Australia’s property market has proven to be unpredictable over the past 24 months.
And now research by PRD shows how supply is not meeting demand as the property market’s pace continues to slow.
PRD’s Australian Economic and Property Report for 2022 reveals that as a whole, the capital cities have seen a “slower pace of median house price growth in the 12 months to the 1st half of 2022, rising by an average of 6.3 per cent”.
This is in comparison to the 15.5 per cent average median house price growth from “the 12 months to the second half of 2021”.
READMORE:Neighborhoods where house prices have fallen by six figures as interest rates rise
The latest PRD data reveals how Australia’s economic and property conditions continue to be uncertain. (Domain)Sydney and Melbourne have seen a drop in median house price growth in comparison to Brisbane and Darwin. (PRD 2022)
speaking on Today ExtraDomain’s national managing editor, Alice Stolz, reiterated the fact that it’s down to supply and demand – something we don’t have much of.
“Interest rates are really hitting prices hard. We’ve been seeing downturns and upturns in the market, and Melbourne and Sydney are certainly leading that charge,” she said.
However, not all capital cities are the same, with Sydney and Melbourne seeing a drop in median house price growth.
On the other side of the spectrum, Brisbane and Darwin saw a double digit median house price growth.
As outlined in the report, uncertain economic and property conditions is at the forefront.
READMORE:Why this interest rate rise will make it harder to borrow money
Supply is not meeting demand as the property market’s pace continues to slow. (Sixty Four Property)
“The share of disposable income that has flown to scheduled principal payment and mortgage offset accounts has spiked since mid-2020,” the research reveals.
“Technically, a cash rate hike can be absorbed through a higher mortgage offset account (as a buffer), and the share in which income flows to either principal payment, interest, or mortgage offset changes.
“However, we are currently facing increasing costs in various aspects of life, which makes it more difficult.”
Domain’s national managing editor, Alice Stolz, said on Today Extra that Melbourne and Sydney are ‘leading the charge’ with higher interest rates. (Domain)
Live and back on Larrakia Country, this year’s National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) was a powerful celebration of First Nations talent past and present.
Playing out under the stars at Darwin Amphitheatre, Baker Boy was the biggest winner of the ceremony, walking up to the podium twice Saturday night.
The rapping-dancing Yolŋu sensation won Album of the Year for his inspiring debut album Gela and was named Artist Of The Year. It’s the third time the Fresh Prince of Arnhem Land has won in that latter category, bringing his total NIMAs tally to nine trophies since he first gracing the ceremony as an Unearthed competition winner back in 2017.
Fresh from the release of their self-titled debut album, King Stingray claimed the coveted Song Of The Year for scorching bush-disco belter ‘Milkumana’ (voted #56 in triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2021). The Yolŋu rock band also proved why they’re one of Australia’s deadliest live acts with an electrifying performance to close out the ceremony.
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Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung woman Jem Cassar-Daley, aka the indie pop offspring of country legend Troy Cassar-Daley, was named Best New Talent following the release of her 2021 debut EP I Don’t Know Who To Call.
‘King Brown’ by powerful Malyangapa and Barkindji rapper Barkaa was recognized as Film Clip Of The Year, while Indigenous Outreach Projects earned Community Clip of the Year for ‘Loud & Proud’.
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Dobby, the Murrawarri/Filipino multi-instrumentalist rapper and producer behind some of the best First Nations raps going ’round, took home the Archie Roach Foundation Award, recognizing his achievements and supporting his growth as an artist.
Moving tributes to Archie Roach and Gurrumul
Powerhouse vocalist Emma Donovan and Butchulla songman Fred Leone led an emotional homage to the late Archie Roach, pairing up for an emotional performance of the important and influential songwriter and storyteller’s ‘We Won’t Cry’.
