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For Garland, FBI search of Trump property makes it hard to avoid political fray

For Garland, FBI search of Trump property makes it hard to avoid political fray

When President Biden tapped Merrick Garland to lead the Justice Department last year, he selected a cautious appeals court judge known as a political moderate who could build consensus.

Garland, a former federal prosecutor, would attempt to rebuild trust in the sprawling and powerful law enforcement agency after the tumultuous Trump presidency, his supporters said. He would try to convince the public and lawmakers that he was an apolitical attorney general, even as he tackled some of the nation’s most contentious political issues.

But the FBI’s highly unusual court-approved search Monday of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club put Garland square in the middle of a huge political firestorm. The search, part of a long-running probe into the possible mishandling of presidential documents, drew praise from Democrats who have been hoping the Justice Department would seriously investigate Trump and the ire of conservatives who decried the search as an abuse of power.

Trump called the court-authorized search for “prosecutorial misconduct” and the “weaponization of the Justice System.” Some of his supporters of him say the FBI’s action could galvanize Trump’s base if he runs for president in 2024.

Republican allies on Capitol Hill denounced Garland and pledged to turn the tables and investigate the Justice Department. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the attorney general should resign or be impeached.

Merrick Garland’s goal is to restore the integrity of the Justice Department. His legacy will still be defined by Trump.

The partisan outcry was the opposite of what Garland has sought in his 17 months on the job, during which he has launched multiple high-profile civil rights investigations and efforts to fight gun trafficking and hate crimes, while also overseeing the sprawling investigation of the Jan 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and the unprecedented efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Time and again, Garland has refused to discuss that probe or any other investigation in progress, whether or not it involves the former president. He has repeatedly pledged to follow the facts where they lead, and to hold anyone who breaks the law accountable, regardless of who that person may be.

At news conferences, I have dodges reporters’ queries about Trump, which inevitably comes up. Two of the four reporters permitted to ask questions at a news conference last week on charges filed against police officers in connection with the killing of Breonna Taylor chose to ask about investigations into Trump. Both times, Garland declined to answer.

For months, Trump’s critics — especially, but not limited to, the left — pummeled Garland for not moving quickly to investigate Trump on multiple fronts. In recent weeks and months, without fanfare, the Justice Department and US attorney’s office in Washington began obtaining communications from people in Trump’s inner circle and subpoenaing witnesses to appear before a grand jury, clearly indicating that Trump’s actions and conversations had become part of the scope. of the Jan. 6-related probe.

“You are undoubtedly going to have people saying that this is the ultimate political act,” said Donald B. Ayer, a deputy attorney general under President George HW Bush, said of the raid. “But that’s just nonsense. … He has a job to do.”

The Justice Department would not comment on whether Garland signed off on the FBI raid, and Garland has not discussed it. He made just one public comment on Monday, about the sentencing of three men convicted on federal charges in connection with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black man killed while jogging in his Georgia neighborhood.

“The Justice Department’s prosecution of this case and the court’s sentences today make clear that hate crimes have no place in our country,” Garland said in a statement. “Protecting civil rights and combatting white supremacist violence was a founding purpose of the Justice Department, and one that we will continue to pursue with the urgency it demands.”

What might the Mar-a-Lago search mean for Trump legally?

Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor and counsel at the advocacy group Protect Democracy, said that while it’s inevitable the reaction to the search would be politicized, Garland’s silence before and after the search of Trump’s property was critical to him building trust in the process. She said it showed the attorney general wasn’t trying to appeal to any group during the investigation and has been letting the probe run its course.

“It is important to look at the manner of what is being done, and not just the substance of what is being done,” Parker said. “And it’s just as important to depoliticizing the department to ensure that no one is above the law as it is to try to avoid prosecuting the president or someone from the opposite political party.”

But some lawyers questioned why the Justice Department and FBI would execute such a high-profile search on a former president’s residence over missing documents, even if some of them are classified (sitting presidents have broad powers to declassify documents, further complicating the situation).

Stanley Brand, a former House counsel who represents some of the Jan. 6 defendants and witnesses, said that search warrants don’t always yield any blockbuster or useful information. He called the FBI search of Trump’s property a huge escalation in the investigation of documents improperly taken to Mar-a-Lago. If investigators don’t recover materials that showed that there were serious national consequences for the materials he potentially kept, Brand said, it could tarnish the Justice Department’s reputation.

