The post Phoenix police rescue baby left alone for days after mother dies appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Phoenix police said they received a call from a neighbor on the morning of May 14 to check on a woman who had recently given birth, but who had not been heard from for several days. Bodycam footage released by the Phoenix Police Department show officers looking through the apartment’s unlocked window, which is when the officers saw the woman lying on the floor, police said.
They forced the apartment door open and rescued the baby who was “laying on the bed visibly emaciated.”
The bodycam video also showed one of the responding officers carefully placing the baby in a stroller before handing it over to another rescuer. Phoenix Fire Department personnel then took the child to a hospital to receive lifesaving care, and the baby is expected to make a full recovery, police said.
The Maricopa County medical examiner’s office is investigating the cause of the mother’s death. Her name was not released. No other information was immediately available.
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]]>The post Bill Moyers, acclaimed public affairs TV broadcaster, dies at 91 appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Moyers died in a New York City hospital, according to longtime friend Tom Johnson, the former CEO of CNN and an assistant to Moyers during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Moyers’ son, William Cope Moyers, said his father died at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York after a long illness.
Moyers’ career ranged from youthful Baptist minister to deputy director of the Peace Corps, from Johnson’s press secretary to newspaper publisher, senior news analyst for “The CBS Evening News” and chief correspondent for “CBS Reports.”
But it was for public television that Moyers produced some of TV’s most cerebral and provocative series. In hundreds of hours of PBS programs, he proved at home with subjects ranging from government corruption to modern dance, from drug addiction to media consolidation, from religion to environmental abuse.
In 1988, Moyers produced “The Secret Government” about the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration and simultaneously published a book under the same name. Around that time, he galvanized viewers with “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth,” a series of six one-hour interviews with the prominent religious scholar. The accompanying book became a best-seller.
His televised chats with poet Robert Bly almost single-handedly launched the 1990s Men’s Movement, and his 1993 series “Healing and the Mind” had a profound impact on the medical community and on medical education.
In a medium that supposedly abhors “talking heads” – shots of subject and interviewer talking – Moyers came to specialize in just that. He once explained why: “The question is, are the talking heads thinking minds and thinking people? Are they interesting to watch? I think the most fascinating production value is the human face.”
Demonstrating what someone called “a soft, probing style” in the native Texas accent he never lost, Moyers was a humanist who investigated the world with a calm, reasoned perspective, whatever the subject.
From some quarters, he was blasted as a liberal thanks to his links with Johnson and public television, as well as his no-holds-barred approach to investigative journalism. It was a label he didn’t necessarily deny.
“I’m an old-fashioned liberal when it comes to being open and being interested in other people’s ideas,” he said during a 2004 radio interview. But Moyers preferred to term himself a “citizen journalist” operating independently, outside the establishment.
Public television (and his self-financed production company) gave him free rein to throw “the conversation of democracy open to all comers,” he said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press.
“I think my peers in commercial television are talented and devoted journalists,” he said another time, “but they’ve chosen to work in a corporate mainstream that trims their talent to fit the corporate nature of American life. And you do not get rewarded for telling the hard truths about America in a profit-seeking environment.”
Over the years, Moyers was showered with honors, including more than 30 Emmys, 11 George Foster Peabody awards, three George Polks and, twice, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Award for career excellence in broadcast journalism. In 1995, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Born in Hugo, Oklahoma, on June 5, 1934, Billy Don Moyers was the son of a dirt farmer-truck driver who soon moved his family to Marshall, Texas. High school led him into journalism.
“I wanted to play football, but I was too small. But I found that by writing sports in the school newspaper, the players were always waiting around at the newsstand to see what I wrote,” he recalled.
He worked for the Marshall News Messenger at age 16. Deciding that Bill Moyers was a more appropriate byline for a sportswriter, he dropped the “y” from his name.
He graduated from the University of Texas and earned a master’s in divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained and preached part time at two churches but later decided his call to the ministry “was a wrong number.”
His relationship with Johnson began when he was in college; he wrote the then-senator offering to work in his 1954 re-election campaign. Johnson was impressed and hired him for a summer job. He was back in Johnson’s employ as a personal assistant in the early 1960s and for two years, he worked at the Peace Corps, eventually becoming deputy director.
On the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Moyers was in Austin helping with the presidential trip. He flew back to Washington on Air Force One with newly sworn-in President Johnson, for whom he held various jobs over the ensuing years, including press secretary.
