Prosecutors seek prison for rioter’s attack on AP journalist
Federal prosecutors have recommended a prison sentence of approximately four years for a Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to assaulting an Associated Press photographer and using a stun gun against police officers at the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss is scheduled to sentence Alan Byerly on Oct. 21 for his attack on AP photographer John Minchillo and police during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot. In a court filing Sunday, prosecutors requested a sentence of at least 46 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Byerly’s attorney has until Friday to submit a sentencing recommendation.
Doctor admits illegally prescribing 120,000 opioid pills
A Southern California doctor has pleaded guilty to writing prescriptions for more than 120,000 opioid pills over a six-year span, including to an impaired driver who struck and killed a bicyclist. In his plea agreement, Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham of Tustin admitted distributing the pills without a legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash and insurance payments. Pham faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in January.
California tribes will manage, protect state coastal areas
Five tribes on California’s coast are moving forward in their efforts to protect marine ecosystems as part of the Tribal Marine Stewards Network. The state’s Ocean Protection Council recently approved $3.6 million for the first-in-the-nation project. The network is a partnership between the tribes, state government and nonprofit groups aimed at conducting biological research and educating youth about the cultural significance of coastal areas. Its public launch comes three years after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom apologized for historical violence and mistreatment against Indigenous peoples in the state.
Florida school shooter may have been his own worst witness
Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz may have talked himself into a death sentence. At his penalty trial last week, prosecutors played video recordings of jailhouse interviews Cruz had this year with mental health experts. He gave frank and sometimes graphic details about his 2018 murder of 17 at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his planning and his motivations. Lawyers not involved in the case say his statements may have caused some wavering jurors to vote for death. Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday. The panel will decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.
Judge narrows trial of analyst who reported salacious claims about Trump
John H. Durham, the Donald Trump-era special counsel, set off political reverberations last year when he unveiled a lengthy indictment of an analyst he accused of lying to the FBI about sources for the so-called Steele dossier, a discredited compendium of political opposition research about purported ties between Trump and Russia. But the trial of the analyst, Igor Danchenko, which opens on Tuesday with jury selection in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, now appears likely to be shorter and less politically salient than the narrative in Durham’s indictmentAP News Summary at 10:01 p.m. EDT
Putin calls Kerch Bridge attack “a terrorist act” by Kyiv
Russia President Vladimir Putin is calling the attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea a terrorist act carried out by Ukrainian special services. In a meeting Sunday with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Putin said “there’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure.” His investigative chief said he had opened a criminal case into an act of terrorism. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, say a Russian missile strike on a southern city has killed 13 people and partially collapsed an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town; 22 dead
Authorities say a landslide fueled by flooding and days of torrential rain has swept through a town in central Venezuela, leaving at least 22 people dead as it dragged mud, rocks and trees through neighborhoods. Dozens of people are missing. Residents of Las Tejerías in Santos Michelena, an agro-industrial town in Aragua state 54 miles southwest of Caracas, had just seconds to reach safety late Saturday as debris swept down a mountainside onto them. The official death toll rose to 22 after the recovery of 20 bodies on Sunday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told state-owned Venezolana de Televisión on Sunday.
UN ponders rapid armed force to help end Haiti’s crisis
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has submitted a letter to the Security Council proposing the immediate activation of a rapid action force after a plea for help from Haiti as gangs and protesters paralyze the country. The letter, which was seen by The Associated Press but has not been made public, proposes the immediate activation of a rapid action force deployed by one or several member states to help Haiti’s National Police. That force would “remove the threat posed by armed gangs and provide immediate protection to critical infrastructure and services.”
Philippine ex-senator briefly held hostage in jail rampage
Philippine police have killed three detained militants linked to the Islamic State group after they stabbed a jail officer and briefly held a detained former opposition senator in a failed escape attempt at the police headquarters in the capital region. National police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said Sunday that former Sen. Leila de Lima was unhurt and taken to a hospital for a checkup following the brazen escape and hostage-taking attempt in a maximum-security jail at the main police camp in Metropolitan Manila. De Lima has been detained since 2017 and has been facing a trial for drug charges she says were fabricated by former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose term ended in June, in an attempt to muzzle her criticism of his deadly anti-drugs crackdown.
By wire sources
