Mental health and guns: Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants the Justice Department to study how mental illness and gun violence intersect after a 19-year-old gunman with a troubled past opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday. Law enforcement officials say Nikolas Cruz used a legally-purchased AR-15 rifle in the mass shooting, killing 17 people. “It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening in our country,” Sessions told a group of sheriffs in Washington. In “every one of these cases, we’ve had advance indications and perhaps we haven’t been effective enough in intervening.” Read more.
Feeling good: The positive outlook from U.S. builders is being buoyed by a very strong job market and the overall health of the economy. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index, released today, remains at 72 this month. That’s still just 2 points shy of December’s reading, which was an 18-year high for optimism from the nation’s builders. Readings above 50 indicate more builders see sales conditions as good rather than poor. The index has remained above 60 since September 2016. Read more.
Civil penalties: The Environmental Protection Agency has collected roughly half as much in civil penalties from polluters during President Donald Trump’s first year in the White House than it did under the past three presidents in the same time frame, Bloomberg reports, citing new research from the nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project. The assessment found that Trump’s EPA settled roughly 44% fewer civil cases involving violations of environmental laws. Penalties collected totaled 49% of the average of the three previous presidents’ first year in office. Read more.
