Only in America

The conservative group One Million Moms wants Burger King to cancel a commercial in which a man says, “Damn, that tastes good” after trying the chain’s meatless burger. The group says Burger King should have chosen to “edit out the cuss word,” which it said is “extremely destructive and damaging to impressionable children.”

An Oregon woman is suing the Mormon church for informing the police that her husband was molesting their daughter. The woman, unnamed to protect her daughter, says her husband confessed to a church group to “repent for his sins.” A group member told police, and her husband was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The woman wants $9.5 million to compensate for her husband’s lost earnings, “companionship, society, love, [and] affection.”

Seizing $7.2 billion to pay for the wall

President Trump is preparing to divert $7.2 billion in defense funding for border wall construction this year, five times what Congress authorized in the 2020 budget, The Washington Post reported this week. The money will again be repurposed from military construction projects and counter-narcotics initiatives. Dozens of Pentagon projects were halted last year, including the construction of schools on military bases, after the Trump administration reallocated $3.6 billion. Federal judges blocked that move, but last week the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction, saying the county of El Paso, Texas and an activist group likely lack standing to challenge the diversion. Administration officials plan to build 885 miles of new fencing by spring 2022.

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January 17, 2020 THE WEEK