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Texas GOP resists new gun regulations after deadly shootings · Apple News Today

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  Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning! It is Monday, May 8th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shumita Basu, and this is "Apple News Today."
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  On today's show, crunch time in the debt ceiling fight, the former Trump insider who now works at Starbucks after blowing the whistle, plus a few essential tips for navigating summer travel.
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  But first, eight people are dead after a gunman opened fire at a mall in Allen, Texas over the weekend using an AR-15-style rifle. The gunman was shot and killed by police. Investigators are reportedly looking into whether white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs were a possible motive here.
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  This shooting came just days after a man killed five of his neighbors in Texas and a little less than a year after the killings at an elementary school in Uvalde. There have been more than 200 mass shootings in America this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
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  "The Texas Tribune" reports on how Republicans in the state are following a familiar pattern: downplaying gun laws and focusing on mental health. Governor Greg Abbott was on "Fox News" yesterday.
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  Greg Abbott: There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America. And what Texas is doing in a big-time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing the mental health problems behind it.
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  Victims' families have called for stricter gun laws in the state. But in many ways, lawmakers have gone in the other direction. One of the biggest moves was in 2021, when they passed a bill to allow openly carrying handguns without a permit. This was two years after mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa killed dozens of people.
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  The day before the shooting in Allen, a state representative, Democrat Jarvis Johnson, urged lawmakers to take action on guns.
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  [START TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Jarvis Johnson: [SHOUTING] It is time to legislate. Children have died in this state. And you guys are sitting here joking and playing and thinking this is a joke. This is not a joke! This is real. Children every day are dying.
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  Uvalde families support a bill to raise the age for buying a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21. But that measure appears unlikely to advance.
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  We're now just a few short weeks away from the date the Treasury Department says the U.S. could default on its debt. That could happen as soon as June 1st, if there's no deal to raise the debt ceiling. Tomorrow, President Biden hosts the top four Congressional leaders at the White House to talk about it.
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  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is one of those four. And he told "NBC" that Republicans should raise the debt ceiling without conditions.
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  Hakeem Jeffries: The only responsible thing to do is to do what Democrats did in the previous administration where we helped President Trump raise the debt ceiling and avoid a default three different times.
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  Now, Republicans have held to their position that any deal to raise the debt ceiling needs to come with big spending cuts. House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told "Fox News" that lawmakers can raise the ceiling and cut spending at the same time.
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  Jodey Arrington: We're not going to give any politicians, including the president, a blank check to continue to bankrupt the country. I mean, $10 trillion over the last two years, six of which has gone to the national debt, our debt trajectory is completely unsustainable and our nation's health is rapidly deteriorating.
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  So, that is where things stand in public. "The Wall Street Journal" reports on what may be discussed in private talks. There's chatter now about temporarily raising the debt ceiling to buy time for more budget conversations.
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  Democrats have signaled they're open to talks with Republicans on spending down the road. But there's no guarantee an extension like this would happen. Key lawmakers in both parties have said publicly they don't want to do a short-term deal. We may know more about what is to come after tomorrow's meeting at the White House.
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  Will Wilkerson often wakes up before sunrise to crank out lattes and Frappuccinos at Starbucks. But just about six months ago, he was an executive vice president at Donald Trump's media business. "Washington Post" Reporter Drew Harwell explains how a Trump insider ended up slinging coffees.
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  Drew Harwell: In the last couple months, he decided to blow the whistle and take a lot of records from the company and share them with federal investigators and with journalists like us because he felt like Trump's company was deceiving investors, they were not telling the truth about how the company was running, and they were just mismanaging the shop.
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  To understanding how big a deal this is, it's important to get into how the former president's media venture was set up.
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  Harwell: The big idea with "Trump Media" was they were going to create this thing called a SPAC, a special purpose acquisition company. It's this blank check company that a lot of people can pour money into. It's a really quick way to make a giant company.
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  Hundreds of millions of dollars were at stake. But a potential SPAC deal is on hold while the SCC investigates. "The Post" asked Trump's media ventures about Wilkerson's claims. They criticized the story but didn't point to specific problems or inaccuracies.
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  "Trump Media" fired Wilkerson after he spoke with "The Post," and that's how he ended up working at a Starbucks inside a grocery store in North Carolina.
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  Harwell: So, he went from being the senior executive at this Trump company, with one phone call away from the former president, to being a barista trainer working really early morning shifts at this grocery store, making Frappuccinos for $16 an hour.
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  A lot of his coffee shop co-workers had no idea about his unusual background.
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  Harwell: Which is just fascinating to me because he plays this really important role now in potentially modern history with a former president who could potentially be a future president. It just struck me as really interesting that he has almost these two lives. There's one where he's this whistle blower throwing a spotlight on this giant, corporate intrigue, and one in which he's just a barista trainer making coffee and just going to work all day.
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  Today, the Biden administration is expected to propose a new rule to mandate that airlines pay passengers for canceled or delayed flights. It's some potentially good news for flyers. But there are also other signs that the upcoming summer travel season could be quite complicated and expensive. So, we wanted to round up some quick tips for you.
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  First, be ready for higher flight prices. "Forbes" reports that air fares are at a five-year high because of pent-up demand, low supply on international routes and high fuel prices. Tickets to Europe are nearly 25% higher than pre-pandemic. Tickets to Asia are up more than 60%. Now, there may be some better deals elsewhere. Domestic flight prices are steady with pre-pandemic levels and flights to South America are down a bit.
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  If you do decide to go abroad, check that passport. If it's close to expiring, do not delay getting it renewed. Trust me from [LAUGHS] experience, you do not wait on doing this. The State Department says demand for new passports is way up. A standard renewal might take close to 4 months including mailing time, and even if you pay extra for faster processing, it could still take a couple of months.
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  Then, of course, there's finding a place to stay. "The Atlantic" looks into how booking hotels online got to be so difficult these days. Often, the price goes up when you finally book, as hidden fees kick in. And sometimes those deals disappear altogether.
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  The story has a little tip though: try searching for hotels in private browsing mode. That'll prevent sites from tracking your browsing and charging you a higher price if they think you're especially eager for a particular place.
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  You can find those travel stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next.
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  "Vanity Fair" reports on a controversial venture in Fiji that aims to alter a reef in order to engineer better waves.
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  So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and we're gonna be back with the news tomorrow.
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