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Q: Did President Barack Obama commission a life-size bronze statue of himself to leave in the White House?

A: No. That fake news story was intended for entertainment purposes only.

Did President Obama have a bronze statue made of himself to leave in the White House?

Reports that former President Barack Obama ordered a $200,000 life-size bronze statue of himself to be permanently installed in the White House are ubiquitous, but false.

Conservative Flash News posted the story on May 21, and Facebook users have flagged it as potentially fake. The phony story has actually been around a lot longer than that.

The earliest version we found was published on Dec. 31, 2016, on EmpireNews.net, which says it is intended for entertainment purposes only. Our website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figure or celebrity parody or satirization, the site states on its About/Disclaimer page.

Since then, many more sites have republished the made-up story, despite a line in the Empire News disclaimer saying its content may not be reprinted or re-transmitted, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.

Only some of the posts that we saw included a link back to the story on EmpireNews.net. And only some tagged the story as satire, making the intent clearer to readers.

The fake story claims that Obama ordered the statue with plans to have it permanently erected in the entryway of the White House, so that all who enter can remember me fondly. It also says that the statue will not be allowed to be removed, citing a bogus White House tradition that every president is allowed to leave one thing in the White House that must never be touched by future presidents.

Versions of the story on some sites even included a photo of a statue of Obama in the White House Oval Office, but the photo isa fake, too. The Oval Office didnt look like that when Obama was president, and the image doesnt show thecurrent decor, either.

The image looks to be a combination of two photos: one of a real statue of Obama outside of the Capitol building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the other of a replica of the Oval Office commissioned by a Texas man who collects presidential memorabilia.

Officials in Puerto Rico unveiled the bronze statue of Obama and one of former President Lyndon B. Johnson on Presidents Day in 2012. They were the latest additions to the Avenue of Heroes, which features statues of every president who visited the U.S. territory while in office, dating to Theodore Roosevelt.

The original story on EmpireNews.net featured the real photo of the Obama statue in San Juan, not a doctored image of the White House.

Editors note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebookto help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.

Conservative Flash News. Wow: Obama Ordered Life-Size Bronze Statue of Himself To Be Permanently Installed in White House. Conservativeflashnews.com. 21 May 2017.

Bob the Empire News potato. Obama Orders Life-Sized Bronze Statute of Himself To Be Permanently Installed in White House. Empirenews.net. 31 Dec 2016.

Empire News. About / Disclaimer. Accessed 6 June 2017.

Smith, A. Michael. WOW: Obama Orders Life-Sized Bronze Statute of Himself To Be Permanently Installed In White House. en-volve.com. 17 Jan 2017.

The Washington Feed. WOW: Obama Orders Life-Sized Bronze Statute of Himself To Be Permanently Installed in White House. Washingtonfeed.com. Accessed 6 June 2016.

The White House Museum. Oval Office. Whitehousemuseum.org. Accessed 6 June 2017.

Iovine, Anna. See the changes Donald Trump made to the Oval Office. Aol.com. 30 March 2017.

Associated Press. Puerto Rico honors Obama, LBJ visits with statues. Yahoo.com. 20 Feb 2012.

Lapidos, Juliet. The Off-White House: How much can an incoming president change the dcor at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? Slate.com. 21 Nov 2008.

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No Obama Statue in the White House - FactCheck.org

WASHINGTONSaying the finished work would become the definitive take on his time in the White House, Barack Obama reportedly submitted a collection of pages from his presidential graphic novel, Barack Obama: Renegade, to publisher Image Comics on Thursday.

The 16-page packet of artwork and sample issues, which Obama confirmed he has also mailed to Fantagraphics Books, Dark Horse Comics, and DCs Vertigo imprint, is said to serve as a proof of concept for what he envisions as a sprawling eight-volume memoir of his presidency. According to Obama, creating an authentic representation of his two terms in office has required him to use every tool of the comics medium, from dramatic splash pages in which he appears silhouetted behind the Resolute desk, to an extended dream sequence set on the eve of his 2012 reelection, which he said takes definite cues from the casual surrealism of graphic novelist Chris Ware in order to fully realize the emotional truth of the moment.

