Latest news with #PatBenic
UPI
25-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
California pushes back on federal rule challenging sanctuary state law
Migrants surrender to the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border wall from Mexico near Campo, California, about 50 miles from San Diego, in 2024. File photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo May 25 (UPI) -- Federal officials are considering removing undocumented immigrants in California custody as an attempt to undermine the state's sanctuary law. "Operation Guardian Angel" is intended to "neutralize" sanctuary state rules, U.S. Atty. Bill Essaylie, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles explained. The program employs federal resources at county jails and state prisons -- the places where federal officials say the sanctuary law impedes the work of immigration agents to take custody. "These laws effectively render federal immigration detainers meaningless," Essaylie said. "While California may be presently disregarding detainers, it cannot ignore federal arrest warrants." An immigration detainer allows local law enforcement agencies to detain people for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release to allow for a transfer to federal custody. Despite federal efforts to weaken the sanctuary law, local officials have said they will continue to enforce it and protect immigrants whom "Operation Guardian Angel" targets. "This is just another scare tactic to get us to follow this authoritarian agenda, but it's not going to work," Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said. Essaylie's office identifies people with criminal records who have been deported and charges them with a federal crime if they re-enter the United States. California officials have said they already cooperate with federal agents with regards to undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.
UPI
20-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
On This Day, May 20: Pennsylvania Avenue closed to traffic in front of White House
1 of 5 | Military personnel practice marching on Pennsylvania Avenue for the inauguration ceremony in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 18, 2021. On May 20, 1995, President Bill Clinton permanently closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House after more than 200 years of mostly unimpeded traffic. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo On this date in history: In 526, up to 300,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Syria and Antioch. In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted a patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from New York in his single-engine monoplane, "The Spirit of St. Louis," bound for Paris. While he winged his way across the Atlantic, his mother taught her chemistry class at Cass Technical High School as usual. In 1940, German forces punched through the Allied lines in Abbeville, France, to reach the English Channel. The Battle of Abbeville one week later culminated in the evacuation of Dunkirk. In 1969, in one of the more infamous and bloody battles of the Vietnam War, U.S. troops seized Dong Ap Bia mountain, commonly known as Hamburger Hill. In 1974, Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over tapes and other records of 64 White House conversations on the Watergate affair. UPI File Photo In 1989, Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law in Beijing in response to heightened student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. In 1995, President Bill Clinton permanently closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House after more than 200 years of mostly unimpeded traffic. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI In 2002, East Timor, a small Pacific Coast nation, gained independence from Indonesia. It is called Timor Leste. In 2013, a tornado struck the Moore, Okla., area near Oklahoma City, killing 24 people, injuring more than 300 and destroying many buildings, including two elementary schools. In 2018, King Mswati III announced he was changing the name of his country, Swaziland, to eSwatini, which means "land of the Swazis." In 2024, a New Zealand auction house sold a single feather from an extinct huia bird for $28,417, making it the most expensive feather in history. The bird, the last recorded sighting of which was in 1907, was considered sacred by the Māori people.
UPI
17-05-2025
- Business
- UPI
Moody's becomes final credit agency to downgrade U.S. debt rating
Moody's Ratings downgraded U.S. debt, becoming the last of the three major credit rating agencies to move in that direction. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo May 17 (UPI) -- Moody's Ratings downgraded U.S. debt, becoming the last of the three major credit rating agencies to move in that direction. The New York-based agency downgraded government long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Aa1 from Aaa this week, while also changing its outlook to negative from a previous rating of stable, Moody's said in a media release. "This one-notch downgrade on our 21-notch rating scale reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns," Moody's said in the company's statement. "Successive U.S. administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs. We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from current fiscal proposals under consideration." Standard & Poor's in 2011 became the first of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations to lower its U.S. debt rating. It later accused the Justice Department of "retaliation" for filing a $5-billion lawsuit against the credit rating agency. Fitch Ratings followed in 2021, dropping its American long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating from top-ranked AAA to AA+ amid a political battle over the U.S. debt ceiling. That move elicited then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to blast the move at the time, calling it "unwarranted." Moody's in 2023 signaled it could move in the same direction, putting U.S. banks on a negative watch list and warning of a 'mild' recession, and later that year lowering its outlook of U.S. debt. The agency in November then warned of a potential downgrade. "Over more than a decade, U.S. federal debt has risen sharply due to continuous fiscal deficits. During that time, federal spending has increased while tax cuts have reduced government revenues. As deficits and debt have grown, and interest rates have risen, interest payments on government debt have increased markedly," Moody's said in its statement this week. "If the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is extended, which is our base case, it will add around $4 trillion to the federal fiscal primary deficit over the next decade. While we recognize the U.S.' significant economic and financial strengths, we believe these no longer fully counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics." The White House attempted to shift the blame to former President Joe Biden's administration. "The Trump administration and Republicans are focused on fixing Biden's mess by slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse in government and passing The One, Big, Beautiful Bill to get our house back in order," White House spokesperson Kush Desai told reporters Friday. "If Moody's had any credibility, they would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded." Moody's said it does not expect further downgrades in the near future. "The U.S. economy is unique among the sovereigns we rate. It combines very large scale, high average incomes, strong growth potential and a track-record of innovation that supports productivity and GDP growth. While GDP growth is likely to slow in the short term as the economy adjusts to higher tariffs, we do not expect that the US' long-term growth will be significantly affected," the agency said in its statement.
UPI
17-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
On This Day, May 17: Aristides wins first Kentucky Derby
1 of 5 | On May 17, 1875, Aristides was the winner of the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo On this date in history: In 1792, 24 brokers met in New York City and formed the New York Stock Exchange. In 1875, Aristides was the winner of the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. In 1943, the Memphis Belle became one of the first B-17 to complete 25 missions in World War II, securing the plane and crew's reputations as rockstars. The plane was the subject of a documentary at the time and a film about the crew was made in 1990 starring Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz and Harry Connick Jr. Ten days after the 25th mission, the pilot, Capt. Robert K. Morgan and co-pilot, Capt. James Verinis, met the king and queen of England, to whom Morgan explained the origin of the plane's name. In 1954, in a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. In 1970, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco in a papyrus boat called the Ra II, modeled on drawings of ancient Egyptian sailing vessels. His mission was to prove his theory that ancient civilizations could have sailed to the Americas. He arrived in Barbados 57 days later. In 1973, the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee opened hearings into a break-in at Democratic National headquarters in Washington. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI In 1987, two Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 seamen. Iraq apologized for mistaking the ship's identity and the Stark's top officers were reprimanded and retired. In 1989, 1 million people demonstrated for democratic reforms in Beijing. The number of students fasting to support the drive reached 3,000. In 1999, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his bid for re-election when voters chose Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Israel One coalition, to succeed him. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In 2005, Los Angeles voters elected Antonio Villaraigosa as the city's first Hispanic mayor since 1872. In 2007, the United States' "minority" citizenship topped the 100 million mark, about one-third of the total U.S. population, the U.S. Census Bureau said. Hispanics made up the largest group, ahead of Black Americans, 44.3 million to 40.2 million. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the sentencing of a juvenile to life in prison for a non-homicide case, calling the practice unconstitutional, and cruel and unusual punishment. In 2018, the Senate confirmed Gina Haspel to be the first female director of the CIA, ending weeks of speculation over whether her past role in using torture as an interrogation technique would derail her nomination. In 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. In 2021, Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in western India with sustained winds of 115 mph. The storm would go on to kill 174 people and cause more than $2 billion in damage in India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. File Photo by STR/EPA-EFE
