Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Associated Press

  • New York’s busiest train station to get $8 billion remodel with columns, sunlight, and Trump’s name

    NEW YORK — When Manhattan’s original Pennsylvania Station was demolished in 1963, it marked the undignified end to one of America’s great public works, a monolithic Beaux Arts train terminal with Roman-style columns and a spacious central waiting area that was at the time the city’s largest indoor space.

    In its place rose Madison Square Garden — home of NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers — while train commuters were forced underground into gloomy, claustrophobic, low-ceilinged corridors when the redesign was completed in 1968.

    “Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god,” the architectural historian Vincent Scully famously lamented. “One scuttles in now like a rat.”

    But a dramatic new vision for the busiest transit hub in the Western Hemisphere calls for a return to the original station’s grandeur from 1910.

    Renderings released Monday feature a rectangular stone facade lined with imposing columns along a grand entryway. Inside, a sunlight-drenched concourse boasts soaring ceilings more than 50 feet high in places. There are bronze finishes and other ornamental details, like a bas-relief of the city’s famous skyline and a large station clock.

    Inside one entryway, an inside wall bears the seal and name of President Donald Trump, who had Amtrak assume control of the project last year after decades of political infighting among transit agencies and opposition to moving MSG from billionaire owner James Dolan.

    Trump has floated renaming his hometown station in his honor as he’s sought to burnish his legacy through public works projects, from a massive new White House ballroom to a triumphal arch.

    For now, though, the name etched across the proposed grand facade would still read “Pennsylvania Station,” according to the renderings. They were released by Amtrak, which owns the terminal, and Penn Transformation Partners, the design and development consortium picked for the project.

    Proposal aims to make Penn Station an icon again

    The proposed design draws from the ornate, Beaux-Arts design of Grand Central Terminal, the city’s other major rail hub, as well as Art Deco landmarks like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, according to lead design architect Vishaan Chakrabarti.

    The vision, he said, is to restore Penn Station’s place among the pantheon of the city’s greatest landmarks.

    “There was this fearless embrace of ornament and decoration that in some ways we’ve lost,” Chakrabarti said. “We want to bring some of that sense of craftsmanship back.”

    The redesign is projected to cost roughly $8 billion, and construction is targeted to begin before the end of 2027, officials said Monday. Penn Station would remain in operation throughout as the project progresses in phases over about six years.

    More than 600,000 commuters traverse the rail hub on any given workday, or more than the three major international airports that serve greater New York City — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty — combined.

    Knicks and Rangers home arena would remain at the site

    Plans floated over the decades have called for relocating MSG, but the plan is for the “World’s Most Famous Arena” to remain in place. A theater owned by MSG and built directly above the tracks, however, would have to be razed.

    The developers and MSG’s owner have reached an agreement on this critical point, but the final terms — including payment — are still being negotiated. That’s according to Andy Byford, a former New York City subway chief who Amtrak named as a special adviser to oversee the redevelopment.

    Transit advocates complain the process has been shrouded in secrecy.

    “It’s really important that there be public input and involvement,” said Lisa Daglian, who heads a group that advises the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York’s subway and two commuter rail systems.

    “We don’t need another megamall or monument and certainly not at the cost of billions in local revenue or by putting existing services at risk,” said Danny Pearlstein of the transit advocacy group Riders Alliance.

    Byford said more details will be revealed in the months ahead, including a more detailed breakdown of costs, as the developers refine the preliminary designs and the project goes through the extensive federal environmental review process.

    But he vowed no fare hikes to cover project costs and no plans for the government to condemn and take surrounding properties to expand the station, as some have suggested.

    At Penn Station on Tuesday, John Schoen was among the regular riders who welcomed the prospect of a more inviting commute.

    “The city needs new looks. This is old,” the 55-year-old Long Island resident said. “Let’s do it. Move forward.”

    Others, though, wondered how construction might worsen their commutes. James Culhane, another Long Island rider, noted parts of the station received a significant face-lift in recent years that brought in new eateries, more natural light, and other improvements.

    “Things are operating as well as they can be,” said the 24-year-old opera stagehand. “Just use the money elsewhere.”

