Tag Archives: national politics

Home & Kitchen

Nodule found in former President Joe Biden’s prostate during routine physical exam

WASHINGTON (AP) — A small nodule was found in the prostate of former President Joe Biden during a routine physical exam, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

A short statement said the finding “necessitated further evaluation,” but it was not clear whether that had already taken place or the outcome of the examination.

The detection of nodules in the prostate generally requires a further exam by a urologist to rule out prostate cancer.

Biden’s age and concerns about his health were cited by Democratic leaders who pressed him to abandon his reelection bid in 2024 following a disastrous debate performance last June.

But as recently as last week, Biden rejected concerns about his age, saying the broader party didn’t buy into that, and instead blaming the Democratic leadership and “significant contributors.”

President Donald Trump repeatedly raised questions about Biden’s physical and mental capacity during the campaign.

In February 2023, Biden had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. And in November 2021, he had a polyp removed from his colon that was a benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.

Originally Published:

Source link

Home & Kitchen

Software update keeps Newark airport radar online but network concerns and flight limits remain

By JOSH FUNK

A new software update prevented a third radar outage in the last two weeks at New Jersey’s busy Newark airport when a telecommunications line failed again over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.

At a news conference, Duffy also said the recent problems that have led to hundreds of cancellations and delays in Newark could have been avoided had action been taken by President Joe Biden’s administration to better equip the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia — particularly after issues with the hardware in October and November that should have set off alarms.

Duffy said the update the Federal Aviation Administration installed Friday night helped ensure the backup system worked on Sunday when there was another problem with the primary line coming into the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia. When a similar issue happened Friday and on April 28, the radar and communications systems went offline briefly, leaving controllers unable to see or talk to the planes.

The FAA restricted traffic into Newark Liberty International Airport after the first incident, partly because several air traffic controllers went out on trauma leave afterward, worsening the already short staffing. Those limits, designed to keep flights safe, combined with an ongoing runway construction project in Newark, led to all the cancellations and delays. Later this week, the FAA will meet with all the airlines to discuss making those limits last into the summer.

Even though the radar system stayed online Sunday, controllers were worried because of the two previous outages, so Duffy said they stopped all traffic at Newark airport for about 45 minutes as a precaution.

Duffy said he will request an investigation into last year’s move of Newark air traffic controllers from New York to Philadelphia to determine why more wasn’t done to ensure there wouldn’t be problems. Philadelphia is about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Newark.

“The Biden-Buttigieg FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data, which was already well-known to be error-prone,” Duffy said. “Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system.”

Duffy also said the FAA should have set up a new radar system for Newark in Philadelphia instead of piping the signal in from New York for controllers.

Duffy and President Donald Trump have said that the problems in Newark are a prime example of why they developed a multibillion-dollar plan to overhaul that nation’s air traffic control system, unveiled last week. Duffy blames the Biden administration for failing to do that, but those problems go back decades, even before the first Trump administration.

An advisor to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Duffy should spend more time trying to deal with the nation’s problems, and he defended the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster air traffic controller hiring and make a down payment on dealing with some of the infrastructure problems.

“Secretary Duffy has a tough job. But he needs to spend more time doing what the American people are paying him to do — fix problems — and less time blaming others,” said Chris Meagher.

Duffy laid out an extensive plan to replace the nation’s outdated air traffic control system last week, including installing 4,600 new high-speed data connections and replacing 618 radars, but didn’t put a price tag on the plan other than to say it will cost billions.

The FAA has installed new fiber optic lines at Newark airport and New York’s Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports to replace old copper wires since the first outage, but plans to spend the next two weeks testing those new lines out before switching over to them.

Originally Published:

Source link

Home & Kitchen

House Republicans unveil Medicaid cuts that Democrats warn will leave millions without care

By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

Tallying hundreds of pages, the legislation revealed late Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during Trump’s first term in 2017.

While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.

“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.

But Democrats said the cuts are “shameful” and essentially amount to another attempt to repeal Obamacare.

