In the week leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio received a nine-page memo titled “1776 Returns” that laid out detailed plans to occupy congressional office buildings to protest the counting of the Electoral College votes from the 2020 presidential election.

The memo, which was filed in court as part of a recent motion made by one of Tarrio’s co-defendants, outlined a goal to “maintain control over as select few, but crucial buildings in the DC area for a set period of time, presenting our demands in unity.”

“We must show our politicians We the People are in charge,” the memo said. Targeted buildings allegedly included the three Senate and House office buildings, the Supreme Court of the United States, and CNN —to “at least egg doorway,” according to the filing.

The demands outlined in the memo included “free and fair elections,” “liberty or death” and “No Trump, No America.”

In “Storm the Winter Palace,” a section marked for internal use and a “Patriot Plan” for outside distribution, the directions called for five teams of individuals per building, ranging from a “covert sleeper” who would spend the day inside the targeted building to a recruiter who would gather a crowd. A group of 50 “patriots” would then occupy each building.

However, nowhere in the document is there a suggestion that violence should be used against police, members of Congress or their staff or other Capitol personnel.

The document includes a page to assign roles for each of the targeted locations and maps of the identified buildings.

Between Jan. 1 – 5, 2021, the memo says, those in charge should recruit members, scope out road closures and set up appointments with various representatives in the buildings.

“Use Covid to your advantage,” the document advised. “Pack huge face masks and face shields, protect your identity.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, “1776 Returns” directed certain individuals known as “leads” to dress in suits and stay inside the targeted buildings to find entrances and exits. Once a sufficient crowd was recruited, the memo suggests, those already inside should open the doors and allow the group to enter.

“This might include causing trouble near the front doors to distract guards who may be holding the doors off,” it said, “The goal is to ensure there is an entry point for the masses to rush the building.”

Participants around the city should pull fire alarms at various locations like Walmart, hotels, and museums to distract law enforcement if necessary, according to the document.

Once inside, the entire group would then present its list of demands and perform sit-ins in certain senators’ offices, the filing says.

The manual advised readers to use large trucks or a large caravan of cars to block intersections to make traversing the city more difficult. “Now is the time to reach out to truckers or bikers for Trump for these roadblocks,” a note reads.

According to the portion of the memo meant for external distribution, participants were to demand a new election be conducted on Jan. 20, 2021, monitored by the National Guard.

“Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Pence & Bill Gates,” it says, “We the people are watching you.

“Rand Paul & Ron DeSantis…We the people love you.”

The existence of the 1776 Returns document was revealed when Tarrio was first indicted earlier this year on conspiracy charges. Prosecutors alleged Tarrio, who has now been charged with seditious conspiracy and pleaded not guilty, was allegedly sent the document by an unknown individual. After sending Tarrio the document, the individual allegedly stated, “The revolution is important than anything,” to which investigators say Tarrio replied, “That’s what every waking moment consists of…I’m not playing games.”

At the same time, Tarrio and other Proud Boys leaders were operating a so-called “Ministry of Self Defense” organization, with Tarrio at the top of the power structure.

“This group was to form the nucleus of leadership in a new chapter of the Proud Boys organization, which Tarrio described as a ‘national rally planning’ chapter. The first event targeted by the group was the rally in D.C. on January 6,” prosecutors allege.

The court filing that the copy of the “1776 Returns” memo accompanied was a request that the judge overseeing the large Proud Boys conspiracy case take another look at the pretrial detention of Tarrio codefendant Zachary Rehl. In the filing, Rehl’s legal team argues the memo “is not a plan to attack the Capitol and does not even mention the Capitol. It refers to occupying Congressional office buildings.”

The recent indictment of Tarrio and other Proud Boy leaders shows that they used 1776 to refer to themselves on Jan. 6. At 2:57 p.m., during the assault on the Capitol, Tarrio posted a message mentioning 1776 that said “Revolutionaries are now at the Rayburn Building,” which the indictment notes was mentioned in the 1776 plan. At 7:44 p.m. one individual sent a text to Tarrio that said, “1776 motherf******.”

Tarrio’s attorney has not responded to a request for comment.

According to Wednesday’s motion, the document was sent to Tarrio by a female acquaintance and not shared with Rehl or other defendants.

“[A] proposal to occupy office buildings is a time-tested protest activity,” Rehl’s legal team pointed out. “There is no indication that the government has ever charged any protestors who have actually occupied buildings with the felony conspiracies charged in the instant case.”

Read the document here:


Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/proud-boys-enrique-tarrio-occupy-congress-supreme-court-january-6-2021/

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Two U.S. veterans from Alabama who were in Ukraine assisting in the war against Russia haven’t been heard from in days and are missing, members of the state’s congressional delegation said Wednesday.

Relatives of Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, of Trinity and Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa have been in contact with both Senate and House offices seeking information about the men’s whereabouts, press aides said.

Rep. Robert Aderholt said Huynh had volunteered to go fight with the Ukrainian army against Russia, but relatives haven’t heard from him since June 8, when he was in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, which is near the Russian border. Huynh and Drueke were together, an aide to Aderholt said.

“As you can imagine, his loved ones are very concerned about him,” Aderholt said in a statement. “My office has placed inquires with both the United States Department of State and the Federal Bureau of Investigation trying to get any information possible.”

Rep. Terri Sewell said Drueke’s mother reached out to her office earlier this week after she lost contact with her son.

