Ravenna

Boeing heads to court amid fight over release of 737 MAX documents

Boeing Co heads to court on Wednesday to dispute a request from lawyers representing victims of a 737 MAX crash for documents related to the aircraft's design, development and two fatal disasters. Chicago-based Boeing is facing around 100 lawsuits by families of 157 victims of a Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash on March 10, five months after a similar accident on a Lion Air flight that killed 189 people. Lawyers for the victims' families are asking why Boeing and U.S. regulators allowed the MAX to continue flying after the Lion Air disaster and whether the planemaker hid materials from crash investigators.

U.S. housing starts fall; building permits near 13-year high

U.S. homebuilding fell less than expected in January while permits surged to a near 13-year high, pointing to sustained housing market strength amid lower mortgage rates. Housing starts dropped 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.567 million units last month, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts falling to a pace of 1.425 million units in January.

'GMA' Book Club: 3 powerhouse authors share their Black History Month book picks

"GMA" Book Club is celebrating Black History Month by spotlighting several books chosen by three young powerhouse authors. Tomi Adeyemi is the author behind the wildly popular "Children of Blood and Bone" and its recent sequel "Children of Virtue and Vengeance"; Jason Reynolds didn't read as a child because he said he couldn't find books he related to and went on to become a literary phenomenon and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature; and Kiley Reid's debut novel, "Such a Fun Age," is taking the literary world by storm.

Missing 76-year-old hiker found alive, authorities say

An elderly man who had vanished while hiking in Northern California was found alive Tuesday night, authorities said. Robert Bennett, 76, was reported missing on Monday after he failed to return from a hike in a Marin County nature preserve. The Marin County Sheriff's Office had said Bennett was last seen that afternoon walking toward a trailhead that leads to Big Rock Ridge, which borders the cities of Novato and San Rafael.

