Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Trevor Reed released in prisoner swap, Minneapolis police blasted in report, Trump appeals contempt decision, Fauci says U.S. out of pandemic phase, new Lily Peters details and Apple to allow repairs.
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Happy Wednesday. Here’s what is happening:
From The Associated Press: Russia and the United States have carried out an unexpected prisoner exchange in a time of high tensions, trading a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America:
The deal announced by both countries involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace. It was all the more surprising because it was done as Russia’s war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.
The U.S., for its part, returned Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who’d been serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S. The Justice Department has described him as “an experienced international drug trafficker” who conspired to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine around the world.
Despite Reed’s release, other Americans remain jailed in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.
The exchange took place in Turkey, Reed’s father, Joey Reed, told CNN.
“The American plane pulled up next to the Russian plane and they walked both prisoners across at the same time, like you see in the movies,” he said.
The swap seemed unlikely to herald any larger breakthrough between Washington and Moscow. A senior Biden administration official cautioned that the negotiations centered on a “discrete set of prisoner issues” and did not represent a change to the U.S. government’s condemnation of Russia’s violence against Ukraine.
NBC News: 'What about Brittney Griner?' After Trevor Reed's release, questions swirl over fate of WNBA star.
The New York Times says a report from Minnesota has found the Minneapolis Police Department routinely engages in multiple forms of racially discriminatory policing, fails to hold officers accountable for misconduct and has used fake social media accounts to target black people and organizations:
The department has a “culture that is averse to oversight and accountability,” and city and department leaders have failed to act with “the necessary urgency, coordination, and intentionality required” to correct its problems, the investigation concluded.
The Minneapolis police have been under intense scrutiny since cellphone cameras captured the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer during an arrest on May 25, 2020. The state’s human rights investigation began about a week later. The department is under a similar investigation by the federal Justice Department.
Both investigations could result in consent decrees, agreements that are overseen by monitors and enforced by the courts. Such agreements generally include a long list of required changes, benchmarks and timelines. The state human rights department is seeking public comment on what such a consent decree should include.
Its investigation found that officers stopped, searched, arrested, ticketed, used force on and killed Black and Indigenous people at a higher rate than white people. Although Black individuals make up approximately 19 percent of the population, in 10 years of data, 63 percent of the instances where officers recorded the use of force were against Black people, the report said.
The department did not have enough data to look at treatment of other racial and ethnic groups, Rebecca Lucero, the state human rights commissioner, said at a news conference.
Investigators reviewed 700 hours of body camera footage, finding that officers and supervisors used racist, misogynistic and disrespectful language to suspects, witnesses and bystanders. The disrespect was so flagrant that local prosecutors said it was difficult to present body camera videos to juries, according to the report: “When M.P.D. officers scream obscenities at community members, it makes it challenging for prosecutors to do their job.”
Officers used “covert social media accounts,” which the report said were “unrelated to any actual or alleged criminal activity,” to observe and engage with elected officials, Black individuals and organizations, sometimes posing as community members to engage or comment. In one instance, the report said, an officer used a fake name to send a critical message to the N.A.A.C.P.
Mr. Floyd was killed after two rookie officers responded to a call that he had tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Mr. Floyd declined to get into the squad car. A field training officer, Derek Chauvin, and his partner arrived to provide backup. Mr. Chauvin forced Mr. Floyd to the pavement and knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, while his partner stood guard and the two rookies helped pin Mr. Floyd down.
Gothamist reports that New York’s top court threw out the state’s new congressional district lines Wednesday, ruling Democrats gerrymandered them to their favor and failed to follow proper procedures in adopting the new maps:
The Court of Appeals issued a split decision, clearing the way for a court-appointed special master to draw new congressional and state Senate maps.
The ruling marked a major victory for Republicans in New York and nationally, rejecting a congressional map that would have given Democrats – who are clinging to a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives – an enrollment edge in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts.
But the decision throws New York’s election process into disarray.
The state’s primary elections are currently scheduled for June 28. But the court acknowledged its ruling will likely require the state to push that date back – though it allowed for the possibility that the governor and lieutenant governor primaries to remain in place.
“Although it will likely be necessary to move the congressional and senate primary elections to August, New York routinely held a bifurcated primary until recently, with some primaries occurring as late as September,” Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
Four of the state’s seven Court of Appeals judges agreed with the majority opinion, while three dissented in whole or in part. All seven judges were appointed by Democratic governors.
