Category: US

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.

CNN
 — 

Five former Memphis police officers who were fired for their actions during the arrest of Tyre Nichols earlier this month were indicted on charges including murder and kidnapping, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy announced Thursday.

The former officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., have each been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, Mulroy said.

Second-degree murder is defined in Tennessee as a “knowing killing of another” and is considered a Class A felony punishable by between 15 to 60 years in prison.

The criminal charges come about three weeks after Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was hospitalized after a traffic stop and “confrontation” with Memphis police that family attorneys have called a savage beating. Nichols died from his injuries on January 10, three days after the arrest, authorities said.

Police nationwide have been under scrutiny for how they treat Black people, particularly since the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the mass protest movement known as Black Lives Matter.

President Joe Biden said Thursday the killing is a “painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all.”

Officials in Memphis have braced for potential civil unrest and have called for peaceful protests ahead of video of the fatal police encounter that’s expected to be publicly released Friday. The local school district also canceled all after-school activities Friday in the “interest of public safety.”

Police departments across the country – including in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Nashville and New York – told CNN they were either monitoring events or already had plans in place in case of protests.

Nichols’ family and attorneys, who were shown the video Monday, said it shows officers severely beating Nichols and compared it to the Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King in 1991. Family attorney Antonio Romanucci told CNN the public should be “prepared” for a disturbing scene, saying it was like an “MMA fight” while Nichols was “helpless, he was defenseless, he was restrained.”

Nichols’ mother Ravaughn Wells, who said she hasn’t been able to watch it, said the video release will be “horrific” but urged protesters to remain peaceful.

“I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” said Wells.

Three of the officers remained in custody at the Shelby County Jail Thursday night. Bond was set at $350,000 for Haley, 30, and Martin, 30, and $250,000 for Bean, 24, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Mills, 32, and Smith, 28, posted $250,000 bond Thursday evening and were released, according to jail records.

In a joint news conference Thursday afternoon, Blake Ballin, an attorney for Mills, and William Massey, Martin’s attorney, said they have not yet watched the video of the police encounter, which is expected to be released to the public Friday.

Ballin described Mills as a “respectful father,” who was “devastated” to be accused in the killing. Mills, previously a jailer in Mississippi and Tennessee. Ballin said he had not spoken to Mills specifically about Nichols.

Martin also intended to post bond and will also plead not guilty, his attorney said. “No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die,” Massey said.

Other officers’ attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Live updates on the Tyre Nichols case

Video of the fatal police encounter, a mix of body-camera and pole-cam video, is expected to be released publicly after 6 p.m. Friday, Mulroy said.

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday night, Mulroy said that while he can’t definitively say what caused the encounter to escalate, the video shows that the officers were “already highly charged up” from the start of the video and “it just escalated further from there.”

The video doesn’t capture the beginning of the altercation between the officers and Nichols but rather “cuts in as the first encounter is in progress,” Mulroy said.

“What struck me (about the video) is how many different incidents of unwarranted force occurred sporadically by different individuals over a long period of time,” the district attorney added.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said the fatal encounter was not proper policing.

“I’m sickened by what I saw and what we’ve learned from our extensive and thorough investigation,” he said. “I’ve seen the video, and as DA Mulroy stated, you will too. In a word, it’s absolutely appalling.”

On Thursday, family attorneys Ben Crump and Romanucci said, “The news today from Memphis officials that these five officers are being held criminally accountable for their deadly and brutal actions gives us hope as we continue to push for justice for Tyre.”

The five Memphis police officers, who are also Black, were fired last week for violating policies on excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the department said.

In a YouTube video released late Wednesday, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis condemned the officers’ actions and called for peaceful protests when the arrest video is released.

“This is not just a professional failing. This is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual,” Davis said in the video, her first on-camera comments about the arrest. “This incident was heinous, reckless and inhumane.”

The five terminated officers all joined the department in the last six years, according to police. Other Memphis police officers are still under investigation for department policy violations related to the incident, the chief said.

