Biden’s Democratic allies intensify pressure for asylum-seekers to get work permits
As migration to the United States from Venezuela and other countries soars, Democratic elected officials are pressing the Biden administration to quickly grant work permits for asylum-seekers while their cases wind through immigration courts. In New York City, tens of thousands of migrants have arrived over the past year. Mayor Eric Adams has increasingly sounded alarms and Gov. Kathy Hochul is floating the idea of state-issued work permits. Asylum-seekers must wait at least six months before they can get a work permit. That cannot be changed without Congress, but some Democrats say there are other steps that President Joe Biden could take.
State governors from Arizona, New Mexico seek stronger economic ties with Taiwan
Governors from the Southwestern United States are pursuing stronger business ties with Taiwan in hopes of attracting new foreign investments and jobs to their landlocked states. Trade missions took New Mexico. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Arizona counterpart Katie Hobbs to the self-governing island of Taiwan that China would like to see reunited with the mainland. At a business conference in Taipei on Tuesday, Lujan Grisham urged entrepreneurs and leaders to consider investment opportunities in her home state, touting a workforce with access to subsidized child care and tuition-free college. Hobbs said her goal was to encourage ongoing investments to make Arizona a hub for semiconductor manufacturing.
United Auto Workers threaten to expand targeted strike if there is no substantive progress by Friday
The United Auto Workers union is preparing to expand its strike against Detroit’s Big Three unless it sees progress in contract negotiations. UAW President Shawn Fain says workers at more factories will join those already on strike at noon Friday unless there is “serious progress” toward agreements. Meanwhile, Canadian union Unifor said late Tuesday that it reached a tentative agreement with Ford covering 5,600 workers in Canada. But in the U.S., the UAW strike, which is limited to three plants, is now in its fifth day. A White House official says the Biden administration reversed a plan to send the acting Labor Secretary and a senior White House adviser to Detroit this week to meet with both sides.
FTX attorneys accuse Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents of unjustly enriching themselves with company funds
Lawyers for collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading are accusing Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents of exploiting their influence over their son and the company he founded to enrich themselves by millions of dollars. A lawsuit against Allan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried was filed Monday as part of the FTX bankruptcy case in Delaware. It alleges the couple siphoned millions of dollars from the company, while spending lavishly on a luxury home in the Bahamas and funneling contributions to political committees and Stanford University. Bankman is a Stanford University law professor and expert in tax law, and Fried is a retired Stanford law professor. Attorneys for Bankman and Fried say the claims against them are completely false.
Former U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana sentenced to 22 months in prison for insider trading
A former U.S. congressman from Indiana has been sentenced to 22 months in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information while working as a consultant after he left office. Former U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer was sentenced Tuesday in New York. The Republican served in the House from 1993 to 2011. He once chaired the House Veterans’ Affairs committee and was a House prosecutor at former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial. Buyer was convicted of insider trading involving the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. He was also convicted of illegal trades in the management consulting company Navigant when one of his clients was set to acquire it.
Instacart’s IPO surges as the grocery delivery company goes from the supermarket to the stock market
Instacart delivered in its stock market debut. The San Francisco-based company’s shares rose 12.3% Tuesday after they started trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “CART.” Instacart provides delivery and pickup from 85% of U.S. grocers, or more than 80,000 stores, using a network of 600,000 freelance shoppers. It says it has 7.7 million active customers and much more potential growth ahead. But it’s also facing growing competition from delivery companies like DoorDash. The IPO is a long-awaited step for Instacart, which was founded in 2012.
Stock market today: Asian shares decline ahead of Fed decision on rates
Asian shares are mostly lower as markets await a decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. Trade data for Japan showed exports fell 0.8% last month from a year earlier, marking a second straight month of declines. Exports to China dropped 11%. Tuesday on Wall Street, the S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq finished lower. The Fed began its latest meeting on interest rates Tuesday, with an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday. The overwhelming expectation is for the Fed to announce no change to rates. More focus will be on updated projections Fed officials give for where they see rates heading in upcoming years.
Explosion in Union Pacific’s massive railyard in Nebraska appears accidental, investigators say
Investigators say a blast that prompted evacuations near Union Pacific’s massive railyard in western Nebraska last week appears to be accidental. But it’s not yet clear what caused it. The Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s office is working with the railroad and experts from the Federal Railroad Administration to determine what caused a stationary shipping container carrying perchloric acid to explode last Thursday in North Platte. The chief investigator for the fire marshal’s office, Adam Matzner, said there’s no sign of a criminal act connected with the explosion, so it appears accidental. The railroad is conducting its own internal review. Railroad safety has been a key concern nationwide ever since a Norfolk Southern train derailed and caught fire in Ohio in February.
Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?
Germany racked up one economic success after another for most of this century. But the loss of Russian natural gas due to the war in Ukraine has dealt a severe blow to its industry through higher energy costs. The country will be the world’s only major economy expected to shrink this year. But that’s only part of the story. The energy crisis shined a harsh light on longstanding cracks in the economy’s foundation: too much bureaucracy, not enough digital technology, lagging spending on infrastructure. Companies want action but instead see too much squabbling among the three-party government coalition. Still, Germany has strengths that could help it address the downturn.
Speaker McCarthy faces an almost impossible task trying to unite House GOP and fund the government
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to accomplish what at times seems impossible. The Republican speaker is working furiously to convince his colleagues to come together to pass a conservative bill to keep the federal government open. But it has little chance of actually preventing a federal shutdown. Whatever Republicans come up with in the House is expected to be rejected by the Senate where Democrats and most Republicans together want to fund the government. With time dwindling, plans for a Tuesday test vote were scrapped as negotiations resumed. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to reach a deal. But even a popular defense bill was turned back Tuesday as conservatives press for cuts.