California clears way for inmate firefighters to enter profession upon release

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill allowing prisoners who fight fires while incarcerated to have their records expunged after serving time so they have an easier path to becoming regular firefighters upon release.

The bill addresses the emergence of an unexpected social justice issue this summer as massive wildfires during a pandemic exposed California's longtime reliance on inmates to suppress fires.

CA AB2147 (19R), by Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes (D-Grand Terrace), lets prisoners who served in a state firefighting camp or on a county fire hand crew apply to the court to dismiss their convictions so they can qualify as EMTs, a necessary step to becoming a firefighter.

The law "will give those prisoners hope of actually getting a job in the profession that they've been trained," Newsom said upon signing the bill Friday in Oroville, where the North Complex Fire has burned 250,000 acres and 10 people have died. The bill excludes those convicted of certain crimes, including murder, kidnapping, rape, arson or any felony punishable by death or life imprisonment.

The state released thousands of inmates early this spring to clear cramped prisons and reduce Covid-19 exposure risks — particularly lower-risk offenders who might normally serve in fire camps. Hundreds of rare lightning strikes across the state in August then put severe demands on California's firefighting force, and the state acknowledged that its inmate crews were thinner this year due to the releases.

About 3,100 inmates helped fight fires last year. While California has long relied on inmates to fight fires, social justice efforts were full steam this summer after the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, and advocates seized on California's use of prisoners as a serious problem.

The bill is intended to provide a quicker path for inmate fire crew members to become professional firefighters, which advocates said was a matter of fairness for those who serve their time and demonstrate their abilities.

“Rehabilitation without strategies to ensure the formerly incarcerated have a career is a pathway to recidivism," Reyes said in a statement. "We must get serious about providing pathways for those that show the determination to turn their lives around.”

But law enforcement members and prosecutors opposed the bill, arguing that those who serve time in prisons have already been deemed a higher risk and would pose a danger to the public.

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Johnson seeks IG probe of wiped Mueller team phones

Senate Homeland Security Chair Ron Johnson is asking a Justice Department watchdog to probe recently revealed documents that suggest members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team wiped records from their official phones.

Records released by the Justice Department this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request suggest top Mueller aides erased the information from at least 15 phones, citing forgotten passwords, physical damage and missing hardware.

"These reports are troubling and raise concerns about record retention and transparency," Johnson wrote in a letter to DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz. "Therefore, I respectfully request that your office open an investigation into this matter to determine what, why, and how information was wiped, whether any wrongdoing occurred, and who these devices belonged to."

Johnson is asking Horowitz to send answers by Sept. 18, as the senator winds down a related investigation of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation — the probe of the 2016 Trump campaign's contacts with Russians, which morphed into Mueller's probe in mid-2017. He's also asking whether Horowitz may be able to retrieve messages from the phones.

Johnson's request followed a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to the FBI and Justice Department inquiring about the wiped phones and demanding that they produce all records Mueller's team did turn over, as well as unredacted copies of the FOIA documents.

Horowitz has mounted similar probes into the handling of internal messages by FBI agents involved in the Russia probe and mounted a major effort to retrieve messages deleted from some FBI phones. Horowitz detailed his findings and retrieval methods in a 2018 report.

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A New York nurse denied bail after fatally stabbing her husband remains on Rikers Island

New York nurse Tracy McCarter says after stabbing her husband, she rendered first aid to save him

Authorities say New York nurse who is accused of fatally stabbing her intoxicated husband in her apartment is now claiming she merely acted in self-defense.

Read More: Colorado mom of 4 killed by boyfriend in murder-suicide

According to The Gothamist, Tracy McCarter’s attorney is arguing that his client’s estranged husband, James Murray, was incredibly “intoxicated” and “attacking her” when she stabbed him in the chest.

The 44-year-old, who is a nurse at Weill Cornell Medical Center, maintains that she’d split from her husband “some time ago” before he showed up unannounced on March 2 at the Upper West Side apartment they once shared.

