As Epstein died, guards allegedly shopped online
and slept
NEW YORK — Two jail guards responsible for monitoring Jeffrey Epstein the night he killed himself were charged Tuesday with falsifying prison records to conceal they were sleeping and browsing the internet during the hours they were supposed to be keeping a close watch on prisoners.
Guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas were accused in a grand jury indictment of neglecting their duties by failing to check on Epstein for nearly eight hours, and of fabricating log entries to show they had been making checks every 30 minutes, as required.
The charges against the officers in connection with the wealthy financier’s death in August provide a damning glimpse of security lapses inside a high-security unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where Epstein had been awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The indictment also contained new details reinforcing the idea that for all the intrigue regarding Epstein and his connections to powerful people, his death was a suicide, possibly preventable if the people guarding him had been doing their jobs.
Shooting deaths rattle small, tight-knit U.S. Hmong community
Fresno has been the heart of California’s Hmong community for decades, drawing refugees from war-torn Southeast Asia who built a tight-knit population in the farm town. Now, they’re reeling from the shooting deaths of four Hmong American men at a weekend party.
The central California city has the nation’s second-largest concentration of the ethnic minority group from East and Southeast Asia — about 34,000 people — and is home to a festive weeklong Hmong New Year’s party that draws tens of thousands of Hmong from around the country every year.
“Obviously, everyone’s in shock,” said Steve Ly, the first Hmong elected mayor in the country in the city of Elk Grove. “Fresno is the old stomping grounds for many of us who are spread all over the state.”
Police have not determined a motive, and no suspects were identified in Sunday’s shooting that killed four and wounded six others. The gunmen targeted the house where some 16 men had gathered outside to watch football on television, police said. Women and children were inside the house and were not hurt.
The dead include Xy Lee, a Hmong singer and musician whose videos on YouTube have been viewed millions of times. Also killed were Phia Vang, 31; Kou Xiong, 38; and Kalaxang Thao, 40, all of Fresno.
No clear champ as Johnson, Corbyn spar in UK
election debate
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked each other’s policies on Brexit, health care and the economy Tuesday in a televised election debate that likely failed to answer the question troubling many voters: Why should we trust you?
The two politicians hammered away at their rival’s weaknesses and sidestepped tricky questions about their own policies in the hourlong encounter, which was the first-ever head-to-head TV debate between a British prime minister and a chief challenger.
It was a chance for Corbyn to make up ground in opinion polls that show his Labour Party trailing Johnson’s Conservatives ahead of the Dec. 12 election. For Johnson, the matchup was an opportunity to shake off a wobbly campaign start that has seen the Conservatives thrown on the defensive by candidates’ gaffes and favoritism allegations involving Johnson’s relationship with an American businesswoman while he was London’s mayor.
Both men stuck to safe territory, with Corbyn touting Labour’s plans for big increases in public spending and Johnson trying to keep the focus on his promise to “get Brexit done.”
Speaking in front of a live audience at the studios of broadcaster ITV in Salford, in northwest England, the two men traded blows over Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union — the reason the election is being held. The U.K. is due to leave the bloc on Jan. 31, after failing to meet the Oct. 31 deadline to approve a divorce deal.
White supremacist manifesto reportedly shared at Syracuse U
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A white supremacist manifesto that appeared to be a copy of one linked to a man accused of attacking two mosques in New Zealand was circulated electronically at Syracuse University, campus law enforcement said Tuesday, adding to a string of racist episodes that have shaken the upstate New York campus.
Federal Investigators and local authorities were working to determine the origin of the document after receiving reports that it was posted in an online forum and that attempts were made to send it to the cellphones of students at a campus library Monday night via AirDrop, a file-sharing service that allows iPhone users to send pictures or files to other iPhones or iPads near them when devices are within Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range of each other.
Officials said the manifesto appeared to be copied from one written by the man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March.
“We don’t know the author. We don’t know what the intent of it was. It’s a very disturbing document if you read it,” Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said at a news conference with campus and state police and the FBI.
Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado said, based on a preliminary investigation, there appeared to be no direct threat.
Drive behind occupation of Alcatraz lingers
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — On a chilly November night 50 years ago, a 7-year-old Peter Bratt, his four siblings and their single mother left their San Francisco home for the pier. From there, they joined a group of indigenous activists on a small boat, bobbing in fog and rolling over what felt like tidal waves.
They eventually landed at their destination — Alcatraz Island. At first, all the young boy could see was a vast, “magical” playground. He and other children roamed the beaches, literally blazing their own trails. They explored buildings that once housed prisoners, including Native Americans incarcerated there nearly a century earlier.
Despite his age, Bratt quickly comprehended that the adventure was the start of a movement. The adults banded together to take back a body of land that they felt didn’t belong to the U.S. government to begin with.
“I remember seeing these young Indian people from all over the country shouting to the world, ‘Red Power! You’re on Indian land,’” said Bratt, 57, and the older brother of actor Benjamin Bratt. “Whoa, that was a game changer. I felt like I was finally home.”
The 19-month occupation of Alcatraz, which started Nov. 20, 1969, is widely seen as a seminal event that reinvigorated tribes to organize in the face of a U.S. government steamrolling over their land, their rights and their identities. Many Native American activists today say they are still struggling to have their voices not only heard but respected. They point to recent examples like their ongoing fight against a proposed oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota that they argued would contaminate water. President Donald Trump’s administration approved a final permit for it early in his term.
By wire sources