The ruling comes after Republicans sued to challenge the lines earlier this year. Democrats who control the state Legislature drew the maps in January after a new, bipartisan panel called the Independent Redistricting Commission, or IRC, failed to complete its work.
Donald Trump is appealing a New York judge’s decision to hold the former president in contempt of court and fine him $10,000 per day for failing to comply with a subpoena for evidence in the state attorney general’s civil investigation into his business dealings, The Associated Press reports:
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, filed a notice of appeal Wednesday with the appellate division of the state’s trial court — the second time in two months that Trump has sought to overturn Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling against him in a subpoena matter.
In court papers, Habba questioned the legal basis for Engoron’s contempt ruling Monday, arguing that Trump had responded properly to the subpoena and that Attorney General Letitia James’ office failed to show his conduct “was calculated to defeat, impair, impede, or prejudice” its investigation.
James’ office refused to engage in “good-faith discussions” before seeking to have Trump fined, Habba argued. In a statement after the ruling Monday, Habba said: “All documents responsive to the subpoena were produced to the attorney general months ago.”
In a statement Wednesday, James said Engoron’s order was clear on Trump being in contempt of court.
“We’ve seen this playbook before, and it has never stopped our investigation of Mr. Trump and his organization,” James said. “This time is no different.”
In another subpoena fight, Trump is challenging Engoron’s Feb. 17 ruling requiring that he answer questions under oath. James has said that the probe uncovered evidence that Trump may have misstated the value of assets like skyscrapers and golf courses for more than a decade. Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for May 11.
Along with its subpoena for Trump’s testimony, James’ office issued a subpoena for numerous documents, including paperwork and communications pertaining to his financial statements, financing and debt for a Chicago hotel project and development plans for his Seven Springs Estate north of New York City, and even communications with Forbes magazine, where he sought to burnish his image as a wealthy businessman.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that the United States is out of the ‘pandemic’ phase of COVID-19, The Washington Post reports:
“We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity,” Fauci told The Washington Post.
Fauci’s comments came a day after he told PBS’s “NewsHour” that he believed the country is “out of the pandemic phase,” and he expanded on, and clarified, that view Wednesday, making clear that the pandemic is not over and the United States could still see new waves of infections as the virus continues to mutate and spin off highly transmissible variants. But Fauci and other infectious-disease experts are hoping that the population has built up enough immunity from previous infections and vaccinations to avoid another devastating surge in hospitalizations and deaths.
Despite that, Fauci has decided not to attend the upcoming White House Correspondents' Dinner, according to CBS News.
Axios: Why Vice President Harris is taking COVID pills despite not having symptoms.
POLITICO reports that more than half of Americans have been infected with COVID-19, according to CDC data.
More than 1,400 people, including President Biden, attended the funeral of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Wednesday. Video of the service via The Washington Post:
The Miami Herald reports that Florida lawmakers apparently failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that created Disney’s special district that says the state could not do what legislators were doing — unless the district’s bond debt was paid off:
Disney, however, noticed and the Reedy Creek Improvement District quietly sent a note to its investors to show that it was confident the Legislature’s attempt to dissolve the special taxing district operating the 39-square mile parcel it owned in two counties violated the “pledge” the state made when it enacted the district in 1967, and therefore was not legal.
The result, Reedy Creek told its investors, is that it would continue to go about business as usual.
The statement, posted on the website of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on April 21 by the Reedy Creek Improvement District, is the only public statement Disney has supplied since lawmakers unleashed their fury over the company’s vocal opposition to the “Parental Rights in Education” law, also known as the “don’t say gay” bill.
The statement, first reported by WESH 2, quotes the statute which says, in part, that the “State of Florida pledges...it will not limit or alter the rights of the District...until all such bonds together with interest thereon...are fully met and discharged.”
Reedy Creek’s statement says, “In light of the State of Florida’s pledge to the District’s bondholders, Reedy Creek expects to explore its options while continuing its present operations, including levying and collecting its ad valorem taxes and collecting its utility revenues, paying debt service on its ad valorem tax bonds and utility revenue bonds, complying with its bond covenants and operating and maintaining its properties.’’
