USA E3 3B IN BRIEF MCCAIN GIVES OBAMACARE REPEAL EFFORT A BOOST Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will push ahead Tuesday with a key vote in the effort to repeal Obama- care, an effort that may have gained momentum with Sen. John announcement that he would return to Washington. forward to returning to Senate tomorrow to continue work on health care reform, defense bill McCain tweeted Monday night. The return of the Arizona senator, who disclosed his brain cancer diagnosis last week, is crucial for Senate Republicans amassing enough votes to proceed with legislation to repeal Obamacare. It is still not clear what will be in the Senate GOP bill or whether it has enough votes to pass.
WASH. MAKES IT ILLEGAL TO HOLD PHONE WHILE DRIVING Drivers in Washington state will have put down their cell- phones, under a law that went into effect Sunday. And coffee. And mascara. The new law to discourage distracted driving closes loopholes against making calls by prohibiting even holding a personal electronic device while stopped in traffic.
The law also prohibits eating or applying make-up while driving. The Governors Highway Safety Association called the law a pioneering effort to combat distracted driving, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said was involved in more than 3,000 deaths in 2014. state was state to pass a texting ban a decade ago, and they are leading the way again with this strengthened said Kara Macek, a spokeswoman for the governors association. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia ban the use of hand-held phones while driving, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. NIKOLAI LINARES, EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY People dressed as Santa take part in a canal tour Monday as part of the annual Santa Claus World Congress in Copenhagen.
The gathering was held in 1957. SANTA CLAUSES GATHER IN DENMARK VATICAN SHUTTING DOWN FOUNTAINS DURING DROUGHT The Vatican says it is shutting off all its fountains, including those in St. Square, because of drought. Vatican Radio on Monday said the decision is linked with Pope teachings on the environment. The pope has decried wasteful practices and praised clean drinking water as vital for people and the environment.
Meteorologists say spring 2017 was third-driest in some 60 years. The drought has put Rome at risk for drastic water rationing, a measure being considered this week by authorities. Vatican Radio said all of Vatican fountains will go dry, including those in its gardens, to help save water. Francis laid out his fears for the future of the environment in a 2015 encyclical, a formal teaching document. ALSO Snooty, a legendary manatee known as the oldest, has died in an apparent underwater accident at the Florida facility where he had lived since 1949, of- said Sunday.
death came just a day after the official mascot of Manatee County, celebrated his 69th birthday with acake made of fruit and vegetables. South Florida Museum officials tweeted that the two events Staff and wire reports LONDON legal battle to get permission to take a terminally ill baby to the United States for experimental treatment ended Monday after Charlie parents told a British court they were withdrawing their legal challenge. Grant Armstrong, a lawyer representing Chris Gard, 32, and Connie Yates, 31, told High Court that had run and the parents made the decision after the American doctor who offered to treat the baby told them it was too late and work. The couple cried as Armstrong spoke. Yates told the court she wanted to give him a chance of and hoped that his life had not been in vain.
Yates also had some criticism, saying the family in July (the treatment could work), and our poor boy has been left there to lie in the hospital without treatment while court battles are Outside the court, Gard said it was time to let Charlie go and with the He said his son, who he called an make it to his birthday in two weeks. has had a greater impact on and touched more people in this world in his 11 months than many people do in a he said. could not have more love and pride for our beautiful little he said. The parents now want spend the maximum amount of time they have left with Armstrong said. The court previ- ously ruled that life- support systems should be switched off and that he should be allowed to die with Charlie has a rare, incurable genetic disorder, and his disease has left him with brain damage and unable to move.
He see or hear and needs a ventilator to breathe. His parents, supported by Michio Hirano, a neurology professor at Columbia University Medical Center, and Italian medical researchers, were seeking the legal right to take him to the U.S. to receive an untested therapy they concededwould not save him. The London hospital where Charlie has received his treatment believed there was no medical evidence to support claims the therapy could work. Hospital officials also feared it could prolong his suffering.
In Britain, disputes between families and doctors over how to treat a patient are decided by courts. In the U.S., the family makes that decision. But Armstrong said the parents decided to withdraw from the case sinceHirano was no longer willing to administer the therapy after he saw a new MRI scan of the brain. He concluded his brain and muscular damage were too severe. parents had raised almost $2 million to treat his illness, known as encephalomyo- pathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.
The case has drawn international interest, including statements from President Trump and Pope Francis in support of the family. The Vatican said Monday evening that the pope was praying for the family and especially close to them at this time of immense In the U.S., Republicans in Congress introduced legislation that would give the Gard family U.S. residency and a potential route to treatment, although it clear whether that would ultimately have enabled them to bypass a British court decision. In Britain, the case has reignit- ed the debate around right-to-life issues, in particular whether requesting treatment that medical evidence shows work is a moral right to be asserted by family members or whether hospitals and courts are better placed to make decisions about what is best for a patient. Katie Gollop, a lawyer representing the hospital, said Monday that the hearts of everyone there out to Charlie, his mother and father.
