Friday morning news: December 6, 2024

House Secret Service hearing » On Capitol Hill …

CHAIRMAN: [gavel strikes] The task force is convened today to present the American people with the facts, what went wrong, what the Secret Service is doing to address it … and most importantly, what other changes may be necessary …

The final meeting of the House task force investigating the near-assassination of Donald Trump.

Members grilled Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe about numerous security failures at that Pennsylvania campaign event in July.

Those included inadequate planning, communications failures, and failure to secure key areas.

For his part, Rowe conceded that the agency clearly failed its mission.

ROWE:  That abject failure underscored critical gaps in Secret Service operations. And I recognize that we did not meet the expectations of the American public.

Rowe took over for former director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned in July the wake of the shooting.

He said the agency is “reorganizing and reimagining” its culture and how it operates.

Senate health FDA hearing » Meantime, across the Capitol rotunda, members of a Senate panel pressed top officials from the FDA about unhealthy foods in America.

Senator Tommy Tuberville asked FDA Deputy Commissioner Jim Jones why red dyes, one of which is known to cause cancer after being in cosmetics, are still available in some foods.

JONES: So Red 3, um, we have a petition in front of us to revoke the authorization for it.

He said he’s hopeful that the FDA will be able to act on that in the next few weeks.

And Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is also a gastroenterologist, said the numbers tied to unhealthy eating in America are alarming.

CASSIDY: Near one in three Americans live with obesity, including 14 million children. Nearly one in 10 have type two diabetes.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf served up a few more troubling statistics.

CALIFF: Six in ten Americans have at least one chronic disease, and four in ten have two or more chronic diseases.

He said, after cutting out tobacco, improving the typical U.S. diet is the best thing we can do for the health of Americans.

Donald Trump’s pick to head Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to tackle that challenge.

DOGE meeting » And elsewhere at the Capitol, speaking of unhealthy lawmakers discussed how to trim up a bloated federal government meeting for several hours with business titans Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The duo is heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says government does too many things and almost none of them well.

JOHNSON: And the taxpayers deserve better. They deserve a more responsive government, a more efficient government, one that is leaner … And that’s the opportunity that we have here now. And these two gentlemen are going to help navigate through this exciting new day.

Musk and Ramaswamy will need to meet regularly with lawmakers. DOGE will be an independent office operating outside of government with no authority on its own. So it will rely on Congress and the White House to enact its recommendations.

France latest » French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation Thursday declaring that he has no intention of resigning after parliament voted to oust the French Prime minister on Wednesday.

MACRON - The mandate that you entrusted with me was a mandate and a term for five years. And I will see it through for the entirety of that term.

Macron's comments came as thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Paris …

AUDIO: [French demonstrators]

They're protesting proposed cuts in civil services amid a massive budget deficit.

Macron has been facing calls to resign after left- and right-wing joined forces on a successful no-confidence vote to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

Macron accused those lawmakers of failing to act in the best interests of the French people.

MACRON: They voted for disorder. That is the only reason the far right would ever rally with the far left. They voted not to create, but to break down.

Macron has not yet said who he plans to appoint to replace Barnier.

West coast earthquake » A powerful earthquake on the West Coast triggered a brief tsunami warning on Thursday. More than 5 million people in California were warned to stay away from the Pacific coastline until officials canceled that warning hours later.

The 7.0 magnitude quake struck a little before 11am off the coast of Northern California, not far from the Oregon state line. And it was felt as far south as San Francisco.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom:

NEWSOM:  We're concerned about damage, particularly in the northern part of the state and Del Norte Mendocino in Humboldt County. As a consequence of that, I just signed off on a state of emergency declaration.

Alexandra Cochran with the U.S. Geological Survey said Californians are fortunate that the quake was centered well offshore, which likely helped mitigate damage.

COCHRAN: So far since this magnitude 7, we’ve had an aftershock as large as magnitude 5.

There were no immediate reports of any serious injuries.

California school shooting » Two children are in critical condition today after a gunman opened fire on Wednesday at the Feather River Adventist School in northern California.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

HONEA: There were two students who sustained gunshot wounds. Both boys, one five, one six.

Authorities say the gunman took his own life shortly after he shot the boys, he likely did not have a connection to the victims.

Authorities say the suspect may have targeted the K-8 school because of its connection to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: cultural analysis of this week’s Supreme Court argument regarding children and transgender treatments. Plus, the music of Advent.

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