LUY-Development

Category: National News Feed

  • Carbon monoxide present in Ford Explorer where 3 died, 2 others sickened in Ohio, official says


    The presence of carbon monoxide was confirmed in a parked vehicle in Toledo, Ohio, where five people were found unresponsive and three of them died Wednesday in what an official described as an accident.

    The Ford Explorer had pulled over with a flat tire into a parking lot, and the victims were discovered shortly after 11 a.m., Toledo Fire Chief Allison Armstrong said.

    City of Toledo spokesperson Rachel Hart said the victims included a grandmother and her grandchildren. She said the woman’s son who had been called to help found the bodies.

    Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said foul play was not suspected. He said three of the victims died while two children were hospitalized in critical condition. Their names, ages and hometowns weren’t immediately released.

    “Today, a family experienced a tragedy that no family should ever have to endure,” the mayor said on Facebook.

    Investigators later started the vehicle with the doors closed and a meter inside. In a telephone interview, Armstrong said, “we had a high spike of carbon monoxide inside the passenger compartment on that vehicle.”

    She said the vehicle was towed by police.

    “They’re going to have to do some further investigation to see if they can identify how does that happen,” she said. “I think that’s an important piece of this that people want to know, and they should know for everybody’s safety.”

    Armstrong recalled a “very similar” incident several years ago involving carbon monoxide that seeped into holes in the floorboards of a vehicle.

    Ford Explorers were part of a previous six-year investigation by the federal government into exhaust odors in passenger cabins.

    In 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it reviewed more than 6,500 consumer complaints, tested SUVs in the field and called in automotive, medical, environmental health and occupational safety experts before determining that the SUVs didn’t have high levels of carbon monoxide and didn’t need to be recalled.

    The probe covered nearly 1.5 million Explorers from the 2011 to 2017 model years.

    Armstrong said it wasn’t immediately known what year the SUV involved in Wednesday’s incident was made.


  • Drained Reflecting Pool reveals Trump’s ‘American flag blue’ liner is now closer to gray


    WASHINGTON (AP) — The newly drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s bottom surface has noticeably faded since it was lined with a protective coating in a color President Donald Trump called “American flag blue” this spring.

    An Associated Press reporter and photographer viewed the fenced-off Reflecting Pool on Wednesday from the top of the Washington Monument. The new liner appears grayer than when the pool was repainted and refilled with water in early June. Debris that had been visible earlier this week after the pool was drained is now largely gone, after work crews removed it.

    Trump’s problem-plagued effort to revamp the landmark has stretched well past his initial goal of having the Reflecting Pool ready by July 4 for the nation’s 250th birthday.

    The president at first suggested his renovations would cost $1.5 million, but the bill ballooned to more than $16 million by June.

    Trump had said the repairs would last a century, but within days of the project’s initial completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.

    Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.

    Vandalism charges were levied against a former Olympic canoeist

    Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for the peeling paint, though critics allege it’s from shoddy repair work.

    Trump has said, without citing evidence, that vandals made a “350-foot gash” in the liner and caused other problems. No large slash marks were immediately visible Wednesday from the Washington Monument view. It was not possible to do a more up-close inspection of the entire pool due to a dark fence surrounding the perimeter.

    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, said that after the water is drained and debris is cleaned from Independence Day fireworks, the plan for the pool is straightforward: “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.” He was speaking with conservative podcaster Katie Miller.

    Court documents show that the National Park Service reported to the U.S. Park Police a June 9 incident in which a sharp knife or razor was said to have cut the pool’s new liner.

    Former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn pleaded not guilty last week in D.C. Superior Court to deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn has said he reached inside the pool to examine the peeled sealant and let go of a chunk when he was told to by a park worker.

    His attorneys and other Trump administration critics have derided the case as an abuse of prosecutorial power and maintain he is being scapegoated for the poor job done fixing up the Reflecting Pool.

    At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the pool, court records show. All three pleaded not guilty during initial court appearances.

    The work on the Reflecting Pool is just one of a number of projects Trump has spearheaded across the nation’s capital. Most prominently, he demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a $400 million ballroom and plans to build a towering arch. between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.


  • NYC’s Rikers Island jail hosts World Cup watch party for inmates


    NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s official World Cup guide lists no less than 100 free places to take in soccer’s biggest tournament on big screens. One place that isn’t listed? The city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex, better known for its overcrowding and violence than for hosting social events.

    But more than 100 inmates were rewarded with a special viewing of the World Cup semifinal match Wednesday between England and Argentina because of their model behavior behind bars.

