Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

Actor Jeremy Renner thanked fans from his hospital bed Tuesday as he continued to recover from two surgeries following being injured by a snowplow machine in what officials described as “a tragic accident.”

“Thank you all for your kind words. Im too messed up now to type. But I send love to you all,” Renner wrote in a caption under a selfie photo showing him apparently in a hospital bed.

The “Hawkeye” actor was injured on New Year’s Day near his Nevada home while he was clearing snow from a private driveway to help family members leave his house after gathering for the holidays, according to his publicist, Samantha Mast.

“Jeremy is making positive progress and is awake, talking and in good spirits,” Mast said a statement released Tuesday evening. “He remains in ICU in critical but stable condition. He is overwhelmed by the showing of love and support. The family asks for your continued thoughts while he heals with his close loved ones.”

Renner, 51, was run over by his snowcat, an engine-powered machine used to clear snow, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said on Tuesday during a news conference.

At some point, the machine started to roll away while Renner was not in the driver’s seat, Balaam said. He was injured as he tried to get back into the machine, Balaam explained. Renner’s family members were with him when he was injured.

A Renner spokesperson previously told CNN that he sustained “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries.” So far, the actor has undergone two surgeries related to the injuries, a source close to the actor told CNN.

Minutes before 9 a.m. on Sunday, authorities received word of the accident through a 911 call reporting a crash involving a snowcat and a pedestrian on Mount Rose Highway, Balaam said Tuesday.

Even though it was not snowing at that time, that highway was closed and at least a dozen cars were stranded due to the severe winter weather that was hitting the area, Balaam said.

Due to these conditions, a helicopter landed in the vicinity of the highway at 9:37 a.m., and Renner was taken to a Reno-area hospital at 9:56 a.m., Balaam said.

At the time of the injury, parts of western Nevada were blanketed with snow. The Reno area received between 6 and 12 inches of snow at elevations below 5,000 feet between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and up to 18 inches at higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

“He was being a great neighbor and he was plowing those roads for his neighbor,” Balaam said of Renner.

Authorities do not believe Renner was intoxicated during the incident, with Balaam calling it “a tragic accident.”

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has Renner’s taken the snowcat to analyze it to “rule out any potential mechanical failure,” which is a normal part of the investigation with this severity of injuries, Balaam said.

During an appearance on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday, Balaam said the actor is very active in the Reno community.

“He’s one of our honorary deputies here at the Sheriff’s Office,” Balaam said. “That’s one of the nonprofits [for] members in our community. And they help us do ‘Shop For The Sheriff,’ where they spend $50,000 and donate it and he’s one of those members. He does a lot for our community.”

“When I took office in 2019 he showed up for ‘Shop For The Sheriff’ and you should see the kids and the parents,” Balaam added. “He took the time out of his busy days to give autographs and shop with kids. He does a lot in the community and what I truly enjoy about Mr. Renner is a lot of times he does it and no one knows. He does it out of the kindness of his heart.”

A day after the accident, Renner’s family released a statement thanking hospital staff and first responders while the actor remained hospitalized.

“Jeremy’s family would like to express their gratitude to the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, Washoe County Sheriff, Reno City Mayor Hillary Schieve and the Carano and Murdock families,” a statement from his spokesperson read. “They are also tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from his fans.”

CNN
 — 

The Buffalo Bills were holding meetings and a walk-through Wednesday before their Week 18 game against the New England Patriots – less than two days after Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a nationally televised game.

The 24-year-old safety has shown “signs of improvement” and remains in critical condition, the Bills tweeted Wednesday, while players, coaches and fans keep their focus on his recovery in the run up to the final weekend of the NFL’s regular season and the subsequent playoffs.

The emotions surrounding the return to the field were apparent during a teleconference Wednesday when Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations, recalled watching video of the play in which Hamlin was injured more than 100 times.

“To the medical professionals, first responders to physicians to trainers, the EMTs (the response) that evening was outstanding. You gave our brother Damar another day to live, another chance to fight,” Vincent told reporters, his voice fading.

He added, “The only thing that mattered to myself, the team here, the folks in the stadium and the coaches was the health and wellness of Damar and getting those coaches back to the locker room so they can look their players in their eyes and see who they are. They were hurting. There was a lot of pain. And talking to the commissioner and communicating with everyone, it was just important. We just couldn’t play.”