  • Iran soccer body claims fans’ tickets for World Cup games in the U.S. have been revoked

    Adding more turmoil to a chaotic World Cup buildup for Iran, the national soccer federation claimed Tuesday that FIFA revoked the ticket allocation for fans at the team’s three group-stage games in the United States.

    Each federation for the 48 World Cup teams taking part is entitled to receive and distribute 8% of stadium capacity for each of its games, adding up to several thousands of tickets per game.

    Those allocations typically went on sale to each team’s most loyal fans soon after the tournament draw in December, when Iranians for five months already had been subject to a travel ban by the U.S. government.

    Now, just days before Iran opens its World Cup in Inglewood, Calif. — on June 15 vs. New Zealand at the 70,000-seat stadium used by the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers — the federation claimed in a statement reported by semiofficial state media that it now was unable to provide tickets to its supporters.

    The claim adds to the tensions among Iranian soccer, FIFA, and tournament cohost the United States, which began military attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. Some federation officials have been denied visas to enter the U.S.

    FIFA has total authority over ticketing operations at the World Cup, yet the Iranian soccer body suggested “the United States has now taken steps to obstruct the presence of Iranian supporters at the stadiums.”

    “This incident raises serious questions about the influence of non-sporting and political considerations on the organization of the world’s biggest football event,” the Iranian soccer federation said.

    FIFA has gone to great lengths to appeal to American soccer fans. But they got us all wrong. | Opinion

    Iran, appearing in its seventh World Cup, also plays games June 21 in Inglewood and June 26 in Seattle.

    FIFA said in a statement Tuesday it is “working closely with the IR Iran Football Federation to identify compliant solutions that maximize opportunities for Iranian supporters to attend matches.”

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino and secretary-general Mattias Grafström promised logistical support in face-to-face meetings with Iranian soccer officials in Turkey in recent weeks.

    Most of Iran’s 26-member squad has not had a competitive game since February because they play for clubs in the domestic league that was shut down by the war.

    The team is based in the Mexican border city of Tijuana near San Diego instead of the original plan to train in Tucson, Ariz.

    Denied admissions

    Omar Artan, a referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the U.S. at Miami International Airport on Saturday is not the only person connected to World Cup teams stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The Iraqi team’s official photographer, Talal Salah, was detained and denied entry after arriving at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Friday as part of the country’s 53-member delegation.

    “U.S. authorities asked for his phone; he gave it to them. After 12 hours’ detention, they decided to ban his entry,” said a member of the Iraqi soccer federation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

    Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein also was detained by U.S. immigration authorities for seven hours upon arrival before being released, another Iraqi soccer federation member said.

    CBP confirmed in a statement that two people with the Iraqi national team were subject to “additional inspection” to verify their information or “determine admissibility.”

    Iraq’s Aymen Hussein (left) is congratulated after scoring his side’s second goal against Bolivia in March.Fernando Llano

    Artan, one of Africa’s top referees, was denied over “vetting concerns,” CBP said in a statement without giving details of those concerns. Artan was issued a visa to travel to the U.S. last week, according to the Somalia Embassy in Kenya that processed it.

    The move to deny a FIFA-appointed match official permission to enter a World Cup host country is highly unusual. Artan was due to meet up with other World Cup referees at their training base in Miami.

    Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, said Tuesday the referee was denied admittance for “very good reason” but also declined to go into details.

    Contract deal in LA

    Southern California stadium workers who threatened to strike for the U.S. men’s soccer team’s opening World Cup match on Thursday against Paraguay said Tuesday that they expect to stay on the job after reaching a tentative contract deal with higher wages and more labor protections.

    Workers will vote Wednesday on whether to ratify the deal.

    The union represents 2,000 bartenders, servers, cooks, and dishwashers at SoFi Stadium. The deal came after workers last week voted to authorize a strike as contract talks had stalled with the stadium’s food service provider, Legends Global.

  • NASA unveils Artemis III astronauts to test technology for a future moon landing

    NEW YORK — NASA on Tuesday revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission, the next step in the space agency’s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon.

    The announcement came two months after Artemis II’s record-breaking trip around the moon that surpassed the distance record of Apollo 13.

    NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano won’t fly to the moon or land on the surface. Instead, they’ll orbit Earth while practicing docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers.

