Author: CNN

CNN
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Two suspects were taken into custody, one after a shootout, in a “cartel-style” massacre last month that left six people dead in central California, including a young mother and her 10-month-old son, authorities announced Friday.

The suspects, identified in charging documents as Angel Uriarte, 35, and Noah Beard, 25, are known members of the Norteño gang, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said during a news conference. He said the January 16 shooting was the likely result of a conflict with members of the Sureños, a rival gang.

“The suspects and the victims have a long history of gun violence, heavily active in guns, gang violence, gun violence, and narcotics dealings,” Boudreaux said, adding, “the motive is not exactly clear at this point.”

Authorities said Uriarte was injured in a shootout with ATF agents before he was taken into custody. He is hospitalized, and in stable condition, according to ATF Acting Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson. Beard was taken into custody without incident.

Beard is accused of killing 16-year-old Alissa Parraz and her 10-month-old son, Nycholas, as they fled the overnight shooting at a home in Goshen, a farming community about 30 miles southeast of Fresno. Authorities showed surveillance video Friday showing the young mother lifting her son over a fence and climbing over. Both were found dead in the street outside the home.

Along with the mother and her son, the four other victims were identified as Marcos Parraz, 19; Eladio Parraz, 52; Alissa’s grandmother, Rosa Parraz, 72; and Jennifer Analla, 49.

Boudreaux said all the victims died of gunshot wounds, most were shot in the head, including the 10-month-old boy.

The surprising history of gun laws in America

“This was clearly not a random act of violence. This family was targeted by coldblooded killers,” Boudreaux said.

The arrests were part of a multiagency effort dubbed Operation Nightmare, which included searches of several California prisons and 24/7 surveillance of the suspects over the last 10 days. DNA left at the scene was credited with quickly leading law enforcement to zero in on the pair.

Uriarte and Beard are each facing six counts of murder, according to Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward, along with enhancements relating to the use of a firearm, and that the acts were committed in participation of a criminal street gang. The suspects may eventually face the death penalty if convicted.

CNN is trying to determine if both suspects have legal representation.

The massacre came before a series of back-to-back mass shootings in California late last month, including an attack during a Lunar New Year Celebration in suburban Monterey Park, just west of Los Angeles. That shooting on January 21 left 11 people dead.

Another attack on January 23 left four dead at a California mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay. That night, another shooting, this time in Oakland, left one dead and seven others injured.

Mass shootings are ‘uniquely American experience,’ Dem Senator says

CNN
 — 

LeBron James finished with 27 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 131-126 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans Saturday, leaving the 38-year-old needing 36 points to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA all-time scoring record.

James struggled out of the gates but was able to finish the game strong, adding nine rebounds and six assists in the loss. Lakers forward Anthony Davis finished with a team-high 34 points and 14 rebounds.

There were a lot of cheers at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans whenever James touched the ball, but fans will have to wait a little longer for the record to be broken. It is likely that James will achieve the historic feat before a home crowd this week.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points has stood for nearly 39 years, the Lakers great overtaking Wilt Chamberlain on April 5, 1984 – before James was even born.

In what is supposed to be the twilight of his career, James is enjoying one of his highest-scoring seasons, averaging 30.1 points per game.

James could break the record either on Tuesday, against the Oklahoma City Thunder, or Thursday, against the Milwaukee Bucks. Both are home ties.

Ticket prices for those games have predictably skyrocketed, with the NBA saying that any game where he has a reasonable chance of breaking the record will be broadcast nationally.

Feb 7: Thunder at Lakers, 10pET on TNT

Feb 9: Bucks at Lakers, 10pET on TNT

Feb 11: Lakers at Warriors, 830pET on ABC

CNN
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Evacuation and shelter-in-place orders remain in effect in a northeastern Ohio town after a train derailment sparked a massive fire and concerns about air quality.

A Norfolk Southern train with more than 100 cars derailed in East Palestine, about 15 miles south of Youngstown, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

There were 20 cars with hazardous material in the train – 10 of which derailed. Of those 10, five were carrying vinyl chloride, the NTSB said Saturday night.

“We have not confirmed vinyl chloride has been released other than from the pressure release devices,” the agency added.

NTSB board member Michael Graham said in a news conference earlier Saturday there was still an “active fire scene,” and could not estimate when the flames would be put out.

The cause of the derailment was not known Saturday.

Investigators say the train had image and data recorders onboard. It will take four to six weeks for the NTSB to have a preliminary report on the accident, Graham said.

No injuries were reported.

One car released some of the vinyl chloride through a safety release valve, Graham said. State environmental officials say they have not detected any harmful levels of the chemical in the community.

Exposure with vinyl chloride, a colorless gas, is associated with a higher risk of certain forms of cancer, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.

No harmful levels of compounds had been detected in the air as of Saturday evening, a spokesperson with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency told CNN in an email.

“Ohio EPA will remain on site and air monitors will remain in place as long as necessary,” Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee said in a statement. “Ohio EPA has established containment to help limit any damage to local streams and rivers from water runoff from the firefighting.”

The agency will work with local officials and the railroad company to “identify the nature and extent” of any possible contamination and will work to ensure cleanup efforts to protect human health and the environment, Lee said.

Officials issued a shelter-in-place order for the entire town of roughly 5,000 people, while an evacuation order was in effect within a mile of the train crossing at James Street as of early Saturday. Conaway said he did not know when those orders would be lifted.