Vincent said the NFL hasn’t discussed whether Sunday’s game between the Patriots and the Bills in Buffalo will be postponed.

The league will allow Bills coach Sean McDermott and his team and staff “to guide us if we have to make that decision,” Vincent added.

The league executive said he wants to ensure players on the Bills “have what they need to function” and that “they’re OK.”

As for Monday’s postponed game with the Bengals, Vincent said, “Everything is being considered.” Options include schedule changes, pushing back the playoffs a week or eliminating the bye week before the Super Bowl.

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said the emergency response was crucial that night.

“It’s certainly not an exaggeration to say that the skilled and the immediate response by all of these talented caregivers prevented a very tragic outcome at that moment,” Sills said.

The Bills will have no media availability Wednesday, the team said. New England also postponed Wednesday’s scheduled media availability, the Patriots said.

“The NFL has approved giving both the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots an extra day due to these unique circumstances,” the Patriots said.

Bengals coach Zac Taylor, speaking to reporters Wednesday before the first team meeting since Hamlin’s injury, recalled what McDermott said to him before the game was postponed: “The first thing he said was, ‘I need to be in the hospital for Damar. And I shouldn’t be coaching this game.’”

“In that moment he really showed who he was – that all his focus was just on Damar and being there for him and being there for his family at the hospital,” Taylor said of McDermott.

Taylor praised the team trainers, physicians and paramedics who tended to Hamlin on the field. “They were composed. It was obviously a complicated situation on the field that everybody was trying to process… I think that’s important to point out, that they were prepared and that they gave Damar the best chance.”

Hamlin was sedated and on a ventilator Tuesday night at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, his uncle Dorrian Glenn told CNN. His collapse on the field halted the Bills Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills tweeted that Hamlin’s “heartbeat was restored on the field.”

The injury, which came after Hamlin’s tackle of a Bengals wide receiver, stunned a packed stadium and viewers across the nation – and brought new scrutiny to the National Football League and how it protects its players.

Most NFL teams are off Tuesday but some canceled limited availability that day following Hamlin’s injury. The rest of the league was expected to return to work Wednesday to prepare for the final games of the regular season, though the social media accounts of many NFL players remain focused on Hamlin.

It’s still unclear what led to the cardiac arrest.

Hamlin is on a ventilator to relieve strain on his lungs, which have been damaged, according to Glenn. The doctors told Glenn his nephew has also been “flipped over on his stomach” to help with the blood on his lungs.

Hamlin collapsed shortly after tackling Tee Higgins with about six minutes left in the first quarter. Monday’s game was postponed, with the Bengals leading 7-3, and will not be resumed this week, and no decision has been made on whether to ever continue it, the NFL said Tuesday.

The game has playoff implications: Both teams have clinched playoff spots but are jockeying for higher seeds in the American Football Conference. Securing the top seed means getting a week off while the six other AFC playoff teams compete.

The days after the injury have been marked by an outpouring of support for Hamlin and his family, with messages of prayers and well wishes from star athletes, fans and national leaders.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo to teams Tuesday that the heads of player engagement and team clinicians for all clubs have received information about mental health and support resources for players and staff.

CNN
 — 

A rare scene unfolded Wednesday in Covington, Kentucky: President Joe Biden stood alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as the two men promoted a major bipartisan legislative accomplishment they achieved together.

The president’s visit to McConnell’s home state to herald the implementation of the massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that McConnell and 18 other Senate Republicans voted for, and that Biden signed into law in 2021, marked his first domestic trip of the new year. The trip was aimed at sending an unmistakable message as Biden kicks off the second half of his first term: Even in a newly divided Congress, the Biden White House still sees room for bipartisanship.

Biden thanked McConnell for working across the aisle on the law.

“It wouldn’t have happened without your hand. It just wouldn’t have gotten done and I want to thank you for that,” Biden said to McConnell during his remarks.

He added that while he and McConnell don’t agree on a lot, the Kentucky Republican is someone you can trust.

“He’s a man of his word. When he gives you his word, you can take it to the bank, you can count on it, and he’s willing to find common ground to get things done for the country. So thank you, Mitch. Thank you,” Biden said.

The scene was a stark message of bipartisanship and pragmatism sent by Biden and McConnell as the two old Senate colleagues came together at the same time that House Republicans found themselves falling further into divisive chaos over Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker. As Biden spoke in Covington, McCarthy suffered a fourth defeat in his push to lead the House of Representatives.

