Politics and Current
New York judge sentences white woman to probation after being videotaped driving over grieving mother just feet from memorial for dead daughter
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A New York woman who pleaded guilty to striking and killing a mother who became an anti-gang activist after her daughter was murdered by an MS-13 gang member won’t go to prison.
Instead, a judge sentenced Ann Marie Drago, 63, of Patchogue, to five years probation for involuntary manslaughter, denying the district attorney’s request for a sentence of up to three years in prison.
In 2018, Drago struck and killed 50-year-old Evelyn Rodriguez during an argument over a memorial to Rodriguez’s daughter, 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, who had been beaten and murdered two years earlier by members of the notorious MS-13 gang.
Rodriguez became a distinguished figure within the fight against MS-13 gang violence following the death of her daughter on September 13, 2016.
Her actions gained national attention when then-President Donald Trump visited Brentwood to address gang violence and invited Rodriguez to his 2018 State of the Union address.
Rodriguez’s daughter, Kayla, was killed together with Nisa Mickens, her best friend and classmate at Brentwood High School.
In the months leading up to the 2016 killings, Kayla Cuevas was embroiled in an ongoing feud with members of the MS-13 gang, which escalated after a confrontation at college during which several gang members decided to kill Kayla and Nisa.
The attackers, travelling in separate cars, spotted the couple walking down the road and attacked them with baseball bats and a machete, fatally wounding them.
Mickens was found dead on the street from blunt force trauma, while Cuevas’ body was found the next day.
Police charged 19-year-old Jairo “Funny” Saenz with murder, and prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for him and his brother, Alexi Saenz, who helped him commit the crime together with not less than two other MS-13 members.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is an infamous criminal gang that was founded in Los Angeles within the Nineteen Eighties. Initially composed primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, MS-13 has since expanded its influence across the United States, Latin America, and other regions.
Alexi Saenz, a frontrunner of the MS-13 Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside clique, pleaded guilty in July to multiple murders, including the brutal 2016 slayings of Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens.
Saenz admitted to hunting down teenage girls and attacking them with machetes and baseball bats, and to committing several other murders and crimes, including drug trafficking and firearm possession.
Although the federal government initially sought the death penalty, it withdrew that plan in 2023. Saenz faces between 40 and 70 years in prison under the plea agreement, and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 31. Cases are still pending against his brother, Jairo Saenz, who was reportedly second-in-command of the gang.
Unlike her daughter, Rodriguez’s violent death on September 15, 2018, was not gang-related.
Drago, who admitted to running over Rodriguez, was trying to sell her mother’s home and wanted to remove the statue, fearing it could scare off potential buyers.
Hours before the annual vigil, Drago — who worked as a caregiver and nurse on Long Island — was spotted vandalizing the memorial by destroying balloons and flowers along with her 2016 Nissan Rouge.
In response, Rodriguez and Freddy Cuevas, Kayla’s father, angrily confronted Drago in her automotive, at which point Drago sped off and ran over the grieving mother.
Despite the violent confrontation that had just occurred, the motive force of the automotive stopped and called 911 after which cooperated with investigators.
Rodriguez was taken to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, where she was pronounced dead.
At the time, Trump tweeted about Rodriguez: “My thoughts and prayers are with Evelyn Rodriguez, her family and friends tonight. #RIPEvelyn.”
Drago faced two trials in Rodriguez’s death: the primary led to a guilty verdict that may have resulted in nine months in prison, but that was later overturned on appeal, and the second trial led to a hung jury in October 2023.
At previous trials, Drago’s defense attorney described the incident as a tragic accident, when Rodriguez’s foot got caught under the tire when Drago hit the gas and sped away, while the prosecution argued that Drago cut Rodriguez’s tire and hit the gas.
The lenient sentence indicated that the court felt Drago had already suffered enough.
During Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Drago remained calm and silent as Freddy Cuevas and Rodriguez’s two surviving daughters, Kaitlyn and Kelsey, cried nearby.
“We did not get the justice we were hoping for given the issue,” Cuevas said. according to CBS News“The fact that she got a suspended sentence is like a slap in the hand.”
“I will never forgive you for what you did,” Kaitlyn Drago said in a victim impact statement.
“There is still no peace for me or my family,” Kelsey added.
They all said they found it difficult to come to terms with the referee’s decision.
“I felt sad for my daughters because of the pain they were going through,” Freddy Cuevas said. “Evelyn was considered a great advocate for the community.”
“She will be free. She will live her life, but judgment day will come one day,” Cuevas added.
