Kentucky's Rand Paul crashes Ohio Senate race with another attack on Fauci
WASHINGTON — Rand Paul is on television – but not in Lexington or Louisville.
Kentucky’s junior senator is splashing onto screens in Ohio, as the star of a new commercial on behalf of Mike Gibbons, an investment banker running in a competitive Republican U.S. Senate primary in the neighboring border state.
In the ad, which began airing statewide in Ohio this week, Paul zones in on the issue that’s consumed much of his energy over the last year: Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“I’ve stood strong against the mandates of Dr. Fauci, but I need help,” Paul says straight into the camera. “I know Mike Gibbons will join me in demanding that Fauci is immediately fired and removed from office.”
Gibbons told McClatchy the idea to target Fauci came from Paul himself.
“That was on Rand’s mind the day we asked him to do the commercial and I was fine with it,” Gibbons said. “He reasoned with my media guys and said, ‘This will help more than anything else we’re doing.’”
Republicans across the country are increasingly using Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer, as a political punching bag, a symbol of what they see as the government’s overbearing response to the coronavirus pandemic.
—Lexington Herald-Leader
Travis McMichael withdraws guilty plea in Ahmaud Arbery hate crimes case
ATLANTA — The man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery withdrew his guilty plea in his federal hate crimes case Friday morning, setting the stage for a second high-profile trial in which prosecutors are expected to argue the 25-year-old’s killing was motivated by racism.
Travis McMichael, his father Greg and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are set to stand trial Monday.
The McMichaels were convicted of murder in November in a state trial in Brunswick and sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bryan, who filmed the cellphone video of Arbery collapsing in the street from two shotgun blasts, was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Separately, the three were also indicted on federal charges accusing them of violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him because of his race.
The father and son had reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that would have avoided a second trial in Arbery’s killing. In exchange, they hoped to serve the first 30 years of their life sentences in federal custody. But U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected the plea agreement Monday after an emotional hearing in which Arbery’s family said it never agreed to the deal.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Suspect arrested in SoFi Stadium beating that left 49ers fan in a coma
LOS ANGELES — A suspect has been arrested in connection with the SoFi Stadium attack that left a San Francisco 49ers fan in a medically induced coma, officials said.
Bryan Alexis Cifuentes-Rossell, 33, was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of “assault by a means to produce great bodily injury,” a felony, Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts said during a news conference Friday morning.
Police traced Cifuentes-Rossell's address in Los Angeles after surveillance video showed his car inside the stadium lot, providing a license plate number, Butts said. They left contact information at his home.
Cifuentes-Rossell later contacted police but declined to come to the department to be interviewed, Butts said. Officers then went to his workplace in Montebello, and he “voluntarily accompanied them to the Inglewood Police Department” and was taken into custody.
He was released in lieu of $30,000 bail at 1 a.m. Friday, Butts said.
The injured fan, 40-year-old Daniel Luna, was hospitalized after he was found bleeding in the stadium parking lot about half an hour into the Rams-49ers showdown on Sunday.
—Los Angeles Times
Consular services in Havana to increase in 'the not too distant future,' US diplomat says
A year after announcing a review of U.S. policy toward Cuba, a top State Department official hinted the Biden administration was readying to move to increase visa processing in Havana.
Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere Brian Nichols told lawmakers during a hearing this week that the State Department was planning to beef up its personnel at the U.S. Embassy in the Cuban capital.
“The president announced our intent to resume visa services, we’re working toward that, and we’ll be deploying temporary duty consular officers to Havana in the not too distant future and increasing processing there,” Nichols said Thursday.
A State Department spokesperson declined to say when visa processing would resume in Havana.
“The administration committed to exploring options to ensure appropriate staffing at U.S. Embassy in Havana to facilitate diplomatic and civil society engagement and the provision of consular services, while maintaining an appropriate security posture,” the spokesperson said. “These options could include sending both temporary and longer-term personnel. At this time, we have no specific changes to announce.”
—Miami Herald
