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An Alabama inmate and a corrections officer are missing. Here’s what we know

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An Alabama inmate and a corrections officer are missing. Here’s what we know

Vicky White, assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County, took Casey White, the inmate, from jail Friday morning, saying she was taking the prisoner to the county courthouse.

The 2, who officers mentioned usually are not associated, haven’t been seen since, and the US Marshals Service is providing as much as $10,000 for info resulting in the inmate’s seize and the placement of the officer, the service mentioned Sunday.

This is what we all know.

Vicky White mentioned she was taking Casey White for a psychological well being analysis when she checked him out of the jail. She mentioned she was going to get medical care after dropping the inmate off on the courthouse as a result of she wasn’t feeling properly.

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Authorities discovered later that day that no such analysis — or any court docket listening to — was scheduled for Casey White that day, and Vicky White by no means made it to the place the place she was to get medical consideration, in line with Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton.

That afternoon, involved officers on the jail tried to succeed in Vicky White, however her cellphone went straight to voice mail. It was then that they discovered that Casey White had not been returned to the jail.

Authorities are taking a look at all potentialities, together with whether or not the corrections officer helped Casey White escape.

“Realizing the inmate, I feel she’s in peril regardless of the circumstances,” Singleton mentioned Friday.

“He was in jail for capital homicide, and he had nothing to lose. Whether or not she assisted him or not we do not know, and we can’t deal with that till now we have absolute proof that that is what occurred. We’re assuming at this level that she was taken towards her will except we will completely show in any other case. However regardless, even when she did help him, we predict she’s in peril,” Singleton mentioned.

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Vicky White’s 2013 Ford Taurus patrol automobile was noticed in a shopping mall parking zone Friday morning, in line with the sheriff.

Singleton’s workplace has checked out all video safety footage within the space the place the automobile was noticed, however there isn’t a proof but that exhibits the 2 getting in one other automobile.

The officer went towards coverage

In her job as assistant director of corrections, Vicky White coordinates all transports from the detention middle to the court docket, so she knew that protocol referred to as for 2 sworn deputies to be with Casey White always, as he was an inmate with capital homicide fees, in line with Singleton.

“All precautions have been in place,” Singleton mentioned. “The questions now we have for Director White is why she violated coverage.”

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Vicky White is an ‘exemplary worker,’ sheriff mentioned

The corrections officer had been with the sheriff’s workplace for about twenty years and “does an amazing job,” Singleton instructed CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield Saturday morning.

“All of her co-workers, all the staff within the sheriff’s workplace, the judges, all have essentially the most utmost respect for her,” Singleton mentioned. “She has an unblemished document. She’s an exemplary worker. So we’re very involved for her security.”

Vicky White had lately talked about retiring, Singleton mentioned Friday.

Casey White thought of ‘armed and harmful’

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Casey White was serving 75 years for a collection of crimes he dedicated in Limestone County in 2015. The spree included residence invasion, carjacking and a police chase, in line with the US Marshals Service.

In 2020, he confessed to the 2015 killing of a lady in Rogersville, Alabama, in line with Lauderdale County District Lawyer Chris Connolly. White then pleaded not responsible to that crime and was being held on the detention middle awaiting trial.

The inmate supposed to flee and take an individual hostage in 2020, Singleton mentioned, however his plan was found and a coverage was put in place mandating that two sworn deputies needs to be with him always, together with throughout transportation to court docket.

As a result of Vicky White had a 9mm handgun, authorities assume that Casey White, who’s 6′ 9″, is now armed and needs to be thought of harmful, Singleton mentioned.

Reward provided

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The US Marshals Service has taken on the case, the service mentioned in a information launch asserting a reward as much as $10,000. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Workplace and the FBI are additionally concerned within the investigation, CNN beforehand reported.

“Casey White is believed to be a severe menace to the corrections officer and the general public,” US Marshal Marty Keely mentioned within the launch.

“Anybody with info on White’s location or Assistant Director of Corrections White’s disappearance is urged to contact regulation enforcement,” the discharge mentioned. “You’ll be able to name the USMS Communications Middle at 1-800-336-0102. Nameless suggestions may be submitted through the U.S. Marshals Tip App.”

“Don’t try to apprehend this fugitive,” Keely mentioned.

Correction: An earlier model of this story misspelled the primary identify of corrections officer Vicky White.

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Vladimir Putin is ready for summit with Donald Trump, says Kremlin

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Vladimir Putin is ready for summit with Donald Trump, says Kremlin

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Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is ready to meet Donald Trump but has yet to agree a date, the Kremlin said on Friday, after the US president-elect said the two sides were preparing a possible summit.

The comments by Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, came after Trump answered questions about a possible meeting with Putin by saying “we’re setting it up”, while adding he would prefer to wait until after his inauguration on January 20.

“President Putin has repeatedly declared his openness to contacts with international partners, including the US president and Donald Trump”, Peskov told the press, according to the Interfax news agency.

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He added: “It looks like some progress will be made after Mr Trump takes the Oval Office.”

Outgoing US President Joe Biden cut off direct communication with Putin following the start of the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Asked about a possible summit at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort or elsewhere, Trump said after a meeting with Republican governors on Thursday: “President Putin wants to meet — he’s said that even publicly — and we have to get that [Ukraine] war over, that’s a bloody mess.”

The president-elect described the death toll as “staggering” and added: “It’s a war that I’m going to try really to stop as quickly as I can.”