    The inmates, dressed in tan uniforms, took seats at tables facing a large projection screen set up in a gymnasium. The jail has hosted about 90 such watch parties since the tournament kicked off last month, with about 4,500 of the roughly 6,600 inmates incarcerated on the 400-acre island participating, correction officials said.

    “Programs like this equal safety in our jail,” said Stanley Richards, the city’s correction commissioner and a former Rikers inmate. “What we say to them is that your humanity is seen, heard and valued.”

    Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who briefly stopped by, added: “The World Cup has been a magical moment for the entire city. These are New Yorkers, and they will be New Yorkers when they get out of Rikers.”

    The scene Wednesday was in sharp contrast to complaints about Rikers Island that have been so bad in recent years that a federal judge appointed an outside manager to help improve the facility.

    On Tuesday, that federal overseer, former Vermont Department of Corrections head Nicholas Deml, submitted a plan for reforms that underscored the continued dysfunction at the facility, which opened in 1935.

    The report described one instance when inspectors arrived at a housing unit to find it filled with smoke from fires set by prisoners, blaring alarms and people pounding on their cell doors. In another incident, prisoners streamed through an unsecured door and brawled after a guard abandoned his post.

    “Violence remains pervasive, basic correctional practices remain unreliable, and unconstitutional conditions persist,” the report said.

    Mamdani has vowed to honor a 2019 city law mandating the closure of Rikers, but also conceded the 2027 deadline is likely unrealistic after years of delays.

    With his white shirt sleeves rolled up, the Democrat went table-by-table chatting up inmates.

    One told the mayor he expected Argentina to prevail over England and go on to face Spain, which had defeated France the day earlier.

    “You never know,” said Mamdani, a professed Morocco fan.

    At another table, an inmate told the mayor he was going home later in the day. “That’s amazing,” Mamdani said, patting his back.

    The jailhouse crowd erupted in a mix of groans and cheers as England struck first with a goal early in the second half.

    Ralph Veal was among the minority of England fans who raised his arms in celebration. The 53-year-old Mount Vernon resident, who has been incarcerated since November, said the watch party made him reflect on how he might better approach life after jail.

    “I could be doing this with my family, you know?” he said. “My son, he’s a big soccer fan, so this would be great for me and him to have that relationship and that bond.”

    Others simply relished the chance for a rare treat: a freshly catered meal of salad, salmon, penne alla vodka and chicken parmesan, along with Snapple drinks.

    “I’ve been locked up 21 months,” said Thomas McCoy, 52, of Brooklyn. “It’s been a long time since I had real food like that.”

    When the final whistle blew and Argentina earned a spot against Spain in the final Sunday, Victor Caldas was overcome with emotions.

    The 39-year-old, who has been incarcerated for four months, has been rooting for Argentina since his home country of Ecuador was knocked out of the tournament.

    “It reminds me of when I was a kid, playing soccer. It’s all about love. Soccer brings a lot of love,” he said, still staring at the final score as others started cleaning up the gym.

    “It don’t matter from where you are in the world, you know. It’s about bonding with another culture, other people.”


  • Federal government replaces slavery exhibition at Washington’s home in Philadelphia


    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday replaced an exhibit on slavery at the site of President George Washington’s home in Philadelphia with a version that historians say whitewashes the nation’s history.

    The new exhibit was installed in the same area where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.

    “Overnight, under the cover of darkness, the federal government removed panels at the President’s House that told a thorough history of Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said. “It was allowed to do this by the decision of the federal court, but that it did so at night shows it understands this action is shameful, that it violates community trust.”

    The original panels were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.

    The changed exhibition comes as President Donald Trump has made dismantling diversity and inclusion initiatives a priority in an aggressive campaign to overhaul some of America’s most sacred cultural, historic and educational institutions.

    Trump issued an executive order in 2025 that called for federally owned or controlled historic sites to not display information to “disparage Americans past or living” and to focus on the “greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”

    The directive has raised concerns about sanitizing and erasing dark sides of American history.

    Trump has continued a broadside against culture he deems too liberal. In March, Trump revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targeted funding for programs that advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.” He has also pressured organizations outside of the government, including universities, to take similar actions with the stated aim of eliminating what he says are discriminatory practices.

    The Trump administration began removing the old panels earlier this year, but a lower court forced the federal government in February to stop while the city appealed. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit of Appeals reversed that and ruled July 3 that the work could continue.

    The three-judge panel praised the plans for the replacement installation, writing that they were “full of historical context,” despite objections from historians and city officials that the content appears whitewashed.

