Government shutdown draws closer as congressional leaders head to the White House
By Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are heading to the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday in a late effort to avoid a government shutdown, but both sides have shown hardly any willingness to budge from their entrenched positions.
If government funding legislation isn’t passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night, many government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed, adding to the strain on workers and the nation’s economy.
White House aides, ahead of the meeting, made it clear the Republican administration had no intention to negotiate.
“The president wants to keep the government open, he wants to keep the government funded,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Monday morning, adding Trump was “giving Democrats one last chance to be reasonable today.”
Republicans are daring Democrats to vote against legislation that would keep government funding mostly at current levels, but Democrats have held firm. They’re using one of their few points of leverage to demand Congress take up legislation to extend health care benefits.
“The meeting is a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Gunman opens fire at Michigan church and sets it ablaze, killing at least 4 and wounding 8
By Isabella Volmert and Corey Williams
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — An ex-Marine smashed a pickup into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church in Michigan, opened fire and set the building ablaze during a crowded Sunday service and then was fatally shot by police. At least four people were killed and eight wounded, and authorities were searching the building ruins for more victims.
The attack occurred about 10:25 a.m. while hundreds of people were in the building in Grand Blanc Township, outside Flint.
The man got out of the pickup with two American flags raised in the truck bed and started shooting, Police Chief William Renye told reporters. The attacker apparently used gas to start the fire and also had explosive devices but it wasn’t clear if he used them, said James Dier of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities identified the shooter as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, of the neighboring small town of Burton. The FBI is leading the investigation and considered it an “act of targeted violence,” said Ruben Coleman, a special agent in charge for the bureau.
Video gamer Electronic Arts to be acquired for $52.5 billion in largest-ever private equity buyout
By Michael Liedtke and Michelle Chapman
Electronic Arts, the maker of video games like “Madden NFL,” “Battlefield,” and “The Sims,” is being acquired for $52.5 billion in what could become the largest buyout ever funded by private equity firms.
Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, and Affinity Partners will pay EA’s stockholders $210 per share. Affinity Partners is run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The deal is valued at $55 billion if AE’s debt is included, far exceeding the $32 billion price tag to take Texas utility TXU private in 2007, which had shattered records for leveraged buyouts.
PIF, which was currently the largest insider stakeholder in Electronic Arts, will be rolling over its existing 9.9% investment in the company.The commitment to the massive deal is inline with recent activity in the gaming sector by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, wrote Andrew Marok of Raymond James.