Without a January child tax credit payment, Jen Cousins will have to wait a few extra months to replace the brakes on her minivan, the only car her family of six owns.

Cousins, 44, a stay-at-home mom in Orlando, Florida, has been receiving the full credit for each of her four children ages six, eight, twelve and thirteen for the past six months. She’s put most of the extra money toward medical expenses – the entire family wears glasses, one child needs special prescription eye drops and speech therapy and soon, her oldest kids will need braces.

Her husband, Matt, 43, works as a software architect and has insurance through work, but it only covers him, so the family pays almost $1,000 each month to insure Jen and the kids, she said. Plus, additional out-of-pocket expenses always come up.

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“When you have four kids, weird things come up all the time,” she said. “Somebody breaks something, and you’ve got a $400 ER visit you’ve got to pay.”

Without the credit, her family budget will tighten significantly, she said. Some 35 million families with 65 million children face the new year without a generous tax cut.

“We can already feel the pinch,” she said of missing just one monthly check. “It’s figuring out where are we going to trim stuff, because it has been a really good support system for us to have for the last six months.”

The enhanced child tax credit

In March 2020, the passage of the American Rescue Plan enhanced the existing child tax credit, increasing the benefit to $3,000 from $2,00 and adding $600 for children under the age of 6 for the 2021 tax year.  

The first half of the credit was delivered to families via monthly checks that started in July and went through December. The second half will come when people file their 2021 tax returns this year.

If the benefit had been extended, as Democrats proposed in the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better plan, another check would’ve likely been sent in the second week of January.

“After just six months of payments, the evidence is clear. The expanded and improved monthly Child Tax Credit, a policy I have been working on since 2003, works,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Ct. “It was a lifeline for the middle class — the biggest middle class tax cut we have seen in generations — and lifted 50 percent of children out of poverty.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/23/families-arent-getting-child-tax-credit-checks-for-first-time-in-6-months.html

(CNN)The UK foreign office said in a Saturday statement it has information that the Russian government is planning to “install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv as it considers whether to invade and occupy Ukraine.”

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    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/europe/bulgaria-romania-russia-intl/index.html

    “Usually you get that overnight recovery and things slow down, but last night we didn’t get that,” Mr. Nuñez said.

    Decreased staffing during what was expected to be the off-season has made containing the fire more challenging.

    During peak fire season, Mr. Nuñez’s unit has 17 fully staffed fire engines, he said. But when the official fire season ended on Jan. 3, that number was reduced to two. More than 100 seasonal firefighters were laid off for a period of three months.

    “The funding’s only available for a certain period of time, and we can’t run the seasonal program longer,” Mr. Nuñez said.

    But with the extended drought, that funding calendar no longer matches up with the reality of fire season on the ground.

    “Some of the units that close for fire season used to end up with snow for an extended period of time, and that’s not happening anymore,” Mr. Nuñez said.

    With limited resources, Mr. Nuñez’s unit has sought additional personnel and equipment from other fire agencies as part of a resource sharing plan called “mutual aid.”

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/us/colorado-fire-big-sur-california.html

    Students in Los Angeles Unified School District will now be prohibited from wearing cloth masks, according to an announcement distributed Saturday by the district.

    Starting Monday, students must wear “well-fitted, non-cloth masks with a nose wire” at all times, including outdoors. District officials said surgical masks or higher-grade masks were acceptable, and that such masks would be available to students upon request.

    “Our in-school [coronavirus infection] rates have dropped but we are continuing to be diligent and agile in creating the safest learning environment,” said Shannon Haber, a spokesperson for LAUSD.

    The shift away from cloth masks was prompted by guidance from L.A. County health authorities, Haber said.

    Read the full story on LATimes.com.

    Source Article from https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lausd-to-prohibit-cloth-face-masks-for-students-starting-monday/

    Tarawa atoll, Kiribati, is pictured in 2004. The Pacific island nations of Kiribati and Samoa have announced rare COVID-19 lockdowns after dozens of international travelers tested positive for the virus.

    Richard Vogel/AP


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    Richard Vogel/AP

    Tarawa atoll, Kiribati, is pictured in 2004. The Pacific island nations of Kiribati and Samoa have announced rare COVID-19 lockdowns after dozens of international travelers tested positive for the virus.

    Richard Vogel/AP

    Kiribati and Samoa both implemented COVID-19 lockdowns on Saturday after international arrivals brought the virus with them, a rarity for the remote Pacific island nations.

    This is the first pandemic lockdown in Kiribati, which had previously reported only two COVID-19 cases — both were people on a fishing ship in May 2021 who isolated on board. The country reopened its borders to international travel earlier this month for the first time in nearly two years.

