NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Ryan’s warning: House Speaker Paul Ryan warned Republicans to unify around a new push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act or risk tempting President Trump to cut a deal with Democrats that runs counter to Republican goals. Ryan, in an interview with CBS that aired Thursday, said he fears that “if we don’t do this, then he’ll just go work with Democrats to try and change Obamacare. And that’s not, that’s hardly a conservative thing.”
2 Trump poll: More than 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of the way President Trump is handling health care, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in Chicago. Most oppose key elements of the short-circuited GOP proposal to overhaul former President Barack Obama’s health care law, including Medicaid cuts and surcharges for people whose coverage lapses.
3 Pipeline challenge: A coalition of environmental groups is challenging the federal permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline in court because they say additional environmental scrutiny is needed. The Sierra Club joined with several other environmental groups to file the federal lawsuit Thursday in Montana. The proposed pipeline that TransCanada wants to build would carry crude oil through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska where it would connect with an existing Keystone pipeline network that moves crude to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The environmental groups say the initial environmental review completed in 2014 is inadequate and outdated.
4 Labor nominee: Florida law school Dean Alexander Acosta moved a step closer to becoming President Trump’s secretary of labor. A Senate panel on Thursday voted along party lines, 12-11, to advance Acosta’s nomination to all 100 members of the chamber for a confirmation vote. There was no immediate word on when the Senate would hold that vote or whether Democrats will stand in the way. Acosta’s path to confirmation has been much smoother than the one traveled — and abandoned — by Trump’s first choice for the Cabinet post. Fast food CEO Andrew Puzder withdrew from consideration after majority Republicans balked at questions about his personal and professional life. Puzder had acknowledged employing a housekeeper not authorized to work in the United States.
5 “Angel of Death”: A serial killer known as the “Angel of Death” after he admitted killing three dozen hospital patients in Ohio and Kentucky died Thursday, two days after investigators said he was attacked in prison, Ohio’s prisons department said. Donald Harvey, who was serving multiple life sentences, was found beaten in his cell Tuesday afternoon at the state’s prison in Toledo, state officials said. While details about the attack weren’t released, he was beaten when an unnamed person went into his cell, a patrol report said. Harvey pleaded guilty in 1987 to killing 37 people, mostly while he worked as a nurse’s aide at hospitals in Cincinnati and London, Ky.
Chronicle News Services