NoneAP Trending SummaryBrief at 2:28 p.m. ESTSophia Banks To Direct Film On Bitcoin Founder Satoshi Nakamoto From David O. Sacks Productions, Mark Goffman And Getaway Entertainment
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NonePHOENIX — Every year, St. Vincent de Paul serves millions of meals to hungry families and individuals, with one of the largest industrial kitchens in the Southwest and four charitable dining rooms. RELATED: Turkey Tuesday: Donate to help feed Arizona families for the holiday season The St. Vincent de Paul's family dining room in Phoenix provides a unique and dignified experience for families in need. >> Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone. When a family visits the dining room at St. Vincent de Paul, like Phoenix mom Alyssa DeSapio and four her kids, they are immediately surrounded with love, regardless of the struggles they’re enduring. “Take care of four of my kids and then I’m going to two different colleges, just to try to get out of the hood I guess you would say,” she said. For DeSapio, life isn’t easy. “It’s pretty hectic managing four different kids,” she said. "Their appointments, therapy, school on my own and helping them with their school, but we make it happen.” DeSapio says it’s especially difficult financially. “I’m basically living on a fixed income, I’m in section 8 housing, so I get a little check for my utilities and that doesn’t really cover my utilities, so I always fall behind, so financially I’m struggling,” she said. But still, she remains strong for her kids. “No matter what, I always make a way to find clothes or diapers or whatever they need,” said DeSapio. At SVDP’s family room, a team helps meet the needs of families like theirs. “We come almost every day,” she said. Families with children under 18 are seated together to enjoy a meal on tables with tablecloths with real silverware. Volunteers serve them restaurant-style, providing meal options for them to choose from, bringing the food to their table. It doesn’t feel like a traditional soup kitchen. “The dining room is open,” said Cindy Bernardo, the family evening program manager. “We’re feeding the residents and the families as we do Monday through Friday... they get to sit down and relax.” Bernardo says the families get a choice of two meals, to give them the feeling like they’re at a restaurant. The special experience is about so much more than just a hot meal. “Agencies come here so they can offer their services to the families, and then we had a barbershop quartet for the first time,” said Bernardo. For DeSapio and her kids, it’s a family experience where they feel respected and cared for. “It changes everything,” she said. “Places like this really help families like me, just be able to get the necessities that we need to get by.” The team of staff and volunteers in the dining room are truly making life better for DeSapio and her kids, along with so many others. “I just think it’s wonderful,” she said. “It is God’s work, definitely.” During the summer, the Phoenix dining room also serves as a heat relief station, offering cold water, air conditioning and temporary shelter to those experiencing homelessness. Other services like medical care, identification replacement and overnight shelter are also available through partner agencies for anyone in need. For more information, click here . Watch 12News+ for free You can now watch 12News content anytime, anywhere thanks to the 12News+ app! The free 12News+ app from 12News lets users stream live events — including daily newscasts like "Today in AZ" and "12 News" and our daily lifestyle program, "Arizona Midday"—on Roku and Amazon Fire TV . 12News+ showcases live video throughout the day for breaking news, local news, weather and even an occasional moment of Zen showcasing breathtaking sights from across Arizona. Users can also watch on-demand videos of top stories, local politics, I-Team investigations, Arizona-specific features and vintage videos from the 12News archives. Roku : Add the channel from the Roku store or by searching for "12 News KPNX." Amazon Fire TV : Search for "12 News KPNX" to find the free 12News+ app to add to your account , or have the 12News+ app delivered directly to your Amazon Fire TV through Amazon.com or the Amazon app. More ways to get 12News On your phone: Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone. iTunes Google Play On your streaming device: Download 12News+ to your streaming device The free 12News+ app from 12News lets users stream live events — including daily newscasts like "Today in AZ" and "12 News" and our daily lifestyle program, "Arizona Midday"—on Roku and Amazon Fire TV. 12News+ showcases live video throughout the day for breaking news, local news, weather and even an occasional moment of Zen showcasing breathtaking sights from across Arizona. On social media: Find us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube .Newsom announces extension of CHP surge operation to combat Oakland crime, urges change to police pursuit policy
Trump’s tech allies and MAGA base clash over visas for skilled workersTimor-Leste court OKs Teves return to PH
New Orleans police arrest man accused of killing paradegoers during multiple mass shootingsNoneWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump's supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump's movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump's Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer's comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar." Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government, weighed in, defending the tech industry's need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump's world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift. His presidential transition team did not respond to questions about positions on visas for highly skilled workers or the debate between his supporters online. Instead, his team instead sent a link to a post on X by longtime adviser and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller that was a transcript of a speech Trump gave in 2020 at Mount Rushmore in which he praised figures and moments from American history. Musk, the world's richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect, was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump's movement but his stance on the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry's need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Trump's own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration, including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump's businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club, and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country" and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country," he told the “All-In" podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump's budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.