California is ready to take on the Justice Department.
That’s according to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who was responding to a lawsuit against the state brought by Attorney General Jeff Sessions over immigration laws.
“I find it very disingenuous that you have people that for generations talk about state rights and all of a sudden their talking about federal supremacy,” he said in a Cheddar interview Wednesday.
The Justice Department and immigration agencies this week sued California over its “sanctuary” laws, which prohibit local and state authorities, as well as private employers, from cooperating with federal immigration officers.
Sessions, who filed the suit Wednesday, said California’s policy threatens national safety.
Gascón, though, said the state doesn’t prevent immigration officials from going into California and doing their jobs. It’s simply not actively cooperating. He argued that immigrants are important to California’s social fabric and provide a “major economic engine.”
“I think that this is an administration that is failing on so many fronts, and what they’re trying to do is create another diversion,” he told Cheddar. “All of this is really a political stunt that is driven by very racist attitude and has nothing to do with public safety.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-sanctuary-city-legal-battle).
Stocks are falling in early trading on Wall Street as oil prices collapse and momentum from a recent rally faded. Crude prices are plummeting amid concerns that storage facilities are close to being full.
The United States is struggling to test enough people for the novel coronavirus so officials can track and control the spread of the disease.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
NASA and SpaceX have chosen May 27 for resuming astronaut launches from the U.S. after nine years. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the launch date Friday.
Democratic Congressmen Tim Ryan of Ohio and Ro Khanna of California introduced legislation this week that would pay all qualifying Americans aged 16 or older $2,000 every month.
In an interview on Cheddar’s Closing Bell, the California Republican pointed to China as a major contributor to the woes the world has experienced during the outbreak.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, along with a bipartisan Congressional delegation from both New Jersey and New York, is calling on the federal government to increase coronavirus aid to the hardest hit areas of the country due to the pandemic.
Danielle Allen, director of the center, told Cheddar that ending quarantine will require a robust social effort involving potentially thousands of workers and brand new technology solutions.
Stocks are rising at the opening of trading on Wall Street Friday as investors rallied around signs that more governments are planning phased re-openings of their economies.
President Donald Trump gave governors a road map Thursday for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out “a phased and deliberate approach” to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases.
