Days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the administration continues to consider military options for dealing with Iran, Trump dismissed the idea in an interview with Time magazine. Asked whether he was considering military action against Tehran, the President said: “I wouldn’t say that. I can’t say that at all.”
Trump also called the attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, which his administration has blamed on Iran, as “very minor.”
Then, in an interview with Fox News, Trump was asked collectively about tensions with Iran, China and Russia. “Don’t worry about a thing,” Trump said, describing issues with those nations as being “under control.”
“Soreta”, “reverenda hija de puta”, “pelotuda”, “estúpida” y “sos una mierda”. Con esos insultos, Jorge Rial calificó a la periodista de Noticias, Daniela Bianco, autora de la nota titulada “Rial, Majul y Del Moro: guerra de celos en América”, publicada en la edición de esta semana.
El conductor de Intrusos, además de haberla amenazado por medio de un mensaje de audio y de extender sus improperios a todos los periodistas de la revista, utilizó los últimos dos minutos de su programa “Ciudad Goti K”, que se emite por Radio La Red, para descargar su injustificada ira.
Seven counties in the greater San Francisco Bay Area region have issued a shelter-in-place order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Here’s how it works.
Why it’s being done
The San Francisco Bay Area is the hardest-hit region in California with regards to coronavirus cases. More than 290 cases have been reported in the six Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, as well as the neighboring county of Santa Cruz.
In Santa Clara County alone, more than 130 cases were confirmed and more than 50 have been hospitalized. Officials expect the number of cases to worsen.
Officials say slowing the spread of the virus is urgent to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed. Older adults and those with underlying medical conditions are most at risk for critical illness, with their bodies unable to fight off a viral infection of the lungs that can result in a failure to breathe on their own, septic shock and multiple organ failure.
“Some individuals who contract the COVID-19 virus have no symptoms or have mild symptoms, which means they may not be aware they carry the virus,” the order said. “Because even people without symptoms can transmit the disease, and because evidence shows the disease is easily spread, gatherings can result in preventable transmission of the virus.”
What does the order say?
Officials are directing the public to stay at home as much as possible, with certain exceptions, such as to go out and get food at supermarkets, pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy, buy gas, go to the bank and check up on relatives.
“You will still be able to walk your dog, or go on a hike alone or someone you live with, or even with another person, as long as you keep six feet between you,” Dr. Grant Colfax, the San Francisco director of health, said at a press conference.
Certain essential activities are exempt, such as essential government and business services or essential public infrastructure construction, like housing. Essential activities are defined below.
The order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. It’ll continue until 11:59 p.m. on April 7, unless rescinded earlier or extended.
What kinds of businesses are now ordered closed?
All bars and nightclubs
Gyms and recreation facilities
Essential businesses are urged to remain open. A list of them is below.
Are restaurants and cafes ordered closed?
Restaurants and cafes can remain open for takeout and delivery.
How big can gatherings be now?
All public and private gatherings of any number of people outside a single household or living unit are now banned, with certain exceptions listed below.
What kind of travel is banned?
All travel, including by car and public transit, is banned except for essential travel or essential activities, as defined below. Public transit riders should try to stay six feet away from others.
What about homeless people?
Homeless people are not subject to this order but are urged to find shelter.
How will it be enforced?
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said police are asking the public to voluntarily comply. While violation of the health order could be enforceable as a misdemeanor, “that is an absolute last resort,” Scott said. “This is not about a criminal justice approach to a public health issue.”
What are essential activities that are still allowed to occur?
To do things essential to health and safety of the household, including pets, like getting medical supplies, visiting a clinic or hospital, or obtaining supplies to work from home.
To obtain needed services or supplies, like buying groceries.
To engage in outdoor activities like walking, hiking or running, while keeping six feet away from others.
To do work defined as essential business, defined below.
To care for a family member or pet in another household.
To continue working for a healthcare operation, like a hospital, clinic, dentist’s office, pharmacy, pharmaceutical and biotech company, a healthcare facility, healthcare supplier, home healthcare service, mental health provider, veterinary office or other related services.
To continue working for construction projects needed for essential infrastructure, such as building housing, airport operations, and work on water, sewer, gas, electrical, oil refining, roads and highways, public transportation, solid waste collection, internet, and telecom systems.