    Its government announced on Tuesday that 36 out of 54 passengers on a flight from Fiji had tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival, despite being vaccinated and testing negative three times during the pre-departure quarantine period. They were escorted to a quarantine center for further monitoring and testing. One of the frontline workers stationed outside the quarantine center also tested positive.

    On Friday, the government confirmed a new case, this time from someone uninvolved with the quarantine center.

    Based on the newest case, “there is now an assumption that COVID-19 is now spreading in the community on South Tarawa and Betio,” the government wrote on Facebook.

    South Tarawa is part of Kiribati’s capital and home to about half of its population, or some 63,000 people.

    A 24-hour curfew went into effect on Saturday and it’s not clear how long the lockdown will last.

    Residents can only leave their homes to access emergency or essential services including hospitals, police departments, grocery stores and banks. Essential providers can only operate during certain hours, public transportation will not run, social gatherings are banned and travel between the outer islands is prohibited.

    The government also urged residents to get vaccinated. Only about 53% of adults had received two doses as of late December, according to Radio Kiribati.

    In Samoa, officials announced a 48-hour lockdown after 15 out of 73 passengers who arrived on a Wednesday flight from Brisbane, Australia, tested positive.

    Samoa had previously confirmed just two COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. Some 62% of its population is fully vaccinated.

    Between Saturday and Monday, all residents except for essential workers are required to stay at home and off the roads. Businesses, schools and restaurants will be closed, travel is prohibited and mass gatherings are banned.

    Agafili Tomaimano Shem Leo, the chairman of the National Emergency Operation Center, said that the “day dreaded by authorities for COVID-19 to invade Samoa is here,” according to the government statement.

    “Our country is in a national emergency and our security is under siege from COVID-19,” he said, urging members of the public not to be complacent.

    The government said that failure to comply with lockdown restrictions could result in a $2,000 fine.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2022/01/22/1075110846/samoa-kiribati-covid-lockdowns-international-travel

    • The train thefts have also reignited concerns about organized crime linked to smash-and-grab rings.
    • Union Pacific officials have complained that prosecutors aren’t doing enough to punish the thieves.
    • Gov. Gavin Newsom this week said he’d devote more resources to fighting the organized crime rings.

    LOS ANGELES – Blue surgical masks and cotton balls. Car parts, pieces of tools and dozens of new toner cartridges for laser jet printers. Boxes from Macys, Bath and Body Works and Amazon – all empty with postmarks to addresses across the county. 

    The railroad tracks in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln Heights look as though a twister swept through, with thousands of boxes, bags and trash littering the rails for blocks. For months, residents in the area say they’ve watched the chaos unfold at all hours. 

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/01/22/los-angeles-train-cargo-thefts/6589653001/

    President Joe Biden said Saturday that he and the first lady were “saddened to hear two NYPD officers were shot last night — one fatally.”

    “We’re keeping them and their families in our prayers,” the president tweeted Saturday afternoon

    “Officers put on the badge and head into harm’s way every day. We’re grateful to them and their families for their extraordinary sacrifice,” he added.

    Rookie NYPD officer Jason Rivera, 22, was killed Friday night and his partner Wilbert Mora, 27, was critically injured when they responded to a dispute in Harlem between a mother and son. Accused gunman Lashawn McNeil was shot by a third cop.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/01/22/biden-offers-prayers-for-slain-injured-nypd-officers-jason-rivera-wilbert-mora/

    According to the British assessment, Russian planners were considering installing a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament named Yevgeniy Murayev as leader of a pro-Kremlin puppet government in Kyiv. Once a member of the Russian-backed Party of Regions, Mr. Murayev is now head of a political party called Nashi, part of a constellation of opposition parties opposed to Ukraine’s pro-Western parties. Last September, a massive banner with his photograph was hung on the facade of Federation of Trade Unions building on Kyiv’s Independence Square with the slogan “This is our Land.”

    In a recent Facebook post he accused the current government in Kyiv of selling out to the United States, which he said was whipping up war hysteria to reap financial rewards from the sale of weapons.

    “The hawks are looking forward to a feast,” he wrote.

    It is not clear from the British statement whether Russia had informed Mr. Murayev that he was being considered as a possible future leader of Ukraine. But after a journalist with a British newspaper tipped him off about the revelations, he posted a photo of himself to Facebook posing as James Bond with the comment, “Details tomorrow.”