“If they are trying to rebound from the perception that their decision-making was skewed from the Trump era, this is not going to help that,” Brand said. “Part of it depends on what happens hereafter.”

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Biden signs documents of US support for Sweden, Finland to join NATO

Biden signs documents of US support for Sweden, Finland to join NATO

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed documents endorsing Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO, the most significant expansion of the military alliance since the 1990s as it responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Biden signed the US “instrument of ratification” welcoming the two countries, the final step for their endorsement by the United States.

“It was and is a watershed moment I believe in the alliance and for the greater security and stability not only of Europe and the United States but of the world,” he said of their entry into the post World War Two alliance.

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The US Senate backed the expansion by an overwhelming 95-1 last week, a rare display of bipartisan unity in a bitterly divided Washington. Both Democratic and Republican Senators strongly approved membership for the two Nordic countries, describing them as important allies whose modern militaries already worked closely with NATO. read more

The vote was a sharp contrast with some rhetoric in Washington during the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump, who pursued an “America First” foreign policy and criticized NATO allies who failed to reach defense spending targets.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks and signs documents endorsing Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO, in the East Room of the White House, in Washington, US, August 9, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned both countries against joining the alliance.

Putin is getting “exactly what he did not want,” with the two countries entering the alliance, Biden said.

NATO’s 30 allies signed the accession protocol for Sweden and Finland last month, allowing them to join the nuclear-armed alliance once all member states ratify the decision. read more

The accession must be ratified by the parliaments of all 30 North Atlantic Treaty Organization members before Finland and Sweden can be protected by Article Five, the defense clause stating that an attack on one ally is an attack on all.

Ratification could take up to a year, although the accession has already been approved by a few countries including Canada, Germany and Italy.

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Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Jeff Mason Editing by Mark Heinrich and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Gabby Petito’s family seeks $50 million from Utah police department for inadequate response to Brian Laundrie’s abuse

Gabby Petito's family seeks $50 million from Utah police department for inadequate response to Brian Laundrie's abuse



CNN
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The family of Gabby Petito has submitted a $50 million claim against the Moab, Utah, Police Department, arguing the 22-year-old may not have been killed last year by her fiancé if officers had recognized he was the “true primary aggressor” in a domestic dispute about two weeks before her death.

Petito’s parents are seeking $50 million in damages, claiming Moab officers were negligent in failing to investigate Brian Laundrie, 23, and his “self-evidently false claims” and the department was negligent in failing to train officers to investigate domestic violence incidents, according to their notice of claim sent to the department Monday, the first step in initiating a lawsuit against it.

Additionally, Petito’s family claims her killing was caused by the wrongful acts or neglect of the police department and its officers.

Moab officers “failed to recognize the serious danger (Petito) was in and failed to investigate fully and properly,” Brian Stewart, an attorney for the family said Monday in a news conference, referencing the moment Moab police stopped Petito and Laundrie after a witness said he saw them involved in a domestic incident.

“They did not have the training that they needed to recognize the clear signs that were evident that morning: that Gabby was a victim and that she was in serious need of immediate help,” Stewart said.

A Moab city spokesperson declined to comment, saying, “The City does not comment on pending litigation.”

Petito, an aspiring travel influencer, vanished last summer on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. As a nationwide search ensued, attention also turned to Laundrie, who returned home to Florida and vanished in a nature reserve.

Days into the search for Laundrie, Petito’s body was found in Grand Teton National Forest, and a coroner ruled she died by strangulation. Ella’s Laundrie’s body was found in mid-October in the nature reserve, along with a notebook in which she claimed responsibility for her death. A medical examiner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The notice of claim against Moab police comes months after Petito’s mother and father, along with their respective spouses, sued Laundrie’s family, alleging his parents knew their son had killed Petito and were aware of “the whereabouts of her body.”

At the heart of Petito’s family’s claim is the traffic stop last August, which officers executed after being informed the witness “had seen Brian assault Gabby.”

Police pulled over their vehicle – a white Ford van – after it exceeded the speed limit, abruptly left its lane and struck a curb, according to a police report.