The U.S. State Department said it was looking into reports that Russian or Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine had captured at least two American citizens. If confirmed, they would be the first Americans fighting for Ukraine known to have been captured since the war began Feb. 24.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the department said in a statement emailed to reporters. It declined further comment, citing privacy considerations.

John Kirby, a national security spokesman at the White House, said Wednesday that the administration wasn’t able to confirm the reports about missing Americans.

“We’ll do the best we can to monitor this and see what we can learn about it,” he said.

However, he reiterated his warnings against Americans going to Ukraine.

“Ukraine is not the place for Americans to be traveling,” he said. “If you feel passionate about supporting Ukraine, there’s any number of ways to do that that that are safer and just as effective.”

A court in Donetsk, under separatist control, sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan man to death last week. The Britons and Moroccan were accused of being mercenaries and seeking the violent overthrow of the separatist government in the Donetsk region. The Russian military has said it considers foreigners fighting with Ukraine to be mercenaries and claims they are not protected as combatants under the Geneva Convention.

Huynh’s fiancee, Joy Black, posted publicly on Facebook that his family was in contact with the Drueke family and government officials, and that nothing had been confirmed other than that the two were missing.

“Please keep Andy, and Alex, and all of their loved ones in prayer. We just want them to come home,” she wrote.

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted that the Americans “have enlisted in the Ukrainian army, and thus are afforded legal combatant protections. As such, we expect members of the Legion to be treated in accordance with the Geneva convention.” It was unclear whether Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, had any further information about the men.

He was commenting on a tweet sent earlier Wednesday by Task Force Baguette, a group of former U.S. and French servicemen, saying that two Americans fighting with them were captured a week ago. The group said Ukrainian intelligence confirmed the information.

Early in the war, Ukraine created the International Legion for foreign citizens who wanted to help defend against the Russian invasion.

Huynh spoke to his local newspaper, the Decatur Daily, shortly before flying to Eastern Europe in April.

He explained that he was studying robotics at Calhoun Community College but couldn’t stop thinking about Russia’s invasion.

“I know it wasn’t my problem, but there was that gut feeling that I felt I had to do something,” Huynh told the Decatur Daily. “Two weeks after the war began, it kept eating me up inside and it just felt wrong. I was losing sleep. … All I could think about was the situation in Ukraine.”

He said he decided to fly out once he learned that young Ukrainians were being drafted into service.

“Right when they turned 18, they were forced to enlist in the military to defend their homeland,” Huynh said. “Honestly, that broke my heart. I would say that is probably the moment where I decided that I have to do something.”

According to the newspaper, Huynh enlisted in the Marines when he was 19 and served for four years, though he did not see active combat.

He was born and raised in Orange County, California, to Vietnamese immigrants and moved to northern Alabama two years ago to be closer to his fiancee, the newspaper reported.

___

Associated Press writers Lynn Berry in Washington and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-politics-united-states-tuscaloosa-alabama-8537ea13d290f3c0b6c98474876dc01c

Phillips, who was writing a book on conservation in the Amazon, recently got in touch with Pereira to discuss an expedition to the valley, a territory larger than South Carolina that’s considered the largest repository of uncontacted peoples in the world. Phillips told his wife, Alessandra Sampaio, that he expected to be out of the reserve within days, according to a statement she gave to investigators.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/brazil-dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-remains/

WASHINGTON — Maybe it was only a matter of time.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, has tested positive for the virus and is experiencing “mild symptoms,” the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Wednesday.

Dr. Fauci, the institute’s director, was positive on a rapid antigen test, the agency said in a statement. It added that he was fully vaccinated against the virus and had been boosted twice. He is taking Paxlovid, the Pfizer antiviral therapy authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of Covid-19, an agency spokeswoman said.

News that Dr. Fauci, one of the world’s foremost infectious disease specialists and a household name thanks to the pandemic, had fallen victim to the coronavirus reverberated across Washington and the country. The positive test was the first for Dr. Fauci, who is 81.

But with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that more than half of Americans have contracted Covid-19, he is hardly the only big-name sufferer. Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, tested positive on Monday for the second time in less than a month. Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, who is 83, announced on Tuesday that she had tested positive; she had also done so in April.

Dr. Fauci has not been in close contact with Mr. Biden or other senior government officials recently and will “isolate and continue to work from his home,” the statement from his institute said. He will return to his office once he tests negative.

But he had been making public appearances. The AIDS Clinical Trials Group — a network of hundreds of researchers conducting studies to improve treatment of H.I.V. and related infections — is meeting in Washington this week, and Dr. Fauci, whose laboratory work has been focused on H.I.V./AIDS, addressed the group in person on Tuesday.

Along with other top federal health officials, Dr. Fauci was expected to testify on Thursday before the Senate health committee on the state of the pandemic. An official said that Dr. Fauci’s institute was working with committee staff members to arrange for a remote appearance.

While much of the nation appears to be trying to move on, the coronavirus remains a pervasive threat. According to a New York Times database, more than 100,000 new cases are still being identified each day in the United States — a figure that has stayed roughly flat during June. Many experts believe the number is an undercount because so many people are taking at-home tests whose results are not recorded with public health authorities.

While cases are declining in the Northeast and the Midwest, cases and hospitalizations are surging in the West and the South. Reports of deaths, however, remain low. Fewer than 350 deaths are being reported each day, The Times’s database shows, down from more than 2,600 a day at the height of the Omicron surge.

Dr. Fauci has spent half a century in government and has advised seven presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan, on epidemic and pandemic threats.

But the coronavirus pandemic turned him into a political lightning rod. His public urging of health precautions like mask-wearing and social distancing made him a frequent target of critics who questioned or opposed such measures.