    “To the Artemis III crew, we wish you Godspeed on the journey ahead,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are racing to deliver the lunar landers. The two-week demo is targeted for 2027. Blue Origin suffered a recent setback when its massive rocket exploded during an engine-firing test on the launch pad in Florida, shaking nearby homes and illuminating the sky with an orange fireball.

    NASA’s Jeremy Parsons said the setback is a learning opportunity and that the space agency is confident Blue Origin’s rocket will be ready in time.

    NASA’s Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since the 1970s. A recent revamp of the program announced by Isaacman aims to fast-track it similarly to the Apollo era, adding the upcoming spaceflight around Earth before eyeing a lunar landing in 2028.

    “We are certainly humbled as a crew to be able to be your crew that executes this Artemis III mission in space,” said Bresnik, Artemis III commander.

    Added Douglas, mission specialist: “My brain — it is going a mile a minute right now. But my heart, it is so warm. It is so full.”

    In May, NASA awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four companies, including Blue Origin, to build landers, rovers and drones for a future moon base. Isaacman said the goal of the moon base is to lay the foundation for a Mars expedition.

  • House passes $70B bill to fund Trump’s immigration actions for the rest of his term

    WASHINGTON — A bill to provide nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement narrowly passed the House on Tuesday and now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature, fueling the administration’s deportation agenda for the remainder of his time in the White House.

    Republicans used their majority to get the bill over the finish line, funding a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the next three years. The bill passed by a vote of 214-212, over the objections of Democrats.

    The White House says the bill will provide $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol, and another $5 billion to cover unforeseen costs. It frontloads routine annual funding, ensuring a virtually uninterrupted flow of money as the Trump administration seeks to deport some 1 million people per year.

    Speaker Mike Johnson needed near-perfect attendance and unity on his side to complete weeks of action. The legislation got sidetracked over $1 billion for White House security, including for Trump’s new ballroom, and a $1.8 billion fund to compensate his allies who claim they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. Those proposals proved politically toxic and were scrapped.

    Now, the bill is focused entirely on immigration enforcement, a topic that Republicans have treated as a defining issue between the two major political parties and one they hope will carry them to victory in this year’s midterm elections.

    “It’s long overdue,” said Johnson (R., La.) of the bill. “We have to fund border security and immigration enforcement, and it’s sad that Republicans have to do it on our own.”

    But Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas called it a “slush fund for ICE.”

    Funding accelerates Trump’s deportation agenda

    The funding comes on top of the nearly $140 billion that the Republican-controlled Congress gave ICE and Customs and Border Protection last year as part of Trump’s tax and spending cuts bill.

    Democrats objected to giving the agencies more money without significant changes in the way they operate after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. For example, Democrats insisted that agents remove masks and be required to display their ID badges during enforcement operations and that they get a judicial warrant before entering private property. Instead, the funding will come with virtually no strings attached.

    Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Republicans weren’t focused on the top priorities of the American people and have cut access to Medicaid and nutrition assistance through Trump’s earlier tax and spending cut bill.

    “Republicans have now come back for more, to give ICE and Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine another $70 billion blank check, with no oversight, no accountability and no guardrails,” Jeffries said.

    House Majority Leader Steve Scalise countered that Democrats were not adequately supportive of law enforcement.

    “Make no mistake, if you’re voting yes, you’re not only voting to secure America’s border, you’re voting to fund law enforcement,” Scalise said. “And if you vote no, you are voting to defund the police.”

    Homeland Security faced longest shutdown in history

    The package is the result of a monthslong standoff in Congress after Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and other American cities, leading to the longest shutdown in agency history.

    Negotiations had been underway with the White House to alter ICE operations as Democrats were demanding. When those negotiations failed, Republicans turned to a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the immigration funding with no Democratic votes.

    Rep. Jodey Arrington (R., Texas), the chairperson of the Budget Committee, said the money would provide “regular, normal funding” that ICE and the Border Patrol would get through the annual budgeting process.

    “And we’re going to do it, not for one year, but for three years, so we don’t end up here again.”

    The Senate completed its work on the legislation last week during an overnight session. The final 52-47 vote on the bill was nearly party line, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to oppose it.

    Money comes at pivotal time for Trump’s immigration agenda

    The money will come at a pivotal time for the Department of Homeland Security, which is under new leadership after Trump replaced Kristi Noem with new Secretary Markwayne Mullin in March.

