Today in History: April 22, the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889
In 1915, German forces unleashed its first full-scale use of chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium during World War I. Thousands of Allied soldiers are believed to have died from the poison gas attacks.
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In 1954, the publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.
In 1960, Massachusetts poet Anne Sexton had her first collection of poems published, 'To Bedlam and Part Way Back.'
In 1970, an estimated 20 million Americans participated in gatherings for the first Earth Day, a series of events proposed by Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, to promote environmental protections.
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In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States and the first to resign from office, died at a New York hospital four days after having a stroke. He was 81.
In 2000, in a dramatic predawn raid, armed immigration agents seized 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives' home in Miami. Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
In 2005, Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom outside Washington, D.C., to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans. (Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison in May 2006.)
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, operated by BP, sank into the Gulf of Mexico two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers.
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Bloomberg
29 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Senate Readies Tax Bill for Vote With Holdouts Threatening Delay
President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending agenda is nearing a climatic vote in the Senate this week in the wake of air strikes on Iran, which risk embroiling the US in a prolonged Middle East conflict. Trump's $4.2 trillion tax-cut package, partially offset by social safety net reductions, does not yet have the support it needs to pass the Senate. Fiscal hawks seeking to lower the bill's total price tag are at odds with Republicans worried about cuts to Medicaid health coverage for their constituents and phase-outs to green energy incentives that support jobs in their states.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
GOP tax bill would ease regulations on gun silencers and some rifles and shotguns
WASHINGTON (AP) — The massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump wants on his desk by July 4 would loosen regulations on gun silencers and certain types of rifles and shotguns, advancing a longtime priority of the gun industry as Republican leaders in the House and Senate try to win enough votes to pass the bill. The guns provision was first requested in the House by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican gun store owner who had initially opposed the larger tax package. The House bill would remove silencers — called 'suppressors' by the gun industry — from a 1930s law that regulates firearms that are considered the most dangerous, eliminating a $200 tax while removing a layer of background checks. The Senate kept the provision on silencers in its version of the bill and expanded upon it, adding short-barreled, or sawed-off, rifles and shotguns. Republicans who have long supported the changes, along with the gun industry, say the tax infringes on Second Amendment rights. They say silencers are mostly used by hunters and target shooters for sport. 'Burdensome regulations and unconstitutional taxes shouldn't stand in the way of protecting American gun owners' hearing,' said Clyde, who owns two gun stores in Georgia and often wears a pin shaped like an assault rifle on his suit lapel. Democrats are fighting to stop the provision, which was unveiled days after two Minnesota state legislators were shot in their homes, as the bill speeds through the Senate. They argue that loosening regulations on silencers could make it easier for criminals and active shooters to conceal their weapons. 'Parents don't want silencers on their streets, police don't want silencers on their streets,' said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The gun language has broad support among Republicans and has received little attention as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., work to settle differences within the party on cuts to Medicaid and energy tax credits, among other issues. But it is just one of hundreds of policy and spending items included to entice members to vote for the legislation that could have broad implications if the bill is enacted within weeks, as Trump wants. Inclusion of the provision is also a sharp turn from the climate in Washington just three years ago when Democrats, like Republicans now, controlled Congress and the White House and pushed through bipartisan gun legislation. The bill increased background checks for some buyers under the age of 21, made it easier to take firearms from potentially dangerous people and sent millions of dollars to mental health services in schools. Passed in the summer of 2022, just weeks after the shooting of 19 children and two adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas, it was the most significant legislative response to gun violence in decades. Three years later, as they try to take advantage of their consolidated power in Washington, Republicans are packing as many of their longtime priorities as possible, including the gun legislation, into the massive, wide-ranging bill that Trump has called 'beautiful." 'I'm glad the Senate is joining the House to stand up for the Second Amendment and our Constitution, and I will continue to fight for these priorities as the Senate works to pass President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill,' said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who was one of the lead negotiators on the bipartisan gun bill in 2022 but is now facing a primary challenge from the right in his bid for reelection next year. If the gun provisions remain in the larger legislation and it is passed, silencers and the short-barrel rifles and shotguns would lose an extra layer of regulation that they are subject to under the National Firearms Act, passed in the 1930s in response to concerns about mafia violence. They would still be subject to the same regulations that apply to most other guns — and that includes possible loopholes that allow some gun buyers to avoid background checks when guns are sold privately or online. Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who supports the legislation, says changes are aimed at helping target shooters and hunters protect their hearing. He argues that the use of silencers in violent crimes is rare. 'All it's ever intended to do is to reduce the report of the firearm to hearing safe levels,' Keane says. Speaking on the floor before the bill passed the House, Rep. Clyde said the bill restores Second Amendment rights from 'over 90 years of draconian taxes.' Clyde said Johnson included his legislation in the larger bill 'with the purest of motive.' 'Who asked for it? I asked,' said Clyde, who ultimately voted for the bill after the gun silencer provision was added. Clyde was responding to Rep. Maxwell Frost, a 28-year-old Florida Democrat, who went to the floor and demanded to know who was responsible for the gun provision. Frost, who was a gun-control activist before being elected to Congress, called himself a member of the 'mass shooting generation' and said the bill would help 'gun manufacturers make more money off the death of children and our people.' 'There's a reason silencers have been regulated for nearly a century: They make it much harder for law enforcement and bystanders to react quickly to gunshots,' said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. Schumer and other Democrats are trying to convince the Senate parliamentarian to drop the language as she reviews the bill for policy provisions that aren't budget-related. 'Senate Democrats will fight this provision at the parliamentary level and every other level with everything we've got,' Schumer said earlier this month.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Amid Trump's deportations, citizenship brings relief and security to some new Americans
Nabil Souidi said he's been 'I follow all the news, and I was like, no, I'm not going to travel until I get my citizenship,' said Souidi, who is originally from Algeria. He said he followed the Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Now, Souidi said, the trips he's been putting off – like visiting his brother in Canada – are back on. He said he's relieved to finally have his citizenship, and he's happy to be able to travel with ease. Advertisement His wife, Nesrine Bouziane watched the ceremony with their 2-year-old son, Amir Souidi. She filmed the entire ceremony, while her son quietly enjoyed some screen time. Bouziane said watching the news in the lead-up to the ceremony had been nerve-wracking, and she was nervous about whether her husband's application for citizenship would be accepted. The news about the Advertisement 'We're all Americans now,' said Bouziane, who was born in the United States. Bouziane and Souidi met through friends in Boston in 2019 when Souidi was visiting on vacation. Their relationship deepened over WhatsApp messages they exchanged over the next two years, and they married in 2021. They now live together in Nashua, and they're expecting their second child in August. 'I think it's a relief for him, and he's more comfortable,' Bouziane said of her husband securing his citizenship. Nesrine Bouziane, left, her husband Nabil Souidi, center, and their son, Amir Souidi, are pictured after Nabil Souidi was granted American citizenship in a naturalization ceremony on Friday hosted by New Hampshire's Secretary of State David Scanlan at the State Archives in Concord, N.H. Amanda Gokee This year was the second annual naturalization ceremony New Hampshire's Secretary of State David Scanlan has hosted at the State Archives. Similar events are held at other venues around the state. During Friday's naturalization event, 25 people from 17 different countries were granted American citizenship. 'It's that diversity that is really important to making us a strong, vibrant country that stands for freedom around the world,' said Scanlan. Governor Kelly A. Ayotte also addressed the new Americans, calling it an important moment in their lives and an important moment for the country. 'This is a wonderful day, and we are thrilled to welcome you as an American citizen,' she said. In recent months, Ayotte has made cracking down on illegal immigration a top issue, But on Friday, Ayotte congratulated the cohort of New Americans for successfully navigating the United States' immigration system. Advertisement 'It's not an easy process to navigate through our system, but you stuck with it,' she said. Eva Castillo, an immigrant rights advocate, urged the new citizens to start voting and remain active in their local communities around issues that are important to them. For new Americans, she said, citizenship can provide an extra sense of security, especially as some immigrant communities have grown fearful amid the Trump administration's deportation efforts. Once people have obtained citizenship, she said, it's only under extreme circumstances that they can be deported. 'That gives you an extra layer of protection,' she said in an interview after the event. Maykol Mamedes, 33, and his wife Samantha Mamedes, 31, said they, too, were breathing a sigh of relief that Maykol had been granted citizenship Friday. 'You feel more secure,' Maykol Mamedes said after the event. He is originally from Brazil, and he now lives with his wife and two children in Nashua. Of the two of them, Samantha Mamedes said she was more worried about paperwork and proving her husband's documentation, especially when there was a delay in renewing his green card and no way to prove he was in the United States lawfully. 'It's a good feeling knowing that we're on the tail end,' she said. Along with their two kids, the family said they planned to mark the occasion by going out to eat. And they had an extra reason to celebrate: Samantha Mamedes said her birthday was on the same day as the naturalization ceremony. Maykol Mamedes, left, and his wife Samantha Mamedes, right, their two children after a naturalization ceremony in Concord, N.H., on Friday. Amanda Gokee Amanda Gokee can be reached at
