Category: US

CNN
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Jesse Lee Soffer knew he would be asked why he decided to leave his role as Det. Jay Halstead on “Chicago P.D.” after more than nine seasons.

“I’ve thought so hard about how to answer this question — and there’s no good answer,” he told Variety. “Except I was ready for more.”

Viewers of the popular NBC series may not be happy about it, especially given that during this season the character got a bigger storyline with a promotion at work and a marriage.

But Soffer told the publication “Eventually, you know the character so well, there’s not much that can shift or transform.”

“I really wanted to grow and expand, and we’ve only got this one trip,” the actor, 38, said. “If I signed up again, it would have been for another three years. I would have turned 40 on the show. I thought, ‘You know what? It’s time to take a risk.”

Soffer added “It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life.”

“Let’s be honest: I love the fans of our show so much, and I love my fans,” he said. “I know that they’re still grieving this, and to some degree, I am too.”

“Chicago P.D.” airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and the next day on Peacock.

Archer City, TX
CNN
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One half of television’s most famous renovation duo is the new owner of an iconic literary landmark built by author Larry McMurtry in the hard-scrabbled town of Archer City, Texas. Residents are now wondering what Chip Gaines, who with wife Joanna built the Magnolia Network, is planning for the shop’s next chapter.

Last November, Gaines quietly bought two buildings that are home to Booked Up – the bookstore that was McMurtry’s lifetime passion project in his hometown. The author of “Lonesome Dove” and “The Terms of Endearment” opened the bookstore in 1987 and over the decades it became a pilgrimage site for McMurtry fans and book lovers from around the world.

They also come to see The Royal Theater, which inspired McMurtry’s classic novel “The Last Picture Show,” and was seen in the classic 1971 film starring Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges.

In this dusty town of roughly 16-hundred people, where the summer heat can feel like getting hit in the face with a scalding iron skillet, McMurtry accomplished what one resident described as the unlikely dream of “making Archer City a little book town.”

The bookstore has been closed for at least a year. The news that it’s now in the hands of Chip Gaines, who became famous for his exuberant passion for “Demo-Day” destruction on his television shows, has created a buzz through the town’s gathering spots.

Some residents are anxious to know if Gaines has bigger plans to give Archer City a fixer-upper makeover or if the books are about to disappear and the buildings left vacant, like many other buildings on the town square.

“Chip’s connection to Archer City traces back to his parents and grandparents, who grew up there,” a spokesperson for Gaines told CNN in a statement. “He loves this community and has been a big fan of Larry McMurtry for years. Chip is honored and excited to preserve this incredible book collection with the respect it deserves.”

The representative declined to comment on specific future plans for the bookstore.

Jerry Phillips, the former owner of the Archer County News, said the city is proud of its ties to one of the most influential writers of the last 100 years.

“People would be devastated if the bookstore disappeared. It needs to have some presence here just for his legacy,” Phillips told CNN. 

When Larry McMurtry died in March 2021, predicting the fate of the bookstore and the thousands of books stacked inside became a routine parlor game.

Before his death, McMurtry bequeathed Booked Up to the store’s longtime manager Khristal Collins, according to James McMurtry, the writer’s son, and well-known musician.

Archer County deed records show that on November 4, 2022, the two bookstore buildings, still holding a breathtaking collection of books, were transferred to an investment company listing Chip Gaines as the director.

The deed records show the properties were sold for ten dollars “and other good and valuable consideration.” Khristal Collins did not respond to CNN’s calls about the sale of the store.

However, on Wednesday, she launched a new online bookstore, keeping the name “Booked Up” but confirming she no longer owns the building, nor the inventory of McMurtry’s bookstore.

The bookstore’s sale was first reported in December by Nathan Lawson, the news editor of the Archer County News.

The tip came from Jerry Phillips, who called Lawson when he saw Chip Gaines and his father carrying boxes of books out of the store. Phillips said he approached the star and said, “Inquiring minds want to know what’s going on?”

Chip and Joanna Gaines turned their HGTV home improvement show into the Magnolia lifestyle brand empire. The Magnolia Silos in Waco, which opened in 2015, transformed the city’s central business area and attracts more than one million visitors a year, according to local tourism officials. (HGTV and CNN are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

In a January 2019 interview with Cowboys & Indians magazine, Chip Gaines talked about his family’s connection to Archer City, the place where his parents grew up and is located about 200 miles northwest of Waco.

While Gaines grew up in Albuquerque, he said he would often spend summers with his grandfather in Archer City, riding horses and mending fences, and that’s where a suburban kid from the big city learned to appreciate the farming and ranching lifestyle.

“I don’t know what it was about it, but it certainly got in my blood at a very young age,” Gaines told the magazine.