Two evacuation stations have opened to provide shelter to residents, and the Red Cross has been notified, Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine said.

Conaway on Saturday called for the “exercise of all necessary emergency authority for protection of lives and the property of the residents of the Village of East Palestine, Ohio.”

The proclamation also called on citizens to comply with the emergency measures.

Traci Spratt, the interim manager of the village of East Palestine, said late Saturday the one-mile radius evacuation order from the incident remained in place “until further notice,” and stressed, “We need everyone to stay away from the scene.”

Spratt also said officials were conducting “continuous air monitoring and have found zero health risks.”

“The village’s drinking water is safe to drink and is being continually monitored,” Spratt added.

Photos from the scene showed a large, dense cloud of smoke engulfing flames atop the train. Firefighters from three states, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia responded, according to Conaway.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Saturday he was briefed on the derailment and state authorities were “prepared to help our neighbors.”

The Norfolk Southern train departed from Madison, Illinois, and was bound for Conway, Pennsylvania, when it derailed, according to the NTSB.

Norfolk Southern Railway said in a statement its team members were at the scene and added it was “coordinating with federal, state and local agencies.”

The company said it set up a family assistance center “to address the needs of the community and support those directly impacted.”

“Additionally, we are supporting the efforts of the American Red Cross and their temporary community shelters through a $25,000 donation,” the company said.

CNN has reached out to Norfolk Southern for further comment.

(CNN) — There’s something in the air in Seattle. And while at first sniff you might assume that it’s coffee, nose a little harder and you’ll notice that Seattle doesn’t run on caffeine — it runs on innovation.

It’s not for nothing that this city has spawned Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing and Starbucks, for starters.

Even Pike Place Market — famous today for its tourist count as much as for its stalls for locals — was founded in 1907 as a way for farmers to sell produce directly to customers.

“This town always comes back,” he adds, calling the city “gritty, gritty.”

Tossing fish at the Pike Place Fish Market.

CNN

The northernmost major city in the contiguous United States, perched on the west coast around 100 miles south of the Canadian border, Seattle as we know it is relatively new. The city was founded in 1869 and named after Chief Si’ahl, a Native American leader of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The settlement was, of course, built on indigenous land.

Just 20 years after its foundation, the entire central business district — 25 city blocks — was razed to the ground in the “Great Seattle Fire” of 1889.

But Seattle rebuilt. Within a year, the CBD was back — and it was over 20 feet higher in some places.

Decades later, Seattle did it again. The city was preparing for its time in the spotlight as host of the Century 21 Exhibition, or Seattle World’s Fair, which would draw in nearly 10 million visitors in 1962.

The Space Needle, which towers 600 feet above the city with a rotating deck on top, was built in just one year. It’s still an iconic landmark not just of Seattle, but of the entire USA.

“We don’t necessarily invent things — we make things better,” he adds.

Leonard Garfield: “We don’t necessarily invent things — we make things better.”

CNN

Drinking up the magic

Residents of over 80 countries around the world drink up Seattle’s innovation every day. That’s the number of countries where Starbucks has its over 32,000 stores. Whether or not you’re a fan of the company, it’s done what few businesses manage — making its product a truly global one.

The general store — in what today is the SoDo area of Seattle — became a place for the neighborhood to gather and catch up on what was going on.

Sound familiar? In fact, in a twist of Seattle fate, the original location of Cone & Steiner is now the headquarters of Starbucks. Meanwhile Cone’s great-granddaughter, Dani Cone, reopened the general store in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in 2014. She now has two locations.

“I think this area is a fertile ground for ideas, for innovation, and for considering what’s possible,” she says. “There’s just something in the DNA of this place.”

Flying high

Boeing’s first plane.

CNN

Starbucks isn’t the only Seattle company to reinvent its entire industry, of course.

This is the home of Amazon, of Microsoft — and of Boeing. Its innovators, says Garfield, see room for improvement where others see perfection.

“They’re like Bill Boeing. They look at the boat, it sails beautifully. He can make it fly.”

While Amazon and Starbucks might have changed our everyday lives, Boeing has changed the planet — for better or worse. So, then, has Seattle.

“If you think about our DNA, it’s Boeing, it’s computer engineers with Microsoft, it’s cloud engineers with Amazon,” says Garfield.

“We’re great engineers.”

An old-school ‘cultural history’

Scarecrow Video: Seattle’s leading retro movie format emporium.

CNN

Why so many? That’s a terrible question, says Lynch. “You wouldn’t walk into the Louvre and say, ‘Why do you have so many paintings?’ Somebody has got to keep this stuff alive and kicking and available to people who want to see it.” He calls it “a cultural history that you’re not going to find anywhere else.”

The feel is of an old-school video rental store — though the organization isn’t your average. One section is labeled “Little Bastards” — “for anything tiny that wants to kill you, like “Chucky” or “Leprechaun,” says Matt Lynch.

“It’s not nostalgia, it’s history — cultural history,” he says of the store. “We all have communal experiences. We all see the same movies, experience the same art. These movies collect all those experiences for us.”

And that’s the other side of Seattle — one that refuses to march with the crowd.

From the 18-foot sculpture of the Fremont Troll, clutching a car in its hand in a freeway underpass, to grunge music, which became the sound of a generation, Seattle’s history of innovation means that it always does its own thing.

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

CNN
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On May 1, 1960, an American pilot, Francis Gary Powers, took off from a military airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan, in a top-secret U-2 spy plane to fly 3,000 miles across the Soviet Union, and take high resolution photos of military facilities.