“This is a strong case of self-defense,” the defendant’s attorney, Frank Rothman said in Manhattan Criminal Court.

He also added that the victim had a “long history of violent behavior and alcohol abuse” and had been drunk and disruptively ringing doorbells for several apartments in his client’s building before she ultimately relented and let him in. Murray, who was white, had been to rehab five times, The Gothamist reported.

This case is not getting the attention it deserves. ⁦ https://t.co/ucDSBUJD0e

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) September 10, 2020

McCarter, a mother of four, said upon entering the apartment her husband then became abusive and demanded money. When he tried to grab her purse, she stabbed him and then called 911. Murray died shortly afterward.

McCarter was denied bail and has remained at Rikers for the past six months, during a time where New York City’s jail complex has seen an explosion in COVID-19 cases.

“You just feel so helpless,” McCarter said during a call from the infamous jail, in which she expressed her frustration that she couldn’t use her nursing skills during the pandemic. “You know one more person would make a difference.”

“We’re a really vulnerable population and don’t have the power to say, ‘Don’t come near me without a mask,’” she noted.

Although there were allegations of domestic abuse on both sides, McCarter’s lawyers released a statement to The Gothamist, urging that McCarter be released on bail.

“The prosecutors in this case have been presented with independent, corroborated evidence from multiple sources that Tracy is a victim of repeated instances of domestic violence at the hands of the decedent, always during occasions when he was drunk, as he was on the night he died,” Sean Hecker of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, Jacob Buchdahl of Susan Godfrey, and Jeffrey Brown of Dechert, wrote.

“This is not a murder case and Ms. McCarter does not belong at Rikers.”

Read More: Georgia man, 25, killed by friend in argument over $5

A Change.org petition has been created by a fellow health care professional to advocate for McCarter’s release. It’s already generated over 500 signatures.

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Four Houston police officers fired for fatally shooting wounded man

Four police officers in Houston, Texas are fired after the fatal shooting of a wounded man in April.

Four Houston, Texas, officers will lose their jobs after the fatal shooting of a wounded man in April.

Read More: Does #DefundThePolice rhetoric get in the way of actual police reform?

The Houston Police Department announced that four of the five officers who fired a total of 24 rounds during the encounter had been fired. Houston police chief Art Acevedo made the decision, releasing body camera footage and 911 calls.

“If you’re that fearful, fearful with 28 officers, of a man that’s been wounded already, I don’t need you as a police officer,” he said in a press conference. “Do you want me to bring them back so they can do it again to somebody else? I don’t think so. The video speaks for itself.

The officers fired are identified as Sgt. Benjamin Leblanc and Officers Luis Alvarado, Omar Tapia, and Patrick T. Rubio who together fired 21 shots at the suspect after he had already been shot multiple times, hit with bean bags, and targeted with tasers.

“The discharge of those 21 shots by those four members of the Houston Police Department are not objectively reasonable,” Chief Acevedo said.

“I don’t consider them objectively reasonable, the chain of command does not consider them objectively reasonable, and I believe that anyone that watches this tape, that sees this, would see that they had a lot of opportunities and a lot of other options readily available to them that as long as I’m the police chief in this city, I’ll expect my officers to take.”

@HouMayor Sylvester Turner Chief @ArtAcevedo Briefing on April 21 Officer Involved Shooting at 800 Gazin Street https://t.co/ZCOOtFQcwa

— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) September 10, 2020

Read More: Police reform should include a commitment to serve Black neighborhoods

On April 21, police were called to Gazin Street for an alleged suicide in progress. The initial statement claims the suspect charged at HPD with a pointed weapon at one point during the incident.

“As the officers engaged the suspect, he charged at them with a pointed object in his hand. Three HPD officers discharged their Conducted Energy Devices (CED) at the suspect, which had no effect. Officers then deployed several bean bag rounds at the suspect, which also had no effect,” the statement reads.

