Trump’s $5 million ‘gold card’ visa plan likely needs Congress

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has said he does not need Congress to create so-called gold cards to offer foreign nationals a path to citizenship at the price of $5 million, but immigration policy experts and some Republican lawmakers cast doubt that a president could implement such a plan alone.

As nebulous as Trump’s proposal stands at this point, current law imposes limits on green cards such as the number of cards that can be issued in the EB-5 program that Trump ultimately wants to replace, as well as the price and conditions for making it happen, experts say.

And interviews with Senate Republicans engaged on homeland security and immigration issues suggest any legislative plans for authorization of the gold card was not at the forefront of their minds.

Shev Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said any creation of a new visa category “has to be done by statute.”

—CQ-Roll Call

Luigi Mangione’s lawyer denies client appeared in sex tape

Maryland native Luigi Mangione, pending three separate criminal cases in connection to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is now defending himself against another claim: that he starred in his own sex tape.

Mangione’s lawyer Karen Agnifilo denied her client was the person in the video, speaking Monday to DailyMail.com. Agnifilo did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Baltimore Sun.

“Hopefully everyone realizes these are fake and not Luigi,” Agnifilo said to that outlet about claims of a sex tape that have gone viral.

Kevin Blatt, a celebrity “sex tape broker,” told The U.S. Sun that Mangione likely hadn’t made 20 high-quality videos as had been originally claimed. Rather, Blatt said he’d only seen one video, about a minute and a half long, with poor production value. However, he did reveal that the man who Mangione allegedly sent the tapes to had been trying to sell them for half a million dollars.

—Baltimore Sun

Whale urine helps move nutrients across the ocean in ‘conveyor belt,’ study finds

It turns out, whale pee is nothing to pooh-pooh. The marine giants’ urine serves a vital role in ecosystems by moving tons of nutrients across vast ocean distances, according to new research.

Specifically, urine from baleen whales — as well as their other bodily waste — transports essential nutrients from high-latitude to low-latitude areas, according to a study published on March 10 in the journal Nature Communications.

“We call it the ‘great whale conveyor belt,’” Joe Roman, a University of Vermont biologist and study coauthor, said in a university news release.

The study focused on a handful of baleen species — namely, gray whales, humpback whales and right whales — which display “traditional migratory patterns,” moving from colder waters in the summer to warmer waters in the winter. For example, humpbacks in the North Pacific migrate annually from the Gulf of Alaska to the coast of Hawaii.

—The Charlotte Observer

Arrested captain of North Sea crash ship is Russian

LONDON — The captain of a container ship that crashed into a U.S. oil tanker in the North Sea off the English coast is Russian, the vessel’s owner has said.

Solong struck the Stena Immaculate off the east coast of Yorkshire on Monday morning. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency, or MCA, said Wednesday that fires on board Solong have “greatly reduced." A spokesman for shipping company Ernst Russ, which owns Solong, said: “The captain is a Russian national.”

The 59-year-old was arrested by Humberside Police on Tuesday on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. The force said on Wednesday morning the suspect “remains in (their) custody.” U.S.-based maritime news website gCaptain reported it was told by a U.S. official in the White House that foul play had not been ruled out.

Transport Minister Mike Kane told MPs on Tuesday something went “terribly wrong” for the crash to happen but there was “no evidence” of foul play. Shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew told the PA news agency: “Where military assets are damaged it is vital that motives are fully investigated to exclude foul play.

—dpa