Convicted Jan. 6 rioter says retired congressman invited him to Trump inauguration
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(WASHINGTON) — A California man who pleaded guilty to a felony for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol filed a letter Wednesday showing he was personally invited by a retired Republican congressman to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Russell Taylor, whom prosecutors described as a “leader” who organized a “group of fighters” to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, to obstruct Congress’ certification of Trump’s 2020 election loss, filed the letter from retired Republican Rep. Chris Stewart in a request for the judge overseeing his case to approve his travel to the nation’s capital.
Stewart makes no direct mention in the letter of Taylor’s participation in the Capitol attack, instead describing him as “a man of integrity and faith who has served those who are less fortunate.”
“Russ’ passion for what is right and good is reflected in his intentions to lift others,” Stewart said.
However, prosecutors described him as leading “not just by words, but by deeds,” in advance of the Capitol attack, according to court documents from his case. Taylor “repeatedly called for violence and a show of force” to overturn the election and, on Jan. 6 itself, led a mob that overran a police line near the inaugural stage while wearing “an exposed knife on top of a bullet proof chest plate and carrying bear spray,” according to his sentencing memo.
Taylor received credit from the judge overseeing his case, Royce Lamberth, for his agreement to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors followed by testimony at trial that helped convict one of his co-conspirators. Lamberth rejected prosecutors’ request to sentence him to over four years in prison and instead sentenced him to six months of home detention and probation.
“Counsel submits that Mr. Taylor does not pose any risk or concern for this travel request,” Taylor’s attorneys said in their letter to Lamberth on Wednesday. “He is traveling with his family including minor children. He is the guest of a former Congressman, and has demonstrated over and over again that he is trustworthy in his travel and compliance with Court Orders. We hereby request he be allowed to travel to Washington D.C. from January 16 to 21, 2025.”
(LOS ANGELES) — As firefighters work to contain the slew of brush fires spreading across Los Angeles County, among the emergency responders on Thursday were nearly 800 incarcerated individuals, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) confirmed to ABC News.
The prisoners, who voluntarily sign up to be a part of the Conservation (Fire) Camps program, are embedded with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection crew members (CalFire).
The participating individuals are paid between $5.80 and $10.24 per day plus $1 an hour when responding to active emergencies, according to CDCR.
“CDCR Fire Camp Program firefighters are proud to be embedded with CAL FIRE personnel to protect lives, property, and natural resources in Southern California,” the law enforcement agency said in a statement.
Incarcerated firefighters have been working “around the clock” cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow fire spread, according to the agency, which called the program a source of “crucial support” during emergencies.
The exact number of hours the incarcerated crew members have worked since brush fires erupted in Los Angeles on Tuesday was not immediately clear.
CDCR’s Fire Camp Program operates 35 minimum-security facilities in 25 counties across California — including two camps designated for incarcerated women.
There are over 1,800 incarcerated individuals staffing the camps across the state, according to the agency.
Participating prisoners have joined the thousands of federal, state and local emergency responders that are battling at least five sprawling wildfires across Los Angeles County.
The largest of the devastating blazes, the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades, has scorched over 19,000 acres, destroyed thousands of structures and remains entirely uncontained as of Thursday afternoon.
The Eaton Fire, in Altadena, has spread over 10,000 acres and is also 0% contained, according to CalFire.
There have been at least five deaths between the two fires, a number officials warn may rise as emergency efforts continue.
More than 180,000 Los Angeles County residents have been ordered to evacuate as wind-driven infernos both big and small spread in the area.
(NEW YORK) — As part of his plan to cut alleged federal government waste, President Donald Trump is literally pinching pennies, ordering his Treasury Secretary to stop the U.S. Mint from producing new 1-cent coins.
In an announcement Sunday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the cost of minting the coin featuring the profile of the country’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, is more than twice the currency’s face value.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies, which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is wasteful!” Trump wrote. “I have instructed my Secretary of Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
According to the U.S. Mint, the cost of producing a single penny has more than doubled in recent years, from 1.76 cents in 2020 to 3.69 cents in 2024.
Printing a paper $1 bill is cheaper than producing a penny, which, according to the U.S. Mint, is comprised of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper and requires a smelting process to mold the metals. According to the Federal Reserve, it costs Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing 3.2 cents to print a $1 note – less than the cost of minting a penny.
The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million on making pennies in fiscal year 2024, according to the Mint’s annual report to Congress.
Is it legal?
It remains unclear if Trump has the power to retire the coin, which has been part of the fabric of America for 233 years, 116 years with Lincoln’s portrait embossed on it.
The move would likely require the approval of Congress. Even though it’s part of the U.S. Treasury, “Congress authorizes every coin and most medals that the U.S. Mint manufactures and oversees the Mint’s operations under its Public Enterprise Fund,” according to the U.S. Mint’s website.
However, Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, told the Associated Press that the U.S. Code, a list of general and permanent federal statues, gives Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, the authority to scrap the penny.