    The Interior Department told The Associated Press Wednesday in a statement that the new “panels are full of historical context and highlight the momentous events that took place in the President’s House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park.”

    “They acknowledge the evils of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the stories of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity,” the statement said.

    The new panels still include information on enslaved people who lived in the home and details on the abolitionist movement, how the Constitution treated slavery, the end of slavery in Pennsylvania and how Washington and his successor, John Adams, viewed and treated slavery, as well as information about the 20th century Civil Rights movement.

    However, the replacement panels do not include some of the detail in the earlier ones, such as a map of slave trade routes and a timeline on slavery. They also avoid critical headlines such as “The Dirty Business of Slavery.”

    The city of Philadelphia had sued the federal government over the removal of information previously included in the panels. It argued that the federal government must consult with the city before making changes to the President’s House Site. Justice Department lawyers argued the administration alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties.

    Parker said the city intends to seek a rehearing “on serious legal issues” presented in the appeals court decision.

    Michael Coard, an attorney and founder of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), said the Philadelphia-based history preservation group continues to work on legal strategies opposing the Trump administration’s changing of the panels.

    ATAC joined the city’s lawsuit.

    Trump is attempting to rewrite history, Coard told reporters Wednesday near the site.

    “What if there’s a president next time who doesn’t like the Liberty Bell because the Liberty Bell was used by abolitionists to support the end of slavery?” he said. “What if there’s a president who doesn’t like the Statue of Liberty because too many immigrants come in? Do we remove the Statue of Liberty?”

    ___

    Williams reported from Detroit.


  • CDC nominee says she won’t betray science — while declining to challenge Kennedy’s actions


    The Trump administration’s latest nominee to lead the nation’ top public health agency drew frustrated reactions from some U.S. senators on Wednesday when they pressed her on whether she would protect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from political meddling.

    Dr. Erica Schwartz told the Senate health committee she “will never betray the science” and pledged to use “radical transparency” in a bid to rebuild public trust in the agency. But several senators questioned how she might handle pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeatedly moved to alter U.S. vaccine and CDC policies. Schwartz repeatedly declined to dissent from some of those actions.

    Schwartz, 54, is up for director of the Atlanta-based CDC, which is charged with protecting Americans from preventable health threats.

    Her career has largely been spent in military uniform, including in a leadership position at the U.S. Coast Guard where she oversaw the organization’s system of 41 clinics and 150 sick bays — as well as policies promoting vaccinations of service members. She later served as deputy surgeon general, where she helped lead uniformed medical and health professionals posted at the CDC and government health agencies that serve the general public.

    The CDC long enjoyed a sterling international reputation but has been in turmoil since Trump returned to office last year. Largely due to layoffs and resignations, the agency has lost more than 3,000 employees, or more than a quarter of its workforce. Morale has plummeted as a succession of mostly temporary leaders have come and gone — the front office filled with political appointees, many of them with little or no training in medicine or public health.

    “There’s still really good people who work there (at the CDC). They are doing their best to navigate choppy waters,” said Dr. David Margolius, director of Cleveland’s health department and a leader in a U.S. coalition of big city health departments. But CDC no longer seems to the authoritative and communicative lead that it was on outbreaks and other public health emergencies.

    “Basically everybody’s got to kind of choose their own adventure, as opposed to being led by a national public health department,” Margolius said.

    CDC has had several leaders

    The agency is overseen by Kennedy, who was a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before he was tapped to lead the CDC and other federal health agencies. Kennedy had promised not to change the nation’s vaccination schedule. But shortly after taking office, Kennedy said he was going to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule and went on to attempt a substantial rewrite of vaccine recommendations for kids. Some of those efforts were put on hold earlier this year by a federal judge.

    The administration’s first pick to run the CDC was former Florida congressman Dr. David Weldon, but his March 2025 Senate confirmation hearing was canceled an hour before it was to begin. Weldon said at the time that he’d been told not enough senators were willing to vote for him.

    The White House then moved on to Susan Monarez, who had been serving as the CDC’s acting director. Monarez was confirmed by the Senate, but she was ousted in less than a month. Trump administration officials said she wasn’t aligned with their agenda so they terminated her.

    Several key CDC scientific leaders resigned in protest, saying Monarez’s dismissal dashed their hopes that a CDC director would be able to guard against political meddling in the agency’s scientific research and health recommendations.

