Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

The woman accused of stabbing an Indiana University student “has a long history of severe mental illness” and was “seeking help managing her condition up to and including the day of the alleged attack,” according to her defense attorney.

Billie Davis, who is White, allegedly said she was motivated by race when she repeatedly stabbed the student, who is of Asian descent, on a city bus in Bloomington on January 11th, according to court documents and a student group.

Davis and the victim had been riding separately on the bus, and when the victim tried to exit, Davis got up from her nearby seat and allegedly stabbed the victim in the head with a folding knife, leaving puncture wounds, a probable cause affidavit says.

In a statement emailed to CNN, Kyle Dugger said people close to the suspect describe no racist attitudes or history.

The 56-year-old has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery, and battery by means of a deadly weapon, according to online court records.

“I would caution the public not to jump to conclusions about a person’s thoughts or beliefs based on police claims from a single interview, and advise even more caution when the interview was taken from a person in custody who may be experiencing psychosis,” Dugger wrote.

In a court filing last week, Dugger said he would seek an insanity defense and prove Davis is “incapable of assisting in the preparation of her defense because of mental illness.” Online court records show the court has asked Davis to undergo mental health evaluations.

Duggar also asked the court to schedule a competency hearing. Two court-appointed psychiatrists will evaluate whether Davis was insane at the time of the alleged incident and if she’s competent to stand trial, Dugger wrote in his emailed statement. The judge will make the final decision about her competency, likely in about three to six months, he said.

The insanity defense will be decided by the jury, Dugger wrote. “When insanity is raised as a defense, the jury can return a verdict of guilty, not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, or guilty but mentally ill,” he said.

If an individual is found not guilty due to insanity, prosecutors will move to have the individual committed to the state Division of Mental Health and Addiction, according to Dugger.

“The truth about why bad things happen is rarely simple,” Dugger wrote in his statement. “It is much easier to demonize a person who does something we don’t understand than it is to try to work out the real reasons leading to potential tragedy.”

New York
CNN
 — 

Before its collapse at the end of 2022, FTX was one of the biggest names in crypto. It boasted endorsements from celebrities like Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen and its name was emblazoned on the Miami Heat’s home arena. Sam Bankman-Fried, its eccentric founder, graced the cover of magazines that hailed him as the Warren Buffett of crypto.

By November, the company was in freefall. It filed for bankruptcy on November 11, leaving more than a million customers’ accounts frozen. Now, FTX and Bankman-Fried are at the center of a massive fraud investigation.

If you are an FTX customer whose deposits are now in limbo, we want to hear from you. Share your story below.

CNN
 — 

On the third day of the murder trial of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, prosecutors showed the court video of Murdaugh’s first interview with authorities after his wife and son were found killed.

In the interview, which had not been released publicly previously, Murdaugh described arriving at the scene where he could see the two bodies and told investigator he could see things were “bad” when he first pulled up to the home.

Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime related to the deaths of his wife, Margaret, and son, Paul, who was 22 at the time of the June 7, 2021 crime. Opening statements for Murdaugh’s murder trial began earlier this week and is now in recess for the weekend, with the prosecution’s ninth witness still on the stand.

In the interview played in court on Friday, Murdaugh told investigators he had left home that night to go check on his mother, who is a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient.

Murdaugh said that after arriving and seeing the bodies, he tried to turn his son’s body over and then went over to his wife. He told investigators he touched both of them to try and take their pulse, adding he “tried to do it as limited as possible,” according to the video recording.

He said there was blood around his son’s body but that he didn’t see anything else around other than Paul’s cellphone. Murdaugh broke down several times during the interview.

Murdaugh said he called 911 and later his brothers and a good friend.

Colleton County, South Carolina, Sheriff’s Office Det. Laura Rutland, who was among the officers who interviewed Murdaugh hours after the bodies were found, testified on Friday she did not see footprints or knee prints in the blood near Paul’s body.

She also testified that she had seen Murdaugh’s hands and shirt that night and he was “clean,” telling the court she did not see any blood on him.

In the video recording played in court, Murdaugh was asked by another law enforcement officer if there had been any problems and Murdaugh responded,”Nothing that I know of,” but added there had been negative publicity following a boat accident that Paul, his son, was involved in.

