Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke was received by a standing ovation following the world premier of filmmaker David Modigliani's HBO documentary "Running with Beto" at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas on Saturday, the Daily Beast reports.
Details: The film follows O'Rourke on the campaign trail as he fought to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). During the showing, O'Rourke's campaign sent an email to supporters teasing a "big announcement."
"There's been an outpouring of speculation, excitement, and support from people across the country — everyone eagerly waiting for the news ... Many of us are crossing our fingers and hoping that Beto has decided to run."
— email drafted by Cynthia Cano, O'Rourke's former deputy campaign manager
Customs and Border protection revealed that more than 960 people crossed the U.S.-Canada border in 2018, according to NBC News, a 91% uptick from the year prior.
Why now: Numbers are nowhere near the stream of migration from Mexico. Border agent Richard Ross speculated that travelers perceive the journey from the U.S. to Canada as "safer," than alternative routes, and attributed the recent rise of border crossings to immigration changes in Canada that permit people from other countries to enter without visas. According to NBC News, Ross described instances of immigrants falsely promised jobs and quickly growing desperate, becoming "ready-made clientele for smugglers."
While Europe has taken the lead on imposing strict privacy rules, online platforms enjoy lighter oversight in the U.S.
What's happening: States are stepping up to fill the void. Silicon Valley is most panicked about California's privacy law that takes effect next year. Washington state, New York and others are drafting their own rules.
A vehicle crashed into an Alabama freeway divider on Friday as President Trump's motorcade drove on the other side of Interstate 85, CNN reports.
What's happening: The presidential motorcade was not harmed and did not slow down as the crash took place a few yards away. The out-of-control vehicle was prevented from crossing the median by protective barriers. The Alabama Highway Patrol and local police are investigating the crash but have not made any comments. Per CNN, the Secret Service said they were "not immediately aware of the incident."
"[T]he enthusiasm that propelled Democrats to a decisive takeover of the House in the midterms is still surging, driving crowd sizes and intensity typically seen in the days before the first caucuses and primaries, not a year ahead of them," the N.Y. Times' Sydney Ember reports from Iowa City.
Why it matters: Democratic voters are delighting in populist "calls to spurn big donors, the policies to fight wealth inequality and the promises of relief from college debt and steep medical bills."
Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy to disrupt the 2020 elections, promoting divisive messages "through phony social media accounts instead of creating propaganda themselves," Bloomberg's Alyza Sebenius writes.
Details: Russian hackers are trying to circumvent protections put in place by Facebook and Twitter after the 2016 election. "Instead of creating content themselves, we see them amplifying content," hiding behind someone else, said John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis at FireEye.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is holding 50,049 allegedly undocumented immigrants in prisons and jails throughout the U.S. according to numbers released Wednesday, The Daily Beast reports.
Between the lines: That marks an increase of about 2,000 people since January. And although deportations have increased since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, they are still well below the level of deportations the Obama administration oversaw. This decline could be contributing to the record number of people in detention. Meanwhile, ICE arrests are on the rise, per ICE statistics.
This week Puerto Rico made a 25% cut to a food stamps program used by more than 1 million of its residents, as U.S. lawmakers have chosen not to approve additional emergency disaster funding that would keep the program afloat, The Washington Post reports.
Between the lines: The Trump administration has increasingly opposed funding for disaster relief for the U.S. territory. Per the Post, President Trump reportedly told top White House officials that Puerto Rico has used the food stamps ineffectively and the country is abusing the government's service. Demand for the food stamp program increased substantially following 2017's Hurricane Maria; these recent cuts were made to keep up with demand absent additional funding.
The Trump administration will release a budget proposal on Monday that calls for $750 billion in defense spending next year — a figure that will be boosted by using a pot of defense money that has often been criticized as a slush fund, two senior administration officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: The proposal would give President Trump the defense increase he wants, but remember that this is just the administration's opening ask to Congress — which is sure to go its own way, particularly with a Democratic House. But the administration will try to pressure the Democrats by not assuming there will be a budget deal with more money.
H.R. 1, which lays out a plan to strengthen federal ethics laws, expand voting rights and require presidential nominees to release their tax returns, passed in the House on Friday. It is unlikely to make headway in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The big picture: Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 and a longtime proponent of campaign finance reform, says Democrats have a 3–5 year strategy for enacting the key elements of H.R. 1, from allowing citizens to vote online and barring members of Congress from serving on corporate boards to requiring "dark money" political groups to make their donors public.
The Trump administration plans to demand that any country hosting U.S. troops on its soil cover their cost — along with an at least 50% premium for "the privilege of hosting them" — according to a Bloomberg report.
Why it matters: Bloomberg reports that President Trump wants to use this "Cost Plus 50" formula as a tool for increased defense revenue, but it could cause close allies like South Korea and Germany to spend up to as much as 5 or 6 times more to host American troops. Last month, South Korea agreed to pay the U.S. almost $1 billion to station U.S. troops — a sharp increase from the previous $800 million agreement.
House Democrats are discussing investigating the cash infusion the Kushner Companies' flagship New York office tower received in summer 2018, Reps. Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings and Ted Lieu told Axios.
Why it matters: Jared Kushner’s family real estate business provides Democrats with a new opening to investigate a senior White House official's indirect connection to foreign money. Kushner has been helping conduct Middle East policy on behalf of the U.S. government.
From a White House source, the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide, according to a senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's problems with leaks will now benefit Congress, making it harder for the White House to withhold information from Democratic investigators.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in California on Thursday ruled that migrants who crossed the border without authorization and failed to qualify for asylum status have the right to appeal the rejection by immigration authorities.
Why it matters: This decision — which is likely to reach the Supreme Court — provides more legal protections for asylum seekers and will allow them stay longer in the country while the appeal process plays out. It’s also yet another setback for the Trump administration amid efforts to expedite deportations of unauthorized migrants. Asylum seekers in the states where the court has jurisdiction — Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — can immediately request an appeal from a federal judge.
A federal judge in California tossed out adult film actress Stormy Daniel's lawsuit on Thursday against President Trump to invalidate the $130,000 nondisclosure agreement she signed in Oct. 2016 demanding she keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election.
Details: U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero said the case should be sent back to the California Superior Court where it was initially filed, and that it "lacks subject matter jurisdiction," CNN reported.
President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced in a Virginia court to 4 years in prison for a laundry list of financial crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud and hiding a foreign bank account.
Why it matters: Prosecutors for the Mueller investigation had earlier put sentencing guidelines for Manafort at 19 to 24 years, claiming he "acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law" while engaging in a "sophisticated scheme" to hide millions of dollars from authorities. He still faces sentencing next week in a separate case in D.C., where a judge will decide whether or not to compound his sentence. At this point, Manafort's only plausible path to freedom would be a pardon from his former boss.
