Trump: Definitely not signing bipartisan housing bill

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday put to rest any lingering hopes he would sign into law major housing legislation Congress recently cleared with overwhelming bipartisan majorities.

The legislation, which is designed to increase the supply and lower the costs of housing, would become law at midnight Friday if Trump doesn’t veto the measure. The Constitution says bills become law after 10 days, excluding Sundays, without a presidential signature — unless the bill is vetoed.

Trump said he won’t sign the bill because he is frustrated that the Senate has not passed an election security bill that would require voters to prove citizenship to register and bring photo ID to the polls. There is not enough support in the Senate for that measure to overcome a filibuster.

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

—CQ-Roll Call

University of California weighs return of SAT amid early signs of changing views and faculty pressure

LOS ANGELES — The debate over whether the University of California should restore the SAT in admissions, expected to surface next week before regents, is emerging as one of its most closely watched and consequential issues as leaders assess how the nation's premier public university decides who gets a coveted seat.

There are early signs that views may have changed in the six years since the governing board unanimously voted to eliminate SAT and ACT requirements. One of the most significant: Former UC President Janet Napolitano, who was at UC's helm at the time, says a hard reassessment is much needed after a faculty outcry that students are severely deficient in math skills.

A standardized test score "shouldn't be a sole factor" in determining access to UC, Napolitano said, but a renewed look at admissions could conclude it should be "a factor."

She and others spoke to the high stakes of the decision amid a supercharged political climate in which the Trump administration has opened multiple investigations into UC admission practices for alleged racial discrimination.

—Los Angeles Times

Kristi Noem divorcing husband caught in sex-fetish, cross-dressing ‘secret life’

Kristi Noem’s mother broke the news Friday that the former Department of Homeland Security secretary has begun divorce proceedings against her husband Bryon after 34 years of marriage — and after it was publicly revealed in March that the insurance agent and father of three allegedly liked to cross-dress as a woman with excessively large breasts while engaging in online affairs with fetish sex workers and dominatrixes from the “bimbofication scene.”

“I feel bad, sick that they’re getting a divorce, but what else can you do?” Noem’s mother, Corinne Arnold, said in an interview with the Daily Mail published Friday. “It has been difficult, but we knew this was coming, that they were going to get divorced.”

Arnold spoke to the Daily Mail during an interview at her home, abutting the South Dakota ranch where her 54-year-old daughter, also the state’s former governor, once lived with Bryon, her high school sweetheart and father of her three adult children.

But Bryon packed up and moved out of the ranch after the Daily Mail broke the news about his “secret life,” in which he communicated online with female porn performers before and during his wife’s controversial leadership of the DHS.

—The Mercury News

US demands Iran declare Strait of Hormuz open to all ships

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is demanding that Iran issue a public statement that all channels of the Strait of Hormuz are open to shipping and that they will not attack transiting civilian vessels, according to senior administration officials.

The officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Friday, said they expected talks to continue despite the latest flare-up in tensions with Iran.

Still, the U.S. officials warned that failure to do so by Tehran to deliver the public assurance would result in consequences. An official said that the U.S. expects Iran to say something publicly to allay U.S. concerns.

Earlier Friday, Trump said the U.S. would continue talks with Iran but that he considers the ceasefire between the countries to be over. His administration moved to add sanctions on Tehran.

—Bloomberg News