Long time coming
Companies (who use a lot of cheap Chinese products) warn Trump trade war is about to hit consumers
U.S. companies are speaking out against President Trump's escalating trade war with China, with major players such as Walmart saying tariffs are forcing them to raise prices on consumer goods for Americans.
“There are some places where, as we get tariffs, we will take prices up,” Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said Thursday in an earnings call.
Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette issued a similar warning, saying another round of tariffs would almost certainly hit consumers in their pocketbooks.
“When you do the math, it’s hard to find a path through that wouldn’t impact customers,” he told investors and analysts on Thursday. “It will affect a lot of apparel and accessories categories.”
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/trade/444352-companies-warn-trump-trade-war-about-to-hit-consumers
Trump national emergency declaration faces first test in California court
President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall along the southern border faced its first legal challenge in a California courtroom on Friday.
Attorneys for the House, a group of states and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) all appeared before a federal judge in Oakland on Friday to make their first arguments against the national emergency declaration, which will divert military funds toward the creation of the wall. All three groups have filed lawsuits challenging the order.
Trump issued the directive earlier this year after Congress refused to include his requested amount of border security funds in a government funding bill. The standoff resulted in a record 35-day-long government shutdown.
The group of the 20 states, led by California, and the coalition of immigration and environmental groups headed up by the ACLU have individually asked District Judge Haywood Gilliam to issue a preliminary injunction to halt construction of the wall.
Gilliam, an Obama appointee, did not make a ruling during Friday’s hearing, which was held to consider the motions for a preliminary injunction over the emergency declaration.
The Trump administration argues that the president has the authority to redirect the Pentagon funds under the scope of the National Emergencies Act. And officials have pointed to a surge in border crossings in requiring additional security at the southern border.
Trump reprogrammed about $3.6 billion in military construction funds for the wall with his emergency declaration, and officials have transferred an additional $1 billion in counter-drug funding.
Documents released earlier this week also show that the Pentagon plans to pull $1.5 billion dollars originally intended for items like upgrading Air Force surveillance planes and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system.
A hearing for the lawmakers’ legal challenge is scheduled for federal court in D.C. on Thursday.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/444344-trump-national-emergency-declaration-faces-first-test-in-california
DQ'd owner offers $5M challenge to Derby foes
Maximum Security owner Gary West has issued a multimillion-dollar challenge to the owners of four horses that benefited from his horse's historic disqualification in the Kentucky Derby.
In a statement Friday, West said he would pay each of those owners $5 million if Country House, War of Will, Long Range Toddy or Bodexpress finishes ahead of Maximum Security in the next race against him through the end of the year.
West wants the owners of the other horses to also stake $5 million on the head-to-head result. He said he would donate any winnings to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and would still make a donation to the fund if no owners take up the challenge.
http://www.espn.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/26769265/dqd-owner-offers-5m-challenge-derby-foes
Non-Citizens Commit 42% Of Federal Crimes, Despite Being Only 7% Of US Population
A breakdown of crimes in the report shows about 92 percent of immigration crimes, or about 21,835 cases, involved non-citizens. But they also committed other crimes at far higher rates than their 7 percent proportion of the population as a whole.
Cases involving drug possession, for example, were nearly evenly split between citizens and non-citizens with 361 and 339, respectively. In other words, non-citizens violated federal drug possession laws at a rate roughly seven times higher than citizens.
Statistics were similar for violations of national defense, with 30 percent of cases involving non-citizens, as well as money laundering at 27 percent, drug trafficking at 24 percent and murder at 18 percent. Other crimes committed at higher rates include kidnapping, fraud/theft/embezzlement, extortion/racketeering, burglary, assault, “commercialized vice,” and environmental crimes, among others.
The largest numbers of crimes occurred in border states, and areas with sanctuary policies. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and southern California were among the most heavily concentrated areas for federal crimes. Data in the Sentencing Commission’s report show the Fifth Circuit Court covering Texas and the Ninth Circuit Court covering California and Arizona are the busiest, with about 26 and 20 percent of cases, respectively.
In the vast majority of cases involving both citizens and non-citizens – 87.8 percent – the offenders were sentenced to prison. For the roughly 29,000 non-citizens convicted of federal crimes in fiscal year 2018, that statistic was 98.5 percent, according to the report.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-17/non-citizens-commit-42-federal-crimes-despite-being-only-7-us-population