For Columbia Radio News, I’m Sarah Wyman.
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After a morning of flip-flopping and fickle tweeting, President Donald Trump has signed a 1.3 trillion dollar spending bill, funding the U.S. government until October. The bill, which was rushed through the House and Senate early this morning, gave generously to the military but left out protection for DACA recipients, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. President Trump blamed Democrats in a press conference this afternoon.
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DACA recipients have been treated extremely badly by the democrats. We wanted to include DACA. We wanted to have them in this bill.
The Democrats fought back, putting the onus on the White House, which rejected their proposal earlier this week. The agreement would have established a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients in exchange for 25 billion dollars in funding for a border wall.
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John Bolton, President Trump’s pick to replace Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as national security advisor, is the subject of heated debate online. The twitter controversy took off this morning, over Bolton’s bushy handlebar mustache, which sources close to the president say was almost a deal-breaker in his appointment. Critics also moved past Bolton’s facial hair and focused on his hardline stances on foreign policy issues, which some worry could embroil the United States in conflicts abroad.
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Jaelynn Rose Wiley, the victim of Tuesday’s school shooting in Maryland, has died after being removed from life support. Her death comes the day before a nationwide march in support of gun control, organized by survivors of the Parkland High School shooting in Florida. 500,000 protesters are expected to march in Washington, D.C. tomorrow.
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As we’ve heard, the Trump administration has issued sanctions and indictments against ten Iranian hackers who are accused of stealing data and intellectual property from universities, government agencies and the United Nations. Among the hackers is Behzad Mesri, who, after holding new Game of Thrones episodes hostage for 6 million dollars last November, was indicted by the American government.
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It’s 48 degrees in Central Park, and New Yorkers are heading into a balmy spring weekend with highs of 46 degrees.
The New York City “March for Our Lives” will disrupt traffic in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, but public transit is expected to operate as usual.
For Columbia Radio News, I’m Sarah Wyman.