The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. February 17, 2017 Trump Nominates GOP Lawyer Alex Acosta as Secretary of Labor ------------------------------------------------------------ President Trump has named longtime Republican lawyer Alex Acosta to be his new nominee to head the Labor Department after his first pick, fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder, withdrew Wednesday. Acosta's labor experience includes eight months as a member of the National Labor Relations Board under President George W. Bush. He has drawn scrutiny for his time as a division leader at Bush's Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, where he oversaw a senior official who hired conservative lawyers who were actively opposed to the division's mission, including the prosecution of voting rights violations and police abuse. We'll have more on Alex Acosta later in the broadcast. .