Ive poured everything into Renegades panels, and when its complete, it will depict these eight years of my life precisely as I experienced them, said the 44th president of the United States, who told reporters that he planned to pencil, ink, and hand-letter each page of the series himself. Readers will get a true sense of my time as president right from the opening of Volume #1: Preambles & Promises, where I cut between full-color panels of my first inaugural address and stark black-and-white illustrations of ordinary Americans disillusioned by the Great Recession, two protracted wars overseas, and a lack of access to healthcare.

Added Obama, By the time the editors over at Vertigo read the sequence where Im climbing the steps of the North Portico, and we suddenly flash back to a parallel scene of my origin story in Honolulu, climbing up a volcanic rock in the exact same pose, Im pretty sure theyll be hooked.

The idea for Renegade, which is expected to span more than 1,200 pages when completed, reportedly emerged in the aftermath of the disastrous 2010 midterm elections, when a brooding Obama would stay up late in the darkened Oval Office, drafting hundreds of variations on his concept art to nail the look of minor details such as the sunlit sheen on an MQ-1 Predator drone or the exact shade of primary antagonist John Boehners blue eyes.

Discussing his efforts to capture events on the page just as they happened in real life, the former commander in chief admitted he owed much to Y: The Last Man co-creator Brian K. Vaughan, whose masterful blend of rapid-fire action and political intrigue influenced his own approach to the bin Laden raid, which will appear in Volume #4: Infiltration & Exfiltration. Obama said he created a kinetic sense of motion by extending SEAL Team Sixs HK416 assault rifles into the pages bleed and lettering the onomatopoeic chh-chh-chh of the helicopters in such a way that the words wrap around their whirring blades.

Back in 2013, when I was really torn about how to respond to Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons, I started imagining myself as two different presidents simultaneously enacting two different policiesand suddenly I knew that was exactly how I had to illustrate this moment of my presidency, said Obama, whose graphic novel also features dual versions of himself that voice opposing sides of tense debates that play out within his mind. I started sketching right then and there: one set of panels in which I launch military strikes, and one in which I dont. Both end in disaster, showing that, in the end, no good choices were available.

I bet Batman: Year One illustrator [David] Mazzucchelli would be perfect for capturing the mood of a war-weary nation in those scenes, Obama continued, saying he would be open to collaboration with outside colorists. God, that would look so freaking cool.

Despite Renegades dense political narrative, the former president was quick to note it would also include moments of humor and even tenderness, such as episodes imagined from the perspective of first dogs Bo and Sunny Obama, and recurring romantic vignettes about first lady Michelle Obama, which will be painted in watercolors to provide a stark break from the more rigid inking used to portray his actions as the nations chief executive.

Obama stressed that, overall, his series would be gritty, heady stuff, and more akin to a novel than traditional superhero fare.

Generations from now, I want Americans to be able to read these pages and be confident theyre getting an unalloyed picture of my presidency, he said. Renegade will cover mature, difficult subjects, and some of it may require multiple readings to understand, but this graphic novel is the only way to accurately convey my experiences. I realize, of course, it may be a bit too much for more sensitive readers to handle.

Especially once you get into Volume #8, Obama added. Right at the beginning, Justice Scalia is killed off, and after that things start to turn dark pretty fast.

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Obama Sends Publisher Collection Of Pages For Presidential Graphic Novel - The Onion (satire)

In September 2014, Gilberto Velasquez, a 38-year-old house painter from El Salvador, received life-changing news: The U.S. government had decided to shelve its deportation action against him.

The move was part of a policy change initiated by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 to pull back from deporting immigrants who had formed deep ties in the United States and whom the government considered no threat to public safety. Instead, the administration would prioritize illegal immigrants who had committed serious crimes.

Last month, things changed again for the painter, who has lived in the United States illegally since 2005 and has a U.S.-born child. He received news that the government wanted to put his deportation case back on the court calendar, citing another shift in priorities, this time by President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has moved to reopen the cases of hundreds of illegal immigrants who, like Velasquez, had been given a reprieve from deportation, according to government data and court documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with immigration lawyers.

Trump signaled in January that he planned to dramatically widen the net of illegal immigrants targeted for deportation, but his administration has not publicized its efforts to reopen immigration cases.

It represents one of the first concrete examples of the crackdown promised by Trump and is likely to stir fears among tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who thought they were safe from deportation.

While cases were reopened during the Obama administration as well, it was generally only if an immigrant had committed a serious crime, immigration attorneys say. The Trump administration has sharply increased the number of cases it is asking the courts to reopen, and its targets appear to include at least some people who have not committed any crimes since their cases were closed.

