A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbors ended Tuesday not far from the site of the shooting when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house. 

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was captured without incident near Houston and about 32 kilometers from his home in the rural town of Cleveland, where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle after some of them had asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because it was keeping a baby awake.  

“They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars,” San Jacinto County Greg Capers said of the families of the victims. “He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.” 

The arrest happened in the Texas town of Cut and Shoot, near Conroe, ending what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions. As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza “could be anywhere,” underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.  

Drones and scent-tracking dogs were used during a widening search that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott offered $50,000 in reward money as the search dragged late into the weekend. 

FBI spokesperson Connor Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Oropeza were the U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and US Border Patrol’s BORTAC team. 

The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times, according to U.S. immigration officials. The gunman was first deported in March 2009 and last in July 2016. He was also deported in September 2009 and January 2012. 

Capers said that prior to Friday’s shooting deputies had been called to the suspect’s house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.  

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door. 

Garcia said Oropeza came running over to their house loading an AR-style rifle after he and two other people had asked him to stop firing off rounds late at night. Garcia said Oropeza told him he could do what he wanted on his property. 

In offering the reward, Abbot called the victims “illegal immigrants,” a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to their immigration status. Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said they had since learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9. 

Osmán Velázquez, Diana’s father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there. 

“Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and that’s true,” he said. But I never imagined it was just for this.” 
…

The United States is on track to open a new embassy in Tonga this month, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said on Tuesday, part of efforts to step up its diplomatic presence in the Pacific region to counter China. 

Daniel Kritenbrink told a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States was also continuing to engage with Vanuatu and Kiribati about opening proposed new embassies in those countries. 

The State Department said in March it plans to open an embassy in Vanuatu. The United States has diplomatic relations with the South Pacific island nation, but these are currently handled by U.S. diplomats based in Papua New Guinea. 

The United States reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands this year after a 30-year absence. 

Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands announced in March it had awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara. 

The United States and regional allies Australia and New Zealand have had concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year. 

Washington has also been working to renew agreements with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia under which it retains responsibility for the islands’ defense and gains exclusive access to huge swaths of the Pacific. 

The Biden administration is seeking $7.1 billion from Congress over the next two decades for economic assistance to the three countries, funds seen as key to insulating them from growing Chinese influence. 

The United States is also planning a possible Biden stop in Papua New Guinea on May 22 as part of stepped-up engagement with the Pacific-island region, according to officials familiar with the matter. 
…

U.S. lawmakers called for an enforceable code of ethics for justices on the nation’s highest court Tuesday, saying recent concerns have once again highlighted that the U.S. Supreme Court is the one branch of the U.S. government that lacks those standards.

“The court should have a code of conduct with clear and enforceable rules so both justices and the American people know when conduct crosses the line. The current highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards,” Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday.

Unlike the executive and legislative branches and every other federal bench, the Supreme Court does not have a written ethics code. Justices are required to follow some ethics requirements as laid out in federal statutes.

Lawmakers are asking for those new guidelines following an investigation last month by journalism nonprofit ProPublica showing Justice Clarence Thomas has accompanied billionaire and conservative donor Harlan Crow on luxury vacations for the last two decades.

Thomas also faces concerns about conflicts of interest due to his wife’s involvement in attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has served on the court since 1991 when he was narrowly confirmed after public accusations of sexual harassment.

In an April 7, 2023, statement, Thomas explained why he did not report his gifts from Crow, whom he described as a close personal friend.

“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said.

The ethics concerns arise with public trust in the nation’s highest court at an all-time low. According to an October 2022 Gallup poll, only 40% of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, and 58% say they disapprove — the highest number since that poll started in 1972.

But Senate Republicans pointed to ethics concerns about liberal-leaning Supreme Court justices and said this is just the latest attack from Democrats who are unhappy about a conservative majority on the court.

“This assault on Justice Thomas is well beyond ethics,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday. “It is about trying to delegitimize a conservative court that was appointed through the traditional process.”

Republicans said they were concerned by previous inflammatory remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer suggesting justices should fear the consequences of their decisions. Republicans have also suggested that justices should receive increased security in light of threats to Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s children and a suspected assassination attempt against three conservative justices.

“Every five minutes, the Democratic Party wants to give lectures about upholding our institutions and protecting democracy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But just as often, they find a way to undertake some new reckless attack against the courts and the rule of law. I’m proud of how our nation’s highest court has weathered these latest baseless attempts to attack its authority.”

Multiple pieces of legislation have been introduced in the U.S. Senate that if passed would institute a code of conduct governing justices. Independent Senator Angus King and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski would hold the Supreme Court to the same standards as other federal judges. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse also introduced legislation that would require justices to submit to the same ethics standards as members of Congress.

“The Supreme Court has the lowest ethical standards in government,” Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told senators on Tuesday.

“The Supreme Court does not have an internal ethics enforcement body,” Payne said. “Justices rely on ethics advice from random and anonymous sources instead of in-house ethics experts. This leads to incorrect and inconsistent interpretations of the law. Also, investigations of misconduct are extremely rare.”

Durbin invited Chief Justice John Roberts to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about those concerns and possible solutions. Roberts declined, citing the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution and the need to preserve judicial independence.
…

The United States worked together to impose terrorism-related sanctions on two individuals linked to funding two Syria-based groups already sanctioned by the United States and United Nations, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday.

The actions target Omar Alsheak, a leader of Haya’at Tahrir al-Sham group, and Kubilay Sari, who has received funds in Turkey from donors for Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, the department said in a statement.

“As terrorist groups continue to seek access to the international financial system, collaboration with our partners increases our ability to more effectively disrupt these facilitation networks,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.

The new designations follow joint U.S.-Turkish actions on January 5 that target a key financial network of Islamic State, Treasury said.
…

The Biden administration will send 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions, Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement Tuesday. 

Military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, the officials said. The troops will not do law enforcement work and will be there for roughly 90 days, though their presence can be extended if necessary.  

The COVID-19 restrictions allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for an expected surge of migrants. Even amid the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey. 

Biden’s actions follow similar moves by then-President Donald Trump, who deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were working in that capacity. There are roughly 2,700 National Guard members at the border. 

The Pentagon on Tuesday approved the request for troops by the Department of Homeland Security, which manages the border, one of the officials said. 

But the deployments have a catch: As a condition for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s previous approval of National Guard troops to support the border mission throughout fiscal 2023, which ends October 1, DHS had to agree to work with the White House and Congress “to develop a plan and implement solutions to staffing and funding shortfalls to maintain border security and the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants that do not involve the continued use of DOD personnel and resources after FY2023,” said Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Devin Robinson. 

As part of the agreement, DOD requested quarterly updates from DHS on how it would staff its border mission without service members throughout this fiscal year; it was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if DHS will be able to meet its terms of the agreement — particularly under the strain of another migrant surge. 

For Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, the decision signals his administration is taking seriously an effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, a potent source of Republican attacks, and sends a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey. But it also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Biden’s Republican predecessor, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions. 

It’s another line of defense in an effort to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise as border officials move away from the COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, administration officials announced they would work to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally through another country on their way to the U.S. border. 

They will also open centers outside the United States for people fleeing violence and poverty to apply to fly in legally and settle in the United States, Spain or Canada. The first processing centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia, with others expected to follow. 
…

The search for a gunman in Texas who killed five neighbors from Honduras dragged into a third day Monday with false alarms and few apparent leads, while Republican Gov. Greg Abbott faced backlash over drawing attention to the victims’ immigration status.

An FBI agent on the scene near Houston acknowledged they have little to go on in the widening manhunt for 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza, who has been deported four times since 2009, but who neighbors say lived on their street for years prior to Friday night’s shooting in the rural town of Cleveland.

Twice on Monday, a sheriff’s office in a neighboring county alerted the public about possible sightings, but neither turned up Oropeza.

Abbott offered a $50,000 reward over the weekend for any tips that might lead to the gunman, and while doing so, the three-term governor described all the victims as “illegal immigrants” — a potentially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Monday. Critics accused Abbott, who has made hardline immigration measures a signature issue in Texas, of putting politics into the shooting.

“We’ve since learned that at least one of the victims may have been in the United States legally,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement. “We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal.”

Eze said information provided by federal officials after the shooting had indicated that the suspect and victims were in the country illegally. Her statement did not address why Abbott mentioned their status and she did not immediately respond to questions about the criticism.

More than 250 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, are now part of a growing search that has come up empty despite additional manpower, scent-tracking dogs, drones and a total of $80,000 in reward money on the table. On Monday, a heavy presence of police converged in Montgomery County after a possible sighting, but the sheriff’s office later said none of the persons were found to be Oropeza.

A few hours later, the department reported another possible sighting, tweeting that several schools had “secured their campuses” and again asked residents to avoid the area. But that search, too, turned up nothing.

Both were among the first times since the shooting that authorities had announced a possible sighting.

“I can tell you right now, we have zero leads,” James Smith, the FBI special agent in charge, said Sunday.

The FBI in Houston said in a tweet on Sunday that it was referring to the suspect as Oropesa, not Oropeza, to “better reflect his identity in law enforcement systems.” His family lists their name as Oropeza on a sign outside their yard, as well as in public records.

Oropeza is considered armed and dangerous after fleeing the area Friday night, likely on foot. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities had widened the search area beyond the scene of the shooting, which occurred after the suspect’s neighbors asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard late at night because a baby was trying to sleep.

At a Sunday vigil in Cleveland, Wilson Garcia, the father of the 1-month-old, described the terrifying efforts inside his home by friends and family that night to escape, hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle that they said Oropeza used in the shootings. Authorities were not sure if Oropeza was carrying another weapon after others were found in his home.

The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because public disclosure was not authorized.

The official said the gunman was first deported in March 2009 and last in July 2016. He was also deported in September 2009 and January 2012.

Law enforcement on the scene have not confirmed the citizenship status of the victims. By describing them as “illegal immigrants” on Sunday in his first public statement about the shooting — and perhaps incorrectly — Abbott came under criticism from immigrant rights groups and Democrats.

“It is indefensible to any right-hearted Texan to use divisive language to smear innocent victims,” said Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

Capers said he hoped the reward money would motivate people to provide information and that there were plans to put up billboards in Spanish to spread the word.

Veronica Pineda, who lives across the street from the suspect’s home, said authorities had stopped by her house over the weekend to ask if they could search her property to see if the gunman might be hiding there. She said she was fearful that the gunman had not yet been captured.

 
…

The union that represents U.S. film and television writers sent their members on strike Tuesday after failing to reach an agreement with studios and production companies over a new labor contract. 

The Writers Guild of America announced late Monday that their 11,500 members would put down their pens and turn off their computers at midnight Los Angeles time ((Tuesday 3:00 a.m. Washington time, 0700 GMT)) when their current contract expires.  

The union has been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for increased pay and stronger employment guarantees on episodic television shows as more and more scripted series are being shown on Internet-based or “streaming” platforms.   

In a statement announcing the strike, the WGA said major studios such as Walt Disney and Netflix have “created a gig economy inside a union workforce,” a reference to the growing trend of people taking on freelance jobs as opposed to permanent, full-time work.  

Streaming television platforms have transformed the entertainment industry in recent years, offering more opportunities for writers but for lesser pay on shows that run fewer episodes per season than traditional broadcast networks.  

Artificial intelligence is another issue for WGA members. The union wants to prevent studios from using AI to create scripts based on writers’ previous work. It also doesn’t want writers to be asked to work on scripts generated by AI. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan

The AMPTP issued a statement saying it was prepared to offer higher pay and better royalty payments for writers for streaming shows, but that it was “unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table.” The alliance says a major point of contention is a union proposal for a show to maintain a certain number of staff writers “whether needed or not.” 

The strike is the first by the WGA in 15 years. The last walkout began in late 2007 and stretched 100 days into the next year, costing the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion. Late night talk and variety shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and “Saturday Night Live” will go off the air immediately as their writing staffs are members of the WGA.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  
…

U.S. President Joe Biden assured his Philippine counterpart Monday of the the United States’ commitment to the Southeast Asian archipelago as tensions rise with China.

“The United States also remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including in the South China Sea, and we will continue to support the Philippines military modernization goals,” Biden said.

The two leaders signed a new defense cooperation agreement Monday to strengthen Philippine security and support military modernization.

That agreement builds on the conclusion last week of the largest-ever war drills between the two nations as well as an agreement earlier this year in which the Philippines agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases on the islands.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known in his country as “Bongbong,” is the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. On Monday, he said the archipelago nation has had a front-row seat to increased tensions in the South China Sea.

“There are also the issues, geopolitical issues that have made the region where the Philippines is possibly, arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in — in the world right now,” Marcos said. “And so it is only natural that — for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions.”

China has repeatedly harassed Philippine navy and coast guard patrols and disagrees with Manila’s approach.

“The key to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region lies in the fact that regional countries adhere to mutual trust, unity and cooperation and firmly hold the lifeline of their security in their own hands,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said last month at a ministry briefing. “We once again remind the relevant regional country that blindly catering to nonregional forces will not only fail to safeguard their own security but will exacerbate tensions, endanger regional peace and stability, and will inevitably harm themselves in the end.”

Analysts say this reflects a shift in the relationship.

