Won Jang drowned in Connecticut River in July after party where alcohol was supplied by his fraternity
A sorority at Dartmouth College and two members of a fraternity are facing charges related to the death of a student who drowned after attending an off-campus party this summer.
Won Jang, 20, of Middletown, Delaware, had been reported missing in July after the party. State and local emergency responders searched the Connecticut River and found his body.
Continue reading...Russell Vought led the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term and is pushing for a workaround to install president-elect’s picks
Even before Donald Trump tapped Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a second time, Vought’s thinktank had gotten to work in recent weeks lobbying for recess appointments – a means by which Trump could attempt to circumvent the US Senate’s confirmation process.
Vought, who served as director of the OMB during Trump’s first term and of the thinktank he launched in 2021, is advocating for the archaic method to install Trump’s nominees, including Vought himself and some of Trump’s most heavily criticized picks.
Continue reading...The terrorist group has been looking to be active this holiday season, with online chatter about attacks increasing
Amid a presidential campaign with foreign policy discussions more focused on the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, the Islamic State stayed under the radar while calling on supporters and operatives to attack Americans on election day.
The FBI thwarted a serious plot in Oklahoma City only weeks before the vote, prompting a similar public reaction to news involving the terror group that has become customary of late: is the Islamic State a renewed threat?
Continue reading...Among sweeping rightwing electoral victories across the globe, the ‘big loser of the elections has been climate’
An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend – in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount.
So far 2024, called the “biggest election year in human history” by the United Nations with around half the world’s population heading to the polls, there have been major wins for Donald Trump, the US president-elect who calls the climate crisis “a big hoax”; the climate-skeptic right in European Union elections; and Vladimir Putin, who won another term and has endured sanctions to maintain Russia’s robust oil and gas exports.
Continue reading...Gladiator II and Wicked filling up theatres but unlikely to replicate phenomenon of Barbie-Oppenheimer release
The great Barbenheimer clash of summer 2023 – when Barbie came out on the same day as Oppenheimer – will for ever be a part of cinema history for capturing the public imagination and bringing audiences back to cinemas in droves after years of Covid-induced antipathy.
So it’s unsurprising, that in an attempt to recapture some of the excitement, fans have come up with a new portmanteau: Glicked, used to refer to the face-off between Gladiator II and Wicked this week.
Continue reading...President-elect picks Fox News personalities and key loyalists as he looks to fill crucial agency and advisory roles
In a flurry of announcements late Friday evening, Donald Trump released his picks for some of the most important agency and advisory roles in the country, further revealing his preference for Fox News personalities and those that are loyal to him.
Continue reading...Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, commerce and Treasury nominees respectively, are sure to ignore economist’s warnings and follow Trump’s lead
Certain events happen during every presidential campaign. The parties crown their candidates. The candidates debate on live TV, with millions watching. Tens of millions heads to the polls. And at some point in this process, Jamie Dimon will be tipped as the next Treasury secretary.
Sure enough, the veteran boss of JPMorgan Chase – Wall Street’s de facto ambassador to the world – was, indeed, linked with the role this time around as the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns mulled their options in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election.
Continue reading...Job is one of most powerful in Washington with huge influence over US economy and financial markets
Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, a statement from Trump confirmed on Friday. The job is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s gigantic economy and financial markets.
The move to select Bessent is the latest as the president-elect starts to pull together the administration for his second term in the White House. The process so far has been marked largely by a focus more on personal and political loyalty to Trump than expertise and experience.
Continue reading...Vought, who led Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, deeply involved in rightwing manifesto
Donald Trump has chosen Russ Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, to be director of the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.
Vought, who was OMB chief during Trump’s first term, would play a major role in setting budget priorities and implementing Trump’s campaign promise to roll back government regulations.
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In a new interview on Friday, Matt Gaetz revealed that he will not be returning to Congress next year.
Speaking to conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk, Gaetz, who withdrew his attorney general nomination yesterday, said:
“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” CNN reports.
“There are a number of fantastic Floridians who’ve stepped up to run for my seat, people who have inspired with their heroism, with their public service. And I’m actually excited to see northwest Florida go to new heights and have great representation… I’m going to be fighting for President Trump. I’m going to be doing whatever he asks of me, as I always have. But I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress.”