    Russian spies maintain extensive networks of agents in Ukraine and contacts between Ukrainian officials and intelligence officers are not uncommon, according to Ukrainian and Western security officials

    All four of the other Ukrainians named in the communiqué once held senior positions in the Ukrainian government and worked in proximity to Paul Manafort, former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager, when he worked as a political adviser to Ukraine’s former Russian-backed president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. After Mr. Yanukovych’s government fell in 2014, they fled to Russia.

    One of those named, Vladimir Sivkovich, was among four Ukrainians targeted last week with sanctions by the United States Treasury Department for their ties to Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraine.

    If the British assessment is accurate, it would not be the first time the Kremlin tried to install a pro-Russian leader or interfere in Ukraine’s government. In 2004, Russian efforts to fraudulently sway a presidential election set off what became known as the Orange Revolution, which forced a redo election that led to the defeat of Mr. Yanukovych, who was the Kremlin’s favored candidate.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/world/europe/ukraine-russia-coup-britain.html

    Members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the armed forces, train in a city park in Kyiv. Tensions remain high between Ukraine and Russia as the United States and its NATO allies have tried to intervene diplomatically.

    Efrem Lukatsky/AP


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    Efrem Lukatsky/AP

    Members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the armed forces, train in a city park in Kyiv. Tensions remain high between Ukraine and Russia as the United States and its NATO allies have tried to intervene diplomatically.

    Efrem Lukatsky/AP

    Continued tensions between Ukraine and Russia have led to the U.S. providing 90 tons of military aid that arrived in Ukraine, as roughly 100,000 Russian troops remain stationed along the border.

    The shipment is part of the additional $200 million of “lethal aid” approved by President Biden in late December and includes ammunition for Ukraine’s front-line defenders, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv tweeted. Overall, the U.S. has provided $650 million in defense equipment and services to Ukraine in the past year — the most it has ever given that country, according to the State Department.

    “The United States and its allies and partners are standing together to expedite security assistance to Ukraine,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet on Friday. “We are utilizing all available security cooperation tools to help Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of Russian aggression.”

    This comes after Blinken visited Kyiv and met with his Kremlin counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Switzerland earlier this week.

    “We didn’t expect any major breakthroughs to happen today,” Blinken said at a news conference following his meeting Friday with Lavrov in Geneva. “But I believe we are now on a clear path in terms of understanding each other’s concerns and each other’s positions.”

    Russia has continued to insist on a written guarantee that Ukraine won’t join NATO. Blinken said he made the U.S. position clear, which is to “stand firmly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

    Blinken said that any military action on Russia’s side would “be met with swift, severe and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies.” Russia has denied it has any intention of invading.

    Biden clarified his message after news conference

    In his lengthy news conference Wednesday at the White House, Biden seemed to complicate the message from his own secretary of state, saying that if Russia committed a “minor incursion” there might be a divide among NATO allies on how to respond.

    “I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do,” Biden said.

    Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy swiftly responded on Twitter saying, “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations.”

    On Thursday, Biden clarified his stance saying any invasion would be met with a “severe and coordinated” economic response.

    “If any — any — assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion,” Biden said. “Let there be no doubt at all that if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.”

    Blinken reiterated the president’s stance in a tweet Saturday, after a conversation with Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly.

    “We remain committed to diplomacy but are ready, in coordination with NATO Allies and partners, to impose severe costs for further Russian aggression,” he said.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/01/22/1075064514/ukraine-lethal-aid-us-russia

    • The train thefts have also reignited concerns about organized crime linked to smash-and-grab rings.
    • Union Pacific officials have complained that prosecutors aren’t doing enough to punish the thieves.
    • Gov. Gavin Newsom this week said he’d devote more resources to fighting the organized crime rings.

    LOS ANGELES – Blue surgical masks and cotton balls. Car parts, pieces of tools and dozens of new toner cartridges for laser jet printers. Boxes from Macys, Bath and Body Works and Amazon – all empty with postmarks to addresses across the county. 

    The railroad tracks in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln Heights look as though a twister swept through, with thousands of boxes, bags and trash littering the rails for blocks. For months, residents in the area say they’ve watched the chaos unfold at all hours. 

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/01/22/los-angeles-train-cargo-thefts/6589653001/

    Some were celebrating that rarity on Friday night.

    At the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia, Elliott Bell, a freshman, had been monitoring the weather all week, eager to see if the predicted snow would come.

    Mr. Bell, who was raised in Atlanta, was used to the slushy and wet snow common in the South, the kind unfit for snowball fights. But on Friday night, Mr. Bell, 19, went outside and heard the satisfying sound of snow crunching underneath his shoes.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/us/carolinas-ice-winter-storm-virginia.html

    (CNN)Boris Epshteyn, an adviser for former President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, acknowledged Friday that he was part of the effort to prop up so-called “alternate electors” to support Trump in key states.

