Our new years as President Trump standing in the way of a deal to avoid a shutdown It's Friday January 19th and this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. I'm Mary Louise Kelly and Kelly McEvers the trumpet ministration says no matter what happens at the midnight deadline mail will get delivered basic services will go on we are going to manage to shut down differently we're not going to weaponize it we're not going to try and hurt people Also ahead we check back with a long time union leader in Indianapolis about the president's promise to save jobs at the carrier plant there from now live to the American people for no machine anything. Trying to keep jobs here in this country and Dolly Parton scores a Guinness World Record 1st news stories. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Janine Herbst the federal government may be just hours away from a partial shutdown so far Congress has been on able to agree on a short term spending plan a day after passing its stopgap measure the g.o.p. Led House was ready to recess for a week now lawmakers are being urged to stick around now that the drama over funding appears to be escalating over a fight in the Senate over immigration and has got to throw a report from the Capitol on Senate Democrats resistance to a bill that keeps government running for about another month the White House is calling the looming in pass the Schumer shutdown still President Trump invited Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer to the White House to negotiate Schumer says there's still no deal we had a long and meeting discussed all of the major outstanding issues we made some progress over still have a good number of different discussions with most Democrats oppose any funding deal that does not include permanent protections for the roughly 700000 people in the country illegally who are brought here as children who are part of the Dhaka program Scott that pro n.p.r. News the Capitol defense secretary Jim Madison as the u.s. Is shifting its defense strategy from focusing on terrorism to countering the emerging power of Russia and China in this time of change our military is still strong yet our competitive edge has eroded in every command of warfare air land sea space and cyberspace and it's continuing to erode maddest as the u.s. Still faces threats from terrorism North Korea and Iran but he made clear the Pentagon is looking elsewhere for its main concerns officials say the new strategy will impact Pentagon budget starting next year the publisher of The Los Angeles Times was placed on unpaid leave today a day after an n.p.r. Report detail to sexual harassment lawsuits and allegations of a pattern of misconduct in the workplace as N.P.R.'s David Folkenflik reports comes the same day that the paper's newsroom joined a union. The union vote took place earlier this month but votes were only just tallied and announced it passed overwhelmingly a rebuke to the paper's publisher Ross Levinsohn and the parent company trunk on Thursday n.p.r. Reported that Levinson had admitted in sworn testimony that he had rated the hotness of female subordinates speculate about whether one was a stripper and whether she slept with a coworker all in conversation with colleagues other incidents emerged spanning a nearly 2 decades period trunk announced Friday afternoon it hired an outside law firm to conduct a thorough inquiry into his conduct the review is supposed to also review why the background checks of his past which should have caught the lawsuits and the testimony raise no flags David Folkenflik n.p.r. News well Street hired by the closing bell the Dow gaining 53 points then the day at 26071 the Nasdaq up 40 points to end a 70 $336.00 that's not more than a half percent and the s. And p. $500.00 gained 12 points to close to $2810.00 this is n.p.r. News. An international human rights watchdog says Greece has failed to help vulnerable asylum seekers stuck in overcrowded camps on the a.g.n. Islands joining to give us reports from Athens that women are especially at risk. On the island of Lesbos Eva Cosi if Human Rights Watch spoke to several women at the refugee camp there we managed our survival from. Pregnant women women shopping and the women were sometimes forced to share tests with unrelated men because the camp gets chronically overcrowded. 13 year old heifer I won't go to the toilet without her older sister for protection. I'm afraid to walk around by myself she says authorities on Lesbos have no clue bulbul asylum seekers well guarded section in the camp for n.p.r. News I'm Joanna into this the Supreme Court says it will hear a challenge to President translated version of a travel ban on 8 countries 6 of which are Muslim majority countries the court will consider the White House's belief that the restrictions are necessary for security in the u.s. Against the challengers claims that it is illegally aimed at Muslims the High Court will hear arguments this spring and a decision is expected in late June Criddle prices were lowered by the closing bell following $0.58 and in the day a $63.37 a barrel and again Wall Street higher by the closing bell the Dow up $53.00 the Nasdaq up 40 I'm Gene Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include with sabi cloud storage for a range of applications including disaster recovery videos and big data learn more about cloud storage $2.00 It was sabi dot com and be an e.k.g. Foundation. Here's your high plains weather forecast for Northwest in north central Kansas tonight it will be mostly clear with lows in upper twenty's sunny tomorrow with highs in the mid to upper fifty's for southwest Kansas and southeast Colorado tonight it will be mostly clear with lows in the lower to upper twenty's sunny tomorrow with highs in the mid to upper sixty's and for the Panhandle tonight it will be clear with lows in the lower to mid thirty's sunny and breezy tomorrow with highs in the lower to mid seventy's. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Kelly McEvers in Culver City California and I'm Mary Louise Kelly in Washington where we are bracing for a possible government shutdown tonight federal spending authority the money runs out at midnight and while the House passed a short term extension yesterday for the moment it does not look as if the Senate has the votes to follow suit President Trump has scrapped his plans to spend the weekend in Florida instead he spent part of this afternoon huddling with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer the 2 New Yorkers are said to have made some progress but so far no breakthrough just plenty of political finger pointing and p.r. Scott Horsley joins us now from the White House Hey Scott good to be with email us I want to ask because for the last 3 and a half months the government has been running on stopgap spending bills to keep you know kicking this deadline down the road but no one had to turn the government's lights out what is different tonight the difference is the Democrats appear to be dug in they are insisting that any new spending bill include protection for the so-called dreamers that is those undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children remember back in the fall President Trump announced that he was going to unravel the protection dreamers had been getting from former President Obama and ever since then Democrats have been under pressure to put something in its place now Democrats are course a minority in Congress but they have some leverage in the Senate because Republicans don't have the 60 votes there they need to pass a spending bill on their own so Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and his colleagues have been exercising that leverage and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney says if there is a shutdown it's on them we don't want this we do not want to shutdown but if the show were insists on it he is in a position to force it on the American people Republicans can't count on getting off scot free though because they do control the House the Senate and the White House oh yes they've. You know and one of the challenges of these recent days has been trying to figure out where President Trump exactly stands he tweeted this afternoon he said he'd had an excellent preliminary meeting with Senator Schumer do we know his position on and what happens now well the president says he's still pushing for a 4 week long stopgap spending bill like what passed the House the Senate has been the Senate Democrats have mostly been against that the idea was floated of a very short term extension maybe just a few days to keep the pressure on the White House shot that down Mulvaney did tell c.n.n. This evening though he still thinks there's room for some kind of a deal if not by midnight tonight then at least by the end of the weekend I think there's a deal the next 24 hours because of the nature of the back and forth between the House the Senate I look at more of it in terms of what gets done before the offices as opposed to open on Monday I think you're going to see a deal yes or notable by the way Scott the White House starting to talk about the goalpost as maybe not being midnight tonight but into the weekend Well the weekend does give everyone a little bit of flexibility because of course if the federal government shuts down it's a lot less noticeable that it is so much until Monday morning Ok if a shutdown does happen what would that look like most essential services would continue but there could be fallout of places like the Centers for Disease Control which monitors the spread of flu for example military troops would keep working Border Patrol and t.s.a. Agents would remain on the job most government workers would not be paid although if history is any guide they would eventually get back pay even those who are furloughed but there could be a temporary financial hit for those working paycheck to paycheck the next federal pay day for example is scheduled to be next Friday all right that's N.P.R.'s Scott Horsley with all the latest from the White House thanks as ever Scott you're welcome. All right let's bring in the voice now of Colorado Senator Cory Gardner he is a Republican and he's been working on a bipartisan immigration bill that would help recipients of Dhaka that program you just heard Scott Horsley talking about that lets young people in the country illegally stay and work here and let young people who came into the country illegally stay and work here as Senator Gordon welcome to the program good afternoon thanks for having me where exactly if we reach you if I can ask I'm in my office in Washington and hoping talking to my colleagues about a way forward and how we can provide a solution to what is a getting to be a very late hour Yeah and you're there on Capitol Hill what is the mood are you all going to get this done there is a sense of optimism there's a sense of frustration undoubtedly but I think the American people we owe it to them to bring a solution on funding to not shut the government down there's too much at stake too much collateral damage that can occur if funding does lapse this evening and while we also put ideas in front of our colleagues to address this issue of Dhaka the children who are brought here at a young very young age through no fault of their own I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time let's not shut the government down let's solve the Dhaka problem and make America proud of what we can actually accomplish Ok you say you've got a responsibility to solve this we have not interviewed anyone and we've interviewed everybody we can on Capitol Hill nobody wants to see a shutdown However we're not looking at the clock is ticking away we've got hours left let me put this to you we spoke to your Democratic colleague This is Virginia Senator Tim Kaine yesterday he was among those who told us he doesn't want to shut down the Congress is really close to a more substantial spending bill that would cover immigration I knew you want that to what is the stumbling block now can you put your finger on it I think we just have to find what people agree to and the president made it very clear the 4 things that he would accept in a solution to address these children the 4 things being what he calls chain migration border security fixing the DACA situation itself as well as the. Versity visa lottery we don't have a consensus yet broad enough to. Get this on the president's desk in a way that would allow him to sign so we have more work to do but we do have time and I think it's important to note that these conversations continue I was how with Alzheimer's now if I may where we're hours away from midnight over you know what I mean is we have time to fix this challenge the president laid out a deadline in March I'd like to see this done sooner rather than later but the president has said you have until March to do this we can do this and that's what I mean we have time I don't think it's wise to shut the government down I think we should