Trudeau defends NAFTA
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an impassioned defense of free trade here Friday, appealing to the nation’s governors to help spread a positive message ahead of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement demanded by President Donald Trump.
His appearance underscored the efforts by both Canada and Mexico to court state executives as potential allies at a time when the president’s trade rhetoric has raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to multinational free trade agreements.
Mr. Trudeau stressed that NAFTA has provided enormous benefits to all three countries.
Laughing activist retrial
WASHINGTON— A Washington judge on Friday ordered a retrial in the case of an activist who was arrested after laughing during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s Senate confirmation hearing in January.
Judge Robert Morin, the chief judge of the D.C. Superior Court, threw out a previous conviction for Desiree ali- Fairooz, who in May was found guilty of two misdemeanor charges.
In the middle of the hearing – just after Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., stated that Mr. Sessions’s record of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and welldocumented” – Ms. Fairooz laughed audibly.
Trump hires a new lawyer
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump has chosen a new lawyer to join the White House and take the lead on issues related to ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, sources said.
Ty Cobb, a former prosecutor and defense lawyer at Hogan Lovells, will seek to play the role of crisis manager and disciplinarian in the white house.
Florida sinkhole
MIAMI — A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow in Florida swallowed a boat, destroyed two homes and prompted officials to evacuate residents from about a dozen homes Friday.
Dramatic video showed the home in Land O’ Lakes collapsing into the hole Friday morning. It quickly engulfed one home and a boat and then consumed about 80 percent of another home, said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County’s assistant county administrator for public safety.
Quadruple S.C. shooting
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A mother found dead in her SUV alongside the bodies of her two children had shot and killed another woman hours earlier at the South Carolina apartments where her estranged husband lived, authorities said.
Jessica Edens was involved in a custody dispute over one of the children with her husband and complained to an officer who came to her Easley home the day before the shootings that he had an affair for the past year, according to a police report.
Meredith Rahme, 28, was shot in her car around 5 p.m. Thursday by Edens in downtown Greenville, police said.
Two hours later, deputies found the SUV locked and running with Edens and the two children inside, each dead from a single gunshot wound, about 7 miles away in Easley, Pickens County Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said.