A 14-year-old whose family said he had eaten a chip made with two of the hottest peppers in the world died of cardiopulmonary arrest, according to a medical examiner’s report released on Thursday, which noted that he had eaten a spicy substance and had a heart condition.
The report found that the teenager, Harris Wolobah of Worcester, Mass., died on Sept. 1 of “cardiopulmonary arrest in the setting of recent ingestion of food substance with high capsaicin concentration in a person with cardiomegaly and myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery.”
Capsaicin is the chemical compound found in chili peppers that causes a burning sensation. Cardiomegaly is commonly known as an enlarged heart. And myocardial bridging refers to a coronary artery that passes through a band of heart muscle instead of lying on top of it.
The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said the manner of death “could not be determined.” Examples of the manner of death in other cases include “natural,” “accident” and “homicide.”
Lois Wolobah, Harris’s mother, declined to comment on the report on Thursday. She has said previously that she believed that the single Paqui brand tortilla chip that her son ate hours before he died jeopardized his health.
The chip, dusted with two very hot peppers, the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper, had a label on the box that read, “One Chip Challenge” and carried a warning — “Inside: One Extremely Hot Chip.” It came in a coffin-shaped box that bore an image of a skull with a snake coiled around it.
Marketing materials for the chip dared customers to wait as long as possible after eating the chip before eating or drinking anything, and then to post their reactions on social media.
In an interview in September, Ms. Wolobah said that her son’s school had called to report that he was sick and that she should pick him up. When she arrived, Harris was clutching his stomach in the nurse’s office, she said.
Ms. Wolobah said she took her son home, but after about two hours he passed out and was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
Paqui chips were made by Amplify Snack Brands, a subsidiary of the Hershey Company.
About a week after Harris’s death, the company said it was pulling the chip from store shelves “out of an abundance of caution” and that it was offering refunds for the product, which was priced at about $9.99 for a single serving.
“We were and remain deeply saddened by the death of Harris Wolobah and extend our condolences to his family and friends,” Paqui said in a statement on Thursday. “Paqui’s One Chip Challenge was intended for adults only, with clear and prominent labeling highlighting that the product was not for children or anyone sensitive to spicy foods or with underlying health conditions.”
After the company said it “saw increased reports of teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings,” it worked with retailers to remove the product from shelves, and “the One Chip Challenge has been discontinued.”
The agreement by President Biden and Donald J. Trump to move ahead with two presidential debates — and sideline the Commission on Presidential Debates — is a debilitating and potentially fatal blow to an institution that had once been a major arbiter in presidential politics.
But the roots of the commission’s decline go back at least a decade and came to a head in 2020, when the commission struggled to stage a debate with Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden during the pandemic.
The candidates’ first encounter that year was caustic and raucous, as Mr. Trump shouted over Mr. Biden and the moderator. “I’m a pro: I’ve never been through anything like this,” the moderator, Chris Wallace, said.
As it later turned out, Mr. Trump had a Covid diagnosis days before the event, leading to strong objections from the Biden campaign to the commission. The second debate was canceled by Mr. Trump after the commission sought to make it virtual because Mr. Trump was recovering from the illness. By the third debate, the commission gave the moderator a mute button to cut off a candidate who broke the rules.
But even before then, the commission has been on political thin ice. Anita Dunn, a longtime senior adviser to Mr. Biden, helped write a 2015 report that called for the debates to be updated for a modern media environment. Mr. Trump accused the nonpartisan commission, created by the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in 1987, of bias toward the Democrats. The Republican National Committee announced in 2022 that it would not work with the commission.
“The campaigns have always wanted to take the debates back for themselves,” said Alan Schroeder, a professor emeritus at the Northeastern University School of Journalism in Boston, who has written several books about presidential debates. “They have been trying for years to get rid of the commission. So we are back to the future with this and back to a future that didn’t work that well.”
Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., who as Republican Party chairman helped create the commission and is now its co-chair, said in an interview that he was stunned by the campaigns’ decision to bypass the organization — and skeptical about how it might work.
“I would love to be a fly on the wall when the campaigns start to get together to go over the details of this,” he said. “Who sits where, who is the moderator, who is there, where these are. We were created to do all of this.”
Indeed, the commission was created to insert a bipartisan and empowered negotiator into the planning, covering matters such as moderator choices, how many guests each campaign could bring into the studio and the height of the lecterns the candidates stood behind.
It took over from the League of Women Voters, which had overseen the debates for a decade and was criticized for its lack of success in managing the demands of campaign operatives maneuvering for advantage. In 1984, the campaigns of Ronald Reagan, the Republican president, and Walter F. Mondale, his Democratic challenger, vetoed the names of 100 journalists suggested as panel questioners.
“The problem was that the league didn’t have a lot of clout against the campaign so the campaigns tended to run roughshod over them when it came to details of the format, the schedule, whether there would be a live audience,” Mr. Schroeder said.
The commission pushed aside practices that had evolved since the first televised presidential debates, in 1960, between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Panels of questioners, which made it more difficult to stay focused on a topic, or allow for follow-up, were replaced by a single moderator. The commission decided who could participate and where the debates would be held, and made sure that they would be televised on all the major networks.
Locations, dates and the focus of the debate — would they be about foreign policy or domestic issues — were announced well in advance, with the idea of making it harder for the campaign to try to influence the rules of the game.