Moyers’ stint as presidential press secretary was marked by efforts to mend the deteriorating relationship between Johnson and the media. But the Vietnam war took its toll and Moyers resigned in December 1966.
Of his departure from the White House, he wrote later, “We had become a war government, not a reform government, and there was no creative role left for me under those circumstances.”
He conceded that he may have been “too zealous in my defense of our policies” and said he regretted criticizing journalists such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Peter Arnett, then a special correspondent with the AP, and CBS’s Morley Safer for their war coverage.
In 1967, Moyers became publisher of Long Island-based Newsday and concentrated on adding news analyses, investigative pieces and lively features. Within three years, the suburban daily had won two Pulitzers. He left the paper in 1970 after the ownership changed. That summer, he traveled 13,000 miles around the country and wrote a best-selling account of his odyssey: “Listening to America: a Traveler Rediscovers His Country.”
His next venture was in public television and he won critical acclaim for “Bill Moyers Journal,” a series in which interviews ranged from Gunnar Myrdal, the Swedish economist, to poet Maya Angelou. He was chief correspondent of “CBS Reports” from 1976 to 1978, went back to PBS for three years, and then was senior news analyst for CBS from 1981 to 1986.
When CBS cut back on documentaries, he returned to PBS for much less money. “If you have a skill that you can fold with your tent and go wherever you feel you have to go, you can follow your heart’s desire,” he once said.
Then in 1986, he and his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers, became their own bosses by forming Public Affairs Television, an independent shop that has not only produced programs such as the 10-hour “In Search of the Constitution,” but also paid for them through its own fundraising efforts.
His projects in the 21st century included “Now,” a weekly PBS public affairs program; a new edition of “Bill Moyers Journal” and a podcast covering racism, voting rights and the rise of Donald Trump, among other subjects.
Moyers married Judith Davidson, a college classmate, in 1954, and they raised three children. Judith eventually became her husband’s partner, creative collaborator and president of their production company.
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]]>The post Mississippi executes Richard Jordan, state’s longest appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder whose final appeals were denied without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court, was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter. He died by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.
The execution began at 6 p.m., according to prison officials. Jordan lay on the gurney with his mouth slightly ajar and took several deep breaths before becoming still. The time of death was given as 6:16 p.m.
Jordan was one of several on the state’s death row who sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol, claiming it is inhumane.
When given an opportunity to make a final statement Wednesday, he said, “First I would like to thank everyone for a humane way of doing this. I want to apologize to the victim’s family.”
He also thanked his lawyers and his wife and asked for forgiveness. His last words were: “I will see you on the other side, all of you.”
Jordan’s wife, Marsha Jordan, witnessed the execution, along with his lawyer Krissy Nobile and a spiritual adviser, the Rev. Tim Murphy. His wife and lawyer dabbed their eyes several times.
Jordan’s execution was the third in the state in the last 10 years; previously, the most recent one was carried out in December 2022.
It came a day after a man was put to death in Florida, in what is shaping up to be a year with the most executions since 2015.
Jordan’s execution comes amid an overall uptick in the use of capital punishment in the U.S. since January. Four executions were carried out in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma and South Carolina earlier this month.
The Trump administration seeks to resume death row executions at the federal level. President Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term stating, “capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes.”
Wednesday’s execution was Mississippi’s first in three years. Thomas Loden, who pleaded guilty to raping and killing a 16-year-old girl, was executed in December 2022.
Mississippi Supreme Court records show that in January 1976, Jordan called the Gulf National Bank in Gulfport and asked to speak with a loan officer. After he was told that Charles Marter could speak to him, he hung up. He then looked up the Marters’ home address in a telephone book and kidnapped Edwina Marter.
According to court records, Jordan took her to a forest and fatally shot her before calling her husband, claiming she was safe and demanding $25,000.
Edwina Marter’s husband and two sons had not planned to attend the execution. Eric Marter, who was 11 when his mother was killed, said beforehand that other family members would attend.
“It should have happened a long time ago,” Eric Marter told The Associated Press before the execution. “I’m not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.”
“He needs to be punished,” Marter said.
As of the beginning of the year, Jordan was one of 22 people sentenced in the 1970s who were still on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
His execution ended a decadeslong court process that included four trials and numerous appeals. On Monday the Supreme Court rejected a petition that argued he was denied due process rights.