“It’s been a dramatic turnaround over the last eight months, a real quick pace of deepening and institutionalizing the defense relationship,” said Brian Harding, who studies Southeast Asia at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Southeast Asia experts say this is not an either-or situation for the Philippines. Beijing recently sent its foreign minister to Manila to meet with his counterpart, indicating a strong partnership.

“I think the Philippines and this President Marcos is probably navigating those dual strategic or national interests: security on one side, perhaps with the United States, trade and investment on the other side,” Marc Mealy, senior vice president for policy at the US-ASEAN Business Council, told VOA on Monday. “China is the number one trade partner for all of the countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.”

In a joint statement, the leaders of the U.S. and Philippines leaders also said they would work together as allies on such efforts as promoting “inclusive and broad-based prosperity,” investing in “the clean energy transition,” fighting climate change, upholding international peace and stability, and ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law.

The leaders’ joint statement did not mention that Marcos was visiting the U.S. under diplomatic immunity, despite a 2012 U.S. contempt order against him over his father’s estate, which was to be used to pay damages to human rights victims of martial law under the senior Marcos’ rule.

Prior to Marcos’ visit, a group, identifying its makeup as “concerned Filipinos and US Citizens,” released late last month an open letter to the White House that raised issues over what they described as “inconvenient realities stashed in Mr. Marcos’ political baggage,” such as his moves to silence critics and his approach to human rights.

“His official visit to the United States is as good a time as any to remind the U.S. public that his rise to the presidency is the fruit of at least three decades of his family’s efforts to recast his father’s dictatorship as ‘a golden age’ for Filipinos,” the group said, raising his father’s record of imprisoning political opponents and torturing dissidents.

“We understand that in advancing the United States’ diplomatic agenda President Biden must deal with his official counterpart in the Philippines as a matter of course,” read the letter, signed by leaders of seven organizations. “Nonetheless, we hope that America’s ‘ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines’ will not devolve into an uncritical engagement with the Marcos administration.”

Nike Ching contributed to this report. 
…

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited the White House Monday at a time of tension in the Indo-Pacific region. President Joe Biden said the U.S. commitment to the archipelago is “ironclad” amid enhanced military cooperation resulting in the Philippines granting the U.S. access to four more military bases. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House. Nike Ching contributed to her report.
…

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday said Russia must pull out of Ukraine, blistering Russia’s “killing of the children” and distancing himself from some in his Republican party who oppose additional major U.S. aid to Ukraine to stave off the Russian invasion. 

In Israel on his first trip abroad as speaker, McCarthy emphatically stressed his support for Ukraine and rejected a suggestion that he does not support sending military and financial aid to Kyiv. At a news conference, he also amplified his positions on other issues back home, including his demand for debt limit negotiations with President Joe Biden. 

“I vote for aid for Ukraine. I support aid for Ukraine,” McCarthy said, responding to a question from a Russian reporter. 

“I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine, I do not support your killing of the children either,” McCarthy told the Russian reporter, adding. “You should pull out.” 

He said, “We will continue to support — because the rest of the world sees it just as it is.” 

McCarthy touched down in Jerusalem leading a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers, his first foray abroad as the new House speaker and the first to address the Israeli Knesset in 25 years. 

Domestic politics followed his trip overseas, and the Republican speaker said that he still has not yet heard a response from Democrat Biden about negotiations over the U.S. debt ceiling, which are tense as deadlines near for action to prevent big economic trouble. 

“The president still hasn’t talked to me,” McCarthy said, quipping that he feels “a little like Netanyahu,” referring to the Israeli Prime Minister who has yet to receive a call from the U.S. president. 

Later Monday, President Biden called McCarthy along with other congressional leaders and invited them to a May 9 meeting at the White House to discuss the nation’s debt ceiling, according to administration officials. 

House Republicans last week put an opening offer on the table, passing a sweeping package that would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion into 2024 in exchange for a long list of spending restrictions and other conservative policy priorities that Democrats oppose. Biden has said he would veto the bill if it should be approved by the House and Senate. 

Biden had previously refused to engage in talks on the debt ceiling, saying it must be raised with no strings attached to prevent a potentially catastrophic default on the nation’s already accrued bills. 

McCarthy made it clear a so-called “clean” debt ceiling will not be possible with House Republicans. 

“We will not pass a debt ceiling that just raises it without doing something about our debt,” McCarthy said. 

The Republican leader, who was elected speaker in January after a tumultuous internal party battle, led the congressional delegation on a trip he has made many times before, often with Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the former Democratic House majority leader, who was again at his side. 

The trip came as Congress was soon to face again a request to send major aid to Ukraine. McCarthy will need to navigate Republican politics as the debate plays out, particularly from the Trump-aligned wing that has raised opposition to spending overseas to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian aggression. 

Early on as party leader, McCarthy had said there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine, but he has since insisted that as speaker he will back the U.S. effort against Russia even as he works to ensure oversight of American taxpayer money abroad. 

Democratic former speaker Nancy Pelosi recently looked back on her own historic trip to Kyiv last year, at the outbreak of the war, and said Ukraine and democracy “must win.” 
…

The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether to jettison a decades-old decision that has been a frequent target of conservatives and, if overruled, could make it harder to sustain governmental regulations.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal that takes aim at a 1984 case known as Chevron. The case involves the Chevron oil company, and the ruling says that when laws aren’t crystal clear, federal agencies should be allowed to fill in the details. That’s what agencies currently do — on environmental regulations, workplace standards, consumer protections and immigration law.

The court’s conservative majority already has been reining in federal regulators, including in last June’s decision limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

But Chevron has been one of the most frequently cited high-court cases, and a decision limiting its reach or overturning it altogether could dramatically limit the discretion of federal officials to make regulations affecting a wide range of American life.

At least four conservative members of the court — Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — have questioned the doctrine. Gorsuch, as an appeals court judge, noted that court decisions “permit executive bureaucracies to swallow huge amounts of core judicial and legislative power and concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers’ design.”

It takes four of the court’s nine members to agree to hear a case, but the court, as is its custom, did not reveal the vote breakdown.

One wrinkle in the current case is that only eight justices will participate. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is not taking part, presumably because she was on a panel of appellate judges that heard arguments in the case when it was at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The court will not hear the case before the fall. Last week, the justices finished hearing arguments for the term that is expected to wrap up in June. They will spend the next two months issuing opinions before taking a summer break.

The specific case the court agreed to hear is part of a long-running fight between commercial fishing groups and the federal government over who pays for data collection and regulatory compliance. It stems from a lawsuit by a group of fishermen who want to stop the federal government from making them pay for the regulatory work.

The fishermen involved in the lawsuit harvest Atlantic herring, which is a major fishery off the East Coast that supplies both food and bait. Lead plaintiff Loper Bright Enterprises of New Jersey and other fishing groups have said federal rules unfairly require them to pay hundreds of dollars per day to contractors who inspect the fisheries. Lower courts have ruled against them.

