Timothy Wilsey, his wife Nicole and his 7-year-old son have been without power for 72 hours, and they have been forced to use their cars for warmth and to charge battery packs and phones, “their only lines of communication.”
The Euless, Texas, family said their apartment is currently only heated by candles.
“We are keeping busy by going old school and reading books and playing board games,” he told CNN by text message from Euless, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth.
Timothy says they’re only using their phones to quickly look at the news, so they can stay updated on the power outage situation, and to look for restaurants that may be open and serving food.
“We are mostly laying under covers in bed,” Timothy said. “The only time we leave the bed is to go to the car to warm up or charge the phones and battery packs.”
They put the food they could save from their freezer on their patio so it would stay warmer, but have no other way to cook food. The food they do have is largely limited to beef sticks, beef jerky, chips and some cookies; as for things to drink, they have bottled water and some bottled tea, but that is it.
“Other they [sic] that we are hoping the restaurants are open and serving hot food,” he said. “Sorry, hard to type while your hands are cold.”
CNN wants to hear your story about what you’re experiencing during this extreme winter weather. Share your story with us here.
Some Democrats are criticizing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her role in Amazon’s decision to cancel plans for a huge investment in New York; Doug McKelway reports.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vigorously defended her role in sinking Amazon’s move to New York City on Tuesday in the face of bipartisan criticism, claiming the deal would have been “one of the biggest giveaways in state history” and would have priced people out of the local community.
“Frankly, the knee-jerk reaction assuming that I ‘don’t understand’ how tax giveaways to corps work is disappointing,” she tweeted. “No, it’s not possible that I could come to a different conclusion. The debate *must* be over my intelligence & understanding, instead of the merits of the deal.”
Amazon had cited the opposition of “a number of state and local politicians” in its decision to abandon the plans. Ocasio-Cortez and others at the local level had pointed to incentives such as a $2.5 billion in tax breaks as a reason for their opposition.
“If we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves, if we wanted to. We could hire out more teachers. We can fix our subways. We can put a lot of people to work for that money, if we wanted to,” Ocasio-Cortez said last week.
Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back on that claim on Sunday. Even as he slammed Amazon for its decision, the mayor said critics wrongly suggested that tax breaks represented money that could be spent on other things. He said it wasn’t “money you had over here. And it was going over there.”
The Democratic mayor said: “That $3 billion that would go back in tax incentives was only after we were getting the jobs and getting the revenue.”
Fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., accused those who are against the deal, including Ocasio-Cortez, of being opposed to jobs.
“It used to be that we would protest wars. Now we are protesting jobs?” she said on CNN Friday, before criticizing the economic arguments of those opposed to the Amazon move.
“I’m a progressive too, but I’m pragmatic,” she said. “We are $4 billion less than we usually get and yet we are kicking out a company that would have been projected [to pay] over 10 years roughly $27 billion in taxes.”
New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin ripped into critics of the deal, saying it was evidence of a “financial literacy epidemic” in America.
“Quick lesson: NYC wasn’t handing cash to Amazon. It was an incentive program based on job creation, producing tax revenue,” he tweeted. “There isn’t a $3 billion pile of money that can now be spent on subways or education.”
But on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez mocked critics, saying “there’s NO WAY that this deal – one of the biggest giveaways in state history – could possibly have been bad, right?
“Surely there can’t be anything wrong with suddenly announcing a massive restructuring & pricing out of a community without any advance notice or input from them,” she asked.
In her list of criticisms, she included claims that Amazon was selling facial recognition tech to immigration officials, and that real-estate insiders were creating rent spikes.
“Folks handling the failed deal treated community w/condescension+disdain for their legitimate concerns,” she argued. “I warned early to any & all that surging NYC costs+failing subways are creating major political forces to be reckoned with.”
“But I don’t know what I’m talking about, right?” she quipped, with a shrugging emoji.
Nevada state Sen. Yvanna Cancela and Erin Wilson, the Biden-Harris campaign’s national political director, will both serve as deputy executive directors on the inaugural committee.
Accompanying Biden and Harris’ announcement on Monday was the committee’s digital rollout, including a new website featuring an online store “with exclusive inaugural merchandise and collectables.”
In their statement, Biden’s inaugural team said the committee would “work closely with the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies … to coordinate all activities surrounding the 59th inaugural ceremonies, prioritizing keeping people safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19 while engaging all Americans.”
It remains unclear how the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will affect planning for the inauguration in less than two months, as public health experts warn of surging caseloads during the holiday season.
Allen, the committee’s CEO, acknowledged in a statement that “this year’s inauguration will look different amid the pandemic, but we will honor the American inaugural traditions and engage Americans across the country while keeping everybody healthy and safe.”
Media captionThe BBC’s Will Grant describes the view of the devastation from above as “disturbing”
International leaders gathering at the G7 summit are reportedly nearing an agreement to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday a deal to provide “technical and financial help” was close.
Leaders from the US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Canada continue their meeting in the seaside town of Biarritz on Monday.
