House Democrats handed the president one of his biggest legislative victories, unveiling an updated North American trade deal just an hour after announcing two articles of impeachment against the president.
Democrats and the White House finalized a deal after a year of going back and forth to create a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The new legislation strengthens worker protections and includes provisions on the environment, big pharma, and enforcement. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was signed more than a year ago and now the changes will be voted on in the House and the Senate. The revisions then need the signature of the U.S. president and the expected approval from Mexico and Canada.
"This is a day we've all been working to, and working for, on the path to yes," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
"We were in range for a while but until we could cross a certain threshold of enforcement for our workers' rights, for the environment, and for the prescription drug issue, as you know, they were three of the areas that we had put out there," Pelosi explained.
She said the new trade agreement is "much better" than NAFTA and "infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration."
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass. 1st District) said it is rare to participate in a "never happen moment and we are witnessing that today." Neal led talks with the administration and said the new deal was a "triumph" for U.S. workers. Democrats negotiated policy changes particularly on prescription drug pricing, protection for workers, and the environment.
The President weighed in on Twitter and said: "America's great USMCA Trade Bill is looking good."
To applause, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill. 9th District) said the "new and improved" deal "prevents big pharma from raising the price of prescription drugs across the United States, Mexico, and Canada… we eliminated provisions that undermine Congress' ability to change domestic policy that lead to high drug prices."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
