SAN FRANCISCO – California is no longer a political afterthought.
The solidly blue state hasn’t voted for a Republican president in a general election since George H.W. Bush won here more than 30 years ago. And for the past several election cycles, the nominating contests in The Golden State have been dull races.
With state Democrats deciding to move up their primary from early June to March 3 – the “Super Tuesday” Election Day when voters in 12 other states and Democrats living abroad also cast their ballots – California is enjoying its moment as an electoral belle of the ball.
“By moving to March, we’ve made California not just more relevant but extremely relevant,” California’s secretary of state Alex Padilla told USA TODAY as the California Democratic Party Convention kicked off Friday. “That’s translated into candidates not just coming here to raise money. They are actually coming to talk to California voters.”
Indeed, more than half of the nearly two dozen 2020 Democratic presidential contenders have descended on California this weekend to court liberal activists and party establishment at the convention and other forums being sponsored by left-leaning groups and unions.
That flood of attention by White House hopefuls is good news for California Democrats, who in recent election cycles watched Democratic presidential candidates swoop into the state for big-dollar fundraisers in Silicon Valley and Hollywood while putting minimum effort into voter outreach.
But California’s new standing could shake up how campaigns strategize where they spend their time and dollars, according to political analysts. For the first time, Californians and voters in Texas, the nation’s second most populous state, will hold their primaries on the same day.
“California moving to the front of the pack rather than where it used to be will have a big effect on how candidates campaign,” said James Demers, a Democratic strategist in New Hampshire. “You have to compete first in the early states, but you also have to have this time around some significant resources in California and in Texas. You can’t set up shop in a place like that coming out of New Hampshire and Iowa. You now have to have a campaign in place very early.”
California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks said California’s move means candidates can survive getting through the first four races without necessarily notching a victory. Wicks was a key adviser to President Barack Obama’s two White House runs and is now advising Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat.
“I think you still have to do well in the first four, but I don’t think it’s going to be disqualifying if you don’t win,” Wicks said.
With mail-in voting provisions, California voters can begin casting their ballots on Feb. 3, the same day as Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. Sixty-five percent of Californians cast early ballots in the 2018 midterms.
Why the early states matter
The earliest voting states, particularly Iowa and New Hampshire, have served as equalizers in the past. Shoe-leather politics and relatively inexpensive television and radio advertising made them territory where an underdog candidate could stand on nearly even ground with deep-pocketed rivals.
But voters in some more populous states have long complained about Iowa and New Hampshire’s elevated status, noting the states are hardly reflective of the nation’s diversity. The states’ populations have been historically less ethnically diverse, have lower unemployment, and have more married-couple households than the rest of the country.
Similar arguments could be made that California is further to the left of the rest of the country on immigration, climate, and cultural issues.
But some voters pushed back against the notion, suggesting that the state is in fact a leader.
“The rest of the country really looks to California for what a progressive state can be,” said Maricela Gutierrez, director of a San Jose agency that works with immigrants, following a forum in Pasadena where four Democratic candidates outlined their ambitions for immigration reform.
Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Iowa, said California’s move could create a dynamic where earlier voting states Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina will “tee up the nomination” and give California – which sent 475 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in 2016 – a chance “to hit it out of the park.”
“What states have done for years in an attempt to mitigate the impact of the caucuses is to move their primaries forward,” Goldford said. “The irony of that is it doesn’t mitigate the impact of the caucuses, it amplifies the caucuses. When states follow really quickly on Iowa, what it does is shield ‘winners’ … from in-depth and extensive examination and it hurts losers because they have less time to recover from a poor showing.”
Dan Schnur, who served as communications director for former California Gov. Pete Wilson and John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, said he doubts that California will prove to become a hot race. The state with nearly 40 million residents and three of the nation’s biggest media markets will make it prohibitively expensive for all but a few candidates.
And the state is also not a winner-take-all primary, meaning that delegates are apportioned based on the percentage of the vote they received.
“This move did not make California a 900-pound gorilla in the nominating process,” Schnur said.
Candidates make their pitches
This weekend’s cattle call is centered around the state convention, where 3,400 state delegates will elect the state party’s next leader. Former chairman Eric Bauman resigned in November, weeks after facing allegations he drank on the job and sexually harassed and abused staff. The state party is facing three lawsuits connected to Bauman’s alleged conduct.
But the controversy has been overshadowed by the wall of candidates trying to woo Californians.
Fourteen candidates are scheduled to address the convention Saturday and Sunday, an opportunity to make their case about why they are the best candidate to beat President Trump while touting a progressive streak to delegates from a state that prides itself as the nation’s most liberal state.
Four candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris, former Housing and Urban Development Director Julian Castro and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, stopped in Pasadena Friday to layout their vision to immigrations activists.
Harris was the featured guest at a Planned Parenthood event Friday night. She also flexed home state muscle on the eve of the convention, announcing that she’s sealed the endorsement of 33 Democratic members of the state assembly, including Speaker Anthony Rendon.
Six candidates – Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Harris and Sanders – are scheduled to make five-minute pitches to Service Employees International Union at a breakfast meeting Saturday about how they’d advocate for working people.
Eight candidates – Booker, Castro, Harris, Klobuchar, O’Rourke, Sanders, Warren and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand – have been invited to address the liberal group MoveOn’s forum Saturday afternoon
Sanders, who announced on Friday eight campaign hires who will be the nucleus of his California operation, is scheduled to hold a rally Saturday night in San Jose. Buttigieg plans to head to Fresno Monday to stump and take part in an MSNBC hosted town hall.
Meanwhile, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper plans to attend church on Sunday in Oakland at a predominantly African-American church before ending his California visit.
Padilla, California’ secretary of state, said there are signs that the move to push ahead the state primary is generating excitement among California. More than 20 million people in the state are now registered to vote, with the vast majority Democrats or not party affiliated, he said.
“We are seeing a new energy,” Padilla said.
