NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
Criminal justice bill: Under pressure from President Trump and many of his Republican colleagues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he will bring legislation to the floor to overhaul the nation’s sentencing laws. McConnell’s decision comes after more than three years of overtures from a large, bipartisan group of senators who support the criminal justice bill, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump announced his support for the legislation last month, but McConnell said the bill was among a number of competing priorities for the lameduck session. If the legislation passes, it could be a rare bipartisan policy achievement for this Congress and the largest sentencing overhaul in decades.
Stormy Daniels: A federal judge ordered the porn star to pay President Trump nearly $293,000 for his attorneys’ fees and another $1,000 in sanctions after her defamation suit against the president was dismissed. Judge S. James Otero made the order Tuesday in Los Angeles. Trump’s lawyer had asked for nearly $390,000. Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents Daniels, tweeted the order “will never hold up on appeal.” Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement days before the 2016 presidential election. She sued him after he dismissed her claims of being threatened to keep quiet about the tryst as a “total con job.” The judge threw out the case in October.
Drilling lawsuit: Environmental groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday over offshore drilling tests, launching a legal fight against a proposal that has drawn bipartisan opposition along the Atlantic Coast. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Charleston, S.C., claims the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued five permits for the use of seismic air guns. The five-year plan would open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reserves to private development. The coalition includes OCEANA, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, Surfrider Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, One Hundred Miles and the Sierra Club, as well as the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the North Carolina Coastal Federation.
Texas execution: A Texas inmate was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a newlywed during a robbery more than 25 years ago. Alvin Braziel Jr., 43, received lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the 1993 slaying of 27-year-old Douglas White, who was attacked as he and his wife walked on a jogging trail. Braziel became the 24th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 13th executed in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a last-minute appeal.
Chronicle News Services