In essence, the state had a contractual obligation not to interfere with the district until the bond debt is paid off, said Jake Schumer, a municipal attorney in the Maitland law firm of Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand, in an article for Bloomberg Tax posted on Tuesday and cited in a Law and Crime article.
Russia has cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine, The Associated Press reports:
A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most essential export as leverage against two of Kyiv’s staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news.
The tactic could eventually force targeted nations to resort to gas rationing and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.
Western leaders and analysts portrayed the move by the Kremlin as a bid to both punish and divide the allies so as to undermine their united support for Ukraine.
Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. It has also been a vocal proponent of sanctions against the Kremlin.
Microsoft said Wednesday in a report that Russia has carried out hundreds of cyber operations, including destructive attacks, against Ukraine throughout its invasion, Axios reports.
CBS News reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited by Indonesian President Joko Widodo to attend this year's G20 summit in Bali, which Russian President Vladimir Putin may also attend.
New details have emerged in the death of 10-year-old Lily Peters, who officials say was sexually assaulted after her strangling death at the hands of a boy four years her senior earlier this week in Wisconsin, Fox News reports:
Judge Benjamin Lane agreed to prosecutors' request to set bond at $1 million and ordered the defendant to avoid contact with minors, except his siblings, so long as such contact is supervised.
Prosecutors identified the suspect through his initials and only as a 14-year-old boy and alleged that the eighth-grader admitted to physically assaulting the child before strangling her to death and then sexually assaulting her.
"Protection of [the] community also is necessary in this case given his statements regarding his intentions and his statements regarding that when he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death -- before he then sexually assaulted her," Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell told the judge at the bond hearing.
Attorneys for the teen suspect requested $100,000 cash bond, arguing he is not a flight risk due to him being too young to drive.
The suspect was being held in a juvenile detention facility and appeared in court remotely.
Lily’s remains were sent across state lines to the much larger jurisdiction of Ramsey County, Minnesota, which includes the city of St. Paul, where the autopsy was performed. Officials there said the results would be announced by authorities in her hometown.
CNET reports that Apple on Wednesday followed through on its plans to begin publicly releasing repair manuals for some of its products, in addition to selling parts and tools online:
The tech giant's new program, called Self Service Repair, is starting out for US customers with Apple's iPhone 13 line of smartphones, the iPhone 12 and new iPhone SE. Apple said it designed the program to offer adventurous and capable people access to the same parts, tools and instructions it gives to its own certified technicians and partner repair shops, hopefully making it easier for people to repair devices instead of resorting to buying a new one.
"We believe we have a responsibility to customers and the environment to offer convenient access to safe, reliable, and secure repairs to help customers get the most out of their devices," the company wrote in a document published Wednesday that outlines its plans.
Apple's do-it-yourself program comes at a time when it and the larger tech industry are under pressure to allow people the choice to repair their devices at home for lower costs, an idea that's often called Right to Repair.
The larger Right to Repair movement has been gaining steam in the past couple years. It's become a popular topic on social media sites, including through videos of tech influencers teaching people how to repair various devices. Lawmakers and voters in states across the US are increasingly considering and passing laws forcing companies to change their approach as well, particularly by publishing repair manuals and giving customers access to diagnostic tools for the products they buy.
NYT: Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday released a report alleging that top Trump administration officials had awarded a $700 million pandemic relief loan to a struggling trucking company in 2020 over the objections of career officials at the Defense Department.
Axios: Richard Olson, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, has been criminally charged for his alleged role in an undisclosed lobbying campaign for the Qatari government.
CBS News: Chief Justice John Roberts delivered Wednesday a brief, touching tribute to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer at the end of what was the final oral argument session of Breyer's 28-year tenure on the high court.
WLOX-TV: The man suspected of killing three people at a Biloxi, Mississippi, hotel Wednesday morning is now dead following a two hour standoff with police.
AP: Southern California’s gigantic water supplier took the unprecedented step Tuesday of requiring about 6 million people to cut their outdoor watering to one day a week as drought continues to plague the state.
Axios: Boeing's CEO said Wednesday the manufacturer should have not agreed to former President Trump's proposed deal to build two new Air Force One aircrafts.
Watch for some important earnings reports after the closing bell today, including from Meta and Ford, per CNBC. Here’s how stocks are doing as we hit publish right before trading ends for the day:
