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Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row inmates in final month of presidency

Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row inmates in final month of presidency

President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly all the inmates on federal death row, a move that comes not even two weeks after he went through with the “largest single-day grant of clemency” in American history, the White House announced Monday. Of the 40 inmates on federal death row, according to DeathPenaltyInfo.org, Biden is commuting 37 men sentenced to death, reclassifying their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. The three inmates not included are: Robert Bowers, who is responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, which left 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, a White supremacist who killed nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked with his now-dead brother to perpetuate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds. BIDEN SETS RECORD WITH FIRST-TERM CLEMENCY GRANTS, HERE’S HOW OTHER PRESIDENTS RANK The men being resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole are convicted of various murderous acts against one person or multiple. Among the victims of the 37 men are law enforcement officers, children and other inmates. A handful of the men on death row were also set to be executed with their co-defendants. Biden, who only supports the death penalty at the federal level for “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” said this move will prevent President-elect Donald Trump’s administration from “carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice,” according to the White House statement. The president declared a moratorium on federal executions after taking office in 2021. TRUMP EXECUTION RESTART TO PUT BOSTON MARATHON BOMBER, CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTER, MORE KILLERS IN HOT SEAT The convicted murderers who will now escape execution include: Marcivicci Barnette, who killed a man in a carjacking and his ex-girlfriend; co-defendants Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks, who kidnapped and killed a woman after escaping prison; Anthony Battle, who killed a prison guard; Jason Brown, who stabbed a postal worker to death; Thomas Hager, who committed a drug-related killing; David Runyon, who participated in the murder-for-hire plot of a Naval officer; Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old girl; Rejon Taylor, who carjacked, kidnapped and killed a restaurant owner; and Alejandro Umana, who killed two brothers inside a restaurant. Two men were on death row for the murders of witnesses: police officer Len Davis, who ordered the murder of a witness who was part of an investigation into a misconduct complaint against him, and Ronald Mikos, who killed a federal grand jury witness in a Medicare fraud investigation. Ex-Marine Jorge Torrez was set to be executed for killing another servicemember. The list also includes men who committed deadly bank robberies, such as co-defendants Billie Allen and Norris Holder, who killed a bank guard during their crime; Brandon Council, who killed two bank employees; and Daryl Lawrence, who killed a special-duty police officer during an attempted bank robbery. BIDEN COMMUTES 1,500 JAIL SENTENCES, GRANTS PARDONS FOR 39 OTHERS: ‘LARGEST SINGLE-DAY GRANT OF CLEMENCY’ Co-defendants James Roane, Jr., and Richard Tipton committed a series of drug-related murders as gang members with Corey Johnson, who was executed in 2021.  Julius Robinson killed two people over drugs, and so did co-defendants Ricardo Sanchez, Jr., and Daniel Troya, who killed a family, including two children. Drug lord Kaboni Savage murdered or directed someone else to murder 12 people during a 16-year period – including an arson that killed six members of a federal informant’s family. Edward Fields was on death row for murdering two campers on federal land, while Marvin Gabrion and Richard Jackson were both there for killing a woman on federal land in separate cases. Co-defendants Jurijus Kadamovas and Iouri Mikhel were convicted of kidnapping and killing five Russian and Georgian immigrants for ransom. Lastly, the following men were sentenced to death in various cases for killing a prisoner in federal prison: Shannon Agofsky, Carlos Caro, co-defendants Wesley Coonce and Charles Hall, co-defendants Christopher Cramer and Ricky Fackrell, Joseph Ebron and co-defendants Edgar Garcia and Mark Snarr. Monday’s commutations join Biden’s list of similar moves during his presidency, which have sparked mixed reactions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and have outpaced any president in modern history when compared to length of service. Biden faced criticism earlier this month when he commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 prisoners placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 40 others, including his son, Hunter. As of Dec. 13, Biden has pardoned a total of 65 individuals and commuted sentences for 1,634 inmates during his time as president, according to the Department of Justice. “The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms,” White House officials said in a previous statement. PRO-TRUMP PRISON WARDEN ASKS BIDEN TO COMMUTE ALL DEATH SENTENCES BEFORE LEAVING Various groups and people, including former corrections officials, praised Biden’s decision ahead of the public announcement, calling him “courageous” and thanking him for sending a “strong message.” Biden was urged by 28 former corrections officials in a letter to commute sentences on federal death row for the safety of federal correctional professionals who participate in executions. “President Biden has made a courageous decision that will benefit many within the federal Bureau of Prisons. Resources can be allocated more rationally, and staff will not face the harm of participating in executions any time soon. I hope state leaders follow suit, for the benefit of their own correctional staff,” said Justin Jones, the former Director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, was also among those who issued a statement, saying, in part, that this decision “marks an important turning point” and sends a “strong message to Americans that the death penalty is not the answer to our country’s concerns about public safety.”

