House OKs $3.9 billion for Veterans Affairs
WASHINGTON— The House overwhelming ly approveda $3.9 billion emergency spending package to address a budget short fall at the Department of Veterans Affairs that threatens medical carefor thousands of veterans.
The bill provides $2.1 billion to continue funding the Veterans Choice program, which allows veterans to receive private medical care at government expense.
Another$1.8 billion would go to core VA health programs, including28 leases for new VA medical facilities.
Foxxcon in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A wide array of Wisconsin environmental regulations be waived in aneffort to speed up construction of a $10 billion Fox conn electronics factory under a proposal Gov. Scott Walker unveiled Friday.
Mr. Walker called on the Republican-controlled Legislature to consider themeasure as early as Tuesday.It also would borrow$252 million to finish rebuilding Interstate 94,which connects Milwaukee with Chicago and runs near where the massive display panel factory is expected to be built.
Ex-priest out of prison
BOSTON— A former priest at the center of Boston’s Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal was quietly released from prison Friday morning after completing a 12-year sentence for the rape of a boy in the 1980s.
Paul Shanley, 86, was released from the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater.
Prosecutors opposed his release, and several menwho say they were abused by him when they wereyoung called on the public to help them track his where abouts. They saidthey are concerned Shanley will reoffend.
Delaney for president?
BALTIMORE— Rep. John Delaney, a former businessman who has cultivated a reputation for bipartisanship during three terms in Congress, announced Friday he will run for the Democratic nomination for president.
Oneof the only membersof Congress to have runa publicly traded company, Mr. Delaney’s presidentialcampaign appears tobe centered on an economic message that the nation is poised to rebound if Washington embraces a “new economy” that is more technological, entrepreneurial and forwardlooking.
Trump skyline sketch
Thursday was an eventful news day for President Donald Trump.
Hisnew communications director Anthony Scaramucci made headlines after railing against leakers in an expletive laden conversation a reporter.The U.S. Senate approved sweeping sanctions against Russia, whichwill force the president to make an ultimate decision on the politically explosive issue. Republicans in the Senate also tried, and failed, to pass an amendment repealing aspects of the Affordable Care Act in a last-minute vote-a-rama.
Butthere was also a bit of lighter news from Calif., where a sketch of the Manhattan skyline drawn and signed by Mr. Trump wayback in 2005 was sold formore than $29,000.
Also in the nation ...
New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s wife has filed for divorce, accordingto the New York Post.