GOP rival quips about kidnapping plot against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
TROY, Mich. — Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon joked during a Friday campaign event about the 2020 kidnapping plot against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a remark that quickly drew criticism.
Dixon's reference to the kidnapping plot came as she was targeting Whitmer's handling of schools and businesses, arguing that some large companies have shifted jobs to other states that might have come or stayed in Michigan.
"The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head and ask if you're ready to talk," Dixon said during a speech in Troy. "For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom."
With a sign on the lectern that said, "forging a family-friendly Michigan," Dixon, a political commentator and businesswoman from Norton Shores, was speaking at an event organized by the super political action committee Michigan Families United, which has been supporting her campaign.
In October 2020, federal agents announced they had thwarted a plot involving more than a dozen men who conspired to kidnap and harm Whitmer. The revelations drew national attention.
—The Detroit News
Iran vows to arrest all ‘illegal’ protesters to halt unrest
Iran threatened to prosecute anyone involved in “illegal gatherings,” as authorities sought to head off spiraling unrest over the death of a woman detained by the country’s so-called morality police.
The Ministry of Intelligence said the blanket order was due to “exploitation of recent events by anti-revolutionary currents,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Protests started last Friday after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who fell into a coma after her arrest for allegedly breaking Islamic dress codes. At least 17 people have died so far.
The “morality police” units — formally known as Guidance Patrols — have long been highly unpopular, but the protests are the first major rebuke of their actions. Their minivans are often parked at busy junctions and squares, where female officers clad in the all-enveloping black “chador” and head scarves stop passersby who they deem to be “immodestly” dressed.
Amini, who was visiting the capital Tehran with her family from a small town in western Kurdistan province, was picked up by one such unit, put in a van and driven to a police station.
—Bloomberg News
Druglord seeks prison release over stress headaches, his vegan diet
NEW YORK — Queens drug kingpin Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols’ bid for early release from prison due to stress headaches was blasted Friday by federal prosecutors, who said the convict’s migraine problem “is not an extraordinary and compelling reason” to be given a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The 63-year-old drug lord made his request in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Edward Korman on Aug. 15, claiming he was worried about his declining health and was suffering from “stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic.”
He also claimed that his grandson, sister and niece died in recent years and has been denied a vegan diet in federal prison.
“Although I try to stay strong, the stress is weighting me down, and has raised my blood pressure,” he wrote. “I am fearful of my health rapidly declining under these conditions. I have now developed migraines after receiving news of being incarcerated for four more years due to miscalculations and a failure to inform of a probation violation in which I was never charged, sentenced, nor knew existed.”
Nichols was hit with a 25-to-life state sentence, and a concurrent 40-year federal sentence, after pleading guilty in 1992 to arranging the murder of parole officer Brian Rooney and killing two others, including his ex-girlfriend.
—New York Daily News
EPA set to announce new environmental justice, civil rights program
WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is set to announce a new national program aimed at environmental justice and civil rights.
Regan, eager to share the news, previewed the announcement on Thursday as he helped host a group of North Carolina state lawmakers, mayors and other guests at the White House. He will formally announce the program Saturday in North Carolina.
Regan said the EPA is launching a national program that reorganizes 200 employees to focus on environmental justice and civil rights. He added that the new program would be led by a Senate-confirmed individual nominated by President Joe Biden, and would be on equal footing to the air, water and land offices.
“It will be the conduit with over $3 billion to ensure that communities that need these resources finally get their fair share,” Regan said. “So we have a great deal to celebrate, and by the way, that will be done in Warren County to really tap off where the environmental justice movement began.”
Regan’s announcement comes 40 years after state lawmakers chose North Carolina's Warren County as the site of a toxic waste landfill, sparking a protest and a national movement for environmental justice.
—McClatchy Washington Bureau