“He was never given what for a long time the law has entitled him to, which is a mental health professional that is independent of the prosecution and can assist his defense,” said lawyer Krissy Nobile, director of Mississippi’s Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, who represented Jordan. “Because of that his jury never got to hear about his Vietnam experiences.”
A recent petition asking Gov. Tate Reeves for clemency echoed Nobile’s claim. It said Jordan suffered severe PTSD after serving three back-to-back tours, which could have been a factor in his crime.
“His war service, his war trauma, was considered not relevant in his murder trial,” said Franklin Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, who wrote the petition on Jordan’s behalf. “We just know so much more than we did 10 years ago, and certainly during Vietnam, about the effect of war trauma on the brain and how that affects ongoing behaviors.”
Marter said he does not buy that argument: “I know what he did. He wanted money, and he couldn’t take her with him. And he — so he did what he did.”
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]]>The post Mississippi executes Richard Jordan, state’s longest appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder whose final appeals were denied without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court, was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter. He died by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.
The execution began at 6 p.m., according to prison officials. Jordan lay on the gurney with his mouth slightly ajar and took several deep breaths before becoming still. The time of death was given as 6:16 p.m.
Jordan was one of several on the state’s death row who sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol, claiming it is inhumane.
When given an opportunity to make a final statement Wednesday, he said, “First I would like to thank everyone for a humane way of doing this. I want to apologize to the victim’s family.”
He also thanked his lawyers and his wife and asked for forgiveness. His last words were: “I will see you on the other side, all of you.”
Jordan’s wife, Marsha Jordan, witnessed the execution, along with his lawyer Krissy Nobile and a spiritual adviser, the Rev. Tim Murphy. His wife and lawyer dabbed their eyes several times.
Jordan’s execution was the third in the state in the last 10 years; previously, the most recent one was carried out in December 2022.
It came a day after a man was put to death in Florida, in what is shaping up to be a year with the most executions since 2015.
Jordan’s execution comes amid an overall uptick in the use of capital punishment in the U.S. since January. Four executions were carried out in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma and South Carolina earlier this month.
The Trump administration seeks to resume death row executions at the federal level. President Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term stating, “capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes.”
Wednesday’s execution was Mississippi’s first in three years. Thomas Loden, who pleaded guilty to raping and killing a 16-year-old girl, was executed in December 2022.
Mississippi Supreme Court records show that in January 1976, Jordan called the Gulf National Bank in Gulfport and asked to speak with a loan officer. After he was told that Charles Marter could speak to him, he hung up. He then looked up the Marters’ home address in a telephone book and kidnapped Edwina Marter.
According to court records, Jordan took her to a forest and fatally shot her before calling her husband, claiming she was safe and demanding $25,000.
Edwina Marter’s husband and two sons had not planned to attend the execution. Eric Marter, who was 11 when his mother was killed, said beforehand that other family members would attend.
“It should have happened a long time ago,” Eric Marter told The Associated Press before the execution. “I’m not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.”
“He needs to be punished,” Marter said.
As of the beginning of the year, Jordan was one of 22 people sentenced in the 1970s who were still on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
His execution ended a decadeslong court process that included four trials and numerous appeals. On Monday the Supreme Court rejected a petition that argued he was denied due process rights.
“He was never given what for a long time the law has entitled him to, which is a mental health professional that is independent of the prosecution and can assist his defense,” said lawyer Krissy Nobile, director of Mississippi’s Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, who represented Jordan. “Because of that his jury never got to hear about his Vietnam experiences.”
A recent petition asking Gov. Tate Reeves for clemency echoed Nobile’s claim. It said Jordan suffered severe PTSD after serving three back-to-back tours, which could have been a factor in his crime.
“His war service, his war trauma, was considered not relevant in his murder trial,” said Franklin Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, who wrote the petition on Jordan’s behalf. “We just know so much more than we did 10 years ago, and certainly during Vietnam, about the effect of war trauma on the brain and how that affects ongoing behaviors.”
Marter said he does not buy that argument: “I know what he did. He wanted money, and he couldn’t take her with him. And he — so he did what he did.”
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]]>The post Army pilot killed in helicopter training accident in Kentucky identified appeared first on My Blog.
]]>The soldier killed was identified Friday by the 101st Airborne Division as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dustin K. Wright.