Joined on stage by a chorus of First Nations talent, it was a teary celebration of the life of the important and influential Uncle Archie, just days after the Gunditjmara (Kirrae Whurrong/Djab Wurrung), Bundjalung Senior Elder died at age 66.
The ceremony also commemorated the musical legacy and life of Gurrumul, who was officially inducted into the NIMAs Hall Of Fame and honored with a performance by his brother and Saltwater Band co-founder Manuel Dhurrkay.
The acclaimed, otherworldly Yolŋu singer-songwriter died due to liver and kidney damage in 2017 but left behind a stunning catalog of solo records that won multiple ARIAs, NIMAs, APRA and AIR Awards, and was named Double J Australian Artist of the Year in 2018 .
He joins NIMAs Hall Of Fame inductees Warumpi Band, Archie Roach, Roger Knox, Kev Carmody and the band he started out in, Yothu Yindi.
The NIMAs also hosted a live line-up of performances from Thelma Plum, hip hop power couple Birdz and Fred Leone, the soulful Emma Donovan & The Putbacks, traditional dance from Red Flag Dancers, and the elegant pipes of Noongar woman and triple j Unearthed. winner Bumpy.
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The NIMAs have been Australia’s most important celebration of Indigenous music for 16 years but 2022 marked a glorious return to Larrakia Country in Darwin after a two-year hiatus. The ceremony was forced to innovate around the COVID pandemic, going virtual in 2020 and presented as a two-hour special on triple j’s Blak Out last year.
View the full list of winners below and tune into Blak Out this Sunday from 5pm for a highlights wrap of winners, performances, and backstage antics simulcast across triple j, Double J and triple j Unearthed.
National Indigenous Music Awards 2022 Winners
Artist of the Year baker boy
Album of the Year Bakerboy- Gela
New Talent of the Year Jem Cassar-Daley
Song of the Year King Stingray – ‘Milkumana’ (songwriters: Roy Kellaway / Gotjirringu Jerome Yunipingu)
Film Clip of the Year Barkaa – ‘King Brown’ (Directed & Produced by Sonder Films, Executive Producer: Vyva Entertainment)
Community Clip of the Year Numulwar, NT – Loud & Proud (Directors & Producers: Indigenous Outreach Projects/Matthew Mastratisi/Franceska Fusha/Lesley Phillips/Jordan O’Davis/Numbulwar Community & School)
Eleanor Patterson admitted it was a “bittersweet” feeling after she ended up setting for silver in the women’s high jump final at the Commonwealth Games.
The term ‘setting’ is not usually the right one when it comes to silver medals but even Patterson herself conceded it was a disappointing result when speaking with Channel 7 post race.
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Australia’s Eleanor Patterson reacts after the women’s high jump final athletics event. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)Source: AFP
“It’s bittersweet. I didn’t perform,” she said.
“Lamara (Distin) was the best athlete on the day. I’m really impressed by her and proud of her.
“But I am just quite frustrated with myself. I did not come here today and perform how I know I can and how I usually do.”
Patterson was the raging favorite after stunning the world by becoming the first Australian to win the women’s high jump gold at the World Athletics Championship.
Her chances of taking home gold in Birmingham only received another boost when fellow Australian and Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Nicola Olyslagers pulled out with a calf injury.
Browning FALLS, relay goes begging! | 00:28
Jamaican Lamara Distin had other ideas though, setting the tone with a first-round clearance at 1.95m that Patterson could not match with three attempts.
That mark was seven centimeters less than Patterson’s stunning effort at the World Athletics Championship, which made it harder to take for the Australian.
“I’ve had a bit of a sore ankle but that’s no excuse,” she added.
“I was struggling to get my rhythm a little bit and wasn’t switched on enough, I don’t know. It’s frustrating.
Have you ever driven past special road crossings for wildlife and wondered if they actually work?
