Poland offering to host Fort Trump
WASHINGTON -- Poland's leader pressed President Donald Trump on Tuesday to consider creating a permanent American military base in Poland, offering a tempting incentive: The installation would be called "Fort Trump."
Polish President Andrzej Duda extended the invitation during a one-on-one meeting with Trump at the White House that focused heavily on the U.S. presence in Poland as the country faces Russia's increased military activities in the region.
Trump said during a joint news conference with Duda that he was considering the idea and noted that Poland had offered more than $2 billion to the U.S. to pay for such an effort. Duda, for his part, came away confident that he had taken a major step toward lining up a permanent American military base in his country.
"I was smiling when talking to Mr. President. I said that I would very much like for us to set up a permanent American base in Poland which we would call Fort Trump," Duda said through a translator, prompting Trump to raise his eyebrows and smile. "And I firmly believe that this is possible."
A decision from the United States could come early next year.
Trump, who welcomed Duda to the White House for the first time, said the two leaders agreed to bolster defense, energy and commercial ties, adding that the alliance between the two countries had "never been stronger."
Fines top $86,000 in bridge collapse
MIAMI -- The contractors that worked on the bridge near a Florida university that collapsed, killing six people, have been fined more than $86,000 for workplace violations.
The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the fines for seven safety violations related to the March 15 collapse. OSHA said the contractors didn't provide adequate safeguards despite serious cracks that had developed on the bridge.
Five motorists and one worker were killed when the bridge fell onto a busy roadway near Florida International University.
OSHA cited five companies for $86,658 in fines. The companies can contest the findings.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the collapse.
Paper-ballot shift denied in Georgia
ATLANTA -- U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled that Georgia won't have to use paper ballots for this year's midterm elections, saying that changing to paper ballots would be too risky as the election nears.
However, Totenberg on Monday said state elections officials had "buried their heads in the sand" about security issues and warned them not to delay in tackling concerns about the security of the state's touch-screen voting system.
Totenberg said the voting-rights advocates who sought the change to paper ballots have demonstrated "the threat of real harms to their constitutional interests," but that she worried about the "massive scrambling" required for a last-minute change to paper ballots. Early voting starts Oct. 15 for the Nov. 6 elections.
"Ultimately, any chaos or problems that arise in connection with a sudden roll-out of a paper ballot system with accompanying scanning equipment may swamp the polls with work and voters -- and result in voter frustration and disaffection from the voting process," she wrote.
A Section on 09/19/2018