Donald Trump

Congress has passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill that’ll keep the federal government running. In that package, which President Donald Trump signed on Friday, is a fix for a troublesome provision for some grain businesses.

Passed in last year’s tax overhaul, the provision allows farmers to deduct up to 20 percent of their earnings from selling crops — but only to cooperatives. That threatens businesses that aren’t co-ops but also buy and sell commodities like corn, soybeans and wheat, including large companies like Cargill and Bunge to small, local grain elevators.

The threat of deportation has made Lawrence resident Syed Jamal an international cause celebre. On Monday, the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia granted a stay in his case, preventing immigration enforcement officials from deporting him to his native Bangladesh.

Jamal’s legal saga offers an illustration of the U.S. immigration system’s perils for people whose fate depends on the discretion of government officials making judgments in the context of an administration’s political priorities.

President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address to Congress, followed by a response from the Democratic Party. Journalists across the NPR newsroom annotated those remarks, adding fact-checks and analysis in real time.

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