There has never been a better time to hire to build to invest and to grow in the United States President Trump makes a sales pitch in Davos Switzerland America 1st does not mean America alone today is Friday January 26th and this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I'm Ari Shapiro Coming up Democrats and Republicans find plenty not to like in the new White House immigration plan also will visit the campus of Michigan state a former employer of the team doctor for American journalists feel so awful that my school was part of the reason that they offer silence for so long and u.s. Intelligence turns to crowdsourcing to forecast world events if you assemble a reasonably sized crowd the idea of there being any particular directional bias is reduced after these news headlines. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Jack Speer the governing body for the sport of gymnastics in this country says its entire board of directors will resign in the wake of the sex abuse scandal involving former gymnastics doctor Larry Nasser late yesterday the u.s. Olympic committee ordered the resignations N.P.R.'s Tom Goldman has more in a letter to USA Gymnastics u.s. Olympic Committee chief executive Scott Blackmun directed all u.s. A.g. Board members to resign by next Wednesday and initially USA Gymnastics said it completely embraces what Blackman outlined in his letter but later USA g. Released a more direct statement saying it will comply with the u.s.o.c. Requirements Blackmon said the call for resignations wasn't based on any knowledge that board members had a role in fostering or obscuring Larry Nasser's actions the move he said was to rebuild the USA Gymnastics culture critics say it's too little too late and that there was enough evidence of what Nasser was doing for us Ag and the Us o.c. To stop his actions long ago Tom Goldman n.p.r. News President Trump took his America 1st message to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland the president in the conferences concluding address telling the summit of business and political leaders the u.s. Will no longer turn a blind eye to what he described as unfair trade practices Trump was the 1st sitting u.s. President in nearly 20 years to address the conference closed with a mostly I'll be to address the declared us open for business trial made no apologies about his America 1st agenda New York New Jersey and Connecticut say they will sue the federal government over the recent tax overhaul they say 12 states were unfairly targeted by the loss of deductions legal scholars of cast doubt on the lawsuit success but Charles Lane of member station w h 8 s a.g.u. Report states hope to uncover more evidence in court scholars say Congress has broad authority over taxation and the courts give deference to federal lawmakers but the states all led by Democrats say Congress violated the equal. Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says part of his goal is a political storm heading into November as midterm elections I know you need is one email that says new democratic stay therefore. We can get it passed the tax overhaul passed by Republicans last year lowered taxes for most people in the us however it kept local tax deductions giving an overall tax hike to millions of filers for n.p.r. News I'm Charles Lane in New York the stars was ease Control and Prevention says virtually every state has been reporting large numbers of flu cases Dr Dan Jurgens The C.D.C.'s flu specialists we often see different parts of the country light up at different times but for the past 3 weeks the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu all at the same time last week doctors said one in 15 visits were for the flu on Wall Street today the Dow closed up $223.00 points you're listening to n.p.r. . Lawyers representing comedian Bill Cosby are accusing prosecutors withholding or destroying evidence they maintain could have helped their client lawyers saying they want his pending criminal assault case dismissed because was due to be retried in April on charges he drugged molested a former Temple University employee and Ria Konstam it is home near Philadelphia in 2004 jurors failed to reach a verdict in the 1st case as lawyers and recent court papers say a woman told detectives Konstam told her of a plan to falsely accuse a high profile person so she could sue and get money that testimony was blocked Konstanz lawyers say the woman is lying Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards is preparing to step down this year after more than a decade of leading the reproductive rights group as N.P.R.'s Sharon McCammon reports Richards says it's time for a new generation of leaders Cecile Richards took the reins at Planned Parenthood in 2006 when George w. Bush was in office she's announcing her departure one year into President Trump's administration Richard says Trump selection has created challenges for the reproductive rights movement but has also energized Planned Parenthood supporters and other activists and we have brought in a whole new generation of young diverse leaders into this organization into this movement that's really important to me as for her future plans Richards who 60 says she will campaign and organize for Democratic candidates in this year's midterm elections she's left the door open to a possible run for public office herself some day saying never say never Sarah McCammon n.p.r. News little futures were up 63 cents a barrel today to end the session at $6614.00 a barrel I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Farmers Insurance committed to helping people understand the ins and outs of insurance so they can prepare for life's ups and downs coverage options and more information can be found at a farmers dot com and the any the foundation. Support for Cavies he comes from the dogwood offering artisan cocktails small bites and desserts the dog what is it 309 3rd Street in the historic diners cabin just off. The dogwood cv dot com 3496338 and from Crested Butte Mountain Resort offering outdoor experiences year round for all ages ski c.v. Dot com You're listening to All Things Considered on Community Radio 4 the Gunnison Valley. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Ari Shapiro and I'm Mary Louise Kelly So President Trump showed his hand on immigration last night the White House released a one page proposal a senior White House official calls the new immigration plan quote a bipartisan compromise position Well it is already attracting a lot of bipartisan criticism n.p.r. Congressional correspondent Scott Detroit is here to walk through all the latest on immigration he's got a there before we get to the criticism let's lay out what is being criticized quick recap of what the White House is proposing so the White House is taking a step toward the Democratic position on this on one issue they support a 10 to 12 year path to citizenship for people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program but also people who would be eligible for the program but aren't in it so we're talking about about 1800000 people here and but they want a lot in exchange for that $25000000000.00 for construction of the wall and other border security additional money for immigration personnel on top of that and then they want changes to the legal immigration system they want to limit family considerations when visas are awarded to just parents and children who are minors and they also want to completely and the visa lottery system so a lot to unpack in this plan and we mentioned it is already coming in for a lot of criticism start with Democrats how are they what's the reaction been there they do not quite view this as the compromise that the White House is framing it as I read you a couple quotes here and I should point out this came out yesterday after Congress left town so most of the reaction so far has been on Twitter and statements things like that so here's Joe Crowley who's part of House Democratic leadership this isn't an immigration proposal it's a ransom note and here's a House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi she says this is quote an anti immigrant framework and quote part of the trumpet ministrations unmistakable campaign to make America a white again a lot of similar responses and I think it just comes down to the fact that president. From shifting positions on immigration and also the rhetoric he's used from the campaign through his presidency notably the the slur he used in that infamous moment in the White House a couple weeks ago talking about African countries Democrats just don't see him as trustworthy and they don't view his motives they're incredibly suspicious of his motives on the issue of immigration not a huge surprise that Democrats are are not on board with this plan or at least not yet are Republicans any more receptive while a lot of key Republicans are Senator Tom Cotton is someone who's long been pushing for these changes to legal immigration there that are included in this framework he said in a statement that this plan is generous and humane will also being responsible if you look at the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell statement he seems to mostly be just grateful that President Trump is finally putting his views on paper McConnell's been trying to negotiate this as Trump has shifted from position to position and McConnell's response balls down to thank you for saying this now will work on it but here's what's important House Republican I was going to ask that's the Senate side what about on the House and they are the majority in the house just like they are in the Senate a lot of House Republicans are very real hard line positions on immigration and there's a lot of skepticism especially from the Freedom caucus part of the world who view any sort of path to citizenship as amnesty So the key to getting them on board is how much President Trump sells this how much he sticks to this plan so if he comes out the state of the Union next week and says this is what I want they could come around otherwise they may might remain critical to this n.p.r. Congressional correspondent Scott thank you Scott thank you for joining us now to discuss immigration and some of the other major political stories of the week are Rihanna Salaam the executive editor for The National Review and a columnist for Slate Welcome back thanks for having me Ari and Kimberly Adkins chief Washington reporter and columnist for The Boston Herald Hi there have there let's pick up with the White House immigration proposal as we just heard some lawmakers on the left reject it as heartless while some on the right reject it as amnesty Kimberly do you see this as just the 1st phase of a negotiation or is this pretty much dead and. I mean this is where the negotiation starts but it's hard to see how all sides come together especially once again under a time deadline of February 8th before the next government shutdown especially given the hard feelings frankly that the last shutdown left everyone with you had up to a point where Chuck Schumer for example was trying to meet someplace with President Trump and even during that course offered $25000000000.00 for the wall or whatever you want to call it and has since rescinded that offer then you add the fact that as Scott pointed out you have the Democrats on one side digging in the Republicans on the other side digging and digging in probably even more than where they started before it's going to be tough to see how they come together in just a couple weeks right now and I know you've been working on a book on immigration so I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts on this it strikes me that over the decades of debate about immigration this represents a pretty significant shift of Republicans wanting to crack down not just on illegal immigration but really reduce legal immigration as well well part of the question is how should we structure our legal immigration system should it be sensitive to skills and economic potential writ large or should it be primarily oriented towards family based admissions the system as it exists right now is very heavily oriented towards family based admissions and there are a lot of folks on the right including some who want immigration levels to be high as well as some who want them to be low and lower that we ought to move away from this kind of family emphasis the problem is that when you're trying to pare that with amnesty when you're trying to pair that with some legalization path we're in this very tricky awkward position because we're focused on the docket eligible but the thing is that for many people that's seen as just an initial step you actually want to legalize a much broader swath of the unauthorized immigrant population so the kind of deal that the White House and visions is a deal that perhaps you could have if you had a much broader amnesty but it's hard to see how you could get this kind of a deal if you only have some kind of amnesty. For the dock eligible so that I think is the big stumbling block here I want to ask you about another big story which broke last night when the New York Times reported that back in June President from ordered special counsel Robert Muller to be fired and