NATION BRIEFING
Search for more dead in wildfire
PARADISE, Calif. – With scores of people still missing, National Guard troops searched Wednesday through charred debris for more victims of California’s deadliest wildfire as top federal and state officials toured the ruins of a community completely destroyed by the flames.
About 7,700 homes were destroyed Nov. 8 when flames hit Paradise, a former gold-mining camp popular with retirees, killing at least 48 people in California’s deadliest wildfire. There were also three fatalities from separate blazes in Southern California.
It will take years to rebuild the town of 27,000, if people decide that’s what should be done, said Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains looks like a wasteland.
Department of Justice backs Whitaker as acting AG
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department defended President Donald Trump’s appointment of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, asserting Wednesday that his senior executive status at the department “unquestionably” authorized him to serve despite his lack of Senate confirmation.
The 20-page opinion issued by Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel based its findings on provisions of the Vacancies Reform Act, which allows for the appointment of a senior staffer who had been in office for at least 90 days. Before his appointment, Whitaker served as chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was fired Nov. 7.
Trump ally McCarthy selected to lead House Republicans
WASHINGTON – Republican Kevin McCarthy easily won an internal party election Wednesday to take over the shrunken House GOP caucus, a familiar role for the underestimated scrapper whose top priority will be to protect President Donald Trump’s agenda and try to build the party back to retake House rule.
McCarthy is close to Trump, but the president is also friendly with Rep. Jim Jordan, the conservative Freedom Caucus member, and both faced testy colleagues ready to assign blame after the midterm election losses.
In the end, McCarthy pushed past Jordan, 159-43, according to officials familiar with the closed-door voting.
Trump reassigns adviser the first lady wanted fired
WASHINGTON – Deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel will move to a new position in the Trump administration, a day after first lady Melania Trump pushed for her ouster.
Ricardel will “transition to a new role within the administration,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. Sanders did not say what new job Ricardel would be given.
Melania Trump publicly pushed to have Ricardel fired on Tuesday, an unusual move for a first lady.
“It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she (Ricardel) no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House,” Melania Trump’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement Tuesday.
Media filing briefs backing CNN’s lawsuit against White House
WASHINGTON – The USA TODAY Network and its parent company, Gannett, are joining other media outlets Wednesday in filing briefs in support of CNN’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over the revocation of a reporter’s White House pass.
“Our news organizations support the fundamental constitutional right to question this President, or any President. We will be filing friend-of-thecourt briefs to support CNN’s and Jim Acosta’s lawsuit based on these principles,” said a joint statement.
The statement from the law firm Ballard Spahr was sent on behalf of Fox News, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, First Look Media Works, the National Press Club, NBC News, The New York Times, Politico, E.W. Scripps Co., the Press Freedom Defense Fund, The Washington Post, the USA TODAY Network and Gannett.