WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to tighten voting rules by creating a national list of eligible voters and limiting mail ballots. The order signed Tuesday directs the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration on state-by-state voter lists. It also seeks to stop the Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to people not on approved lists. The order calls for adding barcodes on ballot envelopes and threatens to withhold federal funds from states that do not comply. Democratic election officials in Oregon, Arizona, and Maine quickly promised lawsuits and non-compliance. Legal experts also question the order’s constitutionality.
WASHINGTON – A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to suspend construction of a $400 million ballroom after it demolished the East Wing of the White House. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a preservationist group’s request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. Leon wrote that the president is a steward of the White House, not its owner, and said the project needs congressional approval. The ruling was the first major rebuke of Trump’s sweeping efforts to overhaul the White House. It wasn’t immediately clear what it would mean for the sprawling project. The Trump administration filed a notice to appeal Leon’s ruling and Trump himself argued that congressional approval wasn’t necessary.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – NASA’s moonbound astronauts have reason to celebrate, and not just because their launch went so well. Their toilet is now working. The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned as soon as they reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Christina Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going. The bad news is that it’s so cold inside the Orion capsule that the four astronauts are digging into suitcases for long-sleeved clothes. The three Americans and one Canadian are on track to bust out of orbit around Earth on Thursday night and zoom to the moon for a fly-around.
– The Associated Press
