Biden to establish Frances Perkins National Monument in Maine
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(NEWCASTLE, MAINE) — President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Monday to establish the Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine.
The location will “honor the historic contributions of America’s first woman Cabinet Secretary, the longest-serving Secretary of Labor, and the driving force behind the New Deal,” according to the White House.
Perkins served as labor secretary for 12 years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During that time, she “helped create Social Security; helped millions of Americans get back to work during the Great Depression; fought for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively; and established the minimum wage, overtime pay, prohibitions on child labor, and unemployment insurance,” according to the fact sheet.
Perkins also created the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that provided conservation and development jobs for manual laborers on government-owned rural land, according to Roosevelt presidential library.
Biden has dubbed himself the most pro-union president in American history. In 2023, he made the historic move of joining auto workers on the picket line.
The Perkins Family Home, built in 1837 and known as the “Brick House,” will be the centerpiece of the new monument, according to the White House.
“Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014, the Perkins Homestead is a 57-acre property along the Damariscotta River that supported the family for generations,” the White House said. “Visitors experience the same landscape, garden paths and wooded walking trails that were a lifelong source of inspiration and rejuvenation for Perkins.”
In addition to this monument, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will also announce five other monuments across the nation that will “increase the representation of women’s history in historic sites across America,” according to the White House.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said earlier this week that former President Donald Trump has “promised” him “control of the public health agencies” should Trump win back the White House in November.
Kennedy, who suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump, made the remarks on a Zoom call with supporters on Monday night. The agencies Kennedy would reportedly oversee in that case include the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
“The key, which President Trump has promised me, is control of the public health agencies, which is HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others. And also the USDA, which is, you know, key to making America healthy, because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticides … and we need to make that transition to regenerative agriculture,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy has been anti-vaccine activist and founded the Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine nonprofit that has campaigned against immunizations and other public health measures like water fluoridation. Medical experts expressed concerns about a rise in medical misinformation through Kennedy’s candidacy.
Kennedy’s remarks drew condemnation from Trump’s former Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
“If RFK has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines, and I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security,” Adams said at a public health conference, according to The New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
Trump has said he is committed to brining Kennedy into his administration. Last week, Trump touted Kennedy’s role in helping him “straighten out our health,” but joked that he’s worried about his strong stance on the environment, saying he wants to keep drilling.
“I don’t know if I’m going to have him working too much on the environment. I’m a little concerned about that with Bobby. I don’t know if I want him playing around with our with our liquid gold under our feet,” Trump said at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, last Friday. “You know, like I said, Bobby will work on health. He’s great.”
Trump first floated the idea of Kennedy leading his administration’s health efforts during the Al Smith Dinner earlier this month. He said Kennedy will “make us a healthier place.”
“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe reign him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a he’s a good man, and he believes, he believes the environment, the healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a big chance to do it, because we do need that.”
The Trump campaign said that while no formal decisions have been made about his Cabinet should he win the election, the former president will “work alongside” people like Kennedy in health-related roles.
“No formal decisions about Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News. “President Trump will also establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.”
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Soorin Kim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Alexander brothers — Alon, Oren and Tal — have been arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, according to New York prosecutors.
For well over a decade, the prominent real estate brothers conspired to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault and rape dozens of women,” according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York after the brothers were arrested in Miami on Wednesday.
“At times, the Alexander brothers arranged for these sexual assaults well in advance, using the promise of luxury experiences, travel and accommodations to lure and entice women to locations where they were then forcibly raped or sexually assaulted, sometimes by multiple men, including one or more of the Alexander brothers,” the indictment said.
The allegedly “long-running sex trafficking scheme” began in 2010 and relied on “deception, fraud and coercion,” with the brothers flaunting their wealth to induce women to attend parties, events and trips where they were then attacked, prosecutors said.
Trips were organized in advance and the brothers allegedly shared photographs of women to make sure they were “sufficiently attractive.” The brothers used dating apps or social media to contact them or used party planners as intermediaries, according to the indictment.
The Alexanders also procured drugs, including GHB and cocaine, and would sometimes spike women’s drinks before assaulting them, the indictment said.
The brothers allegedly held down women and “ignored screams and explicit requests to stop.”
The indictment includes two victims, identified only as Victim 1 and Victim 2, and charges the brothers with conspiracy and forcible sex trafficking.
The brothers began their careers at Douglas Elliman, focusing on the real estate market in New York and Miami. They left and launched their own firm, Official, in 2022.
They had previously been accused in civil lawsuits of various acts of sexual misconduct.
(NEW YORK) — Robert Telles, the former Nevada politician convicted of murdering journalist Jeff German in September 2022, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 28 years.
The former Clark County public administrator was found guilty in August of fatally stabbing German to death after the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter reported on alleged corruption in his office, which ended his political career and his marriage. German’s story detailed an allegedly hostile work environment in Telles’ office — including bullying, retaliation and an “inappropriate relationship” between Telles and a staffer — all of which Telles denied.
Following his conviction in August, the jury sentenced Telles to 20 years in prison. On Wednesday, Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced him to additional eight to 20 years for enhancements of murder of a person over 60 and use of a deadly weapon. Having already served two years behind bars, Telles will become eligible for parole in 26 years.
Days after German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home in September 2022, Telles was taken into custody. Police said DNA evidence found in Telles’ home tied him to the crime scene, and a straw hat and sneakers — which the suspect was seen wearing in surveillance footage — were found cut up in his home. His DNA was also found on German’s hands and fingernails, police said.
Ahead of the judge’s ruling on Wednesday, Telles addressed the court, extending his “deepest sympathies” to German’s family but continuing to maintain his innocence.
“I understand the desire to seek justice and have somebody accountable for this, but I did not kill Mr. German,” Telles said.
German’s brother, Jay German, also spoke Wednesday, remembering him as a beloved brother, uncle, and friend to many who miss him.
“He was our leader, and we’re never going to see him again,” he said.
Jay German pushed for enhanced sentencing for Telles, saying the family would worry for their safety if Telles were released.
“We have a lot of anxiety about the future safety of our family, and the children of our family, if Robert Telles were to be released after just 20 years incarceration,” he said.
In a press conference after the hearing, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Telles had shown no signs of remorse or acceptance of his guilt.
“We got what we wanted: a life sentence and max on the enhancement,” Wolfson said.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, with a total of at least 67 journalists killed around the world that year.
Previously, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo called the case against Telles “unusual,” saying that “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”
“It is troublesome because it is a journalist. And we expect journalism to be open and transparent and the watchdog for government,” Lombardo said. “And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case.”
In a statement published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal following Telles’ conviction in August, the paper’s executive editor Glenn Cook praised the guilty verdict “as a measure of justice” for not just German, but “slain journalists all over the world.”
“Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Cook wrote. “Robert Telles could have joined the long line of publicly shamed Nevada politicians who’ve gone on with their lives, out of the spotlight or back in it. Instead, he carried out a premeditated revenge killing with terrifying savagery.”
“Let’s also remember that this community has lost much more than a trusted journalist,” Cook added. “Jeff was a good man who left behind a family who loved him and friends who cherished him. His murder remains an outrage. He is missed.”
