


NEWS BRIEFING
Senate president: Not enough votes for Oregon climate bill

All 11 Republican senators extended their walkout involving the issue for a sixth day, denying Democrats enough lawmakers to muster a vote on the plan that calls for capping and trading pollution credits among companies.
Hundreds of protesters flooded the Capitol steps to protest the GOP walkout then unexpectedly found themselves pushing back against Democratic Senate President Peter Courtney, who disclosed that the climate plan has lost support among members of his own party.
The legislation “does not have the votes on the Senate floor,” he said. “I’ve done as much as I can, and I’ll continue to try.”
Courtney pleaded with Republicans to return to the Capitol to consider much of the state budget and other issues caught up in the impasse.
Conservative senators have fled the state to avoid taking a vote on the proposal, saying it will kill jobs, raise the cost of fuel and gut small businesses in rural areas.
The disclosure on votes came after Gov. Kate Brown drew a hard line on negotiations, saying Republicans had to return to the building if they want to cut a deal with her. She said Democratic leaders talking with Republicans behind the scenes shouldn’t “reward bad behavior.”
“The Republicans are not standing against climate change, they’re standing against democracy,” Brown said.
Feds: Rep. Duncan Hunter used campaign cash for affairs
Details about the GOP congressman’s alleged affairs were outlined in a government court filing late Monday connected to charges that Hunter and his wife misspent more than $200,000 in campaign money on trips and personal expenses.
Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty this month to one corruption count and agreed to testify against her husband.
The congressman, who has said he is the target of politically motivated prosecutors, was reelected by Southern California’s most Republican congressional district last year despite facing a federal indictment.
Slain journalist’s fiancee wants Saudis pressured at G-20
Hatice Cengiz spoke at a Human Rights Council event in Geneva about her grief from Khashoggi’s October death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
An independent U.N. expert said in a report made public last week that Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for The Washington Post columnist’s grisly apparent dismemberment by Saudi agents and that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s possible role in the killing should be examined.
US: Manigault Newman didn’t file financial disclosure report
The six-page complaint alleges that Manigault Newman — who had a significant falling out with Trump and last year released a book depicting him as a racist — violated the Ethics in Government Act when she did not file the report within 30 days of leaving her position. It asks a federal judge to compel her to file one and to impose a civil penalty of “up to $50,000.”
When Trump campaigned in 2016, Manigault Newman was one of the few prominent blacks to support him.
Canadian, Russian, American back from space
The Soyuz capsule with astronauts from Canada, Russia and the United States landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 8:47 a.m., less than a minute ahead of schedule, after a 3
Two of the astronauts had completed their first flights: Anne McClain of the United States and David Saint-Jacques of Canada. The expedition commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia has ended his fourth space mission. All three spent 204 days in space. They were put on chairs in the sun for initial medical checks.
Americans Nick Hague and Christina Koch and Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin remain aboard the space station.
McConnell meets with 9/11 first responders
John Feal, a construction worker who was injured at ground zero in New York and has become an activist, said after leaving a meeting with McConnell that the Kentucky Republican “agreed with us and sensed our urgency.”
The $7.3 billion fund was opened by the federal government in 2011 to compensate for deaths and illnesses linked to toxic exposure at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, was ordered to remain in preventive detention, with a judge saying his driving record poses a potential danger to the public and himself.
The Dodge pickup Zhukovskyy was driving was towing a flatbed trailer and collided with the motorcycles in Randolph early Friday evening, investigators say. He was driving erratically and crossed the centerline, according to criminal complaints released Tuesday.