More than 6,500 people crowded a patchy soccer field on the campus of Laney College on Friday night to see Warren speak at what had originally been billed as a town hall.
The crowd, some who came with elaborate picnics and bottles of chardonnay, was so unexpectedly big that Warren nixed the question-and-answer format. Instead she gave a stemwinder of a speech in which she slammed the influence of corporations in Washington, slammed Trump’s proposed border wall as hateful, and pitched her plan to pay for free college tuition, universal child care and other programs through a new tax on mega-millionaires.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Hickenlooper and former Rep. John Delaney, all polling in the bottom half of Democratic hopefuls, also will address the convention this weekend.
Where’s Biden?
Notably absent is former Vice President Joe Biden, who early polls show is in the lead nationally and in California.
But even Biden, who is in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, delivering a speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, has thrown early attention to California.
Jamal Brown, a national press secretary for Biden, said senior campaign aides were dispatched to the California convention to discuss the former vice president’s bid with delegates and other participants.
“In the coming weeks, Vice President Biden is looking forward to returning to California to meet with voters, learn firsthand about their concerns, and ultimately, compete strongly in the state,” Brown said.
Alexandra Gallardo-Rooker, the acting California Democratic Party chairwoman, said that Biden called her Wednesday to express his regrets for not making the convention.
She said that she told Biden that she hoped to “see him in November” when the state party is scheduled to hold a candidates forum.
“He said, ‘Oh no, we’ll see you a lot before November,’ ” she said.
Contributing: Chris Woodyard in Pasadena, California.
Electoral college map: Who actually votes, and who do they vote for? Explore how shifts in turnout and voting patterns for key demographic groups could affect the presidential race.
A coroner’s office in northern Illinois has confirmed a body found in a shallow grave is a 5-year-old boy who went missing from his suburban Chicago home a week ago. Andrew “AJ” Freund died of head trauma as a result of multiple blunt force injuries, the McHenry’s County Coroner’s office said Thursday afternoon.
The boy’s remains were found wrapped in plastic and buried in a remote area near Woodstock, Illinois, about seven miles from the boy’s home, Crystal Lake police chief James Black said Wednesday. Both of the child’s parents have been charged with murder, battery and other counts and were ordered held on $5 million bail each during Thursday morning court appearances, reports CBS Chicago.
The boy was reported missing from his Crystal Lake home by his father April 18. In a 911 call released Tuesday, the boy’s father Andrew Freund Sr. claimed he last saw the boy when he went to bed the night before. The elder Freund, 60, said the boy was missing when he returned home the next morning from an early doctor’s appointment.
But during interviews early Wednesday with Crystal Lake police and the FBI, Black said Andrew Freund Sr. and the child’s mother JoAnn Cunningham, 35, were confronted with forensic analysis of cellphone data developed by investigators. Both then provided information that led to the recovery of the body, Black said.
Andrew “AJ” Freund
Handout
Criminal complaints allege that each parent on April 15 forced the boy to remain in a cold shower for an extended period of time and then struck the boy on his body, “knowing that said acts created a strong probability of death of death or great bodily harm.” According to prosecutors’ account, the killing happened three days before the boy was reported missing.
A complaint for Cunningham also alleges she struck the boy on March 4, and a complaint for Andrew Freund Sr. alleges he buried the child’s body.
“To AJ’s family, it is my hope that you may have some solace in knowing that AJ is no longer suffering, and his killers have been brought to justice,” Black said after their arrests Wednesday. “I would also like to thank the community for their support and assistance during this difficult time. To AJ, we know you’re at peace playing in heaven’s playground and are happy that you no longer have to suffer.”
Andrew Freund, Sr., left, and JoAnn Cunningham, the parents of slain boy AJ Cunningham, depicted in a sketch from a Thursday court appearance
Sheryl Cook
Cunningham is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated domestic battery and one count of failure to report a missing child or child death.
The elder Andrew Freund has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated domestic battery, two counts of concealment of a homicidal death and one count of failure to reports a missing child or child death.
Cunningham, who is seven months pregnant, appeared to be fighting back tears in court Thursday as prosecutors detailed the charges, CBS Chicago reported.
Investigators were seen at the family’s home Wednesday removing a shovel, the mattress from a child-sized bed, several large bags and a large plastic bin, and loading them into an evidence team van, according to the station.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul joins Martha MacCallum on ‘The Story.’
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined “The Story” Tuesday after his public clash with Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate Health Committee hearing, during which Paul challenged the health official and argued that his words are not the “end-all” when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t question Dr. Fauci’s motives,” Paul told host Martha MacCallum.
“I think he’s a good person, I think he wants what’s best for the country, but he’s an extremely cautious person,” the senator added. “I don’t think any of these experts are omniscient. I think they have a basis of knowledge but when you prognosticate about the future or advocate for things dramatic and drastic, like closing all the schools, you should look at all the information.”
“We have to take with a grain of salt these experts and their prognostication.”
— Sen. Rand Paul, ‘The Story’
In one of the more tense moments of Tuesday’s hearing, Paul – the only U.S. senator to have had a confirmed case of COVID-19 – said the public health response to the pandemic has been riddled with “wrong prediction after wrong prediction” and that Fauci should not be the one making decisions on issues outside his purview.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the federal government’s most visible faces during the public health crisis, balked at Paul calling him the “end-all” and said his recommendations do not extend beyond the realm of science and public health.
Following up on Paul’s question about reopening schools in the fall, Fauci said that there is still much that researchers don’t know about the novel coronavirus and the country should not be “cavalier” in reopening institutions too quickly.
“The real question I asked him was, ‘Are you aware of the mortality among children?’ And he is,” Paul acknowledged, “but the mortality is exceedingly low, close to zero in the age group 0-18 … so, should we say all of these kids zero through 18 don’t go to school? No. I think we make that part of our decision-making process. But we need to have competition among the experts.”