At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges of boating under the influence, causing great bodily harm and causing death in connection to a 2019 boat crash that claimed the life of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, court records show.

Alex Murdaugh said in the recording there had been some “vile stuff’ online directed at his son and that Paul had been “punched and hit and just attacked a lot,” but acknowledge he had not witnessed those incidents.

Murdaugh then went on to allude about a man he recently had hired who Murdaugh said had allegedly shared a “freaky” story with Paul about getting drafted on an undercover team to “kill radical Black Panthers.”

“I really do not think that in all honesty that it’s him, but I think you oughta check it out,” Murdaugh continued, according to the recording.

Murdaugh also told investigators he owned about 20 or 25 guns.

During cross examination, defense attorney Jim Griffin questioned Rutland about how another agent collected the clothing that Murdaugh was wearing that night and asked her if she had followed proper protocol, seeming to question the integrity of the investigation.

Griffin also asked Rutland about notes in her report that night which said Murdaugh’s wife appeared to have strands of brown hair in her hands and fingers and that Paul appeared to have scratches on his face. Rutland told the court she noted what she observed.

The prosecution also called as their eighth witness another agent, who testified she collected samples from the two bodies and a ninth witness, also an agent, who is expected to resume testimony on Monday morning.

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

Investors have raced back into Chinese tech stocks this year, encouraged by an apparent truce in a two-year battle between some of the country’s most powerful regulators and its biggest internet companies.

But the enthusiasm may prove to be premature; Beijing is tightening its grip on household names such as Alibaba

(BABA) by acquiring so-called “golden shares” that allow government officials to be directly involved in their businesses, including having a say in the content they provide to hundreds of millions of people.

Earlier this month, a fund controlled by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) took a 1% stake in Alibaba’s digital media subsidiary in Guangzhou, according to business data platform Qichacha. The subsidiary — Guangzhou Lujiao Information Technology — has a portfolio of businesses under its wing, including mobile browser UCWeb and streaming video site Youku Tudou.

According to Qichacha, a new board member, who has the same name as a mid-level official at the CAC, was appointed to the subsidiary at the same time. Alibaba didn’t respond to CNN request for comments. Calls to the CAC went unanswered.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the Chinese government is also discussing taking a similar stake in a mainland Chinese subsidiary of Tencent

(TCEHY), the group that includes WeChat and a vast gaming business. The terms have not been finalized yet, the person said. Tencent

(TCEHY) declined to comment.

The moves come as Beijing has signaled that its two-year onslaught on the internet industry is coming to an end. As the economy falters, the ruling Communist Party needs the private sector to boost jobs and growth.

But that doesn’t mean China is changing its attitude towards companies it believes have become too powerful.

“It wasn’t a change of heart that caused Beijing to pull back its regulatory push on tech companies, it was a concession to economic reality,” said Brock Silvers, chief investment officer for Kaiyuan Capital in Hong Kong.

“The goal of furthering state control over sprawling tech empires, however, wasn’t abandoned.”

Instead, Beijing is returning to the “golden shares” approach, by which the state can still assert control over these firms, while moderating its impact on markets, Silvers added.

“Golden shares” give their owners, usually governments, some level of control over companies, often those that were previously state-owned.

In China, such shares are called “special management shares” and give the government decisive voting rights or veto power over certain business decisions or — in the case of internet companies — content.

The policy could present a “nightmare” scenario for foreign investors, said Alex Capri, a research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation.

That’s because the Biden administration has issued a series of executive orders limiting securities investments in Chinese entities that the US suspects of aiding China’s military.

“This represents a murky grey zone for investors, as the CCP’s presence spills over into all areas, both military and civil,” Capri said. “American and other foreign investors will struggle to perform due diligence in an opaque Chinese system.”

The Chinese government first introduced “golden shares” in 2013 with the aim of strengthening its control over state-backed media firms, which were later opened up to private investors. But as the mobile internet took off, it took such shares in a number of private tech firms operating news and video apps to maintain its grip over information on the internet.

Between 2018 and 2022, several government entities took 1% stakes in popular news and content platforms, including US-listed Sina Weibo

(SINA), 36kr

(KRKR), and Qutoutiao

(QTT), and Hong Kong-listed Kuaishou, according to company filings or public registration records.