    Since then, there’s been a revolving door in agency leadership, with the short-term role of acting director being passed from one Washington-based HHS official to another. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya has been overseeing the CDC most recently.

    Schwartz said she was unaware of actions that hurt the CDC

    On Wednesday, some senators suggested Schwartz should follow Monarez’s example, and they asked her about actions Kennedy has taken that have affected CDC.

    Schwartz said she was unaware that CDC programs that worked to prevent smoking and promote vaccinations had been curtailed. She declined to commit to taking down a CDC website that suggests there’s a link between childhood vaccines and autism (she said she had not seen it), though she agreed existing medical evidence has not found a link.

    Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, asked if she would — if Kennedy ordered her — suspend promotion of a flu vaccination campaign during a deadly flu season.

    “Senator, I don’t speak in hypotheticals,” Schwartz responded.

    “It isn’t hypothetical. It happened,” said Hassan, referring to internal CDC emails, released by Sen. Bernie Sanders last month, that documented such a directive from Kennedy to CDC staff last year.

    Schwartz said she agreed that CDC should prioritize responding to infectious diseases. “I think over time, the CDC has had some mission creep, and it’s trying to be all things to all people,” she said.

    But she also agreed to requests from Republican senators to — if confirmed — look into whether AI data centers cause health problems and into the possibility of establishing a World Trade Center Health Program clinical center in Florida.

    Senators also heard from nominee overseeing health emergency preparedness

    In April, Trump nominated Schwartz, calling her “incredibly talented.” In a congressional hearing in April, Kennedy said he approved of the choice, but refused to commit to supporting whatever vaccine guidance she might issue.

    Last month, Schwartz filed letters with the government that address her finances and potential conflicts of interest. She wrote that if confirmed, she will leave her current job with UnitedHealth Group, where she’s making about $850,000 in salary and bonus money and cash out her stock options. She also will resign from the board of directors of Butterfly Network Inc., a Massachusetts company that makes ultrasound devices; from the board of Atlanta-based Aveanna Healthcare, a medical home care provider; and from the board of the Florida-based Searching for Solutions Institute.

    At Wednesday’s hearing, senators also considered the nomination of Sean Kaufman as the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or ASPR. That job entails overseeing preparations and response to public health emergencies and disasters.

    Last year, the Trump administration announced a plan to bring those responsibilities under CDC, but the dramatic HHS restructuring has not happened.

    The assistant secretary’s office is involved in decisions about funding next-generation vaccines against pandemic flu or other infectious disease threats. In postings on LinkedIn, Kaufman has made comments cheered by vaccine skeptics, arguing against hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns and saying he served as an expert witness to advocate for people who refused the COVID-19 vaccine.

    On Wednesday, Kaufman faced questions about past social media posts, including one in which he expressed hatred for the CDC. He also repeatedly was asked about his support of a Trump administration decision last year to cancel 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology.

    Infectious disease experts say the mRNA technology used in vaccines is safe, and they credit its development during the first Trump administration with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Future pandemics, they warned, will be harder to stop without the help of mRNA.

    Kaufman said he supported mRNA technology and believes COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, but said it made sense to study work that’s been done so far before, including learning more about any side effects.

    Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, said such evaluations are the responsibility of other federal offices — not ASPR. He also said it may slow the nation’s ability to respond to emerging new infectious threats.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


  • Lawmakers cast doubt on Kathryn Ruemmler’s testimony about Epstein ties


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers said Kathryn Ruemmler, the former top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and White House counsel to President Barack Obama, was not being truthful Wednesday about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, rejecting her testimony that Epstein had merely “used” her.

    Ruemmler in her opening remarks told members of the House Oversight Committee that “it was a mistake to deal with” Epstein, but she insisted she never witnessed criminal activity. She said Epstein “used me and other respectable people to legitimize his standing.”

    Democrats emerged from questioning Ruemmler saying she was not being forthcoming about her ties to Epstein.

    “It is difficult to see how she’s being completely truthful in there with the answers she’s given the committee,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters.

    Jennifer Connelly, a spokeswoman for Ruemmler, said in response that Ruemmler had “testified openly and truthfully for six hours and answered every question the committee asked.”

    Ruemmler is the latest prominent figure called before the House Oversight Committee as lawmakers investigate the network of powerful people connected with Epstein. The bipartisan inquiry has already included testimony from more than a dozen high-profile witnesses, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton, as lawmakers examine how Epstein’s wealth and influence may have helped shield him from scrutiny.