Fall of Assad, rise of Trump: Why 2024 was a very bad year for Iran

Fall of Assad, rise of Trump: Why 2024 was a very bad year for Iran

The fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was the crescendo of a remarkably bad year for the Iranian regime.  The Islamic Republic suffered major blows in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, diminishing the power of its so-called Axis of Resistance. Its currency officially became the lowest valued in the world and when Israel decimated its proxy forces, the U.S. elected a president whom Iran so despises that it spent years trying to assassinate him.  Here’s a look back at blows suffered by Ayatollah Ali Khameini and his regime over the past year:  In April, Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria, prompting Iran to strike back with more than 300 drones and missiles aimed into Israel. But Israel worked with the U.S., Jordan and Saudi Arabia to shoot down nearly every missile and drone.  The late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash while visiting a remote area. Iran has blamed the crash on dense fog. Raisi was a protégé and potential successor of Iran’s supreme leader, Khameini.  While Iran inaugurated a new president this summer, Israel infiltrated to take out Hamas commander Ismail Haniyeh while he was visiting Tehran for the inauguration. While Haniyeh was staying in a VIP government guest house, Israel detonated a remote-controlled bomb.  TRUMP TANGLES WITH REPORTER ON IRAN PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE: ‘IS THAT A SERIOUS QUESTION?’ Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took out Hamas head Yahya Sinwar after encountering him on a routine patrol in the Gaza city of Rafah. Sinwar was the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and was one of the most wanted men of the war.  Hamas has lost thousands of fighters and much of its leadership ranks to Israel’s attacks and is nowhere near the threatening force on Israel’s borders Iran hoped it would be.  Iran’s currency tanked to an all-time low upon news of the Trump election, and the expectation that he might bring back a “maximum pressure” policy.  The Iranian rial is down 46% this year, making it officially the least-valuable currency in the world. Iran has long vowed revenge for Trump approving the 2019 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani – and U.S. intelligence revealed Tehran plots to kill the president-elect.  After the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, it imposed harsh sanctions on the regime to stop its funding of proxies abroad, banning U.S. citizens from trading with Iran or handling Iranian money.  It also punished entities in other countries that did business with Iran, by cutting them off from the dollar.  TENSIONS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND TURKEY ESCALATE OVER SYRIA: ‘IT’S TIME TO PAY ATTENTION’ President Joe Biden often waived enforcement of such sanctions, keen to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons and fearful of driving up global oil prices.  Iran gained access to more than $10 billion through a State Department sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to continue buying energy from Iran, which the Biden administration argues is necessary to keep lights on in Baghdad.   In the fall, Israel reoriented much of its efforts toward pummeling Hezbollah after a series of cross-border attacks from the Lebanese militant group. Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leadership and detonated hundreds of pagers the group had been using to communicate. At the end of November, Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire where it and Israel must both end their armed presences in southern Lebanon.  Both sides have claimed the other has broken the fragile truce, but it has ostensibly held for weeks.   Syrian rebels sent Iran’s Quds forces, an extension of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, running as they captured Damascus and pushed out President Bashar al-Assad. Iran’s forces had been in Syria propping up Assad since civil war broke out in 2011, but had been diminished since the outbreak of war elsewhere in the Middle East.  Syria’s new government is set to be run by Sunni Muslims, hostile to Iran’s Shiite government. And Iran lost a key supply line through Syria it had used to arm Hezbollah in its fight against Israel. 