Key points:
A new study by Southern Cross University provides evidence that road underpasses are used by wildlife to safely cross
It’s the first long-term study of underpasses in Australia and focussed on two locations in northern NSW
It found some mammals were using underpasses more than once a week
There’s new evidence to suggest they are effective, based on the first long-term study of road underpasses in Australia.
The research from Southern Cross University (SCU) was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution and based on a two-year study of underpasses located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.
During that time wildlife cameras detected close to 5,000 medium-to-large mammals and goannas using highway underpasses at Port Macquarie and Grafton.
The researchers studied 12 underpasses in those two areas– five under the Oxley Highway at Port Macquarie and seven under the Pacific Highway south of Grafton – comparing camera trap detections of animals at underpasses with those at nearby forest sites.
A koala is captured on camera using a highway underpass on the Mid North Coast.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)
The lead researcher, SCU Associate Professor Ross Goldingay, said the results were encouraging.
“More than 4,800 detections were made; that number was quite astounding,” he said.
“These crossing rates suggest animals used the underpasses to forage on both side of the freeways.”
Associate Professor Goldingay said certain species, including eastern gray kangaroos, swamp wallabies, red-necked wallabies, red-necked pademelons, and lace monitors crossed some underpasses more than once per week.
A dedicated wildlife underpass at Port Macquarie where there have been regular animal sightings.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)
“We actually got quite a bit of traffic of animals passing through those underpasses, particularly in Port Macquarie … it’s a wetter forest type there so it seems there’s a greater abundance of animals,” he said.
“We were getting eastern gray kangaroos and swamp wallabies moving through two to four times per week and other species, including the red-necked pademelon was going through once every two weeks, so quite frequently.
“At Grafton we’ve got a very high use of a couple of underpasses by echidnas and another small wallaby called the rufous bettong, which is actually a NSW-listed threatened species.”
‘Prey-trap’ concerns dismissed
The study also dispelled concerns that underpasses could become a “prey-trap” used by introduced feral pests and that animals could become caught in the relatively confined area.
The rufous bettong is a small, nocturnal marsupial species that has been seen using the underpasses.(Supplied: Mt Rothwell)
“We looked at that in detail as there have been a couple of other short-term studies where they have had frequent occurrences of foxes in a few underpasses, and in one case in Western Australia that coincided in a decline in the bandicoots using that particular underpass,” Professor Goldingay.
“Because we had more underpasses and a longer period for this study, we were able to look at this in more detail than anyone has before.”
Professor Goldingay said predators which were detected at the underpasses included the introduced red fox, feral cat, and dingo.
“What we found was feral cats were very rare at both sites. We did have dingoes at both sites, but they weren’t very frequent in the underpasses,” he said.
“The red fox is the main concern, particularly in Port Macquarie. Of the five underpasses there, there were three that were used relatively frequently.
“However, the fox activity coincided less than expected with the activity of the mammals most at risk and it seemed potential prey were possibly avoiding using the underpasses when foxes were about.”
Caution still needed
A combined wildlife and drainage underpass at Grafton.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)
Despite the positive study results, Professor Goldingay said any expansion of road networks in Australia still needed to be done with caution.
“Australia’s wildlife species are increasingly threatened with extinction by habitat clearing and fragmentation,” he said.
“One leading cause of this is the expansion of our road network, particularly the upgrade and duplication of major highways.
“Underpasses are a useful generic tool to enable wildlife to move across landscapes with roads. But not all ground-dwelling species of wildlife will find underpasses to their liking but so far, many do.”
A crime scene photographer documents the scene at Truman Street and Grand Avenue in Albuquerque after a Muslim man was killed late Friday night. (Liam DeBonis/Albuquerque Journal)
Another Muslim man has been shot to death — the fourth to be killed in a period of nine months and the third in the past two weeks.
The latest shooting happened late Friday night, just before midnight. An Albuquerque Police Department Spokesman said officers were called to the area near San Mateo and Copper NE for a shooting. When they arrived they found a man dead.
