“Today, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment, ECF No. 226, charging the defendant with the same criminal offenses that were charged in the original indictment,” a Justice Department spokesperson said Tuesday.
Special counsel Jack Smith has charged former President Donald Trump in a superseding indictment in his federal election interference case.
“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions,” the spokesperson said.
Trump last August pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power. Last month, in a blockbuster decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office, and sent the case back to the trial court to sort out which charges against him can stand.
The superseding indictment retains the four original charges against Trump from the special counsel’s original indictment — but is pared down to adjust to the Supreme Court’s ruling in its decision on presidential immunity.
For instance, it removes the allegations of how Trump allegedly sought to use the Justice Department in his efforts to overturn the election — which was explicitly mentioned in the Supreme Court’s ruling as falling within his official duties.
The superseding indictment is 36 pages, while the original indictment was 45 pages.
We are just 70 days from November’s election, and some races are tightening in Texas. State Republican officials have focused on what they call election integrity.
“Closeness matters. The way to think of it simply — you go to a baseball game, the score is 10 to nothing, and the umpire makes a bad call, and it costs you a run, you will walk away and say, ‘My team wasn’t very good.’ If the score is extremely close, zero to zero, and then a bad call by the umpire, then you begin to blame, not your team, but the umpire,” Rice University Political Science Professor Bob Stein said.
Stein has studied elections for decades and was an expert witness in the state’s election audit.
He wasn’t surprised when Governor Greg Abbott announced on Monday that since 2021, reforms he has signed into law have led to more than 1 million ineligible voters being taken off the state’s voter rolls.
“There are two sides to this: reinforce confidence in voters that elections are conducted fairly and serve notice to people that might attempt to vote who are not eligible to vote that they will be prosecuted,” Stein explained. “I’ll leave it to others who listen to this to make a judgment of who and which parties are advantaged to that, but I think that the coincidence of these and the proximity to the upcoming election seems to be slightly problematic.”
Clearing out voter rolls isn’t new.
“I don’t consider a million names removed unusual,” Stein said. “I would imagine that as many as half a million people have died, moved, or changed addresses.”
According to records provided by the Texas secretary of state, voter roll removal numbers haven’t actually gone up in recent years.
In fact, 1.25 million people statewide were removed in 2020.
In 2019, 683,000 were taken off.
The governor’s office didn’t respond to our questions about it, but we do know voter turnout is a big deal for both parties.
“If voters no longer believe in elections, or for that matter anything else, gambling in Las Vegas, baseball games are not fair, they don’t come, they don’t participate,” Stein said.
You have until Oct. 7 to register to vote in November’s election.
“It’s really important that you go out and check your voter registration,” Dallana Carmargo with the League of Women Voters said. “Sometimes, if you haven’t registered in two consecutive federal elections, they’ll remove you. You have to re-register, or maybe you have moved since the last time.”
Brenna Swindell and her ex-boyfriend Morgan Guidry have been located safely, according to social media posts from her family on Tuesday morning.
“She has been found,” Brenna’s father, former Houston Astros pitcher Greg Swindell, announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “That’s all we have for now. Thank you to everyone. And I mean everyone who helped in the process.”
Brenna’s mother, Sarah Swindell, also shared the news on Facebook, expressing her gratitude to those who supported the family during the search. “Brenna and Morgan have been located and are okay!” she wrote. “THANK YOU to everyone who prayed and shared information with us!”
Apple Inc. announced on Monday that Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Luca Maestri will step down from his role on January 1, 2024, with Kevan Parekh, a long-time Apple executive, set to take over the position.
Maestri, who has held the CFO position since 2014, will remain at Apple, where he will continue to lead teams focusing on IT, security, and real estate development, according to the company’s statement.
Kevan Parekh, currently Apple’s Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, has been a key figure in the company’s finance department, closely working with Maestri over the years.
“For more than a decade, Kevan has been an indispensable member of Apple’s finance leadership team, and he understands the company inside and out. His sharp intellect, wise judgment, and financial brilliance make him the perfect choice to be Apple’s next CFO,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.