“I am a fan of the commission,” said Gibbs Knotts, a professor of political science at the College of Charleston. “They have a consistent record of good work. It’s unfortunate if it’s going to be returned back to the campaigns; there will be more strategic calculations going on and less overall what’s in the best interest in the American public.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden were quick to agree on the dates and networks sponsoring the debates, but tough negotiations lie ahead. Mr. Biden wants debates without an audience and with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker exceeds his allotted time. It’s unclear whether Mr. Trump has agreed to those terms.
It is also unresolved whether the debate would be carried exclusively on the host network, or shared with other broadcasters and streamers. One of the sponsors, ABC, said it would allow other networks to show the debates as well; CNN, at least initially, said it would not.
For viewers, there might be no obvious difference between a commission-organized debate and one negotiated by the candidates and a network.
“A debate is a live program. It doesn’t have a script. Because as history has shown us over and over again, the debates have a mind of their own and take on a life of their own,” Mr. Schroeder said.
Despite the years of discontent, Mr. Fahrenkopf said the commission was caught off guard by Mr. Biden’s proposal on Wednesday. “We had no head’s up,” he said. But he said he was hopeful the campaigns, after taking into account how difficult these negotiations can be, will ultimately allow the commission to step in and run the show.
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a smaller and separate island that is home to a university, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries, although officials said one person on the barge was knocked into the water and quickly rescued.
The bridge that leads to Pelican Island, north of Galveston, was struck by the barge around 9:50 a.m. when a tugboat backing out of Texas International Terminals, a fuel storage operator next to the bridge, lost control of two barges it was pushing, said David Flores, a bridge superintendent with the Galveston County Navigation District.
“The current was very bad, and the tide was high. He lost it,” Flores said.
One of the barges hit the bridge and two telephone poles, he said.
The accident came weeks after a cargo ship crashed into a support column of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.
The accident Wednesday knocked one man off the vessel and into the water, but he was quickly recovered and was not injured, said Galveston County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Ray Nolen.
The tugboat was pushing bunker barges, which are fuel barges for ships, Flores said. The accident resulted in oil spilling from the barge into the bay and crews were working to clean it up, he said. The barge, which is owned by Martin Petroleum, has a 30,000-gallon capacity, but it’s not clear how much leaked into the bay, said Galveston County spokesperson Spencer Lewis. He said about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of the waterway was shut down as a result of the spill.
Pelican Island, which is connected to Galveston by the bridge, is home to a large shipyard, Texas A&M University of Galveston, and Seawolf Park, a former immigration station that now attracts tourists to its iconic fishing pier and decommissioned U.S. Navy vessels.
Fire trucks drove over the bridge as workers and law enforcement officials looked at the remnants of the collapsed rail line. Aerial footage showed a large piece of broken concrete and debris from the railroad hanging off the side of the bridge and laying on the barge that officials said rammed into the passageway.
Flores said the rail line only serves as protection for the structure and has never been used.
A statement posted on the City of Galveston’s Facebook page said there were no reports of injuries and that the island is currently inaccessible to car traffic.
“Engineers from the Texas Department of Transportation are also enroute to inspect the roadway and determine if there is damage,” the statement said. “The bridge will remain closed until it is deemed safe to use.”
One business, Baywatch Dolphin Tours, said they were seeking the university’s approval to shuttle people off the island and were planning how to provide a long-term service while bridge repairs are underway.
Opened in 1960, the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge was rated as “Poor” according to the Federal Highway Administration’s 2023 National Bridge Inventory released last June.
The overall rating of a bridge is based on whether the condition of any of its individual components — the deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert, if present — is rated poor or below.
In the case of the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge, inspectors rated the deck in “Satisfactory Condition,” the substructure in “Fair Condition” and the superstructure — or the component that absorbs the live traffic load — in “Poor Condition.”
The bridge has one main steel span that measures 164 feet (50 meters), and federal data shows it was last inspected in December 2021. However, it’s unclear from the data if a state inspection took place after the Federal Highway Administration compiled the data.
The bridge had an average daily traffic figure of about 9,100, according to a 2011 estimate.
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Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press reporters Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas; and Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is targeting the Ortega-Murillo regime’s repression of the Nicaraguan people and its ability to manipulate the gold sector and profit from corrupt operations. Treasury is imposing sanctions on three Nicaragua-based entities, the Training Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Managua (RTC); Compania Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anónima (COMINTSA); and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, Sociedad Anónima (Capital Mining),pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13851, as amended.
The RTC is a Nicaragua-based subdivision of the Government of the Russian Federation’s (GOR) Ministry of Internal Affairs, which trains those under the Ortega-Murillo regime’s command under the Russian authoritarian government’s playbook of oppression. It is a key actor in the Nicaraguan regime’s repression of civil society and unjust detention and imprisonment of individuals for expressing dissent, or otherwise peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The designations of COMINTSA and Capital Mining target government-affiliated gold companies generating revenue for the Ortega-Murillo regime. Gold is Nicaragua’s top commodity export, and this action aims to degrade the ability of the Ortega-Murillo regime to manipulate the sector and profit from the corrupt operations of COMINTSA and Capital Mining.
“By leveraging the training it receives from the Russia-backed RTC and the revenue it generates from exploiting the gold sector, the Ortega-Murillo regime has continued its anti-democratic campaign of repression against its citizens,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson. “The United States remains committed to using our tools to support the Nicaraguan people, including by constraining the Ortega-Murillo regime’s ability to fund its oppressive and destabilizing activities.”
These actions are being taken these in response to the Ortega-Murillo regime’s continued repression of the people of Nicaragua and continued exploitation of vulnerable migrants, including via the facilitation and profiting off of irregular migration to the United States.
