U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that it “will be very difficult” for Qatar to meet some of the demands that Saudi Arabia and three of its allies are making on Doha, but urged that they negotiate an end to the Persian Gulf diplomatic standoff.

Tillerson, in a statement a day after Qatar rejected the demands as unreasonable and impinging on its sovereignty, said, “there are significant areas which provide a basis for ongoing dialogue leading to resolution.” Tillerson did not say on what issues he thought Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the Saudis could reach agreement with Doha.

The four Arab governments, which severed diplomatic links with Qatar more than two weeks ago on grounds that it was fomenting terrorism in the region, delivered their demands to Qatar last week through mediator Kuwait. Among other items, the four countries demanded that Qatar shut down the Al-Jazeera television network, long a source of conflict between Qatar and its neighbors.

The four countries also demanded that Qatar end its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, al-Qaida and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. In addition, the four Arab governments want Qatar to downgrade links with Iran, turn over opposition figures it has been holding and shut a Turkish military base in the emirate.

Qatar said the demands confirmed “what Qatar has said from the beginning — the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy.”

Tillerson said that “a productive next step would be for each of the countries to sit together and continue this conversation. We believe our allies and partners are stronger when they are working together towards one goal, which we all agree is stopping terrorism and countering extremism.”

The top U.S. diplomat said that “each country involved has something to contribute to that effort. A lowering of rhetoric would also help ease the tension. The United States will continue to stay in close contact with all parties and will continue to support the mediation efforts of the emir of Kuwait.”
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Artifacts connected to some of the nation’s most notorious gangsters sold for more than $100,000 at auction Saturday.

A diamond pocket watch that belonged to Al Capone and was produced in Chicago in the 1920s, along with a handwritten musical composition he wrote in Alcatraz in the 1930s, were among the items that sold at the “Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen” auction. The watch fetched the most — $84,375 — according to Boston-based RR Auction.

The winning bidder of the watch was not identified. The buyer is a collector who has an eye for interesting American artifacts, said RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston. He was among about 30 internet, telephone and in-person bidders.

Capone’s musical piece entitled “Humoresque” sold for $18,750. The piece shows Capone’s softer side. It contains the lines: “You thrill and fill this heart of mine, with gladness like a soothing symphony, over the air, you gently float, and in my soul, you strike a note.”

Livingston told The Associated Press he wasn’t surprised that lyrics written by a man better known for organized crime than his musical talents sold at the auction because of the way Capone “resonates in the American imagination.”

“The musical artifact gives insight into who this man was,” Livingston said. “It humanizes him, and shows that he had an imagination and creativity. These people had talents and they used those talents, unfortunately for criminal endeavors.”

Livingston was referring not just to Capone, but to infamous couple Bonnie and Clyde. An autographed “So Long” letter written by Bonnie Parker and signed by Clyde Barrow just before their deaths sold for $16,250. A pair of Texas arrest warrants fetched $8,125.

Parker’s silver-plated, three-headed snake ring fetched $25,000. The ring was not made by Barrow — a skilled amateur craftsman who engaged in jewelry making, woodworking and leathercraft behind bars — as originally believed, according to RR Auction’s website.

Clyde Barrow’s nephew, Buddy Barrow, and Bonnie Parker’s niece, Rhea Leen Linder, were in attendance.

“I asked Buddy Barrow what his uncle would be thinking about the auction, he felt that Clyde would have said ‘make as much money as you can,”’ Livingston said.

A letter written by John Gotti, the reputed head of the Gambino crime family in New York, didn’t sell. The 1998 letter to the daughter of a mob associate urges the recipient to tell her father “to keep the martinis cold.”

 
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Homelessness is increasing in Los Angeles, and the signs are visible. From tents under freeways and shopping carts at street corners, to people begging for money outside fast-food restaurants, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles county has risen by 23 percent, to nearly 58,000. It is a life Destiny Prescott knows all too well.   

“I was sleeping in a car; I was sleeping at the beach, pregnant. I was four months pregnant at the time,” Prescott remembered. She grew up in an unstable home and ended up using drugs and alcohol, then lost her job and her home. 

Substance abuse is one cause of homelessness. Others include domestic violence, mental and physical disabilities. However, an even larger cause is due to economic factors. Peter Lynn, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said this occurs when a tight rental market develops in a city that already has a high poverty rate. 

“As the economy picks up steam, there’s more spending power [that] comes into the rental market, and a lot of it goes out again as rent increases,” Lynn said. “Rents are moving up $100, $200 [a month]. No one’s income is keeping pace with that.”

US homelessness down 3% overall 

Data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development covering 2015-2016, indicates a three-percent drop in homelessness nationwide, but at the same time, the number of homeless people increased in 13 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, home of the nation’s capital.

California is one of those 13 states, and it has one of the highest homeless populations in the country. 

In cities such as Los Angeles, “the rich are getting richer and the middle class is slowly disappearing,” said Tanya Tull, a homeless advocate who founded Partnering for Change, an organization that helps with stable housing for children and families. 