The case is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 22-451.
…

Almost a third of the nurses in the United States are considering leaving their profession after the COVID-19 pandemic left them overwhelmed and fatigued, according to a survey.

The survey of over 18,000 nurses, conducted in January by AMN Healthcare Services Inc., showed on Monday that 30% of the participants are looking to quit their career, up 7 percentage points over 2021, when the pandemic-triggered wave of resignations began.

The survey also showed that 36% of the nurses plan to continue working in the sector but may change workplaces.

“This really underscores the continued mental health and well-being challenges the nursing workforce experiences post pandemic,” AMN Healthcare CEO Cary Grace told Reuters in an interview.

The survey showed there are various changes needed, with 69% of nurses seeking increased salaries and 63% of them seeking a safer working environment to reduce their stress.

This comes at a time that hospital operator and sector bellwether HCA Healthcare Inc. indicated a recovery in the staffing situation.

While a shortage of staff in hospitals has been an issue for a couple of years, it gained traction globally in late 2021 and hit a peak early last year following a large number of resignations due to burnout.

The staffing crisis drove up costs at hospital operators, while boosting profits at medical staffing providers such as AMN Healthcare.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will run for reelection in 2024 has left voters in his own Democratic party divided and generated far less immediate enthusiasm from the party faithful than bids by other recent presidents seeking a second term.

“I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but my initial reaction was disappointment,” said Jamie Leff, a musician living in Houston, Texas. “He has an extremely low approval rating and he’s so old. It just feels like he’s not the proper person to be running the country.”

The 80-year-old Biden is the oldest American president to seek reelection.

“We young voters want to see big changes and progress,” Leff, 32, added, “and can he give us that? I’m not sure. But he is the sitting president, which means he’s probably our best option and so we need to support him.”

Leff isn’t alone among Democrats.

Less than half (47%) of Democrats said they wanted President Biden to run for reelection according to an April poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Even so, a commanding 81% of Democrats polled said they would “at least probably support” Biden in the general election against a Republican opponent.

“It seems that Democratic voters — especially younger voters — are ready to move on to a new, exciting generation of politicians,” explained University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock.

“But do you know who most Democrats would want even less than an old president?” Bullock asked. “A Republican president — and especially Donald Trump president.”

An American gerontocracy?

“All politics in America kind of feels like a gerontocracy, doesn’t it?” asked Leff.

According to a recent survey by USA Today/Suffolk University, half of Americans said their ideal age for a president was between 51 and 65. Another quarter of respondents said their preference was a candidate who was no more than 50 years of age.

“I think there’s a desire among many of us to elect people who aren’t afraid to speak up and who don’t give a damn about old, antiquated rules,” Yasmeen Husain, a Democratic voter in New Orleans, Louisiana, told VOA.

Bullock said, “People look at Biden and ask if the Democratic party is a gerontocracy, propping up its oldest politicians but the Republican party’s most recent leader is only four years younger. I think it’s something that’s plaguing both sides.”

Bullock noted that younger Democrats in Congress are taking on leadership roles within the party, but he believes voters on both sides of the political spectrum want younger choices.

Jillian Streger, a Republican voter from Merritt Island, Florida, agrees.

“I really think Biden’s mental health is starting to decline,” she told VOA. “I don’t say that in a mean way, it just seems like he’s having trouble focusing and completing sentences.

“But I think Republicans would do a lot better if we picked a newer, stronger candidate than Trump,” Streger continued. “He’s pushing voters away from our side, too.”

Former President Donald Trump announced last year he will seek to return to the White House.

Presidential accomplishments

Norma Rodrigues is a senior citizen who works as a translator in Miami, Florida. A Democrat, she acknowledges age will likely play a factor in Biden’s reelection bid.

“I had mixed feelings when I heard he was running for reelection,” Rodrigues told VOA. “His age is a concern because it means a higher probability of potential health issues, but also because of age prejudice that exists with some voters.”

She hopes, however, it’s not the most important factor.

“Despite age, I think he’s been a good president,” she said. “Biden doesn’t divide people or incite hate. I feel his conciliatory approach has brought respect and dignity, and that’s something this country has needed very badly after recent years.”

Independent voters, a critical bloc of the American electorate, helped Biden defeat Trump in 2020. Democrats are hopeful for a repeat of that support in 2024, and that Biden’s temperament will once again appeal to independents.

“Listen, he’s old and he stutters, which isn’t the best combo for impassioned speeches,” said Abby Rae Lacombe of Pennsylvania, an independent voter with anti-Trump leanings, “but I think he’s been really good at handling a whole lot of high-level crises.

“He guided us through COVID-19, he stood up for ‘proper’ interventionism against Russia without going too far, he’s managed to avoid a recession longer than most thought possible, and he handled a major security leak,” Lacombe said. “All of that, and our alternative is a fascist GOP, so I think the choice is clear.”

2024 matchups

Republican voters like Alberto Perez, from the rural town of Blairsville, Georgia, harshly grade Biden’s performance.

“I promised myself I would give him a year before I passed judgment,” Perez told VOA. “I ignored the mumbling and the incoherent sentences, and I still feel like his term has been a disaster. His departure from Afghanistan was a mess, his mandate that our hero nurses be vaccinated was tyrannical … and his war on gas companies has contributed to record inflation.

“The only policy I agreed with was the infrastructure bill he passed,” Perez added, “but progress has even been hard to see there.”

Political scientists like Bullock warned Biden might struggle to get credit from voters on accomplishments like the infrastructure bill because of how long it takes for many projects to reach completion.

But Robert Collins, a professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Dillard University in New Orleans, argues that a list of Oval Office accomplishments will likely not be the deciding factor in the 2024 presidential election.

“These days there are two proven ways to motivate people to the polls,” he told VOA. “There’s hope — but nobody has appealed to hope since Obama — and there’s also fear. A fear of what happens if the other guy or woman gets elected.”

Trump, Collins said, is an easy target for voters to fear.

“That’s why Biden beats Trump in early polling,” he said, “but Biden struggles against relative newcomer [Florida Republican Governor] Ron DeSantis. Would Democrats be better off in a matchup against DeSantis with someone other than Biden? We don’t know, and we won’t know.”

The reasons, Collins said, are twofold. One is that challenging an incumbent president for the nomination rarely succeeds and often harms the party in a general election. Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican George H.W. Bush both fended off challenges from within their respective parties only to lose their reelection bids months later, Carter in 1980 and Bush in 1992. That history is likely to dissuade any would-be Biden challengers.

The other reason, according to Collins, is that Democrats don’t appear to have a deep bench of viable candidates beyond the current president.

“Vice President Harris was supposed to be the heir apparent,” he explained, “but it’s become obvious that she is — for whatever reason — very unpopular with voters. Even Democrats don’t seem to like her very much.”