“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. He said “hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”

As Republicans race toward House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to pass Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, they are preparing to flood the zone with round-the-clock public hearings this week on various sections before they are stitched together in what will become a massive package.

The politics ahead are uncertain. More than a dozen House Republicans have told Johnson and GOP leaders they will not support cuts to the health care safety net programs that residents back home depend on. Trump himself has shied away from a repeat of his first term, vowing there will be no cuts to Medicaid.

All told, 11 committees in the House have been compiling their sections of the package as Republicans seek at least $1.5 trillion in savings to help cover the cost of preserving the 2017 tax breaks, which were approved during Trump’s first term and are expiring at the end of the year.

But the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee has been among the most watched. The committee was instructed to come up with $880 billion in savings and reached that goal, primarily with the health care cuts, but also by rolling back Biden-era green energy programs. The preliminary CBO analysis said the committee’s proposals would reduce the deficit by $912 billion over the decade — with at least $715 billion coming from the health provisions.

Central to the savings are changes to Medicaid, which provides almost free health care to more than 70 million Americans, and the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded in the 15 years since it was first approved to cover millions more.

To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. People would also have to verify their eligibility to be in the program twice a year, rather than just once.

This is likely to lead to more churn in the program and present hurdles for people to stay covered, especially if they have to drive far to a local benefits office to verify their income in person. But Republicans say it’ll ensure that the program is administered to those who qualify for it.

Many states have expanded their Medicaid rosters thanks to federal incentives, but the legislation would cut a 5% boost that was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funding to the states for immigrants who have not shown proof of citizenship would be prohibited.

There would be a freeze on the so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that creates abuse in the system.

The energy portions of the legislation run far fewer pages, but include rollbacks of climate-change strategies President Joe Biden signed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act.

It proposes rescinding funds for a range of energy loans and investment programs while providing expedited permitting for natural gas development and oil pipelines.

Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

Originally Published:

Source link

Home & Kitchen

US and China take a step back from sky-high tariffs, agree to pause for 90 days

By JAMEY KEATEN, DAVID McHUGH, ELAINE KURTENBACH and KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their trade war for more talks on resolving their trade disputes.

Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy.

 

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.

Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the tariff reductions at a news conference in Geneva.

The two officials struck a positive tone as they said the two sides had set up consultations to continue discussing their trade issues. Bessent said at the news briefing after two days of talks that the high tariff levels would have amounted to a complete blockage of each sides goods, an outcome neither side wants.

“The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling,” Bessent said. “And what had occurred with these very high tariff … was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade.”

“We want more balanced trade. And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.”

The delegations, escorted around town and guarded by scores of Swiss police, met for at least a dozen hours on both days of the weekend at sun-baked 17th-century villa that serves as the official residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

At times, the delegation leaders broke away from their staffs and settled into sofas on the villa’s patios overlooking Lake Geneva, helping deepen personal ties in the effort to reach a much-sought deal.

China’s Commerce Ministry said the two sides agreed to cancel 91% in tariffs on each other’s goods and suspend another 24% in tariffs for 90 days, bringing the total reduction to 115 percentage points.

The ministry called the agreement an important step for the resolution of the two countries’ differences and said it lays the foundation for further cooperation.

“This initiative aligns with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries and serves the interests of both nations as well as the common interests of the world,” a ministry statement said.

China hopes the U.S will stop “the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes” and work with China to safeguard the development of their economic and trade relations, injecting more certainty and stability into the global economy, the ministry said.

The joint statement issued by the two countries said China also agreed to suspend or remove other measures it has taken since April 2 in response to the U.S. tariffs.

China has increased export controls on rare earths including some critical to the defense industry and added more American companies to its export control and unreliable entity lists, restricting their business with and in China.

The full impact on the complicated tariffs and other trade penalties enacted by Washington and Beijing remains unclear. And much depends on whether they will find ways to bridge longstanding differences during the 90-day suspension.

But investors rejoiced as trade envoys from the world’s two biggest economies blinked, finding ways to pull back from potentially massive disruptions to world trade and their own markets.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 2.6% and for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2%. Oil prices surged more than $1.60 a barrel and the U.S. dollar gained against the euro and the Japanese yen.

