Chardon

Exclusive: The inside story of how the U.S. gave up a chance to kill Soleimani in 2007

In the first years of the occupation, Qassem Soleimani had moved back and forth between Iran and Iraq “constantly,” but had always taken the precautions to be expected from a seasoned intelligence officer, said John Maguire, a former senior CIA official stationed in Baghdad in the mid-2000s. Soleimani disguised his rank and identity, used only ground transportation and avoided speaking on the phone or the radio, preferring to give orders to proxies and subordinates in Iraq in person.

Steyer: U.S. reparations for slavery will help 'repair the damage'

The billionaire presidential candidate Tom Steyer reiterated his support Wednesday for reparations for African- Americans suffering from the legacy of slavery.

Graham praises Schiff on impeachment presentation: 'You're very well-spoken'

Walking out of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday night after the first day of opening arguments in the impeachment trial of President Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., congratulated Adam Schiff, the lead manager for House Democrats, on his presentation of the case.

Arizona mother admits killing her 3 children, police say

Officials described the mother, who was not identified, as a 22-year-old woman who recently moved to Arizona from Oklahoma.

Additional U.S. troops have been flown out of Iraq following Iranian missile attack

Additional U.S. troops have been flown out of Iraq for closer evaluation of potential concussion injuries from the Iranian missile attack of Jan. 8, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday.

The American Airlines flight attendant union is calling on US airlines to step up precautions for the deadly Wuhan coronavirus

The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has sickened more than 630 people and killed 18. It has spread to at least 8 countries.

Did asteroid that hit Australia help thaw ancient 'snowball Earth'?

Scientists have identified Earth's oldest-known impact crater, and in doing so may have solved a mystery about how our planet emerged from one of its most dire periods. Researchers have determined that the 45-mile-wide (70-km-wide) Yarrabubba crater in Australia formed when an asteroid struck Earth just over 2.2 billion years ago. "Looking at our planet from space, it would have looked very different," said isotope geology professor Chris Kirkland of Curtin University in Australia, one of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

The brazen (and careless) Russian assassination team behind the Salisbury poisonings has been spotted in Europe, again

They keep failing to kill their targets. And they leave lots of evidence behind them.

Are North Korea's Vaunted Submarines Actually Any Good?

Let's take a look.

Trevor Noah Drags Hillary Clinton for Slamming Bernie Sanders: ‘This Is Not the Time to Reopen Old Wounds’

“Hillary Clinton is back in the news—and this time, she’s coming for Bernie [Sanders],” said The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah Tuesday night. Yes, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote her upcoming 4-hour Hulu docuseries, which is bowing this week at the Sundance Film Festival, the former secretary of state hit out at the Vermont senator’s “Bernie Bro” supporters, wouldn’t commit to backing him or campaigning on his behalf against Trump if he were the Dem nominee (she later said she would), and said of Sanders in the doc: “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”  That Hillary Clinton, a career politician and one of the most divisive political figures of our time, accused Bernie Sanders of being a “career politician” and unlikable is, well, pretty astonishing—as is the claim that she wouldn’t support him as the nominee over Trump, thereby prioritizing petty jealousies over the fate of the country. Bill Maher Warns of ‘Civil War’ If Democrats Don’t Embrace Trump Supporters“Hillary, what are you doing?!” exclaimed Noah. “The election is just about to begin and now you’re coming out throwing punches? This is not the time to reopen old wounds. You can just say, ‘As Democrats, we always support our nominee,’ and then go home and punch that bag you have with Bernie’s face on it.” “What does that even mean? Hillary won’t support Bernie? So, if he’s the nominee, who else is she going to campaign for? Trump?!” the comic continued. “Actually, I’d love to see that, I won’t lie. That would be amazing if Trump was just up there like, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my friend: Crooked Hillary!’ Hillary comes out and goes, ‘Hello everybody! Lock me up! Lock me up!’”  Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Why Pay Off Your Student Loans if the Government Will Do It for You?

