Democrats Dig in Their Heels on Children’s Healthcare, ‘Dreamers’ and Puerto Rico Aid
Government shutdown. Senate Democrats appeared ready to block a stopgap spending bill passed by the House that would keep the government open past Friday. The bill would fund the government through Feb. 16. The House passed the bill 230-to-197. At least a dozen Democratic votes will be needed to approve the measure on Friday.
Democrats are intent on securing concessions that would protect young immigrants brought to our country illegally as children from deportation, increase domestic spending, aid Puerto Rico and bolster the government’s response to the opioid crisis.
The standoff on immigration and spending grew more charged after Trump referred to African nations as “shithole countries.” Eighteen members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted for the last stopgap measure in December, but many of those members have already said they would oppose the latest bill or have suggested they were leaning in that direction.
Pornstar payment. Trump’s lawyer used a private Delaware company to pay a former adult-film star $130,000 in return for her agreeing to not publicly discuss an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, established Essential Consultants LLC on Oct. 17, 2016, just before the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen then used a bank account linked to the entity to send the payment to the client-trust account of a lawyer representing the woman, Stephanie Clifford. She has privately told people she had a sexual encounter with Trump after meeting him at a July 2006 golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Window shade safety. Sales of most corded window blinds and shades, products blamed for the strangulation deaths of more than 300 U.S. infants and toddlers since 1981, will come to an end late this year. The voluntary safety standard won’t apply to custom-order blinds and shades, which the industry says account for about 20% of the market. Safety advocates say the industry had long exploited a loophole in the federal rule-making process to avoid making more substantial improvements. Window blind injuries were first identified in medical literature in 1945. Under the law, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is required to defer to industries that are developing manufacturing standards voluntarily rather than imposing mandatory federal rules.
No accounting. Nearly a year after Trump’s inauguration, the committee that raised a record $106.7 million for the event has not disclosed how much of that money it still has or providing a final accounting of its finances. The inaugural committee chairman, Thomas Barrack, a California investment manager and longtime Trump friend, has said the remaining funds would go to charity. He announced plans in September to give $3 million to three nonprofit groups, The American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Samaritan’s Purse. Trump’s committee raised twice the $53.2 million that former President Barack Obama collected for his first inauguration.
