Month: January 2025

President Joe Biden has signed a proclamation naming two new national monuments in California, protecting 848,000 acres of land that are of ‘scientific, cultural, ecological, and historical importance.’

The White House said in a statement:  “With today’s designations and yesterday’s actions to protect the East and West coasts and Northern Bering Sea from offshore oil and natural gas drilling, President Biden has now protected 647 acres of U.S. land and water. By designating this new national monument, President Biden is enhancing outdoor access for nearby communities, preserving critical habitat for imperiled and rare species, and ensuring the ancestral homelands and sacred cultural legacies and the region’s Tribal Nations endure for generations to come. All the while demonstrating that clean energy and conservation can go hand in hand. The monument will be managed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.”

According to a White House statement, the Chuckwalla National Monument preserves more than 624,000 acres just south of Joshua Tree National Park. The area holds cultural and historical significance for tribes including the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan and Serrano. The monument will protect habitats for species including the desert tortoise, bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard, for which it is named, and will provide outdoor recreation opportunities for nearby poor communities.

The White House said the Chuckwalla monument will allow the construction and expansion of electric transmission lines to transport clean energy to population centers in the West. Renewable energy projects will be able to be developed near or adjacent to the monument. Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s acting deputy secretary, said in a statement: “The establishment of Chuckwalla National Monument demonstrates that we can balance conservation and drive toward a clean energy future that serves everyone.”

The Sattitla Highlands National Monument in northern California will preserve 224,000 acres across three national forests. The area is sacred to the Pit River and Modoc tribes, and Brandy McDaniels, a Pit River tribe member who has advocated for the creation of the monument, are welcoming lasting protection: “As tribal people that are socio-economically suppressed, we are constantly faced with corporations that have endless resources to come and exploit and degrade our water resources and our land.”

Per Reuters, the moves are aligned with the Biden administration’s goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Under federal law, presidents have the authority to create or alter national monuments in recognition of a site’s cultural, historical or scientific importance, but a designation can be rescinded by a future president.

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Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump asked a New York judge on Monday to delay his sentencing on Jan. 10 in his “hush money” criminal case.  Trump’s lawyers had again appealed Justice Juan Merchan’s decision to deny Trump’s bids to dismiss the case due to presidential immunity and the demands of the presidential transition period. Merchan had set the sentencing date for this Friday, stating that Trump, 78, would be unlikely to face jail or other legal consequences. Judge Merchan said Trump may appear at his sentencing either in person or virtually.

The ‘hush money’ case involves a $130,000 payment Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. After a six-week trial in state criminal court in Manhattan, a jury in May found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to mask the payment prior to the 2016 election.

Late on Monday, however, the request from Trump’s legal team was denied by Merchan, who wrote that Trump’s arguments “are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past,” adding that they “are for the most part, factually distinguishable from the actual record or legally inapplicable.”

On Monday afternoon, Trump’s attorneys filed an appeal with a New York appellate court seeking to overturn Merchan’s rulings that upheld Trump’s conviction. Trump’s lawyers did not ask the appeals court to intervene in the sentencing, but may do so  if Merchan sentences Trump on Friday. Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing with the appeals court Monday: “Justice Merchan’s erroneous decisions threaten the institution of the Presidency and run squarely against established precedent disallowing any criminal process against a President-Elect, as well as prohibiting the use of evidence of a President’s official acts against him in a criminal proceeding,” (per CNN.)

Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung reiterated in a statement to CBS News that Trump’s return to the White House requires “an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”

Sentencing has been delayed repeatedly in the months since – after being initially scheduled for July 11, a Sept. 18 sentencing date was set – and then pushed back after Trump asked to move it until after the election. The new sentencing date for Nov. 26 was delayed again after Trump won the presidential election, and Trump’s team filed another motion to dismiss, saying it was unconstitutional to hold criminal proceedings related to a president-elect.

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Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel said on Monday that it they are suing the Biden administration over the decision to block its sales agreement, alleging that the White House used the government review process as a pretext to reject the merger as a favor to the United Steelworkers (USW) labor union.

On Friday, Biden announced he was blocking Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion agreement to buy U.S. Steel, citing national security concerns and threats to the domestic steel market. The CFIUS, which makes recommendations to the president on large deals involving foreign entities, declined to approve – or disapprove – the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal, allowing Biden to block the transaction.