America's mountain of student-loan debt keeps growing ever higher. But the factors driving the increase have changed, as detailed in a fascinating new report from Moody's.It used to be that we could blame colleges for failing to control their costs. But for the past decade or so, college costs have actually grown in line with the median household income, and the “origination” of new student loans has slowed down a little. The reason we haven't seen a similar slowdown in overall student debt is that borrowers are making less progress on their loans. And a lot of the time they're doing it on purpose — because they participate in programs that were dramatically expanded during the Obama years, and that forgive debt entirely so long as the borrower first makes small payments for a set period of time.Among students who graduated between 2006 and 2008, 60 percent made at least some progress on reducing their loan balances during their first five years post-graduation, despite the recession precipitated by the 2008 financial crisis. Students who left school between 2010 and 2012 faced a better job market as the economy slowly began to recover, but only 51 percent of them reduced their balances. In the aggregate, borrowers today are repaying only 3 percent of their loans each year, despite the “baseline” student loan being one that is paid back in ten years.When someone doesn't manage to reduce his loan balance, there can be several reasons. One is that he’s not earning enough money to make significant payments. This is especially likely when a student either failed to graduate or attended a program that doesn't lead to real job opportunities — both of which are especially likely at for-profit and two-year schools, enrollment in which was high in the aftermath of the recession. (It has fallen off since). Some borrowers also opt for longer repayment terms, meaning they pay off their loans more slowly than they otherwise would.But the report also points to another factor that would seem to have a lot of explanatory power, especially when it comes to those with the highest debts: the still-growing popularity of “income-based repayment” (IBR) and similar programs, which were overhauled and dramatically expanded during the Obama years. Under these programs, students can make small payments for a decade or two, often not even covering the interest on their loans, and have the entire debt forgiven at the end.This is not necessarily a bad idea in principle, but — as Jason Delisle has noted previously in this space — the programs were structured in a way that encouraged their abuse by people with incredibly high debt levels, especially from graduate studies rather than two- or four-year degrees. As Delisle wrote,> Under current law, anyone who takes out a federal student loan today can enroll in IBR and have his payments fixed at 10 percent of his income, less an exemption of $18,700 (which increases with household size). . . . Then, after 20 years of payments (or only ten years for those working in any government or non-profit job), all of the remaining balance is forgiven, no matter how high it is.He further points out, that, using the Department of Education's own debt calculator, someone with $80,000 in debt and an income of $60,000 could receive $62,000 in debt forgiveness if he works for the government. Someone with $150,000 in debt and a $75,000 salary could pay for 20 years and still receive $82,000, more than half the initial balance. Meanwhile, as noted in the Moody's report, the median amount borrowed is just about $17–18,000.Income-based repayment is a giveaway to people who choose to spend abnormally large sums on higher education, often earning graduate degrees, but go on to make unremarkable middle-to-upper-middle-class salaries. It's far less generous to someone with a modest debt, even if that person also earns a modest income. It's simply not possible to wring $62,000 or $82,000 in debt forgiveness out of the system if you're a normal borrower and didn't take out anywhere near that much in loans to begin with.The Moody's report further demonstrates that income-based programs are, indeed, highly attractive to people with big debts: “Only 5% of the total balances of borrowers who owe less than $5,000 are covered by [income-driven repayment programs]. Meanwhile, 53% of the balances of borrowers who owe more than $200,000 are in IDR programs.” And unsurprisingly, heavy borrowers have a disproportionate impact on student loans in general: Folks who borrow $20,000 or less represent 55 percent of borrowers but only 14 percent of the overall debt.All of this needs to be kept in mind as we ponder proposals to shovel even more money at people who carry student debt. College really does cost too much, but the costs seem to have finally stabilized. And those with incredibly high debt already have options for getting rid of it — overly generous options that many of them are enthusiastically taking advantage of, at taxpayer expense.The concept of income-based repayment is not a bad one. Indeed, I think it would be an enormous improvement for more colleges to base the amounts they get repaid on the amounts students earn after graduating. But there's no justification for structuring such a program as a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to people with graduate degrees.

Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows two-thirds of voters want the Senate to call new impeachment witnesses

In a new poll, 63 percent of registered voters agree that the Senate should call new witnesses to testify during President Trump’s impeachment trial.

Mother says she sang to her three children as she smothered them

A young mother in Arizona has reportedly told police that she killed her three children before placing them in the living room as if they were sleeping.Other family members were in the home at the time.

A University of Minnesota student was arrested in China and sentenced to 6 months in prison for tweeting cartoons making fun of President Xi Jingping

According to Chinese court documents obtained by Axios, 20-year-old Luo Daiqing was arrested after returning to Wuhan for summer break.

Family attorneys say cruise line's story of toddler's death is 'physically impossible'

Attorneys representing Chloe Wiegand's family say a ship visit proves it's "physically impossible" for her grandfather to hold her out of the window.

