From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn breaks ground on a new plant in Wisconsin Thursday after receiving a controversial $4 billion package of tax breaks and other incentives to build there.
President Donald Trump will attend the ceremony, as will Governor Scott Walker, who helped arrange local, state and federal incentives to woo the company. Continue reading “Foxconn breaking ground on Wisconsin plant it received $4 billion to build”
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring.
That will give President Donald Trump the chance to cement conservative control of the high court. Continue reading “Supreme Court Justice Kennedy announces retirement”
A sprawling, compromise GOP immigration bill that would have provided a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants while directing $25 billion for the construction of President Trump’s border wall failed in the House on Wednesday, despite encouragement from the president for Republicans to support it.
The bill was overwhelmingly rejected 301-121, in part because some Republicans are reluctant to vote for any bill they worry could be portrayed as “amnesty.” Continue reading “GOP compromise immigration bill defeated on House floor”
President Donald Trump shifted away from a proposal to impose limits on Chinese investment in American technology companies and high-tech exports to China on Wednesday, choosing instead to call upon Congress to strengthen an existing review process.
The announcement followed intense internal battles over the issue and reports of impending bans on Chinese investment that had sent financial markets into a nose dive at the beginning of the week. Continue reading “Trump backs off imposing China investment limits”
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a crippling blow Wednesday to unions representing millions of the nation’s public employees.
The justices said in a 5-4 opinion that state government workers who choose not to join a union cannot be compelled to pay a share of union dues for covering the cost of negotiating contracts. Unions had said such an outcome would cut off a source of income and diminish their political clout in the 23 states where they bargain for both members and non-members alike. Continue reading “Supreme Court ruling deals major blow to public worker unions”
A federal judge in California on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Border Patrol to stop separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border and to reunite families already separated within 30 days.
Any children younger than 5 must be reunited within 14 days of Tuesday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ruled. Continue reading “Federal judge orders end of family separations at US border”
The Supreme Court just quietly overturned a decision that upheld the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as part of a ruling upholding President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban that primarily targets majority-Muslim countries.
During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led the US government to force more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent into detention camps. Continue reading “The Supreme Court just quietly overturned a decision that allowed the US government to place Japanese-Americans in ‘concentration camps’ during World War II”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld President Trump’s controversial travel ban affecting several mostly Muslim countries, offering a limited endorsement of the president’s executive authority on immigration in one of the hardest-fought battles of this term.
The 5-4 ruling marks the first major high court decision on a Trump administration policy. It upholds the selective travel restrictions, which critics called a discriminatory “Muslim ban” but the administration argued was needed for security reasons. Continue reading “Supreme Court upholds Trump travel ban on some Muslim-majority nations”
Border patrol agents have stopped referring adult immigrants who cross the southern U.S. border illegally for criminal prosecution, raising questions about the future of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Kevin McAleenan, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he ordered his staff to halt referrals after President Trump signed an executive order last week to stop the separation of migrant families. Continue reading “Border agents suspend prosecution referrals for illegal border crossers”
The Food and Drug Administration approved the prescription cannabidiol medicine Monday to treat rare and severe forms of epilepsy.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb also issued an immediate statement saying this wasn’t an approval of marijuana, in general — and said anyone wanting to use cannabis-based products to treat disease must prove they are safe and that they work. Continue reading “FDA approves cannabis-based drug CBD for epilepsy”
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — With Gary Ramey’s fledgling gun-making business taking off in retail stores, he decided to start offering one of his handguns for sale on his website.
That didn’t sit well with the company he used to process payments, and they informed him they were dropping his account. Another credit card processing firm told him the same thing: They wouldn’t do business with him. Continue reading “Gun industry sees banks as new threat to 2nd Amendment”
The board of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, made the unanimous decision to remove the name of author Laura Ingalls Wilder from a major children’s book award at a meeting in New Orleans on Saturday.
The name of the prize has been changed from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, the Guardian reports. Continue reading “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name removed from award over racism concerns”
El Paso (United States) (AFP) – For volunteer activists working with immigrants, those who profit from the migrants’ plight are “sick.”
But illegal migration is big business in the border state of Texas, generating jobs for private prison operators, money lenders and storefront lawyers. Continue reading “In Texas border towns, illegal immigration is big business”
Harley-Davidson will move the production of motorcycles bound for European countries out of the United States, citing rising costs from European Union (EU) tariffs on their products.
The company said in a filing Monday that the EU tariffs on motorcycles exported from the U.S. rose from 6 percent to 31 percent, the Associated Press reported. Motorcycles bound for European countries will now be produced in overseas factories. Continue reading “Harley-Davidson to move production for some motorcycles out of US after EU tariffs”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that police generally need a search warrant if they want to track criminal suspects’ movements by collecting information about where they’ve used their cellphones, bolstering privacy interests in the digital age.
The justices’ 5-4 decision marks a big change in how police may obtain cellphone tower records, an important tool in criminal investigations. Continue reading “Justices adopt digital-age privacy rules to track cellphones”
Washington Post – by Michael Anton
As Capitol Hill Republicans attempt for — what, the eighth? ninth? — time in the past two decades to jam through an amnesty that their voters have explicitly, loudly and repeatedly said they do not want, it’s worth asking a question that is rarely raised:
Does the United States — population 320 million and rising — need more people? If so, why? Continue reading “Why do we need more people in this country, anyway?”
Immigrant children are being forced to take drugs to manage the trauma after being detained and separated from parents, it has been claimed.
According to a lawsuit, youngsters are being routinely and forcibly given a range of psychotropic drugs at US government-funded youth shelters. Continue reading “Immigrant children ‘forcibly given drugs’”
Hundreds of migrant children forcibly separated from their parents were transferred thousands of miles away from the border and some already have been placed in foster care, officials said.
After crossing the southern border, some children were taken to facilities along the southern border, including a new temporary shelter in Tornillo, Texas, while others were sent to facilities as far away as New York City. Continue reading “These are the distant states where migrant children are being sent”
The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy for illegal immigration is shining a spotlight on U.S. detention efforts.
Recent government handout images show children lying on the ground with Mylar blankets in kennel-like wire cages. Audio obtained by ProPublica captures children crying after being separated from their migrant parents. Continue reading “This is how much it costs to detain an immigrant in the US”
First Lady Melania Trump has arrived at a detention center in Texas housing immigrant children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“First Lady Melania Trump has arrived in Texas to take part in briefings and tours at a nonprofit social services center for children who have entered the United States illegally and a customs and border patrol processing center,” the White House’s Office of the First Lady said in a statement. “Her goals are to thank law enforcement and social services providers for their hard work, lend support and hear more on how the administration can build upon the already existing efforts to reunite children with their families.” Continue reading “Melania Trump visits detention center in Texas”