His specially-designed plane, flying higher than any other, out of the range of Soviet interceptors, was thought to be impervious to identification or attack. Wrong.

The Soviets knew it was coming, and fighter jets shadowed it from below as soon as it entered their airspace. Eventually, as it passed over an advanced air defense location, a Soviet S-75 surface-to-air missile shot it out of the skies. Powers ejected from the plane, and was captured, marking a diplomatic setback between the US and the USSR, which consequently torpedoed a critical summit between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and President Dwight Eisenhower, who had personally green-lit the U-2 program.

And this week we had the Chinese balloon, which was shot down by the US military Saturday afternoon over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after the Federal Aviation Agency issued a ground stop for three airports in the Carolinas. The balloon was first spotted flying over Montana earlier this week and drifted its way to the coast of the Carolinas before exiting the continental United States. China quickly claimed this was a civilian weather balloon that had somehow gone astray, though on Friday Pentagon officials said it was maneuverable and “violated US air space and international law.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken decided to postpone his upcoming trip to China in response to the flying of the Chinese balloon over the continental US.

Last November, a Chinese Long March 2D rocket blasted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China, inserting three highly-sensitive Yaogan-36 satellites into orbit 300 miles above the earth. This was the third such launch of similar satellites and China’s 54th last year. Between 2019 and 2021, China doubled the number of its satellites in orbit from 250 to 499.

Perhaps, though, Chinese officials believed that Americans wouldn’t even notice a balloon or two floating 60,000 feet up. But the United States has the capability of following launches virtually from liftoff in China, like the time the US Space Force pinpointed the launch of the Long March 2D rocket at 7:23 am EST on November 27, 2022, for instance. That’s part of its job, although it’s unclear just how sensitive its monitoring technology is in terms of the ability to pick up balloon launches.

Canada also apparently spotted the balloon this week. And the Pentagon also reported another balloon was flying over Latin America.

So, the question is whether China carefully considered the consequences of its actions. Intentional or otherwise, if it was indeed monitoring air flows, their engineers might have suspected these weather phenomena would eventually take these balloons over the United States.

In that case, one could be forgiven for imagining the darker scenarios — that the Chinese might have been seeking some excuse to ditch the visit that Blinken was scheduled to undertake, beginning Sunday.

Expectations for the trip were never very high. Relations between the US and China have been on a decidedly downward spiral for some time. The Biden Administration has slapped stiff controls on the export of equipment to manufacture advanced semi-conductors and just this week persuaded Japan and the Netherlands to sign on.

The US is also in the process of establishing access to two key military bases on the Philippines’ northern island of Luzon — keys to any operations in the South China Sea or around Taiwan in case of any efforts by China to stir the pot there.

After all, the US did mount major offensive operations against North Vietnam out of Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, both in the Philippines, during the entire Vietnam War.

Then there is the visit to Taiwan that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is said to be planning and which Beijing has already pro-actively warned against. At the same time, Russia has announced Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit its leader, Vladimir Putin, at an unspecified time this spring, though the Chinese side has not yet confirmed it.

Blinken does seem to have been game to try his best to level off this downward trajectory in bi-lateral relations. As he told a press conference with his South Korean counterpart, “In our judgment, [the balloon] created conditions that undermine the very purpose of [my] trip, including ongoing efforts to build a floor under the relationship as well as to address a very broad range of issues that are important to Americans, to Chinese, to the entire world.”

It’s hard to believe China would use as ham-handed a provocation as a spy balloon to send any contrary signal. Especially since this has got to be as embarrassing to China as the U-2 incident was to Eisenhower.

Back then, Eisenhower tried to minimize it at first, ordering the NASA press office, stunningly, to say the U-2 had been conducting “weather research,” and that Powers might just have strayed a trifle off course and wandered over top-secret Soviet military facilities after he’d “experienced difficulties with his oxygen equipment.”

Now, finally, the US has shot down the balloon safely and will hopefully recover the remains. Then the world will really know — and America can demonstrate, just as the Soviets did with Powers’ mission so long ago. Perhaps the Chinese rubble will even find its way to the Smithsonian as the recovered wreckage of the U-2 spy plane has proved to be an immensely popular item on display at Moscow’s Central Armed Forces Museum.

CNN
 — 

Republican presidential hopefuls have begun casting themselves as impassioned defenders of “parental rights,” turning schoolbooks and curricula, doctors’ offices, and sports leagues into a new political battleground as they work to distinguish themselves ahead of the 2024 GOP primary.

The issue had already emerged as a major vein in the GOP bloodstream, emanating partly from the coronavirus pandemic, when school closures and vaccine mandates upended family routines and rankled vaccine-hesitant parents. But it took off after Republicans watched Glenn Youngkin defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election following a campaign that placed “parents’ rights” at its center.

While critics have denounced the theme of parents’ rights as oppressive, 2024 Republicans have nevertheless plowed ahead, seeking to one-up each other with provocative campaign pledges and legislative actions – the most obvious moves in recent weeks coming from former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Several Republican governors – many with presidential ambitions – responded to Youngkin’s success by championing parental rights in their states, enacting bills that give parents and guardians unfettered access to school curricula, books and learning materials, and, in some instances, requiring school principals to review parental complaints about textbooks and lesson plans before they can proceed with using the material in classrooms. In some states, such as Texas, Florida and Iowa, parental permission is now needed to discuss certain topics with students. Other states, such as Georgia, have put parents and school communities in charge of vetting books their children could encounter at school for signs of race-related or sexual themes, appealing to conservatives who have voiced concerns about “radical” literature.