Man in Mexico Now Ill After Visiting Coronavirus Ground Zero

(Bloomberg) -- A man who fell ill in Mexico on Monday following a December trip to Wuhan, China, is under observation as a potential case of the coronavirus, the respiratory virus that has killed at least 17 people worldwide.The 57-year-old molecular biology professor works for the Instituto Politecnico Nacional university in the city of Reynosa, which borders with the U.S. The man returned to Mexico on Jan. 10 through a Mexico City airport and then flew to the state of Tamaulipas, Mexican authorities said.Tamaulipas State Health Minister Gloria Molina said in a radio interview that the man immediately reported his situation to authorities after feeling sick. He is now in his home under monitoring to prevent any potential spread. His test results are expected on Thursday, Mexico’s chief epidemiologist Jose Luis Alomia said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.Molina said the man also had layovers at the border city of Tijuana when he left and returned to Mexico, according to journalist Joaquin Lopez Doriga’s news site.Link: China Seeks to Contain Virus as Death Toll Jumps to 17Earlier on Wednesday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that a second possible case in Mexico had been ruled out. “The coronavirus is being looked into. If we have more information we will release it later today,” he said.Mexico plans to inform daily on the latests developments of the virus around the world. A preventive travel recommendation is in place for the country and passengers arriving from international ports will be checked for any symptoms, Alomia said.Separately, Colombian authorities are also evaluating whether a Chinese man with a respiratory illness, who traveled to Colombia from Turkey, has the same virus, according to Blu, a Bogota-based radio station. The country’s health ministry declined to comment.The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he needs to consider all evidence before deciding if the coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan is an international health emergency.(Adds Alomia comments in paragraphs 3 and 6, and WHO comments in last paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Cyntia Barrera Diaz in Mexico City at cbarrerad@bloomberg.net;Lorena Rios in Mexico City at lriost@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ney Hayashi at ncruz4@bloomberg.net, Dale QuinnFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

See This Nuke? Meet the Most Destructive Nuclear Bomb Ever Made By Man

Thank god the Soviets never deployed it.

Firefighting plane crashes in Australia, killing 3 Americans

Three American firefighting airplane crew members were killed Thursday when the C-130 Hercules aerial water tanker they were in crashed while battling wildfires in southeastern Australia, officials said. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the deaths in the state's Snowy Monaro region, which came as Australia grapples with an unprecedented fire season that has left a large swath of destruction. Canada-based Coulson Aviation said in a statement that one of its Lockheed large air tankers was lost after it left Richmond in New South Wales with retardant for a firebombing mission.

Michelle Carter, who urged her boyfriend to kill himself in 2014, was released from a Massachusetts jail today after serving an 11-month sentence — victim's family said it brought closure

Michelle Carter, who urged a Massachusetts teenager to kill himself, was released from jail Thursday. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter following the death of her boyfriend Conor Roy III in 2014.

Impeachment trial fallout: Trump could get his wish — to hurt Biden

Details about Hunter Biden could complicate life for Joe Biden — exactly what Trump was trying to do with his Ukraine scheme last summer.  

White Nationalists Arrested ahead of Richmond Rally Planned to Kill Gun-Rights Demonstrators to Spark Civil War

Three alleged members of a white supremacist group were plotting to murder demonstrators at Monday's gun rights rally at the Virginia Capitol before they were arrested by the FBI last week, according to court documents.The men were caught discussing their plans on a hidden camera set up in their Delaware apartment by FBI agents.“We can’t let Virginia go to waste, we just can’t,” said Patrik J. Mathews, one member of the hate group "the Base" that promotes violence against African-Americans and Jews.According to authorities, the 27-year-old former Canadian Armed Forces reservist also discussed creating "instability" in Virginia by killing people, derailing trains, poisoning water, and shutting down highways in order to "kick off the economic collapse" and possibly start a "full blown civil war."Mathews also discussed the possibility of "executing" police officers and stealing their belongings and remarked that, “We could essentially be like literally hunting people.”“Virginia will be our day,” said 33-year-old Brian M. Lemley Jr., adding, “I need to claim my first victim.”“Lemley discussed using a thermal imaging scope affixed to his rifle to conduct ambush attacks,” the court filings read.The two were arrested along with a third man, 19, last Thursday. They are charged with federal firearms violations and “transporting and harboring an alien,” referring to Mathews, who is a Canadian national. Four more members of The Base have also been arrested and charged in Georgia and Wisconsin.In a search of the apartment, prosecutors said that FBI agents found propaganda fliers for The Base, communications devices, empty rifle cases, "go bags" with "numerous Meals-Ready-to-Eat," knives, and materials for building an assault rifle.Tens of thousands of gun rights advocates rallied in Richmond on Monday to protest the state’s Democratic legislature's gun-control agenda. Critics raised fears beforehand that militant white supremacists could disrupt the rally, but the day ended peacefully with no violence.