Maestri’s tenure as CFO coincided with a period of significant growth for Apple. Since he took on the role, Apple’s stock price has surged by over 800%, fueled in part by robust demand for iPhones. Under his leadership, Apple more than doubled its annual sales and net income, with revenue increasing from approximately $183 billion in 2014 to $383 billion in the last fiscal year. Additionally, Maestri played a pivotal role in overseeing Apple’s record-breaking capital return program and frequently appeared alongside Cook during quarterly earnings calls.
Before joining Apple, Maestri, 60, had a distinguished career that began at General Motors, where he spent two decades helping to establish the automaker’s operations in the Asia Pacific region. He later served as CFO at Nokia Siemens and Xerox before joining Apple as corporate controller in 2013 and was promoted to CFO the following year.
Kevan Parekh, who joined Apple in 2013, brings a wealth of experience to his new role. He started his career at Thomson Reuters before moving to Apple, where he has since held various roles in finance and product marketing. Like Maestri, Parekh also spent time at General Motors, working in overseas operations.
Apple’s leadership transition comes amid broader shifts within the financial leadership of Silicon Valley’s top companies. At Alphabet, CFO Ruth Porat announced her departure from the role in July 2023 to become President and Chief Investment Officer, with Anat Ashkenazi, formerly of Eli Lilly, taking her place. Similarly, Meta named Susan Li as its new CFO in 2022, succeeding David Wehner, who transitioned to the role of Chief Strategy Officer.
As Parekh prepares to step into his new role, the industry will be watching closely to see how he steers Apple’s financial future in the years to come.
Houston, Texas (KTRK) – The shelter-in-place order at Rice University was lifted Monday evening following reports of a potential homicide at Jones College, one of the university’s 11 residential colleges.
The incident began around 5:05 p.m. when Houston police responded to reports of a shooting at 6200 Main St. Rice University quickly took precautionary measures, urging all students, faculty, and staff to shelter in place while Rice University Police Department conducted an investigation.
In a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Rice University confirmed that its police department was investigating the situation and canceled all classes and campus activities for the rest of the day.
The shelter-in-place order has since been lifted, but the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A Harris County Precinct 6 deputy constable, who is under investigation for reportedly killing a man in a wrong-way crash, was terminated Sunday.
According to Houston police, the fatal crash happened at approximately 1:30 p.m. Saturday on Canal Street, near Live Oak Street, in Houston’s Second Ward.
Witnesses reported that deputy constable Rigo Vivar had been driving aggressively. A public information officer for the Houston Police Department told ABC13 that preliminary investigation indicates a man, identified by Precinct 6 as Vivar, had been driving on the wrong side of Canal Street. Vivar reportedly struck and killed another driver while he was turning right onto Live Oak Street from Canal Street.
The deceased man’s grieving family identified the victim as 28-year-old Ricardo Resendez. He lived just a few hundred feet from the crash site.
His neighbor, Antonio Briones, heard the crash impact and rushed to help.
“I pulled off the windshield, and me and another gentleman pulled off the window, the driver’s side window, to try and check his vitals a little bit, to see if he was breathing, and I don’t think he was responsive. He wasn’t responsive at any point,” Briones said.
Harris County Precinct 6 internal affairs Lieutenant Simel Maldonado told ABC13 that a preliminary investigation indicates the deputy constable was on his way to work in his personal vehicle. He was in uniform at the time of the crash.
As of Sunday, no charges had been filed. HPD’s investigation is ongoing.
The two astronauts who went up to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s Starliner will have to come home on a different spacecraft next year, NASA officials announced Saturday.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who performed the first crewed test flight of Starliner, will return in February 2025 on the Space-X crew 9, according to NASA.
The Boeing Starliner will return in a separate flight uncrewed, NASA said.
“The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at a news conference.
When Wilmore and Williams launched on June 5, they were originally scheduled to only be on the ISS for a week and return on June 14, but have since had their return delayed multiple times.