But Republicans have also since turned parents’ rights into an umbrella term for a host of cultural issues. Declaring that parents deserve a say in what their children are taught, some GOP power players have pushed to end diversity and equity programs in public schools. Others have sought to restrict lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity. And some have looked to prevent schools from using a child’s preferred pronouns without parental permission.

“We saw it with Youngkin’s race, and [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis has been playing it up for the last year. The issue has been building from Covid and extended to where we are now,” said Jennifer Williams, who in 2016 became the first openly transgender delegate to the Republican National Convention. Both DeSantis and Youngkin are said to be eyeing 2024 presidential campaigns.

The sprint to get ahead on the issue is likely to play out over a combative presidential primary, while allies and advisers see it as an opportunity to appeal to a broader electorate if their candidate becomes the next GOP presidential nominee.

“There are more parents than teachers, so it’s an easy equation. If you’re on the side of parents, that’s going to win you at the local level, and it’s going to win you at the national level,” said Keith Naughton, a longtime Republican consultant. Still, he also cautioned Republicans against “moving too far away from the consensus.”

But public opinion around parental rights remains murky.

A Quinnipiac poll released in February 2022 found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans considered efforts to ban books in schools and libraries purely political, versus 15 percent who said the efforts stemmed from content concerns. And as Republicans confront sensitive issues such as transgender rights while championing what they describe as parental empowerment, they could face similar political peril. A separate November poll by Marquette University Law School found that while a majority of Republicans (82%-18%) believed transgender athletes should be prohibited from participating in sports competitions – a topic the GOP has devoted much attention to in recent years – independent voters were nearly evenly split on the matter. The same survey showed that Republicans favored the 2020 Supreme Court decision that the 1964 Civil Rights Act bars employers from discriminating against gay and transgender workers by a 47-point margin, underscoring the political risks 2024 GOP hopefuls could encounter as they link LGBTQ rights to their parental rights push.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Republicans are using the guise of parental rights “to eliminate people, history books and marginalized communities.”

“This is not about parents. It’s a tactic that DeSantis found really whipped up his base in Florida and so [Republicans] are taking it out for a run to see how it does. Their goal, it seems, is that these politicians are trying to turn parents against each other and make classrooms a battleground so they can further their political ambitions,” Ellis said.

GLAAD is expected to launch a messaging campaign in March that Ellis said will “fill the knowledge gap” that Republicans have “exploited.”

“They tap into the worst anxieties of any parent,” said Ellis, a parent herself.

Trump, currently the only declared candidate in the GOP presidential field, is one of several 2024 hopefuls who have elevated “parents’ rights” to new prominence as they work to curry favor with the party’s base.

Trump pushed to create a “patriotic education” commission and ordered the federal government to end diversity trainings during his term in office, though much of his focus over the past two years has been on relitigating the 2020 election. Recently, though, he has refocused his attention on the kinds of cultural battles that have enabled some of his likeliest rivals – most notably DeSantis – to gain considerable popularity among Republican voters.

In two straight-to-camera videos this week, Trump suggested that parents should select school principals through a “direct election” process and threatened to end federal funding for schools that teach “a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body” if he were to win another term.

Even those who agreed with Trump’s proposals suggested he was playing catch-up with his fellow culture warriors – especially as he also went on the attack against DeSantis recently, calling the Florida governor “disloyal” and a “globalist RINO” in separate broadsides.

“Obviously, DeSantis taking on Disney has shown a lot of leadership on this issue and frankly, I think it’s why Trump came out with his statements this week because in a lot of ways he sees himself running against DeSantis,” said Bob Vander Plaats, a social conservative activist who runs the Iowa-based Family Leader coalition. Vander Plaats was referring to the Florida governor’s push to strip the Walt Disney Company of its special governing powers after the company criticized his legislative efforts to restrict lessons on LGBTQ rights and gender identity in Florida classrooms.

“Trump is saying, ‘How do I get to the right of DeSantis on this issue?’” Vander Plaats added.

Allies of the former president rebuffed suggestions that he is taking cues from rivals rather than setting the agenda. They pointed to actions Trump took during his term in office to develop a counter-curriculum to the 1619 Project, an initiative launched by The New York Times to teach American students about slavery but which conservatives have decried as “propaganda.” And they cite the many instances in which Trump has condemned the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports, a topic he first weaved into his stump speech at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference and one that tends to draw some of the biggest applause lines at his campaign rallies.

“This isn’t anything new,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. “On the school education stuff and critical race theory, he’s been talking about it since 2019 and 2020. And when he talks about gender ideology, he’s been mentioning that in his rallies, too.”

“He’s a candidate now, and he’s focused on forward-looking policy proposals,” Cheung added.

Some conservative activists who are still waiting to see how the 2024 primary field takes shape said Trump appears to be taking steps to ensure he isn’t outflanked by opponents on the issues that currently animate Republican base voters. Terry Schilling, executive director of the socially conservative American Principles Project, said Trump is “trying to play catch-up, but it’s good.”

Referring specifically to Trump’s recently unveiled plan to curtail transgender rights, including ending medical treatments for transgender teens, Schilling suggested the former president was “making sure he’s the most conservative candidate on this issue.”

