Nebraska governor recovering from serious injuries after being bucked off a horse
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(NEBRASKA) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen is recovering from serious but non-life-threatening injuries after being bucked off a horse, his office said Monday.
The incident happened when the Republican leader was riding on horseback with family members near Columbus on Sunday.
The governor was thrown from a new horse, his office said. His injuries included “minor lacerations to his spleen and kidney, seven broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung resulting from the rib damage, and a minor fracture in one of his vertebrae,” his office said in an update on Monday.
“In summary, the Governor’s injuries were serious but not life-threatening and could have been much worse,” the statement added.
Pillen, 68, was initially transported to Columbus Community Hospital before being sent to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha “out of an abundance of caution,” his office previously said.
The governor is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days for observation and plans to work from his hospital room, his office said Monday.
“The Governor looks forward to returning to his office soon after Christmas and wishes a blessed and safe holiday to all Nebraskans,” his office said in the statement.
Pillen, who played football at the University of Nebraska under legendary coach and former Rep. Tom Osborne, took office in January 2023.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) CalLos Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has faced questions about her leadership and alleged lack of initial presence during the ongoing wildfires affecting the area.
Bass was away from the city on a planned diplomatic trip to Ghana Tuesday when the Palisades Fire first erupted and has been hit by critics for her leadership during the disaster, particularly from her 2022 Republican mayoral opponent Rick Caruso, who accused her of “abandoning her post” in an interview with Politico.
The mayor, who did post a warning about the storm on social media Monday, declined to respond to a reporter Wednesday who asked why she did not return to the city fast enough and dodged the question again during a news conference Thursday.
“Let me just say, first and foremost, my number one focus, and I think the focus of all of us here with one voice, protect lives, we have to save lives and we have to save homes. Rest assured that …when that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, [and] what didn’t work, and to correct or to hold accountable any body, department, individual, etc.,” Bass said. “But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.”
Bass, a former U.S. representative who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, was part of a four-member presidential delegation attending Tuesday’s inauguration of John Dramani Mahama as Ghana’s president.
She arrived back in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon after the various wildfires already scorched thousands of acres of the county and destroyed homes and businesses.
The mayor told reporters Wednesday that she took the “fastest route back, which included being on a military plane.”
However, some critics have lashed out at the mayor over the budget for the city’s fire department, which saw its funding cut by nearly $17.5 million this fiscal year, records show. However, as the city was negotiating its contract with the fire department, additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until negotiations ended in November, according to records and Bass.
“So, I think it’s most important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times. Everybody knew that, but that the impact of our budget really did not impact what we’ve been going through over the last few days,” she said.
A spokesperson for Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who previously chaired the council’s budget and finance committee, told ABC News that the budget cuts made to the fire department did not reflect $76 million that was in the budget’s unappropriated balance calculation.
The department thus saw a $53 million increase over the previous year once the council approved the updated fire department budget in November, according to the spokesman.
The current fiscal year budget included money to hire 220 Firefighters in three new academy classes at the Valley Recruit Training Academy, according to city documents.
Bass repeatedly noted that the fires are unprecedented, however, she expressed frustration Thursday with reports that firefighters did not have water.
“We also know that fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation, and that the number one problem, especially on. … Wednesday, was the fact that we weren’t able to do the air support because of the winds, and so, of course, I am absolutely frustrated by that,” she said.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A fellow tech executive was found guilty in a San Francisco courtroom on Tuesday for the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Prosecutors said Nima Momeni stabbed Lee three times with a kitchen knife after driving him to a secluded area in April 2023.
Defense attorneys for Momeni previously said he acted in self defense in response to an attempted assault by an intoxicated Lee. Momeni had pleaded not guilty.
Lee, a former executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, was killed in the early morning hours on April 4, 2023, in the San Francisco neighborhood of Rincon Hill, according to police.
At about 2 a.m., camera footage showed Lee and Momeni leaving Lee’s hotel and getting into Momeni’s car, a BMW Z4, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Video shows the BMW drive to a secluded and dark area where the two men got out of the car. Momeni “moved toward” Lee and the BMW drove away from the scene at high speed, according to the court document.
Prosecutors have alleged that Momeni killed Lee over the alleged sexual assault of Momeni’s sister by an acquaintance of Lee.
Paula Canny, the defense attorney for Momeni, said at a hearing in May that Lee’s death arose from a mix of self-defense and accidental harm.
“There was no premeditation,” Canny said.
On the witness stand last month, Momeni said Lee had attacked him in a fit of anger touched off by a joke. Momeni had teased Lee, saying that he would rather spend his last night in town with his family than going to a strip club, where the two were possibly headed, Momeni recounted.
In the scuffle that ensued, Momeni did not realize that Lee had been fatally injured, said Momeni, the owner of an Emeryville, California-based company called Expand IT.
(SMITHFIELD, VA)– A Virginia man allegedly had a cache of weapons, a “go box” and used a photo of President Joe Biden for target practice, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors this week.
Brad Spafford was charged earlier in the month on a gun violation, but in a detention memo filed on Monday, prosecutors in Virginia outlined something allegedly more alarming.
When FBI agents raided Spafford’s home, they allegedly found 150 IEDs which were assessed by authorities as pipe bombs, with some marked “lethal,” a “go-bag” in the event something happened, and more pipe bombs in his room “unsecured.”
The court documents point out that Spafford had his two young children living in the house with him.
The government also found a jar with potentially explosive material kept in the fridge labeled “do not touch,” documents said.
Spafford came on the government’s radar in 2023 when a confidential source told investigators that he blew off parts of his hand while allegedly making a homemade IED in 2021, according to court documents.
The detention memo was filed to prevent Spafford from being released pending trial, which was granted, according to court records.
The Justice Department also found that he allegedly supported political assassinations.
“The defendant has used pictures of the President for target practice, expressed support for political assassinations, and recently sought qualifications in sniper-rifle shooting at a local range,” prosecutors wrote. “His release poses an extreme danger to those he lives with, the general community, and also the pretrial officers who will be tasked with periodically inspecting his residence for firearms including dangerous and unstable explosives.”
Spafford is on bond pending trial but DOJ is moving to have him locked up.
