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BREAKING NEWS - Victims ‘shocked’ after Biden grants clemency to ‘kids-for-cash’ judge

Victims of major public corruption cases in Pennsylvania are angry that President Joe Biden granted clemency this week to two convicted officials.

The commutations were announced Thursday as part of a historic clemency package for 1,500 convicted criminals who, the White House said, “deserve a second chance.”

The two convicted officials whose cases sparked outrage – a crooked Pennsylvania judge and a notorious Illinois fraudster – both had already been released from prison early and put on house arrest during the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden’s actions now end that punishment.

The president has already faced bipartisan criticism over his highly controversial pardon of his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted earlier this year of 12 tax and gun crimes.

‘Got it absolutely wrong’​

Former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan was convicted in 2011 in what was infamously called the “kids-for-cash” scandal, where he took kickbacks from for-profit detention centers in exchange for wrongly sending juveniles to their facilities. The case was widely considered to be one of the worst judicial scandals in Pennsylvania history.
Like all of the other nearly 1,500 people who got commutations from Biden this week, Conahan was freed from prison due to Covid. His house arrest was set to end in 2026.

The misconduct of Conahan and another Luzerne County judge led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out 4,000 juvenile convictions, and the discredited state judges were ordered to pay $200 million to the victims, according to the Associated Press.

Sandy Fonzo – the mother of Edward Kenzakoski, who died by suicide after spending time behind bars as part of the kickback scheme – said she was “shocked… and hurt” after learning of Biden’s decision to commute the rest of Conahan’s punishment.

“Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Fonzo told the Citizens’ Voice, a local outlet. “This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also said Friday at an unrelated news conference in Biden’s hometown of Scranton that, “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania.”

BRICS expands with 9 new partner countries. Now it’s half of world population, 41% of global economy

Lions’ Ben Johnson to Interview With Two Teams for HC Job During Playoff Bye Week

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has some free time in his schedule after the Lions clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC on Sunday night, and he’ll be taking at least a few head coach interviews before his team continues its quest for the Super Bowl.

Johnson is set to interview for the New England Patriots’ and Chicago Bears’ head coaching vacancies this week during the Lions’ playoff bye, NFL’s Tom Pelissero reported Monday afternoon.




“I am told Ben Johnson does intend to interview with both the Patriots and the Bears for their head coaching positions this week. He is interested in those jobs, he has been intrigued by the Bears’ job for some time, and now that the Patriots’ job with Drake Maye at quarterback has become available, that is certainly a possibility to monitor,” Pelissero said on NFL Network.

2 Bodies Found in JetBlue Plane’s Landing Gear at Fort Lauderdale Airport

Two bodies were discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane on Monday after a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
JetBlue Flight 1801 departed Kennedy Airport in New York at 7:49 p.m. Monday and landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 11:10 p.m., according to flight tracker data. The bodies were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance assessment of the plane, the airline said.
Paramedics pronounced the two people dead at the scene, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. It was unclear how long the people had been in the landing gear compartment.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages Kennedy Airport, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how the individuals may have gained access to the aircraft.
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Landing gear compartments, located under an aircraft’s wings and at the front of the plane, have long been used by people attempting to travel undetected on airplanes. The airline did not say whether the two people who were found dead on Monday were stowaways.
Such attempts to hide in landing gear compartments have proven deadly in the past. The compartments open and close upon takeoff and landing to deploy and retract wheels and other landing components, and other stowaways have fallen to their deaths from the openings, sometimes landing in public spaces along flight paths.
Those who can stay within the compartment risk being crushed by landing gear when it is withdrawn back into the aircraft, along with other hazards, including severe temperatures, pressure changes and lack of oxygen. Many stowaways die of hypothermia.
As recently as Christmas Day, a body was discovered in a wheel well of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Hawaii. In 2023, a man was found alive in a landing gear compartment after a commercial flight from Algeria to France, though he was suffering from severe hypothermia.
An investigation was underway on Tuesday to determine the identities of the two individuals discovered in Fort Lauderdale and how they might have accessed the aircraft before it departed from New York, JetBlue said.



