Only in America

In a recent “active shooter” drill at Franklin High School in Ohio, police fired dozens of shots with blank ammunition. “It did cause some stress,” acknowledged Lt. Gerry Massey, but he said the goal was to train students to identify the location of gunshots. “Learning this sound may save your child’s life,” a supportive parent later commented on social media.

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating a claim that a customs officer held a journalist’s passport until he admitted writing “propaganda.” Ben Watson, an editor at Defense One, says a customs officer at Dulles International Airport repeatedly asked if his job as a journalist was to write propaganda. Watson did not get his passport back until he replied, “for the sake of expediting this conversation, yes.”

Insurance rule to limit legal immigration

In a new anti-immigration salvo, the Trump administration announced last week that starting in November it will deny visas to legal immigrants who can’t prove that they have health insurance or sufficient money to cover health-care costs. The order would not affect children, or those old enough to be covered by Medicare. However, Medicaid, the health coverage program for the poor, would not meet the insurance requirement. New “public charge” rules announced in August and scheduled to go into effect later this month will also limit the ability of immigrants who get Medicaid to seek citizenship. One immigration advocate critical of the policy accused the administration of looking “for any way to exclude people who aren’t wealthy.”

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October 11, 2019 THE WEEK