Footage recorded by police body cameras shows Moab police officers talking to Petito and Laundrie, who admitted to having a fight in which Petito said she struck her fiancé first. Officers noticed Petito had cuts on her face and her arm, and she “demonstrated how Brian had violently grabbed her face during their altercation,” telling police Laundrie “gets frustrated with me a lot.”

But Petito also “displayed the classic hallmarks of an abused partner,” the notice says, taking blame for the incident. The officers “did not press further,” the notice says.

According to the family’s claim, a photo taken at the time, which has not been made public, “shows a close-up view of Gabby’s face where blood is smeared on her cheek and left eye, revealing the violent nature of Brian’s attack.”

Laundry told police the couple had been under increasing stress. He has admitted to pushing Petito away from her when she tried to slap him and also to taking her phone from her, claiming he did not have one from her and was afraid that she would leave him. However, later in the interview, he took out his own phone and gave officers his number, the notice says.

Despite the cuts and Laundrie’s inconsistencies, one of the officers said Petito must be booked into jail since, under the domestic violence statutes of Utah, she was considered the primary aggressor and Laundrie the victim.

Both Petito and Laundrie objected, and the officers eventually agreed not to charge Petito as long as she and Laundrie agreed to spend the night apart.

“Roughly two weeks later, Brian brutally murdered Gabby,” the notice says, “leaving her body in the woods of Grand Teton National Forest.”

A review of the Moab Police Department’s handling of the incident by an independent investigator – a captain with the police department in Price, Utah, about 115 miles away – recommended the two officers who responded be placed on probation, saying they made “several unintentional mistakes ” – namely failing to cite anyone for domestic violence, though there appeared to be only sufficient evidence to charge Petito.

The investigative report, released in January, recommended new policies for the department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers.

The city at the time did not address any potential discipline for the two officers but said it “intends to implement the report’s recommendations” on new policies for the police department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers.

“Based on the report’s findings, the City of Moab believes our officers showed kindness, respect and empathy in their handling of this incident,” the city’s statement said.

Petito’s parents and stepparents did not comment on the litigation during Monday’s virtual news conference at the direction of their lawyers. But her mother de ella acknowledged the footage of the Moab incident was “very painful.”

“I wanted to jump through the screen, rescue her,” Nicole Schmidt said, encouraging victims of domestic violence to reach out for help.

Asked what the family wants the public to remember from Petito’s story, her father Joseph Petito, said people should learn there’s always a way out.

“Her legacy is to help people that don’t see a way out, and there are,” he said.

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Grand jury declines to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham in connection with kidnapping of Emmett Till

Grand jury declines to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham in connection with kidnapping of Emmett Till



CNN
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A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the White woman who accused 14-year-old Emmett Till of making advances toward her nearly 70 years ago, allegations that led to the Black teen’s brutal death.

A Leflore County grand jury last week heard seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses but said there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter, according to a statement from District Attorney Dewayne Richardson.

The grand jury heard the testimony from witnesses detailing the investigation of the case from 2004 to the present day and considered both charges, according to the statement.

“After hearing every aspect of the investigation and evidence collected regarding Donham’s involvement, the Grand Jury returned a ‘No Bill’ to the charges of both Kidnapping and Manslaughter,” the statement said. “The murder of Emmett Till remains an unforgettable tragedy in this country and the thoughts and prayers of this nation continue to be with the family of Emmett Till.”

Carolyn Bryant, shown in September 1955 sitting in the office of her husbands' lawyer.

Family members of Emmett, whose killing in the Jim Crow-era South spurred the civil rights movement in America, said earlier this summer that they had unearthed an unserved arrest warrant for Bryant Donham, her late husband and his brother.

The warrant is dated August 29, 1955, and signed by the Leflore County clerk. The image of the warrant shows the current clerk certified the document as authentic on June 21.

A note on the back of the warrant says Bryant Donham was not arrested because she could not be located at the time, according to the New York Times, which cited filmmaker Keith A. Beauchamp, who was part of the team that discovered the warrant. CNN reached out to Bryant Donham at the time but didn’t hear back.

Emmett’s family had hoped the warrant would lead to charges and, ultimately, justice.

“Justice has to be served,” Emmett’s cousin Deborah Watts told CNN in late June, adding, “Emmett led us to it. I know that in my heart.”