“Beijing’s Golden Share initiative is about embedding the Chinese Communist Party within the nerve-centers of China’s most important internet-content companies,” said Capri. “It’s about achieving pervasive surveillance, censorship and policing capabilities from the inside out,” he added.

In April 2021, a government entity acquired a 1% stake in a Beijing subsidiary of TikTok’s parent company Bytedance, according to Qichacha.

The subsidiary controls some Chinese operating licenses for Douyin and Toutiao. Douyin is the country’s most popular short-video app with more than 600 million active users. Toutiao is a news aggregation app.

Later that year, an executive at TikTok said at a US congressional hearing that TikTok had “no affiliation” with the Bytedance subsidiary.

Beijing has tried to arrest a rapid slowdown in the country’s economy by hitting pause on the heavy-handed tech crackdown. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that China will support the growth of the private sector, while opening its door further to foreign investment.

But investors may not be so easily enticed to return to China, analysts said.

The Communist Party may be easing off on fines and penalties, but the “golden shares” approach seeks the same end, which is “control and tight oversight,” said Capri.

Silver pointed out that not only will government control of listed entities likely raise risks with an increasingly wary US administration, but Western institutional investors may be reluctant to invest alongside Beijing.

“The risk is that shareholder interests will remain subservient to state interests,” he said.

New York
CNN
 — 

Normally, prices at the gas pump drift lower during the dead of winter as lousy weather keeps Americans off the roads. But something unusual is happening this year: Gas prices are rocketing higher.

The national average for regular gas jumped to $3.51 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA. Although that’s a far cry from the record of $5.02 a gallon last June, gas prices have increased by 12 cents in the past week and 41 cents in the past month.

All told, the national average has climbed by more than 9% since the end of last year – the biggest increase to start a year since 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

AAA says some states have experienced much bigger gains over the past month, including Colorado (98 cents), Georgia (70 cents), Delaware (62 cents), Ohio (60 cents) and Florida (59 cents).

The unusual wintertime jump in gas price is drawing eye rolls from American drivers already grappling with high prices at the supermarket. It also threatens to undermine improvements in the inflation crisis that gripped the economy much of last year.

So, why are gas prices jumping?

It’s not because of demand, which remains weak, even for this time of the year.

Instead, the problem is supply.

The extreme weather in much of the United States near the end of last year caused a series of outages at the refineries that produce the gasoline, jet fuel and diesel that keep the economy humming.

For example, Colorado’s sole refinery, the Suncor refinery outside of Denver, was disrupted by freezing temperatures. When the refinery tried to restart, it suffered a fire and equipment got damaged.

Suncor has indicated that refinery – which Lipow Oil Associates says represents 17% of the Rocky Mountain region’s refinery capacity – could be offline for at least weeks.

That helps explain why gas prices in Colorado have surged by nearly $1 a gallon over the past month.

Refineries elsewhere have been sidelined by extreme weather as well. US refineries are operating at just 86% of capacity, down from the mid-90% range at the start of December, according to Bespoke.

Beyond the refinery problems, oil prices have crept higher, helping to drive prices at the pump northward.

Since tumbling to $71.02 a barrel on December 9, US oil prices have jumped about 16%, to around $82.30 on Friday. That increase has been driven in part by expectations of higher worldwide demand as China relaxes its Covid-19 policies.

At the same time, the oil markets are no longer receiving massive injections of emergency oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Biden administration has shifted from releasing unprecedented amounts of oil from that stockpile to beginning the process of refilling it.

The good news is that some of the refinery problems may prove to be temporary, meaning supply should catch up with demand.

The bad news is some experts are warning gas prices may keep going higher anyway.

Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, expects the national average will hit $3.65 a gallon heading into the spring.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, worries the typical springtime jump in prices will be pulled forward.

“Instead of $4 a gallon happening in May, it could happen as early as March,” De Haan told CNN. “There is more upside risk than downside risk.”

A return of $4 gas would be painful to drivers and could dent consumer confidence. Moreover, pain at the pump would complicate the inflation picture as the Federal Reserve debates whether to slow its interest rate hiking campaign.