To continue working as first responders, emergency management personnel, emergency dispatchers, court personnel, and law enforcement. Anyone needed to ensure the continuing operation of government agencies and provide for the health, safety and welfare of the public is exempt.
People at high risk for severe illness, such as the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, are urged to remain at home except as needed to seek medical care.
If you go out, what are you supposed to do?
Stay six feet away from other people — the distance at which virus-infected saliva can travel in someone’s cough or sneeze; wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds often or use hand sanitizer; cover coughs and sneezes; stop shaking hands;
Other than healthcare workers and other essential workers, if you have a medical condition that puts you at risk for serious complications for the coronavirus, stay at home;
For employers, take all steps needed to allow workers to work from home to the extent possible.
What are essential businesses under this order?
Healthcare operations
Grocery stores, certified farmers’ markets, farm and produce stands, supermarkets, food banks, convenience stores, and other establishments that sell canned food, dry goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, pet supplies, fresh meats, fish and poultry, and household products such as cleaning and personal care products.
Food cultivation, like farming, livestock and fishing
Businesses that provide food, shelter and social services and other necessities of life for the needy
Newspapers, TV, radio and other media services
Gas stations, auto supply, auto repair and related facilities
Banks and related financial institutions
Hardware stores
Plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining safety and sanitation
Businesses providing mailing and shipping services, including post office boxes
Educational institutions — including public and private K-12 schools, colleges and universities — for purposes of facilitating distance learning or performing essential functions
Laundromats, dry cleaners, and laundry service providers
Restaurants and other facilities that prepare and serve food, but only for delivery or carry out. Schools and other entities that typically provide free food services to students or members of the public may continue to do so under this order on the condition that the food is provided to students or members of the public on a pickup and takeaway basis only. Schools and other entities that provide food services under this exemption shall not permit the food to be eaten at the site where it is provided, or at any other gathering site
Businesses that supply products needed for people to work from home
Businesses that supply other essential businesses with the support or supplies necessary to operate
Businesses that ship or deliver groceries, food, goods or services directly to residences
Airlines, taxis and other private transportation providers providing transportation services necessary for essential activities
Home-based care for seniors, adults and children
Residential facilities and shelters for seniors, adults and children
Professional services, such as legal or accounting services, when necessary to assist in compliance with legally mandated activities
Childcare facilities providing services that enable employees exempted in this order to work as permitted. To the extent possible, childcare facilities must operate under the following mandatory conditions:
Childcare must be carried out in stable groups of 12 or fewer (“stable” means that the same 12 or fewer children are in the same group each day).
Children shall not change from one group to another.
If more than one group of children is cared for at one facility, each group shall be in a separate room. Groups shall not mix with each other.
Childcare providers shall remain solely with one group of children.
LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has been holed up for nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation.
A video posted online showed an agitated, frail-looking man with white hair and a white beard being carried out of the central London building by at least seven men.
“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police said.
Police said they arrested Assange after being “invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government’s withdrawal of asylum.”
He was taken into custody at a central London police station and will be brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court later.
Assange took refuge in 2012 in Ecuador’s London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.
Sweden later dropped the investigation, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London.
He feared being extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks.
Related Coverage
Assange’s relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno’s personal life. Moreno had previously said Assange has violated the terms of his asylum.
Moreno said that he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.
“The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules,” Moreno said.
WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange’s political asylum in violation of international law.
To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined the security of the United States.
Supporters of Assange had argued that living in the cramped conditions without access to sunlight had damaged his health.
Sweden closed its preliminary investigation into a suspected rape in 2017 as there was “no reason to believe that the decision to hand him (Assange) over to Sweden could be implemented within a reasonable timeframe”.
But then Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said at the time that the probe could be reopened should the situation change.
Slideshow (2 Images)
“If he at a later time were to make himself available, I can decide to immediately resume the preliminary investigation,” Ny, who has since retired, said in a 2017 statement.
The statute of limitations for rape in Sweden is 10 years, unless it is deemed to be aggravated, in which case the ability to prosecute runs for longer.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority had no immediate comment on Thursday regarding the news of Assange’s arrest or whether a probe could be reopened.