Paul, who is an ophthalmologist, argued that advice from Fauci and other medical experts over when and how to reopen the country should be taken “with a grain of salt.”
“We have to take with a grain of salt these experts and their prognostication,” he said. “The future is very uncertain but turning down and closing the entire economy has been devastating and that is a fact.”
Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.
TETON COUNTY, Wyo. — The FBI announced Sunday afternoon that a body found in a camping area outside Grand Teton National Park is “consistent” with the description of Gabby Petito.
However, the agency said they are awaiting full forensic confirmation on the identity. The cause of death has also not yet been determined.
And while they haven’t confirmed that the remains were hers, the FBI said it has notified Petito’s family and expressed condolences to them.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for them, and our thoughts are with them as they mourn the loss of their daughter,” an agency spokesperson said.
Her father tweeted a photo of her following the announcement with the caption: “she touched the world.”
National media outlets, such as Fox and ABC News, had confirmed earlier that a coroner responded to the area in Bridger-Teton National Forest where the search for Petito was underway, and that search dogs had left the area.
Investigators are still asking anyone who saw Petito, Laundrie or their vehicle in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area — just east of the national park’s boundaries — between Aug. 27-30 to call their tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The camping area remains closed as they continue the investigation.
President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that there is more to his agreement with Mexico than meets the eye.
“Importantly, some things….. …..not mentioned in yesterday press release, one in particular, were agreed upon. That will be announced at the appropriate time,“ the president wrote in a string of four tweets.
Story Continued Below
Trump was defending his newly announced agreement with Mexico in the face of reporting that much of what was in the deal was not new. In his tweets, he directly attacked the New York Times and CNN, calling them “the Enemy of the People.“
While defending the agreement and saying he expected Mexico to be “very cooperative,“ the president said that he could always return to the threat of tariffs: “We can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs – But I don’t believe that will be necessary.“
Trump had threatened Mexico with a succession of higher tariffs in order to push the country to do more to keep migrants from El Salvador and other Central American countries from reaching the U.S. border.
Appearing soon after on “Fox News Sunday,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan was asked about the president’s tweets, but offered few specific details.
“There’s a mechanism to make sure that they do what they promised to do, that there’s an actual result, that we see a vast reduction in those [migration] numbers,” he told Fox host Bret Baier.
“As the State Department announced,” McAleenan said, “there are going to be further actions, further dialogue with Mexico on immigration, on how to manage this asylum flow in the region.”
“There is, by and large, an economic migration that we need to stop with enforcement,” he said. “We need to be able to repatriate people successfully.”
“People can disagree with the tactics.” McAleenan added, referring to the president’s tariff threats. “Mexico came to the table with real proposals. We have an agreement that, if they implement, will be effective.”
Some critics have suggested that the deal with Mexico ended a verbal battle that was partly or entirely of the president’s own making. On CNN on Sunday morning, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Trump’s “erratic” policy was “not the way to go.”
“You can’t have a trade policy based on tweets,” the Vermont senator told host Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
On Wednesday night, about 38,000 people had lost power across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates live power data from utilities across the United States.
On Thursday, the storms could continue to produce tornadoes, wind damage and large hail in parts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, the Weather Service said.
The warning of a second day of powerful storms came after the Weather Service had issued a “particularly dangerous situation” tornado watch for parts of Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi on Wednesday until 7 p.m., indicating “a potential for multiple strong, long-track tornadoes.”
More than 2.7 million people had been at high risk from the storms on Wednesday, mostly in Mississippi and Alabama, it said, with an additional 5.6 million people at moderate risk. On Wednesday night, the Weather Service said, the potential for significant tornadoes continued, with much of the greatest risk in Alabama.
Category 4 Hurricane Dorian parked itself over the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday night and Monday morning, unleashing a devastating storm surge, destructive winds and blinding rain. With Dorian perched perilously close to the Florida peninsula, Monday is the critical day that is likely to determine whether the state is dealt a powerful blow or a less intense scrape.
Just tens of miles and subtle storm wobbles could make the difference between the two scenarios.
The storm has come to a standstill over Grand Bahama Island. If it soon starts to turn north, Florida would be spared Dorian’s full fury. But if Dorian lumbers just a little more to the west, more serious storm effects would pummel parts of the coastline. For this reason, the National Hurricane Center has issued hurricane, storm surge, and tropical storm watches and warnings from the Atlantic coast of Florida northward into South Carolina.
“Although the center of Dorian is forecast to move near, but parallel to, the Florida east coast, only a small deviation of the track toward the west would bring the core of the hurricane onshore,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in its 5 p.m. bulletin.
Hurricane and storm surge warnings are in effect for large areas along Florida’s east coast. Storm surge refers to the storm-driven rise in ocean water above normally dry land.
“,[T]he threat of damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge remains high,” the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Fla., wrote. “There will be considerable impacts and damage to coastal areas, with at least some effects felt inland as well!”
Serious storm effects are likely in coastal Georgia and the Carolinas in the middle and latter half of the week as Dorian picks up speed and heads north, but here, too, the risks are heavily dependent on the details of the storm track.
A hurricane landfall in the Carolinas, especially North Carolina, is a distinct possibility by late Thursday.
The latest on Hurricane Dorian
As of 7 p.m. on Monday, the storm was 30 miles northeast of Freeport on Grand Bahama Island and stalled. The storm’s peak sustained winds were 145 mph, making it a high-end Category 4 storm. Dorian has maintained Category 4 and now Category 5 intensity since Saturday, an unusually long period.
Radar from South Florida showed Dorian’s outermost rain bands pivoting inland producing occasional gusty showers. Around 3 p.m. Juno Beach pier clocked a sustained wind of 40 mph (tropical-storm force) and gust to 56 mph and the Weather Service in Miami warned showers coming onshore could produce gusts up to 45 mph into the evening.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles. The latest forecast from the Hurricane Center calls for Dorian to remain a Category 4 storm until Monday night before slowly weakening, but remaining a formidable hurricane, as it makes its closest pass to Florida (around a Category 3) and northward to the Carolinas (around a Category 2).
