From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
House Republicans voted to approve a bill to fund President Donald Trump’s $5 billion demand for a border wall, setting up a final showdown in the Senate ahead of Friday’s deadline to avert a government shutdown.
The vote received no Democratic support, and the bill’s prospects in the Senate are dim as Democrats have pledged to defeat the divisive measure. Continue reading “House Republicans approve bill to fund border wall, setting up a final showdown in the Senate”
The Fresno Bee – by Carmen George
Laws need to be changed to allow local law enforcement to more easily communicate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in regards to criminals in jail who are deemed violent, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said Wednesday.
Boudreaux was responding to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in which ICE said Monday’s “deadly rampage could have been prevented” if the agency had been notified of Junior “Gustavo” Garcia-Ruiz’s release from jail on Friday after he was arrested for a misdemeanor charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance. Continue reading “Tulare County sheriff after rampage: Laws should be changed to better communicate with ICE”
The Trump administration is going around the lengthy farm bill negotiations to push for a rule that would force more people who enroll in food stamps to comply with work requirements, despite the fact that Republicans were unsuccessful in pushing the same measure through Congress.
Republicans have pushed for more work requirements for food stamp participants and for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow states to impose more requirements such as drug testing. But those requests were left out of the recently approved farm bill after Democrats refused to move forward with the changes and other GOP proposals. Continue reading “Trump directs USDA to expand work requirements on food stamps”
The WSJ just reported a monumental and historic reversal in White House policy on Syria, revealing Wednesday morning the Pentagon is preparing to withdraw all forces from northeastern Syria“immediately”:
In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a move that throws the American strategy in the Middle East into turmoil. Continue reading “In Drastic Reversal, US Prepares “Full Withdrawal” Of Forces From Syria “Immediately””
New Jersey authorities are still trying to recover some of the money that spilled from a truck and onto a highway last week, with the latest outstanding figure coming in at roughly $189,000, police said.
Since the incident Thursday morning, money has been trickling “in dribs and drabs,” Captain Phil Taormina of the East Rutherford Police Department told NJ.com on Tuesday. Continue reading “Massive haul of cash still missing after Brink’s truck dumped money on NJ highway, police say”
Three illegal immigrants were indicted for the murder of a whistleblower in Georgia who reported that one of the immigrants ran a scheme to employ other illegal immigrants and defrauded a tree service company.
Brothers Pablo Rangel-Rubio, 49, and Juan Rangel-Rubio, 42, both residents of Rincon, Ga., and Higinio Perez-Bravo, 49, of Savannah, were charged on Thursday, said Southern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine. Continue reading “3 illegal immigrants indicted for murder of American whistleblower: report”
One of California’s largest utilities company was accused Friday of falsifying safety documents for the state’s natural gas pipelines for years, even after it was blamed for a 2010 pipeline explosion that killed eight people.
An investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission found that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. had allegedly falsified data from 2012 to 2017 because it lacked enough employees to find and mark natural gas pipelines. Continue reading “California utility, under scrutiny over massive wildfire, falsified pipeline safety records for years: regulators”
A 4.4-magnitude earthquake was reported in Tennessee early Wednesday, officials said.
The quake hit about six miles north of Decatur around 4:15 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The shaking was felt by residents as far away as Atlanta — about 149 miles south of the epicenter. Continue reading “Earthquake, magnitude 4.4, rattles Tennessee, Georgia”
Two groups of Central American migrants marched to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana on Tuesday with a list of demands, with one group delivering an ultimatum to the Trump administration: either let them in the U.S. or pay them $50,000 each to go home, a report said.
Among other demands were that deportations be halted and that asylum seekers be processed faster and in greater numbers, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Continue reading “Migrant group demand Trump either let them in or pay them each $50G to turn around: report”
A sheriff’s deputy and two officials from the Texas attorney general’s office were shot while trying to serve a felony warrant at a home in Houston, authorities said.
The three victims were hospitalized but are “are awake and alert” and expected to survive, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted. Continue reading “3 law enforcement officers shot while trying to serve warrant: Sheriff”
Federal authorities said they’ve charged two people involved in planning separate large-scale attacks — one who wanted to carry out a shooting at a synagogue and another who had been plotting a bar shooting and blowing up a pipeline.
While the alleged attacks were in the planning stages, there was never an immediate threat to the public, the FBI and Department of Justice said Monday in a news conference announcing the charges. Continue reading “FBI charge 2 in Ohio accused of plotting separate attacks”
An Illinois county has raked in $10 million in federal funds for its decades-old deal with the government to detain immigrants living in the country illegally, according to a report.
McHenry County signed a bed-rental contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the early 2000s, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The federal government agreed to pay the northwest Illinois county about $7 million for the bed-rental program. Continue reading “Illinois county gains $10M for detaining undocumented immigrants”
The Trump administration rolled out detailed proposals Thursday to reduce measures designed to protect the imperiled greater sage grouse in seven western states.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released state-specific plans for public comment. Continue reading “Trump admin floats reduced protections for imperiled sage grouse”
Ammon Bundy, the rancher at the center of a 2016 standoff with the government at an Oregon wildlife preserve, said he is leaving the militia movement after criticizing President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Bundy shut down his social media accounts and announced that he was stepping away from “patriot groups,” Buzzfeed News reported Thursday. Continue reading “Ammon Bundy leaves militia movement after ripping Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric”
With one bullet, a Georgia police officer was shot in the face and a suspect was shot dead during a confrontation Thursday morning, according to investigators.
It began when employees of a dentist’s office called 911 around 8 a.m. Thursday to report a disturbance, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Natalie Ammons told reporters.
Henry County Police officer Michael Smith arrived and spoke with the suspect, Dimaggio McNelly, but “at some point the subject became combative,” Ammons said. Continue reading “With 1 bullet, a police officer is shot in the face and a suspect is shot dead during a struggle: Officials”
An Amazon robot tore open a can of bear repellent at the company’s New Jersey warehouse on Wednesday, hospitalizing 24 workers. One employee is in critical condition, according to ABC News, while 30 others were treated on the scene. The 1.3-million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in the town of Robbinsville, New Jersey, employs more than 3,000 people.
A preliminary investigation determined that the bear repellent, which is like pepper spray for aggressive or charging bears, fell off a shelf. But a spokesperson for Robbinsville Township further clarified that an automated machine punctured the 9-ounce can, releasing its toxic fumes. Amazon sells different types of bear repellent on its online shopping site. Continue reading “Amazon workers hospitalized after warehouse robot releases bear repellent”
The Texas border patrol supervisor who confessed to killing four women in September may receive the death penalty, authorities said.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz, 35, was indicted Wednesday on charges of capital murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful restraint and evading arrest or detention in the deaths of four sex workers in September, according to Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz. Continue reading “Prosecutor wants death penalty for border agent accused of killing 4 women”
Dog owners: You’ll want to take note of the FDA’s recent update to a dog food recall. Several dog food brands are now included in a recall alert for potentially containing a dangerous amount of vitamin D. While the vitamin is an essential nutrient for dogs, too much of it can cause kidney failure or death. Tests conducted on samples of some of these products show as much as approximately 70 times the intended amount of vitamin D. Continue reading “The FDA Expanded A Dog Food Recall To Include These 8 Brands”
TOKYO (AP) — A Marine refueling plane and a fighter jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan’s southwestern coast after colliding early Thursday, and rescuers found two of the seven crew members, one of them in stable condition, officials said.
The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2 a.m. crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular refueling training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. Continue reading “2 US warplanes crash off Japan; 2 found, 5 missing”