Husain from New Orleans admits she was at first disappointed to learn that Biden was running for reelection. The more she thinks about it, however, the more she is warming to his decision.

“I wouldn’t say he’s the lesser of two evils because I do believe he’s inherently a good man,” she said, “and maybe against these Trump-like Republicans, that’s what we need. He’s our safest option, and that could be the best bet against the other side’s extremism.”
…

A nonprofit in Maryland is giving current and former prisoners a chance at a better life by training them to become auto technicians. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. Videographer:  Adam Greenbaum         
…

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation said Monday it had closed First Republic Bank and agreed a deal to sell its assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co and National Association, in what is the third major U.S. bank to fail in two months. 

JPMorgan bank was one of several interested buyers including PNC Financial Services Group, and Citizens Financial Group Inc, which submitted final bids on Sunday in an auction being run by U.S. regulators, sources familiar with the matter said over the weekend. 

A deal for First Republic, which had total assets of $229.1 billion as of April 13, comes less than two months after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed amid a deposit flight from U.S. lenders, forcing the Federal Reserve to step in with emergency measures to stabilize markets. Those failures came after crypto-focused Silvergate voluntarily liquidated. 
…

A widening manhunt for a Texas gunman who fatally shot five neighbors continued coming up empty Sunday as officers knocked on doors, the governor put up $50,000 in reward money and the FBI appeared no closer to catching the killer after nearly two days of searching with a team that has grown to hundreds of people. 

“I can tell you right now, we have zero leads,” James Smith, the FBI special agent in charge, told reporters while again asking the public for tips in the rural town of Cleveland, where the shooting took place just before midnight Friday.  

The search for the gunman near Houston has grown in scale: Authorities said that by Sunday evening more than 200 police from multiple jurisdictions were searching for Francisco Oropeza, many of them going door to door in hopes of any clues that would lead to the 38-year-old suspect. Local officials and the FBI also chipped in reward money, bringing the total to $80,000 for any information about Oropeza’s whereabouts.  

Oropeza is considered armed and dangerous after fleeing the area Friday night, likely on foot. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities had widened the search area beyond the scene of the shooting, which occurred after the suspect’s neighbors asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard late at night because a baby was trying to sleep.  

At a Sunday vigil in Cleveland, Wilson Garcia, the father of the 1-month-old, described the terrifying efforts inside his home by friends and family that night to escape, hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door. 

Another of Garcia’s children, 9-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso, was also killed. Garcia said he and two other people had gone to “respectfully” ask Oropeza to shoot his gun farther away from the house, which is on a street where residents say it is not uncommon for neighbors to unwind by firing off guns.  

Garcia said he walked away and called the police when Oropeza refused. It was 10 to 20 minutes later when he said he saw Oropeza loading his AR-style rifle while running toward the house.  

“I told my wife, ‘Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon,’” Garcia said. “My wife told me to go inside because, ‘He won’t fire at me. I’m a woman.’” 

Authorities have said at least five other people who were in the house at the time were uninjured. 

During the early hours of the search, investigators found clothes and a phone while combing an area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent, Capers said. 

Authorities were able to identify Oropeza by an identity card issued by Mexican authorities to citizens who reside outside the country, as well as the doorbell camera footage. He said police have also interviewed the suspect’s wife multiple times. 

Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle that they said Oropeza used in the shootings. Authorities were not sure if Oropeza was carrying another weapon after others were found in his home. 

Capers said he hoped the reward money would motivate people to provide information and that there were plans to put up billboards in Spanish to spread the word.  

“We’re looking for closure for this family,” Capers said.  

By Sunday, police crime scene tape was removed from around the victims’ home, where some people stopped by to leave flowers.  

In the neighborhood, an FBI agent, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and other officers were seen going door to door. One trooper stopped a red truck and asked to look inside before letting the driver continue on his way. 

Veronica Pineda, 34, who lives across the street from the suspect’s home, said authorities asked if they could search her property to see if he might be hiding there.  

She said she was fearful that the gunman had not yet been captured.  

“It is kind of scary,” she said. “You never know where he can be.”  

Pineda said she didn’t know Oropeza well but occasionally saw him, his wife and son ride their horses on the street. She said the family had lived there about five or six years and that neighbors have called authorities in the past to complain about people firing guns.  

The victims were between the ages of 9 and 31 years old and all were believed to have been shot from the neck up, according to authorities. All were believed to be from Hondurus.  

Enrique Reina, Honduras’ secretary of foreign affairs and international cooperation, said on Twitter that the Honduran Consulate in Houston was contacting the families in connection with the repatriation of remains as well as U.S. authorities to keep apprised of the investigation. 

The FBI in Houston said in a tweet on Sunday that it was referring to the suspect as Oropesa, not Oropeza, to “better reflect his identity in law enforcement systems.” His family lists their name as Oropeza on a sign outside their yard, as well as in public records. Authorities had also previously stated that Garcia’s son was 8 years old, but the father and school officials said Sunday that the third grader was 9.  

A total of three children found covered in blood in the home were taken to a hospital but found to be uninjured, Capers said. He said they were staying with family members. 

FBI spokesperson Christina Garza said investigators do not believe those at the home were members of a single family. In addition to the young boy, the other victims were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.  

Garcia said they had called police five times between the time they asked Oropeza to shoot farther away and when the gunman entered their home. Capers said police got there as fast as they could and that he had three officers covering 700 square miles (1,800 square kilometers). 
…

President Joe Biden is set to host President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines for White House talks Monday as concerns grow about the Chinese navy’s harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea. 

Marcos’ visit to Washington comes after the U.S. and Philippines last week completed their largest war drills ever and as the two countries’ air forces on Monday will hold their first joint fighter jet training in the Philippines since 1990. The Philippines this year agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases on the islands as the U.S. looks to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea. 

Meanwhile, China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard patrols and chasing away fishermen in waters close to Philippine shores but which Beijing claims as its own. 

Before departing for Washington on Sunday, Macros said he was “determined to forge an ever-stronger relationship with the United States in a wide range of areas that not only address the concerns of our times, but also those that are critical to advancing our core interests.” 

Monday’s Oval Office meeting is the latest high-level diplomacy with Pacific leaders by Biden as his administration contends with increased military and economic assertiveness by China and worries about North Korea’s nuclear program. Marcos’ official visit to Washington is the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years. 

The U.S. president hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit last week in which the two leaders introduced new steps aimed at deterring North Korea from launching an attack on neighbors. Biden is scheduled to travel to Japan and Australia in May. 

The two sides are expected to discuss the security situation and come out with new economic, education, climate and other initiatives as part of Marcos’ four-day visit to Washington, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. 

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the visit, said Biden administration officials are looking to redevelop “habits of alliance building” with the Philippines as aspects of the historically complicated relationship have “atrophied” over the years. 