The Cleveland Fed’s Inflation Nowcasting model is now pointing to a 0.6% month-over-month increase for the Consumer Price Index for January. If that holds true, it would represent a significant acceleration compared with the 0.1% drop in prices between November and December.

CNN
 — 

Video and audio recorded last year during the attack on Paul Pelosi will be released Friday, after a California court ruled the district attorney’s office must make the materials public.

Audio from police interviews with alleged attacker David DePape, as well as 911 calls, police body camera footage and home surveillance video, among other investigative material, is set for release at noon ET, according to the San Francisco Superior Court.

CNN previously reported that police body cam footage from the incident is expected to show what officers saw when Pelosi, husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, opened the door to the couple’s San Francisco home and his assailant attacked him with a hammer, fracturing his skull.

The court’s decision mandating the public release of the materials came following a motion by a coalition of news organizations, including CNN, arguing that the circumstances involving the residence of the then-speaker of the House demanded transparency.

Lawyers for DePape argued against the public release of the audio and footage, writing it would “irreparably damage” his right to a fair trial. DePape has pleaded not guilty to a litany of state and federal crimes related to the attack, including assault and attempted murder.

Pelosi was violently attacked in October with a hammer at the couple’s home by a male assailant who was searching for the then-House speaker, according to court documents – a development that ultimately drove Nancy Pelosi’s decision to step back from House Democratic leadership.

Court documents revealed DePape allegedly woke Paul Pelosi shortly after 2 a.m., carrying a large hammer and several white zip ties, and demanded: “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?” He then threatened to tie up Paul Pelosi and prevented him from escaping via elevator, according to the documents. DePape later allegedly told him, “I can take you out.”

Paul Pelosi placed a 911 call after convincing the assailant to let him go to the bathroom, where his phone was charging, and he spoke cryptically to police.

Following the attack, Paul Pelosi underwent surgery “to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” a spokesman for Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

On Thursday, the Democratic congresswoman told reporters that her husband’s recovery is “one day at a time.”

“He’s made some progress but it’ll be about at least three more months, I think, until he’ll be back to normal, but the prayers are very helpful,” Pelosi said.

She told reporters Thursday that she had not seen video from the incident and does not know if she will.

“It would be a very hard thing to see an assault on my husband’s life. But I don’t know.”

CNN
 — 

Nearly three weeks after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, resulted in a violent arrest and subsequent death of a driver, police are expected to release footage of the incident to the public.

Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was hospitalized after the arrest on January 7 and died three days later from injuries sustained, according to police. Five officers from the Memphis Police Department, who are also Black, were fired and face criminal charges.

The family of Nichols and attorneys have met with police and city officials to view the traffic stop’s video recordings, which have been described as a vicious, prolonged beating that lasted for minutes after officers chased down a fleeing Nichols.

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis decried the officers’ conduct, adding additional officers continue to be investigated.

“This is not just a professional failing,” Davis said. “This is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual. This incident was heinous, reckless and inhumane. And in the vein of transparency, when the video is released in the coming days, you will see this for yourselves.”

After charges were announced Thursday, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said of the accelerated investigation, “We have worked to get a resolution to these matters in record time because we take them extremely seriously.”

Here’s what we know about the timeline of the incident, investigations from authorities and reaction from Nichols’ family:

On January 7 at approximately 8:30 p.m., officers pulled over a vehicle for suspected reckless driving, according to a statement from Memphis police.

“A confrontation occurred” between officers and the vehicle’s driver – later identified as Nichols – who then fled on foot, according to Memphis police. Officers apprehended him and “another confrontation occurred,” resulting in Nichols’ arrest, police said.

An ambulance was called to the scene of the arrest after Nichols complained of shortness of breath, police said, and he was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition.

On January 10, three days after the stop, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced Nichols had died due to injuries sustained in the “use-of-force incident with officers,” according to a statement.

Following the traffic stop, the officers involved were relieved of duty – a standard departmental procedure while an investigation into their use of force began, Memphis police said. The TBI and the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office were also enlisted to investigate.

Preliminary findings indicated the serious nature of the officers’ conduct during the stop, police said.

“After reviewing various sources of information involving this incident, I have found that it is necessary to take immediate and appropriate action,” Chief Davis said in a statement released January 15. “Today, the department is serving notice to the officers involved of the impending administrative actions.”

