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  • Tropical Storm Melissa brings heavy rain and a flood risk to Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica

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    Tropical Storm Melissa began dumping heavy rain on Hispaniola on Tuesday as forecasters warned of a significant flood risk in parts of the Caribbean region later this week.The rains snarled traffic in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo, and at least one traffic light was downed as winds whipped around the city. Games in the country’s professional baseball league were canceled.People in Haiti grew concerned over the possibility of heavy flooding, which has devastated the country during past storms, given widespread erosion.Melissa was about 325 miles south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph as of Tuesday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was moving west at 13 mph.A hurricane watch was issued for southern Haiti, while a tropical storm watch was in effect for Jamaica.Five to 10 inches (12-25 centimeters) of rain was possible in southern Haiti and the southern Dominican Republic through Friday, with several inches also expected in Jamaica. Heavy rain was also forecast for northern areas of Hispaniola, Aruba and Puerto Rico.More heavy rain was possible past Friday, and there was a significant risk of flash flooding and landslides. Melissa was forecast to gain strength gradually, but the U.S. forecasters warned that its track and forward movement were uncertain, and people in the region should remain alert.

    MIAMI —

    Tropical Storm Melissa began dumping heavy rain on Hispaniola on Tuesday as forecasters warned of a significant flood risk in parts of the Caribbean region later this week.

    The rains snarled traffic in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo, and at least one traffic light was downed as winds whipped around the city. Games in the country’s professional baseball league were canceled.

    People in Haiti grew concerned over the possibility of heavy flooding, which has devastated the country during past storms, given widespread erosion.

    Melissa was about 325 miles south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph as of Tuesday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was moving west at 13 mph.

    A hurricane watch was issued for southern Haiti, while a tropical storm watch was in effect for Jamaica.

    Five to 10 inches (12-25 centimeters) of rain was possible in southern Haiti and the southern Dominican Republic through Friday, with several inches also expected in Jamaica. Heavy rain was also forecast for northern areas of Hispaniola, Aruba and Puerto Rico.

    More heavy rain was possible past Friday, and there was a significant risk of flash flooding and landslides. Melissa was forecast to gain strength gradually, but the U.S. forecasters warned that its track and forward movement were uncertain, and people in the region should remain alert.

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  • Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize before. Experts say he’s unlikely to win this year

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    U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be.Longtime Nobel watchers say Trump’s prospects remain remote despite a flurry of high-profile nominations and some notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.Experts say the Norwegian Nobel Committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals. Trump’s own record might even work against him, they said, citing his apparent disdain for multilateral institutions and his disregard for global climate change concerns.Still, the U.S. leader has repeatedly sought the Nobel spotlight since his first term, most recently telling United Nations delegates late last month “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”A person cannot nominate themself.Public lobbying campaigns but a private committee decisionTrump’s boasts and previous high-profile nominations make him the blockbuster name on the list of bookmakers’ favorites. But it’s unclear whether his name comes up in conversation when the five-member Nobel committee, appointed by Norway’s parliament, meets behind closed doors.Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forward in December by U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.Nominations made this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pakistan’s government occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award.Trump has said repeatedly that he “deserves” the prize and claims to have “ended seven wars.” Last week, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan aimed at concluding the nearly two-year war in Gaza.“Nobody’s ever done that,” he told a gathering of military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing.”Israel and Hamas have since agreed to the first phase of the peace plan for Gaza, paving the way for a pause in the fighting and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. In the early hours of Thursday, families of hostages and their supporters started chanting “Nobel prize to Trump” as they gathered in Tel Aviv’s hostages square.Sustained peace efforts prioritized over quick winsNobel veterans say the committee prioritizes sustained, multilateral efforts over quick diplomatic wins. Theo Zenou, a historian and research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said Trump’s efforts have not yet been proven to be long-lasting.“There’s a huge difference between getting fighting to stop in the short term and resolving the root causes of the conflict,” Zenou said.Zenou also highlighted Trump’s dismissive stance on climate change as out-of-step with what many, including the Nobel committee, see as the planet’s greatest long-term peace challenge.“I don’t think they would award the most prestigious prize in the world to someone who does not believe in climate change,” Zenou said. “When you look at previous winners who have been bridge-builders, embodied international cooperation and reconciliation: These are not words we associate with Donald Trump.”Avoiding political pressureThe Nobel committee was met with fierce criticism in 2009 for giving then-U.S. President Barack Obama the prize barely nine months into his first term. Many argued Obama had not been in office long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.And Trump’s own outspokenness about possibly winning the award might work against him: The committee won’t want to be seen as caving in to political pressure, said Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.Trump’s prospects for the prize this year are “a long shot,” she said. “His rhetoric does not point in a peaceful perspective.”The Nobel announcements began with the prize in medicine on Monday, and continued with physics on Tuesday and chemistry on Wednesday. The literature prize is being awarded on Thursday. The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday.

    STAVANGER, Norway —

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be.

    Longtime Nobel watchers say Trump’s prospects remain remote despite a flurry of high-profile nominations and some notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.

    Experts say the Norwegian Nobel Committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals. Trump’s own record might even work against him, they said, citing his apparent disdain for multilateral institutions and his disregard for global climate change concerns.

    Still, the U.S. leader has repeatedly sought the Nobel spotlight since his first term, most recently telling United Nations delegates late last month “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

    A person cannot nominate themself.

    Public lobbying campaigns but a private committee decision

    Trump’s boasts and previous high-profile nominations make him the blockbuster name on the list of bookmakers’ favorites. But it’s unclear whether his name comes up in conversation when the five-member Nobel committee, appointed by Norway’s parliament, meets behind closed doors.

    Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forward in December by U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.

    Nominations made this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pakistan’s government occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award.

    Trump has said repeatedly that he “deserves” the prize and claims to have “ended seven wars.” Last week, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan aimed at concluding the nearly two-year war in Gaza.

    “Nobody’s ever done that,” he told a gathering of military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing.”

    Israel and Hamas have since agreed to the first phase of the peace plan for Gaza, paving the way for a pause in the fighting and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. In the early hours of Thursday, families of hostages and their supporters started chanting “Nobel prize to Trump” as they gathered in Tel Aviv’s hostages square.

    Sustained peace efforts prioritized over quick wins

    Nobel veterans say the committee prioritizes sustained, multilateral efforts over quick diplomatic wins. Theo Zenou, a historian and research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said Trump’s efforts have not yet been proven to be long-lasting.

    “There’s a huge difference between getting fighting to stop in the short term and resolving the root causes of the conflict,” Zenou said.

    Zenou also highlighted Trump’s dismissive stance on climate change as out-of-step with what many, including the Nobel committee, see as the planet’s greatest long-term peace challenge.

    “I don’t think they would award the most prestigious prize in the world to someone who does not believe in climate change,” Zenou said. “When you look at previous winners who have been bridge-builders, embodied international cooperation and reconciliation: These are not words we associate with Donald Trump.”

    Avoiding political pressure

    The Nobel committee was met with fierce criticism in 2009 for giving then-U.S. President Barack Obama the prize barely nine months into his first term. Many argued Obama had not been in office long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.

    And Trump’s own outspokenness about possibly winning the award might work against him: The committee won’t want to be seen as caving in to political pressure, said Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

    Trump’s prospects for the prize this year are “a long shot,” she said. “His rhetoric does not point in a peaceful perspective.”

    The Nobel announcements began with the prize in medicine on Monday, and continued with physics on Tuesday and chemistry on Wednesday. The literature prize is being awarded on Thursday. The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday.

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  • Kiss rocker Gene Simmons recovering after crashing SUV

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    Kiss rock star Gene Simmons is recovering after he fainted while driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and crashed his SUV into a parked car, authorities said.Simmons, a co-founder and bassist for the legendary band, was evaluated at a hospital Tuesday before being released. He posted on social media that he was doing well.“Thanks, everybody, for the kind wishes. I’m completely fine. I had a slight fender bender. It happens,” he said on X.The 76-year-old’s SUV crossed several lanes before hitting a parked car along the highway, agencies that responded to the crash told several media outlets. Simmons was then transported to a hospital, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.Kiss retired from a half-century of touring in 2023, but Simmons and his bandmates plan to play in November at a special event in Las Vegas. In August, President Donald Trump announced that Kiss will be among this year’s Kennedy Center honorees.

    MALIBU, Calif. —

    Kiss rock star Gene Simmons is recovering after he fainted while driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and crashed his SUV into a parked car, authorities said.

    Simmons, a co-founder and bassist for the legendary band, was evaluated at a hospital Tuesday before being released. He posted on social media that he was doing well.

    “Thanks, everybody, for the kind wishes. I’m completely fine. I had a slight fender bender. It happens,” he said on X.

    The 76-year-old’s SUV crossed several lanes before hitting a parked car along the highway, agencies that responded to the crash told several media outlets. Simmons was then transported to a hospital, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

    Kiss retired from a half-century of touring in 2023, but Simmons and his bandmates plan to play in November at a special event in Las Vegas. In August, President Donald Trump announced that Kiss will be among this year’s Kennedy Center honorees.

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  • 2 Pennsylvania state police officers shot during vehicle chase, suspect dead

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    Two state police officers in Pennsylvania pursuing a vehicle were shot Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire with a suspect who was killed, authorities said.The troopers were airlifted by a medical helicopter to WellSpan York Hospital to be treated, according to investigators. They are in critical and serious condition, Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement.Officials have not yet released the names of the injured troopers. They were responding to a theft call at a sporting goods store. Several suspects had fled in a vehicle, the statement said. The troopers saw the vehicle and there was a pursuit.Spike strips stopped the vehicle. Two women came out and were taken into custody, the statement said.A man in the vehicle “began shooting at troopers, striking two of them,” the statement said. “Troopers returned fire, fatally wounding the male.”Gov. Josh Shapiro said he and his wife, Lori, were praying for the officers and asked others to join them.“Pennsylvania’s law enforcement officers are the very best of us — running towards danger every day to keep our communities safe,” Shapiro said in a post on the social platform X.The shooting took place in southern Franklin County, which is about 85 miles northwest of Baltimore.