It comes amid international tension over record fires burning in Brazil.
Critics have accused Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, of “green lighting” the Amazon’s destruction through anti-environmental rhetoric and a lack of action on deforestation violations.
The severity of the fires, and his government’s response, has prompted global outcry and protests.
President Macron last week described the fires as an “international crisis” and pushed for them to be prioritised at the G7 summit this weekend.
On Sunday he said the leaders are “all agreed on helping those countries which have been hit by the fires as fast as possible.
“Our teams are making contact with all the Amazon countries so we can finalise some very concrete commitments involving technical resources and funding.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would provide £10m to protect the Amazon rainforest.
What is Brazil doing?
On Friday, facing mounting pressure from abroad, President Bolsonaro authorised the military to help tackle the blazes.
The Defence Ministry has said that 44,000 troops are available to help in the effort and officials said on Sunday that military intervention has been authorised in seven states.
Warplanes have also been drafted in to dump water on the areas affected.
The president tweeted on Sunday that he had also accepted an offer of support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption
Protests calling for intervention have continued in Brazil across the weekend
President Bolsonaro has previously been critical of the response of foreign governments and accused them of interfering in Brazil’s national sovereignty.
Announcing the military help in a television address on Friday, President Bolsonaro insisted forest fires “exist in the whole world” and said they “cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions”.
On Saturday, EU Council president Donald Tusk admitted it was hard to imagine the bloc ratifying the long-awaited EU-Mercosur agreement – a landmark trade deal with South American nations – while Brazil was still failing to curb the blazes.
As criticism mounted again last week, Finland’s finance minister went as far as calling for the EU to consider banning Brazilian beef imports altogether.
They say more than 75,000 have been recorded in Brazil so far in 2019, most of them in the Amazon region.
Environmental activists have drawn links between President Bolsonaro’s attitudes towards the environment and the recent surge in the number of fires in the famous rainforest.
Media captionMembers of Brazil’s indigenous Mura tribe vow to defend their land
President Bolsonaro has been accused of emboldening miners and loggers who deliberately start fires to illegally deforest land. Earlier this month he accused Inpe of trying to undermine his government with data revealing sharp increases in deforestation levels.
Neighbouring Bolivia is also struggling to contain fires burning in its forests.
On Sunday President Evo Morales suspended his re-election campaign and said he was prepared to accept international help to tackle blazes in his country’s Chiquitania region.
Why is the Amazon important?
As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. It spans a number of countries, but the majority of it falls within Brazil.
Media captionWhy the Amazon rainforest helps fight climate change
It is known as the “lungs of the world” for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.
The rainforest is also home to about three million species of plants and animals and one million indigenous people.
Political leaders, celebrities and environmentalists are among those who have called for action to protect the Amazon.
Thousands of protesters have also taken to the streets across the world calling on governments to intervene.
On Sunday, Pope Francis also joined the call to protect the rainforest.
“We are all worried about the vast fires that have developed in the Amazon. Let us pray so that with the commitment of all, they can be put out soon. That lung of forests is vital for our planet,” he told thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.
Media captionWorldwide protests over Brazilian government inaction on Amazon fires
Un nuevo bombardeo de la aviación perteneciente a la coalición internacional liderada por Estados Unidos contra el autodenominado Estado Islámico (Daesh, en árabe), dejó unos 100 civiles fallecidos en un campo de refugiados en Deir Ezzor, al este de Siria, informó este viernes un medio local.
Las víctimas, la mayoría mujeres y niños, fallecieron como resultado de un ataque aéreo realizado la noche del jueves contra un campo de refugiados al este de Deir Ezzor, detalló el diario Euphrates Post.
Además, 11 miembros de una familia fallecieron el miércoles por otro ataque aéreo de la coalición, liderada por Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) contra la población de Al-Shahabat, al norte de Deir Ezzor, según la agencia de noticias siria SANA.
El reciente bombardeo sucedió en una provincia convertida en el centro de los ataques del Ejército sirio y de sus aliados, que cuenta con grandes recursos petrolíferos y gasíferos.
Las fuerzas sirias lograron romper el asedio del Daesh contra la ciudad de Deir Ezzor a principios de septiembre y, según el Observatorio Sirio de Derechos Humanos (OSDH), ubicado en Reino Unido, el Ejército árabe controla más del 64 por ciento de la provincia.
Según la organización de periodistas independientes Airwars, desde 2014, la coalición ha lanzado más de 13.000 ataques aéreos en Siria y ha acabado con la vida de miles de civiles.
James Fields was sentenced on Friday to life in prison on federal hate crime charges. Fields rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others.
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James Fields was sentenced on Friday to life in prison on federal hate crime charges. Fields rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others.
Eze Amos/AP
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET
The man who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Va., killing one person and injuring 35 has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
A federal judge issued the sentence Friday for self-proclaimed neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr, 22, of the Toledo, Ohio area.