    While Mullin has vowed to keep the department out of the headlines, the administration is under pressure from anti-immigration advocates to deliver on Trump’s campaign promise of the largest deportation operation in American history.

    So far, the administration has not hit its goal of 1 million deportations a year, but Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has promised more to come, including hinting at immigration enforcement actions in New York, the nation’s biggest city, which is heavily Democratic.

    At the same time, the administration is making it more difficult for legal immigrants to remain in the U.S. by working to end Temporary Protective Status, changing the processes for obtaining green cards, and leaving some Dreamers — the young people who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children — reporting delays in renewing their status, which allows them to stay and work.

    Lawmakers clash over DHS priorities

    On the House side, Johnson had little margin for error. GOP leadership opted to avoid any hiccups and sent lawmakers home last week rather than take up the bill early Friday once the Senate had completed its all-nighter.

    Leading up to the vote, Democrats portrayed DHS as an agency that has used its new resources to buy private jets for its leadership, warehouse immigrants in deplorable conditions, and attack U.S. citizens.

    “Republican leadership likes to talk a lot about common sense, but where is the common sense in giving this federal agency essentially unlimited funds without a single reform in place?” asked California Rep. Pete Aguilar, chairperson of the House Democratic Caucus.

    Republicans countered that they were fulfilling their duty to safeguard the nation and support the men and women charged with enforcing the law.

    “Democrats can say whatever they want, but what it’s about is public safety. What’s it about is keeping Americans safe,” said Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R., Minn.).

  • Ukraine is ready to share drone technology with Nordic and Baltic countries, Zelensky says

    TALLINN, Estonia — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Nordic and Baltic leaders who were in Estonia for a regional summit Tuesday, a visit that comes amid friction over Ukrainian drones straying into the region in recent months.

    The drones have crashed into the chimney of a power plant in Estonia, hit empty fuel tanks in Latvia, and been shot down by Romanian fighter jets stationed in Lithuania. Ukrainian officials apologized, saying the drones had been aimed at military targets in Russia but were sent off course by Russian electronic interference.

    Estonia hosted the summit in its capital of Tallinn amid Russia’s 4-year-old, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Estonia holds the rotating presidency of the NB8, a regional grouping of the five Nordic and three Baltic countries, and brought together the bloc’s prime ministers, along with Zelensky.

    Sharing Ukraine’s drone expertise

    Zelensky and Estonian President Alar Karis agreed to work on cheaper ways to shoot down drones that have flown over Estonia, including one that a NATO fighter jet shot down over the south of the country in May.

    “We have shown that we can shoot the drones down with the planes,” Karis said at a news conference. Using fighter jets to shoot down the drones is expensive, he added, so he hopes to partner with Ukraine for its technology and expertise to do it more cheaply.

    Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to do so, drawing on its experience with helping countries in the Middle East, where it had sent experts to train local forces, shoot down drones. “We did this in the Middle East, and it worked,” he said.

    He said Ukraine could offer the low-cost interceptor drones it has deployed at home to build an inexpensive shield against Russian drone attacks, and that Kyiv could send experts to its European partners “at any moment.”

    Karis said he expects drones to cross into Baltic airspace as the war continues and urged the public to remain calm. Estonia and the other Baltic nations are among Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in its war against Russia.

    Ukraine’s bid for EU membership

    Zelensky said his talks with the leaders had focused on advancing diplomacy, strengthening air defenses, and Ukraine’s path to European Union membership. He said Kyiv had met the conditions to open its accession negotiations and urged the bloc to approve them this summer.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels that Ukraine is “making extraordinary progress” on reforms to allow it to join the EU and that “it’s high time for us also now to deliver.”

    Prospective members must complete negotiations in 35 policy areas, or chapters, ranging from agriculture to trade in a process that can take years.

    Zelensky also said Ukraine and Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs signed a drone deal to deepen joint defense and coproduction.

    Russia’s deadly strikes on Ukraine

    Russia, meanwhile, kept up its strikes across Ukraine. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, three people were killed and 25 others, including three children, were wounded in attacks in the past 24 hours, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional administration.