In a statement posted Thursday, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said the city had initiated an “outside, independent review” of the training, policies and operations of the police department’s specialized units. At least two of the officers belonged to one of those special units, according to their attorneys.

Two members of the city’s fire department who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” also were relieved of duty, a fire spokesperson said. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced an investigation into Nichols’ death and the US Department of Justice and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation.

Mulroy said the investigation is ongoing and there could be further charges going forward.

Nichols, the father of a 4-year-old, had worked with his stepfather at FedEx for about nine months, his family said. He was fond of skateboarding in Shelby Farms Park, hanging out with friends at Starbucks and photographing sunsets, the family said.

His mother said he had her name tattooed on his arm. He also had the digestive issue known as Crohn’s disease and so was a slim 140 to 145 pounds despite his 6-foot-3-inch height, she said.

On January 7, he was pulled over by Memphis officers on suspicion of reckless driving, police said in their initial statement on the incident. As officers approached the vehicle, a “confrontation” occurred and Nichols fled on foot, police said. The officers pursued him and they had another “confrontation” before he was taken into custody, police said.

Nichols then complained of shortness of breath, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and died three days later, police said.

In Memphis police scanner audio, a person says there was “one male Black running” and called to “set up a perimeter.” Another message says “he’s fighting at this time.”

On Thursday, Mulroy offered a few further details, saying the serious injuries occurred at the second confrontation. He also said Nichols was taken away in an ambulance after “some period of time of waiting around.”

Attorneys for Nichols’ family who watched video of the arrest on Monday described it as a heinous police beating that lasted three long minutes. Crump said Nichols was tased, pepper-sprayed and restrained, and Romanucci said he was kicked.

“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.”

Nichols had “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to the attorneys, citing preliminary results of an autopsy they commissioned.

Among the charges, the officers were indicted on two counts of aggravated kidnapping: one for possession of a weapon and one for bodily injury.

“At a certain point in the sequence of events, it is our view that this, if it was a legal detention to begin with, it certainly became illegal at a certain point, and it was an unlawful detention,” Mulroy said.

Less than a month after the murder of Floyd, the Memphis Police Department amended its duty to intervene policy, according to a copy of the policy sent to CNN by the MPD.

“Any member who directly observes another member engaged in dangerous or criminal conduct or abuse of a subject shall take reasonable action to intervene,” the policy, sent out on June 9, 2020, said.

“A member shall immediately report to the Department any violation of policies and regulations or any other improper conduct which is contrary to the policy, order, or directives of the Department.”

The policy went on to say “this reporting requirement also applies to allegations of uses of force not yet reported.”

Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong spelling for the name of one of the arrested officers. According to the indictment, it is Tadarrius Bean.

Previous versions of this story spelled Emmitt Martin’s name incorrectly.

CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden called 26-year-old Brandon Tsay to thank the California man for disarming the Monterey Park shooting suspect over the weekend.

Tsay can be seen in surveillance video wresting a firearm from the shooting suspect Huu Can Tran at a dance studio in Alhambra. Authorities say Tran had just opened fire at a Lunar New Year celebration at another dance studio in nearby Monterey Park, killing 11 people and injuring 10 others.

Tsay has been hailed as a “hero” for preventing further loss of life in the shooting spree, an act of bravery that Biden told Tsay was representative of America’s spirit.

“I wanted to call to see how you’re doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger,” Biden told Tsay. “I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you. But I want them to know more about you. … You have my respect. You are America, pal. You are who we are – no, no, you are who we are. America’s never backed down, we’ve always stepped up, because of people like you.”

Tsay’s actions likely led authorities to the suspect directly. A law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told CNN that the gun wrested away from the shooter in Alhambra – a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic weapon designed to take 30-round magazines – was traced to the suspect, giving authorities his name and description.

The suspect, identified by authorities as Tran, was discovered by police late Sunday morning in the city of Torrance, where he fatally shot himself as police approached his vehicle, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna .

In the wake of the shooting, Biden urged congressional passage of a pair of bills aimed at reducing gun violence and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“When I signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the first significant piece of gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years – I said that there was still work to be done to keep our communities safe and keep dangerous firearms out of dangerous hands,” Biden said in a statement Monday. “In the short time since, communities across America have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to Monterey Park and daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines.”

The president ordered the flags lowered to half-staff on federal grounds Monday as well – a proclamation that would be extended when, just a day later, another gunman killed seven in Half Moon Bay, California.

Pointing to new legislation introduced Monday by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, Biden said, “I urge both chambers of Congress to act quickly and deliver this Assault Weapons Ban to my desk.”

And Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native and the nation’s first vice president of Black and Asian descent, made her own visit Wednesday to Monterey Park, where she laid a wreath and paid her respects to the families of victims killed in the shooting spree.

CNN
 — 

The 72-year-old man suspected of killing 11 people and wounding nine others in a shooting at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, Saturday had previously frequented the establishment, sources told CNN.

The suspect, identified as Huu Can Tran, was pronounced dead following a self-inflicted gunshot wound Sunday as police swarmed a white van in Torrance, about 30 miles from Monterey Park, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

The shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio happened around 10:22 p.m. as the city’s large Asian American community was celebrating Lunar New Year weekend.

Authorities said 42 shell casings and a large capacity magazine were found at the scene, Luna said at a Monday news conference. Luna added that one victim was shot outside the dance studio in a vehicle, probably before Tran went inside.

About 17 to 20 minutes after the shooting, an armed man showed up at a second dance studio in nearby Alhambra where authorities say people wrestled a gun away from him – a firearm authorities ultimately used to ID the suspect, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. The semi-automatic weapon was traced to the suspect, which gave authorities his name and description, the official said.

The mass shooting prompted a manhunt across the region, with a description of a white van seen leaving the Alhambra incident broadcast to area law enforcement agencies. On Sunday morning, officers in Torrance spotted a white van that matched the description.

“When officers exited their patrol vehicle to contact the occupant, they heard one gunshot coming from within the van,” Luna said. “Officers retreated and requested several tactical teams to respond.” Then – as armored vehicles blocked the van – a SWAT team approached and found Tran dead inside, Luna said.

Man who wrested gun away from shooting suspect speaks out

As it remains unclear what motivated the shooting and a search warrant has been issued for Tran’s home, the sheriff said it’s too early to say whether the shooting could have been a hate crime and investigators are still working to determine whether any of the victims were known to the gunman.

Here’s what we know about the suspect.

Tran had once been a regular patron at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, his ex-wife and a longtime acquaintance both told CNN.

Tran’s former wife, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case, said she met Tran about two decades ago at Star Ballroom, a popular community gathering place where he gave informal lessons. Tran saw her at a dance, introduced himself and offered her free lessons, she said. The two married soon after, she said.

While Tran was never violent to her, she said he could be quick to anger. For example, she said, if she missed a step dancing, he would become upset because he felt it made him look bad. Tran filed for divorce in late 2005, and a judge approved the divorce the following year, Los Angeles court records show.

Tran was an immigrant from China, according to a copy of his marriage license his ex-wife showed to CNN.

It was unclear how frequently Tran visited the dance hall, if at all, in recent years.

Another longtime acquaintance of Tran’s also remembered him as a frequent presence at the dance studio. The friend, who also asked not to be named, was close to Tran in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when he said Tran would make the roughly five-minute drive from his home in San Gabriel to Star Ballroom Dance Studio “almost every night.”

Monterey Park shooting suspect found dead. Sheriff explains what happened

Tran often complained at the time that the instructors at the dance hall didn’t like him and said “evil things about him,” the friend remembered, adding Tran was “hostile to a lot of people there.”

The friend said he hadn’t seen Tran in several years and was “totally shocked” when he heard about the shooting.

“I know lots of people, and if they go to Star studio, they frequent there,” he said, adding he was “worried maybe I know some of” the shooting victims.