that it only didn't happen because White House counsel Don McGann threatened to resign Let's listen here to Congressman walking Castro Democrat of Texas speaking on Morning Edition today if this news is true. There is a red line and I believe that ultimately it could be moving him closer to impeachment Kimberly do you think people should be concerned that Mahler could still be fired at this point I think it will be a lot tougher to do now especially given this revelation that there are people who are concerned about Robert Miller being fired on both sides of the aisle in Congress and really don't want that to happen I think you'll expect to see an increased effort to bring to Congress there are a couple of bills that have been filed that would essentially protect him give him the opportunity to go to a court essentially if he is fired to seek to be reinstated it has some bipartisan support I think you might see that grow be it'll probably be Democrats leading the charge on that but people are concerned not just for the sake of allowing the Justice Department in the process to go about itself but there are a lot of Republicans who think that this would be politically catastrophic for the president if he takes this step I tend to agree with them but certainly all of this is going to be considered carefully by Robert Mueller himself as he continues this probe about potential obstruction all of this goes at the very least to the president's intent not only in trying to fire him but in firing James Comey and pressuring other people within the Justice Department and in Congress if not being seen as an actual act ordering Donegan to fire him as an actual step toward obstruction right what do you think how significant is this story and why are we learning about it now 6 months later well there's an iron. To the story because as I understand it the president is now insisting that the special counsel he believes he's going to get a fair shake he's calling the story fake which implies that he's you know insisting the exact opposite that he has no intention of firing the special counsel he may well be you know lying about that that's certainly possible but to Kimberly's point that actually makes it far less likely that he would make a move to fire the special counsel now so in some sense the special counsel may well be more secure now the question is you know will this investigation go into his intention was his intention to obstruct and whether or not he is lying if he now claims under oath that he did not intend to fire Robert Mueller So it just strikes me as a very strange story because again the president is insisting that he did not try to fire Mueller before which again implies that Mueller is that it is an unusually safe position right now well so some have speculated that the story was leaked in order to protect Robert Mueller and that certainly makes a lot of sense and you could say the system worked in that case just as McGann's intention you know making it clear that he would resign rather than push ahead with this move another possibility is that this is a kind of back and forth when people are dealing with an impetuous president that oftentimes there may well be orders that people immediately around the president might and Michelle resist and cajole him out of making rash decisions but none of that is terribly surprising there are many people who believed 6 months ago there are many people who believe for a long time that the president might act irrationally and you get that large pressure from the you know a lot of Republicans others well the last thing I want to ask you about is President Trump's visit to Davos Switzerland where he delivered a speech this morning encouraging other countries and businesses to engage with the United States there has never been a better time to hire to build to invest and to grow in the United States America is open for business and we are competitive once again how do you think this message goes over after a year in which Trump has separated the u.s. From the transposed. It partnership the Paris climate accord and other global relationships Camberley Yeah you know I think this was a surprise especially given his past statements about NAFTA he signaled a willingness to sort of renegotiated and stay in it he said America 1st but not only not America only it sort of seemed like a safe speech this speech that did no damage as he did in the past with some of our other overseas trips where he really chastised our allies or things like that he seemed a little low energy to me but he was able to get in at least a very in a dig to the press that he seemed a little more like yourself that right on if this was a speech that did no damage as Kimberly says Do you think it didn't help well I think that the president has a lot of goals regarding protecting the tradable sector protecting the u.s. Manufacturing base the question is whether his instincts actually fit those long term objectives I don't think they do I think that you know ideally what he ought to be doing is thinking about research and research and development making larger investments human capital investments and what have you thinking about it in strategic long term ways rather than acting reflexive Lee to for example impose tariff barriers but you know I agree with Kimberly I don't think that this is really going to be terribly consequential one way or another brought on Salaam of the National Review and Kimberly Afghan's of the Boston Herald good to talk to you both have a great weekend thanks for having me thank you. It's All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Have you ever heard no idea that change the way you look at the world everything we think we have to believe in impossible given the possibility that sense of potential I recently had to refuse or said to see or fail you've got to persist through failure and contemplate the meaning of infinity and Guy rise join me each week for ideas worth spreading on the Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. The Ted Radio Hour airs Sundays at 2 pm here on. I'm Dr Anthony lives words and this is Climate Connection. The region north of Lake Tahoe California used to provide the perfect habitat for a cute rabbit like critter called a pica but not anymore but I could have gone locally extinct within that area that's Joseph Stewart at the University of California Santa Cruz for the last several years he searched a 64 square mile area looking for signs of pockets and finding none the largest area of paid extra patients documented in the modern era he says global warming is to blame pikas are adapted for th