Anonymous ID: d3e3f3 May 24, 2019, 10:37 p.m. No.6584459   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4470 >>4568 >>4865 >>4884 >>4940

John Pinto, WWII Code Talker and Longtime New Mexico Lawmaker, Dies at 94

 

SANTA FE, N.M.—John Pinto, a Navajo Code Talker in World War II who became one of the nation’s longest-serving Native American elected officials as a New Mexico state senator, has died. He was 94. Senate colleague Michael Padilla confirmed Pinto’s death in Gallup on May 24 after years of suffering from various illnesses that rarely kept him from his duties. After serving as a Marine, Pinto was elected to the Senate in 1976 and represented a district that includes the Navajo Nation for more than four decades. The region is one of the poorest in the country.

 

“Words cannot express the sadness we feel for the loss of a great Diné warrior,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, using the indigenous word for Navajo. “He dedicated his life to helping others.” Born in Lupton, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation to a family of sheepherders, Pinto didn’t start formal schooling until he was nearly a teenager. “At the age of 12, I was in kindergarten,” Pinto told the Albuquerque Journal in a 2007 interview. “I guess I did all right.” Pinto also recalled that his grandparents told of being forced at gunpoint from their land in the 1860s by the U.S. Army in the forced relocation of the Navajo people on foot to southern New Mexico.

 

After serving as a Code Talker—a group of radio men who translated American coordinates and messages into an indecipherable code based on the Navajo language—Pinto had to take an English test four times before he was finally admitted into the University of New Mexico’s College of Education. He graduated with a bachelor’s in elementary education at 39, and eventually earned his master’s, becoming a teacher and a truancy officer in Gallup. Pinto delved into politics to address the needs of impoverished indigenous populations. He won a seat in state Senate in 1976 as one of the state’s first Native American senators. An unassuming appearance and manner belied Pinto’s political determination that carried him through 42 years in the Legislature. Laurie Canepa, the senior librarian for the Legislative Council Service, said that made him the longest-serving senator in state history.

 

Manny Aragon, the state’s one-time Senate president, tells the story of driving to the Statehouse in a January 1977 snowstorm and picking up a middle-aged Navajo man who was hitchhiking in Albuquerque. The hitchhiker was newly elected Sen. Pinto. “I just thought he was a transient,” Aragon said.

 

In the Legislature, Pinto advocated for education reform and anti-poverty programs. Receiving a lifetime achievement award in 2016, Pinto recalled going hungry at times as a child while his parents juggled odd jobs and said the experience influenced his work on issues of homelessness as a lawmaker. Every year, Pinto would sing on the Senate floor the “Potato Song”—a Navajo song about a potato, planted in the spring and visited in the summer until it is harvested. Fellow senators, staff and aides clapped along to Pinto’s rendition. Lenore Naranjo, the Senate’s chief clerk, says Pinto taught her bits of Navajo language over the decades. “A beautiful man is all I can say,” Naranjo said.

 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/john-pinto-wwii-code-talker-and-longtime-new-mexico-lawmaker-dies-at-94_2936122.html

Anonymous ID: d3e3f3 May 24, 2019, 10:47 p.m. No.6584501   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4568 >>4865 >>4884 >>4940

First American says product defect could have caused customer data exposure

 

(Reuters) - U.S. real estate title insurance company First American Financial Corp said on Friday it had learned of a design defect in one of its production applications that had made possible unauthorized access to customer data. The statement was sent in response to a report by security news website Krebs on Security, which said First American’s website had exposed about 885 million files dating back to 2003. First American said it had shut down access to the application and was evaluating the impact of the defect.

 

“We are currently evaluating what effect, if any, this had on the security of customer information. We have hired an outside forensic firm to assure us that there has not been any meaningful unauthorized access to our customer data,” First American said in an emailed statement. Digitized records including bank account numbers and statements, mortgage and tax records, social security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and drivers license images were available without authentication to anyone with a web browser, according to the Krebs on Security report. The report added that there was no information on whether fraudsters had been aware of the exposure.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-first-am-cyber/first-american-says-product-defect-could-have-caused-customer-data-exposure-idUSKCN1SV017?il=0

Anonymous ID: d3e3f3 May 24, 2019, 10:54 p.m. No.6584521   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4568 >>4865 >>4884 >>4940

Trump will tap ex-Virginia attorney general for U.S. immigration agency: Washington Post

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will pick former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Cuccinelli will replace L. Francis Cissna as the head of the agency, which manages the country’s legal immigration system. Cissna told staff in a farewell letter on Friday he had resigned at the president’s request, effective June 1, a USCIS official said. The White House is still figuring out what exactly Cuccinelli will be doing in his new role, the Post reported. A White House official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

As Virginia’s attorney general and a state senator, Cuccinelli developed a reputation as a hardliner. In Virginia, he called for denying citizenship to U.S.-born children if their parents are in the country illegally, introduced a proposal barring unemployment benefits to people who were fired from jobs for not speaking English and authorized law enforcement officials to investigate the immigration status of anyone they stopped. Cuccinelli will likely face a pitched battle for the Senate approval of his nomination, though it is controlled by Trump’s Republican party. Cuccinelli heads a political group that has clashed with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to block Cuccinelli from being confirmed for any administration position, according to media reports. He is also unlikely to receive much support from Senate Democrats. In April, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced her departure from the Trump administration, raising the specter of more firings of senior immigration officials.

 

Trump is seeking to overhaul the U.S. immigration system and has sought to crack down on illegal immigrants, but has been largely unable to enact the sweeping changes he has sought. Cuccinelli met with Trump on Monday and was expected to be picked for an immigration policy position by the president.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homeland-leadership/trump-will-tap-ex-virginia-attorney-general-for-u-s-immigration-agency-washington-post-idUSKCN1SU2J0?il=0