Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. WHERE BUDGET BILL STANDS Congress hurtles toward a government shutdown this weekend in large part over Democratic demands to protect about 700,000 younger immigrants from being deported. 2. POPE STRIKES DEFIANT TONE IN CHILE Francis accuses victims of Chile's most notorious pedophile priest of slandering Bishop Juan Barros, calling accusations that Barros was complicit in covering up the priest's sex crimes as "all calumny." 3. PENCE THE IMPETUS FOR TRUMP POLICIES ON ISRAEL On the eve of his trip to the Holy Land, the U.S. vice president has long advocated designating Jerusalem as Israel's capital and curtailing aid for Palestinians. 4. CITIES SEE FAILED AMAZON BIDS AS TRIAL RUNS Cities like Detroit, Memphis, Tennessee and Gary, Indiana, say the time spent putting together juicy tax incentives, massive chunks of land and infrastructure studies were not wasted. 5. SHACKLED CALIFORNIA SIBLINGS PLOTTED ESCAPE 2 YEARS That act of courage and desperation of a 17-year-old girl helped free her 12 siblings from a house of horrors and the parents could face life in prison. 6. THORNY GLOBAL ISSUES ABOUND A YEAR INTO TRUMP PRESIDENCY The U.S. leader has made sharp departures from years and even decades of American foreign policy and the reverberations have been widespread. 7. ANTI-SMOKING PLAN MAY KILL CIGARETTES — AND SAVE BIG TOBACCO The Food and Drug Administration is pushing ahead with an unprecedented plan to make cigarettes less addictive and provide lower-risk alternative products to U.S. smokers. 8. WHAT'S STILL BOOMING IN CARIBBEAN Tourism in Cuba despite Trump's plan to starve the island's military-run economy of U.S. tourism dollars and ratchet up pressure for regime change. 9. FOR THE SOUTH, A BIG THAW Southerners await warmer temperatures that would end days of icy roads, broken pipes, snow and numbing cold after a fierce winter storm blasted their normally mild region. 10. NO-NAMES GET ALL-STAR VOTES FROM NBA PEERS Semi Ojeleye, Cedi Osman, Royce O'Neale, Cameron Payne and Matt Costello are just a few of the players that have gotten votes to start in the basketball showcase.