The backdrop for Biden’s visit was the Brent Spence Bridge that connects Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, and is known to be one of the busiest freight routes in the country. Officials say the structure carries far more traffic than it is meant to support.

It’s also a bridge that Biden once promised he would overhaul: “We’re going to fix that damn bridge of yours going into Kentucky,” Biden said during a CNN town hall in Cincinnati in the summer of 2021, as the infrastructure bill appeared to be on the cusp of passage.

On Wednesday, the White House announced more than $2 billion from the infrastructure law would go towards upgrading the Brent Spence bridge and other “economically significant bridges” around the country.

Biden’s trip to the Ohio-Kentucky border on Wednesday will also feature Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and former Republican Sen. Rob Portman, as well as Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

White House officials say that the show of bipartisanship is aimed at sending a clear signal that as Republicans take control of the House, Biden remains convinced that there will still be opportunities for bipartisan legislative wins.

The White House made it clear on Wednesday that they had no intention of getting involved in the drama playing out in the House. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with the president that the Biden administration is “going to let the process play out.”

“It’s not my problem. I think it’s embarrassing the way it’s taking so long,” the president told reporters as he departed the White House Wednesday.

McConnell’s decision to appear with Biden on Wednesday also signals the GOP leader’s willingness to work alongside the president, even as many of his Republican colleagues in the House take a hardline stance against compromising with Democrats.

While White House officials regularly invite all congressional members to attend events Biden holds in their home states, Republicans frequently turn down the opportunity – making McConnell’s decision to join the president this week all the more notable.

Biden himself sought to downplay the importance of the pairing on Monday.

“We’ve been friends a long time. Everybody is talking about how significant it is. It has nothing to do about our relationship,” he said as he returned to the White House from his winter vacation in St. Croix. “It’s a giant bridge, man. It’s a lot of money. It’s important.”

McConnell, during his remarks ahead of the president, noted how the infrastructure law is an example of government working to solve problems for everyday Americans.

“If you look at the political alignment of everyone involved, it’s the government is working together to solve a major problem at a time when the country needs to see examples like this, of coming together and getting an outcome,” McConnell said.

A number of Cabinet officials also plan to travel later this week to promote the infrastructure law. Vice President Kamala Harris will stop in Chicago, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit New London, Connecticut, on Wednesday where they will each “discuss how the president’s economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs – jobs that don’t require a four-year degree – and revitalizing communities left behind,” a White House official said.

Over the coming weeks, Biden is expected to reiterate his bipartisan achievements in stops around the country as the Republican majority in the House begins its work, culminating in his yearly State of the Union address. Biden’s aides have begun work on that speech and have made bipartisanship a central theme.

CNN
 — 

Kevin McCarthy suffered yet another stinging defeat on Wednesday as he lost in the sixth round of voting to elect a speaker – a major blow that increasingly imperils his bid and heightens uncertainty over whether he can still secure the gavel or if a viable candidate will emerge as an alternative.

The House of Representatives has adjourned until 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday after failing to elect a new speaker. Now, Republicans are scrambling to find a resolution and talks are expected to continue.

Republicans are considering appointing four members each from the pro-McCarthy and anti-McCarthy camps to negotiate a path forward on choosing a House speaker, one GOP source tells CNN.

The House GOP majority has been stuck at a contentious stalemate amid opposition to McCarthy from a group of conservatives. The fight, which began on the first day of the 118th Congress, has thrown the new House GOP majority into chaos and undercut the party’s agenda.

The House will continue to be paralyzed until this standoff is resolved. The situation has grown dire for McCarthy’s political future as Republican allies are beginning to fear that the House GOP leader may not be able to pull off his gamble for speaker if the fight goes much longer. While McCarthy has firm support among most of the conference, some are not committed to sticking with him.

It’s not at all clear whether McCarthy and his allies will be able to lock down the votes – and the longer the fight drags on the more imperiled his speaker bid has become.

But there are some signs that negotiations may be progressing. Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, one of the 20 members who has opposed McCarthy in the votes, told CNN things have changed and there is a “dynamic kind of atmosphere” now.

“I’m encouraged by it,” he said.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, another member who has voted against McCarthy, told CNN he has had “more productive” talks over the last two hours with McCarthy allies than he has had over the last few weeks. He said he expects to be part of talks that will take place tonight.