    Ruemmler served as White House counsel under Obama from 2011 to 2014 and was briefly considered for attorney general. She served as Goldman Sachs’ general counsel for six years before announcing in February that she would step down amid backlash over her correspondence with Epstein. Although she said she would step down on June 30, she remains employed by Goldman Sachs.

    Lawmakers have focused on Ruemmler’s close relationship with Epstein in the final years of his life, pointing to affectionate communications between the two.

    “For her to deny that there was any type of real relationship there, I just don’t buy it,” Garcia said. “And so, again, the fact she is not under oath is very problematic.”

    The two were
    close years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on sex crimes

    While Ruemmler has tried to downplay their relationship in more recent statements, thousands of documents released by the Justice Department showed that Ruemmler and Epstein had an extensive relationship. The files included personal emails, social plans and gifts that extended beyond formal legal work. Documents showed she had called Epstein “Uncle Jeffrey” in emails and said she adored him.

    Ruemmler said in her opening remarks that she first met Epstein in 2014 regarding potentially working with him and Gates “to set up a large donor-advised fund.” Soon after, according to Ruemmler, she learned about Epstein’s 2008 conviction on sex crimes, when he became a registered sex offender.

    She said Epstein expressed remorse about it, and that he did not know the women were underaged. She said she “relied on the resolution reached by federal and state prosecutors and validated by a judge as being a proportionate and final resolution of his criminal conduct.”

    House Oversight Chair James Comer told reporters Wednesday that the “most concerning” part of Ruemmler’s communications with Epstein is how she “tried to rehabilitate his image after he was convicted of solicitation of a minor.”

    Ruemmler’s interview is part of a broader investigation

    Comer said Wednesday that Ruemmler is the 18th person to testify as part of their broader investigation.

    Billionaire investor Leon Black was subpoenaed last month after lawmakers said he refused to answer some questions about his yearslong relationship with Epstein.

    Comer said Wednesday that Black will appear for a formal deposition on Sept. 3 but that he expects to have Black’s nondisclosure agreements by “the end of the week.”

    The committee has also expressed interest in questioning acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose nomination to permanently lead the Justice Department is pending before the Senate. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi identified Blanche as the department’s point person on the release of the Epstein documents, a process that has drawn bipartisan scrutiny.

    “Hopefully Blanche will come in as soon as his confirmation is over,” Comer said.

    During a lengthy podcast interview with Joe Rogan released Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said the administration “absolutely” mishandled the communications surrounding the Epstein files and its contents. Vance pointed largely to Bondi, who infamously stated that an alleged “client list” of Epstein’s was “sitting on my desk right now.”


  • Warren Buffett explains why his kids, not the Gates Foundation, will now give away all his fortune


    OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett said Wednesday that his decision to cut the Gates Foundation out of his charitable giving is more about believing his three kids are ready to handle giving away his entire fortune than it is about Bill Gates ‘ ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    Buffett told CNBC that Gates’ association with Epstein was “distasteful,” but the 95-year-old investor suggested that Gates’ actions weren’t much different from mistakes he himself had made over the years in hiring the wrong person or in choosing friends.

    “No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people,” Buffett said on CNBC.

    Buffett read up on Gates’ ties to Epstein

    Buffett said he “read a great deal since Jan. 1 in terms of what happened with Bill and Epstein. And I have read his remarks to Congress given under oath, and I read the cross-examination.” He noted that Gates eventually ended his relationship with Epstein.

    Buffett said Gates wasn’t surprised by the decision Buffett announced Tuesday to eventually donate all the rest of his $140 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to foundations associated with his family and his three children, Howard, Susie and Peter. Gates flew to Omaha a few weeks ago and spent several hours talking with Buffett. The two hadn’t spoken much since before additional details about Gates and Epstein started to come out when the federal government began releasing files from the Epstein investigation.

    Gates has said that he only met with Epstein because he thought it might help him raise money for charitable causes, and he didn’t know about Epstein’s ongoing crimes.

    Epstein, who was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, was found dead at the Manhattan federal lockup in August 2019. His death was later ruled a suicide by New York City’s medical examiner.

    Gates called Buffett “one of the greatest philanthropists of all time, and a dear friend” who he hopes to spend much more time with in the future.

    “His wisdom, generosity, and deep sense of purpose have defined both his life and his philanthropy. His support for the Gates Foundation, at nearly $50 billion over the past twenty years, has been unprecedented, and it has helped save millions of lives,” Gates said in a statement.

    Buffett said in 2024 that he planned to cut off donations to the Gates Foundation after he died and let his three children decide how to distribute the rest of his fortune.