The judge’s punishment announced in a Charlottesville courtroom came after numerous survivors delivered emotional testimony about the psychological and physical toll the attack caused.
After the hearing, prosecutors described the 2017 attack as heinous.
“It was cold-blooded. It was motivated by deep-seated racial animus,” Thomas Cullen, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, told reporters. He said Fields’ lethal car plowing was calculated, calling it “a hate-inspired act of domestic terrorism.”
“Charlottesville is never going to be the same,” Cullen said. “It will be with this community, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, and this country, for a long time.”
Survivors who testified included Rosia Parker, a longtime civil rights activist in Charlottesville. She told the court she watched the attack from just feet away.
“You could have done anything else but what you did,” Parker said, according to The Associated Press. “You deserve everything that you get.”
In legal filings presented to the judge on Friday, Fields’ lawyers said while he committed a “terrible crime,” they asked the judge to also consider Fields’ “traumatic childhood and his mental illness, wrote Fields’ federal public defender, Lisa Lorish.
Federal prosecutors had asked the judge for a life sentence for Fields, who is 22. A plea deal brokered in March took away the possibility of the death penalty, and federal prosecutors and Fields’ lawyers agreed that federal sentencing guidelines called for a life sentence. As part of the deal, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 of the 30 federal hate crimes he faced and is not eligible for parole.
Prosecutors had said Fields’ crimes were “so horrendous – and the maiming of innocents so severe – that they outweigh any factors the defendant may argue form a basis for leniency,” according to a sentencing document filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh before the Friday hearing.
Last week, Fields’ attorneys asked for something shorter than a life sentence, citing Fields’ age and history of mental illness.
Fields has already been convicted on separate, state charges for murdering 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of other people. The jury in that case recommended a life sentence plus 419 years and $480,000 in fines. Sentencing in that case is set for July 15.
Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said in April that she was satisfied with Fields’ federal guilty plea and was not intent on his getting the death penalty. “There’s no point in killing him. It would not bring back Heather,” she told reporters.
Fields was 20 when he drove his Dodge Challenger through the night from Ohio to attend Unite the Right, a white nationalist rally in August 2017. The weekend turned deadly when Fields accelerated his car into the group of protesters. Two Virginia State Police troopers investigating the day’s events also died when the helicopter they were in crashed.
Before he was sentenced on Friday, Fields’ lawyers wrote the court to say that he used Twitter in search of community and “quickly learned that provocative and hateful comments led to more exposure,” leading him to follow accounts white supremacist accounts, including Richard Spencer and Mike Peinovich.
Fields’ lawyers wrote that he found out about the Unite the Right rally through its organizers’ online recruiting campaign.
His attorneys claim he had no intention to commit a violent act, instead describing the attack as a “impulsive, angry and aggressive decision.”
President Trump said afterward that there was “blame on both sides” for the violence in the college town.
New York Assembly Democrats vote 15-11 to block a bill that proposed expanding college tuition aid for children of deceased and disabled military veterans in the wake of approving a state budget that set aside $27 million in college tuition aid for undocumented immigrants.
New York Assembly Democrats on Tuesday blocked a bill that proposed expanding college tuition aid for children of deceased and disabled military veterans after– having a week earlier– approved a state budget that set aside $27 million in college tuition aid for illegal immigrants.
The Assembly’s Higher Education Committee voted 15 to 11 on Tuesday to shelve the bill, effectively quashing its chances of going to the floor, the Post-Standard reported.
The decision came after committee chair Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan, and Speaker Carl Heastie said $27 million from the state’s budget would go towards supporting the Jose Peralta New York State DREAM Act, which allows illegal immigrants to qualify for state aid for higher education, Newsweek reported.
Glick said any expansion of college tuition aid to Gold Star families was not within the state’s budget and pointed to an already-existing program that provides $2.7 million to 145 students who are dependents of vets who served in combat zones, the New York Post reported.
“Assemblywoman Glick should be ashamed of herself,” said State Sen. Robert Ortt, R-Niagara. “We set aside $27 million dollars for college for people that are here illegally… Apparently, $2.7 million is all that the families of soldiers who are killed, get. If you’re a child of a fallen soldier, you do not rank as high and you know that by the money.”
Mike Whyland, a spokesman for Assembly Democrats, said the Republican-led bill “would have expanded the eligibility beyond the scope and should be considered within the context of the budget.”
When asked about objections by GOP lawmakers, he said: “It’s purely political and it’s unfortunate that they are using children as pawns.”
Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, surmised that the Democrats’ refusal had less to do with budget restraints and more to do with the bill’s author: a Republican, Steve Hawley, R-Batavia.
“We get so caught up in majority and minority issues here, we can’t see the forest through the trees,” Barclay said. “I don’t know how they don’t justify this.”
Democrats insist, despite little chance of a conviction.
Former President Donald Trump parted ways with five of his impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, Fox News has confirmed.
South Carolina lawyers Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier and former federal prosecutors Greg Harris, Johnny Gasser and Josh Howard had left the defense team by Saturday, a source said, calling it a mutual decision.