    GREENCASTLE, Pa. —

    Two state police officers in Pennsylvania pursuing a vehicle were shot Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire with a suspect who was killed, authorities said.

    The troopers were airlifted by a medical helicopter to WellSpan York Hospital to be treated, according to investigators. They are in critical and serious condition, Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement.

    Officials have not yet released the names of the injured troopers.

    They were responding to a theft call at a sporting goods store. Several suspects had fled in a vehicle, the statement said. The troopers saw the vehicle and there was a pursuit.

    Spike strips stopped the vehicle. Two women came out and were taken into custody, the statement said.

    A man in the vehicle “began shooting at troopers, striking two of them,” the statement said. “Troopers returned fire, fatally wounding the male.”

    Gov. Josh Shapiro said he and his wife, Lori, were praying for the officers and asked others to join them.

    “Pennsylvania’s law enforcement officers are the very best of us — running towards danger every day to keep our communities safe,” Shapiro said in a post on the social platform X.

    The shooting took place in southern Franklin County, which is about 85 miles northwest of Baltimore.

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  • NFL fines Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for ‘inadvertent’ obscene gesture

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    The NFL has fined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for making an obscene gesture which Jones said was “inadvertent” and meant to be a thumbs up at MetLife Stadium following a game against the New York Jets on Sunday.The news was first reported by NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero on Tuesday and confirmed by the NFL to CNN Sports on Wednesday.In a video which was widely shared on social media, Jones could be seen giving a thumbs-up to the crowd from a box before raising his middle finger and pointing lower in the crowd while mouthing a few indiscernible words. The gesture occurred late in the Cowboys’ 37-22 road win over the Jets.Jones has until Friday to appeal the decision and, though neither the Cowboys nor Jones have yet formally done so, it is likely he will, according to Pelissero. The three-time Super Bowl-winning owner offered his explanation for the “unfortunate” fan interaction on Dallas radio show 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday.“I just put up the wrong show on the hand, but that was inadvertently done,” Jones said. “The intention was thumbs up.”When asked about the exchange, Jones said it occurred in front of Cowboys fans, not Jets fans, amidst the excitement after quarterback Dak Prescott threw a four-yard pass to Javonte Williams for Dallas’ final touchdown of the game.“There was a swarm of Cowboy fans out in front, not Jets fans, Cowboy fans,” Jones emphasized. “That was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we’d made our last touchdown and we were all excited about it.“There wasn’t any antagonistic issue or anything like that.”This is not the first time Jones has faced a fine from the league. He faced his first fine in 2008 for criticizing a referee and another in 2009 for violating an order from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to stop executives and owners from discussing league labor issues.

    The NFL has fined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for making an obscene gesture which Jones said was “inadvertent” and meant to be a thumbs up at MetLife Stadium following a game against the New York Jets on Sunday.

    The news was first reported by NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero on Tuesday and confirmed by the NFL to CNN Sports on Wednesday.

    In a video which was widely shared on social media, Jones could be seen giving a thumbs-up to the crowd from a box before raising his middle finger and pointing lower in the crowd while mouthing a few indiscernible words. The gesture occurred late in the Cowboys’ 37-22 road win over the Jets.

    Jones has until Friday to appeal the decision and, though neither the Cowboys nor Jones have yet formally done so, it is likely he will, according to Pelissero.

    The three-time Super Bowl-winning owner offered his explanation for the “unfortunate” fan interaction on Dallas radio show 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday.

    “I just put up the wrong show on the hand, but that was inadvertently done,” Jones said. “The intention was thumbs up.”

    When asked about the exchange, Jones said it occurred in front of Cowboys fans, not Jets fans, amidst the excitement after quarterback Dak Prescott threw a four-yard pass to Javonte Williams for Dallas’ final touchdown of the game.

    “There was a swarm of Cowboy fans out in front, not Jets fans, Cowboy fans,” Jones emphasized. “That was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we’d made our last touchdown and we were all excited about it.

    “There wasn’t any antagonistic issue or anything like that.”

    This is not the first time Jones has faced a fine from the league. He faced his first fine in 2008 for criticizing a referee and another in 2009 for violating an order from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to stop executives and owners from discussing league labor issues.

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  • Tropical Storm Jerry forms in the Atlantic and is expected to become a hurricane

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    Tropical Storm Jerry forms in the Atlantic and is expected to become a hurricane

    NEW CONE. FIRST AT FIVE, WE HAVE A NEW TROPICAL STORM IN THE ATLANTIC AND A NEW CONE. FIRST WARNING METEOROLOGIST CAM TRAN HERE TO TAKE US THROUGH THIS NEW INFORMATION AND WHAT WE CAN EXPECT FROM TROPICAL STORM JERRY. WELL, RIGHT NOW, TROPICAL STORM JERRY IS GETTING BETTER ORGANIZED AND STRONGER NOW. WINDS OF 50MPH, UP FROM THE LAST ADVISORY, WHERE IT HAD WINDS OF 45MPH. PRESSURE DROPPED ABOUT THREE MILLIBARS. ALSO A SIGNAL. THIS IS GETTING BETTER ORGANIZED AS IT’S MOVING VERY RAPIDLY TO THE WEST AT 23MPH. RIGHT NOW, THE LOCATION ABOUT 1200 MILES EAST OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS AND VERY FAR AWAY FROM US. IN FACT, WE ARE NOT EXPECTED TO SEE ANY DIRECT IMPACTS WITH TROPICAL STORM JERRY. IN TERMS OF THE LATEST TRACK AND PATH, HERE’S A LOOK. IT IS EXPECTED TO STRENGTHEN NOW TO A CATEGORY ONE STORM BY TOMORROW AFTERNOON. SO A LITTLE BIT EARLIER NOW AS IT’S REALLY GOING TO TAP INTO THOSE EXTREMELY WARM WATERS THERE OF THE WESTERN ATLANTIC. AND THEN AS WE GO INTO LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON, IT IS EXPECTED TO NOW BECOME A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE. THAT IS A CHANGE FROM THE PREVIOUS ADVISORY WHERE IT KEPT IT AT CATEGORY ONE STRENGTH. BUT NOTICE IT IS EXPECTED TO BE A VERY STRONG CAT ONE HURRICANE AS IT’S NEARING THE NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLANDS. AND THEN BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON, AS IT DOES STRENGTHEN TO A CAT TWO, IT IS EXPECTED TO MAKE THAT SHARPER CURVE AWAY FROM THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. HENCE, THIS IS WHY WE ARE NOT EXPECTING ANY DIRECT IMPACTS IN TERMS OF JERRY. ALSO NEW WITH THE 5:00 ADVISORY, WE NOW HAVE TROPICAL STORM WATCHES UP FOR SOME OF THE NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLANDS AS WE CONTINUE TO WATCH THIS SYSTEM, EXPECTED TO BRING SOME HEAVY RAIN THERE. WE’RE ALSO TRACKING ANOTHER AREA OF INTEREST. THIS ONE’S A LITTLE BIT CLOSER TO HOME. I’LL TALK MORE ABOUT THAT. AND WHEN WE COULD SEE A POTENT

    Tropical Storm Jerry forms in the Atlantic and is expected to become a hurricane

    Updated: 8:33 PM PDT Oct 7, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Tropical Storm Jerry formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday with maximum sustained winds rising to 50 mph by the afternoon. It was centered about 1,030 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands while traveling to the west at 23 mph.Forecasters said Jerry is expected to strengthen into a hurricane in another day or two. Swells from Jerry were expected Thursday to reach the Leeward Islands with the core of the storm moving near or north of the northern Leeward Islands late Thursday and Friday.A tropical storm watch was issued for Barbuda and Anguilla, St. Barthelemy and St. Martin, and Sint Maarten.

    MIAMI —

    Tropical Storm Jerry formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday with maximum sustained winds rising to 50 mph by the afternoon. It was centered about 1,030 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands while traveling to the west at 23 mph.

    Forecasters said Jerry is expected to strengthen into a hurricane in another day or two. Swells from Jerry were expected Thursday to reach the Leeward Islands with the core of the storm moving near or north of the northern Leeward Islands late Thursday and Friday.

    A tropical storm watch was issued for Barbuda and Anguilla, St. Barthelemy and St. Martin, and Sint Maarten.

    Tracking the tropics

    Hearst OwnedHearst Television

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  • Federal employee taken into custody following ‘active shooter hoax’ at NJ military base

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    A federal government employee was taken into custody Tuesday following an “active shooter hoax” that plunged New Jersey’s largest military base into lockdown earlier in the day, according to the state’s acting U.S. attorney, Alina Habba.In a social media post Tuesday night, Habba said the civilian employee — who has not been named — was in custody for “conveying false information regarding an active shooter at Joint Base McGuire.”That sprawling base, among the nation’s largest military installations, was placed under lockdown Tuesday morning.A statement on the base’s Facebook page urged all personnel to shelter in place. The statement did not describe the nature of the threat. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, a little under an hour after it was announced.Habba’s statement did not elaborate on the employee’s alleged actions, but it described the person as a “suspect in…today’s active shooter hoax.”An e-mailed inquiry to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was not immediately returned.“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba added. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one of the nation’s largest military installations. It spans 42,000 acres and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions and counts over 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.The base is about 18 miles south of Trenton, the state capital, and about 30 miles east of Philadelphia.The incident unfolded Tuesday as U.S. military leaders were gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces.It comes after recent violence at military installations in recent years.Last month, an Army sergeant was charged with shooting five fellow soldiers at a Georgia base. Other shootings have ranged from individual disputes between service members to assaults on bases to mass-casualty attacks, such as the 2009 shooting, by an Army psychiatrist, that killed 13 people at Texas’ Fort Hood.