In a post to social media earlier Friday, the 101st Airborne Division said the incident involving an AH-64 Apache helicopter had occurred in “preparation for the Army’s 250th birthday,” the festival and parade being held in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the Army’s 250th anniversary — that also coincides with President Trump’s 79th birthday.
However, in a follow-up post, the division said it wanted to “clarify” that the incident “occurred during a routine attack aviation training mission inside the Fort Campbell training area. The crew was not in direct support of Week of the Eagles or Army Birthday.”
A spokesperson for the 101st Airborne Division also told CBS News by phone Friday that the training exercise had “100% nothing to do with the birthday parade in D.C.” and was simply “happening while the Army prepares for the 250th birthday date.”
Week of the Eagles is an annual event that honors the heritage of the 101st Airborne Division.
The injured pilot was treated and released from Blanchfield Army Community Hospital for minor injuries, officials said.
No further details were provided. The incident is under investigation.
Wright joined the Army in 2010 and had served at Fort Campbell since May 2022. He was highly-decorated, having been awarded the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal and the Army Parachutist Badge, among others, his division said.
“The entire 101st Combat Aviation Brigade grieves the loss of CW2 Dustin Wright,” Col. Tyler Partridge, commander of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, said in a statement Friday. “A former Infantryman, Dustin cherished every opportunity to be outside and support ground troops. He did so with strength and honor. We will forever cherish the memories of his service, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of all who knew him.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was among those offering condolences to the family of the soldier who died.
“No matter how it happens, when we lose someone who has committed to serving our country, I know it hurts that family but it should hurt us all,” the Democratic governor said Thursday.
Kentucky state Sen. Craig Richardson, whose western Kentucky district includes the Fort Campbell area, said the soldier’s death was heartbreaking.
“This tragedy is a solemn reminder that the dangers our military faces are not limited to distant battlefields,” the Republican lawmaker said. “The call to serve brings risks at home, in training, preparation, and quiet readiness.”
The sprawling Fort Campbell post straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee line.
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]]>The post Largest U.S. private prison operator faces lawsuit after inmate was killed a day before his release appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Vogel’s cellmate is accused of bludgeoning him with a drainage cover before stabbing him with a shard of glass from a broken television, killing the 39-year-old one day before his scheduled release in August 2024. And according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year, Vogel’s family claims cost-cutting and understaffing at the prison allowed it to happen. Vogel’s family brought its case against CoreCivic, which operates the prison where Vogel died and is the largest private, for-profit prison firm in the nation.
Vogel “had a big heart, very emotional,” his mother, Maria Googe, said in an interview with CBS News.
Nearly a year after his death, she still has questions: “Who dropped the ball? Did nobody hear it? Were there no guards that could have stopped it or intervened? There’s just too many what ifs,” she said.
The company has disputed the lawsuit’s claims. CoreCivic adviser Steve Conry says, contrary to the claims in the lawsuit, its prisons are properly staffed.
“Over the course of an inmate’s residence at our facility, alterations are made to housing and program assignments when it is appropriate to do so based on any changes in the inmate’s particular circumstances,” Conry said. “For security and privacy reasons, we cannot address specific details of an inmate’s housing or custody.”
When asked by CBS News whether the death of an inmate is considered a failure, Conry said: “One death is one death too many. We don’t want any individual to die while they’re in our care, but it does happen. We take it seriously.”
The Vogel case comes at an inflection point for the federal use of private prisons. One of President Trump’s first actions of his second term was to reestablish the use of private prison systems by federal agencies previously barred under the Biden administration.
CoreCivic could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of new federal contracts under Mr. Trump. CoreCivic has lobbied hard to play an increasingly prominent role in assisting in the detention effort, along with its role supplementing state and local prison needs.
The company has touted that among the valuable services it provides is the ability to build prisons faster and cheaper to relieve overcrowding. It says it also offers an array of vocational, education and substance-abuse recovery services as part of its privately run facilities.
“We have successfully partnered with federal, state and local government entities to creatively and efficiently meet their challenges in ways they could not do alone,” CoreCivic told CBS News in a statement. “As a result, many systems are safer and better able to provide quality programming for the inmates in their care.”
Still, CoreCivic has been repeatedly found in Tennessee state audits to be deficient in staffing and turnover. In 2023 CoreCivic had 146% turnover rate for its prisons versus 37% for state-run prisons, as well as higher than average unfilled corrections officer positions. A survey of employees for that audit found that staffing issues left them feeling unsafe, and made the job more dangerous.