The Training Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Managua
Nicaragua is one of Russia’s main partners in Central America, as evidenced by a series of high-level visits to Managua by representatives of the GOR. Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs established a training center in Managua to provide specialized courses for the Nicaraguan National Police (NNP) and law enforcement of other Latin American countries. OFAC designated the NNP, the primary law enforcement entity in Nicaragua, on March 5, 2020, pursuant to E.O. 13851 for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse in Nicaragua. The NNP was also designated pursuant to the Nicaraguan Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of 2018 for being responsible for or complicit in, or responsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, or having knowingly participated in, directly or indirectly, significant acts of violence or conduct that constitutes a serious abuse or violation of human rights against persons associated with the protests in Nicaragua in April 2018.
Since its opening in Managua in October 2017, the RTC has been operating in Managua, training members of the NNP as part of a bilateral engagement between Nicaragua and Russia, Russian law enforcement officials at the RTC have trained members of the NNP, which has enabled the regime’s brutal repressive tactics, training the NNP to conduct repression and tyrannical persecution in support of persecutions of the Nicaraguan people. The NNP is a central actor in the Ortega-Murillo regime’s violent oppression of the Nicaraguan people. The RTC’s support of the NNP helps maintain the cycle of violent oppression in Nicaragua. The NNP is a repressive state apparatus, carrying out extrajudicial killings, using live ammunition against peaceful protests, and even participating in death squads. The RTC in Nicaragua, by admission of President Ortega himself, trains Nicaraguan law enforcement officers to better confront “coup plotters,” referring to those citizens who dare to publicly voice their opposition to the regime.
The RTC is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13851, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, the NNP.
Compania Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anónima (COMINTSA)
COMINTSA is a Nicaraguan mining company and one of several regime-aligned companies that operate or have operated in Nicaragua’s gold sector. Having revoked the license for operations from another artisanal mining company, the General Directorate of Mines granted COMINTSA concession areas for exploration and extraction of gold in the in the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua in 2023. COMINTSA is reportedly owned and led by Salvador Mansell Castrillo (Mansell Castrillo), who is under OFAC sanctions.
On November 15, 2021, OFAC designated Mansell Castrillo pursuant to E.O. 13851 for having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007. Subsequently, on October 24, 2022, OFAC designated the General Directorate of Mines pursuant to E.O. 13851 for being owned or controlled by or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Mansell Castrillo.
COMINTSA is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13851, as amended, for operating or having operated in the gold sector of the Nicaraguan economy.
Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, Sociedad Anónima
Capital Mining is a Nicaraguan mining company and one of several regime-aligned companies that operate in Nicaragua’s gold sector. Capital Mining is an intermediary in the gold sector controlled by Laureano Ortega Murillo (Ortega Murillo), the son of President Ortega and Vice President Murillo, and Mansell Castrillo that is known to charge some gold mining companies to do business in Nicaragua. On April 17, 2019, OFAC designated Ortega Murillo pursuant to E.O. 13851 for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua or having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007.
Capital Miningis being designated pursuant to E.O. 13851, as amended, for operating or having operated in the gold sector of the Nicaraguan economy.
Travel Industry Advisory
In addition to the sanctions issued by OFAC today, the United States Department of State is issuing over 250 visa restrictions for Nicaraguan officials, and the Departments of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security are jointly releasing an advisory to alert the travel industry of the ways in which smugglers are facilitating illegal migration to the United States and remind the industry of key steps that they should take to avoid complicity in the exploitation of migrants.
This action reflects U.S. efforts to promote responsible practices in the industry, prevent and disrupt illicit activity, and enhance compliance with lawful immigration and migration pathways.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.
In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with the sanctioned entities and individuals may expose themselves to sanctions or be subject to an enforcement action. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC’s ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC’s Frequently Asked Question 897. For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list.
Two blackouts triggered by the unexpected tripping of electrical breakers caused a container ship to slam into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, sending it tumbling into Baltimore Harbor and killing six people, federal investigators said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board report said the 947-foot Singapore-flagged Dali suffered a pair of power losses in the minutes before it struck the bridge, leaving the ship without propulsion to help steer away from one of the bridge's piers. After radioing for help, the crew dropped its anchor in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a collision.
But it was too late: A crew member told investigators that as he was releasing a brake on the anchor, he had to escape the collapsing bridge.
The NTSB is still investigating factors that might have played a role in the crash, including the design and operation of the Dali's power distribution system, which includes the breakers, the report said.
The report noted, however, that tests of the Dali's fuel did not identify any quality concerns. The NTSB is also helping local authorities decide whether the protection of bridge piers in the harbor need to be improved, the report said.
The Dali, which had been chartered by the Danish shipping giant Maersk, was bound for Sri Lanka when it struck the bridge at 1:28 a.m. March 26. Minutes before the crash, the ship's lights went out, then briefly flickered back on, and black smoke billowed from the stack — signs of the power losses.
The catastrophe took seconds, as captured by video that showed cars and trucks on the bridge just before impact.
The preliminary NTSB report also revealed that the Dali had suffered a blackout 10 hours before the collision during in-port maintenance. That blackout was triggered by a mistake by a crew member, the report said.
The connection between the earlier blackout and the one that preceded the deadly accident remains under investigation, the NTSB said in its report.
The report noted that just before the Dali departed the port, its captain told a local pilot assigned to guide the ship out of the harbor that the ship was in good working order.