    TRENTON, N.J. —

    A federal government employee was taken into custody Tuesday following an “active shooter hoax” that plunged New Jersey’s largest military base into lockdown earlier in the day, according to the state’s acting U.S. attorney, Alina Habba.

    In a social media post Tuesday night, Habba said the civilian employee — who has not been named — was in custody for “conveying false information regarding an active shooter at Joint Base McGuire.”

    That sprawling base, among the nation’s largest military installations, was placed under lockdown Tuesday morning.

    A statement on the base’s Facebook page urged all personnel to shelter in place. The statement did not describe the nature of the threat. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, a little under an hour after it was announced.

    Habba’s statement did not elaborate on the employee’s alleged actions, but it described the person as a “suspect in…today’s active shooter hoax.”

    An e-mailed inquiry to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was not immediately returned.

    “This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba added. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”

    The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one of the nation’s largest military installations. It spans 42,000 acres and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions and counts over 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.

    The base is about 18 miles south of Trenton, the state capital, and about 30 miles east of Philadelphia.

    The incident unfolded Tuesday as U.S. military leaders were gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces.

    It comes after recent violence at military installations in recent years.

    Last month, an Army sergeant was charged with shooting five fellow soldiers at a Georgia base. Other shootings have ranged from individual disputes between service members to assaults on bases to mass-casualty attacks, such as the 2009 shooting, by an Army psychiatrist, that killed 13 people at Texas’ Fort Hood.

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  • Federal employee taken into custody following ‘active shooter hoax’ at NJ military base

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    A federal government employee was taken into custody Tuesday following an “active shooter hoax” that plunged New Jersey’s largest military base into lockdown earlier in the day, according to the state’s acting U.S. attorney, Alina Habba.In a social media post Tuesday night, Habba said the civilian employee — who has not been named — was in custody for “conveying false information regarding an active shooter at Joint Base McGuire.”That sprawling base, among the nation’s largest military installations, was placed under lockdown Tuesday morning.A statement on the base’s Facebook page urged all personnel to shelter in place. The statement did not describe the nature of the threat. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, a little under an hour after it was announced.Habba’s statement did not elaborate on the employee’s alleged actions, but it described the person as a “suspect in…today’s active shooter hoax.”An e-mailed inquiry to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was not immediately returned.“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba added. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one of the nation’s largest military installations. It spans 42,000 acres and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions and counts over 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.The base is about 18 miles south of Trenton, the state capital, and about 30 miles east of Philadelphia.The incident unfolded Tuesday as U.S. military leaders were gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces.It comes after recent violence at military installations in recent years.Last month, an Army sergeant was charged with shooting five fellow soldiers at a Georgia base. Other shootings have ranged from individual disputes between service members to assaults on bases to mass-casualty attacks, such as the 2009 shooting, by an Army psychiatrist, that killed 13 people at Texas’ Fort Hood.

    TRENTON, N.J. —

    A federal government employee was taken into custody Tuesday following an “active shooter hoax” that plunged New Jersey’s largest military base into lockdown earlier in the day, according to the state’s acting U.S. attorney, Alina Habba.

    In a social media post Tuesday night, Habba said the civilian employee — who has not been named — was in custody for “conveying false information regarding an active shooter at Joint Base McGuire.”

    That sprawling base, among the nation’s largest military installations, was placed under lockdown Tuesday morning.

    A statement on the base’s Facebook page urged all personnel to shelter in place. The statement did not describe the nature of the threat. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, a little under an hour after it was announced.

    Habba’s statement did not elaborate on the employee’s alleged actions, but it described the person as a “suspect in…today’s active shooter hoax.”

    An e-mailed inquiry to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was not immediately returned.

    “This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba added. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”

    The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one of the nation’s largest military installations. It spans 42,000 acres and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions and counts over 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.

    The base is about 18 miles south of Trenton, the state capital, and about 30 miles east of Philadelphia.

    The incident unfolded Tuesday as U.S. military leaders were gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces.

    It comes after recent violence at military installations in recent years.

    Last month, an Army sergeant was charged with shooting five fellow soldiers at a Georgia base. Other shootings have ranged from individual disputes between service members to assaults on bases to mass-casualty attacks, such as the 2009 shooting, by an Army psychiatrist, that killed 13 people at Texas’ Fort Hood.

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  • Trump and Hegseth declare an end to ‘politically correct’ leadership in the US military

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    President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to “woke” culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world.Hegseth announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness, while Trump bragged about U.S. nuclear capabilities and warned that “America is under invasion from within.”“After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help we’re defending the borders of our country,” Trump said.Hegseth had called military leaders to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning. His address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.Video below: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives remarks in QuanticoAdmirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.‘We will not be politically correct’Trump is used to boisterous crowds of supporters who laugh at his jokes and applaud his boasts during his speeches. But he wasn’t getting that kind of soundtrack from the generals and admirals in attendance.In keeping with the nonpartisan tradition of the armed services, the military leaders sat mostly stone-faced through Trump’s politicized remarks, a contrast from when rank-and-file soldiers cheered during Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg this summer.During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.That was echoed by Trump, who said “the purposes of America military is not to protect anyone’s feelings. It’s to protect our republic.″″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom,” Trump said. “And we will be a fighting and winning machine.”Loosening disciplinary rulesHegseth said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigationsHe said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”The defense secretary called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”“People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.A Navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisor’s “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in (the sailor)’s decision to end his own life.”Gender-neutral physical standardsHegseth used the platform to slam environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.Hegseth said this is not about preventing women from serving.“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.Hegseth has championed the military’s role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying to American cities as part of Trump’s law enforcement surges, and carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the administration says targeted drug traffickers.

    QUANTICO, Va. —

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of U.S. military officials to an in-person meeting Tuesday to declare an end to “woke” culture in the military and announce new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

    Hegseth and President Donald Trump had abruptly called military leaders from around the world to convene at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning. Hegseth’s address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.

    Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.

    Admirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.

    Video below: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives remarks in Quantico

    During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”

    “The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.

    He said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigations

    Hegseth said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”

    He called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”

    “People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”

    Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.

    A Navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisor’s “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in (the sailor)’s decision to end his own life.”

    Hegseth used the platform to slam physical fitness and grooming standards, environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”

    Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”

    “They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.

    Hegseth said this is is not about preventing women from serving.

    “But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”

    Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.

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  • Turning Point, moving forward without Charlie Kirk, makes first return to Utah since his killing

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    Turning Point USA’s college tour will return to Utah on Tuesday for its first event in the state since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus earlier this month.The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most significant figures in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk himself has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA, the youth organization he founded, has seen a surge of interest across the nation, with tens of thousands of requests to launch new chapters in high schools and on college campuses.Tuesday’s event, which was scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase how Turning Point is finding its path forward without its charismatic leader, who headlined many of its events and was instrumental in drawing crowds and attention.The college tour is now being headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.And it will further a pledge his widow, Erika Kirk, made to continue the campus tour and the work of the organization he founded. She now oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends.‘Nothing is changing’Erika Kirk has sought to assure her husband’s followers that she intends to continue to run the operation as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.“We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said during an appearance on his podcast last week.That will include, she said, continuing to tape the daily podcast.“My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said, announcing plans for a rotating cast of hosts. She said they intended to lean heavily on old clips of her husband, including answering callers’ questions.“We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she said.Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.Mikey McCoy, Kirk’s former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with members of the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.The events have served as tributes to KirkThe events so far have served as tributes to the late Kirk, with a focus on prayer, as well as the question-and-answer sessions that he was known for.At Virginia Tech last week, the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk’s legacy forward.“The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”He also praised Erika Kirk as an “extraordinary” leader.“Over the course of the last two weeks, Erika Kirk has demonstrated that she not only has the courage of a lion, but she has the heart of a saint. We have grieved with her and her family. We have prayed for her and her family,” he said. “Is there anyone better to lead Turning Point going forward than Erika Kirk?”He then turned the stage over to Kelly, who said Charlie Kirk had asked her to join the tour several months ago. She said she knew appearing onstage carried risk, but felt it was important to be there “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.At another event at the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles gave a solo speech in lieu of the two-man conversation with Kirk that was originally planned. Then he continued Kirk’s tradition of responding to questions from the audience, which ranged from one man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing that the root of societal problems stems from letting women vote. (To the latter, he responded that women aren’t to blame because “men need to lead women.”)As Knowles spoke, a spotlight shined on a chair left empty for Kirk.Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about the MAGA movement fracturing without Kirk doing the day-to-day work to build bridges between warring groups.“Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement. It’s simply a fact,” he said. “There is no replacing him in that regard.”“The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

    LOGAN, Utah —

    Turning Point USA’s college tour will return to Utah on Tuesday for its first event in the state since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus earlier this month.

    The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.

    The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most significant figures in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk himself has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA, the youth organization he founded, has seen a surge of interest across the nation, with tens of thousands of requests to launch new chapters in high schools and on college campuses.

    Tuesday’s event, which was scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase how Turning Point is finding its path forward without its charismatic leader, who headlined many of its events and was instrumental in drawing crowds and attention.

    The college tour is now being headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.

    And it will further a pledge his widow, Erika Kirk, made to continue the campus tour and the work of the organization he founded. She now oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends.

    ‘Nothing is changing’

    Erika Kirk has sought to assure her husband’s followers that she intends to continue to run the operation as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.

    “We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said during an appearance on his podcast last week.

    That will include, she said, continuing to tape the daily podcast.

    “My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said, announcing plans for a rotating cast of hosts. She said they intended to lean heavily on old clips of her husband, including answering callers’ questions.

    “We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she said.

    Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.

    Mikey McCoy, Kirk’s former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with members of the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.

    The events have served as tributes to Kirk

    The events so far have served as tributes to the late Kirk, with a focus on prayer, as well as the question-and-answer sessions that he was known for.

    At Virginia Tech last week, the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk’s legacy forward.