The message sparked strong reactions from readers. One user he tweeted, “Disgusting. She should be in jail.”
Politics and Current
Donald Trump under fire after he was caught on Hot Mic
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In some ways, the White House tried to manage the narrative on Wednesday.
After taking on the rotation of reporters allocated to cover the day by day schedule of the president – work previously carried out by Association of White House Corresponders -President Donald Trump went a step further, asking one in every of the reporters of the brand new within the press pool, together “Fox and Friends” by Lawrence Jones to say to the viewers: “We did a great job, please. Ok? “
“Say it was unbelievable,” said the president after casting the primary meeting of the office of the second term on February 26. The White House was already cut off, however the Audio Associated Press channel remained and captured the moment of a hot microphone.
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Jones, who has already lobbyed a number of inquiries to Softball for the president (including “Who is your favorite member of the office?”) I didn’t disappoint.
“The president chose members of the office who can really present their ideas and their ideas. He does not have to worry that they will leave and blow up everything-they are on the same side, “said the co-host Steve Doocy.
“I also think it’s great,” Jones replied. “They are guys who normally – and girls – are used to communicate their ideas. They divide the president’s vision and communicate it in such a concise way. I don’t think we’ve ever seen it in administration. “
“It is people who show how uncertain this president is,” said one in every of the critics who responded to a viral report on the moment of Caugh-on-Camera. “He knows that most of them we watched, right?” Someone said.
In fact, the meeting was dominated by Elon Muskwho opened with a weak joke, saying: “Well, I should simply call myself modest technical support,” and from there he initiated. Photos showed that the president was napping through the presentation of Musk.
Referring to his work as “necessary”, Musk presented one other federal agency within the Doge chopping block. “We spend lots within the defense department, but we spend that over a trillion dollars for interest. If this happens, the country goes, it is going to turn into de facto bankrupt – he said.
Jones was not the one Trump friendly correspondent who joined the press pool on Thursday.
The correspondent of Brian Glenn’s chief house from Real America, perhaps essentially the most absorbing the Networks Pro-Trump network, and the correspondent of the White House Newsmax, James Rosen, were a part of Gaggle, replacing older media, including the Associated Press, which was blocked within the events of the White House for refusing to call the Mexican bay with Mexico with Mexico with Mexico with Mexico with Mexican America after the president announced a change performed by the manager.
Meanwhile, the Association of White House correspondents announced that it might now not coordinate the common range of the White House until the dispute over unlimited access to the media is sustained. Also on Wednesday, the president announced He will sue reporters who use the common practice of anonymous quotes in unfavorable stories or books about it. Such quotes are sometimes used to cause greater honesty from the source, which otherwise might be afraid to talk.
What does all this mean for residents? Less difficult questions and a more favorable relationship for the president, whose crossing of the management has now not checked by Congress.
This explains why this clip He was on the web on Thursday with “The Simpsons”. When the owner of the nuclear plant, Montgomery Burns, decides to use for the governor, his campaign suggests dinner with the Simpsons family to assist the energy director involved with voters from the working class. Lisa Simpson is forced to ask This is an issue From a guest dinner of a guest:
“Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have a fugitive momentum. Why are you so popular?”
Get used to it.
(Tagstotransate) Donald Trump
Featured
USAID cuts are already hitting countries around the world. Here are 20 projects that have been closed
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Countries around the world already feel the influence of Trump’s administration decision to eliminate over 90% of foreign assistance contracts and reduce the financing of around $ 60 billion. A number of hours after the announcement at the starting of this week, The programs have been closed, Leaving tens of millions of individuals without access to life -saving care.
About 10,000 contracts with the American International Development Agency were accomplished on Wednesday, in letters sent to non -governmental organizations around the world.
Letters said that the programs were rejected “for the convenience and interests of the US government”, based on an individual with knowledge of the content that they spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly on this subject.
Many programs are present in the fragile countries that are highly depending on American help with a purpose to support healthcare systems, nutrition programs and stop hunger.
Here, several key projects around the world, which AP confirmed, have been closed:
1: In Congo, the motion of a bunch of help against hunger will stop to treat tens of hundreds of malnourished children from May, which, based on a charity, will make children put children in “deadly danger”.
2: According to the Committee on Cadastral Risk Management in Ethiopia in Ethiopia, help stopped for over 1 million people. The Ministry of Health was also forced to terminate the contract of 5,000 employees throughout the country, focused on stopping HIV and malaria, vaccination and assist in a difficult situation in coping with the trauma of war.
