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(CNN)House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal is not backing down on his request for six years of the President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns, he writes In a new letter sent Saturday to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/13/politics/trump-tax-returns-house-letter-irs/index.html

The Latest on President Donald Trump and immigration (all times local):

9:20 p.m.

The Department of Homeland Security denies that President Donald Trump “indicated, asked, directed or pressured” Kevin McAleenan to do anything illegal.

Last week Trump urged his soon-to-be acting homeland security secretary to seal the southern border and told McAleenan he would pardon him if he were to find himself in trouble for blocking legal asylum-seekers. That’s according to two people familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private exchange.

It was not clear whether the president was joking, and a Homeland Security spokesman said in a statement: “At no time has the president indicated, asked, directed or pressured the acting secretary to do anything illegal.”

The reported conversation came during the president’s trip last week to Calexico, California.

—By Jill Colvin

———

4:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump last week urged his soon-to-be acting homeland security secretary to close the southern border — and said that he would pardon the official if he were to run afoul of the law.

That’s according to two people familiar with the private conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss what was said.

The conversation with Kevin McAleenan came during the president’s trip last week to Calexico, California, and a day after Trump told reporters that he was delaying his threat to close the border because Mexico appeared to be stepping up its efforts.

It was not clear whether the president was joking or why McAleenan would find himself in personal legal jeopardy.

A DHS spokesman says that, “At no time has the president indicated, asked, directed or pressured the acting secretary to do anything illegal.”

——By Jill Colvin

———

3:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump says that he is “strongly looking at” the idea of transporting migrants to so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Trump told reporters at the White House Friday that if leaders of those districts and municipalities really want to open their arms to immigrants, “we can give them an unlimited supply.”

He says: “They’re always saying they have open arms. Let’s see if they have open arms.”

White House and Homeland Security officials had said as recently as Friday morning that the “sanctuary cities” idea has been discussed, but quickly dismissed, after DHS lawyers voiced opposition.

Trump nonetheless revived it in a pair of tweets that took DHS officials by surprise.

——

12:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he’s “giving strong considerations” to placing “Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only.”

He tweeted that on Friday hours after the White House said the idea was no longer under consideration.

Trump is accusing Democrats of failing to overhaul immigration laws and tweeting that, “The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!”

The White House had said hours earlier that it had considered a plan to release detained immigrants into sanctuary cities but the plan had been quickly scuttled by lawyers and dropped.

Sanctuary cities are places where authorities don’t work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to round up those living in the country illegally.

The plan was panned by critics as an effort to use migrants as pawns to go after political opponents. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) calls the plan “disrespectful.”

———

12:20 p.m.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) says rounding up immigrants and shipping them to sanctuary cities is “disrespectful” to the nation’s challenges.

The California Democrat was asked Friday for her thoughts on reports that the White House had considered sending immigrants to places like New York and Pelosi’s San Francisco that don’t cooperate with federal immigration officials. Pelosi says the idea is “just another notion that is unworthy of the president of the United States and disrespectful of the challenges we face.”

Three people familiar with the idea said Friday that the White House considered a plan to release detained immigrants into sanctuary cities, a plan that critics branded as an effort to use migrants as pawns to go after political opponents. The people say Department of Homeland Security lawyers quickly rejected the proposal and it was dropped.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Matt Albence denies the White House pressured immigration officials to implement the idea.

———

9:05 a.m.

The White House considered going after political opponents by pushing U.S. immigration authorities to release detained immigrants into “sanctuary cities,” three sources familiar with the idea confirmed Friday.

They told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump considered the proposal amid his ongoing battling Democrats over border wall funding.

A White House official said the idea was floated and rejected. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions, said when administration officials suggested it to Department of Homeland Security officials and others, they were told it was “no-go.”

The Washington Post said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco was among the targets.

Sanctuary cities are places where authorities don’t work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to round up those living in the country illegally.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/latest-pelosi-plan-immigrants-disrespectful-62358768

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More than 70 MPs and peers have signed a letter urging the home secretary to ensure Julian Assange faces authorities in Sweden if they want his extradition.

The Wikileaks founder, who is now in UK custody, was arrested on Thursday after years in Ecuador’s London embassy.

Sweden is considering whether to reopen an investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations against him.

And the US is seeking his extradition in relation to one of the largest ever leaks of government secrets, in 2010.

The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents covering everything from the film industry to national security and war.

The Swedish case

Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied.

At the time, the Australian-born 47-year-old said he had had entirely consensual sex with two women while on a trip to Stockholm, and that the Swedish claims against him were part of a smear campaign.

Swedish prosecutors dropped a rape investigation into Assange in 2017 because they were unable to formally notify him of allegations while he stayed in the embassy.

Two other charges of molestation and unlawful coercion had to be dropped in 2015 because time had run out.

But Swedish prosecutors say they are now re-examining Assange’s case at the request of the lawyer acting for the alleged rape victim.

The letter

In their letter to Sajid Javid, 70 parliamentarians – chiefly Labour MPs and peers – urged him to “stand with the victims of sexual violence” and ensure the rape claim against the Wikileaks founder could be “properly investigated”.

“We do not presume guilt, of course, but we believe due process should be followed and the complainant should see justice be done,” the letter said.

Labour’s Stella Creasy tweeted a copy of the letter sent to Mr Javid.

The same letter was also sent to shadow home secretary Diane Abbott.

Speaking to the BBC, one of the letter’s signatories, Stephen Kinnock, said the events surrounding Assange had “become politicised”, and that the letter was intended “to underline the point that first and foremost Mr Assange is accused of rape and sexual violence in Sweden”.

“It is vital that doesn’t get airbrushed out of the conversation.”

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said on Friday evening that Assange should be extradited to Sweden before any attempt to get him to the US.

She said she was “disgusted” the US allegation had been “allowed to eclipse” the sex offence case.

