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White House quit waiting for Congress to act
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Washington D.C. During a Thursday night
prime-time address President Obama unveiled his
plan to reform immigration by using his executive
powers. He plan will temporarily shield up to
five million people from the threat of
deportation. He said he had no choice but to go
ahead despite furious claims by Republicans he
is subverting the Constitution and behaving more
like a king. "To those members of Congress who
question my authority to make our immigration
system work better, or question the wisdom of me
acting where Congress have failed, I have one
answer. Pass a bill," Obama said. The president
plans to offer temporary relief from deportation
to the parents of undocumented immigrants who
have been in the country for more than five
years. He'll also extend a program that already
allows undocumented migrants brought here as
children to stay in the country. The measures are
far short of the fix that Obama had hoped a
permanent comprehensive immigration bill would
provide. And since he was forced to act via
executive order, his moves could be wiped out
with the stroke of a pen by a future president. A
president who believes he was elected twice to
engineer change is not giving up just because
Congress is in his way.
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In Other News

• Five detainees at Guantanamo Bay were transferred
  to the nations of Slovakia or Georgia as part of
  the U.S. plan to reduce the facility's population
  of detainees who were suspected of terrorism
  after the September 11, 2001, attacks, officials
  said Thursday. All five detainees "were approved
  for transfer by consensus of" a review task force
  that also looked at security issues, the U.S.
  Department of Defense said in a statement. As of
  Thursday, 143 detainees remain at the U.S. naval
  base in Cuba, the Pentagon said. That number
  compares to the facility's population height of
  more than 750 people after it began accepting
  post-9/11 prisoners.
• Hipsters, rejoice. Next time you ride your
  fixed-gear bicycle to the thrift store, where you
  find a vintage, grease-stained mechanic's shirt
  that matches your Rollie Fingers mustache and
  Grizzly Adams beard, there's an edgy, if
  technologically sub-optimal, way to tell your
  friends about it. Use a flip phone. In an age of
  the iPhone 6 Plus and massive Android phablets,
  flip phones are inexplicably making a comeback.
  No less an arbiter of cool than Vogue magazine
  editor Anna Wintour has apparently dumped her
  iPhone in favor of a flipper. Indianapolis Colts
  quarterback Andrew Luck, actress Kate Beckinsale
  and even Rihanna are just a few of the
  celebrities spotted proudly brandishing the
  famous piece of paleo-technology.