But in a sign of McCarthy’s remaining challenges: Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, a prominent member of the opposition group, told CNN he is still a hard no.

House Republicans hold 222 seats in the new Congress, so for McCarthy to reach 218, he can only afford to lose four GOP votes. His obstacle is that he faces a small but determined contingent of hardline conservatives who have so far been successful in denying him the votes to secure the gavel.

The group has used the leverage they have in the razor-thin Republican majority to extract concessions. McCarthy has already given in to a number of their demands, including making it easier to topple the sitting speaker, but so far his efforts have not been enough, and

The House convened on Wednesday to continue voting after three rounds of votes on Tuesday. McCarthy has come up short each time, failing to hit the majority threshold needed to secure the speakership.

As the votes stretched on Tuesday, the situation appeared to become even more dire for McCarthy, as the vote count in opposition to his speaker bid grew.

The tally for the first ballot in the speaker vote was 203 for McCarthy, with 19 Republicans voting for other candidates. The tally for the second ballot was 203 votes for McCarthy with 19 votes for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. In the third round of voting, there were 202 votes for McCarthy and 20 votes for Jordan, with Rep. Byron Donalds joining the 19 GOP lawmakers who had voted against McCarthy in the first two rounds.

It was the first time an election for speaker went to multiple ballots since 1923.

“My vote yesterday was basically to break a deadlock, because we were deadlocked, and we were not getting anywhere,” Donalds, a Florida Republican, said Wednesday on “CNN This Morning.” “Right now, (McCarthy) doesn’t have a pathway to get there. If that reemerges, yeah, I can be there, that’s fine, but what’s necessary now is that Republicans come together and find a way to elect a speaker.”

In the fourth round of voting, 20 Republicans voting together for Donalds as the group switched their collective support from Jordan to Donalds. Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted present, lowering McCarthy’s threshold to 217.

Spartz told CNN she did so because she wanted to allow for more negotiations within the conference to address the concerns of the 20 members.

The final tally for the fifth vote was again 201 votes for McCarthy, 20 for Donalds and one present vote.

The final tally for the sixth vote was the same: 201 for McCarthy, 20 for Donalds and one present vote.

Trump is watching closely as the dynamic plays out on Capitol Hill and his public support has been a key focus of McCarthy’s efforts.

Two GOP sources familiar with the matter said McCarthy’s allies were panicking on Tuesday after the former president gave a tepid response to NBC News when asked about his support for McCarthy. The former president also declined to issue a statement Monday reiterating his endorsement of McCarthy despite a behind-the-scenes effort from several McCarthy allies to get Trump to do so, two sources said.

One close McCarthy ally then began working behind the scenes to do clean-up duty and started pressing for Trump to put out a statement clarifying his support. McCarthy and Trump then connected by phone, where McCarthy said Trump expressed he was still committed to backing him. Trump put out a strong endorsement on Truth Social Wednesday morning, imploring Republicans not to “TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT” and urging them to vote for McCarthy.

Although Trump’s statement might not move the needle among the fiercest McCarthy foes, one of the sources said McCarthy world was worried about looking “weak” and like he was bleeding support, so they felt it was important to reverse the narrative.

Gaetz, one of the House Republicans opposing McCarthy’s bid for speaker, dismissed Trump’s latest effort to help the California Republican as “sad.”

“This changes neither my view of McCarthy nor Trump nor my vote,” Gaetz said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, shortly after Trump came to McCarthy’s defense in the Truth Social post.

Long a staunch Trump ally, Gaetz’s refusal to bow to Trump’s desire for a McCarthy speakership raises new questions about the former president’s dwindling influence over Republicans in the midst of his third presidential campaign.

“If Matt Gaetz is ignoring you, that’s not a good sign,” said one Trump ally who is involved with his 2024 campaign.

Trump has been making calls on McCarthy’s behalf over the last 24 hours in an attempt to break the conservative blockade against him, this person said, but his efforts have so far been fruitless.

One lawmaker who spoke with Trump late Tuesday suggested the former president should run for speaker himself, according to a person briefed on the call. Trump demurred and continued to push this person to support McCarthy, claiming that he would be a solid “America First” supporter.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

New York
CNN
 — 

ESPN is sticking by its reporting that the NFL had initially planned to resume Monday’s football game after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field – a claim the NFL vehemently denies.

