News Daypop Archives

The White House said that President Donald Trump is proposing a plan that provides a path to citizenship for 1.8 million of the “Dreamer” immigrants, tighter restrictions on legal immigration and $25 billion in border security.  Senior White House officials offered a preview of Trump’s immigration framework Thursday, casting it as a compromise that could pass the Senate. The proposal represents a reversal for the president, who once promised to eliminate an Obama-era program protecting immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and now in the country illegally.  ...Read more

The Trump administration is offering a $3 million prize to revive domestic solar manufacturing, this coming after imposing tariffs opposed by much of the U.S. solar industry. The Energy Department said Wednesday that the American Made Solar Prize would help “reassert American leadership in the solar marketplace.” Earlier this week, President Donald Trump decided to impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on most imported solar cells used in solar panels. Most of the U.S. solar industry revolves around installing solar systems for homeowners and utilities, and those companies largely opposed the tariffs. A federal trade panel recommended the tariffs, which had been sought by two U.S. manufacturers. ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.  “I‘m looking forward to it, actually,” Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said of an interview with Mueller. “I would do it under oath.”  He later added his lawyers would have to work out the details and that there is no date set but it could be in two or three weeks. The president’s lawyers began meeting with Mueller’s team in December and have been discussing how the president would respond to the special counsel’s questions, including the possibility of sending questions in writing. Sources familiar with the meeting said earlier this month that Mueller wanted to speak with the president directly. ...Read more

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill, said she and her husband “are thrilled” to announce that she is pregnant with their second child, making her the first acting senator to give birth. The soon-to-be mother of two, who’s baby girl is due this spring, thanked friends, family and hospital staff for helping in their “decades-long journey to complete” their family. Duckworth is a decorated Iraq War veteran who lost both her legs in combat.  She was elected to the Senate in 2016 after previously serving two terms in the House of Representatives. The senator’s latest pregnancy news makes her one of 10 women to have a baby while serving their term in Congress, and Duckworth will reportedly be the first acting senator to do so. Duckworth, 49, first became a mom in 2014 after giving birth to daughter Abigail. She was a member of the House at the time.   ...Read more

A 15-year-old student killed two classmates and hit a dozen others with gunfire Tuesday, methodically firing a handgun inside a crowded atrium at his rural Kentucky high school. Seventeen students were injured, 12 of them hit with bullets and five others hurt in the scramble as hundreds of students fled for their lives from Marshall County High School.  The gunman kept firing until he ran out of ammunition and tried running away. Police arrested him moments later, leading him away in handcuffs to be charged with murder and attempted murder. Authorities did not identify the gunman responsible for the nation’s first fatal school shooting of 2018, nor did they release any details about a motive.  The attack marked the year’s first fatal school shooting, 23 days into 2018. ...Read more

Former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV vice president Alphons Iacobelli pleaded guilty on Monday in connection with a U.S. investigation into allegations he made at least $1.5 million in improper payments to senior union officials, the U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit said. Iacobelli, 58, a former Fiat Chrysler vice president of employee relations, was charged in July in U.S. District Court in Detroit with taking part in a conspiracy to pay prohibited money and gifts to United Auto Workers union officials. Sentencing was set for May 29. Iacobelli faces a statutory maximum of eight years in prison, and prosecutors said he will be required to repay $835,000.  ...Read more

Congress agreed to a short-term bill to fund the government for three weeks and end the three-day long federal government shutdown Monday after Senate Republicans provided assurances to Democrats that immigration reform and other contentious issues would be addressed in the near future.  After the Senate passed the bill by an 81-18 margin Monday afternoon, the House of Representatives concurred with the measure 266-150, sending it to President Donald Trump, whose signature would bring an end to the impasse. Between 700,000 and 800,000 federal employees were furloughed during the standoff, according to the Office of Management and Budget. ...Read more

The Senate will vote at noon on Monday on whether to cut off a Democratic filibuster of legislation to end the government shutdown, as the shutdown continues into it’s third day. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said there is still no agreement to pass the stopgap funding bill. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set the vote after Schumer blocked a bid for an immediate vote Sunday night. McConnell said he intends to bring up free-standing immigration legislation in February. Democrats have blocked a House-passed temporary funding bill to reopen the government’s doors through Feb. 16. The pending Senate measure would last through Feb. 8.  ...Read more

At least 15 people were injured on Monday when a train crashed into a barrier in the northwest of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, and were being treated by emergency services personnel, an ambulance spokesman said. Pictures taken at the scene showed the train had run into buffers at the end of the railway line at Richmond, about 40 miles northwest of central Sydney. The injured were being carried on stretchers into waiting ambulances. Train operator NSW Trains said on Twitter the train had hit a buffer at the end of the line. Television footage showed that it was still upright on the tracks and that its carriages did not appear to be crumpled. ...Read more

New details have emerged about the shocking abuse 13 children allegedly endured at the hands of their own parents when they were held captive in their own home in California. Riverside County district attorney Mike Hestrin revealed on Thursday that David and Louise Turpin’s 13 children, aged 2 to 29, had been tied up for years as a punishment; when one child managed to break free, the parents shackled them to beds with chains and padlocks and were not even released from their shackles to go to the toilet. Mr Hestrin said all 13 children were severely malnourished. The parents, who appeared in court on Thursday dressed in black and with their legs shackled, appeared calm as they plead not guilty to multiple counts of torture and abuse. Disturbing stories have been revealed, including that the couple would bring home food for themselves but not allow the children to eat it. A law enforcement official said that the children were served only one rationed meal per day and that several of the kids were cognitively impaired as a result of the starvation, had nerve damage because of the “extreme and prolonged physical abuse” and “lacked a basic knowledge of life”. He also revealed that the children were permitted to shower only once a year. ...Read more