Perhaps more than anyone, he knows how infectious the coronavirus is. This spring, he decided against attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — a gathering of prominent political and news media figures that featured an appearance by the president — “because of my individual assessment of my personal risk,” he said then. At the time, Dr. Fauci was preparing for other public engagements, including commencement speeches at Princeton and the University of Michigan.

The correspondents’ dinner, which drew more than 2,000 guests to a packed hotel ballroom, ended up spreading the virus among many journalists and other attendees.

“It’s a matter of time before we all get infected, honestly; this virus has become so transmissible,” Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, said on Wednesday. “What I tell people is that at some point in time you will encounter this virus, because we are doing more things and getting together. And if you are going to encounter the virus, you’d better be vaccinated and boosted.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/us/politics/anthony-fauci-covid-positive.html

The gunman who killed two El Monte police officers Tuesday when they responded to a call at a motel was on probation for a gun charge at the time of the shooting, court records show.

The officers were identified Wednesday afternoon as Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana.

The man’s mother, Lynn Covarrubias, confirmed Wednesday her son Justin Flores was killed by police in the shooting.

Covarrubias, 54, said her son and his wife were separated and he would often stay at the Siesta Inn motel on Garvey Avenue. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter. She said she didn’t know any details about the shooting or what prompted it.

Two sources with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office identified the gunman as Flores. Records show he was on probation for a gun possession offense at the time of the shooting. The sources spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

On Monday, a day before the shooting, Flores’ probation officer filed a request with the Los Angeles County Superior Court for a revocation hearing, listing the reason as “desertion.” Two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said Flores’ girlfriend last week reported he had assaulted her, triggering a probation violation, but that Flores was not taken into custody.

The shooting occurred near Central and Garvey avenues in El Monte, authorities said. One suspect was also killed.

Details of what exactly happened during the shooting Tuesday remain unclear.\

Juan Hernandez, who lives near the hotel, said he heard a smattering of gun fire shortly after 4:30 p.m.

“At first it was about six shots that you could hear and then a spraying of at least a dozen. I would guess there were at least 20 shots,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez quickly rushed his two children, both under 10 years old, from the living room to a bedroom. He then rushed outside his gate to see what transpired. The Siesta Inn, where the shooting took place, was about 50 yards from his home. He saw a body lying on the pavement near the intersection of Central and Garvey avenues. Hernandez believed it to be a suspect and not an officer “because I didn’t see a uniform.”

Capt. Andrew Meyer, who leads the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau, said that officers responded to a call for a possible stabbing at a motel, confronted Flores in a motel room and fired their weapons. Flores ran out of the room and into a parking lot, where the officers fired again, Meyer said.

Three officers opened fire during the encounter, a source in the Sheriff’s Department told The Times. The shooting was reported around 4:47 p.m., according to the department.

Two officers and Flores were hit by gunfire, Meyer said. The officers were taken to L.A. County-USC Medical Center, where they died. Flores was pronounced dead at the scene.

Meyer said a gun was recovered next to Flores’ body.

Although El Monte Mayor Jessica Ancona had said the officers were “essentially ambushed,” Meyer would not say whether the officers were attacked immediately upon arriving at the motel. He declined to describe in detail the sequence of events that culminated in the officers’ deaths.

On Wednesday, Ancona fought back tears when she spoke of two city police officers killed. She described them as “great fathers and great men” she had met.

“They grew up here; to us, they’re El Monte homegrown,” she said. “They’re our boys.”

Paredes started as a cadet with the department and was sworn in as a full-time officer in July 2000. He is survived by his wife, daughter and son. Ancona described him as a nearly 22-year veteran “who went through our El Monte schools” and who was “excited to be on the force.”

Santana is a former deputy sheriff with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, where he served for three years. Before that, he served as a maintenance worker with the city of El Monte for six years and graduated from El Monte High School. He’s survived by his wife, daughter and twin boys. Ancona said he had been on the force for less than a year after his transfer from San Bernardino County.

“There are no words to describe our grief and devastation by this senseless act as we learned about the passing of two of our police officers,” the city and Police Department said in a joint statement.

“We’re absolutely devastated; we’re heartbroken,” Ancona told The Times. “There’s words that cannot express what we’re feeling right now.”

“They were good men,” said Capt. Ben Lowry, the El Monte Police Department’s acting chief. “These two heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice today. They were murdered by a coward.”

Ancona said a memorial fund and funeral service details will be released later in the week.

Twenty investigators on Tuesday night were searching for surveillance video and interviewing witnesses, including a woman who was inside the motel room when the officers arrived, Meyer said.

The woman had not been stabbed, he said.

Covarrubias, Flores’ mother, said she did not know who was in the room with her son during the shooting. Her son’s wife called Tuesday and said he was dead, but she didn’t believe it.

“Even the pictures they showed me of my son lying on the ground, I just thought, ‘Take him to the hospital. You can save him,’ ” Covarrubias said.

She said police have been rude to her and detained her for several hours after the shooting, even though she was not at the motel when the shooting took place.

Covarrubias said the officers kept calling her son a “coward.”

“It hurts to hear them say that. He was a person too. He had a daughter,” Covarrubias said. “I want them to know in spite of what happened, he was loving and caring.”

Two law enforcement sources said Flores is a member of the Quiet Village gang.

Flores was arrested by sheriff’s deputies assigned to the department’s Industry station in March 2020 and charged with being a felon in possession of methamphetamine, a handgun and ammunition, court records show.

