
CBP awards first border wall contract of President Trump's second term
CBSN
United States Customs and Border Protection has awarded a construction company roughly $70 million to a extend the wall along the southern border, in the first such contract of President Trump's second term.
The contract tasks Granite Construction Co., a California-based company that has worked on government projects before, with building approximately seven more miles of the wall on a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo County, Texas. Border Patrol announced the contract Saturday, saying it aims to "close critical openings" in the wall only partially built under Mr. Trump's direction during his first presidency. Former President Joe Biden froze funding for the border wall program when he took office.
"Completing the border wall in these locations will support the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug- and human-smuggling activities of cartels," said Border Patrol. The agency described the section of the Rio Grande Valley where construction will get underway as a common entry point for undocumented crossings that also "experiences large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally."

The threat of tornadoes moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, a day after a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that damaged buildings, whipped up dust storms that caused deadly crashes and fanned more than 100 wildfires in several central states. Fatalities were reported in Missouri and Texas.

A Canadian woman who had appeared in an "American Pie" movie was detained for several days by U.S. immigration officials while attempting to cross the border from Mexico to the U.S. to renew her work visa, according to her mother. The woman's father expects his daughter to be able to return to Canada as early as Friday.

When the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970, its mission was to protect the environment and human health. Since then, scientists, health experts and advocates have worked to implement regulations aimed at protecting and cleaning the air we breathe and the water we drink. Many of these regulations, which were aimed at cleaning up the air, also helped reduce carbon emissions, which can contribute to climate change – so it was a win for our bodies and the planet.