While the pair integrated with the “Expedition 71” crew aboard the ISS, assisting them with research and other responsibilities, NASA officials have said Wilmore and Williams are using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.
Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regard to the vehicle’s thrusters.
“There was too much risk for the crew,” he said.
A Boeing spokesperson said in a statement that the company “continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft.”
“We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return,” Boeing said.
NASA officials said Wilmore and Williams will assist with science experiments, maintenance and maybe some spacewalks during their extended stay on the ISS.
When SpaceX’s Dragon Crew-9 launches in September it will do so with only two of the four astronauts assigned to it to accommodate Wilmore and Williams on the return trip, according to Stich.
Extra spacesuits will be provided, according to Stitch.
“As we started looking at various options, it was obvious to both of us that the easiest and best option was to configure the crew nine vehicle with a couple empty seats on the way up,” he said.
Stich said that Starliner does not currently have the ability to autonomously undock from the ISS. To do that, the Starliner software would need to be updated and the Boeing flight control team would need to undergo additional training.
Starliner is part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which was testing if Boeing’s spacecrafts could be certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.
The spacecraft had been plagued by issues even before launch. The flight test was originally tentatively scheduled for May 6, but was scrubbed after a problem with an oxygen valve on a rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), which manufactures and operates the rockets that launch spacecraft into orbit.
Helium leaks and a thruster issue then threatened to delay Starliner’s docking. Five days after docking at the ISS, NASA and Boeing said the spacecraft was experiencing five “small” helium leaks and, at the time, said enough helium was available for the return mission.
Last month, teams at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico performed ground testsof Starliner’s thruster, putting it through similar conditions the spacecraft experienced on its way to the ISS, to see how it would react upon undocking.
Stich said the crew has gone through a lot of emotions concerning the changes to the mission and the test flight.
“In the ultimate long-term view, we have not lost anything, because Boeing … is committed to finding the solutions and flying Starliner again. But I probably can not express what it’s like in words when you commit to a mission so long and then we make a fairly dramatic change which we have not in human space flight in a long time,” he said.
Norm Knight, NASA’s director of flight operations directorate, acknowledged the hardships placed on Wilmore and Williams’s families as they wait for months for their loved ones to return home but noted that every astronaut knows the risks, which include extended stays on the space station.
“I care deeply about their families, I know this is a huge impact on their families and it means a lot,” he said. “I tell their families thank you for their support, thank you for what they do.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former top U.S. infectious disease expert, spent time in the hospital after being infected with West Nile virus and is now recovering at home, a spokesperson confirmed Saturday.
Fauci is expected to make a full recovery, the spokesperson said on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
West Nile virus is commonly spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. While most people don’t experience symptoms, about 1 in 5 can develop a fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 out of 150 infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, illness.
CBS News’ chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jonathan LaPook, wrote in a social media post that he spoke Saturday with Fauci, who said he was likely infected from a mosquito bite that he got in his backyard.
“Dr. Fauci was hospitalized about ten days ago after developing fever, chills, and severe fatigue,” the post on X said. It said Fauci spent a week in the hospital.
As chief White House medical adviser, Fauci was the public face of the U.S. government during the COVID-19 pandemic, a role that made him both a trusted voice to millions and also the target of partisan anger. He left the government in 2022 but was back before Congress in June to testify as part of Republicans’ yearslong investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. response to the disease.
Fauci last summer joined the faculty at Georgetown University as a distinguished university professor.
There are no vaccines to prevent West Nile, or medicines to treat it. As of Aug. 20, the CDC had recorded 216 cases in 33 states this year. It’s best prevented by avoiding mosquito bites.
The largest proposed grocery store merger in U.S. history is going to court.
On one side are supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons, which say their planned merger will help them compete against rivals like Costco. On the other side are antitrust regulators from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who argue that the merger would eliminate competition and raise grocery prices in an already challenging time of high food price inflation.