As Trump Claims to Be Law of the Land, Barr's Irritation Builds

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr agree on one thing at least: The president is making the attorney general's job much harder. What they don't agree on: Trump sees no reason to stop.Defying Barr's pleas, the president renewed his public attacks on law enforcement Tuesday, denouncing the prosecutors, judge and jury forewoman in the case of his longtime friend Roger Stone and defending his convicted former adviser Michael Flynn against Trump's own Justice Department.Explicitly rebuffed, Barr was left by the end of the day to consider his own future. He expressed dissatisfaction to associates, and his irritation soon fed news reports that he was considering resignation if the president continued to publicly weigh in on individual prosecutions of his own associates. But it was unclear whether that would persuade Trump to back off or only get his back up.The suggestions of resignation came at the end of a day when the president asserted his dominance over a justice system that had long sought to insulate itself from political pressures. Calling himself "the chief law enforcement officer of the country," Trump demanded a new trial for Stone, urged federal judges to address the "tremendous" abuse of the special counsel investigation of his campaign and bypassed the traditional pardon process to grant clemency to celebrity convicts recommended by his friends, allies and political donors.Trump insisted he had not directly interfered in the prosecution of advisers like Stone and Flynn but declared again that he had the power to if he wanted and that, at the very least, he planned to speak out for them. "You take a look at what's happening to these people," he told reporters. "Somebody has to stick up for the people."In doing so, Trump acknowledged that Barr was right last week when he said that the president was making it "impossible" for him to do his work. "I do make his job harder," Trump said. "I do agree with that. I think that's true."But while he praised Barr's "incredible integrity" and avowed "total confidence" in him, Trump dismissed the suggestion that he stop discussing individual cases. "Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice, because I don't get that voice in the press," he said. "In the media, I don't get that voice. So I'm allowed to have a voice."Even as he refused to take Barr's advice, Trump expressed no anger toward his attorney general, and some officials said he understood why Barr felt the need to complain last week to ABC News about the presidential tweets. But The Washington Post reported Tuesday night that Barr was thinking about stepping down if the president's tweets continued, a story confirmed by an administration official and seemingly aimed at an audience of one.Barr was especially irritated by the president's tweet Tuesday morning denigrating Judge Amy Berman Jackson shortly before she was to hold a conference call with lawyers in Stone's case. Trump insisted in his tweet that she order a new trial for Stone but the Justice Department then disclosed that it opposed just such a retrial, a position personally approved by Barr.The attorney general then had lunch with Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel and a longtime friend and colleague, in what officials said was a previously scheduled get-together. While Barr has been incredibly frustrated and has a limit to what he will put up with, people who know him said they doubted he would give in so quickly.An abrupt departure by Barr would roil a Justice Department on track to deliver several initiatives important to Trump, including an overhaul of the FBI, a criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia inquiry and a continuing leak investigation into James Comey, the former director of the FBI. It would also leave the president with a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department that might be hard to fill eight months before the election.Barr has taken heat from critics both inside and outside his department over what they see as the politicization of the law enforcement system. More than 1,100 former Justice Department officials have called for Barr's resignation, and a group representing the nation's federal judges scheduled an emergency telephone conference to address the president's attacks on one of their own.The Justice Department dismissed suggestions Tuesday night that Barr's departure was imminent. "Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign," Kerri Kupec, the department spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter. Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, retweeted Kupec's message.The president told reporters on Tuesday that Stone, an off-and-on adviser, and Flynn, a campaign adviser before serving briefly as his national security adviser, were both "treated very unfairly." He called Stone's conviction "a very, very rough thing" and said that Flynn's "life has been destroyed."Stone, who was convicted in November of seven felonies for obstructing a congressional inquiry into the Trump campaign's ties to WikiLeaks, which disseminated Democratic emails stolen by Russian agents, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with Russian officials but wants to withdraw his plea.Asked whether he was considering pardons for Stone, Flynn or Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman convicted on tax and other financial fraud charges, Trump said, "I'm not even thinking about that." But aides said he had broached the idea, and critics said Tuesday's pardons and commutations for convicted political figures like Rod Blagojevich and Bernard Kerik sent a clear message to the president's associates that he may yet clear them."The real test will be, what does this president do with Stone, Manafort and others who are directly connected to him and who have the ability to provide information that is harmful to him?" said Eric Holder, who served as attorney general under President Barack Obama.On Twitter, Trump cited a "Fox & Friends" legal analyst, Andrew Napolitano, who has insisted that the president "has every right" to intervene in a criminal case. He quoted Napolitano's calls for Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to reconsider Stone's case."Judge Jackson now has a request for a new trial based on the unambiguous & self outed bias of the foreperson," Trump tweeted, quoting Napolitano.Jackson ruled Tuesday morning that Stone's sentencing would go forward as planned Thursday despite last-ditch motions by his defense lawyers. She said she would allow the defense to file an amended motion for a new trial, give the government a chance to respond with its own filing and schedule a hearing if warranted. Defense lawyers argue that juror misconduct led to an unfair trial.The handling of Stone's case has generated tumult throughout the Justice Department and grabbed the attention of Washington's broader legal establishment. After Barr scrapped the original sentencing recommendation in favor of a lighter one, the four career prosecutors handling the matter withdrew from the case, and one resigned from the department entirely.As the president has repeatedly pointed out, two of the four prosecutors had worked for the special counsel, Robert Mueller, whose investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election dogged Trump for two years. The president attacked Mueller's team anew Tuesday, saying if he were not president, he would sue it.The president said he had not intervened in Stone's case, evidently making a distinction between his public commentaries and explicit orders, but added that he had the power to do so if he wanted. "Just so you understand, I chose not to be involved," he said. "I'm allowed to be totally involved. I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country."Republican congressional leaders defended Barr. "Suggestions from outside groups that the attorney general has fallen short of the responsibilities of his office are unfounded," Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California said in a joint statement.Trump's attacks on Jackson generated alarms in the judiciary. The Federal Judges Association, a voluntary organization, scheduled an emergency telephone conference for this week. Judge Cynthia Rufe of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania told USA Today that the group wanted to discuss "plenty of issues that we are concerned about."Trump countered that the judges should instead investigate misconduct in the Mueller investigation. "I hope the Federal Judges Association will discuss the tremendous FISA Court abuse that has taken place with respect to the Mueller Investigation Scam, including the forging of documents and knowingly using the fake and totally discredited Dossier before the Court," he wrote on Twitter.The role of Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani in another politically fraught matter before the Justice Department has also come under scrutiny.Barr said last week that the department had an "intake process" for information from Ukraine, prompting complaints that law enforcement officials were giving Giuliani special treatment because he has said he turned over evidence against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, about their dealings in Ukraine.Giuliani led the campaign to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into Biden and other Democrats, a campaign that ultimately led the House to impeach Trump for abuse of power; he was acquitted this month in a Senate trial.The department routes all Ukraine matters through a central process, not to circumvent channels but to avoid duplicating efforts, Stephen Boyd, an assistant attorney general, clarified on Tuesday. The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, Richard Donoghue, oversees the process, and his counterpart in Pittsburgh, Scott Brady, accepts any unsolicited information from the public, including from Giuliani, Boyd wrote in a letter to Congress.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Futures rise on China stimulus hopes, signs of slowing virus spread