    In the Dnipropetrovsk region, three people were wounded when several districts came under attack overnight, said regional administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

    Russia launched 166 long-range strike drones and two guided missiles at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, with air defenses shooting down 146 of the drones.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said its defenses downed 140 drones overnight. A woman was killed when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in the Belgorod region neighboring Ukraine, regional emergency officials said.

    Seeking more sanctions on Russia

    Zelensky said he had pressed for tougher sanctions on Russia, including its shadow fleet. He also held talks with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on bolstering Ukraine’s air defenses.

    “All of our partners now note that Ukraine’s positions on the front are significantly stronger, and so our diplomacy, which we are working to step up, must proceed from that,” Zelensky said. “Unfortunately, Russia is trying to make up for its enormous battlefield losses with strikes on our cities and communities, and on civilian infrastructure.”

    In Brussels, Von der Leyen announced proposals for new sanctions against Russia targeting its energy, financial, and trade sectors, including fisheries for the first time with a ban on cod, among other measures.

    She also proposed banning EU entry for “anyone who has served in the Russian armed forces since the beginning of the war” to ensure that Europe stays off-limits “for anyone who has participated in the invasion of Ukraine.”

    The sanctions must be endorsed by the 27 EU member countries before they can come into force.

    On Monday, Zelensky said he had held positive talks with U.S. representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during a stopover at an airport in Moldova’s capital, describing them as focused on ending the war. In a social media post, he said the two sides discussed diplomatic prospects ahead of this month’s Group of Seven summit, and that he had briefed the U.S. side on Ukraine’s assessment of Russia’s intentions.

  • Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds

    WASHINGTON — Mismanagement at a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering even as millions of wasted tax dollars enriched contractors, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

    The Government Accountability Office report documents serious problems at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso where three detainees have died in little more than six months. Evidence in one of those deaths, of a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who died in January after being held down by guards, was “missing or destroyed,” the report found.

    ICE rushed to open the camp in August before construction was complete and failed to conduct required oversight to ensure detainees were held in sanitary conditions and receiving adequate medical care, according to the report.

    The Department of Homeland Security noted that ICE has replaced the contractor running the facility. “This new contractor will allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards with the ability to provide more medical care on-site,” said DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis.

    The GAO’s findings echo past reporting by the Associated Press and other news outlets about dangerous conditions at Camp East Montana, which quickly became the nation’s largest immigration detention facility.

    But the government report also details previously undisclosed incidents, including that a detainee escaped in October due to what ICE called the contractor’s oversight failure. In January, a security guard lost a loaded firearm inside the facility that was never recovered.

    The contractor failed to administer skin tests to screen detainees for tuberculosis, relying on a questionnaire instead, the report said. The inadequate screening allowed a detainee with tuberculosis to be housed with the general population, which later suffered an outbreak.

    GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency in Congress that investigates how federal funds are spent and evaluates whether programs and policies are operating effectively. The office opened its review into Camp East Montana at the request of Democrats in the House and Senate.

    Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois called the report’s findings “damning.”

    “We now know even more details of how dangerous and irresponsible the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign truly is,” said Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that “those detained are experiencing conditions that shock the conscience.”

    A rush to build led to an inexperienced contractor

    Facing pressure to increase its detention capacity, the Trump administration routed the contract to build Camp East Montana through the Army to speed construction after ICE twice failed to successfully award one. That resulted in selecting a small, little-known contractor, Acquisition Logistics, for the $1.3 billion deal despite it having no prior experience operating detention facilities and facing what ICE called a “significant learning curve.”

    The Army — and later ICE after the camp was transferred to the agency — wasted millions of dollars paying for services it did not need because the contract did not account for fluctuations in the detainee population, the report said.

    The Army blew up to $11.5 million paying for guards, medical services, transportation, and meals in the weeks before the camp held detainees. The agencies wasted millions more because it was contracted to pay the cost of meals for the camp’s maximum population of 5,000, even when the number of detainees there dropped to around 1,600, the report said.

    Facility didn’t initially meet detention standards

    The facility did not meet ICE detention standards or the contract’s requirements in several ways when it opened, in part because it had not been inspected as required by ICE policy, the report said. The camp lacked security cameras on the perimeter and had other surveillance blind spots that raised the risk of sexual assaults or escapes.

