Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It's the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”

The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.

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Watchdog finds FBI intelligence missteps before Jan. 6 riot, but no undercover agents were present

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI should have done more to gather intelligence before the Capitol riot, according to a watchdog report Thursday that also said no undercover FBI employees were on the scene on Jan. 6, 2021, and none of the bureau’s informants was authorized to participate.

The report from the Justice Department inspector general's office knocks down a fringe conspiracy theory advanced by some Republicans in Congress that the FBI played a role in instigating the events that day, when rioters determined to overturn Republican Donald Trump's 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden stormed the building in a violent clash with police.

The review, released nearly four years after a dark chapter in history that shook the bedrock of American democracy, was narrow in scope, but aimed to shed light on gnawing questions that have dominated public discourse, including whether major intelligence failures preceded the riot and whether the FBI in some way provoked the violence. It's the latest major investigation about a day unlike any other in U.S. history, one that has already yielded congressional inquiries and federal and state indictments.

The report offers a mixed assessment of the FBI's performance in the run-up to the riot, crediting the bureau for preparing for the possibility of violence and for trying to identify known “domestic terrorism subjects” who planned to come to Washington that day.

But it said the FBI, in an action the now-deputy director described as a “basic step that was missed,” failed to canvass informants across all 56 of its field offices for any relevant intelligence. That was a step, the report concluded, “that could have helped the FBI and its law enforcement partners with their preparations in advance of January 6.”

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Back trouble and brain fog bothered suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing, his posts show

After Luigi Mangione made the difficult decision to undergo spinal surgery last year for chronic back pain, he became a proponent of the procedure that changed his life for the better.

He repeatedly posted on Reddit about his recovery and offered words of encouragement for people with similar conditions, telling them to push back against doctors who suggested they had to live with pain.

But notably absent from the posts are explicit concerns about corporate greed in the health insurance industry. Those appear to have surfaced only later: in a handwritten note found after Mangione was detained as a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

That short document references “parasites” in the health care system and laments the power and profits of health insurers, according to law enforcement officials. During his first public words since his arrest in Pennsylvania, Mangione emerged from a patrol car shouting about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people” while sheriff’s deputies pushed him into a courthouse.

There’s no indication Mangione was ever insured by UnitedHealthcare, a senior New York City police official said in an interview Thursday with NBC New York.

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Drone operators worry that anxiety over mystery sightings will lead to new restrictions

Drones for commercial and recreational use have grown rapidly in popularity, despite restrictions on who can operate them and where they can be flown.

No-fly zones are enforced around airports, military installations, nuclear plants, certain landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, and sports stadiums during games.

Not everybody follows the rules. Sightings at airports have shut down flights in a few instances.

Reported sightings of what appear to be drones flying over New Jersey at night in recent weeks have created anxiety among some residents, in part because it is not clear who is operating them or why. Some state and local officials have called for stricter rules to govern drones.

After receiving reports of drone activity last month near Morris County, New Jersey, the Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary bans on drone flights over a golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, that is owned by President-elect Donald Trump, and over Picatinny Arsenal Military Base. The FAA says the bans are in response to requests from “federal security partners.”

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Highlights from Trump's interview with Time magazine

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was on the verge of backing a 16-week federal abortion ban earlier this year when aides staged an intervention.

According to Time magazine's cover story on his selection as its 2024 Person of the Year, Trump's aides first raised concerns in mid-March that the abortion cutoff being pushed by some allies would be stricter than existing law in numerous states. It was seen as a potential political liability amid ongoing fallout over the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that includes three justices nominated by Trump in his first term.

Trump political director James Blair went to work assembling a slide deck — eventually titled “How a national abortion ban will cost Trump the election" — that argued a 16-week ban would hurt the Republican candidate in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the magazine reported.

“After flipping through Blair’s presentation" on a flight to a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in April, Trump dropped the idea, according to the report. "So we leave it to the states, right?" Trump was quoted as saying. He soon released a video articulating that position.

At the time, Trump’s campaign denied that he was considering supporting the 16-week ban, calling it “fake news” and saying Trump planned to “negotiate a deal” on abortion if elected to the White House.

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China's Xi is likely to decline Trump's inauguration invitation, seeing it as too risky to attend

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping would likely see President-elect Donald Trump’s invitation to attend his inauguration as too risky to accept, and the gesture from Trump may have little bearing on the increasingly competitive ties between the two nations as the White House changes hands, experts say.

