Light News Dump

FBI arrests member of rightwing militia accused of detaining migrants
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/20/fbi-arrests-member-of-rightwing-militia-accused-of-detaining-migrants

FBI Arrests New Mexico Border Militia Leader Larry Mitchell Hopkins
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-arrests-larry-mitchell-hopkins-leader-of-united-constitutional-patriots-border-militia

20 Years On, The Background Check System Continues To Miss Dangerous Gun Buyers
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/20/714921726/20-years-on-the-background-check-system-continues-to-miss-dangerous-gun-buyers

YEP: Mueller punted his report to a Congress ill-equipped to deal with it (the report specificially says it's better for Congress to take up impeachment because it's constituionally accceptable, whereas people are too divided on federal prosecutors prosecuting a sitting president; impeachment is the process for prosecuting a sitting president)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/20/mueller-punted-his-report-congress-ill-equipped-deal-with-it/

Pete Buttigieg Says Trump ‘Deserves to be Impeached,’ Calls on Congress for Action
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/pete-buttigieg-says-trump-deserves-to-be-impeached-calls-on-congress-for-action-1499990083704

Crowdfunding Sites Have Cut Off An Armed Militia Detaining Migrants At The Border
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/militia-border-crowdfunding-migrants-detain-paypal

Armed vigilantes unlawfully detaining migrants near U.S.-Mexico border
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/united-constitutional-patriots-aclu-says-armed-vigilantes-unlawfully-detaining-migrants-near-u-s-mexico-border/

Gun control group files complaint over NRA's tax-exempt status
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/439818-gun-control-group-files-complaint-over-nras-tax-exempt-status

Prosecutors seek 18-month sentence for Maria Butina in Russian plot to forge ties to U.S. conservative groups
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/prosecutors-seek-18-month-prison-sentence-for-maria-butina-in-russian-plot-to-forge-ties-to-us-conservative-groups/2019/04/19/de703ba2-6203-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html

"Better Drive Act" is a federal bill to curb driver’s license suspensions for drug offenses
https://www.thecannabist.co/2017/04/05/texas-rep-beto-orourke-federal-bill-better-drive-act-drug-offenses/76711/

Pictures of Beto serving refugees on Christmas. Beto also donated his El Pasoan of the year check to Annunciation House.
https://twitter.com/First_Dog_USA/status/1119402112868392961

‘Where is justice?’ Vietnam demands Monsanto pay victims of US Agent Orange chemical warfare
https://www.rt.com/news/457053-vietnam-agent-orange-justice-monsanto/

Republicans have spent at least $4.7 million at Trump properties since he took office
https://qz.com/1597139/republicans-have-spent-at-least-4-7-million-at-trump-properties-since-he-took-office/

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration failed to consider potential damage to the environment from its decision to resume coal sales from U.S. lands, but the court stopped short of halting future sales. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Montana said Interior Department officials had wrongly avoided an environmental review of their action by describing it "as a mere policy shift." In so doing, officials ignored the environmental effects of selling huge volumes of coal from public lands, the judge said.
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/judge-resumption-of-us-coal-sales-by-trump-needs-review

Amy Klobuchar has voted to confirm nearly two-thirds of Trump’s judicial nominees
https://thinkprogress.org/amy-klobuchar-donald-trump-2020-campaign-federal-judicial-nominees-senate-democrats-minnesota-f3e43063ba77/

'Finally!': Court Orders EPA to Stop Stalling Potential Ban on Pesticide Tied to Brain Damage in Kids — "We hope Trump's EPA finally decides to protect the future of countless children and the health of millions of farmworkers."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/19/finally-court-orders-epa-stop-stalling-potential-ban-pesticide-tied-brain-damage

A week after Pompeo announced US opposition to the military offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s forces in Libya, Trump undermined Pompeo and flipped the United States over the fence onto the side of Haftar’s unilateral military assault
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/04/19/trumpian-storm-clouds-over-tripoli/

Facebook’s controversial factchecking program is partnering with the Daily Caller, a rightwing website that has pushed misinformation
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/17/facebook-teams-with-rightwing-daily-caller-in-factchecking-program

Demonstrations were held across Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on Saturday for the tenth consecutive day after a teenager who accused a head teacher of sexually harassing her was burned to death.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/460613-bangladeshis-protest-after-sexually-assaulted-girl-burned-to-death

(Third State To Do So) Vermont passes bill abolishing Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/20/vermont-passes-bill-abolishing-columbus-day-favor-indigenous-peoples-day/

If an impeached and disgraced but politically acquitted Trump loses in 2020, he’ll be fully subject to criminal prosecution for his massive obstructions of justice in 2017-20. Double jeopardy won’t apply (Art I §3 cl 7) and the statute of limitations (5 yrs) won’t have run.
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1119608254169014279

Attorney General William P. Barr sent a letter to Congress last month citing brief fragments from the Mueller report. Now that the document is public, his selections are coming under scrutiny.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/us/politics/mueller-report-william-barr-excerpts.html