The arrest

Assange was dramatically arrested by UK police on Thursday after Ecuador abruptly withdrew its asylum.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court found him guilty of a charge of breaching bail later that day. He faces up to 12 months in prison for that conviction.

The letter from parliamentarians says both UK and US authorities seem to have been aware in advance of Ecuador’s decision to rescind Mr Assange’s political asylum, but said it was a matter of “grave concern” that Swedish authorities did not appear to be aware of the impending arrest.

Media captionVideo footage shows Julian Assange being dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London

On Friday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the UK government should not extradite Julian Assange to the US.

The US case

The United States alleges that Assange conspired with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to access classified information on Department of Defense computers.

Documents published by Wikileaks relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.

The US has already charged Assange with a single count of participating in the hacking of intelligence computers to reveal controversial intelligence operations in the United States.

If found guilty, Assange could be jailed for up to five years.

What happens next?

Extradition proceedings are dealt with by the courts.

According to the Home Office, the home secretary can bring a limited number of factors into consideration when deciding whether to order a person’s extradition.

These include whether the person might be at risk of the death penalty or whether the requesting state might try to add additional charges it has not specified.

Lawyer Rebecca Niblock said that, if Sweden made an extradition request, it would be for the home secretary to decide which would take precedence, considering factors such as which was made first and the seriousness of the offence.

The rape allegation in Sweden has a limitation period which expires in August 2020; inquiries into claims of molestation and unlawful coercion have already been timed out.

Assange is due to face a hearing over his possible extradition to the US on 2 May.

His lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said they would be fighting the extradition request. She said it set a “dangerous precedent” for journalists publishing information about the US.

The UN has called for his right to a fair trial to be respected during any extradition process.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47917325

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Updated 9:02 AM ET, Sat April 13, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

(CNN)Tax day isn’t until Monday, but there have already been some surprises for Americans filing their first income tax returns under President Donald Trump’s 2017 law.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/13/politics/tax-reform-winners-and-losers/index.html




Know about college admissions wrongdoing? Tell us here.

A Harvard graduate, Mark Riddell had an uncanny knack for standardized tests, able to calibrate his answers perfectly to get any score.

His mastery made him an invaluable commodity in the college admissions bribery scheme, an SAT and ACT ringer who doctored entrance exams or took the tests on behalf of students at least 25 times, prosecutors said Friday in federal court in Boston. He was paid a total of $240,000, they said.

Riddell, a 36-year-old former tennis pro from Palmetto, Fla., pleaded guilty Friday to two federal felony charges in connection with the nationwide college admissions scandal.

He faces a sentence of 33 to 41 months in prison under sentencing guidelines, and is the latest defendant to plead guilty in the college admissions cheating scheme that helped the children of celebrities and wealthy power brokers get into elite colleges that otherwise may not have accepted them.

Many of the students were unaware of the fraud. But in at least one case, the daughter of a Silicon Valley hedge fund leader was there when Riddell helped her with the SAT, and gloated about it afterward, prosecutors say.


“They celebrated the successful cheating on the car ride to Riddell’s hotel,” Assistant US Attorney Eric S. Rosen told a federal judge Friday.

After his arrest, Riddell was placed on leave from his job as director of college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy, a private prep school in Florida that coaches elite high school athletes.

Dressed in a navy blue suit and wearing a black scarf, Riddell appeared calm as he sat in US District Court and told Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton that he understood the charges.

“I’m here to plead guilty to fraud for cheating on the SAT and ACT test,” he told the judge.

Riddell admitted to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud, and to conspiracy to money laundering. He was paid $10,000 for each fraudulent test, prosecutors said.

He is slated to be sentenced July 18. His attorney, Benjamin Stechschulte of Florida, said he would not comment on the case.

The scheme was carried out in two ways: Riddell and others would help students cheat on tests, or fix their scores, with the test proctors allegedly having knowledge of the fraud; or, those involved in the scheme would bribe athletic coaches to list potential students as recruits, which could facilitate their admission, even if the student had never played the sport competitively before, and wouldn’t for the college.

The alleged architect, William “Rick” Singer, 58, of California, who authorities say collected $25 million, has already pleaded guilty and is slated to be sentenced on June 19.

Singer is cooperating with investigators and helped unravel the conspiracy. Authorities say he set up a set up fake charitable organizations that collected bribes from wealthy parents, and funneled the money to coaches and others, such as Riddell, who helped falsify test scores.

Earlier this week, 13 parents, including Hollywood actress Felicity Huffman, said they plan to plead guilty to a sole count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Separately, 16 other parents, including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were indicted this week on money laundering charges.

The parents allegedly paid bribes ranging from $50,000 to $1.2 million.

Prosecutors have said Riddell knew the material in tests well enough, without any advance information, to help students score well, but not so well that the scheme would raise suspicion.

“Just a really smart guy,” US Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters in March.

He first helped fix a student’s scores in 2011, Rosen said. He traveled to Vancouver, Canada, where he used fake identification and posed as the older son of David Sidoo, a Canadian businessman, to take the son’s SAT test. The son was admitted to Chapman University in California. Another son was admitted to the University of California Berkeley, allegedly with Singer’s help.

Sidoo allegedly paid Singer $300,000. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The student who allegedly celebrated the cheating with Riddell was the daughter of Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez, who allegedly paid $450,000 to Singer, for helping to fix the scores for two daughters, and for bribing a Georgetown tennis coach. The couple has been charged with mail fraud and money laundering.

Federal authorities have also charged several people involved in the scheme, including two people who oversaw the SAT and ACT tests in Texas and California, with racketeering.

After Riddell’s arrest last month, he released a statement through his attorney apologizing “for the damage I have done and grief I have caused . . . as a result of my needless actions.”

“I understand how my actions contributed to a loss of trust in the college admissions process,” he said.

