The Pentagon will send some 300 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help in tasks that will put them in contact with migrants, marking a break in current practice.  A statement released Monday by the Department of Defense said the troops will provide administrative support, helping transport migrants, distributing meals and “monitoring” their welfare.   The Pentagon said the deployment, which was requested by the Department of Homeland Security, will last until the end of September and cost about $7.4 million. There are already about 2,900 active-duty troops and about 2,000 National Guard troops helping the DHS at the border. Until now, the troops have been forbidden to have direct contact with migrants as a way to emphasize that the military is not in a law enforcement role. “DoD personnel will not perform any law enforcement functions,” Lt. Col. Jamie Davis said in a statement. “In any situation that requires …

The fate of a Minneapolis police officer, who is charged with shooting and killing an unarmed woman, is now in the hands of a Minnesota jury after lawyers gave closing arguments at his trial.    Mohamed Noor, a Somali American, is charged with killing Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual U.S.-Australian citizen, who had called police in 2017 when she heard a possible rape in the alley behind her home and minutes later approached Noor’s police car.  Lawyers for Noor argued Monday that the officer was caught up in a “perfect storm” of events, including hearing a loud bang right before Damond appeared at his partner’s car window, followed by the partner struggling to pull out his gun in response to the noise. They said Noor “acted as he was trained. He acted as a reasonable police officer.” Prosecutors said, however, that Noor acted unreasonably and should be held responsible for …

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden officially kicked off his White House campaign on Monday by hosting a union event in Pittsburgh just hours after securing his first labor endorsement. Biden told Teamsters members who attended his first event as a 2020 contender that restoring a vibrant middle class would be the theme of his campaign. “I make no apologies. I am a union man. Period,” Biden told the packed union hall. “The country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers, CEOs and hedge fund managers, it was built by you.” Among those who introduced Biden was Harold Schaitberger, the president of the International Association of Firefighters, a 300,000-member union that endorsed him ahead of the Pittsburgh event. In a Twitter fusillade, Trump said that while leaders of the firefighters and other unions would endorse Democrats in the 2020 race, “the members love Trump.” Biden soon fired back on Twitter. “I’m …

U.S. law enforcement authorities have arrested a former U.S. Army infantryman, thwarting an alleged terror plot involving several targets in the Los Angeles area. Mark Domingo of Reseda, California, was arrested on Friday while planning to bomb a white supremacist rally in Southern California as retribution for the New Zealand mosque attacks, federal officials said Monday. A criminal complaint said the Army veteran, who served in Afghanistan, had been planning to set off the remote-controlled bomb “in order to commit mass murder.”  In online communications and messages to an undercover FBI agent, Domingo said he considered bombing Jewish people, churches and police officers until he settled on a rally in Long Beach this past weekend, officials said. Domingo allegedly said he wanted revenge for attacks on mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people last month.  The white supremacist rally did not materialize when the participants failed to show, but a …

In this scruffy, high-desert town encircled by prairies and potato farms, Sen. Cory Gardner drew shouts of approval last week for his message that Democrats are shoving the country toward socialism. “That’s not what government is or what it should be,” he told about 200 Alamosa County Republicans at a barbecue fundraiser in a National Guard armory. “We have to stand up and fight. Are you going to join me in this fight?”   For Gardner and other Republicans making the same pitch, including President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the key question is whether it will attract moderate voters, not just their conservative stalwarts. Based on interviews with over three dozen Coloradans last week from Denver’s suburbs south to this town in the flat San Luis Valley, the argument has yet to take root, though the GOP has 18 months to sell it before Election Day …

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting Iran’s economy to shrink by 6% this year as it faces pressure from U.S. sanctions. In a report released Monday, the IMF said its estimates for Iran, which include the potential for inflation to top 40%, predate a U.S. decision to end waivers that have allowed some Iranian oil buyers to continue making their purchases despite new sanctions that went into effect last year. The Trump administration is due to formally end the waivers on Thursday for some of Iran’s top crude purchasers, including China, India, Japan, Turkey and South Korea. The United States says it wants to deprive Iran of $50 billion in annual oil revenues to pressure it to end its nuclear and missile programs. The White House says it is working with top oil exporters Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ensure an adequate world oil supply. Turkey and …

