USA Today
A 10-year-old from El Salvador is the 6th migrant child to die in US custody in 8 months
The death toll of migrant children in U.S. custody in the past year rose to six on Wednesday after federal authorities acknowledged that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died eight months ago after being detained by border agents.
Ironically, the child — who died Sept. 29 — was the first migrant minor to die in U.S. custody in the past year. But her death was not reported by authorities until Wednesday, when CBS News broke the story.
The girl died while in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency that oversees the care of unaccompanied migrant children after they are caught by the Border Patrol.
The Washington Post
‘He always brings them up’: Trump tries to steer border wall deal to North Dakota firm
Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.
In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, according to the administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials.
Semonite was summoned to the White House again Thursday, after the president’s aides told Pentagon officials — including Gen. Mark Milley, the commander of the U.S. Army — that the president wanted to discuss the border barrier. According to an administration official with knowledge of the Oval Office meeting, Trump immediately brought up Fisher, a company that sued the U.S. government last month after the Army Corps did not accept its bid to install barriers along the southern border, a contract potentially worth billions of dollars.
Trump may sidestep Congress on Saudi arms deal
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are urging … Trump not to go over Congress’s head to complete controversial arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries amid concerns that he may soon use his emergency powers to sidestep lawmakers’ power to check such deals.
Lawmakers and human rights advocates are anticipating that the administration may exploit a legal window that permits the president to circumvent congressional roadblocks, or “holds,” on proposed arms sales. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has placed such a hold on a planned sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, over concerns that the weapons may be used against civilian targets in war-torn Yemen.
Such holds are common, and Republicans and Democrats have placed them on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf countries in recent years. Presidents have seldom exploited their emergency powers to work around them — and the prospect that Trump may try to blow through several objections to such arms sales has alarmed lawmakers, who are anxious to protect their authority to have a say on the executive branch’s ability to export lethal weaponry to foreign actors.
Bloomberg
Kushner Replied ‘On It!’ After Manafort Sought Post for Banker
Shortly after Donald Trump’s 2016 election, his onetime campaign chief Paul Manafort wrote to Jared Kushner to ask the incoming administration to consider giving a “major appointment’’ to Manafort’s banker.
“On it!” Kushner replied to Manafort on Nov. 30, 2016.
That email exchange, which was admitted as evidence during Manafort’s tax-fraud trial last year, gained new significance Thursday with the unsealing of a federal indictment in New York. The new filing accused the banker, Stephen Calk, of extending loans to Manafort as part of an effort to bribe his way into a plum administration job.
Almost 40% of Americans Would Struggle to Cover a $400 Emergency
Many U.S. households find themselves in a fragile position financially, even in an economy with an unemployment rate near a 50-year low, according to a Federal Reserve survey.
The Fed’s 2018 report on the economic well-being of households, published Thursday, indicated “most measures” of well-being and financial resilience “were similar to, or slightly better than, those in 2017.” The slight improvement coincided with a decline in the average unemployment rate to 3.9% last year, from 4.3% in 2017.
But despite the advance, the results of the 2018 survey indicated that almost 40% of Americans would still struggle in the face of a $400 financial emergency. The statistic, … Donald Trump’s boasts about a strong economy among Democratic politicians,
including 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, the U.S. senator from California.
Los Angeles Times
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, faces 17 more charges in new U.S. indictment
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks and a thorn in the side of intelligence agencies, faces 17 additional U.S. criminal charges under the Espionage Act, according to an indictment released Thursday, a step that 1st Amendment advocates warned could set a precedent for far-reaching restrictions on press freedoms.
British police removed Assange, 47, on April 11 from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought refuge seven years ago to avoid prosecution in Sweden in an unrelated sexual assault case… the new charges allege that Assange, who is currently fighting extradition to the U.S., unlawfully obtained and disclosed national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act. […]
The decision to move ahead with the prosecution comes against a background of tense relations between the administration and news organizations, which Trump has often referred to as “enemies of the people,” and amid an escalating effort to crack down on government officials who provide information to reporters.
Congress reaches deal on disaster aid: California gets funds, Trump’s border request doesn’t
Senate leaders reached agreement Thursday on a $19.1-billion package to help states recover from natural disasters, including the California wildfires.
The deal came after the White House agreed to give up on its demand for $4.5 billion in humanitarian border aid to be included in the disaster bill. Congressional Democrats — who blame the border crisis on … Trump’s policies — said they wouldn’t support the funding without new protections for asylum seekers.