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; Editing by Hugh Lawson
This year, The Post was recognized for a nearly year-long collection of coverage that included breaking news stories, investigative reports, video reconstructions and an editorial published the night of Jan. 6 calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office for his “refusal to accept his election defeat and his relentless incitement of his supporters” who attacked the Capitol that day. A centerpiece of the coverage was a three-part, 38,000-word investigative series, “The Attack,” that published in late October, intended to provide the definitive account of forces and failures that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the tumultuous events of the day and subsequent efforts by Trump allies to diminish the attack and promote the false narrative of a stolen election.
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Mr. Griveaux, the government’s most familiar face on television, has also been the most aggressive in adopting Mr. Macron’s harsh new line against the protest movement. In a New Year’s address, Mr. Macron vowed to restore order “without compromise.”
On Friday, Mr. Griveaux declared that the Yellow Vest movement had become “the province of agitators who want upheaval, and, at bottom, to overthrow the government.” A watchword of the protest movement has been a demand that Mr. Macron resign.
A Yellow Vest leader, Eric Drouet, was arrested this past week on charges of organizing an undeclared demonstration, setting off concerns of a backlash that would re-energize the demonstrations.
The weeks of unrest have pressured Mr. Macron to act. In mid-December, he scrapped a contentious fuel tax increase and promised extra cash for minimum wage earners and tax cuts for pensioners.
KYIV, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Ukraine was “reborn” when Russia invaded six months ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, marking 31 years of Ukrainian independence from the Moscow-dominated Soviet Union with a vow to drive Russian forces out completely.
After days of warnings that Moscow could use the anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence Day to launch more missile attacks on major urban centres, the second-biggest city Kharkiv was under curfew, following months of frequent bombardment.
The anniversary fell exactly six months after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. Wednesday’s celebrations were cancelled but many people marked the day by wearing embroidered shirts that are part of the national dress.
In an emotional speech to his compatriots, Zelenskiy said Russia’s attack had revived the nation’s spirit.
“A new nation appeared in the world on Feb. 24 at 4 in the morning. It was not born, but reborn. A nation that did not cry, scream or take fright. One that did not flee. Did not give up. And did not forget,” he said.
The 44-year-old leader, speaking in front of Kyiv’s central monument to independence in his trademark combat fatigues, vowed to recapture Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine as well as the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
“We will not sit down at the negotiating table out of fear, with a gun pointed at our heads. For us, the most terrible iron is not missiles, aircraft and tanks, but shackles. Not trenches, but fetters,” he said.
He and his wife later joined religious leaders for a service in Kyiv’s St. Sophia cathedral and laid flowers at a memorial to fallen soldiers.
In its evening update, Ukraine’s army high command said Russian air and missile strikes on military and civilian targets alike continued through Wednesday. “Today was rich with air raid sirens,” the General Staff said in a note.
Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian drone in the Vinnytsia region while multiple Russian missiles landed in the Khmelnytskyi area, regional authorities said – both west of Kyiv and hundreds of kilometres from front lines.
No further details were provided and Reuters could not verify the reports.
On Tuesday evening, Zelenskiy warned of the possibility of “repugnant Russian provocations” and on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military urged people to take air raid warnings seriously.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of defence ministers in Uzbekistan that Moscow had deliberately slowed down what it refers to as its “special military operation” in Ukraine to avoid civilian casualties. read more
INCREASING WESTERN SUPPORT
U.S. President Joe Biden announced nearly $3 billion for weapons and equipment for Ukraine in Washington’s “biggest tranche of security assistance to date”.
On a surprise visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also promised a further $63.5 million worth of military support, including 2,000 drones and loitering munitions to enable the Ukrainian military to better track and target invading Russian forces. read more
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena lay flowers at the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, during marking the Independence Day in Kyiv, Ukraine August 24, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Ukrainians they were an inspiration to the world. “You can count on NATO’s support. For as long as it takes,” he said in a video message.
Russia has made few advances in Ukraine in recent months after its troops were pushed back from Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.
Ukraine’s top military intelligence official, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russia’s offensive was slowing because of moral and physical fatigue in its ranks and Moscow’s “exhausted” resource base. read more
On the eastern front lines of Ukrainian resistance and in shattered cities, some with deserted streets under curfew, combatants and civilians marked Ukraine’s independence day with steadfast words and the promise of victory. read more
“Our nation has become more conscious and, thus, stronger, to finally give a devastating response and forever punish the (Russian) criminals,” said Mkyta Nadtochii, commander of the Azov Regiment, which in May lost the port city of Mariupol only after months of fending off a devastating Russian siege.
