Author: chicagoinquirer

by Lisa Mascaro, Mary  ClareL Jalonica and Stephen Groves WASHINGTON  — Plunged into a government shutdown, the U.S. is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running by Wednesday’s deadline. Roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed, some potentially firedby the Trump administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” as retribution. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The…

by Jamie Har SAN FRANCISCO  — Police in Northern California were understandably perplexed when they pulled over a Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn, only to find no driver behind the wheel and therefore, no one to ticket. The San Bruno Police Department wrote in now viral weekend social media posts that officers were conducting a DUI operation early Saturday morning when a self-driving Waymo made the illegal turn in front of them. Officers stopped the vehicle, but declined to write a ticket as their “citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’.” “That’s right … no driver,…

by Jack Denton and Desmond Tiro NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Workers and industry are bracing for the end of a longstanding U.S. trade agreement that gave African exporters preferential treatment and now leaves businesses vulnerable to new competitive pressures and tariffs. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) will terminate as scheduled on Tuesday amid uncertainty over renegotiations and the looming impact of new tariffs announced by the White House in April. AGOA is a multilateral trade agreement that has given thousands of products from qualifying African nations duty-free access to U.S. markets since 2000. A key example of the…

by Joseph Omoremi CHICAGO- IL A combination of Privacy Acts and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exceptions were listed as reasons why details of the criminal investigation conducted on  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria between 1990 and 1994 could not be disclosed as 50-pages out of 238 pages processed on him were released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Out of the 50-pages, the name of Nigeria’s president were missing to avoid “civil action proceeding, protect national security, internal personnel rules and practices of an agency  as well as information prohibited by federal law and information that is…

by Isabella Volmert and Mark Vancleave GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — In the chaotic moments after a former Marine smashed his pickup truck into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Michigan and began shooting, church members pulled others to safety while smoke filled the building, officials said Monday. Four people died and eight others were wounded in Sunday’s attack just as services were underway in the crowded sanctuary. Authorities feared they would find additional victims, but by Monday everyone was accounted for after a sweep of the charred ruins, police said. Investigators were focusing on…

by Christopher Rugaber WASHINGTON  — A bipartisan group of former Federal Reserve chairs, Treasury secretaries, and top White House economists urged the Supreme Court Thursday to reject an attempt by President Donald Trump to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. In a filing with the court, the former officials argued that allowing the removal to proceed would undermine the Fed’s longtime independence from day-to-day politics and lead to higher inflation and a weaker economy. The filing from such an influential group underscores the unpredecented nature of Trump’s effort to remove Cook and the potentially far-reaching consequences for the economy if…

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by Larry Neumeister NEW YORK — Prosecutors urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to send Sean “Diddy” Combs to prison for over 11 years following his conviction on prostitution-related charges, citing one of his accusers who said she lives in fear of the music mogul’s release from detention. “His crimes of conviction are serious and have warranted sentences over ten years in multiple cases for defendants who, like Sean Combs, engaged in violence and put others in fear,” they wrote in a presentence submission requesting at least 11 years and three months in prison. They filed their sentencing recommendation…

by Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick WASHINGTON — A government shutdown fast approaching, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders left a White House meeting with President Donald Trump Monday afternoon showing no sign of compromising from their entrenched positions in order to avoid a lapse in funding. If government funding legislation isn’t passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night, many government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed, adding to the strain on workers and the nation’s economy. But lawmakers were locked in an impasse Monday. Democrats are using…

by Illia Novikov and Volodymry Yurchuk KYIV, Ukraine  — Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plantentered its fifth day running on emergency generators Saturday, prompting mounting safety concerns. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, announced a $90 billion arms agreement with the United States and criticized Hungary for carrying out “dangerous” intelligence-gathering drone activities over Ukraine. External power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, has been cut for more than four days in a record outage at the six-reactor facility on the front line of the war, Greenpeace Ukraine warned Saturday. Emergency diesel generators are being used to power cooling and…