The source said the lawyers left over a difference of opinion on the direction of the defense’s argument.
Fast Facts
South Carolina lawyers Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier have left the defense team, a source said.
Trump was impeached earlier this month for “incitement of insurrection” over the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots.
South Carolina lawyers Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier have left the defense team, a source said.
Trump was impeached earlier this month for “incitement of insurrection” over the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots.
New additions were expected to join in the week ahead.
Another anonymous source told the Associated Press Bowers and Barbier left because Trump wanted them to make election fraud allegations during the trial.
The upheaval injected fresh uncertainty into the makeup and strategy of Trump’s defense team as he prepared to face charges that he incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump was all but certain to be acquitted, however, because 45 out of 50 Republicans in the Senate voted earlier this month to dismiss the trial on a point of order brought forward by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
The remaining five Republicans voted with Democrats to end debate on Paul’s motion that argued Trump’s impeachment trial is unconstitutional because he’s no longer in office.
Follow below for the latest updates on Trump’s impeachment. Mobile users click here.
Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump’s planned nominee to the Federal Reserve Board, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he is “embarrassed” by some of his past writings and commentary about women that have recently come under scrutiny.
“Frankly, I didn’t even remember writing some of these they were so long ago,” he said of columns that were resurfaced by CNN and The New York Times, adding, “They were humor columns but some of them weren’t funny so I am apologetic; I’m embarrassed by some of those things I wrote.”
When asked if he regretted any of those writings, Moore said, “Sure I do.”
In an email to CNN, the outlet that unearthed writings in which he lamented women’s involvement in athletics, Moore had called the old writings “a spoof” and that he had “a sense of humor.”
“When it comes to wages and gender equity, I want that to be decided by the market,” he said. “I don’t want government to intervene.”
Last month, Trump announced his intention to nominate Moore to the Fed, calling him an “outstanding choice” and “a very respected economist.” But Moore has come under fire in the weeks that followed for a number of controversies, including failure to make alimony payments to his ex-wife and views he expressed about democracy and capitalism.
Moore’s controversies come as another of Trump’s planned Fed picks, Herman Cain, the 2012 GOP presidential candidate and pizza executive, withdrew from consideration. Cain, who has been accused and denied claims of sexual harassment, said he withdrew because of the strict “ethical restrictions” the job entails. A handful of GOP senators signaled that they would not endorse Cain for the job, which requires Senate confirmation and comes with a 14-year term.
On ABC, Moore said he thinks “we should get back to the issue of whether I’m qualified to be on the Federal Reserve Board, whether I have the, you know, economic expertise.”
He added he believes he will “make it through” the confirmation process if he is ultimately nominated.
“If I become a liability to any of these senators, I would withdraw,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to come to that.”
CHICAGO – An historic and deadly polar vortex gripped a wide swath of the nation Wednesday, with temperatures plunging far below zero and wind chill numbers as extraordinary as they are dangerous.
Chicago’s temperature tumbled to 21 degrees below zero, a record for the date and closing in on the city’s all-time record of minus 27 set in 1985. The wind chill dipped to an even more startling 51 degrees below zero.
The National Weather Service said the temperature reached minus 28 degrees in Minneapolis, poised to break a record dating back more than 100 years. The wind chill: minus 49.
Wind chill temperatures in dozens of towns across Minnesota and North Dakota plummeted to 60 degrees below zero or less, the National Weather Service said. The early leader was Ely, Minnesota, with a very cool minus 70 degrees.
“One of the coldest arctic air mass intrusions in recent memory is surging south into the Upper Midwest before spreading across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country,” the National Weather Service said, warning of “life-threatening wind chills, likely leading to widespread record lows and low maximum temperatures.”
Thousands of flights into and out of airports in the region were delayed or canceled, including more than 1,000 flights at Chicago airports alone.
Amtrak pulled the plug in Chicago, announcing the “extreme weather conditions and an abundance of caution” led the service to cancel all trains to and from the city on Wednesday. Short-distance services are also canceled on Thursday, Amtrak said.
Light rail was also a mess, with some suburban lines shutting down Wednesday. The Chicago Transit Authority, which shuttles about 1.6 million riders on a typical weekday, said it was experiencing significant delays.
Even the Postal Service took notice, announcing that due to concerns for the safety of its employees, mail won’t be delivered Wednesday in parts of at least 10 states.
At least four deaths were linked to the weather system, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage.
Almost 40,000 homes and businesses were without power in Indiana, Illinois,
Homeless shelters and warming centers were abuzz across the region. In Chicago, officials added 500 shelter beds and tapped more than 100 religious leaders to make calls and checks on senior citizens. Five Chicago Transit Authority buses were dispatched to give homeless people a place to warm up who might not want to go to a shelter.
“Everyone of us has a role to check on somebody who is maybe a neighbor on the block who is elderly, infirm or needs extra help,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
The weather was headed east. New York’s forecast high for Thursday’s high was 16 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 15. The city Housing Authority activated its Situation Room, with heating response teams prepped to respond to heat and hot water emergencies.
