National News at a Glance

Government Shutdown Ends After 3 Days of Recriminations

Congress brought an end to a three-day government shutdown Monday as Senate Democrats buckled under pressure to adopt a short-term spending bill to fund government operations without first addressing the fate of young unauthorized immigrants. The House quickly approved the measure — which will fund the government through Feb. 8 and extend funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years — and President Donald Trump signed it Monday night. The agreement also revealed fissures among Democrats, with about one-third of the party’s members in the Senate and a majority in the House voting against it.

Heritage Foundation Says Trump Has Embraced Two-Thirds of Its Agenda

The Trump administration has pursued policies that have hewed remarkably close to the recommendations of a leading conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which found in a review that nearly two-thirds of its ideas had been carried out or embraced by the White House over the past year. President Donald Trump has shown deference to groups within the conservative movement. Heritage also found much that could be improved on — most notably the snail’s pace of nominations. Of the 635 major postings across the executive branch that require Senate confirmation, the White House has no nominee for 245 of those.

Pennsylvania Congressional District Map Is Ruled Unconstitutional

Pennsylvania’s congressional district map is a partisan gerrymander that “clearly, plainly and palpably” violates the state’s constitution, the state Supreme Court said Monday, adding to a string of court decisions striking down political maps that unduly favor one political party. The court banned the map of the state’s 18 House districts from being used in this year’s primary and general elections, and ordered a new map be submitted to the court by Feb. 15. But the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature, which approved the current map in 2011, has already said it would try to overturn such a decision in federal court.

Women Confront Larry Nassar in Court: ‘I Was So Brainwashed Then’

On Monday in a Michigan courtroom, on the fifth day of Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar’s sentencing hearings, dozens of women spoke out or had their statements read aloud — statements about how, after winning their trust, he sexually molested them. More than a dozen asked how the abuse could have gone on for decades, and why organizations — such as the national gymnastics governing body and Michigan State University, his employer — enabled him or turned a blind eye. On Monday, several top board members of USA Gymnastics announced their resignations, including the group’s chairman, vice chairman and treasurer.

Supreme Court Considers a Raucous Party and an Endangered Frog

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that District of Columbia police were entitled to arrest partygoers in a vacant house engaged in what Justice Clarence Thomas called, in announcing the decision from the bench, “utter Bacchanalia.” The court also agreed to hear a case on the federal government’s efforts to protect an endangered animal, the dusky gopher frog. The party case arose from a 2008 complaint about loud music coming from a vacant house in northeastern Washington. Police officers found “a makeshift strip club,” Thomas wrote. Sixteen of the partygoers sued, saying there had been no probable cause to arrest them.

More Tax Cuts Tucked in the Funding Bill

The deal struck by Democrats and Republicans on Monday to end a brief government shutdown contains $31 billion in tax cuts, including a temporary delay in implementing three health care-related taxes. Those delays, which enjoy varying degrees of bipartisan support, are not offset by any spending cuts or tax increases, and thus will add to a federal budget deficit that is already projected to increase rapidly as last year’s mammoth new tax law takes effect. The Congressional Budget Office said this month that the federal budget deficit reached $228 billion in the first three months of the current fiscal year.

Paintball, BB and Pellet Gun Injuries Pose Serious Risk to Children’s Eyes