1 Killed, 7 Wounded, Including 9-Year-Old, in Shooting in Downtown Seattle. Here's What to Know

The shooting is the third in Seattle in two days

The mysterious, deadly Wuhan coronavirus may have jumped from snakes to humans, scientists say

The new findings appear to be the most comprehensive understanding of the mysterious virus, known as 2019-nCoV, so far.

Smugglers tried to bring 3,700 invasive crabs through the Port of Cincinnati

Mitten crabs are a delicacy in Asia and sell for about $50 each in the United States, officials say. They are considered an invasive species.

China virus toll jumps to 25 dead with 830 confirmed cases: govt

The death toll in China's viral outbreak has risen to 25, with the number of confirmed cases also leaping to 830, the government said on Friday. The National Health Commission said authorities were also examining 1,072 suspected cases of the virus that first emerged in central city of Wuhan. The markedly higher numbers were released just hours after the World Health Organization stopped short of declaring the situation to be a global health emergency.

Russia, China, and Iran Would Love to Take Out a Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. Here's Why They Can't.

The beasts are more survivable than they seem.

Presidential candidate Tom Steyer: ‘I’m for reparations’

On Yahoo News’ “Hot Mic with Brittany Shepherd,” Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer spoke about race and reparations, saying that if he were elected to office, “I would start a commission on race on day one.”

Fifth condemned Tennessee inmate opts for the electric chair

A Tennessee inmate has chosen the electric chair for his scheduled execution next month, opting like four other inmates in little more than a year for electrocution over the state's preferred execution method of lethal injection. Nicholas Sutton, 58, is scheduled to be put to death Feb. 20 for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate decades ago while serving a life sentence for his grandmother's slaying. An affidavit signed on Tuesday said he waives the right to be executed by lethal injection and chooses electrocution.

Justice Department says it should not have continued spying on former Trump adviser

The U.S. Justice Department has told a court it did not have enough evidence to justify continued surveillance of one of President Donald Trump's former campaign advisers in 2017, in a sign it believes the FBI on occasion went too far when it investigated Russian influence in the 2016 election. The department's assessment, made public on Thursday, came after an in-depth review by the Justice Department's internal watchdog found the FBI manipulated evidence and otherwise overstepped its bounds as it explored possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow in 2016. The watchdog's review, made public in December, found that FBI agents acted legally when they asked in 2016 for court approval to begin surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

NYT Ed Board Member Wrote Out ‘Full Draft’ of Biden Endorsement, but Scrapped It over His ‘Normal’ Message and Lack of ‘Urgency’

Kathleen Kingsbury, a deputy editorial page editor and member of The New York Times’s editorial board, revealed Thursday that she wrote a full 2,000-word endorsement of Joe Biden, only for the board to reject it because “it didn’t match the moment.”The Times broke new ground this cycle by conducting on-the-record interviews with nine of the top candidates and airing the interviews, which have historically been off-the-record, on their documentary show The Weekly on FX.Kingsbury explained to Times columnists on the The Argument podcast how the Times editorial board arrived at its first-ever dual endorsement of Senators Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), saying that “policy prescriptions” and the “messages” drove much of the thought-process. She also dismissed concerns about electability, calling the effort to predict which candidate would be most successful in the general election a “fool’s errand.”“What we realized is that the party needs to have that conversation amongst itself. It’s really not the role of the editorial board to determine the future of the Democratic Party,” Kingsbury said.But she revealed that, following heightened tensions with Iran after President Trump’s decision to kill Qasem Soleimani, she went ahead and drafted an endorsement of Biden, citing his opposition to the war in Afghanistan.“Right after we had the outbreak of conflict with Iran, I sat down and I wrote an entire endorsement of Joe Biden,” Klingsbury said. “I think that came from a desire on my part for the comfort of having someone who during his interviews, spoke so fluently about foreign policy, who’s been in the room in some of those more difficult decision-making [moments].”In August, Biden fabricated an Afghanistan-war story about how he resisted safety concerns to travel to “godforsaken country” and honor a war hero.“We can lose a vice president,” he recounted at a campaign event. “We can’t lose many more of these kids. Not a joke.”Klingsbury then explained why the Times ultimately did not pursue Biden’s endorsement, implying that Biden’s campaign hasn't meaningfully grappled with the conditions that gave rise to Trump's election.“Joe Biden’s message simply is ‘let’s go back to normal, whatever normal is, right?’ For a lot of Americans, ‘normal’ wasn’t working and I think that there needs to be some recognition that at least for some portion of the American public, the government and the economic systems were failing them,” she said.In an emailed statement to National Review, Kingsbury said she did not “have much to say beyond what I said on The Argument.” She declined to comment on whether the board wrote any other endorsement drafts, or when it decided to scrap Biden’s.“Once I had a draft in hand, I realized I should return to the wisdom of my board,” she explained ". . . [Biden’s] message and his proposed plans don’t feel like they match the urgency of the moment.”