“I will always regret the choices I made,” he added. “But I also believe that the more than 1,000 students I legitimately counseled, inspired, and helped reach their goals in my career will paint a more complete picture of the person I truly am.”

Milton Valencia can be reached at Milton.Valencia@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MiltonValencia

Source Article from https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/12/test-taker-college-admissions-cheating-scam-slated-plead-guilty-friday-boston/NWnRQq3slzuQ12BHmsxG0L/story.html

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Seoul (CNN)North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is calling on the US to stop “its current way of calculation” if it is interested in continuing diplomatic talks, according to a report from the country’s state news agency KCNA.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/12/politics/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-nuclear-talks/index.html

In this March 24, 2019 photo, The White House is seen behind security barriers in Washington. A White House official turned whistleblower says dozens of people in President Donald Trump’s administration were granted access to classified information despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct.

Cliff Owen/AP


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Cliff Owen/AP

In this March 24, 2019 photo, The White House is seen behind security barriers in Washington. A White House official turned whistleblower says dozens of people in President Donald Trump’s administration were granted access to classified information despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct.

Cliff Owen/AP

Civil servant Tricia Newbold recently became a whistleblower, approaching a federal government watchdog and Congress to report senior officials overturning security clearance denials for White House staff.

She is protected from retaliation under the Whistleblower Protection Act, which marks its 30th anniversary this week. Since the law was enacted the number of people exposing government wrongdoing has gone up — and so has bipartisan support for protecting those who speak out.

But it’s not without its risks. Robert MacLean was a federal air marshal in 2003 when he told the public that the Transportation Security Agency cancelled air marshal coverage on long-haul flights to cover budget shortfalls.

“Everybody in my neighborhood and my family thought I was insane, and I was fighting a futile fight,” he told NPR. “It’s infuriating because you know what the truth is. And the officials know what the truth is. But they’re going to ignore you.”

The TSA reversed its position, but it also fired him for releasing information about the threats to U.S. aviation. MacLean fought it, winning a Supreme Court battle for reinstatement in 2015. Then he was fired again this year.

If a whistleblower reports waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to public health or safety, they have legal rights.

The last three decades have seen a number of notable and sometimes controversial whistleblowers, such as Dr. David Graham, a researcher at the Food and Drug Administration who said his agency had ignored warnings that the painkiller Vioxx had lethal side effects; and Franz Gayl, a Marine corps whistleblower who raised the alarm about troops lacking properly armored vehicles that would protect them from IEDs. In both cases the government was forced to change their policies.

As the legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a nonpartisan law firm that aids whistleblowers, Tom Devine has worked with about 7,000 of them over the last 40 years.

He helps these individuals tell their stories by providing them a legal defense — and says he sees one similar trait in their motivations for going public.

“The common characteristic is that they have to act on their knowledge in order to be true to themselves,” Devine said. “If they don’t, what they concealed is something that will be haunting them like a cancer in their soul for the rest of their lives, particularly if there’s some consequences from them not speaking out.”

And more are choosing to speak out. The number of reports against waste, fraud and abuses at federal agencies has increased dramatically over the last thirty years.

The Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency unrelated to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, is tasked with protecting federal whistleblowers from retaliation.

In 1988, the office received just 120 whistleblower disclosures. Last year, the OSC received 1,559 new cases — the fifth year they have received more than 1,500.

“When I first came to the Government Accountability Project whistleblowers were generally considered nutty or traitors betraying their colleagues,” Devine said. “Now whistleblowers are lionized as the public’s eyes and ears.”

And as the cultural view towards whistleblowers have changed, so have the legal protections, which have been updated over the past 30 years and most recently in 2012.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who chairs the Oversight subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the law, says it’s essential for keeping government honest.

“I’m glad we have it. I think it is an important tool in accountability,” he told NPR.

At a time when the left and right can’t seem to agree on legislative priorities or even which topics are worth congressional investigation, they both agree on whistleblower protection — but for different reasons.

Pete Sepp, from the conservative National Taxpayers Union, explains that, “as a fiscal conservative whistleblower protection means taxpayer protection.” But Shanna DeVine, from the progressive advocacy group Public Citizen, told NPR that “whistleblowers are the public’s eyes and ears to abuses of power that betray the public trust.”

It’s this broad consensus, formed by different ideological justifications, that is the strongest assurance of keeping or even strengthening these safeguards in years to come.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/13/712006370/whistleblower-protections-key-tool-to-investigators-probing-waste-and-abuse-of-p

“I inherited this situation,” Mr. Moreno said in a video address this week.

Fernando Cutz, a former senior adviser to H.R. McMaster, the former national security adviser, and a Latin America policy specialist at the White House, acknowledged that American officials regularly spoke with their Ecuadorean counterparts about handing over Mr. Assange.

But Mr. Cutz argued that Ecuadorean officials did not simply cave to American demands. They wanted Mr. Assange gone as well, he said.

“We would definitely raise it with Ecuador,” Mr. Cutz said. “It was a bilateral irritant, without a doubt. But I don’t think the U.S. pressure ended up being the reason for this move. Bettering relations with the U.S. was just the icing on the cake for Moreno. Assange was his own worst enemy.”

Mr. Assange’s odyssey with Ecuador began in 2012, when he skipped a bail hearing to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in connection to accusations of “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.”

Ecuador’s president at the time, Rafael Correa, had been criticized in his own country for a crackdown against the press. But in Mr. Assange, the Ecuadorean president found a symbol of his challenge to the United States, which he called an imperialist power. Mr. Assange was free to stay in the embassy as long as he pleased, Mr. Correa said.

But by 2016, a change in power was afoot in both the United States and in Ecuador. Hillary Clinton, who had run the State Department during the enormous leak of information by WikiLeaks in 2010, was running for president. Mr. Assange also had reason to worry about the coming election in Ecuador, where his stay in the embassy was becoming a campaign issue as well.