The NFL postponed Monday’s game between the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals following the on-field injury. Although initially criticized that the announcement of the game’s postponement took more than an hour, the NFL was ultimately praised for its consequential decision to call off the contest.

But whether the NFL had at any point after Hamlin’s devastating injury planned to resume the game remains a subject of dispute and controversy.

ESPN reported during Monday’s telecast after Hamlin was taken off the field in an ambulance that the first quarter would resume after both teams were given a five-minute warm-up notice. That never materialized, and the league later said it never considered restarting the game.

“We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play,” said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations, at a press conference Tuesday. “That’s ridiculous. It’s insensitive. And that’s not a place that that we should ever be in.”

Vincent said he didn’t know where that report would have come from. An emotional Vincent on Wednesday apologized for being “short” with his answer from the previous day but said, “It was just so insensitive to think that we were even thinking about returning to play.”

But ESPN, in a statement Wednesday, said it is sticking by its reporting.

“There was constant communication in real time between ESPN and league and game officials,” the network said in a statement. “As a result of that, we reported what we were told in the moment and immediately updated fans as new information was learned. This was an unprecedented, rapidly evolving circumstance. All night long, we refrained from speculation.”

Joe Buck, ESPN’s Monday Night Football announcer, told the New York Times in an interview Tuesday that he received reporting from John Parry, ESPN’s officiating analyst. Buck said Parry “is in an open line of communication with the league office in New York.”

“It is our obligation to give the information we are provided by the NFL. in real time as we get it,” Buck told the Times. “That’s our job at that time. That’s all we can go with.”

Vincent rebutted that assertion on Wednesday.

“I don’t know who said it, and I really don’t care,” he said. “But the only thing that matters to myself, the team here, the folks in the stadium, the coaches, was the health and wellness of Damar.”

Boston
CNN
 — 

William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind of the sprawling college admissions scam aptly known as Operation Varsity Blues, was sentenced Wednesday to 3.5 years in federal prison, the longest sentence in a case that has rattled America’s higher education system.

Singer was the central figure in the scam in which wealthy parents, desperate to get their children into elite universities, paid huge sums to cheat on standardized tests, bribe university coaches and administrators who had influence over admissions, and then lie about it to authorities.

Singer pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the US and obstruction of justice in March 2019. He cooperated with the government’s investigation in the months prior to the public announcement of the case and in the years since.

In federal court in Boston on Wednesday, Singer apologized for his actions and said his morals took a backseat to “winning and keeping score.”

“I lost my ethical values and have so much regret. To be frank, I’m ashamed of myself,” Singer said.

In addition to the 3.5 years of prison time, Singer was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and forfeiture of over $10 million, Judge Rya Zobel said. He is due to report to prison on February 27.

Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence him to six years, while Singer’s attorneys asked for probation with home detention and community service.

The sentencing represents the culmination of an extensive criminal case first made public nearly four years ago, when authorities arrested and charged over 50 people, including coaches, test administrators, prominent CEOs, and the actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

With only a few exceptions, almost all of them pleaded guilty and served prison terms generally measured in weeks or months. For example, Huffman was sentenced to 14 days and Loughlin received two months behind bars. The previous longest sentence in the case, for former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst, was for 2.5 years in prison.

Singer is one of the last people to be sentenced in the case, which rocked the world of higher education and showed, not for the first or last time, how rich people use their wealth and means to help their children game the college admissions system.

US Attorney Rachael Rollins said the 3.5-year sentence was “appropriate” and related her personal frustrations as a parent about what the case said about the college admissions process.

“I was never foolish to believe it was a meritocracy, but I had absolutely no idea how corrupt and infected the admissions process was until this case exposed everything,” she said.

Singer’s defense attorney Candice Fields spoke outside the courthouse in Boston, calling Wednesday’s proceedings “sobering.” She said her client is “resilient.”

“He will spend the rest of his life making amends,” Fields said. “I think [Singer] is glad to have had an opportunity to express his apologies to those affected by the case, by his conduct. Now, he wants to put this period of his life behind him, do the time that the court has ordered and move on to have a productive remainder of his life.

In court, federal prosecutor Stephen E. Frank outlined the extent of Singer’s role in coordinating the scheme, calling it a “singular” crime in the history of the country and the most massive fraud perpetrated on the higher education system.