“I think he’s just trying to ensure he doesn’t lose any ground or get outflanked. … It’s tough because DeSantis and Youngkin have actually been changing the policies on it, which is why I think he is going above and beyond … to kind of get a leg up,” Schilling said.

A spokesman for DeSantis’ political operation declined to comment, but the Republican governor’s actions suggest he will not cede the issue by any stretch as he marches toward a potential campaign for president. This week, DeSantis released a 2023 budget framework that repeatedly emphasized the importance of “protecting parents’ fundamental rights,” nearly a year after he signed a “Parents Bill of Rights” into law that banned instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity to K-3 grade students.

During the 2022 midterms, DeSantis took the unprecedented step of vetting, endorsing and campaigning for school board candidates, generating a wave of like-minded conservatives to carry out his agenda in districts across the state. Meanwhile, at DeSantis’ urging, a state medical board stacked with his appointees has effectively banned medication and surgeries for minors seeking gender transitions. DeSantis has decried such interventions as “chemical castration.”

In leading these cultural clashes, DeSantis has become a superstar among highly engaged conservatives. He and his wife, Casey, were treated like rock stars at last year’s Tampa summit of Moms for Liberty, a group that mobilizes conservative matriarchs across the country, where he was heralded onstage as an “American hero” and a “shining light” for parents across the country who wish that “Ron would be their governor.” The Florida Republican was reelected to a second term in November by a 19-point margin, a victory he touted at a news conference earlier this week following a fresh round of attacks from Trump.

Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, said parental rights weren’t on the forefront of minds during Trump’s first campaign in 2016 or when DeSantis first ran for governor in 2018. But DeSantis was among the first to recognize during the pandemic the parental angst around closed schools, mask mandates and an apprehension to ideological creep into the classroom, she said, and it has him well positioned when parental rights becomes “a litmus test for all candidates in 2024.”

“He’s being rewarded already by having his colleagues and peers watching what he is doing and emulating him across the country,” Justice said. “Ron DeSantis stood up for parents when no one else was. I think he’s a leader that way, and parents across the country have recognized him for that.”

Indeed, DeSantis’ actions have spawned copycat bills in statehouses across the country this year. The National Center for Transgender Equality is tracking 231 bills in state legislatures across the country that seek to curb transgender rights – 86 of which would restrict access to transgender care. In a sign of how swiftly Republicans have pivoted to this issue, as recently as 2019, not a single state legislature in the country was debating cutting off access to gender affirmation treatment or surgeries, said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the center.

“If you rewind to 2018, this was not a political matter. There were no bills in statehouses. There were no presidential candidates talking about it. Transgender people were getting health care without a problem, and it was universally recognized as essential care by leading medical institutions,” Heng-Lehtinen said. “It was almost literally overnight we saw these bills pop up.”

“And the places where we’ve seen the most aggressive actions against transgender people,” he added, “are in states where there’s a governor with all points suggesting they are seeking higher office.”

Among those governors is Texas Republican Greg Abbott, whose administration has investigated parents of transgender teens for child abuse. In Iowa, where GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds already signed a bill to give parents and guardians more access to their children’s educational lives, lawmakers are now considering whether to ban instruction of sexual orientation or gender identity through eighth grade. Another potential 2024 Republican candidate, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, authored and signed a bill in 2022 that banned transgender women and girls from female scholastic sports, and in December her administration canceled a transgender advocacy group’s contract with the state’s Department of Health. There is also Youngkin, the term-limited Virginia governor who held a donor summit last fall to explore a possible presidential campaign and who recently rolled out a series of policy changes aimed at transgender students, one of which seeks to require parental sign-off for students who wish to use names or pronouns that diverge from what is listed on their official record.

But not every Republican agrees with the policy fights being waged by the party’s potential presidential contenders as they aim to give parents more control over their childrens’ education.

“When Youngkin and DeSantis do things like this, they aren’t taking into account the discrimination that can result,” said Williams, the former RNC delegate. “If parental rights are constantly about gender identity and critical race theory, it doesn’t seem to be about education. It seems to me it’s about making sure I can shield my kid from anything other than what I want them to know.”

CNN
 — 

An Indiana man died after falling from a cliff in Puerto Rico while trying to make a video for TikTok, according to his family.

Edgar Garay, 27, of Indiana, was on a recreational day trip to the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico on January 29 when he fell off a 70-foot coastal cliff near the lighthouse in Cabo Rojo, according to a news release from the US Coast Guard.

The fall was reported to the Coast Guard that evening and Garay’s body was recovered the next day by a Puerto Rico Emergency Dive Unit. 

Edgar’s brother, Carlos Garay, called his sibling a “daredevil,” according to CNN affiliate WTHR. Carlos was not in Puerto Rico and said a cousin had taken his brother sightseeing along the cliffs at that time.

“My brother has a TikTok account that he loved to upload videos to,” said Carlos. “Unfortunately, that was what he was trying to do when he was closer to the edge than he should have been.” 

Carlos has set up a verified GoFundMe to cover the costs of transporting his brother’s body back to Indiana.

“Our family is now on a mission to bring our lovable sibling home so that he can be laid to rest among friends and family,” he wrote in the fundraiser description.

Coast Guard officials also expressed condolences to Garay’s family in the release.

“We express our most heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Edgar Garay and pray they find closure and strength during this most difficult time,” said Captain José E. Díaz, Coast Guard Sector San Juan commander, in the release.  

