Around the nation

100K Kavanaugh pages are being withheld

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is withholding more than 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh’s records from the Bush White House on the basis of presidential privilege ahead of the Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation hearing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was notified of the action Friday. George W. Bush’s attorney Bill Burck told the panel it had essentially completed its work compiling documents, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. Bush directed them to err “on the side of transparency and disclosure, and we believe we have done so.”

But the current administration is also able to review the records, and the Trump White House “has directed that we not provide these documents,” the letter says. In all, 267,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents from his Bush years are being made public.

california

MS-13 used farm town as its criminal base

SAN FRANCISCO — More than two dozen MS-13 gang members and affiliates were arrested and charged following a monthslong murder and drug trafficking investigation centered on a rural California farm city that the gang turned into a base for its operations, U.S. and state prosecutors said Friday.

MS-13 took advantage of limited resources in the city of Mendota and used it and other areas of Fresno County to “conduct their crimes, to hide out from crimes that they committed in other jurisdictions and to prepare to commit crimes in states as far away as New York,” Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said.

Mendota has a population of roughly 11,000 people and lies 35 miles west of Fresno in California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley. Nearly the entire population is Hispanic, with many immigrants from El Salvador.

MS-13 is linked to more than 12 murders in Mendota and western Fresno County over the past two years, said McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento. The federal charges announced Friday include allegations that two MS-13 gang members kidnapped and murdered a Fresno County man in December.

hawaii

15 on flight treated in pepper spray incident

HONOLULU — A can of pepper spray went off inside a plane headed from Oakland, California, to Maui on Friday, requiring emergency help for several people aboard, Hawaiian Airlines said.

Twelve passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released by emergency responders at the airport in Kahului, Hawaii, airline spokesman Alex Da Silva said.

A passenger illegally brought the pepper spray on the plane carrying 256 passengers and 10 crew members, but it appears it discharged accidentally, Da Silva said in a statement.

The airline could not provide any details about the passenger or why they believe the release was accidental. The flight crew of the Boeing 767 declared an emergency to get priority at the airport in Hawaii.

Wire reports