Friday morning news - June 25, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Condo tower collapse » Rescue teams are still digging through rubble near Miami this morning after a beachfront condo building partially collapsed. Dozens escaped to safety, but many are feared dead.

Raide Jadallah with Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue told reporters...

JADALLAH: This process is slow and methodical. You see that every time there’s a shift in the rubble, we have additional rubble that shifts on us.

A wing of the 12-story building in the community of Surfside crumbled to the ground after 1 a.m. Thursday morning. By late afternoon, nearly 100 people were still unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava…

CAVA: We are all praying. We are all crying. We are all here with the suffering families, and we urge everyone to join us in prayers and in hopes.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene, said television did not capture the scale of what happened. No word yet on the cause of the collapse.

Biden announces deal on massive infrastructure plan » President Biden emerged from the latest infrastructure talks with Republicans on Thursday and declared —quote—“we have a deal.”

The bill’s price tag at $973 billion over five years, or $1.2 trillion over eight years, is scaled-back considerably from Biden’s original proposal, but it could open the door to his more sweeping $4 trillion proposals later on.

The president said the deal isn’t perfect, but that’s the nature of compromise.

BIDEN: I clearly didn’t get all I wanted. They gave more than I think maybe they were inclined to give in the first place. But this reminds me of the days when we used to get an awful lot done in the United States Congress. We actually worked with one another. We had bipartisan deals.

Moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also celebrated the agreement.

COLLINS: Everyone contributed to what is the largest infrastructure package in history.

On the surface, the deal gives President Biden a major bipartisan achievement. However, Democrats may simply be moving some of the more contentious parts of the president’s plan to separate legislation.

Biden said his party may still attach measures dropped from the infrastructure plan to a separate budget bill using the reconciliation process. That would allow them to push those measures through the Senate without any Republican votes.

CDC extends eviction moratorium for another month » The Biden administration is extending the nationwide ban on evictions for another month. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the extension on Thursday, but said the agency does not plan to extend it again.

A Biden administration official said last month that the government has launched an “all hands on deck” multi-agency campaign to prevent a wave of evictions.

As of June 7th, just over 3 million Americans said they faced eviction in the next two months.

The CDC last year prohibited landlords from evicting tenants who were unable to pay.

The agency claimed the authority to impose that moratorium as a public safety measure during the pandemic. It said those evicted from their homes may have to move in with others or into shelters, preventing social distancing.

Several federal court rulings have found that the CDC overstepped its authority, but the moratorium has remained in place pending legal appeals.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Harris to visit U.S.-Mexico border today » Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first visit today to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will join her on the Texas trip.

Harris has taken heat from both sides of the aisle for not going to the border earlier, despite the president tapping her to lead efforts to stem a surge in border traffic.

Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar represents a district in south Texas. He said Thursday…

CUELLAR: She’s got to spend time with land owners, with the stakeholders, with the city and county officials. And I hope she sits down with our brave men and women in green and in blue, our Border Patrol agents.

Republican Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales said much the same.

GONZELES: Hopefully, it’s not just a photo opp. They’re going to hear the fentanyl is coming over at record numbers. Unaccompanied children, over 80,000 unaccompanied children, over 800,00 migrants.

Republicans say Harris is still avoiding certain hotspots along the border like Del Rio and McAllen, Texas.

The vice president is slated to visit the El Paso area during this trip.

Michigan Senate GOP probe: No systemic fraud in election » State Senate Republicans investigated Michigan's 2020 presidential election for months looking for evidence of voter fraud, and they have announced their findings. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The GOP-led state Senate Oversight Committee said in a 55-page report that the election's outcome represents the “true results.”

Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump by about 155,000 votes, or just under 3 percentage points, in the battleground state.

While Trump has continued to claim that the election was stolen, the panel said it found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan.

But the committee's three Republicans did recommend legislation to close what it called "real vulnerabilities" in future elections.

Election-related bills are pending in the GOP-controlled Legislature. The new measures would include tougher photo ID rules. But Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has vowed to veto the bills.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I'm Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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