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
Continue reading...Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand were part of operation bringing increasing numbers of Indians into US
A jury has convicted two men of human smuggling charges after an Indian family froze to death attempting to cross the Canada-US border.
After a brief deliberation on Friday, a jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota delivered the verdict in the case against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who used the alias “Dirty Harry”, and Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida. Prosecutors say the pair were part of a broader criminal enterprise that helped migrants cross from Canada into the United States.
Continue reading...President-elect spokesperson hails ‘decisive win’ as Judge Juan Merchan declines to provide new sentencing date
The sentencing in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal hush-money case has been postponed indefinitely while attorneys on both sides argue over its future given his recent election victory.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s case, did not provide a new sentencing date in his one-page scheduling order on Friday.
Continue reading...Rapper caps off 2024 with release of 12-track album featuring guest spots from SZA and Kamasi Washington
Kendrick Lamar has released a surprise album called GNX.
The Pulitzer prize-winning rapper teased the release with a one-minute video before the 12-track album was then released.
Continue reading...ACLU obtains documents showing agency’s effort to expand state’s detention capacity for undocumented immigrants
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials could add 600 beds to detain unauthorized immigrants in New Jersey, according to new documents obtained by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday.
An additional 600 detainees could mark a significant increase in the number of people held in New Jersey. The Elizabeth detention center – the only facility in the state that holds detainees – can currently accommodate up to 300 detainees, the Bergen Record reported in April. There were 285 detainees in the facility as of the end of October, according to data analyzed by the Guardian from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Continue reading...US Department of Transportation has greenlit congestion fee for raising funds for mass transit and cutting traffic
The US Department of Transportation has approved New York’s plan to impose a $9 congestion charge for driving in Manhattan starting on 5 January, a move aimed at raising billions for funding better mass transit and cutting traffic jams.
The congestion charge, the first of its kind in the US, was revived last week by the governor, Kathy Hochul, after she had put it on indefinite hold in June.
Continue reading...Karl Rove says in Wall Street Journal that Trump has ‘created chaos and controversy’ before he’s even in office
As Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s first nominee for attorney general, withdrew after eight days amid allegations of sexual misconduct and more, and as Trump’s new pick, Pam Bondi, faced scrutiny of her own, a leading Republican strategist rebuked the president-elect for bringing “chaos” back to Washington.
“Inadequate vetting, impatience, disregard for qualifications and a thirst for revenge have created chaos and controversy for Mr Trump before he’s even in office,” said Karl Rove, once known as George W Bush’s “Brain”, in the Wall Street Journal.
Continue reading...Former German chancellor says politics should govern the social balance between powerful and ordinary citizens
Angela Merkel, who in her new memoir raises fears for the western democratic order with Donald Trump as US president, has also expressed deep concerns about the outsized role to be played in Trump’s administration by Elon Musk.
The former German chancellor, who during Trump’s first term was given by some observers the designation of “leader of the free world” usually reserved for US presidents, said 16 years in power had taught her that business and political interests must be kept in fine balance.
Continue reading...Ex-Florida attorney general is longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during first impeachment trial
Donald Trump announced that he would nominate for attorney general Pam Bondi, the former Florida state attorney general, hours after the former representative Matt Gaetz withdrew in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans who had balked over a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
The move to name Bondi reflected Trump’s determination to install a loyalist as the nation’s top law enforcement official and marked another instance of Trump putting his personal lawyers in the justice department.
Continue reading...Police say man, believed to be under influence of drugs, walked into ER restroom in Upland and did not come out
A patient believed to be under the influence of drugs caused chaos at a California hospital when he climbed into the ceiling of an emergency room, got stuck and had to be freed by firefighters.
The Latin Times reported that the unnamed man was a walk-in patient who entered San Antonio regional hospital in Upland and was last seen on surveillance footage entering a restroom.
Continue reading...Carey Dale Grayson was killed on Thursday for 1994 murder by technique that previously caused visible signs of distress
Alabama carried out its third execution this year using the controversial new method of nitrogen gas, a technique that in previous state killings caused visible signs of distress.
Carey Dale Grayson was put to death on Thursday evening for the 1994 murder of a hitchhiker. The prisoner had a mask strapped to his face through which nitrogen was pumped, causing fatal oxygen deprivation.
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