Trump rejects deal to end shutdown as ICE heads to troubled airports

President Donald Trump Monday rejected a bipartisan deal that could end the partial government shutdown and ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to patrol some airport security checkpoints as air travel delays kept getting worse.

As ICE agents headed to 14 airports in the New York area and nationwide, Trump refused a proposed deal with Democrats that would end the airport chaos by having the Senate pass a spending package for the entire Department of Homeland Security except for ICE.

He wants GOP to keep pushing Democrats to cave and accept his unrelated bill imposing new voting restrictions. “I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

ICE agents, which have sparked controversy with their aggressive tactics, were deployed early Monday at Newark Liberty Airport and were also expected at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, which was temporarily closed after a deadly Air Canada runway collision late Sunday.

—New York Daily News

States challenge USDA conditions on nutrition program funds

WASHINGTON — A coalition of states filed a lawsuit Monday challenging a Trump administration effort to impose certain conditions on billions of dollars for key federal nutrition programs from the Department of Agriculture.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by 20 states and the District of Columbia, argues the USDA has angled to put in place vague conditions on programs and grants, including those responsible for providing assistance to women, children and low-income Americans.

“USDA has now thrown unconstitutional and unlawful roadblocks between the programs created by Congress and the States that rely on them,” the lawsuit states.

At the center of the case are a slate of funding conditions outlined months ago by USDA that relate to “gender ideology,” immigration and “fair athletic opportunities” for women and girls, the lawsuit states. The conditions are designed to coerce states into adopting USDA policies to continue receiving billions of dollars in food and critical funding, the lawsuit states.

—CQ-Roll Call

Head of Russian cybercriminal group Mario Kart sentenced in Detroit

DETROIT — The leader of a Russian cybercriminal group was sentenced to two years in federal prison Monday for conspiring with an organization that locked companies out of computers until executives paid more than $14.1 million.

The extortion scheme involving Illya Angelov and his criminal organization, known by the FBI as Mario Kart, is described in a federal case that remained a secret for more than two years until U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds unsealed the docket March 17 in Detroit.

The scheme ran from 2017-21 and victimized 72 companies in 31 states and across the region, including businesses in Detroit, Rochester Hills and Saginaw. Prosecutors said Angelov and co-conspirators built a network of compromised computers — called a botnet — that distributed malware-infected files attached to spam emails.

"Angelov and his co-manager then monetized this botnet by selling access to individual compromised computers ... ," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Wyse wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "This access was sold to other criminal groups, who typically engaged in ransomware extortion schemes: locking victims out of their computer networks and demanding extortion payments to restore access."

—The Detroit News

France’s far right misses key targets in municipal elections

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally fell short in its bid to take control of a host of major French cities in Sunday’s municipal election, signaling potential difficulties for the far-right party ahead of next year’s presidential ballot.

The National Rally was defeated in a handful of large municipalities they targeted, including Marseille, Toulon and Nimes. A far-right candidate aligned with Le Pen, however, won in Nice, the fifth-largest city in France.

Le Pen and National Rally President Jordan Bardella sought to use the ballots in 35,000 cities across France to consolidate support ahead of next year’s election, when Emmanuel Macron is barred from running again. And while the far right broadly improved its vote count, the National Rally failed to translate that into key victories in the two-round electoral system.

In an interview with France 2 TV, Le Pen said she was “of course a bit disappointed” by the results in large cities but stressed that her party will become the main opposition party in many municipalities.

—Bloomberg News