Increased Chinese harassment of vessels in the South China Sea have added another dimension to the visit. On April 23, journalists from AP and other outlets were aboard the Philippine coast guard’s BRP Malapascua near Second Thomas Shoal when a Chinese coast guard ship blocked the Philippine patrol vessel steaming into the disputed shoal. The Philippines has filed more than 200 diplomatic protests against China since last year, at least 77 since Marcos took office in June. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Saturday called media reporting on the encounters a “stark reminder” of Chinese “harassment and intimidation of Philippine vessels as they undertake routine patrols within their exclusive economic zone. We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct.” 

Close U.S.-Philippines relations were not a given when Marcos took office. The son and namesake of the late Philippines strongman had seemed intent on following the path of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who pursued closer ties with China. 

Before Marcos took office last year, Kurt Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the White House National Security Council, acknowledged that “historical considerations” could present “challenges” to the relationship with Marcos Jr. It was an oblique reference to long-standing litigation in the United States against the estate of his father, Ferdinand Marcos. 

A U.S. appeals court in 1996 upheld damages of about $2 billion against the elder Marcos’ estate for the torture and killings of thousands of Filipinos. The court upheld a 1994 verdict of a jury in Hawaii, where he fled after being forced from power in 1986. He died there in 1989. 

Biden and Macros met in September during the U.N. General Assembly, where the U.S. president acknowledged the two countries’ sometimes “rocky” past. 

During their private meeting, Biden stressed to Marcos his desire to improve relations and asked Marcos how the administration could “fulfill your dreams and hopes” for that, according to the senior administration official. 

Marcos is also slated to visit the Pentagon, meet Cabinet members and business leaders and make remarks at a Washington think-tank during the visit. 
…

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” led ticket sales for the fourth straight weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters with $40 million as the global haul for the Universal Pictures release surpassed $1 billion, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Nintendo videogame adaptation dominated the month of April in theaters, smashing records along the way. Over the weekend, it faced little new competition, though that will change next week when Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” kicks off the summer movie calendar and is expected to move Mario to the side. Studios spent the last week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas promoting coming blockbusters and promising big returns at the summer box office.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was estimated to easily cross $1 billion in worldwide box office Sunday, making it the 10th animated film to reach that milestone and the first since 2019. With a domestic total thus far of $490 million, international sales are even stronger. The Illumination-animated release took in $68.3 million overseas over the weekend, pushing its international haul to $532.5 million.

Second place went to “Evil Dead Rise.” The horror sequel from Warner Bros. held well in its second week, especially for a horror film, dipping 50% with $12.2 million.

Among the weekend’s newcomers, the Judy Blume adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” fared the best. The Lionsgate release grossed $6.8 million in 3,343 locations, a decent start for the $30 million-budgeted coming-of age tale written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (“The Edge of Seventeen”).

As expected, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” about an 11-year-old (Abby Ryder Fortson) going through puberty, drew an overwhelming female audience. With stellar reviews (99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong audience scores (an “A” CinemaScore), “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret,” should play well through Mother’s Day.

Lionsgate also released the Finnish action movie “Sisu” in 1,006 locations. The film, about a prospector (Jorma Tommila) whose gold is stolen by Nazis, grossed an estimated $3.3 million. That was a solid result for the rare international film to receive a nationwide opening. Reviews have been good (93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for writer-director Jalmari Helander’s film.

“Sisu” managed to surpass the weekend’s most heavyweight new release: “Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World.” The film, from Sony’s Christian production company Affirm Films, gives a faith-based twist to the sports biopic. But after getting dinged by bad review, it didn’t punch very hard, with $3 million in 3,054 theaters.

Nida Manzoor’s “Polite Society,” about a British-Pakistani high-schooler (Priya Kansara) with dreams of becoming a stuntwoman, debuted with $800,000 in 927 theaters. The Focus Features film, one of the standouts of January’s Sundance Film Festival, blends kung-fu with Jane Austen in a story about London sisters.

One of the weekend’s biggest successes was a familiar box-office force. The Walt Disney Co.’s rerelease of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” grossed $4.7 million in just 475 theaters. Disney put “Jedi” (the 1997 special edition version) back into theaters to commemorate the 1983 film’s 40th anniversary.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” $40 million.

2. “Evil Dead Rise,” $12.2 million.

3. “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” $6.8 million.

4. “John Wick: Chapter 4,” $5 million.

5. “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” $4.7 million.

6. “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” $4.1 million.

7. “Air,” $4 million.

8. “Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two,” $3.6 million.

9. “The Covenant,” $3.6 million.

10. “Sisu,” $3.3 million.
    …

Minneapolis police arrested a man suspected of setting two fires that damaged mosques in the city last week as part of what the chief called “an attempt to inflict terror onto our Muslim community.”

Police Chief Brian O’Hara announced the arrest of 36-year-old Jackie Rahm Little early Sunday but didn’t provide details of how he was apprehended. He was charged with second-degree arson after the fires were set on April 23 and 24 and an arrest warrant was issued.

“Houses of worship should be safe places. Setting fire to a sacred facility, where families and children gather, is incredibly inhumane. And this level of blatant hatred will not be tolerated in our great city,” O’Hara said in a statement Sunday.

Leaders with the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations praised the arrest after the fires that had unnerved the Muslim community in the area.

“This arrest brings some relief to our community, which has been on edge for the past week,” said Jaylani Hussein, the group’s executive director. “We hope to learn more about the suspect’s motivations and any potential accomplices who may have incited these attacks on our houses of worship.”

One fire was set last Monday on the third floor of the Mercy Islamic Center. The center houses the Masjid Al Rahma mosque.

The criminal complaint against Little states that surveillance footage showed him entering the center carrying a bag with a gasoline can inside. A short time later, a staff member spotted a fire near offices. It was extinguished before it could spread very far.

The other fire was Sunday night in the bathroom of the mosque in the 24 Somali Mall. Worshippers extinguished the fire.

The two mosques are less than a mile apart. O’Hara had said earlier that the department suspected the same person was responsible for that blaze.
…

The U.S. Homeland Security chief Sunday pledged to use existing U.S. immigration laws to process thousands of migrants expected to try to cross its southwestern border with Mexico starting May 12. That is when President Joe Biden’s administration ends its use of a law linked to the coronavirus pandemic to quickly expel undocumented arrivals for health reasons.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show that when families arrive at the border, they “will be placed in immigration enforcement proceedings, removal proceedings. If they make a claim for relief, we will adjudicate that claim for relief swiftly.”

He said the outcome of the cases of the migrants seeking to remain in the United States could be resolved in “days or weeks. It is not going to [require] months and months,” and would be heard by immigration officials ahead of the backlog of 2 million existing immigration cases waiting to be settled in the U.S.