    The Gates Foundation will still have tremendous resources: its endowment was worth nearly $90 billion at the end of last year and Gates has promised to donate nearly all his remaining fortune to the foundation.

    In other news from the CNBC interview, Buffett revealed that he recently broke his leg and underwent surgery for it, but he said he is recovering well.

    Drastically increasing donations to give away his fortune by 2034

    Buffett said he wants his own Berkshire shares to be distributed even quicker than he has previously indicated: by the end of 2034. To do that, he will have to drastically increase the amount he donates every year, to more than $17 billion annually.

    Right now he is giving roughly $6 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the foundations his children run: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Novo Foundation. Buffett filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday afternoon that showed he had donated a total of 12 million Class B Berkshire shares a day earlier to those foundations.

    The majority of that is going to the foundation named in honor of his late wife, which may quickly become one of the world’s largest such organizations. Buffett also traditionally gives additional gifts to his family foundations around Thanksgiving each year.

    He has said that after his death, a new foundation will be created to distribute the rest of his shares and that his children will have to agree unanimously on where to donate them. He wants his children to be able to make those decisions before they die or become senile, and his oldest daughter will be nearly 81 in eight years.

    Buffett’s donations may affect his successor’s support

    The accelerated pace of Buffett’s plan to give away his fortune over the next eight years rather than doing it over the 10 years following his death will mean that his successor at Berkshire Hathaway, Greg Abel, won’t be able to count on the support of Buffett’s family as the company’s biggest shareholder for as long as he thought. Buffett currently controls nearly 30% of the voting power with his 188,290 Class A shares.

    Nevertheless, Buffett said he believes it’s clear that Abel is the right man to lead the conglomerate he built, and “that becomes more evident by the day.”

    However, Buffett did note that Berkshire’s big investment in Google’s parent company, which has grown in value considerably over the past year, is one he initiated and not an investment Abel picked, though Abel did agree on it. Just last month, Berkshire agreed to invest another $10 billion in Alphabet after previously tripling its stake in the company. ___ A previous version of this story misspelled Warren Buffett’s last name in the headline.


  • Ex-captain pleads guilty to drugging and raping a US Merchant Marine Academy cadet on a cargo ship


    NEW YORK (AP) — A former cargo ship captain pleaded guilty on Wednesday to drugging and raping a 21-year-old U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet who was working on the vessel as part of the academy’s Sea Year training program.

    John Merrone, 53, pleaded guilty just as his trial was about to start in Brooklyn federal court. He admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the cadet without her consent “on the ship, in the middle of the ocean” after knocking her out with an intoxicant in 2019.

    A jury had been picked and the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, was in the courthouse waiting to testify. Prosecutors were also planning to call as witnesses several other women who have accused Merrone of sexual assaults over the last three decades.

    The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be identified.

    Merrone was previously convicted of false imprisonment and battery after a Florida Keys waitress accused him of having sex with her against her will, but an appeals court overturned the verdict and prosecutors didn’t retry the case.

    Ex-cadet says ‘It’s over’ after a six-year wait for justice

    The former cadet, who still works in the maritime industry, watched through tears from the courtroom gallery as Merrone impassively said “guilty” to each of five charges, including aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.

    Her lawyer, Ryan Melogy, said she turned to him afterward and said, “It’s over.”

    “Sex crimes are notoriously difficult to prosecute in general,” Melogy said. “When they occur in the middle of the ocean aboard a ship, the level of difficulty involved in prosecuting them probably increases exponentially.”

    Merrone faces up to life in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing said federal sentencing guidelines call for about 15 to 19 years behind bars. Merrone’s lawyers said they think that estimate is too high. The guidelines are advisory, and the judge, Ramon E. Reyes Jr., could sentence him to more or less time.

    Merrone will remain free on bail until sentencing, which is scheduled for Dec. 22. He and his lawyers, Bruce Barket and Nicole Aloise, declined to comment as they left court.

    “It is my hope that today’s guilty plea will give the survivor of this attack some measure of closure knowing that the defendant has been held accountable for his despicable conduct,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.

    In a statement, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy said it “remains committed to providing a safe, professional, and respectful learning environment for all midshipmen, both on campus and at sea.”

    Captain raped cadet after inviting her to his room for ‘soda’

    According to prosecutors, Merrone began sending the cadet and another student Facebook messages a few weeks before they boarded his ship, the 623-foot-long (190-meter-long) Liberty Glory, for a voyage from Bahrain to Corpus Christi, Texas.

