Act II for France’s Macron: getting the majority to govern
PARIS (AP) — Freshly elected to the French presidency, Emmanuel Macron now faces an equally difficult Act II: securing the parliamentary majority he needs to make good on his campaign promises to lift France out of economic gloom.
With legislative elections just five weeks away, the start-up political movement the 39-year-old former investment banker launched one year ago on his meteoric ride to become France’s youngest president lost no time Monday in girding for the crucial mid-June election battle.
Without a working majority, Macron could quickly become a lame-duck president, unable to push through labor reforms and other measures he promised to the broadly disgruntled electorate — shown by a record result for his defeated far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, and a record number of blank and spoiled ballots in Sunday’s runoff vote.
The transfer of power to Macron will take place Sunday, outgoing President Francois Hollande announced. Macron is already looking the part. He shed his breezier campaign demeanor for a solemn, more statesman-like look in his first appearances after his victory and again Monday, at a sober ceremony with Hollande to commemorate Germany’s defeat in World War II.
The pomp of the ceremony, at the imposing Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris, immediately helped lend a presidential air to the previously untested leader who fought and won his first election.
Kansas bail bondsman gets life for killing son fed to pigs
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas bail bondsman was sentenced to life in prison Monday for killing his 7-year-old son, who authorities say endured abuse and starvation before his remains were fed to pigs on the family’s rental property.
Under the sentence, Michael Jones, 46, won’t be eligible for parole for at least 25 years. He pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder in the 2015 death of Adrian Jones.
Michael Jones turned his chair away from Adrian’s grandmother, mother and old sister, never making eye contact as they addressed the judge. They excoriated him during the sentencing hearing for a slaying authorities described as horrific, even haunting.
“You do not deserve a second chance,” Keiona Doctor, the late boy’s 21-year-old sister, told Michael Jones, who declined the judge’s offer to make a statement. “You do not deserve sunlight as a free man.”
The judge ordered Jones to spend the rest of his life on parole if he is ever released from prison. His attorney did not object in court Monday to the life sentence prosecutors sought.
Mexico and police chief slam Texas’ new ‘sanctuary city’ ban
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Mexican government, San Antonio’s police chief and others slammed Texas’ new “sanctuary cities” law on Monday, saying that requiring local law enforcement to help enforce U.S. immigration law could lead to racial profiling and will fan distrust of the police by the state’s many Hispanics.
The law, which takes effect in September and which critics say is the most anti-immigrant since a 2010 Arizona law, will allow police officers to ask about the immigration status of anyone they detain, including during routine traffic stops. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law Sunday evening on Facebook Live with no advanced warning. A few dozen people protested outside his mansion in Austin on Monday.
San Antonio police chief William McManus ripped into the Republicans who pushed the law through despite the objections of every big-city police chief in the state. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that Texas is home to more than 1.4 million people who are in the country illegally, including 71,000 living in the San Antonio area.
McManus and the other police chiefs, including those in Dallas and Houston, say it will create a chilling effect that will cause immigrant families to not report crimes or come forward as witnesses over fears that talking to local police could lead to deportation. Critics also fear it will lead to the racial profiling of Hispanics and put officers in an untenable position.
“It’s either skin color or language. What else does someone have to base it on?” McManus said, referring to an officer’s reason for inquiring about a person’s immigration status. “That leads to profiling. Profiling leads to lawsuits. In my opinion, there is nothing positive this bill does in the community or law enforcement.”
Domestic violence hotline: Immigration-linked calls increase
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s most prominent domestic violence hotline reports a sharp increase in calls from abuse victims struggling with issues related to their immigration status.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline, established by Congress in 1996 and partly reliant on federal funding, says in its newly released annual report that it responded to 323,660 phone calls, texts and online contacts in 2016. Of these calls, 7,053 evoked immigration-related issues — up nearly 30 percent from 2015.
Katie Ray-Jones, the hotline’s CEO, said many of the callers were not U.S. citizens and were warned by their abusers that they and their families would be deported if the abuse was reported to the police. In some cases, she said, the abusers had threatened to call federal immigration authorities.
Ray-Jones said the surge in immigration-related calls became noticeable in mid-2016 at a time when Donald Trump was clinching the Republican presidential nomination and the GOP platform was echoing his calls for tough enforcement of immigration laws.
One worrisome development, Ray-Jones said, is that relatives, friends and neighbors of immigrant abuse victims who might have reported abuse in the past are now wary of doing so for fear they might be targeted for deportation.