Philadelphia enacted “Cold Blue,” including 24-hour outreach to find people who are homeless and transport them to safe indoor spaces.
Pets were also a concern, Chicagoland Dog Rescue warned.
“Don’t leave your pets outside unattended in this weather, period,” the rescue organization warned on Twitter. “Make sure your gates are latched and your dog(s) cannot escape your yard.”
The weekend could finally bring relief. In Des Moines, Iowa, the temperature barreled down to minus 20 on Wednesday with a wind chill of minus 40. But Allan Curtis, a meteorologist with the Des Moines branch of the National Weather Service, said the temperature on Saturday could exceed 40 degrees above zero.
“It may as well be basketball shorts weather,” Curtis said.
Madhani reported from Chicago, Bacon from McLean, Virgina. Contributing: Austin Cannon, Des Moines Register; The Associated Press
CNN host Don Lemon was visibly flabbergasted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who claimed white supremacy was “actually not a real problem in America” during his program on Tuesday.
Carlson downplayed the evidence of the rise of white supremacy throughout the US and described it a “hoax … Just like the Russia hoax.”
Lemon was speechless after he replayed a portion of Carlson’s segment for his program.
“Wow,” Lemon said, after an extended pause. “Hold on a second. Was that not the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard?”
The FBI reported that since October, the majority of roughly 100 domestic terrorism-related arrests involving a racial motive were “motivated by some version of what you might call ‘white supremacist violence.'”
CNN host Don Lemon was visibly flabbergasted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who claimed white supremacy was “actually not a real problem in America” during his program on Tuesday.
Carlson downplayed the evidence of the rise of white supremacy throughout the US and described it a “hoax … Just like the Russia hoax.”
“It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power,” Carlson said on his program. “That’s exactly what’s going on.”
“If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns, the problems this country faces, where would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia, probably,” Carlson added. “It’s actually not a real problem in America.”
Lemon was speechless after he replayed a portion of Carlson’s segment for his program.
“Wow,” Lemon said, after an extended pause. “Hold on a second. Was that not the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard?”
The FBI — which has received criticism for its handling of domestic terrorism concerns following the El Paso shooting that killed at least 22 people in Texas — reported that since October, the majority of roughly 100 domestic terrorism-related arrests involving a racial motive were “motivated by some version of what you might call ‘white supremacist violence.'”
The gunman in the El Paso shooting promoted white supremacist views in a purported manifesto.
From left, Melody Stout, Hannah Payan, Aaliyah Alba, Sherie Gramlich and Laura Barrios comfort each other during a vigil for victims of the shooting Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. A young gunman opened fire in an El Paso, Texas, shopping area during the busy back-to-school season, leaving multiple people dead and more than two dozen injured. (AP Photo/John Locher)
“We take domestic terrorism or hate crime, regardless of ideology, extremely seriously,” FBI director Christopher Wray said at a congressional hearing in July. “We are aggressively pursuing it using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources and partnering closely with our state and local partners.”
The FBI was reportedly investigating around 850 domestic terrorism cases — 40% of which involved racial extremism, according to CBS News. The FBI also determined there were eight mass shootings in the country involving attackers who promoted white supremacy since 2017, according to The New York Times.
Additionally, the FBI Agents Association on Tuesday urged Congress to declare domestic terrorism a federal crime: “Acts of violence intended to intimidate civilian populations or to influence or affect government policy should be prosecuted as domestic terrorism regardless of the ideology behind them.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, left, speaks alongside Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, right, during a vigil at the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2019, in Dayton, Ohio. A masked gunman in body armor opened fire early Sunday in the popular entertainment district in Dayton, killing several people, including his sister, and wounding dozens before he was quickly slain by police, officials said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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President Donald Trump addressed the El Paso shooting on Monday and said the gunman was “consumed by racist hate.”
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” Trump said at his press conference.
Lemon referred to Carlson’s monologue in light of the victims of the El Paso shooting.
“Yet, Tucker Carlson of Fox News is saying white supremacy is not a real problem in America,” Lemon said. “I wonder how the families of the victims in El Paso feel about his statement.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids occurred in small towns where the workforce is made up largely of Latino immigrants. USA TODAY
DETROIT – Forty years ago, Jimmy Al-Daoud came from Greece to the U.S. legally as a 6-month-old baby, along with his Iraqi Christian parents, who were refugees.
The Hazel Park resident struggled with mental illness, homelessness and was convicted 20 times of crimes such as stealing power tools, assault and marijuana possession. In 2005 and 2018, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S. despite the fact he had lived in the U.S. almost his entire life.
On June 2, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Iraq after a federal appeals court decision in April opened the door for Iraqi deportations.
This week, Al-Daoud, 41, died in Iraq after struggling as a homeless man on the streets of Najaf and Baghdad to find insulin he needed for his diabetic condition, according to friends, the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich.
