SENATOR SAYS DACA DEADLINE TO BE EXTENDED
OKLA.» President Donald TULSA, Trump will extend a March 5 deadline to end protections for young immigrants in the country illegally if Congress fails to act by then, according to a Republican senator who spoke directly with the president about the issue.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said Trump told him he was willing to “give it some more time” to allow lawmakers to find a solution for “dreamers” — immigrants brought illegally into this country as children — if Congress does not pass legislation extending protections before time is up.
“The president’s comment to me was that ‘We put a sixmonth deadline out there. Let’s work it out. If we can’t get it worked out in six months, we’ll give it some more time, but we’ve got to get this worked out legislatively,’ ” Lankford said.
Utah canyon renamed.
After years of debate, a U.S. government board has voted to rename Utah’s Negro Bill Canyon, overruling a recommendation by Utah officials to keep the name.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names decided Thursday to rename it Grandstaff Canyon to get rid of an offensive name, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The vote was 12-0, with one member declining to vote. The decision comes 16 years after the board voted to keep the name.
The new name honors black rancher and prospector William Grandstaff, whose cattle grazed there in the 1870s.
“His name was Grandstaff; it was not Negro Bill,” said Wendi-Starr Brown. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how he wanted to be addressed in life.” Brown is a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe who represents the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the federal board.
The Utah Committee on Geographic Names had recommended keeping the name, citing a lack of consensus from state minority groups.
The NAACP said the name is not offensive and preserves the history of the site, while the Utah Martin Luther King Jr. Commission called the name “blatant racism.”
U.S. closes trucking firm tied to smuggling case.
IOWA» Federal IOWA CITY, safety regulators have shut down a troubled Iowa trucking company that owned the semitrailer involved in a human trafficking case in which 10 immigrants died in Texas.
Pyle Transportation was placed under an “out-of-service order” Monday by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after a review found the company’s safety rating was so unsatisfactory that it was unfit to remain in business, agency spokesman Duane DeBruyne said.
Facebook’s Sandberg favors release of Russia-linked ads.
A top Facebook executive says ads linked to Russia’s attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election should be released to the public, along with information on whom the ads were targeting.
Previously, Facebook declined to make the ads public. While Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, now favors the release, she didn’t say Thursday when the company would do so.
The company disclosed last month that it found ads linked to fake accounts — likely run from Russia — that sought to influence the election.