Thursday, June 18 top news briefs
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, June 18. Here are top news briefs.
Today the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to protect the DACA program, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. when they were children by providing them permits to live and work in the U.S. There are about 650,000 people who currently reside in the U.S. under the DACA program — they grew up here and most are in their 20’s to 30’s — who faced deportation from the Trump administration’s efforts to end the DACA program. The former president Barack Obama started the DACA program through an executive order. When President Trump tried to disband it in 2017, there was a lawsuit, and now the Supreme Court will keep it.
The Supreme Court said the Trump administration “can” end the DACA program, but the way they tried to end the program in 2017 was “arbitrary and capricious” and did not properly consider the hardships “Dreamers” would experience if they had their legal standing taken away.
This is the second major decision from the Supreme Court that goes against the Trump administration’s position — with the first one on Monday being a decision that LGBTQ+ individuals are protected from workplace discrimination.
President Donald Trump tweeted that the Supreme Court was making “horrible and politically charged decisions.” Trump said they were “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.” Trump said “we need more justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment and everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”
Obama tweeted that he was happy for the Dreamers because they were raised as part of our American family and that’s why he protected them from deportation. Obama said to continue to stand up, we have to elect Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress.
The next news: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced she would sign an order to allow individuals with felony convictions to vote. ABC News said Iowa is the “only state in the U.S. to bar all felons from voting.” Gov. Reynolds said the order would be signed at the end of the summer or in the early fall. Black Lives Matter activists in Iowa said that was too late and demanded the changes to happen sooner.
The next story: remember the terrible wildfires in northern California in 2018 — the Camp Fire? The CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric pled guilty on behalf of the company to 84 counts of manslaughter in accepting responsibility for allowing their electric equipment to deteriorate to the point a hook broke off and started a fire. Almost the entire town of Paradise was destroyed and 84 people died. Several deaf people lost relatives or their homes. PG&E will pay a $3.5 million fine. The company is guilty, but no company employees will face criminal consequences. The company had a previous agreement to pay $13.5 billion to those who lost their homes and businesses from the fire and other fires.
Today Facebook removed ads posted by the Trump Campaign because it used a symbol, a red triangle, that Nazis used to classify political prisoners in concentration camps during World War II. The ads called for action against Antifa. Facebook said they removed the ads because they violated their policy against organized hate or using hate group symbols.
Former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks on Friday night, turned himself in to answer to his felony murder and 10 other charges. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison. The second officer who was involved, Devin Brosnan, also turned in today for an aggravated assault charge for standing on Brooks’ body. He bonded out of jail. News reports said there are Atlanta police officers who are protesting by walking out of their shifts or not responding to calls. A police union representative said officers are fed up with the mayor and others being against them and wanting to fight them.
That is all the top stories for today. Stay with the light!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rules-against-trump-administration-attempt-to-end-daca-a-win-for-undocumented-immigrants-brought-to-us-as-children/2020/06/18/4f0b6c74-b163-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html
https://www.axios.com/supreme-court-daca-immigration-trump-0f0b0791-a62a-4d00-841f-6a1aaa9e3e12.html
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1273634152433188865
https://abcnews.go.com/US/iowa-governor-restore-voting-rights-paroled-felons/story?id=71318042
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/business/energy-environment/pge-camp-fire-california-wildfires.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/politics/facebook-trump-ads-antifa-red-triangle.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/black-lives-matter-protests-06-18-2020/index.html