Authorities abandon ‘zero-tolerance’ for immigrant families
McALLEN, Texas — The Trump administration has scaled back a key element of its zero-tolerance immigration policy amid a global uproar over the separation of more than 2,300 migrant families, halting the practice of turning over parents to prosecutors for charges of illegally entering the country.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Monday that President Donald Trump’s order last week to stop splitting immigrant families at the border required a temporary halt to prosecuting parents and guardians, unless they had criminal history or the child’s welfare was in question. He insisted the White House’s zero tolerance policy toward illegal entry remained intact.
McAleenan’s comments came shortly after Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the administration’s tactics in a speech in Nevada and asserted that many children were brought to the border by violent gang members.
Together, their remarks added to the nationwide confusion as mothers and fathers struggled to reunite families that were split up by the government and sometimes sent to different parts of the country.
Fire captain fatally shot at retirement home blaze
LONG BEACH, Calif. — A retirement home resident shot at firefighters who responded to a report of an explosion at the Southern California facility on Monday, killing a veteran fire captain and leaving a second firefighter and another resident wounded, officials said.
Investigators believe based on a preliminary investigation that the man, Thomas Kim, had set a fire early Monday morning to draw first responders to his second-floor apartment at the retirement home in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, and then opened fire, Police Chief Robert Luna said.
Kim, 77, was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and arson. Investigators were still working to determine Kim’s motive, Luna said. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney.
The shooting happened shortly after firefighters arrived at the 11-story retirement facility around 4 a.m. and found some windows blown out, activated sprinklers, the smell of gas and a fire that they extinguished, authorities said. Firefighters were searching the building when shots rang out and the two firefighters were hit, Long Beach Fire Chief Michael DuRee said.
U.S. OKs marijuana-based drug for seizures
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators on Monday approved the first prescription drug made from marijuana, a milestone that could spur more research into a drug that remains illegal under federal law, despite growing legalization for recreational and medical use.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the medication, called Epidiolex, to treat two rare forms of epilepsy in patients 2 years and older. But it’s not quite medical marijuana.
The strawberry-flavored syrup is a purified form of a chemical ingredient found in the cannabis plant — but not the one that gets users high. It’s not yet clear why the ingredient, called cannabidiol, or CBD, reduces seizures in some people with epilepsy.
By wire sources