California has been lately in the business of blowing up dams. So a decision to actually raise one is big news. In a deal approved by eight water agencies as well as the federal government, the San Luis Reservoir between Gilroy and Los Banos, the fifth-largest reservoir in the state, . Already at 382 feet, the added height will increase storage by 130,000 acre feet. That’s roughly the amount of water that would be consumed by 650,000 people in one year. Matthew Keller, a spokesperson for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, one of the eight agencies, called it “ ,” which is no embellishment in a state that has made dam removal a centerpiece of its identity. In fact, California orchestrated the largest dam removal project in U.S. history: the dismantling of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River near the Oregon border. Gov. Gavin Newsom called it “a monumental achievement,” and not only for the river “but for our entire state, nation and planet.” A Showdown Over Water and Delta Smelt A month after Newsom made that statement, the country elected Donald Trump for another term in the White House, setting up what is likely to be a bitter confrontation over water. Trump, of course, has a different view of water in California than does the ruling class in Sacramento and in the big cities. The latter sees only scarcity, but Trump sees abundance. During his campaign, he “promised Californians unprecedented access to water and reduced protections for a key fish species if he is reelected,” in September. Thirty-five million Californians , including farmers in the Central Valley — known as the “nation’s breadbasket” because it is one of the most productive agricultural regions on Earth — are denied water due to the struggle over a “key fish.” The rare, tiny Delta smelt looms “ ,” John Durand, a University of California, Davis, researcher told the British Guardian in 2019. It’s truly a matter of “ .” Writing in the California WaterBlog, environmental sociologist Caleb Scoville explains how a creature that typically measures has become a heated subject far beyond the state’s borders. “The dynamics and character of the Delta smelt controversy are better explained by national partisan divisions than as a regional struggle for access to water,” says Scoville. In other words, the Delta smelt is a proxy war between the blue agenda and red policies. Get Ready for the Rhetoric to Ramp Up With all the politics swirling over a small fish that is “ ” and “only occurs in the San Francisco Estuary,” there is bound to be a fusillade of rhetorical bombs lobbed from Sacramento to Washington and back over the next four years. If Trump follows up where he left off, one of his first acts his second time around is likely to be pumping more water through the Central Valley Project, a federal Bureau of Reclamation . During his first term, Trump ordered the project to increase water delivery downstream. By 2020, flow southward had increased by about 5% due to Trump’s policies. But his agenda ran into environmentalist and political resistance, and a different administration, which critics have called “ ,” that did not see things the same way. Now he has to begin again, from the top, so to speak. Another project thought to be in Trump’s lineup is expanding the largest reservoir in the state, Lake Shasta. It was on his list in 2020. An environmental report that year looked at the feasibility of raising the dam by 18.5 feet, which would lift the lip by 3%, and increase the storage capacity “by 634,000 acre-feet, or more than 200 billion gallons,” enough, says the Bureau of Reclamation, “ .” While Sacramento is aligned against him — Newsom has called a special session to “safeguard California values” and “Trump-proof” the state — the thirsty farmers of the Central Valley, who feed not only the country but their own families from the slim profits they make, tend to favor Trump’s agenda — for obvious reasons. But then they’ve long been accustomed to getting better treatment from politicians outside the state.