Mayorkas said if an unaccompanied child arrives at the border, “We follow the law and the law provides that we take custody of that child and we have 72 hours within which to transfer that child, that unaccompanied child, to the Department of Health and Human Services.”

“Then it is for the Department of Health and Human Services … to identify a relative or a sponsor in the United States, to whom they can transfer care of that child.” Mayorkas said. “We have, the law provides, for humanitarian relief for these children and we enforce that law.”

More than 2.4 million migrants have arrived at the U.S. border in the last year, many from Central American countries, but also from Caribbean nations, Africa, Ukraine and elsewhere. Many have been turned away, while others have escaped into the U.S. interior or assigned immigration court dates months and years into the future and released into the U.S.

Mayorkas laid out the scope of the problem facing the U.S. as migrants, many escaping poverty and political persecution in their homelands, attempt to flee to the world’s wealthiest country and a better life.

“This is a really tough challenge and has been, as we all recognize, for years and years,” Mayorkas said. “We are seeing a level of migration not just at our southern border, but throughout the hemisphere, that is unprecedented.”

“It is, I think, the greatest migration in our hemisphere since World War II,” he added.

When the coronavirus pandemic was deemed a widespread threat, U.S. law gave U.S. border officials the authority to quickly expel those crossing the Mexican-U.S. border to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. But those denied entry at the border often tried again and again to get into the United States, with no legal consequence.

Biden officials tried to end use of the coronavirus provision to keep out migrants to utilize the country’s normal migration laws, which calls for violators to be barred for five years from readmission to the U.S. But attorneys general in Republican-controlled states won court rulings that continued the health care-related migration decision until May 11.            

As a result, a new influx of migrants is expected starting May 12, even as existing migrant shelters in border towns and elsewhere in such large U.S. cities as New York and Chicago are overcrowded.

“Our approach is to build lawful pathways, cut out the ruthless smugglers, deliver lawful pathways so people can access humanitarian relief without having to take the dangerous journey from their home countries,” Mayorkas said. “And at the same time, if they arrive at our southern border in between ports of entry, we will deliver consequences.”

But he readily acknowledged “a broken immigration system” in the U.S., with Congress failing for decades to reform its migration laws.

“I just want to be clear that we are working within significant constraints,” he said. “We need people, we need technology, we need facilities, we need transportation resources, all of the elements of addressing the needs of a large population of people arriving irregularly at our southern border.”
…

Ghana has been encouraging African Americans to move to the West African nation since 2019, urging them to connect with their African roots and also to invest in the country. American Chaz Kyser has built a support system helping fellow African Americans, especially women, settle in Ghana, and to nurture their ideas for business. Senanu Tord reports from Accra, Ghana.
…

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — known for its fun albeit ferocious jabs at Washington — took a more solemn tone this year as President Joe Biden acknowledged the several American journalists under siege in authoritarian countries around the world.

“We are here to send a message to the country and, quite frankly, to the world: The free press is a pillar, maybe the pillar, of a free society, not the enemy,” Biden said in his speech.

The president and first lady Jill Biden, upon arriving at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, met privately with the parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March. He was charged with spying, despite strong denials from his employer and the U.S. government. Some guests wore buttons with “Free Evan” printed on them.

Also among the 2,600 people attending the gala was Debra Tice, the mother of Austin Tice, who has not been heard from since disappearing at a checkpoint in Syria in 2012. U.S. officials say they operate under the assumption that he is alive and are working to try to bring him home.

“Journalism is not a crime. Evan and Austin should be released immediately along with every other American detained abroad,” Biden said. “I promise you, I am working like hell to get them home.”

The Bidens also made a beeline for Brittney Griner, the WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist who was detained in Russia for nearly 10 months last year before her release in a prisoner swap. Griner attended with her wife, Cherelle, as guests of CBS News.

“This time last year we were praying for you, Brittney,” Biden said to the basketball star.

The annual black-tie dinner drew a wide array of celebrities and media moguls to Washington, with parties being held across the capital. Among those in attendance were actor Liev Schreiber, singer John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, the model and television personality.

Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened the dinner with a pre-taped video about the importance of a free and independent press, calling reporters an “ally of the people.” Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were seated on the stage along with comedian Roy Wood Jr., a correspondent for The Daily Show, who was the featured entertainer.

While Biden spent the majority of his speech focused on the issue of press freedom, he took time to take jabs at some of his most vocal political critics. The occasion is a familiar and comfortable one for Biden, who attended several of the dinners as vice president to Barack Obama. The Washington event returned last year after being sidelined by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Biden was the first president in six years to accept the invitation after Donald Trump shunned the event while in office.

But this year, he came not only as the commander in chief but as a presidential contender.

He started his punchlines with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, taking direct aim at a recent bill Republicans passed that would lift the debt ceiling in exchange for a series of budget cuts, including some of Biden’s key legislative achievements.

“The last time Republicans voted for something that hapless it took 15 tries,” Biden said, referring to the gruesome fight McCarthy endured to become speaker in January.

And he didn’t stop there, going after Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch about his age. “And you call me old?” he told the crowd.

Biden even made a couple of self-deprecating jokes, mostly surrounding criticism of his age as he mounts a second bid for reelection. “I believe in the First Amendment and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it,” he said to a roaring crowd.

Wood, who took the stage after Biden, also zeroed in on the president’s age.

“We should be inspired by the events in France. They rioted when the retirement age went up two years to 64,” Wood said. “Meanwhile in America, we have an 80-year-old man, begging us for four more years.”
…

Attempts to ban books in libraries and schools in the United States nearly doubled last year to 1,269 from the prior year, the highest number of attempts in 20 years, according to a recent report from the American Library Association.

Books that have LGBTQ themes are the most likely targets, according to the report.

The issue of which books are in a library and school has become a flashpoint in communities across the U.S. with conservative lawmakers and groups saying they are turning to banning books to protect children from pornography. Civil liberty organizations, writers and librarians say book banning attempts are censorship.

In the midwestern state of Missouri, a new law that bans sexually explicit materials from schools has resulted in pulling books off the shelves. In the state of Florida, lawmakers recently passed three new laws related to controlling reading material.

In the northwestern state of Idaho, Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would remove the exemption public libraries currently have to existing laws that ban disseminating material harmful to minors.

One town in the state of Texas is considering going a step further — closing the public library.

‘A book’s never hurt anybody’

Llano is a rural town 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Austin, the state capital. There, officials are considering closing the library system after a federal judge overturned the local lawmakers’ decision to remove books.

“A book’s never hurt anybody,” according to J.R. Decker, who said his family has lived in Llano County for generations. “My government’s telling me the only thing they can protect my child from is books. They should be worried about gun violence and school safety.”