    “The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”

    He also praised Erika Kirk as an “extraordinary” leader.

    “Over the course of the last two weeks, Erika Kirk has demonstrated that she not only has the courage of a lion, but she has the heart of a saint. We have grieved with her and her family. We have prayed for her and her family,” he said. “Is there anyone better to lead Turning Point going forward than Erika Kirk?”

    He then turned the stage over to Kelly, who said Charlie Kirk had asked her to join the tour several months ago. She said she knew appearing onstage carried risk, but felt it was important to be there “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.

    At another event at the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles gave a solo speech in lieu of the two-man conversation with Kirk that was originally planned. Then he continued Kirk’s tradition of responding to questions from the audience, which ranged from one man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing that the root of societal problems stems from letting women vote. (To the latter, he responded that women aren’t to blame because “men need to lead women.”)

    As Knowles spoke, a spotlight shined on a chair left empty for Kirk.

    Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about the MAGA movement fracturing without Kirk doing the day-to-day work to build bridges between warring groups.

    “Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement. It’s simply a fact,” he said. “There is no replacing him in that regard.”

    “The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

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  • Off-duty officer shoots man inside NYC’s busy Penn Station, police say

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    Off-duty officer shoots and wounds man inside New York City’s busy Penn Station, police say

    Updated: 10:07 AM EDT Sep 25, 2025

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    An off-duty police officer shot and wounded a man inside Pennsylvania Station, the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest station in the U.S., authorities said.Police responded to a 911 call at 7 p.m. Wednesday reporting a 32-year-old man had been shot inside the portion of the midtown Manhattan station, a complex that includes Penn Station, a police spokesperson said.The unidentified man was transported to a hospital and was in stable condition, police said.No additional information about the shooting was immediately released, including what led up to it.Video showed a large police presence at a section of the station that serves the Long Island Rail Road.People should avoid the area because of the investigation, police said, warning of delays and traffic.The railroad station underneath Madison Square Garden can serve roughly 600,000 passengers daily via Amtrak, the New York subway system, and two regional rail lines — the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.In April, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would take control of the planned $7 billion reconstruction of the aging station, sidelining the city’s mass transit agency.

    NEW YORK —

    An off-duty police officer shot and wounded a man inside Pennsylvania Station, the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest station in the U.S., authorities said.

    Police responded to a 911 call at 7 p.m. Wednesday reporting a 32-year-old man had been shot inside the portion of the midtown Manhattan station, a complex that includes Penn Station, a police spokesperson said.

    The unidentified man was transported to a hospital and was in stable condition, police said.

    No additional information about the shooting was immediately released, including what led up to it.

    Video showed a large police presence at a section of the station that serves the Long Island Rail Road.

    People should avoid the area because of the investigation, police said, warning of delays and traffic.

    The railroad station underneath Madison Square Garden can serve roughly 600,000 passengers daily via Amtrak, the New York subway system, and two regional rail lines — the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.

    In April, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would take control of the planned $7 billion reconstruction of the aging station, sidelining the city’s mass transit agency.

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  • Starbucks announces significant store closures and layoffs

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    Starbucks is taking “significant action” to turn around its struggling business, closing a large number of cafés and announcing a second round of layoffs at its headquarters as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s efforts to resuscitate the troubled chain.Niccol announced Thursday that Starbucks will close hundreds of stores this month, or about 1% of its locations. The company had 18,734 North American locations at the end of June, and the company said it will end September with 18,300 stores.The company expects its restructuring efforts will cost $1 billion. Shares of Starbucks were flat in premarket trading.In a letter to employees, Niccol said the company underwent a review of its footprint and the locations that will close were ones “unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance.”Starbucks often closes locations for a variety of reasons, including underperformance. But Niccol said this larger-scale effort is more substantial.”This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers. Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult,” he said.Despite the hundreds of closures, which will take place before the end of the company’s fiscal year next week, Starbucks said it will return to growth mode, and it also plans to remodel more than 1,000 locations. The new look for Starbucks features cozier chairs, more power outlets and warmer colors.In addition to the store closures, Starbucks announced an additional 900 corporate layoffs, on top of the roughly 1,000 layoffs in February. Affected employees will be notified on Friday and will receive “generous severance and support packages.” Also, “many” open positions will be closed, he announced.”I know these decisions impact our partners and their families, and we did not make them lightly,” Niccol wrote. “I believe these steps are necessary to build a better, stronger and more resilient Starbucks that deepens its impact on the world and creates more opportunities for our partners, suppliers and the communities we serve.”One year onNiccol joined Starbucks about a year ago, hoping to revive the storied coffee chain. However, the financial results haven’t come to fruition, with the stock down about 12% and sales haven’t turned around.He’s pared back the menu by about 30%, while also introducing new items to keep the brand on trend, like protein toppings and coconut water. Food is also getting a revamp, with new croissants and baked goods being rolled out.In addition to remodels, smaller touches have been integrated, like bringing back self-serve milk and sugar stations as well as doodles on coffee cups. The company also tweaked its name to “Starbucks Coffee Company” to reinforce its coffee roots.However, his changes have butted heads with some baristas, including uniform changes that sparked a lawsuit. And some new drinks are causing stress for baristas because they are overcomplicated to make during peak times.

    Starbucks is taking “significant action” to turn around its struggling business, closing a large number of cafés and announcing a second round of layoffs at its headquarters as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s efforts to resuscitate the troubled chain.

    Niccol announced Thursday that Starbucks will close hundreds of stores this month, or about 1% of its locations. The company had 18,734 North American locations at the end of June, and the company said it will end September with 18,300 stores.

    The company expects its restructuring efforts will cost $1 billion. Shares of Starbucks were flat in premarket trading.

    In a letter to employees, Niccol said the company underwent a review of its footprint and the locations that will close were ones “unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance.”

    Starbucks often closes locations for a variety of reasons, including underperformance. But Niccol said this larger-scale effort is more substantial.

    “This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers. Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult,” he said.

    Despite the hundreds of closures, which will take place before the end of the company’s fiscal year next week, Starbucks said it will return to growth mode, and it also plans to remodel more than 1,000 locations. The new look for Starbucks features cozier chairs, more power outlets and warmer colors.

    In addition to the store closures, Starbucks announced an additional 900 corporate layoffs, on top of the roughly 1,000 layoffs in February. Affected employees will be notified on Friday and will receive “generous severance and support packages.” Also, “many” open positions will be closed, he announced.

    “I know these decisions impact our partners and their families, and we did not make them lightly,” Niccol wrote. “I believe these steps are necessary to build a better, stronger and more resilient Starbucks that deepens its impact on the world and creates more opportunities for our partners, suppliers and the communities we serve.”

    One year on

    Niccol joined Starbucks about a year ago, hoping to revive the storied coffee chain. However, the financial results haven’t come to fruition, with the stock down about 12% and sales haven’t turned around.

    He’s pared back the menu by about 30%, while also introducing new items to keep the brand on trend, like protein toppings and coconut water. Food is also getting a revamp, with new croissants and baked goods being rolled out.

    In addition to remodels, smaller touches have been integrated, like bringing back self-serve milk and sugar stations as well as doodles on coffee cups. The company also tweaked its name to “Starbucks Coffee Company” to reinforce its coffee roots.

    However, his changes have butted heads with some baristas, including uniform changes that sparked a lawsuit. And some new drinks are causing stress for baristas because they are overcomplicated to make during peak times.

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  • 1 dead, 2 hospitalized in shooting at Dallas ICE facility, police say

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    1 dead, 2 hospitalized in shooting at Dallas ICE facility, police say

    John All right, there is some breaking news this morning. We’re hearing reports of *** shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas. We happen to have with us the acting director of ICE, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons. Director, thank you for being here. I wanna say you were coming in. We were talking to you anyway. Obviously this event has sort of subsumed what we’re gonna discuss. What can you tell us about this incident in Dallas? Yeah, literally, as I was coming here we were notified that there were shots fired at our Dallas field office. Right now preliminary information is *** possible sniper. We have 3 individuals that are down at this time. We’re not sure on their condition. They’ve been taken to the hospital. Um, we’re hearing some reports that the shooter may be down from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The scene secure, you know, obviously right now my hearts and prayers are going out to my officers and agents. That’s my biggest concern, um, and as well as everyone in that area, but this just shows the violence that’s being. Uh, increased against ICE officers and, and agents. This is the 2nd time now we’ve had *** shooting at one of our facilities in the Dallas area, um, and really it’s, it’s, it’s. It’s just *** sad time that we have to worry about violence against law enforcement. So you’re hearing the reports you’re hearing at this point are coming from inside your your offices in Dallas at ICE. You’re hearing directly from them. Yeah, we’re hearing directly from the leadership on the ground there. The building is on lockdown, building secure. Initial reports are that our you know our offices are accounted for, but there are 3 individuals that are shot. Are they, are, are the 3 individuals ICE employees? We’re still working on that right now. Um, obviously it’s really chaotic. Uh, Dallas Police Department’s been great. They’re on scene. It’s *** large police presence there right now, um. You know, it could be uh employees, it could be civilians that were visiting facility, it could be detainees at this point we’re still working through that. We do know that 3 have definitely been shot. They’re en route to the hospital right now. Um, we had great support from locals on the ground. They’re helping us look for the active shooter. Like I said, right before I just walked on set, I got word that the shooter is down from self-inflicted gunshot wound. OK, so it may not be an active shooter situation anymore. You said *** possible sniper. Did this individual get inside the facility or all the shots outside? From *** preliminary reports it looks like shots came from outside and the victims are secure facility and the victims were also outside or the victims inside inside our sally port area. where we have our uh secured detainee location inside that location but again it’s everything’s still coming in so fast it’s just been ***, *** morning. I, I look, I, and I appreciate you giving us the details you have. It’s an unusual situation here. We’re getting preliminary reports that we had not yet been able to confirm. We have the acting director of ICE here telling us that you are getting these reports, uh, directly. And you mentioned the threats that you feel are being directed toward your agents. Talk to me about that in. What’s the environment in general? You know, I’ve never seen anything like this in my law enforcement career. I’ve never seen threats on law enforcement, specifically. ICE increased the way it is, you know, we’re up over 1,000% assaults on officers right now and really just *** lot of the. The talk that’s out there, *** lot of the rhetoric is just the violence directed towards law enforcement officers just trying to do their job and we just keep, just keeping seeing an increase step by step, you know, we had, we, like I said, we had that shooting at the Alvarado facility which is right outside Dallas, uh, on July 4th where they ambushed officers in military tactical gear, um, under the guise of fireworks, and now we have this, and it just seems like it keeps getting worse and worse and it has to stop. Um, you are, you’ve launched *** large recruitment effort. There are ads airing in *** lot of different places. To what extent have you found that the atmosphere is affecting your recruitment efforts? You know, you would think that it would affect it, but it hasn’t. We have over 157,000 applicants. It just keeps going up. There’s really, um, excitement for people that want to serve, not just necessarily nice but want to serve in *** federal law enforcement capacity, uh, especially at *** time when. assaults and attack on law enforcement are increasing. We are seeing, uh, *** great uptick in our recruitment. So people definitely want to do the job, but again, it’s just, it’s *** sad moment in time when we have to worry about the safety of law enforcement officers just out there doing their mission.