We have more sorrow than I have words to Parents of terminally ill Charlie Gard to let him with Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY WILL PRESSPHOTO AGENCY The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, deliver astatement outside the High Court in London on Monday. The couple announced that they have abandoned their month battle for the right for Charlie to undergo experimental therapy in the USA. touched more people in this world in his 11 months than many people do in a Chris Gard Couple ends their court for treatment after U.S. doctor tells them just too late for it to help sick infant SANANTONIO The grim discovery of bodies in a sweltering rig in Texas over the weekend illustrates the costlyrisks immigrants take to evade tougher U.S. border laws.
happens more often than we care to said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES San Antonio, which provides legal services to immigrants. Border security initiatives have been linked to an increase in migrants tryingto cross into the U.S. in trailers in the past. In the mid-1990s, an uptick in such cases occurred with two Clinton-era border measures aimed at halting illegal immigration, said Guadalupe Cor- rea-Cabrera, a fellow at the Wilson Center who studies border security. Asimilar increase is happening now in the wake of stricter border security by the Trump administration, she said.Now, smugglers increasingly are coordinating with Mexico-based organized crime rings to beef up smuggler operations and tractor-trailers are a common method for transporting immigrants across the border, Correa-Cabrera said.
Ryan said the latest incident also undermines the idea that proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall would stem the of illegal immigrants entirely. 18-wheeler roll over the desert or through the Rio Grande. It rolled right through the port of entry, which is the most highly secured and intensely enforced geo-spaces in the Texas tragedy shows the risk immigrants take Rick Jervis USA TODAY SANANTONIO Atruck driver who told police he was unaware of the human cargo packed in his rig was charged Monday with illegally transporting immigrants as the death toll from a weekend smuggling tragedy rose to 10. James Mathew Bradley 60, could face the death penalty after eight bodies were discovered just before midnight Saturday in the sweltering trailer of his big rig in aWalmart parking lot. The charges include illegally transporting immigrants for gain resulting in death.
One passenger told authorities about 100 people stuffed in the trailer took turns breathing through a hole in the wall, according to the criminal complaint affidavit. At least 30 people in the truck were rushed to hospitals, many in critical condition. One died Sunday and another Monday, the Department of Justice said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is leading the investigation, and acting director Thomas Homan said dozens of people may have the scene before authorities arrived.
maximize their criminal these human smugglers crammed more than 100 people into a tractor-trailer in the sti- Texas summer Homan said. smugglers have repeatedly demonstrated that they have absolutely no regard for human The affidavit, by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent James Lara, provides a glimpse of claim of ignorance as well as the tales of immigrants on an epic journey that ended in horror. Police were called to the scene by a Walmart employee who told them the trailer appeared to contain multiple people in need of assistance. Officers encountered Bradley, who told them he had driven up from Laredo, about 150 miles away but know people were packed in the trailer until he stopped to urinate and heard banging from inside. Bradley said he then opened the truck and was knocked to the ground by people pouring out of the truck, the affidavit said.
said he then noticed bodies just lying on the like the affidavit said. He told police he triedto aid the victims but did not call 911, according to the affidavit. The passenger told authorities he was with a group of 28 people who were shuttled across the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas, in rafts for the equivalent of about 700 U.S. dollars. They then walked through the night before being driven in pickups to the trailer and packed in with about 70 others.
The plan was to pay the smugglers $5,500 once in San Antonio, he said. He said the trailer was hot but everyone seemed to be alright for about an hour. Then people began passing out. When Bradley opened the door, those who were able to waiting SUVs and were gone before police arrived, the passenger said. The temperatures in San Antonio on Saturday exceeded 100 degrees, and the truck had no functioning air conditioning, authorities said.
All the dead were described as adult men. Survivor Adan Lalravega, 27, told the Associated Press that people cried and begged for water and that he heard the whimpering sounds of voices. He said he lost consciousness and awoke in a San Antonio hospital bed. Calberg reports for KENS-TV; Bacon reports for USA TODAY in McLean, Va. Contributing: The Associated Press SMUGGLING CASE MAY CARRY DEATH PENALTY FOR TRUCKER Driver says he was unaware of about 100 people in his cargo John Bacon and Sue Calberg USA TODAY Network ERIC GAY, AP James Mathew Bradley Jr.
arrives at the federal courthouse for a hearing Monday in San Antonio..