“We appreciate the efforts of all the Coast Guard, Puerto Rico Police and partner agency emergency responders, especially the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau dive unit that was able to locate Mr. Garay’s body in such a highly inaccessible and challenging environment.”

US President Joe Biden has been constantly briefed throughout the day on the suspected Chinese spy balloon as it hovers over the US, including calls with national security team officials, according to a senior administration official.

There was another briefing scheduled for when Biden arrived in Wilmington Friday evening. 

The military options Biden asked for at the start have been maintained and updated as the situation has evolved, the official said, noting that no options had been taken off the table.

Why hasn’t the US shot down the suspected spy balloon? Biden and national security team officials have discussed options including shooting the balloon down, the official said.

Earlier, the military had advised against shooting down the balloon due to the risk of falling debris, but the situation could change as the balloon moves towards the East Coast.

The official said multiple options were being considered, but declined to detail what those options may include. 

CNN
 — 

As investigations continue into the deadly police beating of a 29-year-old Black man in Memphis, public servants involved in Tyre Nichols’ traffic stop and brutal confrontation are facing repercussions – some as severe as murder charges – and more fallout is possible.

“We are looking at everybody who had any kind of involvement in this incident,” Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy told CNN days after release of public body camera and surveillance footage in the January 7 encounter. “We’re looking at everybody.”

Five Black officers are due to be arraigned February 17 after they were fired January 20, then indicted on seven counts each, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping in possession of a deadly weapon, official misconduct and official oppression. Two more officers – one White and one still not publicly identified – who were put on leave January 8 alongside the others remain under internal investigation, police said.

“Potential” charges “of false reporting” on the initial police report remain under scrutiny, as does every other person at the scene, the district attorney’s office spokesperson Erica Williams told CNN on February 1.

All the fired officers and one still on leave were part of the force’s SCORPION unit – created to tackle rising crime in the city and disbanded amid national outcry following Nichols’ death – the department has confirmed. None of the fired officers previously had been disciplined for excessive force, though several had gotten written reprimands or short suspensions for violating department policies, their personnel files show.

Beyond police, three Memphis Fire Department staffers have been terminated, two of whom had their licenses suspended, and two Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies were put on leave for their parts in the case, leaders of those agencies have said.

Here’s what we know so far about those involved:

Bean, 24, was released on a $250,000 bond by January 27, Shelby County Jail records show. His attorney did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

Bean joined the department as a recruit in August 2020 and was commissioned as an officer in January 2021, personnel records show. He was transferred to the SCORPION unit in August.

No previous disciplinary action involving Bean is in the personnel files reviewed by CNN.

Haley, 30, was released on a $350,000 bond on January 27, jail records show. His defense attorney did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

Haley joined the department as a recruit in August 2020 and was commissioned as an officer in January 2021, personnel records show.

He got a written reprimand in November 2021 for failing to document his role in the detention that February of a suspect who said she suffered a dislocated shoulder as she was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car by Haley and another officer. Haley was not charged with excessive force; the other officer got a sustained complaint for “excessive/unnecessary force” and resigned, internal police records show.

A supervisor at the time called Haley “a hard-working officer (who) routinely makes good decisions” and said he was “sure that this was a limited event,” records show.

Before that, Haley had been a defendant in a 2016 federal civil suit in which a Shelby County Correctional Center inmate claimed to have been beaten and had his civil rights violated. The lawsuit was dismissed, which Haley requested, records show. CNN has reached out to Haley’s attorneys in the suit.

In the case, Haley was among three correctional officers said to have accused the plaintiff of trying to flush contraband and taken them to a restroom to be searched, court records show. “Haley and (a co-defendant) hit (plaintiff) in the face with punches,” the complaint states. The inmate then was picked up and slammed face-first into a sink by a third correctional officer, then thrown to the floor, after which the inmate allegedly “blacked out” and woke up in a medical unit, it states.

Haley and another correctional officer acknowledged searching the inmate after they “observed smoke” and the attempted flush, according to their motion to dismiss. Haley denied the other allegations, it shows.

Martin, 30, was released on a $350,000 bond by January 27, jail records show. He will plead not guilty, his attorney William Massey said January 26.

“Justice means following the law, and the law says that no one is guilty until a jury says they’re guilty,” Massey said, adding, “No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die.”

Martin joined the department in 2018, according to personnel files.

He got a three-day suspension without pay after a loaded revolver was found in the back of his police car in March 2019 following a shift in which he transported prisoners, the records show. And he got a one-day suspension without pay after failing in September 2020 to file a report on a domestic dispute after a complainant requested such a filing.

Martin also earned overall praise on performance evaluations. His 2021 performance “exceeds expectations” in reliability, compatibility, work attitude and dealing with the public, personnel records show. He “uses good judgement” and “is a three-year officer performing on the same level as more mature seasoned officers,” the files said.

Mills, 32, was released on a $250,000 bond on January 26, according to jail records. He plans to plead not guilty, his attorney Blake Ballin said January 26.

Formerly a jailer in Mississippi and Tennessee, Mills is a “respectful father” who was “devastated” to be accused in Nichols’ killing, Ballin has said, adding videos of Nichols’ traffic stop “produced as many questions as they have answers.”

“Some of the questions that remain will require a focus on Desmond Mills’s individual actions; on what Desmond knew and what he was able to see when he arrived late to the scene; on what Desmond knew and what he was able to see after he was pepper sprayed; and on whether Desmond’s actions crossed the lines that were crossed by other officers during this incident,” Ballin told CNN on January 28 in a statement.