On Oct. 7, 2016, a tape was leaked showing Mrs. Clinton’s opponent, Donald J. Trump, boasting of sexually harassing women while filming a segment for the show “Access Hollywood,” sending Mr. Trump’s campaign into a major crisis.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/world/europe/ecuador-assange-wikileaks.html

It’s a dead giveaway.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would consider it punishment were her city saddled with more undocumented migrants while they await their court hearings.

The thrust of a Washington Post report on Friday, citing anonymous Department of Homeland Security “officials,” was that the White House had asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement about unloading illegal immigrants detained at the border in places proudly known as “sanctuary cities.”

Pelosi’s office said the suggestion exposed the administration’s “cynicism and cruelty” in “using human beings … as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants…”

The whole point of sanctuary cities, from the standpoint of their lawmakers, is that illegal immigrants need a safe place to evade deportation. Illegal entrants and asylum seekers, after all, are only here to pursue a better life for themselves and their families (and all the better if Democrats can load them up on welfare).

Why, then, would a city like San Francisco, which lies in Pelosi’s district, not leap at the chance to bring in more of their well-meaning friends?

Outside of providing more beds, free healthcare, and free child services, courtesy of the American taxpayer, Democrats in Congress have shown no interest in doing anything about the hundreds of thousands of migrants making their way to the U.S. from Central America.

Wouldn’t these well-meaning foreigners be best served in cities like New York, Boston, and Seattle, where local authorities refuse to comply with federal agents in deporting illegal aliens?

The Post’s story never really demonstrates that the intent of the White House was to “retaliate against President Trump’s political adversaries,” as the article puts it. It cites unnamed sources who claim that was the purpose but, even though the story’s authors, Rachel Bade and Nick Miroff, said they reviewed “email messages,” the one email by a White House official in the report is completely innocuous.

“The idea has been raised by 1-2 principals that, if we are unable to build sufficient temporary housing, that caravan members be bussed to small- and mid-sized sanctuary cities,” White House deputy policy coordinator May Davis said in an email dated Nov. 16, according to the report. “There is NOT a White House decision on this.”

That’s it. That’s the one supposedly damning email sent by someone from the White House included in the Post’s story.

Acting Deputy Director of ICE Matthew Albence replied to the email, suggesting that transporting aliens long distances from the border would be yet another strain on the agency and that there were liability concerns if anyone were hurt during the trip. In a statement to the Post, Albence denied that he was ever “pressured by anyone at the White House on the issue” and that he was merely “asked my opinion” and that his advice was heeded. A statement from the White House said effectively the same thing.

Yet, even if the proposal was crafted as a politically cynical move, it doesn’t explain why Democrats wouldn’t eagerly invite more illegals or undocumented asylum seekers into the districts and cities that are supposed to be the most welcoming. Pelosi had said herself Thursday, “Of course there’s room and there’s a need” for more immigrants showing up at the border.

Okay, but not in San Francisco!

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/shouldnt-nancy-pelosi-want-detainees-released-into-her-sanctuary-city

For $15,000 to $75,000 a test, Singer, the scheme’s admitted mastermind, would bring in Riddell — whom he called “brilliant,” his “expert test-taker” and a man capable of “magic.” Riddell would fly from his Florida home to testing centers in Vancouver, Canada; Houston and West Hollywood, where he would ensure the children of Singer’s clients received whatever score on the SAT or ACT their parents desired, prosecutors alleged.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-college-admissions-scandal-riddell-plea-20190412-story.html

Sen. Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerBooker on Trump reportedly floating pardon for border official: ‘That should shake every American’ Georgetown students vote overwhelmingly to approve fee for slavery reparations Two dozen Dem senators urge Trump to extend nuclear treaty with Russia MORE (D-N.J.) hammered President TrumpDonald John TrumpAppeals court rules Trump admin can temporarily continue to send asylum seekers back to Mexico Federal investigation finds rampant sexual harassment at company led by Trump nominee: report Booker on Trump reportedly floating pardon for border official: ‘That should shake every American’ MORE for reportedly telling the head of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that he would pardon him if he were jailed for violating immigration law. 

“That should shake every American. We basically have a president telling people to break the law and that he will pardon you,” Booker, one of more than a dozen Democrats running for president, told MSNBC host Joy Reid.

“And again, we’re sitting in Newark where kids are going to prison for things that two of the last three presidents admitted to doing and nobody’s pardoning them,” he said, referring to smoking marijuana. 

CNN first reported Friday that Trump made the remark to CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan during a visit to the border at Calexico, Calif. McAleenan is now Trump’s pick to serve as acting Homeland Security Secretary following Kirstjen NielsenKirstjen Michele NielsenBooker on Trump reportedly floating pardon for border official: ‘That should shake every American’ Nadler on new Trump ‘sanctuary cities’ plan: ‘morally repugnant and probably illegal’ Trump told border official he’d pardon him if he went to jail over immigration moves: CNN MORE’s resignation.

Trump reportedly told McAleenan he ”would pardon him if he ever went to jail for denying U.S. entry to migrants,” according to two anonymous officials briefed on the conversation. 

“At no time has the President indicated, asked, directed or pressured the Acting Secretary to do anything illegal,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said in a statement to The Hill. “Nor would the Acting Secretary take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law.” 

It was reported earlier this week that during his trip to Calexico, Trump also urged CBP agents to block migrants from entering the U.S., which would break federal immigration laws and court orders.

Trump has doubled down on his hard-line immigration tendencies in recent weeks, threatening to close the border with Mexico, cutting off funding to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and overseeing a purge at the Department of Homeland Security.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/438734-booker-on-trump-reportedly-floating-pardon-for-border-official-that-should

General Electric (NYSE:GE) and The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA)have a lot in common. Their futures are intrinsically linked through their common interest in aviation, as General Electric engines and systems are used on many of Boeing’s airplanes. And both companies have suffered in the aftermath of the two recent Boeing 737 MAX crashes. Let’s take a look at the salient points behind recent events in order to see which stock might be worth buying — or avoiding — as a consequence.