CoreCivic, which operates four prisons in Tennessee, has disputed CBS News’ analysis of that state data, which appears to show that inmates are twice as likely to be killed in CoreCivic prisons compared to government-run prisons.
“Simply comparing aggregate numbers across a time frame does not account for a wide range of important factors and can result in apples-to-oranges comparisons and inaccurate conclusions,” the company told CBS News in a statement. “For example, the likelihood of committing a homicide during incarceration can be influenced by numerous factors, such as security classifications, gang affiliations and crimes committed, among others.”
State lawmakers in Tennessee have recently taken notice and passed legislation that mandates a 10% reduction in inmate populations at private prisons if their average death rate is double that of state-run facilities. CoreCivic, the sole private prison operator in the state, currently meets the threshold for reduction, according to state Sen. Mark Pody, who introduced the bill during legislative debate.
One Tennessee CoreCivic prison in particular, Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, has come under scrutiny including by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which launched an investigation last year.
“Publicly available information suggests that Trousdale Turner has been plagued by serious problems since it first opened its doors,” said then-United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis.
According to the Civil Rights Division’s director at that time, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, “Recent reported incidents of violence include stabbings of five people within a three week span in early 2024, at least 196 assaults, two murders and 15 deaths that the facility classified as accidental between July of 2022 and June of 2023, at least 90 incidents of sexual misconduct in that same timeframe, large amounts of contraband, including 97 knives found in June of 2023 alone.”
CoreCivic says it is cooperating with the investigation.
“We take this matter seriously and are fully committed to working closely with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) officials to address any concerns,” the company said. “Out of respect for their process, we defer to USDOJ and TDOC regarding any concerns or allegations related to the investigation.”
The company says the safety and dignity of inmates is a top priority for its leadership, and for staff at Trousdale Turner.
“That’s why we’ve worked closely with TDOC to identify and implement policies and processes that enhance safety and security while providing meaningful programs and services geared towards helping the individuals in our care prepare for successful reentry,” the company said. “We take this matter very seriously and are committed to working closely with both TDOC and USDOJ officials to address areas of concern.”
There is evidence to suggest some violence continues. Over the past weekend, law enforcement responded to what the sheriff described as a riot late Sunday night at the Trousdale Turner facility involving as many as 200 incarcerated individuals. Original reports were that at least two corrections officers were held hostage, although CoreCivic now disputes that. All got out safely and with no major injuries.
Emergency personnel were dispatched at least 47 times to Trousdale Turner in the first 6 months of 2025, according to publicly available records reviewed by CBS News. While a majority of those calls were for medical emergencies, they also included four suicide attempts, five suspected overdoses and 9 stabbings.
Now with the increase in immigrant detentions, CoreCivic appears poised for major growth.
“I’ve worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods in my career,” CEO Damon Hininger told shareholders during a February 2025 earnings call, which coincided with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and new federal contracts with private prison companies.
CoreCivic donated $500,000 to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
Only about 7% of prisoners in the U.S. are housed in private prisons, but nearly 90% of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are held in privately run facilities.
In March, the company received a contract worth up to $22.6 million to reopen an ICE facility in Leavenworth, Kansas, although a judge recently blocked that from moving forward after the city sued. A second $31.2 million contract was awarded in April for a detention center in California City, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
Attorney Ben Raybin, who is suing CoreCivic on behalf of the Vogel family, told CBS News he believes the challenges at the company’s facilities come down, in part, to staffing.
“This is a company that makes tens of millions of dollars every year and yet leaves its prisons understaffed,” Raybin said in an interview with CBS News.
Raybin argues that staffing concerns were behind the company’s decision to give a lower risk rating to the man accused in Vogel’s death, cellmate Travis Bess. Bess had been convicted in 2014 of killing a previous cellmate.
The company reduced a risk rating for Bess from a four — the most dangerous — to a zero, Raybin said.
A document obtained by Raybin and shared with CBS News shows a computer printout that calculated Bess’ risk factors for recidivism. Raybin told CBS News that it appears someone overrode the computerized scoring. Tennessee Department of Corrections guidelines allow this in certain circumstances, but require an accompanying explanation. Raybin says no explanation for the reduction was provided.
According to Department of Justice guidelines, individuals with higher risk scores receive stricter supervision or more intensive interventions, while those with lower scores face fewer restrictions or minimal intervention. Christopher Slobogin, director of Vanderbilt Law School’s Criminal Justice Program, says that “people who are higher risk will probably need more risk management services, which will mean more staff and other resources.”
