CALEXICO

Award-winning journalist, New York Times best-selling author, and philanthropist Mitch Albom is back in action with EAT Detroit.

For part two of my “top 4 things to do in Detroit” we begin at the Riverfront.

Carlos Murillo Vega chose "protective custody" at a private detention facility. A new lawsuit claims he was held in solitary confinement for 14 months.

Two California men were each sentenced today to two years in prison for accepting bribes in return for a guarantee of a city permit to open a commercial cannabis dispensary. At the conclusion of a meeting between the defendants and the undercover FBI agent on Jan. 9, 2020, with Romero looking on, the undercover agent handed Soto $17,500 in cash. Soto recently resigned from the city commission responsible for promoting business and community growth and coordinating with prospective developers to help them invest in the city of Calexico. Romero resigned his position with the city in connection with his plea agreement, effective June 8, 2020. In addition to the prison sentence, Romero and Soto were ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $17,500.

Volunteers in California are working to ensure that the thousands of farmworkers who toil in the fields every day are receiving coronavirus vaccinations.

Congressional Democrats, who opposed Trumps past diversion of billions of dollars in military spending to the border wall project, said the decision was dangerous and misguided. Last month, the Pentagon received a request from within the Trump administration to build roughly 270 miles (435 km) of wall on the border, which would have cost about $5.5 billion. Slideshow (2 Images)The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, said it would challenge the latest border wall transfer. The Trump administration has vowed to build at least 400 miles (640 km) of wall along the border by November 2020, when Americans will vote for president. In his 2016 campaign, Trump said Mexico would pay for the wall.

Construction begins along the U.S. border with Mexico where the new border wall will replace old fencing on August 23, 2019 in Calexico, CA. A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump's border wall project can proceed while using up to $3.6 billion earmarked for military construction projects while the Trump administration continues challenging a lower federal court's injunction against diversion of the funds for that purpose. A final ruling on the legality of the use of the military funds for the planned border wall with Mexico will come later. The president last February had declared a national emergency in order to tap defense funds for the border wall. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement, "The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has lifted an illegitimate nationwide injunction entered by a lower court, and in doing so has allowed vital border wall construction to move forward using military construction funds."

President Donald Trump tours the area around the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Calexico, California, U.S., April 5, 2019. The country's highest court voted 5-4 to allow the funding transfer, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissenting. The fight over border wall funding sparked the longest federal government shutdown in history. Congress ultimately allocated about $1.4 billion in border wall funding to be deployed in Texas, far short of the $6 billion the administration sought. In a filing with the justices, Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued that the wall funding is necessary "to stanch the flow of illegal drugs across the southern border."