NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Defense budget: Declaring the U.S. military in dire need of rebuilding, an influential House committee chairman pressed his case Monday for $696 billion defense budget in 2018 — more military spending than at any point during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who heads the Armed Services Committee, argued the sharp increase is badly needed to address shortcomings that have driven the combat readiness of the armed forces to a level Defense Secretary James Mattis has described as shocking.
_2 Deputy shot: A Sacramento sheriff ’s deputy was in stable condition after being shot in the face Tuesday evening, department spokesman Sgt. Tony Turnbull said. Law enforcement officials took a suspect into custody at 9:15 p.m., about three hours after the shooting, without any altercation, Turnbull said. They did not find a weapon with him. More than 100 officers responded to the scene at a light rail station and surrounded a nearby hotel, where the suspect was hiding. Officials used a robot to locate the 27-year-old suspect, who was in a fetal position in an outdoor hallway on the second floor of the hotel. Turnbull said the deputy, a fouryear veteran of the department, was undergoing “extensive” surgery on his jaw.
_3 N.Y. subway derails: A subway train derailed Tuesday as it entered a station, tossing people to the floor, forcing hundreds of shaken-up passengers to evacuate through darkened tunnels, and delivering another jolt to a transit system plagued by aging equipment and reliability problems. Almost three dozen people suffered minor injuries in the derailment, which happened in Harlem just before 10 a.m. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
_4 Ten Commandments statue: Workers have installed a Ten Commandments monument outside Arkansas’ Capitol, two years after lawmakers approved a measure permitting the statue on state grounds. The 6-foot-tall monument was placed on the Capitol grounds in Little Rock on Tuesday. Opponents of the monument have said it amounts to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and have threatened to sue. Plans for Arkansas’ monument sparked a push by the Satanic Temple for a competing statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed, angel-winged creature accompanied by two children smiling at it. Efforts to install that display, however, were blocked by a law enacted this year requiring legislative approval before the commission could consider a monument proposal.
_5 Gender ID: The District of Columbia is giving residents a new gender option on their driver’s licenses or identification cards issued by the city’s department of motor vehicles. On Tuesday, the city will begin allowing residents to choose “X,” the gender-neutral identifier. Residents had previously been given only male and female as choices for gender identifier. Any resident seeking a license can request the gender-neutral identifier, but the city said in a statement that the new option is anticipated to immediately benefit the transgender community. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city has long been a leader in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and gender issues.
_6 Lucas museum: The Force was with George Lucas as the Los Angeles City Council moved with light-saber speed Tuesday to clear the way for a $1.5 billion Museum of Narrative Art the “Star Wars” creator plans to build down the road from his alma mater. The council voted 14-0 to approve an environmental impact report and other requirements for the museum’s construction adjacent to the University of Southern California. Lucas said his museum will focus not only on movies but the entire history of narrative storytelling, from the days of cave painting to digital film.