For the past two years, Iraqi-American Christian leaders in Michigan have said that deporting Chaldeans back to Iraq would be a virtual death sentence. Al-Daoud’s death on Tuesday has confirmed their fears, say advocates.
“Jimmy Al-Daoud, a Chaldean resident of Oakland County, should have never been sent to Iraq,” said Levin. “For many reasons, it was clear that deporting Jimmy to a country where he had never been, had no identification, had no family, had no knowledge of geography or customs, did not speak the language and ultimately, had no access to medical care, would put his life in extreme danger. Jimmy died tragically yesterday of a diabetic crisis. His death could have and should have been prevented.”
ICE officials told the Free Press on Thursday that Al-Daoud cut off his tether in December and had absconded until police caught him in April for vehicle larceny. ICE said they provided him with enough medication to ensure his care when they deported him in June.
A video in June of Al-Daoud in Iraq that the ACLU says was taken by another deported Iraqi national shows him explaining how ICE agents deported him despite his pleas to stay.
“I was deported 2½ weeks ago,” he said in the video posted on Facebook, wearing a red shirt and sitting on the street. “I’ve been in the United States since 6 months old. … Two and a half weeks ago, immigration agent pulled me over and said I’m going to Iraq. And I refused. I said I’ve never been there. I’ve been in this country my whole life. … They refused to listen to me. … They wouldn’t let me call my family, nothing. … I begged them, I said, ‘Please, I’ve never seen that country. I’ve never been there.’ However, they forced me.”
Al-Daoud described his stay in Iraq as confusing and desperate.
“I don’t understand the language,” he said in the June video. “I’ve been sleeping in the streets. I’m diabetic. I’m take insulin shots. I’ve been throwing up, throwing up … trying to find something to eat. I got nothing over here.”
Levin and the ACLU confirmed that the video is of Al-Daoud.
Al-Daoud suffered “from mental health issues and had diabetes that required insulin twice per day,” said ACLU Michigan spokeswoman Ann Mullen. “He died in part due to not having access to quality health care despite being able to periodically receive insulin.”
It’s unclear whether Al-Daoud was born in Iraq or Greece, said the ACLU. Some documents show he was born in Greece, others in Iraq.
Leaving Iraq, his parents “made their way to Greece, where they applied for refugee status in the U.S.,” Mullen said. The family was in Greece just a few months before being admitted into the U.S. in 1979.
His death has outraged some in metro Detroit’s Iraqi Christian community, one of the largest in the U.S.
Officials with ICE in Detroit told the Free Press in a statement that Al-Daoud has a long history of criminal convictions over the past 20 years. Spokesman Khaalid Walls said Al-Daoud entered the U.S. “lawfully in 1979, before violating the terms of his status due to several criminal convictions.”
Under law, legal immigrants can be deported if they commit certain crimes.
ICE Detroit office said: “Al-Daoud has an extensive criminal history involving no less than twenty convictions between 1998-2017, to include assault with a dangerous weapon; assault and/or battery; domestic violence; contempt of court-failure to appear; breaking and entering; malicious destruction of a building; malicious destruction of property; assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer; disorderly conduct; home invasion; possession of marijuana; larceny; breaking and entering a vehicle, and receiving and concealing stolen property.”
In 2012, Al-Daoud was arrested after he stole power tools from a garage in Ferndale, reported WWJ at the time. He was described in the story as a homeless man.
A Michigan appeals court later threw out the conviction after he served his time because he had represented himself in court without the judge warning him of the risks, reported the Associated Press in 2015.
ICE said that “Al-Daoud’s immigration case underwent an exhaustive judicial review before the courts ultimately affirmed he had no legal basis to remain in the U.S. He was ordered removed from the United States to Iraq on Nov. 8, 2005.”
In 2017, Al-Daoud became part of the ACLU lawsuit filed against ICE to block the deportations. ICE had arrested about 1,400 Iraqi nationals living in the U.S., most with criminal convictions who had final orders of deportation.
Before President Donald Trump took office, they were allowed to stay, but the Trump administration sought to remove them after striking a deal with Iraq to take them back. Many were able to have their cases reheard in immigration courts and temporarily had their deportations halted, but in December, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the ACLU, saying the deportations could not be blocked. In April, the full court refused to rehear the case, which means the deportations can continue.
“He was later granted a motion to reopen his immigration case but was again ordered removed to Iraq on May 14, 2018,” said ICE spokesman Walls. “Al-Daoud waived his right to appeal that decision.”
Levin said he’s trying to help get Al-Daoud a Catholic burial in Iraq. Christians are a minority in Iraq, where they are increasingly persecuted.
“At the moment, Iraqi authorities will not release Jimmy’s body to a Catholic priest without extensive documentation from his family members in the U.S.,” Levin said. “This seems to be a cruel irony, indeed. I am working with the Iraqi government to make sure this process happens as quickly and smoothly as possible.”