“He is the architect of it. He is the face of this fraud,” Frank said in court.

Frank also acknowledged Singer’s “unparalleled” cooperation with authorities, in which Singer allowed FBI agents to wiretap his phone and wore a wire to in-person meetings to implicate other conspirators. Still, he noted Singer had tipped off several of his clients to the investigation, for which he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

Singer’s defense attorney similarly highlighted this cooperation to ask the court for leniency.

Singer was the owner of the college counseling and prep business known as “The Key” and the CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation, the charity connected to it.

Through those organizations, Singer carried out his scheme to get the children of wealthy parents into top universities. His plan had two major parts: Facilitate cheating on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT, and bribe college coaches and administrators to falsely designate the children as recruited athletes, even if they didn’t play that sport, easing their acceptance into universities including Yale, Georgetown and USC.

In a June 2018 conversation with one parent, he referred to his plan as a “side door” into college, according to court documents.

“There is a front door which means you get in on your own. The back door is through institutional advancement, which is 10 times as much money. And I’ve created this side door in,” Singer said.

To conceal the payments, he or an employee directed the parents to give money to the Key Worldwide Foundation as a charitable donation, the indictment states. Some of that money was then used to pay test administrators or coaches as part of the scheme, prosecutors said.

How the alleged college admission scheme worked

Out on bail since his guilty plea, Singer, 62, has been living in a St. Petersburg, Florida, trailer park for seniors, according to his sentencing memo.

“I have been reflecting on my very poor judgment and criminal activities that increasingly had become my way of life. I have woken up every day feeling shame, remorse, and regret,” Singer wrote in a recent court submission ahead of his sentencing. “I acknowledge that I am fully responsible for my crimes.”

His attorneys in their sentencing memo asked the court for a comparatively lenient three-year term of probation including 12 months of home detention plus 750 hours of community service.

Prosecutors in their respective sentencing memo acknowledged Singer’s cooperation with the government as “historical” and “hugely significant.” For several months prior to the public announcement of Operation Varsity Blues, Singer turned over online communications and documents, voluntarily recorded phone calls with clients and associates and wore a wire in person with several individuals.

Still, his cooperation was not perfect, according to prosecutors.

Singer “not only obstructed the investigation by tipping off at least six of his clients,” the sentencing memo says, “but also failed to follow the government’s instructions in other ways, including by deleting text messages and using an unauthorized cell phone.”

Given the “problematic” cooperation, prosecutors say, the “most culpable participant” in the scheme should serve six years in prison as a deterrent to future temptation for Singer.

“Singer will undoubtedly face circumstances and opportunities that require him to choose between right and wrong. A substantial term of incarceration is critical to remind him of the consequences of crossing that line, and necessary to protect society from his wrongdoing,” prosecutors wrote.

Singer funneled the money he collected from the admissions scheme through a fake charity in which clients disguised payments as “charitable contributions” that conveniently doubled as a tax break for the parents paying their children’s way into top schools.

Prosecutors alleged Singer took in more than $25 million from the clients, paid bribes totaling more than $7 million and transferred, spent or otherwise used more than $15 million of his clients’ money for himself.

Prosecutors had also asked the court to mandate Singer pay the IRS more than $10.6 million in restitution, a $3.4 million monetary forfeiture, in addition to a forfeiture of some assets valued at more than $5.3 million.

He has already paid $1,213,000 toward the anticipated $3.4 million money forfeiture judgment from the proceeds of the sale of his residence, according to court documents. He hasn’t been able to get a job while on pretrial release thanks to the case’s national media attention, according to his sentencing memo.

CNN
 — 

Salesforce said Wednesday that it will cut approximately 10% of its workforce and reduce its real estate footprint, making it the latest tech company to slash expenses as broader economic uncertainty continues to hit Silicon Valley particularly hard.

In a letter to employees announcing the job cuts, Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s chair and co-CEO, admitted to growing headcount too much earlier in the pandemic and said most of the job cuts will take place over the coming weeks.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment,” Benioff wrote. “As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that.”

As of January 2022, Salesforce reported a headcount of 73,541 global employees. As of October 2022, the company reported a headcount of 79,824.

The tech sector, which was initially buoyed by a sudden and intense pandemic-fueled shift to online services, has since had to confront consumers returning to their offline lives. At the same time, the industry has been pummeled by a seemingly perfect storm of economic factors over the past year, including rising interest rates, looming recession fears and consumers and businesses rethinking expenses.

