The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7
Washington, D.C.
Background checks: Congressional
Democrats raced to advance several gun
control measures this week, prioritizing
universal background checks for gun
sales—a move President Trump endorses.
The proposal, which already passed the
House, would close a loophole by requir-
ing private gun sellers, not just licensed
dealers, to screen buyers for criminal
records, mental illness, and other factors
that would bar them from gun owner-
ship. Trump says Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell “wants to do back-
ground checks,” adding, “I think a lot of
Republicans do.” Yet McConnell has been
noncommittal on gun reform measures
and did not agree to hold a vote on the
House bill when the Senate returns from
a six-week recess. Democrats have also
proposed “red flag” laws, restricting high-
capacity magazines, and banning assault
weapons—the last of which has support
from nearly 200 House Democrats, but
faces strong Republican opposition.Boardman, Ohio
Pre-emptive raid: Prosecutors charged
Justin Olsen this week with threaten-
ing to assault a federal officer after the
18-year-old praised mass shootings and
endorsed attacks on Planned Parenthood.
After months of monitoring Olsen,
who amassed an online following post-
ing as “ArmyOfChrist,” the FBI says it
rushed to arrest him after recent shoot-
ings. Agents searched his father’s home,
where Olsen lives, finding 300 rounds
of ammunition on a stairway and
thousands more in a “gun vault” in his
father’s room, along with about 15 rifles
and shotguns and 10 semi-automatic pis-
tols. “Don’t comply with gun laws, stock
up on stuff they could ban,” Olsen alleg-
edly wrote on online message boards. He
praised the Oklahoma City bombing and
said the lesson of the deadly 1993 siege
in Waco, Texas, was “shoot every federal
agent on sight.” Olsen says his posts
were “hyperbolic” and “only a joke.”Las Vegas
Bombing stopped:
An avowed white
supremacist was
charged this week with
plotting to firebomb a
synagogue or gay bar
in downtown Las
Vegas. Prosecutors
say Conor Climo,
23, used racist, anti-
Semitic, and homophobic slurs on an
encrypted online message board with
white supremacist “lone wolves” who’d
pledged to commit acts of terror and vio-
lence. FBI agents searched the home of
Climo, who worked as a security guard,
finding bomb-making materials, an
AR-15 assault-style weapon, and a bolt-
action rifle. Climo’s arrest came after he
discussed plans to build a “self-contained
Molotov” cocktail with an undercover
agent and an FBI informant, saying, “I’m
more interested in action than
online s---.” In 2016, Climo drew
headlines when he patrolled his
neighborhood in battle gear
while carrying an assault rifle,
a knife, and four ammunition
magazines. He’d broken no
laws in the open-carry state.New York City
The Mooch defects:
President Trump lost a
loyal defender this week,
after former White House
Communications Director
Anthony Scaramucci
withdrew support for
Trump’s re-election bid,
saying the president has
gone “off the rails.” Fired in
2017 for a profanity-filled
interview after 11 days at the
White House, Scaramucci
remained a reliable Trump
advocate on TV. Yet the New
York–based investor said
Trump’s graceless visits
with shooting survivors
in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio—
along with his taunt that four women
of color in Congress should “go back”
where they came from—went too far.
“Honest people in the room know that
he is crazy,” he said, suggest-
ing the GOP consider another
nominee. Scaramucci, Trump
replied on Twitter, “is only
upset that I didn’t want him back
in the Administration (where he
desperately wanted to be).” “You are
losing your fastball—very weak troll,”
Scaramucci countered. “Time to call
Henning, Tenn. in a good relief pitcher.”
Caught: A five-day manhunt
for escaped prisoner Curtis Ray
Watson ended this week after Watson
emerged from a soybean field and sur-
rendered to authori-
ties. He was nabbed
10 miles from the
West Tennessee State
Penitentiary. Watson
broke out on his
44th birthday, then is
alleged to have sexu-
ally assaulted and
strangled to death
prison administrator
Debra Kaye Johnson,
64, in her home.
Watson, serving a
15-year sentence for aggravated kidnap-
ping and child abuse, had “trusty” status
that gave him access to prison equipment
for his work assignment mowing lawns.
After he escaped on a tractor, authori-
ties fielded 430 tips before a security
system alerted Harvey and Ann Taylor to
surveillance footage of Watson rummag-
ing through their outdoor refrigerator.
Covered in mosquito and tick bites, a
captured Watson looked “relieved to be
over with his run,” Tennessee Bureau
of Investigation Director David Rausch
said. “He knew he wasn’t getting away.”Washington, D.C.
Conservation cutbacks:
The Trump administra-
tion this week issued
new rules that weaken
the Endangered Species
Act, clearing the way for
drilling and development in
habitats of protected species.
For the first time, regulators
will be allowed to make
economic assessments
when deciding whether
species warrant protec-
tion, a victory for industries that say the
landmark 1973 law is too onerous. The
changes make it easier to remove spe-
cies from the endangered list and reduce
protections for threatened species, while
making it harder to protect wildlife from
threats posed by climate change: Federal
officials have used climate models to
anticipate habitat losses for polar bears
as far as 2090, but the new rules limit
impact predictions to the “foreseeable
future.” Several states promised lawsuits.
The changes focus on the law’s “ultimate
goal—recovery of our rarest species,”
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a for-
AP mer oil and gas lobbyist, said.
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Terror chargeScaramucciViolent escapeProtected species