Between March 1 and May 31, prosecutors moved to reopen 1,329 cases, according to a Reuters' analysis of data from the Executive Office of Immigration Review, or EOIR. The Obama administration filed 430 similar motions during the same period in 2016.

Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed the agency was now filing motions with immigration courts to reopen cases where illegal immigrants had "since been arrested for or convicted of a crime."

It is not possible to tell from the EOIR data how many of the cases the Trump administration is seeking to reopen involve immigrants who committed crimes after their cases were closed.

Attorneys interviewed by Reuters say indeed some of the cases being reopened are because immigrants were arrested for serious crimes, but they are also seeing cases involving people who haven't committed crimes or who were cited for minor violations, like traffic tickets.

"This is a sea change, said attorney David Leopold, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "Before, if someone did something after the case was closed out that showed that person was a threat, then it would be reopened. Now they are opening cases just because they want to deport people."

Elzea said the agency reviews cases, "to see if the basis for prosecutorial discretion is still appropriate."

POLICY SHIFTS

After Obama announced his shift toward targeting illegal immigrants who had committed serious crimes, prosecutors embraced their new discretion to close cases.

Between January 2012 and Trumps inauguration on Jan. 20, the government shelved some 81,000 cases, according to Reuters' data analysis. These so-called "administrative closures" did not extend full legal status to those whose cases were closed, but they did remove the threat of imminent deportation.

Trump signed an executive order overturning the Obama-era policy on Jan. 25. Under the new guidelines, while criminals remain the highest priority for deportation, anyone in the country illegally is a potential target.

In cases reviewed by Reuters, the administration explicitly cited Trump's executive order in 30 separate motions as a reason to put the immigrant back on the court docket. (For a link to an excerpted document: tmsnrt.rs/2sI6aby)

Since immigration cases aren't generally public, Reuters was able to review only cases made available by attorneys.

In the 32 reopened cases examined by Reuters:

--22 involved immigrants who, according to their attorneys, had not been in trouble with the law since their cases were closed.

--Two of the cases involved serious crimes committed after their cases were closed: domestic violence and driving under the influence.

--At least six of the cases involved minor infractions, including speeding after having unpaid traffic tickets, or driving without a valid license, according to the attorneys.

In Velasquez's case, for example, he was cited for driving without a license in Tennessee, where illegal immigrants cannot get licenses, he said.

"I respect the law and just dedicate myself to my work," he said. "I don't understand why this is happening."

Motions to reopen closed cases have been filed in 32 states, with the highest numbers in California, Florida and Virginia, according to Reuters' review of EOIR data. The bulk of the examples reviewed by Reuters were two dozen motions sent over the span of a couple days by the New Orleans ICE office.

PUMPKIN SEED ARREST

Sally Joyner, an immigration attorney in Memphis, Tennessee said one of her Central American clients, who crossed the border with her children in 2013, was allowed to stay in the United States after the government filed a motion to close her case in December 2015.

Since crossing the border, the woman has not been arrested or had trouble with law enforcement, said Joyner, who asked that her client's name not be used because of the pending legal action.

Nevertheless, on March 29, ICE filed a two-page motion to reopen the case against the woman and her children. When Joyner queried ICE, an official said the agency had been notified that her client had a criminal history in El Salvador, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The woman had been arrested for selling pumpkin seeds as an unauthorized street vendor. Government documents show U.S. authorities knew about the arrest before her case was closed.

Dana Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said that revisiting previously closed matters will add to a record backlog of 580,000 pending immigration cases.

"If we have to go back and review all of those decisions that were already made, it clearly generates more work," she said. "It's a judicial do-over."

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Reade Levinson in New York; Additional reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley in Washington; Editing by Sue Horton and Ross Colvin)

WASHINGTON An already contentious move by Republican President Donald Trump to block opposition Democratic lawmakers from getting information about his administration received its most scathing criticism yet on Friday - from one of the most powerful Republican members of the U.S. Senate.

WASHINGTON Trump said on Friday the United States is committed to Article 5 of the NATO charter, which requires each member of the alliance to come to the defense of any other.

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Exclusive: Trump targets illegal immigrants who were given reprieves from deportation by Obama - Reuters

The White House is systematically dismantling former President Barack Obama's legacy on labor and employment regulations, reversing course on changes Obama made to overtime law, business liability, federal contract bidding and worker exposure to harmful circumstances, among other policies.

