Monday, April 17
á The
Washington Post reported that immigration arrests rose 32.6 percent in the
first weeks of the Trump administration.
á A white nationalist Trump supporter accused
of assaulting a young woman at a Trump campaign rally claimed he Òacted pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald
Trump,Ó who is being sued for inciting violence at campaign rallies.
á
Trump planned to sign an order that will make it
harder for tech companies to replace American workers with cheaper foreign
labor, and will strengthen rules barring foreign contractors from bidding on
government projects.
á Trump eliminated an ethics
requirement that barred lobbyists and corporate consultants from joining
Federal agencies that theyÕve lobbied for two years — an act that allows them
to be hired by Federal agencies to work on policies likely to benefit clients.
Tuesday, April 18
á TrumpÕs campaign vow to pull the
U.S. out of the Paris climate deal is now being challenged by some of his most
senior advisers.
á The Trump administration has been
quietly loosening firearms restrictions to appease gun owners, the NRA, and
corporate firearm lobbyists who supported him on the campaign trail.
á Attorney
General Sessions has not
hired any attorneys to replace the dozens who resigned or were fired
last month, and thus still has no team to lead his tough-on-crime efforts
across the country.
Wednesday, April 19
á Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration
is weighing whether to effectively break the terms of the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear
deal.
á Energy
Transfer PartnersÕ new $4.2 billion Rover Pipeline, approved by the U.S.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, spilled millions of gallons of drilling
fluids into OhioÕs wetlands.
á
Federal agencies have been hampered by the Trump
administration because it has failed to appoint hundreds of mid-level managers
at Cabinet agencies.
Thursday, April 20
á It
was confirmed that a Moscow-based think tank linked to Russian President Putin
created a plan to swing the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald
Trump.
á The Wall Street Journal reported that in
recent months, Exxon Mobil applied for permission from the U.S.
government to drill in several areas of the Black Sea banned by U.S. sanctions
on Russia.
á The Associated Press reported that Dow Chemical
is pushing the Trump administration to ignore the findings of federal
scientists regarding a family of widely used pesticides that are harmful to
about 1,800 critically threatened or endangered species.
á The
House Intelligence Committee asked former acting Attorney General Sally Yates
to testify publicly in the panelÕs probe into Russian interference in the U.S.
election.
Friday, April 21
á The
U.S. Treasury Department said that it would not waive trade sanctions on Russia
for U.S. firms, including Exxon Mobil seeking to drill in
several areas of the Black Sea.
á U.S.
authorities prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange.
á Distrust
of Trump and his military advisors surfaced when Trump claimed ÒWe are sending
an armadaÓ to North Korea; however, it was later reported the carrier USS Carl
Vinson and its accompanying ships were heading in the other direction,
thousands of miles away.
á Outcry
over the increase in border searches that require Americans to unlock their
phones, laptops, and other digital devices for apps and files to be searched
and copied, sparked lawmakers in the Senate and House to introduce the
Protecting Data at the Border Act.
á Trump
eliminated some Dodd-Frank financial regulations to roll back rules originally
aimed at reducing corporate tax avoidance — an action described as doing
special favors for Wall Street banks.
Saturday, April 22
á The
New York Times reported that Carter Page, an advisor to the Trump campaign, has
been tracked by the FBI since 2013 because investigators discovered that a
Russian spy was trying to recruit him.
á Based
on feedback at recent town hall meetings, support has grown for politicians to
make environmental protection and climate action a bigger priority.
Sunday, April 23
á
As U.S. lawmakers worked
to avoid a government shutdown, Trump offered Democrats a deal: to prevent
Obamacare from dying without a cash infusion, Trump wants their agreement to
fund his border wall.