Investigators announced on Thursday that they believe there is a strong possibility that the men were targeted because of their race and religion.
Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, was killed on Nov. 7 behind the halal market he and his brother owned. Aftab Hussein, 41, was killed on July 26 in his apartment complex parking lot on Rhode Island NE, near Wyoming and Copper. Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, was killed on Aug. 1 less than a block from his apartment in a neighborhood south of the University of New Mexico.
Saturday afternoon, APD officials held a news conference alongside leaders from the US Attorney’s Office, the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and the city of Albuquerque. They urged people to come forward and report any suspicious activity.
Deputy Chief Josh Brown said the department has consulted with the Muslim community and is increasing patrols in certain areas and establishing command posts. Multiple units throughout the department are working on the case.
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Australian share market investors are set to benefit from putting their money into mining companies that specialize in the extraction of a key material needed for electric car batteries.
Australia’s lithium exports in the year to June surged by 737 per cent to $2.632billion. Exports of this mineral multiplied by eight times from $314million when the June quarter of 2022 was compared with the June quarter of 2021, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.
Australia is also the world’s biggest exporter of lithium – accounting for 46 per cent of the world’s supply in 2020.
Like Australia, the US, UK, the European Union, Japan and South Korea are aiming for net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in a bid to address climate change.
Australian share market investors are set to benefit by putting their money into mining companies that specialize in the extraction of a key material needed for electric car batteries (pictured are Tesla charging stations)
Labor’s plan to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 on Thursday passed the House of Representatives and Greens leader Adam Bandt has vowed his party will pass the legislation in the Senate.
This means demand is set to arise for lithium, a key component of electric vehicle and solar batteries that will be needed as Australia and much of the developed world reduces their reliance on petrol cars and coal-fired power stations.
Lithium is also a key component in mobile phones, laptops and cameras.
Exports of lithium concentrate, the powered material used to power batteries, in June hit a record-high $1.163billion, a massive 1,189 per cent increase compared with June 2021.
The value of these exports has multiplied almost 13 times from just $90million a year earlier.
Saxo Capital market strategist Jessica Amir said electric vehicle makers would increasingly need lithium, with Australian and American government subsidies set to turbocharge demand
Saxo Capital market strategist Jessica Amir said electric vehicle makers would increasingly need lithium, with Australian and American government subsidies set to turbocharge demand.
‘The means that they are going to continue to produce electric vehicles and the key components of electric vehicles, many of those are sourced in Australia,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It just means that a baseline of support has been put under the lithium sector.
‘The focus is now reset on the lack of supply and rising demand.’
Western Australia has accounted for more than 99 per cent of Australian lithium exports, every month since January 2021, with the state already having a near monopoly on Australia’s iron ore exports.
Demand is set to arise for lithium, a key component of electric vehicle and solar batteries that will be needed as Australia and much of the developed world reduces their reliance on petrol cars and coal-fired power stations. Lithium is also a key component in mobile phones (stock image, pictured), laptops and cameras
Pilbara Minerals, Australia’s biggest lithium miner, in 2019 signed a deal with Chinese car maker Great Wall Motor to supply spodumene concentrate, a key mineral for electric vehicles.
Australia’s lithium miners
Pilbara Minerals: Australia’s biggest lithium miner owns all of the Pilgangoora Project and Operation, 120km from Port Hedland
goldcopper: A $4billion merger with Galaxy Resources in April created the world’s fifth largest lithium chemicals producer. It is now known as Allkem
Lake Resources: One of the world’s lowest-cost producers of lithium chemical producers
This Perth-based company owns all of the Pilgangoora Project and Operation, 120km from Port Hedland.
‘This is our biggest, by far, lithium exporter in Australia,’ Ms Amir said.
Its share price has soared from just 15.84 cents in March 2020 to peak at $3.20 in January 2022, before falling back to $2.29 in June and rising to its present level of $2.77.
