The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Top News Executive Summary
VISA-ABUSE CLAMPDOWN: “The Trump administration is considering suspending or limiting entry of nationals from countries with high rates of visa overstays as it seeks to clamp down on illegal immigration. President Trump signed a memo on Monday giving the State and Homeland Security departments 120 days to come up with measures to tackle the problem. ‘We have laws that need to be followed to keep Americans safe and to protect the integrity of a system where, right now, there are millions of people who are waiting in line to come to America to seek the American Dream,’ Trump said.” (Washington Examiner)
IMPEACHMENT EXPECTATIONS: According to The Hill, “Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said Monday that the House should take steps toward impeaching President Trump,” which follows an identical recommendation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But the Associated Press adds, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged divided Democrats to focus on fact-finding rather than the prospect of any impeachment proceedings.”
ENTITLEMENT TROUBLES: “Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs on Monday announced that the long-term deficit facing the programs was a staggering $59 trillion. As the retirement age population expands relative to the working-age population in the coming decades and the cost of healthcare explodes, the two programs will eat up a growing amount of government resources unless there are significant changes. … [The estimates] could be optimistic, because, according to the trustees, ‘the Medicare projections shown here could be substantially understated as a result of other potentially unsustainable elements of current law.’” (Washington Examiner)
NEW YORK’S GREEN NEW STEAL: “Mayor Bill de Blasio marked Earth Day by outlining measures to make New York greener Monday, including dramatically cutting the carbon footprint of the city’s signature building, the skyscraper. ‘We’re going to ban the classic glass and steel skyscrapers, which are incredibly inefficient,’ he told MSNBC television. The New York version of the ‘Green New Deal’ currently being pushed by freshmen Democratic members of Congress would make buildings of more than 25,000 square feet (2,300 square meters) cut their emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. The Democratic mayor said that those who fail to meet the new environmental standards could face fines of more than a million dollars, in the case of larger buildings.” (Agence France-Presse)
VACCINE FIGHT: “A New York City judge has dismissed a complaint from parents who objected to the city’s emergency vaccine order meant to immediately curb a dangerous measles epidemic threatening the city’s vulnerable. … NBC News reports that, as of Sunday, Brooklyn doctors have counted an astounding 626 cases of measles, more than the number of cases reported in the entire year 2014, when the city suffered a measles outbreak.” (The Daily Wire)
FUND THE DEBT! “Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to use taxpayer money to ‘cancel’ hundreds of billions of dollars in student-loan debt and offer debt-free college for millions more, which would cost $1.25 trillion over the next decade. … The senator … also proposes using $50 billion in taxpayer funds for historically black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs. And she wants to ‘prohibit public colleges from considering citizenship status’ when making admissions decisions. In addition, Warren wants to phase out federal money that now goes to for-profit schools.” (The Daily Wire)
LANDMARK DISCRIMINATION CASE: “In a watershed moment for LGBT-rights advocates, the Supreme Court has agreed to take up three cases involving LGBT individuals who claim they were fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The court will decide whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination by employers based on ‘sex,’ also prohibits discrimination based on the sexual orientation and gender identity of workers. The cases are the first to test the bent of the new, conservative-leaning Court on LGBT issues.” (National Review)
ENABLING BAD BEHAVIOR: “Starbucks’ efforts to address opioid use and improperly disposed needles in its bathrooms are expanding. Starbucks stores in at least 25 US markets have installed needle-disposal boxes in bathrooms in recent months. By this summer, the chain aims to have installed sharps boxes in bathrooms in all regions where such action has been deemed necessary. … The company … faced at least one government investigation related to the issue in 2018 after two employees in a Eugene, Oregon, location were stuck with hypodermic needles within a month of each other.” (Business Insider)
HUMOR: Al Gore commemorates Earth Day by using private jet to write “Save the Planet” in the sky (The Babylon Bee)
POLICY: Trump took another important step to fully ending Iran nuclear deal; now he must finish the job (Washington Examiner)
POLICY: Trump’s washing-machine tariffs created 1,800 jobs, but at a huge cost to consumers of $820,000 per job (American Enterprise Institute)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.