Kushner in Mexico to soothe relations

MEXICO CITY — Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s sonin-law and a senior White House adviser, traveled to Mexico on Wednesday for talks with top Mexican officials, including President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The Mexican news media reported that Kushner was whisked to a meeting in Mexico City with Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray, who has cultivated a close relationship with the Trump confidant. Kushner later met with Pena Nieto, the Foreign Ministry confirmed.

Among the issues on the agenda, officials said, were trade, immigration, security and the closely linked economies of the two North American neighbors. efforts Wednesday to reduce nutrient pollution that contributes to algae blooms in Lake Erie, but it recommended no new federal regulations to accomplish the task.

A plan released by EPA's Chicago-based Region 5 office sets targets for reducing phosphorus that feeds giant algae masses that have caused fish kills and beach closures on the shallowest of the Great Lakes, harming tourism and threatening drinking water. A 2014 bloom settled over the drinking-water intake pipe for Toledo, contaminating the municipal supply for more than 400,000 people.

But the strategy relies largely on existing state and local programs and voluntary actions by the region's farms. It acknowledges some tougher rules might be needed but leaves those decisions to the states.