“The suspect continued to charge at the officers with the pointed weapon in his hand. Fearing for his life, one officer discharged his duty weapon and struck the suspect, who fell to the ground. The suspect then crawled to a CED that had been dropped by an officer, picked it up, and pointed it at the officers. Fearing for their lives, officers discharged their duty weapons and struck the suspect. Houston Fire Department paramedics responded to the scene and pronounced him deceased.”

The victim, Nicolas Chavez, 27, was remembered by his widow and parents. His wife, Jessica Chavez, says her husband struggled with possible mental illness.

“It makes me hurt deep down inside because he is my husband and I do love him and I do care for him,” she said to local news outlet Click 2 Houston.

“It was an execution,” Chavez’s father, Joaquín Chavez said to The Marshall Project after watching cellphone footage of his son being shot while on his knees.

“That’s what they did, and that’s the part I don’t understand. He was on his knees, already wounded. He wasn’t a threat to anybody at that point.”

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Trump administration withheld $4 million from FDNY 9/11 health fund

The Trump administration admitted to taking the funds away from the FDNY that helped 9/11 survivors but claimed it was due to a debt owed

President Donald Trump publicly commemorated the 19th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday. However, his administration has secretly siphoned almost $4 million in funds away from a program that was meant to treat FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related ailments.

According to a report released by The Daily News on Thursday, almost four years ago the Treasury Department began withholding parts of payments meant to cover medical services for firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics treated by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: New York City firefighters pause outside of Engine Company 10 and Ladder Company 10 across from One World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower, in lower Manhattan during commemoration ceremonies for the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on September 11, 2020 in New York City. Hundreds of people have gathered for the 19th anniversary of the event at Ground Zero to remember the nearly 3,000 who were killed on that day. But this year, due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, only family members are allowed to gather at the 9/11 Memorial plaza. There will also not be an in-person reading of the victims’ names at the memorial and instead there will be a pre-recording of names by family members broadcast throughout the plaza and live-streamed online. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees the program, both authorizes and sends off the payments. But documents obtained by the outlet show that instead of sending the funds to the city as intended, the Treasury mysteriously began keeping some of the money.

“Here we have sick World Trade Center-exposed firefighters and EMS workers, at a time when the city is having difficult financial circumstances due to COVID-19, and we’re not getting the money we need to be able to treat these heroes,” said Dr. David Prezant, the FDNY’s Chief Medical Officer.

“And for years, they wouldn’t even tell us — we never ever received a letter telling us this,” he noted.

READ MORE: #AllBuildingsMatter trends on 9/11 to prove a point to ‘All lives matter’ crowd

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 01: New York City Fire Department (FDNY) work at the scene after a three story building that housed the Body Elite Gym on the corner of Court and Union Streets collapsed on July 1, 2020 in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The collapse sent debris flying onto the sidewalk but no major injuries were reported. (Photo by Justin Heiman/Getty Images)

Prezant also expressed his dismay about what’s taken place, telling The Daily News, “This is the most amazing thing. This was disappearing — without any notification.”

“It’s disgraceful,” said Long Island Republican Rep. Pete King. “I don’t even care what the details of this thing is. That fund has to be fully compensated, fully reimbursed. I mean, this is absurd,” he said. “If anyone were true American heroes, it was the cops and firemen on 9/11, especially the firemen, and for even $1 to be being held back is absolutely indefensible.”

He also went on to say he plans to confront Vice President Mike Pence during Friday’s Tunnel to Towers event honoring the 19th anniversary of the attacks.

“I gotta tell him,” King said. “Forget the politics. I don’t want to sound naive, but this is terrible, absolutely inexcusable.”

The Treasury Department claimed on Friday that it was required to withhold the money due to debt repayment.  There was an outstanding balance of $1,983,452.98 from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

An official told NBC News that the administration is working with King to resolve the matter.

“Our, and Rep. King’s, only goal in this is to get the FDNY its funding — we have done everything within our power to try and resolve this issue and are continuing to work with the city while also looking into possible alternate ways of making this happen,” the official stated.

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