A Texan who ran a forum on the dark web where depraved netizens could swap child sex abuse material (CSAM), and chat freely about abusing kids, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. An FBI probe in 2018 identified Robert Shouse, 37, of Houston, as the administrator of a Tor-hidden CSAM exchange on which miscreants could message each other with links to other sites hosting vile images, videos, and erotica. Not only that but after swooping on his home addresses in 2019, agents found more than 117,000 CSAM images and 1,100 videos, including more than 4,000 involving babies or toddlers, on his seized personal computers and storage drives. The Feds also learned Shouse befriended and sexually abused one child for years, produced hundreds of instances of CSAM with the boy, and gave money and gifts to this victim's family. It's said Shouse personally knew as many as seven minors that he created illegal imagery of. He also, according to the FBI, among other crimes secretly recorded two other minors, and asked two others to send him naked pictures of them. Robert Shouse is the embodiment of evil "Robert Shouse is the embodiment of evil," said US Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. "He used money and gifts to sexually abuse a nine-year-old child for six years. He used his computer skills to target hundreds of children, stealing their innocence and shattering their lives. In essence, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to satisfy his sick fantasies. Today’s sentence helps ensure that Shouse’s fantasies won’t become another child’s nightmare for decades to come." According to prosecution documents [PDF], the site was launched in 2018 by Shouse, who sent more than 10,000 messages via his dark-web chatrooms. In September that year, the FBI arrested an individual associated with the site who had communicated with Shouse. Using the arrestee's computer, an FBI special agent engaged with Shouse. Two months later, the agency obtained "credible information" regarding Shouse's home broadband IP address and, after subpoenaing Comcast to get the physical address associated with that network address, executed a search warrant. It turns out the house was owned by Shouse's father, who informed agents of his son's whereabouts. As we noted, the Feds found a load of computers, cameras, a custom-built system, and multiple hard drives containing criminal evidence, and linked it directly to Shouse after opening a file named "Personal" that contained [PDF] his US passport renewal application. On January 22, 2019, federal agents briefly interviewed Shouse, and an arrest warrant was issued two days later. He fled the area and was added to the FBI's wanted list. Later that month, Shouse was caught after a traffic stop in Lufkin, Texas, after reportedly driving without headlights at 0600 local time. Initially, he provided a false name. When the officer was unable to verify this identity, Shouse requested a lawyer and eventually admitted his true identity, leading to his arrest. In addition to his prison sentence this week, Shouse will serve 10 years of supervised release, pay his victims $153,500 in restitution, and will permanently be on the sex offender register. In June, he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, and one count of possession of CSAM. "In a world where technology allows child exploitation material to be spread across borders with ease, those who exploit children for their own depraved purposes must face the consequences of the harm they inflicted on their victims," said Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. "Today’s sentencing is more than just a punishment. It’s a message to the community that the FBI will always work with our partners to ensure there is one less predator out there victimizing the most innocent among us — our children." ®By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his hush money conviction, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea “absurd.” Related Articles National Politics | Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time National Politics | Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies National Politics | A nonprofit leader, a social worker: Here are the stories of the people on Biden’s clemency list National Politics | Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after she ‘sustained an injury’ on official trip to Luxembourg National Politics | Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway chokehold, will join Trump’s suite at football game The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed. They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won’t include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn’t sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity. Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment. It’s unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution’s suggestions. Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” that he’ll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. “To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics,” the defense lawyers wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional.” The prosecution’s suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they argued. Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump has tabbed for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump had died. Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “fabricate” a solution “based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump” who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September “and a hypothetical dead defendant.” Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what’s already a unique case. “This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.” Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Trump’s impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury’s verdict, which came when he was out of office. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution . Other world leaders don’t enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza . Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records . Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies. In their filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers citing a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s hush money prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges . “Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. Trump’s hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases , which pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in all. Trump had been scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November. But following Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.Land demarcated for modern silkworm seed centre at Alochi Bagh
