Biden expected to sign new order on guns; women's rights pioneer dies; NFL QBs on the move; and more morning headlines

President Joe Biden has announced fresh measures meant to curb gun violence, detailing the changes from the scene of a mass shooting in California that left 11 dead. Tuesday’s action does not change U.S. government policy. Rather, it directs federal agencies to ensure compliance with existing laws and procedures — a typical feature of executive orders issued by presidents when they confront the limits of their own power to act without cooperation from Congress. The president said he’d signed the executive order aimed at increasing background checks to buy guns, promoting more secure firearms storage and ensuring U.S. law enforcement agencies get more out of a bipartisan gun control law enacted last summer.

Depositors withdrew savings, and investors broadly sold off bank shares as the federal government raced to reassure Americans that the banking system is secure following two bank failures. President Joe Biden insisted Monday that the system is safe after the second- and third-largest bank failures in the nation’s history happened in the span of 48 hours. In response to the crisis, regulators guaranteed all deposits at the two banks. They also created a program that effectively thew a lifeline to other banks to shield them from a run on deposits.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has testified before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments he arranged and made on the former president’s behalf. Cohen arrived at the courthouse accompanied by his lawyer shortly in advance of his closed-door testimony. He spent about three hours inside answering questions. His closed-door appearance before the grand jury comes as the Manhattan district attorney’s office closes in on a decision on whether to seek charges against Trump. The former president denies having affairs with the women. Trump's lawyer has characterized the payments as extortion.

A split among jurors means there will be no death penalty for an Islamic extremist who maniacally raced a truck along a popular New York City bike path, killing eight people and maiming others. Sayfullo Saipov was convicted in January in the October 2017 attack that killed five Argentine tourists, two Americans and a Belgian woman. Without a unanimous jury decision on the death penalty Monday, Saipov will get an automatic sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole. Saipov drove a truck down the busy riverside path running over cyclists before crashing into a school bus. Saipov is an Uzbekistan citizen but lived in New Jersey. He sympathized with the Islamic State group.

Crews rushed to repair a levee break on a storm-swollen river in California’s central coast as yet another atmospheric river arrived with the potential to further inundate the state’s swamped farmland and agricultural communities. Officials say the length of the levee rupture on the Pajaro River grew to 400 feet Monday, complicating efforts to plug the breach. More than 8,500 people were evacuated when the levee failed late Friday. It flooded farmland and agricultural communities on the central coast, about 70 miles south of San Francisco. Monterey County officials also warn that the Salinas River could cause significant flooding of roadways and agricultural land, cutting off the Monterey Peninsula.

Mexican officials say at least seven of eight people killed when two boats capsized in shallow but turbulent surf off the San Diego coast were Mexican migrants. The Mexican consulate in San Diego said Monday that preliminary identification was based on records migrants carried when bodies were recovered. The nationality of the eighth person was unknown. The Coast Guard suspended its search for remains on Sunday. Survivors may have escaped on land, including a passenger who called 911. Authorities do not know that passenger's whereabouts.

A pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, former Colorado Rep. Pat Schroeder, has died at the age of 82. Schroeder’s former press secretary says Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died Monday night at a hospital in Florida, the state where she had been residing. Schroeder was the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado, and she went on to serve 12 terms. She became one of the most influential Democrats for two decades but never chaired a major committee. Schroeder was best known for getting a family leave bill passed, providing job protection for care of a newborn, sick child or parent. Schroeder was born in Portland, Oregon.