In their lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Japanese-based company and U.S. Steel said Biden violated Constitutional guarantees of due process and statutory procedural requirements along with “unlawful political influences.”

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel said Monday in a statement outlining their lawsuit: “President Biden’s Order is the culmination of a months-long campaign to subvert and exploit the United States’ national security apparatus for the purpose of keeping a promise made by the President and his advisors to the USW leadership.” 

A second lawsuit accuses Cleveland-Cliffs, a rival steel company that pursued their own purchase of U.S. Steel, and U.S. Steel’s union for working together to illegally nix the sale. That federal lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The steel companies added: “Today’s legal actions demonstrate Nippon Steel’s and U.S. Steel’s continued commitment to completing the transaction — despite political interference with the [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] process and the racketeering and monopolistic conspiracies of Cleveland-Cliffs and USW President David McCall — for the benefit of all stakeholders, including U.S. Steel’s shareholders, who will receive the agreed-upon $55 per share upon the transaction closing.”

The steel companies said that Cleveland Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy Allied Industries and Service Workers International Union (which represents U.S. Steel workers)  of collusion: “Cleveland-Cliffs,in collusion with the leadership of the USW, has sought to prevent the transition from closing and any party other than Cliffs from acquiring U.S.Steel.”

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The FBI said on Sunday that the suspect in the deadly New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans visited the city twice – in October and November, scouting the best location to carry out his attack while using a pair of Meta smart glasses to record video of a bicycle ride through the French Quarter.

The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, stayed at a rental home in New Orleans at the end of October and again in November, just weeks prior to his attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people.  Jabbar traveled to Cairo from June 22 to July 3, 2023, and to Ontario, Canada, from July 10 to July 13 of that year, per FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil.  Myrthil said on Sunday that he wore the smart glasses to record video as he rode a bicycle through the French Quarter during that trip: “”Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here in our city of New Orleans. Meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses, but they allow a user to record videos and photos hand-free. They also allow the user to potentially livestream through their video.” A compilation of the clips was posted online by the FBI, which includes Jabbar testing the glasses in a mirror and surveillance clips of him in the are prior to the truck attack. Images of bystanders were blurred by the FBI.

According to the FBI, Jabbar wore the glasses during his New Year’s Day attack, but they were not activated for a livestream.  Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told NBC News that the company is “in touch with law enforcement on this matter.” Investigators also found that Jabbar placed two homemade bombs in the area prior to the attack, but neither device detonated. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that two firearms were also recovered in the investigation, a semiautomatic pistol and a rifle.  The .308-caliber rifle was purchased in a private sale in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 19.

At least 14 people were killed and dozens were injured in the attack, which occurred over a three-block stretch of Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter. Jabbar, a Texas born-citizen who FBI officials said proclaimed his support for the terror group ISIS in social media posts ahead of the attack, was killed in gunfire exchanged with New Orleans police. Federal agents have not found evidence of any accomplices in the attack and reiterated Sunday that it appears Jabbar acted alone, and does not appear to have any U.S.-based accomplices. ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the attack and officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said there is no established link to foreign actors.

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President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to 19 people on Saturday. According to the White House, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is “presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.” The award was established by the late President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom spanned across politics, culture and the arts, and included former Senator Hillary Clinton – the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party — who “made history many times over decades in public service.” A statement from the White House read: “President Biden believes great leaders keep the faith, give everyone a fair shot, and put decency above all else. These nineteen individuals are great leaders who have made America a better place. They are great leaders because they are good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world.”

Other recipients included fashion designer Ralph Lauren, U2 frontman Bono, billionaire philanthropist George Soros, actors Michael J. Fox and Denzel Washington, and Inter Miami soccer star Lionel Messi. Additionally, Biden honored ethologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, retired Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson, chef and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, science educator Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” LGBTQ activist and entrepreneur Tim Gill, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein and American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr.

Those receiving the award posthumously were former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter and former Michigan Gov. George W. Romney.

Biden gave brief remarks before presenting the awards on Saturday afternoon, stating: “For the final time as president I have the honor of bestowing the Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, to a group of extraordinary — truly extraordinary people who gave their sacred effort to shape the culture and the cause of America. Together, you leave an incredible mark – and I mean this sincerely, this group – you leave an incredible mark on our country.”

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