Near-term impact

There’s no point avoiding the elephant in the room: The recent tragedies will definitely have an impact on both companies, although it’s hard to know exactly what that will be near-term or, more importantly, in the long-term.

Boeing needs to restore confidence Image source: Getty Images.

Aside from possible legal liabilities Boeing might have to pay, the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX and consequent production cut from 52 airplanes per month to 42 airplanes per month (starting in mid-April) are going to hit Boeing’s profitability — not least because its margin expansion is partly contingent on volume growth.

Of course, this will also have an impact on General Electric, because it has a joint venture with Safran, called CFM International, that makes LEAP engines for the 737 MAX. In GE’s case, the near-term impact is rather harder to assess, for two reasons.

First, CFM is playing catch-up on LEAP production, so a slowing of 737 MAX production might ease some production tension. For example, on the last earnings call GE’s CFO Jamie Miller said: “We’re still behind on deliveries by about four weeks, but the business expects to be back on schedule by mid-2019.” Moreover, the delays are believed to be on the LEAP-1B for the Boeing 737 MAX, rather than the LEAP-1A, which is used for the Airbus A320neo family. 

Second, producing LEAP engines has a negative impact on GE Aviation’s margin, so producing less of them could actually lead to a near-term increase in profitability. ] o be clear,T though, the LEAP engine will generate significant earnings and cash flow from aftermarket/service revenue in the future, and the last thing GE wants to do is to have to slow LEAP production.

Both companies are going to see a near-term impact from the recent events, which will definitely be negative in Boeing’s case. But what about long-term impacts?

The glass half full

The positive scenario sees Boeing successfully providing a software update to its Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) to add extra layers of protection if the angle of attack (AOA) sensors give erroneous information.  

For reference, the AOA sensors are like weather vanes, and are used to measure the difference between a wing’s chord line and the direction of air flowing past it. With an elevated level, the plane can stall, so MCAS (a computer-controlled system on the 737 MAX) pushes the nose down automatically. Unfortunately, it appears that erroneous information from an AOA sensor caused MCAS to be triggered, and pilots from both Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were unable to stop the plane crashing.

Assuming an optimistic outcome, the 737 MAX would be flying again in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, confidence could be rebuilt, just as consumers regained their confidence in Airbus after it had a similar problem with erroneous information from an AOA sensor in 2014 — that time pilots were able to save the plane by disengaging a sensor.

The glass half empty

The pessimistic outlook sees the risk that the problem could turn out to be something more fundamental to the Boeing 737 MAX — something that would hurt Boeing, and, in turn, General Electric.

Looking at the two preliminary reports on the separate crashes, the data is clear that, in both cases, one AOA sensor was giving erroneous information. Indeed, the Ethiopian Government report summary states that “after takeoff, the Angle of Attack sensor recorded value became erroneous.”

It’s a very rare occurrence, but not unheard of. It happened on two Airbus planes previously, resulting in a crash near Perpignan in 2008 and an incident near Bilbao in 2014. In both cases two AOA sensors in the plane gave erroneous readings — believed to be caused by them freezing as the planes ascended into subzero temperatures.

The Boeing 737 MAX issues are, at this stage, much harder to understand. Is it a mechanical issue with the AOA sensor, or a software problem? Is it something to do with a combination of the 737 MAX design and ground crew actions that damaged the AOA sensor? Is it a mere coincidence that two 737 MAX plans have received erroneous data from AOA sensors within six months of each other? 

What might investors do?

Cautious investors will likely avoid both stocks until a clear cause of the AOA data failures is identified. After all, even if the 737 MAX gets back into operation soon, an AOA failure could occur again in a few months. The software update will help avoid a crash, but it would still be highly concerning if the AOA data issue wasn’t resolved properly.

A more optimistic view sees the software update as sufficient to restore confidence in the 737 MAX, and feels confident that the problem with the AOA data failure will be identified — after all, Airbus did not suffer significantly from its issue in 2014. On that basis, Boeing probably has more upside potential, so if you are inclined to believe in the positive scenario then Boeing is the better buy. 

Source Article from https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/04/12/better-buy-general-electric-vs-boeing.aspx

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(CNN)For the first time “No Religion” has topped a survey of Americans’ religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/13/us/no-religion-largest-group-first-time-usa-trnd/index.html

    Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, in a newly resurfaced clip of an old interview, joked about people saying “Al Qaeda” and “Hezbollah” in a severe tone — while noting nobody says words like “America” that way.

    “When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. … The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up,” Omar said during an interview from 2013 when she was an activist within the Somali community, chuckling as she imitated the professor saying “Al Qaeda” and “Hezbollah.”

    ILHAN OMAR ONCE BLAMED ‘OUR INVOLVEMENT IN OTHER PEOPLE’S AFFAIRS’ AFTER AL-SHABAB ATTACK ON KENYAN MALL

    Omar went on to contrast the way people say the names of terror groups with how they pronounce the names of western powers:

    “But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “… But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.”

    Omar made the remarks during an interview on the show “Belahdan” on Twin Cities PBS that was first unearthed by Fox News in February. Omar’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on the clip.

    The segment in question resurfaced this week — posted online by The Reagan Battalion, and quickly generating outrage from conservative commentators — amid the controversy over a speech last month in which she described the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks as “some people did something.”

    “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser.

    Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw forcefully came out against Omar’s language, calling her out in a viral tweet: “First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something.’ Unbelievable.”

    The New York Post, meanwhile, published a dramatic front page Thursday with a photo of New York City’s Twin Towers on fire the day of the attacks, reading: “Here’s your something: 2,977 people dead by terrorism.”

