Jimmy Carter, oldest living former president, turns 97
ATLANTA — It is rarified air that Jimmy Carter has been in for a while now.
On Friday, when Carter turns 97, he further solidifies his standing as the oldest living president in the history of the United States. Born in Plains, Georgia, in 1924, it is a record set by a peanut farmer and Nobel Peace Prize winner that might never get broken.
He already has a 37-year advantage on Barack Obama, who turned 60 this year.
It’s not Carter’s only claim to longevity. In July, he and wife, Rosalynn, celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. They are the longest-married presidential couple in U.S. history, followed by former president George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, who were married for 73 years and 102 days until Barbara’s 2018 death.
The family was planning a private birthday celebration for Jimmy Carter at the Plains home on Friday.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NYPD investigates 2 officers' possible link to militia group
NEW YORK — A pair of NYPD officers are under investigation for suspected ties to the far-right Oath Keepers militia, an anti-government group linked to the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol, the New York Daily News has learned.
The names of Sgt. Stuart Wohl, who works in Firearms Training, and Officer Aniello Napoli of the department’s Strategic Response Group, appeared in hacked rosters purporting to identify members of the Oath Keepers and were identified by the Daily News from those documents.
An NYPD official confirmed an Internal Affairs investigation was launched Thursday and the department plans to interview both once its probe is complete.
The Daily News visited Napoli’s home Thursday but could not reach him for comment. A phone message left for him was not returned Friday. Wohl referred a reporter to the NYPD’s press office. Unions representatives for both officers did not immediately comment.
Both officers remained on active duty as the investigation continued. The department bars its members from knowingly associating with organizations involved in criminal activities.
—New York Daily News
Trump calls ongoing Texas election audit ‘weak’
AUSTIN, Texas — Former President Donald Trump is upping the pressure on Gov. Greg Abbott to add a “strong and real” 2020 election audit to the special legislative session agenda.
“Texas will always be red, but we must stop the cheating,” Trump said in a statement Friday, while offering no evidence of such.
Last week, Trump began pushing for an audit of 2020 election results in Texas — a state he carried. The Republican continues to say the election was rigged, even after audits, dozens of judges and his own justice department dismissed the allegation as baseless. The Texas Secretary of State’s office has called the election here “smooth and secure.”
Still, hours after Trump’s lobbying began, the Secretary of State’s office announced a 2020 election audit of Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties. The work will begin next spring and review whether the counties properly followed election procedures.
Officials in the targeted counties have defended their elections as accurate and secure, while casting doubt on the audit, which they labeled a partisan sham meant to placate Trump.
On Friday, Trump disparaged the effort, calling it “a weak, risk-limiting audit that is being slow-walked through the Secretary of State’s office.” He threw his weight behind a bill filed by GOP state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, which would allow party officials to request audits of their county’s 2020 election results and also set up a process for future reviews.
Senate Republicans passed the legislation in the final days of the last special session, but the House did not take it up.
—The Dallas Morning News
New body-cam video shows Petito describing fight with fiance
NEW YORK — A visibly distressed Gabby Petito repeatedly blamed herself for an August altercation with fiancé Brian Laundrie but admitted to police in Utah that he also caused an injury to her face, according to an extended body-cam video released Thursday.
The Long Island woman, who was found dead in Wyoming days after she was reported missing last month, detailed the Aug. 12 incident while sitting in a police cruiser moments after cops pulled over the couple in their van. Police were responding to a 911 call from a witness who reported seeing a man hitting a woman.
“I guess, but I hit him first,” Petito told a responding officer who was trying to confirm the caller’s account.
“Where did he hit you? Don’t worry. Just be honest,” the officer asked.
“Well, he grabbed my face,” the 22-year-old replied while crying and holding her jaw, insisting her now-missing fiancé did not hit or punch her.
“Did he slap your face, or what?” the officer asked.
“Well, yeah, he grabbed me with his nail, and I guess this is why I definitely have a cut right here because I can feel it when I touch it, it burns,” she said.
Moab police, which had previously released shorter clips of the encounter, ultimately decided not to charge anyone as they classified the incident as a mental health crisis, not a domestic assault.
The couple’s altercation came during a cross-country trip that they were documenting on social media. About three weeks later, on Sept. 1, Laundrie returned to his Florida home by himself. Petito, whose family last heard from her in the final week of August, was never seen alive again.
—New York Daily News
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