“Jimmy’s death has devastated his family and us,” said Miriam Aukerman, ACLU of Michigan senior staff attorney, who is litigating the Hamma v. Adducci lawsuit filed against ICE on behalf of Iraqi nationals. “We knew he would not survive if deported. What we don’t know is how many more people ICE will send to their deaths.”
Aukerman said Al-Daoud was “sleeping on benches in Najaf with no food, no money, nothing but the clothes on his back.”
According to ICE Detroit officials, “Al-Daoud was released from ICE custody on Dec. 18, 2018, pursuant to a Nov. 20, 2018, federal court decision, which ordered the release of Iraqi nationals who had been detained for removal.”
Al-Daoud then “immediately absconded from ICE’s noncustodial supervision program by cutting his GPS tether on the day of his release.”
ICE said he “remained an absconder until he was arrested by local law enforcement for larceny from a motor vehicle in April 2019. At his June 2, removal, he was supplied with a full complement of medicine to ensure continuity of care.”
Al-Daoud had first arrived in Najaf and then ended up in Baghdad, said Levin’s office and the ACLU.
In the June video taken a couple of weeks after his deportation – believed to be in Baghdad, according to Levin’s office – Al-Daoud recounted being thrown off the property of a place where he was trying to sleep because he was homeless.
“I was kicked in the back a couple of days ago,” Al-Daoud said, by a man who told him to “get off the guy’s property. I was sleeping on the ground. He claimed it was his property. I begged him, I said, ‘Please, I’ve never seen this country. I don’t understand the language. Nobody speaks English.’ “
O Sporting está pronto para vender ativos na abertura do mercado de transferências, sendo que Rúben Semedo é o primeiro jogador que os leões tencionam transferir.
De acordo com o jornal Record, o clube de Alvalade procura encaixar no mínimo de 20 milhões de euros com o passe do defesa central. A SAD já terá uma proposta oficial pelo jogador, porém os valores estão abaixo do pretendido.
No entanto, o emblema verde e branco espera novas propostas pelo atleta de 23 anos, isto porque Semedo têm cinco clubes interessados nas suas qualidades: Lille, Newcastle, Southampton, Crystal Palace e West Ham.
Caso o clube não consiga vender Rúben Semedo, o defesa deverá manter-se nos planos de Jorge Jesus para a próxima temporada. Recorde-se que o jogar tem contrato com o Sporting até 2022, com uma cláusula de rescisão de 45 milhões de euros.
While the senators said they have agreed on the thorny issue of how to pay for infrastructure, the funding methods could still divide lawmakers. Biden and Democrats have called to raise the corporate tax rate to offset investments, but Republicans have said they will not reverse their 2017 tax cuts. The White House wants to hike the corporate rate to at least 25% from the current 21%.
Earlier Thursday, Sen. Jon Tester — a Montana Democrat who has joined the negotiations — suggested the funding for the plan could come from multiple sources.
“Part of what I’m concerned about is that maybe what we’re projecting on the numbers, on the pay-fors, because they’re not taxes. They’re fees. They’re funds. They’re different vats of money out there, or pots of money out there, that we can draw out of,” he told MSNBC.
The White House has stayed in touch with the Senate negotiators as Biden targets an infrastructure bill as his second major legislative initiative. The president first put forward a $2.3 trillion plan, but scaled back his offer to $1.7 trillion during talks with Capito.
Biden has asked for at least $600 billion in new spending above the baseline already set by Congress, Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican involved in the talks, told reporters.
Although they control both chambers of Congress, Democrats face a complicated path toward passing an infrastructure plan. While they can approve a bill on their own in the evenly divided Senate through budget reconciliation, they have to keep all 50 members of their caucus on board.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has insisted he wants to pass a bill with support from both parties. He could hold up a Democratic proposal on his own. Manchin is part of the negotiating group.
The bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus released its own infrastructure plan this week. The proposal would cost $1.25 trillion, including $762 billion in new spending. The group did not say how it would pay for the investments.
Meanwhile, the House has moved forward with a five-year, $547 billion surface transportation funding bill that Democrats could use to pass major pieces of Biden’s infrastructure plan. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Thursday that Democrats aim to vote on the legislation as soon as the end of the month.
Biden’s initial plan called for a range of investments in clean energy, housing, schools and care for elderly and disabled Americans, all of which Republicans have called unrelated to infrastructure.
The National Hurricane Center is predicting the season’s first hurricane, to be named Barry, will develop over the Gulf of Mexico and strike the coast of Louisiana or Texas on Saturday.
The storm is predicted to be a massive rainmaker, unloading double-digit rainfall totals that will probably trigger serious inland flooding. Assuming it attains hurricane strength, damaging wind gusts are likely near where it comes ashore as well as a dangerous storm surge, which is a rise in water above normally dry land that can inundate homes, roads and businesses.
Tropical storm and storm surge watches have already been issued ahead of the storm in coastal eastern and central Louisiana. The storm surge watch includes New Orleans, where levees protecting the city may be tested as the Mississippi River is expected to rise.