The Senate approved the bill 85-8 Thursday afternoon after all 100 senators agreed to fast-track the legislation. The House could approve the legislation as soon as Friday if GOP and Democratic leaders agree to pass it, even though most members of the House left Washington on Thursday for a weeklong recess.
Tariffs pressure Chinese factories to upgrade or move, not to the U.S. but to a ‘second China’
The tit-for-tat trade war between Washington and Beijing is pushing some foreign manufacturers to move factories out of China — not to the United States, despite … Trump’s insistence that tariffs will bring back U.S. factory jobs, but to a “second China,” in Southeast Asia.
Even Chinese firms, which were already leaving over other issues, are speeding up their exits and changing the face of Guangdong province, once the manufacturing capital of the world. […]
It’s not just foreign companies shifting supply chains. Chinese companies are also moving to Vietnam, where they can avoid tariffs and pay one-third to half the minimum wage in Guangdong…
The Oregonian
Oregon Senate passes PERS reforms in ‘hardest vote of our lives’
The Oregon Senate suspended its rules on Thursday to rush a vote on Democratic leaders’ plan to rein in public employers’ rapidly increasing pension costs.
Senate Bill 1049, sponsored by Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek, passed 16 to 12. Republican lawmakers made the difference. Three of them voted in favor of the bill, while two potential Republican “no” votes were absent. Five Democrats voted against the bill. […]
The bill does not have any substantial impact on the pension system’s $27 billion deficit. And three quarters of the bill’s projected cost savings -- $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion in the 2021-23 budget cycle -- come from extending the minimum payment schedule on the deficit by eight to 10 years.
The Seattle Times
FAA will move first to approve the Boeing 737 MAX to fly again, possibly within weeks
During a break from an international gathering of air safety regulators from around the world, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made clear Thursday that his agency will move first to lift the order grounding Boeing’s 737 MAX and that such clearance could come as early as late June.
“When we get to the point where we can lift this order, we will do it alone,” said Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell, explaining that because the U.S. certified the original design, it must be first to certify the Boeing software fix for the flight control system that went awry on the fatal Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights.
Safety regulators elsewhere will make their own decisions after looking at the FAA’s data, he said. Some will accept it, while “other countries have already decided they will not only review our work but look at some other things of interest to them.”
State’s high court upholds $1,000 fines for rogue electors who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016
The “faithless electors” who defied both a pledge they had made and the will of Washington voters by casting their Electoral College votes for candidates other than Hillary Clinton in 2016 can be fined $1,000, as state law stipulates, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Four of Washington’s 12 Democratic presidential electors went rogue in 2016, with three casting their votes for former Secretary of State Colin Powell and one casting his vote for Faith Spotted Eagle, an activist in the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline. All had signed pledges to support Clinton if she won the state’s vote. […]
A Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled in 2017 that the fines were permissible. The state Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, upheld that ruling.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz calls special session to finalize state budget deal
The Minnesota Legislature will resume work Friday in a special session, with the goal of wrapping up a two-year, $48 billion state budget.
The announcement capped a week of closed-door talks between Gov. Tim Walz and House and Senate leaders scrambling to fill in details of state government budget bills left unresolved after the regular session of the Legislature ended amid discord at midnight Monday.
“I am proud that we came together across party lines to build a budget that will improve the lives of Minnesotans,” Walz said. “Now it’s our responsibility to take that budget across the finish line.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Jefferson City tornado rips roofs and walls from buildings; 3 dead in southwest Missouri
[…] The tornado caused heavy damage in Missouri's capital city as severe weather swept across the state overnight, causing three deaths in southwest Missouri and leaving many people trapped in the wreckage of their homes.
The National Weather Service confirmed the twister that moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight Wednesday, moving northeast at 40 mph. The capital city has a population of about 40,000 and is located about 130 miles west of St. Louis.
"Across the state, Missouri's first responders once again responded quickly and with strong coordination as much of the state dealt with extremely dangerous conditions that left people injured, trapped in homes, and tragically led to the death of three people," Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday morning, as the extent of damage was becoming clear.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Who has more lakes: Minnesota or Wisconsin?
New state Tourism Secretary Sara Meaney stuck her toe into the lake dispute May 9, 2019 during an appearance on "Wisconsin’s Afternoon News" on WTMJ radio.
"Wisconsin, many people may not be aware, actually has 15,000 freshwater lakes," she said.
"More than Minnesota?" asked host John Mercure.
"More than Minnesota," said Meaney. "Absolutely. We win. We win." [...]