CNN reached out Tuesday to Emmett’s family for comment but did not hear back.

While Emmett’s killing remains a touchstone moment in the United States’ long struggle with racial injustice and inequality, to this day, no one has been held criminally responsible.

Emmett, who lived in Chicago, was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he had his fateful encounter with then-20-year-old Carolyn Bryant in the summer of 1955. Accounts from that day differ, but witnesses alleged Emmett whistled at the woman at the market she owned with her husband in the town of Money.

Four days later, Roy Bryant and JW Milam later took Emmett from his bed in the middle of the night, ordered him into the back of a pickup and beat him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River.

But they were both acquitted of murder by an all-White jury following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her. The jury deliberated for barely an hour.

The men later admitted to the killing in a 1956 interview with Look magazine.

Emmett’s death captured attention far beyond Mississippi after a photo of his mutilated body was published in Jet Magazine and spread around the world. Her mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, had demanded he have an open-casket funeral so the entire world could see her son’s injuries and the results of racial terrorism – a decision that helped fuel the civil rights movement.

Milam died in 1980 and Bryant died in 1994. Bryant Donham is in her late 80s.

In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Bryant Donham on charges. And according to archived FBI documents, Milam and Roy Bryant were arrested on a kidnapping charge in 1955, but a grand jury failed to indict them. “The original court, District Attorney, and investigative records related to the 1955 investigation have apparently been lost,” the FBI said in a 2006 report.

Bryant Donham testified in 1955 that Emmett grabbed her hand, her waist and propositioned her, saying he had been with “White women before.” But years later, when professor Timothy Tyson raised that trial testimony in a 2008 interview with Bryant Donham, he claimed she told him, “That part’s not true.”

The prospect that the woman at the center of Emmett’s case had recanted her testimony – which the US Justice Department said in a memo would contradict statements she made during the state trial in 1955 and later to the FBI – sparked calls for authorities to investigate the case anew.

The DOJ, which had already re-examined and closed the case in 2007, reopened the probe into Emmett’s killing in 2018. But the case was closed in December after the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division concluded it could not prove Bryant Donham had lied. When questioned directly, Bryant Donham adamantly denied to investigators that she had recanted her testimony from her.

Emmett’s legacy, however, lives on: In March, President Joe Biden signed into law the landmark Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which made lynching a federal hate crime.

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Suspect arrested in Albuquerque, New Mexico, killings of Muslim men

Cecily Barker, deputy chief of investigations with the Albuquerque Police Department, displays a flyer Aug. 7 with photos of a car that may have been used in connection with the murders of Muslim men in New Mexico.

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FBI search of Mar-a-Lago helps show how probe of Trump documents has changed

FBI search of Mar-a-Lago helps show how probe of Trump documents has changed

In the months before the FBI’s dramatic move to execute a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Florida home — and open his safe to look for items — federal authorities grew increasingly concerned that Trump or his lawyers and aides had not, in fact, returned all the documents and other material that were government property, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Officials became suspicious that when Trump gave back items to the National Archives about seven months ago, either the former president or people close to him held on to key records — despite a Justice Department investigation into the handling of 15 boxes of material sent to the former president’s private club and residence in the waning days of his administration.

Over months of discussions on the subject, some officials also came to suspect Trump’s representatives were not truthful at times, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

On Tuesday, a lawyer for Trump said the agents who brought the court-approved warrant to Mar-a-Lago a day earlier took about 12 more boxes after conducting their search.

Garland vowed to depoliticize Justice. Then the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago

People familiar with the investigation said that Justice Department and FBI officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago this spring, a meeting first reported by CNN. The officials spoke to Trump’s representatives, inspected the storage space where documents were held, and expressed concern that the former president or people close to him still had items that should be in government custody, these people said.

By that point, officials at the National Archives had been aggressively contacting people in Trump’s orbit to demand the return of documents they believed were covered by the Presidential Records Act, said two people familiar with those inquiries. Like the others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation.

Christina Bobb, a lawyer for Trump, said his lawyers engaged in discussions with the Justice Department this spring over materials held at Mar-a-Lago. At that time, the former president’s legal team searched through two to three dozen boxes of material contained in a storage area, hunting for documents that could be considered presidential records, and turned over several items that might meet the definition, she said.