NEW ATTACKS
Russian forces have seized areas of the south including on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts and large tracts of the eastern Donbas region comprising the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.
U.S. officials have warned of likely new Russian attacks on civilian and government infrastructure in coming days.
The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced more than a third of Ukraine’s 41 million people from their homes, left cities in ruins, and shaken the global economy, creating shortages of essential food grains and pushing up energy prices.
Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991, and its population voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that December.
In southern Ukraine, both sides have accused the other of firing missiles and artillery at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said it hoped to gain access soon. while Russia said it had arrested two Ukrainian employees of the plant for passing information to Ukrainian authorities. read more
Advanced U.S. missile systems appear to have helped Ukraine strike deep behind the front lines in recent months, taking out ammunition dumps and command posts.
In the latest mysterious fire at a Russian military facility, Russian officials said ammunition stored in the south near the border with Ukraine spontaneously combusted on Tuesday.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, blamed hot weather for the fire, drawing ridicule from Ukraine’s defence ministry on Twitter.
“The five main causes of sudden explosions in Russia are: winter, spring, summer, autumn and smoking,” it said.
The Ohio Republican Jim Jordan is the second sitting congressman to refuse a request for cooperation from the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.
In a Sunday night letter to the committee chair, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the Trump ally accused the panel of “an outrageous abuse” of its authority.
He also claimed “an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives”.
“This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry,” he said, “violates core constitutional principles and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who was also closely involved in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his election defeat, has also refused to cooperate.
The former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to a charge of criminal contempt of Congress, for refusing cooperation. His trial is set for July.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s final White House chief of staff and a former congressman, has also refused. The committee has recommended a criminal charge.
Citing committee sources, the Guardian has reported that the panel is considering whether Trump himself might be charged with criminal conspiracy.
But Thompson has suggested the panel may have few options to compel testimony from sitting members of Congress. An alternative path may be a series of primetime public hearings, seeking as wide an audience as possible.
In columns for the Guardian, the former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal has laid out Jordan’s extensive contacts with Trump before and on 6 January, throughout legalistic efforts to throw out results and the Capitol riot itself.
Blumenthal has also suggested precedent exists for compelling Jordan to testify – in the investigation of John Brown’s anti-slavery raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.
That event preceded the civil war, fought from 1861 to 1865. Many academics and observers have warned that Trump’s assault on democracy could stoke such conflict.
Five people died and more than 140 police officers were injured around the attack on Congress, which failed to stop the certification of electoral college results. Trump was impeached, for inciting an insurrection, and acquitted.
Jordan, a former wrestling coach and member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, is a leading Trump ally in Congress.
Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, proposed Jordan as a member of the 6 January committee. Democrats blocked it. Only two Republicans sit on the panel: Trump critics Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
On Sunday, Kinzinger asked on NBC: “What did the president know about 6 January leading up to 6 January?
“It’s the difference between, was the president absolutely incompetent or a coward on 6 January when he didn’t do anything or did he know what was coming? That’s a difference between incompetence with your oath and possibly criminal.”
On Sunday night, a spokesperson said the committee would respond to Jordan soon and “consider appropriate next steps”.
“Mr Jordan has admitted that he spoke directly to President Trump on 6 January and is thus a material witness,” the spokesperson said. “Mr Jordan’s letter to the committee fails to address these facts.”
Fox News correspondent at large Geraldo Rivera says Joe Biden’s charge is ‘unhinged from reality.’
Former Vice President Joe Biden blasted President Trump for repeatedly blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak and suggested that ‘people’ don’t distinguish Chinese from other Asians.
During a virtual campaign event on Wednesday speaking with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Biden praised the U.S. as a “nation of immigrants.”
“Don’t let anybody convince you you’re not American in every single way,” Biden told home care provider Suk Kim, who migrated from South Korea 40 years ago. “It’s an idea. We’re an idea. It’s not based on an ethnicity or race. I’m sorry I get so worked up about it, but it makes me so angry when I find people based on the color of their skin or their national origin are somehow viewed in a different way.”
The Democratic candidate then pivoted to Trump’s attacks on China, something critics have alleged is xenophobic, particularly when he refers to COVID-19 as the “China virus.”
