IF iDir.com

Activists called for nationwide protests on Monday's Presidents Day holiday to demonstrate against President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Organizers of the demonstrations, the nonprofit advocacy group MoveOn.org, said they would be held throughout the day in towns and cities including Washington, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It called Trump's declaration an abuse of power and usurpation of Congress.

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 06:06:48 -0500

California will "imminently" challenge President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency to obtain funds for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Sunday. "Definitely and imminently," Becerra told ABC's "This Week" program when asked whether and when California would sue the Trump administration in federal court. Trump invoked the emergency powers on Friday under a 1976 law after Congress rebuffed his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall that was a signature 2016 campaign promise.

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 18:59:23 -0500

Chicago police have shifted the direction of their investigation into actor Jussie Smollett's report of a hate-crime assault and are seeking to interview him again, after releasing two men detained for questioning in the probe, a police spokesman said on Saturday. According to Smollett's account, his assailants struck him in the face, draped a rope around his neck and doused him with an "unknown chemical substance" before fleeing. On Wednesday evening this week, police said they arrested two Nigerian brothers described as "persons of interest" who were recognized from surveillance camera footage taken in the area of the alleged Jan. 29 assault.

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 17:08:46 -0500

The jury awarded $100 million in punitive damages and the rest in compensatory damages after finding on Friday that the 1998 Ford Explorer did not meet Ford's own safety guidelines and that Ford "acted wantonly" in designing the vehicle, according to a court document seen by Reuters and lawyers for plaintiff Travaris "Tre" Smith. Ford said it plans to appeal.

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 15:41:08 -0500

Weiner, 54, has been released from the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts, and is under the supervision of a residential re-entry management office in Brooklyn, according to prison records. The seven-term congressman who ran unsuccessfully several times for New York City mayor will be free on May 14, records show, about three months earlier than his 21-month sentence. The FBI discovered a trove of emails belonging to his then-wife, Huma Abedin, a senior aide to Hillary Clinton, on Weiner's laptop.

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 14:25:16 -0500