White House Willing to Support Special Status for ‘Dreamers’ in Exchange for Tougher Border Security
DACA deal. A nearly two-decade stalemate over the legal status of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants moved closer than ever to a resolution Thursday as Trump proved willing to abandon a position dear to many of his supporters. The tentative agreement, worked out over dinner Wednesday night with the top two Democrats in Congress, could give legal status to nearly 800,000 so-called Dreamers, people who came to the country illegally as children. The move came slightly more than a week after Trump announced that he would end an Obama administration program known as DACA that provided Dreamers a shield against deportation and permission to work legally in the United States. The agreement would, in effect, enshrine the DACA protections in law in return for increased spending on border security.
Underground terror. A small explosion went off in a London subway car Friday during the morning rush hour injuring a number of commuters and sending them scrambling in what police are calling a terrorist incident. Police and ambulances rushed to the Parsons Green station on the London Underground’s District Line where there were a number of reported injuries but no apparent fatalities.
Revoked. A Harvard dean said early Friday morning that he was revoking his invitation to Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow at the university. The sudden turnabout by the Harvard Kennedy School came after a day of intense backlash over the university’s announcement on Wednesday that Ms. Manning, a former United States soldier convicted of leaking classified information, would become a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics this school year. Douglas W. Elmendorf, the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, said that while the university encourages a diversity of opinions and does not shy from controversy, naming Ms. Manning a fellow was a mistake for which he accepted responsibility.
Honeymoon over. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked for a government jet to take him and his wife on their honeymoon in Scotland, France and Italy. Treasury Department officials decided the U.S. Air Force jet, which can cost about $25,000 an hour to operate, wasn’t necessary. The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General is looking into the request. The inspector general is already investigating whether Mnuchin used a trip to Louisville and Fort Knox, Ky., to see the solar eclipse with his wife, Louise Linton. Mnuchin said he wanted to use the plane on his honeymoon because of national security.
Florida deaths. The long-term care industry helped kill a bill in the Florida legislature in 2006 after Hurricane Wilma that would have required some nursing homes to have generators to protect the elderly from heat and dehydration. Eight residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died Wednesday after the home lost power and a portable cooling system malfunctioned. The Florida Health Care Association, the nursing home industry’s trade group, said Thursday afternoon that 39 of the state’s 683 nursing homes were still without commercial power. Forty-four nursing homes were evacuated or closed. A federal rule to require nursing homes to have “alternate sources of energy to maintain temperatures to protect resident health and safety” does not go into effect until November.
Missile launch. North Korea launched another ballistic missile over Japan. The apparent intermediate-range missile flew about 2,200 miles before landing in the North Pacific Ocean. South Korean military officials retaliated by sending a missile of their own about 150 miles into the Sea of Japan. This was North Korea’s 15th missile test in 2017. The launches violate United Nations resolutions intended to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
Enron comparison. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating the massive data breach at Equifax Inc. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) compared Equifax to Enron, the U.S. energy company that filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after revelations of accounting fraud. Schumer said the Equifax chief executive officer and board might need to resign if the company doesn’t take concrete steps in the next week to protect customers. Two House committees plan to investigate the Equifax hack. The FBI is investigating, and almost 40 states have joined an investigation into how Equifax handled the situation. Thieves may have stolen the personal information of 143 million Americans.