The department needed to follow a required procedural process before disciplining or terminating government civil servant employees, the statement added.

In the days after Nichols’ death, his family’s attorney Ben Crump repeatedly voiced their desire for the release of body camera and surveillance footage of the traffic stop.

“This kind of in-custody death destroys community trust if agencies are not swiftly transparent,” Crump said in a statement.

On January 18, the Department of Justice said a civil rights investigation has been opened into the death of Nichols.

“Last week, Tyre Nichols tragically died, a few days after he was involved in an incident where Memphis Police Department officers used force during his arrest,” Kevin G. Ritz, US Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said in a statement.

Acknowledging the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s ongoing efforts, the US Attorney’s office “in coordination with the FBI Memphis Field Office and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, has opened a civil rights investigation,” Ritz said, declining to provide further details.

After its internal investigation, Memphis police identified and fired five officers involved in the traffic stop due to their violation of multiple department policies.

Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith were terminated for failing in their “excessive use of force, duty to intervene, and duty to render aid,” the department said in a statement.

“The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work our officers perform, with integrity every day,” Davis said.

A statement from the Memphis Police Association, the union representing the officers, declined to comment on the terminations beyond saying that the city of Memphis and Nichols’ family “deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death and what may have contributed to it.”

Nichols family attorneys Crump and Antonio Romanucci called the firing of the five officers “the first step towards achieving justice for Tyre and his family.”

Two Memphis Fire Department employees who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” were also fired, department Public Information Officer Qwanesha Ward told CNN’s Nadia Romero.

After meeting with officials to watch the unreleased police video of the arrest, Nichols’ family and their attorneys described their horror at what they saw.

“He was defenseless the entire time. He was a human piñata for those police officers. It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes. That is what we saw in that video,” Romanucci said. “Not only was it violent, it was savage.”

“What I saw on the video today was horrific,” Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, said Monday. “No father, mother should have to witness what I saw today.”

Crump described the video as “appalling,” “deplorable” and “heinous.” He said RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, was unable to get through viewing the first minute of the footage after hearing Nichols ask, “What did I do?” At the end of the footage, Nichols can be heard calling for his mother three times, the attorney said.

According to preliminary results of an autopsy commissioned by attorneys for his family, Nichols suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.” CNN has requested a copy of the autopsy, which Crump said will be available when the full report is ready.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told CNN on Tuesday his office was ensuring all necessary interviews with those involved had been conducted before the footage’s release.

“A lot of the people’s questions about what exactly happened will, of course, be answered once people see the video,” Mulroy said, noting he believes the city will release enough footage to show the “entirety of the incident, from the very beginning to the very end.”

Tyre Nichols’ family speaks out after seeing police footage of police beating

A grand jury indicted the five officers fired by Memphis police on several charges, according to the county’s district attorney.

Martin III, Smith, Bean, Haley and Mills, Jr. were each charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, according to both Shelby County criminal court and Shelby County jail records.

“While each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, and they are all responsible,” Mulroy said during a news conference.

All five former officers reported to Shelby County Jail on Thursday, with four bonding out by early Friday morning, jail records showed.

Crump: Nichols video will ‘remind you of Rodney King’

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled RowVaughn Wells’ first name.

CNN
 — 

“Appalling.” “Savage.” “Inhumane.”

While video of an arrest in Memphis that resulted in a 29-year-old Black man’s hospitalization and death has yet to be publicly released, some family members as well as police officials have previewed the footage, sharing their disgust and horror at what they describe as a vicious beating by law enforcement officers.

Tyre Nichols died on January 10 from injuries sustained while fleeing an initial traffic stop three days earlier, authorities say. Five Memphis Police Department officers at the scene of the arrest – all of whom are also Black – have since been fired and charged with crimes related to Nichols’ injuries and detainment, including second-degree murder.

“It was an unadulterated, unabashed, non-stop beating of this young boy for three minutes,” Nichols family attorney Antonio Romanucci said, likening Nichols to “a human pinata.”

Footage of the arrest is expected to be made available to the public Friday evening, according to Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.

Family attorney Ben Crump said the video will “evoke strong emotions, very strong emotions,” and reiterated repeated calls from both Nichols’ family and police that any demonstrations or protests over Nichols’ death be done so in a peaceful manner.

