Page 3 - AT

A3
U.S. NEWS Tuesday 8 January 2019

Port: Largest shipping cranes to operate in US have arrived

Continued from Front Projects include dredging Cargo includes electronics, slapping tariffs on Chinese- trade worries are over.
deeper channels in Geor- furniture and automobile made gantry cranes. McNab, the economics
Shipping companies are gia and South Carolina. parts comes in from all over The port had approved professor, said there al-
using fewer but larger Part of a bridge was elevat- the world and goes to cities spending $40 million for the ready are concerns that
container ships to save on ed to allow bigger ships to such as Louisville, Kentucky, cranes. A 25 percent tariff economic growth is slow-
costs. And the recent ex- reach New York City-area and Chicago. Ships leave could have meant a $10 ing in the European Union
pansion of the Panama ports. The new cranes in Vir- the port carrying anything million cost increase that and China. A continued
Canal has increased ship ginia should be up and run- from logs from Appalachia wasn’t budgeted. Reinhart, increase in trade tensions
traffic between Asia and ning in about two months to soybeans from Virginia. the port’s CEO, shared his could lead to a global slow-
the U.S. East Coast. in Portsmouth, a city near The cranes’ delivery to concerns with the Office down, he said. Demand for
An “arms race” is under- the mouth of the Chesa- Virginia had come under of the United States Trade U.S. exports could fall. Pric-
way as ports try to make peake Bay. The cranes are threat over the summer Representative. The cranes es on foreign imports could
room for the larger ships, part of an ongoing expan- as trade tensions escalat- were eventually removed rise. “It could take a bite
said Robert McNab, an sion-and-dredging proj- ed between the U.S. and from a list of Chinese goods out of traffic at the Port of
economics professor at Old ect at the Port of Virginia, China. President Donald that were being consid- Virginia and the other ports
Dominion University in Nor- which also has terminals in Trump’s administration had ered for tariffs. in the United States,” he
folk. the nearby city of Norfolk. at one point proposed But that doesn’t mean said.q

Expert: Census citizenship question would hurt Latino count

By SUDHIN THANAWA- protections for immigrants in the 1950 census.
LA, Associated Press in the country illegally. Documents in the litiga-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — U.S. Judge Richard See- tion in New York appear to
Asking people whether borg is scheduled to hear show that Ross was pushing
they are U.S. citizens on the a week of testimony from for the question well before
2020 census would worsen experts and other witnesses the Justice Department’s
the undercount of Lati- in the census case before request and spoke about
nos and non-citizens com- deciding whether to allow it in spring 2017 with former
pared with other groups, the question. Seeborg is senior White House adviser
an expert in surveys said the second federal judge Steve Bannon and then-
Monday at the start of a considering the issue, with Attorney General Jeff Ses-
trial over the Trump admin- a ruling by the first judge sions.
istration’s decision to in- expected soon after a trial There was enough evi-
clude the question for the in New York ended in No- dence “to infer that Secre-
first time in 70 years. vember. tary Ross was motivated to
Colm O’Muircheartaigh, a This March 23, 2018, file photo shows an envelope containing a The Commerce Depart- add the citizenship ques-
2018 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident as part of the nation’s
professor at the University of only test run of the 2020 Census. ment announced the ad- tion for the partisan pur-
Chicago, said the question Associated Press dition of a citizenship ques- pose of facilitating the ex-
would reduce the percent- tion in March, saying the clusion of non-citizens from
age of Latinos and non- the state said in the lawsuit. O’Muircheartaigh, who Justice Department had the population count for
citizens who respond to the Figures from the census are has served as an adviser requested it and it would congressional apportion-
census questionnaire. He used to determine the dis- to the Census Bureau, said improve enforcement of a ment,” California and other
testified in federal court for tribution of congressional the bureau’s additional ef- 1965 law meant to protect plaintiffs told Seeborg in
California and numerous seats to states and billions forts to count those people minority voting rights. court documents.
cities that argue that asking of dollars in federal funding. would not “remediate the Government attorney Car- Ross’ interest in pursuing the
about citizenship is politi- The U.S. Justice Depart- damage caused by the lotta Wells said in an open- question and his discussions
cally motivated. The state ment argues that census introduction of the citizen- ing statement that Com- with other people are not
and cities are suing the U.S. officials take steps to guard ship question,” referring to merce Secretary Wilbur evidence of an improper
government to keep the against an undercount, in- an undercount of certain Ross considered a range motive, Wells said.
question off the population cluding making follow-up groups. It’s the latest battle of opinions and evaluated O’Muircheartaigh’s testi-
count that is done every visits in person, so the final between California and data from census officials mony is part of the plaintiffs’
decade. numbers will be accurate. President Donald Trump’s before making his decision. effort to show the citizen-
California has the largest Households that skip the administration, with both The move sparked an out- ship question would result
number of foreign-born citizenship question but sides suing the other over cry from Democrats, who in a costly undercount that
residents and non-citizens otherwise fill out a substan- immigration and other is- said it would disproportion- they say would violate the
of any state, so an under- tial portion of the survey sues. The government has ately affect states favoring constitutional requirement
count would jeopardize its will still be counted, gov- cracked down on immigra- their party. All households that the census include
federal funding and con- ernment attorneys said in tion and border security, were last asked whether in- everyone in the U.S., even
gressional representation, court documents. while California has some dividuals were U.S. citizens non-citizens. q