China has unveiled several fiscal and monetary measures in an attempt to limit the damage from business shutdowns and travel curbs on the world's second-largest economy, and many analysts predict further policy easing is likely. China's stimulus measures, confidence in the U.S. economy and hopes that the damage from the outbreak will be short-lived helped Wall Street's main indexes notch fresh highs last week. The Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 fell on Tuesday as a warning from Apple Inc that it would be unable to meet its current-quarter sales targets highlighted concerns about disruptions to global supply chains.

Man with huge forehead tattoo saying 'crime pays' back in jail again after police chase

A man with a huge tattoo on his forehead that says “crime pays” has found himself locked up behind bars again after leading police on a short police chase before being arrested. Donald Murray, 38, of Terre Haute, Indiana, allegedly led authorities in a short pursuit on Feb. 17 and was arrested a short time later and charged with several crimes. “Murray was charged with resisting (felony), resisting (misdemeanor), reckless driving, possession of methamphetamine, maintaining a common nuisance, and auto theft,” the Terre Haute Police Department said in a statement on Facebook.

Group of more than 1,000 judges calls emergency meeting amid Trump concerns

Judges will meet to address alarm over the president intervening in politically sensitive casesA national association of federal judges has called an emergency meeting to address growing concerns about the intervention of Donald Trump and justice department officials in politically sensitive cases, according to US media reports.Cynthia Rufe, a Philadelphia US district judge who heads the independent Federal Judges Association, which has more than 1,100 members, told USA Today the group “could not wait” until its spring conference to discuss the matter.“There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about,” Rufe told USA Today. “We’ll talk all of this through.”Megan Cruz, the executive director of the group, told CNN the meeting would take place on Wednesday. She said a nine-member executive committee of the group had decided the emergency meeting was necessary.The meeting comes after more than 2,000 former US justice department officials, including some of the top government lawyers in the country, called on the attorney general, William Barr, to resign in the wake of the Roger Stone scandal.Alumni of the Department of Justice posted to Medium on Sunday a group letter that tore into Barr for “doing the president’s personal bidding” in imposing on prosecutors the recommendation of a reduced sentence for Stone, a longtime friend of Trump who was convicted of lying to and obstructing Congress and threatening a witness in the Russia investigation.Barr, the officials said, had damaged the reputation of the department for “integrity and the rule of law”.The spiralling constitutional crisis began last week when Barr imposed his new sentencing memo, slashing a seven- to nine-year proposed prison term suggested by career prosecutors. In the fallout, the four prosecutors who had handled the case resigned in disgust.US district Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over the Stone’s case, has ordered both sides to participate in a conference call on Tuesday to discuss the status of the case. Following the call, it was confirmed that Stone’s sentencing would go ahead on Thursday.Rufe voiced her strong support for Jackson, according to USA Today.“I am not concerned with how a particular judge will rule,” Rufe said. “We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required.”It was not clear whether the FJA would issue a statement after the emergency meeting. The Guardian contacted the FJA for comment.