There’s a great deal of interest in what happens next. For decades, Booked Up was a huge tourist draw for local businesses. But Archer City residents see what the Gaines’ did for Waco and they can’t help but wonder if they’re planning a “Magnolia North” kind of destination that would bring even more tourists to town.

There are a lot of people, Lawson said, that don’t want to see the buildings sit vacant or, worse yet, see the massive collection of books taken out of town.

“We’re forever intertwined with Larry McMurtry,” Lawson said. “There would still be a large portion of our community that would be sad to see the bookstore go, and I think our economy would be sad to see the bookstore go.”

The Spur Hotel in Archer City is owned by Dotty and John Hudson. The hotel is often filled with McMurtry fans visiting the writer’s hometown. His books are left in each room and the top floor guest room is known as The Lonesome Dove Suite.

Her husband, John, lived in Archer City when Hollywood came to town to shoot “The Last Picture Show.” He was one of the many locals picked to work as extras in various scenes shot on location. If you watch close enough, Dotty said, you can spot him eight times in the movie.

Dotty Hudson says many of their guests are McMurtry fans and writers who come here to get inspired. Hudson says the hotel is a frequent stop for people who route vacation road trips through town to see The Royal Theater and the downtown square where “The Last Picture Show” was filmed.

Hudson told CNN if the bookstore closed permanently it “would leave a little hole in Archer City’s heart.”

Hundreds of McMurtry’s most intimate items are also set to be sold in an auction on May 29. 

From typewriters to personal copies of his famous books; from his grand piano and bed to his cowboy boots held together with duct tape, the catalogue of roughly 400 items is already drawing widespread interest, according to Rob Vogt, director of the Vogt Auction gallery in San Antonio.

“The buzz has been the biggest thing that’s ever happened to us,” Vogt said. “It’s very exciting.”

While Vogt described Archer City as the “romantic heartland of the McMurtry story,” he said his team worked with McMurtry’s son, James, to plan the sale at the auction house in San Antonio, which Vogt said has the infrastructure to plan a proper, modern auction.

Several hundred people are expected to attend in person, with thousands more likely joining online, Vogt said.

“We’ve been around almost 50 years. We call ourselves the Texas auction. These are the stories and the land and objects that we specialize in,” he said. “It’s a huge, huge honor.”

Jerry Phillips is organizing a public effort to preserve the county’s historic three-story jail into a museum and arts center. He would love to see the building hold McMurtry’s bookstore.

Business owners like, Dotty Hudson, are hopeful. She says the Gaines’ have proven they have the “magic touch.”

In “The Last Picture Show” the world saw Archer City on desolate black and white film, they quietly hope if the cameras return again McMurtry’s hometown will be in full color.

A previous version of this story stated “The Last Picture Show” was released in 1973. It has been corrected to reflect the film was released in 1971.

CNN
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A Texas man was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for assaulting police officers during the US Capitol riot and threatening Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter shortly after the attack.

Garret Miller, 36, pleaded guilty in December to charges related to his conduct on January 6, 2021. He was arrested weeks after the riot – on Inauguration Day – while wearing a shirt that said: “I was there, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021.”

According to court documents, Miller brought gear with him to DC, including a rope, a grappling hook and a mouth guard, and prosecutors said he was “at the forefront of every barrier overturned, police line overrun, and entryway breached within his proximity that day.” Miller was detained twice during the riot, according to court documents.

When he left the Capitol building, he took the fight to Twitter, according to court documents. In response to a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez calling for then-President Donald Trump’s impeachment, Miller responded: “Assassinate AOC.”

“At the time that I tweeted at the Congresswoman, I intended that the communication be perceived as a serious intent to commit violence against the Congresswoman,” Miller said in court documents as part of his guilty plea. He also levied threats against the officer who shot and killed a pro-Trump rioter during the melee, according to court documents, saying that he wanted to “hug his neck with a nice rope.”

Clint Broden, Miller’s laywer, said in a statement to CNN that the sentence “ultimately reflects Judge Nichols careful consideration of the case,” and said that his client “has expressed his sincere remorse for his actions.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of Garret Miller’s guilty plea.

Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 25 books, including the New York Times best-seller, “Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends About Our Past” (Basic Books). Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN
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On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump headed to East Palestine, Ohio, in an apparent attempt to gain a political edge over President Joe Biden, whose administration he criticized for being more preoccupied with international affairs than with domestic issues like the toxic train derailment earlier this month.

As Biden concludes a successful trip to Europe, where he paid a surprise visit to Ukraine and reaffirmed America’s commitment to stopping Russian aggression, the residents of East Palestine are still struggling with the fallout from the Norfolk Southern train derailment, which contaminated thousands of cubic yards of soil and more than 1.1 million gallons of water.