Luna told reporters Sunday that investigators are still looking into Tran’s criminal and mental health history and serving search warrants.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department obtained a search warrant for Tran’s home in a senior community in Hemet, California, according to Hemet police public information officer Alan Reyes.

Records show Tran bought a mobile home in the community, which is in the outlying suburb about 85 miles east of Los Angeles in neighboring Riverside County.

Seven years before buying the Hemet home, Tran in 2013 sold a San Gabriel home, which he had owned for more than two decades, property records show.

Business records also show Tran registered a business called Tran’s Trucking Inc. in California in 2002. But he dissolved the business about two years later, writing in a corporate filing that the company had never acquired any known assets or incurred any known debts or liabilities.

Tran at times had worked as a truck driver, according to his ex-wife.

Tran had a “limited criminal history” and was arrested in 1990 for unlawful possession of a firearm, Luna said.

Investigators recovered a Norinco 7.62 x 25 handgun from inside Tran’s cargo van, Luna said, adding that firearm was registered to the suspect.

The firearm wrestled away from the suspect at a second dance studio in nearby Alhambra was a “9 mm caliber semiautomatic MAC-10 assault weapon,” Luna said.

The gun is designed to take 30-round magazines that allow for rapid fire without having to frequently change magazines, the law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told CNN.

In response to a reporter’s question, Luna said, “I believe the weapon that was recovered at the Alhambra location is not legal to have here in the state of California.”

Following the execution of a search warrant at Tran’s residence, officials announced they found a 308 caliber rifle and numerous electronic devices such as cell phones and computers – “items that lead us to believe the suspect was manufacturing homemade firearm suppressors,” he said.

Also found was an unknown amount of 308 caliber and 9 mm caliber ammunition. The sheriff said there were “hundreds of rounds – we don’t know exactly how many there were – a lot of loose ammunition so eventually we’ll get to exactly how many those were.”

Investigators are still working to confirm “the origins of where the suspect got” all firearms recovered in this case, including the gun used in the shooting, Luna added.

The suspect may have sought medical treatment shortly before the traffic stop in Torrance, law enforcement sources told CNN they believe. Police got a tip from an area hospital where a man fitting the description of the suspect came into the emergency room, seeking treatment for injuries consistent with having been in a fight.

The person waited for a period and then left the hospital without receiving treatment, the sources said. The hospital notified authorities when staff saw the similarity to the wanted person. A short time later, police in Torrance stopped the van.

Sheriff describes second event after mass shooting that’s being investigated

Earlier this month, Tran visited a police station in Hemet, where he made various allegations before leaving, according to a statement from the Hemet Police Department.

“Tran visited the Hemet Police Department lobby on January 7 and 9, 2023, alleging past fraud, theft, and poisoning allegations involving his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago,” Hemet police said in a statement. “Tran stated he would return to the station with documentation regarding his allegations but never returned.”

Tran had a residence in Hemet, the statement said. Investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have executed a search warrant there.

The local police department said this is a “highly sensitive, ongoing investigation” and deferred to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for further inquiries.

CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden spoke at a union hall in northern Virginia Thursday afternoon, attempting to cast himself as a defender of the middle class by leaning into his economic accomplishments and contrasting them with the Republican proposals he says would be catastrophic for Americans’ pocketbooks.

“We’re moving in the right direction. Now we’ve got to protect those gains … that our policies have generated, protect them from the MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives who are threatening to destroy this progress,” Biden said.

As Washington has been gearing up for a standoff over the debt ceiling and the potential for a global economic fallout later this year, the speech gave Biden a chance to turn the focus away from news of the discovery of classified documents in unsecured areas in his home and office. The unfolding story has been a magnet of Republican scrutiny and press attention. But in his speech to union workers in Springfield – a Virginia suburb just outside Washington, D.C. – Biden offered a preview of his potential reelection messaging strategy, turning focus back to what the White House really wants to be talking about.