Here is what authorities and those close to Nichols have said about the video recordings ahead of its release.

On January 7, Nichols was pulled over for suspected reckless driving, police said. While many details of the stop have yet to be revealed, authorities say pepper spray was deployed after an altercation and Nichols then fled on foot before being caught again by officers.

The serious injuries sustained by Nichols during the arrest were during a second altercation, according to Mulroy, who told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday that officers were already “highly charged up” from the initial interaction with Nichols. The footage does not show the beginning of the encounter, he said.

Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather who saw the footage Monday with family, attorneys and police officials, said it was clear Nichols “was scared for his life” and ran.

“He did not run because he was trying to get rid of no drugs, no guns, no any of that. He ran because he was scared for his life. And when you see the video, you will see why he was scared for his life.”

RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, said at a vigil Thursday she wants supporters to demonstrate peacefully after they see the video.

“When that tape comes out tomorrow, it’s going to be horrific,” Wells said. “I didn’t see it, but from what I hear, it’s going to be horrific.”

Crump said Monday that Wells was unable to get through viewing the first minute of the footage after hearing Nichols ask, “What did I do?” Nichols can be heard calling for his mother three times in the video, Crump said.

Romanucci told CNN’s John Berman Thursday viewers are “going to have to be prepared” for disturbing scenes in the video.

“It was an MMA fight, except there was only one side that was MMA,” Romanucci said. “Tyre was helpless, he was defenseless. He was restrained.”

“It is appalling. It is deplorable. It is heinous,” Crump said of the video. “It is violent. It is troublesome on every level.”

Nichols suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to preliminary results of an autopsy commissioned by family attorneys. CNN has requested a copy of the autopsy’s full report.

Tyre Nichols’ family speaks out after seeing police footage of police beating

After the second altercation with responding officers, there was “some period of time of waiting around afterward” before Nichols was transported for medical care via ambulance, Mulroy said at a Thursday news conference announcing criminal charges.

When asked by CNN about a delay in treatment by authorities, Mulroy said, “There was an elapsed period of time, but I believe if you watch the video you’ll be able to make that judgment for yourself.”

Two members of the city’s fire department who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” have also been relieved of duty, according to a department spokesperson.

Mulroy also noted the most jarring part of the video to him “is how many different incidents of unwarranted force occurred sporadically by different individuals over a long period of time.”

On Wednesday, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said of the arrest, “This incident was heinous, reckless, and inhumane, and in the vein of transparency, when the video is released in the coming days, you will see this for yourselves.

“I expect you to feel what the Nichols family feels. I expect you to feel outrage in the disregard of basic human rights, as our police officers have taken an oath to do the opposite of what transpired on the video,” she said

“I expect our citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to protest, to demand action and results,” she added. “But we need to ensure our community is safe in this process.”

Crump: Nichols video will ‘remind you of Rodney King’

The head of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation called the death of Tyre Nichols “absolutely appalling” and “criminal” at a news conference Thursday.

“Simply put, this shouldn’t have happened. I have been policing for more than 30 years. I have devoted my life to this profession, and I’m grieved. Frankly, I’m shocked. I’m sickened by what I saw and what we’ve learned through our extensive and thorough investigation,” said David Rausch, the director of the TBI.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said he was “sad and angry for the family of Tyre Nichols,” adding that before the video footage could be released, proper legal procedures were needed to be followed as well as for the family to have the opportunity to see it first.

“I am also angry for the many good men and women of the Memphis Police Department who devote their lives to serving our citizens,” Strickland said of the arrest. “We must all work to regain the public’s trust and work together to heal the wounds these events have caused.”

Washington, DC
CNN
 — 

Even as rents continue to climb across the country, renting is still cheaper than monthly payments for a purchased home in 45 of the 50 largest US cities in December, according to a report from Realtor.com. Renting costs nearly $800 less per month than buying, on average.

But there are five cities where, despite stubbornly high prices, rising mortgage rates and some of the least affordable home buying conditions in decades, it is still cheaper to buy than to rent.