Extraordinary Earth: What Victoria Falls can teach us about the effects of climate change

In the countdown to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, “Good Morning America” and our partner National Geographic present “Extraordinary Earth: 20 in 2020.” We will visit 20 amazing places around the globe, starting with Victoria Falls, to learn about our evolving planet. ABC News' chief meteorologist Ginger Zee reports live for "GMA" from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to see the impact of extreme weather on these majestic falls. This is one of the seven wonders of the natural world: Victoria Falls.

German grandma builds wheelchair ramps from Lego

Faced with rows of inaccessible shops and cafes, wheelchair user Rita Ebel has devised a low-tech high-fun solution - ramps made of Lego. "Anyone could suddenly end up in a situation that puts them in a wheelchair, like it did me," the 62-year-old grandmother said. Helped by her husband, Ebel often spends two to three hours a day building the made-to-order ramps which contain several hundred of the small plastic bricks stuck together with up to eight tubes of glue.

Progressive group invest $50M in 2020, new investments in Nevada ahead of caucuses

As the next contest pivots to Nevada, a racially diverse state where minority voters will play a significant role, a progressive group with a $50 million investment in the 2020 election cycle is pouring money and resources into state organizations to mobilize voters ahead of caucuses. The progressive group, Way to Win plans to spend $50 million in ten key battleground states, moving roughly $1 million into Nevada including half a million in the last six weeks ahead of the "first in the West" contest focused on turning out communities of color, tribal communities and former felons who are able to vote in the state's caucuses this election cycle. With investments trickling in year round to progressive organizations, groups like PLAN Action are using the funds to power their grassroots organization, aggressively canvassing, holding caucus trainings for minorities and caucus volunteer trainings for DREAMERS who are unable to vote but want to stay politically engaged.

Blagojevich expresses "everlasting gratitude" to Trump

The president commuted the sentence the former Illinois governor was serving after his conviction on corruption charges.

Kuwaiti parliament to investigate Airbus aircraft orders

Kuwaiti lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to set up a committee to look into whether Airbus's aircraft orders from the Gulf Arab state involved alleged corruption, the state news agency reported. Governments and airlines around the world have launched their own investigations after Airbus on Jan. 31 reached a record $4 billion settlement with prosecutors in Britain, France and United States over alleged bribery and corruption stretching back more than a decade. In Kuwait, a three-member parliamentary committee has been tasked with reviewing Airbus orders and is to submit a report of its findings to the National Assembly within three months, KUNA reported.

Landscape architects shift emphasis to the ecosystem

Landscape architects are finding themselves on the front lines of the climate change crisis, having to come up with creative ways to adapt and help mitigate problems like rising oceans and extreme weather as they design projects across the country. “The focus on sustainability has been building slowly for a long time among landscape architects, but in recent years that commitment has really taken hold,” says Jacquelyn Bianchini, a spokeswoman at the Washington, D.C.--based American Society of Landscape Architects. Landscape architect Kate Orff heads the firm Scape, known for ecologically driven projects around the country.

U.S. urges EU to use 5G by Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, seen on par with Huawei

EU countries have no reason to use 5G mobile technology from Huawei because Sweden's Ericsson , Finland's Nokia and South Korea's Samsung are on par with the Chinese group in the field, a senior U.S. diplomat said. Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary for cyber, international communications and information policy at the U.S. State Department, said on a visit to Lisbon it was "necessary to demystify" the notion that Huawei is more advanced in 5G.