Month: September 2021

On Wednesday, police in Florida named the boyfriend of a missing woman as a ‘person of interest’ in her disappearance during a road trip taken by the couple. The North Port Police Department said Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of the missing woman Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito, returned to North Port, FL on Sept. 1 —  10 days before was reported missing by her family.  North Port police Chief Todd Garrison said that Laundrie “has not made himself available to be interviewed or has provided any helpful details. We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks. The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out. We will help find Gabby and we will help find anyone who may be involved in her disappearance.”  Petito is described as a white female, approximately 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 110 pounds, with blonde hair, blue eyes and several tattoos including one on her finger and another on her forearm that reads “Let it be.”

Petitio, 22, and Laundrie, 23, traveled from Florida to New York before they were set to visit national parks out west in July. Petito’s family said they last heard from her on Aug. 25 when she was believed to have been in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.  Gabby had consistently documented the trip on social media, including her YouTube channel “NomadicStatik” but her last Instagram post was also on Aug. 25.  On Wednesday, police said Petito’s van, which the couple had been traveling in, was recovered at a home she shared with Laundrie and his parents on Sept. 11 and was “fully processed for evidence along with FBI agents Tuesday evening.”

Laundrie’s attorney, Steve Bertolino, released a statement on Wednesday saying: “It is our understanding that a search has been organized for Miss Petitio in or near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. On behalf of the Laundrie family, it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family. On the advice of counsel, the Laundrie family is remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment.”

U.S. Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman testified before Congress Wednesday about what they say were failures in FBI’s handling of the sexual abuse case against Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics team doctor who was sentenced in 2018 to up to 175 years in prison are pleading guilty to sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women. The hearing was held as the Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating the FBI’s handling of the case.

Biles said during her testimony: “We have been failed, and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable. If they are not, I am convinced that this will continue to happen to others across Olympic sports.” Raisman cited failings of USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, saying: “It took over 14 months for the FBI to contact me despite my many requests to be interviewed by them,” she said. “I felt pressure by the FBI to consent to Nasser’s plea deal. The agent diminished the significance of my abuse and made me feel my criminal case wasn’t worth pursuing.”

Maroney accused the FBI of delaying documenting her claims against Nassar and of making false claims, saying to the senators: “Today, I ask you all to hear my voice. I ask you please do all that is in your power to ensure that these individuals are held responsible and accountable for ignoring my initial report, for lying about my initial report and for covering up for a child molester.”  Nichols added, “I reported my abuse to USA Gymnastics over six years ago and still my family and I received even few answers and had even more questions why this allowed to occur and why dozens of other little girls and women at Michigan State had to be abused after I reported. In sacrificing my childhood for the chance to compete for the United States, I am haunted by the fact even after I reported my abuse so many women and girls had to suffer at the hands of Larry Nassar.”

A Justice Department inspector general report released in July found the FBI made “fundamental errors” in its response to allegations against Nassar that were first brought to the agency in July 2015.

Editorial credit: Petr Toman / Shutterstock.com

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Tuesday that the Justice Department will tighten restrictions on when its agencies can use chokeholds, carotid restraints and no-knock entries. Garland said: “Building trust and confidence between law enforcement and the public we serve is central to our mission at the Justice Department. The limitations implemented today on the use of ‘chokeholds,’ ‘carotid restraints’ and ‘no-knock’ warrants, combined with our recent expansion of body-worn cameras to DOJ’s federal agents, are among the important steps the department is taking to improve law enforcement safety and accountability.”

Under the new guidelines, federal law enforcement agents will be prohibited from using chokeholds and carotid restraints unless the use of deadly force is authorized. The Justice Department allows such force “when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”  The new Justice Department policies also limits the use of no-knock entries to the execution of warrants in situations where agents believing knocking and announcing before entry would create threat of physical violence.

The use of chokeholds has been under scrutiny after the 2014 death of New York City man Eric Garner, who died of compression of his neck and chest and his prone positioning on the ground as New York City Police officer Daniel Pantaleo held him in a chokehold on the ground. Garner, who had asthma, repeatedly told the police “I can’t breathe.”

Editorial credit: Mark Van Scyoc / Shutterstock.com

On Tuesday, a group of eight Senate Democrats introduced their latest version of a sweeping election reform bill to counter the record-number of voting restrictions that have passed in GOP-led states, which they say make it harder for minorities and low-income Americans to cast a ballot.

Now known as the ‘Freedom to Vote Act,’ the modified bill is a compromise after the previous For The People Act failed to pass in the Senate last June. The new bill was crafted by a group that included moderate Sen Joe Manchin, a key swing vote, after he opposed an earlier version of the legislation charging that it was too broad and lacked bipartisan support. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday on the Senate floor that he intends to hold a vote to proceed to the compromise measure as early as next week, which would require 60 senators to support advancing to the bill. It’s unclear whether Democrats can garner the support of 10 Republicans, though Schumer said that Manchin has been discussing the bill with GOP senators.

The bill would aim to promote voter confidence and access by “requiring a uniform national standard for states that requires identification for in-person voting, and allowing voters to present a broad set of identification cards and documents in hard copy and digital form,” a summary of the measure says.

Editorial credit: Rob Crandall / Shutterstock.com

Tropical Storm Nicholas made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph at 1 a.m. CDT Tuesday about 20 miles northeast of Matagorda, Texas. The center of Nicholas is now located just southwest of Houston, and brings a threat of flooding rain through southeast Texas into Louisiana and Mississippi the next couple of days after making landfall as a hurricane overnight.

As of press time, more than 300,000 homes and businesses had lost power in southeast Texas, including the Houston area. Winds gusts over 50 mph have been clocked at Houston’s Hobby airport this morning. Parts of the far southeast Houston metro area have picked up 4 to 7 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. A storm surge of 3 to 4 feet above normal tide levels was observed on the upper Texas coast, including around the Galveston Bay area.

In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency; Texas soon followed with the same declaration. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a news release: “The state of Texas is working closely with officials on the ground to provide the resources and support needed to keep our communities safe, but it is up to all Texans in the path of this storm to take precautions, heed the guidance of officials, and remain vigilant as this severe weather moves through Texas.” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a Monday afternoon briefing that more than 8,200 National Guard members, including 2,000 from other states, are already deployed to Hurricane Ida cleanup in the southeastern part of the state, Edwards said.

Nicholas will weaken to a tropical depression and as it gradually turns more to the northeast and then east over eastern Texas and Louisiana through Wednesday and into Thursday.

In an appearance before a House committee Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Blinken testified in front of the House foreign affairs committee via video link during a hearing entitled “Afghanistan 2001-2021: Evaluating the Withdrawal and U.S. Policies.”

In his opening statement, Blinken reiterated that the scenes of chaos at the Kabul International Airport, where thousands of Afghans sought to flee from the Taliban, could not have been predicted. “Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained,” Blinken said. “As General (Mark) Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, ‘Nothing I or anyone else saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.”

He added that the State Department was “able to draw down our embassy and move our remaining personnel to the airport within 48 hours. And the military — placed on stand-by by the president — was able to secure the airport and start the evacuation within 72 hours.” The result was “one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated to safety,” said Blinken, followed by massive efforts by U.S. personnel to house and process tens of thousands of Afghan refugees.

The House committee hearing is just the first among what is expected to be a series of congressional probes of the Afghanistan withdrawal this week. Blinken will also appear before the Senate foreign relations panel on Tuesday.

Editorial credit: Karl Allen Lugmayer / Shutterstock.com