“It is anticipated that the system will remain a dangerous major hurricane for the next several days,” the Hurricane Center wrote.
Northwest Bahamas took a nightmarish extended direct hit
While Florida and areas farther north await effects from the monster storm, a “catastrophic” scenario has unfolded in the northwestern Bahamas, where the storm’s eyewall, the ring of destructive winds around the center, struck Sunday and then stalled until late Monday afternoon.
In the process, three islands endured direct hits Sunday: Elbow Cay, Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island. Dorian hardly budged over Grand Bahama Island for 20 hours spanning Sunday night and Monday evening as the Hurricane Center warned of wind gusts between 170 to 220 mph and a storm surge up to 23 feet.
The Hurricane Center described a “life-threatening situation” in Great Abaco on Sunday and on both Sunday night and Monday on Grand Bahama Island. It stated the wind and storm surge hazards would cause “extreme destruction.”
The eyewall finally showed signs of lifting north of Grand Bahama Monday evening.
The extended nature of the direct hit has meant that these areas were hit with extreme winds and storm surge flooding during multiple high tides, tearing infrastructure apart and subjecting anyone who did not evacuate before the storm to a truly terrifying ordeal.
While the worst of the storm has lifted north of Grand Bahama Island, pounding rain (totaling up to 30 inches), damaging winds and the storm surge may not entirely ease until the second half of Tuesday in the region.
This is a storm that could reshape the northwest Bahamas, particularly Great Abaco and Grand Bahama, for decades.
Complicated forecast for Florida
The hurricane warnings posted in Florida are focused on the period from Monday night through early Wednesday. Tropical-storm-force winds began Monday afternoon in coastal South Florida and should spread north Tuesday. These winds are likely to continue into Wednesday, perhaps reaching hurricane-force strength late Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how close to the coast Dorian tracks.
Some computer models show the center of Dorian coming closest to the northern half of Florida’s east coast Tuesday night into Wednesday, when conditions may become most hazardous.
The latest storm surge forecast for Florida shows that if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide, the area from Lantana (just south of West Palm Beach) to the Georgia Border could see four to seven feet of water above ground, while the region from Deerfield Beach to Lantana could experience two to four feet.
“The threat for life-threatening storm surge also remains high, and severe erosion of the beaches and dune lines is a near certainty! The combination of surge and high astronomical tides will cause severe runup of waves and water, resulting in inundation of many coastal locations,” the Weather Service office in Melbourne wrote.
On top of that, about four to eight inches of rain is projected to fall.
Because the storm is predicted to be a slow mover, effects from wind, rain and storm surge could be prolonged, lingering through the middle of next week.
The forecast is highly sensitive to the storm track, and subtle shifts to the east or west would result in less or more severe wind, surge and rain.
Forecast for coastal Georgia, the Carolinas, and farther north
Conditions are expected to deteriorate by Tuesday in coastal Georgia, by Wednesday in South Carolina and by Thursday in North Carolina. But just how much is uncertain. Where and whether Dorian makes landfall will depend on the exact trajectory of its turn relative to the coast as it turns north and then starts to bend northeastward.
Scenarios involving a direct hit, a scrape and a graze are possible based on available forecasts.
A hurricane watch was issued Monday for coastal Georgia and the South Carolina coast as far north as South Santee Island (which is just south of Myrtle Beach).
“Life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds are expected along portions of … the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, regardless of the exact track of Dorian’s center,” the Hurricane Center wrote. “Water levels could begin to rise well in advance of the arrival of strong winds. “
The Hurricane Center projects a storm surge of 4 to 7 feet in coastal Georgia north to the South Santee River in South Carolina.
While specific projections are not yet available farther north, a direct hit is perhaps most likely in North Carolina because its coast sticks out into the ocean farthest east.
“The risk of life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds continues to increase along the coast North Carolina,” the Hurricane Center wrote. “Residents in these areas should follow advice given by local emergency officials.”
Locations even farther north from Virginia Beach to the Delmarva and even up to Cape Cod could get brushed by the storm Friday and Saturday. Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D) declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.
The overwhelming majority of computer model forecasts keep the center of Dorian just to the east of the Florida coast rather than bringing the eye of the storm ashore.
However, there are still some outliers that bring the eye onshore or right to the coastline, particularly in the northern half of the state.
Group of simulations from American (blue) and European (red) computer models from Monday afternoon for Hurricane Dorian. Each color strand represents a different model simulation with slightly altered input data. Note that the strands are clustered together where the forecast track is most confident but diverge where the course of the storm is less certain. The bold red line is the average of all of the European model simulations, while the bold blue one is the average of all the American model simulations. (StormVistaWxModels.com)
Farther north, from Georgia to the Carolinas, the margin between a landfall and offshore track is also razor thin. However, of all the locations between Florida and the Mid-Atlantic coast, models suggest that the North Carolina coast between Wilmington and the Outer Banks may be most prone to a hurricane landfall on Thursday.
Dorian’s place in history
Dorian is tied for the second-strongest storm (as judged by its maximum sustained winds) ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, behind Hurricane Allen of 1980, and, after striking the northern Bahamas, tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane for the title of the strongest Atlantic hurricane at landfall.
It is only the second Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the Bahamas since 1983, according to Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University. The only other is Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The international hurricane database goes back continuously only to 1983.
The storm’s peak sustained winds rank as the strongest so far north in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida on record. Its pressure, which bottomed out at 910 millibars, is significantly lower than Hurricane Andrew’s when it made landfall in South Florida in 1992 (the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm).
With Dorian attaining Category 5 strength, this is the first time since the start of the satellite era (in the 1960s) that Category 5 storms have developed in the tropical Atlantic for four straight years, according to Capital Weather Gang tropical weather expert Brian McNoldy.
