Flash mob smash-and-grabs continue at high-end stores in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — More smash-and-grab “flash mob” robberies at luxury stores have police and retailers struggling with how to crack down on the crimes.
A rash of such thefts continued in Los Angeles as organized groups descended on stores and grabbed expensive merchandise in pre-Thanksgiving raids around the city.
On Wednesday night, a security guard was attacked with bear spray as several people entered the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga & the Village shopping center in Canoga Park, grabbed merchandise and ran out, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police are investigating a similar incident the same night in which groups struck several stores in the Beverly Center in the Beverly Grove neighborhood
The thefts came two days after an organized group broke into a Nordstrom at the Grove shopping center by smashing a window and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise, police said.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Police Commission that the department would be stepping up patrols and dedicating additional resources to some higher-end locations to deter the wave of mob thefts.
—Los Angeles Times
Biden oil leasing blueprint will urge climate change-focused changes
The Biden administration on Friday issued a long-awaited blueprint for overhauling oil and gas development on federal lands that includes boosting royalty rates despite high gasoline prices that have spurred demands to accelerate domestic production.
The Interior Department report recommends higher fees and more limits on federal oil and gas leasing to better account for climate change and ensure a higher return to taxpayers. The analysis represents the the culmination of a comprehensive review that President Joe Biden ordered in January.
The Interior Department said its 18-page blueprint could modernize oil and gas leasing programs “to better restore balance and transparency to public land and ocean management and deliver a fair and equitable return to American taxpayers.” The current program “falls short of serving the public interest” and “shortchanges taxpayers,” the report said.
Among the changes recommended are boosting annual lease rental payments and raising the royalties that energy companies pay for the oil and gas they extract. The agency also recommended new restrictions on what lands are made available for oil andgas development, a big shift from the current practice in which most federal lands are open.
The assessment is being delivered against the backdrop of higher gasoline prices that have provoked concern at the White House and spurred calls for the Biden administration to go in the opposite direction, accelerating domestic oil and gas production.
—Bloomberg News
$1.1 million raised from donors around the world to aid exoneree Kevin Strickland
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Money and words of support kept flowing into a GoFundMe fundraiser to benefit Kevin Strickland, growing to $1.1 million Friday, according to the fundraiser's page.
Strickland, 62, was exonerated in a 1978 triple murder that he has always said he did not commit. He was released from the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron this week after a judge granted Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker's motion to free him.
The Midwest Innocence Project set up the online fundraiser in June saying at the time it was confident Strickland would be released and that he would face "many hurdles adjusting to life" on the outside.
Within 24 hours after his release, the fund raised $318,616, well in excess of its goal of $150,000. But donations kept coming in and by Friday morning, nearly $1.08 million had been raised and a new goal of $1.2 million had been set.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director at the Midwest Innocence Project, on Wednesday said the response has been overwhelming and showed that people care about justice.
"The state of Missouri isn't going to pay Kevin Strickland, but you know, strangers from all around the world are," Rojo Bushnell said.
Under Missouri's compensation law, only prisoners who prove their innocence through a specific DNA testing statute are eligible for payments.
Exonerees such as Strickland have relied on nonprofits and other people who have been released from prison to help them build back their lives. Strickland, who spent more than 40 years behind bars and suffered the longest wrongful conviction in Missouri history, also will not have a parole officer to help find counseling, housing or work.
—The Kansas City Star
Ukrainian president warns of possible coup, Russian intimidation
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had information that the country’s richest man was being dragged into an alleged Russian-backed coup planned for next month, but he dismissed the idea as not credible.
The comments underscore the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which accuses its neighbor of amassing military forces around its borders in what it says may be preparations for an invasion.
Zelenskyy said he had “certain audio recordings” in which plans to launch a coup next week were being discussed between unspecified people from Ukraine and Russia. They mentioned billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, who personally wasn’t taking part in the conversation,according to the president.
“I believe this is a setup,” of Akhmetov, Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. The president stressed he didn’t believe the billionaire would get involved in the plot, as it would be a “fatal mistake” for him to take part in the “war” against him.
Akhmetov’s press service didn’t immediately provide a comment when asked by Bloomberg. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegation of Russia being involved in the planned coup attempt.
“We never do things like that,” Peskov said.
—Bloomberg News
