About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 2018)
TODAYS TOP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Sunday, December 30, 2018 3A J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE I Associated Press Tourists arrive to visit the U.S. Capitol on a rainy morning in Washington, Friday, Dec. 28, during a partial government shutdown. Government shutdown goes on with no end, no solution in sight Trump blames Dems for migrant child deaths at US-Mexico border CATARINA GOMEZ I Associated Press This Dec, 12, photo provided by Catarina Gomez on Thursday, Dec. 27, shows her half-brother Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, near her home in Yalambojoch, Guatemala. BY ZEKE MILLER, JILL COLVIN AND LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON — Presi dent Donald Trump and Democrats are trading blame for the partial govern ment shutdown but doing little substantive talking with each other, as the disruption in federal services and pub lic employees’ pay slogs into another weekend. Trump upped the brink manship by threatening anew to close the border with Mex ico to press Congress to cave to his demand for money to pay for a wall. Democrats vowed to pass legislation restoring the government as soon as they take control of the House on Thursday, but that won’t accomplish any thing unless Trump and the Republican-controlled Sen ate go along with it. Cooped up in the White House after canceling his planned vacation to his pri vate Florida club, Trump tweeted Saturday that he’s “in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security.” But there has been little direct contact between the sides during the stalemate, and Trump did not ask Republicans, who hold a monopoly on power in Wash ington for another five days, to keep Congress in session. The president did leave the White House on Friday night to join the three men at the center of the negotiations, Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, for dinner at Pence’s residence at the Naval Observatory. As he called for Demo crats to negotiate on the wall, Trump brushed off blame that his administration bore any responsibility for the recent deaths of two migrant children in Border Patrol custody. Trump claimed the deaths were “strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally.” His comments on Twitter came as his Homeland Secu rity secretary met with medi cal professionals and ordered policy changes meant to bet ter protect children detained at the border. Meanwhile, the effects to the public of the impasse grew as the Environmental Protection Agency, which had the money to function a week longer than some agencies, implemented its shutdown plan at midnight Friday night. EPA spokeswoman Molly Block said many of the agency’s 14,000 employees were being furloughed, while disaster-response teams and certain other employees deemed essential would stay on the job. That includes workers needed for prevent ing immediate public health threats at more than 800 Superfund hazardous-waste sites. Also running short on money: the Smithsonian Insti tution, which said its muse ums, art galleries and zoo in the capital will close starting midweek if the partial shut down drags on. But federal flood insur ance policies will continue to be issued and renewed, in a reversal prompted by pressure from lawmakers, said Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Trump appeared no closer to securing money for his sig nature border wall, which he vowed during the campaign that he would make Mexico pay for. He’s failed to do so. Now Democratic leaders are adamant that they will not authorize money for the proj ect, calling it wasteful and ineffective. They show no signs of bending, either. “We are far apart,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told CBS on Friday. Trump tweeted: “We will be forced to close the South ern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to fin ish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with.” He also threatened to cut off U.S. aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, among countries he deems have not done enough to com bat illegal immigration. He’s made similar threats in the past without following through, and it is Congress, not the president, that appro priates aid money. The shutdown is forcing hundreds of thousands of fed eral workers and contractors to stay home or work without pay. Mulvaney said Democrats are no longer negotiating with the administration over an earlier offer by the White House to accept less than the $5 billion Trump wants for the wall. Democrats said the White House offered to accept $2.5 billion for border security, but that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Vice President Mike Pence that it wasn’t acceptable. It was also not guaranteed that Trump would settle for that amount. “There’s not a single Dem ocrat talking to the president of the United States about this deal,” Mulvaney said Friday. Speaking on Fox News and later to reporters, he tried to drive a wedge between Dem ocrats, pinning the blame on House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Mulvaney said Schumer was “really interested in doing a deal and coming to some sort of compromise” but he understood that Pelosi was at risk of losing the speakership of the House if she went along. “So we’re in this for the long haul,” he said. In fact, Pelosi has all but locked up the support she needs to win the speaker’s gavel after the new Congress convenes on Thursday, and there has been no sign that she and Schumer are in conflict. “For the White House to try and blame anyone but the president for this shut down doesn’t pass the laugh test,” said Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Schumer. Pelosi has vowed to pass legislation to reopen the nine shuttered departments and dozens of agencies now hit by the partial shutdown as soon as she takes the gavel. But that alone won’t solve the shutdown, absent Sen ate approval and Trump’s signature. YUMA, Ariz. — Presi- dent Donald Trump deflected any blame from his administration for the deaths of two Guatemalan children this month in U.S. custody as his Homeland Security chief visited Bor der Patrol medical officials amid promises of more thor ough health screenings for migrant children. Instead, the president, whose administration has faced widespread criticism over the deaths, pointed the finger on Twitter at Demo crats “and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally.” He also tweeted that the children were “very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol.” The president’s com ments came Saturday afternoon, the same day Homeland Security Secre tary Kirstjen Nielsen was visiting Yuma, Arizona, to meet with medical staff at the border. Nielsen said in a statement that “the system is clearly overwhelmed and we must work together to address this humanitarian crisis.” She called on Con gress to “act with urgency. ” Her office said she was briefed in El Paso, Texas, on Friday on “recently insti tuted secondary medical screenings and the more thorough initial health screenings of migrants.” El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said he met with Nielsen and told CNN on Saturday that he agreed with her that the immigra tion policy is “broken.” “El Paso is dealing with the symptoms as a result of the lack of fortitude in Wash ington, on both sides of the aisle, to deal with our immi gration policy,” the Republi can said. Nielsen’s trip came days after the death of 8-year- old Felipe Gomez Alonzo in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Felipe was the second Gua temalan child to die in gov ernment custody in three weeks. A 7-year-old girl died in El Paso earlier this month. Nielsen has called the death “deeply concerning and heartbreaking” and requested medical help from other government agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard. As Nielsen made the trip to Texas, New Mexico’s Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, sent her a letter Friday seeking answers about the boy’s death. “The timeline, action and factors that led to Felipe’s death are still developing, but the information that has become public so far is alarming and demands immediate attention and investigation,” the letter says. U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat whose district includes Yuma and much of the U.S.-Mexico- border, on Saturday issued a statement saying Nielsen was visiting Yuma “under the dark cloud of a Repub lican-induced government shutdown, the president’s threats to close the border and the tragic deaths of two children in DHS custody. senior, ^belk 9 BELK.COM TEACHER & SERVICE ^DAY A shopping day to say Thank You! Every TUESDAY. Jan 1, 8,15, 22 & 29 SENIORS 55 & OLDER, ACTIVE MILITARY, VETERANS & TEACHERS take an extra 20 % OFF sale purchases storewide 15% OFF home & shoes with your Belk Rewards credit card or other form of payment *Show valid ID to any sales associate. Belk Rewards credit card purchases are subject to credit approval. Some exclusions apply. See an associate for details. The Belk Rewards Mastercard is issued by Synchrony Bank pursuant to a license by Mastercard International Incorporated. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. 17192015 ||H -bekRcwARDS ( I I SbekREWARDS mi CHEVROLET | BUICK | GMC | CADILLAC CHRYSLER DODGE I JEEP I RAM 100’S OF SUV MODELS TO CHOOSE FROM! 8 BRANDS 1 LOCATION NEW 2018 BUICK ENCORE NEW 2018 GMC ACADIA NEW 2019 GMC TERRAIN SAVE UP TO *6,000 OFF MSRP View Inventory Online! 3656 HIGHWAY 365 • ALTO, GA 30510 • 706-776-1144
