Arizona Bill Against Squatting Nears Passing; Florida, CA Lawmakers Target Retail Theft – Apr. 10

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to NTD Tonight. I'm David Zhang. Here is a preview of some of today's top stories. President Biden hosted Japan's prime minister at the White House today. They discussed U.S.-Japan military cooperation and challenges from Communist China. DeSantis signs a new bill targeting retail theft in Florida, while California advocates for multiple laws to safeguard against theft within the state. How to remove squatters from a home. Arizona is one step away from making it easier for homeowners and police to remove such people. First up, President Biden met with Japan's prime minister today at White House. Let's take a look. President Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House today for a state visit. In his opening speech, Biden underscored the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance. President Eisenhower said his goal was to establish an indestructible partnership between our countries. Today, the world can see that goal has been achieved, and that partnership between us is unbreakable. The leaders are expected to announce plans to upgrade U.S.-Japan military cooperation. Both sides say they face challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly from Communist China. Ahead of Kishida's visit, the U.S. ambassador to Japan said the summit will bring about a historic upgrade in defense ties between the two allies. The U.S. Department of Energy announced that the U.S. and Japan will launch a joint partnership. It will focus on developing and commercializing nuclear fusion. The President of the Philippines will join the meeting with Biden and Kishida later this week. He says the trilateral summit will include an agreement to maintain security and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. A new poll shows Latino voters increasingly support former President Trump. He is close to President Biden in overall support and ahead of him on key issues. The Axios-Ipsos poll released yesterday published new numbers. It found 31% of Latinos who intend to vote say they'd vote for Biden, 28% say they'd vote for Trump. And Trump is ahead of Biden among Latinos on the top three major issues—the economy, crime, and immigration. Biden, meanwhile, leads on issues that don't seem to be top of mind for this demographic, namely the health of American democracy and abortion. Meanwhile, Trump said today that he would not sign a federal abortion ban if one reached this desk where he'd be elected in November. He called for the abortion issue to be decided by the states and praised the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Here's Trump making remarks on the tarmac after arriving in Atlanta for a fundraiser today. The Environmental Protection Agency is setting new regulations on the amount of forever chemicals that can be found in drinking water. It is the first federal standard of this kind. The new standard will require water utilities to filter out five of the forever chemicals, also called PFAs. They're currently found in half of the drinking water in the U.S. PFAs have been linked to a number of health issues, including cancer, heart disease, and reproductive problems. The CDC says they're found in the bloodstream of nearly 97 percent of the Americans. These chemicals are often used to help products repel water and oil, but they linger in the environment and human body. From Texas to Georgia, the Southwest saw flash floods, fierce winds, baseball-sized hail, and tornadoes from a severe storm today. 13 million people were under flood watches as of this morning. Over 200,000 were left without power. Officials warned the system would bring a lot of rain, and with that, a risk of deadly flooding. Kirbyvale, Texas, was left in distress this morning after the storm caused severe flooding. Emergency crew responded to at least 10 water rescues. Pinnoke Creek is now in major flood stage after rising 10 feet in six hours. In addition to flooding, the storms also caused major damages to several businesses. With the retail theft on the rise nationwide, Florida and California lawmakers introduced new bills in hopes of solving growing retail theft problems. NTV's Christina Corona has more on the story. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that will increase penalties for retail theft throughout Florida and seeks to prevent smash-and-grab robberies. HB 549 allows law enforcement to impose tougher punishments for retail theft and inciting looting through social media. We are also going to make it a second-degree felony if you use social media to solicit others to participate in retail theft because what you have are these flash mobs that are incited by social media to descend on some stores. A third-degree felony, punishable up to five years in prison, will be issued if criminals commit retail theft with five or more individuals. We're also increasing penalties for these so-called retail theft rings. So if you have five or more people, you're going to have enhanced penalties as a result of that because this is a coordinated effort that you see in some of these jurisdictions. HB 549 will also allow tougher punishments for porch piracy. DeSantis criticized laws in other states such as California. This retail theft, it's a total scam. You have liberal laws and these people are exploiting that to basically further themselves knowing that they can loot a certain amount without really facing any significant penalty. However in California, a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced seven bills in a comprehensive package in hopes to strengthen public safety and protect shoppers and business owners across the state. Among them was AB 2943, the California Retail Theft Reduction Act that would target serial retail thieves with the penalty of up to three years behind bars and provide rehab and diversion programs. It targets those that engage in repeated specified conduct or possess a quantity of goods inconsistent with personal use. Other bills such as AB 3209 would enable retailers to