Wayne Holdsworth became an advocate for banning Australian children younger than 16 from social media because his son took his own life after falling victim to an online sextortion scam. Mac Holdsworth died last year at his Melbourne family home at the age of 17 after a 47-year-old Sydney man who purported to be an 18-year-old woman demanded money for an intimate image the boy had shared. Since then, the grieving father has taken his tragic story to around 20 schools to warn students of the risks of social media. “I saw firsthand the damage that social media could do. I saw Mac, my son, get sexually extorted on social media,” Holdsworth said. “His mental health deteriorated at a rapid rate.” Online predators began approaching the teenager before his 16th birthday and his father believes such a ban could have saved his life. Australia’s House of Representatives on Wednesday voted for such a ban and the Senate is expected to make it law soon. Holdsworth said most of the 3,000 students he’s spoken to, from age 12 to 17, agree with a ban on children under the age of 16. “They come up to me and they say, ‘I’m so glad that this is going to be implemented,’” Holdsworth said. “Even the kids see it now that they’re going to be protected from those predators outside that are preying on them.” He said three girls approached him after a school address on Monday to tell him that they were being subjected to sextortion. One had already handed over 2,500 Australian dollars ($1,600) of her parents’ money to a blackmailer. Holdsworth said he was the first adult they had confided in. “The parent won’t know until the credit card statement comes out,” he said. “So it’s prevalent. It happened last night and it’ll happen tonight,” he added. Holdsworth described the government plan to ban children younger than 16 from social media as “absolutely essential for the safety of our children.” But not all parents are convinced that banning young children from social media is the answer. Critics say the legislation was rushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny, would not work, would create privacy risks for users of all ages and would take away parents’ authority to decide what’s best for their children. They also argue the ban would isolate children, deprive them of positive aspects of social media, drive children to the dark web, make children too young for social media reluctant to report harms they encounter, and take away incentives for platforms to make online spaces safer. Independent Sydney lawmaker Kylea Tink on Tuesday became the first member of the House of Representatives to speak publicly against the bill, which would make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts. “As a mom of three young adults ... I’m very aware of the negative impacts of social media and the challenges of parenting in this digital world,” Tink told Parliament. “I also recognize, however, that my children are digital natives and are very literate about how these platforms work. For this reason, I encourage everyone involved in this debate to ensure they are listening to the voices of young Australians when it comes to this decision-making process rather than assuming that the grownups in the room know best.” Tink was among 13 lawmakers who voted against the bill in the House on Wednesday. They were overwhelmed by 102 legislators who voted for it. The platforms have urged a Senate committee that examined the legislation on Monday to delay a vote until after a government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed next June. The four-hour committee meeting on Monday attracted 15,000 written submissions. X Corp. told the committee that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s platform had “serious concerns as to the lawfulness of the bill,” including its compatibility with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “There is no evidence that banning young people from social media will work and to make it law in the form proposed is highly problematic,” X said. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the legislation was “inconsistent with what Australian parents have told us that they want, which is a simple and effective way for them to set controls and manage their teens’ online experience.” Under the bill, parental consent for children to use social media does not override the ban. Lizzie O’Shea, chair of the Digital Rights Watch charity, which aims to uphold the digital rights of Australians, said she was appalled by the process and limited timeframe the government used to pass such significant and contentious legislation. She said she was very aware of the serious risks posed by social media platforms, “but I do not support a ban personally because I understand both the limits of that particular policy and the expert evidence that is coming out from people who work in this space about the problems for young people being excluded from those spaces,” O’Shea said. Her concerns centered on privacy, negative mental health impacts on excluded children and the possibility that young children would find ways to access social media spaces that would become even less child friendly as a result of the ban. “I’m profoundly aware of the dangers of large social media platforms running a certain kind of business model that prioritizes data extraction and exploitation of vulnerability over the public interest or the building of community and the protection of democracy,” she said. Swinburne University digital media expert Belinda Barnet, who supports the ban, feels she is part of a minority among professionals in the digital field. “I like it mainly because I think many of the social media platforms as they exist right now are not suitable environments for young children,” she said.Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login Rajiv Jain was pretty pleased with himself. It was March last year, and GQG Partners, chaired by the star stock picker, had made a near-$3 billion bet on Adani Group, the Indian conglomerate that is spread across everything from mining to ports, airports and power stations. It was a deeply contrarian move. The company, founded by billionaire businessman Gautam Adani as a commodities trading firm in 1988, had been the target of serious accusations from Hindenburg Research, a short-seller that accused it of using offshore tax havens and high debts. Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login Introducing your Newsfeed Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you. Latest In Equity markets Fetching latest articles Most Viewed In Markets