Although Tennessee does not release statistics for the cost per prisoner based on custody level, one state that does is North Carolina. According to that data, the daily cost of housing an individual prisoner in close custody is $174.22, versus $151.58 for medium.
“One of the chief concerns is that private prison companies are beholden to the bottom line,” said Eunice Cho, an attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Because they are ultimately accountable to their investors there will always be ways that private prison companies are looking to cut costs.”
As for Googe, she says she’s still waiting for answers to what happened to her son.
“It’s something that nobody should ever have to deal with,” she said.
Alyssa Spady contributed to this report.
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]]>The post Judge approves landmark NCAA settlement, clearing way for schools to pay athletes directly appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports.
The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years.
In a letter penned by NCAA President Charlie Baker following the announcement, Baker wrote that the settlement “opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports. This new framework that enables schools to provide direct financial benefits to student-athletes and establishes clear and specific rules to regulate third-party NIL [name, image and likeness] agreements marks a huge step forward for college sports.”
The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue, mostly through football and basketball, that keep this machine humming.
The scope of the changes — some have already begun — is difficult to overstate. The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA, and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs. The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA’s 1,100 member schools boasting nearly 500,000 athletes.
Wilken’s ruling comes 11 years after she dealt the first significant blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness, or NIL — a term that is now as common in college sports as “March Madness” or “Roll Tide.” It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing, but the changes coming are even bigger.
Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October. That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments, but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte.
The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC hold most of the power and decision-making heft, especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff, which is the most significant financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are.
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]]>The post Tropical Storm Alvin could be brewing in eastern Pacific Ocean, forecasters say appeared first on My Blog.
]]>Satellite imagery shows showers and thunderstorms starting to organize several hundred miles south of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center‘s weather outlook on Tuesday. Tropical Storm Alvin has nearly a 100% chance of forming over the next 48 hours, according to the agency.
“While the system still lacks a well-defined circulation, environmental conditions are favorable for further development,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NHC said earlier Tuesday.
Last week, NOAA officials predicted a 60% chance of an “above-normal” hurricane season, with between 13 to 19 named storms. Six to 10 of those are expected to strengthen into hurricanes, and three to five could become major hurricanes, forecasters said.
The Pacific hurricane season began on May 15, while the Atlantic hurricane season is from June 1 until Nov. 30, with peak activity typically occurring between mid-August and mid-October.
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]]>The post Lin Wood, attorney who challenged Trump’s 2020 election loss, gives up law license appeared first on My Blog.
]]>On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to “retire” his law license in light of “disciplinary proceedings pending against me.” In the request, made in a letter and posted on his Telegram account, Wood acknowledges that he is “prohibited from practicing law in this state and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission.”
Wood, a licensed attorney in Georgia since 1977, did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment on the letter. A listing on the website for the State Bar of Georgia accessed on Wednesday showed him as retired and with no disciplinary infractions on his record.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump praised Wood as doing a “good job” filing legal challenges seeking to overturn his loss, though Trump’s campaign at times distanced itself from him. Dozens of lawsuits making such allegations were rejected by the courts across the country.
Officials in Georgia had been weighing whether to disbar Wood over his efforts, holding a disciplinary trial earlier this year. Wood sued the state bar in 2022, claiming the bar’s request that he undergo a mental health evaluation as part of its probe violated his constitutional rights, but a federal appeals court tossed that ruling, saying Wood failed to show there was “bad faith” behind the request.
In 2021, the Georgia secretary of state’s office opened an investigation into where Wood had been living when he voted early in person in the 2020 general election, prompted by Wood’s announcement on Telegram that he had moved to South Carolina. Officials ruled that Wood did not violate Georgia election laws.
Wood, who purchased three former plantations totaling more than $16 million, moved to South Carolina several years ago, and unsuccessfully ran for chairman of that state’s GOP in 2021.
In May, a Michigan watchdog group filed a complaint against Wood and eight other Trump-aligned lawyers alleging they had committed misconduct and should be disciplined for filing a lawsuit challenging Mr. Biden’s 2020 election win in that state. A court previously found the attorneys’ lawsuit had abused the court system.