“This is a substantial de-escalation,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. But he warned “there is no guarantee that the 90-day truce will give way to a lasting ceasefire.”

Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, welcomed the news but expressed caution. The tariffs only were suspended for 90 days and there is great uncertainty over what lies ahead, he said in a statement.

“Businesses need predictability to maintain normal operations and make investment decisions. The chamber therefore hopes to see both sides continue to engage in dialogue to resolve differences, and avoid taking measures that will disrupt global trade and result in collateral damage for those caught in the cross-fire,” Eskelund said.

Trump last month raised U.S. tariffs on China to a combined 145% and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the two countries boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped $660 billion.

The announcement by the U.S. and China sent shares surging, with U.S. futures jumping more than 2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged nearly 3% and benchmarks in Germany and France were both up 0.7%

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on countries worldwide, but its fight with China has been the most intense. Trump’s import taxes on goods from China include a 20% charge meant to pressure Beijing into doing more to stop the flow of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States.

McHugh contributed from Frankfurt, Germany, Kurtenbach from Mito, Japan, and Moritsugu from Beijing.

Originally Published:

Source link

Home & Kitchen

Trump reportedly is set to accept a jet from Qatar’s ruling family for possible use as Air Force One

By ZEKE MILLER and WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump reportedly is set to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar during his trip to the Middle East this coming week, and U.S. officials could convert the plane into a potential presidential aircraft.

ABC News reported that Trump will use the plane as a new version of Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office in January 2029, when ownership will be transferred to the foundation overseeing his yet-to-be-built presidential library.

The gift is expected to be announced when Trump visits Qatar as part of a trip that also includes stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the first extended foreign travel of his second term. The Qatari government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.

Administration officials, anticipating questions about the president accepting such a large gift from a foreign government, have prepared an analysis arguing that doing so would be legal, according to ABC. The Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, bars anyone holding government office from accepting any present, emolument, office or title from any “King, Prince, or foreign State,” without congressional consent.

Trump intends to convert the Qatari aircraft into a plane he can fly on as president, with the Air Force planning to add secure communications and other classified elements to it.

But it will still have more limited capabilities than the existing planes that were built to serve as Air Force One, as well as two other aircraft currently under construction, according to a former U.S. official who was briefed about the plane and spoke Sunday on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made public.

The existing planes used as Air Force One are heavily modified with survivability capabilities for the president for a range of contingencies, including radiation shielding and antimissile technology. They also include a variety of communications systems to allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue orders from anywhere in the world.

The official told The Associated Press that it would be possible to quickly add some countermeasures and communications systems to the Qatari plane, but that it would be less capable than the existing Air Force One aircraft or long-delayed replacements.

Neither the Qatari plane nor the upcoming VC-25B aircraft will have the air-to-air refueling capabilities of the current VC-25A aircraft, which is the one the president currently flies on, the official said.

Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747. Two exist and the president flies on both, which are more than 30 years old. Boeing Inc. has the contract to produce updated versions, but delivery has been delayed while the company has lost billions of dollars on the project.

Delivery has been pushed to some time in 2027 for the first plane and in 2028 — Trump’s final full year in office — for the second.

ABC said the new plane is similar to a 13-year-old Boeing aircraft Trump toured in February, while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport and he was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, which is now largely run by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has vast and growing interests in the Middle East. That includes a new deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, partnering with Qatari Diar, a real estate company backed by that country’s sovereign wealth fund.

Qatar, which is ruled by the Al Thani family, is home to the state-owned airline Qatar Airways. The country also has worked to have a close relationship to Trump after he apparently backed a boycott of Doha by four Arab nations in his first term. Trump later in his term applauded Qatar.

Administration officials have brushed off concerns about the president’s policy interests blurring with family’s business profits. They note that Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and that a voluntary ethics agreement released by the Trump Organization in January bars the company from striking deals directly with foreign governments.