do we should get our work done funding the government not putting at risk our military communities and our men and women in uniform and not putting at risk important programs at the c.d.c. Let's not do that you're talking about a short term plan would keep it open a few more days why I'll continue to negotiate That's correct and you know only in Washington sometimes does it seem like people who don't like what they believe is a bad idea come up with even worse idea which is an even shorter term funding solutions so let's not do that sort of infamous Washington 2 step where they take one bad idea replace it with the worst idea let's get together Republicans and Democrats I do think we can find common ground on this ground on this there seems to be unanimity in finding a solution for dreamers Let's do that but let's not create the kind of collateral damage that a government shutdown a lapse in funding would create you said the president has been very clear about what he wants on immigration Democrats and Republicans who we've interviewed this week might might differ with that assessment spent let me put that to you directly is the president playing a helpful role in the negotiations at this hour I think most people who attended the meeting on Tuesday of just last week a lot of occurred since then where it was a sort of live broadcast of about 20 members of the House and the Senate Democrats and Republicans coming together walked away with a pretty clear idea of what the president was hoping for that 4 part plan that he expected in order to be able to sign it now. There were other meetings last week from where there will. Certainly was made a little bit of a somewhat more chaos and a little bit of news that that was unfortunate but I think what we have to do is not let that interfere with our ability to get the job done we can't let politics we can't let politics get in the way of accomplishing something very important for our country and we don't you know when it comes to these these kids dreamers we don't we don't hold the children our children we don't hold them accountable for the acts of their parents we don't charge or 3 year old kids with trespass for walking across their neighbor's lawn so I believe we can find a solution on this but I'm afraid if there's a lapse in funding then it's going to pull people further apart so let's focus on a solution and I don't think we're that far apart and so let's not put something that could play politics in the way that concentrate on bringing this solution Senator Cory Gardner thanks so much for your time thanks for having me best of luck with those negotiations. Thousands of anti-abortion rights demonstrators were in Washington today to protest the Supreme Court's $973.00 decision legalizing abortion as the 45th year in a row for what's known as the March for Life this year the crowd heard from the 45th president who has turned out to be a bigger champion than some expected N.P.R.'s Pam Fessler reports. Many in today's crowd carried signs that just choose life and make America pro-life again but perhaps the most promising sign for attendees was the guest speaker introduced by Vice President Mike Pence the most pro-life president in American history President Donald Trump and many who have gathered on the mall said they think that's true even though President Trump once called himself quote very pro choice either pence nor Trump were actually at the rally they addressed it a live satellite feed from the White House but even that's the 1st other presidents have only phoned in to the March we are protecting the sanctity of life and the family as the foundation of our society the president noted that just yesterday his administration announced new protections for health care workers who refused to assist in abortions on moral or religious grounds and one of his 1st acts as president was to stop funding international aid groups that perform or promote abortion and there's even more reason for optimism saddling Weininger who came to the rally from Lake Charles Louisiana with students from the high school where he teaches just in general about you know trying to speak out justices such as the way disappointment who has a has a history of you know. Of siding with pro-life issues he's talking about Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court but marches also praised the president's other judicial picks still there's a lot on their agenda that faces resistance in Congress including a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks marriage die. In of Ellicott City Maryland carried a sign that said defund Planned Parenthood something else Trump has promised the Congress has failed to do still Gunny and his 59 was encouraged by all the young people in today's crowd that I think that they really are the generation that's going to endorse it she believes the tide moving in that direction but polls show that public opinion is deeply divided and has pretty much remain the same for decades Pam Fessler n.p.r. News. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. It's 18 minutes after 6 o'clock Central time I mean to hastily and you're listening to All Things Considered on High Plains Public Radio delivering essential programs that enrich your life and keep you informed coming up news from across the region broadcast of all things considered is sponsored in part by Pioneer communications serving western Kansas with local telephone high definition cable t.v. And high speed Internet pioneer communications your community connected in regional news Amarillo college president Russell Lowry Hart participated in a Senate panel discussion on student financial aid this week in our nation's capital this from the Amarillo Globe News Lowry heart sat on a panel with other education policy makers who took questions from senators on the Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions the committee hopes to find solutions regarding the nation's financial aid woes in his responses Lowrey hard focused on the importance of student childcare he said the lack of affordable childcare for college students led Amorello college to open the Hagy center for young children last year the center provides a safe space for students and medical workers to drop their kids up to 5 years old but added Lowry Hart the young children's center at AC and others like it can't exist without adequate funding you can find more stories like this at our website age p.p.r. 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