Wayne Byers Show – Evening – Apr 27

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican majority leaders are insisting that Thursday will be the final day of the 65th meeting of the North Dakota Legislature.

Thursday is Day 77, or just short of the 80-day maximum set by the state Constitution.

Lawmakers in the final day put the final touches on last-minute spending bills, including those for higher education, the Department of Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget.

Lawmakers call the OMB bill the “Christmas Tree,” into which all manner of proposals are dumped. It’s typically the last bill approved each session.

While House and Senate negotiators met throughout the day, other lawmakers cleaned out their desks and chatted.

The last day of the session is commonly called Sine Die (SYN’-ee DY’-ee), which means adjourning without setting another meeting.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven says the White House is considering current U.S. Attorney Chris Myers and former U.S attorney and lieutenant governor Drew Wrigley for the state’s top federal prosecutor job.

The Department of Justice named Myers to take over when Timothy Purdon left in the middle of Barack Obama’s second term. Hoeven says it’s up to the administration to decide whether make its own nomination, which is typically the case, or keep Myers.

Hoeven says Myers has told him he does not want to go through the nomination process.

Wrigley served as U.S. attorney from 2001 to 2009 and hired Myers as assistant prosecutor. Wrigley was lieutenant governor from 2010 to 2016 and is now senior management adviser for Sanford Health.

Wrigley and Myers declined to comment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is calling an inquiry into former national security adviser Michael Flynn “appropriate.” The Pentagon’s acting inspector general has begun an inquiry into Flynn, the retired Army officer who was President Trump’s first national security adviser. The probe is of payments received by Flynn from Russia’s state-sponsored RT television network and a Turkish-owned company linked to Turkey’s government.

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli defense official says the military’s Patriot missile that was deployed earlier in the evening over the Golan Heights had struck an incoming drone from Syria. The official says the military is checking to see if it was a Russian aircraft that had entered the Israeli side by mistake or if it was a Syrian one. The incident comes after Syria accused Israel of striking a military installation near Damascus airport, setting off a series of pre-dawn explosions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have joined forces against the deep cuts President Donald Trump has planned for American diplomacy and foreign aid. Forty-three senators have released a letter saying that deep cuts “would be shortsighted, counterproductive and even dangerous” at a time when the U.S. faces numerous security challenges around the world.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration wants to exert a “burst” of economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea that yields results within months to push the communist government to change course from developing nuclear weapons. Susan Thornton is the acting top U.S. diplomat for East Asia. She says the administration wants to do all it can to test whether Pyongyang is willing to give up its weapons programs and to resolve the issue peacefully.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he was planning to pull the U.S. out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but he’s been persuaded to reconsider. Trump said at the White House that if he can’t renegotiate a fair deal for the U.S., he will terminate U.S. participation in NAFTA. The president says renegotiation is starting Thursday.