    AOC, RASHIDA TLAIB LEAP TO DEFENSE OF ILHAN OMAR AFTER HER ‘SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING’ 9/11 REMARKS

    Omar’s allies in Congress came out in defense of the congresswoman, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointing out that Omar is a co-sponsor of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund law.

    She also accused Crenshaw of opposing the bill, tweeting: “You refuse to cosponsor the 9/11 Victim’s Compensation Fund, yet have the audacity to drum resentment towards Ilhan w/completely out-of-context quotes.”

    Rep. Rashida Tlaib, meanwhile, told MSNBC that Omar’s words were taken out of context. “They do that all the time, especially women of color, they take our words out of context because they’re afraid because we speak truth, we speak truth to power,” Tlaib said.

    Tlaib also warned that such attention could lead to death threats for Omar.

    Omar, though, has a history of controversial comments regarding terrorism.

    During the same 2013 interview, Omar described acts of terrorism as a reaction to “our involvement in other people’s affairs” following the brutal al-Shabab attack on a Kenyan shopping mall in 2013 that killed nearly 70 people and wounded 200.

    “When are we gonna decide or realize that terrorism is a reaction? It’s an ideology, it’s a means of things, it’s not an entity, it’s not a place, people. It’s a reaction to a situation,” the show host Ahmed Tharwat asked Omar.

    “Yes,” she agreed. “What you’re insinuating is what nobody wants to face. Nobody wants to face how the actions of the other people that are involved in the world have contributed to the rise of the radicalization and the rise of terrorist acts.”

    She continued: “For us, it’s always ‘I must have not done anything. Why is it happening to me?’ Nobody wants to take accountability of how these are byproducts of the actions of our involvement in other people’s affairs.”

    “Nobody wants to face how the actions of the other people that are involved in the world have contributed to the rise of the radicalization and the rise of terrorist acts.”

    — Rep. Ilhan Omar

    About three years later, Omar – then a state representative – penned a letter to a judge asking for leniency toward a group of Minnesota men accused of trying to join the Islamic State terror group.

    “The best deterrent to fanaticism is a system of compassion,” she wrote at the time. “We must alter our attitude and approach; if we truly want to effect change, we should refocus our efforts on inclusion and rehabilitation.”

    CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

    The nine Minnesota men were facing decades in prison after being accused in 2015 of making plans, including buying fake passports, in an effort to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS, which was at its peak level of activity and held territory in Syria and Iraq.

    “Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment,” she added in the letter.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-jokes-al-qaeda-america

    The Trump administration is reportedly considering releasing migrants detained at the southern border on the streets of so-called sanctuary cities. Not only is this a clear abuse of power, but it is an abuse that seemingly seeks to enact revenge on jurisdictions because of their commitment to enforcing basic constitutional rights.

    As the Washington Post reported on Thursday, the idea was explicitly political. As one congressional investigator explained to the Post: “What happened here is that Stephen Miller called people at ICE, said if they’re going to cut funding, you’ve got to make sure you’re releasing people in Pelosi’s district and other congressional districts.”

    Wielding law enforcement as a tool to secure political advantage by, for example, deliberately releasing detained migrants in heavily Democratic areas undermines the basic idea of rule of law by replacing a commitment to justice with bowing to the whims of a political leader for partisan ends. Not only does this undermine the most basic premise of justice, but it also presumes that law enforcement should be beholden to the president, regardless of the constraints of law.

    But the proposal to simply drop migrants in so-called sanctuary cities around the country is a step more pernicious even than simply supporting an authoritarian-style abuse of power.

    Sanctuary cities, despite their frequent characterization as simply safe havens for illegal immigrants, are more accurately jurisdictions that refuse to abridge civil liberties simply because ICE wants them to.

    This is an important distinction. Outside of sanctuary cities, ICE can, without a warrant, request that individuals be detained and held or turned over to the agency. That process skirts constitutionally protected rights such as due process as well as prohibitions against government detention without cause. Moreover, the concern that collaboration with ICE would be abused and undermine civil liberties is not an abstract fear but one that has played out in reality even resulting in the unlawful detention of citizens.

    That the Trump administration would actively suggest not only undermining the rule of law but do so with the explicit aim of targeting cities because of their commitment to defending civil liberties merits no defense. That the White House would float such an idea in the first place should be a concern to citizens of all political inclinations as it demonstrates clear contempt for legal limits on power and a casual willingness to disregard even the most basic laws and principles.

    Thankfully, this time such a plan was flat-out rejected by the legal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and prompted whistleblowers to approach Congress. But as Trump looks to take immigration enforcement in a tougher direction, it seems to be just these sort of objections that he would like to circumvent.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-double-danger-of-trumps-proposal-to-drop-migrants-in-sanctuary-cities

    Rep. Ilhan Omar is “off her rocker” and her fellow member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is a “joke” who will be seen “ultimately as an asterisk” in history, according to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

    Omar, D-Minn. is facing fierce backlash after a speech at a Muslim rights group’s event in which she described the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as “some people did something.”

    Speaking on the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio, Christie, who initially thought his wife was in the Twin Towers on the day of the attacks, said: “As somebody who had my wife two blocks away from the World Trade Center that day, my brother on the floor of the New York Stock exchange, and a number of people in our local parish here who passed away, a murder occurred.

    AOC, RASHIDA TLAIB LEAP TO DEFENSE OF ILHAN OMAR AFTER HER ‘SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING’ 9/11 REMARKS

    “Multiple murders occurred, 2,900 murders occurred on that day by radical Islamic terrorists and that’s the way it should always be spoken about to honor those victims and this woman is completely – let’s put aside her religion for the moment – as a public servant, she’s off her rocker to be describing it that way and it’s a disgrace, it’s a disgrace to anyone in her congressional district who voted for her.”

    On fellow freshman Democrat Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who leapt to Omar’s defense, Christie dismissed her as nothing more than a flash in the pan.