Also on Wednesday, video-sharing platform Vimeo said in a regulatory filing that it would cut approximately 11% of its workforce.

Like Benioff, a number of other tech founders and CEOs have since admitted they failed to accurately gauge pandemic demand. As a result, tech firms including Amazon and Meta have announced company-wide layoffs.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in investor note Wednesday that the cloud-computing giant “clearly is seeing headwinds in the field and thus is trying to quickly adjust to a softening demand environment.” The analyst added that the company “clearly overbuilt out its organization over the past few years along with the rest of the tech sector.”

Shares of Salesforce

(CRM) were up more than 3% in early trading Wednesday following the announcement.

Like other tech companies, Salesforce’s stock suffered steep declines last year. Against that backdrop, Salesforce made a significant change to its C-Suite: co-CEO and Vice Chair Bret Taylor said he would step down from his roles at the company at the end of January.

In his letter Wednesday, Benioff said impacted employees in the United States will “receive a minimum of nearly five months of pay, health insurance, career resources, and other benefits to help with their transition.” Those outside the United States “will receive a similar level of support,” Benioff wrote.

“The employees being affected aren’t just colleagues,” Benioff said. “They’re friends. They’re family. Please reach out to them. Offer the compassion and love they and their families deserve and need now more than ever. And most of all, please lean on your leadership, including me, as we work through this difficult time together.”

Washington, DC
CNN
 — 

It is almost as if the wild turns in the Manhattan real estate market during the pandemic didn’t happen. Almost.

The frenzy to buy apartments in Manhattan took off in 2021 as the city bounced back from the worst of the pandemic. But it nosedived at the end of 2022, with the market returning to its pre-pandemic trajectory as sales dropped and prices slipped. The only outlier is that inventory is still slow to materialize.

The median price of all apartments in Manhattan in the fourth quarter was $1,100,500, down 5.5% from the prior year, according to a report from brokerage firm Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants. This is the first time in the pandemic era that the year-over-year price has dropped. Even so, the median cost of an apartment remains above pre-pandemic prices.

Prices dropped 4.7% between the third and fourth quarters, as mortgage rates really surged, ultimately reaching as high as an average of 7.08% for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan in October and November, according to Freddie Mac.

The largest share of condos sold were one-bedrooms with a median price of $1,140,000. The median price for a two-bedroom condo was $2,150,000. Median prices of co-ops were lower, at $710,000 for a one-bedroom, and $1,325,000 for a two-bedroom.

Higher rates and still-high housing prices cooled demand at the end of last year, causing sales to tumble. Sales dropped 28.5% in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.

The huge drop in sales at the end of 2022 was largely because the year before was such a historic anomaly.

“The Manhattan sales market is exiting the euphoric market of 2021 and moving to something closer to normal,” said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel.

Another reason for the slowdown:few apartments coming to market, he added.

Would-be home sellers across the country have become locked in to their current apartments because they purchased or refinanced into ultra-low mortgage rates during the past few years and are reluctant to buy at the current, much higher rate.

As a result, there were 6,523 listings in Manhattan at the end of the fourth quarter. That’s 5% higher than the fourth quarter of 2021, but 15.7% less than the third quarter of 2022.

“The numbers are essentially acting like the pandemic didn’t happen,” said Miller.

Looking at the market metrics of prices, sales and inventory, both prices and sales are going up from their pre-pandemic levels at a modest pace, with prices rising 10% above 2019 levels and sales 6% higher.

But inventory is down about 2%, which is odd, said Miller.

“This is an unusual situation where the low inventory is the by-product of mortgage rates being cut to the floor,” Miller said, eviscerating supply. “Normally, you’d expect inventory to expand with significant rate growth.”

Looking ahead, neither buyers nor sellers should expect much from the market. Miller is calling 2023, “the year of disappointment.”

“Sellers aren’t going to get the prices they got in 2021 and buyers aren’t going to get much improvement on affordability from 2022,” he said. “Meanwhile, banks are disappointed because their pipeline is going dusty.”

New York
CNN
 — 

Skip Bayless spent a third straight day defending his controversial tweet about Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, this time during a tense exchange Wednesday with his Fox Sports talk show co-host Shannon Sharpe.

