President Barack Obama signs S. 665, the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015, Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. From left are, Justin Ramos, 19, Jayden Ramos, 14, Vice President Joe Biden, Maritza Ramos, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., Wei Tang Liu, and Xiu Li. The bill will assist with the establishment of a nationwide Blue Alert system to apprehend violent criminals who have injured or killed police officers or who have made an imminent or credible threat to cause serious injury or death of a law enforcement officer. The bill is named in honor of two New York City Police Detectives who were killed while sitting in their patrol vehicle in Dec. 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Obama to give the commencement speech at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut today at 11:30am. He’s expected to discuss the security threat from global warming.
Congress should be busy for the next few days. They are off all next week for Memorial Day (must be nice). In the meantime, they are expected to tackle domestics spying via the Patriot Act, a fast track trade bill, and highway funding.
Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, and Hillary Clinton hold campaign events today. We’re still digesting all the news on the Clintons we got this week including her impromptu q & a with reporters yesterday afternoon.
Canada has arrested 10 young people on suspicion of planning to go to Iraq and Syria to fight for ISIS terrorists. They were all arrested at Montreal’s airport.
Ukraine now says it would welcome a missile defense system from the U.S. to protect them from the aggressive Russians. There’s growing evidence Russia continues to send troops into Ukrainian territory.
So much for the nuclear negotiations in Geneva today. Six world powers gathered to try and hammer out a deal on restricting Iran’s nuke program, but all sides say they are far apart, and now the Ayatollah says the Iranians will not allow access to any military sites so it’s unclear what kind of a deal could result.
Takata has launched the biggest recall in U.S. history doubling the number of air bags it says are defective. 34 million cars now recalled.
Some farmers in California say they are offering to reduce water consumption by 25% voluntarily to try and prevent mandatory cuts from the state. Farming takes about 85% of California’s available water. Severe drought has led to mandatory restrictions for households.
Los Angeles has raised its minimum wage to $15/hour by 2020.
On oil spill has ruined a popular beach in Santa Barbara, California. A pipeline ruptured spilling some 20,000 gallons of oil onto 4 miles of state beach. Adam Housley reporting.
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