    On Sept. 9, 2019, after more than a month onboard and with a little more than a week left in the journey, prosecutors said Merrone messaged the cadet and her friend asking that they come to his room for a “soda.”

    “Captain you know I stay away from soda !” the cadet wrote.

    “U may like my soda!?!?” Merrone replied.

    The women acquiesced, prosecutors said, and the captain poured them each a drink from an already open bottle of alcohol, then opened a new bottle and poured a drink for himself.

    Soon after having some of the drinks, the women “lost recollection of the remainder of the evening,” prosecutors said.

    The cadet awoke the next morning in her bed wearing only a shirt and bra but not pants or underwear, feeling nauseous; she had a headache and felt vaginal discomfort, prosecutors said. Her friend awoke with stomach cramping and a debilitating headache, prosecutors said. She did not accuse Merrone of sexual assault.

    Merrone called the cadet to his room and told her he had “fun last night,” that “one thing led to another” and asked her to do it again, prosecutors said. After the cadet told him she didn’t remember what happened and that the encounter was not consensual, Merrone offered her money, which she declined, prosecutors said.

    Merrone later sent the cadet a photograph of herself holding money on what she believed to be from the night of the assault, along with a message: “lol. That how u make a woman happy!!!!” She didn’t recall the photo being taken, prosecutors said.

    After that, prosecutors said, the captain went to the cadet’s room and pulled from his pocket the underwear she had been wearing the night of the assault.

    Sea Year program has been plagued by sexual abuse concerns

    The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, New York, trains students to work in the commercial shipping industry. It has an enrollment of about 1,000 students. It is one of five military service academies, and the only one under the U.S. Department of Transportation.

    In 2016, the academy temporarily shut down the Sea Year program, which sends cadets to work on container ships, oil tankers, passenger liners and other vessels, amid sexual abuse and bullying concerns. The program resumed in 2017 on vessels operated by three companies that the academy said had implemented new preventive policies.

    The Sea Year program was suspended again in 2021 after another cadet said a cargo ship supervisor got her drunk and raped her. It resumed after more safety protocols were put in place.

    Congress passed the Safer Seas Act, which strengthened reporting requirements for sexual offenses aboard U.S.-flag commercial vessels. The academy updated its amnesty policy to encourage reporting by sexual assault and harassment victims and witnesses.

    It has expanded prevention education and support resources, provides all cadets with satellite phones during Sea Year and conducts confidential interviews with cadets returning from the program.

    The academy, in its statement, said it “will continue working with Congress, industry partners, and its federal partners to further strengthen the safety and well-being of every midshipman.”


  • US Mint produces a $1 coin bearing Trump’s face to help celebrate America’s 250th birthday


    WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint has begun producing a new $1 coin bearing President Donald Trump’s face to help celebrate America’s 250th birthday, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

    The final design for the commemorative coin, being released in the fall, was approved earlier this year by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump. But the finished product unveiled Wednesday differs from that version in a few aspects, including that it is not made of gold but rather has a gold finish.

    The coin is intended “to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X. “Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.”

    The president on Wednesday told Fox Business Network that the move to put his face on a coin is “very unusual, but I was honored by it,” adding that “it’s very cute they gave me a coin.”

    Trump, a Republican, has a penchant for putting his name and likeness in the historical record, following his renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships, among other tributes. The move to put his face on the gold coin has drawn criticism in particular because federal law prohibits the depiction of a living president on U.S. currency, though the treasury secretary has the authority to authorize the minting and issuance of coins in some circumstances.

    The front of the coin features an image of Trump in a suit and tie and with a stern look on his face. Lettering on the top half of the coin’s arc spells “LIBERTY,” with the dates 1776-2026 on the bottom half of the arc. The words “IN GOD WE TRUST” are in the middle.

    The reverse side depicts the traditional image of the bald eagle in the Great Seal of the U.S., with “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” on the top half of the coin and the Latin phrase “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” meaning “Out of many, one,” on the shield emblazoned on the bird’s breast.

    Among the other differences from the design approved earlier this year is that Trump doesn’t have his fists resting on top of what is supposed to be a desk as he leans forward. The Treasury Department did not specify Wednesday why the final product diverged from the originally approved design.

    The Treasury Department announced in March that it would be putting Trump’s signature on all new U.S. paper currency.

    Traditionally, U.S. paper currency carries the signatures of the treasury secretary and the treasurer, not the president.

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    Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.