But those numbers use vastly different definitions of "lake," with thousands counting toward the tally in Wisconsin that wouldn’t meet the definition in Minnesota. If both states used Minnesota’s 10-acre minimum standard — or really any other reasonable metric — Minnesota has about twice as many lakes.
We rate Meaney’s statement False.
Chicago Tribune
Long-stalled bill that would remove abortion restrictions in Illinois poised to move forward
An abortion rights bill that was stalled for months in the Democrat-led Illinois House appears to have some momentum amid an increased sense of urgency since several states have passed restrictive abortion laws.
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who is the bill’s sponsor, said that after a “productive” House Democratic caucus “and a pledge from (House Speaker Michael Madigan) that we’ll be able to move the bill forward” this week, she’s looking forward to advancing the measure. […]
The bill would repeal both the state’s Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Illinois Abortion Act of 1975, removing restrictions on the procedure later in pregnancy and expanding insurance coverage for abortions and related medical care as well as contraception.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez question Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about his ties to Sears
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday challenged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over his role in Sears’ bankruptcy.
In a four-page letter to Mnuchin, who was on the retailer’s board until December 2016, the two Democrats said they were “deeply concerned by the financial engineering and potentially illegal activity that took place at Sears Holding Corporation while you served on the company’s board. In addition, we are concerned that, as Treasury Secretary, you are in a position to take actions that benefit Sears’ shareholders and owners at the expense of workers and taxpayers.” […]
Mnuchin and other former members of the company’s board, as well as former chairman Edward Lampert, are being sued by Sears Holding Corp. for allegedly stripping the retailer of billions of dollars as it struggled before declaring bankruptcy.
CBS News
Pete Buttigieg accuses Trump of using wealth to dodge draft with "fake" disability
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg accused … Trump of using his "privileged status to fake a disability" to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War.
The Democratic presidential candidate and military veteran also talked about his own service record, drawing a contrast with the president, who has said he was exempted from the military draft because of bone spurs in his heel diagnosed in 1968.
"This is somebody, who I think it is fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place," Buttigieg said of Mr. Trump.
Facebook's fake accounts doubled in 6 months
Facebook said it saw a "steep increase" in the creation of abusive, fake accounts in the past six months. The company took down more than 3 billion fake accounts from October to March, twice as many as it did in the previous six months. […]
As a result, the company estimates that 5% of its 2.4 billion monthly active users are fake accounts. This is up from an estimated 3% to 4% in the previous six-month report.
Denver Post
Abortion cost Colorado Democrats in 2014. They’re counting on defeating Cory Gardner with it in 2020.
[…] NARAL, the abortion rights group, plans to remind voters of Gardner’s views, and Colorado’s field of 11 Democratic Senate contenders have jumped at the opportunity to show they’re the strongest abortion rights supporters. Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who is considering a Senate run, prohibited her employees from traveling to Alabama because of its strict anti-abortion law.
Among many Democratic strategists, a new conventional wisdom has emerged about the 2014 race. Udall had the right idea, they say. Criticisms of Gardner on abortion will stick in 2020, even if they didn’t in 2014, they say.
“Here’s what’s changed: Trump’s election and the courts,” said Laura Chapin, a Democratic consultant who has advised NARAL and is now aiding Alice Madden’s campaign for Senate. “That has really supercharged this discussion because it’s not hypothetical anymore. They have a clear path, through the courts, to overturn Roe (vs. Wade).”
Des Moines Register
Trump's second ag bailout will provide $16 billion for farmers slammed by trade wars
The federal government will send another round of aid — $16 billion — to help farmers reeling financially by … Donald Trump's ongoing trade war with China.
The trade assistance package would send $14.5 billion in direct payments to farmers, U.S. Department of Agriculture leaders said Thursday. […]
“Farmers across the country are struggling. Wet spring weather, trade disputes and tariffs and demand destruction in the ethanol market are forcing farmers to make difficult decisions," said Lynn Chrisp, a Nebraska farmer and president of the National Corn Growers Association board.
Falling corn and soybean prices have Iowa farmers worried about whether they can withstand another year of possible losses.
Kirsten Gillibrand focuses on care for the youngest, rural healthcare in new plan she will discuss in Iowa
To promote her new policy plan to support children and family, Democratic candidate Kirsten Gillibrand will stop in Iowa for a West Des Moines roundtable with Iowa women and lawmakers and visit Iowa Falls, which has struggled with child care options and had its hospital recently stopped delivering babies.
The New York senator's policy plan focuses on children and aims to tear down obstacles that American families, particularly low-income residents, face when caring for their younger children.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia DAs divided over prosecution of ‘heartbeat’ law
The anti-abortion “heartbeat” measure that Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed has split prosecutors who are trying to decide whether they’d enforce stiff new restrictions that impose new penalties on those who violate the law.