He pleaded no contest on Feb. 10, 2021, to being a felon in possession of a firearm as part of a plea deal. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the charges of felon in possession of ammunition and methamphetamine. While the gun conviction alone could have sent him to prison for up to three years, by pleading no contest Flores was instead sentenced to two years’ probation and 20 days in jail, which he’d already served, Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Holcomb said, according to a transcript of the plea hearing.

He was ordered not to possess any weapons, including guns, ammunition and knives, the transcript shows. Flores was warned that if he breached these terms, he could be sent to prison for up to three years.

Flores had been prohibited from having a gun since he was convicted of first degree burglary in 2011.

He was due in court on June 27 for a hearing over the probation violation, according to records.

El Monte resident Mayra Lomeli, 49, said she heard three shots, causing her to leap under a table at El Perico Market, a block from the Siesta Inn.

Lomeli, a customer of El Perico, said she overcame her fear and ran to close the entrance door, fearing a gunman would try to burst through.

“I didn’t know what was going on, but I know that sometimes desperate people will run into nearby buildings looking to escape,” she said.

Footage reportedly showing part of the incident showed police arriving at the scene amid the sounds of rapid gunfire.

On Wednesday morning, El Monte resident Lupe Morse, 60, walked from the street curb to the front of the El Monte Police Department with a sense of dread. She carried a glass vase with red roses, pink daisies and white lilies to leave in front of a bronze eagle statue dedicated “in memory of those who served.”

The memorial was filled with candles, flowers, U.S. flags and thank you signs honoring the two officers.

“This is the walk you never want to make, but you have to because these two officers had our backs and now it’s time to honor them,” Morse said.

The gesture had extra meaning for Morse, who said she’s often worried about the safety of her husband, Sgt. Ted Morse of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division.

“We’re a police family and we know the dangers and the possibility of what happened yesterday,” Lupe Morse said. “My heart breaks for the families.”

El Monte City School District custodian Jimmy Tessier, 55, stood at a plaque dedicated to fallen El Monte Police officers. It had two names — Anthony “Tony” Arceo, killed in 1974, and Donald Ralph Johnston, in 2002 — and would have two more to come.

Tessier, who grew up in El Monte, said a small prayer there and bowed his head.

“It was shocking to hear the news,” said Tessier. “You just never expect that here in this community. We have our problems of course, but not this.”

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-15/gunman-in-killing-of-el-monte-police-officers-was-on-probation-for-gun-charge

A washed out bridge shown along the Yellowstone River Wednesday, June 15, 2022, near Gardiner, Mont.

Rick Bowmer/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Rick Bowmer/AP

A washed out bridge shown along the Yellowstone River Wednesday, June 15, 2022, near Gardiner, Mont.

Rick Bowmer/AP

Yellowstone National Park officials now say some entrances could reopen “as early as this weekend” after historic floods hit Monday.

But, they say, “it is probable that road sections in northern Yellowstone will not re-open this season due to the time required for repairs.”

Yellowstone’s northern road loop includes the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, popular wildlife viewing areas in the Lamar Valley, and the Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge and park headquarters.

The southern road loop, which sustained less damage, accesses Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone Lake and a major visitor center. But, Park Superintendent Cam Sholly says, “half the park cannot support all the visitation. So we are exploring a range of options.”

Those include possibly a ticketed entry or reservation system. About 4 million people a year visit Yellowstone National Park.

Flood waters around the Park crested late Monday night. Flood warnings or watches remain in effect for several counties downstream on the Yellowstone river and its tributaries.

Just outside the park’s north gate, the community of Gardiner saw limited road access restored yesterday after being cut off for around 24 hours after roads washed out Monday. Yellowstone Public Radio reports the main highway out of town is now open to incoming residents and essential goods only, and to outgoing visitors.

Sholly advised people to get out quickly. “Don’t wait around and see if another event happens,” he said Tuesday. “I would take advantage of getting out of here while you can.”

Flood damage is seen along a street Tuesday, June 14, 2022, in Red Lodge, Mont.

Matthew Brown/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Matthew Brown/AP

Flood damage is seen along a street Tuesday, June 14, 2022, in Red Lodge, Mont.

Matthew Brown/AP

Meanwhile, drinking water in Gardiner remains unsafe, forcing local businesses to adapt.

Stacey Joy, who owns a lodge and cafe in Gardiner, told YPR’s Olivia Weitz that they are serving a limited menu and doing the best they can in the midst of a continued boil order.

“We usually have a line out the door for coffee and espresso, something that we cannot do right now,” she said. “The water temperature is not at a temperature for long enough to make that water safe.”

She said she’s, “anxious to see what [the park’s] plans are” for reopening the northern road loop and north entrance. It’s the park’s second most popular and the lifeblood of Gardiner’s economy.

Joy marveled at, “just the devastation of the roads and bridges, who knows if the North entrance is going to be a viable option for tourism this year.”

About 50 miles downstream, where the Yellowstone river runs through the town of Livingston, Mont., damage is still being surveyed.

“Everything is covered in a layer of mud,” Montana Public Radio’s Nick Mott reported as he helped a friend and her neighbors in Livingston clean up after water breached a layer of sandbags. “I am just standing in muck and mud right now.”

Flood damage is “relatively isolated to areas near the river,” Mott said. “But that’s not an insignificant amount of space in Livingston – the city is oriented around the river.”

The town’s only hospital reopened Wednesday morning after being evacuated Tuesday. A post on the hospital’s website says flood waters did not reach the building, though the system’s phone lines remain down.