The train, which was carrying hazardous chemicals including vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, set off a massive fire that lasted for several days. Residents in both Ohio and Pennsylvania were told to evacuate as authorities carried out a controlled release of toxic materials, which were diverted to a trench and burned off.

Many in East Palestine are understandably concerned about the effects these chemicals might have on their health. Even though federal air monitoring and water sample tests have indicated conditions are safe, residents have reported a number of ailments and thousands of fish have died in nearby creeks.

Trump, who donated water and cleaning supplies on Wednesday, has been critical of the federal response, saying earlier this week, “You have a president going to Ukraine and you have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help.” On Wednesday, he said he hoped Biden has “some money left over” after he returns from Ukraine.

He isn’t the only one – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also criticized Biden for “neglecting” a “lot of problems accumulating here in our own country,” while Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley made similar comments, asking, “Shouldn’t he be with those people in Ohio?”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg admitted on CBS News that he “could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident, and that’s a lesson learned for me.” Facing mounting criticism, Buttigieg is now planning to visit East Palestine on Thursday.

Despite this criticism, Democrats have been quick to point to the supposed hypocrisy of the Republican attacks, criticizing Trump for rolling back federal regulations on train safety, including one that would have imposed braking requirements for trains carrying certain hazardous material. (Given the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the cause of the accident, it’s unclear whether any of those regulations could have prevented the accident. The specific regulation regarding braking would not have applied to the train in Ohio because it was not classified as a high-hazard flammable train.)

But the Biden administration needs to follow through and make sure that the government is providing the necessary support for people in East Palestine. Already, the Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in, saying that it will force Norfolk Southern to clean up the contaminated soil and water, reimburse the EPA for cleaning services, and more. It has also sent federal medical experts to the town to “assess the public health needs” at the site.

But the president needs to reassure the residents of East Palestine and make sure that the town has all the resources it needs for a comprehensive cleanup while calling for the establishment of safety regulations that can diminish the chances of this kind of accident from happening again.

While the Biden administration has tried more recently to emphasize the steps it has taken to address the accident, the president could pay a high political cost for appearing to ignore the domestic front in favor of the international realm.

One can look back at President George H.W. Bush, whose skyrocketing poll numbers after the US successfully forced Iraqi troops out of Kuwait without triggering a ground war was seen as a ticket to reelection. Within months, those hopes evaporated as Democrats criticized the administration for ignoring the economic recession gripping the nation. They pounced on the president, claiming he was out of touch with average Americans and that his administration was slow to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in Florida.

The famous mantra of the Clinton team, “It’s the economy, stupid,” was meant to be a constant reminder to everyone on the campaign to keep highlighting the difference between a Democratic candidate whose focus was on the bread-and-butter concerns of Americans and a president whose primary interest was foreign policy.

The political finger pointing that has broken out after the train derailment comes at a time when people who live outside major cities harbor negative opinions about both parties, according to a report released by the nonprofit American Families Voices. According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 6 out of 10 Americans don’t feel that Biden has done much.

The good news for Democrats is that Biden is not George H.W. Bush. “Scranton Joe” is a politician who has always sought to connect with middle and working class voters. During the Obama presidency, Biden was tasked with making policy recommendations to tackle the challenges facing the middle class. And his administration has pushed a robust domestic agenda that has poured billions into local communities and bolstered family budgets. If Republicans want to really take him on with this issue, the president will have plenty to point to — from the Child Tax Credit to infrastructure projects.

It is not just Biden, either. From the New Deal to the Great Society to President Obama’s domestic agenda, Democrats have spent much of the 20th and 21st century championing federal programs to help achieve economic security. Biden also recently pushed his vision of economic populism in his State of the Union address.

Moreover, while inflation continues to be a serious problem for Americans, job growth is booming and the economy has bounced back from the devastating effects of the pandemic, with the American Rescue Plan having played a big role in that effort.

In other words, Biden has plenty to work with to dispute the kind of claims being leveled by a Republican Party that has focused much more on supply side tax cuts, deregulation, and culture wars than on addressing the kind of crucial issues to emerge through the situation in East Palestine.

But former President Bush, who lost in 1992 after serving just one term, still has a lesson to offer. Biden can’t take his or his party’s record for granted, and if he runs for reelection, he must outline what more his party would be doing to address the kinds of structural challenges so many American communities face.

If Biden is indeed seeking reelection, he must make clear that he would be the candidate fighting hardest to make sure that America’s working and middle class families will be better off than when his presidency started.

Editor’s Note: Sophia A. Nelson is a journalist and author of the book “Be the One You Need: 21 Life Lessons I Learned Taking Care of Everyone but Me.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN
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Meghan Markle needs sisters.

No, I’m not talking about blood relatives like the litigious half-sister from whom she is estranged.

By sisters, I mean in the African-American vernacular, women who will be part of her tribe – who will watch her back, love her, laugh with her and be there for her as she confronts the most invidious challenges that anti-Black racism can throw her way.

