented, motorists would pay a fee based on how many miles they drive, rather than how much gas a vehicle uses," which is how Minnesota's revenue is currently collected, KARE 11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul reported.
Officials in Oregon, Iowa, Nevada, and Texas are also considering a mileage tax.
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5. We Heard . . .
THAT the Arizona state legislature has approved a measure creating a license plate that will allow drivers to express their support for the tea party movement.
The special "Don't Tread On Me" plate would feature the coiled rattlesnake emblem and yellow background of the historic Gadsden Flag, which has become a symbol of the tea party.
Lawmakers have proposed similar tea party license plates in Nevada and Virginia.
THAT a portrait of famed civil rights leader Andrew Young has been donated to the National Portrait Gallery and is on view in the museum's permanent collection exhibition "The Struggle for Justice."
Young, a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr., served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and was the first African-American mayor of Atlanta.
The portrait was painted by Ross R. Rossin, who has done two portraits that appeared on covers of Newsmax magazine, most recently the Ronald Reagan image for the February issue.
THAT Sen. Ted Kennedy's widow, Victoria Kennedy, has slashed $1 million from the price of the couple's former home in Washington, D.C.
The 6-bedroom, 6-bath mansion was privately listed for $8 million but remained unsold for two years. So Victoria, who has bought a smaller Washington home for $1.6 million, has reduced the price to $6,999,995, according to the Boston Herald.
The mansion features an indoor lap pool and a wine cellar grotto.
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