While the courts and others debate whether many of Trump’s executive orders pass legal muster, “this action seems to me entirely lawful and fully constitutional,” Tribe said.
If Trump gets his way, the penny will become the 12th U.S. currency denomination to be retired, joining the half-cent coin, the 2-cent coin, the 20-cent piece and the “trime” – a silver three-cent piece issued from 1851 to 1873, Caroline Turco, assistant curator of the Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, told ABC News.
“We retired them for multiple different reasons, but normally because they were not being used or they just became too expensive to produce,” said Turco.
Is it a good idea
Mark Weller, executive director of Americans for Common Cents – a Washington, D.C., organization that provides research to Congress and the executive branch on the benefits of the penny – believes that eliminating the coin “is an absolutely horrible idea.”
“It would be bad for consumers and it would be bad for the economy,” Weller told ABC News. “It really would, in fact, not save money, but it would increase government losses and have some unintended economic consequences.”
Weller said doing away with the penny would prompt the U.S. Mint to increase production of the nickel. According to the U.S. Mint, the cost of minting a single nickel is nearly 14 cents, almost three times the coin’s face value and more than three-and-a-half times the cost of minting a penny.
“Without the penny, nickel production could nearly double, which would increase the Mint’s losses,” Weller said. “So, it’s just hard to understand how you could produce more nickels that are losing more money than the penny and say you’re going to save money.”
Weller further said that ditching the penny could lead to the cost of goods going up for American consumers.
“If there’s one thing most economists agree on is that private business has a profit motive. So, the assumption would be that they would price things in a way that they would round up, not round down,” Weller said.
Although digital payments are increasingly more common, Weller said cash remains a crucial tool, “especially for someone economically underserved and under-banked.”
“The majority of Americans want to keep the penny,” Weller said. “A very large number abhor the idea of rounding transactions.”
The U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies in fiscal year 2024, according to the Mint’s annual report to Congress, with an estimated 250 billion pennies currently in circulation.
History of the penny Turco, whose museum is the education branch of the American Numismatic Association, told ABC News that one big misconception about the penny is that, technically, it has never existed in the United States.
“The American system does not have a ‘penny.’ That is a misnomer,” Turco said. “We have a cent because when we rebelled against the British they had pennies and that is a British word.”
Turco said the 1-cent piece was first produced in the United States in 1793 and was originally the size of the present-day quarter.
Turco said Lincoln, whose likeness is also on the $5 bill, was added to the coin in 1909.
If Trump’s wishes are met, the United States wouldn’t be the first country to eliminate the coin, Turco said. Canada, for example, decided to phase out its penny in 2012. In the U.S., the Department of Defense stopped using pennies at its overseas bases in 1980 because it became too expensive to ship them.
Regardless of the penny’s fate, Turco said she believes it will always be a part of the United States, at least colloquially, adding that such phrases as “a lucky penny” and “a penny saved is a penny earned” will likely always be a part of the American lexicon. And, perhaps ironically, the penny’s value could increase if its discontinued.
“I think collectors will still enjoy having them,” Turco said. “But I don’t think that the value of a penny will just skyrocket overnight.”
(NEW YORK) — Nine states from Virginia to Maine are under snow alerts on Christmas Eve morning as a band of snow moves through the Northeast, bringing treacherous driving conditions.
A white Christmas?
The National Weather Service considers it a white Christmas if there’s 1 inch or more of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. on Christmas morning.
Boston is getting its first white Christmas in five years and New York City could see its first white Christmas in 15 years.
Christmas Eve forecast
On Christmas Eve morning, the heaviest snow is hitting upstate New York and northern New England where locally more than 1 foot of snow is possible.
A coating to 1 inch of snow is possible along Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston on Tuesday morning.
A winter weather advisory has been issued for DC and Philadelphia due to the dangerous combination of a glaze of ice with a potential coating of snow.
By Tuesday afternoon, the snow will end and the sun will come out in the Northeast, ushering in a dry Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning.
Meanwhile, a powerful storm system in the Pacific Ocean is producing extreme waves that are only seen every few years on the West Coast.
Waves could reach 60 feet in Northern California and southern Oregon and could reach 25 feet in Southern California on Tuesday morning.
This storm is bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms with lightning to Northern California, including the San Francisco Bay area.
Some of the rain could reach Southern California, including Los Angeles, by the evening.
Christmas Day forecast
On Christmas Day, temperatures will reach 35 degrees in New York City, 39 degrees in Chicago, 53 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and 59 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Temperatures will be slightly below normal in the Northeast and slightly above normal in the Midwest.
Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for Christmas Day from Texas to Mississippi to Tennessee.
Six to 12 inches of snow is forecast for the higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains, from Taos, New Mexico, to Big Sky, Montana.
It’ll be a rainy Christmas afternoon in Oregon and Washington, with snow in the Cascade mountain range.
