NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Sea lions: A bill that would make it easier to kill sea lions that feast on imperiled salmon in the Columbia River has cleared the U.S. Senate. Wildlife managers say rebounding numbers of sea lions are eating more salmon than ever before and their appetites are undermining billions of dollars of investment to restore endangered fish runs. The bill would streamline the process for Washington, Idaho, Oregon and several Pacific Northwest Native American tribes to capture and euthanize potentially hundreds of sea lions found in the river east of Portland, Ore. Critics say the bill is ill-conceived and that it won’t solve the problem of declining salmon, which also face other problems such as habitat loss and dams.
_2 Racial profiling: The Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department has suspended a unit that had stopped thousands of innocent Latinos on Interstate 5 to search for drugs. The Domestic Highway Enforcement Team was suspended last month and its deputies reassigned while operations are under review. Newly elected Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he supports the move. The investigation began after a Los Angeles Times report found that Latinos comprised 69 percent of drivers stopped on the highway under the program from 2012 to 2017. The paper also said Latinos’ cars were searched at a much higher rate than other racial groups.
_3 White House staff: President Trump’s top pick to replace Chief of Staff John Kelly, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill the role. Ayers, who is chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, was seen as the favorite for the job when Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would leave by year’s end. But a White House official said Sunday that Trump and Ayers could not reach agreement on Ayers’ length of service and that he would instead assist the president from outside the administration. Ayers confirmed the decision in a tweet Sunday.
_4 Anti-Semitism: Authorities are investigating the dissemination of anti-Semitic pamphlets in Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including where a gunman killed 11 people in a synagogue in October. Police said Sunday the material was found in neighborhoods including Squirrel Hill, where a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27 and killed 11 people in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. The suspected gunman has pleaded not guilty to murder and hate crime charges.
_5 School shootings: An organization formed by the parents of children killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is coming out with a public service announcement designed to help identify individuals planning mass shootings. Officials with Sandy Hook Promise say many such shootings followed warning signs that were either ignored or misunderstood. The PSA is scheduled to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting, which killed 20 children and six educators.