By SARAH PARVINI, GARANCE BURKE and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools — some of them powered by AI — help make life-altering decisions for immigrants, including whether they should be detained or surveilled. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision. The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant — with a pending case — will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case. “The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote. Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location. Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending. In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app. Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender or other protected traits. DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI , but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January. “DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP. Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges — such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country — that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how they plan to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history. Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.” SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers. ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people. In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.” But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.” Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said. On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead. The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.” “In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said. That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs. “It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call. GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.
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Local voting rules outdatedMeasuring 4.13 inches long by 0.39 inches diameter and weighing 0.56-ounces, the Olight O'Pen Mini 2 combines the benefits of a ballpoint pen with an everlasting pencil, inside of a lightweight aluminum frame. Maneuver the S-shaped bolt to access either the pencil or the pen. When needed, you can replace the metal alloy pencil tip and ballpoint ink can be refilled. The design upgrades enhanced upon the O'Pen Mini 1 and provided an improved EDC writing utensil. One of my favorite aspects of the lifestyle is hunting for optimized pieces of gear. To perfect my load out, I often look for lighter or smaller gear, or for devices that pack more features into a similar weight/space. I think this was the ultimate goal for the Swiss Army Knife and other multitools, which have various iterations, inclusions, and use scenarios. As my sons and I became more involved with Scouts BSA and hiking/backpacking, I created separate EDC tech and camping/backpacking kits. A small O’Pen Mini 1 and a mini golf pencil were two items that found their way into my pocket Viperade VE10 kit and many of my builds. I loved the size, under 1-ounce weight, the easily refillable ink shell of the pen, and the small size/shape of the pencil. Excitedly, Olight stepped up their game with an O’Pen Mini 2; I found my perfect stocking stuffer to replace the Mini 1 and golf pencil. What more could I want with a lesser weight and the ability to replace two items for one? The Olight O’Pen Mini 2 Mini EDC Ballpoint pen arrived in a 1 1/2 inches wide by 4 3/4 inches tall by 1 1/16 inches thick retail box. The blue Olight company name was displayed along the top cover alongside the product name. The rest of the cover was dedicated to a large image of the OD Green O’Pen Mini 2 device and its features: the S-shaped gear shifter (reminded me of a manual vehicle), pocket clip, and machined look. The right side panel provided a lifetime warranty logo along the lower edge, while the left panel provided an education-linked QR code. The rear panel provided a fun paragraph about the pen, a product specifications table (length 105mm/4.13in, 9.8mm diameter/0.39in, 15.8g/0.56oz weight), address/contact information, and a UPC barcode. I opened the cardboard zipper along the upper rear panel and slid the inner white tray out of the packaging. You will find the pen resting within the tray and a posterior yellow “read me panel” at the back of the tray. The panel showed how to remove and reinstall the everlasting pencil tip, and discussed a few safety features of the pen. Before disposing of the packaging, remove the yellow panel and two extra everlasting pencil tips. I removed the thin plastic film that covered the gear shifter and found that the tape did not leave behind any residue. Shift the pen gear down and to the right (similar shifter to the generation 1 O’Pen Mini) to activate the distal ballpoint pen. Shift the pen’s gear slightly down, to the right, and then upward to the left to activate the sharp everlasting pencil tip at the top. I removed the 0.5-ounce pen from the tray and noted the length was slightly longer when compared to the gen 1 O’Pen Mini. The Mini 2 measured 4 1/16 inches long by 7/16 inches diameter and was made of two segments, an upper 1 1/2 inches long segment and a lower 2 3/4 inches long segment. The O’pen mini 2 had a 1 1/4 inches long by 5/32 inches wide pocket clip, a 1/16 inches tall by 3/16 inches diameter shifter knob, and linear vent ports. You can unscrew the upper segment (male threaded) from the