Saturday, Nov 01st
Last update08:10:46 AM GMT
Domestic Glance
President Donald Trump on Thursday waived a federal law to allow relief shipments to reach Puerto Rico, as the island continues to struggle to provide life-sustaining services after Hurricane Maria.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders announced the waiver of the Jones Act, and said it will "go into effect immediately."
Trump granted the waiver after it was requested by Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who thanked the president Thursday morning.
A vital dam in suburban Houston that protects the central city began overspilling on Tuesday, and officials said the rainfall from Harvey is so unprecedented they do not know what the impact on surrounding communities will be.
Water levels in the Addicks reservoir have reached 108ft, said Jeff Lindner, a Harris County flood control district meteorologist.
He warned that neighbourhoods in the spillway zone would begin to see street and possibly structural flooding.
Houston is facing worsening historic flooding in the coming days as Tropical Storm Harvey dumps more rain on the city, swelling rivers to record levels and forcing federal engineers on Monday to release water from area reservoirs in hopes of controlling the rushing currents.
Harvey was the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in more than 50 years when it came ashore on Friday near Corpus Christi, about 220 miles (354 km) south of Houston, and has killed at least two people. It has since lingered around Texas’ Gulf Coast, where it is forecast to remain for several more days, drenching parts of the region with a year’s worth of rain in the span of a week.
Former FBI Director James Comey will deliver a keynote address to Howard University students in the coming weeks and take on a part-time post giving lectures at the school.
The university said Wednesday that Comey, who was fired earlier this year by President Donald Trump, would speak at the convocation slated for Sept. 22, which is designed to welcome students to the historically black university.
Workers in Charlottesville draped giant black covers over two statues of Confederate generals on Wednesday to symbolize the city's mourning for a woman killed while protesting a white nationalist rally.
The work began around 1 p.m. in Emancipation Park, where a towering monument of Gen. Robert E. Lee on horseback stands. Workers gathered around the monument with a large black drape. Some stood in cherry-pickers and others used ropes and poles to cover the statue as onlookers took photos and video. Some of the crowd cheered as the cover was put in place.
Joseph Bologna, an actor, writer, and director known for his role in 1982’s “My Favorite Year” and for his long collaboration on stage and screen with wife Renée Taylor, has died after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 82.
Bologna died Sunday morning at City of Hope in Duarte, California. Just last month, Bologna attended a 35th anniversary screening of “My Favorite Year” in Los Angeles. Bologna played the explosive TV star King Kaiser in the backstage comedy inspired by Mel Brooks’ experiences as a young TV writer on Sid Caesar’s legendary “Your Show of Shows.”
Taylor said Bologna had “a beautiful life and a beautiful death.” Bologna died just two days after the couple celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.
California is poised to sue the Trump administration over the president’s latest attempt to punish jurisdictions tagged by the Justice Department as “sanctuary cities” that harbor undocumented immigrants, according to two sources close to the case.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — in conjunction with other California city and county attorneys — is considering charging the Justice Department with violating the Constitution by threatening to take crime-fighting funds away from cities and states that do not fully cooperate with federal immigration agents, according to those sources.
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