But that same agreement allows deals with private companies abroad. That is a departure from Trump’s first term, when the organization released an ethics pact prohibiting both foreign government and foreign company deals.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked Friday if the president during his upcoming trip might meet with people ties to his family’s business, said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Trump “is doing anything for his own benefit.”

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Originally Published:

Source link

Home & Kitchen

Trillions in sales for S&P 500 companies at stake as US-China talks begin

U.S. equity investors will be watching closely as trade talks kick off between the Trump administration and China, with trillions of dollars hanging in the balance for American companies.

The average member of the S&P 500 made 6.1% of its revenue from selling goods in China or to Chinese companies in 2024, according to an analysis from Bloomberg Intelligence’s Gillian Wolff and Gina Martin Adams.

“The bottom line is that if the U.S. has to decouple completely from China, it would result in a significant decline in earnings for S&P 500 companies no longer selling products to Chinese consumers,” Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo, wrote.

U.S. firms generated $1.2 trillion in revenue selling to Chinese consumers, which is about four times more than the size of the trade deficit in goods between the countries, according to an analysis from Slok.

On top of that, there are the costs for companies that sell Chinese-made goods in the U.S., which will get hit by the levies imposed by the Trump administration. Mattel Inc., for example, withdrew its forecast for a return to sales growth in 2025, citing the plan to impose tariffs on imported toys. Trump called out the company by name on Thursday and said he would impose a 100% tariff on any toys produced overseas.

Though it is hard to isolate the impact of the trade spat with China on the profits of S&P 500 companies, strategists have been sharply lowering their earnings estimate for the benchmark this year, often due to concern that policy uncertainty is going to hurt growth. Earnings for the index are currently expected to be about $265 in 2025, down from $273 in early January.

China has been at the center of the trade offensive that President Donald Trump launched on April 2, when the administration announced the harshest trade barriers in a century. While the levies on most countries were put on a 90-day pause a week later, those on China were pushed higher. Several rounds of retaliation have raised the U.S. tariffs on imports from China to 145%, while the Chinese have put in place a 125% duty on U.S. goods.

The S&P 500 erupted into a phase of historic volatility when the tariffs were first announced and then paused, leaving the index down 15% for the year by April 8. Since then, however, stocks have recovered, buoyed by hopes that negotiations will bring rates lower than initally proposed. On Thursday, Trump said that a trade agreement with the UK is likely to be the first of many, and he expressed confidence that the talks with China can result in tangible progress.

The equities benchmark is now down only about 3.7% in 2025, but many of the biggest companies are still caught in the trade crossfire. Smart-phone maker Apple Inc. and semiconductor behemoth Nvidia Corp. both have big revenue exposures to China, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Electric-vehicle giant Tesla Inc. makes more than one-fifth of its sales from the country.

“Technology and apparel companies are at the epicenter of the trade embargoes for now,” said Joe Gilbert, portfolio manager at Integrity Asset Management. Gilbert is avoiding semiconductor capital equipment companies and smaller retailers that do not have the scale to cope with tariffs or find new suppliers outside China.

Here are the sectors worth watching as the headlines on trade negotiations start to roll in.

Chipmakers

The makers of chips and the firms that develop related technology and equipment are highly exposed to China, putting them at the front line of the trade negotiations.

Monolithic Power Systems Inc., KLA Corp., Lam Research Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. — all semiconductor related names — were the S&P 500 companies with the highest exposure to China, according to the analysis from BI.

The first-quarter earnings season has seen several of these firms starting to sound the warnings about the trade uncertainty, particularly when it comes to China. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said U.S. restrictions on sales to China will cost it $1.5 billion in revenue this year. Qualcomm Inc., which counts China as the biggest market for its chips and is the largest maker of smartphone chips, gave a tepid revenue forecast. Intel Corp.’s revenue forecast for the current quarter was also well below analysts’ projections and the company warned that a tariff-fueled recession could torpedo chip demand.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is down 11% this year, compared to the 3.7% drop of the S&P 500. Declines in the chip index were led by Marvell Technology Inc., Teradyne Inc., ON Semiconductor Corp. and Amkor Technology Inc.