Venice, a beach community in Los Angeles, is a place where people in homeless encampments live side-by-side with residents of multimillion-dollar homes. 

“Residents find homeless people … defecating in their backyard,” said William Hawkins, chairman of the Venice Homeless Committee and a resident. 

“It’s not about criminalizing homelessness. It’s simply criminalizing criminal behavior and when you have an encampment like this, that from midnight to four o’clock becomes a night club and an area where people are doing drugs, it’s not fair to the residents,” said Hawkins. 

‘Housing First’ approach

To reduce the number of homeless people, one approach adopted by Los Angeles and other parts of the country is the Housing First model. These programs put homeless people into permanent housing without requirements such attending parenting classes or being free of addiction. Advocates say that by focusing on solving the housing problem without preconditions, people are better able to address the other problems in their lives. 

“The human mind needs to have a home, a safe space, and so whatever it takes we should be developing innovative approaches to creating those safe spaces that people control. It is a basic human right,” said Tanya Tull, who has been advocating for the Housing First approach for the last three decades. 

“You put them in housing and then you wrap around cares. You have home visits and case management and health care and mental health care,” said Tessa Madden Storms, senior director of development and communications for PATH, a family of agencies that work to end homelessness in California. 

Destiny Prescott and her daughter found help at a housing program called PATH Gramercy. 

“It makes me feel like a good mom,” explained Prescott. “We’re in our own space. We get to lock our door. We have our key. It just feels nice. It makes me feel good.” 

While Los Angeles works on building new housing and turning existing buildings into permanent housing for the homeless, advocates and citizens such as those in the Venice Homeless Committee also are working on other approaches, such as reuniting the homeless with their families.
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To see where Justice Neil Gorsuch might fit on the Supreme Court, watch the company he keeps.

Gorsuch has already paired up four times with Justice Clarence Thomas – the court’s most conservative member – in separate opinions that dissent from or take issue with the court’s majority rulings.

While the sample size is small, the results show Gorsuch’s commitment to follow the strict text of the law and a willingness to join Thomas in pushing the envelope further than the court’s other conservatives.

Gorsuch was picked by President Donald Trump to be a reliable conservative in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia. But the question after his confirmation hearings was how far to the right he would be.

The early trend of Gorsuch and Thomas acting together has pleased those who hoped Gorsuch would continue Scalia’s legacy and be another intellectual beacon for conservatives.

Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, tweeted Friday: “So far, his voting alignment closest to Thomas -excellent!”

The latest instance came Friday when Gorsuch issued his first written dissent in a minor case about a federal employee challenging his dismissal from the U.S. Census Bureau. The dispute was over where Anthony Perry could appeal a case that alleges violations of both federal civil service rules and laws prohibiting discrimination.

The court sided with Perry, ruling 7-2 that he could file his lawsuit in a federal district court instead of first waiting for a federal appeals court to consider part of his case. In dissent, Gorsuch faulted the majority for failing to apply the law as written.

“Anthony Perry asks us to tweak a congressional statute – just a little – so that it might (he says) work a bit more efficiently,” Gorsuch said, joined by Thomas. “No doubt his invitation is well meaning. But it’s one we should decline all the same.”

Later, he added: “If a statute needs repair, there’s a constitutionally prescribed way to do it,” Gorsuch said. “It’s called legislation.”

A day earlier, Gorsuch wrote a separate opinion when the Supreme Court unanimously limited the government’s ability to strip U.S. citizenship from immigrants who lie during the naturalization process. Joined by Thomas, Gorsuch said the majority ruling was correct, but he argued that following “the plain text and structure of the statute” was enough. He said the court went too far in announcing two new tests that would apply to future cases.

In a separate case decided Thursday, the court by a 7-2 vote refused to overturn the murder conviction of a Boston man whose lawyer failed to object when the trial judge closed the courtroom during jury selection. The court said that the error did not appear to affect the outcome of the case, even though it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.

Gorsuch agreed with the outcome of the case, but he signed on to a concurring opinion from Thomas that encouraged the court to reconsider whether the right to a public trial even extends to jury selection.

And last month, Gorsuch and Thomas disagreed when the court turned away an appeal from Louisiana Republicans seeking to ease limits on so-called soft money by political parties in federal elections.

A three-judge court in Washington, D.C., had earlier upheld the restrictions. Gorsuch and Thomas were the only justices who wanted the high court to set the case for argument and consider striking down the limits.

Thomas, appointed to the court in 1991, takes pride in his many dissents – often alone – insisting that the justices follow the original meaning of the Constitution even when that means overturning established case law. His absolutist stance has earned praise from conservative supporters. But critics point out that he rarely writes major opinions for the court because his views rarely align with the majority.

Like Gorsuch, Thomas did not wait long in writing his first dissent soon after joining the high court. It came in a 1992 case where a prisoner said his abusive treatment violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The court ruled 7-2 that the prisoner could sue prison officials after he was punched and kicked by guards. But in dissent, Thomas said the Constitution’s framers “simply did not conceive of the Eighth Amendment as protecting inmates from harsh treatment.” He was joined by Scalia.
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