    1 dead, 2 hospitalized in shooting at Dallas ICE facility, police say

    Updated: 8:33 AM PDT Sep 24, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Three people, including detainees, have been shot at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, federal authorities said. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirmed the shooting during an interview on CNN on Wednesday.Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin later told Fox News that no ICE agents were injured.“We believe he was shooting at law enforcement and detainees from an apartment building,” McLaughlin said. ”Detainees were among the victims of the shooting.”Officers responded to a call to assist an officer on North Stemmons Freeway around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday and the preliminary investigation determined that a person opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building, Dallas police spokesperson Officer Jonathen E. Maner said in an email.The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department was also dispatched after a call reporting a shooting at or near the immigration office, department spokesperson Jason L. Evans said in an email.Video below: Heavy police presence after shooting at Dallas ICE facility Parkland Hospital has received two patients from the shooting, hospital spokesperson April Foran said by telephone. She did not have any details about their conditions.A third person died at the scene after the shooting, Maner said. The investigation is ongoing and a briefing was expected later in the day.Dozens of emergency vehicles were seen along a highway near the facility.The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large commercial airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and just blocks from hotels catering to airport travelers.Traffic cameras near the scene showed six lanes of a normally busy freeway empty, with cars and semitrailers ground to a halt on an interstate exit.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said details were still emerging, but the agency was confirming there were “multiple injuries and fatalities” at the field office. Noem said the motive remained unclear, but noted there has been an uptick in targeting of ICE agents.ICE and Homeland Security didn’t immediately provide additional details.

    DALLAS —

    Three people, including detainees, have been shot at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, federal authorities said.

    Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirmed the shooting during an interview on CNN on Wednesday.

    Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin later told Fox News that no ICE agents were injured.

    “We believe he was shooting at law enforcement and detainees from an apartment building,” McLaughlin said. ”Detainees were among the victims of the shooting.”

    Officers responded to a call to assist an officer on North Stemmons Freeway around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday and the preliminary investigation determined that a person opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building, Dallas police spokesperson Officer Jonathen E. Maner said in an email.

    The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department was also dispatched after a call reporting a shooting at or near the immigration office, department spokesperson Jason L. Evans said in an email.

    Video below: Heavy police presence after shooting at Dallas ICE facility

    Parkland Hospital has received two patients from the shooting, hospital spokesperson April Foran said by telephone. She did not have any details about their conditions.

    A third person died at the scene after the shooting, Maner said. The investigation is ongoing and a briefing was expected later in the day.

    Dozens of emergency vehicles were seen along a highway near the facility.

    The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large commercial airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and just blocks from hotels catering to airport travelers.

    Traffic cameras near the scene showed six lanes of a normally busy freeway empty, with cars and semitrailers ground to a halt on an interstate exit.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said details were still emerging, but the agency was confirming there were “multiple injuries and fatalities” at the field office. Noem said the motive remained unclear, but noted there has been an uptick in targeting of ICE agents.

    ICE and Homeland Security didn’t immediately provide additional details.

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  • 3 people shot at Dallas ICE facility and the shooter is dead, official says

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    3 people shot at Dallas ICE facility and the shooter is dead, official says

    John All right, there is some breaking news this morning. We’re hearing reports of *** shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas. We happen to have with us the acting director of ICE, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons. Director, thank you for being here. I wanna say you were coming in. We were talking to you anyway. Obviously this event has sort of subsumed what we’re gonna discuss. What can you tell us about this incident in Dallas? Yeah, literally, as I was coming here we were notified that there were shots fired at our Dallas field office. Right now preliminary information is *** possible sniper. We have 3 individuals that are down at this time. We’re not sure on their condition. They’ve been taken to the hospital. Um, we’re hearing some reports that the shooter may be down from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The scene secure, you know, obviously right now my hearts and prayers are going out to my officers and agents. That’s my biggest concern, um, and as well as everyone in that area, but this just shows the violence that’s being. Uh, increased against ICE officers and, and agents. This is the 2nd time now we’ve had *** shooting at one of our facilities in the Dallas area, um, and really it’s, it’s, it’s. It’s just *** sad time that we have to worry about violence against law enforcement. So you’re hearing the reports you’re hearing at this point are coming from inside your your offices in Dallas at ICE. You’re hearing directly from them. Yeah, we’re hearing directly from the leadership on the ground there. The building is on lockdown, building secure. Initial reports are that our you know our offices are accounted for, but there are 3 individuals that are shot. Are they, are, are the 3 individuals ICE employees? We’re still working on that right now. Um, obviously it’s really chaotic. Uh, Dallas Police Department’s been great. They’re on scene. It’s *** large police presence there right now, um. You know, it could be uh employees, it could be civilians that were visiting facility, it could be detainees at this point we’re still working through that. We do know that 3 have definitely been shot. They’re en route to the hospital right now. Um, we had great support from locals on the ground. They’re helping us look for the active shooter. Like I said, right before I just walked on set, I got word that the shooter is down from self-inflicted gunshot wound. OK, so it may not be an active shooter situation anymore. You said *** possible sniper. Did this individual get inside the facility or all the shots outside? From *** preliminary reports it looks like shots came from outside and the victims are secure facility and the victims were also outside or the victims inside inside our sally port area. where we have our uh secured detainee location inside that location but again it’s everything’s still coming in so fast it’s just been ***, *** morning. I, I look, I, and I appreciate you giving us the details you have. It’s an unusual situation here. We’re getting preliminary reports that we had not yet been able to confirm. We have the acting director of ICE here telling us that you are getting these reports, uh, directly. And you mentioned the threats that you feel are being directed toward your agents. Talk to me about that in. What’s the environment in general? You know, I’ve never seen anything like this in my law enforcement career. I’ve never seen threats on law enforcement, specifically. ICE increased the way it is, you know, we’re up over 1,000% assaults on officers right now and really just *** lot of the. The talk that’s out there, *** lot of the rhetoric is just the violence directed towards law enforcement officers just trying to do their job and we just keep, just keeping seeing an increase step by step, you know, we had, we, like I said, we had that shooting at the Alvarado facility which is right outside Dallas, uh, on July 4th where they ambushed officers in military tactical gear, um, under the guise of fireworks, and now we have this, and it just seems like it keeps getting worse and worse and it has to stop. Um, you are, you’ve launched *** large recruitment effort. There are ads airing in *** lot of different places. To what extent have you found that the atmosphere is affecting your recruitment efforts? You know, you would think that it would affect it, but it hasn’t. We have over 157,000 applicants. It just keeps going up. There’s really, um, excitement for people that want to serve, not just necessarily nice but want to serve in *** federal law enforcement capacity, uh, especially at *** time when. assaults and attack on law enforcement are increasing. We are seeing, uh, *** great uptick in our recruitment. So people definitely want to do the job, but again, it’s just, it’s *** sad moment in time when we have to worry about the safety of law enforcement officers just out there doing their mission.

    3 people shot at Dallas ICE facility and the shooter is dead, official says

    Updated: 11:44 AM EDT Sep 24, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Three people, including detainees, have been shot at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, federal authorities said.Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirmed the shooting during an interview on CNN on Wednesday.Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin later told Fox News that no ICE agents were injured.“We believe he was shooting at law enforcement and detainees from an apartment building,” McLaughlin said. “Detainees were among the victims of the shooting.”The FBI said during a news conference Wednesday morning that it was investigating the shooting as “an act of targeted violence.”“Early evidence that we’ve seen from rounds that were found near the suspected shooter contain messages that were anti-ICE in nature,” said Joe Rothrock, special agent in charge of the Dallas field office.Officers responded to a call to assist an officer on North Stemmons Freeway around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday and the preliminary investigation determined that a person opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building, Dallas police spokesperson Officer Jonathen E. Maner said in an email.Video below: Heavy police presence after shooting at Dallas ICE facility The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department was also dispatched after a call reporting a shooting at or near the immigration office, department spokesperson Jason L. Evans said in an email.Parkland Hospital has received two patients from the shooting, hospital spokesperson April Foran said by telephone. She did not have any details about their conditions.A third person died at the scene after the shooting, Maner said. The investigation is ongoing.Dozens of emergency vehicles were seen along a highway near the facility.The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large commercial airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and just blocks from hotels catering to airport travelers.Traffic cameras near the scene showed six lanes of a normally busy freeway empty, with cars and semitrailers ground to a halt on an interstate exit.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said details were still emerging, but the agency was confirming there were “multiple injuries and fatalities” at the field office. Noem said the motive remained unclear, but noted there has been an uptick in targeting of ICE agents.ICE and Homeland Security didn’t immediately provide additional details.