Two tugboats assisted the Dali as it left the dock and into the harbor, then pulled away, according to the report. The pilot handed control of the ship to an apprentice, and not long after, the first blackout occurred. The senior pilot took back control.
An emergency generator restored power to the Dali, and the pilots called for help from a tugboat. The pilot ordered the anchor to be dropped. The pilot's dispatcher called police and the Coast Guard.
A second blackout then hobbled the Dali, and again, a generator restored power. But there was no propulsion to assist with steering.
One of the pilots got on marine radio to warn other boats. Police ordered the bridge closed to traffic, leaving only the roadwork crew on the span.
The Dali then hit the bridge.
It is rare for ships of that size to lose power and rarer still for it to happen in a narrow channel near the pillars of a major bridge. A last-minute mayday and quick actions on the ground most likely averted a much higher casualty count.
A weekslong search turned up the bodies of the six construction workers, that last of which was recovered May 7. The NTSB and the FBI opened investigations into the collapse. The city of Baltimore filed a legal claim against the Dali's owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and its manager, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., alleging negligence and full liability for the collapse.
In paststatements, Synergy and Grace Ocean have expressed sympathy "to everyone affected and their families" but have declined to comment on the cause of the crash, noting the unfinished investigations and the ongoing legal proceedings. Maersk has said in statements that its "thoughts are with all parties impacted by the situation" but stressed that it neither owned nor operated the Dali. Maersk has said it would conduct an investigation of its own.
On Monday, precision explosive charges dismantled a span of the bridge that had come down on the container ship, finally freeing the vessel.
President Joe Biden has vowed that the government will help rebuild the bridge as soon as possible, as the Port of Baltimore is a major part of the Northeast economy and the busiest port for car imports and exports.
In this aerial view, a steel truss from the destroyed Francis Scott Key Bridge that was pinning the container ship Dali in place was detached from the ship using a controlled detonation of explosives in the Patapsco River on Monday in Baltimore, Md. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The container ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge had electrical problems the day before it left the Port of Baltimore when it was docked, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Dali experienced a "blackout" during maintenance about ten hours before leaving the port, the NTSB wrote in its report, when "a crewmember mistakenly closed an inline engine exhaust damper," causing the engine to stall.
The crew was able to restore power before the ship suffered a second blackout, investigators said. That prompted the crew to change the configuration of the ship's electrical system while still in port on March 25th.
But the NTSB says it's still not clear how those incidents relate to what happened early the following morning, when the Dali lost power twice in the minutes before it crashed into one of the bridge's supports.
"The NTSB is still investigating the electrical configuration following the first in-port blackout and potential impacts on the events during the accident voyage," the report says.
After the Dali lost power, authorities rushed to close the Key Bridge to traffic. Six construction workers were killed when the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River, cutting off most maritime traffic into Baltimore's busy port and severing an interstate highway that carried 34,000 vehicles per day.
The effort to free the Dali took a major step forward this week with the controlled demolition of the largest remaining span of the collapsed bridge, which was resting on top of the ship's bow. Crews set off a chain of carefully placed explosives on Monday, letting off plumes of black smoke and a loud boom as the mangled steel trusses crashed into the water below.
Salvage crews continue to remove wreckage from the Dali six weeks after the cargo ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The next step is to refloat the Dali so that it can be guided to a nearby terminal at the port for temporary repairs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has opened a temporary alternate channel, and it is still working to restore a deeper channel for large container ships that typically use the port.
State and federal officials have pledged to rebuild the Key Bridge, but they acknowledge it won't be easy or quick. Meanwhile the legal fight over who will ultimately pay to replace the bridge is underway.
The NTSB and the FBI are separately investigating the incident. Their findings could play an important role in determining who is ultimately held liable for the accident.
From the NTSB's report, it appears that the harbor pilots who were in control of the vessel at the time of the accident were not aware of the ship's recent electrical problems.
"The senior pilot asked about the vessel's condition, and the captain reported that the ship was in good working order," according to the report.
Investigators at the NTSB say they analyzed samples of the fuel that was being burned at the time of the accident, as well as other fuel tanks on the vessel. But those results did not identify any concerns relating to the quality of the fuel, investigators said.
The NTSB says it's working with the Maryland Transportation Authority to assess its other bridges and to determine whether pier protection measures need to be improved. The MDTA is studying options for upgrades to the existing protection system around both spans of the Bay Bridge that connect Annapolis to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, according to the report.
"The NTSB investigation of all aspects of the accident is ongoing as we determine the probable cause," the report says.
Twelve minutes into a health forum discussion for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander organizations, Kamala Harris on Monday offered a punchy piece of advice to younger members of the audience.
“We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open,” the US vice-president said. “Sometimes they won’t, and then you need to kick that fucking door down.”
Harris, who is out front for the Biden-Harris re-election campaign on women’s and reproductive rights, made the remarks at a leadership summit at which she also described how her parents had met at a civil rights march.
Harris’s remark came as she was describing the importance of breaking down barriers and being the first to do it.
“Here’s the thing about breaking down barriers. It does not mean that you start on one side of the barrier and end up on another,” she said. “There’s breaking involved. And when you break things you get cut and you may bleed. And it is worth it every time.”
But while presidents and vice-presidents do not customarily use profanity, it is becoming more common, though often in private or leaked conversations. Joe Biden recently referred to rival Donald Trump as “a sick fuck”, and to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as a “bad fucking guy” and an “asshole.”
Harry Truman once explained his firing of the insubordinate but popular Gen Douglas MacArthur by saying, “I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals.”