In June, Bobb said, she and Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran met with Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterintelligence and export control section at the Justice Department, along with several investigators. Trump stopped by the meeting as he began to greet the investigators but was not interviewed. The lawyers showed the federal officials the boxes, and Bratt and the others spent some time looking through the material.

Bobb said the Justice Department officials commented that they did not believe the storage unit was properly secured, so Trump officials added a lock to the facility. When FBI agents searched the property Monday, Bobb added, they broke through the lock that had been added to the door.

The FBI removed about a dozen boxes that had been stored in the basement storage area, she said. Bobb did not share the search warrant left by agents but said that it indicated agents were investigating possible violations of laws dealing with the handling of classified material and the Presidential Records Act.

What could the Mar-a-Lago search mean for Trump legally?

Trump announced Monday that the FBI had searched Mar-a-Lago and his safe, decrying the move as the latest unfair action against him by the Justice Department and FBI. Spokespeople at both agencies declined to comment.

Asked for comment Tuesday about whether the former president or his advisers had withheld documents or been untruthful, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich called the FBI’s action “not only unprecedented, but completely unnecessary.”

“President Trump and his representatives have gone to painstaking lengths in communicating and cooperating with the appropriate agencies,” Budowich said in an emailed statement. “In the Democrats’ desperate attempt to retain power, they have unified and grown the entire conservative movement.”

One adviser who spoke to Trump after the search said the former president sounded buoyed by the development, bragging about how many Republicans were supporting him publicly, and said Trump thought the search would help him politically in the end.

“It furthers his inclination to run and galvanizes the Republican base on his behalf,” said Jason Miller, a longtime adviser and former spokesman.

Analysis: Donald Trump has been waiting for this moment for a long time

Some of the Trump’s advisers have urged him to move up his expected announcement that he will run for president in 2024 and make it soon at Mar-a-Lago, with the FBI search as a backdrop. But Trump has made no commitment to doing so, one person with direct knowledge of the conversations said.

Two people familiar with the initial recovery of the materials at Mar-a-Lago said that Archives officials believed that more records were missing and were skeptical that Trump had handed everything over. As the investigation gained steam, some Trump advisers have sought to stay away from the issue, fearing it would become a messy legal and political situation, according to people familiar with the discussions.

After Monday’s search, lawyers close to Trump sought advice or recommendations of criminal defense lawyers who could represent Trump, said a person familiar with the lawyers. According to this person, the lawyers said the warrant was related to allegations that classified information was retained by Trump.

Trump already has a number of lawyers working for him, but it is not uncommon for individuals facing investigative activity to seek local attorneys to navigate a particular court district.

Some top Republicans echo Trump’s evidence-free claims discrediting FBI search

Dozens of die-hard Trump supporters came to West Palm Beach on Tuesday to express their support. Adriane Shochet, 64, of Lake Worth, Fla., bought a $14 broomstick, which she attached to an American flag and waved as she stood on the causeway that overlooks part of Mar-a-Lago.

“I just needed to come out and show the whole free world that this is frightening, and if they can do this, what’s next?” Shochet said. “This is the polar opposite of whatever effect politically they thought they were going to get because all it’s doing is empowering the right politically.”

Passing motorists honked in support. One man stood on the bridge, which crosses the Intracoastal Waterway, holding the American flag upside down — widely recognized as a symbol of his belief that the country is in distress.

Pat Stewart, 85, found the “Trump 2020” flag that she used to fly at her house in Jupiter, Fla., which she had expected to keep tucked away until the next presidential election. For the next several hours, she stood in the sun alongside a friend who was visiting from Michigan, who is also 85, waving at passing motorists.

“I was very angry, very angry, and very upset, that our government would do this to an ex-president,” Stewart said. Even though aides said Trump was in New York and at his golf club and residence in Bedminster, NJ, this week, she held out hope that he was at Mar-a-Lago.

“We want him to come out and announce he’s running for president,” Stewart said.

One person familiar with the investigation said agents were conducting a court-authorized search as part of a long-running examination into why documents — some of them top-secret — were taken to the former president’s private club and residence instead of shipped to the National Archives and Records Administration when Trump left office. The Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.