lower segment and remove the Olight Ball Point Pen refill when needed. Conveniently, both the original and new O’pen Mini 2 used the same refills, which you can pick up from the O’light website. Even though the O’Pen Mini 2 shipped with a black ink refill, both blue and black refills are available on the website. I would love for an option for a red ink refill as well. Even though it does not currently exist, I hope it may be an option. I compared the original 0.8-ounce O’Pen Brass Mini (my go-to EDC pen) to the new 0.5-ounce O’Pen Mini 2 version. For those who want only the Gen 1 Pen, you can purchase a non-brass 0.42-ounce pen. I liked the look/feel of the brass pen despite the ~ .38-ounce difference in weight. The original O’Pen Mini 1 device measured 3 5/8 inches long by 3/8 inches diameter, which was 1/2 inches shorter than the O’Pen Mini 2. The Brass O’pen Mini had obliquely angled vent ports compared to the new pen’s linear versions. The extra gear shift was the most distinguishing feature separating the new O’Pen Mini 2 from the O’Pen Mini 1. Both had the lower pen deploy gear, but the O’Pen Mini 2 had the secondary pencil gear. I liked the new shifter, and lighter weight when compared with the original Open Mini. When I considered the ~0.1 ounce Apple Pencil, the new O’Pen Mini 2 device at 0.5 ounces improved upon a lighter 0.42-ounce Gen 1 + 1-ounce wooden pencil. Before using the pen, you will need to remove the rubberized coating. I have used this pen almost exclusively over the past two weeks and found no change in the quality of my writing. The website promises 2000 feet of writing per ink refill and only 1.46 mm decline in pencil for every 600 meters of pencil writing. I could not objectify this stance, but found the pen/pencil worked well after several weeks of regular use with no noticeable change. The slightly longer nature of the O’Pen Mini 2 felt more comfortable in my hand. I noticed the shifter knob helped with grip and control and that I could wedge my pointer finger in between the pocket clip and shifter knob for added stability while in pencil mode. I loved the everlasting pencil addition and found it did not change after several note-taking sessions. As a bonus, when retracted, the pen did not leak/bleed like the O’Pen Mini 1 Brass pens. The O’Pen Mini 2 represents a valuable upgrade to an already impressive device. I have regularly carried the Brass O’Pen Mini 1 and enjoyed the comfort/build. I liked the clever addition of the everlasting pencil to an already pleasant pen experience. The slightly longer frame and linear vent ports were more comfortable than the gen 1 device. The combo pencil/pen integration was an amazing step-up from the base device without a change in price. The O’Pen Mini 2 has since replaced the O’Pen Mini 1 and Mini golf pencils within my EDC kits. As an added incentive, the O’Pen Mini 2 price is reduced for the next ten days thanks to an amazing Black Friday sale. Learn more about the and follow Olight on and .Rocketinvest.com: Revolutionizing Online Trading with Privacy, Simplicity, and InnovationBlanket tariffs will hurt workers on both sides of the border: USW
By ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday reached a required agreement with President Joe Biden’s White House to allow his transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office on Jan. 20. The congressionally mandated agreement allows transition aides to work with federal agencies and access non-public information and gives a green light to government workers to talk to the transition team. But Trump has declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration that would have given his team access to secure government offices and email accounts, in part because it would require that the president-elect limit contributions to $5,000 and reveal who is donating to his transition effort. The White House agreement was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act, and the Biden White House had issued both public and private appeals for Trump’s team to sign on. The agreement is a critical step in ensuring an orderly transfer of power at noon on Inauguration Day, and lays the groundwork for the White House and government agencies to begin to share details on ongoing programs, operations and threats. It limits the risk that the Trump team could find itself taking control of the massive federal government without briefings and documents from the outgoing administration. As part of the agreement with the White House, Trump’s team will have to publicly disclose its ethics plan for the transition operation and make a commitment to uphold it, the White House said. Transition aides must sign statements that they have no financial positions that could pose a conflict of interest before they receive access to non-public federal information. Biden himself raised the agreement with Trump when they met in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, according to the White House, and Trump indicated that his team was working to get it signed. Trump chief of staff-designate Susie Wiles met with Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients at the White House on Nov. 19 and other senior officials in part to discuss remaining holdups, while lawyers for the two sides have spoken more than a half-dozen times in recent days to finalize the agreement. “Like President Biden said to the American people from the Rose Garden and directly to President-elect Trump, he is committed to an