Lyndon Johnson swore so much that it would be impossible to document all of it, according to a recent essay by the historian Tevi Troy in the City Journal, including the lament: “I don’t know what the fuck to do about Vietnam.”
According to the survey, US presidential cursing is common when referring to Netanyahu. In 1996, Bill Clinton once fumed, “Who’s the fucking leader of the free world?” Trump said “fuck him”, after Netanyahu acknowledged Biden’s election victory in 2020.
But few of those were meant as calls to action, leaving Harris, as she said in her discussion, “breaking down barriers”.
A Louisiana church avoided possible tragedy Saturday when several churchgoers confronted an armed teen who entered the church during a First Holy Communion service for 60 children.
The 16-year-old has been charged with a count of terrorizing and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile, according to the Abbeville Police Department, after he entered the back door of St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church, about 20 miles south of Lafayette.
Nearly two weeks after a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, was attacked by counterprotesters, university officials still have not explained why security officers stood by for hours while the attack was underway, nor have the authorities arrested any of those who swarmed in wielding metal rods, water bottles and firecrackers in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the college protests that have rocked the country.
The extent of the policing failure has become clearer in recent days, as witnesses have come forward to describe a chaotic night of violence on April 30, in which students and bystanders repeatedly called 911 and nonemergency lines, finding little help and calls that were disconnected. A dispatcher told one caller pleading for help that they were ending the call because “I have actual emergencies to handle.”
One man was filmed by a local television station on the phone with emergency dispatchers, alerting them that people were getting hurt. “Security has abandoned this encampment,” he could be heard saying before lowering his phone and looking at it. “They just hung up on me again,” he said incredulously.
Miles away in Sacramento, staff members in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office contacted the U.C.L.A. chancellor’s office shortly after 11 p.m. to make sure that law enforcement officers were responding to the scene, and were assured that more officers were coming, according to a person familiar with the situation, who described the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make them public.
But as the night wore on and there was still no intervention, the person said, the governor’s office moved to circumvent local authority and ordered California Highway Patrol officers to the campus. The state officers began assembling on campus at 1:45 a.m., a few moments before L.A.P.D. riot police arrived, but it took another hour to quell the clashes.
The chancellor’s office, the L.A.P.D. and an outside consultant hired to investigate the tardy response have all declined to discuss it, pending the outcome of an inquiry that could take weeks or months. The campus police chief, John Thomas, also did not comment. He told The Los Angeles Times that he had relied on private security officers who were not authorized to make arrests, but that he had done “everything I could” to keep students safe.
To understand what happened, New York Times journalists conducted interviews with several people who were at the protests that night, including two people who were involved in the counterprotest; reviewed and analyzed video footage; and spoke with organizations involved in both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli movements on campus.
The review found no public callouts for such a violent attack and no clear signs that one group coordinated the attack, though some people had arrived wearing black clothes and masks and seemingly prepared for violence. There was also no indication that the police had prepared for the kind of severe assault on the encampment that took place.
Instead, it appeared that contract security officers who did not have sufficient authority or numbers to halt the escalating melee had been caught by surprise and left to wait for reinforcements that did not arrive for hours.
“Either the university was hesitant to do anything to get law enforcement involved, or law enforcement was dealing with authorization issues and political considerations from elected officials,” said Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner who is familiar with crowd control policing issues. “And then things got out of hand.”
Despite growing concern on campus about the pro-Palestinian encampment, complaints about antisemitic incidents and the potential for violence, in the early days of the protests, university officials made it clear that they would consider calling in outside police only as a last resort.
“We are following University of California systemwide policy guidance, which directs us not to request law enforcement involvement preemptively, and only if absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of our campus community,” Mary Osako, the vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement on April 26, shortly after the encampment had been set up.
On the night of April 30, a range of counterprotesters had gathered, a group that grew in size as expectations mounted that the police would begin dismantling the encampment. In interviews, witnesses said there had been little warning before counterprotesters went on the offensive.
One of the counterprotesters, Liel Asherian, was seen on video footage kicking at the encampment’s plywood barrier, pulling boards to the ground and slamming a tennis racket against the wood that remained. He said he had gone that night to see the encampment on his own, though he later acknowledged that a friend of his was also pictured at the scene. In an interview, he said he was not part of any group and had not intended to participate in a conflict.
Mr. Asherian said he had approached the pro-Palestinian encampment to ask some people why they were protesting. He said he believed Jewish people such as himself and Palestinians were like cousins, and he expressed alarm at the innocent Palestinians being killed in Israel’s military campaign. But he said he disliked the disruptive tactics the pro-Palestinian protesters were using at U.C.L.A.
He said things devolved when someone called him a “dirty Jew” and he was doused in pepper spray.
“That made me start breaking down their barricades,” he said.
Also among the counterprotesters that night was Narek Palyan, an activist known for making frequent antisemitic statements, as well as comments critical of gay and transgender people. He said he went alone and was motivated to show up in part because he had seen a video of a Jewish woman on the pro-Palestinian side criticizing white people.
“I wanted to go find her, specifically,” he said, adding that he was not able to.
Mr. Palyan said he did not necessarily support either side in the protest or the war.
He said he spent much of the night asking people questions about their positions and trying to keep people from fighting by throwing makeshift weapons into nearby bushes. Mr. Palyan, who is Armenian American, also said he had warned two younger Armenian boys to stay out of the melee.
“I told them, ‘This isn’t ours,’” he said.
