Sixteen U.S. Marines were arrested Thursday on human smuggling and drug allegations at a base in Southern California, military officials said.
The Marines were arrested at Camp Pendleton based on information gained from a previous human smuggling investigation, the Marine Corps said in a statement Thursday. At least eight other Marines have also been questioned about their involvement in alleged drug offenses.
None of the arrested or detained Marines were a part of the Southwest Border Support mission, according to the military’s statement.
The federal government will resume executions of death-row inmates after a nearly two-decade hiatus, Attorney General William P. Barr said Thursday, countering a broad national shift away from the death penalty as public support for it has dwindled.
The announcement reverses what had been essentially a moratorium on the federal death penalty. Five men convicted of murdering children will be executed in December or January at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., Mr. Barr said, and additional executions will be scheduled later.
Prosecutors still seek the death penalty in some federal cases, including for Dylann S. Roof, an avowed white supremacist who gunned down nine African-American churchgoers in 2015, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. But the federal government has only executed only three inmates since it reinstated the death penalty in 1988, including the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh, who was put to death in 2001, and Louis Jones Jr., who was executed in 2003 for the rape and murder of a female soldier.
.
Attorney General William P. Barr, center, announced that the federal government will resume executions. He toured a federal prison in Edgefield, S.C., this month with Senators Tim Scott, left, and Lindsey Graham.CreditCreditTravis Dove for The New York Times
Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló of Puerto Rico announced his resignation on Wednesday night, conceding that he could no longer credibly remain in power after an extraordinary popular uprising and looming impeachment proceedings had derailed his administration.
In a statement posted online just before midnight, Mr. Rosselló, 40, said he would step down on Aug. 2.
He said his successor for the moment would be the secretary of justice, Wanda Vázquez, a former district attorney who once headed the island’s office of women’s affairs. Ms. Vázquez was next in line under the commonwealth’s Constitution because the secretary of state, who would have succeeded Mr. Rosselló as governor, resigned last week when he also was caught up in a chat scandal that enveloped the administration.
But the governor appeared to leave open the possibility that a different successor could be in place by the time he steps down.
.
Puerto Ricans celebrated in San Juan after Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló announced his resignation late Wednesday night.CreditCreditErika P. Rodriguez for The New York Times
Over the years, he has woven together a narrative of what happened using threads collected from witnesses, friends, and family. On May 8, 2000, Utley, a 48-year-old stockbroker, was golfing with his coworkers Dick Gill and Bill Todd, along with their friend Jim Sullivan, in the village of Pocasset, Massachusetts, about three miles south of the Cape Cod Canal. Shortly after lunch, the dark clouds that had been mushrooming in the distance all morning were hovering close enough to merit the bleating of the course’s storm horn—time to clear the green.
Gill, Todd, and Sullivan immediately headed toward the clubhouse. Utley walked back to the hole and returned the flagstick. Seconds later, the guys in front heard a thunderous crack and turned to see Utley stumbling to the ground, tendrils of smoke curling off his body. Their friend had collapsed in a single perplexing instant. His shoes were several feet away from his body; his fingers looked like they had been flambéed; his eyebrows and wavy chestnut hair were wiry and crisped. Gill, an ex-Marine who had recently taken a refresher course in CPR, ran to Utley’s side, began blowing air into his lungs, and instructed Todd to perform chest compressions. As Sullivan rushed off to get help, the clouds unleashed a deluge of rain and hail.
.
Summer skies in the U.S. generate 50,000 lightning flashes per hour. Two hundred and forty thousand people worldwide are injured by that lightning evey year. Photo by Mitch Dobrowner.
Jeffrey Epstein, the millionaire financier who is being held on federal sex trafficking charges, was found injured and in a fetal position in his cell at a New York City jail, sources close to the investigation told NBC News on Wednesday night.
Epstein, 66, was found semi-conscious with marks on his neck in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan some time in the last two days, the sources said. Epstein is on suicide watch, two sources said.
Two sources told NBC News that Epstein may have tried to hang himself, while a third source cautioned that the injuries weren’t serious, questioning whether Epstein might have staged an attack or a suicide attempt to get a transfer to another facility.
.
Jeffrey Epstein in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ sex offender registry in 2017.New York State Division of Criminal Justice via Reuters
The Senate passed a bill Tuesday to ensure a fund to compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks never runs out of money — and that first responders won’t have to return to Congress to plead for more funding.
The vote came after intense lobbying from ailing 9/11 first responders — including one who died shortly after testifying before Congress last month.
The bill, which was passed by a vote of 97-2, would authorize money for the fund through 2092, essentially making it permanent.
The Trump administration wants to tighten the rules governing who qualifies for food stamps, which could end up stripping more than 3 million people of their benefits.
The Agriculture Department issued a proposed rule Tuesday that curtails so-called broad-based categorical eligibility, which makes it easier for Americans with somewhat higher incomes and more savings to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps.
.
It is the administration’s latest step to clamp down on the food stamps program, which covers 38 million Americans, and other public assistance services. It wants to require more poor people to work for SNAP benefits, and it is looking to change the way the poverty threshold is calculated, a move that could strip many low-income residents of their federal benefits over time.
.
Broad-based categorical eligibility allows states to streamline the food stamps application process for folks who qualify for certain benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Some 40 states, plus the District of Columbia, use this option, which lets them eliminate the asset test and raise one of the income thresholds.
The NAACP, the country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, enthusiastically passed a resolution Tuesday calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Delegates from NAACP chapters across the country voted unanimously to move forward with the resolution during the group’s 110th annual convention held in Detroit.
In a statement following the vote Tuesday, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson accused Trump of leading “one of the most racist and xenophobic administrations since the Jim Crow era.”
“The pattern of Trump’s misconduct is unmistakable and has proven time and time again that he is unfit to serve as the president of this country,” he said. “Trump needs to know that he is not above the law and the crimes that he has committed and he must be prosecuted.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
.
9/11 victims fund will never run out of money
.
.
.
.
James' World 2 