    “This is the problem with people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They like to talk a lot, but they don’t want to be held responsible for anything they say, and the fact is that to diminish the attacks on 9/11, the greatest attack ever perpetrated on this country, on our soil from a terrorist organization, is to demean the lives that were lost that day, both among those who were in those buildings and on those planes, and those who lost their lives trying to save them.

    ILHAN OMAR, IN BIZARRE CLIP, JOKES ABOUT PEOPLE SAYING ‘AL QAEDA’ IN MENACING TONE

    “What she should do is apologize, and be done with it, because there’s no justifying it, and listen, part of it too Brian, is I’m so tired of hearing ‘AOC’ as she’s called, being given airtime in this country. She’s a joke.

    “She got elected because a member of Congress [Joe Crowley] went to sleep and never went back to his district and was too busy running for speaker rather than running to keep his congressional seat and I think she will be seen ultimately as an asterisk in history because I can’t imagine she will stay all that long.

    Omar told a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser earlier this week: “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

    CAIR was actually founded in 1994.

    Her comments have drawn ire from the likes of Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and the New York Post, which published a dramatic front page Thursday with an infamous photo of New York City’s Twin Towers on fire on the day of the attacks.

    ROD ROSENSTEIN SAYS IT’S ‘COMPLETELY BIZARRE’ TO SAY WILLIAM BARR IS ‘TRYING TO MISLEAD PEOPLE’ ON MUELLER REPORT

    The page read: “Here’s your something: 2,977 people dead by terrorism.”

    Christie also offered his thoughts about Julian Assange, calling him a “villain”

    “In the end, I think Assange is a criminal and I think that’s what’s going to be proven when he’s brought to an American courtroom,” he told Brian Kilmeade.

    And on Bill Barr’s testimony earlier this week, and James Comey’s subsequent comments attempting to dismiss it, he said: “Jim has completely taken leave of his senses and to try to defend the indefensible, which goes all the way back to his conduct and what he said about Hillary Clinton in the summer of 2016, the letter he wrote in the fall of 2016, Jim is still trying to defend the indefensible.

    CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

    “How is electronic surveillance not spying? You’re in a covert way, gathering information from someone who doesn’t know you’re doing it. Sounds like spying to me. Now it may be legal, and may have been justified and AG may look at this and say, you know what, under all the circumstances I think opening the counter-intelligence investigation was legally justified.”

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chris-christie-ilhan-omar-is-off-her-rocker-aoc-is-a-joke-should-apologize-for-9-11-comments

    How much of the current mess would have happened without Trump is unknowable. But, by his own standard, he deserves all the blame, because he took all the credit for a decline in border crossings in 2017. “We’ve already cut illegal immigration at the southern border by 61%,” he said in early 2017, one of many such boasts. “You know, the border is down 78%. Under past administrations, the border didn’t go down — it went up,” he boasted that summer.

    Source Article from https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/04/11/dana-milbank-border-trump/

    Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) remain at the top of the latest early state primary polls, but lately, they’ve been accompanied by a new candidate in the third-place spot: Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.

    The two most recent Iowa polls and the most recent New Hampshire poll all show Buttigieg in third place — still several points behind Biden and Sanders, but a point or two ahead of any other Democratic contender.

    It’s not that Buttigieg has totally separated himself from the rest of the pack, since Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) are just a couple points behind him in all of these polls. But it’s worth noting when a candidate suddenly goes from regularly polling at zero to 1 percent to placing third in a very large field.

    Those three recent polls are:

    Whether Buttigieg will manage to retain this position or grow his support further is of course unclear at this point, but we now have three polls suggesting he’s struck a chord with some Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire in a way that most of the many other Democratic candidates who have jumped into the race have not.

    In fundraising too, Buttigieg has done surprisingly well. His campaign said he raised $7 million in the first quarter of this year, the fourth-best in the field (behind Sanders, Harris, and Beto O’Rourke — Biden hasn’t begun fundraising yet). This was spurred, Buttigieg recently told Vox’s Ezra Klein, by his appearance at a CNN town hall on March 10.

    Lots of people still have no idea who Pete Buttigieg is

    Just one month ago, Buttigieg was a complete unknown. Many pollsters hadn’t even bothered to include him as an option in polls. But when they did, the South Bend mayor never topped 1 percent in any national, Iowa, or New Hampshire poll tracked by RealClearPolitics.

    Indeed, Buttigieg is still relatively little known. Monmouth’s new poll found that 46 percent of Iowa Democratic voters didn’t yet have an opinion (either favorable or unfavorable) about Buttigieg. In comparison, almost every Democratic voter has an opinion on Biden, Sanders, and Warren, while 70 percent or more have an opinion of Harris, O’Rourke, and Booker.


    These are the best-known contenders — click here to see the favorability ratings for the full field.
    Monmouth

    You could argue that this is a promising sign for Buttigieg, since many Democrats seem to have barely heard of him at this point, but a significant number who have heard of him in these early states say they’ll vote for him. Alternatively, one could argue that he’s a new face and that his appeal will wear off as he faces attacks and criticism.

    Early states matter

    In national polls, Buttigieg still hasn’t gotten as much of a bump. He’s no longer down at 1 percent, but Harris, Warren, O’Rourke, and Cory Booker have tended to still be ahead of him in recent polls.

    While national Democratic primary polls are most common and tend to get the most attention, there is of course no “national Democratic primary” election day. Instead, the first contests will be in Iowa (currently scheduled for February 3, 2020) and New Hampshire (currently scheduled for February 11, 2020).

    These contests tend to drive out poorly performing contenders and win increased attention and credibility for those who do well. For instance, both Barack Obama and John McCain spent all of 2007 trailing in national polls, but Obama’s Iowa win and McCain’s New Hampshire win in January 2008 shook up their respective races, and each eventually became the nominee. So the dynamics in these early states are worth watching closely.