Six household appliances that have taken heat from Biden’s crackdown on regulations

Six household appliances that have taken heat from Biden’s crackdown on regulations

The Biden administration has made tightening efficiency standards for household appliances a target as he’s built out his climate agenda over the past four years.  “Making common household appliances more efficient is one of the most effective ways to slash energy costs and cut harmful carbon emissions,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who has spearheaded efforts to push households to adopt green energy alternatives, said in a statement.  However, energy experts and manufacturers have warned that the Biden administration’s regulations would lead to more expensive household appliances that are far less effective than current models. “What these mandates – what these standards do is enforce a level of efficiency that doesn’t make sense,” said Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “And they compromise product quality. We’ve already seen this to an extent with the cost of clothes washer standards.”  The Department of Energy (DOE) introduced a final rule in February imposing stricter energy standards for residential clothes washers (RCWs), such as washing machines and clothes dryers.  HOUSE SET TO CHALLENGE BIDEN GREEN ENERGY STANDARDS FOR WASHING MACHINES WITH ‘LIBERTY IN LAUNDRY’ BILL VOTE Under the regulations, certain less-efficient models of washers and dryers would be barred from being sold, according to DOE.  The department projected that the energy standards would collectively save American households $2.2 billion per year on utility bills while reducing nearly 71 million metric tons of “dangerous carbon dioxide emissions” over the next three decades.  However, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers argued that DOE’s washing machine regulations “would have a disproportionate, negative impact on low-income households” by eliminating cheaper appliances from the market.  “Despite misleading claims to the contrary, these proposals are intended for nothing more than promoting innovation and keeping money in the pockets of Americans everywhere without sacrificing the reliability and performance that consumers expect and rely on,” a spokesperson for the Department of Energy told Fox News Digital. “As evidenced in the Department’s testing and analysis, the proposed standards would not reduce product performance or negatively impact cleaning ability or cycle time.” In 2023, the EPA finalized a rule to accelerate a transition to more advanced refrigeration and cooling technologies that don’t use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and proposed a second rule to manage HFCs in existing products. HFCs are chemicals common in household appliances, such as refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning units.  The rule, set to go into effect in 2025, aims to phase out HFCs to achieve an 85% reduction by 2036. But manufacturers reportedly privately predicted that the regulation would increase prices up to 20%, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. In February 2023, the DOE issued a proposal to target gas-powered stovetops, which was set to take effect in 2027 and affect 50% of current gas stove models.  Under the 2023 proposal, DOE would have banned the future sale of gas stoves that consume more than 1,204 thousand kBtu per year.  Restaurant owners have fumed over potential gas stove ban regulations. “The majority of New York City restaurants use gas. It’s the most common stove in a high-volume kitchen,” Peter Petti, executive chef at Upper East Side restaurant, Sojourn, told the New York Post. “Gas lets us do our job efficiently.” After facing pushback from Republicans and consumer advocacy groups, the DOE issued its final regulations, which will impact 3% of gas stove models, rather than the initial 50%. The Biden administration doubled efficiency standards for light bulbs, requiring manufacturers to raise the levels for common light bulbs from 45 lumens per watt to more than 120 lumens per watt, a nearly 170% increase. Only LED bulbs will be able to comply with the standards, not compact fluorescent bulbs. The DOE suggested that the regulations will slash greenhouse gas pollution by cutting 70 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next three decades. When it takes effect in 2028, the rule will knock most currently available LEDs off the market and increase the average price of the remaining ones from $2.98 to an estimated $5.68, an increase of $2.70 per bulb, according to Lieberman. Results from a Residential Energy Consumption Survey indicate that fewer than half of households reported using LEDs as their primary or exclusive lighting source. The DOE implemented efficiency regulations to prohibit new non-condensing gas furnaces by 2028, by requiring that non-weatherized gas furnaces achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency of 95%. The American Gas Association, American Public Gas Association, National Propane Gas Association and manufacturer Thermo Products filed a lawsuit against DOE, claiming that costs could increase for 30% of senior-only households, 26% of low-income households and 27% of small business consumers if the regulation were to go into effect. “Yesterday, the Biden administration finalized a rule that would effectively ban natural gas furnaces and other gas furnaces that are found in more than half of U.S. households,” AGA Vice President of Energy Markets, Analysis, and Standards Richard Meyer told The National Desk in a statement. “In five years, around Christmas 2028, if you have to replace your gas furnace, you may be saddled with hundreds if not thousands of dollars of additional costs to upgrade that equipment to comply with this rule.” The Biden administration amended its energy conservation standards, putting into effect stricter energy standards for ceiling fans. According to an analysis from the DOE, the new rules would save households about $39 over the lifespan of the new energy-efficient fan, Fox Business previously reported. The regulation faced backlash from the House Small Business Committee, which claimed in a letter to the DOE secretary that it could put between 10% and 30% of small business ceiling fan manufacturers out of business. Biden’s appliance regulations could soon be in jeopardy, as President-elect Donald Trump is expected to overturn much of the current administration’s climate agenda when he assumes the presidency in 2025. Fox News’ Matteo Cina contributed to this report.