Rent is still going up, but steadily slowed its pace of growth throughout 2022. The national median rent jumped 3.2% in December from a year ago, marking the eleventh month of slowing rent growth from January’s peak of 17.4% growth, according to the report, released on Thursday.

Following four months of declines, median asking rent flattened out in December at $1,712 per month. That’s down by $69 per month from the peak in July 2022, but is still $308 higher than December 2019. It also represents an increase of 21.9% from pre-pandemic levels.

A year ago, as rents were spiking but mortgage rates had not surged, it was more affordable to buy in many cities than to rent.

But with mortgage rates double where they were a year ago, monthly costs to own a home have created a widening gap between rents and payments made by first-time homebuyers. Homeownership costs grew 37.4% in December 2022 from the year before. That was more than 10 times faster than rents, which were up 3.2% during the same period.

During the first half of 2022, as mortgage rates surged, several cities flipped from being favorable to buyers to being more favorable to renters, including Atlanta; Baltimore; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cleveland; Hartford, Connecticut; Indianapolis; Philadelphia; Miami; and Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa, Florida.

Baltimore is the only city that flipped back to being a place where it is more favorable to buy in December 2022.

Now, just five markets of the top 50 cities favor homeownership over renting in December.

Memphis, Tennessee, had the biggest savings to homebuyers over renters, with the monthly cost of homeownership 32.7% less than renting. It was followed by Pittsburgh; Birmingham, Alabama; St. Louis and Baltimore. Monthly buying costs assume a 7% down payment with a mortgage rate of 6.36%, and include taxes, insurance and homeowners association fees.

The amount saved by purchasing a home in these cities has decreased from last year, as stubbornly high prices and elevated mortgage rates eat away at the financial payoff to buying.

Deciding whether to rent or buy ultimately depends on personal circumstances, including location, financial situation and how long one plans to live in the home. Generally, it is not in your financial interest to buy if you plan to live in your home less than a few years, and a common rule of thumb is to not spend more than 30% of your income on housing costs.

Plus, buying a home is a lot easier said than done in many markets, as the inventory of homes to buy is historically low.

Austin, Texas, offered the biggest discount for renting compared to buying, with renting 121% or $2,013 cheaper per month. It was followed by San Francisco, where renting was 97% less and Seattle was 86% cheaper.

These rent-favoring metros are cities with a higher concentration of tech workers and high earners, where both the average rent-cost and buy-cost are higher than the national average, the report showed.

The advantage of renting is growing in Sun Belt cities, where rents continued to cool faster than other parts of the United States in December, according to Realtor.com.

Just because rents have surged in some cities, doesn’t mean that housing costs haven’t gone up even more. Even in Florida cities like Miami, Tampa and Orlando, which have seen some of the highest rent growth and rent costs in the past year, renting is still more affordable than buying a starter home.

Although renting will likely be cheaper than buying for most people in 2023, rental affordability remains a key issue as prices are expected to hit new highs, said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist.

“We expect rents will keep hitting new highs, driven by factors including still-low vacancy rates, lagging new construction and demand from would-be first-time buyers,” Hale said.

New York
CNN
 — 

Southwest Airlines reported a loss for the fourth quarter because of the company’s service meltdown over the holiday travel season, and it warned the costs from those problems will result in another loss in the first quarter.

The airline was forced to cancel more than 16,700 flights between December 21 and 29, roughly half its schedule during that period. Thursday, Southwest said the meltdown cost the airline about $800 million, resulting in an adjusted net loss in the quarter of $226 million. Still, it managed to report an adjusted annual profit of $723 million, a turnaround from $1.3 billion it lost in 2021 amid the pandemic.

It said it expects another loss in the first quarter due to the continued impact and costs associated with meltdown. The first quarter is typically the slowest and least profitable period for US air travel. However, Southwest said it is encouraged by strong bookings for March.

Southwest

(LUV)’s quarterly loss of 38 cents a share was far worse than Wall Street analysts’ forecast. Shares of Southwest

(LUV) lost 4% in mid-afternoon trading because of that miss and especially its sour outlook.

The airline said it expected a first-quarter loss because of an increase in passengers canceling reservations and a lower level of bookings for January and February, which the airline said “are assumed to be associated with the operational disruptions in December.” Those lost bookings in the current quarter are expected to cost it between $300 million to $350 million.

