
President Biden's nominee to lead ICE pulls nomination, citing year-long confirmation delay
CBSN
Ed Gonzalez, the sheriff of Texas' most populous county, on Monday announced he had withdrawn his nomination to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Biden, a decision that will further prolong a 5-year-long leadership void in an agency at the center of the nation's contentious immigration debate.
In a series of posts on Twitter, Gonzalez, who is currently sheriff of Harris County, noted that his nomination to be ICE's director, which was announced in April 2021, had stalled in Congress for over a year. In a letter to Mr. Biden over the weekend, Gonzalez said he had concluded that pulling his name from the nomination process was "in the best interest of the nation that we love."
"I arrive at this difficult decision with the understanding that the challenges of preserving both the integrity of America's borders and our country's global standing as a beacon of light for those seeking freedom and opportunity have never been greater," Gonzalez wrote in his June 25 letter, which was obtained by CBS News.

Santa Fe, New Mexico — A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.