Tsunami Alert, Deal Sets Up a Clash

Tsunami Alert: Residents of Alaska were moving to higher ground overnight after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake off Kodiak Island triggered a tsunami warning that reaches all the way down into the State of Washington. No wave has yet been reported, but CBS News reports that the water is receding in Kodiak Harbor, a sign that a wave might follow.

Swamp News: The federal government is open again today after Republicans and Democrats reached a 17-day deal that could set up another clash over immigration.

President Trump said in a statement, “We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country.”

The deal appeared to be the work of about two dozen Senators from both parties who spent the weekend negotiating. Minority Leader Charles Schumer sniped, “The great deal-making president sat on the sidelines.”

Some progressive Democrats voted no, complaining that Schumer had buckled to pressure and got little for it.

The Democrats had held out for action on DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects from deportation more than 700,000 illegal immigrants brought to the US as children. The Republicans stingingly labelled the Democrats as shutting down the government to protect illegal immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised that if there’s no action on DACA within the next three weeks while Congress handles a variety of major issues, he will immediately put it up for a vote, so long as the government remains open. He can’t guarantee that the Republican majority in the House would also take it up.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said, “To all the Dreamers who are watching today, don’t give up. I know that your lives on hanging in the balance on what we do here.”

The bill passed yesterday does include a six-year extension for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which had been allowed to expire and was running out of money. It covers about nine million kids.

Mapquest: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has thrown out the state’s congressional district map as a partisan Republican gerrymander that “clearly, plainly and palpably” violates the state’s Constitution. The Court said the map may not be used in the May 15 primary elections.

The ruling is just one of several recent rulings striking down partisan district maps and at least one case is headed to the Supreme Court.

Pennsylvania’s Republican legislative leaders say they will appeal in federal court, but it’s tough to take a fight about state constitutional issues to the federal level.

Flipped Out: The chairman and several members of the board of USA Gymnastics have resigned following the trial of former team doctor Larry Nassar, even as his molestation victims continued to give impact statements in court. The organization has been under severe criticism for ignoring reports and rumors about Nassar and allowing him to molest more than 100 girls over the years.

Nassar also worked at Michigan State University. About 140 young women and girls have spoken in court. A 15-year-old athlete testified yesterday that the University is still billing her for visits during which she was sexually abused by Nassar.

Get Out: Immigration and Customs Enforcement appears to be digging deep looking for immigrants to deport. Last week, ICE arrested a Kalamazoo, Mich. doctor who was brought to the US from Poland in 1979 and has been a legal resident since 1989. Dr. Lukasz Niec was arrested in his home.

ICE is citing Niec’s record of minor crimes when he was a juvenile as evidence of “moral turpitude” that justifies his deportation back to Poland. Niec doesn’t even speak the language. Doctors in his medical practice say he is highly regarded.

Niec appears to have been swept up by the Trump administration’s new guidelines expanding the range of immigrants deemed a high priority for deportation, including low-level offenders and those with no criminal record, no matter how long they have lived in the country.

A week ago, a Michigan man also brought to the US as a child was deported back to Mexico after living in this country for 30 years. Jorge Garcia, 39, is a landscaper with an American wife and two children who had been trying to become a legal resident.

Nation: Five workers are missing after an explosion and fire at a natural gas drilling rig about 100 miles south of Tulsa. The explosion buckled the rig. Sixteen members of the crew got away safely. The cause has not been determined.

Music Man: The ever-popular singer Neil Diamond has cancelled the third leg of his 50th anniversary tour after announcing that he has Parkinson’s Disease and is retiring. He’s 77. The tour was supposed to go to Australia and New Zealand this March, but Diamond’s website said that “the onset of the disease has made it difficult to travel and perform.”

His first No. 1 hit was “Cracklin’ Rosie,” a song people thought was about a woman but it was really about wine. Diamond’s most familiar song is probably “Sweet Caroline.”

The Obit Page: Naomi Parker Fraley, the World War II factory worker who posed for a picture in her work clothes and became the inspiration for the famous “Rosie the Riveter” propaganda poster, has died at 96.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma native was just 20 when a photographer snapped a picture of her in coveralls and a polka dot bandana working at a metal lathe. The shot inspired the J. Howard Miller poster of a woman flexing her bicep with the slogan, “We Can Do It!” It was 30 years before Fraley knew the poster was based on her photo because the woman in the picture was misidentified as another worker.

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

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