The unusual strength of Dorian and the rate at which it developed is consistent with the expectation of more intense hurricanes in a warming world. Some studies have shown increases in hurricane rapid intensification, and modeling studies project an uptick in the frequency of Category 4 and 5 storms.
WASHINGTON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested Thursday to face a U.S. charge that he conspired to hack military computers after Ecuador’s government ended his seven years of self-imposed exile and expelled him from its London embassy.
Assange, 47, was arrested by authorities in the United Kingdom to be extradited to the United States.
In an indictment revealed Thursday morning, U.S. authorities alleged that Assange conspired with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal and publish huge troves of classified documents. Prosecutors said Assange at one point tried to help Manning crack a password to access military computers where the secret information was stored.
Over four months in 2010, Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of secret reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as State Department cables and information about detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Manning turned the records over to WikiLeaks, which passed them to journalists and published them on the internet.
Prosecutors said it was one of the most extensive leaks of classified secrets in U.S. history.
Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The charge, delivered by a federal grand jury in March 2018 but kept secret until Thursday, carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Barry Pollack, a U.S. lawyer for Assange, criticized the arrest and said Assange would need medical treatment that had been denied for seven years.
“It is bitterly disappointing that a country would allow someone to whom it has extended citizenship and asylum to be arrested in its embassy,” Pollack said.” Once his health care needs have been addressed, the UK courts will need to resolve what appears to be an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information.”
Assange had sheltered in Ecuador’s embassy since seeking asylum there in 2012. London’s Metropolitan Police moved in after Ecuador formally withdrew its asylum for Assange, an Australian native, and subsequently revoked his Ecuadorian citizenship. Plainclothes officers escorted him from the embassy on Thursday.
A British court ruled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange guilty of breaching his bail conditions.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Assange’s arrest shows “no one is above the law.”
The arrest followed months of carefully orchestrated diplomatic maneuvering by the Ecuadorian government that had long soured on its relationship with Assange. In a videotaped statement, Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno said his country’s patience for his behavior “has reached its limit,” citing bizarre behavior inside the embassy and violating the country’s demand that he stop interfering in the affairs of other governments.
Moreno described it as a “sovereign decision” due to “repeated violations to international conventions and daily life.”
He was taken into custody on a 2012 warrant for jumping bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations. The Swedish accusations have since been dropped but he was still wanted for the bail violation. The Justice Department said it was seeking his extradition to the United States.
The U.S. charges center on his interactions with Manning. Prosecutors said Assange encouraged her to leak classified secrets to the anti-secrecy group, and tried to help her crack a password to Defense Department computers that stored classified secrets. That would have allowed Manning to log on to the computer network with someone else’s username.
The indictment said investigators obtained messages between the two in which Manning provided Assange “part of a password” on March 8, 2010. Two days later, Assange asked for more information about the password, and indicated that he had been trying to crack the password but so far had not succeeded.
Prosecutors said Assange also encouraged Manning to look for more classified information to disclose. On March 7, 2010, Manning and Assange discussed the Guantanamo records, according to the indictment. Manning told Assange the next day that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left” the indictment said. Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience,” the indictment said.
Separately, he has been under scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks’ role in publishing government secrets.
WikiLeaks, the transparency group that he founded, was also front and center of the 2016 presidential election for leaking emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee. During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly praised the organization, saying numerous times at rallies, “I love WikiLeaks.”
Federal prosecutors have said the emails were stolen by hackers working for Russia’s military intelligence service, which gave them to WikiLeaks as part of an effort to sway the presidential election in Trump’s favor. The charges revealed Thursday are unrelated to that effort.
Moreno, the Ecuadorian president, did not specifically confirm that Assange would be extradited to the United States, saying only that he “will not be extradited to a country where he could suffer torture or the death penalty. ” He said the British government confirmed that in writing.
In a list of grievances, Moreno said Assange had installed prohibited electronic equipment in the embassy, blocked security cameras and even “accessed the security files of our embassy without permission.” He said Assange also had “confronted and mistreated the diplomatic guards.”
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters Thursday that the arrest shows that “no one is above the law.”
“Julian Assange is no hero,” he said. Hunt said the operation came after “years of careful diplomacy” and praised Moreno for his “very courageous decision.”
“It’s not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorian Embassy,” Hunt said, “it’s actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorian Embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them.”
Assange took refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape allegations. Assange, an Australian national, chose to remain in the embassy out of fear that the United States would immediately seek his arrest and extradition over the leaking of classified documents to WikiLeaks by Manning.
Wikileaks said in a Thursday tweet that “Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanize, delegitimize and imprison him.”
Assange, who was granted Ecuadorian citizenship last year in an apparent effort to designate him a diplomat and allow him to go to Russia, sued Ecuador for violating his rights as an Ecuadorian.
He pressed his case in local and international tribunals on human-rights ground, but both ruled against him.
In 2011, the leftist Ecuadorian government that initially offered asylum to Assange had been embroiled in a diplomatic row with the United States involving a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable. U.S. ambassador to Ecuador Heather Hodges was expelled after WikiLeaks leaked the document that alleged widespread corruption within the Ecuadorian police force, the BBC reported.
Assange first got a taste of tapping into unauthorized material when he became a hacker in 1987. Four years later he was convicted of hacking into the master terminal of Nortel, a Canadian multinational telecommunications corporation, The New Yorker reported.
In 2006, Assange established WikiLeaks as a site for publishing classified information and within a decade had posted more than 10 million documents often embarrassing to governments.
While gaining the backing of some world figures, including leaders of Brazil and Ecuador, he gained international notoriety after publishing information in 2010, which was leaked by a self-described whistleblower inside the U.S. Army, Bradley Manning, a transgender woman who later became known as Chelsea Manning. Manning spent nearly 7 years in prison for leaking classified and sensitive military and diplomatic documents.