obtain a restraining order lasting up to two years after a conviction or multiple citation for theft offenses. And AB 1972 seeks to strengthen the California Highway Patrol's resources at railroads to combat cargo theft. These seven bills will sharpen California's ability to tackle organized crime head-on, to address retail crime, to hold perpetrators accountable when they commit crime, to protect our communities, to keep our businesses safe. These bills underwent review in the Public Safety Committee. They must proceed through additional committees before reaching the governor's desk. Christina Corona, NTD News. How to remove squatters is a topic of growing concern in the nation. A new law in Arizona addressing the issue was just sent to the governor's desk. Arizona Senate Bill 1129 would simplify the process for property owners to remove squatters from a home. You go on vacation, your house is empty, you think you've been gone for weeks, months, you come home and there are squatters in your property. But one of the biggest victims in this crime are military. Those who are deployed overseas, they're there for a year, year and a half, some up to two years. Representative Justin Heal said his understanding is the law aims to make it easier for police to determine whether a person is squatting or not. He said often the police refer the owner to the court system, which could take weeks. Police will often get a call saying there's someone in my home. They show up at the home, they say this is my home, this person doesn't belong here, they should go. The squatter who's in the house says no, this is my house and I'm not leaving. One speaker had concerns about potential abuse of the law that could be used against domestic violence victims. This codifies that situation and also will not only render those women homeless but also as criminals. The issue of squatting has been gaining national attention recently. An illegal immigrant from Venezuela went viral on social media for giving instructions on how to squat in American homes. He was arrested by the feds on March 31st. Two weeks ago in Florida, House Bill 621 was signed into law. The bill is similar to the one in Arizona where it makes it easier for homeowners and police to immediately remove squatters. Arizona's bill is now waiting for the governor's signature before passing into law. We'll take a short break now everybody but here's a look at what we have for you when we come back. Hawaii is looking to phase out vacation rental homes. Lawmakers say the move would make more housing available to permanent residents. In Los Angeles, there are too many dogs in animal shelters. The city is temporarily pausing breeding permits until more dogs can find forever homes. Track and field becomes the first sport to pay prize money at the Olympics. Find out how much pairs gold medalists could receive. Those stories and more coming up on NTD Tonight. Welcome back to NTD Tonight. I'm your host David Zhang. It might get harder to book a vacation home in Hawaii. The state is planning to phase out vacation rentals in an effort to make more housing available for its permanent residents. Hawaii is planning to ban short-term vacation rentals in an attempt to address the state's housing crisis. Through two bills, House Bill 1838 and Senate Bill 2919, counties would be able to get rid of short-term rentals and limit where visitors may stay on the islands. Part of that shortage is because we are building far too few homes in Hawaii. But also of the homes that we're building, many of those are being converted to vacation rentals. As I've said here before, Island of Kauai, one in eight homes is a vacation rental. Island of Maui, I believe one in seven homes is a vacation rental. And as long as outside investors can purchase property in Hawaii and make a whole lot of money by renting those out to visitors, we are going to have a really hard time solving our affordable housing crisis. And so this allows them to implement what they have been trying to do to decrease the number of vacation rentals that are residential homes that have been taken out of residential use and put into resort use at a time when we have a housing crisis. And we are investing a lot of our state taxpayer dollars into creating affordable housing. And we have that housing stock. Taking it back will help. Thank you. The push comes after last year's wildfire in Lahaina that burned down homes and displaced thousands. Lawmakers hope by passing the bills, Maui residents can find long-term housing. According to data from the University of Hawaii, the state has about 565,000 housing units and about 5 percent, or 30,000 units, are listed as short-term vacation rentals. Hawaii's tight housing market is one of the highest in the country. According to real estate brokerage Redfin, in February, home prices in Hawaii were up 10.3 percent compared to last year, with a median sale price of about $744,000. HB 1838 was recently passed on March 28th, and SB 2919 will get a third reading by April 11th. A new California bill aims to address the rise of AI-generated child sexual abuse material, now making its way through the state legislature. NTV's Christina Crona has more on the story. According to a news release, AB 1831 would address the escalating threat posed by artificial intelligence in the creation of lifelike illicit content involving children. Ventura County District Attorney Eric Nosorenko and Assembly Member Mark Berman introduced the measure in January. Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, refers to visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct involving minors. District Attorney Eric Nosorenko said in a statement, As technology evolves, so must our laws. This bill sends a clear message that our society will not tolerate the malicious use of artificial intelligence to produce harmful sexual content involving minors. In February, artificially generated nude photos of students were being shared among classmates at a middle school in Beverly Hills. The existing law prohibits the creation, distribution, and possession of CSAM depicting an actual child. It does not address the AI-generated images that depict the likeness of a child. Assembly Member Mark Berman said, We must stop the exploitation of children. It is critical that our laws keep up with rapidly evolving AI technology to ensure predators are being prosecuted and children are being protected. AB 1831 would prohibit the creation, distribution, and possession of obscene CSAM images generated by AI, adding new restrictions to California law. AB 1831 could become a law if it passes the State Assembly and Senate and is signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Christina Corona, NTD News. Los Angeles is temporarily banning dog breeding as the population in dog shelters grows to more than double its capacity. The ban would be lifted when the shelters reach a certain threshold. The City of Los Angeles has passed a temporary moratorium on issuing dog breeding permits until the dog population in the city's animal shelters is reduced. During a City Council meeting on April 9th, lawmakers say many factors contributed to the crisis, including a lack of pet-friendly rental units, a wave of dogs being dropped off at shelters after COVID-19, and pets that are not being spayed or neutered. But despite the current conditions, there are currently very few barriers to obtaining a breeding permit. In fact, last year the Department of Animal Services had issued more than 1,100 breeding permits in just the first six months of the year. And staff and volunteers at our shelters have shared that there has been an influx of purebred dogs being dropped off at our shelters. It is unacceptable for the city to continue issuing breeding permits while thousands of animals are suffering from overcrowded conditions in our shelters. According to the L.A. Animal Services, their shelters are 212 percent over capacity. There are about 1,500 dogs living in a space meant for 737 dogs. According to its website, an average of 47 dogs enter the shelters each day and 46 leave. If just three additional dogs left the shelters each day, the shelter would get down to within its built capacity in under nine months. The moratorium will be in place until shelters are below 75 percent capacity. Big news in the world of sports. The Olympics are set for a groundbreaking change as track and field becomes the first sport to introduce prize money at the Paris Games. NTV's Carlos Reyes has more on the story. In a landmark move set to redefine the landscape of Olympic competition, track and field is poised to pioneer the introduction of prize money at the world's most prestigious sporting event. World Athletics announced on Wednesday its decision to allocate $2.14 million towards awarding gold medalists in the upcoming Paris Olympics, a significant sum of $50,000 each, marking a symbolic departure from the amateur custom that has long characterized the Games. This paradigm change underlines a fundamental understanding of the important role athletes play in the Olympic spectacle, and it comes under the direction of World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. Coe himself, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, emphasized that the revenue generated largely hinges on the captivating performances of these athletes, thus warranting acknowledgment in the form of tangible rewards. However, this departure from tradition has not been without its share of contention. While World Athletics notified the International Olympic Committee, IOC, of its intentions, the move was made with minimal consultation, potentially unsettling the delicate equilibrium within the Olympic movement. Despite the IOC's stance of redistributing the lion's share of its income to support athletes and sporting bodies worldwide, World Athletics' decision signals a seismic shift towards acknowledging the evolving dynamics of professional sports. With prize money now on offer, athletes are not only vying for Olympic glory, but also substantial financial incentive. Yet it's worth noting that despite this groundbreaking development, Olympic gold medalists in track and field will still earn less than their counterparts at the World Athletics' own championships, where individual gold medalists received $70,000 last year. As the countdown to the Paris Olympics gathers momentum, the inclusion of prize money in track and field sets a precedent that could potentially reverberate across other Olympic sports. Carlos Reyes, NTD News. Turning to the South China Sea, U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander John Aquilino says Beijing wants to forcibly gain ground in the region. This comes as China continues to ramp up territorial claims at the Philippines' doorstep. The illegal claim of everything inside of the self-proclaimed nine or ten dash line as Chinese sovereign territorial waters has no basis in international law. Aquilino added China's actions are quote dangerous, illegal, and they are destabilizing the region. Beijing sees virtually the entire South China Sea as part of its own territory, reaching hundreds of miles south and east of China's island province of Hainan. The region asserts a so-called nine dash line to mark what it believes is its jurisdiction. That's despite a tribunal ruling in 2016 that China has no legal claim over the region. Zooming in on the Philippines, the nation has been dealing with a rise in Chinese military aggression around nearby shoals. Experts said the U.S. must live up to its promise and stand firm with the country. We would find that not too many other places in the region are willing to host us or willing to let us in or align with us if we leave the Filipinos in the lurch. Worth noting, the U.S. and the Philippines are allied nations bound by a decades-long defense treaty. Speaking of China, stay tuned for China in Focus with Tiffany Meyer coming up next. Washington announcing a historic trade alliance to help Japan counter China. More details coming tonight at China in Focus with Tiffany Meyer at 9 30 p.m. Eastern. And that's all we've got for you tonight. We'd like you to join us again on NTD Tonight every weekday at 9 p.m. I'm David Zhang. Have a wonderful evening.