Anthony Cabassa, a self-described conservative independent journalist who posted videos of the chaos, said many people may have flocked to the scene on Tuesday night in the hours after U.C.L.A. declared the encampment illegal, believing that the police would move in to clear it and make arrests.
But then the counterprotesters descended on the protest, pulling metal gates away from the group and attacking protesters.
“We were all waiting for the L.A.P.D. to show up, and they never did,” Mr. Cabassa said in an interview. “As the night went on, more and more pro-Israel folks started showing up, to the point where it was starting to get worrisome.”
He said some people seemed to have arrived after seeing broadcasts of the tense scene that he and other livestreamers made, wanting to witness what would happen next.
“People were responding to my livestream and saying ‘I just showed up because of you. I live nearby,’” he said. But others, he said, appeared to have planned for potential clashes, wearing all-black outfits and ski masks. Mr. Cabassa recalled being concerned about their presence.
In the end, more than 30 protesters were injured, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles, before police dispersed the crowd.
Brian H. Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said that, with religion and ethnicity at the heart of the recent protests, the attack had amounted to a hate crime.
“This comes at a time when major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, have had a surge in anti-Arab and Muslim hate crimes and have hit a record for anti-Jewish crimes,” he said.
Mr. Levin watched the incident via livestream and said the weapons, the presence of some of the same people from previous protests and the waving of a yellow flag associated with Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish movement, suggested some organizational coordination among the counterprotesters.
The director of the nearby Chabad House said the group had no role in the protest that night.
But he also noted that some of the implements wielded by the counterprotesters “were spontaneous weapons of opportunity,” and that some people “may have just showed up randomly with their own separate xenophobic and religious bigotries.”
The next day, after the counterprotesters had left, police officers moved in to remove the pro-Palestinian encampment, making more than 200 arrests.
Marie Salem, a U.C.L.A. graduate student and one of the protesters, questioned why the police had arrested dozens of student protesters but had not yet arrested any of those who had attacked them.
“The majority of the encampment is students that attend this university, and who were not violent,” Ms. Salem said. “We were met with violence, and the other side looked like majority not-students, which the university chose to protect over their own students.”
Bars of gold, stacks of cash, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and foreign intelligence officials could all make cameo appearances as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) goes on trial Monday — for the second time in a decade — on federal charges that he used his position and influence to benefit a trio of businessmen who were plying him with luxury gifts.
The chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley addressed the ‘brutality of the violence in Gaza’ in her graduation ceremony speech, as dozens of students wearing keffiyehs waved Palestinians flags and demanded the college divest from Israel. At least one graduate was filmed waving an Israeli flag.
The Department of Justice is recommending a 40-year prison sentence for the man convicted of an October 2022 assault and attempted kidnapping after breaking into the home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and attacking her husband.
Federal prosecutors argue that the crimes constitute an act of terrorism under U.S. law, in a sentencing memorandum submitted Friday.
MELROSE, Bronx (WABC) -- Police have a charged a man suspected of raping a woman in the Bronx earlier this month.
39-year-old Kashaan Parks was arrested early Saturday morning in the borough after viral video appeared to show him sneaking up behind a woman, wrapping something around her neck and dragging her behind a car before sexually assaulting her.
He was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree assault, second-degree strangulation, sex abuse in the first-degree, first-degree public lewdness and harassment in the first-degree.
A police report confirms that a sexual assault happened near East 152nd Street and 3rd Avenue around 3 a.m. on May 1.
A 45-year-old woman was followed by a man who lassoed a belt around her neck, which caused her to lose consciousness.
Authorities say the man then dragged her behind a car and sexually assaulted the victim.
The man then fled on foot towards Melrose Avenue. Police released surveillance images of the man they are looking for on Thursday night.
The woman was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln in stable condition.
Police say the victim and attacker knew each other.
The victim was able to remember him because he has "unusual teeth," specifically a space between his teeth.
The victim did not initially report the attack to police. Once video of the attack surfaced, police began investigating and realized the victim was already in the precinct, in custody for an unrelated petit larceny.
Neighbors say everyone has seen the video -- and they are stunned by it.
"It's sad for women, it's sad for everybody, but women take the worst part," Melrose resident Justo Cordero said.
Residents also say it is a poignant reminder that more needs to be done about safety in the area.
"At any given moment someone can come and hurt you and police, when they need to be here they're not," said Melrose resident Luz Hernandez.
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Wind gusts as high as 100 mph and as many as three different tornadoes led to untold human suffering across the city, with countless trees, power poles and lines down and numerous homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. A number of neighborhood roads, not to mention driveways, remained buried in debris, making travel difficult if not impossible.
Tragically, a woman also lost her life when a tree crashed into her home.
As of Saturday morning, about 80,000 electric customers in Tallahassee and surrounding communities were still without power. Scores of outside line workers have descended on the area to help with power restoration.
Here’s the latest:
FAMU says power restored on campus
Power has been restored to the Florida A&M University campus, according to a Saturday afternoon news release:
"The main traffic arteries in and around the campus are clear. The University’s Central Plant is back on line, and the air conditioning in stable in most buildings ... Due to the continuing clean-up and damage assessment, President Larry Robinson ... reiterated that it’s still unsafe for non-essential faculty and staff to come to campus. They are urged to continue working remotely until further notice."
In other news, "Monday, May 13 marks the start of Summer A and C sessions. Classes will be conducted remotely May 13-17 while the campus cleanup is underway. Students are advised to contact their course instructors for more details. The add-drop period has been extended to Monday, May 20. The College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health P4 Comprehensive Exam will be administered on Monday, May 13. Staff will send exam site details directly to test takers," the release said.