  • A family outing to spread ashes of loved one on San Francisco Bay turned into another tragedy


    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — U.S. Coast Guard crews combed cold, choppy waters in and around San Francisco Bay on Wednesday for three people missing a day after a boat capsized with 20 family members and friends aboard to scatter the ashes of a loved one.

    Ralph Boisa said his extended family and a few close friends were on his younger brother’s boat Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the life of his daughter who died over a decade ago and was in her 30s and loved to surf.

    His older brother, Clifford, died shortly after being pulled out of the water. Sixteen others were rescued as the cabin cruiser took on water, listed heavily to one side and rolled over before sinking. Clifford’s dog also died.

    The three people missing are his sister Carol, Clifford’s wife Jackie, and his daughter’s friend, he said.

    “We’ve gone through a lot of tragedy over the years,” said Boisa, who lost his other daughter in 1995. He lives in Washington and couldn’t make it for the excursion.

    Search will end at sundown Wednesday

    U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jared S. Toczko said rescuers have cumulatively scoured 950 square nautical miles (3,260 square kilometers) and will continue searching until sundown Wednesday before ending rescue efforts.

    Toczko would not dismiss the possibility that those missing could still be alive, though he also said some could have been trapped inside the three-deck, 49-foot (15-meter) cabin cruiser.

    “We do know individuals were in the main deck and potentially below deck,” he said. Witnesses described seeing people pounding on glass windows, trapped as the boat sank.

    Crews have identified the location the boat sank but have yet to determine how deep it sank, Toczko said.

    Once the boat is located, officials will send either divers or an underwater drone to determine if it’s feasible to salvage it, said San Francisco Police Commander Brien Hoo. If the boat is under 120 feet (37 meters) of water, it would be difficult for divers to get to it, he said.

    Witnesses reported “rough seas,” San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen said, and rescuers said swells reached up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). Marine weather conditions, however, didn’t warrant a small craft advisory from the National Weather Service.

    Fire department spokesperson Lt. Mariano Elias said the vessel, named Volare, was registered out of Stockton, California, which sits at the eastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

    According to the ship-tracking website VesselFinder, the boat departed a San Francisco marina, passed under the Golden Gate Bridge twice and visited Angel Island State Park, the largest natural island in the bay. It was on its way back to San Francisco when it sank near Alcatraz, the famous maximum-security federal prison which closed more than 60 years ago.

    Kirk Miller, an experienced local sailor with a master mariner license, said an uneven distribution of passengers could have caused the Volare to tip.

    “As it rocks in the waves, it leans over a little bit,” Miller said. “And as it leans over, the stability would decrease. If you had weight down below it acts as ballast. There was nothing in the conditions that were extreme in any regard. There was no massive gust of wind, no huge wave.”

    Like a ‘Titanic’ scene, rescuer says

    Two men who jumped into action while fishing for halibut said the boat that sank was more than capable of being out in the bay. Justin Marceline and Michael Montoya said they saw what they thought was smoke and arrived to find the vessel halfway submerged.

    “We just started yanking people out,” Marceline told The Associated Press. At least two people bobbed in the water without life jackets, while others clung to a windsurfer’s board.

    Marceline could see people trapped inside the rapidly sinking boat through its windows. He threw lead fishing weights to survivors in the water, hoping they could smash the glass, but they were too weak.

    “It was like Titanic in real life,” he said. “There was stuff everywhere. People were banging on the glass.”

    Montoya estimated they pulled eight or nine people aboard, including the captain, before first responders arrived.

    Initial callers reported what appeared to be smoke coming from the boat, but San Francisco police officers who first reached the vessel said it was steam.

    Toczko said there were life jackets onboard the boat and that some people were rescued wearing them.

    Sudden immersion in water under 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) can lead to cold water shock, a condition where people lose dexterity in minutes. That can be dangerous or deadly when trying to escape a sinking watercraft.

    The owners of the boat are John Boisa and Miriam Boisa of Stockton, Coast Guard records show. They did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

    “All of us are grieving during this time,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

    Ralph Boisa said his brother John is a “very capable and experienced boatsman” who served in the U.S. Navy. He frequently took family members out on the boat to the San Francisco Bay, Boisa said.

    His older brother who died, Clifford Boisa, lived on a small prune orchard in Sutter County in the Sacramento Valley and was a volunteer sheriff’s deputy for more than a decade. Ralph Boisa had planned to visit him for his 80th birthday party next month.

    “He was a happy guy, jovial,” Boisa said. “We’re pretty broken up here.”

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    Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Ed White in Detroit; and photographer Noah Berger in San Francisco contributed to this story.