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latimes.com
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2018
Trump draws border battle lines
Effort to end cash bail clears a hurdle Despite late changes that led ACLU to pull its support, measure heads to state Senate for final approval.
With admiration for officers and anger for Democrats, he aims to regain political upper hand on immigration.
By Jazmine Ulloa and Maya Lau SACRAMENTO — A landmark bill to end money bail in California passed the state Assembly on Monday, clearing a major legislative hurdle despite mounting opposition to last-minute changes that gave judges greater power to decide who should remain incarcerated ahead of trial. In a heated debate on the Assembly floor, Republicans and Democrats expressed grave concerns over the late amendments and the push to rush the legislation to a vote. But supporters called the proposal a solid first step — one not likely to come again soon — toward overturning the status quo and helping thousands of families ensnared by what they described as a predatory bail system. The legislation would virtually eliminate the payment of money as a condition for release from jail. Counties would have to establish their own pretrial services agencies, which would use a “risk-assessment tool,” or analysis, to evaluate people booked into jail to determine whether, and under what conditions, they should be released. The changes released last week gave greater discretion to judges over conditions for all prisoners in a practice known as “preventive detention,” allowing them to decide which people are a danger to the community and should be held without any possibility of release. “This might not be the perfect bill,” Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) said. “This might not go as far as people may want, [See Bail, A8]
By Noah Bierman and Eli Stokols
Pool Photo
KO R EA N S’ R EU NIO N Lee Keum-seom, 92, of South Korea and son Ri Sang Chol, 71, of North Korea are among the dozens of separated family members meeting for the first time in decades at the North’s Mt. Kumgang. WORLD, A4
Venezuela’s reboot bid
President hits what many see as the economic panic button By Mery Mogollon and Chris Kraul CARACAS, Venezuela — Maria Celeste Molina warily pulled cash from a downtown ATM and stuffed the bolivars in her purse. Come tomorrow, she had no idea what they might buy. “I need the cash to travel tomorrow,” the 24-year-old university student said. “But I don’t know if there will be public transport or how much the new fares will be.” Across this economically hollowed-out country where inflation is approaching 1 million percent and food, medicine, jobs and money are in short supply, residents worried anew as Venezuela’s president hit what many here see as the panic button Monday in an effort to restart a country that once thrived with opportunity. The nation’s currency —
Miguel Gutierrez EPA/Shutterstock
VENEZUELA is devaluing its currency, raising taxes
and increasing the minimum wage more than 3,500%.
180 million
Venezuela’s new monthly minimum wage, in bolivars, set to take effect Tuesday
5.2 million
Venezuela’s previous monthly minimum wage
the bolivar — will be devalued, sales taxes increased and the minimum wage raised more than 3,500%, drastic adjustments that President Nicolas Maduro said he hoped would jumpstart the economy. Critics, though, predicted the worst, saying the measures are bound to fail because of rampant corruption in the country, low productivity and crippling U.S. sanctions. Business owners said they can’t possibly afford the 3,670% increase in minimum wage that Maduro requested, and trade groups immediately called for a nationwide strike Tuesday to protest the measures. The immediate impact of the measures was difficult to gauge, as Monday was declared a holiday by Maduro so that officials could quickly adjust to his plan. Traffic was light in downtown Caracas and many [See Venezuela, A4]
#MeToo activist faces furor over her own accuser By Alene Tchekmedyian, Richard Winton and Melissa Etehad The two encounters happened 16 years apart, but they have striking similarities. In both cases, a young actor was summoned to a hotel room by a prominent Hollywood figure more than twice their age. There, the victims allege, they were coaxed onto a bed and sexually assaulted. In one story, the alleged attacker is Harvey Weinstein. In the other, it’s one of his most vocal accusers. Asia Argento emerged as a powerful figure in the #MeToo movement last fall after
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ASIA ARGENTO , who
says Harvey Weinstein raped her, is accused of assaulting a teen actor.
telling the New Yorker that during the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, Weinstein invited her to his hotel, came out in a bathrobe and sexually assaulted her. At this year’s festival, she delivered a bold speech about the experience. “In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein — here at Cannes. I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground,” she said in remarks that drew loud cheers and applause. But now, the 42-year-old actress and director faces a reckoning of her own. She is the subject of a criminal inquiry and has been attacked by critics calling her a hypocrite after the New York Times reported Sunday that she recently paid off a former child actor who said she sexually assaulted him in a Marina del Rey hotel room in 2013, when he was 17. In California, the age of consent is 18. Two lawyers who represent Argento have not returned phone calls or emails seeking comment. The allegations are unlikely to undermine the explosive #MeToo movement — which researchers say has exposed nearly 480 highprofile personalities, only about a dozen of them female, since last fall. But ex[See Argento, A8]
Carolyn Cole Los Angeles Times
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S emissions overhaul for power plants would abandon
Obama-era directives that pushed the electricity sector toward clean energy.
Christmas about to come early for the coal industry By Evan Halper WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is poised Tuesday to unveil a sweeping rewrite of emissions rules for power plants that would be a boon to the coal industry, laying the groundwork for a revival of the most polluting facilities and abandoning Obama-era mandates for reorienting the electricity sector toward clean energy. The draft replacement
for the federal Clean Power Plan, according to several people who have been briefed on it, reflects a dramatic about-face on national climate action. It is President Trump’s second major move in less than a month reflecting a retreat in the fight against global warming, following the administration’s plan to freeze fueleconomy standards for cars and trucks. The new power plan would relieve the electricity industry — the second-larg-
est producer of potent greenhouse gases nationwide — from aggressive goals for reducing its carbon footprint. Heavily polluting coal plants that would have been forced into retirement under the Obama-era guidelines get a new lease on life under the Trump blueprint, which allows them to continue operating with modest modification. In some cases, states may be permitted to ignore federal guidelines for certain [See Power, A9]
WASHINGTON — President Trump brandished two of his favorite political weapons at the White House on Monday: a phalanx of uniformed law enforcement officers by his side, and an angry denunciation of Democrats as a party of lawlessness and open borders. Unabashedly politicizing the federal agency established in 2003, the president aligned himself with rankand-file Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers he invited to the White House and repeatedly lionized as “brave heroes,” while battering Democrats as “extremists” who want to “abolish America’s borders.” “They have no courage,” Trump said. “They have no guts. They just have big, loud mouths.” Trump took special aim at Democrats who have called for abolishing ICE, as some on the party’s left wing have done. The president called it a “grave betrayal of these law enforcement officers and the noble sacrifices they make to uphold our laws, secure our borders and protect our safety.” Determined to head off a Democratic takeover of the House, Trump gave no quarter in the polarizing battle over immigration, even emphasizing the controversial enforcement crackdown that resulted in more than 2,600 migrant children being taken from their families on the Southwest border this spring and placed in shelters. That harsh policy led to a national outcry and signs of a political debacle for the White House, forcing Trump to back down in June. U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, who had ordered the administration to reunite the families, criticized the government last month for its lack of preparation and coordination. More than 400 parents were deported without their children. Trump sought to regain the political upper hand Monday with an event in the East Room saluting several dozen officers from ICE, which arrests and deports people in the country illegally, and agents from Customs and Border Protection, which is responsible for [See Trump, A12]
Firefighters on high alert in Mendocino The largest fire in modern California history continues to grow, causing more evacuations and posing new dangers for the 3,500 crew members on the front lines. CALIFORNIA, B1
Pope condemns sexual abuse In a letter to Catholics around the world, Francis writes: “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” WORLD, A5
Weather Mostly sunny. L.A. Basin: 85/69. B6