    The camp could not accommodate detainees using wheelchairs and had no showers compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, resulting in the disabled being held in medical care rooms.

    The recreation area wasn’t available for several days, and after one yard was opened, it wasn’t enough space to provide required time for detainees. The law library, space to meet with attorneys, and a visitation area did not open for weeks, resulting in detainees being deprived of legal resources and contact with family and friends, the report found.

    The problems persisted as ICE began transporting more detainees there from across the country, the GAO found. While it was built to house up to 5,000 immigrants for short-term stays, its population has averaged about half of that from October until April, according to ICE’s most recent data.

    Missing evidence and other problems

    Detainees held at the facility didn’t receive comprehensive health assessments, which meant that those with chronic conditions received substandard care, the report said.

    The contractor cleaned the dormitories weekly rather than daily as required, resulting in unsanitary conditions. Some guards offered detainees cookies if they would clean their own rooms. Acquisition Logistics didn’t reply to messages seeking comment.

    The GAO report says investigations into the January death of Geraldo Lunas Campos were undermined after “evidence associated with the incident was missing or destroyed.” It did not elaborate. Campos died after he was restrained by guards and an outside autopsy report ruled the death a homicide due to asphyxia. The contractor at the facility did not provide use-of-force and death reports to ICE as required, according to the new report.

    An investigation by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility into the death is on hold pending a criminal investigation by the FBI.

    On Jan. 14, Nicaraguan detainee Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, died of suicide after staff put him in a medical holding room instead of a suicide-resistant cell and left him unattended for intervals longer than 15 minutes, the report said. Staff could not see into the room because the contractor had failed to install vision panels that had been requested months earlier, it found.

    “These are huge discrepancies in their failure to prevent suicides,” said Diaz family attorney Randall Kallinen, noting that the report strengthens a potential wrongful death claim he’s considering. “They are part of an entire laundry list of problems at Camp East Montana.”

  • Vance demands Justice Department probe of Minnesota officials as White House presses ‘war on fraud’

    WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance is pressing federal prosecutors to investigate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison over allegations they failed to stop widespread social services fraud, amplifying concerns the White House will use a new Justice Department division to target political rivals.

    Vance, who has been tapped to lead the Trump administration’s anti-fraud efforts as he seeks to raise his political profile as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, cited in a letter to the Justice Department a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee that alleges Walz and Ellison were aware of pervasive abuse of government programs for years and let it flourish.

    The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to questions Tuesday about whether it would open an investigation. It was unclear what, if any, potential violations of federal law could support a probe into the Democratic Minnesota officials, who have defended their efforts to combat fraud and have characterized a separate Justice Department investigation involving state leaders as politically motivated.

    Minnesota has long been under a microscope for staggering amounts of fraud in programs for children and other social services, with dozens of defendants charged under the administrations of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and President Donald Trump, a Republican. Vance’s referral for an investigation into state leaders, however, marks an escalation in the Trump administration’s stated “war on fraud” that officials have said would not be political or partisan.

    Vance is seeking an investigation by a new Justice Department division that has drawn intense scrutiny over the potential for political influence given its close relationship with Trump’s White House. The White House announced the division’s formation in January and initially said its leader would answer directly to the president instead of the typical Justice Department command.

    Walz spokesperson Teddy Tschann derided the House committee as “nothing more than a joke” that continues to “rehash COVID-era fraud.”

    “Governor Walz is glad to see fraudsters are going to prison,” Tschann said in an email. “If the committee is concerned about corruption, they should investigate why President Trump continues to let fraudsters out of prison.” Trump has granted clemency to numerous defendants convicted of financial crimes, including a man sentenced to 50 years in prison for orchestrating a more than $200 million Medicare fraud scheme.

    Ellison called the allegations unfounded and dismissed Vance’s referral as “a political stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents while extending leniency to those aligned with its interests.”

    “It is deeply troubling to see official powers and public resources diverted away from serving the people and instead aimed at pursuing political adversaries,” Ellison said in a statement. “That is not what government is for, and it diminishes public trust in our institutions.”

    The House committee alleges that “fraud warnings were elevated to the most senior levels of the Minnesota state government” and payments continued “long after credible signs of fraud emerged.” In his referral, Vance wrote that officials in Minnesota or anywhere else in the country “must be held accountable” if they facilitated fraud, prevented officials from stopping it, or retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to report it.