'The new evidence raises deeply troubling questions': did Arkansas kill an innocent man?

Revealed: two years after Ledell Lee was executed, damning evidence emerges that experts say could prove his innocenceThe day before Ledell Lee was executed on 20 April 2017, he talked to the BBC from death row. He said that while he could not prevent the state of Arkansas from killing him, he had a message for his executioners: “My dying words will always be, as it has been: ‘I am an innocent man’.”Almost two years after Lee was strapped to a gurney and injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs, it looks increasingly likely he was telling the truth: he went to his death an innocent man. New evidence has emerged that suggests Lee was not guilty of the brutal murder of a woman in 1993 for which his life was taken.The deceased inmate’s sister Patricia Young lodged a lawsuit on Thursday with the circuit court of Pulaski county, Arkansas, petitioning city authorities and the local police department in Jacksonville to release crime scene materials to her family.The ACLU and the Innocence Project, who are investigating the case on the family’s behalf, believe state-of-the-art forensic examination of the materials, including DNA testing and fingerprint analysis, could definitively prove Arkansas did indeed execute an innocent man.An 81-page filing in the lawsuit provides damning new evidence that key aspects of the prosecution case against Lee were deeply flawed. The complaint includes expert opinion from a number of world-leading specialists who find glaring errors in the way forensic science and other evidence was interpreted.The lawsuit also includes a bombshell affidavit from Lee’s post-conviction attorney who admits to having struggled with substance abuse and addiction throughout the years in which he represented him.Lawyers who prepared the filing, led by Cassandra Stubbs of the ACLU and the Innocence Project’s Nina Morrison, conclude: “It is now clear that the state’s forensic experts from trial misinterpreted the evidence in plain sight, and their flawed opinions were further distorted by the state in its zeal to convict [Lee] of the crime. The new evidence raises deeply troubling questions about the shaky evidentiary pillars on which the state executed Ledell Lee.”Innocence has always been the achilles heel of America’s death penalty: how to justify judicially killing prisoners who may have been wrongfully convicted. The question is far from academic: since 1973 no fewer than 167 death row inmates have been exonerated.The most harrowing question is whether innocent prisoners have been executed before the flawed nature of their convictions emerged. In recent years, there have been several cases that, with near certainty, suggest that innocent men have been put to death.They include Cameron Todd Willingham executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly having caused a fire that killed his three young daughters. After the execution, further evidence emerged that conclusively showed that he could not have set the fire.The Columbia Human Rights Law Review carried out a groundbreaking investigation in which it concluded Carlos DeLuna was innocent when he was executed – also by Texas – in 1989. The six-year study discovered that the convicted prisoner had almost certainly been confused with another man, a violent criminal who shared the name Carlos.Now Ledell Lee looks as though he may be added to the grim rollcall of the wrongly executed. He relentlessly insisted he was not guilty from the moment he was arrested less than two hours after the brutally beaten body of Debra Reese was discovered in her home in Jacksonville on 9 February 1993.The difficulties with the case against Lee began almost immediately. He was picked up nowhere near the crime scene and was not in possession of any possessions that could be linked to the break-in at Reese’s home.The only evidence against him was inconclusive at best. There were two eyewitnesses, but they gave conflicting reports of the suspect’s identification.