Consumer

Companies like Nike Inc., Estee Lauder Cos. and Philip Morris International Inc. are heavily exposed according to Bloomberg supply-chain data. Meanwhile, Starbucks Corp. and McDonald’s count thousands of Chinese locations each.

One of the starkest example of the impact of tariffs on this sector came on Wednesday. Shoe retailer Steven Madden Ltd., which said in February that it was expecting sales to grow nearly 20% this year, pulled that forecast, citing “meaningful near-term headwinds” from tariffs.

Amazon.com Inc., meanwhile, said it was bracing for a tougher business climate in the coming months.

The S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Index has fallen 12% so far this year.

Autos

Auto components are the most-exposed S&P 500 sector to international demand, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Adams. BorgWarner Inc. and Aptiv Plc get a particularly large chunk of their revenue from China.

Automakers General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. both pulled their guidance for 2025, citing tariffs. GM imported nearly 55,000 cars last year from China. Harley-Davidson Inc. also withdrew its 2025 outlook, citing a lack of clarity around U.S. trade policy.

The S&P Composite 1,500 Automobiles and Components Index is down 26% this year, with Gentherm Inc., Fox Factory Holding Corp. and Winnebago Industries among the top decliners.

Industrials

U.S. industrial giants are firmly plugged in to global supply chains and markets and the trade war is already weighing on freight operators and big machinery makers, among others.

Caterpillar Inc. has said most of the hit it is expecting will come from China’s retaliatory levies. It tallied the cost from tariffs at $250 million to $350 million in the second quarter alone. Honeywell International Inc. was placed on one consulting firm’s list of the large U.S. companies most at risk from China exposure last year.

Boeing Co., the largest U.S. industrial exporter, has been a direct target of Beijing’s retaliation. Chinese officials last month ordered airlines not to take any further deliveries of its jets, leaving in doubt the fate of about 50 that were slated to go to China this year.

Home improvement products manufacturer Masco Corp. also withdrew its full-year guidance, and Truist Securities analyst Keith Hughes said the company’s exposure to China tariffs could see prices grow in the mid-single digits, contributing to a 50 cent to 70 cent hit to earnings per share in 2025.

Expeditors International of Washington Inc. said that it was seeing “early signs” that ocean freight volumes from China to the U.S. were falling significantly. Meanwhile, Matson Inc. earlier this week said that since the China tariffs were implemented in April, the company’s container volume declined about 30% year-over-year.

United Parcel Service Inc. did not update its full-year outlook, saying it would stand behind the 2025 guidance if conditions were to stabilize. However, UPS expects to see weakening demand between the U.S. and China, which is the company’s most profitable trade lane. Peer FedEx Corp. lowered its full-year guidance.

Materials

From chemical-makers to metals and mining companies, the resources industry also has major vulnerabilities to U.S.-China relations.

Eastman Chemical Co. last month provided a disappointing outlook for the second quarter, citing factors that included “tariffs between the U.S. and China.” Copper producer Freeport-McMoRan Inc. said the 145% tariffs the White House placed on China were the largest driver behind the increase in its cost of goods.

Companies are also subject to indirect shockwaves. Fertilizer company Mosaic Co. is watching for a hit to demand for crop inputs as Chinese buyers shift to purchasing grains elsewhere, including from Brazil, an executive said on an earnings call.

Source link

Home & Kitchen

Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s new transit and homelessness grant conditions

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from imposing new conditions on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mass transit grants for the Seattle area or homelessness services grants for Boston, New York, San Francisco and other local governments.

The new conditions were designed to further President Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies; coerce local officials into assisting with the administration’s mass deportation efforts; and cut off information about lawful abortions, according to the lawsuit filed last week by eight cities and counties.

The administration argued that Senior U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle did not have jurisdiction over the lawsuit because it was essentially a contract dispute that should have been brought in the Court of Federal Claims — an argument the judge rejected.

Rothstein wrote that the local governments had shown they were likely to win the case, because the conditions being imposed on the grants had not been approved by Congress, were not closely related to the purposes of the grants and would not make the administration of the grants more efficient.

