Friday morning news: September 15, 2023

Hunter indicted » Hunter Biden could face decades behind bars after the special counsel handling his case indicted him on three felony charges Thursday.

Prosecutors say the president’s son lied about his use of cocaine when he bought a gun in 20-18.

Hunter Biden is charged with two counts of falsely checking a box declaring he was not using illegal drugs and a third count for possessing the gun as a drug user.

GOP Congressman Chip Roy reacted to the news:

ROY: Hunter Biden is deserving of this, and I’m glad that the judge saw through the sham deal back in July.

That’s a reference to a plea agreement Hunter’s lawyers stuck with the Justice Department. The deal would have likely have allowed him to escape any jail time on the gun charges while pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges.

Republicans derided it as a “sweetheart deal.”

Raffensperger Trump ballot » Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is rejecting calls by some to try and block former President Donald Trump’s name from the state’s presidential primary ballots. He said that’s not his call to make.

RAFFENSPERGER - We didn't want King George telling us how to do live our lives, what we're gonna do, we would make our own decisions, we'd have self determination.

Some Colorado voters have sued, trying to kick Trump off the primary ballots there.

Trump case » Meantime, a judge says Trump will not go on trial in Georgia next month in the case accusing him and others of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

At least two of his 18 co-defendants will be tried in late October after they filed demands for a speedy trial.

Trump will head to a Georgia court at a later date still to be determined.

Libya update » Near the northeastern coast of Libya, the already-staggering death toll from catastrophic flooding continues to climb. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Rescue teams continue to search for survivors after a storm caused two dams to break sending inland tsunamis crashing into the coastal town of Derna.

Authorities now confirm that more than 11 thousand people were killed.

But rescuers say they are still finding survivors buried in the debris.

Soldier: [Speaking Arabic]

An army officer said his team had just pulled an entire family to safety after being trapped under rubble for several days.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Speaker dispute » House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is butting heads with a group of lawmakers on his right flank. And he concedes that tensions boiled over during a private meeting this week when the speaker, using an expletive, dared those members to oust him from the speakership.

MCCARTHY: I showed frustration in here because I am frustrated with some people in the conference. We had the DOD appropriation bill here yesterday. I couldn’t put it on the floor.

He said none of the members who blocked it voiced a single complaint explaining what was wrong with the bill.

McCarthy said he’s also grown tired of some members threatening to pry the speaker’s gavel from his hands, leading to a frustrated response.

AUDIO: We are the union, the mighty, mighty union!

UAW strike » Autoworkers are hosting picket signs outside the factories of Ford, GM, and Stellantis this morning after the union’s Thursday deadline expired without a new labor deal.

UAW MEMBER: I feel like everybody needs to go on strike at the same time, and we just need to shut ‘em all down.

That is one of the nearly 150,000 members of the United Auto Workers union.

The UAW is demanding a 36% boost in pay, a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional pensions, and more.

Ford said that if the UAW's wage and other demands had been in effect over the past four years, the company would have lost $14 billion.

NY migrant shelters » New York State Republican lawmakers are suing New York City over an ongoing migrant crisis. They’re calling for the closing of a Staten Island migrant shelter.

State Senator Andrew Lanza:

LANZA: The majority of the people of the city of New York, if not the state, have spoken - loud. And they have said this is wrong. And they want it to end.

Rep. Vito Fossella says the problem starts with the Biden administration not enforcing the nation’s borders …

FOSSELLA: Allowing hundreds of thousands of people to flood across - and combined with the city’s ‘right to shelter’ policy that says, ‘Come on into New York City. We’ll put you up in hotel’

The city is reportedly spending roughly $10 million dollars a day to house migrants. Mayor Eric Adams is calling on President Biden to send more federal taxpayer dollars to cover the costs.

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering unprecedented legislation that would let the state issue work authorization for asylum seekers.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, Word Play with George Grant.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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