> In recent years, there have been several cases that, with near certainty, suggest innocent men have been put to deathThe crime scene was shocking, with blood splattered over the walls and floor. Yet when Lee was arrested on the same day detectives could find no blood on his clothes or body including under his fingernails and nothing was found in a forensic search of his house.Given the paucity of evidence, it is not surprising that it took two trials to find Lee guilty and sentence him to death. The first trial collapsed after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.The ACLU and Innocence Project took up Lee’s case very late in the day having been asked to get involved shortly before his scheduled execution date. What they discovered when they opened the case records astounded even these experienced death penalty lawyers.Very quickly they established there were major problems with the prosecution case against Lee. One area that especially concerned them was the inadequacy of Lee’s legal representation, both during the second trial in which defense attorneys inexplicably failed to call alibi witnesses that could have placed Lee elsewhere at the time of the murder, and in terms of the help he received at the appeal stage of his case.At one post-conviction hearing, a lawyer working for the state of Arkansas approached the judge and raised concerns about Lee’s attorney, Craig Lambert. “Your honor, I don’t do this lightly, but I’m going to ask that the court require him to submit to a drug test,” the counsel said. “He’s just not with us … His speech is slurred.”In an affidavit obtained since Lee’s execution, signed by Lambert in October, the lawyer admits: “I was struggling with substance abuse and addiction in those years. I attended inpatient rehab. Ledell’s case was massive and I wasn’t in the best place personally to do what was necessary.”Partly as a result of poor legal representation, terrible errors were made in Lee’s defense – both at trial and for years afterwards during the appeals process. The complaint goes into detail about these “deeply troubling” shortcomings.One of the key examples relates to the marks found on the victim’s cheek. The state’s experts mistakenly interpreted the marks as having come from a pattern on a rug in Reese’s bedroom where she had been beaten to death with a wooden tire club.In fact, the filing says, the pattern on the body’s cheek did not match that on the rug. Instead it was consistent with the murderer stomping on Reese’s face directly with his shoe.That is critically significant because the shoes that Lee was wearing that day, which the state used during the trial as evidence against him, were incompatible in the composition of their soles with the injury pattern on Reese’s face.To establish this point, an affidavit is provided by Michael Baden, former chief pathologist for New York who is recognized internationally as a leading forensic pathologist. He concludes: “The soles of Mr Lee’s sneakers have a much more closely spaced pattern than was transferred in the cheek imprint.”That inconsistency is just one of many that were uncovered when Baden and four other specialists were invited to review the case.Lee was executed in a flurry. When the state of Arkansas realized its supply of one of its three lethal drugs, the sedative midazolam, was about to expire at the end of 2017 with no hope of replacing it due to a global ban on medicines being sent to the US for use in executions, it went into overdrive.It announced plans to kill eight prisoners in 11 days.The declaration prompted revulsion from around the US and the world and accusations that the state was engaging in conveyor-belt executions. It was in that climate that attempts by the ACLU and the Innocence Project to have materials gathered at the crime scene of Reese’s murder released for DNA testing fell on deaf ears.Though the lawyers presented a strong argument that DNA testing could be crucial in casting doubt on Lee’s conviction and pointing towards the real killer, a federal district court denied the request on grounds that Lee had “simply delayed too long” in asking for the materials.It is too late now for Lee. But his lawyers hope that it is not too late to get to the bottom of the case posthumously.The city of Jacksonville is in possession of a rich array of crime scene materials including “Negroid” hairs collected from Reese’s bedroom and fingernail scrapings likely to contain DNA from the actual killer – Lee or otherwise.“This evidence can now be tested with state-of-the-art methods unavailable at trial, and compared to Mr Lee’s unique DNA profile,” the filing says.After a welter of legal challenges, Arkansas succeeded in killing four prisoners in one week, including the first double execution held in the US in a single day since 2001. The first of the four to die was Ledell Lee.Should Arkansas now agree belatedly to hand over the crime scene materials for testing, he may yet be proven to have been, just as he always said he was, an innocent man.