Decker was among the people who protested at a recent meeting regarding the library closure issue. Among those who spoke was Suzette Baker, a former Llano County librarian who says she was fired for insubordination after she refused to remove books.

“I would like to know how the ‘History of the KKK’ is pornographic? ‘How to be an Anti-Racist,’ how is that pornographic? It’s not,” she said at the hearing. “This is about taking away rights. This is not a communist nation. This is not a Nazi nation. You do not get to pick our reading material, it is ours.”

Book-ban supporter Rhonda Schneider spoke in support of banning certain books.

“The library is a vital part of our community, but they said, ‘It’s a safe space for kids,'” said Schneider. “It is not a safe space for kids. These are all books that are currently on the shelf in the Llano Library.” Schneider read off a paper printout a list of books, in which two people spoke graphically about sexuality.

Llano resident Emmett McPherson did not get called upon to speak but said he also thinks the library is unsafe for children.

“The only reason I am for closing the library is because we haven’t gotten these books that are definitely pornographic moved to an adult section,” said McPherson. “I am willing to close the whole library to keep them out of my children’s hands.”

While some of the books cited at the meeting may be objectionable to some, they are not pornographic, said Texas Library Association Executive Director Shirley Robinson.

“So first of all, there is a legal definition of pornography,” said Robinson. “And there are never any materials in any library — school, public or academic — that would meet that legal definition of pornography.”

Texas book ban efforts

There are nearly 40 bills in this Texas legislative session relating to libraries, some of which include criminal charges against librarians, Robinson said.

Many book ban challenges in Texas began in 2021 after a lawmaker contacted libraries asking if they had any books among a list of nearly 850 titles, Robinson said. Many of the titles were LGBTQ-related or were written by or about people of color, she added.

“Librarians are leaving the profession because there is this threat of potential criminal prosecution or just harassment within their communities,” Robinson said.

One librarian who quit is Lee Glover, who was an elementary school librarian in the Houston, Texas, area. Her school started shifting book approval decisions to parents, instead of librarians, after an increase in book challenges.

“I already have a whole list of protocols I have to follow before I can put a book into the library,” she said. “But now they want me to have parents come and review them before I order them?”

It’s the students who are the losers in the book banning battle, she said.

“We are the lifeline for so many kids,” said Glover. ‘We are the ones who put books in kids’ hands that can’t see themselves reflected anywhere else.”

For now, the Llano County library system remains open. At its recent meeting, county commissioners voted to take the library closure “off the agenda,” while they appeal the federal order to return the books back to circulation. That decision is expected in the fall.
…

Ever since missionaries started building churches out of mud 400 years ago in what was the isolated frontier of the Spanish empire, tiny mountain communities like Cordova relied on their own resources to keep the faith going.

Thousands of miles from religious and lay seats of power, everything from priests to sculptors to paint pigments was hard to come by. Villagers instituted lay church caretakers called “mayordomos,” and filled chapels with elaborate altarpieces made of local wood.

Today, threatened by depopulation, dwindling congregations and fading traditions, some of their descendants are fighting to save these historic adobe structures from literally crumbling back to the earth they were built with.

“Our ancestors put blood and sweat in this place for us to have Jesus present,” said Angelo Sandoval on a spring day inside the 1830s church of St. Anthony, where he serves as mayordomo. “We’re not just a church, we’re not just a religion — we have roots.”

These churches anchor a uniquely New Mexican way of life for their communities, many of which no longer have schools or stores, and struggle with chronic poverty and addiction. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the necessary resources to preserve the estimated 500 Catholic mission churches, especially since most are used for only a few services each year.

“When the faithful generation is gone, are they going to be a museum or serve their purpose?” said the Rev. Rob Yaksich, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which oversees 23 rural churches. “This old, deep-rooted Spanish Catholicism is experiencing serious disruption.”

‘It’s our job now’

In the hamlet of Ledoux, Fidel Trujillo is mayordomo of the pink-stucco San Jose church, which he keeps spotless even though few Masses are celebrated here regularly.

“Our ‘antepasados’ (ancestors) did a tremendous job in handing over the faith, and it’s our job now,” Trujillo said in the characteristic mix of Spanish and English that most speak in this region. “I much prefer coming to these ‘capillas’ (chapels). It’s a compass that guides where your heart really belongs.”

Each mission church is devoted to a particular saint. When New Mexico’s largest wildfire last spring charred forests less than 100 yards from San Jose church, and Trujillo was displaced for a month, he took the statue of St. Joseph with him.

“Four hundred years ago, life was very difficult in this part of the world,” explained Felix Lopez, a master “santero” — an artist who sculpts, paints and conserves saint figures in New Mexico’s unique devotional style. “People needed these ‘santos.’ They were a source of comfort and refuge.”

In intervening centuries, most were stolen, sold or damaged, according to Bernadette Lucero, director, curator and archivist for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

“Saints are the spiritual go-to, they can be highly powerful,” said Victor Goler, a master santero who just completed conserving the altarpieces, or “reredos,” in Las Trampas’ mid-18th century church.

On a recent Sunday at Truchas’ 1760s Holy Rosary church, Lopez pointed out the rich decorative details that centuries of smoke and grime had hidden until he meticulously removed them with the absorbent inside of sourdough bread.

“I’m a devout Catholic, and I do this as meditation, as a form of prayer,” said Lopez, who’s been a santero for five decades and whose family hails from this village perched on a ridge at 7,000 feet (2,100 meters).

Faith that support will come

For the Rev. Sebastian Lee, who as administrator of the popular Santuario de Chimayo complex a few miles away also oversees these mission churches, fostering local attachment is a daunting challenge as congregations shrink even faster since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I want missions to be where people can taste culture and religiosity. They’re very healing, you’re soaked with people’s faith,” Lee said. “I wonder how to help them, because sooner or later one mission is not going to have enough people.”

The archdiocese’s Catholic Foundation provides small grants, and several organizations have been founded to help conservation efforts.

Exposed to rain and snow, adobe needs a fresh replastering of dirt, sand and straw every couple of years lest it dissolve.

That makes local buy-in and some kind of ongoing activity, even just funerals, fundamental to long-term preservation, said Jake Barrow, program director at Cornerstones, which has worked on more than 300 churches and other structures.

But with fewer priests and fewer faithful, taking some rural missions off the church’s roster might be inevitable, said the Rev. Andy Pavlak, who serves on the archdiocese’s commission for the preservation of historic churches.

Not everyone agrees. Running his hand over the smooth adobe walls he restored at the 1880s Santo Nino de Atocha chapel in Monte Aplanado, a hamlet nestled in a high mountain valley, Leo Paul Pacheco argued that the answer might hinge on the faith of future generations of lay people like him.

“They still have access to the same dirt,” Pacheco said as the adobe walls’ sand particles and straw sparkled in the sun. “They will provide.”
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