Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers training at a local gun range largely went unnoticed by residents of one Southern California city for more than a decade, until President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the recent fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents.
The arrangement in Escondido, a city of about 150,000 people north of San Diego surrounded by farms and horse ranches, has sparked weeks of demonstrations. Residents are demanding that the city stop allowing ICE agents to train at the local police department range, reflecting growing discontent across the country with the administration’s immigration actions.
“We don’t want ICE anywhere near Escondido or fraternizing with the police,” said Richard Garner, 71, while rallying against the deal outside the city’s police station.
Light snow fell over parts of the Northeast on Wednesday as people navigated to work and school after a massive storm that dropped piles of powder on streets and sidewalks from Maryland to Maine.
One to 3 more inches (2.5 to 7.6 centimeters) of snow was expected, much less than the last storm, but whatever melted likely froze again overnight, resulting in patchy black ice to make for some slippery roads, the National Weather Service said. As temperatures rose by mid-morning in some places, much of that became a slushy mess.
The gigantic snowstorm this week has cities working overtime to clear towering heaps. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani got creative: in addition to spreading 143 million pounds (65 million kilograms) of salt by Tuesday evening, the city signed up at least 3,500 people as emergency shovelers, working $30-per-hour shifts to clear snow from bus stops and streets.
Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure tactics ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran’s nuclear program, alternating between calling his remarks “big lies” and saying negotiations may yield an agreement through “honorable diplomacy.”
The remarks by two Iranian officials ahead of Thursday’s talks come as America has assembled its biggest deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades. The buildup is part of Trump’s efforts to get a deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program while the country struggles at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests last month.
If the negotiations fail, Trump repeatedly has threatened to attack Iran — something Mideast nations fear could spiral into a new regional war as the embers of the yearslong Israel-Hamas war still smolder. Already, Iran has said all U.S. military bases in the Mideast would be considered legitimate targets, putting at risk tens of thousands of American service members.