Some district attorneys say they wouldn’t prosecute anyone under the new crackdown. Some said they’d address each on a case-by-case basis. Some said they hadn’t reviewed it because they suspect the law will be tied up in the courts. And one raised the possibility of charging women seeking abortions.
The differences surfaced in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey of the 49 district attorneys across Georgia. The responses mirrored the larger battle over the law, which would outlaw most abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy when it takes effect in January — but faces a certain legal challenge before then.
Georgia governor tries to tamp down film, TV fallout over abortion law
Gov. Brian Kemp toured Atlanta movie facilities Wednesday to show his support for an industry facing mushrooming fallout over his decision to sign Georgia’s anti-abortion “heartbeat” measure into law. The damage, though, may be just beginning.
Several Hollywood figures announced this week that they’re pulling TV and film productions that were originally set to shoot here. And more actors, directors and producers announced they would not do business in Georgia if the stiff new restrictions take effect.
The blowback was evidenced by not just the high-profile celebrities who posted their disdain for the law on social media, but also by the projects that bolted more quietly. Kris Bagwell, who runs EUE Screen Gems in Atlanta, said he recently lost a Netflix movie that would have brought about 300 jobs.
New York Magazine
Slowly and Persistently, Elizabeth Warren Is on the Rise
In recent weeks, as most of the attention in the chattering classes has focused on Joe Biden’s presidential bid, something interesting has been going on a bit below the surface: Elizabeth Warren has emerged as the solidly third-place candidate behind Biden and Bernie Sanders. […]
You can add to that her enormous credibility among Democrats nationally when it comes to policy chops, which she has enhanced significantly during the early stages of the campaign, and the opportunity she may have to excel during this summer’s first two rounds of candidate debates. Her favorability ratings in her own party are solid; she’s at 57/16 in the Morning Consult tracking poll, with some room for growth. 28 percent of Democrats say either they’ve never heard of her or don’t know enough about her to form an opinion, as opposed to only 8 percent with no opinion of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. […]
It’s unclear how much Warren is still suffering from the poor impression she made with her handling of claims that she erroneously identified herself as Native American some years ago — claims that Trump and his allies have kept alive with their racist but effective “Pocahontas” sobriquet for her. But time is on her side. Generally speaking, presidential candidates who grow in strength in their own party ranks eventually develop better electability indicators.
Breaking: Nobody Knows What’s Going to Happen in 2020
“Who’s going to win?” I am now asked all the time, by friends and family members, by people I speak to professionally: “What’s going to happen?”
I don’t know, I tell them. I don’t know. I tell them what I hope will happen, what I guess might happen, but this isn’t sufficient: they want me to know, so that they can know. They look so disappointed when I tell them that I don’t have a clue. I must not be good at my job; I must not know the right people; if I did, I would have the secret numbers, I would have been offered passes to the special screening of The Future.
It’s not that I haven’t experienced, or expressed, this yearning for certainty myself. I remember asking the wife of a pollster to whom I was introduced on the weekend before the 2012 election, with a kind of ravenous, terrified desperation, “What’s going to happen?” I remember asking members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign that same question, with the same scared hunger, the weekend before the 2016 election.
Vox
Indian PM Narendra Modi and his party just swept India’s elections
The world’s largest democratic elections have concluded — and India’s pro-Hindu nationalist prime minister and his party are on pace to win by a landslide.
The early results from India’s weeks-long general election show a clear victory for incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which is leading in contests for 299 seats in the country’s 543-seat parliament. The BJP easily trounced its main rival, the Congress Party, led by Rahul Gandhi, the scion of a famous political dynasty. […]
India’s prime minister and the BJP swept into power in the 2014 elections with a majority win, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in 30 years, promising to clean up the pervasive corruption plaguing the country and improve the economy.
But once he came into office, Modi began pushing a strident form of Hindu nationalism that inflamed tensions with many of the country’s minorities, including India’s sizable Muslim population.
We asked the dads running for president what they do for child care
Beto O’Rourke came in for widespread criticism in March when he said that his wife Amy was raising their three children, “sometimes with my help,” while he ran for president. He later apologized, but the comment exposed a deeper reality: While male candidates can often count on a partner to take the lead on child care while they campaign, women rarely can do the same. […]
But asking only women that question perpetuates the idea that child care is women’s responsibility, something for them to figure out without the men in their lives. So Vox decided instead to ask all the male 2020 Democratic candidates with young children at home to describe their child care arrangements — who was caring for their kids, we asked, when they were off campaigning? […]
Four said their wives are primarily responsible for their kids while they are campaigning, though several said other family members pitch in from time to time. One said he sometimes swaps babysitting duties with a fellow congressman. Overall, their comments help make the often-invisible visible: Whether they’re running for president or working a 9-to-5 job, parents of all genders need some form of child care in order to do their jobs.