orderly transition,” said White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma. “President-elect Trump and his team will be in seat on January 20 at 12 pm – and they will immediately be responsible for a range of domestic and global challenges, foreseen and unforeseen. A smooth transition is critical to the safety and security of the American people who are counting on their leaders to be responsible and prepared.” Without the signed agreement, Biden administration officials were restricted in what they could share with the incoming team. Trump national security adviser-designate Rep. Mike Waltz met recently with Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, but the outgoing team was limited in what it could discuss. “We are doing everything that we can to effect a professional and an orderly transition,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. “And we continue to urge the incoming team to take the steps that are necessary to be able to facilitate that on their end as well.” “This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power,” said Wiles in a statement. The Trump transition team says it would disclose its donors to the public and would not take foreign donations. A separate agreement with the Department of Justice to coordinate background checks for vetting and security clearances is still being actively worked on and could be signed quickly now that the White House agreement is signed. The agency has teams of investigators standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers once that document is signed. That would clear the way for transition aides and future administration appointees and nominees to begin accessing classified information before Trump takes office. Some Trump aides may hold active clearances from his first term in office or other government roles, but others will need new clearances to access classified data. Trump’s team on Friday formally told the GSA that they would not utilize the government office space blocks from the White House reserved for their use, or government email accounts, phones and computers during the transition. The White House said it does not agree with Trump’s decision to forgo support from the GSA, but is working on alternate ways to get Trump appointees the information they need without jeopardizing national security. Federal agencies are receiving guidance on Tuesday on how to share sensitive information with the Trump team without jeopardizing national security or non-public information. For instance, agencies may require in-person meetings and document reviews since the Trump team has declined to shift to using secure phones and computers. For unclassified information, agencies may ask Trump transition staff to attest that they are taking basic safeguards, like using two-factor authentication on their accounts. “The signing of this agreement is good news, and a positive step toward an effective transfer of power,” said Max Stier, the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “This agreement unlocks direct access to information from federal agencies, which is vital for the incoming administration to be ready to govern on Day One and critical to the transition’s success.”Nearly 3 in 4 Americans worried they may not get promised Social Security paymentsRookie Bucky Irving relishes opportunity to help Buccaneers any way he can against skidding Raiders
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Luxembourg – 11 December 2024 – Subsea 7 S.A. (Oslo Børs: SUBC, ADR: SUBCY) today announced the award of a substantial 1 contract for a subsea tieback development in the US Gulf of Mexico. Subsea7's scope of work includes the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of subsea equipment, including structures, umbilicals, production risers, and flowlines. Project management and engineering work will start immediately at Subsea7's office in Houston, Texas, with offshore activities expected to begin in 2026. Craig Broussard, Senior Vice President of Subsea7 Gulf of Mexico, said, “ We are proud to be part of this high-pressure deepwater subsea tieback development. This project builds on our strong track record of successfully delivering oil and gas projects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico .” Subsea7 defines a substantial contract as being between $150 million and $300 million. ******************************************************************************* Subsea7 is a global leader in the delivery of offshore projects and services for the evolving energy industry, creating sustainable value by being the industry’s partner and employer of choice in delivering the efficient offshore solutions the world needs. Subsea7 is listed on the Oslo Børs (SUBC), ISIN LU0075646355, LEI 222100AIF0CBCY80AH62. ******************************************************************************* Contact for investment community enquiries: Katherine Tonks Investor Relations Director Tel +44 20 8210 5568 ir@subsea7.com Contact for media enquiries: Ashley Shearer Communications Manager Tel +1-713-300-6792 ashley.shearer@subsea7.com Forward-Looking Statements: This document may contain ‘forward-looking statements’ (within the meaning of the safe harbour provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements relate to our current expectations, beliefs, intentions, assumptions or strategies regarding the future and are subject to known and unknown risks that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as ‘anticipate’, ‘believe’, ‘estimate’, ‘expect’, ‘future’, ‘goal’, ‘intend’, ‘likely’ ‘may’, ‘plan’, ‘project’, ‘seek’, ‘should’, ‘strategy’ ‘will’, and similar expressions. The principal risks which could affect future operations of the Group are described in the ‘Risk Management’ section of the Group’s Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements. Factors that may cause actual and future results and trends to differ materially from our forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to): (i) our ability to deliver fixed price projects in accordance with client expectations and within the parameters of our bids, and to avoid cost overruns; (ii) our ability to collect receivables, negotiate variation orders and collect the related revenue; (iii) our ability to recover costs on significant projects; (iv) capital expenditure by oil and gas companies, which is affected by fluctuations in the price of, and demand for, crude oil and natural gas; (v) unanticipated delays or cancellation of projects included in our backlog; (vi) competition and price fluctuations in the markets and businesses in which we operate; (vii) the loss of, or deterioration in our relationship with, any significant clients; (viii) the outcome of legal proceedings or governmental inquiries; (ix) uncertainties inherent in operating internationally, including economic, political and social instability, boycotts or embargoes, labour unrest, changes in foreign governmental regulations, corruption and currency fluctuations; (x) the effects of a pandemic or epidemic or a natural disaster; (xi) liability to third parties for the failure of our joint venture partners to fulfil their obligations; (xii) changes in, or our failure to comply with, applicable laws and regulations (including regulatory measures addressing climate change); (xiii) operating hazards, including spills, environmental damage, personal or property damage and business interruptions caused by adverse weather; (xiv) equipment or mechanical failures, which could increase costs, impair revenue and result in penalties for failure to meet project completion requirements; (xv) the timely delivery of vessels on order and the timely completion of ship conversion programmes; (xvi) our ability to keep pace with technological changes and the impact of potential information technology, cyber security or data security breaches; (xvii) global availability at scale and commercially viability of suitable alternative vessel fuels; and (xviii) the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Many of these factors are beyond our ability to control or predict. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this document. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This stock exchange release was published by Katherine Tonks, Investor Relations, Subsea7, on 11 December 2024 at 23:25 CET. Attachment SUBC Gulf of Mexico Dec 2024
Leaders to discuss climate change finance at British-Irish Council summitBy SARAH PARVINI, GARANCE BURKE and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools — some of them powered by AI — help make life-altering decisions for immigrants, including whether they should be detained or surveilled. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision. The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant — with a pending case — will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case. “The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote. Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location. Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending. In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app. Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender or other protected traits. DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI , but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January. “DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP. Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges — such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country — that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how they plan to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history. Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.” SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers. ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people. In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.” But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.” Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said. On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead. The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.” “In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said. That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs. “It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call. GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.Aries Daily Horoscope Today, November 27, 2024 predicts rekindling of old love