Millions of Australians are set to swelter through a massive heatwave with temperatures set to hit the low to mid-40s in most states and territories. Sky News Meteorologist Alison Osborne said Mildura and Swan Hill in Victoria were tipped to reach temperatures as high as 46C on Monday while areas like Broken Hill could hit 44C. “For parts of western NSW including Broken Hill, Griffith, Hay, Deniliquin, temperatures once again likely to exceed that 45C mark and again the hottest in at least four years,” Ms Osborne told Skynews.com.au. “Fire weather warnings are likely to be current from eastern parts of South Australia including the Mid North and the Riverland, and then into western and central Victoria including that Melbourne region. “So all of this hot, dry and windy weather is likely to be conducive to fire becoming fast-moving, unpredictable and uncontrollable.” HEATWAVE, FIRE DANGER WARNINGS Heatwave warnings are in place across NSW, ACT, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory over the weekend and into Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. “Severe heatwaves can be dangerous for many people, especially older people, babies, children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people with medical conditions and people who are unwell,” a Bureau of Meteorology alert stated. “Seek a place to keep cool, such as your home, a library, community centre or shopping centre. “Close your windows and draw blinds, curtains or awnings early in the day to keep the heat out of your home. “If available, use fans or airconditioners to keep cool.” Extreme fire danger warnings have been issued for Mallee, Wimmera, Northern Country, North Central, South West and Central Victoria on Monday. Similar extreme fire danger warnings are in place across WA over Saturday and Sunday in Avon, Lockwood, Arthur, Roe, Lakes, Stirling North and Stirling West. For South Australia, extreme fire danger warnings have been issued for Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East and Lower South East on Monday. High and moderate warnings are also in place across much of the country. “ALL ABOUT THE HEAT” Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jonathan How agreed it’s “all about the heat” for the south east and centre of the country this weekend due to a high pressure moving in. “We start to see those winds turn northerly, and that will bring some very hot air down across the centre and the south east of the country,” Mr How said.“This will drive both heat wave conditions and elevated fire dangers.” Temperatures are set to climb into the 30s and low 40s west of the divide of western Sydney with heatwave conditions on Saturday, while the temperature is set to be up to 6C above average in the ACT. Maximum temperatures in Victoria are expected to be up to 4C above average on Saturday in the south and up to 10C higher in the northwest on Saturday. “We will also see high fire dangers, often in coastal sea breezes, including for Melbourne,” Mr How said. South Australia is also in for a scorcher. “It will get quite hot and warming up on Sunday for South Australia,” Mr How said. “Hot heat wave conditions across much of the state. Maximum temperatures up to 6C above average in the southeast, but up to 12C above average in the north.” Sydney is expected to reach 32C by Tuesday while Melbourne will soar to 41C on Monday. Brisbane is set to range between 28C and 30C with Perth set to hit a maximum of 35C over the next week. The heat is set to hit Adelaide even sooner with a forecast of 40C on Sunday. Hobart is expected to rise to 32C by Monday with Canberra set to hit 38C on the same day. Darwin’s week is set to range between 34C and 35C.
A nonprofit leader who supports at-risk New Orleans youth. A social worker who fosters animals. A postdoctoral researcher. They are among the roughly 1,540 people whose sentences were commuted or who were pardoned by President Joe Biden on Thursday in what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. But not everyone was pleased by Biden’s decisions. A Republican state senator said a commutation for a woman who stole $54 million from a small town in Illinois was “a slap in the face” to residents. The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania said Biden "got it absolutely wrong” when he commuted the sentence of a judge who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks. Here are some of their stories: Fulton was pardoned after pleading guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while serving as a New Orleans middle school teacher in the early 2000s. She was convicted of a felony and sentenced to three years of probation in 2008. Fulton, who has two children and works as an elementary school teacher, said that for years she had lived with “a sense of embarrassment and shame” about the felony conviction. Even though she completed a master’s degree in educational leadership in 2017, Fulton felt that her criminal record disqualified her from applying for principal positions she felt she could handle. “The conviction has served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live a full life,” Fulton said. Nearly a decade after she first applied for a presidential pardon, Fulton this week received a phone call informing her that it had been granted. “It was astonishing for me, I wasn’t expecting a call,” Fulton said, adding that the pardon will enable her to explore more career opportunities. A