Contributing: William Cummings, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
A Connecticut ambulance company employee was arrested and charged in a string of Molotov cocktail attacks across the state that targeted two emergency medical services agencies, a volunteer fire department and a private residence on the same day, authorities said.
Richard White, 37, of Torrington, Connecticut, was arrested around 10 p.m. on Saturday by Pennsylvania State Police troopers who stopped his car on Interstate 80 near Milton, Pennsylvania, officials said.
An arrest warrant was issued for White on Saturday night, charging him with third-degree arson and third-degree burglary. He is being held in Pennsylvania on a $150,000 bond and is awaiting extradition back to Old Saybrook, Connecticut, Old Saybrook Police Chief Michael A. Spera told ABC News on Sunday.
“This individual has targeted those who we count on to save lives,” Spera said in a statement to ABC News. “Our Officers have worked diligently all evening obtaining both search and arrest warrants in an effort to quickly stop these violent attacks against public safety and cause the suspect to be taken into custody.”
It was not immediately clear if White had retained an attorney.
No one was injured in the attacks, Spera said.
White is an employee of the Hunters Ambulance agency in Meriden, Connecticut, according to a statement from Capt. John Mennone of the Meriden Police Department.
White’s colleague told police that he was involved in a physical altercation with another employee about 10 a.m. on Saturday following a disciplinary hearing in which he was placed on administrative leave, Mennone said.
He said police were called to the ambulance agency, but by the time they arrived White had fled. Police did not release details on what White was disciplined over.
Spera told ABC News that White works as an emergency medical technician.
Just after 4 p.m. on Saturday, White resurfaced at the Hunters Ambulance station in Old Saybrook, where he allegedly ignited a Molotov cocktail inside an employee room and fled in a 2004 gray Ford Taurus, according to Mennone’s statement.
Mennone said that at about 5 p.m., a car matching the description of White’s vehicle was spotted back at the Hunters Ambulance agency in Meriden, where the occupant of the car was seen throwing a lit Molotov cocktail at the building and speeding off.
During a news conference on Sunday, Sgt. Paul Makuc of the Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit said the back-to-back attacks at the Roxbury Volunteer Fire Department and at a residence about 2 miles away both occurred around 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Spera told ABC affiliate station WTNH-TV in New Haven that the residence set on fire in Roxbury is believed to be White’s childhood home.
President Donald Trump applauded Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign launch, describing it as “the best opening so far” in the 2020 primary race.
Trump made the remarks during an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday night, saying Harris has “a better crowd, better enthusiasm.”
The president, who spent the latter part of his career in show businesses before landing at the White House, homed in particularly on Harris’ ability to draw a crowd, The Times indicated.
The president has frequently pointed to the size of his own campaign rallies as a measure of his likability and success.
Trump claimed that some Democratic candidates had “really drifted far left,” and took another jab at Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who launched an exploratory committee in late December.
“I do think Elizabeth Warren’s been hurt very badly with the Pocahontas trap,” Trump reportedly said, referring to a racist slur he frequently uses to insult her claim of having Native American heritage. “I think she’s been hurt badly. I may be wrong, but I think that was a big part of her credibility and now all of a sudden it’s gone.”
Harris declared her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 21, and followed it with a campaign rally in her hometown of Oakland, California, where roughly 20,000 people attended.
Harris also appeared at a CNN town hall event this week, where she became “the most-watched cable news single-candidate election town hall” among the age 25-to-54 news demographic, according to CNN’s internal metrics.
Despite an otherwise energetic launch, Harris’ campaign encountered some headwinds over her record as a California prosecutor. She previously served as San Francisco’s district attorney and has faced criticism over her tough stance on crime, including defending the death penalty in California.
Neither White House officials nor Harris’ campaign immediately responded to INSIDER’s request for comment on Thursday night.
On Saturday, Rep. John Garamendi, a senior member of the armed services committee spoke with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss Russia’s invasion.
He joined a one-hour briefing with 50 members of Congress.
Garamendi, who represents parts of Northern California between Sacramento and San Francisco, shared his candid conversation with Zelenskyy.
“He knows that he is at the top of the kill list, and he knows that his life is in jeopardy but he has pushed that aside to lead this nation. An incredible man of courage and leadership,” Garamendi said.
Garamendi said Ukraine’s president emphasized that Russian forces are moving away from targeting the Ukrainian military and are now attacking communities.
“He went into detail about high schools, kindergarten schools, apartment buildings, government buildings, presumably with the intent of breaking the wheel of the Ukrainian people,” Garamendi said.
Zelenskyy asked the U.S. for more help.
“The Ukrainian people are determined, in his words, to be free — to not be subjects of Putin and Russia but, rather, to be Ukrainians. To set their own course to make their democracy,” he said.
“I think the American people are willing to accept the reality that this is not just about Ukraine if Putin is successful. If the sanctions are to be forgotten and Russian oil is allowed to flow freely around the world and Putin is able to finance his government and finance his military then we should be very very aware that Putin has his eyes on more than Ukraine,” he said.
When asked if there is an end in sight, Garamendi said: “I think there is. The sanctions, together, with the extraordinary bravery of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian military, should continue to receive American military support, financial support. Those sanctions are hurting Russia. The military offense that Putin planned is stalled.”
The U.S. has vowed to keep helping Ukrainian refugees.
“The United States most definitely has the back of the refugees that have left Ukraine and those that are continuing to leave,” Garamendi said.
Those helping with the humanitarian effort said a financial donation is best.
“Generally, in these kinds of crisis situations, it is best to send money to credible organizations that can then assemble the necessary supplies.”
El Frente Amplio dejó en claro esta mañana en el Senado que no apoyará la creación de una comisión investigadora sobre las tupabandas y acusó a la oposición de querer “desgastar” a las figuras de su partido con miras a obtener ventajas en las elecciones de 2019.