David Blanco.- El responsable de los Comités Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción Freddy Bernal, anunció que la instancia contará con un “jefe de calle” que tendrá como función un mayor acercamiento con las comunidades, “él o ella es quien tendrá relación directa con las familias, esa personas tocará la puerta de las vivienda” para saber si ese grupo familiar está recibiendo la bolsa o caja del Clap.
Informó que esta semana se estará instalando en la Vicepresidencia de la República una Sala de Control y Seguimiento, para constatar que las 6 millones de familias sean beneficiadas con los Clap “con esto sabremos si los alimentos llegan a las viviendas, porque puede ocurrir que tengamos los insumos pero no tengamos la capacidad de distribuirlos” por eso se implementa este mecanismo, dijo durante una entrevista realizada en el programa Dando Y Dando.
Agregó que actualmente hay 1500 inspectores presidenciales, “cuando se reciba una denuncia, se enviarán a la zona y ellos elegirán el 1% los Clap del lugar para verificar que la información que está siendo reflejada por el Estado Mayor Municipales y Estadales es correcta”.
Resaltó que “cada vez que hay un ciclo electoral en el país la producción de alimentos en la empresa Polar cae, en el caso del dólar se dispara, estos dos problemas causa un nivel de angustia en la población, por eso surgieron los Clap para enfrentar esa batalla”
Reiteró que en coordinación con el ministro de Comunicación e Información Ernesto Villegas, están trabajando para que el programa “La hora de los Clap” tenga un espacio en la televisión, en el horario de 7 a 9 de la noche.
Detenidos
Informó que en el estado Falcón, fueron detenidos todos los representantes del Estado Mayor de esa entidad por estar involucrados en actos de corrupción.
“Ya fueron detenidos y están a la orden de la fiscalía, tienen 45 días para defenderse”, apuntó.
De igual forma, comentó que en las próximas 72 horas se aplicará una orden de privativa de libertad contra un un funcionario de la gobernación por estafar a varias familias.
House lawmakers emerged Friday from a marathon hearing with the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine with both sides digging in on their positions for what promises to be a frenzied month as the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry advances full steam.
Marie Yovanovitch, who was relieved of her post and recalled to Washington in May, delivered damning testimony in the nearly 10-hour closed-door meeting, accusing top Trump administration officials of staging “a concerted campaign” against her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”
The remarks, included in an opening statement that quickly became public, gave ammunition for Democrats who are investigating whistleblower allegations that Trump had leveraged U.S. military aid to Ukraine in return for political favors from the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We want the whole thing public, just like before,” Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, told reporters afterwards.
Yovanovitch’s testimony came after the State Department attempted to block her testimony, which forced Democrats to issue a subpoena to compel her participation.
Yovanovitch said in her opening statement that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told her that she had “done nothing wrong and that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause,” and added that Sullivan told her that Trump had “lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador.”
Yovanovitch denied allegations that she told embassy staff to ignore Trump’s orders due to the likelihood that he would be impeached.
The intelligence community whistleblower complaint alleged that the then-prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko accused Yovanovitch of giving him a “do not prosecute” list. Lutsenko later retracted the charge.
Yovanovitch suggested that two Giuliani business associates who were arrested on campaign finance charges this week may have contributed to her eventual removal as ambassador.
“I do not know Mr. Giuliani’s motives for attacking me,” she said. “But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.”
Leaving the nearly 10-hour gathering, Yovanovitch declined to comment. Asked if she thought Trump had committed impeachable offenses, she stared straight ahead and glided by the cameras without a word.
“I don’t want to characterize what she said, but we feel very strongly that that would be wrong and … we will do everything we can to protect any career employee who speaks to us pursuant to a legally binding subpoena,” said Malinowski.
Yovanovitch’s testimony capped the end of a frenetic and unpredictable week on Capitol Hill, where Congress is technically on recess but a number of lawmakers from both parties were gathered in anticipation of a series of depositions scheduled by Democrats, who are wary of dragging their impeachment inquiry into next year once the 2020 campaign is fully underway.
They were only partly successful.
On Monday, Democrats had planned the deposition of Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent, which did not take place. And on Tuesday, the State Department blocked the testimony of Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, just hours before he was scheduled to appear in the Capitol.
Later that same day, White House counsel Pat Cipollone informed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the three key committee chairmen that the Trump administration would not comply with the impeachment inquiry, citing the lack of a formal vote authorizing it.
Democratic leaders have dismissed the argument, saying that the committees already have subpoena powers due to rules changes made by the GOP when it held the House majority.
Democrats are hoping they have better success next week, when they’ve requested the testimony of five additional officials. The list includes Kent, Sondland and Fiona Hill, a former special assistant to the president on Russian affairs, who stepped down in August.
Schiff declined to comment on what was said during the testimony, but described Yovanovitch to reporters as a “model diplomat,” and called her a “courageous example for others.”
Schiff did not comment on whether he would make the proceedings on Friday public.
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