“Look what he’s doing now. He’s blaming everything on China. He’s blaming everything on the Chinese… and people don’t make a distinction, as you well know, from a South Korean and someone from Beijing,” Biden continued. “They make no distinction, it’s Asian. And he’s using it as a wedge.”
Biden also accused Trump of being the “first” racist to be elected president.
“No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists and they’ve existed and they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has,” Biden said.
Critics pushed back against Biden’s claim, citing 12 presidents who were slaveowners as well as Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delanor Roosevelt as examples.
President Trump responded to Biden’s remark at Wednesday’s coronavirus task force briefing, claiming he’s done more for Black people than any president, with the “possible” exception of Abraham Lincoln.
Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer charged with second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, made her first court appearance Thursday.
Potter appeared remotely with her defense attorney, Earl Gray. She wore a flannel, button-down shirt and only spoke when prompted by the judge. Potter is next expected to appear in person at 1:30 p.m. local time May 17 in front of Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu.
During the hearing, Potter was visible only briefly when her attorney pointed his video camera in her direction. Potter was also told she is not allowed to “possess use or transport firearms, ammunitions or explosives” during the duration of the case, Hennepin County District Court Judge Paul R. Scoggin said during the brief appearance.
Potter, a 26-year-veteran of the force and former head of the local police union, was released from a Hennepin County jail just before 5:40 p.m. local time Wednesday after posting a $100,000 bond.
Kim Potter is expected to be booked into Hennepin County Jail Wednesday. (KMSP)
She was arrested earlier that morning, three days after she is alleged to have fatally shot 20-year-old Wright during a traffic stop in the city of Brooklyn Center. Potter was initially taken into custody at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in St. Paul.
Security fencing remained erected around Potter’s home in Champlin, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, Wednesday afternoon. Sources told Fox News that Potter and her husband, a police officer in a nearby town, left the residence – but a Champlin Police car was parked in the driveway and uniformed officers were seen standing behind the fencing.
Potter’s defense attorney did not immediately return a message left by Fox News on Thursday.
Though she was not physically present, Thursday’s hearing took place at the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility – which is located in the same heavily fortified complex as the trial for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death. However, Potter and her attorney both appeared virtually from what looked like an office setting.
Gray also represents Thomas Lane, one of the three other former Minneapolis officers charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
According to the criminal complaint in Potter’s case, Brooklyn Center Police Officer Anthony Luckey, and his field training officer, Potter, conducted a traffic stop on a white Buick at 63rd Avenue North and Orchard Avenue North at approximately 1:53 p.m. Sunday. Both officers were wearing body cameras.
A courtroom sketch shows former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter, lower right, background, at her first court appearance along with her attorney Earl Gray, over Zoom on Thursday, in the traffic-stop shooting death of Black motorist Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minn. At the lower left is Hennepin County Judge Paul Scoggin, while other unidentified court personnel are seen at the top left and right. (Cedric Hohnstadt via AP)
Luckey identified the driver as Daunte Demetrius Wright. Luckey conducted a record check and discovered that Wright had a warrant for his arrest “for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge,” court documents say.
Luckey and Potter both approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and asked Wright to exit his vehicle and place his hands behind his back, according to time-stamped body-worn camera footage.
The victim exited the car and initially followed commands, court documents say. Luckey told Wright that he was being arrested for his outstanding warrant. At that time, Luckey and Wright were positioned just outside of the driver’s side door of the vehicle, which remained open during their encounter, and Potter was positioned behind and to the right of Luckey, video shows.
Wright pulled away from the officers and got back into the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Luckey “attempted to maintain physical control of victim,” and Potter “verbalized that she would tase the victim.” Potter “presented her department-issued Glock 9mm handgun in her right hand and pointed it at the victim, verbalizing again that she would tase him,” court documents say.
In this courtroom sketch, former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter makes her first court appearance on Thursday, over Zoom, in the traffic-stop shooting death of Black motorist Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (Cedric Hohnstadt via AP)
Potter again verbalized “Taser, Taser, Taser” and then pulled the trigger on her handgun, firing one round into the left side of the victim. Wright then stated, “ah he shot me,” and the vehicle sped away for a short distance before crashing into another vehicle and coming to a stop. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene after medical intervention was unsuccessful.
After discharging her handgun, the body-worn video reports that the defendant allegedly exclaimed, “S—, I just shot him!”