Pushing back his campaign pledge to end the war in “24 hours”, Trump suggested this week that six months was a more realistic target to bring hostilities to an end.

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European leaders and officials have been making the case to the president-elect and his team that continued US military aid is needed to put Kyiv in a stronger position for peace talks and help bring Moscow to the negotiating table.

According to a former senior Kremlin official and another person who has discussed the issue with the Russian president, Putin’s main goal in any talks is new security agreements to ensure Ukraine never joins Nato and that the US-led military alliance pulls back from some eastern deployments.

“He wants to change the rules of the international order so there are no threats to Russia. He is very worried about how the world will look after the war,” the former Kremlin official said. “Trump wants to roll back Nato anyway. The world is changing, anything can happen.”

Western officials including Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte have sought to stress the importance of Trump ensuring “peace through strength” in Ukraine, and avoiding a defeat for Kyiv that would embolden Putin and his allies in China, Iran and North Korea.

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Trump set for sentencing in his New York felony conviction

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Trump set for sentencing in his New York felony conviction

President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in December 2024 in Phoenix, Ariz.

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images


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Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

After months of legal twists and turns, Donald Trump’s most active criminal case is finally reaching a conclusion.

The former and future president is scheduled to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday for his sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to an adult film star.

Trump on Thursday exhausted his last legal maneuver to stop the sentencing, after a narrow majority of Supreme Court justices declined to intervene.

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The hearing comes just 10 days before Trump is expected to be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. He had argued the sentencing would interfere with his ability to govern.

In light of that, New York state Judge Juan Merchan has indicated he does not plan on sentencing Trump to prison or even probation, and is instead likely to offer an “unconditional discharge,” meaning the president-elect must do nothing, but the conviction will remain on his record.

Prosecutors have signaled the hearing could be short — less than an hour — and that Trump is expected to attend the hearing virtually.

“There’s nothing else that the defendant has to do, and therefore it’s the least restrictive in terms of how it could impede in any way on the president-elect as he takes office,” Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, said about the expected sentence of an unconditional discharge.

“It certainly makes sense that there be some finality to this case because as a nation, we should want to move on, in particular as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look forward to the next four years without this sentence pending,” Cominsky said. “There has to be an end.”

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Of course, Trump’s legal team is likely to appeal the conviction and sentence again — as they have done throughout the legal proceeding. Appeals could stretch on for years.

Since Trump’s conviction in May, Merchan has postponed the sentencing several times, including to avoid any perception of political bias ahead of Election Day, and then to allow Trump to argue he had immunity in the case, based on a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Merchan ultimately denied the immunity claims, and the dismissal, paving the way for the hearing on Friday.

Fundraising haul

In May, Trump became the first former or sitting U.S. president to be tried on criminal charges and be convicted.

The jury in Manhattan state court heard from 22 witnesses during about a month of testimony in Manhattan’s criminal court. Jurors also weighed other evidence — mostly documents like phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, Trump’s once loyal “fixer,” who paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her story of an alleged affair with the former president.

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After about a day-and-a-half of deliberations, the 12 jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.

But the conviction appeared to have little impact on Trump’s popularity — and ultimate electoral victory during the 2024 presidential election. He has used the legal drama to mobilize donations for his campaign and mounting legal fees.

Within 24 hours of the guilty verdict, Trump’s campaign boasted of raising millions of dollars.

And 49% of the nation’s voters in November’s election ultimately chose to bring Trump back to the White House.

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Mapping the Damage From the Palisades Fire

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Mapping the Damage From the Palisades Fire

More than 5,000 structures have been destroyed by the Palisades fire, California officials said on Thursday. An analysis of satellite images by Microsoft offered a glimpse of the devastation in one section of Pacific Palisades, a wealthy neighborhood between Malibu and Santa Monica.

Source: Microsoft AI For Good Lab analysis of satellite imagery from Planet Labs using building footprints from Overture Maps Foundation and Microsoft

Note: Fire perimeter as of Jan. 8 at 1:17 p.m. Pacific time. Satellite imagery taken Jan. 8 at 2:21 p.m. Pacific time.

By The New York Times

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In this one area alone, there appeared to be more than 2,000 buildings that were damaged or destroyed, according to the analysis.

The results of the analysis are estimates, and they are limited by the presence of wildfire smoke partially obscuring satellites.

As firefighters continued on Thursday to battle the Palisades and major wildfires burning across the Los Angeles area, the full scope of the damage remained unclear. But officials said the Palisades and the Eaton fire, burning to the east near Pasadena, were likely among the most devastating fires in the state’s recorded history. Officials suggested that 5,000 buildings may have also burned because of the Eaton fire.

The Palisades fire began on Tuesday and quickly grew. By Thursday, it had charred more than 20,000 acres, and remained out of control.

Source: Cal Fire By The New York Times

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Aerial photographs of Pacific Palisades showed that the fire leveled whole swaths of the neighborhood near the Palisades Village shopping mall, north of Sunset Boulevard.

Source: photograph by Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

By The New York Times

Widespread damage was also visible in this section of the Pacific Palisades south of Sunset Boulevard, bordered by the Pacific Coast Highway to the south. Only a few houses appeared to be standing amid the destruction.

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Source: photograph by Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

By The New York Times

Across the city, the Eaton fire continued to burn uncontrollably as well. It encompassed more than 13,000 acres by Thursday evening, forcing nearby residents to evacuate.

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