    DALLAS —

    Three people, including detainees, have been shot at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, federal authorities said.

    Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirmed the shooting during an interview on CNN on Wednesday.

    Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin later told Fox News that no ICE agents were injured.

    “We believe he was shooting at law enforcement and detainees from an apartment building,” McLaughlin said. ”Detainees were among the victims of the shooting.”

    Officers responded to a call to assist an officer on North Stemmons Freeway around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday and the preliminary investigation determined that a person opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building, Dallas police spokesperson Officer Jonathen E. Maner said in an email.

    The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department was also dispatched after a call reporting a shooting at or near the immigration office, department spokesperson Jason L. Evans said in an email.

    Video below: Heavy police presence after shooting at Dallas ICE facility

    Parkland Hospital has received two patients from the shooting, hospital spokesperson April Foran said by telephone. She did not have any details about their conditions.

    A third person died at the scene after the shooting, Maner said. The investigation is ongoing and a briefing was expected later in the day.

    Dozens of emergency vehicles were seen along a highway near the facility.

    The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large commercial airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and just blocks from hotels catering to airport travelers.

    Traffic cameras near the scene showed six lanes of a normally busy freeway empty, with cars and semitrailers ground to a halt on an interstate exit.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said details were still emerging, but the agency was confirming there were “multiple injuries and fatalities” at the field office. Noem said the motive remained unclear, but noted there has been an uptick in targeting of ICE agents.

    ICE and Homeland Security didn’t immediately provide additional details.

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  • US attorney under pressure to charge Letitia James in mortgage fraud case is resigning: AP sources

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    A federal prosecutor in Virginia whose monthslong mortgage fraud investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James has not resulted in criminal charges resigned Friday under pressure from the Trump administration.Erik Siebert confirmed his departure in an email to colleagues, reviewed by The Associated Press, in which he praised them as the “finest and most exceptional” of Justice Department employees but made no mention of the political turmoil that preceded his resignation.The replacement of Siebert as U.S. attorney for the prestigious Eastern District of Virginia office comes amid a push by Trump administration officials to indict James, a perceived adversary of the president who has successfully sued him for fraud. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he wanted Siebert “out” and multiple people familiar with the matter later told the AP that Siebert had informed his colleagues of his plan to resign from the position.The administration’s effort to oust him from the job represents a further erosion of norms meant to insulate the Justice Department from White House influence on prosecutorial decisions. The move is likely to deepen concerns that the department — already investigating other public figures Trump regards as foes — is being weaponized by a White House seeking to have its prosecutorial powers used for purposes of retribution.It was not immediately clear Friday afternoon who would replace Siebert, who was nominated by Trump to the top job in the office this year after having worked there for more than a decade. Siebert’s top deputy, Maya Song, is also leaving her position as first assistant U.S. attorney and will work as a line prosecutor, one of the people familiar with the matter said.Justice Department spokespeople declined to comment.Trump administration officials have been aggressively pursuing allegations against James arising from alleged paperwork discrepancies on her Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home. The Justice Department has spent months conducting the investigation but has yet to bring charges, and there’s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence that could support bringing an indictment.Asked about the issue at the White House Friday, Trump, without citing any evidence, said, “It looks to me like she’s really guilty of something, but I really don’t know.” Trump also said he was bothered that Siebert had been supported by the state’s two Democratic senators.James’ lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.ABC News was first to report that Trump administration officials were pressuring prosecutors to bring charges and that the Republican administration was preparing to oust Siebert.James has long been a particular source of outrage for Trump, in part because of a lawsuit she filed against him and his company that resulted in a massive financial penalty last year. That penalty was thrown out last month by an appeals court that narrowly upheld a judge’s finding that Trump had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades.The case has taken a series of unorthodox turns. It emerged last month that Ed Martin, who leads the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group and is helping coordinate the investigation, had sent a letter urging James to resign from office “as an act of good faith” after starting his mortgage fraud investigation of her. He later turned up outside James’ Brooklyn townhouse in a “Columbo”-esque trench coat. A New York Post writer at the scene observed him tell a neighbor: “I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house.”James’ lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told Martin in a letter that the request for James’ resignation defied Justice Department standards and codes of professional responsibility and legal ethics.The Justice Department “has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends,” Lowell wrote. “This is ever more the case when that demand is made to seek political revenge against a public official in the opposite party.”A former District of Columbia police officer, Siebert joined the Eastern District of Virginia, an elite Justice Department prosecution office with a history of sophisticated national security and criminal cases, in 2010. He was nominated to the role of U.S. attorney by Trump this year with the backing of the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.The office has separately been involved in investigating matters related to the years-old investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, a longstanding grievance of the president. No charges have been announced as part of that work.Although U.S. attorneys are presidential appointees, they are rarely fired. But the Trump administration has repeatedly disregarded norms and traditions meant to protect Justice Department prosecutors from White House political influence.Prosecutors and other support personnel who worked on the special counsel team of Jack Smith that investigated and prosecuted Trump have been fired, as was Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in New York whose father, former FBI Director James Comey, was terminated by Trump months into his first term amid the Russia election interference investigation.Martin’s investigation stems from a letter Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi in April asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting James, alleging she had “falsified bank documents and property records.”Pulte, whose agency regulates mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cited “media reports” claiming James had falsely listed a Virginia home as her principal residence, and he suggested she may have been trying to avoid higher interest rates that often apply to second homes.Records show James was listed as a co-borrower on a house her niece was buying in 2023. Lowell said records and correspondence easily disproved Pulte’s allegation. While James signed a power-of-attorney form that, Lowell said, “mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James’ principal residence,” she sent an email to her mortgage loan broker around the same time that made clear the property “WILL NOT be my primary residence.”____ Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

    WASHINGTON —

    A federal prosecutor in Virginia whose monthslong mortgage fraud investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James has not resulted in criminal charges resigned Friday under pressure from the Trump administration.

    Erik Siebert confirmed his departure in an email to colleagues, reviewed by The Associated Press, in which he praised them as the “finest and most exceptional” of Justice Department employees but made no mention of the political turmoil that preceded his resignation.

    The replacement of Siebert as U.S. attorney for the prestigious Eastern District of Virginia office comes amid a push by Trump administration officials to indict James, a perceived adversary of the president who has successfully sued him for fraud. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he wanted Siebert “out” and multiple people familiar with the matter later told the AP that Siebert had informed his colleagues of his plan to resign from the position.

    The administration’s effort to oust him from the job represents a further erosion of norms meant to insulate the Justice Department from White House influence on prosecutorial decisions. The move is likely to deepen concerns that the department — already investigating other public figures Trump regards as foes — is being weaponized by a White House seeking to have its prosecutorial powers used for purposes of retribution.

    It was not immediately clear Friday afternoon who would replace Siebert, who was nominated by Trump to the top job in the office this year after having worked there for more than a decade. Siebert’s top deputy, Maya Song, is also leaving her position as first assistant U.S. attorney and will work as a line prosecutor, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

    Justice Department spokespeople declined to comment.

    Trump administration officials have been aggressively pursuing allegations against James arising from alleged paperwork discrepancies on her Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home. The Justice Department has spent months conducting the investigation but has yet to bring charges, and there’s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence that could support bringing an indictment.

    Asked about the issue at the White House Friday, Trump, without citing any evidence, said, “It looks to me like she’s really guilty of something, but I really don’t know.” Trump also said he was bothered that Siebert had been supported by the state’s two Democratic senators.

    James’ lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.

    ABC News was first to report that Trump administration officials were pressuring prosecutors to bring charges and that the Republican administration was preparing to oust Siebert.

    James has long been a particular source of outrage for Trump, in part because of a lawsuit she filed against him and his company that resulted in a massive financial penalty last year. That penalty was thrown out last month by an appeals court that narrowly upheld a judge’s finding that Trump had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades.

    The case has taken a series of unorthodox turns. It emerged last month that Ed Martin, who leads the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group and is helping coordinate the investigation, had sent a letter urging James to resign from office “as an act of good faith” after starting his mortgage fraud investigation of her. He later turned up outside James’ Brooklyn townhouse in a “Columbo”-esque trench coat. A New York Post writer at the scene observed him tell a neighbor: “I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house.”

    James’ lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told Martin in a letter that the request for James’ resignation defied Justice Department standards and codes of professional responsibility and legal ethics.

    The Justice Department “has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends,” Lowell wrote. “This is ever more the case when that demand is made to seek political revenge against a public official in the opposite party.”

    A former District of Columbia police officer, Siebert joined the Eastern District of Virginia, an elite Justice Department prosecution office with a history of sophisticated national security and criminal cases, in 2010. He was nominated to the role of U.S. attorney by Trump this year with the backing of the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

    The office has separately been involved in investigating matters related to the years-old investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, a longstanding grievance of the president. No charges have been announced as part of that work.

    Although U.S. attorneys are presidential appointees, they are rarely fired. But the Trump administration has repeatedly disregarded norms and traditions meant to protect Justice Department prosecutors from White House political influence.

    Prosecutors and other support personnel who worked on the special counsel team of Jack Smith that investigated and prosecuted Trump have been fired, as was Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in New York whose father, former FBI Director James Comey, was terminated by Trump months into his first term amid the Russia election interference investigation.

    Martin’s investigation stems from a letter Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi in April asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting James, alleging she had “falsified bank documents and property records.”

    Pulte, whose agency regulates mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cited “media reports” claiming James had falsely listed a Virginia home as her principal residence, and he suggested she may have been trying to avoid higher interest rates that often apply to second homes.

    Records show James was listed as a co-borrower on a house her niece was buying in 2023. Lowell said records and correspondence easily disproved Pulte’s allegation. While James signed a power-of-attorney form that, Lowell said, “mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James’ principal residence,” she sent an email to her mortgage loan broker around the same time that made clear the property “WILL NOT be my primary residence.”

