1. President Trump outlined an ambitious agenda in his first address to Congress
President Donald Trump laid out a sweeping legislative agenda for the country in his first address to Congress on Tuesday, vowing to bring back dying industries, repair crumbling infrastructure and unite a nation that remains deeply divided over his presidency.
Promising to deliver a "rebirth of hope" in cities such as Baltimore and Detroit, Trump laid out a broadly optimistic vision of the future and returned to a populist economic message that has often been overshadowed during his bumpy first month in office.
Though short on specifics, Trump used the hourlong, prime-time address to call for a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure, a merit-based immigration system, expanded treatment for drug addiction and what he described as a "massive" tax break for middle class families. He reiterated his desire to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and said its replacement would expand choice and lower costs.
Trump said in his speech, "A new chapter of American greatness is now beginning. A new national pride is sweeping across our nation. And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp. What we are witnessing today is the renewal of the American spirit."
2. Trump says he’s open to compromise on his immigration bill
President Donald Trump, signaling a potential shift on a signature issue, indicated Tuesday in a private meeting with news anchors that he's open to immigration legislation that would give legal status to some people living in the U.S. illegally and provide a pathway to citizenship to those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
But hours later, in his first address to Congress, he pledged to vigorously target people living in the U.S. illegally who "threaten our communities" and prey on "innocent citizens." His private comments raised expectations that he might make a similar call in his primetime address. He hinted that he was open to legislation, saying that "real and positive immigration reform is possible," but still pledged to vigorously target those he says make the country unsafe.
3. An Amazon Cloud storage failure has caused widespread disruption.
Amazon Web Services, by far the world's largest provider of internet-based computing services, suffered an unspecified breakdown in its eastern U.S. region starting about midday yesterday. The result was unprecedented and widespread performance problems for thousands of websites and apps.
While few services went down completely, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies had trouble with features ranging from file sharing to webfeeds to loading any type of data from Amazon's "simple storage service," known as S3. Amazon services began returning around 4 p.m. EST, and an hour later the company noted on its service site that S3 was fully recovered and "operating normally."
4. Mark Dayton heads to Mayo today to prepare for prostate surgery
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton heads to Rochester on Wednesday to prepare to have his prostate removed the next day.
The governor told reporters that once he arrives Wednesday night, he will see some “tutorials” about the surgery, which begins at 7 a.m. Thursday.
Dayton said he plans to leave Rochester on Saturday and to be back on the job Monday, but he did not know if it would be at his Capitol office or the Governor’s Residence.
5. Without a vaccine or an exemption, 103 Rochester students could be sent home today
More than 100 Rochester students will be sent home from school today if they can’t prove they’ve been vaccinated or officially exempted from the state law that requires them to be immunized.
Public school officials said they have worked “diligently” since January to inform families that students must be vaccinated to attend school, or provide documentation for an exemption.
Despite those efforts, 204 students still hadn’t met those requirements last week, prompting school officials to take the unusual step of announcing that students will be kept out of school until they submit the necessary paperwork.
Since that announcement, about half the students have complied, but 103 students remained noncompliant as of yesterday.
When those students arrive at school today, they will be removed from classrooms and brought into school offices, where administrators will try to reach parents to resolve the situation, said Heather Nessler, a spokeswoman for Rochester Public Schools.