It went on: "FAMU Developmental Research School (DRS) administrators will announce re-opening plans on Sunday. The Educational Research Center for Child Development’s (ERCCD) roof was damaged and the facility will be closed at least Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for repairs. Meanwhile, students staying on campus this summer were scheduled to move into the Palmetto Phase III Apartments on Saturday. The Residence Dining Hall is serving brunch and light lunch this weekend.
"The early Friday storm knocked out electricity, damaged roofs, downed trees and utility lines, blocked roadways, and scattered debris across the campus. ... At least 15 buildings suffered some form of roof and water damage. Additional damage was discovered to the University Commons building. A structural engineer is assessing the missing bricks above the roof line ... Roofing contractors are sealing buildings with temporary tarps. The university is preparing requests for proposals to get permanent repairs on the way."
City: Tree-related debris requests rolling in
The city's 3:25 p.m. update: "Since the storm began, we received 290 service requests for tree-related debris within the road. Roughly 70 of these requests remain open. Mutual aid from the state is assisting. Crews from Electric also assisting due to wire entanglements to ensure everyone's safety."
U.S. Rick Scott tours Tallahassee, views tornado damage
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott met with Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil Saturday, in addition to members of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and Tallahassee Police Department "following the recent tornadoes that caused widespread power outages and damage in the area," a news release said.
"I want to thank our law enforcement, first responders, linemen and emergency management professionals for the work they have done to ensure everyone is safe," he said in a statement. "It is absolutely heartbreaking what we have seen in Tallahassee today—but if there is one thing I know about Floridians, it is that we are resilient.
"Tallahassee was home to Ann and me for eight years," said Scott, who was governor 2011-19. "We still have so many friends there and our prayers are with everyone impacted by these destructive storms. I remember when Hermine hit the area in 2016, and absolutely devastated our communities. As I told Sheriff McNeil today, I am confident Tallahassee will come back from this and I will continue to make sure that the federal government is a good partner.”
The biggest blow: Friday storm earns its place in the annals of recorded history
The deadly storm system that likely spawned tornadoes is one for the record books.
The 84 mph gust recorded at a weather station at Florida A&M University is the highest recorded wind gust in Tallahassee history.
It was one mile per hour more than an 83 mph gust recorded in 1990 at the Tallahassee airport. In that storm, according to Tallahassee Democrat reports, "the long arm of havoc" tore through the city.
Several utility poles were struck by lightning and utility lines all over the city were downed by toppled trees. There were also reports of marble sized hail, and a gust tore the facade off the Long Branch Saloon on West Tennessee Street.
National Weather Service forecaster Wright Dobbs said there have likely been higher gusts, but they haven't been localized and have gone unrecorded.
City: Nearly 300 roads were blocked by debris
The 11:55 a.m. update from the city of Tallahassee says: "Tornadoes caused 286 blocked roads. Road clearing crews have worked nonstop and have cleared 178 in impacted neighborhoods. Work continues."
By 12:23 p.m., the city also posted: "Electric crews have been quadrupled with resources from five states. More than 30,000 customers have been restored. Progress continues across the community as teams work toward 75% restoration by 8 p.m. Areas in Griffin Heights, Frenchtown, Killearn, Centerville Rd., Ocala Rd., and Tram Rd. have been restored."
It added: "Due to the destruction caused by tornadoes, entire circuits are being fully rebuilt, including reconstruction of power lines and 119 large utility poles. Crews have replaced 30 poles and counting!"
Hope Bus will be at Sabal Palm Elementary
The state's Hope Navigators and their Hope Bus will be parked at Sabal Palm Elementary School, 2813 Ridgeway St., on Saturday (May 11) till 6 p.m., according to a notice from the school.
Tarps, water, snacks, wipes and additional resources are available. The Hope Bus is operated by the Department of Children and Families, in partnership with Volunteer Florida, to help those in need.
Red Cross opens reception center
The American Red Cross has opened a "reception center" at its Tallahassee headquarters, 1115 Easterwood Dr., offering air conditioning, power, information and more, according to a post on its Facebook page.
It added, "If you have you have sustained damage and need emergency assistance, please call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to let us know."
Leon County opens distribution centers for water, shelf-stable meals
Leon County government Saturday announced it had opened "three points of distribution with bottled water and shelf-stable meals":
J. Lewis Sr. Woodville Park and Recreation Complex, 1492 J. Lewis Hall Sr.
Jane G. Sauls Fort Braden Branch Library, 16327 Blountstown Highway.
Apalachee Regional Park, 7550 Apalachee Parkway.
"All sites will be operated in coordination with the County Office of Resource Stewardship staff. Operations will be assessed daily throughout the activation and as recovery efforts continue," according to a news release.
Progress on the front lines of the Tallahassee power struggle as city administrators expect 75% restoration of customers by 8 p.m. today
City electric crews and more than 200 mutual aid personnel from 25 utilities around the state and nation are working to bring power back to Florida's capital city.
"City and mutual aid crews worked overnight, and reinforcements began work at 6 a.m," the city wrote in an early morning update. "Electric crews have restored service to 22,202 customers, and solid waste crews have resumed normal operations this morning."
In a Saturday morning video update, Mayor John Dailey said the mutual aid agreements with other utilities means the city can quadruple its workforce as it works to restore power.
