National News at a Glance

Secretaries and Teachers Guard Inmates as Cuts Hamstring Prisons

As the Trump administration has curtailed hiring in its quest to reduce the size of the government, some federal prisons are so pressed for guards that they regularly compel teachers, nurses, secretaries and other support staff to step in. Many prisons have been operating in a perpetual state of staffing turmoil, leaving some workers feeling ill-equipped and unsafe on the job, according to interviews and internal documents from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. As a result, inmates have become more brazen with staff members and more violent with one another.

U.S. Easing Reins on Cyberattacks

The Pentagon has empowered the U.S. Cyber Command to take a more aggressive approach to defending the nation against cyberattacks, a shift in strategy that could increase the risk of conflict with the foreign states that sponsor malicious hacking groups. Until now, the Cyber Command has assumed a largely defensive posture, trying to counter attackers as they enter U.S. networks. In the few instances when it has gone on the offensive, particularly in trying to disrupt the online activities of the Islamic State and its recruiters, the results have been mixed.

In Senate Bid, a Provocateur Evokes Trump

Corey Stewart, the far-right provocateur who won the Republican Senate nomination in Virginia last week, is a Minnesota transplant who defends the Confederacy but invokes diversity — a blunt approach to racial issues that mimics President Donald Trump’s. Both men have praised white nationalists in the past while talking about race to suit their purposes — Trump often takes credit for low black unemployment — and have especially used attacks on immigrants to get attention and stand out among more conventional politicians.

First Lady Weighs In on Taking Children

Melania Trump urged “both sides of the aisle” Sunday to come together to stop federal authorities from separating children from their parents when apprehended at the border, a rare public intervention in an issue that has generated enormous criticism of her husband. The first lady said the country should be governed “with a heart,” but did not take issue with President Donald Trump’s policy. Instead, by saying that “both sides” needed to agree, she adopted his argument that the situation was caused by political stalemate rather than a policy he initiated.

A Mother’s Plea: ‘I Can’t Go Without My Son’

As the U.S. government continues to separate families as part of a stepped-up enforcement program against those who cross the border illegally, authorities say that parents are not supposed to be deported without their children. But immigration lawyers say that has happened in several cases, including that of Elsa Johana Ortiz Enriquez. Her 8-year-old son, Anthony, was sent to a shelter and she was put on a plane back to Guatemala after they were apprehended in Texas. "Please don’t put me on the plane,” she remembered pleading in Spanish. “I can’t go without my son.”

Trumpism Finds a Safe Place at a Conservative Women’s Conference

The Turning Point USA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit, an annual conference sponsored by the National Rifle Association and others that began in 2015, has evolved into an ultra-Trumpian event complete with “lock her up” chants and vulgar T-shirts disparaging Hillary Clinton. The conference, which styles itself as an alternative to a liberal culture of feminism that many Republicans characterize as oppressive, attracted an estimated 1,000 conservative women ages 17 to 24 to Dallas for sessions like “How Political Correctness is Making Everyone Stupid” and “In the Age of Resist: Be Revolutionary.”

1 Dead, 17 Shot at Arts Festival in New Jersey

Several gunmen opened fire early Sunday morning at the Art All Night festival in Trenton, New Jersey, leaving one person dead and 17 people injured. Authorities said the shooting appeared to be gang-related and that five other people were trampled in the chaos. The person who was killed, Tahaij Wells, 32, was believed to have been shot dead by the police and was one of multiple gunmen. Angelo J. Onofri, the Mercer County prosecutor, said Sunday that before the shooting there were "numerous physical altercations that took place both inside and outside of the venue.”