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      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/politics/boris-epshteyn-trump-campaign-fake-electors/index.html

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        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/us/gabby-petito-notebook-brian-laundrie/index.html

        The top diplomats from Russia and the United States held “frank” talks Friday but failed to resolve deep differences over Ukraine, as the U.S. races to avert what it believes could be a new war in Europe.

        Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he told his Russian counterpart that the movement of any of Moscow’s troops into Ukraine would be met with a “swift, severe and united” retribution from the U.S. and NATO.

        “We will continue to prepare, resolutely, to both paths that we have laid out for Russia: the path of diplomacy and dialogue, or the path of renewed aggression, confrontation and consequences,” Blinken told reporters after a 90-minute session with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, wrapping up a whirlwind week of diplomacy that also took him to Berlin and the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

        Lavrov continued his country’s denial of plans to invade the former Soviet republic and said Russia’s troops along its border with Ukraine — estimated at more than 100,000 — are there for military exercises. Moscow is calling up reserves in Russia and has dispatched troops to ally Belarus, on Ukraine’s northern border.

        The U.S. has warned that Russia is planning an attack similar to its 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Moscow then “annexed.” U.S. officials have accused Russia of planning a “false flag” operation as a pretext for invading.

        Blinken and Lavrov, both of whom downplayed expectations before Friday’s meeting, said their countries would hold further talks after the U.S. responds in writing to Russian demands. Moscow’s proposals aim to limit the West’s influence in Eastern Europe, a region that Russian President Vladimir Putin feels he should dominate.

        But Blinken warned that the written responses will be no different from what the Biden administration has said publicly. Moscow’s demands — that Ukraine be excluded from joining NATO and that the transatlantic body pull back from former eastern-bloc countries such as Poland — are dead on arrival, Blinken said.

        “There is no trade space there,” he said. “None.”

        Later, at a separate Geneva news conference, Lavrov said Blinken had “agreed that we need to have a reasonable dialogue, and I hope emotions will decrease.” Lavrov added, “I cannot say whether or not we are on the right track. We will know when we get” the written answers.

        Moscow has said Ukraine is jeopardizing Russia’s security with its ambitions to join NATO and its receipt of foreign weapons. The U.S. has sent millions of dollars in “defensive” weaponry to Ukraine, and Lavrov accused the U.S. of “anti-Russia hysteria” over its accusations. Some analysts have warned that Russian diplomacy may be a ruse to buy time until weather conditions in wintry Ukraine are more favorable for moving heavy tanks and weaponry.

        Blinken’s mission was complicated when President Biden on Wednesday alluded to divisions within the European and NATO communities on how and when to punish Russia, suggesting a “minor incursion” might generate extensive debate rather than swift action. The White House quickly attempted to clarify those comments.

        Whether president misspoke or reflected European unease, the White House rushed to contain the damage. Ukraine reacts furiously.

        The Biden administration has threatened to hit Russia with additional economic and financial sanctions if its forces move into Ukraine, possibly targeting Putin’s oligarch cronies. Ukraine is urging that sanctions be imposed sooner rather later.

        Asked what the Kremlin ultimately wants in the current standoff, Blinken told a reporter to “ask President Putin.”

        On the margins of the Geneva news conferences, Russia’s deputy foreign minister was asked how the massive nuclear-armed country of Russia could be so afraid of Ukraine. “We are not afraid of anyone,” Sergei Ryabkov said, “even not of the U.S.”

        Russia is “shaping the narrative” to appear to be pursuing diplomacy, in part to sow division in the West, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, who directs the transatlantic security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank.

        “It makes the Europeans more squeamish,” Kendall-Taylor said in an interview. “The United States will have to be front and center [in imposing sanctions or other punishments] because European Union consensus is hard to establish.” Many countries, like Germany, have extensive financial and trade ties with Russia and could also be hurt by efforts to cripple its economy.

        As it has done in past international negotiations, such as the 1975 Helsinki Accords that recognized the sanctity of nations’ post-World War II borders or the 2010 New START nuclear arms treaty, Moscow may be pushing a seemingly intractable “maximalist” position to exact concessions before ceding at the last minute, Kendall-Taylor said.

        In the meantime, diplomacy has so far not budged Russian forces from Ukraine’s border, and Moscow continues to support Ukrainian separatists battling Kyiv’s troops in two eastern regions.

        “What we see on the ground overshadows any hope of a diplomatic settlement,” Kendall-Taylor said. “That tells the real story of where the conflict is headed.”

        Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow now at Stanford University, was also downbeat.

        “Not good,” he tweeted Friday. “Meetings that only go for 90 minutes as planned when both sides got on airplanes to be there is usually not a good sign.”

        Blinken said he and Lavrov also discussed talks in Vienna aimed at reviving U.S. and Iranian participation in the international nuclear deal that former President Trump abandoned in 2018.

        Though it is an area on which the U.S. and Russia can largely agree, Blinken pronounced his most dire assessment to date on those efforts.

        ‘If a deal is not reached in the next few weeks, Iran’s ongoing nuclear advances will make it impossible to return” to what was hailed as a landmark agreement, Blinken said. “But right now, there’s still a window, a brief one, to bring those talks to a successful conclusion and address the remaining concerns of all sides.”

        Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-01-21/russia-us-fail-to-resolve-differences-in-talks-to-avoid-moscow-invasion-of-ukraine

        Police identified the slain officer as Jason Rivera.

        “We mourn the loss of a hero officer — a son, husband, and friend. Only 22 years old, Police Officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the line of duty,” the NYPD said in a tweet.

        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/us/nypd-officers-shot/index.html

        Brian Laundrie admitted he killed girlfriend Gabby Petito in a notebook entry he wrote shortly before he took his own life, the FBI revealed Friday in its final report on the case.

        Laundrie also sent text messages between his and Petito’s cellphone in the days after Petito was strangled to death last summer in an attempt “to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression Ms. Petito was still alive,” the FBI Denver said in its final investigative update on the case.

        All “logical investigative steps have been concluded in the case,” FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in a statement.

        “The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito.

        “The FBI’s primary focus throughout the investigation was to bring justice to Gabby and her family,” Scheider said. “The public’s role in helping us in this endeavor was invaluable as the investigation was covered in the media around the world. 

        “On behalf of the FBI, I want to express my deepest appreciation to the public for the thousands of tips that were provided during the investigation, and to our local, state and federal law enforcement partners for their work throughout the investigation.”

        Brian Laundrie confessed to killing Gabby Petito in a notebook found near his body, according to the FBI.
        Instagram
        The FBI confirmed that only Brian Landrie was involved in the murder of Gabby Petito.
        Instagram

        Richard Stafford, an attorney for the Petito family, thanked the FBI and its victim services.

        “We truly appreciate the FBI’s diligent and painstaking efforts in this extremely complicated case,” Stafford said in a statement. “The quality and quantity of the facts and information collected by the FBI leave no doubt the Brian Laundrie murdered Gabby.”

        Brian Laundrie is seen writing in a notebook.
        Gabby Petito/Instagram
        Officials searched the woods for Brian Laundrie.
        WFLA-TV

        Steven Bertolino, the lawyer for the Laundrie family, issued a statement after the release of the FBI report.

        “Gabby and Brian are no longer with their families and this tragedy has caused enormous emotional pain and suffering to all who loved either or both of them,” Bertolino wrote. “We can only hope that with today’s closure of the case each family can begin to heal and move forward and find peace in and with the memories of their children.

        “May Gabby and Brian both rest in peace.”

        Gabrielle Petito speaks with police as they responded to an altercation between her and boyfriend Brian Laundrie on Aug. 12, 2021.
        Moab City Police Department/AFP
        Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie seen at Canyonland National Park in Utah on July 10, 2021.
        Instagram

        Long Island native Petito, 22, vanished last summer during an ill-fated cross-country trip with Laundrie. She was reported missing Sept. 11, and her body was found Sept. 19 at a Wyoming camp ground, with an autopsy determining she’d been strangled.

        When Laundrie, 23, returned to his parents’ North Port, Fla., home without her, he quickly became the sole person of interest in the case before he disappeared, too. A massive manhunt for him followed, until his remains were found at a nearby nature preserve Oct. 20.

        A revolver, backpack and the notebook were found near his body, the FBI stated. Authorities determined he’d shot himself. Police had determined that between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 Laundrie had used Petito’s debit card on his drive from Wyoming to Florida, the report said.

        Brian Laundrie attempted to “deceive law enforcement” into believing Gabby Petito was still alive during her disappearance.
        Instagram
        Chris and Roberta Laundrie’s home in North Port, Florida, where their son Brian returned following the disappearance of Gabby Petito.
        Daniel William McKnight

        It isn’t clear what the notebook entry said, but the FBI’s review stated that it “revealed written statements by Mr. Laundrie claiming responsibility for Ms. Petito’s death.”

        Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/brian-laundrie-admitted-to-killing-gabby-petito-in-notebook-entry-fbi/