    ____

    Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

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  • 911 call shows fear, concern from couple trapped in car sinking in Florida canal

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    A 911 call released Tuesday shows how frantic a couple was as they were trapped inside a car sinking in a canal in Florida.Listen to the 911 call in the video player above. Investigators said the couple was driving in a remote section of northwestern Martin County when they were hit by another car, sending them off the road where they landed upside down in the canal.The other car did not stop.The woman in the car was able to get to her phone and call 911.“Please! We need you!” she said to the dispatcher.The woman, whose name has not been released, explains the situation to the dispatcher who asks if the car is sinking.“Yes!” the woman replied. “That’s what it feels like. The car is sinking, sir.”“Where’s the water now?” the dispatcher asked.“We’re in the ditch outside,” she said.“Is the water in the car and how high is it?” the dispatcher asked.“It’s up to my stomach,” she said. “We don’t know how much time we have!”The woman explained to the dispatcher that the power in the vehicle was out, and they could not open the doors nor the windows.“How far in the water are you?” the dispatcher asked.“We’re deep in the water!”“And there’s no way to get that window down?”“No. We tried everything! We’re scared!”After about 10 minutes, the call appears to drop.“You still there, sir? Ma’am?” the dispatcher asked.There was no reply.Deputies arrived a short time later and were able to bust out the car’s windows and pull the couple to safety.Both people were injured, but investigators said both are expected to recover.The sheriff’s office said they are still looking for the other driver involved in the crash.

    MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. —

    A 911 call released Tuesday shows how frantic a couple was as they were trapped inside a car sinking in a canal in Florida.

    Listen to the 911 call in the video player above.

    Investigators said the couple was driving in a remote section of northwestern Martin County when they were hit by another car, sending them off the road where they landed upside down in the canal.

    The other car did not stop.

    The woman in the car was able to get to her phone and call 911.

    “Please! We need you!” she said to the dispatcher.

    The woman, whose name has not been released, explains the situation to the dispatcher who asks if the car is sinking.

    “Yes!” the woman replied. “That’s what it feels like. The car is sinking, sir.”

    “Where’s the water now?” the dispatcher asked.

    “We’re in the ditch outside,” she said.

    “Is the water in the car and how high is it?” the dispatcher asked.

    “It’s up to my stomach,” she said. “We don’t know how much time we have!”

    The woman explained to the dispatcher that the power in the vehicle was out, and they could not open the doors nor the windows.

    “How far in the water are you?” the dispatcher asked.

    “We’re deep in the water!”

    “And there’s no way to get that window down?”

    “No. We tried everything! We’re scared!”

    After about 10 minutes, the call appears to drop.

    “You still there, sir? Ma’am?” the dispatcher asked.

    There was no reply.

    Deputies arrived a short time later and were able to bust out the car’s windows and pull the couple to safety.

    Both people were injured, but investigators said both are expected to recover.

    The sheriff’s office said they are still looking for the other driver involved in the crash.

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  • Police arrest suspect in theft of Beyoncé’s unreleased music hard drives

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    Police have made an arrest in the theft of hard drives containing unreleased music by Beyoncé.Atlanta-area police arrested Kelvin Evans for allegedly breaking into an SUV in the city over the summer and stealing hard drives and other items that were connected to the Grammy winner.Evans is now in jail facing a charge of entering an automobile with intent to commit theft.It is not yet known if he has legal representation.Officers responded on July 8 after receiving a call regarding a theft from a vehicle, according to police.”They have my computers, and it’s really, really important information in there,” an unidentified caller is heard on a 911 call obtained by CNN. “I work with someone who’s like, of a high status, and I really need the, um, my computer and everything.”The items were stolen from a car that had been rented by her choreographer during a Cowboy Carter tour stop in the city, according to police.Investigators have not recovered the hard drives or other items that were allegedly taken.

    Police have made an arrest in the theft of hard drives containing unreleased music by Beyoncé.

    Atlanta-area police arrested Kelvin Evans for allegedly breaking into an SUV in the city over the summer and stealing hard drives and other items that were connected to the Grammy winner.

    Evans is now in jail facing a charge of entering an automobile with intent to commit theft.

    It is not yet known if he has legal representation.

    Officers responded on July 8 after receiving a call regarding a theft from a vehicle, according to police.

    “They have my computers, and it’s really, really important information in there,” an unidentified caller is heard on a 911 call obtained by CNN. “I work with someone who’s like, of a high status, and I really need the, um, my computer and everything.”

    The items were stolen from a car that had been rented by her choreographer during a Cowboy Carter tour stop in the city, according to police.

    Investigators have not recovered the hard drives or other items that were allegedly taken.

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  • What we know about ongoing manhunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

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    What we know about ongoing manhunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

    Good morning. I’m Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety. I’d be remiss if we didn’t start off today to recognize the significance of, of the day, um. Historically on 9/11, law enforcement has come together as *** group to recognize and honor those that sacrificed. To preserve the ideals of this country, the freedoms of this country. And instead, we find ourselves today hunting *** murderer. We chose to violate our rights, the rights of an individual within this country. Just to recap yesterday’s events. At around 12:20 p.m. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was in Utah Valley University, participating in *** student sponsored event with Turning Point USA. Charlie was shot at that event. He was transported to *** local hospital where he later passed. Last night, his body was moved to the office, the state office of the medical examiner. We will continue to facilitate movements um to get him home today, um, and with his family. Yesterday during the investigative process we located *** couple of persons of interest. We interviewed those individuals. And after releasing them and after clearing them of being suspects. They face scrutiny. They face threats. We asked the public to be patient with the investigative process. These individuals were not suspects. They were people of interest. We ask that you do not impose into those those people and that investigative process. They don’t deserve that harassment for being subject to that. I’d like to thank all the investigators that are involved in this. They have worked around the clock all day yesterday through the night last night. Investigators from the State Bureau of Investigations, from county, from city agencies, the university, our federal partners with the FBI, the ATF, um, and many others. Those are just *** few of the people that we have involved in this. I’d like to thank all of them for their, for their strong work. Through all that work last night, we were able to make *** few, few breakthroughs. Um, we were able to track the movements of the shooter. Starting at 11:52 a.m. the subject arrived on campus shortly away from campus. We have tracked his movements onto the campus, through the stairwells, up to the roof, across the roof to *** shooting location. After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building, and fled off of the campus and into *** neighborhood. Our investigators have worked through those neighborhoods, contacting anybody they can with doorbell cameras, witnesses, and thoroughly worked through those communities trying to identify any leads. We do have good video footage of this individual. We are not going to release that at this time. We’re working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual. If we are unsuccessful, we will reach out to you as the media, and we will push that publicly to help us identify them, but we’re confident in our abilities right now and we would like to move forward in *** manner that keeps everyone safe and moves this process appropriately. Last night I communicated with Erica. The family is devastated. As Commissioner of Public safety. As *** father, as *** husband, I can only imagine what that family is going through. The heinous event that happened yesterday is not Utah. This is not what we’re known for. Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen the state come together to help families in mourning, come together as *** community to show what Utah is known for. For *** state of, of character. Of service, of camaraderie, of ***, of *** neighboring field. We will not stand for what happened yesterday. We are exhausting every lead. We have every officer invested in this, every investigator, every local agency. The outpouring of support from the law enforcement community has been astounding. We are, we are investing everything we have into this, and we will catch this individual. Having walked through the crime scene, through the hallways of this school, through the classrooms. I can’t imagine what the people on scene felt as well. *** horrific event where some of them barricaded in classrooms, some of them ran in fear. Can’t over over overstate. The tragedy and the horrific event that yesterday was. And how we will work to, to bring to justice the actions of one individual or any other individuals that assisted in that. Our state has gone through *** lot and we will come out successfully. With that, I’ll turn the time over to Special Agens charge. Good morning. My name is Robert Bows, and I’m the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake Field Office. Following yesterday’s tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk, FBI agents have been working around the clock in coordination with our law enforcement partners. We are and will continue to work nonstop until we find the person that has committed this heinous crime and find out why they did it. This morning, I can tell you that we have recovered what we believe is the weapon that was used in yesterday’s shooting. It’s *** high-powered bolt action rifle. That rifle was was recovered in *** wooded area where the shooter had fled. So the FBI laboratory will be analyzing this weapon. Investigators have also collected footwear impression, *** palm print, and forearm imprints for analysis. I understand there are *** lot of questions about motive. I assure you that all leads, tips, and tips are being fully investigated. As of this morning, we received more than 130 tests. We thank the community for that. The FBI has brought every resource to bear. And we will continue to do so throughout the course of this investigation. The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people. It’s to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Any attack on the First Amendment. is an attack on the very foundation of our democracy. That is why we will, we will relentlessly pursue this case and the shooter until we find him. We also continue to grieve with the family and the community. It’s our community. If you have any video or images from the shooting, we ask you to please submit them to our digital media tip website at www.FBI.gov/Utahvalley shooting. You can also call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. We truly rely on the public’s help in these types of cases, and no tip is too small or insignificant. Thank you. Um, Commissioner James Matthews from Sky News, can I ask, uh, about the shooter? There’s clearly information, uh, about him or her. You say you’re confident at this stage in terms of tracking down who they are. Can you talk to us about their movements, their demeanor? Do you think it’s *** man? And also, can I ask what were the security arrangements in place? Was that move. Being monitored, it’s *** question many people will have particular problem. So what I’ll release about the suspect is uh Suspect blended in well with, with the college institution. Um, we’re not releasing any details right now and then we, we will soon, um, but right now we’re not, but that, that individual um appears to be of, of college age, um. We are confident in our abilities to track that individual. If we’re unsuccessful in identifying them immediately, we will reach out to the public’s help and the media’s help in pushing those photos. That was *** new development overnight working through the night studying those cameras, so that’s something that’s new and that we’re working through right now. As far as the security, I cannot speak to that. Neither the Department of Public Safety nor the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in in the planning or security of this event, and that’ll have to be *** question later for other agencies. I wanted to ask you, you mentioned that you found the gun in *** wooded area. Do you believe that the suspect could be hiding in the woods, and is that suspect possibly still in this area? So that’s *** good question and it’s, it’s *** question that goes to the safety of the community, right? Um, no, not in those woods. We walked through those woods and secured it. Um, as to the community, I can tell you that this was *** targeted event. Um, we don’t believe the community is, is at risk. However, we’re exhausting every resource to find him, uh, and. We will, we will do so on the BBC from the images you have, can you see clearly the suspect’s face? You say he was college age, do you believe he was from this university, and how far do you think he may have gone in this time span? So I can’t comment specifically on his face or any details such as that, uh, as it’s continuing to be *** part of the investigation and, and again we’ll release that shortly. Uh, however, um, we’re, we’re doing everything we can to find him, and we’re not sure how far he’s gone. And you do? We, we have images of the of the suspects that you’ve been able to recover, do you believe you know who this person is, the person that you’re looking for at this point again, as part of the investigation, we’re not releasing any details fingerprints or DNA. We are, we are exhausting all of our resources to be able to collect those, uh, but that’s again part of the excuse me. You said you found the weapon. Have you been able to trace back the owner of that weapon or purchased it? We are working on that but again part of the of the FBI think that’s impacting. We’ve got complete and total support from everyone from the director on down and it’s been an incredible supportive environment so far. tweets like the one where I can say is that we’re working the investigation the best we have right now.