In his remarks, Biden contrasted his administration’s work with Republicans’ plans to cut entitlement programs and impose a 30% national sales tax. He also discussed progress on wage growth and unemployment, as well as key legislation, such as the CHIPS Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law.

“Here’s the deal: they want to cut your Social Security and Medicare … beyond that they’re actually threatening to have us default on the American debt,” the president said.

“I have a rhetorical question: (Why) in God’s name would Americans give up the progress we’ve made for the chaos they’re suggesting? I don’t get it. That’s why the MAGA Republicans are literally choosing to inflict this pain on the American people. Why?” Biden asked. “I will not let it happen. Not on my watch. I will veto everything they send.”

The president said he’s willing to work with Republicans “on real solutions and continue to grow manufacturing jobs and build the strongest economy in the world and make sure Americans are paid a fair wage.” But he added that he “will not let anyone use the full faith and credit of the United States as a bargaining chip.”

Biden also announced an “Invest in America” Cabinet, which will be charged “with ensuring that his economic plan is generating private sector investment and continues to drive our economic progress for years ahead,” according to an administration official.

The group will include Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu and senior adviser John Podesta.

Biden also celebrated newly released data showing the US economy grew more than expected in the final quarter of last year, registering solid growth to end 2022 even as consumers and businesses battled inflation and historically high interest rates.

Gross domestic product – the broadest measure of economic activity – increased at an annualized rate of 2.9% from October to December last year, according to Commerce Department data released Thursday. For 2022, GDP expanded 2.1%, the report showed.

GOP legislative proposals to cut Social Security and Medicare have yet to formally materialize, but House Republicans have reportedly been considering leveraging cuts to the programs in the debt ceiling fight, according to the Washington Post.

Although a plan hasn’t been formalized, the White House has already blasted congressional Republicans this week for suggesting the cuts to offset the deficit as part of negotiations over raising the nation’s debt limit.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates argued in a statement earlier this week that “under the guise of ‘fiscal responsibility,’ (Republicans) want to cut the benefits that middle class Americans pay for throughout their working lives, but they also want to enlarge the deficit with new tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans. This is nothing more than an extreme plot to sell out middle class families to rich special interests at any cost.”

Within the first week of the new Congress, a dozen House Republicans introduced a bill that would abolish the IRS altogether and replace the entire federal tax code with a national sales tax.

While that legislation is unlikely to become law given that the Democrats maintain a majority in the Senate, Biden and Democrats see an opening to criticize the GOP for fringe proposals they say would harm the American economy.

The national sales tax could leave low- and middle-income people worse off and would likely lower tax revenue. One estimate found that a tax rate of about 30% would more likely be able to generate the same amount of revenue – or 44%, if measured the way state sales taxes are typically presented.

The White House and Biden have, of course, sharply criticized the proposal.

The president on Thursday suggested the proposal was an effort to give the wealthy another tax break.

“Who do you think is going to get ripped off?” Biden asked. “They want to raise taxes on working and middle class people in America by passing a national sales tax, taxing every items from groceries, gasoline, clothing, supplies, medicine.”

The president also acknowledged reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may not be in favor of the tax.

In a statement following the president’s meeting this week with Democratic congressional leadership, the White House highlighted that they discussed the “continued stepped-up implementation of groundbreaking laws like the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.” The statement also emphasized “the importance of building on the historic economic progress,” such as low unemployment, expanding health care coverage and making gains to stabilize inflation.

In the statement, the White House said the group “agreed on continuing to work across the aisle … while also being honest about disagreements – like our opposition to an unprecedented middle class tax hike, inflation-worsening tax cuts for the rich, abortion bans, or cutting Social Security and Medicare.”

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ quarterly Employment Cost Index showed that although employers continued hiking wages to attract workers and retain existing staff during the third quarter, their raises did not keep up with inflation.

Wages and salaries for civilian workers increased by 1.3% in the third quarter and 5.1% over the year ending in September, according to the data, which was released last October.

The next release of the Employment Cost Index is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.