Former longtime U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a foreign policy expert who helped spur the dismantling and securing of thousands of nuclear weapons in the former Soviet states, has died. He was 87. The Lugar Center issued a statement saying Lugar died early Sunday at the Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute in Virginia.  Lugar was a Rhodes Scholar who was first elected to the Senate in 1976, after eight years as Indianapolis mayor. He was a generally loyal conservative but lost his bid for a seventh Senate term in the 2012 GOP primary after attacks over his reputation for cooperation with Democrats and friendliness with President Barack Obama. Lugar gained little traction with a 1996 run for president, but he focused on the threat of terrorism years ahead of the Sept. 11 attacks. …

Anguish, pain and heartache poured out of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein on Sunday as he recounted the terrorist shooting at his Chabad of Poway synagogue near San Diego that killed a woman and left him and two others wounded.  “I see a sight that is indescribable,” the rabbi said, describing how a gunman pointed a rifle straight at him.  “He wore sunglasses. I couldn’t see his eyes, I couldn’t see his soul,” Goldstein said, describing the alleged shooter. Goldstein said he held up his hands as the suspect opened fire, wounding him and blowing off his right index finger. But the rabbi said most of his pain came from seeing a beloved charter member of his shul, 60-year-old Lori Kaye, lying dead on the floor as her husband, a doctor, frantically tried to resuscitate her.  He sobbed as he described Kaye as a person of “unconditional love” who was always there …

A gunman fired indiscriminately into a crowd where people were gathered for cookouts on a street in Baltimore, wounding seven people including one of them fatally, the city’s police commissioner said. Authorities said the shooting happened around 5 p.m. on a block in the city’s western district. Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said a black male approached a crowd on foot and began firing in what he called “a very tragic, very cowardly shooting.” Harrison said the shooting appeared to be “extremely targeted” but he did not immediately elaborate on a possible motive. The commissioner said there were two cookouts occurring on opposite sides of the street at the time, and that shell casings were found in two different locations, indicating that there may have been a second gunman, or someone firing back at the first shooter, who fled on foot. It was unclear whether the cookouts were related, Harrison said. …

The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” means you shouldn’t prejudge the value of something by its outward appearance. At a college near Washington, DC, some people became human books, of sorts, as they discussed how appearances can be deceiving and cause preconceived biases. As we hear from VOAs Deborah Block, some of them talked about their struggles and achievements despite difficult circumstances. …

After releasing a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation, U.S. Attorney General William Barr takes center stage once again this week with two scheduled appearances before legislative committees on Capitol Hill. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Democrats are demanding the full, un-redacted Mueller report and are determined to continue investigating President Donald Trump, while Republicans are eager to turn the page and focus on other matters. …

President Donald Trump stretched the truth on various fronts at his Wisconsin rally and in weekend remarks, asserting that an immigration plan to send migrants illegally in the country to sanctuary cities had begun when it hadn’t. He also claimed credit for jobs he didn’t create, exaggerated his record on health care and spread untruths about the Russia investigation. A look at the rhetoric and the reality: IMMIGRATION TRUMP: “Last month alone, 100,000 illegal immigrants arrived in our borders, placing a massive strain on communities and schools and hospitals and public resources, like nobody’s ever seen before. Now we’re sending many of them to sanctuary cities. Thank you very much. … I’m proud to tell you that was my sick idea.” — Green Bay, Wisconsin, rally Saturday. THE FACTS: There’s no evidence that the Trump administration has begun to send the migrants to sanctuary cities en masse . He proposed …