“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline said.
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Biden's regrets: Regarding the debate vs Trump, he only regrets not changing the timing because he had a cold

Story from the New York Times:

Regrets? Joe Biden may have a few.

Analysis: President Joe Biden’s public comments have offered a glimpse into what is on his mind.

By Katie Rogers
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has less than a month to go until his one-term presidency ends, and he is feeling reflective.
He is voicing regrets about his decision not to sign his name to COVID-19 relief checks and about his longtime reputation — once considered a virtue — of being the poorest lawmaker in Congress. And now, with a planned visit to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican next month, the president is signaling that he may have additional issues on his mind.

The visit, White House officials said as they issued a readout on Biden’s call with the pope last week, is officially to discuss world peace. But according to a person familiar with his plans for the trip, Biden is also going to the Holy See to seek solace and “relief” as he exits the world stage. Francis, that person said, has become an ally and sounding board, trading occasional phone calls with Biden. Some of those conversations have been casual check-ins of the “Hey, how you doing?” variety.

Throughout his long career, Biden’s penchant for narrating his life experiences has shaped how the public understands him. We know the stories: Childhood struggles with a stutter created a scrappy, bully-fighting neighborhood crusader. Mistakes and bad timing upended earlier attempts at the nation’s highest office. And the devastating losses of his first wife and two children created a wellspring of resilience.

But the regrets he has let slip in the lame-duck portion of his presidency are different from the traditional Biden lore he spun on his way up the ladder. As he makes his way down, his recent comments and actions reveal more about Biden’s thoughts on the current political landscape, one that is drastically different from the one he entered after winning his first Senate election in 1972.

Despite being described by his allies as in a pensive, sometimes angry, mood as the end of his term approaches, the president has not made himself available to answer many questions about his recent actions, including his decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden. Still, in public appearances, the president has offered a few glimpses into what has weighed on him.

Earlier this month, in remarks at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Biden spoke about his long-held belief that the key to strengthening the U.S. economy is through bolstering the middle class. But he paused just long enough to touch on a story that he has shared countless times as a candidate and officeholder. “For 36 years, I was listed as the poorest man in Congress,” he told the crowd with a laugh, before adding, “What a foolish man.”

Given the current atmosphere, the joke carried the sting of bitter truth. The billionaires are at the White House gates, ushered in by voters who were again siding with a wealthy man whose politics are antithetical to Biden’s.

In a month, Washington will be led again by Donald Trump, a man who has made no secret of his wealth or his appreciation for the wealth of others. One of his top advisers, Elon Musk, is by some counts the richest man in the world, and his first act of (unelected) political business this month was to try to goad congressional Republicans into a government shutdown.

Aside from joking about his wealth, Biden has openly stewed over one of Trump’s flashier — and apparently effective — stunts as president. During the same speech at Brookings, Biden said he had been “stupid” not to sign his name to COVID stimulus checks that were distributed to Americans early in his term. Trump emblazoned his signature on checks distributed after a relief bill was passed in the spring of 2020.

Biden and his advisers learned a little something from Trump’s tendency to scrawl his name on things. By 2023, signs touting infrastructure projects “funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” began popping up around the country. But those had little political impact compared with a signed check. Already, misleading stories are circulating on social media about Trump possibly bringing stimulus checks back in 2025, despite the fact that the president-elect has not detailed plans to issue more money.

Perhaps more revealing about Biden’s list of regrets are the items that do not appear on it. The president does not regret debating Trump in June, an appearance that created a slow bleed in his support among Democrats and ended with his ouster as the party’s presidential nominee. Biden has privately told allies that he only regrets not changing the timing because he had a cold, and believes he would have performed better if he had been in better health.

Biden has also not voiced much public regret for deciding to call his economic plan “Bidenomics,” though he has privately groused to allies about his dislike of the name. And while his administration has acknowledged mistakes during the chaotic and deadly troop pullout in Afghanistan in 2021, Biden does not regret pushing forward with the withdrawal.

Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane files ethics complaint against lieutenant governor Chris Cournoyer

The investigation, by a sergeant in the sheriff's office, concerned whether McAndrew continued monitoring a sex offender after the person was supposed to be discharged. No charges or disciplinary action have been brought against McAndrew, and Lane said the state attorney general and county attorney's offices and the Iowa Department of Corrections all "have determined no wrongdoing on part of Jennifer," Lane said.



Lane also contends that Cournoyer later improperly accessed and made copies of the sergeant's investigative report when Cournoyer was asked to pass the report, compiled in March, along to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
Cournoyer, through a spokesperson, denied Lane’s claims that the bill was related and said she acted properly when presented information from a whistleblower.

The Senate Ethics Committee declined to take up Lane’s complaint because it “was received after Lt. Gov Cournoyer had resigned the Senate seat thus there was nothing for the ethics committee to address,” Senate Ethics Committee Chair Tom Shipley, a senator from Adams County, wrote in email to the Quad-City Times Thursday.
Lane said Thursday he was exploring other avenues to express his concerns.
The bill Lane referenced in his complaint, Senate File 2014, later renumbered as Senate File 2277, was introduced by Cournoyer in January and passed committee but was not taken up by the full chamber.




The bill stipulated that a sheriff conducting a disciplinary or criminal investigation of a sheriff’s office employee who is an immediate family member of the sheriff shall have the investigation conducted by the attorney general or the state department of public safety.




Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane speaks during a 2022 roundtable hosted by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to discuss challenges with local law enforcement leaders in Davenport. Lane has filed an ethics complaint against former Sen. Chris Cournoyer, who is now Iowa's lieutenant governor.
NIKOS FRAZIER, QUAD-CITY TIMES
In his complaint, Lane asked the ethics committee to appoint a special counsel to determine whether the introduction of the bill "was part of a conspiracy” between Cournoyer and the sergeant investigating McAndrew “to force the DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) to further the criminal investigation on Jennifer McAndrew, harass her, and put her job at risk.”
McAndrew, Lane's wife, works for the Iowa Department of Corrections, not the sheriff’s office.

In an interview, Lane acknowledged the bill’s language doesn’t appear to apply to McAndrew, but Lane said he got a call from an Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter when the bill passed subcommittee who said Cournoyer had said the bill was introduced to address a problem in the Scott County Sheriff’s Office.


Lane said he doesn’t have any relatives that work for the sheriff’s office, and that he believes Cournoyer intended to expand the bill's scope to be able to compel another agency to continue investigating his wife.

“The act of doing a criminal investigation on somebody starting with no citizen complaint and having no merit and what appears to be a conspiracy between a deputy sheriff and a senator to change the law in order to further the investigation — I believe that is something that is a serious ethical violation that needs to be looked into,” Lane said.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times that claims in Lane’s complaint are false.
“The complaint, conveniently filed the day she was sworn in as lieutenant governor, doesn't even make sense,” the Governor’s Office Deputy Communications Director Mason Mauro wrote in an email. “Sheriff Lane insinuates that Lt. Governor Cournoyer introduced a bill in January because of what she allegedly learned in an investigation file on Sheriff Lane's wife three months later, in March.


“Lt. Gov. Cournoyer acted appropriately when provided information by a whistleblower, and Sheriff Lane's false allegation surrounding the investigation of his wife demonstrates the need for the very type of legislation that Lt. Gov. Cournoyer introduced."

Mauro did not respond to questions about why Cournoyer introduced the bill and what Cournoyer did with the investigative report.

Lane fired sergeant who secretly investigated his wife​

Sgt. Josh Wall, a veteran employee of the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, began investigating McAndrew in 2023 without telling his superiors. He produced a report in March 2024 and gave it to Cournoyer to pass to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. When Wall's supervisors found out about it, they investigated Wall and held a hearing. At the recommendation of a captain and lieutenant in the sheriff’s office that investigated Wall, Lane fired him, according to a decision written by the Scott County Civil Service Commission.


