TRUMP PLANS RALLY, PELOSI SEEKS DEAL AS WALL DEADLINE NEARS

WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck starkly different tones in their border security standoff Wednesday, as Trump planned a rally in a Texas border city he says exemplifies the need for a wall and Pelosi said she’d back any bipartisan deal congressional bargainers produce.

The contrasting pathways — with Trump set to appear before raucous supporters and Pelosi signaling compromise — came with just over a week until a Feb. 15 deadline for negotiators to reach agreement or potentially face a renewed partial government shutdown. House-Senate bargainers say their talks have become increasingly substantive and some lawmakers — including Pelosi herself — expressed hopes that negotiators might produce an accord as soon as Friday.

Participants said the two sides were narrowing differences in their talks.

Milwaukee officer killed serving warrant; suspect arrested.

MILWAUKEE» A 17-year police veteran was shot and killed as he served a warrant on Milwaukee’s south side Wednesday, becoming the city’s third officer to be killed in the line of duty in eight months, officials said.

Assistant Milwaukee Police Chief Michael Brunson said at a news conference that the 35year-old officer, whose name has not been released, was part of a Tactical Enforcement Unit.

“This is the third time in eight months that I’ve had to stand at a podium and talk about the loss of a life of a police officer,” Mayor Tom Barrett told reporters. “We need all residents of this community, all residents of this state, to be thankful and appreciative of every single law enforcement official in this state.”

A 26-year-old Milwaukee man was in custody, Brunson said. He provided no other details.

Vape pen kills man after exploding in his mouth.

William Brown had errands to run on a chilly Texas evening, and his grandmother was happy to lend him her light-blue Lincoln Town Car.

Brown stopped at a store selling vaporizer smoking pens outside Fort Worth on Jan. 27. He sat alone in the parked car, put his lips to a pen, and soon after, an explosion sent shards of metal into his face and neck, said Alice Brown, his grandmother.

He thrashed and fell out of the car, trying to regain his balance on the hood and trunk before collapsing, she said, according to evidence from the scene conveyed to her by authorities.

Brown, 24, held on for two days before he died at a hospital. The cause of death was listed as stroke after the carotid artery in his neck was severed by “penetrating trauma from exploding vaporizer pen,” the Tarrant County medical examiner found.

Venezuela military barricades bridge in attempt to block aid.

COLOMBIA» The Venezuelan CUCUTA, military barricaded a bridge at a key border crossing with Colombia, issuing a challenge Wednesday to a U.S.-backed effort by the opposition to bring humanitarian aid into a nation plagued by shortages of food and medicine.

The Tienditas International Bridge was blocked the day before with a giant orange tanker, two large blue containers and makeshift fencing near the border town of Cucuta, Colombian officials said.

The bridge is at the same site where officials plan to store humanitarian aid that opposition leader Juan Guaido is vowing to deliver to Venezuela. The Trump administration has pledged $20 million in aid and Canada has promised another $53 million.

The aid squabble is the latest front in the battle between Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro, who is vowing not to let the supplies enter the country.

Maduro argues that Venezuela isn’t a nation of “beggars” and has long rejected receiving humanitarian assistance, equating it to a foreign intervention. — Denver Post wire services