Adults in the United States who were vaccinated against measles decades ago may need a new dose depending on when they received the shot and their exposure risk, according to public health experts battling the nation’s largest outbreak since the virus was deemed eliminated in 2000. Up to 10 percent of the 695 confirmed measles cases in the current outbreak occurred in people who received one or two doses of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figure illustrates what can happen when a large number of individuals, even those who have been vaccinated, are exposed to the measles. CDC recommends that people who are living in or traveling to outbreak areas should check their vaccination status and consider getting a new dose. Dr. Allison Bartlett, an infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, said the “continued vulnerability to infection” is why …

The U.S. signed a document agreeing to pay North Korea $2 million for the medical care of American Otto Warmbier who had been detained by Pyongyang, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday, but then ignored the bill and never paid it. “It is very clear to me from my looking into it in the past few days that nobody was paid,” Bolton told Fox News Sunday. “That is clear.” Bolton was confirming news accounts in recent days that North Korea demanded the money when it released Warmbier, a comatose college student, to U.S. authorities nearly two years ago so he could be returned to the United States. He died days later. Warmbier was a University of Virginia student visiting North Korea when he was jailed in January 2016, sentenced to 15 years for trying to steal a propaganda banner from his hotel. The mainland China travel company that …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to fill a vacant seat at the Federal Reserve said on Sunday a smear campaign was being waged against him, after past writings and comments about women sparked renewed criticism by Democratic lawmakers. Moore, during an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” said there were a handful of reporters dedicated to digging up negative information on his personal life and past statements. Trump has not formally nominated Moore to be a Fed governor, which would give him a role in setting interest rates for the world’s biggest economy. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, giving them the final say on whether Moore’s promised nomination is confirmed. Democratic Senators have criticized Moore for his policy positions, including his longtime support of tax cuts to stimulate the economy, as well as his comments about women. “If I become a liability to any of these senators, I …

Two Israelis were among those wounded in an attack that left one person dead at a synagogue north of San Diego, California. During the service for the last day of the Passover holiday, 19-year-old John Earnest burst into the Chabad synagogue and opened fire with an assault rifle. Witnesses said 60-year old Lori Gilbert Kaye jumped in front of Rabbi Yisrael Goldstein and was killed. The rabbi was wounded, losing two fingers. Two other worshipers, both Israelis, were wounded. Eight year old Noya Dahan was wounded by shrapnel and her uncle Almog Peretz was shot in the leg. Peretz grabbed several children and took them to safety as soon as the shooting started. He went back into the synagogue to rescue his niece, when he was shot. The Dahan family had moved to the San Diego area from the Israeli town of Sderot, near the border with the Gaza Strip, …

A 19-year-old college student has been arrested in the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, accused of killing one person and injuring three more. Authorities said John Earnest, an honor roll student at California State University, San Marcos, fled the synagogue Saturday, the last day of Passover, after the shooting, but called the 911 emergency number to report the shooting and his whereabouts. He surrendered minutes later without incident. A person identifying himself as John Earnest posted an anti-Jewish diatribe online about an hour before the shooting unfolded at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. The person described himself as a nursing student and praised the suspects accused of the deadly attacks on Muslims at mosques in New Zealand last month and Jews at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue last October. San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said hate crime charges are being considered against Earnest. “Any time somebody goes into a …

Iran said on Sunday it could quit a treaty against the spread of nuclear weapons after the United States tightens sanctions, while an Iranian general said the U.S. Navy was interacting as before with an elite military unit blacklisted by Washington. Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since the Trump administration withdrew last year from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions. Earlier this month, the United States blacklisted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions. “The Islamic Republic’s choices are numerous, and the country’s authorities are considering them… and leaving NPT [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] is one of them,” state broadcaster IRIB’s website quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying. Iran has threatened in the past to leave the NPT, as U.S. President Donald Trump moved to scrap the 2015 deal with …

Local governments often try to solve problems using old technology. A U.S. Senate bill aims to fund small tech teams to help state and municipal governments update and rebuild government systems. Deana Mitchell takes a look at the impact on one program that is serving the needy. …