15 boxes: Inside the long, strange trip of Trump’s classified records

In January, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago. David S. Ferriero, then the archivist of the United States, said in a statement in February that Trump representatives were “continuing to search” for additional records.

Trump resisted handing over some of the boxes for months, some people close to the president said, and believed that many of the items were his personally and did not belong to the government. He eventually agreed to hand over some of the documents, “giving them what he believed they were entitled to,” in the words of one adviser.

Tim Craig in West Palm Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.

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A key Death Valley road buried in floods remains closed : NPR

A key Death Valley road buried in floods remains closed : NPR

Mud Canyon Road is closed due to flash flooding in Death Valley, Calif., on Friday. Authorities say the main roadway into Death Valley National Park will remain closed as crews clean up after record-breaking rains damaged the roadway and choked it with mud, rocks and debris.

National Park Service/Death Valley National Park via AP, File


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National Park Service/Death Valley National Park via AP, File

Mud Canyon Road is closed due to flash flooding in Death Valley, Calif., on Friday. Authorities say the main roadway into Death Valley National Park will remain closed as crews clean up after record-breaking rains damaged the roadway and choked it with mud, rocks and debris.

National Park Service/Death Valley National Park via AP, File

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — A main roadway into Death Valley National Park will remain closed into next week as crews clean up after record-breaking rains damaged the roadway and choked it with mud, rocks and debris.

Flash floods turn Death Valley muddy, stranding hundreds of visitors

Flash flooding in the park last week trapped hundreds of hotel guests and partially buried about 60 cars and trucks in mud. No injuries were reported.

The California Department of Transportation said about 30 miles (48 kilometers) of State Route 190 were partially or fully buried with debris and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) have been cleared.

Eastern Kentucky's people looked for a fresh start after coal. Then came the floods

However, the route will remain closed at least through Aug. 17 from Trona Wildrose Road/Panamint Valley Road to State Route 127 in Death Valley Junction, Caltrans said in a statement.

“As our crews continue to remove debris. They have found several damaged sections of highway with complete shoulder loss, damage to asphalt, and undercutting of the roadway,” Caltrans District 9 Director Ryan Dermody said.

Some of the debris collected will be used to fill in eroded road shoulders, Caltrans said.

Historic rainfall turns Seoul's roads into rivers and leaves 8 dead

On Monday, flash flooding from a monsoonal moisture system also closed a 5-mile (8-kilometer) stretch of road and prompted the evacuation of the southern portion of Joshua Tree National Park, another desert park about a 4-hour drive south of Death Valley.

No injuries were reported.

Death Valley National Park, located near the California-Nevada state line, has over 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) of roadway across 3.4 million acres (1.3 million hectares).

Attendance at Yellowstone National Park plummets after road washouts in June

The record-breaking rains last Friday dumped 1.46 inches (3.71 centimeters) of rain at the Furnace Creek area. That’s about 75% of what the area typically gets in a year, and it is more than has ever been recorded for the entire month of August.

Since 1936, the only single day with more rain was April 15, 1988, when 1.47 inches (3.73 centimeters) fell, park officials said.

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Pelosi says Taiwan trip ‘worth it,’ calls Xi ‘a scared bully’

Pelosi says Taiwan trip 'worth it,' calls Xi 'a scared bully'

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday defended her decision to visit Taiwan despite an aggressive response from China that has included live-fire military exercises in the Taiwan Strait.

“Yes, it was worth it,” she said in her first interview since returning from Asia last week on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “And what the Chinese are doing is what they usually do.”

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she had received “overwhelming bipartisan support” for her historic visit and reiterated that “China will not be allowed to isolate Taiwan.” She also questioned why her trip de ella has received so much attention, while a group of senators traveled to Taiwan several months earlier and it had no impact. “Did anybody make a fuss?” she asked.

Image: Nancy Pelosi
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives at the Taiwanese Parliament in Taipei last week.Sam Yeh / AFP – Getty Images

“It was bipartisan, it was high-powered, including the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — nobody said a word,” she said. “If they can ignore a trip of five senators in a bipartisan way, why would they decide on my trip, that it would be different. … There’s something wrong with this picture.”