El expresidente y senador del MPP, José Mujica, dijo que “había gente en otra cosa. Es probable que tres o cuatro militantes hayan emprendido por otros caminos, quizás con otro proyecto político o una desviación de carácter bandidista”, expresó, pero negó las acusaciones en su contra: “Dicen que manejábamos millones de dólares y tuve que vender el rancho de mi vieja para pagar las deudas, por eso hablo de duelo”.
“Un año comiendo remolacha y huevo para pagar las deudas y me vienen a decir que manejábamos millones”, insistió.
Mujica aseguró que en la actualidad “hacer política es hacer declaraciones por televisión altisonantes y tratar de judicializar todo”. Y agregó: “Además de utilizar el click de Facebook, es un machaque desacreditante”.
“Hay una tendencia que está en juego, poner en duda la confianza en los partidos y en los sistemas políticos” en toda América Latina, opinó Mujica.
“No soy cobarde, no me voy a amparar en mi fueros”, finalizó el senador durante la sesión extraordinaria.
Debate parlamentario
El senador frenteamplista Rubén Martínez Huelmo fue de los primeros en tomar la palabra para expresar la visión de su fuerza política. Dijo que la oposición está haciendo un “montaje” para atacar al expresidente José Mujica y afirmó que “sólo los jueces y los fiscales pueden determinar delitos” por lo que descartó la posibilidad de contar con una comisión investigadora al respecto.
Martínez Huelmo le dijo a los legisladores de la oposición que si tienen pruebas de que el expresidente estuvo vinculado a las polibandas de la década de 1990 “vayan hoy mismo” a la Justicia. “Es como si quisiéramos investigar lo del Banco Pan de Azúcar basados en recortes de prensa”, agregó y continuó: “Que lleven a la Justicia los recortes y papeles de diario, no son más que eso”.
Según el senador, se trata de “pura ficción”. “Son chimentos de barrio amparados en los fueros parlamentarios. Va también para la prensa. Son libros en donde abundan los personajes de ficción, como la Biblia: para unos es la palabra de Dios, para otros un libro de cuentos”.
Por último, aseguró que la oposición “se quiere abonar el sueño del pibe, que es meter preso al compañero ‘Pepe’ Mujica” y citó las declaraciones brindadas por el ex ministro del Interior Juan Andrés Ramírez (1990-1993) al portal Ecos, en las que el nacionalista dijo que las afirmaciones de la periodista María Urruzola en el libro “Fernández Huidoro: Sin remordimientos” son “absolutamente disparatadas” y que “nunca apareció ninguna vinculación” entre los delincuentes y los tupamaros.
“Verdad contaminada”.
El senador Enrique Pintado remarcó que se quiere investigar “y llegar a la verdad”, pero “no llegar a una verdad contaminada por la opinión política partidaria o con el prejuicio porque eso es lo que ocurre en la realidad”.
“¿Vamos a crear comisiones investigadores por todo lo que se dice? ¿vamos a tomar por cierto todo lo que se dice? Acá se han corrido rumores sobre personas que participaron de delitos (…) pero el que tiene una denuncia va y la hace donde corresponde”, apuntó. “Hoy nos abrazamos como un salvavidas a las declaraciones de este exfuncionario”, agregó.
Pintado dijo que los hechos denunciados ocurrieron entre 1985 y 1998 y que “Llorente no reparó en que esos delitos podrían estar proscritos”.
También dijo que de esa época “los delitos no quedaron impunes” y se preguntó si fue “tan nula la gente que investigó en ese momento”. De todas formas celebró que la fiscal retome el asunto “a partir de declaraciones muy graves de un expolicía” y dijo que a quienes no les genere garantías que “recuse en el ministerio público”.
El senador frentista concluyó diciendo que su impresión es que “lo que menos interesa es la verdad y lo que sí interesa es el desgaste de las figuras porque se quiere alcanzar la victoria en algunos años”. “Una cosa es tener diferencias ideológicas y otras prestarse al enchastre”, dijo y acotó: “No vale todo para alcanzar la victoria electoral. Después no nos lamentemos cuando algunos sectores pidan que se vayan todos. Se está sembrando desesperanza en la sociedad. Se estimula el linchamiento virtual para conseguir una migaja de poder (…) por este camino vamos mál”.
A su turno, en tanto, la senadora Mónica Xavier, dijo que “lo de Llorente es un detalle” y que si se denuncia una situación “ilícita” lo propio es “ir a la Justicia” y no al Parlamento. “Si tantas dudas hay cualquier funcionario puede ir a la Justicia”.
Daniela Paysée también sostuvo que “si quiere investigar, que la Justicia investigue, pero no vamos a pedir comisión investigadora porque el parlamento tiene otros objetivos”.
“Los propios tupamaros han confesado”.
Entre la oposición, el senador nacionalista Luis Alberto Heber dijo que quiere saber “quién es la persona importante que detuvo la investigación”. Se mostró afín a que concurran todos los exfuncionarios involucrados a dar sus comentarios.
“Lo nuevo es las confesiones de tupamaros que salieron a decir que había tupabandas. Son los propios tupamaros los que han confesado esto y a confesión de parte relevo de prueba. No nos anima el odio”, agregó.
Heber sostuvo que le “genera dudas que Llorente actúe con independencia”, tras el archivo de la causa. Pidió que el fiscal de Corte, Jorge Díaz, nombre a otro fiscal en el caso.
La senadora Ivonne Passada respondió a esto que “se está cuestionando a la Justicia”, lo que es algo “muy preocupante”.
“Se hace necesario conformar la Comisión”.
El senador colorado Pedro Bordaberry dijo que “hubo un cambio acerca de lo que se dijo hoy a lo largo de la sesión y lo que dijo el senador Mujica”. Destacó que “no se escudó en el ‘si nos tocan a uno nos tocan a todos’, sino que dio la cara, brindó explicaciones, hizo autocrítica y hasta reconocimientos”.