Mills “is remorseful that he is attached to anything like this, that he is involved or connected to the death of somebody who – who’s life should not have been taken. That is devastating to him,” Ballin told “CNN This Morning” on January 27.

“Just because Mr. Mills was a part of that system doesn’t mean that he can’t also be a victim of it, and so it’s my job to protect him and to protect his rights,” he added. “I caution everyone to look at this with an open mind and to treat each of these officers as individuals.”

Mills joined the department as a recruit in March 2017, personnel files show.

He got a reprimand in 2019 for not filing a form after using physical force during an arrest to take a woman “to the ground so that she could be handcuffed,” the records show. Mills was “trying to assist the other officers to gain control of the young lady,” he said at a hearing, a summary states.

At a separate hearing about equipment handling, Mills’ supervisor described him as “energized and a hard worker” who had “learned his lesson” after dropping his personal digital assistant, records show.

Smith, 28, was released on a $250,000 bond on January 26, jail records show. His attorney did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

Smith joined the department as a recruit in March 2018, personnel files show.

He got a two-day suspension without pay in July 2021 for a traffic accident that January in which he hit a pickup truck with his unmarked police vehicle, causing it to spin out and hit another car, according to a police report. Smith and other drivers got minor injuries.

Hemphill remains on a “relieved of duty” status – along with an unnamed officer – as an internal investigation continues, Memphis police said January 30 in a news release; whether he’s being paid is unclear because police spokesperson Kimberly Elder declined to say.

“Officer Hemphill and the other officer’s actions and inactions have been and continue to be the subject of this investigation since its inception on January 8, 2023,” the release stated.

Hemphill was part of the now-disbanded SCORPION unit, a source familiar with his assignment confirmed to CNN.

During Nichols’ initial traffic stop, Hemphill fired a stun gun at the driver and, after Nichols ran from that site, said, “One of them prongs hit the bastard,” bodycam footage released by the city shows. Twice to another officer, he says: “I hope they stomp his ass.”

Hemphill “was never present at the second scene,” his attorney Lee Gerald said January 30, adding his client activated his bodycam as required and “is cooperating with officials in this investigation.”

The footage does not show Hemphill at the second site, where the district attorney has said Nichols was beaten and suffered his serious injuries.

Memphis Fire Department personnel terminated over their response to the Nichols encounter are: emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker, the agency said Monday. CNN has reached out to all three.

Long had been at the agency since March 2020, while Sandridge was hired in September 2019 and Whitaker’s tenure began in March 1998, it said.

The Tennessee Emergency Medical Services Division suspended the two emergency medical technicians on February 3 after they failed to render emergency care and treatment the night Nichols encountered law enforcement.

Both Long and Sandridge failed to provide any basic emergency care for 19 minutes, despite the patient “exhibiting clear signs of distress such as the inability to remain in a seated posture and laying prone on the ground multiple times,” the decision said.

The board said both first responders failed to perform tasks such as obtaining vital signs and conducting a full head-to-toe examination during the 19-minute period.

“Vital signs play a key role in establishing a baseline for the patient from which deterioration from medical conditions can be measured,” the board said in its reports.

Sandridge had been licensed in the state since November 2015, and Long had been licensed since May 2020.

The board ordered that Long and Sandridge’s licenses were “summarily suspended” immediately and will remain in place until the conclusion of a contested case hearing against both first responders, or until otherwise ordered by the board.

Long, Sandridge and Whitaker responded January 7 to a report of “a person pepper sprayed” and arrived at the scene to find Nichols “handcuffed on the ground leaning against a police vehicle,” Fire Chief Gina Sweat said in a January 30 news release.

Fire officials’ investigation concluded “the two EMT’s responded based on the initial nature of the call … and information they were told on the scene and failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols,” the chief said.

Whitaker had stayed in the fire truck, the statement said.

After the EMTs arrived and before an ambulance arrived, first responders repeatedly walked away from Nichols, with Nichols intermittently falling onto his side, pole-camera video released Friday shows.

Two Fire Department staffers had been put on administrative leave pending an investigation before they were terminated, spokesperson Officer Qwanesha Ward told CNN at the time.

Two deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office were put on leave pending an investigation after the sheriff watched the video in the Nichols case on January 27.

“Having watched the videotape for the first time tonight, I have concerns about two deputies who appeared on scene following the physical confrontation between police and Tyre Nichols,” Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said in a statement that day.

CNN
 — 

As Lisa Marie Presley’s three daughters stand to inherit her estate and their grandmother is contesting the validity of her late daughter’s will, some close to the family say the legal dispute now in a California court reflects a Presley family history of conflict over money.

Four days after Lisa Marie Presley’s Graceland memorial service, Priscilla Presley filed a petition challenging a 2016 amendment in her daughter’s will. The change removed Priscilla Presley and former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees and replaced them with her children, Riley and Benjamin Keough. Benjamin Keough later died in 2020.

Priscilla Presley’s petition alleges that she did not receive notice of the amendment while her daughter was alive as was required by her Trust. The petition also notes that Priscilla’s name is misspelled in the document, alleges the amendment was not witnessed or notarized and questions the authenticity of Lisa Marie’s signature.

Keough has not yet responded to the petition. CNN has contacted her representatives for comment.

Two individuals who were longtime friends of Lisa Marie Presley spoke to CNN about the estate dispute. CNN is not naming the friends as they were not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the family.

