Comment on Panel votes to end pay-benefit slide, tweak ex-spouse law

By ZEKE MILLER, CHRIS MEGERIAN and MICHELLE PRICE, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump, who overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, will be sworn in as the 47th president on Monday, taking charge as Republicans assume unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions. Trump is expected to act swiftly after the ceremony, with executive orders already prepared for his signature to jumpstart deportations, increase fossil fuel development and reduce civil service protections for government workers, promising that his term will bring about “a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride.” Frigid weather is rewriting the pageantry of the day.

By GISELA SALOMON AND SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Parents around Nora Sanigo’s large, rectangular dining table had lunch before signing documents to make the Nicaraguan immigrant a legal guardian of their children, entrusting them to her if they are deported. She gave a list of what to carry with them: birth certificates, medical and school records, immigration documents, her phone number. “Talk to your children and tell them what can happen, let them have my phone number on hand, let them learn it, let them record it,” Sandigo said Sunday. Nora Sandigo, left, listens to a mother as she decides what to do about her U.

By LINDSEY BAHR, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Carrie Underwood might not be Beyoncé or Garth Brooks in the celebrity superstar ecosystem. But the singer’s participation in President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is nevertheless a sign of the changing tides, where mainstream entertainers, from Nelly to The Village People are more publicly and more enthusiastically associating with the new administration. Eight years ago, Trump reportedly struggled to enlist stars to be part of the swearing-in and the various glitzy balls that follow.

By JILL COLVIN and BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — During his first term as president, Donald Trump led the effort to ban TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing site he said posed a threat to U. S. national security. But on the eve of his return to the White House, the president-elect is being hailed as the app’s savior. After going dark for users this weekend, Trump said on his social media site that he would issue an executive order after he’s sworn in for a second term on Monday delaying a TikTok ban “so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.” He said the order would make clear that companies will not be held liable for violating a law that aimed to force TikTok’s sale by its China-based parent company.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Most presidents get to move into the White House once. President-elect Donald Trump is doing it twice, and his wife, Melania, says it’s a lot easier the second time around. “I know where I will be going. I know the rooms where we will be living.

By LINDSEY BAHR, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Opera tenor Christopher Macchio will sing the national anthem at the President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration before a much smaller crowd than he was expecting, a letdown with a silver lining. The ceremony Monday has been moved indoors because temperatures are set to plummet and make it the coldest Inauguration Day in 40 years.