“Hizo reconocimiento de hechos y de dudas. Dijo que él no sabía lo que hacían algunos compañeros y eso puede cerrar con alguna de estas versiones que se han dado hoy y de las dudas que tiene”, señaló.
Bordaberry manifestó también que también que el expresidente “dijo cosas entendibles, como que a partir de 1985 algunos militantes todavía tenían dudas acerca de esa democracia que se había retomado en el Uruguay y cómo se iba a desarrollar. Es hasta humano que existieran esas dudas y es bueno que se reconozcan”.
Luego, señaló que “cuando se habla de técnicas para degradar la confianza de gobiernos importada de otros países, se está señalando a la oposición como que la está aplicando. Y yo creo que poner estos temas arriba de la mesa aquí y en cualquier lugar del mundo lejos está de degradar o pulverizar el sistema político. Lo que se hace es protegerlo. La transparencia es que se conozcan los hechos y que los aclare como ha hecho el senador Mujica hace a la salud de un sistema democrático”.
Por último, consideró que “quizás después de sus palabras se hace necesario conformar la Comisión, más cuando se dice que es muy probable que tres o cuatro militantes (del MLN) hayan tomado ese camino”.
Punta de la madeja
La punta de la madeja ocurrió en 1994, cuando se produjo un tiroteo en una casa de citas entre un guardia de seguridad y dos asaltantes. Uno, de apellido Santander —colombiano, guerrillero y refugiado de Acnur—, resultó muerto. El otro era una chica de 19 años que puso a la Policía en la pista de la novia de Santander. Esa segunda mujer, reveló que sus compañeros después de cada robo “iban al comité de base de la calle Ejido, de Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, a llevar el dinero”, relató a El País el expolicía que los perseguía, Eduardo Vica Font.
Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to misspeak during an interview aired Sunday when she answered “democracy” when asked what’s the biggest national security challenge facing the US.
During the interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan asked her about the one national security threat that keeps her up at night worrying.
“Frankly, one of them is our democracy. There is, I think, no question in the minds of people who are foreign policy experts that the year 2021 is not the year 2000,” she said.
“And we are embarking on a new era where the threats to our nation take many forms. Including the threat of autocracies taking over and having outsized influence around the world,” Harris said.
Later in the interview, she clarified her earlier comment, saying there is a need to “fight for the integrity of our democracy.”
Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about the one national security threat that keeps her up at night worrying. CBS News/FTN
In the wide-ranging interview, Harris also talked about the need for the Senate to pass voting rights legislation, but wouldn’t say whether the filibuster should be bypassed, and criticism directed at her.
Harris also refused to take any responsibility for the debacle surrounding the US military pullout from Afghanistan in August, instead blaming the Trump administration for inking an agreement with the Taliban.
She said she “fully supported” President Biden’s decision to end the nation’s 20-year war with Afghanistan by removing US troops.
Vice President Kamala Harris said during the interview that autocracies pose a large threatCBS News/FTN
“I think it’s really important to remember that the previous administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban, did not invite the Afghan government to be at the table, and negotiated a deal that required and and promised as part of an agreement that we would pull out by the end of May,” Harris said on CBS.
“So we were saddled with that responsibility based on an agreement between the United States and the Taliban,” she continued.
Harris claimed the Biden administration had to abide by the deal worked out by former President Donald Trump or risk a continuation of America’s longest war.
“We made the decision that if we were to break the agreement, it would have been a whole other situation right now,” the vice president said.
“I strongly believe that had we broken that agreement, we would be talking about the war in Afghanistan and American troops in Afghanistan, and we’re not talking about that. I don’t regret that,” she said.
Vice President Kamala Harris clarified that there is a need to “fight for the integrity of our democracy.”CBS News/FTN
Biden has also pointed to the agreement his predecessor made in February 2020 with the Taliban for his reason to plow through with his decision to remove US troops by the end of August.
He said he “inherited” the deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban to depart by May 1, 2021, because after that date there would have been no cease-fire to protect US forces, leaving the option of withdrawing the forces or end up escalating the fight with the militant group.
Harris also said the administration will do “whatever is necessary” to push for the 50-50 divided Senate to take up voting rights legislation but wouldn’t commit to bypassing the 60-vote filibuster threshold to do so.
Asked if that means using the filibuster, Harris said: “I’m not saying that.”
“What I’m saying is that we are going to urge the United States Congress, and we have been, to examine the tools they have available to do what is necessary to fight for and retain the integrity of our voting system in America,” said Harris, who served as a US senator from California before become vice president.
Creating a carve out on the filibuster would allow Senate Democrats to pass legislation with a simple majority, but moderate Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have opposed using the maneuver.
Democrats contend that Republican-led states are passing bills that will restrict voting rights for minorities as Trump continues to claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
Vice President Kamala Harris said that the Biden administration will do “whatever is necessary” to push for the Senate to take up voting rights legislation.CBS News/FTN
Harris also responded to reports that the Biden White House is setting her up to fail amid a possible rivalry with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who, like Harris, may run again for president in 2024 or 2028.
“I’ll leave that for others to deal with. I have a job to do. And I’m going to get that job done,” she responded, noting that the criticism may be prompted by her raising issues about maternal health, postpartum care and Medicaid expansion.
“I’m vice president United States. Anything that I handle is because it’s a tough issue, and it couldn’t be handled at some other level. And there are a lot of big tough issues that need to be addressed. And it has actually been part of my lifelong career to deal with tough issues, and this is no different,” she said.
Horner, quien dice “odiar” al presidente electo republicano, no las llama noticias falsas, sino parodias o sátiras. “Honestamente, la gente está cada vez más tonta. Ya nadie chequea nada, así es como Trump fue elegido. Decía cualquier cosa que quería y la gente le creía cualquier cosa“, dijo el ¿comediante?
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