Saudi officials close to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly knew of plans to hack Bezos phone

Saudi officials told The Wall Street Journal that senior adviser to the crown prince Saud al-Qahtani was involved in plans to hack Bezos' phone.

'End of the world': Wuhan a ghost town under quarantine

Wuhan residents called for help and shared worries of food shortages Thursday, with streets in the virus-hit central Chinese city left deserted after it was put on lockdown. After he bought some, the person behind him in the queue bought the remaining stock in the shop.

Family of Kristin Smart, who went missing in 1996, now says there's no news coming soon

Kristin Smart's mother said she was contacted by a former FBI agent, but there is no timeline for an announcement in her case, the family later said.

4 killed in plane crash at Southern California airfield

Four people were killed Wednesday in the crash of a small airplane at a Southern California airfield, authorities said. The plane went down at Corona Municipal Airport, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, police said. Four fatalities were confirmed, the Corona Fire Department said on Twitter.

U.S. Secretary of State cautions nations against taking 'easy money' from China

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Jamaica on Wednesday, cautioned nations against taking "easy money" from China, warning it could be counterproductive, in a second attack in as many days against China's economic role in the region. On Tuesday, he drew the ire of Chinese officials when he said "flashy" Chinese economic promises often produces debt dependency and erode the sovereignty of borrower nations.

Successor to slain Iran general will be murdered if he kills Americans: U.S. envoy

The successor to the Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike would suffer the same fate if he followed a similar path by killing Americans, the U.S. special representative for Iran said, according to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Senators reportedly laugh as Democrats play clip of former Trump official calling out Rudy Giuliani

Democrats are continuing to make their impeachment argument by citing President Trump's allies and officials, this time getting in a dig at Rudy Giuliani in the process. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), one of the impeachment managers who spoke Thursday in Democrats' second day of opening arguments in the Senate's trial, took apart the conspiracy theory pushed by Trump that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election by hacking the Democratic National Committee.To make her point that this theory has no basis in reality, Garcia referred to the words of Trump's former Homeland Security adviser, Tom Bossert, who told ABC News last year this "conspiracy theory" has been "completely debunked." Bossert in the clip played in the Senate went on to voice frustrations with Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, for pushing this conspiracy theory, quoting a former senator's magazine article as saying that one of the "ways to impeach oneself" is "hiring Rudy Giuliani."Previously, Garcia played a clip of FBI Director Christopher Wray stating in an interview, "We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election." This was another example during Democrats' impeachment arguments of using clips from Trump allies and officials to make their argument after House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) made strategic use of 1990s-era quotes from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump's impeachment defense team, to argue abuse of power is impeachable. HuffPost's Ryan Reilly reports that when Bossert in the clip quipped that hiring Giuliani is a way to self-impeach, there were "a lot of laughs on both sides of the Senate chamber." > A portion of ex-Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert's interview with @GStephanopoulos last summer on the debunked theory of 2016 election meddling was played by House impeachment managers during the Senate trial.> > Watch his exchange on @ThisWeekABC. https://t.co/jfWy6wWWqf pic.twitter.com/ze8hQfg2is> > -- This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 23, 2020More stories from theweek.com Democrats walked right into Mitch McConnell's trap GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn questions patriotism of Purple Heart recipient Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Saturday's impeachment session could start bright and early

Police say Antonio Brown has locked himself in his home after an alleged battery incident involving his trainer and a moving truck driver

Police in Hollywood, Florida, say there was a disturbance outside Antonio Brown's home on Tuesday involving the Brown, his trainer, and a mover.

Yes, South Korea's Army Is Better Than North Korea's (But There's a Problem)

If only it weren't for the nukes...

Utah bans LGBTQ conversion therapy for minors

"It simply will save lives," said GOP State Representative Craig Hall, who originally sponsored the proposal.

Police: Mom accused of killing her 3 kids said she smothered them while singing

A probable cause document doesn’t provide a possible motive for the brutal killings that Rachel Henry is charged with.

Haiti pushes foster homes to counter problems in orphanages

Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Rose Boncoeur brought two emaciated little girls to live in her modest home in Haiti as part of a reform drive aimed at keeping children out of orphanages. The government of the Americas' poorest country is pushing to deinstitutionalize children so as to avoid the darkest sides of orphanage life -- trafficking of kids or even worse abuse. Boncoeur gets no financial help to feed or clothe her two charges, and is forced to ask people for used clothing for her foster children -- sisters, aged eight months and three years.