    “Minnesota state officials are not above the law,” Vance wrote in a post on X.

    The Trump administration has clashed repeatedly with Minnesota officials not only about fraud but also the massive federal immigration crackdown that swept across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and other communities and led to widespread protests.

    The Justice Department in January served grand jury subpoenas to Minnesota officials as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded federal law enforcement through public statements they made. The status of that investigation is unclear.

    The Trump administration has touted the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division as a crucial step in its efforts to prevent the misuse of taxpayer dollars. The division’s leader, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, is a veteran prosecutor who has vowed to pursue cases “without fear or favor.”

    Critics, however, have questioned the administration’s motives behind the new division given that fraud was already prosecuted by the agency’s Criminal Division, which last year announced the largest coordinated takedown of healthcare fraud schemes in Justice Department history.

  • U.S. home sales surge to the fastest pace this year despite rising mortgage rates and prices

    Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes accelerated last month to their fastest pace since December, a sharp turnaround in demand after a lackluster start to the spring homebuying season.

    Existing home sales rose 3.2% in May from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.17 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Sales also rose 3.2% compared with May last year.

    Home sales increased from a year earlier in the Midwest, South, and West, but fell in the Northeast, NAR said.

    The latest sales figure topped the roughly 4.07 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

    Home sales have been mostly hovering close to a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million.

    Sales rose last month even as mortgage rates have continued to mostly trend higher this spring, although they remain below where they were a year ago.

    Home prices continued to rise nationally last month. The U.S. median sales price increased 1.3% in May from a year earlier to $429,300, an all-time high for any May on data going back to 1999, NAR said. Home prices have risen on an annual basis for 35 months in a row.

    Even so, home price growth is now lagging income growth in many areas. That, plus mortgage rates holding below where they were this time last year, is helping to improve affordability, giving the housing market momentum, said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

    “I cannot definitively say if home sales are truly coming out of the slump, because we know that there’s still uncertainty related to the oil prices or how the mortgage rates will move,” Yun said, adding that he expects home sales will emerge from their multiyear slump if the average rate on a 30-year mortgage drops back closer to 6%.

    The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low. They have remained sluggish so far this year. They were flat in April after declining from a year earlier through the first three months of this year.

    Years of soaring home prices, especially in the early part of this decade when rock-bottom mortgage rates fueled a buying frenzy, have left many would-be homebuyers frozen out of the market. And a chronic shortage of homes for sale nationally, due partly to years of below-average new home construction, has helped prop up home prices even in a multiyear sales slump.

    Homes purchased last month likely went under contract in March and April, when the average rate on a 30-year mortgage ranged from 6% — close to its lowest level in three and a half years — to 6.46%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. The average rate was at 6.48% last week, down from 6.85% a year earlier.

    While the average rate has remained below where it was a year ago, it has been mostly trending higher since the war with Iran began, disrupting the passage of tankers ferrying crude oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide and driving oil prices sharply higher. Expectations of high oil prices as the war continues have pushed up the long-term bond yields that lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans, causing mortgage rates to climb.

    “If not for the war-related spike in inflation, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate could well be in the mid-to-upper 5’s,” said Ted Rossman, principal analyst at Bankrate.

    Despite the uncertainty over mortgage rates, first-time buyers accounted for 35% of home purchases last month, the highest share going back to June 2020, Yun said. Historically, they made up 40% of home sales.

    Those who can afford to buy at current rates are likely benefiting from buyer-friendly trends in many markets. In May, median list prices were down 2.4% from a year earlier, the steepest drop on data going back to 2017, according to Realtor.com.

    They also have more homes on the market to choose from, although home inventory levels remain well below historical norms.

    There were 1.55 million unsold homes at the end of May, up 3.3% from April and up 0.6% from May last year, NAR said. That’s still short of the roughly 2 million homes for sale that was typical before the COVID-19 pandemic.

    May’s month-end inventory translates to a 4.5-month supply at the current sales pace. Traditionally, a 5- to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

  • Social Security’s retirement trust fund faces funding shortfall one year earlier than expected

    WASHINGTON — Social Security‘s retirement trust fund is projected to face a funding shortfall in 2032, a year earlier than last year’s projections, according to an annual report released Tuesday, while Medicare‘s hospital insurance trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2033, which is unchanged from last year’s estimate.

