NATION
Friday, December 21, 2018
East Oregonian
Trump’s demand
for wall moves
government closer
to shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump’s
demand for border wall
funds hurled the federal
government closer to a shut-
down as House Republicans
approved a package Thurs-
day with his $5.7 billion
request that is almost certain
to be rejected by the Senate.
The White House said
Trump will not travel to
Florida on Friday for the
Christmas holiday if the
government is shutting
down. More than 800,000
federal workers will be fac-
ing furloughs or forced to
work without pay if a reso-
lution is not reached before
funding expires at midnight
Friday.
The shutdown crisis
could be one of the final acts
of the House GOP majority
before relinquishing control
to Democrats in January.
Congress had been on track
to fund the government but
lurched Thursday when
Trump, after a rare lashing
from conservative support-
ers, declared he would not
sign a bill without the fund-
ing. Conservatives want to
keep fighting. They warn
that “caving” on Trump’s
repeated wall promises
could hurt his 2020 re-elec-
tion chances, and other
Republicans’ as well.
The House voted largely
along party lines, 217-185,
after GOP leaders framed
the vote as a slap-back to
Nancy Pelosi, who is poised
to become House speaker on
Jan. 3 and who had warned
Trump in a televised Oval
Office meeting last week
that he wouldn’t have the
votes for the wall.
“Now we find com-
promise,” House Major-
ity Leader Kevin McCa-
rthy, R-Calif., said. “We
have time right now to get
it done.”
Meanwhile, an online
fundraiser started by an Air
Force veteran to pay for con-
struction of President Don-
ald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico
border wall was up to mil-
lions of dollars Thursday.
Brian Kolfage launched
Urban Institute in Washing-
ton to be showing indica-
tions of rapid change or full-
out gentrification, including
ones in Long Branch. Six of
properties are in New York
City’s Brooklyn Heights
neighborhood overlooking
the Manhattan skyline and
where apartments sell for
millions each.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., left, and House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin
McCarthy, R-Calif., walk off after speaking to reporters after meeting with President Donald
Trump on border wall funding at the White House on Thursday in Washington.
the GoFundMe page Sun-
day, and it has since gener-
ated $6 million in donations.
The site states a fundraising
goal of $1 billion.
In a statement posted on
the crowdsourcing page,
Kolfage says the wall could
be built if everyone who
voted for Trump pledged
$80 each.
ics say it includes too many
gentrifying neighborhoods
already attracting invest-
ment and is a giveaway to
wealthy developers.
The Kushner Cos. did not
respond to repeated requests
for comment. An earlier
report in the Asbury Park
Press on the deal quotes a
Kushner spokeswoman say-
ing the purchase is “under
contract.”
News of the possible
purchase follows an Asso-
ciated Press investigation
that showed Jared Kushner
owns stakes in 13 Oppor-
tunity Zones properties, all
in locations deemed by the
Whitaker rejected
advice to recuse
himself from
Russia probe
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Acting Attorney Gen-
eral Matthew Whitaker
chose not to recuse him-
self from the Russia inves-
tigation even though a top
Justice Department ethics
official advised him to step
aside out of an “abundance
of caution,” a senior official
said Thursday.
Whitaker’s past criti-
cism of the Russia investi-
gation has raised questions
about whether he can over-
see it fairly. The ethics offi-
cial said this week that a
recusal was “a close call”
but suggested that Whita-
ker remove himself, even
though he was not required
to do so.
Whitaker decided not to
take the advice.
Earlier Thursday, a per-
son familiar with the matter
who was not authorized to
discuss it publicly told The
Associated Press that Whita-
ker did not have to recuse
himself from overseeing the
probe. But that wasn’t the
full picture. Later, a senior
Justice Department offi-
cial provided a much more
detailed account of the eth-
ics consultation.
It showed that although
Whitaker was not required
to step aside from the inves-
tigation, the issue wasn’t so
clear cut. That official spoke
with reporters on condition
of anonymity to discuss sen-
sitive conversations.
Kushners buying
4th New Jersey
property in tax-
break zone
NEW YORK (AP) —
Jared Kushner’s family
company is buying another
property in a New Jersey
beach town where develop-
ers can get big tax breaks
thanks to a new federal pro-
gram pushed by Kushner
and his wife, Ivanka Trump.
The Kushner Cos. is
negotiating to buy land
already approved for retail
space and apartments in one
of thousands of new Oppor-
tunity Zones offering tax
breaks around the coun-
try, Long Branch Business
Administrator George Jack-
son said Thursday. It would
be the fourth Kushner pur-
chase in an Opportunity
Zone in the town since the
program was included in the
Republican-led tax overhaul
law passed in December last
year.
The program has been
praised as a smart way to
attract money into high-pov-
erty areas long neglected by
private investors. But crit-
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