Wall appealed Lane’s decision, but it was upheld by the Scott County Civil Service Commission. Wall could not be reached for comment.

Wall told the commission he believed McAndrew was violating the rights of a sex offender by monitoring him longer than she should have, and that he kept his investigation secret because he feared retaliation.
Wall investigated for months before compiling a report in March 2024 that Lane said recommended federal and state criminal charges and a civil rights lawsuit against McAndrew. Wall then gave the report and a flash drive to Cournoyer to take to the Iowa Attorney General, Lane wrote in his complaint.
The Scott County Civil Service Commission wrote in its decision upholding Wall’s firing that “though the investigation may have involved Sheriff Lane’s spouse, Sgt. Wall completely failed to bring his concerns to the attention of anyone. There is far from clear evidence any potential crime was committed here as first described to Sgt. Wall.”


In its decision, the commission wrote that it believed Wall had a “legitimate concern” when Wall first heard from the sex offender.
“But thereafter, Sgt. Wall did not follow any proper procedure or reporting or documentation so required. He failed to take proper steps to notify virtually anyone in the sheriff’s department, or the county attorney’s office, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, or the Department of Criminal Investigations. If he truly believed a crime had been committed, (he) really told no one, at least for many months. Sgt. Wall did make a secret investigation and really did so as a sheriff’s deputy.”

Cournoyer supported Lane’s opponent in the Republican primary earlier this year, Chris Laye. Lane notes in his complaint that Cournoyer wrote a letter to the editor in the Quad-City Times in May 2024 that stated, “The citizens of Scott County deserve someone who enforces the law who doesn’t think he or his family members are above it.”


Lane wrote in his complaint that “this statement speaks publicly to the content of Wall’s criminal report. Senator Cournoyer was heavily involved in the Chris Laye for Sheriff campaign, and Sgt. Josh Wall was the campaign manager and accountant.”
Lane accuses Cournoyer of “harassment of a citizen, use of confidential information to further her own interests or the interests of another person, disclosing confidential information, and improperly or illegally obtaining confidential information.”

Council Bluffs power plant to host University of Iowa carbon capture study

Council Bluffs will be home to a new $11 million study being conducted by the University of Iowa researchers.
The university is launching a study on different ways to store carbon dioxide emissions, according to a news release.
MidAmerican Energy agreed to partner with the university to use the company's Walter Scott, Jr. Energy Center south of Council Bluffs as the study's location.
The center is a coal-fired power plant in Council Bluffs on top of the Midcontinent Rift System. The formation holds about a 6-mile-thick area of basalt, which researchers are examining to see whether it could store carbon dioxide.

To do this, the project will drill about 5,000 feet into the site to gather data and rock samples which will then be tested for carbon dioxide injection simulations.






The Walter Scott Jr. Energy Center, located at 7215 Navajo St. in Council Bluffs, is a coal power plant operated by MidAmerican Energy.
SCOTT STEWART, THE NONPAREIL

“It's these predictive models that really kind of help us identify if this is even going to work in this location or not,” said Ryan Clark, a geologist at the University of Iowa.

The study will be a two-year project for $11.3 million, of which 20% will be funded by MidAmerican Energy. The U.S. Department of Energy will contribute $9 million toward the research.
“We are participating and contributing to the study because we view this as an important project that will help researchers determine whether carbon storage in the basalt formation deep below our facility is viable,” said Geoff Greenwood, media relations manager at MidAmerican Energy.
The injection of carbon dioxide under the Earth’s surface is not a new concept but is new to Iowa. Clark pointed out that many states around Iowa are already researching and moving toward this method.


“It has a really huge air quality benefit, not only, you know, kind of regionally and big picture, but it would have a really significant effect on the improving air quality there, locally,” Clark said.
Clark said that the project is not only conducted solely by the University of Iowa. While the school is the lead, it has partnered with a consulting firm, a drilling company and the Pacific Northwest National Lab.

“I want to make sure that folks know that it's, it's definitely a pretty good-sized project team that's got a lot of experience and should help us succeed in this,” Clark said.

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