But Ms Amir said it would be at least another year before Pilbara Minerals saw a meaningful rise in its share price, with investors holding off as the Reserve Bank kept raising interest rates.
‘Unlike other non-profitable lithium companies, Pilbara Minerals does have a robust balance sheet,’ she said.
‘The market thinking it is that it will potentially record revenue this year.
‘The market thinking is its revenue will likely double in 2023.’
Orocobre in April last year became the world’s fifth biggest lithium chemicals producer through a merger with Galaxy Resources.
This merger was officially rebranded in November 2021 as Allkem, with the Brisbane-based company mainly mining lithium in Argentina.
Exports of lithium concentrate, the powered material used to power batteries, in June hit a record-high $1.163billion, a massive 1,189 per cent increase compared with June 2021. The value of these exports has multiplied almost 13 times from just $90million a year earlier
Allkem’s share price has climbed from $2.03 in May 2020 to $14 in May, before slipping back to $11.55 on Friday, with historical Australian Securities Exchange data covering the price when the company was known as Orocobre.
‘Not only have they seen their balance sheet strengthen after buying Galaxy, but the lithium province in Argentina is still pumping out the highest grade of lithium than anywhere else in the world,’ Ms Amir said.
Lake Resources is another player, selling itself as one of the world’s lowest-cost producers of lithium chemical products.
The Sydney-based company also extracts much of its lithium from Argentina.
Its share price has risen from just seven cents in December 2020 to $2.31 as of April this year, before diving down to 61 cents in July and recovering to 92 cents as of August.
The resignation of former Lake Resources managing director Steve Promnitz in June had put pressure on the share price.
Ms Amir said Allkem and Lake Resources, despite being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, were more focused on Argentina, which meant they were able to better capitalize on Tesla now making electric vehicles in Texas, at its Gigafactory plant.
Tesla also announced this week they would produce their own fuel cells.
‘It just means that Telsa is going to continue to see how they can get cheap access to lithium,’ Ms Amir said.
The word’s biggest carbon emitters are less ambitious with China vowing for a net zero by 2060 target while India has a 2070 deadline.
Allkem and Lake Resources, despite being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, were more focused on Argentina, which meant they were able to better capitalize on Tesla now making electric vehicles in Texas, at its Gigafactory plant (pictured is Tesla chief executive Elon Musk)
After a year of battling China’s politically-motivated trade sanctions, Australia has hoped on another trade horizon with exports to India more than doubling in the year to June, rising by 108 per cent.
Australia now has a $16.7billion annual trade surplus with India, up from $16.7billion a year earlier.
CommSec chief economist Craig James noted Australia’s exports to India are worth more than the combined exports of both the US and the UK.
But coal, a fossil fuel linked to climate change, is a key export to India.
Australia’s exports of iron ore to China, so they can make steel, underpinned the 54th successive monthly trade surplus in June.
In that month, Australia had a $17.67billion trade surplus.
During the 2021-22 financial year, Australia had a record $136.4billion annual trade surplus, up from $90billion a year earlier.
Ollie Hoare has come from the clouds in the final stages to claim Commonwealth Games gold in the 1500m.
Hoare blitzed the field in the home straight as he stormed past Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot in the last 10 meters to cross the line in a games record time of 3:30.13 – edging the Kenyan by .09 of a second.
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The Aussie stalked Cheruiyot, the world champion and defending Commonwealth Games champion, as they came around the final bend and turned on the gas at the perfect moment.
“Hoare lifting here, lifting with a big run,” Bruce McAvaney said.
“He’s coming with a mighty run, the Aussie’s a chance. Cheruiyot goes up … here comes Ollie Hoare with a flashing run I reckon he’s going to get there.”
“And it is!” Tamsyn Lewis-Manou shouted as Hoare crossed the line.
“It’s an extraordinary moment in Australian sport. It’s one of those that we will etch in the history books forever and how lucky we are to have been here and for you to have watched it,” McAvaney said as Hoare slumped over in disbelief on the ground. “The last 100m is the stuff of legends.”