City administrators say they are aiming 75% restoration of customers by 8 p.m. today, May 11 and 90% by 8 p.m. Sunday, May 12.
After energizing the vast majority of residences and businesses, things can slow down once crews dig into individual neighborhoods that suffered major tree, power pole and line damage. Things can get even more complicated when addressing individual homes and businesses where trees damaged their power grid infrastructure.
CORRECTION:An earlier version of this story had an inaccurate headline that said 85% would be restored tonight.
Shakespeare in the Park will go on at new location
There's no keeping the Bard down.
Southern Shakespeare Company announced Friday evening that its production of "The Winter's Tale" would move to Westminster Oaks for Saturday and Sunday after storms damaged equipment at Adderley Amphitheater.
But first there will be a clean up at Cascades Park beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 11, at the Adderley Stage. Volunteers are needed. People who are able to safely travel to Cascades Park and trucks that are able to haul away debris are especially appreciated.
As day dawns about 80,000 still without power in Tallahassee area
More than 80,000 electric customers in Leon and nearby counties were still in the dark Saturday morning, a day after high winds and apparent tornadoes ripped through the area.
The city of Tallahassee, which has been updating customers about its restoration efforts via text, said Friday night that circuits serving downtown state offices, Florida A&M University, the Civic Center and FSU's Mag Lab had been repaired.
"City and mutual aid crews will continue working through the night to make repairs as total customers restored approaches 10,000," the city said. "All substations are now energized, and additional mutual aid crews will arrive (Saturday)."
Around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, the city's outage map showed 525 outage orders affecting 64,762 customers. The outages were located throughout the city.
As the work continued, residents took to Facebook inquiring about their powerless neighborhoods.
"There's no expected restoration time, but crews will be working around the clock until power is restored for all," a city official wrote on one thread. "Power will be restored in order of largest to smallest outages, but prepare to be without power through the weekend. We appreciate your patience during restoration."
Mayor John Dailey said in a video update on social media Friday evening that the storm was one of the worst to hit Tallahassee in the past decade, with wind gusts between 80 and 100 mph and as many as three tornadoes. But with extensive damage, Dailey said it will take some time to restore power.
"I'm asking for your patience," Dailey said. "We are gonna get through this together."
Talquin Electric, which serves Gadsden, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties, reported Saturday morning outages affecting 10,595 customers. Areas with the most outages included Chaires, Woodville and Lake Talquin.
The Tri-County Electric Cooperative in Madison said nearly 8,000 meters had no power after the storm cleared the area Friday. By Friday night, power had been restored to all but 2,480 meters. TCEC said there were still 1,154 meters out in Madison County, 896 in Jefferson County and 430 in Taylor County.
TCEC said its employees and more than 80 mutual aid workers would work Friday night while "it is safe to do so" and would resume repairs at sunrise Saturday.
"Our majority system restoration time of Saturday at 9:00 PM remains the same but we are working to have most restored much earlier," said Kaitlynn Culpepper, a TCEC spokeswoman.
The city of Tallahassee said early Friday evening that mutual aid crews from Ocala, Havana, Dothan, Alabama, and Thomasville and Cairo, Georgia, were on site and making repairs. Crews from Orlando, Jacksonville and Lakeland were expected to roll in "any minute," the city said.
Tallahassee electric customers can report outages and get updates on the city's restoration efforts by visiting www.talgov.com/you/outage. Outages can also be reported by calling 850-891-4968.
A brutal day gives way to collective awe as northern lights make appearance in Tallahassee skies
Tallahasseeans awoke to panic as tornado warnings blared. Scenes of widespread destruction dominated social media news feeds throughout the day.
As night fell, horror gave way to awe as resident after resident shared their photos of the Northern Lights above Florida's Capital city in the deep South.
Facebook was a stream of pink and purple with streaks in the night sky as residents went outside – often from powerless homes – to capture a clear view of an already rare phenomena that is never seen in Tallahassee.
Official word should come today on whether a trio of tornadoes struck Tallahassee
Survey crews from the National Weather Service will fan out today across Tallahassee to confirm three radar-indicated tornadoes that left heavy damage to the city and its electric grid Friday.
Wright Dobbs, meteorologist with the Weather Service in Tallahassee, said three different radar-indicated tornadoes hit the city as a powerful squall line pushed through around sunrise. Debris signatures from all three storms were seen on radar, prompting a succession of tornado warnings.
“It’s usually a sign there was a tornado on the ground,” Dobbs said. “Not always, but in most cases it is. So ... we had three radar-confirmed tornadoes. We’ll still need to survey to ultimately confirm those survey results determined this afternoon.”
Dobbs said one of the unconfirmed tornadoes went up north of Lake Talquin and south of Interstate 10, hitting the campuses of Florida State and Florida A&M universities. A second possible twister may have started over Lake Talquin, moving south of Highway 20, across Capital Circle and into southern parts of Tallahassee.
“The second one that went through southern parts of town also got kind of close to the other one on radar,” Dobbs said.
A third possible tornado, which also may have formed over Lake Talquin, moved over the Apalachicola National Forest, with the debris signature stopping before Crawfordville Highway.
Dobbs said the Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings for gusts between 60 and 70 mph but that isolated areas may have seen gusts between 80-100 mph.
“One thing that could make (surveys) a little bit more challenging is that there were the tornadoes, but we also saw many areas of straight-line winds with the squall line that moved through. Squall lines can produce damage similar to a tornado and that’s why we’re going to be surveying these areas to see what it ultimately was.”
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