Sharpe, a former NFL player and member of the NFL Hall of Fame, returned to the duo’s talk show “Undefeated” Wednesday after missing Tuesday’s show. His absence followed co-host Bayless’ widely-criticized tweet questioning whether the NFL should have ended the Bills’ game Monday against the Cincinnati Bengals after Hamlin collapsed on the field. Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after a hit to his chest area.

During the incident Monday, Bayless tweeted: “no doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game – but how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome … which suddenly seems so irrelevant.”

Bayless later followed up with a tweet, saying the controversy surrounding that tweet was a misunderstanding of his intention.

On Wednesday, the hosts of “Undisputed” immediately got into an argument at the beginning of the show.

“I’ve never seen anybody have to be revived and fight for their life on the field,” Sharpe said during his opening monologue. “Skip tweeted something, and although I disagreed with the tweet, and hopefully Skip would take it down. But I wanted…”

Bayless immediately interrupted, saying “I’m not going to take it down, because I stand by what I tweeted.”

Sharpe then decided not to continue his monologue. Visibly upset at Bayless, he said, “I cannot even get through a monologue without you interrupting me.”

Sharpe tried to bring the conversation back to Hamlin, rather than about Bayless, and Bayless said he didn’t expect Sharpe to address his tweet on air. The tense conversation lasted for about a minute.

On Monday, after Bayless’ controversial tweet, he followed up saying it was a misunderstanding.

“Nothing is more important than that young man’s health. That was the point of my last tweet. I’m sorry if that was misunderstood but his health is all that matters,” Bayless tweeted.

Bayless didn’t acknowledge the tweet at the beginning of Tuesday’s “Undisputed,” but appeared emotional about the incident.

“I apologize for what for what we’re going to set out to do here today, if it offends anyone because we’re going to try to do the show pretty much as usual we do the show,” he said. “I’ll admit up front that I’m still shook up what happened last night to Damar Hamlin. In fact, I’m still wrecked. In fact, I’m not sure I’m capable of doing this show today.”

The NFL postponed Monday’s game after coaches from both teams refused to continue the game, saying details on next steps would come at an “appropriate time.”

Minneapolis
CNN
 — 

The number of available jobs in the United States totaled 10.46 million in November, according to data released Wednesday by the Department of Labor.

That’s more than the 10 million total job openings that economists were expecting, according to Refinitiv, and slightly lower than the upwardly revised October total of 10.51 million.

“The US labor market remains on fire,” Nick Bunker, head of economic research for Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a statement about the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. “The flames may have receded a bit from the highs of the initial reopening of the economy, but demand for workers remains robust and workers are seizing new opportunities.”

There were still about 1.7 job openings for each job seeker in November, unchanged from October, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Federal Reserve closely monitors this ratio, since tightness in the labor market means employees have greater leverage to seek higher wages, which in turn drives up inflation.

The robust number of job openings remains “a testament to the resilience of demand for labor on Main Street, even as job openings tumbled on Wall Street,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist with ZipRecruiter, in a tweet posted shortly after the report was released.

Job hiring inched down to 6.06 million in November from 6.11 million in October, according to the report. Layoffs fell to 1.35 million from 1.45 million, and the number of people quitting their job increased to 4.17 million from 4.05 million.

“The Great Resignation is far from over — quits surged in November, to 4.2 million,” Pollak said. “They have now been above 4 million for 18 straight months, after coming in at 3.4 million before the pandemic and averaging 2.6 million in the prior years.”

Although openings came in above expectations, the JOLTS report likely won’t spur a dramatic change in course from the Fed, economists for labor market analytics company Lightcast said during a webcast Wednesday morning.

“This report shows more positive signs for the economy than originally expected,” said Bledi Taska, Lightcast’s chief economist. “This was a very surprising report, but in some ways that’s positive for the economy overall. This report moves us from cautious to cautiously optimistic. I don’t expect to have to use the word recession any time soon.”

Labor turnover activity this month will provide a good window of where the labor market may be heading, Taska said, adding that he would expect layoff activity to rise but not to a point of where it would indicate a serious recession was taking hold.

The data comes ahead of the government’s closely watched monthly jobs report, which is set to be released on Friday and is expected to show that 200,000 jobs were added to the US economy in December.

While that number is slightly lower than in previous months, it caps off an unusually strong year for the labor market — all the more so, given the Fed’s efforts to slow the economy in order to rein in demand and inflation.