Author: Jack Gillum
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Absent glitter and Trump, journalists honor press freedom
WASHINGTON — Prominent Washington journalists, if not Hollywood stars, celebrated the First Amendment during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an event that lacked the glitter of past years because of the absence of the president of the United States. With President Donald Trump sending his regrets, the attention was no longer focused on an…
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AP Exclusive: US probes banking of ex-Trump campaign chief
WASHINGTON — U.S. Treasury Department agents have recently obtained information about offshore financial transactions involving President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as part of a federal anti-corruption probe into his work in Eastern Europe, The Associated Press has learned. Information about Manafort’s transactions was turned over earlier this year to U.S. agents working…
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WikiLeaks publishes CIA trove alleging wide scale hacking
WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks published thousands of documents Tuesday described as secret files about CIA hacking tools the government employs to break into users’ computers, mobile phones and even smart TVs from companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. The documents describe clandestine methods for bypassing or defeating encryption, antivirus tools and other protective security features…
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Political messages penned for Cuba Twitter program
WASHINGTON — Draft messages produced for a Twitter-like social media network that the U.S. government secretly built in Cuba were overtly political and some taunted the Castro family. The Associated Press obtained the messages in internal documents from the program. The new disclosures came as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development told…
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US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest
WASHINGTON — In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a U.S. government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government. McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission:…
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Audio: Newtown 911 dispatcher urged callers to take cover
HARTFORD, Conn. — As gunfire boomed over and over in the background, a janitor begged a 911 dispatcher to send help, saying, “There’s still shooting going on, please!” A woman breathlessly reported seeing a gunman run down a hall. And a teacher said she was holed up in her classroom with her children but hadn’t…
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AP Exclusive: Romney uses secretive data-mining
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s success in raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the costliest presidential race ever can be traced in part to a secretive data-mining project that sifts through Americans’ personal information — including their purchasing history and church attendance — to identify new and likely, wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned.…
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SPIN METER: Dems rake in special interest dollars
EDITOR’S NOTE: An occasional look behind the rhetoric of public officials. WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has sworn off special-interest money to pay for his re-election bid. But it turns out those dollars are fair game for congressional Democrats — to the tune of millions. An Associated Press analysis of campaign fundraising found that Democrats…