“Defendants have put Plaintiffs in the position of having to choose between accepting conditions that they believe are unconstitutional, and risking the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant funding, including funding that they have already budgeted and are committed to spending,” Rothstein wrote.

Her order blocks U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Transportation Administration for 14 days from enforcing the new grant conditions or withholding or delaying funding awarded under the grants. The local jurisdictions said they would seek a longer-term block in the meantime.

The Trump administration did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

King County, which includes Seattle, sued over changes to grant conditions for homelessness services as well as mass transit funding that helps pay for maintenance of the region’s light rail system. Boston and New York, Pierce and Snohomish Counties in Washington, the city and county of San Francisco, and Santa Clara County in California all sued over the changes to homelessness services grants.

“Today’s ruling is a positive first step in our challenge to federal overreach,” King County Executive Shannon Braddock said in a statement. “We will continue to stand up against unlawful actions to protect our residents and the services they rely on.”

The conditions highlighted in the plaintiff’s restraining order motion included barring grant recipients from using the funding in a way that promotes “illegal immigration or abets policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.” Another condition bars them from using the funding to “promote elective abortions.”

AP reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Originally Published:

Source link

Home & Kitchen

America’s legal system is confusing. Here are some of the common terms used in the Trump lawsuits

By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

It may feel like you have to attend law school to understand the American legal system. However, that is not the case. We broke down some of the most common legal terms used in the lawsuits surrounding the Trump administration.

What’s the general process for a lawsuit?

Lawsuits are sometimes called “complaints” for good reason: They tell a judge about something that allegedly caused you harm, and why you think someone else is to blame. Lawsuits also include a request for the kind of “relief” sought, like money or an order stopping the harmful actions.

The person being sued is always given a chance to respond. They might tell the judge the lawsuit is wrong, argue that someone else is to blame, or say the conduct wasn’t actually harmful. Often, the person being sued will file a “motion to dismiss,” asking the judge to reject the lawsuit entirely.

What’s a plaintiff?

The people who file a lawsuit are the “plaintiffs,” and the people being sued are the “defendants.” If a lawsuit is brought on behalf of a big group of people, it might become a “class action” lawsuit.

What’s a TRO? And what’s a PI?

Resolving a lawsuit can take months, so plaintiffs often ask the judge to temporarily stop the defendants from doing whatever allegedly caused the harm while the case is decided.

A “temporary restraining order” or “TRO” is a short-term emergency order designed to stop immediate, irreparable harm.

A “preliminary injunction” or “PI” lasts until the lawsuit is resolved. A PI typically isn’t granted unless the plaintiff shows they are likely to “succeed on the merits,” or win the case.

What’s the difference between an appeal and a stay?

If one side thinks the judge made the wrong call, they can ”appeal” by asking a higher court to decide if the ruling was correct.

They can also ask for a “stay,” which puts a judge’s order on pause while a dispute or appeal is worked out.

What does contempt of court mean?

If someone disobeys a court order or disrespects the judicial process, the judge might hold them in “contempt of court.”

Contempt of court convictions can carry big penalties, including fines or imprisonment. The punishments are designed to pressure the troublesome party to comply, so they typically end once the disobedience stops.

What’s ‘discovery,’ and why is some ‘privileged?’

“Discovery” happens when both sides request information from each other as they search for facts supporting their side of the case. Discovery can include witness names, documents, or sworn statements from people.

If one side thinks something should be kept confidential, they might claim “privilege.” Attorney-client communications are generally privileged. “State secrets” privilege is invoked if the government thinks sharing the information would put national security at risk.

Why all the jargon?

Legal terms carry very specific definitions. The jargon can feel fussy, but it’s all meant to help lawyers and judges avoid any ambiguity.

For instance, the term “jurisdiction” refers to whether a court has the authority to decide a case. It might seem simpler to just use the word “venue,” but there are many different types of legal jurisdiction, and the word venue just doesn’t cover it all.

Jurisdiction can be based on a geographic area or on the subject matter of the lawsuit. It can even be based on timing, or which court gets first dibs on a case.

Originally Published:

Source link