The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TRUMP: ‘MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT’ TODAY ON SHUTDOWN
■ President Donald Trump says he will make a “major announcement” at 3 p.m. today about the government shutdown and border security.
■ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday canceled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip. The White House said it had leaked nothing that would cause a security risk.
■ The Trump administration finalized rules Friday governing who can claim a new 20 percent tax deduction for business owners. Officials said the rules will allow millions of businesses to file their 2018 taxes with certainty over whether they qualify for the break.
■ The nation’s airport security screening system continues to struggle with high absenteeism as a result of officers having to work without pay. On Thursday, 6.4 percent of U.S. airport security officers were off the job, almost twice the 3.8 percent on the same day a year earlier, the Transportation Security Administration said in a release.
■ The Food and Drug Administration plans to furlough more people and suspend lower priority tasks to preserve money for drug reviews, including for new treatments for depression, diabetes and several types of cancer. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the cost-saving measures will buy weeks, not months, of extended life for the FDA’s drug-review process.