Daily digest: Government shutdown looms
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Good morning, and welcome to Monday. Here's your Daily Digest.
1.) Republicans in Congress are working toward putting in place a measure to keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year, but the going isn't easy. Funding for the government is expected to end Friday if Congress doesn't act. But acting will require the support of Democrats, who are feuding with President Trump over immigration and health care in the wake of the Republicans' tax overhaul victory. (The New York Times)
2.) You might have heard that Senate Republicans passed their massive tax overhaul Saturday. But do you know what happened when North Carolina passed a similar overhaul? The Washington Post reports that what’s happening today in North Carolina can offer a window into what it calls "the grand experiment with tax cuts the entire nation is close to embarking on." Conservative groups have praised the North Carolina cuts as a model for others to follow, after the state began cutting tax rates four years ago. But while the state's finances have remained on even footing since then, some residents' fortunes have been left behind. (The Washington Post)
3.) Lawyers rushed to stop the deportation of five Somali men late Friday. The lawyers say the men, all of whom have lived in the United States for decades, are not public safety threats and have work histories in the state. Most or all were originally ordered to be removed after their previous applications for asylum were denied. All of them had outstanding deportation orders ranging from about 2001 to 2011. On Friday, one of the men's attorneys went to visit him in Minnesota's Elk River detention center, but found that he had been moved to an ICE facility in Louisiana, which is frequently a staging area for removal flights. That's when the U. S. District Court filings began. One of the men has a scheduled court hearing in Minneapolis on Monday. (MPR News)
4.) President Trump is expected to shrink the size of Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments today. The borders of both protected land areas have been in question since the Clinton Administration, which established the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in 1996. Many rural Utahns opposed the creation of both national monuments, which restrict commercial enterprises -- ranching, farming, grazing, mining -- when they become federal public land. President Trump is reportedly planning to announce at a stop in Utah today that he will shrink Bears Ears, which was created by President Obama before he left office -- by 85 percent and cut Grand Staircase-Escalante in half. But Native American tribal leaders are lamenting the possibility of that protected land shrinking, and have already begun gathering in Salt Lake City to protest. Bears Ears is considered some of the most culturally significant land in the American Southwest. (NPR)
5.) President Trump put his full support behind Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore earlier today. Moore has been hit with allegations of sexual misconduct with teenagers when he was in his 30s. Many Republicans to pull their support of him, but Monday's endorsement was the president's fullest and most robust to date. (The Washington Post)
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