The speaker said Chinese President Xi Jinping “has his own insecurities” and she won’t let him control the schedule of members of Congress. In a separate interview Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Pelosi said Xi is “in a fragile place.”

“He has problems with his economy. He is acting like a scared bully,” she said, adding that Xi is focused on getting re-elected.

China immediately denounced Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as part of its territory, and announced it would launch “a series of targeted military actions as countermeasures” to “resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

China has said Pelosi’s visit violated the “one-China policy,” which is Beijing’s claim to be the sole government of both mainland China and Taiwan.

The United States has long abided by the policy, which means it does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but does maintain an unofficial embassy on the island.

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

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Missing Kiely Rodni: Massive search as friends reveal teen’s last known footsteps in possible abduction case

Missing Kiely Rodni: Massive search as friends reveal teen's last known footsteps in possible abduction case

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A massive search effort was underway Tuesday morning for the missing California 16-year-old Kiely Rodni, who vanished after telling family she was going to head home from a high school graduation sendoff early Saturday.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office has said they were investigating a possible abduction because the girl’s SUV was also unaccounted for. Rodni graduated from high school two years early, and it is unlike her to run away or fail to come home, according to her mother, Lindsey Rodni-Nieman.

A spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that investigators were still “exploring all possibilities” and confirmed that teens were using alcohol and drugs at the party.

Rodni had enough drinks to become drunk, according to her friend and another recent graduate, Sami Smith, who added that she did not believe the teen would have driven under the circumstances.

CALIFORNIA 16-YEAR-OLD VANISHES IN POSSIBLE ABDUCTION AFTER PARTY; MOTHER PLEADS FOR HER RETURN

Kiely Rodni shown in two undated photos

Kiely Rodni shown in two undated photos
(findkiely.com)

“At the point when I left, I thought she was going to stay there,” said Smith, who departed the campground just a few minutes before Rodni was last seen. “Everybody was camping. It was late enough that she should have stayed. Ella She’s not the type to go and drunk drive or anything.”

Smith said she spent most of the night with Rodni.

“For the amount of drinks we both had together, she’s not that dumb,” she added. “I remember we were partying together. Ella She was having fun. Ella She seemed really happy — she was like normal, just on an adrenaline rush. Saying ‘Hi’ to everybody.

UTAH FARMER DYLAN ROUNDS NOW MISSING FOR 2 MONTHS AS 20TH BIRTHDAY APPROACHES

Search teams gather to investigate Kiely Rodni, who went missing on Aug. 6, 2022, after attending a party.

Search teams gather to investigate Kiely Rodni, who went missing on Aug. 6, 2022, after attending a party.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

But Rodni-Nieman says her daughter texted her around 12:15 am Saturday and said she was heading home. The family lives about 10 miles away from the campground at a lodge south of town.

Smith, 18, said that there were plenty of attendees whom she had not previously met but none who seemed suspicious, gave unwanted attention or followed the pair around.

She said she didn’t notice anyone much older and that the party consisted mainly of teens, recent graduates and some college students from the surrounding areas. Some came from as far away as San Francisco, she said ella, but that was not unusual because the area is a summer vacation town.

Authorities briefed a search-and-rescue team ahead of Tuesday morning's search for missing Kiely Rodni near Lake Tahoe.

Authorities briefed a search-and-rescue team ahead of Tuesday morning’s search for missing Kiely Rodni near Lake Tahoe.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“We met a few strangers together,” she said. “We both tended to trust people. I say ella ‘tended to’ because now I do n’t think I will continue to trust people. But ella she’ll give anyone the benefit of the doubt.”

Search crews and police from multiple counties scoured through the area beginning early Tuesday morning.

They started by searching Lake Prosser by boat as the land-based search party gathered on the shoreline.

The search also included several aircraft, including helicopters and airplanes flying in formation above, and all-terrain vehicles, including four-wheelers, trikes and dirt bikes. There were search dogs present and at least 100 members of law enforcement visible, including members of the FBI, who initially focused their attention on Campsite 4.

Crews pulled the boats from the water around noon and FBI agents were seen knocking on doors in the area. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Right now, we are currently searching many areas,” said Angela Musallam, the Placer County Sheriff’s public information officer.