One friend alleged Priscilla Presley’s petition is a “money grab.”

“This is about Graceland and the memorabilia that Elvis left to Lisa Marie,” the source said. “Lisa was the sole heir to his estate. She and her mother were estranged for the last several years. Lisa did not want her mother overseeing the estate. I believe Priscilla is after money and what’s inside Graceland.”

Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley’s relationship was strained over the years, the friends said, by their respective marriages and divorces, financial mismanagement, and personal trauma that has played out in the public eye as the former wife and the only child of the “King of Rock and Roll,” respectively.

CNN made multiple attempts to reach Priscilla Presley’s attorney for comment but has not heard back.

In a statement to CNN, sent Friday by a publicist after this story was first published, Priscilla Presley defended her efforts to protect her family’s legacy.

“I loved Elvis very much as he loved me. Lisa is a result of our love. For anyone to think anything differently would be a travesty of the family legacy and would be disrespectful of what Elvis left behind in his life,” Priscilla Presley said in part. “Please allow us the time we need to work together and sort this out. Please ignore ‘the noise.’ As I have always been there for Elvis’ legacy, our family and the fans, I will continue to forge a pathway forward with respect, honesty, dignity, integrity and love.”

Priscilla and Elvis Presley divorced in 1973. Lisa Marie Presley was the sole inheritor of Graceland and her father’s estate when he died in 1977. Priscilla Presley transformed the property into a lucrative tourist attraction and museum, held in a trust for Lisa Marie Presley until she turned 25.

In 2004, Lisa Marie sold 85% of Elvis Presley Enterprises’ assets in a deal reportedly worth more than $100 million. She retained 15% ownership of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages operations for Graceland, its related properties and the Graceland Archives. Lisa Marie also maintained complete ownership of the Graceland mansion itself and her late father’s personal items housed in its museum, including costumes and cars on display, according to the Graceland website.

A trust with the Graceland property and its contents will now pass on to her daughter, Riley Keough, an accomplished actress and model, along with her twin 14-year-old sisters, a representative for Graceland confirmed to CNN.

Keough has made several films and starred in the first season of the Starz anthology series, “The Girlfriend Experience.”

“Riley is a sophisticated, 33-year-old woman who is more than capable of running the estate smoothly,” the second close friend of Lisa Marie Presley told CNN.

In 2020, a Presley executive told Rolling Stone that the estate was worth between $400 and $500 million. Lisa Marie Presley annually earned seven figures from her interest in the estate, based on a court filing in her 2022 divorce.

So, now in the petition by Priscilla Presley challenging Lisa Marie’s will, she has begun a legal fight against her granddaughter.

“This is about gaining control of what’s left of Elvis’ estate,” one close friend alleged of Priscilla Presley’s petition. “It’s sad.”

Brigitte Kruse, a memorabilia auctioneer, is listed as an attorney-in-fact for Priscilla on her petition.

Benny Roshan, Chair of the Trust and Probate Litigation Group at Greenberg Glusker with estate law expertise, told CNN an attorney-in-fact might be designated in situations where an individual is either “unable, unwilling, [or] unavailable” to act.

“This kind of raises the question of which of those three scenarios necessitates Priscilla filing a lawsuit [with an] attorney-in-fact,” Roshan said.

Kruse and her husband started Kruse GWS Auctions Inc. in 2009, according to the company’s website. They have collaborated with Priscilla Presley on Elvis memorabilia auctions in the past, though it’s unclear what the terms of their financial partnership may be.

“My relationship with Ms. Presley was established years ago,” Kruse said in a statement to CNN. “My entire adult career has been devoted to validating and protecting the legacy of Elvis Presley. It has been an honor to be one of the many conservators of the Presley family.”

In August, CNN reported that Kruse arranged an auction of “lost” jewelry belonging to Elvis Presley.

“It was … a collection that we (had) all heard about,” Kruse told CNN in an email at the time. “It truly was a myth and a legend until we put our hands on it.”

Priscilla Presley helped curate the sale and expressed in an interview with Reuters that she hoped her involvement would help combat the proliferation of fake Elvis memorabilia, adding: “I want to know for sure that that is going to go to someone who is going to care for it, love it.”

“Elvis deserved for this collection to be found and displayed in order to preserve his legacy,” Kruse said in a press release. “The fans also needed to know about this collection after 50 years, and all of the stories attached to each piece.”

Dozens more Elvis Presley memorabilia items were listed as part of an “artifacts of Hollywood and music” auction that began in December 2022.

Kruse told Reuters that the items, such as an address book that belonged to the “It’s Now or Never” singer, had increased in value since Lisa Marie Presley’s death in an interview published last week.

According to a press release, “The telephone address book is well documented by a personal recollection by Priscilla Presley adding to its unique provenance.” It sold for $10,000, based on information on the auction site.

Elvis Presley’s life and career returned to the spotlight in a big way last summer with the Warner Bros. film “Elvis,” starring actor Austin Butler in the title role. Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley collaborated in support of the project. They appeared together at the Golden Globe Awards for the film in January, just days before Lisa Marie’s death. (CNN and Warner Bros. are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery).

Away from the spotlight, however, one of Lisa Marie Presley’s friends told CNN there was tension between the mother and daughter.

“They put on a united front for the film. It’s a family business and they knew that if they began publicly battling it could hurt the bottom line,” the friend said. “It was a complicated relationship.”