Crosstalk: February 18, 2019

Again, the spectrum of stories was broad as Jim presented another edition of the ‘Round-Up’. Here’s a sample of stories mentioned:

• –President Trump to tap into executive powers and declare a national emergency at the southern border in a bid to divert billions toward construction of a wall.

• –President Trump plans to draw 3.6 billion dollars from military construction accounts, the portion of funding that requires a national emergency declaration.

• –Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez says she will introduce a bill with fellow Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro to stop the president’s planned emergency declaration.

• –Republicans in the House of Representatives voted 109-87 not to approve the appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and 8 other federal agencies.

• –Drug Enforcement Agency agents busted a large and sophisticated meth lab near Atlanta, Georgia, they say is run by a Mexican drug cartel.

• –Ted Cruz has introduced a bill to use the assets that were seized from the drug lord El Chapo to pay for the border wall.

• –Judicial Watch has sent an official complaint to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, calling for investigations into leaks of information about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

• –After two years of investigating and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee has found no direct evidence of Trump/Russia collusion.

• –The Senate voted yesterday to approve William Barr as attorney general.

• –Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was back at the Supreme Court today for the justices’ private conference.

• –Brock Long, the administrator of FEMA, announced last week that he’s resigning from his position saying it’s time for him to go home to his family.

• –President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching a new artificial intelligence initiative geared toward creating cutting edge technology.

• –An independent investigation confirmed that a group of Covington Catholic teens told the truth about their now viral confrontation with a Native American man in January in Washington.

• –The Los Angeles City Council passed a law requiring companies that want city contracts to disclose whether they have ties to the National Rifle Association.

• –Some sheriffs in several conservative Washington counties have refused to enforce the state’s sweeping restrictions on semi-automatic rifles until the courts decide whether they are constitutional.

• –A former U.S. Air Force counter-intelligence agent was charged with espionage after giving classified information to Iran.

• –A senior Iranian official says that the Islamic Republic has the chemical and technical know-how to produce a nuclear weapon.

• –Vice President Mike Pence told a conference of European and Middle East leaders that Iran is plotting to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth.

• –The fallout from Amazon’s decision to walk away from it’s planned headquarters in New York is ratcheting up after a company spokesman publically blasted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and other lawmakers.

• –Nancy Pelosi says that a Democrat president could declare a national emergency
  on gun violence.