Nation and World briefs for April 16

Trump targets legal, illegal immigration in latest push

WASHINGTON — Top administration officials have been discussing ways to increase pressure on countries with high numbers of citizens who overstay short-term visas, as part of President Donald Trump’s growing focus on immigration heading into his re-election campaign.

The administration could introduce new travel restrictions on nationals from those countries, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose private conversations.

The idea, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is just one of many under discussion by an administration that is increasingly desperate to satisfy a president who has been angry about the influx of migrants at the border as he tries to make good on his 2016 campaign promises and energize his base going into 2020.

The ideas have ranged from the extreme — including Trump’s threat to shut down the southern border and consideration of again separating children from parents — to more subtle tweaks to the legal immigration system, including efforts to clamp down on visa overstays, which, according to the nonpartisan Center for Migration Studies, exceed illegal border crossings. Plans are also in the works to have border patrol agents conduct initial interviews to determine whether migrants seeking asylum have a “credible fear” of returning to their homelands. Border patrol agents are the first officials who come into contact with migrants, and the thinking is that they’ll be less sympathetic than asylum officers. And officials have been considering raising asylum standards and changing the court system so that the last people in are the first to have their cases adjudicated. Some of the ideas have been proposed, rejected and then proposed again.

The administration has also been weighing targeting the remittance payments sent home by people living in the country illegally. And White House aide Stephen Miller in particular has been pushing Homeland Security officials to move forward with plans to punish immigrants in the country legally for using public benefits, such as food stamps.

US measles count up to 555, with most new cases in New York

NEW YORK — U.S. measles cases have surged again, and are on pace to set a record for most illnesses in 25 years.

Health officials on Monday said 555 measles cases have been confirmed so far this year, up from 465 as of a week ago.

While 20 states have reported cases, New York has been the epicenter. Nearly two-thirds of all cases have been in New York, and 85% of the latest week’s cases came from the state. Most of the New York cases have been unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities.

The 2019 tally is already the most since 2014, when 667 were reported. The most before that was 963 cases in 1994.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all children get two doses of measles vaccine, which is 97% effective.

Removal of fuel in pool at Fukushima’s melted reactor begins

TOKYO — The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant began removing fuel Monday from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster, a milestone in what will be a decades-long process to decommission the facility.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said workers started removing the first of 566 used and unused fuel units stored in the pool at Unit 3. The fuel units in the pool located high up in reactor buildings are intact despite the disaster, but the pools are not enclosed, so removing the units to safer ground is crucial to avoid disaster in case of another major earthquake similar to the one that caused the 2011 tsunami.

TEPCO says the removal at Unit 3 will take two years, followed by the two other reactors, where about 1,000 fuel units remain in the storage pools.

Removing fuel units from the cooling pools comes ahead of the real challenge of removing melted fuel from inside the reactors, but details of how that might be done are still largely unknown. Removing the fuel in the cooling pools was delayed more than four years by mishaps, high radiation and radioactive debris from an explosion that occurred at the time of the reactor meltdowns, underscoring the difficulties that remain.

Workers are remotely operating a crane built underneath a jelly roll-shaped roof cover to raise the fuel from a storage rack in the pool and place it into a protective cask. The whole process occurs underwater to prevent radiation leaks. Each cask will be filled with seven fuel units, then lifted from the pool and lowered to a truck that will transport the cask to a safer cooling pool elsewhere at the plant.

The work is carried out remotely from a control room about 500 meters (yards) away because of still-high radiation levels inside the reactor building that houses the pool.

Wisconsin man’s wager on Tiger earns him more than $1.2M

LAS VEGAS — A Wisconsin man who claims to have never placed a bet on sports before he risked $85,000 on Tiger Woods winning the Masters is now more than a million dollars richer.

James Adducci was presented with a check for more than $1.2 million Monday at a sportsbook in Las Vegas. Adducci’s win represents the largest golf payout ever for sportsbook operator William Hill US.

Adducci’s reason for betting thousands with 14-1 odds? He said he had a feeling Woods would win because his children were watching.

“In that moment that he won, and I won, what was the most special for me, and it’s why I placed the bet in the first place, was just seeing him share that victory with his kids,” said Adducci, 39. “To me, he is a real guy with super human golf abilities, and in that moment, he had something with his kids that he’s never had before.”

Woods rallied to win the Masters for the fifth time before a delirious audience at Augusta National. It had been 14 years since he last won the Masters and 11 years since his last victory in a major.

Loughlin, Giannulli plead not guilty in college bribery scam

BOSTON — “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they paid $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into the University of Southern California.

The couple is among 50 prominent parents, athletic coaches and others charged in a sweeping college admissions bribery scam that has embroiled elite school across the country, such as Stanford, Georgetown and Yale.

Loughlin and Giannulli filed court documents Monday waiving their right to appear for an arraignment and entering not guilty pleas to the two charges against them. The judge granted their requests, meaning they will not have to show up at Boston’s federal court to be arraigned.

Thirty-three wealthy parents were charged last month in what authorities have called the biggest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department. They are accused of paying admissions consultant Rick Singer to rig standardized test scores and bribe college coaches and other insiders to get their children into selective schools.

Loughlin and Giannulli are charged with paying bribes to have their daughters designated as crew recruits to USC, even though neither of them is a rower. Authorities say Loughlin and Giannulli helped create fake athletic profiles for the teens by sending Singer photos of their teens posing on rowing machines.

HBO looks beyond ‘Game of Thrones’

LOS ANGELES — When the last drop — or gallon — of blood is shed and an exultant victor has ascended to the Iron Throne, viewers might be split about how HBO’s fantasy saga ended but they’ll be joined in deprivation.

“What do you do without ‘Game of Thrones?’” will be the lament heard after the May 19 finale, said media industry analyst Larry Gerbrandt. The question is even more critical to the pay-cable channel, which soared on dragon’s wings with its hugely popular, eight-season adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s novels.

Keeping subscribers on board means more than another hit, even one as globally dazzling as “Game of Thrones” proved to be. But it’s where HBO can start to protect its brand and position, observers say, an effort both demanded and compounded by an increasingly congested small-screen landscape and the expectations of the channel’s corporate owner since 2016, AT&T.

“I think they need a prestige show on this level to remain HBO,” Bill Carter, a media analyst for CNN and former reporter for The New York Times. But “more than ever, it’s really hard to find a hit show and to break through in this marketplace.”

Sunday’s season premiere underscored the point, with “Game of Thrones” drawing a series-high record of 17.4 million viewers on TV and streaming . It set a streaming record for HBO and reinforced its standing as one of television’s most popular shows.