To repair customer relations, Southwest has given affected passengers 25,000 bonus points in frequent flier accounts, as well as travel vouchers. And in addition to refunding fares for canceled flights, it is reimbursing those passengers who bought tickets on other airlines or incurred other unexpected travel costs.

Even with the meltdown, which cost Southwest $410 million in lost revenue when it had to refund tickets to passengers on canceled flights, it still reported record fourth quarter sales of $6.2 billion, up 7% from the same quarter of 2019, just before the pandemic.

Southwest brought in that record revenue even though the number of seats it was able to fly in the quarter was down 6% from the same period of 2019, before the pandemic, when adjusted for miles flown.

The strong demand meant that Southwest passengers paid 10.6% more for every mile they flew than they were paying in late 2019.

A massive winter storm started the service problems, but Southwest had a much tougher time recovering from the weather than other airlines because of an antiquated crew scheduling system that was quickly overwhelmed, leaving the airline unable to get the staffing it needed to locations to fly flights. Nearly half of its schedule was canceled during the December 20 to 29 period. Some days, as many as 75% of its scheduled flights were grounded.

The airline said that it is “conducting a third-party review of the December events and … reexamining the priority of technology and other investments planned in 2023.”

In an interview on CNBC Thursday CEO Bob Jordan defended Southwest’s investment in technology, saying the company had been spending about $1 billion a year on upgrading its technology and would spend closer to $1.3 billion this year.

“The idea we don’t invest in technology just isn’t correct,” he said. “Now there’s always things to work on, and we have things to work on in the crew scheduling area, for example, and we’ll do that.”

He said that GE Digital has already come up with a fix that is being tested for some of the problems the crew scheduling system had during the meltdown. And he said that having more crew scheduling staff in place is also part of the solution.

“It’s not one thing [that caused the meltdown.] This was a very complicated series of events,” he told CNBC.

In a call with analysts and journalists later Thursday, Southwest officials said they weren’t sure that the computer system used in crew scheduling needs to be replaced, and that the current fixes from GE now being tested could take care of the shortfalls discovered during the meltdown.

“Based on what we know at this point, our processes and technology generally worked as designed,” said Jordan. “We were hit by an overwhelming volume of close-end cancellations, which put us behind in creating crew solutions.”

Part of what created worse problems at Southwest than at other airlines is that crew members had to call in to the airline, rather than notify it electronically, to let them know of their availability.

“That was a problem,” said Andrew Watterston, Southwest’s chief operating officer. “It wasn’t the problem for the situation. It was a symptom of the problem.”

Switching to electronic notification would require a change in the labor contracts with pilot and flight attendants, said Jordan. Negotiations are now taking place on replacing the existing contracts covering all issues, including pay and benefits.

Jordan said that so far Southwest has been No. 1 in on-time performance among US airlines in January.

“So, of course, we’re applying what we’ve learned and we’re actually performing very very well.”

He again apologized to both customers and Southwest employees but said the bookings for March and beyond suggest that the airline is not losing its customers base.

“There’s a lot of evidence our loyal customers are sticking with us,” he said on CNBC. He told investors that 25% of the customers who received the bonus frequent flier points had already booked future travel on Southwest, some using those points, others paying cash.

Southwest has traditionally been the most profitable US airline by a large margin. Many of its rivals were in and out of bankruptcy in recent decades due to losses brought on by recessions and events like the 9/11 attack, but Southwest had put together a string of 47 consecutive profitable years before the pandemic. In 2020, Southwest and all other airlines to reported a loss.

All other airlines lost money again in 2021, excluding special items such as financial support from the federal government, and most airlines reported another quarterly loss in the first three months of 2022 as the surge in Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant limited demand for travel.

But demand to fly had been very strong starting with the Spring Break travel season, and air fares soared as passengers paid top dollar to take long-delayed trips. Southwest and most other US airlines reported profits in the second and third quarters, and most have either reported profitable fourth quarters or are forecast to do so – as Southwest had been before the meltdown.

Three other US airlines – American

(AAL), JetBlue

(JBLU) and Alaska

(ALK) all reported fourth quarter profits near forecasts Thursday, although JetBlue

(JBLU) warned of a much bigger than expected loss in the current quarter.