NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Migrant numbers drop: The Trump administration says it continues to see a drop in the number of people apprehended at the southern U.S. border. Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said Tuesday that border officials encountered about 52,000 migrants at the border in September. That’s down about 65% percent from the peak in May of about 144,000. Morgan says the administration’s strategies have brought about results. Those policies have included denying asylum to most migrants who crossed through another country to arrive at the U.S.Mexico border and sending more than 45,000 migrants back to Mexico to wait out their asylum claims. Most immigrants coming to the U.S. are Central American families who turn themselves in after fleeing violence and poverty.
2 Sexual diseases: U.S. infections from three sexually transmitted diseases have risen for the fifth consecutive year. More than 1.7 million cases of chlamydia were reported last year. The infection rate rose 3% from 2017. It’s the most ever reported in a year, though the trend is mainly attributed to increased testing. About 580,000 gonorrhea cases were reported. That’s the highest number since 1991. The rate rose 5%. Scientists worry antibiotic resistance may be a factor. And the syphilis rate rose 15%. About 35,000 cases of the most contagious forms of the disease were reported — also the most since 1991. The Atlantabased Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the numbers Tuesday. The increases coincided with public health funding cuts and clinic closures.
3 Murder charges: A prosecutor says a central Illinois 9yearold will be charged with five counts of firstdegree murder in connection with a mobile home fire that killed five people. Woodford County State’s Attorney Greg Minger tells the (Peoria) Journal Star the juvenile also will be charged with two counts of arson and one count of aggravated arson. The April 6 fire near the village of Goodfield killed a 1yearold, two 2yearolds, a 34yearold man and a 69yearold woman. Minger would not reveal other details about the suspect, including a possible relationship to the victims. He said the child, if convicted, could be placed on probation for at least five years but not beyond the age of 21.
4 Another first: Alabama’s capital, a city once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected its first African American mayor Tuesday. Judge Steven Reed, 45, clasped the historymaking victory to be elected the next mayor of Montgomery after defeating businessman David Woods by a decisive margin. Reed won about 67% of the vote in Tuesday’s mayoral runoff, according to unofficial returns. Reed was already the first black probate judge elected in Montgomery County and was one of the first to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in the state. His father, Joe Reed, is the longtime leader of the black caucus of the Alabama Democratic Party.