“Take your hat off, that was just brilliant and a new Games record,” Lewis-Manou said.
“He has just beat a sensational field. I have waited until the exit route, got out and that finish was brilliant.”
“He takes down two world champions in the home stretch, it’s just magical. It’s what you dream about,” McAvaney added.
Hoare, 25, spoke about the gold medal moment after completing a lap of victory around the stadium.
“That last lap I just wanted to stay relaxed and I knew that my time would come. It’s hard to believe when you have guys there that are absolute class. But I was able to get out and I just had the kicker at the end and it was spectacular,” Hoare said.
Hoare got emotional during the interview as he dedicated the run to his late grandfather.
“I’d like to dedicate that race to my pop he was a life member at Southern Districts athletics club and he was a World War 2 veteran, Sargaent Fred Hoare.
“He passed away just after the World Champs and it was a very difficult time for me because of how bad I’d just raced and to hear that news of a guy who would have a stopwatch at every race when I was growing up going through the sport, to not have him there to watch was tough but I’d like to dedicate that race to my pop because he is the reason why my family loves this sport and the reason why I am here today.
“So Pop, I know you’re watching. I’ll have a glass of red for ya mate. That was a good one.”
Australian viewers couldn’t believe what they’d just witnessed with Hoare’s run one we’ll remember for years and years.
The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph wrote: “Here comes Ollie Hoare with a flashing run. Bloody hell. Some kind of guts to run down two world champions. Just wow.”
Former Boomers coach Brendan Joyce wrote: “Wow Australia we have a new champion to be proud of! What a run in the 1500! Ollie Hoare you were incredible!”
ABC journalist Peter Gunders wrote: “Ollie Hoare! What a race. My heart is racing, we nearly lost our voices cheering, and I think we just woke up the whole street.”
Former AFL star Kane Cornes wrote: “World class run, how tough is he. Bruce is a genius.”
GPs are choosing to phase out bulk-billing payment methods and are concerned vulnerable Australians will be left without access to affordable basic health care.
“Over the past few decades the government hasn’t been really paying much attention to general practice,” Sydney Dr. Brad McKay told Today.
GP Brad McKay is warning of the end of bulk-billing. (9News)
“Our wages for general practitioners haven’t been escalating, or increasing for a long time, our wages were frozen for many many years under Medicare as well, so this gap has developed.”
McKay said GPs are sick of handling the gap and being paid “at half the wage” they should be.
“We’ve been asking for support for many, many decades and it’s really got to breaking point at the moment,” McKay said.
With the average out-of-pocket expense for GPs having risen by 60 per cent in the last decade, hundreds of clinics across the nation are struggling to make ends meet.
The Medicare Benefits Schedule rebate for a standard consultation recently rose by 65 cents to $39.75.
The current Medicare Benefits Schedule rebate for a standard consult is $39.75 (iStock)
More and more GPs are advising their patients they can no longer provide bulk billing as a service.
“It’s very, very hard to find a bulk billing doctor these days and it’s going to get harder,” said McKay.
The result, McKay says, is more people ending up in hospital.
“People don’t see the doctor and they get worse and they end up in the emergency department,” he said.
“So it costs the government a lot more when that happens. It’s like $1000 for you to go to the emergency department.”
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A shortage of GPs is adding to the stress, with many choosing to leave the profession.
“Lots of GPs aren’t coming in from medical students, they’re not deciding to do general practice,” McKay said.
“We’re getting really thin on the ground as well.”
In May, the Albanese government announced a $970m investment in primary health care to boost GP practices.
The policy includes a $750m “Strengthening Medicare” fund to roll out from 2023-24 and a $220m grants program for upgrades in local practices.