Further downstream, the water treatment plant in Montana’s biggest city, Billings was knocked offline by floodwaters Tuesday night. The city of 117,000 has “between a day to a day-and-a-half of water supply for Billings.”

Officials expect water levels to peak today, they need them to drop by about a foot for the plant to be able to operate again, but, “the plant still has the task of cleaning filters to properly operate.” Residents are being asked to conserve water in the meantime.

Only one park gateway town remains cut off due to washed out roads–that’s Cook City at the northeast entrance to Yellowstone.

“We can’t provide law enforcement services out there right now, public health services,” Bill Berg, commissioner for Park County, Montana, told Jackson Hole Community Radio Tuesday. “We can’t get out there to pick up the garbage. Some of this stuff is pretty basic.”

Residents of Red Lodge, Mont., inspect damage to a house that was flooded after torrential rains fell across the Yellowstone region, on Tuesday.

Matthew Brown/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Matthew Brown/AP

Residents of Red Lodge, Mont., inspect damage to a house that was flooded after torrential rains fell across the Yellowstone region, on Tuesday.

Matthew Brown/AP

At the bottom of the mountains in which Cook City sits is the town of Red Lodge, much of which flooded and remains cut off from drinking water or under a boil order.

“What we’re trying to focus on currently, right now, is travel routes at bridges and access. That’s our number one concern,” Carbon County Incident Commander Tom Kuntz said. “Our number two, [and] equally up there is water and sewer.”

Kuntz was briefing Montana Lieutenant Governor Kristan Juras yesterday. Governor Greg Gianforte is currently out of the country and being criticized for not rushing home as the state struggled with historic flooding. His office now says he is returning “as quickly as possible.”

Yellowstone Public Radio reports Kuntz said river levels continue to rise downstream of Red Lodge in Bridger and Fromberg. He added that snow melt remaining on the mountains combined with warm weather and more rain could lead to another flooding event. He said both conditions are forecasted for Saturday, but possibly to a lesser degree.

Since June 13th, Montana Army National Guard helicopters have rescued 87 people and flown more than 41 hours in support of search and rescue operations in south central Montana.

Musician Katie Wise of CO, flown out of East Rosebud by MT National Guard Tuesday.

Kayla Desroches/ Yellowstone Public Radio


hide caption

toggle caption

Kayla Desroches/ Yellowstone Public Radio

Musician Katie Wise of CO, flown out of East Rosebud by MT National Guard Tuesday.

Kayla Desroches/ Yellowstone Public Radio

Among them, Katie Wise, a musician visiting from Colorado, who was rescued from East Rosebud and brought to an evacuee center in Red Lodge.

“I’m pretty adrenalized right now. My heart is pounding,” she said. “The most stressful part was that we didn’t know the helicopters were coming, so we were just talking about how we were going to do the whole water and rationing food, and we were going to do a food inventory and gather back as a community.

Across Montana at least a dozen counties are are under flood warnings or watches today and tomorrow, primarily along the Yellowstone River. But far to the north, the flood warning for areas around Glacier National Park is in effect “until further notice.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105280670/yellowstones-northern-half-is-unlikely-to-reopen-this-summer-due-to-severe-flood

Alexander J. Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Huynh, 27, both of Alabama, went missing in the last few days near Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city not far from the Russian border, according to their families. Drueke had served in the U.S. Army and Huynh is a Marine Corps veteran, they said.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/americans-feared-captured-russia-ukraine/

“What are you leaning towards?” the user followed up.

“DeSantis,” he replied.

DeSantis has brushed off questions about 2024, but in nearly every early 2024 straw poll has either finished first or second when competing only with former President Donald Trump, as the rest of the potential 2024 GOP field trails by wide margins. DeSantis has also been raising huge sums of campaign cash and has a growing base of support among conservative coast-to-coast.

Musk made his comment about DeSantis in reply to a tweet about Texas Republican Mayra Flores winning a special election and flipping a congressional seat long held by Democrats. She will now become the first Mexican-born congresswoman.

“I voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican,” he tweeted. “Massive red wave in 2022.”

In recent months, DeSantis has praised Musk, whose flirtation with buying Twitter has energized conservatives who think under his leadership there would be less censorship, something DeSantis has focused on as governor. In April, as Twitter was nearing a deal with Musk to sell, DeSantis said it would be a blow to “failed legacy media.”

“They were used to going around a lot of those failed legacy media outlets like NBC and CNN that no one trusts anymore,” DeSantis said during an April press conference. “It seems like over the last five or six years, these big tech companies, including Twitter, have gone from open platforms to being enforcers of the narrative.”

He has pushed back on the idea of actively trying to relocate Twitter to Florida, which is a longshot pitch other Florida politicians have made publicly.

“We have worked really hard on vocation and career education,” DeSantis said last month when asked about recruiting Twitter to Florida. “Importing some tech company from San Francisco has not been high on our list. I think that what happens is they’ll tend to come in, they drive up the cost of living for everybody else.”

Musk’s plan to buy Twitter has been put “on hold” in recent weeks as the two sides hash out remaining details, including Musk’s concern that the company initially was not providing information about how many of its accounts were bots or fake, information it has since agreed to give Musk access to.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/15/elon-musk-ron-desantis-president-00039799

The body of a 3-year-old boy who wandered away from his babysitter’s backyard on Tuesday has been found in a Lowell, Massachusetts pond, sources told WMUR’s sister station WCVB.