    Rising healthcare costs and government spending have contributed to a projected depletion date that is less than 10 years from now.

    The looming challenge for the programs is a partial funding gap, not a collapse. Even after trust fund depletion, the system will continue issuing benefits, albeit at reduced amounts.

    Last year, Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund go-broke date was pushed to 2033 from 2036, according to the report from the programs’ trustees.

    Meanwhile, Social Security’s combined trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, unchanged from the 2025 report. After that, incoming revenue would cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.

    Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said the Trump administration is “committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security” and “eliminating waste, fraud, abuse and ensuring program integrity.”

    The report states that the new funding shortfall is mainly the result of lower projected birth rates, reduced immigration, and reduced trust fund revenue due to the costs of Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer.

    Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group, said the latest report takes “Donald Trump’s second term policies into account: A tax bill that largely benefited the wealthy, economy-wrecking tariffs, a needless war with Iran, and hostility to immigrants. All of these have reduced the amount of money going into Social Security, weakening the system’s finances.”

    The trustees, who include the treasury secretary, labor secretary, health and human services secretary, and the Social Security commissioner, say the latest findings show the urgency of needed changes to the programs, which have faced dire financial projections for decades. But making changes to the programs has long been politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.

    AARP’s CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said in a statement that the latest numbers “should be a wake-up call. Congress needs to act.”

    “Americans have worked hard and paid into Social Security their entire lives, and they deserve to count on it when they retire,” she said. “No family should see any cuts to what they’ve earned in Social Security. ”

    About 70.1 million people are enrolled in Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance that covers those 65 and older, as well as people with severe disabilities or illnesses.

    Social Security benefits were last reformed roughly 40 years ago, when the federal government raised the eligibility age for the program from 65 to 67. The eligibility age of 65 has never changed for Medicare.

  • Rob Reiner’s son Nick seeks money from trust parents left him for his defense in their killings

    LOS ANGELES — Rob Reiner’s son Nick Reiner is seeking unpaid money from a trust his parents established for him, saying he needs it to help in his defense against charges that he killed them.

    A petition filed by the 32-year-old Nick Reiner’s civil attorneys in a Los Angeles County court on Monday says that trustees overseeing the funds have denied them to him without legal justification, and he needs and should get them now.

    “Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation,” the petition says. “Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own.”

    The director and Hollywood luminary Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested hours later and has since pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

    Reiner retained high-profile private lawyer Alan Jackson to represent him, but less than a month later Jackson left the case for reasons he said he couldn’t share. The new filing reveals that Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, had initially agreed to pay for Jackson, but reversed course.

    In a declaration included with the petition, Jackson said “my firm stands ready, willing, and able to resume representation of Mr. Reiner” if the funds become available.

    The filing says that apart from the larger Reiner family trust, which is not at issue, Rob and Michele Reiner established smaller individual trusts for Nick Reiner and his siblings. It says they left “unambiguous instructions” in Nick Reiner’s trust, established in 1993, that he was to receive half its money when he turned 30 and the rest at 35.

    But, the filing says, Reiner never received the funds he was entitled to at 30, and that the trustee overseeing them since February — attorney Paul R. Kanin — has given “a shifting series of excuses and justifications” to deny Reiner the money, including concerns about Reiner’s competence that have no bearing on a payout that is mandatory.

    Reiner says he should also get the money he was to receive at 35 immediately because his defense and his need for basic necessities in jail require it.

    The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million in assets, but that Kanin will not share the exact amount of its value.

    Kanin did not immediately respond to an after-hours email seeking comment.

    Proceedings in Reiner’s murder case are moving slowly. He is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing in September. He is eligible for the death penalty, but District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said his office has not yet decided whether to seek it.

    Authorities have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides. A court order has kept most details of the autopsies secret. Many of the most basic questions about the killings remain unanswered publicly.

    On the day he left the case, Jackson, speaking outside court, declared adamantly that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”

    In April, Jake Reiner gave his first detailed account of the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the center of it, calling it “a living nightmare” that is “too devastating to comprehend.”

    Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, A Few Good Men, and When Harry Met Sally… , during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.