“Elizabeth Warren called me!” is turning into a meme
Elizabeth Warren is giving people a new reason to pick up their phones when a call comes in from an unknown number: She might be on the line. It’s a way for the Massachusetts Democrat to thank her backers. It’s also a savvy political strategy to highlight and spread her grassroots support.
Warren ignited a viral moment over the weekend when she replied to a tweet from comedian Ashley Nicole Black asking whether the 2020 candidate, whose 2020 mantra is that she “has a plan for that,” has a plan for her love life. “DM me and let’s figure this out,” Warren, seemingly out of nowhere, replied. […]
The “Elizabeth Warren called me” meme is a smart political strategy
What Warren is doing here is pretty straightforward: When a small-dollar donor gives money to her campaign through her website, they’re asked for some basic information, including their name, address, and phone number. That information comes in and her campaign picks out donors for her to call and thank.
The Guardian
Theresa May expected to name exit date on Friday
Theresa May is widely expected to announce on Friday that she will resign as Conservative leader, amid deep concerns among centrist cabinet ministers that candidates to be the next prime minister will have to promise a hard Brexit.
May’s allies believe that she will promise to step down as leader by 10 June after the state visit of … Donald Trump and then stay on as prime minister until her successor has been chosen. […]
The prime minister is under pressure to set out a timetable for her departure after being told in private meetings by foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid, the home secretary, they could no longer support her Brexitstrategy opening the door to a second referendum.
A predicted near-wipeout for the Conservatives at the European elections held on Thursday has added to the pressure on her to go.
UK government may face court action after EU citizens denied vote
The government is facing calls to launch an urgent investigation into the treatment of EU citizens in the European elections after many people reported being denied their democratic right to vote.
Voters across the country told of their devastation at finding their names crossed off the register due to clerical errors by local councils. Experts said the situation was a “scandal we knew was coming” and that the government may have a case to answer in court.
The affected voters said they felt they were being “silenced” as this was the only election they had a right to participate in, being ineligible to vote in the referendum or general elections.
'Stop it!' Japanese women turn to app to stop groping on trains
Almost two decades after the introduction of women-only train carriages, female commuters in Japan are turning to technology to tackle molesters on packed rush-hour trains.
The Digi Police app enables victims of groping to activate a voice shouting “Stop it!” at ear-piercing volume or bring up a full-screen message reading, “There is a molester. Please help” that they can show to other passengers.
Digi Police has been downloaded more than 237,000 times since it was introduced three years ago – an “unusually high figure” for a public-service app, according to police.
Reuters
JPMorgan cuts ties with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma
JPMorgan Chase & Co has cut ties with Purdue Pharma LP over the OxyContin maker’s alleged role in the U.S. opioid crisis, forcing it to find a new bank to manage cash and bill payments, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The move makes JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, the most high-profile corporation known to have distanced itself from Purdue and its wealthy owners, the Sackler family, amid thousands of lawsuits alleging the company pushed addictive painkillers while downplaying their abuse and overdose risks.
JPMorgan’s decision also underscores a drive among U.S. banks to reassess their relationships with clients and industries in response to controversy and political debates over matters such as immigration detention and mass shootings.
A pollution crackdown compounds slowdown woes in China's heartland
For years, China’s industrial heartland has been cloaked in smog, its waterways choked with pollution pumped from enormous clusters of factories churning out the mountains of cement and steel needed to build the Chinese economy.
Aiming to tackle what has become a huge public health problem, the authorities have cracked down on polluting industries, targeting provinces like Henan, which has a population of 100 million people and hundreds of factory towns. […]
Manufacturers across Henan have been particularly hard hit by the new environmental regulations, compounding the pressures the province faces from China’s slowing economy and a grinding trade war with the United States.
Iran says it will not surrender even if it is bombed
Iran will not surrender to U.S. pressure and will not abandon its goals even if it is bombed, President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, stepping up the war of words between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s top military chief said the standoff between Tehran and Washington was a “clash of wills”, warning that any enemy “adventurism” would meet a crushing response, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Tensions are festering between the two countries after Washington sent more military forces to the Middle East in a show of force against what U.S. officials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests in the region.
Merco Press