Investigator Sam McGinnis later collected and reviewed the layout of Potter’s duty belt. McGinnis observed that the defendant’s handgun “is holstered on the right side of the belt and her Taser is holstered on the left side of the belt.” Both grips and handles of the defendant’s Taser and handgun face the defendant’s rear, and the Taser is yellow with a black grip.
McGinnis noted Potter’s Taser is set in a straight-draw position, meaning the officer would have to use her left hand to draw the Taser out of its holster. McGinnis met with Hennepin County Medical Examiner Doctor Loren Jackson on April 12. The medical examiner determined the victim’s cause of death to be a gunshot wound, and the manner of death was homicide.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he will buck Democratic legislative leaders by vetoing legislation aimed at stopping the Trump administration from weakening oversight of longstanding federal environmental laws in California.
His announcement Saturday came less than a day after lawmakers approved the bill on the chaotic final day of the year’s legislative session.
Newsom said in a statement he fully supports the aims of the bill but argued it wouldn’t give California new authority to push back on the Trump administration. He also said it would stop California from relying on the best available science. His office further said he’s concerned about a piece of the bill that could require the state to rely on Endangered Species Act opinions written roughly a decade ago.
Despite his pledge to veto the bill, Newsom was quick to praise Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, the bill’s author and an important ally for the freshman governor.
“I look forward to my continued partnership with Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins – who is an extraordinary leader on the environment and for our state at large – to ensure California can continue to protect our environment and our workers against federal rollbacks, and push back against Trump’s anti-environment agenda,” he said in a statement.
Atkins, though, said she’s “strongly disappointed” in Newsom’s decision, and she disputed his characterization of the bill. It allowed state agencies to use the best scientific evidence available and gave the state authority to “backstop baseline standards” if the federal government rolled them back, she said in a statement.
In opposing the bill, Newsom is siding with the state’s water contractors and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
“We can’t really have a California system and a federal system,” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers water to nearly 19 million people. “We’re all in the same country here, so we need to find a way to make this work.”
California has a history of blunting Republican efforts at the federal level to roll back environmental protections. In 2003, shortly after the George W. Bush administration lowered federal Clean Air Act standards, the Legislature passed a law banning California air quality management districts from revising rules and regulations to match.
More recently, after the Trump administration announced plans to roll back auto mileage and emission standards, Newsom used the state’s regulatory authority to broker a deal with four major automakers to toughen the standards anyway.
State lawmakers tried this last year, but a similar proposal failed to pass the state Assembly. But advocates say several recent announcements by the Trump administration – including plans to weaken application of the federal Endangered Species Act – have strengthened support for the bill.
The bill could have played out most prominently in the management of the state’s water, which mostly comes from snowmelt and rain that rushes through a complex system of aqueducts to provide drinking water for nearly 40 million people and irrigation to the state’s $20 billion agricultural industry.
It aimed to make it easier for state regulators to add animals protected under California’s Endangered Species Act – animals that have historically been protected under federal law. It would then apply the state’s Endangered Species Act to the Central Valley Project, a federally operated system of aqueducts and reservoirs that control flooding and supply irrigation to farmers.
But it’s not clear if a state law would apply to a federal project, “which could generate years of litigation and uncertainty over which environmental standards apply,” according to a letter by Feinstein and four members of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation.
Las dos principales referentes sociales de Los Piletones son enemigas. Mónica Ruejas, presidenta de la Junta Vecinal del barrio, acusa a Margarita Barrientos de gozar de privilegios por ser amiga de Mauricio Macri, de estar enceguecida por el poder y de olvidarse de las necesidades reales de la villa.
A través de un informe emitido por la Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), Ruejas denuncia que las obras de urbanización fueron mal ejecutadas. Acusa al Presidente de ponerlos como un ejemplo de urbanización aunque, dice, no pueden acceder a los servicios básicos.
Oriunda de Salta, Ruejas (42) se define peronista, ostenta fotos con Néstor y Cristina Kirchner y llegó a Los Piletones hace treinta años, donde vive con sus dos hijas. En diálogo con NOTICIAS, cuenta que se distanció de Barrientos, con quien comenzó a trabajar en el ’89 cuando armaron el primer comedor del barrio. Dice que, con el tiempo, Barrientos “fue cambiando”. El trabajo en común duró tres años.