The party, which stretched from Friday night into Saturday morning at the Prosser Family Campground in the Tahoe National Forest, involved dozens or hundreds of kids from a handful of nearby communities in the rural area, including Truckee and North Lake.

Around 12:15 am, she texted her parents that she was heading home. However, according to her mother de ella, no one has come forward to say they saw her leave de ella, no one was with her at the time, and nobody could remember when she left or see her car drive away.

Her phone, which last pinged at the party, has been turned off. Authorities say her vehicle de ella, a silver 2013 Honda CRV with the California license plate 8YUR127, is also unaccounted for.

Authorities are urging teens who were at the party to come forward, and the community announced a “Teen to Teen” information gathering event from 5 pm to 7:30 pm PT at the Tahoe City Save Mart in an effort to get attendees talking.

Search teams gather to investigate Kiely Rodni, who went missing on Aug. 6, 2022, after attending a party.

Search teams gather to investigate Kiely Rodni, who went missing on Aug. 6, 2022, after attending a party.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“We have had a lack of reach out from many Tahoe kids who were at the party or may know any information,” the announcement reads. “We are only looking for information such as who was at the party that you may have seen [and] the times you came and left.”

Rodni’s mother is asking anyone who attended the party and their parents to look through their photos, social media posts and videos for any signs of Rodni. Home and business owners in the surrounding area are also asked to check their surveillance cameras for signs of the girl on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6.

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Search teams gather to investigate Kiely Rodni, who went missing on Aug. 6, 2022, after attending a party.

Search teams gather to investigate Kiely Rodni, who went missing on Aug. 6, 2022, after attending a party.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

Storefronts and signposts in the surrounding area and as far away as Reno have been plastered with missing-person flyers.

Rodni is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and around 118 pounds. She has blonde hair and hazel eyes. She has a tattoo on her ribs of the number “17.”

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Kiely Rodni was last seen at a rural campground near the border of California and Nevada around 12:30 am, Saturday, according to local authorities.

Kiely Rodni was last seen at a rural campground near the border of California and Nevada around 12:30 am, Saturday, according to local authorities.
(Placer County Sheriff)

She was last seen wearing green Dickies pants, a black tank top and jewelry, according to authorities. She has a nose ring and several other piercings.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s dedicated tip line at 530-581-6320. Callers can remain anonymous.

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The California Highway Patrol is also urging anyone who sees Rodni to call 911.

The family is offering a $50,000 reward for Rodni’s return, and Smith is asking members to share Rodni’s story, raise awareness and call in any information that may help investigators.

She has also helped organize a website, findkiely.com, where friends and family are sharing the latest information they have gathered.

Fox News’ Ashley Papa contributed to this report.

Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @mikerreports

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US

Schumer: Senate will vote again on $35 insulin cap after GOP blocked it

Schumer: Senate will vote again on $35 insulin cap after GOP blocked it

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) said Monday night that he is going to bring a $35 cap on patients’ insulin costs back up for a vote this fall after Republicans blocked it over the weekend.

“They blocked a $35 price for insulin for non-Medicare people,” Schumer said on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “We’re going to come back and make them vote on that again.”

The move can help put pressure on Republicans and highlight what Democrats view as a winning issue ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Democrats hammered Republicans for voting against the $35 cap over the weekend.

That vote came up in the context of overruling the parliamentarian’s decision that applying the $35 cap to people with private health insurance violated the complicated Senate rules Democrats were using to bypass a GOP filibuster.

Seven Republicans still voted with all 50 Democrats, three short of the 60 votes needed, and it is possible more Republicans would support it if it came up as a standalone measure, not in the context of a Senate rules vote.

“We got all 50 Democrats,” Schumer said in a separate interview Monday on NPR. “We did get seven Republicans. We’re going to bring that back in the fall, because there’s going to be huge heat on Republicans.”

Schumer did not specify whether he would bring the $35 cap up by itself or as part of a larger, bipartisan insulin measure from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (DN.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), which had previously faced difficulties gaining enough GOP support.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested Monday he would support a $35 cap if it came up again.

“Vote on the cap was not [about] insulin It was [about] Others ignoring budget rules,” I have tweeted. “Dear colleagues join me in supporting the Collins-Shaheen bill to cap insulin at $35 & enact [pharmacy benefit manager] reforms in a bipartisan way.”

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