House poised for party-line vote on China package
WASHINGTON — The House appears headed to a mostly party-line vote this week on a sprawling Democratic-crafted bill aimed at boosting U.S. investment in a range of sectors to better compete against China’s aggressive efforts to dominate the technology realm.
But Republicans are stiffly opposed to other provisions added by Democratic leaders — and miffed about how the bill was constructed, bringing some unexpected drama to a largely bipartisan issue.
The legislation is poised to attract little Republican support despite 13 bills embedded in the package that won bipartisan support last year. That opposition is mostly directed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders, who added a list of other provisions to the measure. Despite the GOP pushback, Pelosi has decided to move ahead with the bill and rely only on Democratic support.
“It would seem to me that, at this point, if the legislation as currently structured is going to make it through the House, it would probably have to be on a party-line vote,” said Stephen Ezell, director of global innovation at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which is tracking the bill.
The nearly 3,000-page bill would provide subsidies for domestic manufacturing of semiconductors and boost funding for the National Science Foundation. It would also create a new technology directorate, launch synthetic biology programs and expand science and technology education across the country.
—CQ-Roll Call
New York judge’s son pleads guilty to role in Capitol riot
NEW YORK — A Brooklyn judge’s son pleaded guilty to felony charges Wednesday for storming the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot while dressed as a caveman, the Department of Justice announced.
Aaron Mostofsky, 35, copped to civil disorder and theft of government property charges for his role in breaking into the Capitol building with hundreds of other former President Donald Trump supporters during the siege of the building as Congress was about to certify the vote from the 2020 presidential election.
“What I’m doing here today is to express my opinion as a free American, my beliefs that this election was stolen,” Mostofsky said during a video interview inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. “We were cheated.”
Mostofsky is the son of Steven “Shlomo” Mostofsky, a judge on the Kings County Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
He posted videos to his Instagram account showing him on a bus to the Capitol, and included clips taken inside and outside the building, federal prosecutors said.
—New York Daily News
California school officials could mandate searches of backpacks, lockers under shooting threat
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two months after four people were killed and seven injured during a Michigan high school shooting, a California lawmaker said he will introduce a bill that would require school administrators to collect information from parents about guns stored at home and would mandate backpack, locker and car searches if there is a credible threat or danger of mass casualty.
State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a La Cañada Flintridge Democrat and author of several California gun safety laws, said he decided to introduce the legislation after the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School reignited a national conversation over how to prevent such incidents.
That shooting occurred despite teachers reporting concerning behavior by the 15-year-old suspect, Ethan Crumbley, the day before and morning of the shooting, including searching for ammunition on his cellphone during class. He also had a graphic drawing that depicted a gun.
School officials called a meeting with the boy's parents Nov. 30, but he was allowed to return to class, and his backpack wasn't searched. Hours later, he allegedly used a gun that his parents bought him as a Christmas present to open fire at the school.
"We saw what inaction does in Michigan," Portantino said. "Inaction leads to a tragedy. By empowering school districts with information and the mandate to investigate, we're taking that inaction off the table."
—Los Angeles Times
Turkey says jets hit nearly 80 Kurdish militant posts in Iraq and Syria
ISTANBUL — Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and northern Syria, including shelters, ammunition depots and training camps, the country's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
Around 60 aircraft joined the overnight raid to target nearly 80 posts in three different locations in northern Syria and Iraq, as far as 100 miles from the Turkish border, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu cited the Defense Ministry as saying.
The jets targeted "terrorist" posts belonging to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, and the Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Defence Units, YPG, in the areas of Derik, Sinjar and Karacak, the ministry said in a statement.
Ankara considers both the PKK and YPG terrorist groups.
"Last night, we bombed targets at three separate locations ... they could not find a place to hide," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar separately warned similar raids would continue.
—dpa