The latest move came late Thursday when the Labor Department announced it would start the process of rescinding the "persuader rule," which forced labor lawyers to publicly divulge whenever they were hired by businesses. Previously the contracts only had to be divulged when lawyers spoke directly with workers. The rule, which unions applauded, was widely expected to cause many lawyers to stop the consulting altogether. A Texas court in April declared the rule unconstitutional.

Such efforts have been made easier by the Obama era changes being reinterpretations of existing rules or other uses of executive authority. That allowed the White House to adopt the changes without congressional legislation. It also has allowed its successor administration to undo those efforts with relative ease.

"Things of that nature are just a lot easier to rescind," Trey Kovacs, labor policy analyst with free market Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote in an email. "Some of it easier than other parts. You still have to (in most cases) follow the Administrative Procedures Act and give notice that you're making a new rule. That can take up to a year. But a lot of the Obama rules were taken to court."

In the latter cases, the administration can simply not fight the court if the rules are struck down. That's the apparent tactic the Trump administration is taking in regards to the Obama administration's rule expanding the number of workers covered by overtime. Under Obama, the annual salary a worker had to make before being exempted was raised to $47,000, more than double the previous level. A Texas court struck it down late last year, a ruling the Obama administration swiftly appealed. The Trump administration has requested two extensions from the court in filing a reply in the case.

On Wednesday, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta told the House Appropriations Committee he would likely reopen the overtime rule to public comment in the next few weeks. That move also would be necessary to officially undo the rule. Acosta has previously said doesn't believe the department had the authority to make the extensive change that it did.

"The litigation holding up the rules has given the Trump administration a perfect opportunity to pull back," noted Mark Neuberger, a labor attorney with Foley and Lardner.

Also on Wednesday, the department announced that it was rolling back an Obama rule that expanded the "joint employer" doctrine, the conditions for when one business can be held liable for employment and civil rights law violations at another company.

The announcement angered Democrats. "President Trump campaigned on his promise to defend America's forgotten workers, but his presidency has been defined by a shockingly anti-worker agenda. By rolling back workplace safety reporting standards ... and now denying millions of workers the overtime pay or time with their families they have earned, the president is betraying the same American workers he pledged to protect," said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration quietly withdrew a rule last month that allowed union representatives to accompany agency officials during inspections of non-union workplaces. Federal law allows OSHA inspectors to have worker representatives accompany them during inspections. Dubbed the "walk around" rule, it was originally restricted to employees at the workplace being inspected, but starting in 2013, that was expanded to allow union representatives.

In April, the Trump administration announced it was delaying enforcement of the new regulation for the construction industry regarding exposure to crystalline silica, tiny glass-like particles that can be harmful if inhaled. Originally scheduled to begin June 23, enforcement will now begin Sept. 23. The administration said that it needed "to conduct additional outreach and provide educational materials and guidance for employers."

Trump also has made extensive use of the Congressional Review Act to nullify actions by the Obama administration, including a March bill that rolled back a 2015 rule that forced bidders on federal contracts to disclose if they had ever been charged with labor violations. Business groups labeled it a "blacklisting" rule, since it could allow a union to undermine a company's chances at winning a bid just by filing a complaint.

The moves have cheered by Republicans. "This is another positive step toward undoing the damage of the Obama administration's extreme and partisan agenda. The regulatory guidance that is now reversed only served to empower union leaders while hurting small businesses, undermining economic growth, and limiting opportunities for hardworking men and women," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., chairman of the workforce protection subcommittee, in a joint statement.

However, the Trump administration is limited in what it can do to undo Obama-era rules, Neuberger says. Labor law enforcement, for example, is mainly conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, an independent agency. "They have to wait for the proper cases to bubble up before they overturn previous rulings," he said. Trump has yet to nominate candidates to fill the five-member board's two open seats.

A Labor Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.

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Trump is dismantling Obama's workplace law legacy - Washington Examiner

New York Times

Obama's Global Visits Inspire Wistful Comparisons of Then and Now New York Times Former President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany last month in Berlin, after a panel discussion marking the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's Reformation. Credit John MacDougall/Agence France-Presse Getty Images. and more »

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Obama's Global Visits Inspire Wistful Comparisons of Then and Now - New York Times