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Trump headed to Long Island to trumpet MS-13 crackdown

FILE - In this April 19, 2017 file photo, the casket of Justin Llivicura, 16, is carried from St. Joseph the Worker Church after Llivicura's funeral in East Patchogue, N.Y. Llivicura was one of four young men found slain in a suspected MS-13 gang killing in a park in Central Islip, N.Y., on April 12. President Donald Trump is scheduled travel to New York on Friday, July 28, to meet with law enforcement on Long Island and discuss the MS-13 street gang. His administration has made MS-13 a symbol of the need for stricter immigration laws.  WASHINGTON (AP) — Trumpeting his administration's crackdown on illegal immigration and violent crime, President Donald Trump is traveling to Long Island to urge Congress to dedicate more funding to the fight. Trump is set to speak Friday afternoon at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, New York, close to where the ultra-violent street gang MS-13 has committed a string of gruesome murders, including the massacre of four young...

Border officers appeared to encourage teen to drink from bottle containing liquid meth

A government surveillance video obtained by ABC News has shed new light on a tragic incident at the U.S.-Mexico border. The video shows that in 2013 two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers appeared to encourage, or at least permit, a 16-year-old Mexican high school student to drink from a bottle that tests would later reveal contained concentrated liquid methamphetamine. The young man, Cruz Velazquez, died within two hours of drinking the substance, but the two officers involved, Valerie Baird and Adrian Perallon, remain on the job today, with no disciplinary action taken against them. A former head of internal affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, James Tomsheck, told ABC News the two officers violated agency protocols by allowing the young man to drink from the bottle, and that he was told at the time they would be punished. “If they truly suspected there was a controlled substance in the bottle,” Tomsheck said, “they should've conducted a field tes...

Trump administration reportedly threatens Alaska over senator’s health care vote

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) heads for the Senate floor for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on July 26, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) More WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed Thursday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke contacted her after her vote against a health care bill earlier this week. The conversation reportedly involved threats of administrative retribution against her home state. A Murkowski spokesperson told Yahoo News that the moderate Alaska lawmaker received a call from Zinke on Wednesday, and he “told her that the president wasn’t pleased with the vote that she took.” Trump also expressed those feelings publicly Wednesday, when he tweeted that Murkowski “really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday” when she voted against moving to begin debate in the Senate on a series of health care bills. But Zinke reportedly went beyond those sentiments, the Alaska Dispatch News  reported Thursday morn...

Three-Time Oscar Winner Daniel Day-Lewis Quits Acting (Exclusive)

Three-time Oscar winner  Daniel Day-Lewis , widely considered one of the preeminent actors of his generation, is retiring from acting,  Variety  has learned. The 60-year-old star, who has played presidents, writers, and gang leaders in a career that has spanned four decades, has one final film awaiting release,  Phantom Thread , a drama set in the world of high fashion. It is scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 25, 2017 and reunites him with  Paul Thomas Anderson , who directed Day-Lewis to a best actor Oscar in 2007’s  There Will Be Blood . Day-Lewis intends to help promote the movie, according to a person familiar with his plans. He did not give a reason for his retirement. In a statement, Day-Lewis’ spokeswoman, Leslee Dart, confirmed the news: “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his rep...

Ex-Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson: DNC and state officials dismissed Russia warnings last year

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama’s secretary of homeland security says that his efforts to protect the country from Russian cyberattacks last year were twice rebuffed — first by the Democratic National Committee and then later by state election officials who feared he was plotting an unwarranted “federal takeover” of the U.S. election system. The comments by ex-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, made in prepared testimony for the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, underscore the frustrations that the Obama administration had last year in dealing with a Russian state-sponsored cyberattack on the 2016 election that was far more extensive and sophisticated than was publicly realized at the time. When he convened a conference call of state officials Aug. 15 of last year to tell them he was planning to designate the country’s election system as part of the nation’s “cr...

FBI: Gunman acted alone in shooting of congressman

A gunman acted alone when he shot and wounded a top House Republican and four other people on a northern Virginia baseball field, the FBI said Wednesday. Tim Slater, the special agent in charge of the Washington FBI office, also said during a news conference that James T. Hodgkinson did not have any ties to terrorism. Rep. Steve Scalise, the House majority whip, was gravely wounded in the shooting last week. He has undergone several surgeries and remains hospitalized. His condition has been upgraded to serious. Scalise and other congressional Republicans were practicing for their annual charity baseball game against Democrats when a gunman started shooting. U.S. Capitol Police and other officers returned fire and killed the gunman, who turned out to be an unemployed home inspector with a deep animus toward President Donald Trump and other Republicans. The gunman was identified as Hodgkinson, 66, from Belleville, Illinois, who volunteered for Bernie Sanders' presidential ...

Settlement reached in lawsuit over Michael Brown's death

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old, whose fatal shooting by a white police officer nearly three years ago in Ferguson, Missouri, set off months of protests. Financial terms of the settlement approved by U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber were not disclosed. Anthony Gray, the attorney for Brown's parents, declined comment, as did Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III. Michael Brown Sr. and Lezley McSpadden sued the city, former Police Chief Tom Jackson and former police officer Darren Wilson in 2015. They argued that the death of their son deprived them of financial support through his future potential wages. Their lawsuit also described the police culture in Ferguson as hostile to black residents, and said Wilson used excessive and unreasonable force in fatally shooting Brown during an Aug. 9, 2014, confrontation on a street. Ferguson, Jackson and...