Protesters gather in downtown Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, March 13, 2021, to commemorate the anniversary of the killing of Breonna Taylor in a botched raid by Louisville police officers. (Xavier Burrell/The New York Times)
On the day before police officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, a detective tried to persuade her to judge that a former boyfriend of Taylor could be using her home to stash money and drugs.
The detective, Joshua Jaynes, said the former boyfriend had been having packages sent to Taylor’s apartment, and he even claimed to have proof: a postal inspector who had confirmed the shipments. Jaynes outlined all this in an affidavit and asked a judge for a no-knock warrant so that officers could barge into Taylor’s home late at night before drug dealers had a chance to flush evidence or flee. The judge signed off on the warrant.
But this week, federal prosecutors said Jaynes had lied. It was never clear whether the former boyfriend was receiving packages at Taylor’s home from her. And Jaynes, the prosecutors said, had never confirmed as much with any postal inspector. As outrage over Taylor’s death grew, prosecutors said in new criminal charges filed in federal court, Jaynes met with another detective in his garage and agreed on a story to tell the FBI and their own colleagues to cover up the false and misleading statements police had made to justify the raid.
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Amid protests over Taylor’s killing, much of the attention has focused on whether the two officers who shot her would be charged. But the Justice Department turned most of its attention on the officers who obtained the search warrant, highlighting the problems that can occur when searches are authorized by judges based on police facts may have exaggerated or even concocted.
“It happens far more often than people think,” said Joseph C. Patituce, a defense lawyer and former prosecutor in Ohio. “We are talking about a document that allows police to come into the homes of people, oftentimes minorities, at all times of night and day.”
Taylor is far from the first person to die in a law enforcement operation authorized on what prosecutors said were police misstatements.
In Houston, prosecutors accused a police officer of falsely claiming that an informant had purchased heroin from a home in order to obtain a search warrant in 2019; officers killed two people who lived there during a shootout when they tried to execute the warrant, and only after that did the police chief at the time, Art Acevedo, say there were “material untruths or lies” in an affidavit for the warrant that led to the raid. The officer pleaded not guilty, and the case is still pending.
In Atlanta, police officers barged into a home and fatally shot a 92-year-old woman, Kathryn Johnston, in 2006 after an officer lied in a search warrant affidavit about an informant buying drugs from her home.
And in Baltimore, a federal judge sentenced a detective to 2 1/2 years in prison last month after prosecutors said he had lied in a search warrant affidavit about finding drugs in a man’s truck in order to justify a search of the man’s motel room.
Judges often rely solely on the sworn narrative of police officers who apply for warrants, meaning police can carry out potentially dangerous searches targeting innocent people before their affidavits are ever challenged.
The Supreme Court has ruled that when police knowingly or recklessly include false statements in search of warrant affidavits in cases in which there would otherwise be insufficient cause, any evidence recovered cannot be admitted in court. False statements often come to light if arrests are made, as defense lawyers challenge search warrants in court.
A number of deficient affidavits may never be closely scrutinized, legal analysts say, because defendants have agreed to plead guilty for other reasons.
In Louisville, Thomas Clay, a lawyer connected to the Breonna Taylor case, knows the issue from both sides.
Clay and a colleague, David Ward, once represented Susan Jean King, an amputee with one leg and a slight build who was accused of fatally shooting a former boyfriend at her home and then throwing his body into a river.
“This was his theory,” Ward said of the detective who took on the investigation as a cold case some eight years after the killing. “It was physically impossible for her to commit the homicide, drag her body out of her home and into her nonexistent car, and then take this large, 189-pound man and toss her body over a bridge and into the Kentucky River. ”
King’s lawyers claimed that the detective falsely implied in at least one of the search warrant affidavits that a .22-caliber bullet found in the floor of King’s home was one of the rounds that killed the man.
But it had already been established that the man died of .22-caliber bullets that lodged in his head without exiting, King’s lawyers noted, and they argued that the detective’s assertion was implausible. A judge agreed, saying that the detective had omitted exculpatory evidence from his search warrant affidavits of him.
