Trump pardons ex-sheriff convicted of defying judge’s order
Trump pardons ex-sheriff convicted of defying judge’s order
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio, the retired Arizona lawman who was convicted for intentionally disobeying a judge’s order in an immigration case.
The White House said the 85-year-old ex-sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County was a “worthy candidate” for a presidential pardon.
The action came several days after Trump, at a rally in downtown Phoenix, strongly hinted that he intended to issue a pardon.
“So was Sheriff Joe was convicted for doing his job?” Trump asked supporters. “I’ll make a prediction. I think he’s going to be just fine, OK.”
Arpaio, who became linked to Trump during the campaign for their hardline immigration views, was convicted of a misdemeanor for intentionally defying a judge’s order to stop his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.
Both politicians questioned the authenticity of then-President Barack Obama’s birth certificate and have a similar history in sparring with judges.
In the statement Friday night, the White House said, “Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Knife-wielding man shot dead in Brussels ‘terror attack’
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian soldiers shot a man dead in downtown Brussels on Friday evening after he attacked the troops with a knife in what prosecutors described as a “terror attack.”
Spokeswoman Esther Natus of the federal prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism investigations, said the man twice shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” as he ran at the soldiers.
“We do consider it a terror attack,” Natus said. She declined to identify the man or confirm whether he was known to police, saying only that “the suspect is dead” and one of the soldiers was slightly wounded.
Brussels Mayor Philippe Close said three soldiers came under attack and one had been hospitalized.
Federal Police spokesman Jonathan Pfunde also confirmed some details of the incident and said the attacker had been “neutralized.”
Upset with Trump’s response, economic aide mulled quitting
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser sharply denounced the president’s response to the racial violence in Charlottesville, saying in an interview that he felt “compelled” to speak out. Gary Cohn, who is Jewish, was so upset by Trump’s comments that he wrote a letter of resignation but never submitted it.
“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” Cohn told The Financial Times in an interview published Friday. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”
It was an extraordinary public rebuke of the president by a senior adviser, and came just as Cohn will be a key figure in the administration’s fall push for sweeping tax reforms. It also played out as Cohn emerged as a candidate to replace Janet Yellen as chairman of the Federal Reserve when her term ends in February.
Cohn told associates he expressed his unhappiness to Trump in a conversation a week ago at the president’s New Jersey golf club and considered stepping down, according to a person familiar with the conversations but not authorized to speak publicly about private talks. Two people familiar with his thinking said he’d written a resignation letter but then pocketed it.
“As a Jewish American, I will not allow neo-Nazis ranting ‘Jews will not replace us’ to cause this Jew to leave his job,” Cohn said in the Financial Times interview.
New mudslide hits Swiss Alpine village
GENEVA (AP) — A new mudslide on Friday plowed into houses in the same Swiss Alpine village that was cleaning up from a devastating landslide two days ago that left eight people missing.
Video from Bondo showed images of mud, rocks and debris tumbling down from a mountainside at a walking pace into the village along the Italian border.
At least two or three houses were hit by the new mudslide, Michael Kirthner, director of the Bregaglia regional tourism authority, said by telephone from Bondo.
The regional Graubuenden police said the new mudslide hit areas that were already sealed off for safety reasons following a more powerful landslide on Wednesday. The zone is littered with rocks and caking mud,
Police said no one was hurt Friday. Authorities had earlier allowed some residents to return home, partially lifting an evacuation order.
Yellen defends bank regulations passed after 2008 crisis
JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday emphatically defended the web of regulations the Fed helped enact after the 2008 financial crisis, saying it helped restore the banking system’s health and disputing criticism that the rules have hurt lending.
Yellen said the Fed is prepared to adjust the regulations as needed to help financial institutions. But in a speech to an annual conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, she implicitly rejected efforts by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to scrap the 2010 Dodd-Frank law as a threat to the economy.
The Fed chair refrained from remarking on the state of the economy or on the possible future course of interest rates. Investors had been awaiting her speech for any signals about what the Fed might do when it meets next month. The central bank has been gradually raising its benchmark short-term rate, but most Fed watchers expect no rate hike before December at the earliest.
Overhanging Yellen’s speech was the possibility that it marks her final appearance in Jackson Hole as Fed chair. Her term as chair will end in February, and Trump has made clear he is considering replacing her. One candidate he has mentioned is Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs senior executive who leads Trump’s National Economic Council.
Some saw Yellen’s forceful defense Friday of the regulatory structure imposed on banks since the 2008 crisis as further lessening the likelihood that Trump will reappoint her.
Historians warn against rushing to take down statues
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not just about Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
The national soul-searching over whether to take down monuments to the Confederacy’s demigods has extended to other historical figures accused of wrongdoing, including Christopher Columbus (brutality toward Native Americans), the man for whom Boston’s Faneuil Hall is named (slave trader) and former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo (bigotry).
Historians interviewed by The Associated Press offered varying thoughts about where exactly the line should be drawn in judging someone’s statue-worthiness, but they agreed on one thing: Scrapping a monument is not a decision that should be made in haste during political fervor.
“If we do this in some willy-nilly way, we will regret it,” cautioned Yale University historian David Blight, an expert on slavery. “I am very wary of a rush to judgment about what we hate and what we love and what we despise and what we’re offended by.”
Blight and other historians say the way to determine whether to remove these monuments, Confederate or otherwise, is through discussions that weigh many factors, among them: the reason behind when and why the monument was built. Where it’s placed. The subject’s contribution to society weighed against the alleged wrongdoing. Historical significance. And the artistic value of the monument itself.