Manifiesta que la dirigente cercana a Mauricio Macri fue progresando y empezó a tener cada vez más recursos. “Incrementó su poder cuando ganó su amigo Macri como presidente”, dice. Y acusa: “Cuando el comedor que habíamos emprendido juntas comenzó a crecer vinieron los problemas. Había discriminación. Por ejemplo, acá en el barrio tenemos bolivianos y paraguayos, veía actitudes de Margarita que no me gustaban y me alejé”.
Noticias: ¿Ella no quería darles de comer?
Mónica Ruejas: No sé muy bien cuál es la expresión correcta, pero había como un abuso de poder.
Noticias: ¿Cuando Macri va al barrio visita solo el comedor de Barrientos?
Ruejas: Sí. El sector donde está Margarita es la parte de atrás del barrio y él ingresa por allí, donde está el Parque Indoamericano. Es la mejor calle que tiene Los Piletones porque la pusieron en condiciones para ella. Macri nos discrimina. Nunca respectó al movimiento villero. Tiene muy poca sensibilidad. No trabaja con todos sino con las personas que él y Margarita dicen. Se manejan muy arbitrariamente.
Noticias: ¿Por qué cree que Barrientos lo apoya?
Ruejas: Por los recursos, sinceramente lo digo. Los recursos que maneja y el lugar que ocupa Margarita le dan mucho poder. Aunque en el barrio ese poder es limitado. Margarita presenta a la hija como candidata a la Junta Vecinal y siempre ha perdido. A Margarita los vecinos no la eligen. Ella nunca ganó una elección acá porque no camina por el barrio, no conoce las manzanas. Ella hace lo mismo que los funcionarios, sale y entra por la parte de atrás. No ve el barrio más allá. No camina por la zona, ni lo va a hacer ahora porque se mudó a un lugar mejor, lógico. A un dúplex en Lugano, no sé con qué lo paga. Y al marido se lo ve en una camioneta 4×4.
Noticias: ¿Sigue hablando con ella?
Ruejas: Le pedí reuniones pero no me atiende. Ella dice que está todo bien en el barrio pero qué va a saber si ya no vive acá. Margarita recibe muchas donaciones económicas. Si hubiese puesto todo el esfuerzo en el barrio y no en mejorar sus propias condiciones, hoy estaríamos mejor. Es bueno que se investigue porque ella recibe donaciones privadas y públicas y no se la controla. Doy fe absoluta de que no se la controla. Saca provecho de ser amiga del Presidente. Tiene privilegios, solamente su comedor tiene gas y servicios. Tienen todo lo que en la televisión no se ve.
La Junta Vecinal denunció que la cooperativa La Unión Limitada perteneciente al esposo de Barrientos recibió 14 millones de pesos en 2016 y, a través de reclamos y denuncias presentadas en la Legislatura porteña, está averiguando cómo se distribuyó ese monto. Ruejas dice que los vecinos tienen miedo de cuestionar a Margarita porque creen que está protegida por Macri.
Consultada por NOTICIAS sobre estas acusaciones, Barrientos sostiene que el proceso de urbanización fue muy importante, que falta culminar la obra pero que todos los servicios son gratuitos para que los vecinos puedan acceder. Afirma que “no se cobra nada a nadie” y que los que la critican “son los que no se animaron a hacer lo que yo hice”. Sobre Mónica Ruejas en particular señala que “es una mujer inservible”. Reconoce que la une a Mauricio Macri una amistad de muchos años, pero niega que el Gobierno haga preferencia con ella sobre el acceso a los servicios o el apoyo a través de subsidios. Dice que su esposo tiene a cargo tareas en el barrio a través de la cooperativa pero que nunca ha cobrado el monto que denuncia la Junta vecinal. También aclara que en Lugano no alquila un dúplex sino “un PH al fondo”, y que sigue yendo a Los Piletones por la tarea del comedor. Niega cualquier acto de discriminación: “El 70% de la gente que asiste diariamente al comedor son extranjeros”. Es cierto que su esposo posee una 4×4, pero dice que accedió a ella a través de un crédito bancario que paga con su trabajo. Barrientos cree que hay mucho por hacer en Los Piletones, pero que tiene sus esperanzas puestas en este gobierno: “Siempre lo apoyé y voy a seguir haciéndolo”.
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