Administration drops Obama-era water protection rule
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Trump administration on Thursday revoked an Obama-era regulation that shielded many U.S. wetlands and streams from pollution but was opposed by developers and farmers who said it hurt economic development and infringed on property rights.
Environmental groups criticized the administration’s action, the latest in a series of moves to roll back environmental protections put into place under President Barack Obama.
The 2015 Waters of the United States rule defined the waterways subject to federal regulation. Scrapping it “puts an end to an egregious power grab, eliminates an ongoing patchwork of clean water regulations and restores a longstanding and familiar regulatory framework,” Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Wheeler and R.D. James, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, signed a document overturning the rule and temporarily restoring an earlier regulatory system that emerged after a 2006 ruling from a sharply divided Supreme Court.
Administration puts tough new asylum
rule into effect
TIJUANA, Mexico — A new level of despair spread among tens of thousands of migrants waiting on the Mexican border to seek refuge in the U.S. as the Trump administration began enforcing radical new restrictions Thursday on who qualifies for asylum.
“The United States is the only option,” Dunea Romero, a 31-year-old Honduran, lamented with tears in her eyes at a shelter in Tijuana. She said she packed a bag and fled her homeland with her two boys, ages 7 and 11, after learning that her abusive ex-husband, a powerful gang leader, was going to have her killed.
The new U.S. policy would effectively deny asylum to nearly all migrants arriving at the southern border who aren’t from Mexico. It would disallow anyone who passes through another country without first seeking and failing to obtain asylum there.
The rule will fall most heavily on Central Americans, mainly Hondurans and Guatemalans, because they account for most people arrested or stopped at the border.
But it also represents an enormous setback for other asylum seekers, including large numbers of Africans, Haitians and Cubans who try to enter the United States by way of the Mexican border.
From wire sources
Crew was asleep when fatal boat fire ignited, officials say
LOS ANGELES — A California scuba dive boat was operating in violation of Coast Guard regulations when crew members were sleeping and a pre-dawn fire killed 34 people, leaving grieving families wondering if a required night watchman could have saved their loved ones.
Thursday brought a disclosure from the National Transportation Safety Board that all six crew members were asleep aboard the Conception on Sept. 2 when the deadly blaze broke out.
The NTSB’s findings could aid federal authorities conducting a criminal investigation into the fire, who could bring charges under a statute known as seaman’s manslaughter. The law was enacted during the 19th century to punish negligent captains, engineers and pilots for deadly steamboat accidents that killed thousands.
Five crew members, including the captain, were asleep on the vessel’s second deck and survived. The sixth, a 26-year-old deckhand named Allie Kurtz , was sleeping below and perished with the boat’s 33 passengers.
Kurtz’s grandmother, Doris Lapporte, said she was too distraught Thursday to comment on the NTSB’s findings, issued days before the family planned to scatter her granddaughter’s ashes at sea.
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Trump visiting Baltimore for first time since disparaging it
BALTIMORE — President Donald Trump on Thursday is making his first visit to Baltimore since describing it nearly two months ago as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”
As he left the White House to head to Baltimore, Trump was asked what his message would be to the residents of the city he disparaged. The president dodged the question and talked about how the GOP won two seats in the House during elections this week.
“I think it’s going to be a very successful evening,” he told reporters on the South Lawn.
Trump will be speaking to congressional Republicans attending an annual retreat in a hotel on the city’s waterfront. Protesters have gathered nearby. But inside, the president will find a friendly audience of legislators whose political futures are closely tied to how well he performs in next year’s election. Trump’s speech was to focus on his accomplishments in office and priorities ahead.
In July, Trump lashed at the city in a series of tweets critical of Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, who represents the majority-black 7th Congressional District in Baltimore and also chairs the House oversight panel conducting numerous investigations of the administration’s policies and work.
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Grand jury indicts man on capital murder for El Paso attack
EL PASO, Texas — A man accused of gunning down people at a busy Walmart in El Paso last month was indicted Thursday for capital murder, prosecutors announced.
Patrick Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas, was indicted on one count in connection with the Aug. 3 mass shooting that left 22 dead in the border city, District Attorney Jaime Esparza said. El Paso prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Crusius, who remains jailed without bond.
Crusius’ defense lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Attorney Mark Stevens previously said he will use “every legal tool available” to prevent his client from being executed.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reacted to the indictment by simply tweeting : “good.”
The El Paso County District Clerk’s office said Crusius’ indictment would not be publicly available until next week because it takes a few days to process and assign the case to a court.