Watchdog releases report highlighting the worst ethics violations it saw from public officials in 2024

Watchdog releases report highlighting the worst ethics violations it saw from public officials in 2024

FIRST ON FOX: The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a conservative-leaning ethics watchdog, released a year-end round up of 2024’s worst ethics violations committed by public officials that the group investigated this year. The theme for this year’s report was ethics violations tied to efforts to win elected office. The violations ranged from failures to disclose financial information and violations of federal contribution limits, to “blatant” Hatch Act violations and officials seemingly using campaign funds for their own personal pleasure.  FACT is a nonprofit based in the nation’s capital that was formed in 2014, and describes itself as “dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas.” At the end of each year, the watchdog unveils its top ten worst violators. ‘COMPLETE INACTION’: CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS VIOLATORS OF 2023 HAVE YET TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, WATCHDOG SAYS “It is important to note the alarming detail that there is not one particular ethics rule implicated among them, rather they cover a wide variety of fronts, including the laws enforced by the Office of Special Counsel, the Federal Election Commission, and the Office of Congressional Ethics,” the 2024 report states. “It’s clear these top violators too often prioritize themselves over serving their constituents.” READ THE REPORT – APP USERS, CLICK HERE: One of the examples FACT cited involved Wisconsin Democratic member of Congress, Gwen Moore, whose political action committee under her control spent 94.8% of its funds on things like food and travel, such as catering, food delivery, restaurants, hotels, a resort in California’s wine country and alcohol, according to the report.  The report said that Moore’s leadership PAC spent almost eight-times more on this than it did on its required purpose of supporting candidates. Moore ultimately beat her GOP challenger in November by a wide margin, keeping her in control of the Milwaukee-area congressional district. The congresswoman’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  Two other violations from the report included Hatch Act violations. The Hatch Act is aimed at ensuring that the government functions in a nonpartisan manner and bars certain public officials from engaging in political activities while they are on duty.  FACT’s report charged President Joe Biden’s Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Xavier Becerra, with sending “a blatant political email,” two months before November’s election, which was described in a media report at the time as “a sales pitch for Kamala Harris.” ‘WILLFUL COVERUP’: DEMOCRAT IN KEY HOUSE RACE HIT WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT THAT COULD DERAIL CAMPAIGN The official email from HHS was sent to people who signed up to receive updates on the government’s Medicare program, which means it could have reached up to 67.5 million recipients, according to FACT. While the email did not directly say “vote for Harris,” it lauded Harris for casting a tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, noting that the move from Harris served to lower healthcare costs. HHS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  Other ethics violations included in FACT’s round-up were several instances of misused or misrepresented campaign funds.  The report highlighted outgoing Maryland Democratic Rep. David Trone, who earned backlash during this year’s election cycle for allegedly funding his campaign with money earned through his Total Wine empire despite claiming he had stepped away from his family’s wine business after being elected to Congress in 2018. Trone, who left the House to run for Maryland’s open Senate seat this year – losing in the primary – failed to disclose his interest in numerous Total Wine franchises in the lead up to the election, the report alleged.  Representatives for Trone did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. The report also claims that Rep.-elect Eugene Vindman, who recently took over Virginia’s seventh congressional district with a win last month, received campaign contributions significantly exceeding those allowed under federal law. VoteVets PAC, a political action committee supporting left-leaning veterans running for Congress, was reportedly engaging in illegal campaign work for Vindman’s campaign by acting as their press liaison. Vindman’s campaign manager did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Together, all of these examples and more lay out what FACT’s Executive Director Kendra Arnold called “a preview” of what elected officials are like when nobody is looking.  “We uncover and file complaints on all types of ethics violations, but this year the ones committed in the campaign stage unfortunately stood out,” Arnold told Fox News Digital. “Of all the types of violations it could easily be argued that those committed to get into office are among the very worst.”