Coronavirus Patient Had Close Contact With 16 in Washington State

SEATTLE—Washington state officials said they have determined the man with the first known case of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States had close contact with at least 16 people since returning from China.But authorities said there was no reason to panic—even as Seattle residents rushed to buy face masks at drug stores and fretted about whether the bug that has killed 17 people overseas would spread across the United States.“I would expect that at some point we’re going to have more cases in the U.S.,” state Health Secretary John Wiesman said, stressing that public health officials are well-equipped and trained to handle and contain outbreaks.The initial patient, a man in his 30s, returned from a trip to China on Jan. 15 but did not fall ill until several days later. He had seen news of the outbreak that has infected hundreds in China and went to a Snohomish County clinic on Jan. 19, and told doctors about his travel history. Samples sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came back positive for the virus on Monday, prompting the patient’s hospitalization in an isolation unit at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. Officials confirmed the case the following morning, followed by the afternoon press conference.China’s Deadly Coronavirus Cover-Up Is Getting Worse as First Case Hits U.S.Wiesman said the man, who lives alone, is doing well. He’s being observed in a bio-containment room under precautions that include security guards and a robot with a stethoscope to limit physical contact with hospital staff, KOMO-TV reported.Wiesman said that after confirming the virus, health investigators immediately began tracing the patient’s steps to identify who had close contact with him. He said they had identified and were in the process of notifying and monitoring 16 people—but cautioned that number could rise. Officials are not recommending isolation for those people unless they develop symptoms, at which point they would be infectious, he said.Despite the messages of reassurance, Seattle residents were snapping up available anti-viral face masks. In the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, a manager for Bartell Drugs said the store’s stock had been essentially cleaned out by noon on Tuesday. A few blocks away at Rite Aid, a single box of face masks remained, and at a nearby Walgreens, a last-minute shopper bought one of two remaining 20-packs.  Boya, 31, a mental health therapist from Seattle, said the Walgreens face masks weren’t her first choice but would have to do given her “complex” situation. She requested that her last name not be used because both she and her partner would be traveling to China soon, and she worried that the Chinese government hadn’t been entirely truthful about the outbreak’s extent.Boya’s partner was due to fly to Hong Kong and then Chengdu, China, on Thursday, she said, and had enlisted her help after being unable to find any face masks at other stores. In February, Boya said, she herself would fly to Shanghai.Some hospitals also appeared to be taking extra precautions. At the entrance to the Emergency & Trauma Center at Harborview Medical Center near downtown, staff had posted red signs on the sliding glass door and by the metal detector that read, “Ask for a mask if you have a fever, rash, cough, runny nose, red eyes, or feel ill.” The air smelled of alcohol as a gloved security guard wiped down round security trays with Purell.China’s Deadly Coronavirus Cover-Up Is Getting Worse as First Case Hits U.S.A few blocks away, the Swedish First Hill Emergency Room waiting area was quiet and mostly empty, and only one young man wore a face mask. A retired public health worker who was waiting for her granddaughter but declined to give her name said she felt fortunate to be living in the county because of its public health capabilities. Even so, she said, messages about the coronavirus would have to overcome language and cultural barriers to be effective.At Walgreens, Boya agreed that the newly confirmed case didn’t pose an immediate threat to her. “Here, I feel safe,” she said. But her grandparents and some other relatives still live in Wuhan, the outbreak’s epicenter. She also worried about her partner’s safety and her own during their upcoming trips. “I’m calm but still have concern here,” she said, pointing at her chest.Janet Baseman, a professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, said she was impressed by the rapid response of health officials. “This is the way that the public health surveillance system is supposed to work,” she said. “So I’m very pleased.”The virus, officially called 2019-nCoV, was first identified in December in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China. Officials originally linked the outbreak to a large seafood and animal market. Since then, they have confirmed human-to-human transmission as well, though it’s not yet clear how easily the virus can spread. By Wednesday, more than 400 cases and 17 deaths had been reported in at least five countries, and screenings in the U.S. had expanded to include airports in Chicago and Atlanta.For the general public, Baseman said, “unless they are traveling to affected areas in China, they are at very, very low risk.” Evidence from other coronaviruses like SARS, she said, suggests that person-to-person transmission occurs primarily when an infected individual coughs, sneezes, or otherwise comes into close contact with someone else. In this case, she noted, the Washington state patient didn’t report any symptoms until several days after his arrival in the U.S. For other people in the vicinity, she said, “That makes transmission very, very, very unlikely. Usually people do not transmit viruses like this to other people until they have symptoms themselves.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Lindsey Graham is offering unsolicited legal advice to Trump's team

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a juror in President Trump's impeachment trial, is offering free legal advice to his counsel, if they want to accept it.So far, the House impeachment managers have "done a good job" of "painting ... a tapestry, taking a series of events and telling a story," Graham told reporters on Thursday. When Trump's legal team starts delivering his defense on Saturday, they will "start pulling on the threads."Graham also thinks Trump's attorneys will need to shift the focus to former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, and is in the center of a debunked conspiracy theory being peddled by Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani. Graham said Trump's team needs to "really go hard at the idea that when they tell you there's not a scintilla of evidence, groundless, baseless, phony accusations regarding the Bidens, I would challenge that very hard."More stories from theweek.com Democrats walked right into Mitch McConnell's trap GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn questions patriotism of Purple Heart recipient Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Saturday's impeachment session could start bright and early