Trump’s incoming press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed on Thursday that Trump extended an invitation to the Jan. 20 ceremony. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it had no information to provide. But experts don't see Xi coming to Washington next month.

“Can you imagine Xi Jinping sitting outdoors in Washington, D.C., in January at the feet of the podium, surrounded by hawkish members of Congress, gazing up at Donald Trump as he delivers his inaugural address?” said Danny Russel, who previously served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Xi would not allow himself to “be reduced to the status of a mere guest celebrating the triumph of a foreign leader — the U.S. president, no less.”

Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank, said Beijing will play it safe when there's no protocol or precedent for a Chinese leader to attend the inauguration of a U.S. president.

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US Olympic and Paralympic officials put coach on leave after AP reports sexual abuse allegations

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee placed an employee on administrative leave Thursday after The Associated Press reported that one of its coaches was accused of sexually abusing a young biathlete, causing her so much distress that she attempted suicide.

Rocky Harris, USOPC chief of sport and athlete services, sent an email to U.S. Biathlon national team members to address the “concerning allegations of abuse" raised by several biathletes in the AP report.

“We want to commend these athletes for their immense courage and strength in coming forward," the email said. “Effective immediately, we have placed a USOPC staff member on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.”

Harris did not name the employee, but Gary Colliander was the only USOPC coach named in the AP report. Jon Mason, a USOPC spokesperson, told the AP that no additional information would be released while the inquiry is underway.

“While we are currently in the process of gathering all the necessary information surrounding these complaints, we want to emphasize that abuse and misconduct have no place in our community," said the email, also sent to the AP.

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Israeli strike in Gaza kills 25 people as US makes new push for a ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 25 Palestinians and wounding dozens more, Palestinian medics said, as U.S. President Joe Biden’s two top national security officials were in the region making a renewed push for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

The strike on a multistory residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp was just the latest in a series of Israeli attacks throughout Gaza that killed at least 54 Palestinians since late Wednesday night.

Palestinian officials at two of Gaza's remaining medical centers, Al-Awda Hospital in the north and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the center, reported together receiving 25 bodies from the Nuseirat strike — which also wounded 40 people, most of them children.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the deadly strike. Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, which led the attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza. The Israeli military says Hamas militants hide among Gaza’s civilian population.

The U.N. General Assembly's member nations approved a new resolution this week demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they do reflect world opinion — the vote Wednesday was 158-9, with 13 abstentions.

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Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department and the city of Louisville have reached an agreement to reform the city’s police force after an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor and police treatment of protesters, officials said Thursday.

The consent decree, which must be approved by a judge, follows a federal investigation that found Louisville police have engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discrimination against the Black community.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the consent decree “builds upon and accelerates the transformational reform of community policing" in Louisville. He noted that “significant improvements” have already been implemented since Taylor's death in March 2020. That includes a city law banning the use of “no-knock” warrants, which were commonly used in late-night drug raids.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was roused from her bed by police who came through the door using a battering ram after midnight on March 13, 2020. Three officers fired shots after Taylor’s boyfriend, saying he feared an intruder, shot an officer in the leg. Taylor was struck several times and died in her hallway.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, attended the announcement but said she wants to see more action, not words, by city officials.

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Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace

NEW YORK (AP) — The December holidays are supposed to be a time of joyful celebration, but the season can be especially grueling for the millions of people who work in retail stores, staff airline counters and field complaints coming into call centers.

Instead of compassion or good cheer, service sector workers often encounter rude behavior from frazzled shoppers, irate customers demanding instant satisfaction and travelers fuming about flight delays and cancellations. And they must do their jobs to the mind-numbing soundtrack of nonstop Christmas music.

“Something happens around November and people just forget their manners,” Kathryn Harper, senior bookseller at New York bookstore McNally Jackson, said. “Please and thank you go a huge way. Being rude to us or snippy to us is not going to make us go any faster. It’s not going to make the thing that’s out of stock magically appear.”

Harper joined other members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union last month for a virtual news conference where they made a plea for the public's patience and self-control during the hectic weeks ahead.

“There’s a lot of disgruntled attitudes flying around this time of the year,” Cynthia Russo, who has worked at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan for nearly two decades, said. “I try to kill them with kindness, but yet I take a firm stand with not being abused verbally, because that can happen and it’s sad. My favorite line is, ‘Let’s start over.'"

News from © The Associated Press, 2024