Harry was reported missing to police at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after last being seen in the 37 Freda Lane yard at about 9:15 a.m., officials said.

On Wednesday, yellow police tape was set up around a field and a pond at Rollie’s Farm on nearby Varnum Avenue, an area close to the babysitter’s home that had been part of the search since its early stages.

“I was looking for him in the cornfield, and all I heard is ‘He’s gone. He’s in the pond. We’re going to take him out. Please get out of the cornfield,’” volunteer Kylie Vouley told WCVB.

Lowell Police Chief Barry Golner said Tuesday investigators were confident the case was that of a missing child, and there was nothing to indicate any foul play.

“He’s active. He likes going outside. When he’s at home, he goes to the yard and plays. He’s a healthy kid but he can’t speak. He’s trying to learn how to speak, but he can’t talk,” the boy’s father said Tuesday by phone.

Hundreds of investigators joined in the two-day search — scouring nearby homes, outbuildings and vehicles for any sign of the little boy, as well as conducting line searches in the woods and draining swimming pools.

Divers searched a pond off Freda Lane, which is near the Merrimack River.

K9 and mounted units were also deployed in the exhaustive search.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information comes in.

Source Article from https://www.wmur.com/article/missing-3-year-old-boy-found-massachusetts-pond/40301505

Four states held primary elections Tuesday, and in one of the most closely watched races in South Carolina, CBS News projects Russell Fry wins the 7th-District Republican primary, defeating incumbent Rep. Tom Rice, who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump. 

Tuesday’s primaries are setting up some of the most expensive general election matchups in the fall.

Rice vehemently defended his impeachment vote, telling Politico recently that “I think that was one of the worst things, if not the worst, that a president has ever done in terms of attacking the Constitution and separation of powers.” 

Trump backed Fry in the race. The former president issued a celebratory statement on Tuesday night, calling Fry’s win the “biggest News of the evening so far is that Russell Fry beat Impeach Master Tom Rice with a Vote of more than 51%, therefore WINNING OUTRIGHT with no need for a run-off.” 

Tom Rice (left) and Russell Fry

AP Photo/Alex Brandon, AP Photo/Meg Kinnard


Fry on Tuesday night called it a “huge night for Republicans” and thanked Trump for his endorsement. 

CBS News projects that Rep. Nancy Mace has won the Republican primary in South Carolina’s 1st District. Mace, a freshman Republican who flipped South Carolina’s 1st District from blue to red,defeated Trump-backed former state Rep. Katie Arrington, the 2018 GOP nominee for this district who lost to Democrat Joe Cunningham.

Mace voted to certify the 2020 election results and to hold Trump ally Steven Bannon in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. She was also outspoken against Trump’s conduct in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.

Trump had issued a statement Saturday saying that Mace is “despised by almost everyone” and said she “fights Republicans all the time and is not at all nice about it.” But on Tuesday night, Trump issued a statement on Truth Social saying “Katie Arrington was a long shot but ran a great race and way over performed. Congrats to Nancy Mace, who should easily be able to defeat her Democrat opponent!”

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, Sean Rayford/Getty Images


Republican incumbent Sen. Tim Scott didn’t face any serious primary challengers on Tuesday and he’s expected to easily win deep-red South Carolina in November. But he’s raised nearly $40 million so far, more than any other Republican.

Democrats Catherine Fleming Bruce, Angela Geter and state Rep. Krystle Matthews are competing to take on Scott.

In the governor’s race, Trump-backed incumbent Republican Gov. Henry McMaster defeated his primary challenger, Harrison Musselwhite.

On the Democratic side, Cunningham, who lost his House seat to Mace in 2018, won the primary, defeating state Sen. Mia McLeod and several others. 

Also in the spotlight is Nevada, the state that officially gave President Joe Biden enough electoral votes to win the presidency in 2020. Mr. Biden won the state by less than three points in 2020, and the state’s economy has been hit hard by inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans are hoping to flip the Senate seat and the governor’s mansion in the fall — and a number of Republicans are running to succeed the term-limited secretary of state, who refused to throw out the election results in favor of Trump.

Trump-backed Adam Laxalt won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Nevada. Laxalt succeeded current Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto as the state’s attorney general.

Ben Smith (left) and Adam Laxalt are running for the Republican nomination for Senate in Nevada. 

David Calvert/Getty Images, David Becker/Getty Images


Laxalt, who lost the governor’s race in 2018, had endorsements from a number of high-profile Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Donald Trump Jr., who came to Nevada to campaign with Laxalt. 

Cortez Masto won the Democratic primary. She has already raised big sums ahead of November — nearly $20 million in the last year — and went into primary day with more than $9 million cash on hand.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, won the Democratic primary for governor. Sisolak, elected in 2018, was the first Democrat to win the governor’s mansion in more than 20 years. 

Fifteen Republicans are on the primary ballot for governor. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, former boxer Joey Gilbert, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and entrepreneur Guy Nohra are so far leading the field. 

Jim Marchant won the Republican primary for Nevada Secretary of State. A former state lawmaker, Marchant told The Wall Street Journal last year that he didn’t know whether Mr. Biden won the state in 2020 and “would not have certified” the election. 

Marchant also told The Guardian that he would be open to sending an alternate slate of electors to Congress in 2024. He also falsely claimed that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him and Trump. Marchant lost to Rep. Steven Horsford and unsuccessfully challenged the results. 

Marchant and another candidate in the race, former Clark County District Court Judge Richard Scotti, have said they would push to decertify Dominion voting machines, which are used by nearly all of Nevada’s counties. The machines were at the center of some election conspiracies and the company has filed lawsuits against some high-profile figures who spread those claims. 

Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who is term limited, has faced blowback from Trump’s supporters since the 2020 election, including being censured by the state party. There has been no credible evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed Nevada’s results. 

In Nevada’s 1st Congressional District, Democratic incumbent Rep. Dina Titus won the primary. She defeated progressive Amy Vilela, who was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

In the 2nd District, national Republican groups have gotten involved to support Congressman Mark Amodei in his primary. Amodei is being challenged by Danny Tarkanian, a Douglas County commissioner who has had unsuccessful runs for Congress in the past decade.

In the special election to fill the remainder of Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela’s term in Texas’ 34th District, Republicans got a short-term win with Republican Mayra Flores winning enough votes, 50% of the total turnout, to win the race outright to hold the seat until January. Vela resigned in March to work for a lobbying firm.

Republicans are hoping the win Tuesday will give them an edge to flip the district in November, where Flores will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. Although the district lines will lean more Democratic in November than the version used in the special election, the win comes as Republicans continue to invest in their outreach with Hispanic voters in this region and across the country on issues such as the economy and immigration.

Flores and Republican groups spent close to $1 million dollars on ads for the special election, while national Democratic groups only devoted a fraction of their resources to the race.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/primary-results-2022-south-carolina-nevada-maine-north-dakota-texas-special-election-tonight-2022-06-14/

A U.S. House district in South Texas will send a Republican to Congress for the first time in its 10-year history.

Mayra Flores, a Republican and respiratory-care health aide, scored a significant victory in a special election on Tuesday for the party, which has been trying to capitalize on its successes in 2020 in the Democratic stronghold of the Rio Grande Valley. She will be the first Latina Republican from Texas in Congress.

Ms. Flores defeated three opponents in the special election to replace former Representative Filemon Vela, a Democrat who retired this year before the end of his term. She captured more than 50 percent of the vote in Texas’ 34th Congressional District, according to The Associated Press, and will avoid an expected runoff with Dan Sanchez, a Democrat and former commissioner in Cameron County.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/us/politics/mayra-flores-texas-election.html

Two El Monte police officers were shot and killed Tuesday afternoon while responding to a possible stabbing at a motel, leaving many in this suburb east of Los Angeles stunned.

El Monte officials said the officers were immediately targeted by gunfire upon responding to the Siesta Inn near Central and Garvey avenues.

At a news conference Tuesday night, Capt. Andrew Meyer, who leads the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau, confirmed that officers responded to a call for a possible stabbing at a motel, that they confronted the suspect in a motel room and fired their weapons, and that the suspect ran out of the room and into a parking lot, where the officers fired again.

Three officers opened fire during the encounter, a source in the Sheriff’s Department told The Times. The shooting was reported around 4:47 p.m., according to the department.

Two officers and the suspect were hit by gunfire, Meyer said. The officers were taken to L.A. County-USC Medical Center, where they died. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

Meyer said a gun was recovered next to the suspect.

Though the mayor of El Monte said the officers were “essentially ambushed,” Meyer would not say whether the officers were attacked immediately upon arriving at the motel. He declined to describe in detail the sequence of events that culminated in the officers’ deaths.

“We don’t have all the facts yet,” he said.

Twenty investigators on Tuesday night were searching for surveillance video and interviewing witnesses, including a woman who was inside the motel room when the officers arrived, Meyer said.

The woman, believed to be the suspect’s girlfriend, had not been stabbed, he said.

“They were good men,” Capt. Ben Lowry, the El Monte Police Department’s acting chief, said of the officers. “These two heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice today. They were murdered by a coward.”

Lowry asked the community to keep the officers’ families in their prayers.

“I’ve heard the only way to take the sting out of death is to take the love out of life,” he said. “And believe me … these two men were loved.”

Officials did not name the officers, saying their relatives were still being notified of their deaths. One was a 22-year veteran and the other had been on the force for less than a year, Lowry said. Both had family in El Monte.

A law enforcement source said the officers had responded to a radio call at the motel, got into a confrontation and were shot at close range.

Another source told The Times that the suspect shot through the door after the officers knocked.

A Sheriff’s Department source said that colleagues carried the officers to police cruisers and drove them to County-USC, which is renowned for treating gunshot wounds.

“Heartbroken doesn’t begin to express the loss that we feel,” El Monte Mayor Jessica Ancona said during a Tuesday night news conference. “They were acting as the first line of defense for community members when they were essentially ambushed while trying to keep the family safe.”

El Monte resident Mayra Lomeli, 49, said she heard three shots, causing her to leap under a table at El Perico Market, a block away from the Siesta Inn.

Lomeli, a customer of El Perico, said she overcame her fear and ran to close the entrance door, fearing a gunman would try to burst through.

“I didn’t know what was going on, but I know that sometimes desperate people will run into nearby buildings looking to escape,” she said.

Lomeli said it was a little past 4:30 p.m. when she heard gunshots. She was having an early dinner with a friend.

That friend, she said, was denied access to her home around the corner from the shooting. Lomeli, who lives three blocks away, returned to her home.

“Right after the shooting, the police were closing access to all local residents; even some of the store owners couldn’t get back to their business,” she said.

The Santa Anita Avenue exit of the eastbound 10 Freeway was blocked by authorities, while Garvey Avenue was closed between Doreen Avenue and Merced Avenue.

“That hotel is no good,” Lomeli said. “There’s always problems there. If it’s not drugs, then it’s prostitution.”

“On behalf of everyone in the district attorney’s office, I want to extend my heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the two El Monte police officers who were killed on duty today,” L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said Tuesday night. “We stand with you at this time of great loss.”

A 33-year-old man was apprehended hours after the shooting of a California Highway Patrol officer, who remains in critical condition.

Most of Garvey Avenue between Santa Anita and Merced avenues was devoid of activity by 6 p.m. Police directed traffic and nonlocal pedestrians down side streets. Barricades were set up to prevent visitors from parking at local stores.

Nearly every business — a laundromat, King Taco, a liquor store and a minimarket — in the El Monte strip mall adjacent to the scene of the shooting was closed by 7 p.m., a little more than two hours after the incident.

A 24-hour Yum Yum Donuts store was the sole business still open, its floodlights shining into the dusk.

Claudia Ana Ramirez, 32, dined on a torta de pierna around 9 p.m. in the shop while watching news of the shooting.

After a 12-hour nursing shift at a local convalescent home, Ramirez had planned to grab groceries and pick up a couple of tacos. But she found the businesses closed and the street dark. She was grateful to have a place to eat.

“I thought I was going to have to buy food at the gas station or walk really far away,” Ramirez said. “I didn’t want to go home hungry.”

Tuesday’s shooting occurred about 20 hours after a California Highway Patrol officer was shot during a Studio City traffic stop.

The officer was wounded and taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, authorities said.

A suspect, 33-year-old Pejhmaun Iraj Khosroabadi, was arrested after a manhunt that stretched into Tuesday morning. He was booked on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer.

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s Fatalities Report, there were 62 firearms-related officer deaths in 2021, a 38% increase over the 45 officers killed in similar incidents in 2020.

Of the 62 firearms fatalities last year, 19 officers were ambushed, eight were investigating suspicious activities or persons, and seven were attempting an arrest.

Anyone with information about the El Monte shooting is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.

Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-14/el-monte-police-officers-shot

The grant program, Cornyn said, would not seek to coerce or even incentivize states who do not currently have red-flag laws to adopt them. In fact, he said, the money could be used for other programs related to mental health crisis interventions that have no firearms component whatsoever, while states that do use the funds to establish red-flag laws would be subject to “a full set of due process and Bill of Rights protections.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/14/mitch-mcconnell-gun-control/

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/14/yellowstone-national-park-flooding-closed-damage/7619882001/

President Biden, in an Oval Office meeting last week with key members of his Cabinet, indicated he’s leaning toward removing some products from the Trump administration’s China tariffs list, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Why it matters: With inflation at a 40-year high of 8.6%, Biden and his top officials are desperate to show action on bringing down prices, even if it makes them appear weak on China.

  • Inflation is eating into the purchasing power of lower-income Americans — and eroding Democrats’ political fortunes ahead of midterm elections. While the Federal Reserve is the nation’s primary inflation firefighter, the tariffs that now cover $350 billion of goods imported from China are one area in which Biden can act unilaterally to relieve American consumers.
  • But Biden’s plans to exempt some products covered by Trump’s Section 301 tariffs risk aggravating the labor movement.
  • Driving the news: Biden is scheduled to address the AFL-CIO’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia today, with remarks aimed at celebrating their partnership.
  • But in private conversations with administration officials, labor representatives have warned the White House against relaxing any of the tariffs.

What we’re hearing: Biden is leaning toward ordering the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to run a formal “exclusions process” to determine if some consumer items, such as bicycles, should be exempted from the Section 301 tariffs. He is less likely to include big industrial items, like steel and aluminum, in the process.

  • Biden gave some indication of that thinking last Tuesday in a meeting with key Cabinet officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.
  • A potential announcement is expected as early as this month.
  • “No decision has been made,” said a White House spokesperson. “The President is discussing with his team on ensuring that tariffs are aligned with our economic and strategic priorities, such as safeguarding the interests of workers and critical industries, advancing our national security, and not unnecessarily raising costs on Americans.”

The big picture: Labor movement officials put Biden on political notice last week that they expect him to keep all of Trump’s tariffs in place, writing that “our government must act in the national interest to strengthen our economy for the future.”

  • For most of his presidency, Biden has been reluctant to let any daylight enter between him and the labor movement, which forms the backbone of his political coalition.
  • The extent of union anger likely depends on how many items Biden exempts and the total dollar amount.
  • Some labor officials were frustrated by Biden’s decision last week to use his emergency powers to waive any potential trade penalties for solar developers for importing panels from southeast Asia.

Between the lines: The overall impact of removing all of Trump’s tariffs on imports from China, according to one study, might lower the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by only 0.26 of a percentage point.

  • That’s fueled a fierce internal debate, pitting economic officials against other key members of the administration, like U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who want to maintain leverage on China.

Flashback: For several months, officials have privately debated the political and economic merits of lifting some of the Trump tariffs, with Biden telling reporters in Japan in late May that he was “considering” rolling some of them back.

  • “We did not impose any of those tariffs,” he said. “They were imposed by the previous administration, and they are under consideration.”

The bottom line: White House officials are depressed about and resigned to their prospects of meaningfully lowering prices before November. Biden is deeply frustrated with his team’s proposed addresses to sky-high gas prices.

  • He recently questioned the value of heading to Iowa to promote biofuels to help lower gas prices, as the Washington Post reported, summoning his chief of staff, Ron Klain, into the Oval Office.

Source Article from https://www.axios.com/2022/06/14/scoop-biden-leans-toward-easing-some-trump-china-tariff