Nonetheless, King entered an Alford plea to second-degree manslaughter — in which she pleaded guilty while maintaining her innocence — and was serving more than five years in prison when a man admitted the killing. She was ultimately exonerated.
In 2020, the state agreed to pay King a $750,000 settlement for malicious prosecution. Through his lawyer from him at the time, the detective, who had retired from the force by then, denied any wrongdoing.
Now, Clay is representing Jaynes, the detective accused of lying to obtain the search warrant for Taylor’s home.
“Search warrants are always fair game to be scrutinized, and they should be scrutinized,” Clay said, though he declined to discuss Jaynes’ case.
Jaynes pleaded not guilty to the federal charges Thursday and has said that he was relying in part on information from another officer when he prepared the affidavit.
Officers who provide false information under oath when preparing search warrant affidavits may take shortcuts, Clay said, because they believe they already know the outcome of the case but do not yet have enough evidence to support the warrant.
“The most extreme example is when they are just dishonest, even though they are under oath,” Clay said.
Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner, said the consequences of lying on a search warrant could be severe.
“It’s tragic when you see police falsify information to obtain a search warrant, and it is also dumb,” Davis said. “Every one of those search warrants can turn into a disaster.”
In Taylor’s case, the prosecutors said that another detective, Kelly Goodlett, whom the department moved to fire Thursday, had also added misleading information to the affidavit, saying that Taylor’s former boyfriend had recently used her address as his “current home address.” Prosecutors charged Goodlett with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the warrant.
Jaynes has admitted that he did not personally verify the information about the packages with a postal inspector. He has said he was told by a sergeant about the packages and believed that it was enough to back up his claims in the affidavit.
“I had no reason to lie in this case,” he told a police board in Louisville that was considering his firing last year.
In the federal indictment against Jaynes, however, prosecutors charged that this claim, too, was false, and that the sergeant had actually told Jaynes twice that he did not know about any packages being sent to Taylor’s home for her former boyfriend.
The judge who signed off on the warrant for Taylor’s apartment, Judge Mary Shaw, declined to comment through an assistant Friday, noting that she could be called to testify in the criminal case against the officers. Shaw is up for reelection in November, and The Louisville Courier Journal reported that she was the only one of 17 incumbent Jefferson Circuit Court judges to face a challenger for her seat.
Fans of the popular series Schitt’s Creek now have the opportunity to live out their own rural dreams, as the small Victorian town of Coopers Creek enters the property market.
Mason White McDougall has listed the beautiful country town up for sale, offering buyers the chance to be the largest of their own town and live just like the Rose family in Schitt’s Creek.
Coopers Creek is located about 130km from Melbourne in the Gippsland region. The sale comprises 21 lots, each raging in size from 660sq m to 12,000sq m.
Settled in the 1800s during the Victorian Gold rush, Coopers Creek was once home to 250 people.
The town, spanning 4½ hectares on the Thomson River, is said to sell for a reasonable $2.5-3m, a small price to pay to call the whole place your own.
Buyers can settle comfortably in the beautiful two-bedroom home and take in the views of their own town from the veranda.
The warm and historical Coopers Creek pub is equipped with a pool room, dining area, stage, cozy fireplaces and commercial kitchen to keep its new owners entertained.
Nature and adventure lovers will thrive in the wide open space, with plenty of opportunities for bushwalking, four-wheel driving, kayaking, fishing and much more.
“If you have ever wanted to own your own town or be the mayor of your own domain, this is the place for you,” Mason White director Ian Mason said.
“Coopers Creek offers endless opportunities including a break from city life and a change of scenery in one of Victoria’s most pristine natural environments.
“Like the Rose family, Coopers Creek could be a life-changing move for the right buyer,” Mr Mason said.
For more information, or express interest, visit www.cooperscreek.com.au.