Wood, whose name was on the 2020 Michigan lawsuit, has insisted that the only role he played was telling fellow attorney Sidney Powell he was available if she needed a seasoned litigator. Powell defended the lawsuit and said lawyers sometimes have to raise what she called “unpopular issues.”
Other attorneys affiliated with efforts to keep Trump in power following his 2020 election loss have faced similar challenges. Attorney John Eastman, architect of that strategy, faces 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy aimed at having then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.
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]]>The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced a 48-count superseding indictment against Edenilson Velasquez Larin, “allegedly a national leader of the MS-13 and the Fulton Locos Salvatruchas (Fulton) clique, for his leadership role in allegedly ordering murders, drug distribution, and money laundering for the MS-13.”
The indictment detailed a number of murders and attempted murders carried out by the gang against rival gang members as well as their own, often using guns and machetes.
Prosecutors said that starting in late 2019 alleged Fulton clique leaders Velasquez Larin and Espinoza Sanchez ordered alleged MS-13 members, including Jose Arevalo Iraheta, Oscar Hernandez Baires, and Erick Zavala Hernandez, to scour the Elmont, New York, neighborhood in search of rival 18th Street members to kill for encroaching on their territory.
In spring 2020, Velasquez Larin, also known as “Agresor,” “Saturno,” and “Paco,” allegedly arranged for Fulton clique members from Maryland to travel to New York to assist in the search for rival gang members in Elmont, according to prosecutors.
“Alleged MS-13 member Jose Arevalo Iraheta and a Fulton member from Maryland ultimately found an individual they believed to be an 18th Street member and shot at him,” prosecutors said.
The superseding indictment also included charges against 22 associates of MS-13 and the Fulton clique for their roles in multiple alleged murders, attempted murders, drug distribution and money laundering.
Among the new charges was a murder charge against Leyla Carranza for allegedly luring 17-year-old Andy Peralta to a park in Queens, New York, so that he could be fatally beaten, stabbed, and strangled, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors had previously charged alleged MS-13 associates Juan Amaya-Ramirez and Oscar Flores-Mejia with Peralta’s murder.
“Peralta’s killers photographed themselves posing over Peralta’s corpse while they displayed MS-13 gang signs with their hands,” prosecutors said. The photo was found in Amaya-Ramirez’s iCloud account by authorities, according to prosecutors.
Wednesday’s indictment also added new charges in the 2018 shooting murder of Victor Alvarenga near his home in Queens, naming alleged MS-13 national leader Velasquez Larin, Jose Espinoza Sanchez, and Tito Martinez-Alvarenga. Prosecutors said Larin gave the order to kill Alvarenga and Sanchez oversaw the murder.
The indictment additionally charged Emerson Martinez-Lara and Ismael Santos-Novoa for their alleged roles as lookouts during the 2019 murder of Abel Mosso on a subway platform in Queens. Prosecutors had previously charged Ramiro Gutierrez, Tito Martinez-Alvarenga and Victor Lopez in Mosso’s murder.
Prosecutors alleged that on the afternoon of Feb. 3, Lopez and Martinez-Alvarenga followed Mosso, who they believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang, onto a train platform in Queens. Mosso was also trailed by Gutierrez.
Once inside the subway car, Lopez and Martinez-Alvarenga assaulted Mosso and then dragged him out onto the platform at a later stop.
“The defendants pulled out a gun, but Mosso wrestled it away. Gutierrez shouted in Spanish, ‘Nobody gets involved, we’re MS-13, we’re going to kill him’,” prosecutors said. Gutierrez was able to grab the gun from Mosso and allegedly shot him multiple times, killing him, according to prosecutors.
Among new charges for murder committed within the gang was a murder charge against MS-13 member Oscar Hernandez Baires, who allegedly shot and killed MS-13 member Eric Monge in 2020 while he was sitting in a parked car near his Queens home.
Monge had previously assaulted Baires, according to prosecutors.
“Monge’s wife had just taken their young children into their residence and returned to the car to find parking when Hernandez Baires and the other individual opened fire,” prosecutors said.
Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, called the alleged actions carried out by the alleged gang members “cold-blooded.”
“The murders and other crimes of violence allegedly committed by these defendants were brutal, cold-blooded, and utterly senseless,” Peace said. “This Office and our law enforcement partners are working tirelessly to dismantle the MS-13 at all of its levels, and we will not relent until this transnational criminal organization, its leaders, members, and associates are held accountable for the extreme violence and other criminal activity that they have perpetrated in our communities.”
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