    What we know about ongoing manhunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

    Updated: 11:02 AM EDT Sep 11, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    A manhunt continues Thursday as law enforcement officials search for the suspect responsible for fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk at the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday.Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA when he was shot and killed. Kirk was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA.What we know about the shooterPolice are still working to identify the shooter.The suspect targeted Kirk, firing a single shot from a distant rooftop, according to Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety Beau Mason. Authorities said the suspect “appears to be of college age” and “blended in” with students on the college campus.Authorities said the suspect arrived on campus just before noon. After firing the shot, the shooter jumped from the roof, moved through stairwells and ultimately fled from campus into a neighborhood. A high-powered, bolt-action rifle was found in a wooded area where the shooter fled, according to the FBI. The shooter is still on the run, and it is not clear how far the suspect may have gotten, but the nearby woods have been secured, authorities said.Officials are reviewing grainy security videos of a person in dark clothing. “We do have good video of this individual,” Mason said.Federal, state and local authorities were working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.” Are there other suspects?A person of interest was taken into custody Wednesday evening after the shooting, but has since been released, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. No charges were filed. Officials have no information indicating a second person was involved, according to Cox. Two other people were detained Wednesday, but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, public safety officials said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    A manhunt continues Thursday as law enforcement officials search for the suspect responsible for fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk at the Utah Valley University campus on Wednesday.

    Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA when he was shot and killed. Kirk was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA.

    What we know about the shooter

    Police are still working to identify the shooter.

    The suspect targeted Kirk, firing a single shot from a distant rooftop, according to Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety Beau Mason.

    Authorities said the suspect “appears to be of college age” and “blended in” with students on the college campus.

    Authorities said the suspect arrived on campus just before noon.

    After firing the shot, the shooter jumped from the roof, moved through stairwells and ultimately fled from campus into a neighborhood. A high-powered, bolt-action rifle was found in a wooded area where the shooter fled, according to the FBI.

    The shooter is still on the run, and it is not clear how far the suspect may have gotten, but the nearby woods have been secured, authorities said.

    Officials are reviewing grainy security videos of a person in dark clothing. “We do have good video of this individual,” Mason said.

    Federal, state and local authorities were working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”

    Are there other suspects?

    A person of interest was taken into custody Wednesday evening after the shooting, but has since been released, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. No charges were filed.

    Officials have no information indicating a second person was involved, according to Cox.

    Two other people were detained Wednesday, but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, public safety officials said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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  • Georgia judge to toss landmark racketeering charges against ‘Cop City’ protesters

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    A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a years-long conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot a protester. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charges.Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp’s permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded that they did not obtain any such order.“It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”The case is not over yetFive of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson connected to a 2023 “night of rage” in which masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer said Carr also didn’t have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge proceed.Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge’s decision is “wholly incorrect.”Carr plans to “appeal immediately,” spokesperson Kara Murray said.“The Attorney General will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property,” she said.Defense attorney Don Samuel said the case was rife with errors. Defense attorneys had expected to spend the whole week going through dozens of dismissal motions that had been filed. During an impassioned speech on Monday, the first day of the hearing, Samuel called the case “an assault on the right of people to protest” and urged Farmer to “put a stop to this.”“We could have spun the wheel and seen which argument was going to win first,” Samuel told The Associated Press after Farmer announced his decision from the bench.The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest killed an activist, known as “Tortuguita,” who authorities said had fired at them while inside a tent near the construction site. A prosecutor found the troopers’ actions “objectively reasonable,” though Tortuguita’s family has filed a lawsuit, saying the 26-year-old’s hands were in the air and that troopers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out. Opponents also pursued civic paths to halt the facility, including packing City Council meetings and leading a massive referendum effort that got tied up in the courts.Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat “out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement against the 85-acre project that ultimately cost more than $115 million.Environmentalists and anti-police activists were unitedEmerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of it due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.As the delays continued, defendants said their lives had been wrecked by the charges, with many unable to secure steady jobs or housing.Three of the defendants, organizers of a bail fund that supported the protesters, had also been charged with 15 counts of money laundering, but prosecutors dropped those charges last year.Prosecutors had previously apologized to the court for various delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.Defense attorney Xavier de Janon said Farmer’s decision is a “victory,” but noted that there are other defendants still facing unindicted domestic terrorism charges in DeKalb County, as well as numerous pending misdemeanors connected to the movement.“The prosecutions haven’t ended against this movement, and I hope that people continue to pay attention to how the state is dealing with protests and activism, because it hasn’t ended,” de Janon said. “This is a win, and hopefully many more will come.”

    ATLANTA —

    A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a years-long conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”

    Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.

    The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot a protester. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charges.

    Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp’s permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded that they did not obtain any such order.

    “It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”

    The case is not over yet

    Five of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson connected to a 2023 “night of rage” in which masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer said Carr also didn’t have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.

    Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge proceed.

    Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge’s decision is “wholly incorrect.”

    Carr plans to “appeal immediately,” spokesperson Kara Murray said.

    “The Attorney General will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property,” she said.

    Defense attorney Don Samuel said the case was rife with errors. Defense attorneys had expected to spend the whole week going through dozens of dismissal motions that had been filed. During an impassioned speech on Monday, the first day of the hearing, Samuel called the case “an assault on the right of people to protest” and urged Farmer to “put a stop to this.”

    “We could have spun the wheel and seen which argument was going to win first,” Samuel told The Associated Press after Farmer announced his decision from the bench.

    The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest killed an activist, known as “Tortuguita,” who authorities said had fired at them while inside a tent near the construction site. A prosecutor found the troopers’ actions “objectively reasonable,” though Tortuguita’s family has filed a lawsuit, saying the 26-year-old’s hands were in the air and that troopers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.

    Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out. Opponents also pursued civic paths to halt the facility, including packing City Council meetings and leading a massive referendum effort that got tied up in the courts.

    Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat “out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”

    But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement against the 85-acre project that ultimately cost more than $115 million.

    Environmentalists and anti-police activists were united

    Emerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.

    Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.

    The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of it due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.

    But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.

    As the delays continued, defendants said their lives had been wrecked by the charges, with many unable to secure steady jobs or housing.

    Three of the defendants, organizers of a bail fund that supported the protesters, had also been charged with 15 counts of money laundering, but prosecutors dropped those charges last year.

    Prosecutors had previously apologized to the court for various delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.

    Defense attorney Xavier de Janon said Farmer’s decision is a “victory,” but noted that there are other defendants still facing unindicted domestic terrorism charges in DeKalb County, as well as numerous pending misdemeanors connected to the movement.

    “The prosecutions haven’t ended against this movement, and I hope that people continue to pay attention to how the state is dealing with protests and activism, because it hasn’t ended,” de Janon said. “This is a win, and hopefully many more will come.”

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  • Musk’s SpaceX spends $17 billion to acquire spectrum licenses from EchoStar

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    Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reached a deal worth about $17 billion with EchoStar for spectrum licenses that it will use to beef up its Starlink satellite network.The deal for EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses includes up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. SpaceX will make approximately $2 billion in cash interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.SpaceX and EchoStar will enter into a long-term commercial agreement which will allow EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to access SpaceX’s next generation Starlink Direct to Cell service.Shares of EchoStar surged more than 23% before the market opened Monday.Last month AT&T said that it will spend $23 billion to acquire wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a significant expansion of its low- and mid-band coverage networks.EchoStar said that it anticipates that the AT&T deal and the SpaceX transaction will resolve recent inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission about the rollout of 5G technology in the U.S.EchoStar said Monday that it will use the proceeds from the sale partly to pay down debt. Current operations of Dish TV, Sling and Hughes will not be impacted, the company said.

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reached a deal worth about $17 billion with EchoStar for spectrum licenses that it will use to beef up its Starlink satellite network.

    The deal for EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses includes up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. SpaceX will make approximately $2 billion in cash interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.

    SpaceX and EchoStar will enter into a long-term commercial agreement which will allow EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to access SpaceX’s next generation Starlink Direct to Cell service.

    Shares of EchoStar surged more than 23% before the market opened Monday.

    Last month AT&T said that it will spend $23 billion to acquire wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a significant expansion of its low- and mid-band coverage networks.

    EchoStar said that it anticipates that the AT&T deal and the SpaceX transaction will resolve recent inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission about the rollout of 5G technology in the U.S.

    EchoStar said Monday that it will use the proceeds from the sale partly to pay down debt. Current operations of Dish TV, Sling and Hughes will not be impacted, the company said.

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