    In any case, it’s still incredibly early, with those first 2020 contests just under 10 months away. There haven’t yet been any debates, the race hasn’t gotten really nasty, and the poll leader Joe Biden hasn’t even officially begun his campaign. But Buttigieg has clearly had the best first quarter of any lesser-known candidate.

    Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/12/18307668/buttigieg-mayor-pete-polls-democratic-primary-2020

    Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, who is running for president as a Democrat, quickly joined Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.

    “Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we,” he tweeted. “The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.”

    In a series of tweets, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., a Democratic presidential candidate and a veteran who served in Afghanistan, also criticized Mr. Trump.

    “After 9/11 we all said we were changed. That we were stronger and more united,” he tweeted. “That’s what ‘never forget’ was about. Now, a president uses that dark day to incite his base against a member of Congress, as if for sport. As if we learned nothing that day about the workings of hate.”

    Another 2020 presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, also chimed in.

    “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion,” she tweeted. “It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”

    It was unclear late Friday who made the video that the president tweeted. In recent weeks, his Twitter feed has promoted at least two controversial videos that came from elsewhere on the web.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/us/politics/trump-ilhan-omar-sept-11.html

    Ana Garcia (left) and her daughter Genesis Amaya of Valley Stream, N.Y., were reunited through the Central American Minors program in 2016 before President Trump terminated the program.

    Claudia Torrens/AP


    hide caption

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    Claudia Torrens/AP

    Ana Garcia (left) and her daughter Genesis Amaya of Valley Stream, N.Y., were reunited through the Central American Minors program in 2016 before President Trump terminated the program.

    Claudia Torrens/AP

    The Trump administration has agreed to settle a lawsuit with a dozen Central American families who challenged the government’s cancellation of a program that was designed to reunite children in that region with their parents living in the U.S.

    As a result, some 2,700 children living in Central America may be allowed to enter the U.S. at a time when the Trump administration is actively trying to dissuade other migrants from attempting to come to this country.

    The program, called the Central American Minors program, was initiated during the Obama administration in 2014 in response to a surge of unaccompanied minors who sought to join their parents. Minors in Central America who had parents residing legally in the U.S. were eligible to apply for permanent residence as refugees, or for parole — a designation allowing someone to legally reside in the U.S. Over 1,335 minors arrived in the United States, according to a 2018 court order.

    That order followed the Trump administration’s termination of the program in August 2017. The government also rescinded parole for about 2,700 minors who already had been conditionally approved, but had not yet traveled to the U.S.

    The International Refugee Assistance Project and the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, filed suit on behalf of the families whose children essentially were in the pipeline when the administration canceled the program. The plaintiffs alleged that there was a “secret shutdown” of the program in the early days of the Trump administration, even as the government continued to solicit and accept funds from applicants to pay for medical examinations and travel to the U.S.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ruled in December 2018 that the administration’s mass revocation of the conditional approvals for the minors was illegal. In a March 1 ruling, she ordered the government to resume processing the children. But she did not compel the Department of Homeland Security to “reach any particular outcome with respect to the processing of any individual beneficiary.”

    Under the terms of the settlement, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service “agrees to process the approximately 2,700 individuals who were conditionally approved for parole prior to the CAM Parole program’s termination and then issued rescission notices, as well as any later born children who are classified as add-ons.”

    According to a statement announcing the settlement, the International Refugee Assistance Project said, “The government anticipates most applicants will be approved for parole and allowed to travel to the U.S.”

    One plaintiff, identified in court documents only as “S.A.,” had applied on behalf of her daughter and grandchild.

    “My heart jumps and cries for joy because there are so many who need to escape danger. I have faith that I will be together with my daughter and grandson soon,” she said in the IRAP statement.

    “We are so pleased that after many years apart our clients will finally have the opportunity to reunite with each other in safety,” said IRAP Litigation Staff Attorney Linda Evarts.

    The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/12/712948933/trump-administration-to-allow-2-700-central-american-children-into-the-u-s

    “);var a = g[r.size_id].split(“x”).map((function(e) {return Number(e)})), s = u(a, 2);o.width = s[0],o.height = s[1]}o.rubiconTargeting = (Array.isArray(r.targeting) ? r.targeting : []).reduce((function(e, r) {return e[r.key] = r.values[0],e}), {rpfl_elemid: n.adUnitCode}),e.push(o)} else l.logError(“Rubicon bid adapter Error: bidRequest undefined at index position:” + t, c, d);return e}), []).sort((function(e, r) {return (r.cpm || 0) – (e.cpm || 0)}))},getUserSyncs: function(e, r, t) {if (!A && e.iframeEnabled) {var i = “”;return t && “string” == typeof t.consentString && (“boolean” == typeof t.gdprApplies ? i += “?gdpr=” + Number(t.gdprApplies) + “&gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString : i += “?gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString),A = !0,{type: “iframe”,url: n + i}}},transformBidParams: function(e, r) {return l.convertTypes({accountId: “number”,siteId: “number”,zoneId: “number”}, e)}};function m() {return [window.screen.width, window.screen.height].join(“x”)}function b(e, r) {var t = f.config.getConfig(“pageUrl”);return e.params.referrer ? t = e.params.referrer : t || (t = r.refererInfo.referer),e.params.secure ? t.replace(/^http:/i, “https:”) : t}function _(e, r) {var t = e.params;if (“video” === r) {var i = [];return t.video && t.video.playerWidth && t.video.playerHeight ? i = [t.video.playerWidth, t.video.playerHeight] : Array.isArray(l.deepAccess(e, “mediaTypes.video.playerSize”)) && 1 === e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length ? i = e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize[0] : Array.isArray(e.sizes) && 0

    (CNN)The car used by a New York tourists who went missing last month has been recovered off the coast of the Dominican Republic, police said Friday.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/12/americas/dominican-missing-couple/index.html