White House news release commended Fulton as “someone who goes above and beyond for her community.” For years, Fulton has helped lead a nonprofit supporting at-risk New Orleans youth with hot meals, clothing and shelter and mental health referrals. Doyle applied for a pardon six years ago. It had been so long that she had all but forgotten about it — until Wednesday. “I was in shock,” Doyle said of the call she received from a Justice Department pardon attorney. “And honored.” Doyle, who was once addicted to meth, had pleaded guilty to drug possession and check forging charges when she was 24. She served more than two years in state and federal prison. Released in 2006, Doyle resolved to stay clean. She started a family, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and now works as a social worker with a behavioral health center. Doyle applied for a pardon in 2018 and heard nothing until 2020, when the FBI reached out — and the vetting began. “They talked to my boss, my boss’ boss, they talked to my mother’s boss, they called my doctors," Doyle said. “Just pretty much anybody that had any type of relationship with me in the past 20 years they contacted.” After the vetting was over, she would have to wait some more: four years, it turned out. “I just want people to know that are in the throes of addiction, or families to know that when they have somebody in their family that is addicted, that there is hope,” Doyle said Thursday. “This has just brought so much joy to me and my family and is just the continuation of my recovery.” She has five children and three grandchildren, volunteers in her community, fosters animals and competes in roller derby. Crundwell was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison in 2013 for stealing about $54 million over two decades when she was in charge of finances for Dixon, Illinois. She was released to a halfway house program in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic before moving to home confinement. Biden’s commutation releases Crundwell from any restrictions. Paul Gaziano, a lawyer who represented Crundwell in federal court, declined to comment Thursday. Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said he believes most of the town is probably stunned, and maybe even angry, that Biden would provide clemency to Crundwell. Republican state Sen. Andrew Chesney called Biden’s act “nothing short of a slap in the face to the people of Dixon.” Dixon, best known as the childhood home of President Ronald Reagan, sued auditors and a bank after Crundwell’s theft was revealed and recovered $40 million in settlements. Crundwell, who was a horse breeder, told a judge in 2020 that more than $15 million was repaid from the sale of her horses and other assets. “I am going to do everything possible to make up for my mistakes," she told the judge in a handwritten letter that described various health problems. “I have taken responsibility for my actions since the first day.” Conahan was sentenced to 17 years in prison for helping orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history: a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks . Biden’s decision to commute his sentence angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011. “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Friday. A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney who recently represented Conahan, the former judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups. Sandy Fonzo, whose son killed himself at age 23 after Ciavarella locked him up as a teen, called Conahan’s commutation an “injustice.” “I am shocked and I am hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement provided to The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power." The Juvenile Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in a $200 million civil judgment against Conahan and Ciavarella, said it “supported President Biden’s actions” but wants to see the “same kind of compassion and mercy” extended to juvenile defendants around the country. When he pleaded guilty in 2010, Conahan apologized to the youths he had hurt. “The system is not corrupt,” Conahan said at the time. “I was corrupt.” Becklin was 21 when she got into trouble, which she said was due to trying to get money to support her drug addiction. She pleaded guilty to a nonviolent felony charge for failing to provide information to police about a 2007 bank robbery. She served four months in a halfway house, four months of home confinement and three years of probation. She found out she was pregnant after she’d been out of custody for about a year. She said she had her “aha moment” when her son was 1 year old. “And I was living at home with my parents. I had, like, no job, no education, no future,” Becklin said. “Had a felony on my record. I had substance use history, you know, all these things. And he was 1. And I just remember, like looking at him and realizing that his whole life was, like, really dependent on what I did with mine.” Within days, she said, she enrolled at a community college. She recently earned her doctoral degree in comparative molecular biosciences at the University of Minnesota. For her doctorate, she used stem cell biology and genetic engineering to better understand how pediatric cancers grow and develop. She’s still working in the cell and gene therapy space, now as a postdoctoral researcher at the university. The White House noted in its announcement that Becklin also mentors currently and previously incarcerated people who are seeking to pursue higher education. She said she does it as part of a program called Prison to Professionals. They help guide people on the unique issues they’ll face in higher education and provide them with a support network. She said she still doesn’t know exactly how being pardoned and having her record cleared will affect her future. “I think there was a point in my life where it really mattered if I, like, had a certain career path or if I did that. But I have found that, kind of wherever I am, I find my purpose and my need there. And, you know, it’s kind of a beautiful way to live,” she said. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Ed White in Detroit, Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed to this report.