If Markle didn’t know before taking up with Prince Harry that those kinds of challenges would be coming, she surely knows that now.

The past few years – during which the couple announced that they were stepping down as senior royals and left Great Britain – will have been an education for the Duchess of Sussex and erstwhile star of the cable television show “Suits.”

Markle and Harry endured a barrage of criticism after the move, but the scrutiny and criticism of Meghan began long before that. And Harry made it clear from early days that negative press coverage was a reflection of racism toward the biracial Duchess, whose father is White and mother is Black.

Over the last few years, when it comes to weaponizing the media, the Sussexes have shown that they can give as good as they get, lashing out at their critics first in a sit-down with celebrity interviewer Oprah Winfrey, then with a multi-part Netflix special. They delivered the coup de grace with a blockbuster, tell-all book penned by the prince.

So, after years of wall-to-wall media coverage, what’s left to say about Meghan and Harry? Plenty, if you’re African American.

Black women like me, who sat back and watched the media onslaught against Meghan Markle have been nodding knowingly over the past few years. We have seen it all before. We live it every day in the form of microaggressions and outright racism.

African Americans were taken aback – but not too many of us were truly surprised – when she faced the wrath of a British tabloid press and more subtle disapproval by some members of royal family itself.

Many people of color celebrated Markle’s marriage to Harry as a sign of racial progress. But as we watched the treatment received by Markle, Black America summoned its collective indignation, as it does when one of us is unjustly slighted.

Few of us consort with royalty, but many of us have found ourselves in situations where it’s been suggested none too subtly that we’re not quite up to standard. In those moments, we’ve had to deftly show the doubters who belittle us and who hope to make us feel small – colleagues, classmates, bosses, sometimes even underlings – that they have greatly underestimated us. And so, in the Black community, there has been no small amount of umbrage taken on Meghan’s behalf.

The interesting thing is, Meghan only relatively recently had been introduced to harsh realities of racial animus. In an episode of her Archetypes podcast, where she frequently delves into discussions about racial identity, she revealed that it was only after she started dating Prince Harry that she “started to understand what it was like to be treated like a Black woman. Because up until then, I had been treated like a mixed woman. And things really shifted.”

And did they ever. Markle has endured overt media abuse for being Black at an industrial strength level that most of us, mercifully, have not had to face. With a few minor hiccups here and there, she has proven to be amazingly resilient on the world stage.

It always struck me as something of an irony that Markle was deemed too Black for Britain’s elite. As one writer put it, at the time of Harry and Meghan’s engagement, “no Black or Brown person had ever held a great office of state in the UK. In fact, to this very day, thanks to Meghan, Britain has had more Black princesses than the BBC has ever had Black controllers.”

In the United States meanwhile, if you passed her on the sidewalk, you might be forgiven for not realizing that she has Black ancestry and isn’t just another sun-kissed Californian, or one who has a passing acquaintance with a tanning bed. In the genetic grab bag that determines what we all look like, half-Black Meghan ended up with a complexion much more like that of her White father.

Growing up, it appears that even with her Black mom, race seems not to have been much of a topic of conversation. Markle’s mother Doria Ragland acknowledged in the Netflix Harry & Meghan Documentary released in late 2022, that helping her daughter forge a Black identity while growing up was not something she focused on much. And she says it’s a decision she now regrets.

So for Meghan Markle, the last few years have been a crash course in Blackness. And she’s been a quick study. She infused her wedding with African American themes. She counts Serena Williams among her longtime friends. Hollywood director Tyler Perry is godfather to one of her children.

This clearly is not a woman who is running from her African Ancestry. If anything she is leaning into it. And Black people on both sides of the pond, for the most part, love her for it.

We embrace Meghan because she has been baptized by the scrutiny of race in the particular way that those of us with melanated skin often go through – even when that melanin is present only in small amounts.

I can relate to the challenge Markle faces as I have two adult mixed race nieces. They, like Meghan, are beautiful and smart. And they too have struggled with racial identity issues. How could they not?

I used to worry that my influence on them and the influence of my mom, their paternal grandmother – two Black women who are anchors in their lives – might be woefully inadequate for the life they were going to face ahead, in a world that puts a premium on fair skin. Keeping grounded, and yet being prepared for the inevitable racial onslaught when comes, is another reason to lean into the support from your Black sisters.

So, as we call out our honor roll of notable achievers this Black History Month, not too many of us will take issue with adding to the roster Meghan – Duchess of Sussex, actress, philanthropist, podcaster and mother to two grandchildren of Britain’s ruling monarch, the soon-to-be crowned King Charles III.

All of which makes Markle – as this month-long celebration of Blackness comes to a close – a true Black History icon, loved and supported by sisters everywhere.