George Norcross III, right, and lawyer Michael Critchley speak to reporters in Trenton on June 17, 2024, after hearing Norcross has been indicted by the state Attorney General's Office. (Photo by Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor) State prosecutors have urged a judge to deny Democratic power broker George Norcross III’s motion to dismiss his racketeering indictment , accusing defense attorneys of trashing their investigation to “indoctrinate the press, the public, and, worst of all, the prospective jury pool.” In a new filing, state prosecutors implored Judge Peter E. Warshaw Jr. to reject Norcross’ argument that he and five co-defendants were engaged in “hard-bargaining,” not extortion, conspiracy, and other crimes, in deals since 2012 to secure land, easements, and tax incentives along the Camden waterfront. “Defendants resist any further scrutiny of their actions, claiming that this is all just ‘garden-variety politics,’ ‘how deals get done,’ and even ‘a feature of democratic self-government.’ But the grand jury did not think so, and nothing about its view is manifestly or palpably wrong,” prosecutors wrote. In a letter Friday, Attorney General Matt Platkin also asked Warshaw to reject a separate motion defense attorneys filed last Wednesday to compel prosecutors to produce the applications and other documents authorizing the federal wiretaps. The defense plans to press Warshaw to suppress the wiretapping evidence but needs the underlying documents to do so, they wrote. The wiretaps initially were approved for a federal investigation into John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, the disgraced labor leader in Philadelphia who went to prison this year for embezzling from the labor union he had headed. Investigators listening to conversations in that probe shifted their focus in 2016 to Norcross — but they did so without a fresh wiretap order, defense attorneys said. “These circumstances raise obvious red flags as to whether prosecutors and agents followed Department of Justice policies, the letter of the federal wiretap laws, and truly established probable cause as to Mr. Norcross,” defense attorneys wrote in their motion. The documents prosecutors did provide were so heavily redacted that defense attorneys accused them of “playing a cynical game of hide-the-ball.” The defense also accused Platkin of overreach by taking on a case that investigators had first “shopped” around unsuccessfully to U.S. attorney offices in New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Federal prosecutors in those offices closed the case because they “saw no crime,” the defense alleges. “There is just one conclusion to be drawn — that the Attorney General prizes headlines over prosecution standards,” defense attorneys Jeffrey S. Chiesa and Lee Vartan said in a statement. The two represent William M. Tambussi, Norcross’ personal attorney and co-defendant. Platkin bristled at defense attorneys’ claims that his office shirked their legal duty to turn over such documents during discovery. “So far, the State has turned over to the defense more than 4.3 million files ranging in length from one-page documents to documents that are thousands of pages long,” Platkin wrote. “The State has also given the defense more than 6,000 wiretap recordings and at least 700 hours of audio recordings, which include the interviews of about 100 people.” Defense attorneys sought additional documents his office doesn’t have, and the office requested them accordingly from federal prosecutors, Platkin added. He dismissed defense attorneys’ claims that his office improperly picked up an investigation the feds abandoned. “That the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River used wiretap materials that federal officials alone generated to prosecute a Norcross associate while declining to pursue Norcross and his codefendants for different criminal schemes in New Jersey is no barrier to this prosecution,” he wrote. New Jersey will “safeguard its residents from corruption — even if it invites the wrath of powerful people like George Norcross or less powerful people like Tambussi,” Platkin added. Federal prosecutors did not pass on prosecuting Norcross and his associates because they saw no crime, Platkin said. Instead, prosecutors close cases without taking them to court for all sorts of discretionary reasons that have nothing to do with guilt or innocence, such as whether their office has the bandwidth to handle such a prosecution, he said. Defense attorneys in the Norcross case say federal prosecutors in New Jersey who closed the probe without charges in 2018 cited “a review of the applicable law and evidence obtained during the investigation,” while federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania gave up last year “based upon review of the available admissible evidence, the applicable law, the probability of a successful trial and the prosecution standards of the office.” Platkin attributed defense attorneys’ “distorted” claims to “their months-long effort to barrage the media with inflammatory rhetoric designed to sway the jury pool.” Norcross was charged in June in a 13-count indictment along with Tambussi and four others — Norcross’ brother Philip A. Norcross, an attorney with Parker McKay; former Camden mayor Dana Redd; Sidney Brown, the head of trucking company NFI and a Norcross business partner; and John J. O’Donnell, a real estate developer and president of The Michaels Organization. Norcross is accused of overseeing a criminal enterprise, using direct threats and intimidation to win development rights along the waterfront and then benefiting from millions of dollars in state-issued tax credits. Norcross and his co-defendants have denied the charges against them. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOXConor McGregor dropped from whiskey brand as Tesco and other major retailers ditch alcohol linked with UFC star
Trump declined to sign a separate agreement to give his team access to secure offices and email accounts.