3: In Senegal, the largest malaria project was closed. According to a USAID worker, who was not authorized to talk over with the media. Mother and youngsters’s health and nutrition services were also closed. They provided look after tens of hundreds of pregnant women and treatment that would prevent acute malnutrition.
4: In South Sudan, the International Emergency Committee closed a project that provides access to prime quality health and nutrition services over 115,000 people.
5: The program closed by the Norwegian refugee council in Colombia left 50,000 people without saving their lives, including in the northeast, where the growing violence caused a humanitarian crisis once a generation. This included food, shelter, clean water and other basic items for people displaced in the region.
6: According to the International Rescue Committee, 90 community cuisines closed in the capital in the torn war of Sudan, leaving greater than half 1,000,000 people without consistent access to food.
7: According to Bangladesh, 600,000 women and youngsters will lose access to mother’s critical health care, protection against violence, reproductive health services and other life -saving care, in accordance with the United Nations Fund.
8. In small critical assistance, equivalent to access to water, food and health services for over 270,000 people, based on a help group, which didn’t wish to be listed for fear of repression.
9. Over 400,000 people in North Burkina Faso lost access to services equivalent to water. According to the help group, which didn’t want to get replaced for fear of a repressiveist.
10. In Somalia, 50 health centers serving over 19,000 people were closed per thirty days because health care employees are not paid, based on the American help group.
11. In Ukraine, based on money, humanitarian programs, which last yr reached 1 million people, were suspended, based on the spokesman for the Secretary General of the UN.
12. Hundreds of mobile health teams and other services were suspended in Afghanistan, they concerned 9 million people, based on the UN spokesperson.
13. According to the UN Secretary General in Syria in Syria, for about 2.5 million people in the northeast of the country ceased to supply services. Also in the north, a dozen or so health clinics, including the primary hospital recommending this area, closed, said doctors without borderlines.
14. In Kenya, over 600,000 people living in drought -harassed areas and chronic sharp malnutrition will lose their access to the rescue lifetime of food and nutrition, based on Mercy Corps.
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15. At Haiti, 13,000 people lost access to dietary support, in accordance with actions against hunger.
16. In Thailand, hospitals help around 100,000 Refugees from Myanmar According to the Border Consortium of the Help Group, closed.
17. According to the International Emergency Committee in Nigeria, 25,000 extremely malnourished children will stop to receive food assistance until April.
18. A program to enhance access to warning systems for disabled people for disabled people was detained in the Philippines.
19. In Vietnam, a program helping disabled people through training carers and providing medical care at home stopped, in accordance with humanity and integration.
20. In Yemen, 220,000 resettled people will lose access to mother’s critical health care, protection against violence, treatment of rape and other life -saving care, in accordance with the United Nations Fund.
———————–
The Associated Press Writers Sylvie Corbet got here in Paris, France, Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, Turkey, Evelyn Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, Thalia Beata in New York and Edith Lederer in the United births contributed to this report.
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(tagstransate) @AP
Politics and Current
Speaker of the New York Council Adrienne Adams is considering Burmoral Run
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The speaker of the City Council in New York Adrienne Adams submitted documents to the financial council of the New York campaign to be able to create a campaign committee in the upcoming mayor’s race.
“We currently have chaos and we have reduced confidence in the other side of the town hall,” Adams said in an interview with Gothamist. “That is why I am seriously considering the campaign to become the first woman of the mayor of New York.”
In addition to becoming the first woman chosen as the mayor, Adams could be the first black woman and the first speaker of the city council who took the highest elected place in New York.
confirmed that Adams would do it Wait until the next week to make the final decision to launch. It is expected to offer the address of the “city state” on March 4.
“I wasn’t looking for it; It was not in my plans – she said, adding, “I believe someone have to be the soul of the city.”
A possible Adams offer for the mayor comes amongst the precipitation with the current mayor, Eric Adams. Adams, who is not related to the mayor, recently joined other city leaders, asking him to subside because of the corruption scandal.
If he joins the race, Adams will join the crowded, qualified field. Comptroller City Brad Lander and his predecessor Scott Stringer, Queens Assemblymber Zohran Mamdani, senator of the state Queens Jessica Ramos and senator of State Brooklyn Zellor Myrie.
There were also rumors that the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was considering returning to politics and applying for the mayor.
A recent survey with the Honan Strategy Group showed that Cuomo has a most important role in a democratic basic race of 38%. Mamdani is second at 12%, and the mayor of Adams is in third place with 10%. The Adams speaker received only 2% support from survey respondents.
(Tagstranslate) Mayoral Race (T) Adrienne Adams (T) New York City (T) Eric Adams
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