Starting Monday, a federal district court judge in Portland, Oregon, will consider both sides and decide whether to grant the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction. If granted, the injunction would delay the merger while the FTC conducts an in-house case against the deal before an administrative law judge.
Kroger, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s, and Harris Teeter. Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco, and Shaw’s. Together, the companies employ around 710,000 people.
Here’s what to know ahead of the hearing, which is expected to last until Sept. 13:
Why do Kroger and Albertsons want to merge? Kroger and Albertsons—two of the largest grocery chains in the U.S.—announced in October 2022 that they planned to merge. The companies claim the $24.6 billion deal would help keep prices down by giving them more leverage with suppliers and allowing them to combine their store brands. They also believe the merger would help them compete with large rivals like Walmart, which currently controls around 22% of U.S. grocery sales. Combined, Kroger and Albertsons would control around 13%.
Why does the FTC want to block the merger? Antitrust regulators argue that the proposed merger would eliminate competition, leading to higher prices, poorer quality, and lower wages and benefits for workers. In February, the FTC issued a complaint seeking to block the merger before an administrative judge at the FTC. Simultaneously, the FTC filed a lawsuit in federal court in Oregon seeking a preliminary injunction. The attorneys general of California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wyoming have all joined the federal lawsuit.
Will Kroger and Albertsons close some stores if they merge? They say no. If the merger is approved, Kroger and Albertsons have agreed to sell 579 stores in locations where their stores overlap. The buyer would be C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands. Kroger and Albertsons initially planned to divest 413 stores, but the FTC said that plan would not have allowed C&S to be a robust competitor. In April, Kroger and Albertsons agreed to divest additional stores. Washington has the most stores that would be divested, with 124, followed by Colorado with 91 and California with 63.
What happens if the Oregon judge issues a preliminary injunction? If the preliminary injunction is approved, Kroger and Albertsons would likely appeal to a higher court, said Mike Keeley, a partner and antitrust chair at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, a Washington law firm. The case could then move through the FTC’s own judicial system, but since that can take a year or more, companies often abandon a deal before going through the process, Keeley said. Kroger sued the FTC this month, alleging the agency’s internal proceedings are unconstitutional and stating that it wants the merger’s merits decided in federal court. In that case, filed in Ohio, Kroger cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that limited the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission to try some civil fraud complaints within the agency instead of in court.
What happens if the Oregon judge agrees with Kroger and Albertsons? The FTC would likely appeal the ruling, but Keeley said it’s rare for an appeals court to reverse a lower court’s ruling on a merger, so the FTC might decide to drop the challenge. The case could still proceed through the FTC’s administrative process. It’s unclear what impact the presidential election could have on the case. The Biden administration has been particularly aggressive in challenging mergers it considers anti-competitive, but lawmakers from both parties expressed skepticism about the merger in a 2022 hearing.
If the federal court lets the merger proceed, could state courts still prevent it? Colorado and Washington have separately sued to block the merger in state courts. That’s an unusual situation; normally, states are co-plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit. But both states believe they have a lot at stake. Colorado has more than 200 Kroger and Albertsons stores, while Washington has more than 300. Keeley said both states could seek their own injunctions from a different court if the FTC loses, but it would be surprising for another court to block the merger if Kroger and Albertsons are successful in the federal case.
RICHMOND, Texas (KTRK) — An 8-year-old boy with autism was found dead Sunday morning after going missing on Saturday, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office said.
According to the sheriff’s office, Ryan Akabusi was located by Texas Equusearch. His body was retrieved from a lake near his home where he was last seen in the 19900 block of Kendall Lake Drive.
His mother said a surveillance camera captured him leaving his bedroom around 4:56 a.m., and a neighbor’s surveillance camera captured him walking down a nearby street at 5:37 a.m.
A local Amber alert was issued late Saturday afternoon, and Texas EquuSearch organized a search party to comb the Lakemont neighborhood.
Saturday, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office cordoned off parts of a retention pond and closed a road. Deputies could be seen searching with K9s.
