Wednesday morning news: December 25, 2024

Subway attack reax » A man accused of fatally setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway train this week faced a judge in Brooklyn today. 33-year-old Sebastian Zepeta is charged with murder and arson.

The Guatemalan national was deported from the United States in 20-18, but he later re-entered the country illegally. It’s not clear when.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is supporting the Border Patrol in combating illegal crossings. And DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said today:

OLIVAREZ: This tragedy, the census tragedy that took place in New York on the subway, that's a prime example of a gotaway that's been able to sneak into the country undetected.

The apparently random attack occurred Sunday morning at the Coney Island rail station in Brooklyn.

The grizzly crime has renewed calls by many to crack down on illegal immigration.

Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York Tuesday called out the governor of her state:

TENNEY:  Kathy Hochul is doing nothing about this, and by the way, she recently did a victory lap saying how safe it is to ride on New York City subways.

Tom Homan on immigration enforcement » President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan will be tasked with enforcing the border and deporting those in the country illegally.

He also had strong words for Gov. Hochul, and officials in other so-called sanctuary states and cities

HOMAN:  I want Hochul, I want the mayor of Chicago, the governor, all these sanctuaries and cities are speaking out against President Trump and myself running this deportation operation. I want you to watch that video and know how this young lady suffered, what a horrific death she had.

The incoming administration says the early focus will be squarely on removing criminal elements that pose the greatest risk to public safety.

Homan is calling in advance for Congress to provide all necessary funds to carry out deportations.

HOMAN:  I was asked that the other day, is 86 billion dollars enough? 86 billion dollars is a start. We need at least that to do this operation. We gotta buy beds. We gotta do removal flights, ground transportion, and medical care of the people we arrest. $86 billion dollars is a start.

Homan said while the price tag is high right now, beyond the near term, it will “save billions of dollars of taxpayers money.”

He said, right now for immigrants, we're paying for free hotel rooms, free airline tickets, medical care, and more.

Speaker Johnson's fate » The 119th Congress of the United States will be sworn in next week, and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job is in jeopardy. Republican Congressman Laurel Lee:

LEE:  Certainly, I know there have been a number of members who, uh, have expressed interest in continuing the conversation about Speaker Johnson and where we go from here.

She added that Johnson is working hard to address the concerns of each member and the priorities of President-elect Trump.

But he’s facing some pretty tough math.

Republicans will have a razor thin majority in the new Congress, and Speaker Johnson can really only afford to lose one Republican vote.

At least one GOP member is already a “no” on reelecting Johnson as speaker, and others are undecided.

But Eric Burlison says the speaker may only need to convince one person.

BURLISON: The American people gave him a mandate. We need to back President Trump and if President Trump is going to back Johnson, I'm sure that he will be the speaker.

Johnson’s margin is especially slim with three GOP members leaving seats vacant to take jobs in the new Trump administration,

Death penalty » Many Republicans are blasting President Biden’s decision this week to commute the sentences of nearly every inmate on federal death row, changing their sentences to life in prison without parole.

The Trump transition team has released a list of those inmates to whom Biden granted a reprieve. And GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty remarked:

HAGERTY: The families that have been victimized in this way, I don’t know how Joe Biden could ever look any of them in the eye and justify what he’s just done.

President-elect Trump says soon after he's inaugurated, he'll direct the Justice Department to—quote—“vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.”

Biden has stated his belief that capital punishment is not consistent with American values. And he has cited the risk of executing innocent people as a key reason for opposing it.

Travel / AA briefly grounds all flights » Christmas travel got off to a rough start this morning, at least for many of those flying out of town for Christmas.

American Airlines had to ground all flights nationwide due to a technical problem. Fortunately, the interruption was only temporary.

One traveler in San Francisco told tv station KVTU:

TRAVELER:  I mean, it would have been a bummer for sure because we're traveling so last minute. So tonight's Christmas Eve, it would have definitely been a bummer if we would have missed our flight. But thank goodness we didn't.

The Federal Aviation Administration cleared American flights to get airborne Tuesday about one hour after it ordered the ground stop.

American Airlines said the problem was caused by an issue with a vendor technology that maintains its flight operating system.

The flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that more than 3,200 flights entering or leaving the U.S., or serving domestic destinations, were delayed. Twenty-eight flights were canceled.

NATS (Starbucks strike)

Starbucks strike » A Starbucks worker strike that started last week had expanded as of Christmas Eve to dozens or perhaps even hundreds of stores, depending on who you ask.

A strike started by Starbucks Workers United in a few major cities closed at least 59 stores, including in the company’s hometown of Seattle…

MOS: We're not out here just fighting for ourselves, we're fighting for baristas nationwide

Workers are protesting a lack of progress in contract negotiation with the company.

The union claims the strike expanded to hundreds of stores, but Starbucks said only about 60 of its 10,000 U.S. stores, and that the strike has had “no significant impact” on its operations.

Only about 5 percent of Starbucks’ locations are unionized.

I'm Kent Covington.

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